The Dream Defined

It occurs to me I haven't yet articulated the dream! So without further ado...

Penthouse suite, floor to ceiling windows, going to bed at breakfast, waking in the afternoon, exercising, sushi lunch, then recording/practising/writing (songs/code/poetry/novels) before either playing in the poker room or in the lounge until the crowd goes, then watching the sunrise from the spa tub before doing it all over again. Charity on Sundays, followed or preceeded by brunch and shopping - but not for accummulation, for replacement; what gets replaced goes to friends, family, and charity.

Of course, everyone will want to come visit so I'll have to adjust for going to cabaret, hanging out with the cast, and after-show parties, not to mention all the travel required from playing the professional tournament circuit, book tours, music excursions, and charity events. I wonder where I'll find someone who'll want to come with and see one by one, the major European cities?

So that's the dream... we're not there yet, but we're close enough to smell the caviar!

Spanish Palms, where I stayed before, is IMHO, the nicest off-strip place to be in Vegas, full stop. Perfect location, in Las Vegas, but not far from the strip. It's like an Oasis in the desert, with lots of trees, shade, grass, and water.
http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/search/hhh?query=spanish%20palms

Cheaper than Indiana too! $950 for a 3BDR! In Castleton 2BDR (smaller, not as nice) was $1250.

Where I'm at now is similar, but with fewer trees, bushes and grass. Still nice though.

But of course, if you're going to live on the strip, there's a few key residences:

Panorama Towers
http://www.panoramatowers.com/

and

Sky Las Vegas
http://www.skylasvegas.com/

Mostly high-rollers, strippers & escorts live there. No kidding, that's what the doormen tell me! But both pale in comparison to what is currently being built/furnished, which is a massive tower complex on the strip, in the middle... grocery store, everything INSIDE... the idea being you never have to leave the tower complex. It trumps the other two mainly because it's right there in the heart of the strip that's most like Europe... lots of little shops/bars and all foot traffic.

Here's a blurb about it:
http://www.lasvegas-highrises.info/High_Rises_on_the_Las_Vegas.html
at the bottom - it's Cosmopolitan... once finished, there simply will be no better address on the strip. THAT is where Clio will be living. (She'll also be driving an Infinity G37 for trips out to the desert to stargaze.)

But it's like the Vancouver dream... there one finds a few perfect high-rise condos on the edge of Stanley park... if you're going to do that kind of living, those are the places with the most pros and fewest cons.) If you're going to do it in Vegas... Cosmopolitan and Veer towers.

But could I really make enough money playing poker? Pay for housing, what-not?

Yes! I've spoken to what names I know out there (to help with/confirm strategies, but more on that later). There are two main approaches here, but the bread and butter is pretty much what I described to you:
1) go to the "tourist" casinos (Mandalay, MGM, Bally's)
(preferably, wide-awake, sober, late in the night)
2) buy for the max amount in the low-limit game
3) wait, be patient, only play premium hands
3.1) when get one, make my play for max $
3.2) only very occasionally, when the situation
is perfect (ask me), and only if I think it will
succeed, do I ever bluff.

That is basically the approach the local Vegas pros use. They obviously avoid each other because they know they won't get any money from each other if they "chase" a hand. In other words, they don't make long-odds plays against fellow locals because if they make it, they won't get long-odds winnings from it- that requires a tourist in love with his/her hand. I'll spot the locals quickly, and I'll be perennially playing the role of the bubbly tourist "looking for some late-night (poker) action". My "boyfriend" will probably be an unnamed pro playing somewhere else and I'm just bored being left alone. In fact, thinking up/rehearsing the role/background was fun and helped kill time while driving out there.

Anyway, the pros look to make around $80/hr this way. It's probably the closest to a "sure thing" in the long run because you are minimizing risk. However, it can be a tad dull. I hope to liven it up by playing my role as social lubricant (thereby enhancing my "looking for action" image) and perhaps by blogging about it - just for you - in a format that maybe you might want to eventually do something with. Music will help, and I might even get into books on mp3 once I get into a groove. Just so long as I'm able to achieve maximum focus with minimum fatigue.

The other way to make money - one that I've had mixed success with - is the tournament approach. You've heard my rationale about the WSOP being the only tournament structure that enables solid cash game players to consistently get in to the money (skill over luck), however, Bob, the guy I met (and outlasted) at the local tourney told me he's played 35 tourneys at Ceasers. Each one is like, $75 to enter but pays like $3,000 to the winner. He's won 9 of them and placed in the money 25 times. Obviously, he's on to something and can make a living doing that, but my experience has to date been to win only occasionally, just barely offsetting my not winning frequently. IOW, I've made money with tournaments, but the swings are wider and seem to rely (although not in Bob's case) more on luck.

In my Jargon, I'm a solid cash game player, but so-so in tournaments. If I get into the money, I usually do quite well (from cash game experience) and I have been known to devestate final tables (the key is to be fearless, and when you do play, balls-to-the-wall aggressive), but the trick is getting there, and I could probably gleen that information from an hour's conversation with a local tourney pro if I tried.

In either case, until I get more than a few month's worth of scratch liquid, I'll no doubt be pimping websites or hitting the pavement looking for gigging bands.

If I figure $1200/month living expenses, I'd have to win around $300/week, or alternatively, working full-time at Panera (with no money to play) - basically, what getting a job at Panera in Plainfield would have amounted to).

Let's say I can average $40/hr, that's 10 hours of poker for a month's living expenses, so yeah, that's reasonable, don't ya think? One can win $300 on a good "average" night and lose $300 on an average "bad" night. One can win $1,200 on an average "good" night and lose $100 on a bad "average" night. Does that make sense? That's based on my experiences from last summer anyway. I rarely lost more than $200 and usually won more than $300 - remember the keyboard story?

And now that I've discovered that there are there are theoretical limits to let me know if I'm a winner or loser, stay tuned for more maths! :)