Day Off

Friday was my day off and it was time to clear my desk of the mail that was sitting there. Paid some bills and just basic stuff.

It is nice to get one of these days and my schedule allows for one, working 2 straight and then working 3 in a row. Today is going to be long since we are going to have a 10AM, Noon and then a 3PM tournament. We will go from one to the next and we will be busy.

I started walking yesterday. I walked down to the drug store and back and then in the evening I walked about a mile. I got home and went right to the recumbant bike and put in a 3 minute 25mph ride. I want February to be my big weight loss and I will put the effort into eating better as well as the effort of exercise.

I did stop by the Casino to deliver seat cards that I had purchased for the poker room. Someone had already taken a card and we needed to get it replaced. Glad I had purchased 50 extra cards. I ended up sitting down at the $2-$6 spread game for $40 and ended up loosing that buy in. Mornings are not a good time for me to play and I need to recognize that and stay away from the game. Evenings are better for me and I can concentrate on what I am doing better.

Today I am back taking the bus to work. I like the time to sit and let someone else drive plus I am saving some money on top of that. Anytime I can save money I can put it into my bankroll to help it grow.

Have a good day......

Big Win

Today is my day off. Time to get some of the stuff done for my parents and clean up the paperwork on my desk. This afternoon I will be visiting my Mom in the Alzheimers unit. She is not getting out of bed anymore and the pain meds were increased. As I have said Cancer and Alzheimers together just doesn't and won't give her the chance.

I did my usual dealing yesterday and got through the two tournaments we had during my shift. I am fortunate to have this position and to be able to do what I enjoy doing. Island's Casino is a great place to work and is very friendly. It just feels like an extended family and we are there for each other.

After my bus ride home I got myself prepared to go back to the casino and play some live cash. I like to play on Monday and Thursday night since they are the two evenings I can spend some time.

When I arrived at the Casino they got a $2-$6 game going before the tournament started. These are just short little bits of time to take up some time before the tournament starts and a way to get some rake for the casino and tips for the dealers. When the tournament started I was down $6 and that was fine. I had bought in for $40 and would hold that for the live game that will start after the tournament.

When the live game got going we started it at $2-$10 spread. I immediately bought in for my usual $100, which made my buy in at the $140 level and of course down at $134 from the last game. I immediately took the stack above the $140 level and was just playing the usual cards and playing my game.

I never dropped below my buy in amount for the first 3 hours. I wasn't going up much and not dropping a great deal either. Twice during this time I got pocket Aces and they were both the black aces and I needed the red aces to get the Monte Carlo, and of course getting them cracked, would mean $100 for me. The pot was nice either way.

Then I changed my seat to see if maybe things would change a little bit and I would also sit next to one of the other dealers and we could just talk while playing. At the 4 hour mark I started to see some hands that were playable for me. One in particular was an A8 suited. The players all called around which made it easy for me to just call and see a flop. The flop came x8x. The 8 was the highest card on the flop. I decided to bet and see if I could isolate one player. The next card came x which was a low card again. Another raise and the pot started growing. The river was low again and I figured I was good with the 8 with Ace kicker and bet again. The villain showed pocket 10's.

I did play a couple more hands and lost them as well. I don't get upset but I was a little frustrated. The other players could see what was happening and I was sure that is why I was now getting callers with anything I did. I looked at my next cards and I see KK's. Now this one I was hoping would hold up for me. I raised and got 5 callers. The flop was good for me with one of the cards being an eight. No flush possibility. No connection for straights. On the turn another 8 showed up and now if anyone was playing with an 8 in their hand I was done. I ended up being all in for the river and another low card came.

When all of the cards were shown or mucked I was the winner of the pot at about $200. My pocket K's held up. At one point one of the players asked me if I was upset or tilted. I told them no I was fine with whatever happened. Poker gives to you and sometimes takes it away. Tonight it was my turn to get the big pot.

It wasn't too long after that that the table turned to a $2-$10 Spread Kill game. There were about 5 players at the table that were playing big amounts of money for just about anything. That was my clue to head home with my win. It was now 11PM and I was getting tired as well. Playing for 4 to 5 hours was enough for me.

Now tomorrow I will be back to dealing the games and my next live game will be Monday.

Have a fun day.......

On the Bus

Yesterday was my second day riding the bus. It is going well. I know one thing it will take care of and that is eating out after work. When I get on the bus I am headed home. I will not have the opportunity to head somewhere else before home and eat. I will miss my sushi or chicken wings. Of course I can make plans and ride the bus extra if I want
either.

I dealt both tournaments yesterday and it went well for me. I try real hard to keep the game going and not have any mistakes. Reading the cards on the board is a little slow for me but I want to make sure I am giving the chips to the right person. I hate killing cards until I am sure of the winner. That is another skill I am working on. Watching the cards and being able to guess what the players are going to turn over. Sometimes they surprise me. That is when I learn a little bit about the player. I can use that later.

Today I will deal again and then tonight my plan is to play some live. I will take the bus to and from work and then after dinner take the truck back to the casino and will play late tonight.

I am starting to study the Introduction to Betting. It starts out saying every bet you make should be made for a purpose. To get your opponent to fold, call or raise. In my game I am trying to take the limp out of my game and raise if I am going to play. The plan is to thin the field and play against one or two players instead of the table. Decision after that depends on texture and if I hit anything on the flop.

Have a fun day.....

Have a fun day......

Tournament Play

Yesterday was a short day for me. I dealt in the first tournament and then we waited for the signups for the $25 deepstack event. We didn't get enough players so it was called off. We did get a live game going and I opted to sign out since the amount of dealers there were not needed.

Remember that yesterday was my first day taking the bus to work. It went well and I am going to continue to use the bus during the week. It will save me money and it was nice not having to drive to work.

I signed up for the evening tournament which was the $65 deepstack. The people that play this tournament are different than the players during the other more inexpensive tournaments. This one for me is a game checker to see where I am at in my game.

I did well in the first three rounds collecting chips and then the cards turned on me and they went cold. After 2 1/2 hours I was out of the tournament with about 30 players remaining. It was just not happening for me tonight.

Today I am back at the usual tournaments dealing. I would like to get into a live game since I haven't played in a while. My usual time was Monday and I was busy surprising my wife with her ride in the Limo.

Have a fun day.......

Surprise!!!!!!

It has been about a month that I have been planning this surprise for my wife. I have been wanting to get a Limousine to pick her up from work and then take us to dinner.

It finally started coming together about a month ago. I have a poker friend that owns a Limousine service called "Wine, Cheese & Me". If you go to the website at www.winecheeseandme.com you can see what they have to offer. The price was good as well. It was last week when the calendar was clear for Cindy and I and I told them it was a go for Monday evening.

On Sunday night I told Cindy that I needed her car for Monday as I was going to get service done on the vehicle. She agreed and I took her to work the next morning. Afterwards, I took the vehicle to Red Lobster and let the car sit. Thanks to my Son and his wife for picking me up and getting me back home. At around 4PM I was able to exchange the cars and have my pickup at the restaurant.

I was picked up from our house at 5PM and then we drove out to Cindy's work location. I called her and she came out and noticing the Limo she learned it was hers. It was a good surprise for her. I enjoyed the look on her fellow worker as she was surprised as well. She tried to take a picture but I think it was too dark to see anything. This will have to be in our memories.

We ate at Red Lobster last night as that is one of our favorite places and then headed home in the pickup. What a day and evening it was.

Love you sweetheart.

No poker yesterday as it was a personal day with family for me. Today I am back at dealing. I may play the $65 tournament tonight. We will see how the day goes.

Have a fun day......

Tournament Sunday

I dealt the Noon tournament and when that was done I then sat down and alternated dealing in the live game. We start out with four dealers in the morning and then when we get through the tournament we go down to two dealers and wait for the 3PM Player of the Week tournament to start.

Our other dealers started coming in and I was asked if I wanted to deal or play. This tournament is nice as it is the Player of the Week and the money is good if you can get to the final table and win. I, of course, like the opportunity to play, so I asked to be let off and join the game.

The last two times I have played in this tournament I have gone out in the first round. By not following my own strategies and getting impatient. This time I had goals to meet and I played aggressive when I had to. Being patient was one of my goals as well. My usual goals are to get to the final table, get into the money and then to win the tournament.

I had one person who would continually raise my blind and I had to put him to the test. I re-raised and he would back down. That did help for future play. I did make it to the final table this time. The villain was on my right just where I wanted him. I started chipping up and with one of the plays he tried to get me off my hand with a T$3000 raise and I called him and won the hand.

I was second in chips to the villain on my right when it was proposed to chop at 5 players. It was put on the table to give the chip leader a good part of first place money and the rest would split. I wrestled with the decision on what to do. I decided to go ahead and chop. I was unhappy the villain got a bigger share but happy for the rest that did get money.

I did win one portion in that I told the group the part of the chopped pot was to go to the dealers along with their tips. I always want the dealers to get a good share as well. We do have people that won't tip so anytime a dealer can get into the money it is nice to get the players to put more into the pot.

The other part of the problem was the villian thinking he was a better player than all the rest. I was feeling like I could play with him and was not scared to put everything at risk to force him into decisions he didn't want to make. I will definitely do it again when I have a chance to play him.

I probably will not be playing the live game tonight. I have a surprise set up for my wife and will be anxious to see her face.

Have a fun day.......

Long Day

After spending 12 hours at the casino on Saturday I was exhausted. I drove the truck home watching the road for ice and when I made it I was not going out again. Home sweet Home.

It was another typical ordinary day. Arrive at 9AM and get the tables set up for the tournament that starts at 10AM. After that is finished we quickly got the tables ready again for the Noon tournament. We finished this one at about 3PM just in time to get the next one started.

We were able to finish this tournament around 5:30 and at that point I was off the clock and getting myself ready to sit down at the Omaha table to learn a new game. I have tried to learn this game in the past but now we have a dealer who has worked at Foxwoods and has dealt this game. She is very knowledgable. She gave us the basics but no strategies.

When 6:15 rolled around it was time to get a game going to see if we learned anything and also to get our feet wet. They started a $2-$4 Limit game and we have seven players. Two people sat down at the table with rather large stacks and they hadn't been at the learning table. We were hoping for a friendly game and being able to ask some questions after the hand played out.

The two individuals that sat down with large stacks immediately started bullying the table. The older lady next to me was so nervous with what was happening she got up and left. It wasn't too long after that I was getting frustrated watching these two players just raising and bullying the table and seeing their chip stacks rise. I thought it was going to be a fun table not just giving our money to these two guys.

I finally got up and another person followed. The game died a little after that. I ended up going over to the $2-$10 Spread game and figured I would have the opportunity to earn some of my money back I just gave away. I sat at the table for a couple of hours and yes I did go away from the table in the positive. Thank goodness for a game I understand. I will try to learn Omaha but will pick my games by who I see at the table.

Today is another day and will start the process all over again. We don't have the 10AM tournament on Sundays and will start off with the Noon tournament. There is a 3PM Player of the Week tournament that is a good one to play due to the added money. After that a day off on Monday. I would like to play my usual Monday night but we will see if that happens or not.

Have a fun day......

Pet Peeves

I am a Spring and Summer type of a person. The last couple of years I have been having some issues with the heat but overall I like that time of the year. Having grown up in southern California I like the desert and not having a lot of rainy days. I would make a great snowbird. Travelling from casino to casino playing in live games and doing some tournaments. It would be fun. Now back to reality.

When it snows I will take it easy while driving. I really hate it when someone in a big pick-up goes tearing by me throwing snow all over and having disregard for everyone elses lives. Just because you have a big vehicle doesn't give you the right.

The other one is the fact our interior roads do not get scraped. Once I get out of the residential areas it seems to be fine but just getting to a main road is hard. If you can't get the people out of residential then you have no one driving the main roads. Every year it is the same thing. We pay the city taxes and what do we get in return. I figure they are thinking that if they wait long enough then they won't have to do them.

Tonight our Casino is putting on a class for Omaha. This should be fun. I have been wanting to learn this game. There are casino's I have played in that only have an Omaha game going and this would allow me to at least play a game and not have to wait for the NLHE game. There will be a game afterwards for the students.

I am now off to work for the the next two days. My Mom is now in bed and sleeping a lot. She does look comfortable and I hope the pain is no longer hurting her. I love you Mom.

Have a fun day......

Let it Snow, Not!!!!

Well, now that we have the snow we need the temperatures to warm up and bring in some wind and then we have a new problem. This is true, we are supposed to get some warmer temperatures now and add some wind. We will see if that happens.

I did get to work yesterday and it was amazing how many people showed up for the 10AM tournament. We had a good turn out for the Noon one as well. Just goes to show that poker players love the game.

I was thinking about how I am doing now that I have been there three months. It seems like it has been longer. I am feeling more comfortable at the table and not as stressed about dealing the cards. I feel my speed is starting to improve. Seeing and reading the cards is getting better and I am starting to handle the chips better with the all ins. Working with the chips in making change during the hand is also getting better. I am watching the hands and moving chips. I call it multitasking and it feels better. I know I have a lot of work yet to get where I want to be. I want the skill level to improve and I feel it will get there.

On the downside to all of this is my time at the tables playing. I try to play on Mondays and Thursday nights. Playing live is where I want to put my efforts. Learning the skill of live is coming along well for me. I can usually hold my own at the table. I am getting more comfortable playing the $2-$10 game. We have stopped the $1-$6 game and will not play it at the tables. It is either the $2-$6 or the $2-$10 now. We have some players that I am getting used to too.

I am not sure what to do about tournament play. I would like to pick one tournament with a good size buy in and with the opportunity to cash and play that to see how I will do. Still working out which one I will play.

Overall I am feeling good about where I am at. Bankroll is intact and now I need to just get it to grow some more.

It would be fun to travel the poker circuit and play. What a dream.

Have a fun day.......

Snow is Here

Remember the picture of my truck the other day? It was looking rather dark outside and could snow at any time. Well, it picked last night to come down with the white stuff.

It is snowing hard and it is not done.

I dealt the usual games yesterday and then came home. I did not go back out to play. It was nice to sit at home and just do nothing.

I am looking at taking the bus system to work. I am trying to cut my expenses and that is one way to do it. The other one is to not eat out as much. That one will be hard. Then to add some exercise to the mess. I read about people living on less and I need to cut it down a bit. I already do at times but now I need to get really down to business.

I need to get out there and clear the snow off of the truck so I can get to work. I do not like being cold.

Have a fun day.....

Big Tuesday

Today is the day we have the bigger tournaments. At Noon today we will have the $25 and then at 6PM will be the $65 tournament.

I enjoy dealing the first one due to seeing a better player. I will watch their play and notice the cards they are playing when they are turned over. Of course that does help me in the end when I do get to play.

Last night I headed down to the casino to play some live. I did my usual buy in and started doing well. My chip stack was growing for the first hour or so and then the cards went cold. I was not getting anything to play and then when I tried to manufacture something it just didn't work.

I did stop play at my designated hour this time and was down half of my stack. I had an hour picked out as well as a dollar amount I would end my session with. I ended up reaching the time and I was $5 under my cutoff in money. I did have fun and that was important.

I have been working on my WSOP Academy book studying what I learned and going back through the information. I have finished the part of Pre-Flop play and will work with that in my games. I know decisions are important and also what to look for. Always learning.

Today we are supposed to have snow. We have had wind and I wonder if we are on the edge of the storm and it will miss us altogether. That won't make me sad. I would like to see some warmer weather and know that March is right around the corner. It would be nice to get our heat pump off of emergency heat.

Have a fun day.......

Not Again!!!

After dealing the Noon tournament yesterday we waited around for the player of the week tournament to start at 3PM.

We usually don't get a lot of players for this tournament. It is one of the better ones to play. Yesterday was the most players I have seen sign up for this tournament. Maybe the word is getting around that the money in the pot is better than some of the others. You pay less if you qualified during the week and the opportunity is there.

I try to play this tournament if I am not needed to deal the game. We have 4 dealers on up to the tournament and then at 3PM we add two more dealers. This way we can start to let dealers go home that have been here if the players don't show up. With 24 players signed up we used three tables and only needed 4 dealers.

I paid the buy in and took my seat in this game. Remember last week when I went out early? It happened again. For some reason I must be having a brain fart since I am playing early hands. On the third hand I had AQ. I called to see the flop along with everyone else. I should have raised but didn't. It was too early in the game for me. Not a good decision on my part. The flop comes 8Q3. The person on my right puts in T$1200. I thought about it and figured he had a Q with a small kicker. I had the Ace and so I called. Another player on my left went all in. If she liked the Q then I must have both of them beat. We ended up getting all of the money in the middle. The guy on my right turns over 83 and the person on my left turns over Q10 and then my AQ. I keep saying I should have raised pre-flop.

I deserved that one. I am still thinking about playing the Tuesday night tournament which is the better one. I need to just stick with my game plan and not get anxious to play the hands early. I might play the live game this evening as well. There is a lot of things to accomplish today. Seeing my Mom and taking Dad to the doctors office.

Had game night at the poker managers home last night. We had BBQ and then played a couple of games. It was fun and was nice to be able to visit outside of work. It is a good group of players as well as dealers.

Have a fun day......

Weekend Work

Lately the weekends have been nice. I think the people that are coming in are more relaxed and a little bit more patient with all that is going on around them.

We tend to get a live game going and it will go most of the day. We will put in about 30 minutes apiece and just keep going. We will sometimes end up more in tips playing the live game than what we would have gotten by putting on the tournament.

It is interesting to see who will tip the dealers and who will not. I wonder sometimes why they do that. We will have someone at the table and they will be winning but we don't see any tips from that person. Someone else will win and will always send a toke our way. When I play I will always send tokes toward the dealer even if I didn't win the hand. We all work hard in the box trying to keep the game going.

I played some live yesterday just to make sure we had five players so the Monte Carlo's were available. We had one person that was raising and going over the top on just about every hand. Now, I don't mind loosing some money to the players but when I am a butt in the seat and trying to keep the Monte Carlo's going for the rest of them it is sort of counter productive to keep raising and pushing to get people to loose their chips. I finally got up from the table and wouldn't sit down again. One of the other dealers did the same thing and the game finally died.

I understand we are going to have one of our dealers teach the public how to play Omaha. I will definitely be one of the students. I have tried to play the game and so far have spread $300 to the other players. My education in the game I hope will help me. I don't think I could deal the game but would love to learn to play.

Now we are in the new year we are starting to get tax related mail. I hope for a better year tax wise and maybe get some money back. The last couple of years we have been on the other side of it.

Just about time to head off to work. Got to get stuff together.

Have a fun day.......

A Way to Make a Decision Hard

Having Friday off was nice. I could have a chance to do some stuff around the house. Not. I ended up spending most of my day at the Casino.

Every morning they have their $2 tournament and I decided to go early and get in some live play and then play the tournament. When I arrived they did have a game going but then I found out that on Friday's they do not have the morning tournament. I sat down at the live game and figured I would stay till 11:30 and then go pick up my Dad for lunch.

By the end of the session I was up $70 and I needed to go pick my Dad up from the Assisted Living home before they went into their lunch process. We ended up going to Olive Garden since he enjoys the soup, salad and the breadsticks. When we got done with that we went back to his place and relaxed for a little bit before going to visit Mom.

The visit with Mom went well as she now looks like she is pain free. A little bit more out of it but without the pain of cancer bothering her I think she is fine. She is changing so much with her facial features and the edema is getting more in her hands and arm due to the pressure of the tumor. I will leave it as that.

After getting Dad back to the Assisted Living Apartment I went back to the casino to play in their 3PM tournament. I did get to play in that and made it into the middle of the tournament before I went out. I only played 3 hands through half of the tournament. This just makes me think that I am throwing money into tournaments and I don't like the return. I know I said I would do them for fun but how much fun do you have when your sitting there and not able to make plays.

I was walking out of the casino and ready to go home when I ran into one of the dealers that works the night shift. He mentioned to me that I might want to stick around since the game that is getting started is going to be juicy. I remember the saying if you can't find the fish at the table then your it. I made a you turn and headed back into the poker room and sat down at the live table. I stayed for 3 to 3 1/2 hours and it was a good session for me. I was up $90 when I left. I was up $130 but leaked some chips back to the field.

Overall it was a good day at the table for $160. Now it will go into my bankroll and it is growing. This makes me rethink my thoughts on live play and what I was going to do. Decisions, Decisions.

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

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........