I have fallen and I can't get up....

Finally we are leaving Las Vegas.

We traveled north on US95, one of the most isolated roads in the United States. We stopped after about 2 hours of driving at a gas station market that was painted completely pink.

Then we realized it was a combination gas station, market, and brothel. (All I got there was a cup of coffee….) and we were back on the road again. I used google maps to tell me the shortest way from Vegas to Bishop, California and it did. What it didn’t tell me was some of the roads were barely passable, and had hairpin turns with 9% grades up and down. I think we passed 3 cars going in the opposite direction in the 140 miles of nothingness between US95 in Nevada and US395 in California.

Finally we reached Bishop in the late afternoon.

We found a nice little park that Caren was going to walk Coco in while I researched the Internet to locate a camping site for us in a National Forest near Bishop.

She called me in about 30 minutes to see if I had located one. As we were talking I heard her yell oh no, coco, coco, then I heard a bang and I could hear voices in the background saying are you alright, are you ok?

I kept calling into the phone, Caren, Caren !!!… what a helpless feeling, I didn’t know where she was, nor what had happened. Finally, the phone went dead.

I dialed her back and it went to the machine 2 or 3 times, finally Caren answered telling me she had tripped and fallen. An off-duty sheriff helped her, and then he ran to get me to bring the RV. He suspected Caren had broken at least one of her knees from the way she fell onto the concrete. He directed my RV to where Caren was still laying on the ground, and the deputy’s little daughter was holding Coco. He and I carefully helped Caren to her feet. Her knee was bruised and bloody, but fortunately nothing was broken.

He told me where the Hospital was in town and we considered going there, but Caren said she would be ok and just wanted to get into the RV.

We cleaned up her knee, and realized she was very, very fortunate not to have done some real damage.

We ended up staying in town at a little Indian Casino Campground, and with a little pain medicine she slept well. She awoke the next morning, sore in her neck and back, from the fall trauma, but her knees were ok, except for a little abrasion.

Then back on the road again north toward Mammoth Lakes

P.S. Later Caren told me the reason she couldn’t answer my frantic phone calls to her, is because she had fallen on top of the phone and couldn’t get up.

What plays in Vegas......

We learned a lesson about what plays in Vegas, better stay in Vegas. But, I will tell you that story at the end of today’s recount.

We awoke in the parking lot of the Gold Coast Casino in our RV, after turning down a free night at one of the best suite’s at the Rio last night. (For an illogical explanation read the previous blog.)

I went in and played about 5 hours of poker while we waited for Ed & Lindy to join us for a late lunch buffet. After an enjoyable buffet, and sometimes, choking, hysterical laughter about old times in the family we finished dining. (Ed and I have been married into Caren’s family for almost 75 combined years.) (There were a lot of things to laugh about.)

I said goodbye to Ed at the Blackjack tables, where he was luckier, then you are ever supposed to be. I was very happy for him.

I spent a few hours in the RV, taking a nap, and getting the RV ready for our next leg of the trip, reading and spending time on-line. It is so much easier now, to get on the Internet, thanks to our wireless connection almost anywhere. During our “year long” trip 6 years ago, it seemed I was constantly looking for Kinko’s, libraries or RV parks that had a modem connection.

About 5 p.m. we rolled north off the Las Vegas strip with plans of driving about 20 miles to the Northwest edge of the Las Vegas suburbs to spend the night at a Super Wal-Mart.

On the way we came across a shopping center that had a PetCo, Borders Book Store, Old Navy etc., so we stopped for a few hours while Caren visited stores. Later we me up at the Borders Bookstore.

It was there I discovered I had a black chip in my pocket from the Gold Coast Casino.

In case you don’t know, even children in Vegas learn their primary colors by casino chips. Red is a $5 chip, Green is $25 and black is a $100. There are more colors but those are the only ones I have ever had my hands on.

In Vegas just like money, chips are stolen, and counterfeited by criminals, so today casinos are reluctant to accept other casinos chips. There are all kind of ways casinos fight back, even to the extreme of having some casino chips with little computer chips inside. They can then scan for the real ones.

Anyway, I didn’t want to drive the 20 miles back to cash it at the Gold Coast. (When you drive an RV you think in terms of every 8 miles is a gallon of gas, so I always hate to double back for any reason.)

Because, I know the Gold Coast is one of several casinos owned by the same company I wanted to locate one close to us, on our way out of town. I went on-line and found out the SunCoast Casino was only going to be about 3 miles out of the way, so we headed there.

I dropped Caren off at the front door to run in and cash it at the main cashier area. (Or the “cage” as casino workers call it)

She called me on her cell phone, while I was waiting in the RV, and said they wouldn’t take it.

I had to go in and work through 3 levels of management to get them to accept their own chip, because it was on a computer list distributed to all casinos, not to accept black chips from the Gold Coast, even though it was their own Casino.

Finally, after threatening to post this story on every poker blog on the Internet, and promising to produce at least one hundred times the hundred dollars in “bad will” about the SunCoast on-line, I received reluctant approval.

Even after approval from the very top pit boss, I had to go through the routine of playing it at a blackjack table where I had to cash it for SunCoast red chips. Then, I had to play a couple of hands. Then, I could take their SunCoast red chips to the cage to cash them in.

In a turn of kismet I not only won both hands, but one of them was a blackjack, so I got $25 extra for my hassle of cashing in their black chip.

Old timers speak fondly of the “good old days” in Vegas when the mob ran it. People were treated humanely, (unless you got out of line) There was no crime on the streets, honor and respect were important commodities. Today with the “real criminals” of large corporations running Las Vegas street crime, homelessness, slums, and disrespect of both customers and employees is at an all time low.

After hunkering down finally for the night at the edge of the desert, in a Super Wal-Mart parking lot ready to get out of Vegas for good I undressed for bed. While emptying my pockets I found a green chip from the Coast Casino. We laughed and went to bed.

How suite it is....

Sunday morning Oct 5th, we are scheduled to attend a timeshare presentation for the Pahrump Winery and RV Resort, a part of the Western Horizon RV resorts. We were scheduled for 9 a.m. but I am not usually awake that time of the morning, so we got there at 9:30 a.m.

It was a hysterical event. I always answer honestly every question asked, but because our lifestyle is not very average these high pressure presentations designed for the average fulltime employee just make no sense for us.

Here are a few of the questions and answers at our timeshare presentation.

So you are interested in learning more about becoming a member of our resorts? No, actually we here for the free promotional things you offered.

On an average how much do you spend annually on your vacations in a year? Not counting groceries and gas about $500

What kind of RV resorts or hotels do you usually stay in when you travel? We usually stay in Wal-mart or Casino Parking lots. Sometimes, we get free suites because of my poker playing, but Caren would rather stay in the RV, then a hotel room.

Then when he heard we had stayed at Slab City, he realized we were not going to buy his $12,000 camping membership.

We got our free gifts and headed for Vegas to meet two of Caren’s sister and their husbands.

What were our free gifts? Beside the 5 day, 4 night stay at the resort we received a $25 gift certificate and a case of wine from their private stock at Pahrump Winery. Life is good.

We met up with Lindy and Ed, and three of their girls, at the Gold Coast Casino. We ate at the dinner buffet together and then Patti and Tracy joined us for a little fun at the slot machines.

Sure enough I had a reservation for a free room at the Rio Suites, (regular rate $300) and we ended up walking up to the desk and canceling it so we could sleep in the RV in the parking lot, because Caren preferred her own bed and the RV more then one of the nicest suites in Vegas.

Shotgun Wedding in Vegas

Ok, to be honest there was no shotgun. My nephew Brandon loved Richelle, very much, and would have married her with or without gunplay involved. Now, Richelle does work for the F.B.I. in Vegas, so I can assure you that some of the guests were “packing”. But, we all made it through the wedding, and the reception, with no one getting shot or even getting arrested. And knowing my in-laws there were probably odds listed in Vegas of either event occurring before the event was through. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Caren and I got up Saturday morning in beautiful downtown Pahrump and left for Vegas. Of course, not without an emergency stop at the Super Wal-Mart, to buy the hair dryer that was left back at the house in San Diego.

With dry and curly hair we, (I mean Caren has the hair) proceeded through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon area, on to Northwest Las Vegas, where the wedding was scheduled outdoors at a country club. Richelle’s family lives in Vegas, so they were there.

Brandon had us from San Diego and Cousin’s, Uncles, and Aunts from Oregon as well as his dad from Santa Monica and brother from Vegas

I was disappointed that the wedding official wasn’t an Elvis impersonator, but it turns out, he was a minister who was also a stand-up comedian, so the show went on. The guests laughed and the couple got hitched in a beautiful setting.

Then there was a reception for all, at the bride’s family home nearby. They are Armenian, so it was the closest thing to the movie “my big fat greek wedding”, I have ever been too. Actually, the family is great, we loved them, they are lovely people. And the food was wonderful, plenteous, and awesome.

I asked permission for Coco to attend with us, and the father of the bride said “of course, and that he didn’t trust anyone without a dog”. So Coco came and enjoyed the reception with us.

After a few hours, we were the last ones hanging around, and it looked like the hosts wanted people to go home now. But, hey, we’re family now! So, I didn’t think that applied to us. But, Caren assured me it did, so we hit the road back to Pahrump for our final night at the Pahrump Winery and RV resort.

The next log will be about our hysterical timeshare presentation at Pahrump Winery and RV Resort.

Another 6 months another Trip......

Well six months have passed since my last post. I may comment on that "gap" later, but these next few posts will be for our friends that like to follow us on our trips.

October 1st, 2008
Wednesday, October 1st was the final day for Caren’s employment at Paradise Valley Hospital’s Behavioral Health program in Chula Vista. She went out to “happy hour“ with some co-worker’s after work, and then came home and cried. She had been there 6 years and knew she was ready to go, and try a new adventure, but leaving all her friends was still very hard.

We spent some time in the evening with our good friends Gary and Jane Goodell and then hugged each other and said something like w.t.f. are we doing… lol

Thursday at home was spent loading the RV for our three week vacation. We put much thought into the plan of what to take and what to leave. We would have hot desert weather and then cold Northern California mountain weather. And when we returned from Sacramento it would be by Plane, leaving our RV in Sacramento.

We left about 2:30 from San Diego, North on Interstate 15, and I suspected we would hit really bad traffic up around L.A. but somehow we hit a “miracle window” in the commute traffic and never had heavy traffic.

The nice thing about RV traveling with no schedule is wherever you are, there you are.

I had four areas of traffic I was concerned about and planned potential shopping mall time for Caren and serious RV nap time for me. Temecula came and went with no slow down. Corona was a breeze. The approach to I10 and highland was not a problem. No traffic appeared in the Victorville area. So, no mall, no nap for me. (grin)

By this time Caren was napping in the back and I was ready to fill up the gas tank near Barstow before we hit the desert. So we stopped, took a dinner break, filled up with gas, and turned on the TV, just in time to watch the VP debates.

After the debates we turned east across the desert to Baker, and then a left turn took us through Death Valley after sunset.

Another turn east to cross over some very dry mountains to Pahrump, where I had a 5 day certificate for a free RV stay at the Pahrump Winery and RV Resort.

Friday was a stress-detox day for Caren while I put in some serious hot tub and pool time for the day, with periodic walks in the desert with CoCo. Keeping our eyes open for rattlesnakes.

That evening was TV in the RV, and pasta and salad for dinner, under the dark skies and many stars above Pahrump, Nevada.

Tomorrow, on to Vegas to the Wedding of our nephew Brandon.

Almost a year to write 2 posts...

If you count the amount of time it took me before I wrote the last post from the previous one, then when you factor in the amount of time it took me to write this one, it has taken almost a year to write two posts.

Before, anyone jumps to the spurious conclusion that it takes me a long time to actually write I have to confess that I spent maybe 20 minutes writing the last post. I plan on spending about 20-30 minutes to write this one. Wow, that is a lot of time between doing what I think is important for me to do. I could offer excuses, but the reality is, I need to just say more no's to less important things in my life and do what leaves a legacy. Writing does. Just do it......

More then a thought, even more then the misquoted memory of a friend you spoke something to, writing down your thoughts leaves clearer trails for those coming behind you. It also leaves more acurate tidbits from points in time, for you to refer back to, as reminders of where you have been, what was important to you back then, and how much the same or different both you and life are today.

I continue to play poker for a living. I have just gone beyond my third year of playing on a regular basis and if this were my only income I would be living much simpler then I am thanks to my wife's employment.

I am a winning player, but only slightly. I keep believing, something is going to click inside of me to result in world-clas great play. I still foster hope that an incredible run of good cards and luck will move me up to ladder much quicker then I am plodding along. I watch poker on TV, read everybook published, read blogs, and watch training videos from the three major producers.

But, alas on-line I am still playing 1-2 no-limit and in casino's I play 2-3 and sometimes "dip my toe" into a juicy 5-10 no-limit game.

This is what I want to do. My incredible wife of 36 years, loves me and supports me.

Life is good.

I think I have been at this about the same amount of time Brian Townsend has. We both started at the same place with the same committment of full-time every day and a committment to move to the top. He has made it. I am still here. Where in lies the difference in results?

I don't know yet. But, when I figure it out, you will be the first to know.

I intend to write more later, but back to the game........

Wow, 5 more months.....

I have not posted for 5 months! If you were regularly reading me, you have probably given up by now. I don't think there were too many interested regular readers. If I am wrong, please let me know in the comments section. If I was right then I need to ask myself why?

I am asking myself a lot of tough questions these last 5 months. I have been on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. I am still a winning player, but the wins are not a whole lot more then the losses, and the losses seem a little harder to take these last few weeks.

I need to "tear my game apart" put it back together again and examine it from many angles. Seems like a lot of hard work. The last few times I got "sucked out on" with the 5% river card that would beat me or the great folds I made, only to see my 5% card come I began thinking that poker was a lot more fun when I knew less about the game and played badly. I have got to interupt those kind of thoughts and get back in the "zone" again.

Two things I am going to begin afresh is keeping daily records and updating this blog more frequently.

So much for my 3/4 quarter lament and new resolutions. See you on the felt.

Location, Location, Location.....

Here in Southern California when somebody asks how long it will take them to drive from point A to Point B they will often be asked in return “at what time of the day?”

That is because the more likely you drive at a time a lot of people will be on the road, the longer the trip will take.

And if you answer your travel is on a Friday evening, you will be cautioned to try changing the trip to another time.

There is an inverse correlation to trying to make money at poker. Whenever there are more people playing poker, the easier and more likely a good player will make money.

Friday evening is one of the best times to play. The rest of the weekend comes in a close second.

Because my wife Caren works a traditional M-F work week I usually play poker Friday nights close to home. She spends Friday evening recovering from the work week with some personal “downtime”.

Then we spend Saturday & Sunday together.

Late Sunday afternoon, as she gets begins to get ready to settle down and prepare for her next work week, “Pokey the Dog” and I often take the RV and head out for a 3-4 day poker road trip.

Sunday night is usually profitable, but Monday and Tuesday afternoons and evening are tough.

The tables are filled with “regulars” and the quality of play is better then the weekends. I have put in 14 hours already this Monday and Tuesday and I am “even” for the two days of play.

Sunday night was Sycuan Casino. Monday was Viejas. Tuesday is Barona. Wednesday we head for Harrah’s in Valley Center, (Northern San Diego country)

At the most, we will be only 60 miles from home. These 3-4 day road trips give me the ability to focus and play longer periods of poker. My only breaks are to walk "Pokey the dog", study poker books, write and sleep. I feel so blessed to be able to maintain this kind of lifestyle.

Between the little bit of food comps the poker rooms’ award and a little supplemental food in the RV, we have no expenses for the trip except for gas.

Speaking of feeling blessed. I was reminded of how blessed I am to just to be able to go to a poker room and play without extraordinary effort.

In the tournament today I play with a gentleman who was blind. His wife looked at his cards and then whispered in his ear what he had and what came on the board. She told him what the bets were, and when it was his turn to act.

He had a really beautiful sweatshirt that had a picture on it of the “Fantastic Four Superhero’s” playing poker. I complimented him on it. He said he bought it at “Comic Con”. (Comic Con is an annual convention for comic book collectors).

He said he was a comic book collector and really enjoyed comic books. I didn’t quite know how to ask how he reads them? Or did she read them to him? So I left a number of unanswered questions in my mind about that one.

He was a good poker player, but I couldn’t imagine how much he missed in the game or in his comic books for that matter, because of his inability to see.

Then later that evening a young man played next to me in a cash game. He was very badly deformed, couldn’t move, with the exception of his right hand to control his power wheel chair. His mother sat next to him and held the cards so he could see them, and put in the chips for him when he prompted her.

So for the freedom I have to play poker. To be able to come and go when I want, to be able to see all the other players and the cards.

I am going to express more thanks for these things every time I am reminded of these two gentlemen.

And I resolve to give thanks for all the blessings I have that I often don’t think about, until I see someone without them.

Play good...lose less....

I once thought I could make money by playing poker really well. I have since changed my mind.

Don’t get me wrong I am still playing poker full-time and I am still winning most weeks.

Then what do I mean?

I am coming to believe that in small no-limit games, good play alone does not really give, you an edge to win.

However, playing well does reduce the amount you lose. Then you need less luck to end up with more chips then you risked.

The other night at Palomar illustrated that so well for me. I bought in to my usual 2/3 no-limit game for $300 twice that evening. Meaning I had a risk of $600.

The first three hours I only played five hands. I got my money in or lead the betting with the best hands in all five plays. On all five I got outdrawn and lost each of them.

I then played 2 more hands where I split the pot by playing AK very strongly from early position. I was called by an AK each time. We ended up splitting the pot for no net gain for either of us.

Then these two following hands came up.

I was on the small blind with a pair of Jacks with about $400 in front of me. Under the gun had “live straddled” meaning $6 was the call.

The next very short stack put all in his $15. The button called the $15. I decided to try to end it right here and raised it to $65 into a $39 pot.

Every one folded except the button who called. I knew him to be an aggressive, creative player.

The flop came 10h,6s,7c. I bet out $75 and the button raised me to $150. I thought a lot about this and really believed he was trying to take me off the hand. He had seen me play AK strong twice that evening from early position. I believed he suspected I had a big pair or AK. I figured him on a pair. I thought about it for a long time and convinced myself he was being tricky with a weak hand. I would not have thought this way about anyone else at the table except for him.

I pushed all-in for all my remaining money. He insta-called. I turned over my jacks and he turned over trip tens. The turn and the river were both hearts! My losing pair of jacks turned into a jack high flush. He was devastated.

I scooped an $800 pot that I had just played very badly!

After playing another hour or more and losing about $200 by betting with the best hands, and again getting outdrawn, each time, this hand came up.

I was on the button with Ace & Queen. Three people had limped in. I raised it to $25. Everyone folded, with the exception of the guy who had lost the $800 pot to me.

He called my $25.

The flop came A,K,10 He pushed in his last $50 and I decided to call with my AQ even though I strongly believed, he held AK (Which it turned out he did).

The turn was a 7 and the river was a Jack giving me a straight! He was very professional. He said “nice catch” then to dealer “seat open”. He shook my hand and left for the evening.

Shortly after that I cashed out a little over $850 resulting in a profit of about $350.

So the net result of that evening was, I played great poker, getting my money in with the best hands seven times and lost them all. I broke even twice with great hands and good play.

All my profit came from two hands where I won, only because I got very lucky with low probabilities holdings that somehow turned into winners at the river.

So what do you think? Am I right?

Playing well does not give you an edge to win. Play poker well and lose less. Then get lucky and you can make some real money at this game.



P.S. I may have to re-think my reason for why people play poker. Two earlier blogs indicated other reasons, then easy money & greedy thinking. My observation last night challenged my thinking.
I arrived right at 6 p.m. to enter a Sunday night tournament that if you placed in the top would win you an entry into a tournament into June.

The June tournament winner would be awarded a $10,000 entry into the World Series of Poker in Vegas in July along with expense money for the trip.
220 people were already signed up for the tournament. Fifty more of us were unable to get in who wanted to play it, but had arrived too late.

Casino and poker rooms use tournaments to lure players in with the hope that when they “bust out” of the tournament they will sit down and play at the cash games. Yet, three hours after the tournament began the room was having trouble keep eight cash games going.

That clearly indicated many people came for the tournament for the slim, unlikely possibility, they would place in the top twenty. Then win the June one. And somehow make it through 7,000 other players in Las Vegas, to be on TV for fame and fortune.

Hmm, maybe there are a lot more players who believe Poker is a way for easy money and are motivated by their greed then I thought. (I may have to revisit this thought a few more times.)

Why do people play poker part 2

This is part 2 of why I think people play poker. If you haven’t read part 1, you may want to go back to the last entry before you read this one.

After I posted part 1 of “why people play Poker”, I realized that my focus of poker player was very narrow. I was only focusing on the people, who play at public poker rooms for money. The home poker player may share similar traits to the public room player, but probably has a much higher need for community and social interaction then the public poker room player.

Therefore for both Part 1 and Part 2 of “Why people play poker” I am only going to be discussing the public poker room player, the ones I know best. My experience includes frequent play in San Diego, L.A. S.F. Las Vegas, Washington & Oregon, Vegas and a trip to the Midwest.

In part 1 I defined the traits of competition & “Role Playing” and their relationship of poker. The last two traits ego and mastery are slightly more obvious.

Poker historically has been a game of bravado, (especially when guns were on the table or pulled after a bad beat) and seats are primarily filled with “alpha males”.

Often many poker players seem fueled by a volatile mixture of testosterone, youthful egotism, and too much “red bull”.

By the way, the only poker room I have found that gives you free “Red Bull” is Sam’s Town in Vegas. I always have a couple of sugar free red bulls mixed with pineapple juice when I play there. The poker room manager of Sam’s told me a funny story about a guy they had to ban from the poker room. He would drink 16-18 “Red Bull’s a day. After about a dozen he would get very aggressive. He even got into fights with other players from too much “Red Bull”.

But, I am writing today about ego and mastery. With the notable exception of Phil Helmuth, ego seems to be something that better players, soon learn to diminish, because it often leads to poor play.

I love to play with a player who has a large ego. I especially love one who tells others how bad they play. If you listen carefully, while he thinks he is impressing people, he will tell you and anyone, who listens through his b.s. exactly how he plays and what he doesn't know about poker.

And I promise that anything you say at my table, will be used against you at some point or another.

Anger is another emotion that can cost you money at the table. It of course, can lead to bad play, but it has another less obvious purpose, that I have learned to take advantage of.

Let me illustrate it in two cases, where I won large pots. I would not have won them if a player, had not exhibited anger.

The first occurred very early in my “learning to play better poker” days. I was playing a 1/3 no limit game with a very friendly, slightly manic, very talkative player, who was leading the betting into me. I appeared to have a large pair, and he looked like he could be betting small trip’s or a flush draw.

On the river the third flush card appeared, and he went all-in with a sizable stack. I thought about it for a moment, asked for time, thought some more, stared at him for a moment, thinking “I need to fold this”. He abruptly said “will you either hurry up or call or fold, or do something.”

I almost folded in reaction to his challenge. Then I thought, “if he has the best hand, how come he is so irritated that I am taking my time?”

When I “believe” I am going to take a pot unchallenged or scoop a large one with the best possible hand, I feel pretty calm and patient. But he seems angry and irritated

That’s when I knew I had to call him. I turned over my one pair. He slammed down, his “busted flush”, stood up, and walked straight out of the poker room in an angry huff. I would have folded, had he not expressed anger, causing me to wonder why?

A similar thing happened last night here in San Diego. A young man who looked like he might be a body builder and I were head’s up. I had Qh, 9h, with a board of Qc, 9s, Kc, 7h & 10c.

When I flopped my two pair Queens & nines, I bet $50. Then I bet $100 on the turn. He called me both times, after initially checking it to me.

I suspected he might have flopped a straight! Now on the river, a very bad card for me came. It was the Ten of Clubs!

He now could have two larger pair, a straight, a flush or even a Royal Flush for that matter.

He went all in for $250. I was “cursing my bad luck” in my mind, but decided to analyze a little more, I was finding very little, I could beat on that board, after that river.

I took some more time, and stared at him. He locked eyes with me, and started “mad dogging” me. My first reaction was “don’t get this guy pissed, he could break me in half!

Then I thought, “Why does he want me to fear him or get uncomfortable?

So I will fold?”

If he has the best hand, he would want me to call.

After a moment, he breaks eye contact, looks away and kind of sheepishly grins. He turns on the charm by smiling. He then said in a friendly voice,“go ahead and call, maybe you have me beat”. Then he smiles some more.

In “Poker speak” that usually means “I want you to call, I have you beat”. But, wait, he could be acting and trying to deceive me. He might be thinking, that I know what that means, and so I will do the opposite and fold because he said it.

This didn’t seem as “congruent or primitive” as his “attempt to intimidate” me with his eyes. So if this is acting, then the other is more genuine, and he really doesn’t want me to call!

So, I called in an act of blind faith on my initial tell of his challenging eyes.

He said I have “a straight”!

My heart sunk, that was my greatest fear from the flop. As a novice player, I might have mucked, my two pair, after he said he had a straight, but I have seen guys angle this one, and I said “show me!”

I saw a guy lie once, and say he had a straight. Then when his opponent, holding two pair, mucked his cards, the first guy said oh, no, I made a mistake I only have one pair. (In that case he still got the pot, because the guy with the winning cards, had mucked his hand.)

To counter this, always turn you cards face up, whether you think you are beat or not. Never just take somebody’s word for what they had.

So I turned my two pair face up on the table.

He threw his cards face up on the table, revealing only a pair of tens. As the sizable pot was being pushed toward me, my opponent went to the ATM for more cash.

The “chip runner”, came up behind me and said do you know who that is?

I said I have no idea! It turns out, he is a well know football player for the San Diego Chargers, who just started playing poker a few weeks ago.

No wonder that “locking eyes” of challenge was so congruent for him! He has probably done that thousands of times on the football field.

I ended up taking down two more good sized pots from him before he left frustrated.

He will come back, he has fun playing poker, and he probably spends more on an expensive meal out with his teammates what he lost to me.

I wonder if the irony was lost on him, that I was wearing a Chargers t-shirt.?

In a future blog I will discuss the concept of Mastery as it applies to poker.

Why do people play poker?

I am in a rural area east of San Diego. I spent the night in the RV with “Pokey the Dog” in the Sycuan Indian Casino parking lot, after a late night of poker playing. Prior to the Indian Casino being built here about 20 years ago, there were probably less then 500 people a year who came to this area. Now, the Casino is just finishing a parking structure to add parking for an additional thousand cars that come to this area on a daily basis.

This past weekend my wife Caren, and I, stayed with some friends in L.A. with another couple. We have known each other for about 25 years. We all meet 3-4 times a year for a weekend with good friends and “spirited” debate. This weekend I was asked “what is the appeal of poker that is fueling millions of people to be actively engaged with poker or other forms of gambling”.

Terry, who is an ethics professor and administrator at a Christian College, believes the basis of it is greed. (“The something for nothing, quick buck for little work, directly opposed to a core value of this country, the strong puritan “work ethic”.)

But, I don’t think the answer is that clear or that simple. I can only authoritatively answer the question for me, from my perspective, but it does cause me to think.

I think greed has very little to do with the reasons I play poker. In fact, Terry admitted he is probably far more, greedy then I am when he obsesses about buying more real estate and making money in the stock market, then I ever have about anything.

When I walk past the hundreds of people playing a "negative expectation" game like slots or blackjack (which probability dictates the longer you play, the more probable it will be that you lose,) I do think greed must play a large percentage for many who mindlessly pull a slot handle or push a button hour after hour, hoping to hit the big one.

However at the poker table I believe that only about 20-40 percent of players are there because of the greed factor.

The other possibly more powerful forces that motivate poker players are ego, competition, role-playing & skill. Unlike every other casino game you are competing with another person. Their money is at risk so the probabilities are even. (There is no “casino edge” such as in negative expected outcome games.) In poker the casino takes a little something from every pot to pay for the dealer and the table “rent”. But, they have no interest in the outcome of the conflict, anymore then a stock broker does in what happens to your stock. They receive a commission “up front” whether you make money or lose money.

Therefore I would divide poker players into two groups that primarily believe the outcome will be based on luck or based on skill. Obviously, that is a very simple, but useful division.

I estimate there are about 20% on either end of the luck versus skill scale. The luck player can be observed by his lucky charms, (rabbit’s foot or budda card protectors, lucky shirts, lucky seats etc. etc.)

The skill player are not so easily observed, but they read poker books, analyzes hands, discusses play with others. They are committed to improving their game through knowledge and skill development.

Then there are the 60% who are more evenly luck/skill mixed players. On a skill based scale they tip one way or the other, but are more prone to poor play then the 20% skill based players. However, they are not that much better players, then the luck based believers.

So, even with a classification system like skill/luck the four most power motivators seem to be: Competition, Ego, Role-Playing & Mastery.

I have listed them in what I believe is most to least significant. These motivators are present in each classification of player. As you climb the ranks I believe professionals work to suppress Competition & Ego and increase role-playing and poker mastery skills.

It would probably be helpful to define what I mean by each of these motivators.

Competition is prized highly in our society and provides a personal sense of satisfaction. It seems to be what makes children try to run faster or climb higher in play. College students stay up all night playing marathon sessions of board games or computer games. Then as Adults they seem to divide into two groups: those who still get out and compete from Bowling to Golf and those who watch professional sports on T.V.

Poker provides a hybrid for both. Regardless of whether you are young, or old, or fit or fat you can compete on a level playing field at the poker table.

Role-playing begins as a child who plays “grown up”, and into the teenage years there is an attempt to mimic/role-play from superhero to latest pop icon.

Little children don’t know how to “lie, fool, cheat, or deceive” from "harmless lies" to avoid hurt feelings, to serious attempts to defraud another.

But, early in their lives, they are taught by adults “how to keep a secret”, how to say something is true even when really believed to be false. As many of us have no venue to be able to selectively choose whether to role-play or not. Many people would admit their live is often lived out as one role-play after another, they believe, forced on them by others, which they have little control over.
Poker provides an outlet for practicing role-playing, primitive, non-societal approved behaviors like deception, misdirection, and manipulation but clearly understood and agreed upon by all participants that this is permissible and valued behavior in this arena.

In my next blog, I will attempt to define and relate how ego and poker skill relate to this discussion.

Now appearing in your local shopping mall...

(A weekday, about 2 p.m. your local shopping mall.)

That RV you see parked there isn’t your typical shopper. In fact beside a cup of coffee at Starbucks I will spend no money at all in this mall. I am here, because I read every poker book that is published. Note, I said I read, not buy. Part of my commitment to improving my knowledge and skill at the game also includes wisely managing my bankroll.

So, what does an aspiring poker professional do when he takes a break from playing poker on a poker road trip? Why he frequents a neighborhood Barnes & Noble bookstore to read in the store the latest published poker book of course! (B.T.W. my lunch in the RV today, was a fifty cents Wal-Mart frozen pot pie cooked in the RV microwave. It was washed down by a free bottle of water from the last casino I visited.)

I do have some standards, (low though, they may be,) so I refrain from bringing in a steaming cup of instant coffee made in the RV, into the bookstore. I reluctantly purchase an overpriced $1.75 cup of java, and assure myself that I am now a “paying customer”. I have earned the right to spend countless hours sitting and reading books that interest me.

I read incredibly fast, so in the last two hours I read the “The Gambling Nation” an amusing book by a “Sports Illustrator” staff writer who has lost most of his retirement money, but somehow not his wife and family, via his “gambling problem”. I don’t think, he thinks, he has a problem. That is my observation. He has a successful best seller to further convince him he doesn’t. It is well worth a read. My perception of his “problem” is only incidental to the subject material of the book.

One of the chapters talks about the Mormon Church’s recent revelation by their head Apostle about Poker. (Apparently over 40% of the population of Salt Lake City, makes the pilgrimage across the desert to Wendover, Nevada to the casinos.)

The modern day apostle head Mormon has a recent word, that he needed to speak out, that the “church” is against it! No surprise there, but the author makes a clever argument, for why most religious systems are against Gambling. It is because they are competitors of each other with interesting similarities. The faithful in both systems are filled with the hope-filled, faithful, who believe that playing by the rules, and trusting in “what you can’t see, or the “unseen to come”, will result in a big payoff in the end! And both count on the steady inflow of money from the faithful. I find that a very interesting analogy.

Yet, the reality of life was further revealed when a local Mormon pastor was asked if a member who confessed to his poker playing in his mandatory pre-marital counseling would be prohibited from an approved church wedding? He reluctantly answered probably not. I wonder if that means the groom would be “sealed for time & eternity as a poker player?

I am planning on going back in again and reading the “History of Gambling” a little later. I have heard it is a well written & researched treatise on gambling throughout human history.


Speaking of religious events.... Here is a blog I wrote at Christmas time and forgot to post....

My most wonderful time of the year, Vegas at Christmas time.

There is something so congruent about the way we celebrate our commercial veiw of Christmas and Las Vegas. Slots, and pots, with Christmas carols in the background just bring out this time of the year for me! The weather in Las Vegas is bright and sunny and the nights are clear and cold with shining stars. (Or is that just more neon lights in the distance?)

Pokey the dog, and I have driven up from San Diego to celebrate a week here before we provide support for Caren’s surgery. The surgery is scheduled for the 27th.

We left San Diego yesterday after that great San Diego Chargers victory over Denver where L.T. broke the all-time record for most goals scored in a season. He should break it, again and again, with the amount of time left in this season.

We stopped at Lake Elsinore Casino off Interstate 15.

I played a couple of hours of 6/12 limit. I had nachos for dinner at the table, and then drove the rest of the way to Vegas. We stopped for a couple of walks at rest stops on the way and then slept in the parking lot, of the casino, formerly known, as the South Coast Casino. We were nestled in between about 50-60 horse trailers as the Cowboys and Cowgirls spent their last night in town for the Rodeo.

I wish I had gotten here earlier. I heard there was a lot of good poker action served up with a lot of beer to a lot of cowboys. Some good players probably made a lot of money last week.

I went to the “house of the arches” for a “double cheese cow burger” and then played the noon Omaha tournament at the Orleans. I went out number 22, but I enjoyed it and made up my buy-in afterwards in a live No-limit game.

Dealers can be such jerks sometimes. I

have found more rude, lack of consideration, poker dealers in Vegas then I have found anywhere else I have played. I found another one here at the Orleans.

During the Tournament, I had been moved to a new table and was one off the button. I figured it was a good time to go to the bathroom, so I did thinking "I would miss just that hand."

I got back to my seat just in time to sit down, picked up my hand, which was AAK2 double-suited. (A very good starting hand in Omaha, in fact the best one I got in the whole tournament.) I stood up with my cards to see who else had come into the hand and announced "raise" while I was standing. The dealer saw me “standing” and yelled “that hand is dead” and grabbed it out of my hand and threw them into the muck.

I was shocked that he just grabbed that he had just grabbed them out of my hand. I said “what did you do that for?

He said the rules state "you have you be in your seat when it is your time to act or your hand is dead." I said I was in my seat. I picked up my cards and I stood up to get a better look.

He said "you weren’t in your seat, when I looked at you!"

Of course an Ace and a pair of 4s flopped which would have given me Aces full.

He left the next hand and it took me a couple of hands to get over how rude that was.

I hope I get in a live game with him later I think I might announce after winning a pot that my rules state that all my dealer tips are dead to rude dealers.

Then again, I probably won’t because I don’t want to be the kind of “jerk” that he chooses to be.

Merry Christmas and good cheer to all.....

L.A or Compton.... what a choice....

After waking up in the RV next to an old warehouse, across the street from the Commerce Casino, at noon in warm, but smoggy L.A, I decide to drive toward the Crystal Park Casino in Compton.

If I was in New York, that would be the equivalent of driving from Hell’s Kitchen to Harlem. It is about the same distance and about the same kind of neighborhood conditions.

We lived in La Palma about 10 years ago not too far from here.. We lived in what was then “a white middle class suburbia”. (It is now off-white, approximately 70% Korean.)

La Palma is on the county line of Orange and L.A. Our backyard was Orange County. The other side of the fence was L.A. During the Rodney King Trial riots we could see the smoke from the fires to the west from our backyard.

I remember the first time I stopped at the Crystal Park Casino before it was cleaned up. This was before the era of cell phones. I located a payphone and called my wife and told her “Honey, I have some good news, some bad news, and some worst news. “I am winning at poker. However, I am in Compton, and this is a local call”!

The casino has been cleaned up a lot. It is much safer now. Over this weekend I am camping in the RV in the back parking lot. It is well lit, but sometimes filled with background noises of the light rail system next door and emergency sirens wailing intermittently off in the distance..

I met my son Jonathan here last night. He was up from San Diego visiting a friend of his in Santa Monica. We arranged to meet and play poker at the same table for a few hours before he drove home to San Diego late last night. It was good to see him. He played well. He received poor cards and only played one hand in 4 hours. I was proud of his play, as well as everything else about him. I taught him to play years ago. His friend Geoff is going to work for Yahoo next week. I am encouraging Jonathan to do the same. They pay well and are a great company from what I hear.

I played two tournaments today. I got knocked out early in the morning one and the second one this evening was very frustrating. It was an unlimited re-buy tournament for the first hour and a half. Meaning there was horrible play and multiple re-buys. I patiently stayed out of trouble, even throwing away a few playable hands to make it to the end of the re-buy period with most of my chips.

About an hour later I limp in with AK under the gun. Two others limp behind me. The blinds are 100-200 with 50 antes. A late position player raises it to 1500. I have him covered by about 800 and since I haven’t played a hand for 2 hours figure this is a good time to make a play. I push all-in with my AK thinking he will lay down almost everything but Aces or Kings. He calls with AK! We turn our cards over and it is 95% probability we will split the pot and get on with the next hand. The flop comes with two diamonds, the turn is a diamond, and the river is a diamond. He has the Ace Diamonds and I have 800 chips left.

The very next hand is my big blind. In goes 200 and 100 ante. Three people limp in. The flop comes J,10 3. I put the remainder of my chips in, while matching the 10 on the board. The cards are turned over. I am ahead with my pair of tens, until the river. A jack comes, pairing one of the remaining callers. I am out of the tournament.

I was very proud of my non-reaction. I warmly wished everyone good luck and went out to play a live game.

After an hour of live play in one of the tightest tables I have ever played I went out to the RV to walk “Pokey the Dog”.

I may go back in later and play a little after more people have left the tournament and there are some more games going.

I will spend the night here again on the outskirts of infamous & dangerous Compton.

Tomorrow I head for the world famous Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens. It is located in another lovely neighborhood in L.A. For you New Yorkers reading this, we are talking the Bronx here.

Goodnight from Compton.

Almost dead in L.A.

3:15 A.M. I am lost just south of downtown Los Angeles in an industrial area of abandoned cars and buildings with broken windows.

The few people I have seen on the street look like they should be featured in a movie titled “L.A. 2048 after the fallout effects!” I realize with fear in my heart, I am lost in an area that hasn’t seen an American-born “non-frequent-visitor” to the L.A. county jail, system in years. A horn blares behind me. I hadn’t even seen another car for blocks and I am startled. I quickly turn left to get out of his way only to realize too
late, I am now heading down a street that looks like it dead-ends into a recycling area. A kaleidoscope of late night horror movies and sensational news story’s of “people being in the wrong place at the wrong time” flash through my mind. There are gang themed graffiti everywhere with 12th street frequently repeated. Then I remember “12th” street is one of the worst gangs in the country! I am in an barrio that even Tony Soprano wouldn’t drive through during the day!

How did a old white guy from San Diego in a beautiful motor-home with twenty-five hundred dollars in cash in his pocket get himself into a situation like this?

It started about a week ago with a poker trip in the RV from my home in San Diego. One of the nice things about an RV is no need for reservations, filthy gas station bathrooms, or rude waitresses with over-priced food unfit for human consumption. I am totally self-contained. I eat when I want. Sleep where I want. Go any direction I choose when I arise in the morning. I am “Easy rider” 40 years later!

I have two weeks before any obligation, and a terrific wife who supports my obsession with becoming a poker professional. So “pokey the little dog” and I pack a bag of clothes for me, and food for him, and soon we are driving to our first casino.

Two days later, we are driving to our third casino just 50 miles down the road. We spent the first two days less then 20 miles from our home at a local casino in San Diego. I logged 20 hours of poker and camped out two nights in the R.V. (More accurately, I should say 2 days, because nights were mainly spent in the poker room.)

The original plan was to make it to Vegas and back to L.A. to meet my wife in two weeks at a friend’s home. Three of us long-term couple friends get together for fun every few months.

A week later finds me only 100 miles from home. After visiting 4 more casinos I have just barely made it over the county line. I am now at the Morongo Casino near Palm Springs for a Friday night tournament. It is a $150 buy-in tournament for about 190 players with first place paying $6,000. Five hours later I went out just 2 places from the money. I played well, but just didn’t get lucky at the end, when I badly needed to.

I have decided that I am not going to make it to Las Vegas on this trip. I talked to my son on the phone right before the tournament. He told me he is driving up to L.A. to visit a friend over the weekend. So we make plans to meet in L.A., Saturday night at the Crystal Casino poker room in Compton another “wonderful” area of L.A.

He was the main reason I decided to head for L.A. earlier then planned, but there is also another “poker-related” reason. I was up in the foothills of Highland, at San Manuel casino, camping in the RV parking lot. I was sitting outside next to my RV in a lawn-chair, shirtless in the warm afternoon sun, smoking a cigar, and looking like the poster-boy for “white trash”. I was actually listening to “The Circuit“.

“The Circuit” is an Internet podcast. I download it to my Ipod and listen to it while driving or at the poker tables. Christy Gates was talking about her recent successes and was describing how the best place in the world to play poker is L.A.. She explained why it is much better then Vegas for poker. Her reasoning seemed sound, and fit my experience.

L.A. has less pros playing. There is more money thrown around by newer recreational players. The action is good. There are a lot of loose players. So with gas being over three dollars a gallon, I decide seeing my son in L.A. and playing the Commerce, Bike, Hollywood Park and three or four other poker rooms can keep me busy for a week. I would rather “play the money” then spend it on gas driving to Vegas.

Whenever I go through L.A, I always try to do it in the middle of the night to avoid traffic. So Friday night at midnight finds me pulling out of the Morongo Casino parking lot, where I had planned to spend the night after the tournament. I point my RV east to drive the 81 miles to the Commerce Club. I need to stop to get groceries, so I locate a 24 hour Super Walmart and find myself in very large nearly empty store at a time, it is being stocked and frequented by only a few insomniacs.

You would know just from reading my grocery receipt, that this is a cheap guy and his dog camping a week in the RV.

Here are just few items and their prices.
A box of Crunch & Munch .88
12 Little Debbies cakes .97
Case of Diet Vanilla Pepsi $6.00
Dozen Eggs $1.50
Can of Spam $1.65
Instant Quick Grits .98
2 cans of Tuna .64 each
3 frozen burritos .33 each
4 frozen pot pies .50 each
And what I am most proud of, in the clearance bin I found:
4 large boxes of chocolate covered raisins was 1.94 now .33
Can of Chili was $1.25 now .35 in the dented can.
24oz can of Coors was 1.50 now .50
And thinking of my wife, two large canisters of Clorox handi-wipes $6 now $3

After putting away my groceries, I consider spending the rest of the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Instead, I decide to drive to the rest of the way to the Commerce Club. I want to avoid the hassle of dealing with the weekend traffic through Riverside and L.A on a Saturday.

I didn’t realize that 60 west doesn’t have a southbound ramp to Interstate 5, which is how I ended up just south of downtown in an alien, gang-infested barrio of L.A. in the middle of the night.

I don’t think I had ever seen the Vernon District of L.A. before! Well, maybe on an episode of “Cops, the L.A. edition”.

I crisscross the dry L.A. river bed 3 times, where some of the “Terminator” was filmed. I am desperately looking for a freeway. If I break down in this area, the morning sun will find an empty burned out shell of a camper. Pictures of “Pokey the dog” and my face will end up on milk cartons. Or we could be featured in an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries”.

Finally the name of a street I recognize appears in my headlights.

Twenty minutes later I am following a security van at the Commerce Casino. He is leading me to a parking lot next to an old warehouse across the street from the Commerce where I can park my RV for the night. Great, this area looks like the area I just got out of! After pulling the curtains shut and double checking all the locks. I step out and walk toward the poker room to play a little poker.

I fondly look back over my shoulder to get one more glance at my RV and “Pokey the dog” at the window. I wonder, after I cross this empty warehouse lot, and play a little poker if “Pokey and the RV” will still be there when the sun comes up?

After two hours of “wild poker”, also known as, “any two will do, this is no-fold-em hold-em”, where the pot was capped every other hand, I know I am right where I belong.

After dawn “Pokey the dog” RV are still there as I crawl into my bed to sleep the day after another typical day & night of playing poker on a road trip.

I'm sitting on top of the world....

Well at least I am sitting on top of L.A.

I am overlooking the San Bernardino Valley from about 1500 feet in elevation. The San Manuel Casino have their RV parking in the Employees lot about 800 feet almost straight up from the casino. The entrance is so steep I drive it in 1st gear. However, the result is so worth it! I park alongside of a fence with a southern view and I can see at least 20 miles in every direction except north. To the north behind me the mountains rise majestically to over 5,000 feet. I spent the night here after a less then stellar night in the Poker room.

I was card dead. I lost my limit for the day in a few hours. Most frustrating of all, I was one of the better players at a table of guys trying to “give their money away”. The guy to my left lost 3 racks of $5 chips ($1500) in the first ½ hour of my joining the table. Two others went to their pockets for more money multiple times. My theme song of “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been a very different outcome” kept playing in my head, but alas it was not to be. A couple bad beats, two failed bluffs, and an “outdraw” later I was headed back up to the RV.
The one thing I have done well is to “take a break” when I start “running bad”. I really get it that Poker is one lifetime, continuous poker game that I play in, with “breaks” away from the table. I can’t win the game in a day, but I could lose it, if my “bankroll” ends up going all in, because I have to “get back” what I lost today! That kind of “slippery slope” is the most dangerous place to go in poker or any other game of skill and chance.

It has been almost three months since I have written in this blog. Shortly after my last entry, I passed the two year mark in my attempt to be a professional. It has not been a glamorous, highly successful two years, but I have learned a lot, enjoyed the freedom, and followed my dream beyond my comfort zone. That is a major accomplishment for me and beyond where many others dare to let themselves go.

8 hours later,

I played 2/5 NL and won back what I lost yesterday. I was ahead a bit, but had a dip for the last two hours I played. In hindsight I could have left 2 hours earlier when I started feeling a little tired. But, it was “double jackpot time” and I just resolved to play really tight. I did, and got outdrawn three times. As Phil says, “he would win every hand if there wasn’t luck involved”. Of course then he would be the only one that played this game. (grin)

I keep thinking and playing and visiting different casinos to try to discover what it is that top professionals know/see/do different then the rest of us but I cannot figure it out. I am a slightly better then break even player. About a year ago I was a break-even player and the year before I was a losing player so I must be moving in the right direction. When you play poker the odds against walking away from the table with money is 9-1 against you. The dealer/casino always wins 4 or 5 dollars from every pot. Then there are 8 other players you have to beat. It is a tough business. But, somebody has to be that one that wins, so I continue to study, play, practice, apply what I learn and experience. A few of the more important principals that are the mainstay of my game are.

1. Play at the level my bankroll supports. (Never risk more then 5% of my bankroll a day. I have a stop loss limit for the day. I quit for the day if I reach it.)
2. Stay off tilt. (Take a break & walk around every hour or so. Stay focused on the present. Remind yourself bad beats are part of the game. Try to recognize your mistakes but forgive yourself quickly when you make one.)
3. Pay attention. (Even when you are not in a pot watch every hand, and every player in the hand, and learn as much as you can about them. Work on your reading ability by guessing what hands are being played.)

Last night, before I went to sleep in the RV the rain came in with some strong winds. The RV was rocking back and forth came in from three different directions on this bluff in the foothills of the San Berndandino Mountains. I decided this would be a good night to watch MacBeth with Orson Wells & Roddy McDowell in Black & White on the VCR. Now there was a guy who didn’t seem to enjoy his life. After about an hour of feeling doom & gloom and not understanding half the dialogue, nor the story, I decided to shut it off and go to sleep. I resolved to read the cliff notes on MacBeth next time I am in a bookstore because I couldn’t “get it”. I was afraid to look out the window for fear of seeing three witches on the outcropping above me chanting “double bubble, toil & trouble” (all four terms well understood by poker players)

The wind was still blowing when I awoke and looked out the window in the morning. What an awesome sight. The smog was all blown away and I could see for 30-40 miles. I could see the mountains behind Palm Springs to the east, to the ones beyond Moreno Valley to the South and beyond Covina to the west. At least 3-4 million people live in the area I could see while I am sitting here on a lawn chair outside the RV typing writing these thoughts on my lap top. The sun is in the final stages of setting over the mountains above San Dimas to the west and I feel contentment and gratefulness I can do this.

Today was not such a great day at the table. I lost three big hands to a “luckbox” who made three very bad calls against me and “lucked out” on the river each time. She was in seat three and was a very aggressive player who played almost every hand. One of the dealers’ had already commented to her “she was a very lucky player”. She went up and down from 100-600 five times in the time I was at the table.

I was focused, playing only good cards and making good reads. On the first “bad beat” disaster Seat 4 went all in for $100 on a turn card, where I had made a queen high straight. I was in seat 8 and went all with $250 in to try to keep “luckbox” out. She still called! The board was 10, 8, J of hearts & 6 of spades and she had K of hearts & 7 of clubs! The Ace of hearts was the river and I lost my stack for the first time to her. Another occurred about an hour later. I won’t bore you with those details. Only that I was betting with two pair and and she was calling with one middle pair and caught a third one on the river.

For the next two hours I worked on keeping her out of my pots by over grossly over betting the flop when it was favorable for me. She would always bet out in early position 15-20 every time she was in a hand. Then she would take forever to lay down her hand, (she hated to lay down her cards)often calling with the worst hand that would win 2/3 of the time. I was down to my last $150 and she raised $10 from under the gun. Three people followed suit. I had pocket 5’s on the dealer button so I raised $75 (1/2 of my chips) expecting to end it right there. Before the big blind can act, she says “I am going to put you all in”. (I object & the dealer tells her to wait her turn to act. That encourages the big blind to put in his last $125 knowing he is getting better pot odds with three players. She goes all in, and I put in the last of my chips. My hand is good against one player, probably not two. The flop comes 5,6,2 , giving me trip 5’s. The turn is a queen and the river a 9 giving her 7,8 a straight to the 9. I walked away muttering to myself “that is some luck” and resolved to come back tonight after dinner & a nap because I should be able to make some money in a place where there are “regulars” who play this badly.

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.

The "King of Poker"

I met and played the self proclaimed “King of Poker” two nights ago.

You haven’t met the “King of Poker”? Then you probably haven’t played much at the Palomar Club on El Cajon Blvd in San Diego lately. The Palomar neighborhood is not known, as one of the nicer area of San Diego.

But the crime rate around the club is decreasing. There hasn’t been a player “pistol whipped” for at least three months. I have only been solicited once on my way out in the past six months and the bar that was right next door has been sold and become part of the remodel/expansion of the club.

It has been well over a year since the daily pattern of two players leaving the table at the same time and stepping next door for a couple of drinks and returning to “cap” every pot pre-flop. Ah, the good old days.

There is a daily, colorful cast of characters, speaking at least 11 native languages at the 6 poker tables. This audible smorgasbord is mixed with shouts, curses and loud bangs coming from the pai-gow table, as the players try to wake up the pai-gow gods, by banging the metal dice container furiously on the table, shouting in languages only previously heard on the National Geographic Channel.

In walks a Iraqi who owns his own cab, and writes his initials on the board: K.O.P. Everybody who has played with him before knows what they mean. “The “King of Poker” is in the house.
He takes the available seat two to my left at a 1/3 No-limit game and begins to give a non-stop, manic, monologue to the player to my left pointing to his initials, still up on the board, and declaring himself the "King of Poker." He speaks like a machine gun fires bullets, in quick bursts, and gets more and more heated up, the more he speaks.

He folds his first hand after waving it a few inches under the nose of another player declaring “you see, you see, I throw this because I am a very good player and that is why I always win. This is my second job… you see, you see, I make $2,000 last month” as he proceeds to take a small wad of $20’s out of his pocket and begins to wave it around toward all the players loudly proclaiming “I will have all of your money by 2 A.M”. (Closing time is 2 A.M.)

He throws almost every hand away, after trying to show it the dealer or to a player next to him, while he continues a non-stop monologue that reveals he could benefit from medication.

He finally wins his first hand with pocket Aces. It is a very small pot, because it has become obvious by now to almost everybody at the table that he plays only premium hands. So he gets no action, when he comes into a pot, which is at the rate of about once an hour. But, he runs a non-stop commentary on every hand played by anyone. He also reminds us that he is a “patient man who thinks, thinks, thinks, as he taps his temple, and that he knows what you have almost before you do, because he can “read the cards””.

He says he is not like us other players… “he reads poker books, he thinks about poker all the time, and when he loses a hand, he goes home and takes out a deck of cards and plays it over and over again and comes back and wins that hand next time.”

He goes on to tell us he takes $20 and gives it to his one child, then another, then another, then another,….. I lost track after he named his fifth child and often stopped listening as soon as he began talking. I knew I was going to win a large pot off of him or “bust him” because I was catching and playing a lot of suited connectors and he only played the top 8 premium hands like the book he read told him to. I hope nobody ever tells him that strategy was written for limit.

The table would have a few minutes of wonderful silence, when he would run outside for a cigarette, about every 10th hand and miss a hand or two.

The Palomar club has an entire glass front opening up on the sidewalk. Players who smoke, would often run out between hands to puff on the cigarettes they had left burning out there.

When the King of Poker would win a hand he would slap the cards face up and fire out… “you see, you see, you see, I knew I would win”.

Finally after four hours, I got into a hand with him. He raised and I re-raised with 10s,Js. He called. The flop came (Qh, Ks, As) for a nut straight for me, with a royal flush draw.

I checked and he made a big bet. I glanced at him two or three times, each time he told me “throw it away, throw it away, I will show you, I will show you.”

I knew he didn’t have a clue so I just called. The turn came a 7. He bet enough to put me all in “save your money, save your money, I don’t need all your money he declared.

I called and quietly turned over my hand, while he slammed down pocket aces and said “you see, you see, I win I have three aces. He quieted for a moment while the realization of my straight came over him, and then the river produced a 5. He quickly walked out and began puffing very fast on his cigarette.

He came back a few minutes later and said “he had the better hand, he should have won that hand and I was lucky, but he was a better player. I said yes “you are the king” and agreed that I got lucky. (What I meant was I was lucky, I was playing with someone who didn’t know how much they didn’t know, and that they were willing to share that information with everybody at the table.)

The final hand that knocked out the King of Poker wasn’t by me, but by a player who had 10 times the maximum buy-in in front of him. By the stacks of chips in front of him, it was obvious he was a good player, or had a very great run of cards. I did watch him wield his “large stack” very well a number of times making it too expensive for some to call him, as he threw in enough chips, to make the odds unfavorable.

The King of Poker came in for a big raise on the dealer button. Everybody folded to him except the big stack who called. The flop was A,K,8 with 2 diamonds. The big stack checked and the King declared. “no, no, no, check,” he then bet ¼ the pot. I knew, and I am sure the big stack knew, the “King of Poker” had either three Aces, three kings or AK paired.
The big stack called the small bet. He then checked the turn, which was another blank, and the “K.O.P” bet out the same small amount. (I am sure he thought he was being clever to keep the other player in the pot. Not even knowing he was giving away pot odds to make the call almost mandatory)

As the river is being “peeled off the deck”, the big stack says "make it a diamond", and sure enough it is a 2 of diamonds. The big stack moves in a large enough stack to cover the remaining chips the King has. The King instantly, yells out, "all-in" and without a second hesitation shoves his remaining chips in and slaps down pocket Aces for trip aces. The big stack shows his two little diamonds for a flush. The king is grinning like a fool, and bobbing his head up and down saying you see, you see… three aces, as he is waiting for the dealer to push the pot to him.

As the dealer picks up the two diamonds and puts them in front of the King of Poker, the dealer states “he has a flush”. You can see the amazement and disbelief come into focus on the features of the King, and he jumps up, and storms out of the room without a sound.

He puffs, and puffs, while pacing in front of the casino. Then he comes back in walking fast, past the table toward the bathroom. I couldn’t help myself, I said “I think the King is going to sit on his throne for awhile.”

He comes out a few minutes later and a player asks him if he wants us to save his seat for him?

He waves him off with a flapping of his hand and without a sound, in a cloud of nervous energy races out of the room.

The King is dead… long live the King.

A turkey in the oven.....

Wow, it has been a week since I last posted. I thought it had been about three days.

I have been playing and winning since the last post so I am pretty upbeat. I am planning on playing again tonight I just haven’t decided where.

I always have about 7 choices, within roughly, the same driving distance. For me personally, I am not affected greatly by the Unlawful Internet act, but I am sure that there are many, many, others who have been greatly impacted by it.

I did leave Party Poker, (who would want to be a part of a party, where there are no Americans allowed there anyway?) I figured out how to get some money to Full-Tilt and have been playing there just a little, in the spirit of defiance, to this “dirty” piece of politics. I would rather play live, then on the Internet, but I am frustrated and angry about this right being abused in the name of morality by an unethical political act.

I took the RV over the weekend, and went to Sycuan for two days and a night. I really thought I would be in Vegas a lot this month, but Caren wanted Pokey and me, around while she goes through some real challenges at work.

Our relationship works for us, because we both, are committed to telling the other what we need from them, when we do. Of course, being committed to hearing, responding or negotiating, in response to what we hear, from the other, is equally important.

Tomorrow, she has scheduled some dental surgery, so I will be the designated driver, while she drugs up, before, during, and after to deal with the anxiety, pain, and effects of the dental work.

So, there will be no live poker for me tomorrow. That’s one reason why I am going to play again tonight. Maybe, I will play a few small tournaments on Full-Tilt tomorrow night while I am home taking care of her.

I am planning on putting a Turkey, in the oven, when we leave, for the dentist, and the house should be nice and warm and smell good when we get home.

By the way I played with the self-proclaimed “King of Poker” last night. I will tell you all about it in the next entry.