 I planned to stay 3 weeks in Las Vegas in November and I ended up staying almost two months until Christmas facing many plan cancellations again in Europe due to that virus thingy.
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If you follow this blog regularly, you know I have been spending the November and December months of 2021 in Las Vegas shooting photography and creating content for PokerFirma when I was not hiking in a desert or playing cards myself :)  I spent almost all November and December 2021 in Las Vegas shooting or writing content for PokerFirma and playing a bunch of Poker myself.  Thanks to the support of PokerFirma and of Alexandre Rotenberg Photography, I was able to pull off a pretty cool +40 days in Las Vegas during this fall. If you think I went only to enjoy myself, think again :-)  I left Vegas early this morning after more than 40 days of Sin City action. A first 4.5-hour flight to Montreal, more than 3 hours of layover and another 5.5-hour flight to Brussels followed by a 3-hour train ride to Luxembourg. Let's put it that way: I've had enough time to edit and upload the last photos of my 2021 U.S. trip :-) 
I present to you, the place where I spend most of my time in Las Vegas. I've not taken a gondola ride yet but I've taken a few of my opponents on a ride to Value City already on The Venetian cash game tables. Looks like I'll spend another month in Vegas so I might as well try to ship one of their MTTs.
R.I.P. BPC 2021 and European live Poker scene - see you next year! Check out the DeepStack Extravaganza schedule until early January below and go visit my PHOTOS & COVERAGES section for all my Vegas & WSOP photos for PokerFirma since I arrived in early November. 
On this Friday, November 26th, the Dutch and Belgian governments announced new Covid measures that effectively render impossible the organisation of Poker festivals (mandatory distancing even with masks, early curfews...). This will stop ounce again the Holland Casino activities and, most importantly for my plans, the Belgian Poker Challenge Namur got in danger. No official announcement coming from the Grand Casino de Namur until today but we knew what was coming ...
Today, is my 15th day in Las Vegas and, most importantly, it's the last day of the last WSOP at the Rio.
 One of the last very busy days at the Rio. From tomorrow, everything should be a little more laid back for us, the media. Less new tournaments are going to be launched over the coming days and fields are getting smaller - because the last big-field events have started to evaporate and because some or the coming events are really specific variants or just seriously expensive. Find out about what is still coming up on wsop.com and go check out our daily reports and photos on PokerFirma.com.
 My fifth day in Vegas has mostly been about getting all my photos sorted and to catch up with the Main Event action at the Rio. Since I am essentially reporting for PokerFirma during this WSOP, I am trying to shoot the last German, Austrian, Swiss ... and Luxembourgish players in the last Las Vegas WSOP competitions of this year.
Last night, I tried to get a seat at the Caesar's Palace Poker room but I ended up playing at what turns out to be my favourite room at the moment: the Venetian Poker room. Find my photos of the day in the album below and check out all my photo archive HERE.   The day off on my third day in Vegas was not a cheap excuse to postpone my desert hiking plans forever ;-)
My 4th day in Vegas was a very active one indeed! I left early in the morning and took of with a rental car to drive two hours into the desert.  It did not last long until things got messy in Vegas :-) After 2 nights at my accommodation, it turns it did not match my expectations at all and I decided to change plans. A princess needs her beauty sleep... I switched for a room on the Strip for a week and decided to postpone my desert hiking plans to Friday since I had to move my things around a bit over this day.
 It's 3am in Vegas and I'm max tired. Eventually, I'll sleep... :-) I've been up since 8am after 4 hours of sleep. Couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to make my way to the Strip where I spent most of my day shooting photos and having cocktails and Vegan ice cream with my sister in law #ilovemyjob while my brother was firing his second bullet in the WSOP Little One for One Drop. Life is pretty awesome!
I went back to the Rio for a few hours to get some photo impressions of this super busy WSOP day too. The Main Event reached a total of 6650 Entries for dozens of millions of prize money and 8 million $ for the winner. Sick remontada for the WSOP!! You'll find my photos of the day below and on PokerFirma.com together with their recap articles. View my total photo archive through the PHOTOS & COVERAGES section.  Delays and layovers ended up extending my journey from Brussels to Las Vegas to a pretty uncool 22 hours during which I did not sleep more than 3-4 hours. Additionally, the excitement of being back in Sin City after several years kept me awake throughout half the night during which I caught up with my brother and buddies having drinks and shooting night skylines instead of getting some rest. The results are pretty cool though, I must admit ...
Than came November 9th featuring the first Day 2 of the Main Event, the last flight and Day 1B of the Little One for One Drop for a solid 14-hour day of shooting and reporting. Easy game! I am now in my room posting this small article and preparing a post I will probably publish on PokerFirma's Facebook page tomorrow. It's great to be able to be part of this media circus without the pressure of having to deliver actual Poker news instantly. You can check out my photos of the day in the album below, in the photos & coverage section, on my Facebook page or on PokerFirma's. Thank you Rosi, thank you Fabien and thank you Gregory for treating me so well! A last drink and I'm going to bed for hopefully more than 3 hours of sleep this night!  South Las Vegas Strip feat. New York New York & MGM casinos, 2016 I'm off to Vegas tomorrow morning - with a suitcase of clothes, a bag full of cameras and a pocket full of cash dollars! These last months, I have more or less deserted the online tables to resume grinding live games and to travel so, beside shooting photography for PokerFirma and other media partners over the coming weeks, my plan is to play a decent volume of live cash games in Sin City until the end of November.
I am excited, honoured and grateful that PokerFirma, the top German speaking Poker portal, have chosen me as one of their Las Vegas reporters for this year's World Series Of Poker (WSOP) period.
Vielen Dank für's Vertrauen!! [ Thank you for your trust!! ] 
I'm leaving Luxembourg this weekend to meet an old Portuguese Poker buddy who lives in Brussels now. From there, I will be off to Canada on a Monday morning flight from Brussels airport before catching a second flight to Las Vegas!
It's been an intense Poker week at the Grand Casino Aš Poker room in the Czech Republic.
I arrived last Wednesday, on the 27th October for a Poker Belgique photo documentary throughout the week and to play some cash games. 
Long story short: I'm going back to Vegas for the first time since 2016 from 8th to 29th November this year. Vamos!
On the menu:  I have skipped the WSOP in the middle of the desert this year and I am thinking of flying back to Sicko-City this year to shoot photos, grind the cash games and ... why not ... fire a few bullets at bracelet events. After the recent leaking of most of the upcoming 2018 schedule, the 49th annual World Series of Poker® (WSOP®) – the richest, most prestigious and longest-running poker series – unveils its official event schedule for the 2018 summer iteration at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, with a tournament festival consisting of a comprehensive slate of the game’s most popular poker variations running from May 29 through July 17.  © Damian LIB for PokerMagazin To view the entire 78-event gold bracelet tournament schedule, please visit: WSOP 2018 Schedule (download PDF below) where all events are visible, and a downloadable version is provided. The annual poker extravaganza, which dates back to 1970, will be televised exclusively on ESPN networks and live streamed on PokerGO. The full television and live streaming schedules will be announced at a later date. 
 I am still thinking of dates and of photo/video projects ideas so, to give me some inspiration and motivation, I started looking back at some photos I shot during my 3-month trip in 2016 and I am happy to share some of these with you again today.
- Las Vegas shots for Poker-Magazin >> HERE - Red Rock Desert shots >> HERE - Leaving Las Vegas >> HERE |
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