Thank Goodness for Friday

It is nice to have a day off from dealing in the tournaments. I do enjoy my chance to learn the skill and will keep at it as long as they will let me do this.

I have been getting better with the all-ins from the table. Understanding how and when to do the chips. I do like it when you have one going all in and just having one caller. Yesterday I ended up having more than one caller and I was able to get the chips broken up properly.

I was dealing at the final table when I had four go all in with different amounts. We were talking big chip counts and one small stack. People continue to throw out numbers to me when I am trying to do it on my own and then I go into mind block with numbers. One of the players said "just let the dealer do his job". It was nice to hear that and even though the others wouldn't listen we had a chance to talk about it when they were gone.

It is hard when you have people continually tell you want you should do. I can block most of it but when it concerns time then it gets harder to hurry and think about what you should be doing.

I did have a chance to sit down with the poker manager and talk some strategy. I appreciated the time and hopefully this will get me back on track to the final table again. The concepts are there just need to work the table. After being out of tournament play for awhile it will take a bit to get myself back to the thought processes I need to have.

I have spent so much time at live play that it is hard for me to go back and forth so I will slow down in live and play more tournaments again. I will try to play the higher priced tournaments since the money at the top is better than the smaller tournaments.

I enjoyed helping a player a few years back understand poker strategy and theory and it looks like I may do this again. I enjoy helping others gain some knowledge and play better. We will see what happens.

Have a fun day.......

Helping Others

One of the things I really enjoy about poker is the ability to talk to other players about strategy and theory.

I am not an authority on poker but I have done a lot of reading on the strategies and I enjoy watching others play the game when I can. I watch Live@thebike and listen to what the announcers have to say about how players are playing. I attended the WSOP Academy and have even hired two coaches to help me get better. Putting those things in practice is a lifelong journey for me. To me it is like playing golf, when one item works then something else doesn't. When things come together you have one heck of a night and you can celebrate.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to feed a friend some information on my strategies I had learned and we have made a friendship that is still going today. In fact we played at the table together the other night. I understand his game and yet he understands mine. We can sit and discuss hands just as if it was a few years ago again.

Now I have the opportunity again to help someone. I hope it goes well. He is a good player and very methodical in his play. Maybe I can help him with the thought process and the questions he is asking himself. One of the things I would like to do is possibly coach someone in the future. For now I will keep learning and developing my skill with dealing and watching the players and the cards.

Yesterday was a very good day for me dealing cards. I even had one player compliment me on how far I have come in dealing the cards. It means a lot to be given the compliment and keeps me on tract to keep getting better. I know I will have bad days but I still enjoy the job.

Have a fun day......

Tournament Time

I have been putting a lot of time in live cash play and have not played tournaments very much if at all. This last week I got myself more involved with tournaments on the lower end of the buy in. Looks like things might change a bit here.

I bought in to a tournament yesterday and was out within the first few levels. I have been doing that in the tournaments and was questioning myself on why. I was playing good cards and I thought my bet sizing was right.

I came back home and opened up the book "Decide to Play Great Poker" by Annie Duke and went to one chapter only. It brought back to my memory of how to play tournaments. When you first start a tournament play tight and then when the Antes start you can loosen up. Changing your game is important not only for you but for the others to be thrown off on how you are percieved.

The tournament last night was a $65 buy in. We started with T$20,000 in chips. The caliber of players was different than what we see during the day. We had 50 players start and I played with these folks for 4 hours. I went out in 22nd place. Not bad for a first time back at the deepstack tournament. I played some good cards and made some good bet sizes.

I will be getting back to studying my books on tournament play and may play live during the day for fun and start using my money to play tournaments once or twice per week. Of course dealing tournaments is still the job. I just felt good about where I was at last night and knowing I can play with this group.

It can get frustrating but I will put myself in a position to do well and play the way I should.

Have a fun day......

Good Shoulder Bad Shoulder

It was nice to have the day off and get some of the stuff done that needed to be completed. Spending time at my desk does not happen very much anymore. If online poker was to come back in Washington State maybe that will change.

I played live poker last night and it was not a good session. I started out alright but by the end of the night it was over. On Monday's I give myself till 10PM and then I must go home since I work the next day. It was a good table and this was one of the nights that when I made a hand the other person had one card better. Maybe that is why they kept pace with my betting?

I did get beat on one hand that was good. We have a promotion that if a person can have their Ace's cracked they will win $100. On the even days it is the red Ace's and on the odd days it is the black Ace's. I got the black Ace's and proceeded to play them slow waiting for someone to start betting and I was hopeing they had made at least two pair. They did and I won the $100. Putting that in my stack didn't help me much.

Overall it just wasn't a good night. So far it seems to go back and forth between winning sessions and loosing sessions. I would love to put a couple of the winning sessions in a row.

Tonight I am going to play a tournament. I am going to sit in the $65 tournament that pays out really well. At least over $1000 to first. Wouldn't that be a nice payday. I have been backing off of tournament play but I want to see where I am at with this caliber of players in this area. It will be a long tournament. This one is T$20,000 chips and 20 minutes in length. I will need to be patient.

Have a fun day.....

Brrrrrr

Does that sound like it is cold? I had to turn the heat pump over to emergency heat last night since it is getting colder here in Washington State.

I don't think the picture shows you how cold it is but at least you can look at my nice Chevrolet Colorado. It is really foggy and we are scraping ice this morning.

Another interesting day at the Casino yesterday. After the Saturday fiasco I sat down at table three and was getting into dealing when one of the players starting bad mouthing the casino and then another person got involved and started in on the dealers. I don't take to dealer abuse. I am not the best dealer in house but since I have only been there 3 months I am getting there. I am not fast by any means but I am thorough and try not to make any mistakes.

These players are paying $2 to play this tournament. The rounds are only 10 minutes in length. It moves fast and when they take time to make decisions they take it out on the dealer to move faster so they get a full round in. I can't say much to defend myself at the tabe so will have to figure out another way to get this to stop.

Today is my day off and will take care of some family stuff and then I do plan on playing some live poker this evening.

One of the things I have tried to do is raise pre-flop to thin out the field. We get anywhere up to six or seven callers limping into the pot. Well, it doesn't seem to work. If I put in a raise everyone follows. If I limp everyone follows. So I guess the lesson here is when you are in a game where raising isn't doing anything for you, then just limp away.

Here are a couple of statements that seem to be true. Amateurs tend to raise big when they are weak and small when they are strong. Professionals tend to raise big when strong and small when they are weak. Maybe watching the tendencies of certain players will show a pattern that you can exploit.

Have a fun day........

Back the Truck Up

Working as a dealer has been enjoyable and fun. There are some times that I tend to take another view of what I am doing.

I know I am not the fastest dealer on the staff. I take pride in being able to deal the cards and work hard to not make any mistakes. My issue right now and always has been the all in dividing of the chips when I have action from at least two people. Of course I prefer when I have all ins and everyone has chips in the middle. I will deal the cards and then work out the chip counts after. Not sure that is always the correct way of dealing with this but it seems to work for me right now.

Yesterday I was dealing the final table. That is an experience all its own. I had two individuals that kept saying I needed to hurry because they needed to go to work. I was getting more flustered and the other players were getting frustrated by the actions of the two. One of the individuals finally went out going all in every hand and the other ended up taking 5th place money and leaving. The table at that time settled down and became more enjoyable for everyone.

My issue is that if you have to work then why are you playing a tournament when you know you could get to the final table and it will take time. The experience for the players was bad and it frustrates the dealer. Enough of that.

I ended the day dealing at the live game for a little bit before I was pushed. Going from tournament play to a live game does present one problem. You have to remember to take a rake.

Today I am headed over to deal again. We have a couple of tournaments today and hopefully get a live game going. It is not a huge day for us so we will see what happens.

Have a fun day.....

What a Difference

What a difference one day makes. I figured I would take some time off of playing poker but instead I went right back at it and made a difference.

I received a text from the poker manager that he was trying to get an afternoon $2-$10 game going. I had spent the first part of the day in a conference about my Mom and where she was at concerning her Cancer.

After that was done we went over to the Life Tributes Center to finish paying for the funeral expenses and also pay for my Dad's as well. Basically that is all finished and now we don't have to worry about the expenses when all of this does happen. Preplanning is taking some stress off by getting it done.

I then went over to talk to my Dad about the conference and let him know what we discussed. I shield him from all of the intimate details of what is going on and just give him the overview. At least we are on the same page and he agrees with letting me handle this. I just need to stay strong and get him through this.

I then headed over to the casino for some action and to take my mind off of everything else for a couple of hours. I bought in for the $100 and started playing. What was on my mind? Decision making. Make my decisions easier.

Watching for the pre-flop play and being smart about the post-flop betting. Looking for information and position. And the one thing that really worked for me was raising when I had something on the board. I remembered from the class I took at the WSOP Academy that only 70% of the time will someone hit the flop. I really thought about that yesterday when looking at the flop and trying to figure out why someone was betting. Where they doing a continuation bet? If I hit it what could they have?

Overall I felt I played better and was thinking the way I should at the table. When it was time to leave I had made back half of what I lost the previous night. I will continue to work on my decision making as I move forward in my study of the book "Decide to play Great Poker".

Now I am back to dealing for the weekend.

Have a fun day.......

Ouch

Thats about all I can say about my play last night. I sat at the table about 4 1/2 hours and just did not play very well. I guess it does happen sometimes but ouch.

I had my poker analyzer set up last night and when I wanted to put in the rebuy amount the application froze up and wouldn't let me continue. I lost all of the data for my play in the different games I was doing. That does not make me very happy. I will try to recreate the numbers but I am not sure if I can. I guess that tells me it is better to keep books than to rely on technology.

There is an area in my game that is lacking and that is in the area of raising. You have to ask the guestion to raise or not to raise? Why would you raise and when?

The first one would be for information. If you limp along with everyone else then you are giving all of the lesser hands a chance to flop something and take the hand away from you. The second one would be to narrow the field. I would rather play with one or two others than with a table of nine others because of the limp. The third one is that raising will give you power to win the pot. Sometimes being first in will win the pot. The other part of this is bet sizing. What amount will do the job without risking more of you chipstack?

The part of my game that needs the work is the bet sizing and getting away from limping so I can see the flops. I have become a post-flop player and maybe I should rethink that to become more of a person that will start raising and working on my pre-flop game.

Today I am also thinking of my Mom. We have a meeting set up with Hospice and the Care Unit she is living at. Her health at this time is steadily going down and we may have to give her stronger meds and she will be in bed now. This is on my mind and everything else is taking a back seat. The decisions being made today will be huge on what happens next.

Have a fun day......

Thursday

Same stuff just different day. I dealt two tournaments yesterday. Very uneventful I must say. I do have one person who is saying stuff at the table for me to hurry. He says he is kidding but I know he is just being himself.

I have been wanting to time myself in how long it takes me to get the cards out compared to how long it takes the table to get through a hand with their decisions. I know I would win. I say back off.

I have mentioned the poker manager and myself having a weight loss bet going right now. I walked into the poker room yesterday and he had brought me a box of chocolate covered cherries. How did he find out those are my favorite. I refused to eat one.

The poker manager will sometimes let us know which table he wants us to start the day dealing. He told me to go start at table two. As I walked up to the table I noticed he had taken the chocolates and placed them around the chip box. The smell was good but again I refused. I told the players sitting down at the table that for every winning hand I would give out a chocolate. Everyone had a good time.

Tonight is my evening to play live poker. I have a doctors appointment today for my diabetes check and then I will get ready to play.

I have to remember that when I receive the cards pre-flop, that is when the first decision must be made. This is very important since it sets up the next decision. Play or not play. Three elements to remember are.

Information = Power
Position = Information
Position = Power

Making the decisions at the start of the hand carries through in decisions you can make following the hand clear to the end.

Have a fun day....

Wednesday

I am trying not to play any tournaments and what am I doing? I played another tournament yesterday after I was done dealing the $2 tournament.

I know these are not productive and I need to just not play them. Either that or I should just play them for the fun of it and not put any pressure on winning any of them. Treat it as a way to have fun and nothing else. The other part of this is that it costs money and that comes from the bankroll. I want to keep the bankroll intact for the live games. Need to figure that out.

I have been reading "Decide to play Great Poker" by Annie Duke and trying to glean information that will help me play better.

What are my Poker Tools? Raising, Calling, Folding, Check Raising and Check Raise Bluffing. These are tools we have available to use in each hand we play. We also need to know the reason for our actions and why we are doing them. What are we trying to achieve in each hand we play? Right now the important part to learn for me is making the right decision at the right time.

I have to make goals when I play and need to reduce the uncertainty when decisions need to be made for myself. The other goal at this time will be to make my opponents decisions harder in relation to mine.

If I can introduce these things into my game and make them standard in my play then I can move on to the next part and learn some new things.

It just comes down to making the right decisions and reading the board.

I have been watching and following "The Dan Plan" blog. He is taking 10,000 hours of work on the golf course to become a pro. I have wondered what it would take to become a pro at poker and how many hours one would have to put in to make it become a reality. That would be fun to try and accomplish.

Off to work for another day.

Have a fun day......

My Day Off

The day was spent catching up on some needed items. Take down the Christmas lights outside and put stuff away in the garage. I went into town to do some errands and some of the stores I needed were closed. I guess those items can wait for another day.

I decided to play live poker in the evening. I would like to do Sunday and Thursday evenings since I can stay later but right now it looks like Monday and Thursday may be my time to play. Monday will be the short session and then on Thursday I can do a longer session.

I didn't start out like I had planned and immediately went down a little bit in chips. I decided to start with $100 of my bankroll and let that go and see where the variance of the night would take me.

I was asked to help deal a tournament while I was there since they needed a dealer. That was some extra money for the chip stack and worked out well for me.

After the tournament I was back at the cash table. We played $2-$6 for awhile and then moved up to the $2-$10 level. I had now put in the extra $20 and I was now playing with $120. I was making hands but this night they were off by just one card. I ended up putting in another $50 to see if I could chip up before my session was over.

On this night I wanted to win big pots and loose small pots. It seemed I was going the other direction. I can take something away from this session and that is continue to read the cards and get away when I know I am beat and quit wanting to see the other persons cards just to see them. I know it is nice to see what the other person is playing but in this game I don't find people bluffing.

Today is the big day for the day crew. We have a tournament that brings in some good players and it is fun to deal to them.

Here it is the second day of the weight loss challenge and my weight is 227. There may be some changes to this challenge in the near future. There seems to be others that want to be involved with this and it could grow to be quite the challenge. Cindy purchased food so that we will eat more at home and not at restaurants so much. Restaurant food is easier for us since our schedules are so crazy right now. Just have to make this work.

Have a fun day......

Sunday Tournaments

On Sunday we have a couple of tournaments. I have gotten to enjoy dealing on this day. We do end up with a lighter turnout than we do on the weekdays. I guess you can call it the die hard regulars.

The first tournament is the $2 Freeroll. I know what you are asking yourself. How could it be a freeroll if we charge $2 for the entry. Well, we have weekly tournaments and then the qualifiers that everyone is going for. It works out in the end.

The other tournament that we have on Sunday is the Player of the Week. This has the added money and it is nice to play. I have gotten to play this one once and even though I didn't cash in it you have the winners playing the tournament.

We do have a pretty good live game going throughout the day. We have now gotten rid of the $1-$6 game and will be featuring the $2-$6 Spread on up. The reason for this is the Monte Carlo board we have going on right now. Any quads, Cracked Aces and High hands. On Friday and Saturday we have the Trips for $5. That one really gets going on those two days.

As I was saying the weekend can be fun and I enjoy the pace. Now for a day off tomorrow. I decided not to play in the live game this evening since I worked from 10AM to 6PM today. Pretty tired.

The poker room manager and myself have a weight bet starting tomorrow. We will see who can loose the most weight in 3 months. I want to get to around 180. My starting weight right now is 229. I was at 242 over a month ago. Since I have been working at the casino I have lost some since I am not eating as much. That is what this job is doing for me. I know I would feel better. This will help us push each other and hopefully both of us can reach our goals.

Have a fun day.......

Saturday Play

I arrived at the casino at 9AM ready for the big day. Today is the $1,000 tournament. I didn't know if I would be one of the dealers for this one. It would be a very long day and usually I don't do the 3PM tournaments.

I dealt the first one at 10AM and then got ready for the second one at Noon. I was getting pretty tired towards the end. I started dealing at table #1 and then it got down to the final table. I was tired and the players were grumbling a little bit. Finally a few of the players started going all in just for the sake of it to get done. I was finally pushed and got some time before the next tournament.

I also found out I was done for the day and I could play the next tournament if I wanted. I paid the buy in of $40 for the chance at the $1000 prize.

I didn't last very long in the tournament. In fact I believe I was number two or three to go out. I got 1010 and I raised. The flop came A10x. I then raised and got one person to follow. The turn came 3. No flush or straight draws. I went all in and the person called. The river came Ace and we turned over our cards. I had 101010AA vs AAA1010. This means I get to go home early.

I used to get really upset with myself for tournaments when I would go out but now I am more concerned when I play the live game. I like to do well in tournament play but I use it now for a distraction from the live play. Since I don't get to play very often it has been nice for the last couple of days to have the opportunity to play.

Well, tomorrow is another day dealing. We will have only one tournament in the morning and then the 3PM Player of the Week. Again not sure if I will be needed.

Have a fun day......

Amazing Day

It is amazing how you write a blog in the morning and by evening time you have done something completely different.

I wrote this morning about having the time off and needing to do some stuff in my office at home. After I got home from eating breakfast I started the financial stuff and getting bills paid for my parents.

Around 11:30 I got a text from the poker manager letting me know about the $750 quaranteed tournament they were having today. I thought that I probably should try since it was $15 and would be a great opportunity. I got stuff together and drove to the casino.

I was there early enough that I could play the noon tournament as well for $5 and figured why not do that as well as a buildup for the 3PM. I haven't played in a while and would give me a chance to get some tournament time in as well.

I didn't stay in the tournament very long and that was fine. I then went over and got into the live cash game. They were playing $1-$6 Spread. I sat down in seat 6 with $40. I had an amazing ride for about 1 1/2 hours. I got a couple of sets that gave me $5 extra in the pots that I won. I love the Monte Carlo board. On Friday and Saturday you get $5 for any trips or sets that win.

The tournament was getting closer to starting and the poker manager wanted to use the table for the tournament since we had 69 players signed up. He asked that we start putting our chips in the trays and he would take care of the exchange. I started putting my chips in the trays and I filled up the first one for $100. I kept playing as I was doing that and needed to fill up another tray at $100 and at the end I had to use a third tray for another $100. I couldn't believe what I just accomplished. I closed out the session with $301 in chips and started with $40. This was a good day.

Of course I still had the tournament to play. We had 69 players and I ended up being taken out with my QJ vs 99. The flop, turn and the river did not help me. I went out in 18th place. Not bad for not playing tournaments for some time.

Now it is time for bed and will get up ready to go back to dealing the tournaments tomorrow.

Have a fun day......

Frustration

Yesterday was my Friday for the week. I have today off and will catch up on the mail and working with my parents financials. So much to do and so little time.

Dealing the tournaments yesterday went well. I was a little frustrated with some of the stuff going on at the podium. Since we are a small casino, but number two in the Tri-Cities, everything happens in a 3x3 space at the computer. Multitasking is something that we all need and it can get crazy. Even having a person trying to help.

I did get to play my Thursday evening live cash game in the $2-$10 Spread. I started off well hitting flushes and straights and then cooled off. I was even money when we got three new people sitting down at our table. Things got worse from there.

The player in seat four, who was drinking, got insulted by one of the new people at the table. Words started going and I even wondered if this would go on outside. The floor and the dealer got involved and got the situation cooled down. It doesn't help when seat seven starts making donkey noises. What makes that person better than others? Seats nine and ten were together with seat seven and they all were trying to run the table.

My issue for the night was the fact that every time I was in the big blind seat nine would raise. I never had a good hand to raise back but that was my frustration. I have watched this group play before so I was glad I was on the left of them, but still it didn't help since I knew what they were trying to do.

My session ended when I got KK and decided I would make a stand against seat ten and I ended up loosing to a straight. Just couldn't make it happen.

After thinking about the situation last night I have decided that I need to make some rules for engagement and rules for my play and table dynamics. I need to make the session work for me and not just sit there since it is my night to play. I am thinking about what rules I want to put into effect for myself.

I know that decision making is very critical and I have a book for that. I stopped reading it when I started dealing but now that I am trying to play live I need to start my reading up again. The book will be "Decide to play great Poker" by Annie Duke. I am hearing a lot of good things about the book. Hopefully I can learn some good things from the book.

Well, it is time to get some work done before the new year hits us in a couple of days.

Have a fun day.....

Seeing Hands

Yesterday was a usual day in dealing. Nothing out of the ordinary in dealing to the players.

I know that as a player you should always watch every hand to see what is happening and try to put together the story of each hand being played. I have been doing that even before I started dealing. I have always had a hard time seeing hands and trying to put people on hands.

Now that I have been dealing for awhile I am starting to see the hands that are being made before the cards are turned over. This is really helping my live game as I am looking at the cards on the table more and trying to figure out what I am up against before I just take my hand as the one that is always going to win.

Something else I have noticed is that when I put out the ten cards to figure out who gets the dealer button at the start of the tournament, I notice the cards that are put out. People need to realize that this is a normal deal and if those cards are all low cards then what would the hands be like.

Just a thought. I guess it just goes with the area of noticing the cards more and your cards less when playing. They are important but you need to be able to look at what someone else is playing.

We have had a pretty busy week so far in that Christmas was over the weekend and then my sister came into town. Now we have Cindy's sister coming into town tomorrow. We are having fun seeing everyone. It is hard for us to get out of town since I now work every weekend and only have a day off at a time. No complaints here though.

Tonight I am scheduled to play late and in the $2-$10 live game. Hopefully I will do well.

Have a fun day.......

Unusual Request

I had the most unusual request yesterday. I was sitting in the box dealing on table #1. We were down to two tables getting close to combining into the final table. The guy in the number 6 seat looks at me and tells me to slow down. I tell him that what I usually get is the opposite and that is to speed up.

I have been doing this for 2 1/2 months now and the request struck me as being funny. Once he found out the length of time I have been dealing he says to me that I am doing fine.

I have had a number of people tell me that they can see a difference from when I started. That means a lot to me since I quit two times in the first month. I am glad I hung on and am still learning the skill of dealing. I know I still have a ways to go but at least the skill is getting better.

I had another dealer at the table yesterday and she was playing the tournament. She was holding a conversation with one of the players about how she knows how he plays. Since she deals she has a read on what how some the players will play their cards. I mentioned to the table that you ought to see my book. One of the players took it seriously and asked if I really had a book on players. I told him no, I was just joking. It's all in my head. Not a bad idea though.

Last night was our adult dinner with our Dad. He enjoyed his dinner with two of his kids. I wish Mom could have been there.

Now I am off to work another day.

Have a fun day......

Tuesday

After having a couple of days off and being able to be with my family it has been nice.

We spent the time eating and then Cindy and I have been able to spend some time together. We are on such different schedules right now. I am working on my poker in the evening and she works long during the day. I am sure others are in the same boat.

I will spend some time talking about the past and the future soon. What did I do in 2011 and what are my goals for 2012. There are a number of personal things that will be taking place next year and will they affect my time at the tables? We will see what happens together.

One thing that did happen this last week was some depletion of my poker bankroll. Christmas and family and that was important. Now I must rebuild that account and get back to what I need to have to be able to play in the $2-$10 game.

I am reading a book called "Winning Low Limit Hold'em" by Lee Jones. There is so much information out there and I try to keep learning. The other great news is that Internet Poker looks to be making a comeback. That is something else to think about.

Well, off to work and see if we can get a live game going this morning.

Have a good day......

My Day Off

Yesterday was my day off and I had an opportunity to sit down and play a tournament with $500 guaranteed. The only problem with this was we didn't have enough players. No tournament.

Since there was a live game going I sat down in the $2-$6 spread game. I ended up sitting for 3 hours and came away with $56 added to my bankroll. I have been putting this information into my iPhone application and so far it is moving in the right direction.

I hope at some point this week I can put together my year in review. Just little snippets of the 2011 year.

Today I showed up for work ready to deal the freeroll and we ended up with about 20 players. We went ahead and dealt it and then we didn't get the amount of players needed for the next tournament. The poker manager at that point called it a day and we were done.

I sat down at the Spanish 21 table today and decided to play for a little bit. I ended up $5 positive and decided to walk away with that. I don't play them and feel the house has too much advantage. Today was just something to do before going home.

Merry Christmas to everyone......

Thursday was a busy Day

I got to work this morning and was approached by the poker manager. He wanted to know if I would be willing to show up tonight to be an alternate dealer.

The day was usual as we dealt two tournaments and mixed in the live cash game. By 3PM I was walking out the door and was time to get some lunch.

I have been enjoying Sushi lately since it is light and does fill you up at least until dinner time. I headed over to my Dad's place to get ready for the Christmas dinner the facility was putting on for the families. We got down to the cafeteria and we were seated in the corner of the room by the Christmas tree.

This was a good spot for us. We were served first and we were able to get through the meal with no problems. We were served Prime Rib with Green Beans with bits of Bacon and a half of Potato. It was the right amount and seasoned just fine. I told my Dad, why do you complain so much about the food, it was good. He just chuckled. I guess I need to be there on the other days.

We walked back to his room and I noticed the time. It was now 5:30PM and I was to be back at the Casino before 6PM. I said my goodbyes and headed out the door.

I sat down at the live cash game to wait and see if I was needed. We did end up with 4 tables and with me we were at the appropriate amount of dealers with a floor person. I dealt the fourth table and as soon as it was broken up I helped clean up the area and get it ready for the live game. I was paid my tip money and the dealing fee for the freeroll and I was ready to get down to business of playing.

Once the $2-$10 Spread started I put the information into my iPhone analyzer to follow my progress. I ended up staying about 5 hours at the table. It was so good I couldn't leave since I was building my chip stack. I bought in for $100 and at one point I was about $350. I let some of that slip back to the table and since the dynamics changed on the table I decided it was time for me to go home.

It was about 1AM in the morning. I walked out of the casino with $160 above my starting buyin. I shut down the analyzer and I noticed I am now at a $17 per hour rate. I know this will fluctuate according to the tables and what happens. Something I can watch. I am anxious to build the bankroll up and to keep it climbing.

Right now my plan is to play at least one or two times per week. I will work on at least 4 hour sessions and that needs to be on a day that I have the next day off since I am staying late in the evening. Since I am off on Friday I will make Thursday evening one of them. Overall, I am happy with my play so far. I do have to remember that when I don't play a hand it is just like earning the money.

Money saved is Money earned.

Have a good day......

Premium Cards

I hadn't played cards in a few days, at least not a $2-$10 game where I
want to be playing now. Since we needed a fifth player at the table and I had some time I decided to sit in and just muck my cards. This is called a "Butt in the Seat". I would also get tips since I was still on the
clock.

In these $1-$6 spread games I will only put $20 on the table and usually
do not take the game very seriously. Everyone will put in that $1 just to see a flop. Don't even think about raising from the blind since everyone will follow for that extra dollar. What does it take to get people to
fold their less than premium hands?

I was in the blind with 10x and checked when it came around to me. When the flop came out it was x10x. Since I had top pair on the board I
decided to raise and get as many people out as I could. I raised it to $4. I got two callers. The Turn came with an Ace. I guess at that point I should have just folded but since I was first I decided to raise and put in $6. Both callers put in their $6 and we had a pot brewing. The River came and another Ace came. I put in my last $4 and was called.

I didn't win the hand but the two others split the pot. They were both holding Aces.

Is AK that good that you want to chase the AK after the flop when you
don't make the pair? What does the guy have if he is betting on a board with a 10 on the flop? I figured I was beat when the Ace showed up on the turn but still couldn't believe someone would follow through.

I do have to remember we are playing $1-$6 and everyone will just throw money in just to be playing. Anyway my rant for the day.

Tonight I will be going to a Christmas Party with my Dad at the Assisted Living place and then after that I am going to try playing the $2-$10 game. I have built my bankroll up enough that I want to start playing and with a certain amount. I will let you know what my criteria is in a blog soon. I have been working on my goals for playing poker and need to put them down in writing.

Have a good day......

Disappearing Act

I don't usually have any stories to tell about the people I meet at the casino. I don't have any funny stories or things that happen to me that sound interesting to put in the blog. That is until today.

Yesterday I was working the floor after getting done dealing a tournament and I was at the podium working on the spreadsheet for the final tally of players and winners before it was sent to the cage.

The dealer in the live cash game turns around and tells me we had Aces cracked and I needed to call the surveillance to get a picture of the table and give them the information. Of course I immediately called and told them we had Aces cracked and he asked for all of the pertinent information. I asked the table who won and they pointed to a gentleman in seat 7. I asked his name and he gave that to me. I had to ask him his last name and he gave that to me as well.

I then asked for his casino number and he told me that he did not have one. Now, in order to be paid I needed that number. I asked him to go to the cage, and it was free to have one, and please bring that back to me. He agreed and I then told surveillance I would call them back with the numbers.

After some time went by I couldn't find the person in the casino anymore. No idea where he was so I left the slip of paper on the podium and explained the situation to our poker manager. He called surveillance and told them if he came back we would pay this out to the gentleman. We still owed it to him.

Today I noticed the piece of paper was gone on the board. I asked the dealer that was at the table if he knew what the rest of the story was. He told me that the person did come back into the casino only long enough to give the chips that were left at the table to the dealer as a tip. He did not collect the money from the Aces being cracked.

Every once in a while you come across some strange things.

Have a good day.....

Tuesday Poker

Monday was my day off and I did a lot of things to catch up to where I needed to be. That was a big list. The only thing I didn't complete was to put the Christmas lights up around the outside of the house.

I did get my Dad over to visit Mom and then back to the house to start cooking for the Christmas party for the dealers at Island Casino. I cooked up some Enchiladas and then waited around for my sweatheart to come home and then we took off for the party.

It was a fun time had by all. Gifts were exchanged and we played a game that was non poker related. My gift was the movie "Rounders" and the book "The Art of War". The person who picked the gift was the perfect person to recieve them. Hopefully she enjoys them. She has never watched "Rounders" and now she can.

Today being Tuesday is our big day. We have a regular Freeroll and then we have the $25 tournament. At 6PM is the $65 tournament. I am trying not to play tournaments anymore but that is one I wouldn't mind trying. A lot of the good players play in this one and it would be good to see where I rate when playing with them. Of course one tournament does not make the rating of how good you really are. It would be fun to watch the players though.

This evening after getting home we put up the lights around the outside of the house. They look nice. It was cold and I was glad to get back into the house.

Now I am headed to bed and then get back to dealing the game tomorrow. I am working on my bankroll and have a number I am trying to reach before the new year comes around. I haven't played in a number of days so am anxious to get back at the table as a player.

I am reading a new book. "How to Win the World Series of Poker (or not)". So far it is a fun book to read and it is giving me things to think about while playing. Maybe I can learn from this guy in a different way.

Have a fun day......

Weekend Work

As usual I have spent the weekend dealing cards. No different than any other day of the week. We do tend to have less players showing up for the weekend. Today was Sunday and we are struggling to get 20 people to show up and play the morning freeroll.

The one thing that does get going is the live cash game. We will start a $1-6 spread game and people tend to enjoy that one. We are trying to get people to change to $2-6 but for some reason they just enjoy the slow pace of the smaller one.

I will tend to deal the game and not play. With this one people will call everything down to the river and show that they were chasing instead of playing real hands. Just makes for waiting for the right hand and then play aggressively and take a good size pot down.

Today I dealt my first Regressive Bad Beat. I have won one of these a few months ago and then was at the table for another one. Today was the first in dealing this bad boy. The prize payout is $500. The looser gets $300 and the winner will get $100. The last $100 is split with the players at the table that were not in the hand but started the hand. In this case there were four players to split the $100. I was able to share in the tips of course and with three dealers on at this point it was a nice share.

After my work today I headed down to the Mid Columbia Gymnastics where a birthday party was being held for two of our grandchildren. They had fun playing and then eating the cupcakes. Of course presents were fun as well.

I am off tomorrow and will go see my Mom and then I will be cooking for the Christmas Party potluck for the dealers. Not sure what will be taking place but should be fun. Can't stay out too late since I will be working on Tuesday. This is one of our better days during the week since the buy in is a little bit more challenging. Better players of course.

Have a good day and a good week......

Early Friday Morning

Here it is 1AM and I am still up. I just got back home from the Casino after a 4 hour session of poker.

I worked today dealing two tournaments and then helped the poker manager clean chips. They look real nice now that they have been washed. Makes you proud.

Once the shift was done I then headed out to the Alzheimers unit for the annual Christmas party. They had the usual Country band singing and they were doing the usual christmas songs along with the other country favorites. Mom was not doing well and at one point she stated that she was uncomfortable and they went ahead and gave her medication. It did help but she wanted to go to bed and the music was loud for her. It was hard for her and I was glad Dad was not there to watch her. I will pick him up tomorrow and take him over to see her. She will probably be very tired tomorrow.

After the party I decided to go over to the Casino and play a couple of hours of live. I have decided to play with my usual buy in of $100 to start and see where the variance of poker play would take me. I was going to leave at 10PM. We were playing a $1-$6 game and at 10PM the game turned to $2-$10. My chip stack started going down and I decided to stick around because the game was slow and nobody was playing deep poker.

I ended up with one hand that brought me back. I came up with JJ's and I called to see a flop at $2. The flop was all low cards so I raised it up and got 3 or 4 callers. The turn was low as well and it gave someone the draw for a flush. Again I bet and got followers again. On the river it was a low card again and the board did not pair up or give anyone a flush and no straight possibilities. I turned over my JJ's and everyone left mucked their hands. Wow, I just made over my buy in for the night. I ended up with $10 for 4 hours of play. I will take that as a positive. Especially with this group.

I played a few more hands to get past the button and decided I needed to get home and get some sleep. So here it is after 1AM and I am headed to bed.

Have a good Friday everyone......

Wednesday

Today was a good day for me dealing the cards. I was able to make the chip changes as needed. I don't know why but when I am pushed by the players it must make my mind stop thinking and start worrying over the process.

At the end of the 2nd tournament we ran there were four players and they decided to chop the prize money. They each got the $50 for their efforts and that isn't bad.

One of the players got up and after a few people left the table area he told me that he hadn't been to Islands Casino in some time. He didn't like playing here. Today he said that he enjoyed himself and he had fun and the dealers were fun and kind. He stated he was planning to start playing here again. It is nice to have a place you can play a tournament or a live game with people that you enjoy being around.

I had a conversation with another dealer from another Casino last night. We started texting since my phone number is on the list at the other casino to play live games whenever they are available. She was surprised to learn that I was now dealing poker since that casino wouldn't give me the opportunity to learn. She thought it was nice and hoped I would come back to visit them. Maybe the casinos are looking for players in this economy to help them keep going. We do and enjoy having new players join us for a game.

My brother took off and is now back home in New Mexico. Just in time too since today we have snow on the ground. Maybe it will warm up some now that the weather decided to give us the blanket of white stuff.

Well, off to work today and tonight I have a Christmas party to go to at my Moms Alzheimers Unit.

Have a great day......

Tuesday

This is the second post of the day but since I have to leave early in the morning I need to get this post in and then I can try and post tomorrow evening.

I was dealing today and got myself into some trouble with dividing up the chips with 3 or 4 players all in and with different amounts. I am trying to work on this and it is frustrating for me to keep having this problem.

I was on the floor and walked up to the poker manager and asked him if he would spend some time with me and go over this concept and how I can get better at this. I know it frustrates the players because of the time but it really frustrates me because I know I need to get better. I know I am probably making this harder than it should be. I need to just relax and get it done instead of stressing over it and making it hard.

I worked two tournaments today and spent some time dealing the live game. I understand this sounds like a broken record but this right now is what I do. I am trying to build my bankroll by playing and dealing. I keep putting the tips away and will be able to play a bigger chip stack soon. Playing for the usual $20 will not make it for me. I want to start with $100 and then I can get through the variance of the ups and downs of
poker.

I spent some time today talking with a young person who is working on his live game skills as well. We talked about the difference of tournament and live and the skills needed between the two. Hopefully he can improve but then again he will understand how I play the game. Will have to adjust some when he is in the game. I enjoy talking about the game and the people we are playing against. I don't get a chance too often to do that.

Tomorrow my brother will be going home. It has been nice to have him here for a visit and a chance for him to visit our Mom and Dad. I know she doesn't know who he is but still you can't just leave her out of the visits. She is getting so thin right now. Cancer is really a tough process for anybody and watching this is hard. We just want Dad to be sure and take care of himself during this process as well.

Have a good day tomorrow......

Monday Poker

After the Seahawk-Rams game I decided to go play some poker. I should have gone earlier since the game was so bad. I know the Seahawks won and that is nice but Rams lost and that doesn't make me happy either. Rough when you like both teams. My brother was happy.

I got to the Casino around 9PM and got right into the game of $2-$6 spread. Fortunately for me the seat that was open was seat 10 and a very loose aggressive player in seat 9. He was raising basically every hand and he had enough drinks on board that he was shipping his chips to whomever would call him.

It was frustrating when you wanted to see a flop but also good in the point that it made you wait for a good hand. I stayed for 1 1/2 hours and mostly waited and I ended up bluffing a two pair hand to get someone off of the trips. I had pocket 10's and two Aces showed up in the flop. I played them with raise and was called to the River when I raised again and the other player thought about it and threw away his Ace. I couldn't show the bluff. He was so frustrated with the LAG that I just told him he was beat. Let it go at that.

Today I am starting my three days on at the Casino dealing. Probably won't play much live. Hope for a good day.

Have a good day everyone......

Good Day at the Casino

On Sunday we only have to deal with the one basic tournament at Noon and then we have a Player of the Week Tournament at 3PM. There are 4 dealers for the first one and then we get a couple more dealers coming in at 3PM to help us out. If we don't have the players then we start sending dealers home.

Since I dealt the first game I then stayed around and another dealer and I started up the Live game and worked it till the next tournament started. It gives us experience in live game and does give us some more tokes before the new dealers come in. It all works out for us. We will alternate every 30 minutes so we don't get tired and gives us time to work the floor with people signing up for the next game.

Today is Monday and is my day off. Since I have my brother here from New Mexico I will not be playing poker tonight. It is important that I watch the Seattle Seahawks and the St. Louis Rams play tonight. Even though I am a fan of both teams I am a die hard Rams fan. My brother is a Seahawk fan and there you have the rivalry. There is a wager on the game tonight between the two of us.

I will be wearing my Rams clothes tonight and putting out my Rams rug in front of the TV. I hope it is a good game tonight.

Have a fun day.....

Hard Day

For the last couple of months I have been dealing at the casino. Even though I know the game and can play the hard part is sometimes dealing and listening to the banter about your skills.

One of my issues is making sure the pots are correct when there are all ins with different amounts. I know I struggle with this and I keep working on it to get better. I have gotten so I don't listen to the players complaints and just do my job.

Over a period of time I have gotten better but then you get a day like yesterday and only one time gets you all off balance and then you start to doubt yourself. For me it is more frustration because I know I could get this done.

Today is a new day and I am back at it again. I have Monday off and I may play some poker in the evening. At this time I am just building the bankroll up so I can attack the tables again.

Have a good rest of the weekend......

TGIF

Today I have a day off and I need it. I woke up the other day sneezing about 2AM and I was having a hard time stopping. It continued throughout the next day and my nose is stuffed up. I don't think it is a cold but it could be the sinuses having issues with the dry weather. The past few days have been very cold and dry around here.

I didn't play any poker yesterday. I did my usual dealing for the day and then went home. In that case I guess I don't have any poker related things to talk about.

Last night I did get to watch the Tuesday evening session of Live@theBike. I really think listening and watching the live game has helped me learn some things that I should be doing in my game. They were talking about some iPhone apps that would be good to put on either the iPhone or the iPad. I have put one of them on my phone and will use it for my play from now on. There is one that would be good to use that would track players at the table. I am thinking about getting that one as well since I do play with the same people quite a bit.

As I said earlier today is a rest day for me and I will be ready to go for tomorrow. My older brother will be in town to visit my Mom for the next few days and it will be nice to see him. All of my siblings will have come into town in the last month to see Mom and Dad. Hope the visit goes well and the weather warms up a bit.

Have a good weekend......

Being a Butt in the Seat

We are asked to be butts in the seats to support our fellow dealers. Even though I think that is a good idea I am not sure about the outcome.

I don't mind being a butt in the seat to help the fellow dealers get a game going. I will put my money in there and not expect much back as long as the others are doing the same thing. The problem with the whole thing is the mentality of the non dealers that are playing at the table.

In this type of game I will usually say something about my hand being made to the other person if we are one on one. They then have the option to fold or bet. If they have something better than that is alright. At least we are giving them the option to call or raise.

Last night playing in a $2-$10 game with overs to $2-$20 did not go very well for me. When you have a person that is betting every hand it ceases to be fun and the table does not play along. I basically invested my tip money to the game and I am not sure I will do this again.

When I play live poker I am there to increase my chipstack and play the game like it should be played. My options are to not play to be a butt in the seat and I have decided if certain people are in the game I will not sit down at the table.

I have to make better decisions on when to sit down and put my chips at risk. It is all about risk and reward when sitting at the table. I would like to have some sort of advantage from picking my seat and having certain players on my right or left.

Today is my last day to deal this week. Hopefully it will be a good day....

Bankroll Management

I don't talk too much about my bankroll since talking about money is not something that I want to put out on a blog. Maybe sometime later I won't mind showing what the whole bankroll is and how I am accumulating it through poker.

I do have a set number in my mind that would make me comfortable to be able to play at the levels I do play at. Every person is different and what you would need is different than what I would get in a game for.

I do look for ways to build the bankroll. My bankroll does not all come from the game itself. I would like for it too but that just isn't possible at this time. I am always happy to get on the positive side of the night and bring home cash.

I am feeling more comfortable playing in the higher levels since my style has gotten more patient and not always wanting to see the flop on every hand for a cheap amount. That in itself is the problem with lower limit games. Everyone wants to see the flop.

I am forcing myself to make better decisions before the flop and that way I can play the cards and try and figure out what the other person has. I am learning to read cards by doing the dealing. Seeing cards all day and seeing what people play is really helping me be able to again make better decisions and see what the story is that the other person is telling me.

I am learning that there is more to this game that I need to study. Back to the bankroll. I do feel you don't need a big bankroll to start playing the game you just need to figure out how to build to keep playing. By playing low limit games you can learn and build at the same time.

I have pretty much stopped playing tournament poker for now. For me the Live cash game is where I am learning and adding to my bankroll. I will continue to play, learn and be patient.

Have a good day......

Playing Poker

I was texted by the poker manager to see if I would be interested in playing Monday evening. Monday was my day off and I had decided that I would not go play poker and just have one day off. Well, I ended up going to the casino and putting in a 2 hour session.

I sat and waited about an hour for a seat in the $1-$6 game. I finally got my seat and waited for some good cards. Immediately I lost a couple of big pots and was down over half of my stack. I felt I needed to be patient and things would turn around.

I didn't have to wait very long. I got a set of 10's and then topped it off with a set of J's and I was back over my starting stack.

I then moved over to a $2-$20 game and continued to play well. I was very patient and again I was able to keep myself on the positive side with the chip stack. One good hand was K10 and the flop came 10K10. The other person betting with me ended up with K10 as well. At least we didn't loose with the hand.

Before I left for the night we ended my session changing over to a $2-$10 game and I stayed for another 15 minutes before heading home for the night and for the 2 hours I was able to cash out +$20. Not bad for the evening especially the stakes I was playing. This should be a tuneup for the bigger game I would like to play. Will have to do this again.

Have a good day.....

New Dream

The other day I was thinking about a way to get players into the casino now that we are Marketing as well as Dealers. I did work in sales back in the early 80's but haven't done any of that since then. As I have mentioned before it is not something I want to do and being responsible for getting them into the casino is not for me. I will do whatever to help but that I can't do.

I did come up with an idea yesterday and put it down on paper to see if it would be possible. This is following another casino and what they are doing as a promotion. Not exactly the same but close. Why not put someone into the biggest game we have with $200 to $300 dollars and give them 3 hours to see if they can have fun and possibly earn some money. I have the information on paper and may turn it in to the poker manager.

Then, I got another idea. If I am going to put that idea to them why not do it myself. I will have a set amount of money and a set amount of time to play in the biggest game. Can I make it myself? I am putting my ideas on paper to see if I can achieve this.

The only thing I would like to see if I can get help with is having someone willing to coach me a little bit to make sure I am doing the right things. Having my mind properly set to play this big of a game would be important. I have read many books on poker and have my own style but when put into a live cash game and the stakes are bigger I want to make sure I am ready.

One of the books that I think will help me is the one written by Annie Duke called "Decide to Play Great Poker." There a many great ideas and thought processes that I can use. There are others I have on my shelf I will probably get back into. I don't want to clutter my mind with ideas or strategies but ways to play hands and be productive.

I will let everyone know when I am going to do this and the specifics when I get them all nailed down. Coaching is my first priority and will be talking with a few people I trust in this game. In the meantime I will be cutting out tournament play to put all of my efforts into the live cash game thinking.

Nice to have a new dream........

Whats Good for the Goose...

You've heard that saying, "whats good for the goose is good for the gander"? Well maybe not.

Yesterday I was talking with one of the dealers about playing live and how to approach the game. We are talking about a $1-$6 game so not a big amount of money. We will get a game going in the morning before the tournament to try and rake some money for the casino. We as dealers will also sit in just to be a feeder for other people to see a game going on and when it starts to fill up we then back out of the game.

Now, I am not interested in throwing a lot of money at the game since I am not sitting for a long period of time. I also know that the tips coming from this game will also be part of my tips at the end of my shift. If I don't put a lot of chips into the game I know I could break even for the amount of time I spend.

This morning I wanted try out a play that was talked about between me and the other dealer. Money in the pot and I raised on the turn after the flop had been out and we called. The other person folded thinking I had a good hand and I showed the bluff.

What I got next was something I didn't expect. I was told that if I wanted to play like that come on and I would be beat. The player wasn't even in the hand. He also stated earlier he does the same thing only to put tips into the bag. I can understand that but this hand also brought me back up to even for the day.

I know one thing is that when I play poker I play to increase my chip stack. I have no problem putting in tips for the dealers but then I am not there to just sit there and do nothing if I am in the game. I guess I could just fold, fold and continue to fold but then I am not guaranteed in getting my money back at the end of the day.

Another day dealing poker and we will see how this day goes. Last week we didn't get a tournament going at all and ended up playing live all day. Tips were good.

Have a fun day......

Dreams

Yesterday was a day off so I spent the time playing Live poker in the morning and then played a tournament at Noon. What a way to spend your time off. I enjoy learning the skills and seeing the cards and learning for me is what I want to do.

I have been thinking about my dreams of where I want to be in life and what I want to do. I felt it all got messed up in January of 2010 and now all of my hopes and dreams are gone. Trying to figure out how to do the things I want to do is hard.

My dream of purchasing a MotorHome and travelling is gone. Playing bigger games in poker is gone. Having an investment vehicle with the stock market is gone. Most all of the dreams are gone.

Sounds like a bad beat story. I still remain pretty positive but I know that the things I do and worry about really don't make a difference. I have a roof over my head. Great family members and friends and I figure that is really all I need.

Yesterday the decision was made to move my Mom to a different pain medication for her cancer. We will try this and if it doesn't work for the pain relief then we will have Hospice move to Morphine to stop the pain. We knew this time was coming and now we need to get through this as a family and make sure our Dad is maintaining his health.

Still not sure what is going to happen with the job at the casino. With the family issues going on the job really doesn't seem that important. My time will be taken up with both parents at this point. I can worry about that later.

Have a good weekend.....

Dealers Night

The poker manager let us know that he was going to have a dealers night live cash game. This was to get us together and have some fun and not have any pressure of a tournament or live game.

I showed up at around 6PM and they had an usual $1-$6 spread game going. I jumped into that game since I had another hour before the dealers game was to start. At first my chip stack was depleting and I was wondering if I would have enough to start the next game.

Then I started hitting hands. It was nice to bring in some pots and I built my chip stack up where I was very comfortable. We switched over to a $2-$4 Limit Kill and that wasn't bad either.

By the time 7PM came around there were 2 other dealers that came in and one of the dealers decided to play in the pits and the other one came over and sat down at the table. No one else showed up for the dealer night out.

I sat at this table for a good 4 hour session and when I left at 10PM I was up $50. We had also switched the game over to a $2-$10 spread. I am not a good $2-$10 player but tonight it payed off and I was able to head home with a good profit for myself. Any positive cash at the end of a session is good and I will take it as a win.

Hopefully by being a "butt in a seat" when the poker manager has these games will be enough to keep my job. I am willing to play and be there to deal the games anytime. I don't really care about the hours as much as I do care about building my skill level at dealing the game.

I don't get alot of time to play long sessions at the table and it was nice to sit and just play the game and be patient on the winning hands.

Off to deal my 3rd day in a row and then will have tomorrow off.

Have a fun day......

Frustration

Today was not a good day at the Casino.

I arrived to work and before we started the live game the dealers were sitting around the table talking. The poker manager was talking about the new $2-$4 Limit game and how we were to approach taking the rake.

During this time he informed us that he had just completed the employee evaluations for all of the dealers. We have a new General Manager and he had a say in the evaluations as well. No one got a good evaluation and the reason for that is we are not bringing in new players.

We as poker dealers are supposed to bring in new players. When we do bring them in we are to notify the management that we brought in the players. This will help keep our jobs. The General Manager wants to replace all of the dealers. Wow, I am just stunned.

I have been there since October and I am getting more comfortable dealing in the tournaments. Now all of a sudden I am a salesman in trying to keep my job. I guess I will need to think about this and decide what I am going to do. My circle of friends do not play poker and getting them involved is not want I want to do if they don't want to play the game.

What happened to enjoying the game? Maybe going back to just being a player is what I need to do. We will have to wait and see. Two posts in one day is new for me.

Have a good day........

Changing the Game

Yesterday was my day off and guess where I spent my time? Yes, at the casino.

The dealers try to support each other on our time off to help keep the game going and bringing in the players. As soon as we have a full table then the dealers start to back out of the game and let the players go from there. I was not on the clock yesterday so I stayed in the game.

During the early morning session I was holding my own and came out of the session down a little bit. When the next session started, after the tournament, my chipstack started declining again. I was just missing the best hand by one card. A8 vs A9 type of stuff for two pairs.

On the last few hands played before the next tournament started I got AA. Now if I got them cracked I would get $25 with the Monte Carlo. If I played them aggressive I could possibly get myself back to even for the whole day.

I had two callers and they were playing their hands aggressive so I joined in to see if I could win this big pot. As it turned out my Aces held up and ended up back in the black for the day. Good positive day.

Starting today we will no longer play the $1-$6 spread game and will be changing it to $2-$4 Limit. Hopefully we have the players supporting this. Our new GM wants us to rake another dollar and this is his way of doing that. Hope it works.

Now I start my three day stretch of dealing poker. Let the fun begin.

Have a good day......

Deal the Cards

We had our Thanksgiving yesterday with the family. It was nice to have everyone together. The only one missing was Mom. It would have been nice to have her here but she is safer in the Alzheimer Care home.

Today was back to work in the Casino. I dealt two final tables today. It just seemed like it would never end. Especially with the Rebuys. There weren't very many of them so it wasn't really that bad.

I was nearing the end of the final table today with three players remaining. The poker manager had come over to the table and was preparing to pay the next person taken out.

I burned the card and brought out the flop and then one of the guys said All-In. I looked at him and of course it wasn't his turn. I turned to look at the other guy in seat 10 and was waiting for his action. He looked over at the guy in seat 2 and had that look on his face like what are you doing? The poker manager started laughing and looked right at me and said that one of the other dealers that has been there a long time does this at least two times a night.

I couldn't figure out why the crowd around the table was laughing. Then it hit me. I had brought the flop and never dealt the cards to the players. The player in seat two noticed first and that is when he said All-In. It was a nice break for everyone to get a good laugh before I could redeal the cards.

When everything was all done and the next tournament was set up I was able to go home. Before I left I sat down in the eating area. The Poker Manager walked by and noticed that I was sitting there and told me I had done a good job today. He also said he was happy that I had made the decision to stay at the casino. My first 3 weeks were not very good but I feel I am getting the hang of it and the players are getting used to me. That was a good pat on the back.

I did play a little in the $1-$6 game today and donated my $20. I need to get more serious with my play. We are expected to be butts in the seat and I guess my mentality is to donk off the money to the customers. I can't play like that. I need to stay away from playing when I am working and go play on the nights that I have some time to really play the game. I have to work on that one.

Today was the Memorial for a good friend. I wasn't able to attend but my thoughts are with the family. RIP Betty "Boop".

Have a fun weekend......

Turkey Day

Yesterday was the actual turkey day for a lot of americans but for my family we are having the celebration of food today. Since I worked thursday in the casino we are waiting.

We did have our usual tournaments during the day and we had about half the normal people show up. I use the word normal very loosely here. We play the freerolls to get customers in the door. I have gotten change from them to pay the one dollar and play for an opportunity to get part of the $200 prize pool. Some of them can't pay the $4 for the dealer add-on so will pay the $1 to play in one of the tournaments. We get 40 to 50 people playing per day. Not bad.

On this day we had a couple come in and they payed the one dollar to play. What a lot of them will do is ask for the Double ticket and take it to the blackjack table and then try to get the next buy in and then bring over the money for the next tournament.

On this day the guy decided to take his $15 over and try to double his money at the blackjack table. You know the rest of the story. He lost all of it and was very upset. He stormed out of the casino and slammed the door and it broke something on the door when he did that.

I get a telephone call at the podium and then find out he has now been 86'd from the casino. Maybe that will be for the best if they can't afford the money to play. They have to realize the consequences of their actions and what they are doing.

The cable guys have shown up this morning to rehook up our cable. I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday.

Gobble Gobble........

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Dad's 81st birthday.

After working today I went over and picked him up and brought him home with me. We fixed Enchilada's and Chile Relleno's. He really enjoyed them and it is something we have made in our family for many years. My Mom would make this meal and I learned from her how to prepare them.

He enjoyed the time here and talking with one of our sons. The quiet time listening to christmas music and relaxing was good.

It has been a busy couple of days in the casino. People are coming home from college or having the time to play right now. The rest of the week is expected to be crazy. We will have our Thanksgiving on Friday when I have the day off.

Have a good turkey day.....

Tired and Tilted

It gets old just saying that I am working at dealing the game. I have been doing the same stuff and then today I got the day off.

I have been wanting to learn the Omaha Hi-Lo game and have been putting some time in the books. The Casino is trying to get a game started for the last 2 weeks and at some point I will sit down and play some when it gets started. No one has showed up for the game yet.

This evening I figured I would take some time and sit at the table and play whatever was going on. It was the usual $1-$6 Limit game. We had a new person at the table and she was doing well. One of the last hands I played and the hand that basically took me down to the end was a hand that I just couldn't believe happened.

I was holding KJ and on the board showed up 10-3-Q. All I needed was the Ace to show up for the straight and stay away from someone hitting a flush. The turn was the Ace. I hit my straight. I raised to $12 and got three people following. What were they playing or where they on a draw for the flush. I said give me a red card to stay away from the club and spade flush and sure enough the red card came on the river and was a 3. I felt good about my straight and someone said that three may not be what I wanted to show up.

Turning over the hands were my straight and then the new person turned over the pocket 10's for the Full house. Tens over threes. That hurt.

It happens and I basically gave back the money I won the following day so it was alright. At least a new person took the pot and maybe some day she will play again. Always like to see new people get involved in the game.

Right now I am having a real hard time sleeping at night. With everything that is going on with the job and learning the new routine of dealing and then making sure my Dad gets over to see my Mom. I haven't said too much about her on my blog. She has Cancer and Alzheimer's as well. The cancer is progressing now and she is in some pain and being taken care of by Hospice. Watching my Dad deal with what is happening is hard. I had to separate them into different facilities because Mom needed the Alzheimers care and Dad was unable to take care of her like he wanted. I keep telling him we will get through this together and I am sure we will. I use poker right now as a way to get my mind off of what is happening. I guess I didn't realize how hard this was going to be on me.

Have a fun week. I will be working in the Casino the next three days and will have Thanksgiving on Friday when I am off.

I love my job!!!

On Monday morning I got up and got myself ready to work. I arrived at the casino about 9 AM and I started to deal the live $1-$6 Limit game.

Just before the 10 AM tournament started I was at the podium and the poker manager came up to me and asked me why I was there. Monday was my day off. I guess one day looks like another. Well, at that point I went home.

I did go back in the evening and played a 2 1/2 hour session of $1-$6 Limit. The game was good in that we had a person that was drinking quite a bit and he was winning but we all knew that if we were patient he would return the chips. He didn't let us down. Near the end of the session he was spewing off chips and most of us were getting our chips back. Too bad the game had to stop due to the tournament starting.

Working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Putting a lot of time dealing the live as well as the tournaments. Trying to get myself better by staying longer in the tournaments at the #1 or #2 tables.

I have noticed my hands are hurting more. I have arthritis in my fingers and it is really bothering them. I don't know how long I will be able to keep this up.

Have a good week.....

Learning

I haven't been blogging as you notice. I have been one busy person now working days. I had been working 3 days and 2 evenings until I finally quit for the second time working a Saturday evening/night.

I was put into a situation where I was out of my league as far as dealing the poker game. Playing the game is one thing but by putting me into the game on a Saturday night was way beyond my level of comfort. I ended up letting the poker manager know that I had enough.

I was not making the customers happy and I was slow enough that it frustrated them as well as myself. I felt the only thing I could do was go ahead and leave and then get back to my time playing the game and building my bankroll that way. He wouldn't have it and so he changed my schedule so I would work 5 days during the week.

I am now dealing the early live game and then two tournaments as well as dealing a sit-n-go inbetween. Getting these hands in is helping me to deal with less pressure and stress. I hope to keep gaining the experience and learning this new skill. I am a very visual person so watching the dealers helps my game as well.

I do need to gain some thicker skin. Listening to some of these people complain is something else. Get this. They are playing a freeroll and paying anywhere from $1 to $4 to play. This is with add ons so they pretty much get to play for a chance at $200. I get the chance of learning and we all should be happy. Not this group.

In the meantime since I am not playing very much I am building my bankroll for another chance at playing some live cash games. I do enjoy the chance and am learning to be patient.

On the personal side my Mom is not doing very well and that takes up my time with Dad as well. We will get through this together.

Have a good week.....

Friday

What a week it has been. I was asked to come in on Monday this week was my day off. That meant I had worked from Saturday through Thursday.

It is not so much the time at work as it is not being home to take care of other things. It is nice to have a job to go to though.

As I said earlier I haven't been playing very much poker since I started dealing. It has been time consuming for me since I am trying to do a good job at breaking up the chips and trying to get it out as fast as I can. Sometimes I feel like I am moving too fast and need to make sure I am doing a good job first.

Thursday morning I was able to get into a tournament and I got to the final table but was taken out when my two pair AQ got beat by J10 and a straight. This morning I went back and played in another tournament and got to the final table and this time cashed. It felt good to get to the end of a tournament again. I played live $1-$6 Limit and came out positive cash as well.

The Casino started a new game this evening and it is $2-$100 with a maximum of $50 buy in to the game. You have to be down to $25 before you buy in again and can only be $50. I put up the $50 and played for an hour and 50 minutes and was positive cash before I got AK and a K came on the flop. One caller and on the turn I went all in and she called with KK. That was not good. I would like to play this game again but will need a better bankroll for this one. I was being patient and then I must have had a brain fart to not recognize something was wrong. Put this in your memory bank and refer to often.

Tonight I played one last tournament and went out early. I am tired and since I have to go back in the morning to deal two tournaments I will head off to bed.

Have a good weekend......

Working

Sorry for not updating the Blog. I have been working every day since Saturday and will get a day off tomorrow.

Not playing much poker just dealing at this time. Miss the action.

Have a good day.....

Time Off

I showed up for my shift on Thursday evening and there weren't enough players to have six dealers on the floor. Since I am the new dealer I do expect to be sent home if I am not needed. I am alright with this.

What I don't expect to have happen is a dealer being rude or commenting about it in a joking manner. I am fine with playing and not working the tables but don't be rude.

I showed up to work this morning and we didn't have enough players for five dealers so I offered to go home instead of staying there. The manager offered to pay us even if we didn't have all the players but I just can't see that being good. Oh well, I am fine with coming home and I will deal with the other dealer later. Everyone has been fine with me coming on as a new dealer but for some reason I think he feels like I am taking hours from him.

I will work tomorrow evening and was asked to stay a little bit later so we will see what happens. Before I left the manager asked me to come in on Monday and be him. Does that mean I open? This will be interesting.

I have a table set up in our back bedroom and I have been practicing the all-in math. That seems to be the area I need the most work. I will keep plugging away and doing my best.

Went to the Dentist yesterday. Meds are so nice that I don't have to remember I was even there. I took my medication on Thursday evening and woke up at 3AM so decided to take another. At 6:30 it was time to get ready to go so I took another one. Next time I won't take three of them for the visit. Way too much.

Have a good weekend everyone.....

Alcohol and Poker

After a day of dealing cards I was asked to be the backup for the evening session. I said yes and showed up for work.

Today was a little bit different in that it was one of the dealers 40th birthday and everyone was celebrating. I know it was a birthday but to sit and watch poker being played with alcohol being consumed was hard to watch.

I am sure the hangover today was massive and will probably need some time to recuperate.

The morning session of live poker went well for me. I ended up at $29 profit. When I came back for the night session I ended up giving $25 of it back. Just couldn't catch the cards in the evening session. I then signed up for the tournament which was a rebuy tournament as well.

I started out just about playing anything because the birthday boy was at my table. I ended up going all in with 77 and they got beat. Rebuy time and I was moved to a different table. This is when I decided to get to work playing poker like I know how. I started out doubling up and continued to increase my chip stack. In the end I made it to the final table and we all decided to chop the pot at 5 players. It was a nice little profit of $82 for about 3 hours of playing time.

Friday I am off and will be at the dentist early in the morning. Not looking forward to it but this is something I need to keep up with. It is nice that he has decided to give me some meds to make me feel better during the procedure.

Have a nice day....

One More Day

I had Monday off and I was able to do some errands. I am getting into more of a routine now since it has been just about three weeks since I started working at the casino. I am basically working the Freerolls during the mornings and into the afternoon. I do have two evenings out of the five days and they are the freerolls as well.

Tomorrow will be my first paycheck from the casino. As I said before it has almost been two years since I received a paycheck from working for someone. Isn't it strange how we get accustomed to selling our time for money and when we don't have that coming in you have to come up with other ways to keep going.

I am getting more comfortable with dealing. I still miss the time playing the game and I am sure at some point I will be able to go back to what I was doing. I really enjoy the live cash game more than the tournaments and will put my efforts at playing more of that as the time goes on. I am able to play live while at work when they need someone to fill a seat to keep the game going. So for now that is where I am getting my poker time.

I was able to play in a tournament today. I enjoy playing in this $25 tournament since you have the players that understand what is going on. I didn't get as far or deep as I would like. I tried to play my premium hands and kept getting taken off of them by someone re-raising my hands. Sometimes I wonder if they are doing it to see if I will fold. I did play with QQ and the board came with 5 spades and we ended up chopping the pot and then I got KJ only to run into KQ and the board end up showing both a KQJ. Just not my day.

This week I will be going to the dentist. I am not looking forward for that but I do have medication that I can take that will help me get through the chair time. Hopefully they won't find anything wrong with my teeth. Get the cleaning done and then see them again next year.

Have a fun day......

Hard Times

It has been a few days since I have updated. I have been real busy working at the Casino. Even my worst days I am able to do something that I enjoy.

Yes, I have been very happy but also feel the stress of being a dealer and listening to people complain about my dealing. Ok, I need to get some thicker skin. I have solved my issue with the speed of dealing. I had some good people talk with me and explain that shuffling without looking would be good and keeps the game going. I guess it is multi tasking that is important.

My next issue is the all-ins. I don't have any issues with 2 players but when I get 3 or 4 going all in with different amounts then that is an issue. I am working on this and will keep at it. Right now I am dealing the freerolls and that is where I am learning. Patience for me as well as the players.

Saturday night was very frustrating for me and I shouldn't have been dealing this game. I got myself dealing the final table and things just got worse. I had a drunk person and another person that kept saying hurry up and deal. Hard to hurry up when you had to explain to the drunk girl how to play and what to do. This was her first time I understand. Didn't help me any. I was replaced at the table finally and was able to go home. I was very, very frustrated and stressed by the time I was done.

Tonight was the best night I have had yet. People were fun and very patient with me and they even told me to just relax and deal. I am also getting known to not help the winning hand at the beginning. They are saying that I "deal them dirty". If your all in with the winning hand don't expect me to help you out. Tonight I broke AA and others with better hands by the river. Maybe this is my revenge for those that aren't nice at the table.

I haven't played much tournament and I have sat in on some live play. Easier to do the live play since it helps to fill up a table and keep a game going. I did well on Saturday just being patient and waiting for hands and not chasing anything. Tonight not so much.

This week is my first paycheck in almost two years. You talk about excitement. It won't be much but still it is a paycheck. I am working on my bankroll so that I will be able to continue playing at some point. It is slow growing but I have to be patient and keep working on my goals.

Have a good week.......

Early Morning

The Poker Manager asked me to show up to work at 0815 this morning. Always willing to please I showed up on time and we had a chance to sit and talk about dealing and what he wanted me to do.

He definitely does not want me to quit. He feels with some added work I can make it as a dealer. The things I need to work on is being able to shuffle the cards and work with the cards without looking at them. Pitching the cards is not a problem. The other thing we went over was the all-ins and making the side pots. He got some chips and he set up some scenarios and I was able to make the pots with no problems. My problem is having to do them under the stress of the game.

We did discuss one other thing. I was very hesitant about dealing the $2-$10 game it made me very nervous. Well, he said he was going to have me deal the $2-$100 game. I guess that is one way of breaking me in to the live game. I have been dealing the $1-$6 but now probably Thursday night will get my chance at bigger limit game. He changed my schedule.

I am going to put my nose to the grindstone and get this done. Working hours again is strange and it will take a bit to get accustomed to working a shift. Working days and evenings. I know I can do this.

It amazes me how people get so uptight playing a FreeRoll. They don't pay anything to play and the casino puts in the money for the prize pool. They should be happy they have a place to play and learn how to play the game. They have to gripe about something. It is a good place for someone like myself to learn to deal and be in an actual game under game situations. If I wasn't dealing I would be in these games playing.

Have a good day.....

Decision Time for Me

After not sleeping Saturday night and giving it a lot of thought I decided that I would terminate my employment with the casino and go back to just being a player.

This morning I got up and went over to the casino to make sure I was able to talk to the poker manager first thing. The long and short of the conversation was that he did not take my shirt and name tag and would not accept the termination.

He wants me to go a little bit longer before I make this decision to stop dealing poker. My problem is with the players chirping and not being happy with the slowness that I have at this time. I know that it will take some time to get better and the speed will improve. Right now there are so many things to remember and not just at the table but on the floor as well. Still not sure what I will do.

I did get a call this afternoon and the manager wants me to show up in the morning about 1 1/2 hours early. He didn't say why so I am left wondering through the night at what he is wanting to do. Maybe we will spend some time at the table going over ways I can improve?

Since today was my day off I ran some errands and spent time with my Dad and took him over to see Mom. She was in pain today and they had given her some pain pills and they took affect while we were there. She just shut her eyes and wanted to sleep. I could use some of that myself.

Have a good day......

Double Shift

I went to work at the casino on Saturday morning. Sometime during the two tournaments I was asked if I would come back and work the second shift. Knowing that I need to get all of the dealing time in that I can to learn this and get better at it I said yes. What was I thinking?

I went home at 2:30PM and then tried to rest up for the next shift that started at 6:30PM. Figured it would be the usual 50+ players going at it for the $500 prize. Didn't think about the Live Cash game going on at the $2-$10 Limit Spread. Fortunately I didn't get involved with the game since the tournament was getting ready to start.

I started out on table 5 and then during the play I get 3 to 4 people going all in and then players getting upset because I am not fast enough. This tournament is a $5 tournament to play. Very impatient people.

I ended up moving to Table 1 which will end up as the final table. I did end up the night at this table and after it was done I was headed home. It was 11PM at this point and I am scheduled to return at 9:15 in the morning.

On my way home I get pulled over by our trusted police department and was informed my right headlight was out. Thank goodness he just told me to get it fixed and didn't give me a ticket.

I didn't get any sleep during the night and was up at 7:45 and was ready to leave the house at 9AM. When I drove into the parking lot there were no cars I recognized. I looked at the schedule and the first tournament was to start at 11:30AM. My goodness I am two hours early. Time to visit my Dad and then back to the casino at 10:30AM.

It was 11:15AM and we had 6 dealers with 34 signed up. Since I was the first to go home today and at this point they only needed 4 dealers I was out the door in a flash and headed home. This means today and tomorrow are off days and relax time.

Overall my experience in the box, I will say, is frustrating and very hard to get the hang of doing everything so quick and making sure it is correct and everyone is happy. I am not so sure this is going to last. I have given myself the week and will have to make a decision soon whether to keep up with this. I really do prefer to play than to deal the game. That is very plain to me at this time.

Yes, I did get the headlight fixed today as well.

Have a good week.......

Down Day

After working three days in the casino I have Friday off. I will be working over the weekend and my next day off will be Monday.

What did I do on my off day?

I took both of vehicles down and had the oil changed. They were both due and I wanted to get both done today. That took most of my morning. I also changed out the headlamp in our car as well. I figured that would take me awhile since I am not a mechanic and working on some of these cars is a nightmare. It turned out easier than I thought and had this done in less than an hour. What a mechanic, pat myself on the back.

The afternoon was left to go pick up my Dad and take him to see my Mom. We hadn't been there in over a week. We were sick last week and then I ended up working the three days in a row so we had to wait till I had the day off. It worked out alright and we got to spend some time with her.

After I got home I put out my poker table and spent some time going over the all-in situations and how I need to do the individual stacks. I went over this a few times with different chip counts to make sure I was sure of myself. It is different doing it here and having to do it under some added pressure and time. Everyone wants to get it done now. I just need to learn and get it done. I just can't have everyone talking at me while I am trying to figure it out.

Now I am going to relax a bit and watch some live cash poker on Live@thebike and then will probably head to bed after reading some more of my "Bluff" magazine.

Have a fun weekend......