Europe/home/vegas/poker/etc

I have done a lot since my last blog. Most of it bad to my health but I finally think I fell on the right track.

I played a ton of poker in september all the way through the wcoop main event. I bricked basically every event and lost a ton of money. I did however win a seat to ept london the week before it started. I have never been out of the country before so I decided to play the seat. I took a first class flight, (which in my opinion, is worth every penny) and arrived in the cluster mess of an airport Heathrow. From there I took a train to Paddington, where our hotel was located. Our room was very very small, and I had no power adapter for the first two days I was there. It was actually pretty great not having a working cell phone or computer because no one could bother me. I was disconnected from the world and I have to say I kinda liked it. But we eventually got an upgrade to a huge room and found an adapter to keep up with reality. Anyway my buddy Jason flew out and later on our first night after busting one of the prelims we met up. We walked around the city for a few hours and somehow managed to get lost. We asked a local street vendor how to get back and he said it was about a 3hr walk! We walked for a half hour and luckily found a bus route that took us within another 40minute walk before we got back to our hotel.

London is a very dark and gloomy city. It rains there almost everyday and you rarely see the sun. I don't know if I could live there because of it but it wasn't that bad. The casinos there are almost like private clubs. Everyone is dressed up in suits and the casino is very small. They had 1 dice table, probably 10 roulette tables(virtual and real) and a few slot machines. The poker room was the floor above the gaming area but was reserved only for poker and a restaurant. The rake in those games is much higher than here in the US, but it didn't stop people from giving crazy action. All around the area of our hotel was mostly Lebanese restaurants so we ate mostly kebobs. The actual tournament was hosted by local casino, but held at the hotel due to spacing issues. Overall I think 850ish people showed up which is a great turn out. People is europe love to gamble and I was quite surprised at how quickly the tournament progressed. I got to sit with a lot of well known pros including the likes of Phil Ivey. I ended up making day 3 in the money when I got my pocket TT in against 99 and lost to a brutal river card for a top 5 chip stack with 62 left. But thats poker and you gotta take the good with the bad.

After the tournament we were supposed to go to the pokerstars party that was hosted at a local club, but after working for 2 and a half full days I was so exhausted that I passed out at 7pm that night. And for good reason too because we booked flights to amsterdam the next day. I woke up early and went to the casino to find the only game running was 1/2. I don't like to play that low but I had nothing else to do so I played and drank with the locals until our flight left. The airport at heathrow is very nice, but the security wasn't as aggressive as ours. They didn't scan shoes and we didn't have to go through an Xray machine or get pat down. They also don't check your carry on until you reach your gate and are about to board. Our flight was somehow delayed an hour and on top of that I had a rather large man overflowing into my seat the entire way there.

Upon arrival we couldn't read any of the signs and had no currency. In london we used the pound, but here in netherlands we needed euros. They wouldn't accept our credit/debit cards at the train station. I didn't remember the number to my debit card and we couldn't do cash advances so we were almost stuck until jason found an atm and was able to use his debit card there. All the signs were written in dutch and it was very hard to navigate our way around but we finally got on a train for 45minutes before it reached the last stop and we realized we went the wrong way. Luckily another guy went the wrong way too and we got directions to get back on track. So we were supposed to arrive in amsterdam at 9pm and we didn't get to our hotel until 1am. By this time all the coffee shops were closed and there were very few bars open. We ate at another Lebanese restaurant and walked around the red light district before getting to sleep. The next day we headed straight for the coffee shops where I had a hash brownie and muffin and a few J's. I don't usually smoke at all but you only live once so I enjoyed myself to the fullest. We then rented bikes and rode around the city stopping at the Heineken brewery for a tour. One interesting thing is they serve extra cold Heineken on tap in the bars there, where the taps are actually frozen in an inch of solid ice. We partied and hit the sack before heading back to london for our last few days.

The seats in first class are the most comfortable seats ever. The seats go back a full 180 degress so that you can sleep like you were at home on your own bed. There was a full 5 course meal and a rather large tv (id guess 15-17 inches) with tons of shows and movies on demand. It made the flight so comfortable that I didn't want to get off the plane. I finally got back to Cleveland later that night and stayed in ohio for 3 weeks. In that time I went out every single night and drank all but one night I was home. I didn't play any poker other than a stupid 1k at mountaineer which was a total pitts fest. It had a total of 39 players and Im so glad I wasted 2hrs of my life to drive there each way because I busted before dinner break. Its probably a good thing because if I had made dinner break, I probably would of rolled dice since they offered exceptional 10x odds. It was great being home and I definitely miss the fall weather. I got to see a lot of my good friends and most of my family too. I was planning on continuing onto foxwoods and then florida before making the journey back to vegas, but decided against and arrived back in vegas last week.

I have ate sushi almost every night I have been back and thats probably the best part. There really isnt anything good to eat in ohio, or atleast north royalton. I rented a car when i was home so I ate a ton of fast food and really just unhealthy food. Im glad I have the convenience of going to get sushi at 2-3am every night if i want. My buddy zach and I went out for halloween friday and saturday nights. I was a blind referee and he was lil wayne. We went to a presidential suite at venetian that was so exclusive, that it can't be rented out for cash. Then on saturday we went to Pure nightclub. I only had 2 drinks that night and was very proud of myself for doing so. I decided that the whole month of november that I wasn't going to drink. Ive been 5 days strong so far and eating very healthy too. I went to the gym the other day and plan on going tomorrow and starting a routine. I haven't felt this good in years and I don't want to jeopardize that so im going to try my hardest to continue. My roommates are helping me pick out foods and showing me workouts in the gym. I think if I can put up with it for 2 months ill be back to what I used to weigh a year ago. Ill hopefully update more on my progress but I can't make any promises. Ive been playing more poker lately and trying to keep busy. Last night I got to sit with Olympic extraordinaire Michael Phelps, phil hellmuth, antonio esfandiari, and some other big cash game pros. It was a good experience and I know that im a decent favorite against all those guys.

Well anyways Im hopefully going to wake up tomorrow and workout, maybe go to church, and get some more poker in before a big sunday grind online. My parents are coming in monday and I plan on taking them to my favorite restaurant Nobu at the hard rock. From there Ill be heading down to palms springs to visit them at my uncles summer house and play some golf before I head down to LA on thursday to play in the NAPT 5k at the bike. Later this month is the Venetian Main and then the Bellagio doyle brunson classic. I plan on playing all of those and hopefully winning one so I can buy a house in straight up cash. I will be heading home for xmas and then traveling to the bahamas for PCA, and hopefully australia before my birthday in feburary. Anyway thats a long time away and its pretty late here now so im going to bed. Later!