Thanksgiving in Vegas

Tags

family, Poker, southwest, thanksgiving, travel, vegas

After our poker trip to Tahoe we were planning to travel to Dallas for Thanksgiving.  About halfway through the trip we got word that La’s mother wasn’t doing well and we decided to reroute and spend some time with her and the Cali family.  We had purchased our original round trip tickets with points, but Southwest airlines is our favorite carrier for a reason.

We fly Southwest for their cheap prices and flexibility and they didn’t disappoint, but they don’t fly to Fresno.  Southwest refunded our return tickets to Dallas and allowed us to use the points to buy one way tickets to Vegas, where we could catch a flight to Fresno on a regional carrier.  We had a two day layover in Vegas before we could catch our flight to Fresno, not a bad thing, but it meant we would be spending Thanksgiving day in Vegas.

Vegas isn’t a bad place for a short layover.

With family all over the country we are used to having to reschedule Thanksgiving meals before and after the actual day to celebrate with everyone.  As long as we all get together the date on the calendar isn’t important.  This would be the first year we were going to spend Thanksgiving day without either side of our family though, and spending Thanksgiving day at a casino buffet didn’t sound appealing at all.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner at “Mon Ami Gabi” with my baby.

Luckily for us, Vegas is home base for much of our traveling poker family from the WSOP circuit.  Before we even took off from Tahoe we had our short trip booked up with friends to see and a couple Thanksgiving dinners to attend.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to catch up with all our friends in such a short stay, but we will be back soon to catch up with those we missed.

First stop was our good friend Alan Fowler’s house for a pre-Thanksgiving get together.  We used to see Alan on the circuit regularly when he was one of the traveling WSOP media guys, however the birth of his baby girl took him off the road. So this celebration was both a reunion with an old friend and a chance to meet his better half Mia and new baby girl Maliah.  We had a wonderful evening with the Fowler family, it was great to catch up with Alan and meet both the beautiful ladies in his life.

Great to finally meet Mia and baby Maliah (picture by a proud daddy, Alan Fowler)

Thanksgiving day rolled around, and like most things in Vegas, the day started a little later than it would anywhere else. We had two dinners to attend and we didn’t have to be anywhere until 5pm.  This gave me time to hop a cab over to the Riviera and redeem a 500 dollar free play coupon from a summer promotion.  They had changed the machines since the last trip and it took me a minute to track down one with solid payouts, but I found a bonus poker machine that fit the bill. I definitely caught some Thanksgiving run good as I was able to clear the free play and bink another 500 cheese plus cab fare.

After the VP session  I headed back to the hotel and woke La up so she could get ready for the festivities.  We were spending the day with two of our favorite people from the circuit: Adrian Lopez (@akrisl55) and Miranda Schmidt (@mirandaschmidt2). We weren’t the only additions to the festivities though, there were a couple other circuit dealers passing through Vegas that joined in as well.  It was a very WSOP Thanksgiving.

Binksgiving.

Thanksgiving day felt like any other year, which is to say we spent it surrounded by friends and family.  We are grateful for the hospitality of our poker family on such short notice and feel blessed to know so many amazing people across the country. After an excellent Thanksgiving day in Vegas we caught a plane to Fresno to be with mom and the Cali family.

On such short notice we were only able to get together a little of the Cali family.

After an enjoyable layover we finally made it home to mom.  Our stomachs were thankful for a few hours of rest between meals and we were happy to be home.  Its always great to be back in Cali, and as you can see from the picture, we have plenty of family to catch up with here.

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Big things in the Big Easy

Tags

food, new orleans, Poker, travel, wsop, wsopc

The 2011 New Orleans poker trip report was an unfortunate casualty of our hectic end of season points chase and my side projects. New Orleans is one of our favorite stops on the WSOP circuit, so much to see… and do… and drink… and eat… especially eat. There was no shortage of action on the felt either. Many heros made deep runs, and on my birthday I got a rare triple final table sweat with three friends in three different ring events on the stage at the same time. I really had no intention of spending my birthday in a poker room, but I’m always happy to support my friends no matter the day. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me either, I stretched my birthday celebration out across the whole two week trip to compensate- a lil trick I learned from Lala.

Out on Bourbon street. Thanks to Jordan Cutter (@VegasJdub) for being our tour/drink guide.

We always eat well in New Orleans. We don’t rent a car when we go, so most of our favorite spots are within walking distance of the casino. This is a good thing because we can walk off some of the thousands of calories we consume during our stay. We made regular trips to Mother’s for the crawfish etouffee and Po’boys. We made two or three trips to Crazy Lobster, a touristy Riverwalk restaurant that serves stout hurricanes and one of our favorites: the Seafood Bucket deluxe. The Seafood Bucket deluxe consists of two lobsters, stone crab, crawfish, shrimp and a little bit of filler. It wasn’t quite as fresh as it was the year before, but it is still a great way to get your seafood fix.

Buckets with the boys.

Another of our regular stops was Felix’s off bourbon street. I recommend eating at the bar where they shuck the oysters as fast as you can put them down. An Abita strawberry or three to wash it down and a dozen char broiled oysters and you have a very satisfying meal.

Hand Grenades and oysters, the breakfast of champions.

Between meals there was a little poker going on. I didn’t play many events on the stop because I wanted to rest up for the summer and enjoy my birthday. I got a nice birthday present in the form of a triple final table sweat. Josh Evans (@JoshEvansLV) FT’d event 1 and finished 2nd, Cliff fisher (@BRDPoker) FT’d event 2 and finished 5th, and John Harris (@85nutz) FT’d event 3 and shipped his second ring!

Congrats to John Harris on number 2!

LaLa (@CanULala) also got in on the action FT’ing event 7 and finishing 6th.

My baby grinding away, showing them how to Lala.

A couple more good guys grabbed rings in NOLA side events: Michael (Car Wash) Schneider shipped his first ring in event 10 and Justin Gardenhire (@Gardyone) snagged his 3rd ring in event 11.

Congrats Car Wash on a well deserved first! (picture by Image Masters)

Justin Gardenhire with the 3 peat! (picture by Image Masters)

You would think that all those final tables would have been enough for one stop, it turns out they were just warm up for the main event.

They were double barreling at the table and we were double barreling on the rail.

In a stop full of great final table sweats the main event did not disappoint. Two members of our traveling family made final table appearances in the main: Dan “Du ma” Lowery (@danmflowery) and Andrew Nguyen (@winnersnguyen).

Andrew Nguyen and Dan “MF” Lowery on the main event grind.

Dan “Du Ma” Lowery with racks on racks on racks.

Dan Lowery was one of the most successful grinders on the circuit last year. Juggling family obligations and a couple businesses, Dan’s circuit schedule was limited, but he was still able to to finish top 4 or better in three different circuit main events (2nd in Durant , 2nd in Lake Tahoe, and 4th in New Orleans). Dan had the ring slip through his fingers a couple times, but his consistent deep runs in the biggest events left no doubt that he is the real deal. He and his wife Krista are an invaluable part of our traveling family and I’m sure there are many more big scores in his future.

Andrew “No balls, no babies” Nguyen

Andrew Nguyen has been grinding the circuit with La and I since our first stop. He is our original circuit road dog and has grinded and hustled his way across the country with us. He is a founding member of #TeamPBJ, even though he isn’t a big fan of white boy food. I’m proud to call Andrew my brother and couldn’t be happier to see him taking his place on the big stage. Drew has a style all his own, great taste in food, and a gift of gab that has gotten us all sorts of places we shouldn’t have been. While he wasn’t able to grab the belt, he was able to cut out a nice slice of the prize pool. Congratulations my brother on an excellent score, I’m sorry it took me so long to get the blog out.

Drew demonstrating the “great wall” style of stacking chips.

Drew playing HU with Justin (@theycallmetrues) Truesdell, the eventual champion and a good kid.

I had a blast partying and railing all my friends and family this year in New Orleans. I hope to have more of the same opportunities next year, with a little less partying and a few more runs of my own. The National Championship tacked on to the end of this series should also provide some additional drama as the circuit regs battle it out for the last few at large spots. Hope to see everyone there next year for another round of big things in the Big Easy.

Downtime

Tags

Poker, tournaments, travel, wsop

One of the beautiful things about being self employed is the freedom to schedule downtime when you need it. After a grueling year on the WSOP trail, La and I spent the last couple months relaxing at home, catching up with friends and family in Dallas and Cali, and limiting our poker expeditions to long weekend poker outings. It was a time for unwinding, reflecting on the season past, and contemplating what the future holds.

My blog downtime was also influenced by a frustrating series of mishaps in my social media marketing and writing endeavors. Most wounds were self inflicted: not getting a contract before putting in significant work on a project, underselling myself to a point where I couldn’t continue on another project I was enthusiastic about, and linking my content without consideration for a formatting that would protect my site’s traffic. The time away has let the sting of these mistakes fade and the lessons sink in. My biggest mistake was prioritizing these new ventures over established income streams and missing some great opportunities on the felt for these unproven side projects.

On the poker front, our long term direction in poker is about as clear as the legislative swamp that US online poker is sunk in. We are definitely pruning down the travel schedule for WSOPC stops and exploring other options. The ever expanding number of WSOP circuit stops continues to dilute value and increase the cost of chasing points, making it a less attractive proposition. We are considering a move to a poker friendly city, or a trip across the border for a few months of online grinding. Whatever we do, many of the smaller “point chasing” stops will no longer be on the schedule.

My attempts at sidework have also left me with a decent backlog of trip blogs. I won’t fill in all the gaps, but I will be revisiting a few spots to hit the high points in the coming weeks. I will also be experimenting with some different formats like photoblogs moving forward, so please leave comments and let me know what you think.

St Louis Circuit Props

Tags

Poker, travel, wsop

The last few months have been a blur of poker and travel. I had a handful of days between wsop circuit stops to unwind and no spare time to write. I should say no spare time to write my blog. I have been working on a side project that has been eating up most of my creative writing efforts and cutting into my poker sessions. Hopefully the work pays off this summer and opens up some new business opportunities. Until things settle down I guess I will have to forgo sleep to fit in my blogging sessions.

St Louis Circuit Props:

Welcome to the St Louis WSOP please “smoke freely”

Picture by David Clark

Last year I had some trouble getting into the Harrahs St. Louis and almost missed the stop entirely after an issue with my temporary drivers license. I won’t get into how I got around that issue for fear of legal ramifications, but trust me it was a pain in the ass. St Louis was arguably the most annoying stop on the circuit with heaps of overzealous rules and regulations. I was going to spend some time getting into these problems here, but with the recent sale of Harrahs St. Louis to a rival corporation they are most likely moot points.

I wouldn’t shed any tears over the loss of Harrahs St Louis. The poker action was good, but with high smoke and noise levels on the floor plus strict gaming regulations and state taxes it’s an event I will be happy to scratch off the schedule. The last round of the event did produce some major fireworks though, with multiple circuit stars putting on a show and the roommates of room 143 stealing the spot light almost* entirely.

I should have known I was in for trouble when I came down from the room one night to sweat La and ended up at the bar with some circuit regulars. I just wanted to relax, have a beer, and sweat. These kid’s idea of a relaxing night at the bar is a shot, and then another, and another… As is often the case on the circuit, consumption of copious amounts of alcohol leads to trash talking, which in turn leads to prop betting.

I was in the company of most of room 143: Tripp “captain” Kirk (@tkirk1212), Matt “Bum” Hankins (@pokerskibum), Kyle Cartwright (@da_kyky), along with their friend @chronictown, with later appearances by my roomies La “CanULala” Sengphet (@lasengphet) and Andrew “Andy” Nguyen (@winnersnguyen). We decided to pick 2 player teams and bet on a series of props. We had a must-cash prop for the next event plus a last longer, and a series-long team total cashes prop (by this point Tripp had already finished 3rd in the re-entry so that result was excluded).

La struck early winning the must-cash prop and last longer for her and Andy. My teammate Kyle put a strong finish on the board next by shipping the 1k for his 4th ring and a 53k cash. He won his HU match against the other roommate of 143, Alex “Ap” Phahurat (@legitap47). Going into main event we had a 53k lead, meaning someone would have to get 4th or better to steal our lead and ship the props.

Number 4 for Kyle:

Picture by Eric Harkins of Image Masters

In typical Tripp Kirk fashion, he flashed his trademark smirk and then took a dump all over his roommate Kyle’s 53k score. He called the 53k and raised another 137k and a main event ring with a lil prop cheese on top. It’s Tripp’s second ring and his biggest score to date. Not a bad days work for a guy with a limited poker schedule and a day job that often ships him out of the country. I did get the last laugh on Tripp though. We left St Louis early and I was able to fade the pain of paying him and his smirk directly by giving the money to his partner Bum at the next stop.

Tripp Kirk and his smirk with his 2nd ring:

Picture by Eric Harkins of Image Masters

Tripp’s win would be the second St Louis main title for the roommates, Kyle took it down the year before. Overall the occupants of room 143 had 4 top 3 finishes in the 3 biggest prize-pools of the series. Tripp took 3rd in the re-entry and won the main, Kyle and AP took 1st and 2nd in the 1k, AP also had two near misses finishing 10th and 11th in two other prelims. Not a bad series boys, but next time you score big I would probably avoid tweeting your room number until after you left town #RookieMistake.

*Usually that would be the end of the story, but the last-chance ring event also had another usual suspect doing some work. Kurt Jewell (@kurtjewell), a two time wsop circuit main event winner with an O/8 ring from St Louis last year, added a forth ring to his twitter pic. Kurt delivered a drunken-master-like performance taking it down with a beer in one hand and cards in the other. Congrats on number 4 Kurt #YeahBuddy.

Kurt Jewell ships his 4th:

Picture by Eric Harkins of Image Masters

Black Friday Blog: Life After Online Poker

Tags

online, Poker, travel, wsop

After Black Friday our war room got turned into an arcade.

I was never an online poker rock star. At the height of my online career I was mid-stakes PLO grinder on Pokerstars and FTP. The low expenses and generous player incentives made this a comfortable lifestyle for La and I, who also made her living grinding online mtts. Decent bankroll management and a few well timed live scores prior to April 15th 2011 left us in better shape than most when our virtual bankroll was frozen, but our lives were still drastically altered after our freedom to play online poker was taken away.

Our average pre Black Friday day consisted of waking up whenever, having “breakfast”, and grinding out sessions in the upstairs war room. We lived a good life in a nice house close to our friends and family in DFW. A few times a year we would travel to a deep stack tournament series for a change of pace, but the majority of our working hours were spent at home in our boxers and bathrobes. When we went on the road we would take our laptops with us. If there was no action after we busted a live event we could supplement our income with online sessions.

Dressed up for a day at the office

I used to tease my 9 to 5 friends about my “commute” from the bed to the office upstairs, “traffic was good today” I’d say and laugh. Well, karma is a son-of-a-bitch. After Black Friday we started spending more than half our year on the road. Our “commute” involves lugging 90+ pounds of luggage to an airport, catching a flight with multiple plane changes and layovers, and often ends with extra hours in a shuttle or rental car to reach our remote destinations. We then spend the next two weeks grinding out 14 hour days. Our expenses have tripled and our average “commute” takes the better part of a day each way. I’m a lil jealous of my 9 to 5 friends half hour drive to work now.

The extra expenses and extended travel schedule made keeping a 2600 sq foot house in Texas an untenable burden. It didn’t make sense to spend 2k+ a month on a house when we only spent a week or two of the average month staying there. We moved half our furniture into storage at the end of 2011 and moved into a 1300 sq foot house our friends had available. This location is much less central than our old spot, but it is closer to both the airports and much more affordable for the time we are home.

Our poker room in the old house was a casualty of Black Friday

The decision to stay in a non-poker friendly state like Texas was a tough one, but being close to our friends and family is important to us. Being able to recharge and reconnect, even a few days out of the month, has been invaluable to our motivation and sanity while following this hectic schedule. Being home also allows us to be there for loved ones. My grandfather recently passed away and our decision to stay based in Texas allowed us to be with him and my grandmother in his last days. I’m so glad we didn’t let the DOJ take away these last days together.

My Grandfather and Grandmother’s 70th anniversary

Life on the road has been tough, but there have been positives on our new journey too. Online poker can be very isolating, it’s not so bad for an introvert like me, but La is a social butterfly and needs the interaction. Through her we have met so many wonderful characters and made lots of great friends that are now part of our traveling family. From the PTC crew, the media, players, photographers, writers, and local casino staff we have been lucky to find so many special people to share our time with. We might have met only a handful of these friends if Black Friday hadn’t pushed us out the door.

Just a few of the many friends we share our time on the road with:

In addition to pushing us out the door, Black Friday made me rethink my life. Being forcefully unplugged gave me time to try new things like blogging, investing, and starting a small business. Clearly I have a long way to go with all these endeavors, but the invigorating new directions have brought more depth to a life that used to be dominated by a fairly monotonous routine.

Life on the road can be repetitive too, after awhile all the casinos start to blend together. Ultimately these trips have taught me its not where you are, but how you approach life that determines what you get out of it. Our time on the road has shown me that there is potential everywhere, and when one spot goes away there are always more to replace it for those willing to look. I hope that online poker comes back to the US in a big way, if it doesn’t though, this last year has taught me there are plenty of new games to play.

The Road to Rincon: Travel Report

Tags

Poker, Rincon, travel, wsop, wsopc

The first thing you need to understand when planning a trip to Rincon is that it’s not San Diego. Our friend Billy made the mistake of bringing his family thinking he could play poker while his family enjoyed the city. Rincon is an hour outside the city up a nice windy mountain road and should in no way be categorized as “close to the beach”. Billy’s family left him the day after arrival, exchanging their mountain view for something oceanside.

Market:

Even though Rincon is close to a major metropolitan area the presence of more accessible casinos with larger poker rooms limits the amount of local traffic for the wsop. The Rincon poker room is a tiny 9 table space on the second floor of the hotel with one sign in the lobby acknowledging it’s existence. The hidden poker room helped walk up traffic to the WSOP’s events next to the casino floor, but meant cash games were a poor alternative for post bust-out grinding.

The room even had a promotion going during the series which paid 20 dollars in cash and 50 dollars in casino free play chips for an hour of cash play with a wsop mtt slip. The offer was valid for 48 hours and could be used concurrently with multiple entry slips. This generous rakeback yielded an average of 2 1/3 NL games and 1 3/6 FL game per evening, an extremely disappointing turnout. There was better cash game grinding available for those willing to make a half hour drive to a neighboring room, but La and I chose to focus on sngs in our off time.

Fields:

The field sizes were up this year, but the inconvenient location keeps them smaller than the majority of stops. The turnouts and short commute from Vegas have made this stop a favorite of LV grinders trying to pick up points for the wsop freeroll. The collection of high level talent in town for the last weekend’s events has to make it one of the most stacked WSOPC main event fields outside sin city.

Harrah’s outrageous weekend rates and small prize pools limit the value of this event to many circuit grinders. So while the fields have more LV pros, there are less circuit regulars which somewhat balances out the later events and certainly makes the prelims softer. There are a couple places to stay close to the property, but if you don’t book early, affordable accommodations mean a half hour commute up and down the mountain.

Food:

Dinning options were decent as far as circuit stop casino eating goes. There was a 24 hour cafe with a typical american menu. Fortunes asian cuisine had solid (for casino) pho and noodle dishes. The steak house was disappointing, with overpriced food and mediocre service. The diamond lounge had a selection of fruit available throughout the day with tiny finger foods served by the wait staff around 5pm. The buffet was probably one of the better dinning options for our stay. Harrah’s had a good comp available for buffet dinning: An hour of table game play or an hour and a half of cash poker (also stackable w the wsop promotion) would get you a meal ticket.

If we didn’t feel like eating out, peanut butter jelly time was always an option.

Our trip:

With some great travel agent work by La, we were able to keep this trip’s costs manageable. It wasn’t a huge stop for us, but we left with more money than we came with, so it still goes in the W column. A couple of our friends did well, if you haven’t read my previous blog entry you can find it here:

https://whoisdavidclark.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/texans-continue-california-gold-ring-rush/

Overall we enjoyed our visit to the casino in the mountains, the hotel was nice and the staff had excellent customer service. The PTC did a great job as usual and the growth in WSOPC attendance was encouraging for future visits.

A quick pic from a lookout on the way up.

Thanks for the read. If you have any thoughts on, or suggestions for the blog please leave a comment below. I am also available on twitter @whoisdavidclark if you would rather communicate in 140 characters or less.

Trek to Tahoe

Tags

Poker, travel, wsopc

Admittedly we didn’t have to make the trip to Lake Tahoe as long as we did, but we stay on the grind. If that means taking a plane with two stops and a layover to get to Reno so be it. Add another 1:30hr layover waiting for the bus to the casino and an 1:30hr ride behind that and you have a long travel day. That long travel day saves us two buy ins. Ship it.

Early impressions of the Tahoe are good. When we arrived at the casino at 11:00pm on wednsday the only restaurant still open was an all night diner in Harrahs. Vegas this is not. The small town vibe is nice though, when you walk through the airport you see people dressed for the outdoors, a nice change from the usual degen/stripper parade of LAS. The bus ride wasn’t bad, they have a fleet of tour buses that shuttle passengers from the airport to the various casinos for a small fee. My only regret was taking this ride after dark, it looks like a beautiful strech of montains but we couldn’t see past the edge of the road.

The Harvey’s casino is older, but comfortable. Our first room had a view of an 18 ft wall that must be for a casino sign, but a short chat with our host and we were up on the 15th floor with a lake view at no extra charge. Degen status has it’s benefits.

The wsopc area is fairly small, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 tablels. It’s set next to a restaurant with only one border shared with a slot area. Slot noise hasn’t been terrible so far, but I’m waiting for the weekend action to gauge high traffic levels. Second hand smoke is hit or miss as well. The tourney area is non smoking, but people on the rail and at the slots are allowed to and the other tourney border backs up to a vp strip bar. I definitely prefer the secluded conference room setups, but compared to the big Vegas casino floor tourney setups this is still a much more serene environment.

I’m making a run at event 1 this afternoon. There were 260 runners for day 1 and 14 of us return this afternoon at 3pm pst to play for the first Tahoe ring. My girlfriend La Sengphet has been invited to do commentary on the wsop live stream today, so if you have some time tune in and sweat along with her.