Life is a Road Trip

Many people take a poker or gambling trip. Las Vegas counts on the average person spending about two thousand dollars, not counting transportation, to do one to Las Vegas.

I am fortunate to have done a poker road trip at least 2-3 times a month this last year, including some to Las Vegas, and it never costs me anything for food or lodging. Poker playing allows me to do that. And it is not because of “comps” for poker players. In fact, there are little or no comps for poker players. (Remember, the casino is only “renting the table and dealer” to the players, by taking 1-4 dollars out of each pot and putting it down the slot in the table.) The players are playing each other for the money. The casino’s make very little if anything on their poker rooms.

I am fortunate to have 7 places to play poker within 30 miles of my home in San Diego.
Add another 20 if I am willing to drive 90 miles to L.A. and of course take the total count of places for me to play, to over eighty, if I am willing to go up to 280 miles from my home to Las Vegas. (I know I can stay home and play anytime, even in my underwear on-line, but it is just not the same. In fact, I usually lose on-line.)

I don’t want to drive even 30 miles and then feel like I have to stay if cards are running bad or it doesn’t seem like a good table to me. I would rather take a couple of minute stroll to the poker room from my home and when I ready for a nap or just to take a break stroll back home and come back a little later.

So how do I get “free poker road trips whether I win or lose?

I have found the perfect way to do that. I just take my RV for overnight poker trips, even if it is here in San Diego where I live. Before or after commuter’s rush hour, (one of the perks of poker playing as a business is “rush hour” has nothing to do with being stuck in traffic) I drive to the casino, park in the RV section, shut the curtains, and go into the poker room. It doesn’t make any difference if I play the next hour, next 6 or all night. Whenever, I want, I walk back to my RV, sleep in my own bed, work on the computer, read, make dinner or sleep. I never drink when playing cards, but if I did it would also take away the risk of paying for a drinking & driving violation. (No need to tip the cocktail waitress, valet or luggage attendant either when I visit poker rooms in my RV.)

While I am there I have a private security force watching over my “RV and making sure I stay safe on my “walk home”. Not, only rich people have private security services and 24/7 surveillance of their homes. I do and I don’t pay for it. Talk about “emergency response time”, one time I called the casino when I thought I saw some suspicious activity near my RV and armed police were there in 45 seconds. I pay nothing for my private security force to protect my RV home, no land taxes, and no space rent. A few of the Casino’s have RV parks. But, in my thinking why would I pay for an RV space when they give me free parking and I have my own, water, power & sewage? (grin)
By the way that “suspicious activity” turned out to only be someone who had locked their keys in their vehicle.

Here at Sycuan Casino, the RV parking is up on a mesa surrounded by beautiful mountains and closer then where I usually park when I come in my car. I refer to it as the “penthouse suites”, when I tell people I am staying at the casino overnight.

The poker economy part of staying here is I can play 2 morning and 2 evening tournaments with just one overnight stay for a total buy-in for all four tournaments of less then $100. I have placed for the money in 4 of them here at Sycuan in the last year with my biggest win being $2500. All three of the other times I placed in the money only added up to about $900 total

Also, since poker rooms have promotions at non-peak times, I can come in for a promotion time and go back out to the RV when the promotion period ends. Speaking of promotions it is time to go buy-in for $50 at a N/L table and win $50 from the Casino if pocket aces get beat. Guess what hands I play during those two hours? I have found a sure-fire can’t lose poker proposition, now, if I can only plug the “rake” leak in my game for those two hours. (grin)

P.S. Let me also clarify that you can find some comps for poker players. In Oceanside when I play the $20-40 hold-em game you can order anything on the menu you want for free, and when I play in Pechanga I earn $1.50 per hour with my free casino club card. They have a number of nice places to eat there. I always eat very well, and for free at those two places. Other, casinos do have some free comps you can earn with your club card. However, the two I mentioned are my personal favorites.

Self-doubt and the art of losing….

How come when I win, I commend myself and when I lose I condemn myself? If I make a bad play, I can tell myself I can learn from it. It only takes me a minute to get over it emotionally.

When I am lucky and win, even with bad play I don’t feel bad. Yet, when I play very well and then lose I feel depressed and my “poker future” looks bleak to me.

Why is that? Self doubt and self value are only ethereal concepts, how come one is so easy for me to do and not the other?

It is a beautiful day in Southern California in the middle of winter. Sunny and 80 degrees with a blue sky and yet I feel like the peanut’s character who has a dark cloud over him wherever he goes, and my insides, feel as “cold” as a “Minnesota winter”.

It is not poker it is ME that is the problem with my game. I have heard that many who try to make it as a poker player can not deal with the up and downs of the game. I don’t think it is the “game” it is my reactions to the up and downs of the game. Poker could be seen as a illustration of life and our reactions.

Monday night I played well and won $900. Tuesday, I played well and lost $400, Wednesday I played well and lost $300.

Today I just got knocked out of a tournament after playing only three hands in 2 hours. I got all my money in with the best two starting cards dealt. The cards which came on the flop, turn or river, beat me all three hands. (In case you are wondering how I could go “all-in” and lose 3x in one no-limit tournament, it was a “re-buy” tournament for the first hour.) So, in some ways I could condemn myself for losing 3 tournaments in a space of two hours. (very, weak, sick, grin)

How come me and maybe you are “so hard” on ourselves? In actually, I am a winning poker player. This week I am up $180.

Since, I started my quest one year ago this month, I am up $12,000

However, the $12,000 does includes two “bad beat” jackpot’s of nine-thousand and three-thousand for getting beat with aces full and beating aces-full with 4 ten’s. So, does this mean I am really a “break even player” rather then a winning player? I actually think honestly it does reveal that. In this year my “luck” has “evened out”. So, how come I feel like I am “less lucky” then many other players? My poker wins/losses are a indicator of a combination of my luck and skill. By itself it doesn’t really indicate whether I am a good/lucky/bad/unlucky player. I need to remind myself at every full table I am a 9-1 underdog. Even when I break even over time, it reveals that I kept those other players from getting my money, and I won back as much as the casino took from the pot and dropped down the hole in the table. That is one “leak” in my game I will never be able to plug.

So what does tell me whether I am playing well or not? I guess it has to be faith in what I know. My poker knowledge is an accumulation of reading every poker book I can, and learning from every hand I play,. I have read about 30 poker books and played many hands this year. It is hard to see my growth & professional development over this year. I have a few “subjective indicators”. I can now see a lot more “mistakes” others make. I usually realize when I play a hand badly, whether I win or lose the pot. I know I need to keep more detailed records and find a few other “successful players” who can challenge me, and discuss strategy with me. I also need to “find and plug” more “leaks” in my game.

I am realizing I need to “exorcise the demons in my head” who mock me with thoughts like “had you put in that many hours at even a minimum wage job you would be thousands of dollars ahead…..etc, etc”. True, but what would have been the “real cost” of that for me? Suicide, drinking, self-delusion or other self-destructive compensations for participating in a life I don’t want to live

So, what is a honest, professional aspiring, poker player to do. I guess play my best poker every hand, stay “in the moment”, be thankful I am living a life that many only dream of and continue to pursue my own dream of becoming a successful, professional poker player. Oh yes, and continue to work on my “inner game”. I

Working the "night shift"....

One thing about playing Poker is you are often working the “night shift”.

I played last night at the “Village Club” in Chula Vista and left there about 3:30 A.M. when the 8/16 hold-em game was starting to look like it might “break”. It was a good game and I left “up” about $900.

It is nights like last night that encourage me I can make it as a “pro”. However, I didn’t get up until about 11:00 a.m. and after making breakfast, I forget I had an appointment at noon. Poker life for me is becoming very consuming. Daily I study, play live, or play on-line. I also have started this Blog and am getting involved over at Thunderkellers, hoping it can become a place where I can get advice and encouragement from some other aspiring professionals. I don’t know any here locally yet.

I also have an idea for forming a Christian Poker Association. One of the challenges for me as a former pastor and a Christian, is my faith, is still a very important part of me. My best two friends are a “Pastor and the other is a Bible College Instructor”. One of them really values what I am doing the other is struggling with even understanding how what I am doing is not anti-Christian. (There will be a lot more about that as I find others to dialog with who both play poker professionally and take their faith and commitment to Biblical values seriously.)

I mentioned in a previous blog, dropping out of Bible College and joining the U.S. Army. As far as poker went during my 4 years in the Army the few times I did play, I usually lost my monthly paycheck and survived the rest of the month on eating only Army food and staying on the military base. But, overall, poker was not really a part of my military life.

When I was discharged from the army I dutifully returned to Bible College. I earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies, met & married my wife Caren and became an “ordained” minister. Now I was ready to go off and “save” the world. Little did I know, the world didn’t want to be “saved”, nor was I the person to do it. But, that is another story, that I will tell in a future blog about my first Pastor "job" in Minnesota.

But, today, after I finish getting ready, I am taking my RV and heading out for two days of Poker at a couple of casino’s where I can play as long or little as I like. I will have my RV with me so I can spend the night at the Casino without spending any of my profits for room or board.
I will let you know how this trip went and some of my more memorable trips in future blogs.

Which holiday is on 1st?

I am confused, is today the first, or was it yesterday? The Rose Parade is today. Today is not the first, worst still, ......

It is raining on the Rose Parade!

This is going to be an unusual year. It “never” rains on the Rose Parade; The Rose Bowl game is never three days after the beginning of the year!

And I have never placed for money in the WSOP.

Maybe, this year I will!

The first day of the year and I played no poker!

My wife Caren and I stayed overnight New Year’s eve in our R.V. in Ocean Beach in front of our with my friends Gary, & Jane, & Terry & Gayle.

Didn’t even get drunk and fell asleep at 11:50 p.m. (Boring…….!!!!)

Back home today and just got blown out of a $30 buy-in tournament on Party Poker. Last night made it to within 10 seats of the money. I am about due.

I am also in another tournament as I write this. I didn’t notice it was a “limit” tournament. It was a $5 buy-in so I will probably be at this for 4 or 5 hours. Need to build up my on-line account a little bit.

It is a cold, raining, day in San Diego and I was planning on taking the R.V. up to L.A. to spend a couple days at the Bike and a couple of days at the Commerce Casino, but the rain and cold discouraged me from driving up there. I will probably play tournaments on-line for the rest of the day.

Last week was very exciting. My wife and son Jonathan went over to Vegas on Christmas day. We have two nephews who live there and we wanted to buy them Christmas dinner and just hang out with them for a couple of days.

They don’t play poker so I played Blackjack with them. (I usually don’t play blackjack because of the house edge and I think I am the “world’s un-luckiest blackjack player.) Sure, enough by the second day I was about $500 down just playing $10 single-deck. They decided to go see a movie and I decided to go to Binion’s where we were staying and play a little No Limit Hold-em. I was in a really good game and had made about $200 when the table broke because the 8 p.m. tournament was starting.


I decided to go ahead join the $60 buy-in tournament. There were 66 players and it was only 1 rebuy allowed so I jumped in. When they stopped back after the movie there were about 40 of us still playing after the re-buy period. Off, they went to play some more blackjack while I kept grinding away and only playing premium hands. When they came back later I had just made the final table and the ten of us were on a 5 minute break before the final table play began.

In case you haven’t been at Binion’s lately, they have 4 tournaments a day and the final table in up on a special lighted platform and there are always “railbirds” watching the final table. I felt proud to be at that table at the Binion’s the “Mecca” of Poker Tournament’s.

After a couple of lucky wins where I caught my flush on the river it was just me and a young man heads-up. I had about a 2-1 chip lead and I considered just splitting the pot with him. 2nd place was $1100 and 1st place was $2000, so we each could have walked with about $1550, but I did have the chip lead. I went over to talk to my wife, son and nephews. The nephews had never seen a poker tournament before, and never thought they would be standing in Vegas watching their Uncle possibly win one of them, so they all encouraged me to “go for it”.

I noticed my opponent being “coached” by a friend who was discussing strategy with him during the break and then it was time to play just one on one.

I had about 30,000 in front of me and he had about $15,000 The blinds were $800 & $1600. The first hand I was dealt A,2 of Spades. He goes all-in and I fold, thowing, the Ace & two of spades faceup on the table, attempting to send a message that when I call him I have him beat so don't try to many fancy plays. Next, hand I have A,J hearts on the small blind and raise him all-in. He folds. Next hand his small blind, he goes all in, I fold 10-7. Next hand, I want to change this pattern so my big blind with K,10 I raise on the small blind to 4,000 to get some flop play. He answers with “all-in” and I call and he shows 10,8 off-suit and catches an 8 on the turn. I don’t improve.

Chips are about even now and I get A 9 spades, He raises all-in on the small blind and turns over A 4 off-suit. The flop comes, A,6,8 rainbow and the turn is a 4, for a pair of 4’s for him and the river is a jack and it is all over. I take 2nd place.

I am still puzzling over what I could have done different in that situation with an opponent who seemed to go “all-in” pre-flop every hand. I would welcome your suggestions or criticisms. I want to learn from this.

Overall, I am proud to take 2nd at Binion’s, I got it “all in” with the best hands and got outdrawn which I think is the best you can do. I was proud to have my son, wife and nephews see my play and the professional way I handled myself and the loss.

I remember in the mid 1980’s coming to a computer show in Vegas and wandering in to watch the final table of a “big event” with a million dollars on the table. I had just started playing poker and I said to my brother, I am going to play here someday. Where the someday did occur and now I had saying I am going to play in the W.S.O.P. big even someday. It could be this year or the next, but I intend on doing it and winning.

Keep reading and see if I make it.......

Happy New year and a +EV to all

Happy New Year,

I am glad to not be in Vegas tonight, in fact as I get older, I am glad to not be anywhere on New Years evening, where bullets can full on my head….. grin….

I keep realizing how important the mind-game is in getting serious about playing good poker all the time. Last night on Party Poker I played well in a $20 buy-in getting down to about 150 in a field of 1500, (hey, I didn’t win, but I beat 1350 players who think they are good enough to risk $20… grin)

So I went into Party Poker and played 5/10 in the bad/beat jackpot area and lost about $350…. I noticed as my buy-in of $250 got smaller I became more aggressive and played looser like in tournaments. That is a bad idea in cash-games, I think I just made my “running bad” just lose money faster. So I dropped down to 2/4 and caught jacks. The board came 4,4,7 so I bet and got raised, I re-raised and got re-raised back. Decided to look at one more card and a beautiful jack came on the turn. I bet, got raised, re-raised, and we raised to the limit on the turn and the river. He got angry thinking it was a bad beat when his 4,8 off didn’t hold up. So, I turned off the chat feature, played a little more, reducing my 5/10 loss by a hundred.

I do like playing where there is a bad-beat jackpot possibility… I won two different ones this year. Didn’t win one on-line but won the bad beat jackpot for $8900 with aces full of jacks beaten by 4A’s w/K, at Sycuan Casino in San Diego. In December I got the small end for $3,000 at Pechanga Casino in Temecula, by beating Aces, full of tens with 4 tens. (There is a long interesting story of how that hand finished 2 minutes after the time the jackpot doubled and what we had to go through to get the floor manager to pay the double jackpot rate. But, I will tell that story at another time.)

The bottom line is all my wins at the end of each month, are at live poker. I am down on-line the same amount I am up at live games. Yet, I don’t want to quit on-line I need to figure out my game and what kind of tables to play. Please feel free to email me any suggestions to pastorpoker at cardplayer.com

Again, Happy New year and may you all have a year full of +EV

Dave

Learning to be a Blogger....... It is not Rocket Science.. but not as easy as it looks.....

Ok,
This is my second Blog post and it took me about 15 minutes to figure it out. Sometimes, I make it too difficult for myself.

Ok, I have been using the Internet since Al Gore was in grade school and I have taught people to become Computer Network Engineers by becoming Microsoft Certified System Engineers but there is so much about the Internet I don't know how to do, like blogging, producing webcasts & podcasts, or creating a interesting website.

"Deep thought alert!" Internet & Computers are similar to Poker & Hold'em, it only takes a few hours to learn how to play them but a lifetime to really be good at them. And there are millions of people who think they really are good at them....... when they know so very little of what there is to know..... (LoL)

Here is another similarity from my personal experience..... When I first bought my own personal computer I really enjoyed using it, I tried to become really good at it...... I decided they were going to change my life signifigantly, and I wanted to become a computer professional.

I really enjoyed playing poker, I am trying to become really good at it, it is changing my life signifgantly, and now I want to become a poker professional. grin......

I grew up in a very religious family in Chicago that attended a little pentecostal church... in case you don't know what that is, watch the movie "The Apostle" and you will get a pretty good idea. Dancing, smoking, going to movies, reading the comics before Church on Sunday, drinking, and playing cards, especially poker was WRONG!, EVIL, BAD, SINFUL, etc, etc, etc..... In fact playing Cards were somehow, "of the devil" and thought to mock God, the Church, The Trinity, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and everything else we all held "near & dear". (There was an exception, we could play Rook, with Rook cards. Don't ask me to explain why.... grin)

I was a good little church boy and didn't do any of the above, except the comics & I liked doing magic tricks and strategy games with cards... like poker.


So what do good little boys from churches like that do for a living...? why they become church pastor's of course. So off to Bible College I went to become a ordained pastor.

Playing pool wasn't one of those things strictly forbidden, and since it wasn't, I didn't bother to tell anyone I played for money at the local pool room, but I was able to win enough to pay for my ticket to L.A. where the Bible College was located.

I found a job at the L.A. Times at a copy boy in the evening and when I would get off work at midnight I would hang around with my Bible College Roomate Bruce and we would play pool in the L.A. Times employee lounge until Sunrise, fully intending to dutifully attend classes on the Old Testament and Greek and Hebrew. But soon, the sounds of snores could be heard coming from the beds in our dorm room while our classmates learned their Hebrew and Greek in the classroom.

By the end of that first semester I was learning how to march and shoot guns for our Uncle Sam and a pround member of the United States Army......... Bible College would have to wait... But, I would be back...........

Going pro... My journey to become a successful professional poker player

In the third week of January I was playing poker at the Sycuan Casino in San Diego, California when I looked down and saw a pocket pair of jacks. Three aces fell on the flop, and only me, and a young man in seat 9 were still betting. Two more cards were placed on the table, a seven, then a three The young man turned over an Ace/King. As I showed my losing hand, everybody at the table started yelling. I had just won a "bad-beat" jackpot and my portion was $8,900.

That evening must have loosened something in my head, because from that evening of poker, came the idea that I could become a professional poker player.

This blog narrates some of my experiences in 2005 and the ones I will have in 2006 and beyond, on my way to "going pro".. the dream of many people... will I make it?

I invite you to join me on this adventure and see if I make it?