Female poker geek anonymous

This is just gonna be a short post, just mending loose ends and thinking about the weekend in general.

The Sunday was very relaxed. I went and bought French Toast breakfast with eggs, bacon and sausages for the family and we had a nice breakfast on the balcony. The weather during our weather stay was very variable; it rained at some point, which I totally missed, since I was stuck at the Rio, it had been extremely windy. But on the last day it was nice and sunny, but not too hot. Perfect weather also for driving.

We then watched Germany trounce Australia 4-0 and I was just lying in bed with a huge grin on my face. An overall excellent weekend capped off with such a great game. After we checked out, we decided to go to the Bellagio to exchange some Euros that my husband still had left over from his last trip home. He has this hobby, where he buys old Mercedes from like the 70s or early 80s in California and exports them to Germany (no rust = original parts). It's going great, but my live bankroll has been annihilated on that venture. He came back from Germany with fresh cash and funnily the casinos are the best places often to exchange foreign currency at relatively cheap prices (ca 4-5 cents below Oanda) without any fees.

It was so sad, I could see the Bellagio Poker room almost bursting at the seams and it was only early afternoon. But no, I was here with the family and it was exchange and some gelato/capuccino before we hit the road. Bye bye Vegas! The drive back was uneventful again, only that we decided to hit an Indian Buffet as soon as we entered the Smog filled Greater LA area again instead of directly driving home and eating leftovers. Hey, weekend still a huge plus!

So now I sit here and think about the weekend. It was only on Sunday that I realized what a huge effect and discussions those dozen men that entered the event had. I still stand by my stance that I don't like the events but will continue to play them as long as they are offered. Every news outlet in poker reports on the bracelets, every poker podcast says even some smallish blurb about every event even if it is just rattling down the event winners. The publicity is just too huge and the field is just soft enough to pass the event up on "moral grounds".

I laughed at the Shaun Deeb video afterwards, how he tried to explain what was, in my opinion, a joke to him in the beginning. I burst out almost in tears of laughter when Annie had some thoughts on the matter and Daniel Negreanu started attacking her and talking about his poor assistant that satellited into the event. I mean, it was really funny and he's of course entitled to his opinion, but Daniel has been coming off as some grumpy bitch these last few blog posts complaining about everything. Annie and Daniel should just chill already. I read a lot more blog posts and opinions on the matter and it was pretty evenly divided, which I don't mind. It's going to be interesting what happens next year, though. Will more men try to enter? Will 2011 be the last year of the event?

A few more observations on the WSOP. This was now my 4th WSOP event and my first cash. I'm still way big in the hole for the WSOP, although I made up some ground. It's a huge grind machine and you take gambles on luckboxing into fame and a huge payday. The cash games are, of course, where the real money is made during the WSOP times, but sadly I did not participate this year. I was a bit more jaded this year, though. Like totally excited to enter the halls of the Rio again, see all the famous and semi-famous players wandering around, being super "busy". But never again with that starry-eyed naivete of the first year. After reading about the "slaughterfest" that is the WSOP from the Tao of Poker over and over again, after hearing the normal "pro" complaining about being 0/12 after 30 events (or something like that) on podcasts, you know that we are all just buying into the Harrah's marketing scheme. But it works and I'm still happy that people go to the "killing fields"; I hope to be back next year! Especially happy to meet cool people, make new friends and have great times in Vegas... besides the whole cards thing.

So now I'm back to my normal online grind. I have now officially left 1/2 behind or good having > 650BB for 2/4 and working myself slowly back to 3/6. Still clearing a dumb 300$ bonus at FTP, which I'll never manage, lol. Back in the comfort zone, it's relaxing almost, seeing > 300 hands / hour...

But for the last few days, when I think of Vegas again, I now have a huge grin on my face....