Captain Flynn’s log, StarDate the end of November, beginning of December 2023.
F&O pushed to arrive in LV a day or two early, and conveniently set up camp two days before the Cardplayer Lifestyle HORSE tournament at Resorts World. Last year, Flynn took 8th, some $ and good vibes. Robbie is a great host, and makes everyone, including us unknown players, feel welcome. The mix of players is excellent, and if you want to see some big-names, but don’t have the bankroll for the big tournaments, this is a good place to start.
Backing up a few days/weeks: Flynn and Ollie had been dabbling in some free poker coaching articles and vlogs, predominately from Phil Galfond and Jonathan Little. These lessons were targeted at low stakes, live games, and focused on the basics. Sometimes we all need a little reality check. Don’t call a bet on the river from a nit, don’t get curious! Seriously.
Anyway, Flynn makes the trek from Lake Mead to RW, enters the tournament, gets seated at a wicked table of pros (not scared at all, Flynn can take em), and promptly plays like crap. Jeff Madsen owned Flynn not because Jeff was so good, but because Flynn was so bad. The worst. Not catching cards, betting when he shouldn’t, trying to bluff when he shouldn’t out of position, making horrid reads. Mistake #1: Flynn didn’t feel well. Foggy allergy head for days. Mistake #2: Letting his bad play establish his reputation. Fine. Regroup at 1st break/surrender shortest stack in history (2 bb), and sucked it up to re-enter with the hopes of hitting the reset button at another table. This works for a while, new table, new players. Flynn plays better, starts to slowly accumulate a stack above starting. The cards are running ‘normal’. Until:
Yeah, you know it. tables are starting to break, need to be balanced. Flynn gets tapped to move into the big blind at another table. Guess where? No need… not only the same original table as buy-in #1, but the exact same seat, and ALL of the same players are there with the exception of the one who took Flynn’s seat when he surrendered (obviously that guy busted). WTF? How lame and what kind of duckery is this? Tilted from the get-go, same sh** happens. After all, Flynn already has the “sucky bad player” reputation, he doesn’t even have to earn it. An hour later, Flynn is out with a rolled up set of 9’s in Stud, losing to a hidden straight. At least Robbie brought Flynn some Tylenol to ease the head crap.
Now, that tournament (two entries) cost a bit more than a full buy-in at Bellagio 2/5 NLHE cash game, one which Flynn had been planning to focus on this trip. Flynn’s bankroll is depleted already, on a tournament of all things, before he even gets started. Okay, in retrospect, it was a good lesson, and we met some nice folk, even if we did have to sit next to a Dolphins fan adding to our misery (Chad Holloway). Digress: no, Flynn does not lick his wounds to go home. Instead he buys into the 1/3 cash game at RW to earn back his buy-ins. Riiiiiight. We all know how that is gonna go. Stupid bird.
Tired, still stuffy despite OTC meds, and very cranky for playing like crap, Flynn dusts off a buy-in at the cash game before being hit over the head with the 2×4, and going home.
The next 4 days spend in LV – Flynn and Ollie have moved homestead closer to town – there is NO poker played. Flynn did not even go to the big meet-up game at the Wynn, therefore missing a ton of photo-ops. Instead, life, family and health are dealt with. Sleep happens. There shall be no poker while feeling anything but prime.
Bringing us to yesterday, a Tuesday, the slowest day for poker on the strip. Flynn packs up the backpack, calls the Wynn and gets on the 1/3 list. He was seated within 10 minutes, 2nd on the list. There he sits for 6 hours, playing ‘his’ game. It is good. It is normal. It is not tilting. Flynn feels fine. He doesn’t get on his phone, he doesn’t listen to music, he pays attention and he FOLDS to river bets by the nits. He makes a profit. This is good. Not the entire loss from the RW fiasco, but enough to clot the blood. He meets a new friend (hi Jim), and old friend (hi BJ), and quits while he is ahead. When he left there were 42 people on the 1/3 list. They all probably wanted a chance to play with Flynn.
This story gets better. While Flynn was grinding away at the Wynn, Ollie made his first foray into the world of poker since arriving in NV. He went to the South Point, played cash and lost a buy-in and some at O8. Calling B.S. he entered the $100 O8 tournament instead, and binked that son of a bitch right then and there.
See ya’ll around the valley, the rooms, the meet-ups.
Fin
Flynn