Posting

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. For me things have been pretty crazy and I am trying to figure things out.

I finally got upset enough with poker that I just backed off of playing for now. My mind has not been into it even though I do keep up with the blogs and what is going on in the news. I have written before that since WA State has taken away our right to play poker online that my avenue to being able to practice my skill is hard. Of course, now that the DoJ has taken away poker for the U.S. players everyone is in the same boat.

Playing in the casinos is my preferred choice but with the games that we have in this area they are not a good structure wise for me to continue. Way to expensive and more luck is involved than the skill that one possesses. So, at this time I will sit and wait for the chance to travel someplace to play or just wait for a better opportunity.

I must say my stock portfolio is moving along nicely. Not so much that I am just knocking it out of the park but that I feel that I am understanding what I need to do to play with the big boys in this setting. I have to have a strategy and I think I have figured out that playing the dividends might be the avenue for me. It means I hold the stocks longer but that teaches me patience and I am improving my technical reading of the stock charts. There is so much involved with this skill as well. It is ironic that some of the skills I learn in poker is transferred to playing the stock market or reverse for that matter.

Part of my life I never talk about is my health. The last three weeks I have been having issues with sleeping. I can go to bed at night at my usual time and in about two hours I am awake. I find I cannot go back to sleep. Makes for rough days. I have taken sleeping pills to give myself the needed rest but refuse to use them on a daily basis. So, just like tonight I am up and writing this blog. Usually I spend time surfing the net looking for things to learn or read.

It is amazing to me how people get tuned in to their bodies and know when there is something wrong. Solving the issue is another issue as well. What is the problem? You start to mentally go through the checklist of things you know. Is my diabetes being a problem for me? I know alot of things can happen because of diabetes. Am I for sure feeling what I am going through and is this causing my ability to not sleep? I do know that I tend to be better when I am up and not lying down.

I know that I have arthritis in my joints and maybe that is causing some issues as well. I just don't know. I do know that I have been riding the recumbent bike for about a week now and have been going at 20mph and riding six miles per day. I thought that might help but so far no weight loss and still not able to sleep. I guess I need patience for that as well. I will keep at it and see if that solves any issues.

I never thought that at the age of 55 that I would be without a job and basically be retired from working. I knew the time was coming that I would be backing off from the big paycheck that we all strife for and have a retirement account that we could use to get out and have fun in life. Isn't this the time in our lives to finally get to do some of the things you have always wanted to do but were too busy? Instead you feel like you are in prison and nothing changes. What happened to conversations with friends? I guess things change and again you are forgotten. Is that what happens?

I continue to watch my parents get older and I try to take care of their needs. They are both in a good spot. Mom is doing as well as can be expected with her Alzheimers and she is now with Hospice. She will refuse to do things at times and that is her perogative. Dad is doing well but he is loosing his eyesite. I try to be their for him when I can. I just continue to watch this cycle and to me it is sad to watch.

Anyway, I will continue to post here on my blog but maybe not as often as I was. Since I made this my poker blog I may now use it to continue to write on other topics. Maybe more stock stuff and other thoughts.

Have a fun day......

Tuesday

Today has been nice weather wise. Even though the nights are still a little cold the days are getting better.

Today was the day that I was going to go to Wildhorse Casino and play in the Seniors event. I really wanted to go but told myself that I needed to earn my way to be able to play. That didn't happen and so I will stay home. I need to find the games that will help me not hurt me. I will be looking for Cash Games more than tournaments right now.

I haven't played any live cash or tournaments for over a week now. I have been busy with things at home and then for some reason for the last four to five days I have not been able to sleep at night. I don't do well when I have been up so long. One of the nice things is I have some medications that I can use to help me sleep. Only drawback is I don't want to rely on them to get sleep. So, I give myself one and then back off a few days to see if I can sleep on my own. So far it is not working.

I have been working on finding a way to bring in some income from working on the internet. I have been working the stock market for dividend income. I am very close to closing my blog on the stock market and moving it over to blogspot as well. This would be a good time since it hasn't been up for a long time.

So much has been happening with the online poker landscape. It is so sad that something couldn't be done to fix this. So many individuals are loosing their jobs, online poker playing, and will make it hard for a lot of people. Whats going to happen with these families? I see some are thinking about moving overseas to be able to provide for their families. They don't want to do that. This only means more people looking for jobs in this economy.

I have been watching the Stocks associated with Las Vegas Resorts and Casinos. Will more people move to Las Vegas and start their careers in the live games? So far I am seeing that some of the casinos have more games going. Might be good for the Brick and Morter Casinos. Maybe more games will be available.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be good and I can get some sleep.

Have a fun day......

Black Friday

I had spent most of the day taking care of some of the financial stuff that I needed to do for my parents and for us. In the afternoon I had a couple of the grandchildren here watching a movie they wanted to see. I then started reading travel blogs and got myself going in that direction.

I have been doing a paper route for a person that did something to her foot and is unable to walk the route. Going to bed early and waking up at 0245 to do this route has me pretty tired. This morning was my second day and I am not sleeping well. I have never been a person that liked the night shift after 0100. I do well up to that point but after the clock strikes 1AM I am down for the count.

I was sitting in my chair last night and decided to take a look at Twitter to see what was going on in the Poker world. I follow mainly the professionals to see who is playing where and what they are doing. I was surprised to learn that the world of poker was shut down in the U.S.

My first thought was, NO, they didn't actually do that. Then I started reading more to get more information. My second thought as I was reading all of the complaints was, now you know what we have been going through in Washington State and it didn't seem to matter to anyone since it didn't affect them. Now it does.

It is amazing how when it affects others that all of a sudden it makes it important. I have been trying to use my bankroll in the live arena. It does cost more to play and you have to go to the casino. It takes time and gas to get there. Do you want to go out at that time to play and you have to wonder will there be a game to play when I get there.

Now I have to wonder what will happen to online poker? What will happen to the WSOP? The WPT? What about the Pokerstars and Fulltilt tournaments that have been put on where you find online qualifiers? Will the participation numbers go down? I guess we will know the answers in a couple of months. What will life be like without online poker?

I also "Play the Stock Market Game", and I wonder if the government in all their wisdom will shut this down as well. Think of what has taken place with that industry right here in the U.S. where people with power take the money of those that are trying to make it in life. I see no difference here and if the government wants to save us from ourselves then they should look at that and put some of them in jail for what they have done with the markets.

I am not very happy with our government right now and what we need to do as individuals is ask the appropriate questions before we vote for an individual to see if they fit what we need. It is like a job interview. I know the one time I got called and was asked to vote for someone the first question I had for the person on the other end of the phone was "Do they support poker"? Maybe we need to do more of that.

I really hope that this is just a bump in the road and that the government will get this turned around so we can get back to what we enjoy. There are so many other things that are more pressing issues for us in this great nation of ours. Gas Prices, Economy, jobs to just name a few and I know the list could go on and on.

Well, enough of me ranting about life as a poker player. I hope the rest of the weekend goes well.

Have a fun day......

Thursday

I have done nothing this week in Poker.

I guess I am boycotting Jokers Casino because of the high limit games they do play. It is up to me to get out and travel the highways to find the new places to play the lower limits. New one in Walla Walla I want to go check out.

I am considering going to Wildhorse in Pendleton on the 19th to play some live $2-5 games. On my way back home I will drive through Walla Walla to check out their Casino and see what it has to offer.

I have been using my culinary skills to make dinners the past few nights and trying to come up with something good to eat. I put together a Spanish Meatloaf on Tuesday night. I used 1 1/2 lbs of hamburger and mixed in oats, salt, pepper, egg, green olive with pimento and baked at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I also cooked up some corn and that was the vegetable on the side. My take on that one was so-so. I probably won't use that recipe again.

Last night I decided to make enchiladas. I fried the corn tortillas until they were soft and then rolled them with cheese, onion and black olives. I used a green sauce on them this time. I normally use a red sauce but the green sauce gives them a different taste. I then had a salad on the side.

What to cook tonight?

My mornings have been taken up with watching the stock market and looking for new dividend stocks I can get myself into. I am presently holding CIM and ARR for the dividend. The market is so unstable right now. Trying to even find a stock that is in an upward trend is hard. I will keep looking for that stock to purchase.

I have gotten myself involved with the TV show "LOST". I started with season one and now am in season two. It has me hooked and I am watching two or three episodes per night. Since we do not have Cable watching Netflix has turned out to satisfy the TV bug. I was able to watch the Masters this weekend by going to Yahoo Sports and see the streaming live broadcast. I found a site that you pay $40 per year and have over 9,000 stations to watch on your PC. Things are getting a little easier if you know where to look online.

Another day at the Physical Therapy.

Have a fun day......

Weekend Done

Stayed pretty low this past weekend. Not much news and didn't do much.

I heard that Jokers Casino has a $2-4 Limit game on Monday afternoons starting at 2PM and goes until about 6PM and then the Freeroll starts from there.

I walk into the Casino at 2:15PM and no one is around. The Poker room is quiet and no dealers are even around. Maybe that was a rumor except I heard that from one of the dealers.

I have decided to see if I can find another casino that does have the games going. It is really hard to drive to Spokane due to the gas prices. If I can find one in one of the other towns in this area that would help me out and make me happier. This next week I was going to play in the Seniors event at Wildhorse but I want to earn my way in and want to do that by playing live.

We sent our taxes in last night. Not looking forward to this. We owe this year as we did last year. This next year will be different since I will not have any income to report unless I find something before the end of the year. Finding work is hard right now and being in the mid 50's does not help the situation.

I guess we are trying to conserve as much as possible. Right now we are looking at changing our Car and Home insurance company. The difference from $1475 to $700 is hard to let pass. Saving that much money per year is something that will help us greatly. We have made some other changes and so far they are helping but this will be the biggest yet. We keep looking for ways to cut, cut and cut some more.

I did purchase another Dividend stock this morning. I purchased ARR and already have CIM that produces on a quarterly basis. ARR will produce on a monthly basis for now. Would like to pick up a couple more and have dividends coming in and that would help.

Have a fun day......

Off Topic

Maybe it is time to take some time away from poker playing and do something else for awhile. Or maybe not. I really don't play the game that often maybe just one or two days per week. I enjoy both the Cash game and the Tournament play. Maybe my dream of being a professional at this game was set a little too high. I am not one to play a game for fun and if I am able to earn some money playing the game I am more interested.

Having lost the ability to play online has really affected my bankroll and what I was trying to achieve. I was doing well online and the opportunity to earn some money was great. I don't have the option of moving to another state so I have to try and find ways to play this game and keep motivated to keep learning without loosing my bankroll altogether.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and most of them have to do with living a minimalist life. Since I have been out of work since January 2010, I have become interested in living on very little amount of money and trying to see how that can happen.

I would like to have my own business and trying to find what will work for me. I like the fact of working on the internet and it would have to be internet based so what could it be? I have been reading about blogging and how that could become a business. I would need to find something that I can do well and write about. This blog started out many years ago as a way for me to talk about my stock endeavers and then moved to poker playing and trying to make it in that field.

I am still working at the stock market and I have been putting a lot of energy on poker lately. I do enjoy cooking and trying to find things you can cook that do not require a lot of ingredients. Here is the one I made last night.

I used some leftover spaghetti sauce and cooked up hamburger. When the hamburger was done I put them together in the skillet.

Since I had some egg noodles in the cupboard I put on a pan and got the water to boil. I put some oil in the water and then when it started to boil put the egg noodles in.

I didn't want to stop there so I pulled out the head of lettuce we had in the refrigerator and took a few slices off of it and chopped it up. I put cheese and a few olives on it to make it look nice and since I like Italian dressing that is what I used. It was an easy meal to put together.

One of the other things I have been wanting to do all of my life is to be able to travel. My dream has always been to be able to go cross country on a motorcycle. Is that dream viable? I would take my time and use non interstate roads to accomplish this. It would be fun to try. I guess I would first need to buy a motorcycle to make this happen.

My stock market endeaver is going alright. I have been working on dividend stocks and trying to find the right ones at the right time so I am not tying up the capital during the non dividend dates. There are a lot of them out there and it is just trying to find the ones with the highest yield and not much movement.

I will continue to persue my dreams and keep the blog updated.

Have a fun day.......

Live Cash Game

After playing in the tournament yesterday at NorthernQuest in Spokane I decided that if I want to play in the Senior event at the Wildhorse Casino on the 19th that I would need to win the buy in by playing the live cash game here at Jokers. Tonight was my start to try and get myself into that tournament.

I arrived at Jokers at 8:15 this evening and purchased my buy in. I decided that I would play short stack tonight and see if that would work alright for me as it would at least save some of my bankroll.

The very first hand I got AK and when the flop came it was 10QJ. What a flop for me. I started to raise and get the pot to grow. At this point I don't remember what the turn or river cards where but I ended up loosing to a flush. I then decided that I would have to play a tighter game and get the money back.

The next hand I played I got a flush and started building the pot and lost to Quad 2's. Ok, this is not funny and I was starting to tilt a little bit here. This can not be happening to me.

The last hand I played I got a flush and lost to another full house. I am done playing for the night.

I guess you have to accept this happening every now and then. It is part of the game and I accept that. It just makes it hard when it happens on all of the hands you play. Now, I am not complaining but just venting a little bit before I let this go. Tomorrow is another day and I will go back to playing the game I like.

I go back and forth between playing Live vs Tournament. What do I want to play. The chances of growing the bankroll is greater at cash but you can win more by playing tournaments but you don't win often. Where is the trade off and which one is better. I have played tournaments for a number of years and love the competition. I need online poker to be brought back to WA state.

Enough of this. Time for bed. Have a good day.......

NorthernQuest Adventure

Up at 0600 and getting ready to make the trip north for the Poker Tournament today. I was on the road at 0645. A little bit earlier than what I had planned but that was fine.

I arrived at around 0900 and got into the Casino and looked for the place where they would hold the Spring Fling here at NorthernQuest. I was thinking it must be in some big room as there usual poker room has only nine tables and surely they would not hold it there.

I was told to go down to the poker room and when I walked in I was told that it was held there and that it was already sold out. They were putting a list together for the alternates and they put me on the list at number six. I asked where I should pay at and was told to wait and they would let me know when I would pay at the window.

The tournament started at 1030 and I entered the room and was told to wait there to see if I would get in. I later learned that being an alternate does not guarantee you a spot in the tournament. The first three rounds were 20 minutes in length and if you did not get into the tournament within that hour then you would not be playing at all.

It was in the third round that they finally put four alternates in and they asked me to go ahead and pay for the tournament. I paid the money and now waited. With two minutes to go in the third round it looked like I was not going to make it into the game. With one minute to go someone finally busted and I was put into the game.

The structure started at 100/100, moved to 100/200 and then moved to 200/400 and this is when I got in. I paid the T$600 to play my first hand and then it was break time. Starting chips were T$15,000.

Playing tournament poker for me is fun and I have learned to be patient and watch what goes on with the table. I ended up being moved to three tables during my play. Each time I was moved I at least was moved to the position behind the button. That was good for me.

During the Next three hours I basically maintained my chip count around the beginning stack. I would go down and then play a hand and get myself back up to the starting stack.

My one hand that I played that I have to wonder about. I was in mid position and had JJ. We were at 500/1000 and I raised the pot to $3000. I was called by the button to $7500. At that point I had a decision to make with the amount of chips I had. Was this my all in moment and my tournament life. Could I hang on and keep working my stack and give up this hand. What did he re-raise with? I was putting him on AK, AQ at least over cards. Did I want to race with this guy? Was he just bluffing me and trying to get me off of my hand? He definitely had more chips than I had. I ended up throwing my hand away.

I did get AA once during the day and I raised and no one called me. That ended up being a waste. Maybe I should have just limped in and waited for someone to call me. So, there were a couple of times that I didn't get the chips to increase. It could be how I played them and my betting. I will have to think about it some more and figure out how I would bet the next time I have those hands.

I ended up going out of the tournament in 36th place. There were 105 runners starting in this tournament. Getting that far for me was a positive and I was happy with my play today. They paid ten players and being twentysix from the money was acceptable.

My next tournament will be on April 19th at Wildhorse Casino. Time to get myself some more study time before the event.

Have a fun day......

New Season

We start a new season of Baseball. It is so nice to see the season start up again. I don't get much of a chance to watch baseball but I do try to keep up with what is happening.

When I was growing up I lived in Indio, CA and what I remember is Football. We had one of those vibrating boards and we would actually purchase the little men and paint them to be the teams. We had quite a few of them and my brother and I would have our own season with the teams we had built up. It was fun.

I didn't know about baseball until we moved in 1968 to Seattle, WA area and then we found out about the Baseball team Seattle Pilots. Our dad would take us to see the Basketball Seattle Supersonics. At that time the Seattle Pilots were sold and went to Milwaukee and became the Brewers and a few years later we got the Mariners. My favorite Baseball team has to be the Seattle Mariners. My Football team is the now St. Louis Rams. I really never did get into Basketball.

I ended up playing Men's Fast Pitch Softball from High School through College and City League. I played Catcher and had a lot of fun. I liked the strategy of playing and having team mates to help win the game.

Because I haven't been one of those top notch players I gravitated to playing sports that only required a single person to compete. I felt that I needed to rely on myself to win and not depend on others to carry me through. I got myself into Golf and now into playing Poker. I can push myself to learn and do better if I work on myself.

Today was a day to work on the yard and get it mowed for the first time of the season. I will start watering this next week as well. Got to start it up sometime.

I will leave early on Tuesday morning to Spokane and play in the Seniors tournament and push myself to do well. I am prepared for battle.

Have a fun Day........

Tournament Play

After my setback on Tuesday night I decided to play in one more tournament on Friday afternoon to get ready for the Seniors event.

Every time I walk into the casino to play live I get that tug to play more tournaments. I have figured it out as the competition that I like and since I have always been a very competitive person in whatever I play that is the drive to do more. I really want to do well in the cash games because that is where the money is to grow the bankroll.

I am hoping to do well in Spokane on Tuesday in the tournament and then I would like to play some live cash if I get knocked out early. My first goal is to make the money in the tournament and then go from there. I will have my game face on and have my brain in the right frame of mind.

When I played in the tournament here at Jokers yesterday afternoon I did well. I got down to 12th place, my usual spot, and then I started to do the one thing I didn't want to do. I was looking for the right cards to push all in. I found a suited A5 and went all in hoping everyone would fold and everyone did except one person with K4. He flopped 4x4 and that was the tournament for me.

Why did I do that? I still had time and I had over T$10,000 in chips with the blinds at 400/800. For some reason I get that feeling I need to be more aggressive at this point and it fails me. I need to put up a big sign in front of me that says "Patience". Maybe have people start texting me and telling me to be "Patient".

C's sister is here and we are enjoying her visit. I will lay back and get some rest and hope for a good trip up and back on Tuesday.

Have a fun day......