By Popular Demand...

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Several people have asked for a more detailed account of Nic's poker exploits, so here it is, in his own words.

This is a brief account of my 14 days with nothing better to do than play poker (thanks to
El for giving me the time).
My preferred game is 7 card stud but even in Vegas everyone is obsessed with texas hold-em,
so no-limit texas holdem tourneys and small stakes limit (2-4, 4-8 and in Laughlin 2-6
spread) games were on the menu for me. I played in 5 tournaments overall (all in the
Sahara) each for a buy-in of $40 + $2 (3000 chips) with one rebuy if required at $20 (2000
more chips) before the first 3 levels. Levels were 20 mins with a break every three levels.
In the first two I made the final table and pocketed $495 (after a chop with 9 players
left) and $924 (after a 6 player chop). I was very happy with these as first performances
with both fields starting with over 160 players. The other 3 tournaments I placed somewhere
in the region of 30-40th. The amount of time required to play tournaments meant I didn't
play more, both my final table appearances were around 6 hrs of play and that's a long time
to keep your concentration. I can't imagine 5 days at the WSOP with 12+ hour days.
So I started playing more cash games as you can take a break when you want. I spent a
number of days at Binions and really enjoyed the atmosphere and experience. At 2-4 it
takes a while to lose or win any money and I suppose I was down a small amount on play but a
much bigger amount on the $35 round trip taxi fare each day.
Courtesy of the tournament wins, I was easily up on the vegas poker experience - moments of
weakness playing slot machines put a dent in it though. A lesson I took to Laughlin where I
only played poker.
In Laughlin over three days I played around 23 hours of cash 2-6 limit poker and only had
one losing session of $60. The other 6 or so sessions I was taking between $20 and $120
away as well as two hats and two shirts for hitting the 'aces cracked' jackpot.
In one fantastic hand I was dealt a pocket pair of 7s. The flop came 7 K 7 and I got me a
caller. She proceeded to make a full house and the pot was massive, for a game of that
limit, with re-raise after re-raise until capped. When she called my final bet she flipped
over the full house (beaming of course). 'Nice hand' I said, I only have four 7's. At this
point she had a small meltdown and the floor (room manager) and dealer had to ask her to not
keep calling me something starting with A and residing between your buttocks. Being as I am,
I continued to wind her up pointing out that she had initiated most of the raising and that
'after all poker is only a game and this is small stakes at that - so get some perspective'.
She seemed not to be convinced by my charms and reasoning and left after a few more hands
(and after losing a load more to a full house I made on the 2nd next hand - where she called
down a string of raises with a pair of aces with a 7 kicker). Entrapment and tilt at its
best I say. That hand will have me smiling for a while. Oh, I also got an additional $50
as it qualified for the high hand bonus.
I was much happier with my play in Laughlin and even managed one 9 hour stint on the last
day with only a break for 40 mins for some sushi (which cost $40 nearly wiping out the $57 I
had taken from the table in the previous 5 1/2 hours of play.
Limit hold-em is ok but margins are small and a lot of hours of extremely disciplined play is
required to make any great amount of money.
One last note - anyone who loves poker should try a trip like this. It does wear you out
though. On the third day I was walking down the street and I thought,'wow I feel wierd like
I am drunk' (which I wasn't, before you ask) and then I realised I has played 2 days and had
only had 3 1/2 hours sleep and one meal (a hotdog) in the last 30 hours. I resolved to eat
better and get more sleep after that one.

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