EPTI did not found one, and many people were actually looking for one... So when I saw this add for a ride to Vegas, I said to myself, why not...
And boy, how good that decision was.
First of all, my ride append to be a Cree/Sioux native called Rod.
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Roadtrip%20Seattle%20to%20Vegas/Picture026.jpg)
That guy was a well of knowledge and we really hitted off during the trip. Mixing chat about native traditions, chants, progaming and other philosophical topics. The 26 hour trip was really quick that way.
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Roadtrip%20Seattle%20to%20Vegas/Picture007.jpg)
When I got to Vegas, we parted. Being so short a notice, I couldn't find a couch to surf. So I wandered downtown to find a really cheap motel. I found one for 33$, bed full of fleas and fighting couple next door. The works.
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture034.jpg)
I spent some time downtown and on the strip. Vegas seemed to me like a Disney World for adults. Everything there is HUGE. I kind of liked it. Just look at the pictures to get a feel of it.
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture057.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture060.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture063.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture061.jpg)
Then I phoned my buddies in Switzerland. One of them, Carlo, had proposed back in Switzerland to give me money to go play poker in Vegas. I told him I was over with poker, and that I did not plan on going to Vegas, so I refused the money.
See, a year and a half ago, I started playing poker with my friends in Lausanne. I played a lot of it, trying to get better and increase my understanding of the game. Finally after a year of playing it intensively (offline) I came to think I was not cut for it. I knew what I had to do to become better, but I was not ready to commit to it. poker is fun when it's fun, when you try to make it real, it become a job like others, except you are forced to spend time with assholes around a table. And I didn't want that in my life.
![[image loading]](http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/melianvert/Vegas/Picture048.jpg)
So I stopped saying yes when people were calling me to play and I spent more time with people I like, like my girlfriend ...
So here I was, in the poker capital of the world, with this friend of mine on the phone. He told me he was sending me 100$ over my debit card to play poker. So I said, ok I am going to play some.
First table I played, I lost some money... not much, but enough to eat most of the 100$ I was stacked.
So I invested some of my money.
And boy, oh glad I am I did.
In 4 days of playing 1$-2$ tables there, I made almost 1'500$ in benefit.
I became a target for the local pros, who I bluffed on many occasions and they never got the best of me.
I had much fun and that stay was very, very profitable to my shoelace budget.
I caught a bus to L.A., but I could have as well fly, with the money I made. One of the harder thing to do when you are winning money, is to keep your head on your shoulders and not believe you are a kind of hot shot that can spend as much money as you want.
Then I arrived in L.A. and headed for Venice Beach, where I was about to heal my body with a healthy regime of sports and good food.
