Tuesday

I am working my new schedule of five days in a row and when I get to work today we find out there are five dealers scheduled. I offered to take the day off and that would allow me to play some poker and I needed to visit the Diabetic Learning Center. I ended up playing in the morning $2 tournament I cashed for $40. I was also playing some live and after I was done for the day I was up $5. I bought in for the $65 deepstack tournament as well. Right now I feel like I am playing well and I want to keep pushing the tournaments. I will start playing the deepstack and try to place. The evening tournament was going well for me and I was chipping up nicely. My last hand was 77 and I called to see if I could get a set. The flop came out xx7 and I bet $3000. The other person raised and I went all in. He turned over KK. The turn was a blank and the river was the K. That was my tournament. I don't feel bad about what I did and I would have liked to continue but that didn't happen. I will plan on playing next week. The end of the month is today and I will be interested to see how I did for the month. Have a fun day......

Weekend Review

I know this is Sunday but since my weekend begins on Friday and basically my play will end on Saturday this is the way I see my weekend. On Friday I went into the casino and sat down in the live game. I was able to win a few hands before they started the tournament. I didn't do well in this tournament so I went back to the live game and waited for it to start. During the time waiting for the big 3PM tournament I was able to get my $40 buy in at the live $2-$6 table up to $260. I had my Aces cracked for a nice $100 and then the hands just kept coming to get me chipped up. I am starting to understand what to do with this level of play. It is a river game but if I remain patient I can win some hands depending on the players I am up against. I did have the High Hand for awhile until it got beat right before the tournament started. I do have issues with this and voiced my concern to the poker manager. I know the hands are to go to the river to be considered in the high hand and this person only had 4 cards on the board and he claimed he had the high hand. My complaint was overruled in this case and for $25 and customer service I did not push it any further. I just know I did have the high hand but not the money that goes with it. Again my tournament did not go well and I was headed out to do my workout at Club24. Wow, what a workout when you are upset. I did not feel any pain through that one. I went back to the casino to play the live games again since this was the $50 high hands every half hour promotion. I played for two hours and didn't get one but I did increase my chip stack for $35 and it was time for me to leave. Overall for the night I made $301 and I was a happy camper. My bankroll appreciates this as well. Have a fun day.......

Thursday

I have been putting in the hours working and not playing any tournaments. The schedule doesn't allow for a lot of play time. I am still playing some live just to fill up the table until others show up and then I get off. The last couple of days of playing I have gone away even. Better than loosing I must say. Today was the third week of our poker league. There are fifteen of us playing and it has been fun to earn points and get to the final week which is week six. The first week I wasn't paying attention and just put myself into a hole. I got 5 points out of 15 and that wasn't good. The second week I needed to have a good showing and was able to get 12 points and put myself back into the running. This week I was able to get 13 points and second place. We lost one member so the max in the week now is 14 points. My point total is 30 and the leader has 37 and this puts me into 3rd place overall. Three more weeks to get myself into a better position. We are going to start another poker league in August and this one will run on Saturday afternoons. Having something different is fun for us and our customers. This weekend is big for us as we are going to be giving away $50 every half hour for high hands. Should create a lot of play at the tables. Have a fun day......

Wildhorse Journey

Friday morning I started my journey down to the Wildhorse Casino to play in the Noon tournament. I like the Season Roundups that they put on and the cost is not bad either. This tournament was a total of $120 and we got T$10,000 in chips to start. I would need every one of them before I left town. My day was a tale of three different sessions over five rounds of 30 minutes each. When I start a tournament my first thing is not to play very many hands and if I do I will play only the best hands unless I am in the blinds and it is cheap to see cards. Also when you first sit down and look over the table and are looking for the fish and you don't see one then you are it. At this point they should have put a worm out there for me and I would have taken it. The first hand that basically started the down trend for me was the one I was in the BB. I held 24 and everybody just called. The flop comes AA3 and now what do I do. One person bets I call. The 5 comes on the turn. Again she bets I call. A 7 comes on the river and this time I bet and she calls and she turns ove A7 for a full house and I have the straight. Very nice. After that hand I just went downhill from there. I was at about T$3000 in chips and needed to do something at this point. I kept at it and finally won a hand and during this session I was able to build my stack back up to around T$9000 in chips. Then the break comes and I decide I need to change things up a bit and went out and got my Fedora to hide my face more. It worked for awhile and then the hand that was my demise. I had J10 and the flop came 8Q9. The turn was an x and then the river was a K. I push all in and she calls and she turns over A7. Both hands that got me today was the A7. When I left today I took the long way home just to go for a drive. My other issues was my Blood Sugars. I could not get them to go down today even though I was trying to control with insulin. I am not sure what was happening. I was sweaty most of the day and just did not feel that I was in that much control at the table with my body being tired for some reason. Need to figure this out. I am working out at Club 24 and the Revolutions class is a little bit better this last week. I am hoping I will be able to really get into them and get this weight off. I know that will help the diabetis issue as well. Have a good day.....

Monday

I made it through the weekend working at the casino. Not much to talk about as the days were normal in their routine. I did get to the Club 24 yesterday and did the workout on the treadmill and the recumbant bike. I am thinking I may go ahead and work out six days per week instead of the five I am doing now. This would give me four days of the bike and treadmill and then the two days of Revolutions. I watched the "Extreme Makeover" last night and it does give me inspiration to keep moving and it also lets me know that this is a journey with no end. This will be my life style change and I will need to keep working at this. Nutrition is an area that is my concern and being diabetic I am now watching my Blood Sugars a little bit closer. I have been in the 70's before meals and will need discuss this with the diabetic learning center to see what needs to be done. I don't want to make changes until I know for sure that this is working for me. Monday is my day off from dealing poker and I went in to the casino to play the Noon tournament. I ended up cashing in the tournament which is good as I am getting ready to play in the summer tournament at "Wildhorse Casino". I will be playing in the Friday tournament. My plan is to drive down Thursday evening and then play the next day. Maybe play some live as well. Have a good day......

Thursday

My play today in the poker room was not very good. Today was a day off and I spent my time playing in two tournaments. I also spent time at the live table and did very poorly today. It just seemed that today when I did get a hand to play someone had one just a little bit better. Oh well thats poker, right? Islands Casino started league play today. There are 15 of us playing for the next six weeks to see if we can get the ultimate prize. I really like the format and it is fun to play even if I did go out early and now have five points. There will be five more weeks to get this turned around. I did my workout today at Club 24 and started the Revolution circuit and boy did that workout get me. I felt I needed to get myself into Revolutions and not feel comfortable in the Foundations class. It was time to start pushing myself and trying to make this happen. I am actually anxious to go to the gym now and get the workout done. I am still trying to get the time schedule down for me when I will do my time in the gym. I like the 5:35 class a little bit better than the 6:30 Foundation as for me it pushed dinner a little bit closer to my bedtime. Tomorrow I will be back at the gym and will do my treadmill and bike work out. My legs are feeling it and hopefully I can build some strength and stamina. I know already I feel better. My blood sugars are better before mealtimes and some of that is due to the meals I am eating. I still have to work on the nutrition aspect of this project. My issues being diabetic is carbohydrates vs calories. I have watched carbs and sometimes the calories are forgotten. I need to get some rest. Have a fun day.....

Wednesday

I was asked if I would come in and play the live game on Sunday night. Even though I was scheduled to work the next day I figured I would stick around for a couple of hours. I started my session at 8:30PM and stayed till 11:15. This was a little bit more time than I wanted but I was sort of forced into staying longer. At around 9PM I got pocket 8's and I decided to call the bets to see if I could hit a set. On the flop came an 8 and at that point I am in the pot as long as a flush or straight possibility doesn't show up. Wouldn't you know it the flop came up with two diamonds and I needed to raise the flop to get the diamond flush chasers out of the pot. On the turn was a card that really didn't scare me and no flush available yet. I had two callers so we were headed to the river card. On the river comes an 8 which completed a flush but my quads looked good. Bets were placed and I turned over the winning hand. This gives me the nice size pot as well as the Monte Carlo of $50 and I was also the high hand for the night. This paid me another $100 if it survived for the rest of the game. Now I needed to stick around because if I hit another Monte Carlo I would get $500 for hitting the second one as well as the money for the hand. At 11:15 I was done and since I was having to work the next day my session was over. It was a good night either way with the addition of $150 to my stack. I did end up with the high hand and was paid the next day. I need to discuss the Weight Loss effort and what I am doing. Even though I started this process in May I am now in full swing working out on a daily basis. Right now I am doing 30 minutes of Treadmill and 30 minutes of Recumbant bike on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I am doing the Foundations Circuit training with Club 24. I had time to think about my goals and I wrote them down in my journal. 1. Loose weight. 2. Gain strength. 3. Decrease use of Insulin. 4. Decrease the use of medications. 5. Change lifestyle to eat and be healthy. I have to wonder if these goals are achievable or do I need to be more specific. I will have to think about each one of these and come up with my final goals. At least I have something to think about at this point. I must say I do look forward to getting into the gym each day and get this done. Have a good day....

Playing Some Poker

Now that I will be doing my exercising Monday through Friday it will keep me pretty busy between dealing poker, playing poker and exercise. My plan is to work my shifts during the day and then work out before I go home and have dinner. My playing time will be either Monday or Friday since those two days are my time off. I like to play on Friday since I have done rather well so far. Yesterday I entered into the Noon tournament which had a buy in for $2. I did well and was able to get some cards that I could play and made it to the final table. I ended up cashing in the tournament and was chip leader at that time. The tournament was a $200 quarantee prize pool and I walked away with $50. I was also qualified into the Saturday evening tournament with a $750 quarantee. The next tournament on Friday was the $500 quarantee with a buy in of $5. You can't beat the opportunity with these kinds of buy ins for the cost of getting into these tournaments and the amount of the prize pool. I did make it to the final table again and went out 7th and did not make the cash. I made a tactical decision on the hand I went out on and I think I made a mistake. I will try to not make that one again when I get so close to the money. Today being Saturday I worked all day till 5PM. I had qualified for the 6PM tournament and was pretty tired. I started out and caught some cards and tried to play my AK,AK and A8 and was able to win one of the AK's and lost to KK's with the other one. My A8 had flush opportunities with my Ah and three hearts on the flop. I lost to 1010 when the heart didn't make it. Being tired I headed home. On Wednesday I did my usual afternoon workout with the 30 minutes on the treadmill at 3mph and then the 30 minutes on the recumbant bike with resistance of 8. On Thursday I headed back to Club 24 to start the Foundation workout again. I was amazed with myself being able to jump back into the routines. I am sure in the next couple of sessions I will be ready for the increase of the workouts will be working on my nutrition. This will be a real learning experience for me and getting myself where I should be in my path of getting better physically. On Friday I was back at Club 24 again doing my treadmill and recumbant bike routines. I will be nice to see the weight start coming off. Right now I am tired and must get ready for work tomorrow. Have a fun day......

The News

After the month of the circuit training was done I chose to continue and work out three times per week on the Treadmill and the Recumbant bike. I am not sure about the other equipment but I felt at least I could work on stamina with the equipment. I have been using the treadmill for 30 minutes and then the bike for another 30 minutes and this gives me the hour of exercise. The other day I was asked if I would like to be considered to be a part of a program with Club 24 and have them work with me to loose weight and change my lifestyle. I will be sponsored by Club 24 for the next three months. I will follow their program and will blog about my progress. Needless to say I am very excited to have the opportunity to have someone help me change my lifestyle and be a healthier person. So, that is the big news. I hope you will follow along with me in this endeavor. I have been playing some live poker and the last three days I have come away in the positive. Today I sat down with a $30 buy in and walked away from the table with $85. I am working on going to the Pendleton Summer Roundup in a couple of weeks. I will play in one or two events depending on my exercise schedule with Club 24. Have a fun day....

Changes are Coming

I told you yesterday that I would post today about the meeting I had at 3:30. First before I get to the news I must catch you up on the events leading up to this meeting. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes back in 2001. From that time till I left my job in 2010 I was taking medication and eventually started giving myself insulin shots. It was in January of 2010 that I had gone far enough with diabetes that I couldn't control what was going on with the shots. I had gotten to seven shots in a day just to try to keep myself controlled. During this time I had gained enough weight that I was tipping the scale at 243 pounds. Now, for my height and size that is a lot of weight for me. I started the insulin pump at that time and to this day I am controlled by the pump. I try to watch what I eat and sometimes it is hard as I do enjoy my food. Not much has changed in the two years of being on the pump. I watch the biggest looser on TV and I go to the internet and look up all the different weight loss programs in the northwest and dream of the chance to make a difference with my life. Overall I have been screaming for help and figured there was no chance that anyone was listening to me. Sometime around March 2012 I started to ride my recumbant bike at home and was trying to follow a plan by biking across America in my bedroom since I couldn't do it in real life. I would put this map up in front of me and would follow the road where I was going for the day. In May of 2012 I saw an ad on the television about a weight loss program with Club 24. The ad showed people working out like the ones on the biggest looser show. Could I do this? I remember some of them in the show laying on the floor and not doing well. I figured how embarrasing that must be to be that bad that you can't do the exercises. Well, I decided that I wanted to try this program out and see if it would work for me. In May of this year I purchased a two year membership determined that I would at least do something. The first month was the circuit training with the Foundation group. My first day I was able to get through 6 exercises out of 8 and I had to go and sit on the floor. I quickly learned that was not an option. I needed water and air. I was unsure of myself about making it through. I sat out the next rotation and then finished the 3rd rotation with the group. My mind went back to the biggest looser show again and now I understood what they were going through. The trainer would not let me give up and the group made me feel welcome and supported me for the next visit. I think I am going to stop here and I will continue tomorrow with the big news I want to tell you about. Makes you want to come back? Have a fun day.......

New Beginnings

I named this "New Beginnings" because I feel like I need to start fresh. Yes, playing poker and dealing the game is what this blog is about. But wait, shouldn't this be about me and my life and what is happening at the moment? Then again I go back to playing and dealing poker on a daily basis. Ok, my life is one track and of course the blog is the same day after day. If I am going to start a new beginning then maybe this should be about more than poker. Maybe I should blog about the other parts of my life as a poker player and dealer as well. By the way, if anyone knows how to make paragraphs with blogspot please let me know. I hate having sentences running together with different thoughts. Back to the thoughts of my life. I am going to start blogging about my weight loss effort. I will write more about that possibly tomorrow night. Right now I will let you know that something big is going to happen with me and I am excited. I have a meeting tomorrow at 3:30 and will blog after that. Ok, back to poker. Since June 17, I have been playing and dealing as usual. I have gotten to the final table 2 or 3 times and have chopped the money and have been doing well. As far as my live game it is not doing as well and I have thoughts on that and will discuss later. One of the hands I played last night in the $15 buy in $750 Guaranteed Tournament was monumental in my final table. I had QQ and the chip leader who was exercising his ability to be the table captain put in a raise to around T$8000. I thought about this move and since I had the feeling that he was wanting to push people around I went ahead and went over the top of him and went all in. He immediately called me and we turned the cards over and he showed A10. The flop, turn and river came up blank for him and I crippled him big time. Now I was the chip leader. One of my sayings is "Don't wake up the croc". When the crocodile hunter goes on the prowl I am searching for chips. It was nice to finish with a good chop and each of us took home $100. For me it is customer service when I get the chance to chop with the players. I see them on a daily basis and I would like to keep them coming back. Have a fun day.....