Memorial Day Update

I've been in Indianapolis this weekend visiting friends and family before heading to Vegas next weekend for the WSOP. I skipped online poker yesterday to attend the Indianapolis 500 with a friend and his girlfriend and father. It's a pretty fun event to attend if you ever get the chance. It reminds me some of the WSOP. For those drivers, so much of their lives depend on the outcome of that race, and yet, there's quite a great deal of parity in determining the winner. No matter how good of a driver they are, it definitely takes some good fortune to be standing in the winner's circle at the end. You have to avoid being the victim of an accident despite not making any error of your own (bad beat) and also have to catch the right breaks with the timing of caution flags and integrity of your vehicle (run hot, table draw).

Despite growing up in Indiana, this was only the second time I have attended the 500. You'd definitely be hard pressed to find an event that attracts such a huge and yet nearly non-diverse population. I think something like 300,000 people attend the race annually, and it seemed like probably 299,500 of them were white. The irony is, many of the drivers are foreign. I'd say maybe only like 10 of the 33 drivers are American. There are quite a few Brazilian drivers including Helio Castroneves, the very likable guy who yesterday won his third Indy 500. I did not observe his triumph without some disappointment. To pique my interest in the race, I placed bets on a few drivers who seemed to be under appreciated by the betting market. One such driver was Dan Wheldon who finished second.

I leave Friday for Las Vegas. The $1,000 buy-in 'Stimulus Special' is this weekend. I'm pretty pumped for that event and for the series in general. It'd be really nice to snap off a sizable score right from the get-go and therein be positioned for a more extensive degree of participation for the summer. And that's my 'LDO' statement of the day.

I have an Uncle joining me in Vegas this weekend for his first live tournament. He started playing online last year after hearing about my bits of success and has built up a bankroll somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 despite never having made a deposit. Sometimes I have pointless, ego-driven thoughts like, "I wonder if I'm the best poker tournament player in Houston?" His results make me wonder if I'm even the best player in my family!