Waiting for the main

I approached this Vegas campaign with the mindset that it was much more about giving myself the best possible shot at a bracelet than having a winning trip. Cosmic irony therefore probably demanded that I have the trip I've had so far: a winning trip utterly bereft of cashes in official WSOP events.


Thanks to two wins in nightly tourneys (the $340 and the $100) and a number of other cashes, coupled with a steady profit stream from stts, I'm one of the few Irish players in Vegas currently with more cash sitting in my safe than I brought over. And while I'd obviously swap it all for one deep run in a WSOP event, it's still something to be thankful for and proud of. At the end of day the primary objective of this game when you're a professional is to make money, rather than glory or jewellery. Particularly when you have a family to feed.


My edge in live stts and the nightly mtts favoured by tourists and hangers on is humongous so while I'm happy that they've essentially allowed me a number of free shots at the official WSOP side events, I would be disappointed if it weren't so. If anything, I think I've run a bit below Ev in them, particularly the stts. I did end my stt campaign with a win. The most interesting opponent was David Williams mother (who played very well and looks like a woman in her 30s).

I opted for day 1c of the main, which seems to be the day nearly all the Irish have gone for. Among those playing is Cat O'Neill, the only Irish lady (as far as I know) in the field. Cat's making her ME debut and is a tremendous prospect. I'd say she was on a heater at the moment except I'm not sure the word can be correctly applied to someone who appears to be permanently going deep. I'll also be hoping to join my Bruce teammate Wally in day 2A. I'm approaching this with confidence, very happy with the way I've played since I got here (apart from a slight mid season dip) and my mental attitude and focus. Vegas has a way of slowly but surely dragging you down, and this particular year has had more than its fair share of extraneous trivia to distract me, but as I said to someone the other day, I've gotten very good at ignoring distractions. I came here to play poker, that's pretty much all I've done to date, and the biggest challenge is about to start.

UPDATE: Due to the Rio internet connection being down for most of the week, this blog is going up much later than intended. I got up the 48k early on day 1 but ended back on 27k. On day 2, I dipped down to 17k before surging to 70k. I finished the day on 62k, back Monday at midday (8 PM Irish time).

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