Back Up Plan

I have no recollection of this movie existing, so let's go with this instead:



Much better. The back up plan to my back up plan is pretty much where I'm at right now as a poker player. Leaving the country to play online isn't an option for me, and I have no interest in breaking any rules to regain access to Stars/Tilt/European sites. I'm also wary of opening accounts on the smaller sites still open to U.S. players, because I'd have to deposit a good chunk of money to play worthwhile stakes, and I'm not interested taking the risk of having those funds freeze or disappear in the near future. That leaves live poker as my only realistic option for full time pokering going forward.

After Black Friday, the uncertainty of what would happen with my online funds left me short on liquid cash and needing to make money. My only option was to return to live cash after a five year layoff, and I wouldn't be able to play above 2/5 until Stars and/or Tilt released my money. Even if I wanted to try and find a backing deal for live tournaments, the variance and expenses associated with playing live MTTs full time would have clashed with my current situation. So before I could fully digest what had happened to the status quo I had taken for granted, I was back in the casinos looking to get my feet wet at the tables.

My first two sessions were at Red Rock, a locals casino a mile down the street from my house. I played a few hours at 1/2 just to get a feel for things, and was quickly reminded that some of the worst poker players on the planet can be found at low stakes live cash. The competition at 2/5 wasn't much tougher, although there appeared to be far more grumpy old regulars limp/folding their way through retirement. Playing at Red Rock is not particularly enjoyable. Feeling more than ready to take on the 2/5 games on the strip, I headed to the Wynn to return to the tables I played at every day five years ago. Beating the games was never a concern of mine - I had a $30 hourly rate over 700 hours back in '05, and figured that number would probably be closer to $40-$50 these days. My biggest concern was whether or not I could tolerate live poker and the types of people that I was so happy to avoid interacting with over the past few years. After taking my first seat in a cash game on the strip in five years, I noticed the guy to my right had one visible tattoo. It was on the inside of his right arm (facing me), and read "Eat shit and die." Damn you, Department of Justice.

Things went fine over the next few weeks, and despite a general lack of motivation to play, I put in around 70 hours at 2/5. I made $25/hour, which is a pretty irrelevant number given that 70 hours of live cash equates to something like 2,500 hands. Regardless, it was obvious to me that I was far too good to play in those games, since I could probably count the number of players that posed a legitimate challenge on one hand. I even made a point to play at a number of different casinos to get a feel for all the games, and the outcome was pretty much the same all across the strip. There's no such thing as a good 2/5 regular unless they're confined to those stakes because of bankroll issues. After PokerStars released players' funds (yay!), I figured I'd jump into the 5/10 games once the money was safely in my account.

Despite being a live cash pro when I first moved to Vegas, I had only played 57 breakeven hours of live 5/10 before moving on to bigger and better things. I didn't have a great idea of what kind of hourly rate to expect, but figured the competition would be noticeably tougher than 2/5. While there are still plenty of fish and bad regulars, the biggest difference is the presence of actual solid regs at almost every table. Unlike 2/5, 5/10 games don't run consistently in any casino other than the Bellagio. Since I tend to play a good amount of mid-week, daytime sessions, I've found myself in a number of games with plenty of regs at the tables. Even on weekends, I notice a lot of the same faces at the tables, something that never happened at 2/5... and somehow, I've actually enjoyed the tougher competition considerably more.

Playing live 2/5 is mind-numbing. There is no creativity, no thinking beyond the first level, and a general lack of interesting spots. Solid fundamentals are all you need to win, and anything beyond that can be a hindrance. After all, what's the point of taking a line to represent a particular hand if your opponent doesn't pay attention to anything but the two cards in front of him? While there's certainly some of those type players at 5/10, there are also players that provide a challenge and tough decisions on every street. It makes the daily grind far more interesting, and even if live cash will never be as appealing as online poker, it's a lot more tolerable when I have to use my brain for more than reminding myself to smile politely at the guy across the table rambling on about his bad beat stories. Oh yeah, 5/10 has also been more enjoyable because I've made $160/hr over my first six sessions (35 hours).

Just as I've settled into a nice groove at 5/10, I'm ready to stop playing cash for the next month and a half. It's WSOP time again, and although things will be very different for me this year, I'm looking forward to another hectic summer of tournaments. Before Stars returned my money, I was concerned that my bankroll would keep me from playing any WSOP events. Not knowing what the future held, I figured I'd go about finding a backing deal for the series. Even with my Stars money safely in my bank account, there's still no way of knowing what my earning potential will be going forward. There's also the matter of Full Tilt still not releasing anyone's money (including my $24k), so I'm not exactly confident in my financial future going forward. Still wanting to play the WSOP but not willing to risk a large percentage of my liquid cash, I decided to sell 80% of myself in a ton of events at a 1.25:1 markup. Basically, I'm freerolling my summer schedule (every WSOP and Venetian NL event between $1k-$2.5k, as well as the main event), but only get to keep 20% of what I cash for. It's far from ideal, but given my situation at the time I locked in the deal, I'm pretty happy to be risking nothing this summer, even if my ability to bink a huge score is severely limited.

Given the nature of my deal, it's in my best interest to play as much as I can, even if I wake up with no desire to play (this tends to happen towards the end of the series every year). As such, my schedule consists of 32 events totaling $57k in buyins, including a stretch of 23 tourneys in 24 days. It will be both mentally and physically exhausting, but I'm actually looking forward to the summer grind more than I have in the last few years. Who knows, maybe I'll even get back to a WSOP final table and make my backer a rich(er) man.

My summer MTT schedule begins on the 31st with a $1k at the Venetian, and starts to get crazy the following weekend. I'm going to be taking it easy between now and then, enjoying the feelings of hope and optimism that always creep into my mind during the last few days of May. Given the uncertainty surrounding my career and finances after the WSOP, a little hope might be all I need to keep me motivated throughout the entire series.