Working through my lunch hour!

Before you feel too bad for me having to “work over my lunch hour”, let me explain what that might mean for a poker player. I got up at 11 A.M. and read in bed until about noon.

Then I went to the kitchen where I logged into Party Poker. I joined a 2/4 table and began making myself stir-fry for lunch. (If it is your first meal of the day at noon, is it still called lunch? Correction, my first meal of the day was at 2 a.m. when I had a bowl of ice cream. So I guess this was lunch. Grin)

Anyway, I sat down with my bowl of rice and began to play. By the time lunch was over, I was up $50 so I logged off and went to take a shower and get dressed.

This is the fun part of this lifestyle. I am in a good mood today. I have depression that is affected by how sunny it is or isn’t. December is always a hard month for me because of the “shortness” of the days. It is also the month we get most of our rain for the year.

And those two holidays in December, I find pretty disgusting. The Christian Holiday called Christmas that has nothing to do with Jesus, and pressures people to go deeper in debt. Yet the name is still offensive to certain people who fight to call it something else.

Then the pagan holiday that is dedicated to drinking as much as you can and then yelling, singing a stupid song (that nobody knows the words to), and kissing strangers at midnight.

Then comes the great month of January.

In Southern California, it is usually filled with Sunday warm days that are perfect at the beach. The days begin getting longer. I occasionally glance up at the weather on TV and see snow and cold in many parts of this country.

Here in San Diego I could be a weatherman. Tomorrow will be sunny and clear with Highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s. Next week will be the same. Next summer will be the same. Next year will be the same, etc, etc.


Of course, there are a few down sides to living here. Crowds, traffic, high prices etc, etc.

But I have a vivid memory of being 9 years old in Chicago on New Years day.

I was watching the Rose Parade on TV. I was indoor, because the weather outside was sub-artic and that is what you do there between Thanksgiving and Easter.

What was so vivid then to me, was that those people on TV at the Rose Parade were not even wearing coats, nor for that matter, gloves, ear muffs, hats, long underwear, snow boots and wool scarves.
And it was sunny! I didn’t quite know where that place was but I knew when I grew up I was going to live there.

That resolve stayed with me until one week after High School Graduation.

I bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles International Airport and left the frozen tundra forever. (Well, it actually wasn’t frozen then, because it was July and the temp and humidity were both almost at 100! The mosquito population was almost to the size where they could carry away small animals. That usually lasts until the first frost sometime in October. Sometimes, you do get a break for a few days when a tornado comes through and blows them all to Kansas.)

When I touched down in LA I was met by my buddy Bruce who had gone there a year earlier. I had mentioned that story a little earlier in this blog. I will tell you more stories and how I met my great wife Caren in L.A. She was an original Valley Girl just before they became famous.

Well, I need to go and teach my last class until summer at the San Diego Community College. This course is Microsoft Exchange Server Administration

I don’t really feel like doing it, but the students have a lab project to finish and I may show an hour of a webcast. Because of it being the last night of class I think we will end early.

Poker is waiting…..

I put in a proposal to teach an class about On-line Poker playing for fun and profit, but the administration turned me down. Can you imagine that. I know I would have filled the class and we would have had a waiting list.


BTW, I usually play whenever I am adding to this blog. I am up a little so it is time to shut down the other computer and get ready to leave.

Well, because this is a Poker Blog, and I was a little hard on ThunderKeller a few posts ago, I have included a short excerpt by him from an article in Card Player. I think it is great poker info.

“You must play much tighter in full games than in shorthanded games. You also must play tighter in aggressive games. Therefore, these types of games will likely most suit players who are inclined to play very tight and disciplined preflop, and have the patience to wait around (sometimes for many hours) without playing a big pot. Shorthanded games, especially heads-up games, require a widely different set of skills. Depending on how aggressive your opponents are, you may want to play much looser and more aggressively preflop. If your opponents are passive, these types of games will favor players who like to play more aggressively and gamble more. So, if you’re more of a gambler than a rock, I recommend playing in soft, passive games as opposed to more aggressive ones. If your opponents are already playing extremely aggressively, you must adjust by playing tighter both preflop and post-flop, and if you cannot do this, I recommend that you find a different game” www.thunderkeller.com

Late night at the Kitchen Poker Table....

It is going to be a late evening of poker on-line tonight. I just started playing a $20 buy-in tournament. I haven’t played any poker yet today.

I still do a little mentoring in clinical psychology and every once in a while I may do a small computer consulting job. Today, I had a morning mentoring meeting, and then a meeting in a beautiful office overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla regarding a possible consulting contract. Then I rushed back home to take my RV in for servicing before this weekend at the “Superbowl of Poker” at Sycuan. I am planning on playing a two or three tournaments this weekend and work on my N/L game.

My non-playing time will be re-reading a couple of poker books out in the RV.

Tomorrow night I teach my last class at San Diego Community College. I have taught a class in computer technology for the last few years. But, due to budget cuts, I won’t be teaching there anymore unless things radically change. A private college I had taught part-time at declared bankruptcy last fall, so beside little consulting gigs I will be relying on my poker income for this year. It should be an interesting year.

The good news is I am really going to be free to play poker in many settings. I may decide to take a couple of road trips. I know at the end of February I will be at Harrah’s Rincon for a WPT event for about a week. In March we are taking the RV to a niece’s wedding in Salem, Oregon. I am planning on taking a couple of weeks and stopping at Casino’s on the way up and back. It seems like almost any month there are major tournament events either in L.A. or Vegas. I am not ready for the big event buy-ins but I like the variety of side actions and single table tournaments at these events.

Tonight's tournament update. I just got knocked out by an interesting hand.....
I had 6c7c I was one behind the button...
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ad, 5s, 7d ]
DofLG checks.
nsxdng checks.
Magnificent5 bets (125)
dave1078 raises (350) to 350
DofLG folds.
nsxdng folds.
Magnificent5 calls (225)**
Dealing Turn ** : [ 6h ]
Magnificent5 bets (501)
Magnificent5 is all-In.
dave1078 calls (455)dave1078 is all-In.
** Dealing River ** : [ Td ]

I decided to try to semi-bluff by raising to a little less then 1/2 of Magnigicent 5's chips with my pair. I had the best hand at that point. The turn made me two pair, but he hit a gutshot straight. Calling my raise was a bad move on his part that turned out very lucky.
This is where I would really like to have some peers that would analyze this hand for me. It was early in the tournament and I had just lost about 1/2 my chips on another suckout against my better hand. I saw this as an opportunity to build up my chips.

Was it a bad move on my part????? Looking for feedback.

I may see if I can find a discussion group to feed this one too and get some feedback from them.

Remember what Ass U me means......

I learned three valuable poker lessons today.

The first was early this morning. I had already played about 10 hours of poker yesterday including a tournament I did very well in.

But, I was tired and had drunk a little too much Diet Coke and was not feeling sleeply, so I went on-line and played a little 5-10 limit.

Well, in just a few minutes I was down about $150 because I was playing it similar to the 3-6 game I had played at a very loose-passive table.

I had done well with that approach and had played a winning session for many hours. These people didn’t fold, and were not intimidated by my raises in late position.
Fortunately, I came to my senses without losing any more money and went to bed.

Beside playing when I was tired. I was not in the "here & now" I was playing strategy from a different table that worked there, but here was a losing one.

Lesson 2, I learned at the Casino tonight.
It was similar, to what I learned last night. After playing very tight for about 5-6 hours and winning some money at 2/4 NL. I switched to Omaha for variety, and continued to play only premium hands. I did well there also.

Then the Omaho table got too short handed, so it was switched to 3/6 limit hold-em. I knew I had about ½ hour until my bus left for home so I played too many hands. I lost some of my winnings, but again caught myself and quit before I lost all my winnings. There seems to be a pattern here for me that I have seen before. The behavior is to play too loose after hours of steady wins. I am going to plug that leak before it costs me anymore.

The third lesson I learned actually happened to the player to my left. But, I have done it myself, at least once, I can think of. He was in a pot with one other player where it looked for sure, that they both had a “Broadway Straight” (10-A)

The flop had come Jh,Qd,Ks, the turn was a 7c and the river a 10c. Since the flop, the player to my right had bet, and the player to my left just called. Everybody, else dropped out at the flop.

The river card was a 10s and the player to my right bet and the one to my left just called. Exactly as they had been doing since the flop. The one to my right turned over a pair of Kings! He only had three kings. The player to my left had the Ace of course for the straight.

The player on my left should have raised! He said he was sure they both had the “same hands” and he wanted to save time. Well, he did save a few seconds, but he lost $16 that he would have won. (We were playing 8/16 limit)

He had nothing to lose and no risk by raising. There was no flush possibility and no pairs on the board and he was holding the “nut straight”.

I resolved never to do that in that position. I had done it in the past, but it sure looked dumb, seeing it done by another player.

Am I really that unique?

When I started playing full-time about a year ago there were very few Poker Blogs.

There are many, many now. However, most of them seem to be young guys who enjoy fast times and large egos. When I read about urges to move to the really big game, needing to be #1, must win a bracelet..etc, I can’t relate.

I want to play very well, and win a lot of money.

For me that would be anything over 200K a year. I love the game, the freedom, and the lifestyle of what I am doing right now. Mainly, I love the freedom and the challenge of improving my play everyday. I think it was Johnny Moss who said. “The next best thing to winning at poker is losing”. That sums up how I still feel about the game after one year of full-timing it. Will I feel that way a year from now? I don’t know, keep reading and I will try to keep writing and we will both find out.

The only part that is missing for me right now is a few peers who share my values and my quest. I would like to meet a few players either on-line or off that are serious about the game and their quest to master it. And a few friends who are willing to encourage and sharpen one another to reach their poker goals.

I would like to be part of a group like tilt-boys who don’t go on tilt in life and bet on hand motions, whose luggage comes first, golf games, or craps.

I do feel very unique, in my life situation, but with the sheer growth of people trying or dreaming to become a professional poker player there have to be many others that I could relate to in the game and in the “bigger game” of life.

Let’s see if I can paint a picture of how I feel different then those around me right now.

I have told you in the past how I ride the casino bus from near my home for free to save the $15 it would cost me in gas. I told the players at my 2/5 NL game I drove here in a quarter-million dollar vehicle. (grin)

Now let me put this in graphic terms. The casino employees call it the “bingo bus”, because it shows up just time for evening bingo and leaves after bingo finishes. Of the twenty four riders, two of us went to the poker room.

The other gentlemen is 84 years old and he plays 1-3 stud all evening. It is apparent that he and I are the only native English speaking folks on the bus. The vast majority are middle or senior aged Philipino women playing for up to $20 all night at bingo.

I put into play, whenever I go to Sycuan up to $1,000 at the poker tables .

As I rode home the other night about $800 up, from No Limit Poker, I knew I was probably the only consistent winner that rides the bus. (See what I mean about unique? not better, just different.) There are players who risk at the Sycuan poker table a lot more then I do, but they wouldn’t think of riding the bus.

Last month in Card Player I read an article by Thunderkeller about him, starting a site where serious players could share information. He would be active in it, and lead a squadron of serious players who would use the site to help one another improve their game. I couldn’t wait to log on to his site and get involved.

His first blog stated he would blog daily and share some of his knowledge. Well, I believe he is a great player, but he hasn’t posted another one since and I haven’t found his site to be what I am looking for. It is a nice looking site though.

So I am still hoping to find others like me. (Darn, this is starting to sound like a personals ad... grin)

If you have any comments or suggestion, please post them. You can also email me at dave.dillman @ yahoo.com

Well, I am half-way thorugh the field in a 440 player tournament on Party Poker, better pay closer attention, I need to build up my chip count.

Thanks for reading……..

P.S. I finished 61st for $80.... I was short stack at the table and I went in with Ac4c OTB. Got called by dealer who had Ad10s. Neither of improved he won.....

I feel real good about my play. I was "cold decked" most of the night and stole enough blinds to survive as long as I did.

Bluffing about Bluffing......

I had a lot of fun tonight. I went to Sycuan on the shuttle bus. My wife stopped by on her way home from work. After we chatted a few minutes I boarded the bus for the casino. She said it was really weird seeing me leave in my shorts and T-Shirt wearing my Poker Cap from the WSOP. (Of course only in Southern California, would you be wearing shorts & a T-shirt in January.) She laughed at me and said it was like I was going off to camp with my friends.


I usually take my Ipod and a book. Today was no exception.
The book I took was the Book of Bluffs by Lessinger, a columnist for Card Player magazine.

I had a lot of fun taking it out and reading it for a few minutes at the 2/4 N/L table. There was a lot of discussion about whether I was using it to bluff more or bluff less. I actually did bluff a lot more than I usually do and it paid off tonight. It was a good table, I caught some good cards and my reads of other players hands was right on. There is nothing I enjoy doing more then being in the moment, with those combination of events occurring around me. Obviously, it paid off nicely too.

Monday night there is a free entry tournament and I picked up a card to play in it, but when it came time to play I was doing so well I gave my card away and stayed at the 2/4 N/L table.

I did catch pocket 5’s in the big blind and I wish I would have raised on them. The flop came two 5’s & a 10. I had flopped four 5’s.! Had I raised it would have made sense to bet out. But, I thought I better check and two seats to my left raised $25 and the player to his left raised to $75. I called the $75 and the original raiser dropped out. I checked the 7 that came on the turn turn and he checked also. The river Queen came and I bet out $25 he folded. I should have had the patience to check the river also he might have tried to bluff.

I learn something almost every time I play this game. There seems to be no end to the variations of possibilities that can occur. I wish I could say I correct after making a mistake but it usually takes me a few times of repeating the same mistake until I get it figured out.

I also had an unusual occurrence. A casino manager asked me if I could lend him $300 until the weekend. People are always trying to borrow money at poker rooms and I have been asked about 3 times before. I said no twice, but I did lend one player I trusted $10 he said, he needed for gas money to get home. He paid me back the next time I saw him and thanked me again.

I hear it is usually a bad idea to lend money to gamblers, but I am interested to see how this manager handles this situation. I obviously have concern about losing the money, but I don’t think that is really going to happen. I just can’t imagine playing so close to your edge that you need to borrow money. I am playing only on my winnings as my bankroll and I never put more then 10% of it at risk at any one time.



By the way in case you didn’t know it Casino Dealers play poker also. I would think they would as a “class of players” be better then they are, because of all the plays they witness. But, in my experience most of them are pretty average players.

There have been times that I have seen my improvements over time. Usually it is very hard for me to see my play improve. Some people try to use short term winning results to claim their play is improving, but a standard deviation in propability usually accounts for that, so short term results are a poor basis to measure improvement.

So how do I then measure improvement? I do admit it is difficult and subjective, but the last two times I went to Vegas where the play is overall better then most places I have heard comments about my play, I had never hear before and I have self-observed my play being more “correct” more often.

Up until a month ago I had more confidence in my limit game then I non-limit game which is harder to learn. About three months ago I didn’t feel like I could “beat the game” in N/L, I had to admit many of my wins were based on luck more then really good play. I also did not have a very clear read on what other players could or did have when they called me. I can see much “clearer” other hands my opponents might have and I am more confident in perceiving opportunities to bluff or play selective aggression in No Limit. This new sense of “confidence” is helping my game and encouraging me to go back and re-read some of the books and improve my game even more.

Next weekend will be the one year anniversary of my decision to become a professional player.

I am not yet ready to summarize what I have learned yet this year, however, this blogger at http://cardsspeak.servebeer.com/archives/year_in_review.html

He says the top ten things he learned in his 1st year are the following in no particular order.


When moving up in limits, pretend that you're starting over from scratch. The game changes so much from $3-6 to $5-10 and $5-10 to $10-20 that you really need to go back to the basics and be open to learning the new game.

If you are an online player and were playing multiple tables at a lower limit, play a single table at the new limit for a while before trying to play 2.

Fight hard to be performance oriented. If you're committed to the game, results are irrelevant. As long as you're properly bankrolled to play, you shouldn't worry about results. Good performance will get the money in the long run.

Have a stop loss limit. A lot of people argue against this, but I've seen very few players who can play their best game after losing more than 35 big bets. Of course, if you've truly gone beyond results-oriented thinking and can focus solely on performance, than you don't need a stop loss. Like I said, this is extremely rare.

Do things Poker should be fun, and if you are playing the same game the same way for hours and hours every week, you need to do things to "shock your system" that force you to improve your game. Take an occasional shot at a bigger game if your bankroll can handle it. Drop down in limit and play looser than your normally do. Change your game temporarily and you'll come back to your regular game rejuvenated with new tools to beat the game.

Review your play. If you're an online player, use PokerTracker to review your sessions after you've left the table. It takes 15 minutes to review a 3 hour session, and will drastically improve your game.

Celebrate your good performance, and be critical of your bad plays. Personally, I tend to focus on my mistakes, and end up beating myself up for a single bad play even if the rest of the session I played perfect poker. Everybody makes mistakes, so lighten up on yourself.

Make the most of your time at the table. When you're not in a hand, try to put other people on hands, or think about the last pot you played and what you did right or wrong. If you're going to play poker, don't read a book or watch tv.

Read. A few hours spent reading a poker book can give you a new perspective on the game, and is often worth much more than just a few hours at the table.

Create an environment conducing to winning. Time is precious, and it's often difficult to set aside a block of time to play poker. Time is precious, and it's often difficult to set aside a block of time to play poker. In the past, I found myself logging on to play a few orbits while dinner was in the oven and my attention wasn't fully on the game. If you don't have a block of time where you aren't going to be disturbed, don't play.

Find some people who you can talk to about poker. When the cards go cold for weeks, and your bankroll is being depleted by bad beats, it can be tough to sit down at the tables and face the poker gods alone. It helps to have a perspective of the game other than your own.

Things a church could learn from a poker room

Because I have spent a lot of time in church and in poker rooms I might be uniquely qualified to offer these insights....

Things a church could learn from a poker room.

You can show up any time day or night and be welcomed.

You get free valet parking.

You are greeted when you first walk in and then asked which group of people you want to join. You are not assigned to a group by age, gender or marital status.

The people who think they are better then you have to lay their money down and “prove it”.

Everybody who is there wants to be.

There are people there from many cultures having a good time together.

There is a lot of faith and hope exercised by everyone involved.

There is a lot of prayers by a lot of people going up....

You can watch the Superbowl while you are there....

There is no membership and nobody usually talks at you the whole time. If so, you can move and not have to listen to them.

You are only expected to give money to the staff when you are doing well.

The chairs are very comfortable and they are willing to bring better food to you then just juice and crackers.

There is no such think as a poker potluck dinner.

The jokes are usually better.

You never hear a baby crying.

They bring your car to you when you are ready to leave.

You are thanked for coming.



P.S. How could are you at telling a genuine smile from a fake smile....? Here is an on-line test....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

Sunday...Sunday... can't trust that day....

(Ok, ok, the 60's song was really Monday, Monday..... but, I took a little creative writing liberties, like the author of a "Million little pieces".... grin....)

Next weekend I am planning on spending the entire weekend at Sycuan at the San Diego Super Bowl of poker. Today is Sunday and we stayed in bed until about 1:00 p.m. catching up on watching four episodes of 24 that we recorded on our DVR from our cable service.

I cannot tolerate watching TV live anymore and having to wait through commercials or not take a break, while we pause the show. We now have his and her Digital Video Recorders. The one in the living room is filled with poker shows and the one in our bedroom is filled with programs Caren prefers. I have just successfully negotiated for a little space on hers to record 1 or 2 poker shows that I can watch on weekend nights when she falls asleep before me.

Because our weekday schedule is so different it works out that I return from late night poker on weekdays between midnight & 1 a.m. Caren gets up at about 5 A.M. so I usually watch a poker show and play a little on-line until 3 A.M. out in the living room before retiring for the night.

Sundays use to be a “special” day in my life when I was a pastor. I would prepare for the big day by going down to the church to pray by myself on Saturday night. Then I would get up early Sunday morning and have breakfast out by myself to “focus” and prepare for my sermon. In the afternoon a nap would prepare me for Sunday evening church. Then Monday’s I would be depressed all day. I did that for about 9 years after I graduated from seminary and before I figured out I really didn’t want to do this for a living.

Faith and the message of Jesus is still very important to me but I cannot tolerate church attendance anymore then I can watching T.V. There actually are similar reasons. They both tend to be fairly mindless broadcast spectator type events with commercials. There is a lot of poor acting going on with plots that have little to do with my everyday life. You can not pause the show and take a break. And I am usually depressed after spending a few hours in either activity.

I do have a friend named Gary who has radically altered his “way of doing church”. I have been watching him for the past few years and it intrigues me, but I am not yet ready for what he does. I will share a little more about that in blogs to come. In case you are interested his website is www.thirddaychurches.com

I will take a break right here and come back later and add to this blog…….

Take a break…. Have some fun….. grin…..

I'm back.... actually no "virtual time" occurred for you, but in "real time", we went to Mission Valley, ate Italian food at Fillipi's Grotto & went to the book store to see if there were any new poker books out. I have read over 30 poker books. I have only purchased three, "Supersystem," Hold-em for Advanced Players by Sklansky & Part II of Playing Tournaments.

All the rest I have read in my local Borders Bookstore. I am a fast reader which really helps and they have tables where you can read and have a cup of coffee.

I live in a small condo so we only use portable computers. I have two open on my kitchen table. On of them I am writing this and with the other I am playing on Party Poker. My screenname is "dave1078" (say hi sometime if you are on party poker) I am having a rush. I had $87 left in my account and I just started on a 2/4 table. I have won 6 of the last 9 hands and now have $200 on the table. Poker is really fun and exciting in the middle of a "rush". Psychological studies support the theory that intermittent reinforcement is the strongest kind of reinforcement to continue the behavior. That's why even though us poker players can lose a lot of hands, the ones that we win keep us coming back again and again. (grin)

P.S. I just won two more and am up over $320... lol....