In his book ‘The Mental Game Of Poker’ Jared Tendler describes seven forms of poker tilt. After reading the book I came to the conclusion that I suffer from all seven of them. Badly. I’m one of those guys who thinks he’s truly cursed at the poker table and despite taking this silly game of cards rather seriously for a couple of years, I’ve never been able to ban that thought out of my head.
By the end of 2010 poker had been feeding me di-ck for too long. The hobby that gave me lots pleasure, opportunities and great experiences in the past had become one big frustration. Poker had always been just a hobby. I had realized early on it wasn’t going to make me rich and famous due to a serious lack of talent. However, running like only a reincarnated Nazi Pedophile should run had taken its toll on my mindset towards the game.
It wasn’t like I had lost perspective. After the regular five minutes of fire tilt that comes with busting yet another tournament I could put things in perspective rather quickly due to general life run good. This is what I wrote about that in 2010 in my ‘good bye letter’ towards poker .
“I mean, come on. What am I complaining about. Poker. A stupid game of cards. I’m 29 years old, healthy, have a lovely girlfriend, good job, my own house, nice car and I never had to bury anyone close to me. I run sick good in life and definitely realize I rank top 5% world population. Seriously.”
No matter how bad you think you run in poker, you will eventually win a flip or spike a two outer. Unfortunately, the same goes for life run good. My life run good ended on the 18th of March last year. At 17:10 to be exact.
It was at this time a phone call came in that we all now one day may – and most likely will – come, but the thought of it makes us wanna throw up. It said ‘Home Calling’ on my screen. It wasn’t unusual for either of my parents to call at this hour so I answered the phone in my usual witty way.
Upon hearing my mothers voice I immediately reached for my car keys and started running as fast as humanly possible . I just knew the next words where going to change my life. Coming home from her day at the office she found my father motionless lying on the couch. The man who provided me with a careless life for 32 years had passed hours earlier during his regular afternoon nap at the age of 65. Just like that.
I’m blessed to come from a loving and strong family. My mom is handling things like the boss that she is but unfortunately we can’t say the same thing about me. Due to previous life run good I never had to deal with anything even remotely close to what I was – and am - dealing with now. After about 6 week the tensions en stress that come from dealing with such a horrible event caught up with my body causing spasms in my collar, hearth muscle and stomach. These spasms make me feel bad. I’m not talking ‘I felt better’ kind of bad I’m seriously talking ‘thinking your about to die’ kind of bad. By the time we got to September I started adding hyperventilation to the mix, which did not help. At this point I couldn’t stand up straight for more than 5 minutes and when I was up I walked around as if I was pis drunk.
I’ve spend more time in hospital waiting rooms in 2013 than I did in bars and clubs. I have a hard time accepting that these physical problems are most likely caused by stress. I’m still nowhere near feeling 100% and actually feel way worse than I would have hoped by now. But is what it is and we’ll made the best of it. Good thing is I feel closest to 100% when I’m drunk so with that in mind a Vegas trip comes in handy…
Needless to say 2013 sucked. It’s not a big challenge for 2014 to become a better year but to give the year a kick start in the right direction I decided to combine a couple things I like doing most:
A) Drink beer with my mates.
B) Visit Las Vegas.
So this Friday the 17th we’ll be flying out of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport again towards the promised land. We’ll be staying at the Mirage for 7 nights. So who is ‘we’ for this trip?
Only 5 VPC members are taking on Vegas this time. For the first time we loose one of the ‘filthy few’. Peltinho decided that traveling 50 hours for a 7 night trip wasn’t worth his while this time around. He will be explaining his exact reasons in the introduction video below (must see, and hear). Also Roeie & VDH passed on the opportunity to go on their third trip.
And now for the real bad news. Yes, it’s true. Our beloved Fratie couldn’t muster up the cash for this years trip. A striking blow to our Vegas fellowship and more importantly, my trip report. I know you guys basically scroll trough my ramblings looking for the next epic Fratie pic to arise so I won’t disappoint in that area. I’ve collected a good volume of Fratie pics and movies over the last 18 months to provide a worthy ‘Meanwhile in the Netherlands’ series throughout the trip report.
Below are the 5 participants in this years trip. For bio’s check the first post of our previous TR.
Peter “Bozzie” Leijsten. (5/10 degen score)
Tom “Iebus” Ebus (8/10 degen score)
Dennis “Hugo” Reijnhout (7/10 degen score)
Marco “Baars” Baars (11/10 degen score)
Robert “Hamid” Vallen (-1/10 degen score)
Planning a Vegas Trip is usually pretty useless. You never end up doing what you wanted to do anyway but that doesn’t stop us from trying . We’ll be arriving in the early Friday evening and after check in and a shower we will probably wonder the strip, play some cash games, blackjack and what not. If we’re in real good shape we might hit Hakkasan where Calvin Harris is playing.
Everyone has their own weekend plans. Bozzie is going to watch NFL and soccer all weekend, Baars en Iebus plan on visiting the Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock and Hugo and I will be playing Poker mostly. I’m gonna be playing Caesars Championship Event on Saturday (and hopefully Sunday) and an Aria Daily most likely.
Inspired by the brilliant TR of the four Scottish Guys Monday will be used for the “Duh Mat Roulette Casino Crawl”. As a sick coincidence we always bet on number 14 as well. Rules are simple; A) bet 14 in every Casino. B) at least one alcoholic drink in each casino. C) group picture in every casino. We’re not Scottish so we probably end up in a hospital with alcohol poisoning but it’s worth a shot.
Tuesday will be a Downtown day. I’m a downtown fan boy so we are going to take our time there. So much time that we booked rooms at The Plaza for the night (which is lol cheaper than a taxi back and forth). We’ll be doing some shopping at the Premium Outlet first, check into the Plaza to drop off bags and then hit Binions either for their 2PM tournament or a marathon 2/4 Limit Corona Grind session. If anyone has good any good tips on downtown hangouts let us know. I might make reservations for “Oscars Steakhouse” in the Plaza. Better suggestions are welcome.
Wednesday I’ll be checking out the Neon Museum Downtown and probably check the Gold & Silver Pawnshop from Pawn Stars . Downtown breakfast tips also welcome. Afterwards we’ll be heading back to Mirage since we plan on visiting Carlos Santana in the House of Blues later that night. Absolutely no plans what so ever for our last full day.
So that’s it. This will not be a live TR because those mostly suck and I’m not going to waste a second of Vegas time ragging on the nut low that is an iPhone keyboard. The TR will be made afterwards and I will take my time to do so. Check out our introduction video below!!!
I’ve unlocked my Twitter (@Broddelwerk) so you can follow me there. I’ll start tweeting in English if I get some foreign followers. If not, y’all have to learn Dutch real fast.
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