Mini-Heater, Back to Uni, Back to Vegas?

So I had a really bad start to the year and was down 50K a week ago. Some of it was tilt, some of it was not game selecting anymore, some of it was just bad play.

Fortunately I was taken away from my computer for a few days as I went down the coast to a friend's beachhouse. It was a good chance to clear my head and just watch movies and play X-Box all day. I also went over some of my poker notes to make sure that my game was still sharp. Since I've been back I've made 29K in 6.5K hands, so it seems that the break did do some good :).

I return to uni tomorrow and with 4 days a week rather than the 2 that I had last semester I imagine that I won't be able to play nearly as much as I'd like to in the next few months. I'm still going to aim for 200K profit by June though, although realistically I'll be very happy with 100K.

I also decided not to do the law course at Cambridge in July after all. There were a few factors in my decision but mostly I didn't want to have an 80% final essay hanging over my head while I travelled around Europe. This does however open the door for me to return to Vegas. The 25K 6-max and the Main Event both interest me but in the end I think the 30% tax will be too much to overcome. It was worth it for the experience last year, but it's going to be pretty hard to justify playing again. That said, I didn't get to experience Vegas itself as much as I would've liked to last year since I was in the tournament for so long, so I might go for a couple of days and just live it up and maybe play some cash on the side. Then again, I could just arrive in Europe a week earlier and live it up there instead :).

In other news I've coaxed a few friends into playing a run'n'go with me in June. Buy-in $100, treadmill set on 10km/hr, last one standing wins :). Wish me luck!

Finally, I got featured over at PokerNews which was pretty cool. Have a read if you have time: http://www.pokernews.com/online-poker/interviews/online-poker-spotlight-joey-jcl-lawrence-6120.htm

Good luck at the tables guys.

PCA/NYC 2010 Trip Report Part III (More Pics!)

PCA - Eating and Drinking

Food

Food at the Atlantis does not come cheap, but if you're willing to splash out (and not think about your health too much) there's definitely some really good stuff on offer.

Fine Dining

For fine dining options, my favourites were Nobu, Mesa Grill and Mosaic. We had Nobu on the last night and after a week of cheeseburgers, steaks and Philly cheese steaks it was simply a godsend. I managed to get dealt three Aces at Three Card Poker and win $500 while waiting for our table so we also nearly freerolled the meal :).














I didn't try Mesa Grill last year but heard everyone talking about it so this year I thought I'd try it out. It ended up being unbelievably good and we returned for a second helping the night after. Here's a picture of the pork tenderloin I had on the first night - it melted right in your mouth!



Mosaic is a slightly upmarket buffet at the Cove which offers, among other things, unlimited sashimi (mmmmmmmmmmmm...), an on-the-spot pasta chef, great grilled meats and a decent selection of cheeses. Its desserts are surprisingly disappointing but on the whole I highly recommend it.



If you go to PCA next year, other places worth checking out are the Seafire Steakhouse and Marketplace.

The Marina Village

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the casino and hotel, the Marina Village is the place to go. It has a very laid back atmosphere and feels almost like a sanctuary compared to the surprisingly intense hotel and casino.





At the end of the Marina is a Johnny Rockets which we had a couple of times.





There's also a place called Bimini Road which apparently offers traditional Bahamian fare. I had the steak sandwich...





Finally, we tried a place called Murray's Deli which was pretty terrible but provided great entertainment value. The clown there (Bozo) was completely off his face and between scaring the shit out of children and making rude comments about his fellow employee's boyfriends, we're pretty sure he is now unemployed...


Drinking

Truth be told, there really isn't that much to do at night at Atlantis. On one side of the casino is the Atlas Bar and Grill, on the other is Dragons Bar, and that's basically it. Fortunately, in addition to meeting Sam and Lisa, we also met three girls from San Diego who were pretty cool so we were able to have a pretty fun week. I also managed to catch up with Boston Lisa (a girl I met at PCA last year) so that was pretty neat.

The San Diego girls at Atlas



The girls at Dragons



Boston Lisa and me at Dragons


Everyone's last night at Dragons








The Player Party

On the Saturday PokerStars held a Player Party with Kelly Rowland featuring as the special guest. I felt kind of bad for her because no one was really into it so whenever she shouted "lemme hear you say 'ohhh ohhhhhh'!" she was simply met with silence and a flash of cameras.




Overall though the party was surprisingly good. The food was decent (though sparse), there were unlimited drinks (including cocktails), we had a nice chat with some Latin American PokerStars pros (and their pretty-on-the-eyes ESPN presenter friend), and I even managed to run into a Scandi I final tabled an APPT Sydney side event with (shout out to you Hienrich!)! Fraser also got to have his photo taken with Daniel Negreanu which I think made his week or perhaps even year :).



Aura

After the Player Party we hit up Aura, Atlantis's nightclub. It reminded me a lot of Jet in Vegas, the only other nightclub I've been to in America (and let's face it, Atlantis is basically American). Though I don't remember much of the night (damn, those Bahamians like their drinks strong!), from what I do remember the night was a lot of fun.





Our tequila "shots" (more like cups!)


Conclusion

So that brings me to the end of the PCA portion of my trip report. It was loads of fun and I'm pretty disappointed that I can't go back next year. For those who haven't been yet, I highly suggest you do. You won't regret it :).

To finish, I thought I'd leave you with this pretty hilarious video of Lisa dancing with some guy at the Player Party. The guy was quite the chick magnet, and as soon as she saw him, Lisa made a beeline directly for him!

PCA/NYC 2010 Trip Report Part II (Pics!)

PCA - Playtime!

So my tournament was over but, as anyone who's ever been to PCA knows, that's when the fun just begins.

This year I had been smart enough to invest in a Canon waterproof camera so I was able to record the slides, rides and lazy river in all their glory!

Power Tower

Most of the slides leave from a building called Power Tower. Here's Sam and Lisa, two Aussies we met from Melbourne, going up the conveyor belt to it.



Most of the rides involve riding your doughnut down a slide, but my favourite is definitely the Abyss, a pitch black vertical drop. Watch these reaction videos to see why! :)

Fraser



Lisa



Of course, in reality it's not too bad at all!



The Mayan Temple



The Mayan Temple houses the rest of the rides, including the notorious Leap of Faith. Here's Sam having the time of his life going down it.



There's also a ride which takes you right through a shark tank. Pretty cool!







The Lazy River

What everyone refers to as the Lazy River is actually called the Current/Rapids (I only discovered this myself halfway through the trip) and the real Lazy River is this tiny circle of lifeless water near Beach Towers.

Whatever its name is, it's definitely a lot of fun! I was worried it might not be as fun this time around but it seems that riding a doughnut down rapids never gets old!



Adrian



Random video of us on the river

One of the lifeguards took a liking to Lisa and decided to give her a little peck on the cheek. Ok, maybe not so little...nor on the cheek...



The Beach

No one really swims at the beach. It's basically there to let you sit back, relax, and make you feel like you're in paradise.





Locals stomp up and down the beach offering various services. On one particular day, after hearing the rallying cry of "Booooooze Cruise, who wants to get plastered?" we hailed the man down and signed up for the next day's cruise, each parting with a $10 deposit. We didn't end up turning up that day though because a big night out that night proved too much. We conjectured that there doesn't actually exist a cruise and that the man just collects deposits because he knows well that everyone who signs up is going to be too hung over to turn up!


Dolphin Cay

We also took the chance to go swimming with dolphins! I'd never done something like that before so it was a pretty awesome experience. As well as touching, kissing and swimming with the dolphins, you get to have the dolphin push your foot and zoom you away on your body board. Surprisingly painful, but loads of fun!









Marine Life

Feel obliged to throw in a few of these :).











Happy Snaps

Unfortunately not everything can be so easily pigeon-holed, so here are some more happy snaps!
































All in all, a pretty darn good time!