Staring at the Abyss, part two

I realized during the busy Christmas holidays that I really don't have much more to say about my Las Vegas trip. Others have waxed eloquent about the darker side of Las Vegas; suffice it to say that I got an eyeful during my stay there. The rest of my travel notes aren't going to see the light of day on the ol' blog, at least for now.

Overall, I had a great time; the trip was a profitable one in almost all respects, both emotional and financial, and I even managed some minor epiphanies in the long wait at McCarran for my flight home (it was delayed by 30 minutes, but I arrived very early as I was nervous about the incoming weather as well as the dicey conditions in Vancouver -- which were a harbinger of things to come). I'll have more to say about those in a future post.

As far as the actual poker ledger goes, as I alluded to before I booked a tidy profit despite not finding any good NL 2/5 games or mid-stakes LHE games: I cut a wide swath in NL 1/2 through bloggers and non-bloggers alike. The suckout total was even at one apiece, so that was a push (my KK rivered a set vs. AA whilst CK managed to get to hit her kicker vs. my AK on a K-high board).

I was pleased to shake off the poker rust (I hadn't played any live poker from September through the end of November) and feel firmly in control of my A-game with only occasional dips in focus and concentration. Overall the cards ran reasonably well and my only mistakes were in extracting the maximum when I was nut-peddling; my situational awareness and positional play was good as I didn't get myself into hardly any marginal spots (or if I did, I was able to avoid any truly tough decisions). I'll write up a couple of hands for discussion this weekend to see what others think about my line of play.

My chief regret of the trip was not being able to spend time with everyone I would have liked to. I trust that will be rectified in future.

Next up: your standard New Year's recap/resolution post. Some actual non-poker content too!