Thursday

Seems like I have slowed down in blogging. I have been adding things into my schedule that it has been hurting some of the things I have done in the past. I am looking at starting a web site that would take in a little more than what I can do on here. Exercising on Tuesday and Thursday nights now. Things that just take up time. I have been playing some $2-$6 and $2-$10 spread. I am doing well with it and my bankroll would be going up except I have had to use some of it for other things we have needed. It is nice to have the ability to use the bankroll but of course the intention is to use it for poker only. We have some constant players at the casino we play with at the table and it is interesting to watch these players. We have a person who has changed his game to be more loose aggressive and that has matched up to another player who is loose aggressive as well. One of them is a psychologist and to watch him put pressure on someone for a pot is amazing. Of course he will do that to me and if I have the hand I will play it down. He does have a couple of tells and it has worked out for me. The other one I have watched enough now I think I have a tell on him as well. Now I will try them out and prove them wrong. If it works I can use them for awhile until they figure it out. I keep changing what I want to do with tournaments. I enjoy playing the live game but then again I enjoy the tournaments as well. I am thinking about playing one tournament per week and trying to find a deepstack that would be fun and something I can learn from. Playing the shortstack tournaments have not been fun for me and I tend to just get rid of chips early. We will see where this goes. Have a fun day.....

Sunday

This week has been busy for me. I deal poker on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will try to play in the afternoon at the live table if I can. Sometimes I end up dealing the live table and that is alright as well. On Friday I visited my Dad and then went in to play the live $2-$6 spread game. I spent three hours playing and I walked away even. Where can you go and spend playing something you enjoy and walk away with the same amount of money you walked in with? Not many places I am sure. I am trying to be a better player and playing certain hands instead of my normal just have fun hands. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the opponent has and what he is trying to do while I am playing. Paying attention to the hands that I am not involved with as well. I did deal two Monte Carlo's back to back days and with one of them I dealt the Regressive Bad Beat. That was exciting since you don't get them very often. It is fun to see the faces and the reactions from the players. This past month I have let my bankroll slide down some and I need to get back to growing it up again. Paying some things that needed to be done. I did join the Club 24 fitness and am working out on Tuesday and Thursdays. Another reason for not hearing from me as often. I am so out of shape. This last session I was able to make it all the way through the 3 circuits. They say it does get better. I am walking in the morning and I hope that is helping as well. See if I can get some weight off. Have a good day and play smart......

Still Here

This past week has been very busy. I ended up taking my Dad to the "Doc in a Box" and found out he had Bronchitis. Having issues with the Assisted Living place giving meds and finding out that quite a few of the residents were very sick. They even closed the cafeteria and were feeding everyone in their rooms. I walked into the facility and find all the staff wearing masks. After that I ended up taking my Dad to the local hospital to the emergency room. I always hate going their because everything takes so long to complete. They decided to do blood work, UA and X-ray. After three hours of waiting a nurse comes in and I ask about what is happening. She looked on the computer and said we were waiting for the UA to be finished in analysis and that was it. I asked about the x-ray and she said nothing was ordered. Now it becomes four hours and then the x-ray tech walks in and says he is going for the x-ray. Overall they couldn't find anything and we got to spend five hours in the emergency room. I have been keeping up with my dealing at the casino. It is really slow right now and we are getting the first game going in the morning but after that it dies out. We can get a live game going for a few hours but that is it right now. I have played some just to help keep the game going. I really don't like to do that. Today I have a Trainer assessment to go through and then a Doctor's Appointment. Once these are done I will be going over to play some $2-$4 Limit. Hopefully they will have a game. I purchased a octagon poker table the other day and now will be able to have some dealers over to play and learn some omaha. Have a fun day.....

Monday

The weekend is over and here we are in a new week already. Time flies when you are having fun. On Saturday I worked the usual day shift and was out of the casino by 2:30. Not much happening and the live game was going but when the new shift came on I was able to clock out. The big tournament was that night and we had three of our dealers qualify to play in the $1000 event so I offered to come back and deal the evening tournament. I showed up at 5:15 and immediately got into dealing the live game and then started the tournament at 6PM. We had about 75 players which meant we had 25 alternates. It was a long evening. I normally don't deal the evening shift but am trying to push my comfort level to get better at dealing to a different group of players. I must say they are a rougher group and won't mind chirping at you when you do something they don't like. I had two errors on the night. I had a new player come into seat one and immediately he was in the big blind. I dealt the cards around the table and when I was done I took his cards because they were sitting next to me. I thought he mucked. Actually he was still getting settled into his seat and I took his cards. Floor was called over and I explained what I had done but it was ruled a dead hand. What a start for him. I apologized and we moved on. My next error was trying to give back change and my brain couldn't figure out the difference in amounts. That was frustrating to me and once I told myself to settle down I was able to get it done. The rest of the night was without incidence and I made it through the tournament. Sunday was nice in that we were able to play a $200 quarantee and that was our only tournament. We couldn't get a 3PM to go so we started a small 5 - 6 handed $2-$6 Limit Spread game. It wasn't too long until the next shift came in and I headed out for the day. Another dealer and I are looking at starting a web site that will give us the opportunity to do some things that we can't with the blog. We want to be able to give out schedules of tournaments in the area and then do a blog about our Magazine and Book Reviews. Put up a hand that we have played and let you give us your opinions on what you would have done. We like the idea and will be working on this. I don't know when it will start but I will let you know. I am also looking at trying something as well like starting with $50 and seeing if I can get it to grow playing either a $2-$6 or $2-$10 spread game. I would have rules on how I would be able to play and what would happen if I felted with the money. I found out there is a $3-$6 limit game in town on Monday's and I am going to try that out today if they are playing the game. I really enjoy this game and have done well. I usually have to go to Yakima or Spokane to play but if they do have one here I am on it. Have a fun day.......

Friday

Friday morning and I am getting ready to go for my morning walk before work. I am starting to like the time I spend walking around one to three blocks depending on the time I have before I leave. Using the bus transit system this week has been good. It is always nice to be able to save some gas and it does allow me to just sit back and let someone else do the driving. Actually it is taking about 15 minutes more than if I was doing it myself. On Thursday I dealt a live game all afternoon with the poker manager. Every 20 minutes we pushed each other and it went well. I dealt out the Regressive Bad Beat for $500 and the manager put out a Monte Carlo as well as having someone crack the black aces for $100. It was a good day for the players. I am continuing to have problems with my game and I am looking for ways to work through the issues. I am close to finding a $3-$6 Limit game and once that is finalized I will be playing that one. I have played this at Legends Casino as well as NorthernQuest and I would like to see the game here. Well, off to work I go. It will be a very busy day for all of us. Have a fun day........

Wednesday

The last couple of days I have just been dealing the tournaments. I have been trying to stay away from playing at this point to just give myself some rest from the dealing part and the playing. Sometimes I just push myself to much and I need to take a break. We have a couple of people that are very annoying at the table. I missed seeing a chip and gave a number and before I could correct myself this person was correcting me. Talking about the dealer not able to count chips. I guess if I was perfect I would be him. I have respect for dealers and what they are doing to give us a game to play. Don't give us grief. I delight in seeing this person get taken out of a tournament as well as seeing him give his chips to another person at the live table. I really enjoy being the dealer when that happens. I have started taking the bus again to the casino. I will be saving about $150 per month on gas. This also saves my bankroll as well. I have been making changes with other things as well. I am taking the internet off of my phone and purchased a phone without the contract. We will be getting rid of our landline as well. Trying to help our bottom line. Have a fun day.....

Rough Weekend

It is becoming that time of year when the sun is out and the days are getting nice. Who wants to spend their time in a casino where there is no outside light? I did play the tournament on Friday and got to the final table only to go out in 10th. I made a pair on the flop and with what I had left I pushed all in. One person folded and the other person called. He had a smaller pair on the flop and ended up making trips. Thats the way the cards play. On Saturday we were not able to get any tournaments off the ground. It was very frustrating for the dealers as well as the players. We need to get at least 18 players to have a tournament and when you get to ten players and still can't play the tournament it gets frustrating. This is when everyone needs to just cool down and not blame the dealers and we need to understand that this is the time of the season for this. There are a few of us that will come in on our days off so we can help get a game going whether it be live or in a tournament. We try to help each other. I have been reading the book on Cash Games being a business and hopefully I can start taking some it and putting it into my game. I really need to stop playing during the day and stop playing short handed. Playing five handed just to be in the Monte Carlo's just doesn't work with my bankroll. I play differently during the day than at night and I will usually give away my buy in by not playing like I should. I open my range of playing hands due to the blinds coming around often. New rule for me to play with at least 8 players at a table. I am working on my starting hands as well as position. I will all come together at some point. My tournament play is doing fine. I need to be a litte bit tighter in the early stages and I will work on that as well. We watched "Dexter" Season four episodes 1-3 the other night. We like that show and we are trying to watch it when we have a chance of being home together. I was at Blockbuster last night and they had a weekly sale going on for 5 for $20 and I purchased five DVD's. Ones I haven't seen yet, and ones I missed in the theaters. Our heat pump was worked on this morning and it is now working. Ready for the summer heat. It had a burnt fuse. Could have been worse. Have a fun day.....

Biggest Loss

I dealt the first tournament yesterday morning. It went well and we were getting ready for the second one. In the meantime we sat down to play some live game. Dropping a couple of $20's during the morning game is usual for me. We get shorthanded and I start opening up my game and then it seems to go pretty fast. I am out and then at some point I will deal the game and get into the rotation. I did go back to playing in the game and clocked out due do not having a game. I then put a full buy in on the table to start the next part of the game. This was the hardest one ever where I couldn't pick up a hand at all. Everything I had that was good was trumped one better. I know there are days like this and I just have to work through them. I went back in the evening and played a tournament and placed in 6th and didn't get the money by 2 spots. I figured why not stick around and play some more live. I bought in with a full buy in again and by the time I went home I had about half of that left. What a day. I am back to working on my bankroll again. I let too much go this week. I can get this back up but it will take me a bit to do it. The cards where not with me on Wednesday. You will notice that blogspot puts all the words together. Even though I put them in paragraghs they don't show up like it should. I wish they would fix that. Have a nice day......

Missed Monday

Sunday was a day of just one tournament. The weekend was slow for us in the casino. I had Monday off so it felt like I had two days off. Monday I decided to take my Dad to lunch and I also purchased two Kindle Fires. Now you know what I was doing all afternoon. I was loading up the Kindle with some applications and getting my books on there so I could start using it as well. I got my wife one for her birthday coming up as well and now she can read her books on the kindle as well. Trying to be more frugal and thinking of ways to save money. I am working on getting rid of our Landline phone as well as downgrading from the iPhones to just basic phones. The Kindles will fill in for us. I understand trying to find the hotspots and that will be fine as well. Keeping up with Twitter and Facebook on the go is not important to me as texting. Right now the phones are in my target sight. I am reading a new book as well from Rob Tucker. This one is about Cash Games and the business part of it. I find it interesting and some of it I am doing already. Will put some of it on my blog as well. Right now must get ready for work. Have a fun day......

Tale of Two Cards

I know that to build my bankroll, and the experience I need playing live, I need to put in the time and study. Yesterday I dealt two tournaments and played in the first one. I didn't last long and that was alright with me. Remaining focused and playing cards is hard to do when you know your working as well. I had a crazy table on the first tournament I dealt and it seemed I could not get anything right. Just not one of my good sessions. When I started the second tournament it was better and one of the players told the others to leave me alone as I was having a bad day. It turned out alright and I just suppose I needed to get myself into the swing of getting the cards out and paying attention. After everything was done I was asked to deal the live game. I did that and when I was relieved of those duties I decided to have something to eat and then go home. Finding out my wife had a party to go to and I would be home alone I decided to stay and get into the live game. I put in my one buy in, that I normally do, and just watched the table. After a period of time I got KK and I bet them. I am trying to be more aggressive when I have the cards at the pre-flop. I will usually limp along with every one else to see what the flop brings and then start firing away. Since most of these players will call anything to see a flop I am not worried about not building a pot. Flop, turn and river did not produce a flush possibility, straight. I felt I was good and kept firing away at the pot. It turned out to be a pretty big size pot. I did win at showdown. During the middle of all of this I had 99's and won with these as well. My chipstack was well over 1 1/2 the buyin at this point. I was ready to go home since my wife had let me know she left the party. I started racking my chips and even told the dealer not to deal me in. The player across from me, a friend and dealer I work with, looked over and told me that I should stay and at least see two more free hands. I felt it was no harm to see a couple of hands before I go. What could happen? Well, the first hand is KK's and now I must bet them. I raised and then I got 3 followers. We ended up seeing the flop, turn and river and the flop was J10Q. The end result was a very big pot and I did not win. I leave the table instead of 1 1/2 the buy in to 1/2 the buy in. I should have made a better decision about what I was looking at and what the other two players were telling me. I didn't do that. It was my fault for playing the cards and I should have folded after the betting on the flop. Of course I was playing to a straight as well if an Ace would have hit. There we go chasing and that is something I like to do if the price is right. Actually I should have picked up my racks and taken them back to the podium a bigger winner. I am reading a magazine "CardPlayer" that I picked up at Wildhorse last week. It is interesting reading and I was struck by what Matt Glantz had to say. I will try to quote this. "What most players don't realize in poker is that we should not attempt to be the best, so that we can beat the second best or the third best. We should try to improve our game in all areas so that we can pofit off of our opponent's mistakes and they can not profit from us in the same manner. The truth is the best players don't make money from outplaying other great players. The best players make money from playing sound poker and taking advantage of spots in which others are making mistakes". Thanks Matt Glantz for your thoughts. It just hit me reading that last night. Have a fun day......

Frustration Day

My day off from dealing poker at the Island Casinio. I went and visited my Dad and then I did go to the casino to play in a 12:30 tournament. Now that Wildhorse is having their Spring Round-Up our games, just like the rest of the casinos around here, have had a hard time getting the numbers. The Noon tournament did not go off. It was cancelled. The 3PM was cancelled as well. I ended up playing live $2-$6 Spread all afternoon. I left at around 4:30 to go home because I needed to reload on my money. I lost a whole buy in for this session. You talk about frustration I had it big time. I started looking at what happens in the afternoon when I play and I am usually loose buy ins during this time. I will have to either stop playing or figure out why and fix the leak. The 6PM tournament did play and I was signed up. I took my seat at table 3 and I venture to guess it was the hardest table of the three. There was some very good players and they were mixing it up early. I just played my game and watched and when I had a hand I would come out and bet. I ended up felting three players at this table. I then was moved to Table 1 and this was good news for me. I had chips and this meant I was not moving and I could watch and play against the people that where here. I did well at the start and was chipping up again by making appropriate moves. I made one mistake and it hurt my chipstack slightly. It did open the door for some plays that I tried to make to get back into the game and I couldn't make it happen. I was leaking chips fast. I probably shoulded sat back and watched a little more but that is not what I did. I did make it to the final table and there was eight of us. The prize pool was $700 and I was looking to see if I could get to that final 4. Not to be I went out in eighth place trying to hang on. I ended up playing a K8 and was called by K10 and a 10 came on the turn. Good tournament. I will try to learn something from this and then try it again. Right now I am reading about flopping big cards and what to do with them. What about one pair on the flop and playing them. Some of that hit me during the tournament. Did I play them right? Have a good day........

Live Wednesday

So far this has been a very good week for me.

Even though we only had one tournament yesterday it was a good day. After the tournament was done I offered to help wash chips. The first part is easy as all you need to do was put them in the tray and place them in the dishwasher. It only takes about a minute or two and they are all washed and rinsed and all we needed to do was wipe them off.

We cleaned 1000 chips. They look so nice and clean and they were stacked back in their racks and put back in our vault. It is nice to do that every so often since they just start looking dirty. So many hands are handling them and then leave grime on them. I am sure they enjoyed their bath.

One of our Islands staff is going to be dealing in the WSOP. We are so proud of her and also getting to do something she has dreamed about for quite awhile. She has an opportunity now to build on this.

I decided to come back to the casino and play in the bounty tournament at 6pm. When I got there we were able to get a live game going as well. We played $2-$10 Spread Limit. After about 30 minutes of playing the tournament was cancelled and we just continued on at the table. My plan was not to stay past 8pm. I have to work the next day.

I ended up playing a hand, pocket Aces, and when I was done was able to win the hand with two pair AA33. Someone else had 7744 and their was a flush possibility on the river. I got lucky since I slow played from the beginning and letting more people come into the pot. I should have raised to limit the field and get the 74 out. I will learn from this one that limping to put more money into the pot can sometimes come back to bite you and someone else can take the money you helped build.

I also got the high hand early in the evening of KKK99 and this meant I needed to have the game go till 10pm so I could also get the $100 for having the high hand. When I left at 10pm I was still the leader. I shouldn't have though. The guy next to me played a hand with two jacks on the flop and bet big only to have everyone fold. He turned over his hand and two jacks. He would have been the high hand for the night. If I get this I will consider it a gift.

My night ended well in that I doubled my buy in and still have the chance of adding more money. Bankroll is growing and that does make me happy. I have had two sessions this week of live play and they were both winning sessions.

Now I am off to work for another day.

Have a fun day......

Poker Tuesday

After a day off it was time to get back to work.

Our Tuesday sessions are 10AM and 12:30PM. At least that is the times I am dealing cards. Our first tournament is the usual $2 and we had almost 30 players this morning. The prize pool consists of the $200 guarantee. The new format of the players being able to buy the add on is working well. No complaints so far.

The 12:30 session is now the $10 tournament and also has the $400 guarantee. This use to be a $200 guarantee as well and having the extra money in the prize pool should help in getting players to the casino to play. The players seem to be having fun and they enjoy the added money as well. We were done by 3PM and we were able to get ready for the evening tournament that starts at 6PM.

I didn't get a chance to play any live this morning as I kept busy signing players in. I do prefer not to play during the morning times as I seem to not play well and usually donate my money to the players. I also believe it is because it is short handed play and I don't like to play that way. My range will open up and I tend to see too many flops with cards I would not play.

I am back to reading "Decide to Play Great Poker" by Annie Duke. I also purchased Jonathan Little's two books for my Kindle on PC. I am reading all of them on my iPhone. Not to bad. I would like to get a Kindle Fire but will wait to get one when the price drops some. I don't want to pay the $200 to get one.

My bankroll is back up since I played at Wildhorse last week. It was nice to get myself back above where I started. Got to keep working on that bankroll.

Not much to write about and I am about ready to head to bed.

Have a fun day.....

New Schedule

After spending time at the Wildhorse Casino I felt ready to get back to the grind of Islands Casino. Saturday was a very busy day and I dealt in three tournaments. When I got home I just sat on the couch and couldn't move.

Sunday was a nice day in that we start with the first tournament at Noon and we had two tables to get things going. Our 3PM had two tables as well and we dealt that tournament until completion at around 6:30PM.

I was asked to stay around for awhile to help get a live game going. My plan was not to play but anytime I can help out I am not going to turn that down. It is important to get something started and then see if it catches on with more people. The game got going before we finished the tournament so it was a about 30 minutes before I got there.

I didn't do my usual buy in since I wasn't planning to stick around very long. I hadn't eaten dinner and I was ready to go home. During this time I had a winning hand of KKK44 which ended up being the high hand so far for the evening. It made the evening interesting and the table got to be fun as well. We had a person talking about women and how he knew all of the ways to enjoy them. I guess that is one way of saying this. He was being so sure of himself.

It was getting late in the evening and I got the black pocket Aces. In our casino on odd days it is the black ones and on even days it is the red ones. If they get cracked then the person wins $100. I was checking and calling trying to get someone to beat the Aces. I ended up with one person and the board was textured for a straight. We made it to the river and when he turned over his cards he did have the straight which beat my one pair. Yes, I get the $100.

We had three to four dealers playing at our table during the session. It was fun to banter back and forth and everyone was trying to beat my High Hand. When we got down to five players the one goal the other four had was to beat my High Hand. We had three dealers and two regular players left. Everytime I saw Kings come up on the board I would watch the hand very carefully. When one of the regulars finally felted we ended up calling it a night at around 11:30PM and I was paid out my $100 for the high hand.

It was a fun session and I was glad I stayed.

Have a fun day.....

Wildhorse

After the tournaments were done on Thursday I headed out to Pendleton to play some live and a tournament at the Wildhorse Casino.

As I came up the hill out of Pendleton, OR I was able to see a pretty big building about 3 miles away. I wondered if that was the new Wildhorse Hotel and Casino. As I got closer to the exit it was obvious that this was the new and improved casino.

I haven't been to Wildhorse in almost two years. I enjoy playing the Round-ups but haven't had the time to go. I was going to make the most of it this time around.

I checked in to my room and then headed out to see the new spacious area. The poker area for this was still in their main room. The table games are the same and they added a whole bunch of slot machines. Things are more spread out and it is nice.

I met one of the area players and we discussed the live game and the tournament going on that night. I decided to play the tournament instead of live due to the chance at a good payout. I signed up for the Super Satellite and the #1 tournament the next day.

We had 171 players signed up for the satellite and I will say that I was busted 47th and 36 players were going to be paid $500 each. So close but just didn't have the chips to make it to the end.

Today was another tournament and we had 548 players sign up and I busted in 144th with the money being distributed starting with the 54th player. Again the chips I had just were not going to last to get me to the end.

I really enjoyed my time at the Casino. Very nice people and they made it fun to be there. Now I am ready to get back to Islands and deal to our customers.

Have a fun day.....

Blood Sugars and Dealing

I started out working at 8:45 putting the chips on the tables and doing overall getting ready for the first tournament. I felt good and everything was working smoothly.

I worked the first tournament without incident. I was a little bit frightened to have my first all ins because I knew they would start talking to me and what was I going to say to them to keep them quiet and let me do my job. I never happened and I was grateful for that. Today may be a different story.

When I finished the final table I got the room cleaned up and the chips ready for the next tournament. Once I had that done I immediately went over and pushed the person in the live box and took over that game until the tournament started.

I closed down the live game and immediately sat down at table 2 this time and started to deal. I must have gotten to about one hour of this tournament and I knew I was in trouble. I was not feeling well, I was starting to shake. I wondered if I could push on and make it to the break. Thank goodness I decided to ask the poker manager to come over and order me a pop to drink and then get me out of the box for a bit. I turned around and looked at the table and I don't remember much. My questions were what are the chip amounts and where are we at for the table. I could hear the poker manager in the middle of the hand tell me to put the hand down and move.

What I do remember was drinking the pop and starting to feel like I could think again and my shaking went away. I did eventually finish the tournament at the final table but it was a little scary for me in that this has never happened to me before. I will take a snack bar with me today.

I have been trying to monitor my Blood Sugars closer and I have succeeded in bringing them down but when I do that I need to make sure I am eating at good intervals.

Today I will be headed to Pendleton, OR for the Spring Round-Up. I plan on staying the night and will play live tonight and then the tournament tomorrow. Just a little bit of a getaway for me to have some fun and do something different.

Have a fun day......

Tips

It seems the poker players now days are more concerned with what a dealer gets in tips. Granted we work for minimum wage when we are on the clock. I get to deal cards. Now comes the interesting part. When we are done with a tournament we get very little in tips from the players if at all. Was it bad dealing? They got into the money didn't they? What is ettiquette for tipping the dealers. We split the tips in our casino with all of the dealers that were on at the time.

I usually don't care about how much a person tips but it seems the players are really getting into this right now.

I believe the baseball players need to be tipped on how well they did in the game. Pay them minimum wage and when the fans leave the stadium they can leave a tip at the gate. We could do that for Football players as well. That would be an incentive to do well. What about leaving a tip at the hospital and all the employees get tips depending on how they do their job in getting the patient better. It just seems there are a few areas that get these tips and we need get more areas involved.

As a player I don't say much at the table. My job, as a player, is to watch and listen to the other players to see if I can pick up any information. We have players that will badger other players in the way they play and what they are playing. It just doesn't make any sense to me. All it does is drive those players away and they either get better or they don't play anymore. You loose players.

I had an incident the other day where I had to call the floor over to make a decision and I relayed the story as I saw it. You get other views about what someone else saw all the time. The floor has to make the right decision and listen to the dealer. After I got done my version of the story was not believed and as of the meeting we had last night it proved to me I was still not believed. They would much rather believe a player than their own dealer. What does that tell me?

As a player I bring my money into the casino and will put it at risk just like everyone else. When you are treated like a second class citizen because you are not carrying thousands of dollars I believe your priorities are wrong. I could go back through my books and see how much I spend at the casinos. I think I would be surprised at the numbers. For me I want to get better at playing as well as dealing. Sometimes you are not allowed to do that depending on the agendas of others.

Today I will head back to the casino and deal the tournaments. As I heard someone say once it is a new day. Lets hope it is.

Have a fun day......

Weekend

It was a long weekend. I got home late in the evening on both days and just couldn't get myself to do anything. I would park myself in front of the television and just turn my mind off while watching.

The tournaments on Saturday went well and I ended up dealing three of them. The last one of the day was the hardest. When you get people that are rude at the table it makes it hard to be nice. I think we get the idea, it is a tournament and you are paying very little money and getting a quaranteed amount. Some of us have not been dealers very long, at least not a year, and we are trying our best to deal and maintain the speed to allow hands to be played.

If you want the best dealers then go to the bigger casinos where you can pay hundreds of dollars and they will be perfect in every way. I am having fun dealing and once that is gone then I will go back to playing tournaments again myself.

I am having an issue at this point with people trusting the players story of a hand over the dealers. I thought our story of the hand would be taken by the floor personnel and then acted upon. When you give your story it should be a done deal with the floor. No, I quess we now will run down verbally the dealer and not accept the story. Then you have players that will not like what took place and will call the poker manager and complain and then still not be accepted as the true story.

There is so much drama going on right now it just makes you not want to be there. I was thinking about playing today but then I don't want to deal with all of the other stuff that is going on. It is easier to just take the day off and do other things like taxes.

I haven't made it to Virtual Pomeroy yet. I have 12 miles to go and will get there today. This weekend just didn't get it done. I want to take Saturday off and after yesterday and getting home late I was not in the mood to sit on the bike and ride. Having ridden 87 miles this last week is still good. I am not sure I will get that many this week but will get the itenerary set up.

Today my dad and I will be going to Red Lobster for lunch. I love to eat fish and we don't get it very often.

Have a fun day.....

Friday

I spent the morning working in the office at home trying to clean up the desk from the weekly mail. I try to take care of all the phone calls and pay the financial stuff that comes in during the week. I try to get some quality time in and then if it looks good after that I will head out and take care of the running around town that I need to do.

Today it was done my noon so I headed over to the casino to play in the 3pm tournament. I ended up playing some live before the tournament started. This made the 4th week in a row that I have come in no further down than this at the final table. I like where I am at when playing and just need to watch my strategy during the first few levels and make sure I don't get caught up in the limping that goes on.

Reaching virtual Pomeroy didn't happen tonight. I decided to take one extra day and rest my legs. I did ride 13 miles tonight and have 12 miles left to finish out this portion of the ride. I hope to do this tomorrow evening. I wanted to take Saturday off but instead this week I will take Sunday off. This first section is the longest and I don't want to hurt myself for what I will need later.

Our poker manager has decided to stay with Islands Casino. So much drama going on it is nice to see something get done. Maybe now we can get moving forward.

I need an attitude adjustment.

Have a fun day.....

Thursday

Trying to think of titles for the blogs are so hard. I try to make them close to what I am writing about. Today I decided to just use the day of the week. I guess it works.

I started my day walking around the block like I have every day this week. It is a good start for the day. I replaced writing the blog in the morning with the walk. Putting stuff in the blog now is happening the same day I am writing.

Today was a long day at the casino. We had our morning tournament and it went well. I am getting better at my speed as well as the chips. I am happy where I am at this point in dealing for the casino. I don't think I will ever be a "class A" dealer but it works for me.

At around noon today we started our live game and since the noon tournament wasn't going to take place due to lack of players it was easy to just get started dealing for the duration of the live game. We turned the game over to the next shift at 5PM. We ran this live game for five hours. I dealt one Monte Carlo. I dealt the quad 6's and it was worth $130 to the player.

I was ready to get something to eat and head home.

At home I had to continue my ride to Pomeroy. Today I was scheduled to ride 25 miles. This would be the longest of the week and I am scheduled to get to virtual Pomeroy by tomorrow. I have 25 miles left for the week and will be doing this during the day. I haven't added up the time it has taken me to do 74 miles so far. I will do that tomorrow and will take Saturday off. Achieving 99 miles for the first week is really big.

Even though today was good in many ways I am still fighting some mental thoughts that are bothering me. I am angry at one of my co-workers for getting in my face and basically yelling at me for something I had no part in. Why she would do that in front of the poker table I don't know. I am not sure what I am going to do about this yet. The poker manager that hired me and wouldn't let me give up is leaving and I am not sure how to feel about that. My Mom has been gone almost 2 months now and I am still working through that in my mind. Just so many mental and physical things and I am trying to work through them.

Well, time to get to bed and get ready for tomorrow. I hope to play in the afternoon tournament.

Have a fun day.......

Virtual but Real

I keep saying this is more about playing poker than about my personal life. I guess there is more to me than just a person who deals and plays poker. I am a real person with everyday issues and I feel the only way for me to document where I am at in my life is to put some of it here in the blog so I don't forget what I am going through.

In everything I do I have good intentions. I say I will do something and I try to complete those items. Throughout my life I believe one of the issues I have is completing what I start.

When I was close to turning 30 I still did not have a direction in my life. I didn't know what I was going to do for my career path. I figured it would be in business somewhere and I tried doing that. It just wasn't going in the direction I was hoping for. I ended up going back to school and got into the Medical field. This was someone who stayed away from anything biology or chemistry in high school because I was headed to business.

Working in the medical field for 20 years was great. I was able to do different things and experience some things that I would never have done following the career path that I thought I was going to follow. I was able to push myself and became a Registered Therapist in my field. It made me feel like I finally achieved what I set out to do.

Now on my shoulder are two individuals. Positive and negative sit on my right and left shoulder telling me yes you can and the other telling me that you won't make it or you won't follow through. A lot of times I am very quiet about the things I do because I don't want someone to know if I made it or if I failed. It makes it easy to hide behind these two individuals.

One of my dreams is to ride a motorcycle across this beautiful country of ours. It is a bucket list item for sure. Something I don't think I will ever complete. In fact I still have the motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license and I haven't ridden a bike since the early 80's. Will I ever get the chance to complete it? I don't think so but it is a dream. My dream.

I visited the doctor the other day about my diabetic issues and I walked away very embarrased because I have let myself get to this point and I haven't done anything about it. Is it apathy or that negative person on my shoulder talking to me telling me I can't do anything about it anyway so why try. My dreams don't matter. No one "cares" right?

I was reading a letter put out by a person that just had heart surgery and he is getting ready to go on a journey to better himself. He is riding a bicycle cross country to Washington DC. Wow, he is doing that for himself and taking a sabbatical from his job as well. I thought that would be fun but then I have this negative person on my shoulder saying I can't do that. I am not fit to ride 3,000 miles. I just get tired of someone saying I can't make it or I can't do it. Maybe I should get rid of the shoulder.

Since I have a recumbent bike available and the itenerary for his bike ride with all the mileage and towns he is going to visit I decided to ride to Washington DC on my own. Virtual of course. This is something I can do and maybe I could make my physician happy again. Is this for him or for me? I guess I will have to find out when I see him again.

Ok, lets get this started. His first day has him travelling 99 miles. I started on Monday and as of today I am 49 miles into my trip. My goal is to get to my first destination by Friday. It will take me 5 days what it is taking him one day to complete. I hope to build stamina to ride the many miles I will need to complete this. I am not looking at the second day until I reach my first goal of 99 miles. Tell that negative shoulder to keep quiet and just pedal. Where is the positive shoulder when I need him.

All I can say is stay tuned for more. I wish I could tell you about the beautiful trees and mountains I could see on my trip but the bike is looking at a painted wall in our bedroom. I have to imagine in my mind the beauty of our country.

Nothing new with poker. Dealt a tournament today and then worked in the live game until it finally stopped. I continue to build my bankroll and need to continue playing the $2-$10 spread and be prepared to move up in levels.

Have a fun day......

Rumor Mill

I enjoy going to work on Tuesdays. They have been pretty big days for the tournament schedule. We would start the day with a $2 tournament and then go into a $24 tournament that would offer T$6,000 in chips and we would get a good turnout. That has changed in the last month or so and we finally stopped putting this one together.

We started doing the $2 tournament back to back and have been doing very well. The players accepted this and are back to playing in the noon tournament on Tuesdays. The big tournament of the week is the evening one at $65 with T$20,000 in chips. This one will get over 50 players and the payout is good as well. I don't deal this one and with the caliber of player I am glad I don't.

The last month we have had rumors flying about the casino and what is happening around us. I really dislike rumors and will not pass them on here but they just don't stop. It would be nice if someone would just come out and say what is happening to us as dealers and employees. We are hanging together as a team and will do what we need to do to keep going.

I have started something new and I hope this will help me with my medical condition. I am trying to ride on a daily basis the recumbant bike and the mileage I put in is getting to actual towns. Right now I am working on a 99 mile section and yesterday I put in 14 miles. Tonight I would like to put in 15 miles and get closer to the town I need to get to. The end result will put me in Washington DC. Lets see how long it takes me to get there. It would be fun to see actual pictures of where I will be at certain times. I have a map on the wall but pictures would be great. I will have to work on that one.

Have a fun day......

Gator on the Prowl

Sunday was back for dealing again. It must get old just hearing about another day at the table. We did have the Noon tournament and after that we had the live game going. For some reason we are getting more players coming in than we have had the last few weeks. The rumors are flying about what is going to happen with the casino and if we will even have jobs. I am just happy to keep going until they tell me to stop.

I don't get to play very often but the times I have I try to put a good showing at the table. I have been able to cash in two tournaments in the last two weeks so it allowed me to pay the lesser amount for the Player of the Week tournament. Since we didn't have the tournament last week due to the Wildhorse satellites this week the pot was a little bit bigger.

I asked to play in this tournament instead of dealing. I was given the okay to play so I clocked out and got prepared to sit down and play. The tournament started out great and I was playing my strategy and was able to win some pots to keep going.

I am called "Croc" in the casino because of my name. You know the Australian guy who died playing with the sting ray. I am a complete opposite and not a fan of animals that can hurt you. Of course, when I am playing at the table I am not afraid to let people know that the croc is on the prowl looking for pots.

I was able to get to the final table and my chip stack was growing. I was feeling good and so far my hands were holding up. I tried to take a couple of people out but couldn't get the right cards to come. We were able to get down to five players and we had been going at it now for 3 1/2 hours. We were just passing chips around at this point. I was chip leader so I put out the offer to chop the pot at five players and end this game.

I would have liked to keep going and get a couple more to go out. Since I have a diabetic issue and having not eaten yet I was getting tired. I had asked for some pop but the server never came back.

We did indeed chop this at five and we all made over $100 for our efforts. I was alright with this and we can move on. I will add that I was able to increase my bankroll and have reached my second number that I wanted in the first place but since the rumors I had set my goal lower. Now I made the second amount and am really happy. This also makes the third tournament in three weeks I have cashed.

I decided not to take that personal time I was talking about and I am putting my efforts in more tournament play as well as dealing as long as the casino stays open. Remember that horse blog? I will ride as long as I can.

Today was a day off and now I will get back at it tomorrow and deal a couple of tournaments.

Have a fun day......

Sunday

I am still here. I have been sick the last few days and not in the mood to write. I did get back to dealing yesterday and it was a long day.

The last tournament I dealt was the Women's Satellite for the Wildhorse Tournament. Dealing to a table to women was very interesting. You talk about ruthless and take no enemies when they play. I heard more talking in this tournament than I hear in the usual tournaments we put on. It was fun to see the difference in play.

I did get to play some live before I went home and doubled my buy in so that was a good day. My bankroll is getting closer to my second number I had in mind. It was actually my first but downgraded it because of all the issues going on in the casino. I am getting close to going back to the casino today to deal some more.

I am thinking about doing something out of the ordinary. Taking some time for myself and travel. Having diabetes and being overweight and now getting the possible peripheral neuropathy is making me think about my health a little bit more. I will possibly write more on that later.

Have a fun day......

Tuesday

On Tuesday's at the Casino we have been doing two of the $2 tournaments in a row. Once we get done with one we are setting up for the second one and it has been accepted by the players so it looks like we will continue these.

We started out and things progressed well into the tournament. I was dealing on the number one table today as it is the final table once we get down to ten players.

Things started to change for me. When we have a couple people going all in it is fine but today everyone was either getting great cards or they were just wanting to get done. I was having four to five players going all in with different chip amounts and it was getting hard to figure things out in a hurry. It did make the tournament go faster but the mental side of being a dealer was being put to the test.

At least I made it through this and everyone was happy. At least the players that cashed.

Yesterday I went to the doctor to discuss what has been happening with my diabetes. My hands are starting to feel numb and it is not feeling comfortable. I need to change some things about my diet and get some of this weight off. Hopefully it will make a change in my hands.

We are also going to do some testing to see if this is peripheral neuropathy and will this go away with some changes that need to be made. Right now I need to get this done. Wouldn't it be nice to get on the "Biggest Loser" and get some help. Changing lifestyle is so hard to do and especially when we have tried this before and we don't stick with it.

I need a nutrition specialist with me to let me know what I can eat and then a training person to get me more active. I know that is asking a lot but somehow I need to do this on my own.

Some how, some way.

Have a fun day.......

Seniors Event

I got to work yesterday and we were unable to get a tournament going. We decided to get a live game going and spend the time doing that instead. We had it going all the way to 3PM and then the Senior's satellite for the seat at Wildhorse started.

I was able to get off the clock and play in this event. I had qualified for my seat the 2nd of March and was anxious to try for my seat at Wildhorse. I plan on playing the tournament at Wildhorse so this would be nice to be able to win the seat and save some money from the entry.

It was a nice tournament playing with the 50+ year old individuals. It is a different game than what the younger generation will play at times. I played in one of the seniors events and it was different than the other tournaments I had played. I ended up placing 10th at the final table. Didn't get as far as I wanted but I was happy to have a chance.

Today is my day off and I went to the casino to play in the morning $2 tournament. We ended up with 20 players. I started off getting some good cards and was able to build my chip stack. Not all of them were winners but I was able to stick around and get to the final table.

Once to the final table anything can happen. I needed to catch some hands and win some all ins with my stack to keep going. I did get 3rd place in this tournament and it paid $40. Nice day at the table.

This casino has spoiled me, I am used to playing down to the final and paying the top three spots. Chopping is something that usually was not done and it wasn't expected. I know we would give fourth place money back but then play it down to the winner. Chopping the pot at fourth place seems to be the norm here at this casino.

Now, when someone doesn't want to chop they are then singled out and people will let everyone else know about what took place. As a dealer I do offer the chop when I am in position to win money just for the sake of customer service. It doesn't matter to me right now but if and when things change that could change as well. Playing to heads up and winning is something everyone should strive for as it will help your game when you get into a bigger game and you want the money and the win.

I am not sure about playing tonight at the casino. I have a doctors appointment today to talk about some of my issues with my diabetes. We will see what happens.

Have a fun day.......

A Day to be Playing

Yesterday was the day to be a poker player sitting in one of our chairs at the live table.

I was dealing the live game and we were going along just fine. In my gut I had a feeling we were going to be giving away a Monte Carlo. On Friday and Saturday if you get a set or trips you are given $5. We were doing that and that is not unusual.

Then right before I got out of the box I dealt the Quad Aces. That was worth $460 to the lucky person. My feeling was right and we had dealt the Monte Carlo for the day. I was then pushed out of the box for another dealer.

As we were getting ready to get the paperwork done for the quad's the dealer leaned over and told us he just dealt the Regressive Bad Beat. This one was worth $500 with $300 to the looser, $100 to the winner and then $100 to the players at the table that were dealt a hand at the beginning.

Now we have more paperwork to fill out and get that one done. As we were about to get the stuff completed we were then notified that we had Aces Cracked for a $100 payout. On the Odd days it is the Black Aces and on the even days it is the Red Aces. This became more paperwork.

We did continue to give out the Sets and Trips for the $5 and our day was moving along in a quick fashion.

By the end of the day I had dealt in the live game as well as the three tournaments. I was pretty tired and anxious to get home and eat. I almost stayed at the casino since they were playing a live $3-$6 Limit game. This is a game I enjoy to play and have done well in it. With my mind and my body so tired I was afraid I would become the fish at the table and would not play optimally. Hopefully they will do that again.

Today I will be dealing in one tournament and then I will be playing in the senior's satellite for a seat at the Wildhorse Casino in April. My plan is to play in this tournament either way but winning a seat would be great.

Have a fun day.......

Take a Seat

I will usually read two or three poker books at a time. I will try to find some common ground in the books that help me build my strategy when I get a chance to play tournament poker. It is one of those things that you are always learning and I am constantly working on my game.

I tend to go back and forth between Live play and Tournament play and there is a difference in how I approach them. I have to sit down and then think about my goals in the game before I start.

One of the first things I do is look around me in tournament poker. Who am playing with at the table? Are these players older or younger? Have I played against them before and what have they done against me.

Another area is looking to my left and right two players away. Usually these will be the players I will be playing against most of the time. The same questions go through my mind about these players.

I like to make friends at the table and if I can get someone to talk with me then I feel I might learn something about them. This goes a long ways into understanding what they are trying to do when they play.

The first two or three levels I am not wanting to play unless I have a very good premium hand. I am saving my chips for the higher levels when I need to start making plays. I am not someone that will bluff but I have been known to try and get the pot if the board looks like it might help me. Doesn't everyone?

The new book I am reading is Jonathan Little's book Volume 1. He has a new book out Volume 2 and I do plan on buying it as well. My delimma right now is do I purchase as an eBook or get the hard copy? I still haven't decided to get the Kindle Fire yet so waiting to purchase the book. Just can't make that decision yet.

Well, it is off to work today. Will be dealing possible 3 tournaments and some live play. Will be pretty tired by the time I get home.

Have a fun day......

Saddle Up

The horse I was riding was gone. When I picked myself up from the ground, after being bucked off, I turned around and could see the horse running away from me. I was sad to see that horse leave. It had given me a lot of rides through the country side seeing the things that were beautiful and it was so comfortable. Yes, the saddle was gone as well. I knew I would never see that horse again.

Now what was I going to do? The horse was gone and I needed to find a new ride. I decided to stay put just in case another horse came along that I could ride. Sure enough a horse did wonder by and I was able to climb aboard and I rode this horse without a saddle for just a little while.
I knew the horse wasn't going to stick around very long as it would wander in the evenings and come back in the mornings. I didn't have a way to corral the horse to make it stay with me.

Sure enough one day he was gone. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to this horse. I didn't have a saddle on him so letting him go was a little bit easier than the horse before. Having no horse to ride again left me in a different spot and now I really didn't have a way to get around.

I was left to wander in the country side for quite some time. Seeing the green grass and the trees on foot left me feeling good though. I was able to smell the air and see things that really was important to me. It wasn't about having a horse, all the time, to go where I thought I should go. Actually having the horse is important but the horse needs to be content with where your at as well.

During this time another horse came by and this one had a saddle on it as well. I thought to myself this is great since this horse wanted to stick with me and stay by my side. This horse had some tricks that had been learned during its time with another owner. In fact it was fun to ride this horse and learn the new tricks. This horse was making me have fun again and I was able to get out and see some new parts of the country that I hadn't seen before.

This horse and I have ridden together for quite a while now and both of us have become comfortable with each other. I am able to jump into the saddle and together we take off and every day is a new day for both of us. Things are going along so well for us that we sometimes forget to look around the corner and see what is waiting for us. We were not looking for the dangers that could affect our ride.

I know that someday this horse is going to get old and may not be with me anymore. I know that things change even in a horses life. If this horse decides to move on then I will have to let it go. I won't take the saddle off and I will be sad to see something happen to the horse but I will continue to walk the country side looking for another ride.

So, this horse is still with me. I will ride this horse until I am no longer able to sit in the saddle. This story is still continuing on and we will see what decisions this horse will make.

Have a fun day.......

Happy Factor

I dealt two final tables yesterday and was kept busy at both of them. I was glad when I was done and we closed up the area and went home.

I was trying to make up my mind whether to go back for the evening bounty tournament. I keep hearing about how good this tournament is and I am usually not available to play Wednesday evening. The decision was made about 45 minutes before the tournament started to go ahead and try it out.

I am glad I did. It was a fun tournament dealing with the bounty button. We had re-buys available so for the first two rounds I waited for spots to go all in and try to double my chip stack. I ended up loosing the chips and did one re-buy and started to get serious about playing. I wasn't too far behind at this point.

I did make the final table and from there I started winning some pots and at the end we chopped the total purse four ways and we each made $100. Not a bad night and this also adds to the bankroll. I also got $5 for each bounty taken out and I cashed in four of them. One of them was mine.

I have a number that I wanted to reach for my bankroll and last night I reached it. I am very pleased and now I am going to go after the next number I want to achieve before the end of the month. Is that setting goals?

I was reading an article out of "Bluff" magazine last night talking about the happy number. The way they referred to it was as $H. What is your $H number? If you don't like what your doing you have the decision to change that and be happy. Mine is poker right now. I enjoy the game and what it gives me. I also enjoy being with my friends and family and I do that as well. Taking time for friends and family is important to me and I will not play poker if I have the opportunity to be with them. So, having a $H is important to keep some balance.

Have a fun day......

Lingering Thoughts

Usually when I am done with a hand in poker I forget about the scenario and move on. I don't let poker hands bother me if I played or not. Now if I have a hand that I feel I could have won I start to think about it and then go over it in my mind to see if I could have done anything differently during the hand.

I am talking about the hand I played in the tournament the other night. It just goes through my mind that I was bluffed off of a situation where I could have taken him out since I had more chips than him. I still feel I had the better hand but why didn't I call. I guess it comes down to position and he put me to the test first. Could I push all in behind him and risk my chips? I guess not. He won by what he did.

This reminds me of one other time that I was bluffed and that was in a Wildhorse Round-up event. I had just gotten out of the tournament and decided to play a live cash game. I had about $200 in front of me and the person on my right went all-in with about $300. I knew I was ahead with Aces but what I didn't know was if he had two pair. Again I was put to the test of the all-in move and I backed down. Again I knew he was bluffing me but I couldn't make the move. He had early position and was making me make the hard decision.

So, this hand will linger on my mind just a little bit longer or forever since I know now I lost two hands that I should have called. It is important to make great decisions at the poker table.

I am wondering what it takes, and how much time it takes, to make a good money producing poker player. I know you have to study and you need to be able to play. The bankroll is important. Having someone critique your game is nice as I have had a couple of online coaches help me with my online play but now it has to be at the live tables.

Everytime I watch the blog on "The Dan's Plan" of making the professional golf tour in 10,000 hours I keep wondering what about the plan for making it as a poker player? Does it exist? Can it happen? I really believe so but you have to find it and get the proper quidance. I am searching as I know my situation is going to change and I am trying to be ready with my bankroll intact to start the next journey.

Having a group of people around you to discuss poker and the hands played has helped. Finding that group is the hard part and keeping in touch with those that play when situations change will make it hard as well.

This is an ongoing project for me. I am thinking of ways to set my quidelines and the rules of engagement. This should be fun.

Have a fun day.......

Sick? Stay Home!!!!!!!

I was trying to write the blog at night and then I didn't make it. I quess I will stay with the mornings and give you the story next day.

Monday was my day off so I decided to get to the casino and play the 10am tournament. We did get a live game going and I was up about $8 when the tournament started. I used it to add on to my chips in the tournament. I really didn't get to far into the tournament and was taken out.

I decided to go back to the casino in the evening and play some live as well as the 6pm tournament. I got into the live game when I arrived and played for about 45 minutes. I was able to increase my stack by $20 by the time the tournament started.

The tournament started right off for me on the first hand. I had top pair on the board and I did a continuation bet. I was called and we saw the turn. It was a low card that I felt only helped me. We then looked at the river card and again it was a low card but I still felt I was in the lead. He went all in and I tanked for a few seconds to figure out if I really was beat. Even though I had enough chips to call him and still have some left over I wasn't sure if I wanted to put everything on the line right off the bat.

Did he really have some sort of straight? Would he have played junk cards like this? I was in the blind so I had just called to see the flop with the blind. My decision was to muck my cards and fight another day and stay in the tournament. Good thing I did. I ended up cashing in the tournament at the end.

I was in seat nine and we had a player in seat seven who was sneezing and coughing at the table. Not covering up when he did sneeze. You could see spray on the table. I was totally not happy. I told the person in seat eight that if I get sick I will be very upset. When I got home that night I went directly to the medicine cabinet and loaded up on vitamin C and then used spray on my hands. I did that at the casino as well because we were touching the chips of this guy. I say again if you are sick stay home. We don't want what you have.

My diabetes issue has not changed and I will discuss next week after I see my physician. Could be changes in my life starting at the end of March. My goal right now is to build the bankroll as high as I can.

Have a fun day.......

Good Day!!!!

Dealing on Saturday was going to be a big day for the dealers. We were supposed to deal the early morning and then the noon tournament and at 3:30pm was the tournament that was to draw in a lot of players.

This tournament was a $500 guaranteed at $15 buy in with T$2000 in chips and 15 minute rounds. We ended up having over 40 players sign up. This would have been nice to play as well, but I am dealing. I sit down at table three and prepare the table to deal.

Everything was so loud today I just tried to get into my little zone and push everything out except the players and what they were doing. Remember the other day I had an issue with chips and five all ins. This was on the back of my mind and how was I going to handle my first big push from the players.

Well it happened. I ended up having six players push all in and two of them were for odd amounts. I took that deep breath and then started working the numbers in my head. First I took the even amount and multiplied it out and then I took the odd amount and doubled and added and got the remainder of the main pot. I then took the second pot and put it together and what was left was the third pot. We continued with the hand and it played out correctly. Most of these players know that I have had trouble with this and when I got it done they told me that I did good.

I even had one guy stand up and say to the table that he was impressed in the way I handled it and everyone agreed. This was a big step for me in dealing with all ins and breaking down the chips. They even did it again later and I was able to get it right again. They were not sure about it so we called the floor over and I went over what I did in breaking down the chips and it was correct. I then told the table that I did have it correct the first time.

I know it takes a bit to get the trust of the players and I am hoping I am doing that. I am trying to get the trust of the dealers as well that I can handle the situations that come up. It is a learning process for me and I will get there.

I did play some live $2-$6 Spread in between the tournaments. We were unable to get the required amount of players for the noon tournament so we sat and took turns dealing the live game. When we weren't dealing we were making sure the table was full with dealers in the game. I am not a fan of playing this way as I will usually throw away my $20 to $40 I put up. I play so differently than when I sit down with my bankroll. I need to just sit there and wait for good hands but I also try new things when I am sitting there to see if something might work. Maybe use it in a live game with the bigger buy in. Also to see if players will play against me with certain hands and the position I am in. This is a leak in the game and I am more interested in growing my bankroll right now than letting it go.

I have mentioned on here about me having diabetes. I am scheduled to visit my doctor in a week. I am having some diabetes related issues and will talk about them later. I may start documenting these issues to keep track of what is going on.

I know this blog is about poker related topics but sometimes branching out a little bit about the things that are going on sometimes relates to what is happening at the table. I am a poker player, dealer, a diabetic and a little bit overweight trying to keep all things together. I have a family and just went through my Mom passing away and now dealing with all the paperwork and keeping up with Dad. A lot in my life and I don't mind sharing some of what is happening.

Have a fun day.....

Day Off

I had a day off from dealing and I was able to make the phone calls I needed to try and finish up my Mom's financial stuff. I still have to talk with Social Security with my Dad this next week but other than that we are just about set to continue on as time will move forward.

I did have my eyes examined and the good news is that they haven't changed since 2009. I am wearing the same prescription as I started with that year. What an accomplishment for someone with Diabetes and I have been fighting everything else so this is good.

I am pretty tired today and I know I will be dealing the 10am, 12pm and the 3:30pm tournament today. I got all of my sleep I was supposed to get but my body is tired. Let's hope I don't mouth off to someone today. Let's just have an easy button day.

Have a fun day......

I Had Enough!!!!

I was sitting at the final table dealing the tournament and was moving along smoothly. I still have some issues with making sure the chips get divided the correct way with more than two individuals in the all in pots. I am getting better at it and will continue to get that skill down. The hard part is when the players start throwing numbers out at me and then I start getting confused.

After the floor came over and we got the thing figured out it came out alright. This was the first time I had five people go all in and with three different chip counts. To top that off the two with the least amount of chips ended up chopping the pot and another got what was left.

Now we start the next tournament. I was doing fine going along and getting the cards out. We were nearing a blind change and also looking at loosing one more player to get to the final table. I was at the second table with five players and the final table at six players. Someone was talking behind me at the table mentioning a pause to combine.

I turned around to see if we were to pause or if I was to keep dealing since I had just completed a hand on my table. One of the players said for me to continue the deal since he was on the clock and that I needed to hurry. At this point I started fuming. It took me about three hands later and then the table was to break for me to finally say what I have been wanting to say for a long time.

I told the table in general but directed it to the person that had said hurry up to me. I said that I bet that if they were to time me to see how long it took me to shuffle and deal the cards I could beat them with the time it takes them to make their decisions if they were going to play the cards or not. He tried to counter with something and I repeated myself about three times and then I told him I was done with the conversation. My point was made.

In the end he did cash at the final table and he decided not to leave a tip. Let me work this one out. Four dealers splitting his tip of $5 would egual $1.25 each? I think I got my point across.

Last night I went in and played $2-$10 Spread Limit. I started out playing too many cards and it cost me about $40. I need to play tighter when I walk in and sit down. For the next two hours I was up and down with the chipstack but in the end after two hours I was at a minus $40. See, if I would have been smarter at the beginning I may have been on the other side of that column.

On my Birthday I did play a tournament and won a seat for a sattelite into the Seniors Tournament. That would be a fun one to get since I am planning on playing in that one anyway. It would be nice to earn my way into it and spend less money. This will come at the end of the month.

I got a letter from the County yesterday saying that my Mom was to report for Jury Duty in April. Do you think that is going to happen? Where do they want the Urn to sit?

Have a fun day.......

Time Change

Don't you just hate it when the time changes? I know I do and it is hard to get accustomed to each time it happens.

I am trying to switch over to an evening blog but having a hard time remembering my new itenerary for the evening. I am trying to cook more at home in the evenings, putting in some walking or exercise time and then I will study poker and read and then write the blog. I quess you could ask me "How is that going for you"? Not!!!

I am trying to switch over to evening blog writing since that would be the easiest for me. The mornings are tight time wise and if I get going on the bus again it will even be shorter. The idea there is to save some money on gas. The other is trying to be home in the evening and I will try to make dinner since we have gotten to eating out alot.

The restaurants are fun to spend time at since we are given everything and we don't have to fix the meal. Of course, we have to pay for the meal and that costs as well. I was looking at our financials last night and just about all of the expenses out of my account are restaurant related.

I have been trying to improve on my poker skills. I was able to watch a dealer yesterday that comes with 20 years experience at Foxwoods. Watching her deal the cards and move around the table was nice and smooth. Her presence at the table was control of the game. She gave me a couple of tips and I will start to practice them today. I told her we needed to have a technique type of class with her. We are all at different levels and maybe she can help us reach our potentials.

Also watching the players a little bit more. There are certain people who get to the final table more than others. What are they doing? How are they playing so if I happen to play against them what can I watch for? Some of the perks of being a dealer and being a dealer that deals to them on a daily basis.

Got to go to work.

Have a fun day.......

Weekend

Everything went very well for the Memorial for my Mom. We had a lot of help from family and friends that even made it better. Overall it was a good experience for all and now we have to move on since time does move forward. My time and efforts will now move over to my Dad and make sure he is taken care of when and how needed. Not that I haven't already but he is the only one left now and my efforts will be totally there.

I was called late Saturday night to see if I would work a shift in the poker room on Sunday night. I did agree since my family was leaving on Sunday morning. I got to the casino around 5PM and at the time the tournament was to start we had 6 players so it was decided to cancel the tournament. We then decided to sit down and play a live game to see if we could get anyone interested. This consisted of three dealers and two players.

I am not a fan of playing this way but figured I would help. I bought in for $60 and over about a 30 minute time span I was at zero. We had a new player that was hitting cards by playing 72, 83, so forth. We has dealers try to be soft with each other but sometimes we get in our own way trying to do that. That is a whole different story.

On Monday I delivered my sister to the airport and she was able to catch her flight home. I went over to the casino to see if I could catch a tournament at Noon. While I was waiting for the tournament to start I went over and played Ultimate Texas Hold'em and that was a mistake on my part. I was back and forth until it wore me down and I lost my $60 playing that game. I know better but I did have fun. Not one I will play again.

The tournament started with two tables. I was up and down with my chips at the start but was able to keep going when I needed to. We made it down to the final table and I would go all in when I had to keep the chips coming in and I could go another round of blinds. By letting the other players take each other out and being patient I was able to make it with players left and at that time one of the players asked for a chop. We all agreed and we made $40 per person. Almost broke even for the day. I did feel good about the final table play and another dealer that was playing made it as well. Two out of the five were dealers.

We watched the Biggest Looser last night and I must say it is getting interesting now. Loosing weight and feeling better is a goal of mine but like them it is hard doing this by yourself. I need to have someone push me and make appointments for exercising and trying to figure out meal plans. All of this is hard to do. Will try to get back on track.

Have a fun day......

Friday

As I have said previous I am off until next Tuesday. Tomorrow is the Memorial for my Mom. My wife has done a lot of work getting the pictures ready for the service. Everytime I look at it or read my letter to my Mom I just have a hard time. I keep saying I will get through this and I will be there for my Dad and help him as well.

Right now my mind is not on poker. I did have a good day yesterday dealing the tournaments and dealing some live.

Dealers playing against dealers. That should be one of my posts next week. Have a good weekend.

Have a fun day......

You Played What!!!

Yes, I hear that all the time when I am in the box dealing cards.

I was given the opportunity to play in the $2 tournament in the morning since we had too many dealers for the amount of players. I let them know that I was willing to play in this one and not work.

This tournament has T$1,000 in chips and you can increase your chips by buying more at $1.00 per T200 chips up to $5 for T$1,000 more. I did that since I want to have as much as possible to give me more room to play with the chipstack.

I have learned that I don't just limp into the pot anymore unless it has been raised and then there are calls and sometimes depending on the cards I will call. Now, I know that is not a limp but still it hasn't eliminated any players.

In this case I raised the pot and got a couple of callers. On the flop the cards where in my favor with no flush draw, straight draw and all mid t low cards. I had QQ in my hand. I raised it up and the guy next to me went all in. I thought he could have a set or a small pair. Nothing else scared me so I went all in as well. He turns over A2. You know what happened, he caught an Ace on the river to beat me.

This is the style of play in this type of tournament. I would play my hand the same next time and probably win. I am not frustrated about the outcome but still the question why did you play the A2?

Today is the last day of work till Tuesday. I will have 4 days off for my Mom's memorial coming up on Saturday. My family will start coming in today and everyone will be here on Friday. We are making a schedule for meals and hoping everyone gets taken care of.

Have a fun day......

Poker

I know that lately I haven't talked too much poker on this blog. I guess you could say I am a little preoccupied. This weekend will be my Mom's memorial and we have been preparing for the service. In the meantime I have been continuing to work at the casino to not only keep up with working but to keep my mind busy as well. I get home in the afternoon and I start thinking about Mom and it still hurts. Hopefully I can get through the weekend and start this healing process for myself. She will always be in my heart.

I am still reading the book "Decide to play Great Poker" by Annie Duke. This book is a good read and has helped me stop and think about the decisions I need to make at the table. I have cashed in a couple of tournaments lately and I know it is due to what I am learning in this book.

I have taken the Pre-Game and Pre-Flop chapters and have studied them. I guess that is why I am slow in getting through the book. I am taking my time with each one and implementing each chapter before I move on. That would sort of make it strange in the end on the river since I don't have the knowledge of how to think about the river card and betting but if I know what I want to do in the beginning then when I get there I will have the thought process there to play the end.

One of the things that is helping me greatly is not limping into the pots. Again making the decision to raise if I want to play and if the cards are just not in my range then get rid of them and wait for another two cards. Especially the suited and non suited connectors. I have made the decision that I won't chase straights but I still will take a look at flushes if I have an Ace that would give me the nuts. Of course everything else would have to look good as well on the board.

I am getting close to finishing the chapter and will move on to the next one soon. I am also anxious to get back playing the live game and I am starting to feel good about my tournament play again. I am looking at playing at Wildhorse Casino in April in one of their events. That would be a good test for me.

Off to work I go today and tomorrow then four days off.

Have a fun day......

Road Trip

Today I took my Dad on a road trip. We needed to purchase some CD's and couldn't find the singers in this area. I called down to College Place to see if they might have the group available on CD. Sure enough they had them and they also had the volumes I needed.

I picked up Dad from the Assisted Living apartment and we headed off for the one hour trip. He enjoyed getting out and seeing what is new and being built around the area. He hasn't been on this type of a drive in about 3 years. Seeing all of the new apartment complexes and houses and the size of the housing struck him.

As we left the city and got out into the country he was even more excited to see what has changed. We drove on the new 4 lane highway and he thought that was pretty good. We used to drive these roads alot back in the early 80's and they were all 2 lane back then.

We arrived in College Place and picked up the music. I took him to lunch and noticed how run down the area was becoming. The city fathers want the area not to grow but then again the infrastructure takes a hit as well. They are tearing down a mall. We were totally surprised. We drove around and then we headed home.

We had trouble on the way back. I don't know if it was the travel for the first time or the food. We both had the salad and I was fine. He threw up twice on the way back. I was sure happy to get him back to his room and he wanted to take a nap. Maybe a little too much travel.

I did not play poker on Monday at all. We are getting closer to the Memorial and items need to be taken care of. I am putting in my time for the next 3 days at the casino and then will have 4 days off for family and friends and my Mom.

My question is how does one train for poker? You got to play the games and study the books. How do you know you can be a winner at the tables? Things I will be thinking about. I am building my bankroll and will be using this to keep pushing for better play.

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

Longest Day

This was the longest day I have had to stay at the casino to work. Starting at around 10:30 and getting things set up for the noon tournament. In the meantime we also get a live $2-$6 game going and we usually get the 10 players and we have fun till the tournament starts.

By Noon we ended up with 3 tables and some alternates. That takes us almost to 2:30 to finish and then we get that live game going again. We do well with the live game and people are interested in us getting back to it as soon as we can. We like to have at least 5 players so the Monte Carlo's are in effect for the players.

At 3PM we are ready for the next tournament. This one is te Player of the Week tournament. Since we did not have the tournament last week the money was carried over to this one. It ended up being over $500 being added to the buy ins. We had 4 tables with alternates for this one and I actually left when I was relieved and that was at 6:30PM to go home.

I had a player say something to me during the tournament that I couldn't understand. He was upset but he wouldn't talk with me. Later after we had broken the table and moved them to the final table I was walking past the pit area and one of the dealers informed what was going on. He was complaining that we are not keeping with our policy of keeping players back off of the tables and behind the ropes. I understand this and went over to the floor and told them we needed to either do this or not. But at least be consistant. The floor moved the players back.

I am very happy that my bankroll keeps climbing right now. I did not play today so the tips were the ones that increased the numbers. I do have a number in mind and I am trying to push as quickly as I can to get to that number so I can start working the tables again.

Today I am off and I am headed to Walla Walla to pick up some music my mom enjoyed so we can play it at the church. So much to do right now since family is due in at the end of the week. It will be good seeing everyone.

Have a fun day......

Sunday

We had a very busy day at the Casino yesterday. I arrived at 9AM and didn't get out of there until 4:30PM. It was long but it was productive. I was kept busy the whole time.

I ended up dealing a couple of tournaments and then we settled in to a live $2-$6 spread game. We alternated every 30 minutes which was better than the every hour the day before. Gets tireing after awhile.

The other day I saw something I hadn't seen before. The dealer was going through the motions of dealing the cards but didn't stop at the river but dealt one more. Would you call that the ocean card? He even went as far as using it to help the person win the hand. We did let him know to pull that card back and relook at the cards.

We are now getting started in giving away 3 seats to the Wildhorse event in April. One Womens, one Senior and one Main Event seat. That should be fun and I don't think I will try for any of them and just play or work the tournaments. If I do play it will be at Wildhorse. It is good to get in via a satellite but right now I have no desire to try for one.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he knew of a trainer that could help me set up some workout regimens and they are easy enough that I don't have to kill myself going to a gym. I will be starting on these real soon as I would still love to loose 50 pounds right now. Total weight is 225 and started at 243 and would like to continue to loose. Need the motivation to continue on after this memorial for my Mom.

I am going on a road trip to College Place tomorrow with my Dad to pick up some music for the Memorial. It will be good to get him away for a day. See the old stomping grounds. Could be hard since Dad and Mom lived there for quite some time. We will see the houses they lived in and where we worked. Might be good for us.

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

Poker Birthday

With the day off and I finished some of the stuff I set out to do before next week it was time to hit the casino as a player.

I arrived early so I could sit in on the Live $2-$6 game. This game will run prior to the next tournament which costs $2 to get into. We get about 30 players and makes for a nice fast tournament like a MTT Sit-n-Go.

Back to the cards. I did real well and caught a couple of flushes that built my chip stack. I started with $40 and closed out the session when the tournament started at $110. Nice start for the day.

The tournament started and I didn't get very far and busted out early. This allowed me to go get lunch and then get back to the casino to play some more live poker before the next tournament.

During this session I did drop back the stack of chips to being + $20 over the starting buy in from this morning. I couldn't hold on to the whole amount. So now I am at $20. Time to go and start the tournament.

This tournament is an $8 buy in with T$4000 starting chips. You are able to rebuy for the whole amount if you are felted. I started off real well by tripling up my stack with two other people. I had the nut flush and one other person had a lower flush and the other person had two pair. I do like trying for the flushes if the price is right and the chips in the pot are worth going after.

I then started playing the table more since I had the chip stack to do that. Eventually getting to the final table and working on my chip stack. We got down to 8 players and that is when I started letting people know what the chop amounts are. When we got to 6 players I told the group again and one person said no, which is fine with me because I was just letting them know.

When we reached 5 players I was winning pots and my chip stack growing to be second in chips and the first person said he would chop if he got the biggest amount. This has happened to me before and I don't feel it is fair. I told him that with me winning the last few pots that "I was coming" and working on his stack. When I won the next stack he looked over and said that he would chop. I told him I would do it if he took a lesser amount and we took a more fair chop. He agreed.

I am not a fan of chopping but I am less of a fan of giving someone more money with more chips because that can change in an instant as that was happening real fast last night with me building my chips. Plus I needed to get to an appointment in 15 minutes but didn't want them to know that.

Overall my Bankroll moved up $80 for the day. Happy Birthday to me. After this we went to Red Lobster with our son to celebrate the day.

Off to work I go and have a fun day......

This is my Birthday.....

As far as poker went yesterday it was a good day. I did the usual of dealing one tournament and then two of us continued on dealing the live game until around 4PM. That means the live game went about 5 or more hours. In between dealing and being able to play to keep the game alive I did double up my buy in. In the end I gave some of it back but overall it was a productive day for me.

Once upon a time there was a Prince and Princess who lived far far away in a land of dirt. This is where they got the chance to know each other. One day they made the agreement that they would join forces and be married to one another. The Prince who was now King went away for awhile to serve the mighty country they lived in. The Princess who is now Queen stayed home and prepared their home for his return. They even moved to an area where trees were plenty and the rain came down most of the time.

When the King came back from overseas from his long battle he was able to stay home and not go back. The Queen liked that and from that time forward they decided to have a family. After the family was started they moved to a different land of sand. The King would would work in the big buildings with others and earn the gold that would support his family.

Their first born was a son and he liked to work in the fields. They named him Stacy. He grew up to be a traveler as well and spent time working on the land. He eventually settled down with his family and now works in a building and spends his time teaching kids to play a game with a round ball.

Their second born was a son as well. They were expecting a girl and there was a surprise when a boy was delivered to the King and Queen. They didn't have a name picked out for the little boy but did have a girls name. The name was supposed to be Stephanie Kimberly and since they didn't know what to do they changed the name to Steven Kim. Steve was not a person who enjoyed being outdoors working on the land. One time in the land of dirt the King decided to plant cherry tomatoes. We worked the land after our hours studying in school. Steve eventually worked in the Health Field and spent many hours working on Neonates after they were born. He is now involved in a game with cards.

The third child to the King and Queen was a girl. Her name was Kristi. Even though the Queen would make her look pretty she still hung around with the two brothers and we would play in the dirt. She moved on in time to also work in the health field and eventually staying home to help take care of her grandchild.

Now, while we were in the land of dirt the King and Queen had one more child name Jana. During her time of growing up she was strong willed and anything she wanted to do she would do it and don't get in her way. She would eventually grow up and work in the entertainment area building things to make people happy.

As you can see the King and Queen had 4 children and they all grew up to be able to take care of themselves. The number two son always tried to make sure the King and Queen was near and that they would be happy and safe from harm. The other children would also make sure that if anything was needed it was available to the King and Queen as well. We love the King and Queen of our world.

Today is the Birthday of the number two son. He is now 56 years old and during this time he is taking care of the Queens affairs to make sure they are completed. Your life was happy and we are proud to have you as our Queen.

Have a fun day......

Leap Year

I can just imagine all of those people that were born on the 29th of February and having a birthday every four years.

My story goes like this. My Mom was pregnant with me in 1955-56 and since I was due to come at any moment the doctor wanted to induce my Mom on February 29. Now I am sure they were not thinking about the leap year but were thinking about me and it was time to be born.

My Mom and Dad said no, of course, because they didn't want to have a leap year kid. They wanted me to come into the world when I was ready.

In the early morning of March 2 I was born to my parents into this world. A world with no promises just dreams of what you can accomplish.

So, there you have it. I outlasted the leap year and get to have a birthday every year. Every leap year I wonder what it would have been like though to be born on that day since I was so close.

I am playing a little bit of live cash in the morning with some of the regulars before we get started with the tournaments. So far I have been up $20 each time. Ok, I will grow the bankroll slow. A win at the table is a win and will take it no matter what.

I always say that Spring starts for me on March 1 each year. I don't want to be a winter baby. So welcome to Spring even if it is cold. Today is sunny and cold. At least half of it is right.

Have a fun day......