Rudy Edwards

just in time to stop me from playing 2-5, I had a $800 downswing at the 1-2 game at the Venetian. Now, you'd think it would be pretty hard to lose $800 at 1-2 without interesting poker hands to analyze, but that's what happened. I won't just list out bad beat stories, because they are all the same, but suffice it to say that I felt very good about my play.

In fact, it was only when I lost a stack to the top straight with my wheel, that I felt I was steaming, and even then I stood up from the table, and ended my session.

Table 6 at the MGM is a fun place to play between midnight and 5am on weekends. You get a prime view of the talent coming out of Studio 54, and often drunk and silly girls come by and railbird for awhile. Now, while this is terribly distracting to your poker game, it's very enjoyable, and if you play it right, you can gain a lot of value.

At one point I was holding a conversation with a very drunk girl from the Bay Area. While I was constantly distracted by the 4 or 5 loud drunk hotties around the rail, I figured that people would expect I would not play any but premium hands, so I kept getting "distracted" by hands to raise, and went on a tear with very speculative hands. It doesn't hurt that other people at the table are also distracted.

I finished up $535 at the MGM, negating much of the previous loss. It did keep me from playing 2-5, but I don't mind that much. I guess my absurd hot streak had to end eventually, It just ended a little harder than I wanted. I'm pretty pumped that I didn't have any confidence issues hold me back from having a good friday session. I briefly considered not playing, but decided I wouldn't have a problem, and I was right.