The touch, the feel, of clay chips

Online hasn't been treating me so well lately, so tonight I'm heading down to Commerce to check out the $200 NL action.

We need better food in L.A. Really. We do. Buffet sushi is just wrong on so many levels.

Off to the races

First tournament of the day, first hand:

AKs under the gun, I limp for 15.

Couple calls along the way, then MP2 makes it 225. I scratch my head as the cutoff smooth calls and it's folded to me. Screw it, I think. If it's gonna be that kinda day, it's gonna be that kind of day.

I push all in.

Two INSTA-calls by QQ and 22. I flop the K to triple up, and get on the phone to order flowers and chocolates for 22.

You know the saying

In the poker game of life...

GET A PIECE OF YOUR RAKE BACK.

No, seriously, if you play more than 10 hours a month online, and you don't get rake back, you're too dumb to play poker online. I wash my hands of you. No, seriously, my rake back pays my rent every month, and more. And I live in a high rent area. No, seriously, this site takes good care of you. Go now!

Oh well

OK, so there are things I really, really love about what I do. Here's an example from this morning.

I wake up, feeling less groggy than normal. The dog wags her tail. Who knows how long she's been watching me sleep. Into the shower, I have to push Sandy out of the bathroom. Still can't figure out why it's her favorite place in the apartment. After all, according to the adoption agency, she's supposed to hate linoleum. Out of the shower, and the dog follows me to the door for a walk. That's odd... normally I have to drag her.

Out the door we go, and she's getting better on the elevator. Outside, and I wait for her to pee, I wait for her to pee, I wait for her to pee. She pees, and we're off to the bank. I make a "walking-around-money" withdrawal, and we turn around the corner towards Chalet Cafe, where I pick up my large coffee, to go. I decide to let her roam about for longer than usual this morning, before we head back upstairs.

She bounds into the loft 3 paces ahead of me, and plops down under the desk as I power up the computer. I fix myself a bowl of cereal as it boots up, and sit down, ready to start work. This is the first time I see something with the time on it. 12:54. That can't be right. I reach for the two other objects I own that tell time (other than my car). Phone says 12:52, that's close enough. Palm Pilot says 12:54... after all, I do HotSync it every day. Huh, I thought it was about 10:30. Oh well.

"Oh well." That, right there, is one of the things I love. It's about 2 and a half hours later than what I thought it was, later than I planned on starting work. And you know what? It doesn't matter. Not in the slightest.

To laugh or cry?

Generally speaking, I'll try to avoid the "bad-beat" stories. Because in all honesty, it's where I make my living. I mean, the worse the beat, the worse the player, the more likely he's donating to the game. But some days... some days you just want to cry. You see so many bad players winning so many pots by catching so many cards. And they take your money.

I know this should make me happy. I really do. And most of the time, it does. My eyes light up, my pulse quickens, I open 5 more tables. But tonight, it's just making me sad. "Live games are rigged."

NL Hold'em $100 Buy-in Level:4 Blinds(50/100)
Seat 9 is the button Total number of players : 7

Seat 2: pocash ( $1365 )
Seat 8: bblevs ( $225 )
Seat 9: MrSweets28 ( $1970 )
Seat 10: CUACG ( $655 )
Seat 3: bu11et_pr00f ( $645 )
Seat 7: vinelod ( $3750 )
Seat 6: GamblerRB ( $1390 )

Dealt to bu11et_pr00f [ Ac 7s ]

bu11et_pr00f is all-In [645]
GamblerRB calls [645].
vinelod folds.
bblevs folds.
MrSweets28 folds.
CUACG folds.
pocash folds.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 7d, 8h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ]

bu11et_pr00f shows [ Ac, 7s ] two pairs, sevens and twos.
GamblerRB shows [ 8s, Ts ] two pairs, eights and twos.
GamblerRB wins 1440 chips from the main pot with two pairs, eights and twos.
bu11et_pr00f finished in seventh place.
bu11et_pr00f has left the table.

The night could have been alot worse. I'm "only" down about $600, but for playing about 5-6 hours, I should be up over a grand. That's a $1600 difference. What's really bothering me is this is the first week I've suffered a consistent hit to my win rate. Over the past 165 tourneys (about 3 days and 2 half days), I'm only at $5.55 per tourney. Not terrible (I'm not down), but about 25-35% of what I normally make. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I've been nervous about all my expenses, and whether or not I can really do this for a living.

Anyhow, the best thing to do is stick to plan. It looks like I have a good shot at hitting 750 tourneys this month (which has always been my stated goal for every month). Hopefully the win rate will pick up somewhere along the line.

The other side of the table

Recently, I applied to work as a dealer at the Bicycle Casino. Most of the people I know called me crazy, but it seemed sensible to me. See, here's my thinking... first, I need a "real" job. Playing poker is good money, no doubt, and easier than any other job I can imagine. But it's also a) heavy stress, b) inconsistent at best, and c) benefit-less. So, if I can pick up 20 hours a week somewhere and get a health insurance plan, that's OK with me. Secondly, I think it'd be nice to watch the game from a different pace. When I'm in my zone playing live, I barely notice I'm playing, and just see the cards and the bets go by. I also have a bad habit of trying to run the game... and not in the raising/bullying sense that I "run tables" all the time. I mean I point out the player, and more often, dealer mistakes in an effort to keep things moving. See, California dealers are, in general, Terrible. Wait, I don't want to be unfair, because it is a hard job. So let me rephrase that. They are Awful. Not all of them, but most. Which means meeting a good dealer is a special event.

Anyhow, I didn't get the job. But I still have spent alot of time thinking about the game from the other side of the table, and trying to get myself zoned in to the point where I don't think about my play, I just watch the cards and chips go by. Well, why not at least read about what it's like from that point of view? Sure! Check out Table Tango, over at PokerWorks.com. Great stories, and sounds like a Good Deal. Hope I meet up with her next time I'm in Vegas.

I think I over-value the nutrition in green leafy vegetables, because dropping a handful of baby spinach into my Ramen suddenly makes me feel like I'm eating health food.  

Let's get politcal

You know those quiz things you always get that are like, "What Star Wars Episode II Bounty Hunter's Weapon Are You?" Well I took one the other day, but not as fancy. 10 simple questions that were supposed to answer... What Age Do You Act? (26, surprisingly) Anyhow, I'm pretty sure 10 of those years came from my answer to the last question:

How would you describe your political views?
- Conservaitve (sic), more and more each day.
- Quite liberal
X Liberal, but you're starting to think the government taxes too much.
- Apathetic
- You don't really get politics

Now, I still get to say I'm liberal, but I have a suspicion things might have been different had McCain beat Bush in the primaries. In that case, I might have cast my first republican ballot. But considering the current regime... I just couldn't call myself a conservative without immediately being filled with shame. I mean, I credit the man, and the machine, with getting some 48% of the voting public to commit socio-economic hara-kiri, but honestly... HONESTLY. Right then, on to the links. Laugh, and cry at this game, where you drop brains into The Smirking Chimp's skull.

Just in case this puts me on some National Watch List... ::wave:: Go GOP 2008... "It Can't Get Worse." Oh, and no new taxes, please.

Sometimes, I wish I could record other peoples' telephone conversations. "Hi, J.D. Sign Makers." "Yeah, hi, I need a sign..." 

Short Term Stress

So for those of you that don't know me personally, I make my living playing online poker.

Specifically, playing what's known as Sit and Go tournaments. The way this works is, ten people sit down, and buy in for a specified dollar amount. These ten buy-ins are collected to make the prize pool. Everyone starts with the same number of chips, and you are not allowed to add or subtract any chips, other than winning or losing them in the game. As players lose all of their chips, they are knocked out of the tournament. The Last Player Standing is declared the winner, and gets 50% of the prize pool. The player that went out next-to-last is second, and gets 30%. Finally, the third place finisher gets the last 20% of the prize pool. These games take between 5 minutes and an hour, depending on whether you come in first or last.

So me, I play at the $100+9 level. What that means is, for every tournament I enter, I pay $109... $100 goes into the prize pool, and the other $9 goes to the site that hosts the game (this fee they take is called the rake). This means first place is worth $500, second place $300, and third place $200. It also means that every loss costs $109. And I play eight of these simultaneously. Which means during a losing session, I'm dropping close to $1000 an hour.

Now, I wish I could say this was uncommon. But even the best players only finish "in the money" (first, second, or third) a little over 40% of the time. My average is slightly less than that (in the 37-39% range). That means I'm losing MOST of my tournaments. And even if I don't lose all eight that I play simultaneously, I often lose 3, 4, or even 5 in a row.

OK, so wah wah for the big baby. Losing is part of poker, which I voluntarily chose as my profession. I'm not saying it isn't, and I'm not saying I don't understand it... analytically. The tought part of my day is usually the beginning, before I've cashed any wins, when the first few results I get back are loss, loss, loss, and I suddenly find myself $500-600 poorer than when I woke up.

Today for example, I lost 6 of the opening eight, and finished 3rd in the other two. Not the worst start I've had to a day by far, but it still meant I was down $472 before I'd even finished my cereal. I started bitching to a friend about it, and was fortunate enough to have him put me in my place. Screwing my head back on, I plugged for another hour or so, and am currently sitting on $720 profit for the day... in great shape to book another thousand dollar session.

Moral of the story? My friend is right. If I'm really going to keep doing this for a living, I need to learn to deal with the downs better than I deal with the ups. Because losing is going to happen... roughly 62% of the time. I have to keep reminding myself... I CHOSE this. This is what I want to be doing. Because honestly, if you offered to reduce my variance in exchange for reducing my hourly win rate... I'd probably laugh at you.

Basically, I just need to have confidence that a) my poker skill is there, and b) my money management strategy is sound. Records indicate that, at least for the moment, in the games I'm in, the poker skill is there. I'm consistently beating these tournaments over a sample size of about 1000. As far as money management, only time will tell, but I know I'm being conservative, and I know I'm dedicated to keeping things that way.

I guess I just need to pick up a few bottles of Clear Edge.

Waiter, there's soup on my fly...

Before poker, there was the Restaurant Business.

For me at least. I spent way too long bussing tables, mixing drinks, and shaking my head at the number of people who will order a filet well done.

I must say, it's a ridiculously entertaining business to be in, and I was immensely excited when The Restaurant reality television show was announced. If I had a nickel for every time a restaurant employee has said, "man, if they put cameras up in here, EVERYone would watch..." well, I'd have alot of nickels. Anyhow, for those of you who watched the Rocco and Mom show, you know it was a complete flop. I don't even want to get into what and how they screwed it up, but it was a complete disaster as well as a huge disappointment.

Anyhow, until someone in TV Land figures out how to do it right, at least we have Waiter Rant to deliver us our daily laugh.

The first link

So I had made a half-hearted promise to myself that my first outgoing static link wouldn't be poker related, but I think we all know that wasn't going to happen. Actually, all was going well on that front until I read an article over on Tao of Poker that described a particular comment after a bad beat as, "tragically funny, kinda like when a clown dies."

The Great American Diner

Ever since discovering the 24 hr IHOP in High School, I've been addicted to all-night diners. OK, I know IHOP doesn't really qualify, but it's what got me started. At the top of my list of all-time favorites would have to be the South Street Diner in Boston, and not just because it's in Boston. To begin with, if you get there before the Blue Laws kick in at 1:00 am, you can get the Beer, Burger, and Fries special for $5.95 - and we're not talking Natty Light... it's bottled beer, and the choices include Sam Adams. Not really sure what else, as I always got the Sam.

Anyhow, despite my love for the Great American Diner (I once dreamed of opening one... before I really understood the concept of money), I've never had high standards for them... I mean, a big part of all-night diners is the sorry excuses they serve as food and coffee. So, I wasn't really trying to be picky when I walked into Harry's Diner last night. I guess the biggest surprise is that it took me this long (four days) to walk into Burbank's 24 hr joint. But, when I finally did, I must say, it looked like exactly my type of place. The coffee was surprisingly good, perhaps the best I've had in L.A., which isn't saying much. I was in the mood for soup, and was a bit set back when I noticed my options were limited to the Soup du Jour and Clam Chowder. Now, it being an all-night diner and all, I didn't think it wise to pursue whether we were talking New England or Manhattan Chowder... either way it was coming out of a can, which has never been a good place to store Clams. So, hoping to hear Chicken Noodle or Beef and Vegetable or Broccoli and Cheese, or really anything from the list of Campbell's Classic Kitchen Soups, I ask the kindly waitress what the soup of the day is.

"Clam chowder."

Back on track

So the past week has not been good for business.

I was supposed to move into the new apartment on the 10th, but The Promenade, and our leasing agent, Karin, being what they are, this got changed at the last minute. So, I ended up moving in on the 11th. Anyhow, I've managed to get the place about 20% furnished, which will be fine for the next few weeks or months, until I have a bigger budget for that kind of thing. Now, if that wasn't enough of a waste of time and money, I also managed to schedule my dog adoption for this week as well, which meant all of Wednesday was spent getting Sandy from San Diego. Not that it wasn't worth it, but getting her settled in then took most of Thursday, which means Today was the first day I had to get back to work.

And it was a good day back, as the cards fell well when I got heads up, and I won 8 of 42 tourneys. That puts me up $2808 on the month. If I'm going to stick to my plan of moving up to $200 tournaments by May, I'm going to need another $2500-3000 plus whatever I decide on for "living expenses"... i.e. withdrawals.

At least today was a good day, the dog is settling in, and so am I.

WoOf

Sandy, who keeps me sane when the cards aren't running so well.