Our dog has eaten out more then us....

We have only eaten out only 3 times on this trip in almost as many weeks. It was twice at buffets in Las Vegas, and once yesterday at the Cache Creek Indian Casino, north of Woodland, California. The Cache Creek Casino was beautiful and an excellent buffet. We really enjoyed it.

Then we traveled up State Route 16 to intersect with Hwy 20 on our way to Lake Country. It was a very winding, and very beautiful route. We followed the edge of Clearlake, (the largest lake in California) to its north shore.

We stopped for a nap in a school parking lot under the shade of a big tree on a warm Saturday afternoon.

Then we spent the night at Robinson Rancheria on the North Shore of Clearlake. We joined their “players club” for free, and got $20 in free slot play that Caren used on the penny slot machines.

I waited for awhile for a poker seat to open, but when she was done, we went out to the RV together and I made dinner.

The only TV station reception we had was one station, Trinity Broadcasting Network. They were showing a Bill Gaither Concert of which we have the DVD in the RV… lol, so we turned off the TV and put on a movie….. "The 13th Floor" was a very enjoyable movie.

Then we had a sound night sleep under the watchful eye of casino security.

The next morning I went in and used the restrooms, had a free cup of coffee and then we were back on the road again.

This time toward the Redwoods.

Guess who is coming to dinner....

Carrie our daughter had her minor surgery today, it went well. She may need another one, but this one went the way it was supposed to. Thanks to all of you who said a prayer for her.

Her mommy took care of her, along with her very supportive husband, while I was the official “dog sitter” and cook. I made hot dogs and biscuits for dinner along with hot cinnamon rolls. There should be a joke somewhere there, but I can’t seem to find it.

So tomorrow, Caren and I are taking off in the RV for Clearlake, the wine country, and the redwoods. I will update you from there.

This Wednesday night, we did have one event I forgot to tell you about. We went to dinner at Phil and Donna Jones home in Folsom. They are such great people. We have had mutual close friends for the past 30 years, but only in the last year have we gotten to know them.

We arrived at their beautiful home at 6 p.m. and were warmly greeted by them. After showing us around their home, they made a quick phone call. They wanted to show off their 4 grand children, that live just 7 houses down the block. Their 27 year old daughter, and son-in-law and 4 grand children came down and warmly greeted us and played with for awhile. What a great family.

Then we had a fantastic, old-fashioned home-made pot roast dinner, with the best gravy I have tasted in awhile. Then the finale to that fantastic meal, was the best pecan pie, I have ever tasted. They even sent three pieces home with us.

Over the next two days, I kept trying to save one of the pieces for Dave or Carrie and the pieces of pecan pie just kept disappearing. (I think our house must have been broken into, and the robbers took them. I can’t believe I ate all three pieces over the next two days.)

The weather has been warm and sunny and we are beginning to appreciate many areas of Sacramento we are visiting and learning about.

Next, on to the Redwoods…….

Three dog week....

It’s been a 3 dog week.

Monday, we left Marysville, after a night in the Super-WalMart, parked less then 55 feet from the busiest freight train tracks connecting Northern and Southern California. I never knew so much still moved by rail. The ground shook, the train whistles howled, and the clacky-clack of the tracks almost drowned out my snoring.

Coco, and I were out walking, when the first one came by, and she tucked her tail, and wanted to run back to the RV. If I had a tail I would have done the same.

After her 3rd one, when she heard the train wail, she would run to the window to watch it go by. Traveling is even educational for dogs.

We arrived Monday afternoon at our daughter Carrie’s and son-in-law David’s home in the Foothills Farms section of Sacramento, got some laundry done, greeted their two dogs, Gracie & Mercy and enjoyed sitting in their backyard in the warm sun while Coco ran with his “cousins”.

David and I went out for Mongolian BBQ that evening, while Caren and Carrie hung out together.

Later, after visiting late into the evening, Caren and I went to sleep in the RV in front of their house. They have a guest room, and we will be staying here, when we move up. But, if you have read this blog for the last two weeks, you know, Caren prefers sleeping in the RV, then almost more then anywhere.

The next morning after eating all that Mongolian BBQ, she told me the smell was eeking out of my pores. She said, it felt like she had slept with Genghis Khan. I said great, tomorrow I will have Italian, and we can play Marco Polo. (lol) Marco.......

We were only planning on staying till Wednesday night, and then meeting our Son, Jonathan in San Francisco, but a complication came up for Carrie.

She has been having a health issue, that might have to go to surgery, and the pain had been increasing over the past couple of weeks. She stayed home from work Tuesday in obvious pain, and Wednesday came home in such pain, she scheduled an emergency Dr. appointment for Thursday, and then a minor surgery was scheduled for Friday.

We cancelled our time with Jonathan for Thursday, and decided to stay around and help her through the procedure.

Caren, is a great mommy and Carrie needed her, and Caren needed to be her mommy, at this time. So here I sit as the official three dog sitter. I knew I would discover my purpose in life eventually.

My heart is already in San Francisco, but my body is in Sacramento.

I will post some pictures later, my camera batteries are dead and I have to go out and get some batteries.

Slow down and enjoy God's creation.

Slow down and enjoy God's creation is a bumper sticker on the back of our RV as well as part of our committment for this trip.

We left Quincy on Sunday and spent the day driving slowly down the Feather River on State Route 70 from Quincy to Oroville. One of the most beautiful drives in the country.

We ended up the day in Marysville. Tomorrow, we get to see Carrie and Dave in Sacramento

North by Northwest

We left Reno about noon with no particular destination in mind. We knew we were going to end up somewhere up in the high sierra range, but where? That would be determined later. We drove up US395 to Susanville my only slight regret of the trip.

I somehow confused in my mind Susanville with Placerville. Even though I had been to Placerville I wanted to see Susanville because our friends Terry & Gayle had a brother who past who lived there. (Silly me... it was Placerville not Susanville.)

Oh, well, I am actually glad I saw Susanville. I now know what it is like, and I don't think I will have a need to return that way.

We spent the night at an RV park in Quincy after a beautiful day sightseeing in the mountains.

A cold day in hell.

There is an old joke that says “Reno is so close to hell you can see Sparks”. Well, Sparks, Nevada is where we chose to spend the night after a day in Carson City.

I read on the web yesterday that the Reno police were enforcing an old law that you couldn’t sleep in your vehicle and applying it to RV’ers in casino parking lots. Apparently, this was at the urging of some local RV parks who pressured them.

The article went on to say how some Casinos in neighboring Sparks were welcoming us, so we headed for the Nugget to spend the night. I went in and played some poker for a few hours and then we went to sleep, after remarking on how cold it was getting.

When we woke up in the morning it was truly a “cold day in hell”. Actually it was quite beautiful to see big fluffy snowflakes falling out of the sky. CoCo has never been in snow and wasn’t quite sure about it, but went for a walk with me anyway.

Because the storm was coming from the north and that was the direction we were going we decided to spend the day and night in Reno. We planned on leaving the next day.

The Sands Regency Casino in Reno is where Caren and her sisters would meet for years.

Caren would fly up from San Diego. Her three sisters would fly in from Oregon and they would have a lot of fun. So we went to the Sands for the day, for "old time sakes".

Caren actually remembered her and her sister's favorite slot machine. But alas, without the sisters, it wasn't quite as much fun or profitable for her.

While I was playing a little poker I talked to security about that recent action that has RV'ers so upset. They told me no problem spend the night in their back secure lot. "We would love to have you stay". So we spent the night in Reno, waiting out the storm, and are excited to get back on the road tomorrow to see the gold country of the high sierras.

Here is a little preview.

Beautiful Rest Stops

One of the nicest things about RV traveling is you can pick a beautiful spot just for lunch.

One of my favorite highway rest stops is on US395 about 30 miles north of Bishop. We stopped for lunch and a walk in the woods.

Then on the road again….we were going to drive through Mammoth Lakes, but we chose June Lake instead. What a great drive taking the June lake loop road. The fall colors were beautiful as well as the lake.We stopped a few more times before we made it to Carson City in the late afternoon where we were planning on spending the night.

At a shopping center on the south side of Carson City I walked with Coco past a Massage Envy grand opening. The Carson City Chamber of Commerce was having a ribbon cutting ceremony and Coco got involved by greeting everybody in her friendly way. I enjoyed talking to the owners about their new business venture. Then I told them about Caren's little mishap the day before and they offered me their grand opening special of $39 for a one hour massage for Caren and they even had an employee stay overtime to give it to her. It really seemed to help Caren and she was able to come out from the massage table and crawl right into bed for the night.

I drove into the center of Carson City and we spent the night in the Nugget Casino parking lot after I played a few hours of poker.

There is a big storm coming in from the north, (the direction we are heading) and even though we are at 5,000 feet we are planning on going even higher in elevation so we may spend the day and night in Reno tomorrow to let the storm pass.

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.