Day 51: Ready to Go

When I travel, the day before I leave is usually excruciating. Mentally, I'm already out the door, on the plane, getting a taxi, and at my destination.

And then I look around: what the hell am I doing still here??? Something is out of whack: I guess I have anticipatory soul-lag.

The effect is redoubled tonight by the undeniable fact that my endpoint for this trip is Las Vegas. Vegas, the mecca of poker players. Sin City. Land of excess, vulgarity, greed, desperation, and reckoning. I can hardly wait.

There is nothing politically correct about Las Vegas, and little that is socially redeeming. But now that I've decided to give my poker-playing pride of place as a career choice, I feel a little like the new hire who is being ushered into the boardroom at Headquarters. I'm about to be asked to give an account of myself. Will I measure up?

Last time I went to Las Vegas, the city kicked my butt hard. I got my ass handed to me on a platter, with an engraved invitation suggesting that I give it up because I SUCKED. I mostly ignored the suggestion, in part because ~ while acknowledging that I could certainly have played better (almost always true) ~ I also knew that I had gotten outrageously unlucky more than my fair share during that trip.

That was about six months ago. I'm pleased to say that I think I've actually learned quite a bit since then. My cash game is an order of magnitude better. And my head is in a very, very good place.

The plan is to play a mix of cash and deepstack tournaments. Essentially, I intend to earn my tournament buy-ins playing cash, then rinse and repeat as necessary. I'll be hanging out with a bunch of my A League colleagues a fair amount of the time; it will be fun to see how we all fare.