Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[CincyLady]

I don't do this myself (yet), but as a former 'Road Warrior' I can give you some travel tips.

1) When flying, book your travel a day or so in advance of when you really need to fly, or at the very least, on Sundays through some of the very busy airports (aka Atlanta is one I know of, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and St. Louis are a few others) that tend to be over booked. Volunteer to be bumped at every stop along the way. To do this, once you get to your gate, go up to the desk and ask them if they are overbooked, and if so, tell the clerk there, that you'd be willing to be bumped if you can be placed on a flight later that day (be sure to ask to be upgraded to first class too on the replacement flight (don't be insistant about that part, but you'll be amazed just how often your request will be honored). Many times the airlines will give you a free ticket good for future travel, or at the very least what I call 'Airline Dollars', which are good towards the purchase of a future ticket with that airline. I can't count the number of free vacations I got for me and my family by doing this.

2) Call ahead to the hotel you will be playing at, ask if they have a poker rate, never ever pay full rack rate if you can avoid it. If they don't have a special room rate, call around to nearby hotels to see if you can get one.

3) Sign up for all the airline reward cards, and all the hotel reward cards. If you travel a lot as part of playing poker, you'll rack up the freq flyer points and freq hotel stay points very quickly, which in turn will get you free airfare and hotel rooms.

4) Get credit cards that award you points on your hotel and airfare freq flyer accounts. Use them for everything, and pay them off when the bills arrive.

5) At each casino you are at, make your first stop after check in, thier players card desk. You'd be amazed how often you can get a free room or at the very least, a very low room rate, if only you are a member of their player rewards card system. Be sure to use the card ever time you touch anything related to gambling at the Casino (including playing poker). You'll be amazed how many poker rooms these days give you something for playing there, if only you are part of their player rewards system.

6) Don't limit yourself to staying in the Casino's hotel. Many times there is a nearby chain hotel (some of whom actually have some sort of shuttle service to the casino you'll be playing at), where while not fancy, the room is clean (because think about it, just how much time will you really spend in that room), and the price is very cheap for it.

7) If staying for long periods (aka weeks), consider staying in an extended stay type of hotel that has a kitchen. It will save you money on meals, if you buy your groceries and cook your own food (including packing a lunch to take to the card room with you). Many such hotels will even do your shopping for you, if you don't have Local transportation (though renting a car might be cheaper in the long run, rather than taking cabs all the time).

Hope that helps!

[Todd Terry]

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1. Is it still fun after a couple of months? Do you ever get sick of living out of hotels, sitting in airports, eating whatever food is available etc? Seems rather glamorous from an outsiders perspective, but curious to hear some good and especially bad aspects of it from those who have been doing it.

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I started doing it at the end of March of this year. I love playing the game, but am generally bored to death when I'm not playing. I'm 33 and married with my partying days long behind me. I don't play cash games and don't gamble in casinos (the latter would be probably the most important advice to follow). Being around down-on-their-luck poker pros, and people in casinos generally, can be rather depressing.

At the end of the day, you're playing a game for a living, and that more than makes up for the negative aspects. When you're playing live, there are always things you can be thinking about and analyzing vis-a-vis your opponents, most of whom you've never seen before, so it's a constant challenge, which is the part I like best about it. Or maybe second best behind the money.

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3. Post your schedule if you care to, or PM it to me, or tell us how you go about planning it.

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I live in NJ, so I have a preference for playing in AC or Foxwoods because I can drive there. I'm still trying to develop groundrules for planning my schedule, and go back and forth all the time. One rule I've developed, which I'm about to break twice in the next month anyway, is don't travel to a site unless you're going to play multiple tournaments there. There's nothing worse than flying to a place, staying overnight, busting in two hours, paying to change your airline reservation, and flying back.

The best events of the year are the WSOP (I went back and forth 3 times, I can't imagine staying out there for 6-7 weeks), and the Bellagio events in April and December. They are the series where you're playing for the most money in the prelim events, with the WSOP being 10x better than the Bellagio events in that department. In terms of structure of prelim events, the best events are at the Borgata, Taj and Foxwoods.

My upcoming schedule, subject to change, is: Turning Stone next week for 3 prelim events and main event, main event in LA (I skipped the prelims because the NLH events were too spread out), main event in Tunica (skipped the prelims because they were too small), bunch of prelims and main event at Borgata, bunch of prelims and main event at USPC at Taj, Caesar's Classic in Vegas for bunch of prelims and main event (which has a $1 million first prize), Niagara Falls main event maybe, Foxwoods for bunch of prelims and main event, off a few weeks, Five Diamond at Bellagio for all prelims and main event.

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6. Anything else you can think of, anything at all.

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Be prepared to be losing most of the time. I busted in the first two events I played as a pro, which were fairly deep stacked events, in under 30 minutes. I'm currently on a 16 tournament streak without a cash. You have to walk a fine line between being brutally honest with yourself and not simply chalking up bad results as bad luck while at the same time recognizing when you are playing well but not winning and not make changes solely because you are not winning. You will frequently have doubts about whether you can make a living playing tournament poker, which might go away after you cross $5 million in gross career earnings, but I doubt it.

Good luck.

[The B]

blueman... commit to it & don't look back, Good Luck

won't match the response from TT, but some decent threads here http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...rt=all&vc=1 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=11504409&page=3&fpart=al l&vc=1)

[DoGGz]

From my experience in the spring.

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I'm giving it my shot beginning with Legends, looking for some feedback on various things from those who have been at it awhile, I know there are many on this board:


1. Is it still fun after a couple of months? Do you ever get sick of living out of hotels, sitting in airports, eating whatever food is available etc? Seems rather glamorous from an outsiders perspective, but curious to hear some good and especially bad aspects of it from those who have been doing it.


Yes, Yes, and yes. This was the major downfall. You are never at home and it's hard to keep any type of balance when it's all just poker. At least online you can have other things going on, but on the circuit you are phyically on the road all the time so you can't really do much besides poker.


2. Are there usually plentiful high stakes cash games on the road and do they tend to be juicy? NL 10/20++ is what I'm interested in if you can provide specifics on that.


Every stop I went to had plenty of 10/20nl action. The stops in LA/Vegas/AC will have tons of sidegame action while the smaller stops all go through a poker boom during tournament time and these games get spread.


3. Post your schedule if you care to, or PM it to me, or tell us how you go about planning it.


I'm not currently traveling. Previously I would map out what events I wanted to play and decide which ones I'd play. I tried to stay in every place for longer then just the championship event. Hotels I'd book as far ahead as you can as they fill up fast during tournament time, but flight I always booked last minute. If I busted day one of a championship event I would go on to the next stop a few days early.


4. Any tips and tricks you've picked up you care to share with others. One guy told me to always call the casino around tourney time as the dates change a lot for tournaments. Also any tips on getting good travel deals, whether to rent a car, hotel bookings, who to tip or whatever.


Definately get the dates for events confirmed, but I have no idea about deals. Try to get a tournament rate if you can get a room at the hotel. I have been paying way to much lately.


5. What does an average month look like? How much down-time is there and what do you do to keep balance in your life during that time?


Average month is travel travel travel. I couldn't keep any real balance, and it is would take a very self motivated, organized person to keep a real balance.


6. Anything else you can think of, anything at all.


I'm planning on only traveling once a month, picking one event per month I want to play. Hopefully I stay sane.



Thanks!

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[SteelWheel]

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The best events of the year are the WSOP (I went back and forth 3 times, I can't imagine staying out there for 6-7 weeks), and the Bellagio events in April and December.

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Different strokes..I stayed in Vegas for the entire length of the WSOP, and could never imagine going back and forth 3 times. For me the worst part of travelling is the actual travel part--once I'm where I want to be and the games are good, the last thing I want to do is get back on a plane and go shuttling back and forth.

Maybe this is because I mostly play cash games--I played four events at the WSOP this year, besided the ME, and that's a lot for me; in past years, I've generally only played one or two preliminary events.

To the cash game players: I mostly play 10/20 NL, occasionally breaking off to 25/50 NL, or once in a great while, some "mix" games or some medium high LHE. Besides the Series, what are the best stops on the tournament trail for this kind of stuff. Is it more or less the Borgata and Foxwoods WPTs and Bike/Legends and LAPC/Commerce?