Losing My Edge?

When we were carrying a big debt we were in a position where only a large windfall could possibly pull us out. I attempted some Internet advertising (still) and if you follow my blogs you know that I published a couple of books. As many of you may know it takes money to make money. The first book in particular was an investment, but even simply publishing on Kindle is not without its costs as you write an edit your work, and try to produce a respectable cover. Marketing doesn’t happen by itself.

Poker as an option for this windfall is something I kept at because I could come close to even playing in league tournaments. Then qualifying for the league’s larger tournaments I could possibly catch a good chunk of change. I stayed away from the casino tables because early endeavors left me in the red and as we tried several ways to make money, with their required investments, most of them also left us a bit in the red. So I had become risk averse to some degree. Even though I often felt I might be able to do well at the casino poker tables, and I am certainly surrounded by casino roadside advertisements every time I hit the road for any reason, I had no trouble resisting the temptation of trying my luck for a minimum of $100; the cost of a seat in the smaller games.

I would immensely enjoy trying my luck at the casino otherwise. I would especially love to enter the various tournaments the casino holds. It’s only a couple miles away remember. And though we are now out of debt we have many demands on our finances as we deferred many repairs on our home and other financial obligations of the more charitable type for many years. So I have many demands on our money and I can only address one at a time with our current income. So I am greatly drawn to sticking to a sure thing, the slow and steady knocking down of one financial obstacle after the other, though it will take us over a year, than to chasing any large windfalls. $100 is still a substantial sum for us.

So with all the things lined up in my mind that I need to get done (and now can start to get done) I have lost my edge. My mind doesn’t focus on the pursuit of that big windfall any longer. A focus that kept me sharp and hungry at the tables. I am not reading others as well and take too many chances, not to mention just getting really bad cards these last couple months.

I was not in the zone for this last six month. I didn’t have much playing time these last couple months. Our table had at least twenty pocket pairs shown in the first hour and a half. With two high pair I was hoping the guy betting big didn’t have a pocket pair with only a flush or straight draw that could beat me on the river. He had 3’s and had hit his set on the flop. The other guy in the hand had J’s. I was out and home early.

But I am determined to get back in the game. When we finally get a second car and I can make more determined plans from day to day and week to week I will hit the tables with firm intention. Also when I get a print version of my second book published I intend to bring signed copies for people who take me out. I don’t like to give things away without reason that I could otherwise sell so that should make me more focused. My confidence will eventually come back. I can’t get bad cards forever. ?

So in the short term I will try to get the print version of my latest book out. I will be doing the art work for the back cover myself.

The Twelve Days of Poker? Never got it organized and then Lent came. I didn’t give up poker but didn’t feel such a focus appropriate. It is something much more fitting for the Winter months. It’s off until next January.

As far as my review of the different leagues I cannot make a complete review now. If you are interested in playing a poker league they are listed in the sidebar. Start with the closest, and if you don’t like it one of the other leagues may be much more enjoyable for you. The leagues can differ widely as can one’s experience at any particular location. Generally you will have more table time with Tavern Tourneys than Badger, but how late do you want to stay out?

Three Rolls

I have been contemplating how many times I went all-in, found myself with a dominating hand and then dealt myself a losing hand. Too many times.

Being self employed we had many demands on our funds this last January. So after gaining a big chunk of points earlier in the month supporting a new location for Tavern Tourneys I didn’t play much. Then on about the 25th I saw on the website that their monthly was in Milwaukee; very close for once after many monthlies having been nearly in Illinois much of the year.

So I rushed out to the last three opportunities to gain points or outright win. Won 25 points in the first of three and then ran into two local tournaments packed with people with big bank rolls who simply kept buying back in after going bust, creating a clear insurmountable hill to climb. …Hmmmm? But last night I still had a chance. Not being one to just sit back and simply slide to a final table I needed to grow my stack quick to consider an outright win. I went all-in on my deal with a K, J. Thought I had a good chance with a smaller table and with the tables grow tight when the blinds are 5,000-10,000. I dealt myself trip J’s but dealt one of two callers a straight.

Wasn’t as bad as the night before when I was all-in with a A, J against an A, 10. Yes I dealt a 10 on the turn after a low flop that negated any straight or flush potentials.

Finally got some money together to get some materials to build a couple of poker tables.

More to come on that project. Found a great place to order foam from.

A new dog in the house! Ike is very demanding. Formerly named Spike my brothers toddlers couldn’t pronounce the Sp, so the name became Ike. And with the toddlers running two directions and Ike the third they just couldn’t handle him.

Will put together my ‘Twelve Days of Poker’ schedule soon.

Wednesdays

Wednesdays have recently become oh so much more desirable. A new location has opened in downtown Milwaukee for Tavern Tourneys. The Irish Rec Room is well suited for their style of poker league tournaments. Not too crowded, spacious, good music upon request and so many great chances to earn bonus chips.

Yes bonus chips. For ten dollars, giving one 2,000 in bonus chips if spent before the start of the tournament (1,000 chips after the start) one can get a 12 inch pizza and a pitcher.

Then there is the climbing wall. Make it to the top, $3 for a single try $5 for two tries, and win 3,000 in chips. Get 1,000 just for trying. And in reality it does not look too difficult to get to the top. The difficult part, and most entertaining for the spectators, is the coming down. A gentleman of questionable appearance, but good repute, nearly smashed his knuckles on his way down.

And for that very special few one of the most attractive aspects of this premier poker venue is that I will not be able to make it there much myself. It doesn’t fit my schedule well. The rest rooms are large elegant and clean. Starts at 7:00 pm and you can get into the game until the first person is out for good; usually after 9:30. A large game will go beyond midnight but often that is about when they end if not earlier.

Tournament league style play seems to be on the rise. While any single tournament does not stand out as exploding in size, all the leagues seem to be expanding. Wisconsin Poker Tour just came into the picture a few years ago.

If you live downtown and have not played much poker before, Tavern Tourneys, per design behind a great business plan, will give you more table time to gain experience than Badger Poker. Both have downtown locations. Ultimately location may be the greatest factor in choosing where to play.

My twelve days of poker still needs to be planned out. It will most likely come in February as January is tight financially as we must pay the taxmen their quarterly demands. It will be another evaluation of my poker skills and the potential of being truly profitable. While throughout a year I almost break even or better, what will happen on a twelve day run? How will  a return to the casino tables after two years turn out? (they have low stakes no-limit games now) I only played at the casino about four times over the course of a year, but overall casino play makes up for almost all my losses over  the last three plus years.

It will be interesting to get at least two outings at all the different tournament groups so I can write an evaluation. I’ll prepare a set budget, 300 of my best dollars well sired, and see how it all turns out. Stay tuned. We have a new dog. Too much of a handful for my brother with his two toddlers and he has some issues after his first year of being mostly alone in a kennel. He’s come a long way.

Twenty-five cents

Let me give you my two bits on 2011 and the coming 2012. I came out twenty-five cents in the black with my tournament play for 2011. I averaged less than three tournaments a month and most of them were Tavern Tourney events because they have really nice people, mostly.

Tavern Tourneys has a new location in downtown Milwaukee for 2012, starting January 4th. The Irish Rec Room on Old World Third Street near Usinger’s.

That is an improvement over 2010 where I averaged four tournaments a month for eight months, losing less than twenty dollars a month. These figures include any buy-in or purchase for which I received chips and do not include travel expenses. I have greater losses from more than two years back from a few attempts I made at casino play.

I made several monthly, quarterly or six month free tournaments and if I had made a final table at one of them I could easily be in the black overall. I was not able to attend all the free tournaments I had qualified for because they conflicted with my work schedule or other events I deemed more important. As it stands now I am qualified for the Tavern Tourney December monthly. I am also easily on my way to qualify for the next six month after only two months. As they all say, “Only you say you’re a good poker player.”

The last six month? Don’t really want to write anything outside of, sometimes you miss things especially when you’ve been up the entire weekend and your looking to hit a straight one way but there are other ways it could be made and the other guy in the hand thinks he’s got it won outright, …and then afterwards you’re thinking about the hand and comments at the table and banging your head against the wall. A lot of times people just miss things with no ill designs present. Life goes on.

But that is not to let anyone off the hook. It has been all too clear in action and comments that I have a big target on my back and that there are those who don’t want to play with me (too bad for them and I don’t care who their friends are) and though I may joke of alternative reasons everyone knows why. But fortunately we have freedom of religion in this country. Unfortunately, those who want to spew hate and demeaning comments behind my back are sitting in a position to cause a lot of problems for those good people caught in the middle as one of my resolutions for the New Year is no more mister nice guy. The reality is if such defamatory comments of me or my faith were said to my face the fallacy behind the whole construct would fade away and the demeaning hateful nature of such words would become all too clear to all. The truth is the idea that I am just a guy like everyone else who enjoys poker and has the same concerns as any other person in this world is unacceptable to some, a source of fear, a threat. What do you call that?

So I am supposed to just keep letting this crap deny me a career, a good salary that would cover our healthcare, housing and the ability to pursue a family whether through medicine or adoption, not to mention the simple recreational pursuits of my life? Guess what?

For 2012, and to promote the blog and my pursuit of poker as a possible profession (along with my writing) I will be doing Twelve Days of Poker. I was thinking of starting right after The Twelve days of Christmas but that would conflict with our anniversary. I hope to hit all of the four different tournament leagues in the area that I know of, as well as some stand alone tournaments that people keep mentioning at times, and will hit the casino once or twice as we work some evenings and there are no afternoon tournaments on those days.

You can buy the second edition of my latest book for your Kindle here. My writers blog is actually one of my most popular though I haven’t seen any similar numbers in sales. This blog is right up their with my MySpace blog. Yes MySpace still exists.

2012 in the Chinese calendar is the Year of the Dragon and my wife and I are both Dragons. As a friend of mine of oriental decent said to me the other day; The dragon lives on the bottom of the ocean alone for a very long time and then rises from the waters and rules the world.

Table Talk

In poker when you are out of a hand, have folded, it is improper to speak about the hand in play. I’ve flubbed on this a few times, commenting on possible outcomes.

You also cannot show cards you have folded to anyone in a hand. Some people like to keep their mucked (folded) cards to see what if. They sometimes like to show others that have also folded what they had in their hand. This is tolerated but if anyone in the hand sees any discarded cards those cards should be shown to everyone in the hand.

Also, if all fold and you win the pot, if you show one person what you were holding you must show all.

Of course you can talk about other things while at the table and if they are poker related they should be worth listening to. And I picked up a few bits of information that those interested in poker should be aware of, especially if you are not particularly in the know for all that is going on.

The biggest news I gleaned last night at Tavern Tourneys was that there is a new poker league in town; the Wisconsin Poker Tour. They are ending their second season so they are not completely new but this is the first I have heard of them. There site is clear in the most important detail; the event schedule. Otherwise I could not readily, in my brief review of their site, determine all the ins and outs of the workings of their league. It appears to be structured in a similar fashion to Badger Poker.

One needs not worry though if you cannot understand every nuance of the league through a website. Nor is it necessary to preregister. If you just show up to an event I am sure all will be happy to have you participate and explain the details of their operation. But one should always read their rules of the game, easily accessible on their website. Each league may differ a bit in their rules.

It sounds like Master Z’s in Waukesha will become the Mecca of poker in Southeastern Wisconsin. That is the bar and pool hall near the expressway, not the retailer of pool tables location. They may soon have all the leagues holding events at their location, holding poker tournaments more nights out of the week than not. It’s been a long long time since I worked a pool table.

I also learned that the owner of Tavern Tourneys placed very high in the money in a WSOP satellite. He was a major chip leader and then got hit by three bad beats in short order and was out in 22nd place.

But I know all have been wondering just how I’ve been doing at the poker table. I got out twice this month. My first outing I was card dead and couldn’t catch any hands outside of the first of the night. Still I made points by finishing ninth.

My next outing, last night, it was even worse. I caught many hands such as two pair that more often than not will take the pot. Two pair, high pair with an ace kicker, a marginal flush hand with only three of the suit on the board (requiring someone to have suited cards in their hand to make the flush) and I lost them all, more than once. Did I lose with two pair three times?

I also twice failed to push on the river with bluffs and lost to a low pair. With most all bluffs, betting large suggesting you’ve made a hand, there should be an outside potential to make a big hand. But I didn’t hit and didn’t follow through on the bluff.

I also bought some rounds to stay in the game to no avail. Something I usually don’t do and it hurts me with trying to stay even or better money wise in my poker pursuits. I have gone into the red. But it just wasn’t to stay in the game that I bought a round, it was also because I have not bought rounds for a very very long time and I feel it is part of being considerate to the host establishment, the tournament operators and fellow competitors. I will have to limit myself to one round a month and possibly play for completely free on other occasions. I hope I can make a tournament a week as we get back on our feet financially, maybe more when the Winter weather sets in. Tavern Tourneys now has a Saturday afternoon tournament in the Milwaukee area now.

Maybe I will challenge myself this Winter by doing something like playing two weeks straight. Hitting all the local leagues (now four) multiple times and then writing that piece I have been planning to write contrasting and comparing each league.

Though I don’t text I may set up my cell phone so I can text to my twitter poker account so I can tweet to this blog (see sidebar) as the action happens.

I have qualified with points for Tavern Tourneys six month tournament. Even with five days left in the month I don’t believe 34 people will overtake me, some 100 points behind. Of course the odds were in my favor many times last night and I lost every time.

Evening at the Casino

One of the few times we go to the casino, only two miles from our home, outside of our birthdays are for promotions the casino places in their small monthly magazine. We receive $25 worth of points for visiting on our birthdays (usually then putting 10-20 dollars into our favorite slot machine…!?) because we are part of their fire keepers card program. That is also why we get their monthly publication. A publication that is just the right size; about eighteen pages.

And the September promotion in “Ante”, their publication, was multiple entries into drawings. Drawings spread out over the entire month in which you must be present to win. So you have to visit the casino. So we had coupons for 25 free entries each if we visited on a certain evening which we did. Then last night they had the final drawings; three over two hours. So I used some of my points to buy my wife dinner at their Fire Pit Sports bar while we waited for the drawing results.

Breaking our routine was nice and we talked about a few things where we would have otherwise been stuck in our nightly routine. Six people were drawn at two times, twelve in total for a $1,000 prize each. Then at the final hour one person was drawn for a $52,000 prize. We didn’t win though a person at the table next to us in the sports bar won $1,000. My wife noticing that the person was neither surprised nor excited suspects the drawings are rigged, but we enjoyed our evening at the casino.

As we waited for that final drawing I borrowed five dollars from my wife for our favorite slot machine; a two cent machine. I won ten dollars and some change and cashed out. I pocketed the ten and gave my wife her five dollars back. She used it to win eleven dollars and some change, but couldn’t stop. I convinced her to cash out after a few more spins and then made sure she knew she won two cents more than I, because I know she enjoys to laugh…

For October we received in “Ante” four free entries each for guesses as to how many bats are in a coffin the casino has on display in their lobby. Little tiny plastic bats of the flying kind. When I read the promotion in their magazine I thought they were talking about baseball bats as the Brewers are in the playoffs. Of course you have to visit on four separate days to make your guesses. A rare promotion where you need not be present to win. Four closest guesses win. They also have more drawings, one entry for a gaming visit with additional entries for every 250 points earned. must be present at drawings to win.

We are close by so will enter our guesses and I may take my wife for dinner again on her birthday using my points. The poker room didn’t get busy until 8pm. They don’t have their Monday Night Football promotion this year. For a $530 buy-in, and a $30 add on, one can enter their $100,000 Autumn Feast No-Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament. Don’t know how fast it will fill or if it is already full. Winner gets $30,350. Sunday and Monday tournaments have come back also. They don’t advertise because they have no problem filling them. You best be waiting, seated at a game to get into one as those seated have first priority to get into the Sunday and Monday tournaments.

There are some large tournaments in this region at various casinos. Often the poker leagues will have promotions where you can win an entry into these tournaments. That is actually the best way to keep track of them, by participating or following one or more of the poker leagues (for lack of a more accurate description). The promotions usually entail playing at certain locations over a set time period, to win a seat outright or to qualify for a mini tournament of the largest point holders in the promotion to win a seat.

I have a new roof to get put on the house and some other miscellaneous expenses before I can consider serious tournament play. Even the mostly fun tavern tournaments will not be to common for me until we get by these financial hurdles. But I will get out to a few. I am considering setting up my cell phone so I can text directly to my poker twitter page.

If Full Tilt Poker really wasn’t segregating their players accounts from their operating expenses like they claimed they were, giving themselves large payouts, they are in deep doo doo.

So outside of a cash tip we left for our waiter ($20 of food paid in points) we came out ahead last night, which we have done on a goodly percentage of our visits over the last few years, since we first visited the casino. The food, service and company were good. It was a nice evening at the casino.

Free Poker!

Is there such a thing? Maybe if you are playing with friends in your home. But then again you have to provide some refreshments; you have to entertain your guests.

So I went to Fanatics last night to hit a Badger Poker tournament (see sidebar for links). It had been a long while since I attended Badger, though my name appeared to be recognized by all. I was surprised to find they are no longer providing a last man standing option in which people pay for extra chips and are eligible to win the collection… if they win it all. Chopping, splitting the collection among two or more remaining players, was also an option if all agreed.

But no more with Badger Poker as they desire to promote the free poker aspect of their business. The top three winners now get a bar tab as a prize. But is it really free? As someone who does not go out to enjoy the bar scene unless I am playing poker I have to question that, at least from the perspective of getting in a good game.

Yes, for those who go out to enjoy the night life spending a fist full of money, for which one will receive extra chips, is expected. Respectively they get a goodly stack beyond what someone who literally plays for free would get. You can still tip the tournament director for even more chips, which many are happy to do because the size of your stack does matter. Not to mention that they simply want to support the cause and know that something has to be in it for the directors so all involved can enjoy tournament poker.

I am capable of providing a small tip and to support the establishment by buying a soda, but this still leaves me severely small stacked in comparison to others. Badger also has an aggressive blind structure, not to mention extremely aggressive betting. Which means, for those truly or practically playing for free, if you don’t win a big hand, or several hands, in the first hour you’re going to have a short night.

Still it is an atmosphere, a style of play, I need to confront and master. So as I am now climbing back into economic viability, I still intend to hit Badger Poker on a regular basis. I had been sticking strictly with Tavern Tourney games when finances allowed, but now will start expanding my experiences. Ideally I would like to enjoy one of each (Badger and Tavern) every week. I still have to go to a few Pit Bull Poker tournaments so I can make a detailed comparison of the three tournament options on this blog. But that will have to happen sometime over the Winter. Pit Bull Poker promotes the free poker beyond all others though I believe you still get extra chips for purchases.

So why would I play tournament poker with tight finances? One reason is, as I record all my poker investments, I am break even or better money wise. …Maybe poker is free if you’re good like me. Now without a cash win option at Badger that may suffer a bit. The only opportunity to win back ones investment is now at Badger’s larger tournaments one usually must qualify for in points. Another reason I play, even when I can only afford a small stack, is that  I take everything I decide to invest myself in very seriously, and look to become the best at it. And that wont happen by doing nothing, and that’s what this blog is about.

Still I am not ready to be hitting tournaments twice a week on a regular basis. I am looking for several options for secondary and tertiary income. As Mark Belling has his football picking contest going on he promotes ASAwins.com . This service provides sport betting advice, their best picks available for purchase. So I looked into how one could take advantage of their advice to make some money (they wouldn’t be in business if their advice was bad) but could not find anyway to place sports bets that was clearly legal, so I have dropped that option.

Getting back into the stock market is another option that I feel more confident about after my past experiences. Then there is the nickel and dime returns I have made off of the Internet, through advertising or providing some small service. What I have called in the past Christmas gift money.

Playing poker on the Internet is loosing its allure as you don’t know and can’t see who you are playing, though I still do it to keep myself sharp. As we become financial stronger I am thinking of joining a site that provides training in the ways of poker.