It's official. Well almost. I have firm plans to go to Vegas in June for about a week. With my continued progress online, and a little bit of live cash play, I can almost afford to play in 2K worth of tournaments in Vegas. Granted it is bad BR management to withdraw everything and take it all out there, which is why I am piecing off my action to reduce my overall risk. I've signed up for a staking site, but with my relative unknown status, I don't expect a sellout there. I'm also talking with fellow poker players in the area, and I've even sold the idea to a few non-poker friends. I think I will be able to get at least 1K of the buy-ins covered.

The tournaments I'll be playing in are Event #27 $1500 Stud Hi/Lo at the WSOP, and Binion's and the Nugget are hosting smaller ~$200 Stud Hi/Lo tournaments. I may play a few NLHE tournaments while in town, it's kind of hard not to. But one thing I will stay away from besides the table games, is no limit cash games. I don't have the roll for it, no matter how juicy the game. My focus while I am there is for tournament poker, and primarily three tournaments.

Ultimately this is still a bad move for the bankroll, but I want to play in the WSOP again. And I can do it, without spending any money not earned through poker. I ultimately don't mind going back to a $100 roll and starting again. My mindset has adjusted for playing poker. The poker money doesn't become real money until it goes into the wallet. My poker money is completely separate now. I've even paid myself through poker and even bought a Zune HD through playing poker. It's profitable for me again, not to mention enjoyable. This risk I'm taking this summer is for the same reason I went out the the WSOP in 2007. I want to prove to myself that I can play with the best.

In the meantime, I'll be grinding the WSOP steps on Tilt and Stars, hoping to bink bink bink my way to a free Main Event seat!

Oh yeah, the catalyst for this post was a culmination of events: I played live and made 530 at a 1-1 NL game. Next night I lost 300 (could have prevented most of it, bad game selection). I didn't tilt, as I am still up almost 700 in live sessions this year. I went back to playing online the next night. I played in a $4.40 2R1A, and during the first hour I was playing some 2-4 Stud 8 and won 100% of showdowns, making about 80 in the process. Then I started to focus on the tournament. The usual roller coaster, except for 6 hours later I have all the chips in play! I made $501 for taking the tournament down, which brought my 3-day net to just over $800 profit. When you are planning a trip to Vegas and need to get 2K together, having 800 bucks extra to work with really makes it easier... and official. Almost.