Three Years in Las Vegas - Page 5

Bill Murphy · #41 05-10-2004, 08:53 PM

http://tinyurl.com/398px

Obviously, Negreanu, Ivey, Juanda, & Cunningham are far out on the right side of the bell curve, as far as starting out primarily as tourney pros. And they all also play live; in fact DN & PI now mostly play live, and JJ & AC are 'semi-retired' from poker, supposedly.

Ted Forrest played mid-limit before winning the three bracelets in '93, then used the money to move up(UP!). Howard Lederer has written extensively about focusing more on tourneys now, which has worked out nicely for him. Of course, he's a pretty good player to begin with. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

As for TJ, Hellmuth, Men, Scotty, Miami John, the few, the proud, I guess. Look what happened to Huck. Daniel recently wrote (my paraphrase)that Chris Ferguson was the only self-financed, successful, full-time tourney pro over the last ten years.

Good thing, as he doesn't exactly have anything else to fall back on! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Ni pos, Bryan. Obviously, you got VERY lucky right at the beginning, but three years ain't luck.

"If I hadn't played in card games, I'd prolly be a CFO in accounting..." [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Joe Tall · #42 05-10-2004, 08:57 PM

Great post Dynasty!

Now if only the Sox could win it all this year, life would be complete.

Thanks for all your help.

Peace,
Joe Tall

Bill Murphy · #43 05-10-2004, 09:10 PM

The other weekend, F-Su, I played 15 & 20 stud at B for 3 days(mostly 20), 5-6 hours a day, btwn 1pm - 8pm. Very small sample, of course, AND I'm a MUCH better stud player than HE player. I can't play anything but HE at home(great games), and hadn't played anything but HE in LV for years.

But those games seemed soooo much better than the 20 HE at M and 15 HE @ B. Not even close. Not a wide selection of stud games, of course. The 40, 60 and/or 80 stud games looked good, too, but those are big steps up for me.

What am I missing? How are the day in, day out stud games in LV, inc. the 5-10 at M? I remember in the mid '90s that there would be three-four, 5-10 stud games at M, as well as rammin' 10, 15, & 20 games.

Like Biggie said, things done changed. What's it like now?

I'd also like to hear about stud & stud8 games in L.A., A.C., or anywhere else; limits, # of tables, rakes-collections, etc. Thanks.

astroglide · #44 05-11-2004, 12:57 AM

friend that dealt at the wsop said tj is backed/broke, too many sportsbetting and cash game losses

Dynasty · #45 05-11-2004, 01:15 AM

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Do you see yourself pokering for the rest of your life?

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I see myself playing for the indefinite future. It's hard to know how long that will be. After all, three years and one month ago, I never would have imagined where I am today.

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Also, I've always wanted to ask you, what's the worst run you've had (in terms of bb) since you've been in vegas?

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I'd have to go through my records to know the exact answer. However, a couple weeks ago, I sent a PM to Clarkmeister which said something like this.

Shoot me. -96 big bets in my last three sessions.

Dynasty · #46 05-11-2004, 01:21 AM

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I'm curious what your friends and family thought of you moving to Vegas based on playing so little.

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My friends were just shocked. Because I made the decision so fast, I didn't see some of them before I left. I told them through e-mails. I actually made my final decision to move to Vegas just 7-10 days before doing it.

I did not tell my family exactly what I was doing in Las Vegas until I returned to Massachusetts nearly a year later. I didn't want them to worry about it. My parents knew that I had considerable money to live on so paying the bills wasn't something they would be concerned about.

Dynasty · #47 05-11-2004, 01:29 AM

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Can you imagine that if you knew how little you really "knew" back then about poker you'd have chosen the same path? A professional with 19hrs of 1-3 stud huh? ROFLMAO

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I don't think there was much that could convince me that I wouldn't succeed. While running chess tournaments and acting as President of the Boylston Chess Club in Boston, I interacted with quite a few chess professionals. So, I had some understanding of the effort it would take to do this.

However, I was prepared to fail. I decided before I left for Vegas that if it didn't work that I would just have to regard it as a 1 or 2 year super-vacation. Then, I'd go back to the regualar workforce and move on.

Dynasty · #48 05-11-2004, 01:32 AM

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19 hours of 1-3? Man were you lucky. I would've put the line at least at 1000-1 that you'd have been a dealer within 4 months.

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Why lucky?

There was 0% chance of me being a dealer.

Dynasty · #49 05-11-2004, 01:35 AM

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Btw, what happened to Derek?

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He's still plays and still reads the forums. He just doesn't post much anymore.

Dynasty · #50 05-11-2004, 01:38 AM

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Since you knew so little about poker when you moved to Vegas, did you even know that it was possible to earn a living from playing?

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I intuitively knew that it could be done although I certainly had never heard the phrase "one big bet per hour". I must have also heard something about professional poker players existing but I don't remember anything specific.