Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Poker Challenge

Back on July 4 I gave myself a challenge. To play as many hands of live cash game poker and grow the bankroll. A lot of the pros have been saying and doing just this and they will grow a bankroll by showing it can be done. Ok, why not me. My goal was to play at least 100 hands per day. I would start out at the .02/.05 game and move forward from there. I also will start with $10 and see if I can get it to grow.

Here it is August and I am still going. I have now played 751 hands and my bankroll is down 80% from where it started. Wow, I didn't do very well. The last half of this month I have finally turned the corner. I went down in stakes to the .01/.02 level and started working on the game. Patience was important to me and has been something I have to learn with this game. I wanted to be aggressive and my bankroll showed it.

As far as the 100 hands per day, well it didn't happen. Along with the other things happening in my life I couldn't put in the amount of hands I wanted. Soooo, patience again shows that I stay with a table until it starts to break up and then I will usually shut it down for the evening. I try to get as many hands in as the table will allow. I watch the players and learn what they are doing and figure out what type of hands they are playing. Right now the plan is to keep going forward with this plan.

I did play an SnG last night with 18 players. I came in 3rd. I have been doing only the cash game so it felt weird playing in a tournament. I prefer tournaments but only at the casinos.

Having fun.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Weather is Changing

Wow, today is just a very nice day to be outside. I went out this morning and mowed the front yard and am watering the back yard. Tomorrow I may mow the back yard and water the front yard. I have been trying to keep our utility bill as low as I can during the summer. So far I have done well. The yard does have some yellow in it but it is not bad. I have been watering once per week with me going out in the evenings and just spraying the lawn to keep some water going. School is starting within a week or two and as always the weather will change.

We just got through visiting the Radiology Oncologist this last week and the news he gave us was not very good. Mom's cancer has spread more than what we thought from previous week. She has a number of areas where the cancer is and because of this the Physician is unable to help us with Radiation Therapy. We basically have two options now. One is to contact Hospice and keep her comfortable and the second one is to try and see if another oncologist can help us by giving her hormone therapy. We are persuing the hormone therapy and will have an appointment hopefully this next week to get that started. This will hopefully get the cancer in remission. She will not be out of the woods but at least if we can slow this down or get it in remission then she will have some more time. This is where I am spending most of my time working with the particulars of all of this.

This past week I have been working on Craigslist selling items we are no longer using and it has been sort of a mini yardsale online. I have about 4 or 5 items I put on and work with them through the week. Not bad so far. So much easier to work on Craigslist than Ebay since I don't have to worry about shipping and all of that.

My Stock Training will be done in about a week and a half. Even though I will be able to listen to the classes for lifetime I am and should be ready to get into the market since I have had all of the lessons. Do I feel ready? I think the hardest thing right now is the market itself. It is so choppy and you never know what is going to happen. It is not like it use to be where a company is good and the stock will just rise. A good stock can go up one day and then drop the next. Thank goodness for technical trading.

This next month I am taking another class that has always interested me and that is to get involved with taxes. I signed up to take the class with H&R Block. I am hoping that working about 4 months of the year and then taking the rest off might be good and that way I can keep my poker playing going. Maybe travel to some events outside of the area. The Tax class will be going from September thru November. This year has been busy with training in a number of things so hopefully 2011 will be a good year to find something I enjoy and can work at it for a while.

Poker has taken a back seat this month. I am trying to play at Jokers Casino when I can but my Mom has priority in whatever needs to be done. I have been playing on PS and my hand count is 675 hands and now I am down about 8%. I am making a comeback and it will take some time. Patience. I do need to play more hands but will be working on playing appropriately. Not spewing chips around. I am maintaining my education with the WSOP and I just signed up with another group that will have me doing weekly study and playing what I learn. That should help as well. The next major tournament on my schedule is the Fall Poker Roundup in Pendleton in November.

Continue to be busy.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Time does Fly

I sit at my desk every day and start thinking of the items I need to achieve for the day and writing in the blog is one of them. I have been busy doing other things and that keeps me from writing.

After telling my parents that Mom has cancer again the next part was visiting the doctor with the test results and seeing what our next options were going to be. We had Mom do the CT with contrast to see if the cancer made it to her lungs or her brain. Yes, it did get to the lungs. No, it did not get to the brain. She has small nodules in her lungs. Our next visit will be to the cancer center here and we will have mom do some radiation therapy. This will not cure the cancer but hopefully we can control it until the time it does not work anymore. We will see what the doctor has to say this week.

My poker playing has taken a back seat to this and I have not played very much. I did play in a freeroll last week and ended up in 14th out of 45 players. Not bad but I know the game setup has a lot to do on how you play. T$1000/10min rounds is really fast. Luck plays more in these type of tournaments. Me, I would rather play in something with at least 20 to 30 minute rounds and have a bigger chip stack to start with. I have done some Online Cash trying to build my bankroll. I am now at 639 hands played and now at -9%. Making a comeback. The more hands I see the better it is. Too bad I let it get down so far before working it out. I wanted to get 100 hands per day but now I am happy to just play a little bit at a time.

I have been spending some time on Craigslist selling items we no longer need. So far it is working out. Nice to get a little bit of cash back.

Still having fun.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Wicked Friday

The weather is hot and trying to maintain cool in the house is a job. Our yard doesn't look very good right now. Yellow spots. I have tried to water and keep up but the grass dries out so fast that is hard and I am behind. Then when you look at your utility bill and it is going up during this time it is hard on everybody. I see lots of yards in the same boat. One more month and then the weather should start to cool down and the watering should be a little bit easier.

I had to do the hardest thing so far that I have ever had to do and that was informing my Mom and Dad that Mom has cancer again. She had cancer a year ago and that was taken care of with surgery. We were told that the margins looked good and they were sure they got it all. Well, about a month ago she started seeing some bumps and we took her to the doctor. After a couple of tests and a Biopsy the results came back and they are positive. Now we are going to be doing some more tests to see how far this has gone. I am not going to look at the possibles but will only work off of facts. I won't know until Tuesday or Wednesday what I will have to tell my parents next. My Mom has Alzheimers as well so that does complicate things somewhat. Emotionally hard but I have to be a rock for my parents. I hope I can do that.

I am not playing as much poker as I would like. I have been doing some cash game and so far I am at 592 hands and my bankroll is still in tack. I am learning some techniques while playing and I think seeing the amount of hands that I am is helping as well. I will keep this up as much as possible. I do plan on playing Monday evening at Jokers. This is a Freeroll with a $300 pot. Got to take the chance on it. If I play well I will give myself the opportunity.

I was in the stock market this last week and the Market Makers took me out of the market early. They are so tricky. I talked with the company I trade through and we looked at what happened. I can't believe what they did. Next time I will do something different and see if that helps.

Keeping it together.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

More of the Same

Not much new to write about this week so far. I have been staying pretty close to home and on the computer. My Sister is here for a few days with her granddaughter and will visit Grandpa and Grandma.

I have been playing some poker and was able to get into a Freeroll on FT and placed 643 / 7500 players. I am getting closer in the multitable tournaments. My decision making skills have gotten better with the cards I am being dealt.

I played on FT again in a 45 player tournament and placed 11th. Ohhhhh so close.

Monday night Jokers Casino held a Freeroll tournament with T$1000 in chips for a prize pool of $300. This is a very fast tournament and I guess you could say luck of the cards would be on this one. My QJ vs AK with xQK on the flop sort of did me in. Will try again next week.

I have also played 498 hands of live cash game. I am trying to get 100 hands in at a time. Slightly different than tournaments so I will try to stay patient.

We got a leak on our roof and so I decided to try and fix it myself. I am not a carpenter, roofer, plumber and have never tried to be. I am also afraid of heights. Took me years to finally get comfortable to fly. I still hate landings and takeoffs. I finally talked myself into getting on the roof but when I got up there it was not a good thing. I felt I was not going to get myself down without falling. I then made myself get off the roof and Cindy called Rob. So Rob and Nick went up on the roof and fixed the spots where the shingles came off in the wind. I don't know when I will be able to get on the roof again. That was bad.

I have also been working on the Stock Trading part and have made a trade finally. As of this time I am still in the market and may get out on Friday depending on the price. Feels good to have the first one sort of under the belt. So far it has been a good trade.

We are now in August and the heat is building.