When you're planning a crazy, half-a-summer-long cross-country trip, having a supportive wife is essential.
Amy and I were discussing my speculative calendar for our six-week trip to Las Vegas this summer, during which I will play in and cover the World Series of Poker for my book "Vegas or Bust."
I pointed out to her that it's hard for me to point to certain days and say "that's a family day" or "I'll be playing a tournament this day" because in WSOP events I play and run deep I'd play a second or a third day. Some other tournaments in town this summer also last two days or more, as well.
"This will probably be a family day, unless I make the final table of this World Series of Poker tournament," I told her.
"Don't think like that," she said, or something to that effect. "Play expecting to win it."
Certainly, I have to love her optimism.
That changed my wording: "On the small, minute chance I don't make the final table of this event we'll hang out as a family."
But the hopeful discussion leads into one of the trickier aspects of this trip: managing my time. That's because not only will I be playing poker and serving as a dad and husband, I'll also still be working full-time as a reporter and editor at Watchdog.org. And I've still got a book to finish under deadline when I return.
On my printed calendars for June and July I have a mess of scribbled notes, full of asterisks, question marks and blacked-out lines. I might play X tournament on this day or Y depending on how deep I go in Z tournament. Or if the summer starts poorly, I might play B tournament, with its lower buy-in, instead of C and its higher buy-in.
I've allotted four days to drive to Vegas in our Grand Caravan and four days to travel back. Four days in the middle are allotted for a side trip to Anaheim and Disneyland. The rest of the days, about a month in all, are open for consideration.
I do, at least, enjoy a time-zone advantage by being in the Pacific. I normally work from about 8-5 back home in Alabama, which equates to 6-3 in Vegas. So that will allow me to get up, brew some coffee and grab the laptop, hopefully a couple of hours before the rest of my clan arises.
I'll focus most of my play on weekends and later afternoons, with the occasional earlier tournament start thrown in as I work early or late on some days to make up for the occasional half-day. I'm looking at you, Thursday, June 9, WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha and your bedeviling 11 a.m. local start time. That $565 buy-in event is one I hope to play, but I can't say right now I'll be able to; some events I'll simply have to skip because they don't fit into my work schedule.
That's a problem most players won't have. Ah, the joys of being a working man.