45 Days in Vegas

Before I left for Vegas this year I had a game plan unlike any previous years (mostly added pressure on myself, seeing how things have changed since black Friday). I had a few goals in mind:

• play tons of 5/10nl or tournaments or sit and goes or whatever I thought would be the most profitable hourly rate with reasonable bankroll management coming with somewhat limited cash
• make X amount of dollars

I haven't done any of that really.

The trip can really be divided into two halves. The first half I spent most of my time playing 5/10/25 PLO cash games. Full ring live PLO isn't all that exciting. I figured I would have a decent hourly rate there, but never really realized all too much profit. I played 25/50/100 once and hit an ran for a nice 5k profit. I even played a 100/200 game one time where I chopped action and played a 20k pot with around 78% equity and chopped (it was against Ben Lamb, so I am surprised I got anything back). The game broke shortly after. I also played about 10 tournaments with one cash. Broke about even there. Pretty boring stuff.

The second half of my trip has revolved around blackjack. I am not sure how I am only getting into this game just now. It involves gambling and arithmetic and taking money from evil corporations and comes with freed drinks and cigars. This blog post has enough words already so I will break it down by the numbers:

Casinos that will no longer let me play blackjack: 20 (MGM owns a lot)

Hours played: ~42

Highest count seen on a double deck: 23 (resulted in taking insurance on the dealer's ace up for 7k in bets... she had blackjack)

Profits: ~27k

Batting average for taking insurance: 1.000

Equity in a perfect shoe: +20.00%

I ran the math below:

So as things stand now I am going to have to make the 10,250 chips I have left in the Main Event dance for me on Day 2 to hit my goal and finally shave my playoff beard: