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.....