See, I do know a pro!

A friend of mine since long before he went pro, Kevin's been playing for a living for many years now, even though, like a lot of pro players, we haven't seen him on TV (yet?). He's been giving me advice, support and encouragement since before I started playing, hopefully some of it stuck. I have to hope I'm picking up a little sumpin-sumpin on my own, too...

Speaking of TV, the MSOP has none (coverage), which might make it seem like an odd choice for my first real excursion into the poker world. Why not a WPT or WSOP circuit event? Even though I'm flying to another city for a month to play in a tournament, I'm really still just testing the waters. I know all the biggest names will be at the WSOP, and with no cameras and a smaller field, there should be less stress; I'm hoping I can just concentrate on the poker I know I can play (make good decisions, make good decisions, make good decisions) and see where that takes me.

Making it happen

So, lodging plans will have to be re-worked, but where there is a will, there's a way, and dammit, I'm making this happen. Bought the cheapest ticket I could find, with an expectation I may have to pay to change it (hopefully to stay longer, which should mean I'm winning, which should cover any change fees) and started looking for a cheap place to flop near the Bicycle Casino. Found a likely candidate, put in time off requests, and started feeling like "It's on!"...

Will it happen?

My friend and poker mentor, Kevin, has returned from Thailand, so I was hoping to finalize my travel plans. It turns out Kevin hasn't told/asked his girlfriend June about my staying with them (for a MONTH, "Oh, June, by the way, you remember my friend Tom...?") and needs to get clearance. I understand this, but anything less than 2 weeks advance purchase costs extra.

Which raises a question, I can save a couple hundred dollars by pushing my flight back, but I would miss the first three events I planned to play in. In a way, that's a "savings" too, since that's about $525 in tournament entry fees I wouldn't be spending, so should I spend more on a ticket to get there earlier to be able to enter those events? Or save some money on the plane ticket and enter the later more expensive events only (since you were planning on entering them anyway)? I also have to keep in mind that this is LA we're talking about, there are multiple casinos and other tournaments at about the same stakes going on; there's no shortage of poker, the only thing I'd be missing would be some portion of a semi "name" event.

It's not that I think I'm that good...

...but a couple of people expressed interest in my trip, so I created this page. I'll try to include the interesting details of my first major poker tournament (major for me, anyway).

If a blogger posts on the Internet...

...and no one knows or cares to read it, did they miss a bad analogy?