Monday

The weekend was good. I played in four tournaments and bubbled one of them. I then played the $15 buyin for a share of the $750 prize pool. It was a good tournament for me as I was able to get the cards when I needed them. Getting to the final table again and this time I was playing patient and waiting for the right cards and letting others be the aggressors at this time. When we got down to 7 handed the proposal was on the table to chop the pot and everyone leave with $107 each. Everyone finally agreed with this and after nearly four hours of playing we chopped it up. I haven't played any live lately and am ready to get back at that. I am thinking about starting a new website and doing something a little bit different. My goal has been to get better at poker but I think using some video and working on my live game with a certain amount as my bankroll would be fun. I would like to play in the 2013 WSOP. I would give myself a year to get myself ready and build the bankroll. Anyway, I am thinking about how I would put the website together. Go look at the "TheDanPlan", as I like his site and the idea of working on becoming better at something. Have a fun day......

Friday

What does it take to get good at what you want to do? Commitment? Time? I am trying to figure out how I can become better at what I enjoy doing. I started out playing home games with friends and then I moved to playing online and when that became an issue with our state and then our country I then moved to playing in the casino's. I have been playing at a number of casinos mainly in the low buy in tournaments. I have learned something about myself and that is playing in the short stack tournaments with the rounds at 10 minutes just isn't what I want to do. I want to play and develop into a player that is patient and will work a strategy in a game. I enjoy the 20 to 30 minute rounds and the chip stacks that start at T$10,000 and up. This gives a person time to study the table and to see what needs to be done to increase the chip stack. I have been reading and following the blog of "thedanplan" and where Dan is taking 10,000 hours to become a golf professional. I really believe he can achieve this by doing the hard work it is going to take. You will always have people telling you that you will not succeed but then they are unwilling to step out of the box and try to be happy in something they want to do. I have to continue to tell myself that if I put in the hours and the time that I can get better and play the game of poker like I know I can. Now you ask why this talk? Even though I have put in a lot of playing time and now I am dealing the game of poker in a casino I need to continue to achieve my goals. This last week I have put some time into thinking about the game and what I am going to do about getting better. I do read poker books, magazines and watch some live poker on the internet. Now it is time to put the work in. The time I spend dealing in poker is not going to change. What is going to change is the playing time. My plan right now is to play one deepstack tournament per week. It has to be at least T$10,000 in starting chips and has to be at 20 to 30 minutes for each round. Since I want to get better at the cash game as well I will be limiting my starting buy in per week and this will hopefully force me to be more patient. At this moment I do have a bankroll that has grown by what I do in poker and I need to continue to increase this bankroll to be able to play in the bigger tournaments. I am also writing my experiences in a notebook as well for each game I play. I need to be able to look back at the areas that I need to work on. Some of these will make it into the blog. It is time to put in the work and make this happen. Yes, it is fun but getting serious about it is also needed. Have a fun day......

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......