From Zion I drove down yesterday afternoon to Mesquite, just inside the Nevada border, and at the Nevada Welcome Center there I found a free wireless internet connection. I decided to stop there for the evening to update the blog and attend to my much-neglected email. Once the computer battery went flat, I went for coffee in Burger King just nearby to recharge it, and discovered that the wireless connection to the Welcome Center still worked from there. I was turfed out at 10pm though!
I stayed overnight in the parking lot, and when all my online jobs were done this morning, I picked up some Las Vegas info, and started my gambling research. An email from my friend Misty, who I met last year in Las Vegas, gave me some suggestions on casino choices for poker playing. Unfortunately Misty is away on holiday, so I won’t get to catch up with her and Michael this time around.
I continued on to Las Vegas. I planned to visit Justin, Val’s nephew, who had done a couple of the 7 Peaks with us, and made my way to his apartment complex with the assistance of the ever-useful GPS. I managed to get in to the gated complex via an unlocked gate, and made myself comfortable by the pool, meeting Justin when he finished work.
My plan is to head down to The Strip tomorrow to begin my poker goal. I haven’t played since leaving Australia in May, so have decided to enter a couple of smaller tournaments first, to get back in practice, then achieve the goal in a bigger cash game.
So tomorrow (Wed 16th September) I plan to enter the $45 tournament at 11am at The Sahara, as suggested by Misty. On Thursday I am going to go to The Rio, home of the World Series Of Poker, and play in their $60 tournament at noon.
I then plan to play my $1,000 game on Friday evening, either at The Wynn, or Caesar’s Palace, both of which run $2/$5 games with maximum buy-ins of over $1,000.
I have changed my poker goal slightly since first adding it to the list of goals, when I had no real knowledge of how tournaments are organised and played. It has become pretty clear to me that to enter a tournament that has a buy-in of $1,000 would really mean that I would be way out of my league, and I would probably just be throwing my money away.
So what I have decided to do is enter a game with $1,000 to play with, and potentially lose. To satisfy myself in terms of the goal, I think there are three ways that the goal will be achieved, and these are (in the most likely order, I imagine!):-
1). I lose all of my $1,000.
2). I play for at least 3 hours, and come away with whatever I have when I decide I have had enough, or
3). I end up well into profit, with over $3,000 in front of me!!
I can’t wait to get sat down at a table tomorrow at The Sahara, but I am really looking forward to playing at The Rio on Thursday. As part of my preparations for this goal, I have on the computer the TV series of the World Series Of Poker 2007, which was played at The Rio, and have been watching an episode or two each evening as I have travelled through the National Parks over the last week or so. It will be very atmospheric to actually play there.
More on poker tournaments in Las Vegas here:-
AllVegasPoker.com
