From NYC to Portugal, To Wales for Oasis, To Vegas For WSOP: Free Will Rocks

It's 5:40am in Vegas right now and I'm wide awake. Around 2:30 yesterday afternoon I met up with sweet Ethan after he busted the Main to buy him a drink, as busting the best tournament of the year is the worst feeling in the world and nobody should be left alone afterwards. After 1 margarita I retreated back to my room for a nap, which turned into sleeping more or less the last 14 hours, as I guess my body needed to recover from the last week. And what a week it was! 

It all started when Oasis, the greatest rock n roll band to ever do it, announced their comeback tour. Me and the great Robbie Fox knew we needed to go see them in Europe. But Bob, in his infinite wisdom, said Europe isn't enough. We need to go to the FIRST SHOW BACK. And then by the grace of god and a stroke of good luck, tickets to their first show back in Cardiff, Wales were acquired. And even better, the show landed on July 4, which is a day we have off work. Everything was fitting together perfectly.

Seeing as I was already meant to be in Europe for July 4th, I decided to leave the USA a few days early to see a new country I've never been before. And that isn't hard to do, as I really am not as well traveled at 36 years old as I'd wish. There are so many wonderful, beautiful places around the world that I hope to get to one day, but I can just take it one stop at at a time. 

For this trip I decided I wanted to go to a European beach town, somewhere I could fly into direct from NYC, and somewhere with direct flights to London, where I would meet up with Bob before heading to Cardiff. After much research, I landed on Cascais, Portugal. It's a beach town about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. So I booked my airfare, and found a very nice hotel on the beach, and then last week set off for a great week abroad.

Cascais was cool. I mostly spent my time walking around the city and frying in the sun. Had some great coffee and was introduced to Gravlax which is the cured salmon you can see above. The beaches were rather small and PACKED, though I found some empty ones where I found peace and solitude. The beaches were much different than your typical American beaches- much smaller, and much harder to get to. Not very wheelchair accessible, to say the least. And the water was FREEZING. I went during a massive heat wave, but man the water was a shock to the system. Felt nice after baking in the sun though. And the hotel pool was the same way, which again I didn't mind, but was surprised by.

After Cascais, I took a 7:30am flight to London where I would meet up with Robbie before taking the train to Cardiff. Let me tell ya- the Lisbon airport is dreadful. I did a quick Twitter search to see if I was off my rocker about it, and seemingly everyone agrees the airport needs a major upgrade. After navigating that maze, I boarded my flight and landed in jolly ol' London for leg 2 of the trip- Oasis.

If you've been a member of Nate Nation for a while, you know how much Oasis means to me. I'd seen them twice before- once in Columbia, Maryland in 2006 and once in London during college. I never thought I'd be able to see my favorite band again. I mean, I had hope, but hope is a dangerous thing. So for this reunion to be happening, and to have a friend like Robbie who is a mega-fan and was never able to see them live because he was a fetus when they broke up, this was huge.

After arriving in Cardiff we went to the hotel, which was about a 5 minute walk from the stadium, and then set out to explore. Robbie booked a slot at the official merch store, which was very clutch. We both spent way too much money and regret nothing. We then went to the merch store outside the stadium where they had gig-specific merch, and spent more money. 

Let me take a second and give all the props in the world to the city of Cardiff- it's amazing. The area around the stadium is sort of like a mix of New Orleans, Nashville, and Austin, but in a European way. So, so, so many pubs, barely any cards, outdoor seating as far as the eyes can see, and everything so easy to get to. Food, drinks, and shops every single block. It was as good as it gets, and we had perfect weather to boot. As they say, I guess God is an Oasis fan.

Gig day was July 4th and we were BUZZING. As I said above, around the stadium is all pubs, and it was basically Oasis-con. Everyone in bucket hats, every bar playing Oasis, everyone high-fiving and smiling. It was incredible. I wore my "Talk Tonight" shirt I bought off RedBubble which features my favorite Noel lyric

And we got a great spot on the barrier in the 2nd rung of floor seats. You needed a special bracelet or something for the first tier, not sure how those were passed out, but our spot was great nonetheless. The lads around us were the bollox, very awesome group we were lucky enough to spend the concert going bananas with.

And also, DANTE THE DON FROM THE CLOUDS!!!!!

There were whispers Dante was making the trip, and then when he showed up it was legendary. 

As you have probably heard by now, the show itself exceeded any and all expectations. From the moment Liam and Noel came onstage in unison to the very last note of Champagne Supernova, it was as good of a show as humanly possible. Liam and Noel both in top form, the band around them doing everything and more to make it special, and the crowd going insane for every song- there wasn't a single second to catch your breath. No lulls. No bathroom breaks. Just rock n roll for 2 straight hours.

And Liam has never been more locked in. His voice was a 10/10. Every single song he belted like his life depended on it.

And Noel was emotional. So much in his personal life went wrong over the last 10 years, and he was back where he was supposed to be, with his brother on stage, his family in the crowd cheering him on. 

There was no rest for the wicked though- I had a flight the very next day from London to Vegas, for the Main Event of the WSOP waits for nobody. So we woke up early, took the train back to Heathrow, and Robbie got on his flight back to NYC, while I got on my nonstop flight that took me all around the world to Las Vegas.

It was not as bad of a flight as I though it would be! Virgin Atlantic, what an airline you are! The flight attendants are all absolute babes, the seats are wide and comfy, and they feed you nonstop. All I did that flight is eat and sleep. It was amazing.

I landed in Vegas and after an Uber to my hotel, I was ready to play the last 2 levels of the WSOP Main Event. I registered and found my table- no pros, perfect. 

And things were going smoothly until one hand that I'll be thinking about for a while: (Skip this if you don't care about poker or hand histories).

At 300/600 blinds I have 65k. I open 33 ep to 1200, button 3bets to 4k, I call. Flop T93r, I check, he bets 2200, I check/raise and make it 9k, he calls. Turn Q, I bet 12k, he calls. River K. Terrible card. I check and he bets 27k. Can he be turning something into a bluff here? What do I beat? I sadly folded. He said he had pocket jacks, but then at the end of the night he said he had 95dd. I don't know which I believe, to be honest. 

I won a small pot with QQ a little later, but got nothing going and ended up bagging about half of starting stack, 27.4k. I've bagged 200k on day 1, 100k, exactly starting stack, busted day 1, and skipped day 1. And now for the first time I've bagged a rather unfortunately small amount heading to day 2. It's still 35bbs which is plenty, just sucks! Maybe I'll just get a quick double up and get back in the comfort zone today, we shall see.

I type all this to say this- go experience life. Yes, money is a mindfuck. Money controls everything and is the main reason for stress in pretty much everyone's life. So save and experience what you want to experience. I cannot believe I saw Oasis in Cardiff and am now in Vegas. Literally LAST YEAR I wasn't even planning on playing the Main Event because I had so much anxiety about spending money. But you truly can't take it with you, and cemeteries are full of people who told themselves "next year I'll travel". I'm not saying be reckless- but it's ok to get out of your comfort zone too. Honestly I'm not the best person to give advice on this because I still have a weird relationship with spending money, but I'm very glad I did it. You only get one life or whatever, so I'm working towards making the most of it. Hopefully lots more things to come- with this new mindset, anything is possible. Nate Nation, it's gonna be biblical. 

Now I'm going to go eat breakfast, get some steps in, maybe take a nap, and then run up my stack at day 2 of the Main Event.

Blessings to all.