Nice report CJ, that 4/8 omaha can actually be really really juicy at times. I didnt even know about Suncoast, I will have to check it out if I ever find the time to hit Vegas again.

Something MVPSPORTS said bothered me all night. Why am I bothering to do this, when I know I'll make very little money?

First, after buying a ride and a bad run, I found myself again in a short rolled position. I can't play $1/$2 NL on an $800 bank. I could stop playing altogether and save up enough for another shot at it, or step down to the lowest limits to keep playing, knowing I'll not go broke. I chose the second option.

Second, I've only been playing for a little over 30 months, so it's not like I've got a wealth of experience. I'm still in the learning phase. Playing anytime is important.

Third, once you experience playing live, online just isn't going to get it done, anymore. At least for me, and most I've talked to who have transitioned to live games, online just isn't much fun in comparison. It's really poker, as opposed to a quasi-video game. Not to insult Pokerstars and Full Tilt, nor the players on there, but there's simply no subtitute for live play.

Fourth, I still harbor dreams of someday making a few dollars writing. Perhaps I can collect enough material to at least submit something that might interest a few readers. For all the coverage that the WSOP and WPT gets, there's a lot more people who play these games.

So, the goal is worthwhile, even if the results may cause further laughing at my struggles. I don't particularly enjoy it when people make fun of me for playing low limits, but I'm still enjoying the study and practice. I learn a lot every time I play, and I appreciate I get a lot for a rather small investment. And you guys are going to get honesty from this journal, no matter how much I suck, and how much of a loser I am.

I believe there are a number of players who really do well, win more than they lose, and are really talented. I also believe their is a lot more lying and deception, both public and self, that really distorts what life is like playing poker as a part-time job. Wherever this leads, at least it will be honest, even if it's also embarrassing.

All I can say is what I believe. I believe I'm a better poker player now than when I came out here 7 months ago. I'm better than I was a year ago, and still better than I was last week. If I can keep improving, and this Tour is a motivation to play often and as well as I can, then it's worth the doing.

Someday it will be about the money.

CJ

Congrats on the Q's over boat there, lad. But what casino is the "Wish" that is gonna be renamed Planet Hollywood?? Got me stumped there.

Will hit you on my cell when I get there. I know you will be working, but we are definitely coming to the Rio to let Sis see the overhead carnival and partake of the scrumptious seafood buffet. Might need that meat wagon to haul my overstuffed ass back to the Bellagio!!!

JJ

Friday 12/22 continues...

Some of you who read the B&M forum on 2+2 may have read my diatribe against the Luxor, so this will be redundant. For those of you who haven't, here's the cliff notes.

IT SUCKS.

This is a poker room for dummies run by stupid people. They mistakenly sat an 11th player at the table, and then said, that's okay, you can play with that many. It's loud, and practically has people walking through it, lost from the nearby thoroughfare. There's some sort of wheel of fortune thing that attracts women who like to squeal. It's wide open. And it has some sort of no limit game that must seem like a dream to some people, as the worst players at the 2/4 would sit in until there was an opening, so they could run over and lose money even faster.

A $50 buy in must seem like a great idea to stupid people, but it's not so much. It's a push all you money into the pot and pray something hits game. It has 3 blinds. Yes, that's right, boys, a 3 blind game with $50 on the table. Plus, it's a jackpot room so an additional dollar gets taken for the rake, and from what I could see, very little is returned to the players. Given what I've seen of bonuses in other rooms, I couldn't believe that all the money gets put back. The highest bonus is for a bad beat and that's a thousand. $20 for four of a kind isn't getting the money back.

Did I say how much this room sucks?

The 2/4 game was horrible that night. First, there was only two people at the table without an accent, the dealer and moi. The dealer finally had to call down two on the end who insisted on talking in Hindi, ignoring the two on my end, plus the two on the other side who might have been speaking Chinese, Korean, or something else. Not a single one of these folks had the first clue about playing the game.

I can pretty much count on stacking chips against this line up, except when nobody at all folds, ever. Even AA is not that much ahead with 9 in, and then all seeing all five streets. Brutal. They went broke, of course, over time, replaced by players of more modest ability. Not that it helped. I was horribly card dead and took bad beat after bad beat when I had anything at all playable. My KQo was beaten when 2 ladies appeared by the river, when an English lady who was the bain of my existence showed down Q3 for a boat. She beat me out of 5 pots in this manner.

At one point, I managed to claw my way back to within $20 of my initial starting position, and was going to play to my blinds. I got AJs in the CO, caught an A on the flop, the spade flush draw on the turn, and lost to the flush on the river when a fourth spade didn't show up on the river. It was that kind of night. Two more hands before my blind and I was back down in the chit, again.

The 7pm tournament ensured that the table was going to die again, after it had several times previous, and probably stay dead. I'd been there five hours, and decided to give it up. All told, a pretty long day and I left down $103.

Total profit for a whole day of grinding--$2. That's poker, folks.

I wouldn't have it any other way.