One minute to quitting time....

What a job, the life of a professional poker player! You can perform your job brilliantly, for 40 hours and then in 1 minute of less then pristine concentration you can lose what you have earned in the last 40 hours.

In what other job could it be a Friday at 4:55 p.m. and you stare at the clock, thinking about the weekend, and “bang” you are docked for 1 week of pay. That happens every week in the life of a poker player.

I left Sunday about 4 p.m. and here it is Wednesday afternoon. I have put in close to 40 hours at the tables and I have made no money to show for it. What a career choice!

Why do I love this game? Why do I want to play it full-time for the rest of my life? Those are two great questions. I don’t have a fully satisfactory answer for them. I know I have never found something so challenging to be really good at. I love the freedom of this career. As it has been said, “Hold-em, takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master.” And beside where else can you get up at noon, play with the dog, read a book, make your wife an early dinner and then go play cards till 3 in the morning?

I continue to play at tables where I am only investing about 5% of my bankroll. I might be able to move up faster if I risked more. But, I want to be in this for the long term and not go broke like I hear many others have.

I wish I could say my stake was quickly and steadily climbing up. It is not. I am slowly climbing and at times drudging along on level ground. I don’t seem to go into deep valleys anymore, even when I have a very bad run of cards. I have had bad run of cards in the last few days, but I have been able to keep my losses at $100 over 40 hours of play. I think that averages out to a loss ratio of 25 cents an hour. (grin)

I was down about 4-5 times that amount during this trip, but I did have my only big hand, I can remember in three days, KK beat AA for a pot of $300, so I guess that was a pretty lucky hand.

I must be getting a little desperate to make it as a professional player. I have been moving to 3 three casinos over this 4 day trip in San Diego county to play at each, during their double jackpot times. If I hit a respectable jackpot again, I could move up a level and play a little higher.

Jackpots! That is what got me playing full-time in the first place. Two years ago I hit three different bad beat jackpots playing poker in a 9 month span. Each time I wasn’t thinking about the jackpot when it hit. That gave me the 10K bankroll I am still playing on.

A bad beat jackpot is where you have Aces full of Jacks or better beaten by 4 of a kind of better. My first time was in Sycuan when I held pocket Jacks and the board came AA10. A young man bet and I called. The turn was another Ace and the river was a 6. He had AK. So his 4 aces beat my Aces full of Jacks and I won $8900 as the bad beat. He won half of that and the rest of the table each split $4000.

That jackpot was at $18k total that day. Today the jackpots I am playing range from $25-75K, meaning, that if I hit one today I could get 10-30K. That could certainly help my bankroll. But, it has to be a rare combination of cards to make that happen. So I play on, hoping to make a little money and to get lucky. You can’t make yourself get lucky, but you can help put yourself in the right place, in case you do. That is why I am playing during “double jackpot” times at these three casinos.

I will let you know if I get “lucky”.

Well, the sun has set. It is time to go to work.

Poker and RV's

Most RV owners do not get their money’s worth on their RV. A fairly decent one will cost you from 30K-300K. Some people even spend up to a million for the very top of the line. RV’s depreciate thousands when you drive them off the showroom floor and they steadily depreciate over time at a rapid pace. Most owners use them 1-2 weeks a year and even then some of them take them on long trips but stay at nights in hotels or spend 30-60 dollars a night to stay at an RV park which is usually only a step above a parking lot with hookups.

Not me. The first year we got ours we drove 17,000 miles around the country. And we spent less then $250 on RV parks. We stayed in remote areas, truck stops, 24 hour grocery store lots and of course, scores of Wal-Marts. Since that time I average 7-10 days a month sleeping in it at Casinos. And we have since been halfway around the country again. It has been a picnic vehicle, a large group sightseeing vehicle and even an outdoor wedding changing room.

But, most of the time it allows me to go to a Casino or card room and play a few hours, and take a break whenever I want. I can play late into the evening and still play a morning tournament after a good nights sleep.

About 7 months out of the year I can take it to Vegas and enjoy having an extra thousand to use as my poker bankroll for the week. I almost always bring home more then I went with when I take the RV. I pay my gas and buy my groceries out of my bankroll and play no “house-edge” games.

I am so surprised that more people don’t use their RV’s that way. I see it as a multi-way to save money. I don’t pay for lodging, and my food is a fraction of what it costs to eat out. It costs me interest but all that is an income tax deduction because it qualifies as a “second home”. (It qualifies as a “first one” when we are living in it full-time).

I seem to average a little more poker profit on these more intensive poker trips, then day trips to a casino because I take more frequent breaks. And it is easy to walk away from the table and come back later when it is a 5 minute walk rather then an hour drive. When there is heavy traffic we pull over and read, nap, or eat until traffic is better and we never need reservations or follow a schedule to have to be somewhere by a certain time.

My RV is a 1999 26ft Lazy Daze Coach built on a Ford V10 engine and ¾ ton van chassis. If I wasn’t married I would live in it full-time, but my wife is not yet ready for that kind of adventure just yet. However, she is feels comforted like I am by owning an RV in case of a disaster, disability or complete financial meltdown we could live in it if we had to, and still be happy as a couple. I am not sure that many other couple we know could.

I will probably keep it another 3 years unless her company closes in this next year. There are some “rumors” that it could.

She would be very open to buying something bigger, if we decided to go live in it again on a permanent basis. I think something about 32 foot with a slide out might be on the distant horizon for us.

The RV mindset is very different when it comes to taking trips. It is less stressful a drive because I am sitting in a comfortable chair up high with many creature comforts within reach. You can’t accelerate, slow or corner fast so I tend to drive less aggressively and allow a lot more room between me and other traffic.

For most people the vacation starts when you get to your destination. For a true RV’r the trip begins when you climb on board in your own RV.

Know when to hold-em...

12:30 A.M. in the RV at the Barona Casino in San Diego where Kenny Rodgers is the official mascot. He is the mascot, because of his crooning of the lyrics “you got to know when to hold-em, and know when to fold them. In my mind the lyrics “you got to know when to call them and know when to muck them is crooning in my head.

Tonight I “out thought” myself, to my demise.

Mike Caro, the “mad genius of poker” has a term called F.P.S. He says, when players start improving and learning “moves”, they sometimes use Fancy Plays, when simple poker moves would be so much better. Their fancy play syndrome ends up costing them money at the poker table.

Tonight I discovered F.T.S. Fancy thought syndrome. I out thought myself twice, costing me over $250.

The table was filled with good players. Two seats to my right was a player I identified as well above average in his play. He always seemed to have a great hand when he called, bet or raised the pot. He played solid and folded often when he didn’t have the best hand.

I was in the big blind with pocket jacks. When it came to me I bet out $20 after 2 players limped in.

I had stolen a number of blinds, and plays from the big blind, the small blind, and the button because the table was tight and passive. Everyone folded to me, but “above average”.

The flop came 5,10,8 with one heart. He checks. I bet out $25. He calls.

The turn comes 7h, he checks and I bet $40. He calls. He is not a calling station, what is going on here?

The river is a Jack of hearts and now HE LEADS OUT with a $60 bet.

There are three hearts out there and four cards to a straight showing on the board, and I am now holding triple jacks.

I have a history with him where he bet out a hundred on the river just like this, when he caught a flush. I am convinced that he made his straight or flush. I am thinking, he called with two hearts, either, 10,9 or A10. We engage in some table talk. He says I let him “catch up.”

I have a fairly good read on him. He is confident and believes he has the best hand. At the flop I had asked him, when he called, if he caught his pocket Aces again? He had AA three times already tonight and slow played them to the river beating me each time adamantly insisting, when players commented about his slow-playing Aces, “ in this game if you don’t slow play Aces you will only make $4. I had pocket Aces once tonight and won a $200 pot with I played them aggressively, when he was away from the table, but I “held my tongue.”

After my flop question he said no aces. I believed him and thought maybe he has Kings, which he may have slow played like his aces.

After his bet on the river, I said you have Queens? He said nope and again I believed him.

I respected him and had laid down AQ and AJ twice against him tonight and both times he had AA or AK.

I have been reading articles recently about great lay downs by Phil Ivey. This was a chance for me to practice a “great laydown.”

I turned my two jacks over to show him, thinking this will give me some future bluffing ability. I then mucked them feeling pretty good, about my ability to lay down three jacks, when a very good player is “communicating with his betting, he has the best hand”.

He turned over 7,10 off-suit for two pair and he expressed genuine shock at my mucking of three of a kind.

He said he just “felt like gambling that hand” and he said he “believed I had Kings or Aces” and was convinced his two pair were the best hand over my one big pair.

My read was accurate of his belief, I trusted his ability to play, but as I told him later my read of him was accurate, however, he didn’t know what he was talking about when he said he caught up.

So I “accurately read” him, and his “wrong belief” and lost the hand when I normally would have called $60 on a $160 pot. This is when I really wish I had a mentor so I could discuss the hand with them. I am open to any feedback on this one.

The player next to me said to me “you thought too much in that hand”.

I think he was right. I did. And I lost $200 because of fancy thought syndrome.

Sometimes I guess you just need to gamble like he did, and the player to my left did on my final hand of the night.

I was the dealer button with a 5-10 suited in the hole. Three people limped in and I joined them for a $3 call.

The flop came 10,7, 5 rainbow. I had flopped two pair!

I tossed out $10 hoping I would get a call or two. The big blind to my left, a Korean woman dealer who was not a very strong player raises it to $55. I wonder if she has 10-7? Then I realize it is much more likely she has a 10 with a great kicker like an ace.

It folds to me and I push all in my last $110. She thinks about it for a long time while I am torn inside hoping she will call but afraid I will get “sucked out on”.

I had just won a pot from her where I had a slightly bigger kicker and she appeared to be “steaming” from that when she said to me “you lucky”, in a not-so-friendly tone. I am just staring at the pot thinking… call me, no, don’t call me, sure call me…. Etc.

Finally she calls my bet and the turn is an Ace. Her body visibly relaxes, and I tighten up my jaw, and mutter “damn”. The river is a brick and she turns over her Ace-Ten off-suit, just like I suspected.

Lousy call on her part, but great catch, but hey, that is why this game flourishes. It is your money that buys the chips, and you get to play them anyway you want to.