I’m calling my bank in a few hours when it opens in Australia in a last ditch effort to get the 10k in USD in time to register for Day 1d of the Main Event tomorrow.
I had no idea it would be this difficult to transfer 10k from my Australian bank account to cash here in the US.

Here’s what i’ve tried so far

P2P transfer - fallen through
Western Union - can only transfer $999 in first transfer
Bank Wire to Rio - too late to do via bank, Full Tilt sent me an email saying they couldn’t do it
Gary Benson’s Intercash service - Gary left LV and is currently in the Mediterranean
ATM - My bank won’t let me withdraw more than $1500/day and I only tried for the first time yesterday
FTP$ to Cash - Couldn’t find a buyer.
So now you understand how my past couple of days have been spent.

The last 48 hours has been a little bit difficult. If I don’t get to play the main it’ll be disappointing but i’ll just play some 1k events over the coming week as my ‘take a shot’ attempt which is really probably the smarter option anyway due to bankroll management and the fact that I am a massive life nit. I’m still playing the Main though if my bank will let me withdraw the 10k, I went down to the Rio today and the atmosphere is great.

I watched Negreanu on the feature table for a while, picked up my Full Tilt gear from the FTP Suite, explored the Full Tilt lounge and laughed at the hilarity of about 30 of Dennis Phillips supporters in uniform on the rail next to his table. The atmosphere at the rio is like nothing else.

Yesterday, I played another $330 Megastack at the Rio. A couple levels in, I got involved in a big pot where I bet/3bet all in on the flop with a nut flush draw while deep against an older guy who pretty clearly had top pair or an overpair; he tanked for a while and eventually called off his stack with the overpair and I missed my 12 outs to end my very uneventful tournament. After busting, I headed to the Stratosphere to check out the thrill rides at the top. The rides were surprisingly awesome and the view of the strip from 1100 feet is fantastic. Although the surrounding area is seedy and I wouldn’t recommend staying there, the Stratosphere is definitely worth the visit. I also found a pizza place that actually serves BBQ Chicken Pizza here in America. It’s one of the most popular types of Pizza in Australia and yet you can’t find it anywhere here in America.

After the thrill rides, I lost $50 playing blackjack against a dealer who keps making 6K5 21s against my JT and stuff so i’m back down from being up $51.50 to being up $1.50 in pit games for the trip. Kinda pales in comparison to the 5k or so i’m down from playing poker. LOL, Donkaments, etc.

I’ll upload my photos from the Rio today shortly, check out the SwoopAE’s Photography Thread in the Poker Stories section of the forums.