I feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place also known as the old catch-22 and no matter how you look at it, what it boils down to is that without an influx of serious cash to add to my bankroll I'm not going to get anywhere fast. 21 days of June complete, 16 of those days full poker days, total earnings and this is including a couple of dollars in rakeback which granted ain't much, but total earnings of $25. something has got to give. I've got to figure out a way to increase earnings to get me into actual tournaments that are going to actually produce some real money. Playing in tournaments that are paying at least or close to $100 up top if not more comma but at the same time not having to face fields that contain hundreds of individuals, the bottom line is I need to be playing in tournaments that are $5.50 and up.

However, there is the ever so slight problem of available funds. Sure, I could take my $125 and say let's shoot the moon and start playing those $5.50 tournaments. Then again I can play Russian roulette with six bullets in the revolver and neither one of those ideas is really a prosperous one. I could continue to play these micro tournaments until the disability widowers benefit kicks in hopefully in November, and on the other hand I could tie a rope around my throat and choke myself until I pass out, but neither one of these options is particularly appealing.

What is it that I can do that could generate earnings that could be utilized towards some buyins at the $5.50 tournaments and even higher. I could try no limit cash games again only this time only play a single table of them, but then again I could also paint a wall and watch the paint dry because the two activities have approximately the same level of excitement for me personally. Yeah let's scratch that thought right there. I must admit that if I did add cash games then it would increase the rakeback I'm getting. I mean hell if I could work that sucker up to a couple of bucks a day it would be more than what I'm making at the tables right now. ACR does have a limited amount of limit games which I do enjoy much more so than No Limit, but the only thing that seems to go and be played on a steady basis is $0.04/$0.08 and $0.40/ $0.80 Stud Hi-Lo. Obviously with $125 I should not be playing the latter and I can't imagine that the former providing that much earnings potential. Not to mention Stud in general could possibly make me want to smash my skull into a brick wall. If you think that bad beats happen in Holden try playing Stud sometime. Believe me you ain't seen nothing yet. However it would generate a certain amount of rake and thus generate a certain amount of rakeback since I get and am on 27% rakeback on ACR, and assumedly generate a certain amount of earnings. This is a possibility and let's put this on the back burner for a few moments.

The only thing that is left is SNGs. There's only one little problem with SNGs, I don't do well. The last time I tried this little endeavor for NLH SNGs I played in like 36 of the damn things and came out stone-cold even. Yeah that's two days of my life I'll never get back. Maybe I didn't play enough of them, maybe I was just in a cold run, then again maybe for me breaking even is a heater for all I know. It is giving me something to think about. The lowest SNG on ACR is $1.65 and if I could by some miracle play 20 a day and get and maintain a 10% ROI in them that would be an average earnings of $3.30 a day. Work my way up to the $3.30 SNGs now we're looking at $6.60 a day plus whatever money I could make playing the stud Hi-Lo game plus the right back I could actually make enough to play a couple of the $5.50 tournaments each day and a deep run or two in these and all of a sudden I'm looking at a bankroll that has hundreds of dollars in it, not treading water trying to keep it above the $100 mark.

I'm sure I don't need to remind anybody because my readership has memories that don't quit, but this is the exact thing that I have been trying to avoid. I mean I've had these thoughts going through my head recently and I have been saying no I'm not going to do it this time, I'm going to stick with my micro tournaments, but after 21 days, 16 of those full poker days and only making $25, I feel that my continuing to say no I don't want to do this is just being stubborn on my part. It's another case of being caught in a catch-22 because half my readership is going to be happy that I am trying something to increase the earnings and the other half is going to put me down for changing up my plan again. No matter what I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.

But no matter what anybody may say, pro and con I don't see any other choice. I mean I have an ITM percentage of roughly 33%, have made 12 final tables and I'm still only earning $25 total. Something has got to give. I think I'm going to try this on a temporary basis and see what happens. If it proves profitable continue with it, if it doesn't prove profitable go back to my micro tourneys I mean at least I am earning something, but at the same time I'm going to have to give myself some sort of numerical testing timeframe. Let's say a 1 week test, that should give me enough time to play at least 100 NLH SNGs and see what the results look like. At the same time play the the micro Stud Hi-Lo and see how much I can make from that. A one-week test and see if I actually have a bankroll left at the end of that time. See how I look after the first 100 or so SNGs and then decide how to proceed from there.

Tomorrow is Thursday and Friday I have a doctors appointment at 9:45 a.m. so it should not interfere too much in the grind. However, I feel I've got a battle coming up with this new doctor on Friday as I saw what my test results were from the blood work online. Thanks to my friend Michelle as she instructed me how to obtain this information and it looks like I am a pre-diabetic which means my sugar is high but not high enough to have type 2 diabetes, and it looks like I am also borderline on having high cholesterol and I am sure that me and my new doctor, whom I affectionately already refer to as that Crotchety Old Goat, is going to have to something to say about this. I get the feeling that when I do my monthly shopping trip on the 3rd of the upcoming month he is going to want me to be eating things that you would find in a rabbit cage.

That's going to wrap this entry up and the next entry will be one week from today. Next Wednesday night I will write an entry telling you how things went. If I feel up to it I might even do a midweek entry just to keep you up-to-date on how things are going. Right now they are going very slowly and I just hope that I don't take a really bad hit in doing this. I hope it's not a case where I should just be satisfied with the small amount I'm making because it's better than losing, but we will see what there is to see. No matter what I think I need to put a solid effort into this and see what happens with the first 100 played. Until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.


Bankroll: $125
Goal: $1000
Progress: 12.5%

Yeah, you read that title right, I'm temporarily busted. I won't go into details, but I did something very foolish in an attempt to build up my account balance in a quick way and it didn't work. Suffice it to say it involved $10 SNGs and PLO8 cash games. Yes, I know, how many times have I said I am a tournament player nothing else. I'm not an SNG player, I'm not a cash game player, I am a tournament player, and what do I do, I go and blow the last hundred bucks on things that is not in my wheelhouse. All is not lost however, as I am about to have an influx of cash.

A few days back somebody got in touch with me who reads and is a fan of my blog and obviously like yourselves they have read of my continuing financial struggles not only in poker, but in regular life. As all of you know I do not try to hide these facts from my readers, and anyway they made me a couple of offers. First gather up as much money as I possibly could in the upcoming month of July and they would match I sending it to me via PayPal and which I can then do a deposit onto WSOP with it, and for the month of July we would be partners in the tournaments played and when July was over I would simply send their portion to them via PayPal and then we could reevaluate whether or not I wanted to go back on my own in August or we wanted to continue this on for another month.

I was a bit unsure because if this did not work technically speaking in two weeks I could be completely out of money again comma but then they told me If it this did not prove successful they will still lend me the initial $150 so at the very least I can return to ACR if absolutely necessary. This person asked me to under no circumstances reveal their identity and I can easily understand that, so for purposes of this blog and referring to this individual I am going to refer to him as Daniel, after one of my all-time favorite professional poker players, Daniel Negreanu and no, the person that made me the offer is not Daniel Negreanu lol.

I have switched around things, robbed Peter to pay Paul, put off of thing or two to the following month and I can come up with $150 minimum and possibly as much as $180 out of my upcoming check and with "Daniel" matching that it would be a $300 to $360 start for the $3 deepstack rebuys. Those are the only ones that will be played at first, four of them a day, and if there are earnings then there will be $10 rebuys and $20 tournaments played.

Now for some personal updates. The blood work came back and it turns out that I am pre-diabetic and possibly full-blown diabetic and with a high cholesterol level. My doctor who I have referred to in the past and not so affectionately as a Crotchety Old Goat, to say the least, is being a pain in the ass about this. He tells me he wants to order a glucose tolerance test a test that would take 4 hours. I told him that I was not really enthused about this possibility and he says to me "Well you want to know don't you?" and I turned to him and said, "No, I want to stay in blissful ignorance." Well, I guess it fell on deaf ears because he ordered the test anyway. Oh joy. Starve myself for 8 hours before the test and another for during the test this is going to be fun. Not to mention with my upcoming shopping trip he basically wants me eating things you would find in the bottom of a rabbit cage. This is not going to be easy. My dietary choices generally speaking is anything that you can cook in the microwave and sandwiches lots of sandwiches and lots and lots of eggs. Egg salad, scrambled eggs and toast, that sort of thing. The month of June alone I had 53 eggs, but he wants me on no more than three or four a week. No sense even buying eggs on my upcoming shopping trip. I am going to be buying salads, tuna fish, and pasta and in hope that not only will it bring down the blood sugars but the cholesterol level as well God help me.

On a good note one of my besties ManInBlack is going to be a new roommate of mine. His roommates are moving out of state and since we had a room available here he decided to take advantage of it. It's going to be great having my best friend here to hang out and talk poker with. I am really looking forward to having him here.

Well, that's going to wrap this one up. Back on WSOP in back in the $3 deep stack rebuys which all I can say have been my bread-and-butter for two years. Part of me still has certain concerns about the site in general, but I am the first to admit that those thoughts could have been brought about just because I was running bad. It would not be the first time, but all I can do is play my heart out and Hope that I can run to expectation. One thing as a fact whether or not certain readers like me saying it or not. I can be out drawn but I cannot be outplayed. The only reason I will get knocked out of tournaments 95% of the time is because of a bad beat a cooler or an extended period of card deadness because I do not get knocked out of tournaments through recklessness and that my friends is a fact. Until next time and we meet again, take care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.


Bankroll: $150 minimum in 4 days
Goal: $1000
Progress: 15%

February 27th 2017
Bankroll: $830.68

That was a very pretty sight to see back at the end of February, so where did I go wrong that I am at this very moment in time temporarily busto until Monday. Well first and foremost I can tell you that I was playing $20 tournaments more often than I should have and I was not even adhering to my own personal bankroll rules in playing these. That is one thing that will change in the second half of 2017.

Another issue was too many sporadic shots at live tournaments. Also shots at live tournaments that did not have the structure best suited to me. Taking sporadic shots at live tournaments is not the way to go. Poker is always about the long-term and even though I can't realistically do a long-term shot live because it just would take too much money and I need a rush of tournaments to build a live bankroll, at the same time I need to give myself a certain number to be played and not in a sporadic sense. A prime example is for the second half of 2017 and beyond I will not take $45 and end up at Sam's Town in a structure that is not tuned to my game or even take $70 and play a single tournament at the Golden Nugget and instead will wait until I actually have enough money where I can play 10 live tournaments. They will be at the Golden Nugget where it has the best structure for a $70 tournament in this town. A run of 10 of them may not be very many, but at least it would give me an opportunity to work in a couple of deep runs in there potentially worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars giving me at the very least 10 more shots or maybe even more of those live tournaments to add on to however many buy-ins I might have left out of that initial 10. I think you get the idea. I can't rush it I just have to let it happen naturally and I think I was rushing things in the first half of the year.

There is no doubt that the period of depression that I went through equated to a lot of poor decisions and unwarranted thought processes. Me having suspicions about WSOP is a prime example. I think about that now and the more I think about it the more silly I feel even in my last entry I said I was still a little bit uneasy about going back to WSOP the more and more I think about it the more and more I realize that's a foolish statement. Going over to ACR in that state of depression and playing tournaments that have three and five hour late registrations was asinine. What the hell was I thinking. All three of these things contributed to a steady decline not to mention the post that I did at the end of March which said that I needed to try cash games one more time. During the course of the year I was also playing heads-up SNGs as high as $25, it did not go well. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Enough said.

So realizing errors made, decisions that shouldn't have been made, the real question is how will I rectify that going forward. Well first and foremost I believe that it would be prudent to make sure that I have the standard 100 buyins for the lowest cost tournament I'm playing which in this case will be the $3 tebuys which cost $6 total which means I need at $600 to have 100 buyins for those before I can even consider playing any $20 tournaments. Taking sporadic single shots at $20 tournaments online is no better then taking sporadic shots at single Golden Nugget tournaments. You need to give yourself at least a few to play to give yourself a chance to get some deep runs and I think 20 is a nice round number for online. So 20 shots at $20 tournaments would cost $400, not forgetting that I want to have $600 so I have 100 buy-ins of the $3 Deepstack Rebuys in addition to that $400 therefore $20 tournaments cannot be played until I have $1,000 available and then I can make a 20 tournament run at them. Now that may be a little different since I will be in a partnership with "Daniel" for the upcoming month of July and if he really felt that it might be positive EV for us to take a shot in a $20 deepstack okay then I would because it's not just me making these decisions for July, but when I am playing everything on my own dime once again, these rules will be followed religiously.

Now for the part of the entry I have been sincerely dreading. What does that make my goal amount going forward?? Ughhh I don't even want to have to answer this. One thing I noticed was initially back in January my goal was set at $5,000. That was kind of sort of particularly ridiculous. I then reduced it in February down to $4,000 and came to the conclusion that that too was ridiculous period in March I had brought it down to $2,000 and that's where it should have stayed but let's face it March and April we're not exactly stellar months in my personal life not to mention psychological well-being, but that's where it should have stayed, but then I ended up lowering it and lowering it and lowering it and then taking shots at a live tournament here and there because $2,000 seemed like it was so far away, but in the end that's what it needs to be, the most reasonable amount when absolutely everything is taken into consideration, but it feels like it's a million miles away and that's why I keep changing and adjusting it, but nonetheless when it comes right down to it my goal has to be $2,000. That will allow me to keep $1,000 online in case my run of 10 live is unsuccessful. It would allow me to return to online and still have a 20 tournament run of $20 tournaments along with the $3 deepstack rebuys and it will give me $1,000 for that run of 10 tournaments at the Golden Nugget. That will cost $700 and the other $300 will be used for traveling and food expenses and perhaps a limit cash game in between tournaments here and there. There is no doubt it has to be this way and considering I am going to be starting on Monday in a partnership which means any earnings for the month of July I only get half of them it's going to make this $2,000 figure seem like it's billions of miles away, I mean we're talking light-years here, but realizing from the errors of the first half of this year, I don't have any choice. I don't have to like it, but I don't have any choice in jt. Look where rushing things got me......... nowhere fast.

That's a wrap. Provided no last minute snafus occur "Daniel" is supposed to be sending $180 via PayPal on Monday and then I will deposit the whole $360 onto WSOP the same day. It's a 60 buyin start for the $3 Deepstack Rebuys and I can't wait to get back to work. This not playing poker except for freeeolls is pure hell on earth. So until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

Bankroll: $180
Goal $2000
Progress: 9%

My latest appointment with the pulmonologist shows my breathing capacity is down to 62%. Coming home from said doctor's appointment I nearly collapsed. Going from one bus stop to another bus stop I had to stop 4 times in a third of a mile and rest. The slightest bit of exertion, even simply walking is shooting my heart rate up to about 140 beats per minute, causing severe nausea which half the time results in vomiting right there where I stand, unable to even catch a breath in many cases, and combine all of this with the intense heat and it is a bad bad situation all around.

My roommate and bestie Joe aka ManInBlack was on the phone with me at the time and heard me throwing my guts up, he was ready to call an ambulance right there on the spot, but I convinced him that I was okay. At that moment in time I probably wasn't but I knew that if I continue to stay seated on the curbing that I was on I would be alright. I was able to make it home, but it took an Uber to do it because quite frankly I don't think I would have made the final two block walk from the final bus stop to the house.

It's obvious to me after the latest incident that I need to stay inside the house for the next 3 months with the single exception of my food shopping trip that I do on the 3rd of each month and with that I take Lyft and other than that I'm not budging unless I'm going for a swim in the pool we have in the backyard until the weather cools down and it will also give us time to employ an idea my pulmonologist has. He has me on the inhaler Breo, but too often I forget to take it. He told me make sure I take it everyday religiously for the next 3 months and then on my next appointment, which is October 5th, he will do the breathing test again to see if the breathing capacity has improved. I have cancelled or am going to cancel all doctor's appointments between now and October. I just can't deal with this intense heat because of my physical ailments. I do much much better in the cooler weather and this is just something I need to do.

Its not exactly fun having to do this for there will be no going out and having fun but after what happened the other day with the heart rate feeling like it was going to pound out of my chest, the exertion vomiting, the breathing that was practically non-existent I have got to wait until the weather cools off and three months of this Breo to find out what hopefully positive result it may produce. I was feeling pretty down after that doctor's visit and actually seriously contemplated stepping in front of the bus as it came down the road ending things right then and there instead of letting it be drawn out. I mean with my breathing capacity seemingly declining steadily, what's the point of dragging it out, you can't live if you can't breathe. However, my doctor seems to think that this Breo will do a lot so we'll just have to see how it goes so for right now I won't be ending anything at this time at least.
The one positive aspect about all of this is the grind will go on and will not be interrupted unless I simply just want to take a full day and sleep my day away and that may happen from time to time considering the hours that I put in at this it truly does get exhausting and after awhile and my body shuts down and puts me to sleep for 14 or 16 hours and basically says I will have the last word on this.


Now let's talk about the poker. This little poker partnership that I have going with "Daniel" started out on a very very sour note. He sent the money via PayPal on Sunday and with $160 in bonus money available on WSOP we both agreed that trying to clear some of it was in our best interest. I agreed to this, but I should probably have my head examined because of it. I reminded him of my struggles in cash games and also in SNGs which he already knew about from reading my blog, but he felt it was worth taking the risk and quite frankly at the time I did too. I ended up trying both cash games and $5 nine player turbo SNGs separately. It turned out pretty ugly to the tune of $46 in losses in the SNGs and another $21 and losses in cash games so $67 down to clear a single $10 bonus. Also an 0 for 8 run in the $3 deepstack rebuys we needed to immediately reassess the situation and discussing it we came up with an alternative Plan B.

$120 down and $240 remaining we decided that the best way to proceed would be to transfer this money to ACR and grind the tournaments there because it's pretty obvious to both of us that with all tournaments being eliminated at WSOP except for rebuys and higher higher-priced re-entries a much larger bankroll is needed to be able to play a WSOP. I put it in withdraw for PayPal and set up a swap with a friend of mine that has done these ACR swaps with me previously and would do so again as soon as the money arrived. Well WSOP claims that the withdrawal was done at 12:15 a.m. on the 5th and quite frankly that is bull**** because I know for a fact I did it before midnight but because they claimed it was 12:15 a.m. on the 5th and they force you to wait 3 business days for PayPal withdrawal which is also bull**** considering the fact that they can do a casino withdraw in 12 hours it is not necessary to make a player wait 3 business days for a PayPal transaction, but because they falsely claimed it was done at 12:15 a.m. that means the money will not be hitting PayPal until Monday or Tuesday. So nothing to do but wait.


0700am: $2.10 NLH Rebuy $400 Gtd

0900am: $4.20 PLO8 Rebuy $200 Gtd

1115am: $3.30 NLH $200 Gtd

1215pm: $2.20 PLO8

0425pm: $3.30 NLH $150 Gtd

0445pm: $1.10 PLO 6-Max $100 Gtd

0530pm: $1.10 NLH $50 Gtd

0545pm: $2.20 NLH KO

0645pm: $3.30 NLH $500 Gtd

0720pm: $1.05 PLO8 Rebuy

0745pm: $1.10 NLH KO


Acct Bal: $240
Tour / Day: 11
Cost / Day: $24.95
ABI: $2.27
ABIs Avail: 105


Once I get this balance back up above $360 then the following tournaments can be added.


1245pm: $4.40 NLH 6-Max$200 Gtd

0900am: $3.30 NLH $1000 Gtd

0345pm: $5.50 NLH $500 Gtd

0800pm: $5.50 NLH $500 Gtd

Also other various $5.50 tournaments offered on special days during the week.

Under no circumstances will there be any 5-hour late registration tournaments played and any and all three hour late registration tournaments played will have 15 minute blind levels minimum.


So in the meantime while waiting for the money to show up Daniel decides to send me $30 just to give me something to do while we wait. The idea was for me to play some of the small buyins while we're waiting. If I didn't make any profit from the $30 during the few days we had to wait just send back whatever I had left over and if I did make a profit then send him the $30 back and then we'll use any earnings towards the current arrangement that we're in. I thought this was an awesome idea because it would give me something to do and maybe we could pop up the $240 balance that we had. It didn't go great but it didn't go horrendous either. On Sunday after only playing a couple of tournaments and I was tired as hell that afternoon, I was able to send him the $30 back and we had $18 in earnings over and above that. Not great, but not ugly either.

So we start today with the account balance at $258 from a $360 start. As of this posting WSOP still has not sent the money to PayPal, but according to somebody in chat from WSOP it is due to arrive today so I can at least start off the day with the $18 available. That's going to wrap this up for now. A bad start but the start really doesn't matter as long as the finish ends up positive and that's what I'm shooting for right now so until next time take, care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.

We got started on the second part of the poker partnership on ACR on Monday. Starting Monday with a balance of $258.35 and an average daily expenditure of roughly $25 a day for all intents and purposes with the amount being spent per day and the account balance available we had roughly 10 days of Poker life left.

The first two days of being back on ACR were an experience of horrendous. In 24 tournaments played I finished in the money in only three of them and one of those was $0.33 in a freeroll. In the tournaments played over those first two days I suffered a minimum of 18 different bad beats, and lost every coin flip situation when my tournament life was on the line. To say this was a day of slamming things would be an understatement, but fortunately nothing important got broken.

Monday
Cost: $26.03
ITM: 2 for 12
Earnings: ($22.39)

Tuesday
Cost: $27.15
ITM: 1 for 12
Earnings: ($23.37)


So being down $120 coming into ACR on this partnership and starting off another over ($45) in the hole was not exactly what one would call fun. If there was any positive to be taken from the first two days, and those positives were very few and far between, was that towards the end of Tuesday, although I wasn't cashing, I could see things starting to turn slightly in a positive sense and possibly those signs were that I was coming out of this little funky slump and Wednesday was definitely an improvement. I went 3 for 11 including a 6th place finish in the $400 guaranteed rebuy and a third-place finish in a $1 tournament.

Wednesday
Cost: $24.95
ITM: 3 for 11
Earnings: $16.74


Thursday was definitely the best day of the week going 3 for 10 with a 4th place finish in the $500 guaranteed and a 2nd place finish in the $2.20 PLO8 even though that PLO8 finish was only worth $18 it all helped towards a day of $47.96 worth of earnings.
Friday had nothing worth getting excited about, just a couple of small cashes and a loss of a little over ($11) on the day.

Thursday
Cost: $21.85
ITM: 3 for 10
Earnings: $47.96

Friday
Cost: $15.55
ITM: 2 for 9
Earnings: ($11.42)


So the bad news was that I started out over ($45) in the hole, the good news was that I was able to battle back however not for any earnings for the week, but close enough to break even that I could deal with it. The account balance started the week at $258.35 and ended the week at $257.69. Not great, but a lot better than it could have been considering how the week started out.


ACR Week 1

Cash: ($8.11)
SNGs: ($3.45)
MTTs: $7.52
Raleback: $3.38

Total: ($0.66)


Overall
WSOP: ($120)
ACR: $17.69
Total: ($102.31)

2017 has been a colossal fail on a variety of levels both personal and poker. The poker partnership was a colossal fail. Once we made the switch over to ACR "Daniel" and I could see very early on that with the tournaments that I was able to be playing with the money that we had available it wasn't going to turn out to be anything grandiose so we decided to take the money play a couple of decent prize pool tournaments, but nothing came of them and I ended up sending him $95 back so a total loss for each of us of ($85)

Another overall failure for 2017 has been profits for the year. From January through July online earnings of $317.86 live losses of ($276) and $16 in fees from Bitcoin transactions which leaves total earnings for the year of $50.69. 7 months and $50 in earnings is unacceptable, and a colossal fail.
Then there's the health issues. The arthritis in the knees and shoulders seems to be getting more painful with each passing day, but that isn't the main issue. The colossal fail is that the breathing capacity has been diminishing this year from 76% to 73% to the last check was 62%. Because of the breathing problems the mixture of the intense heat is an almost fatal mixture for me and I am not using that term loosely.

After an incident that happened about a month-and-a-half ago, I am basically on self-imposed exile which means I do not leave my house unless I've got a ride someplace and I do not mean a bus ride and those rides are very few and far between. For the last month-and-a-half I have been out of the house three times. Twice I was dropped off at Walmart by my landlady to do my monthly grocery shopping and on the third occasion I was able to take a bus down to the vape store one evening when the temperatures dropped to 80° but even then I had to take Lyft back so take that accomplishment for what it's worth and it's probably not worth much.

I have been religiously taking my Breo inhaler for the last month and my lung doctor thinks that this will improve things. So far I have not noticed any difference, but the only way we'll find out if he's right is on October 5th when my next appointment with him is and he does a breathing test to see if there is any Improvement. I am very close to firing him and finding a new pulmonologist however, because especially of late he just seems rather dismissive about my physical abilities and my concerns such as having to rest twice during a two-block walk or walking just a few steps and being completely winded. His reply is to everything is because you need to lose weight. The guy has got a one-track mind when it comes to these things. Yes I know I have weight to lose, but let me tell you something, when you stand up and take three steps and your heart rate jumps to 132 beats a minute something is not right, however I will give it until my next appointment with him on October 5th, we will see what the breathing test shows, and then I will make my decision from that point. October should be when the weather starts cooling down again, maybe even late September and hopefully I'll be able to get out and about again without nearly ending up in an ambulance in the process.

I think I'm going to have to save up the money for one of those scooters that you see people riding around on, the ones that Trooper finds some perverse pleasure in mocking people who use them in his Vlogs from time to time. I don't relish the thought of it, but if it will get me where I want to go and not have to struggle and stop every couple hundred feet to take a breather then it will be well worth it, but of course these things are in excess of $1,000 or $1,500 and I don't see me being able to get one anytime soon, but who knows, if that disability widowers benefit comes through in November that could get me on my way to getting one of them and if that does happen it's going to get me some freedom of movement again.

After 17 days without the Internet I got back online on Tuesday. Added some money to the small bankroll I had on there, decided to try a little challenge for myself and I will report what has been going on in the next entry. This year is far from over and there is still time to turn this baby around. Never count me out. That's all for now. Take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

I am back home again online poker speaking. I withdrew $160 to bitcoin which I am waiting to hit my checking account on Tuesday and I am back on WSOP again. I have come home and never to leave it for a different site again. Somebody from Twitter who's privacy I shall protect, offered me a PayPal loan so that I could get some money on WSOP and I have to wait till Tuesday and to this person I just want to say thank you so very much.

I just could not stand ACR anymore, but one thing I did do was make me appreciate WSOP all the more on a variety of levels the least of which would be deposits and withdrawals to say nothing about the game play nor availability and circumstances. All day and night long on Tuesday they never got one table of $10NL full ring going and they only had two tables of $5NL full ring going and never could get a third one started. Oh they had plenty of 6-max, but their full ring games were non-existent unless you wanted to play $25 or $50 tables. Their tournaments with the amount of people they pay out are freaking ridiculous. When you compare the two sites and a $350 guaranteed prize pool on WSOP is paying more up top than a $500 guaranteed on ACR there's absolutely no question where I want to be back at. I am back on WSOP to stay. The fact that I mentioned anything or even had any knowledge about the cash tables being available and not available that obviously deserves an explanation.

This goes back to the fact that I recently purchased a new HP Stream laptop through my Fingerhut credit. As I was cleaning out the photos I had on my old laptop which I now use as a backup just in case anything were to go wrong, I came across a screenshot I had taken and although I didn't look at the precise date it must have been back in December 2015 or January or February 2016. The screenshot showed earnings of about $165 at $10NL on WSOP in 10,000 to 12,000 hands. I went back and looked at the posts that I wrote during that period of time and came across these these little gems.


12/30/15
"15,692 hands played and total profits at the $10NL tables of $274.62"

1/8/16
"that brought me to over $308 in earnings at $10NL and thus I have now earned over 3000 big blinds at this level"

1/15/16
"the last 8 sessions I show earnings of $213 covering 13331 hands in a mix of $10NL and $20NL"

1/31/16
"table earnings at the cash games in total was $355.17"


Why after those two months did my cash game results go down the sewer. What was I doing back then that I stopped doing or that I changed?? What was different between then and almost every attempt since then. It doesn't make sense so I went into a deep deep think-tank about it and I realized what had happened was I had received multiple points of advice about playing cash games and although I was doing quite well, since cash games was not my primary forte, I went with what I felt were the thoughts and opinions of my more learned peers and I started doing things that went completely against what I felt I should be doing a not be doing and the results over the next nearly 18 months more disastrous. I won't get into details because I know people at WSOP read my blog and I will be back at those $10 tables again, but suffice it to say it involves completely opening up my range, building up parts with draw instead of playing it cool taking free card and calling certain hands raises with certain hands that completely goes against my instinct such as AXs lower than ATs. For whatever reason, and I may just chalk it up to pure temporary insanity with a bit of longevity to it, I continued on with this from February 2016 and for whatever reason never realizing that the changes in my game because of the advice I got and took was what put my cash game completely into the sewer.

Don't even ask me why I never made this connection before, don't ask me why that sporadically for the next nearly 18 months every attempt at cash games was a freaking disaster and I never put two and two together before now, don't even ask me these questions because I don't know the answer. The only guess I have is that I guess maybe I'm just somebody that needs to see something in front of me before it clicks. I guess I just never thought about it and part of that reason was probably because of a lack of hand reviews on my part which should be something you're always doing when losing to find out why you lost and I have not done that much. The bottom line is the advice that I was given was dead wrong and my style of play is what works for me. It would probably be considered quite unorthodox by many of my readers who are regular cash game players and so be it. Their style of play works for them and mine works for me. The question was what would happen if I try some cash games going back to my old ways.

Before I left ACR I tried some of the cash games and I was an overall winner and about 3,000 hands believe it or not. Yeah yeah I know it's a small sample size, but it's the first time I've been in overall winner in 3000 hands and 18 months. Even though I and took a small loss at $10NL, but the primary reason for that was a few big pairs that got cracked but more importantly having Queens full of jacks against an opponent in who had flopped quads and that cost me over a full buyin, but overall going back to my style of play did turn a profit.

I left ACR with $160 because of probably some foolishness on my part. I was hoping to build that amount up a little bit so I played a session of $0.40/$0.80 Stud8 and never saw so many draws in my life not come to fruition and I ended up dropping about 50 bucks. That was slightly painful but I decided I was taking that $160, and getting the hell out of Dodge, and going back home where I belong on WSOP. Once the money hits my account on Tuesday I will pay back my $75 loan put the rest of that transfer on WSOP and essentially even though it's not on there now I essentially started the evening of Wednesday August 16th with $150 online. It is a far cry from the thousand dollars that I had planned on waiting for, but I am glad that I did it. Being back on WSOP I am more convinced than ever I can turn this year around to a half decent profit considering the first seven and a half months have provided ($6.20) in total losses combining online and live play and $21.26 in those stupid Bitcoin fees which I will never have to worry about dealing with again. Some people may say that I never should have left WSOP in the first place, but the fact of the matter is sometimes you never know just how good you have things until you venture somewhere else.

So , I'm back home on WSOP, yada, yada, yada, but what to do now. The minimum cost for the tournaments for me would be $6 a pop not exactly a great idea to do with only $150 which cannot be replaced until the very earliest October and I have no desire to go the next month-and-a-half watching TV and maybe playing some games on my phone on a daily basis with nothing else to do. This has to be protected. It's like John jawanda said about a big stack in a tournament it should be nurtured and treasured and protected or something along those lines that's not an exact quote, but the same thing can be said about my miniscule $150 bankroll. A plan is most definitely needed.

The smallest non-turbo non satellite tournaments now available at WSOP are the $3 deepstack rebuys which cost me $6 each so I can't play those just yet. Going back to my old style of play in cash games to be quite frankly I don't have the nerve to take $157 and risk playing $10NL without proving myself step by step so that's out. Sng's I'm not interested in because the only NLH SNGs that seemed to go off with regularity are turbo so forget that and the other option is PLO8 SNGs which only have 8 minute blinds and do not go off enough to make it worth my while so that's out. So, what does that leave me. I hate the thought of even uttering these words, but that leaves me starting out grinding $2NL cash games. Yeah, you read that right, $2NL cash games..........

To be continued..........

Flushh,

I have followed your journey for a few years now. Your blog is filled with the daily grind and life events along the way. As a reader, it would be nice to see some consistency as you work towards your goal and getting out of the micros. Many people have chimed in your comments section with advice. In the last year alone, you have sworn off cash games, tournaments, ACR, WSOP and Live play. Your bankroll goals have fluctuated from $800 to to $12000. If I could give a suggestion, it would be to set multiple goals and stick with them for a period of time.

Example
1-4 months play x game/limit and build bankroll to $1k
4-8 months play x game/limit and build bankroll to $2k

You certainly grind out plenty of hours each day as you have posted. As readers, we want you to see you reach milestones and move to the next phase of the journey. The past goals have all been unattainable and change from week to week for the most part.

Goals
7/1/17 $2000
6/29/17 $1000
6/22/17 $1000
6/15/17 $800
6/9/17 $800
5/31/17 $1200
3/17/17 $2000
3/6/17 $2500
3/1/17 $2500
2/27/17 $4000
2/23/17 $5000
2/22/17 $5000
2/13/17 $5000
2/1/17 $5000
1/24/17 $5000
1/14/17 $5000
1/1/17 $4000
12/8/16 $4000
12/4/16 $4000
11/28/16 $4000
11/22/16 $3000
11/14/16 $2000
11/1/16 $2000
9/3/16 $5000
8/28/16 $5000
8/19/16 $12000
8/14/16 $12000
8/7/16 $12000
8/1/16 $4000
7/31/16 $4000


As always best of luck on and off the tables and wishing you improved health.

Overall my cash game experiment was a success. I played them online for over a month and in excess of 25,000 hands and ended up making in the neighborhood of $70 or $80 in earnings, but with massive massive swings sometimes 5 buyins in a single session. As usual, and this was no surprise, I find the cash games very boring at times and have to have a tournament also being played in order to even remotely stay focused on these cash games. I know it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense, but if I have a tournament going it makes playing the cash games at least bearable because without the tournament going, quite frankly, they practically would put me right to sleep.

I did prove to myself that returning to my style of play would lead to earnings. The earn rate that I made in those 25,000 hands of so was not huge, but with the fluctuations of variance it would go high then it would come down, go high, come down, go high, come down, and you need 100,000 hands to find out what your true earn rate is if for no other reason so the earn rate numbers aren't going up and down by factors of god-knows-what with every session. I don't care for No Limit cash games, as I stated in the previous paragraph they bore me to tears, but the fact of the matter is that if I am able to earn money from doing it then it's something that I need to do because by not doing it, it's going to take me longer to get to my next goal.

I guess we should touch on that. My current goal is an account balance of $1,200. If I can obtain that then I will withdraw $600 and go see what some live play offers thus keeping $600 online which is 100 buyins for the $3 deepstack rebuys, and/or 60 buyins for the $10NL cash games, and/or 30 buyins for the $20NL cash games. Pick one or all of the above because they all apply. Withdrawing $600 and heading out for live play will give me the opportunity, now that Autumn is here and the cooler weather is starting to come back and I actually can get out of this house again, the opportunity for some tournaments at the Golden Nugget, maybe at tournament at Aria, some $3/$6 limit Hold'em games at various places around town or just hanging out downtown or on the Strip or whatever I want to do on any particular day.

Now for some big personal news that is going to change my life for the better in a financial way. According to the lady that I talked to at Social Security, my disability payment will be increasing beginning in November by $596 going from $829 a month to $1,425 per month. This is a huge increase for me and while I know that $600 to most people per month is absolutely nothing, to me it's immense. I am getting this because I'm qualifying for the widowers disability benefit because my wife was permanently disabled as I am and we were married for over 10 years when she passed away. The lady at Social Security told me that if I had turned 50 three months later than I do at the end of October, I would not qualify for this.

Now, this does not automatically mean I actually have $600 extra per month. Because I'm on disability as you might imagine I get certain help from the state of Nevada considering I'm only getting $829 a month and I do believe that that assistance will go bye bye. The major issue as you might suspect is medical. Right now the state of Nevada pays the Social Security Premium of about$145 a month for me. Also the co-pays for my prescriptions will go from $8.25 to about $45 a month each, but the lady at Social Security told me there may be another program to check into where I perhaps could still get assistance on the medical stuff, but even if I can't, I estimate that this will be an increase of approximately $300 a month net clear and for that I am extraordinary grateful. It turns out that my late wife left me an inheritance that she never even know about it, but I'd give up every penny in the world if I could have her back in my life again. One day we will meet again.

So I have been basically taking some time off to end September and will be picking it up again starting October 1st. I ended up making a little over $100 since my return to WSOP on what admittedly was sporadic play so I'm pretty happy about it. I am doing one more final deposit on to WSOP on the 3rd of September and after that money that I want to put towards poker will be kept offline. I am planning on putting $80 on so that I'm essentially starting October with $350 which should be more than enough for the $10NL tables and a few of the $3 deepstack rebuys each day, but I'm making a personal rule that I have to have a bankroll above $300 to play the tournaments. The key to tournament play will obviously be earnings from the cash games. Hopefully when tournaments are going bad cash games will be going good and when cash games are going bad tournaments will be going good so that for the most part I am showing steady increases.

I will not be going out anywhere socially in October because of a lack of extra available money which as I related to you should change starting in November, but this will give me the opportunity for some serious grinding. Getting started with the 9 a.m. tournament and a couple of tables of the cash games I plan on playing from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at least as far as cash games go. I think 12 hours is plenty. If I go beyond 9 p.m. it's either because I'm either on very juicy cash tables or I'm still holding my own in the 7:30 p.m. $800 guaranteed tournament.

That's basically all of it in a nutshell gentle readers. Still two more days off from poker and then back to the serious grind beginning on Sunday. That's going to wrap this one up for now. Sorry I went so long in between entries, but I wanted to find out just what was going to happen with the cash games before reporting in on it. I will try to bring more entries and updates during the month of October as to how things are going. Until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

Bankroll: $350
Goal: $1200
Progress: 29%

I had not realized that over the last few months I had not been posting my blog entries over here, and doing so only on ********. My sincere apologies. I will post the missing entries here every 4 or 5 days until I get you all caught up. After this long absence I hope I still have a few readers over here. :-)


October 17, 2018

Multiple Updates

Farewell Online Poker

Let's backtrack up to this decision. Last week I was able to get out of the house. I spent money, played some slots, played some video poker, played a few tournaments at Sam's Town and cashed in a couple of them, and had fun getting out for the first time in several months. It was so enjoyable that when I tried to return back to online, whatever small appeal that it may have had previously, was gone. Because of that, because of getting out to Sam's Town definitely stoked the fire for live play, and because of the fact that my disability is increasing because of the widower's benefit that came through, I have decided that I will be getting out of the house more and I will be restricting my poker to live play only.

Longtime readers of this blog will recall that I have tried to do this a few times in the past, but then again that was before the increase in the disability and let's face it, although I did try previously with just a few buyins here and there I always had to return to online. This is not to say that I am going to have an overabundance of money each month, only a few hundred dollars which I will explain the financial situation in the next paragraph, but I will be getting back into the free Nevada Poker Bar League again and playing that a couple of times a week in which they have a fairly significant freeroll every 6 to 8 weeks or so, and playing tournaments at Sam's Town maybe a half a dozen times a month and if I happen to cash in them I will be playing more of them.

No matter how you look at it even though I don't get around very well I will be getting out more and I think that is more healthy for me. Yes, I may have to stop and rest every block that I walk, and just to get from the bus stop to get across the street I may have to stop and catch my breath a couple of times, but at least I will be out there socializing with other human beings and to me this can only be good for me not only psychologically speaking but who knows maybe physically as well, that remains to be seen.


Financial Update

As stated earlier beginning November 3rd my disability will be going from $829 to $1,425 an increase of $596. I will not be able to enjoy that entire amount because I found out that with the increase in income my medical expenses will be increasing by approximately $234 per month. That $1,425 will actually be $1,291 because the first $134 will be taken out to pay for my Medicare Part B premium. My prescriptions will be going from $8 to $47 each so it is what it is. I will be increasing my food budget slightly, increasing my credit card payments by a small amount, and I will be buying a monthly bus pass from now on because I also found out I can never drive an automobile again. In order to get a license in the state of Nevada you have to have vision of 20/40 in at least one eye and I have 20/60 in one eye and 20/200 in the other. Anyway here's the rundown of the finances as they will be.

$1291
($455) Rent & Dish/Wifi
($171) Bills
($260) Meds/Walmart
($45) Monthly Transportation
($60) Misc
__________________
$300 left over/monthly

I'm thinking of discontinuing one of the inhalers that my pulmonologist has me on because it only increase my breathing capacity by 5% over the span of three months and quite frankly $50 a pop per month is not worth it for 5%. If I do so that $300 will increase to $350 left over except once every few months I have to get my rescue inhaler. With my new Part C insurance that is taking effect in November I have to find a new pulmonologist because my current one is not part of the network. This does not exactly break my heart because I was considering finding a new anyway. However, I digress. As you can see with $300 a month left over and transportation already taken care of except for those instances where I decide you utilize Lyft to get me home from Sam's Town or some midway point that would leave me definitely 6 tournaments a month that I could play at Sam's Town. You have to figure that I am going to spend a few dollars at my league games if for nothing else than to have a drink while I'm there.
On a good note the increased medical expenses will not take place in November and they might not even take place in December but nothing is sure that latter point, but at least for November I am going to have a decent amount of extra money for myself and I am going to utilize that specifically. for November I should have about $600 left over and I am getting a new prescription of eyeglasses and also buying myself a new Galaxy J3 cell phone. I'm going to meet up with a friend of mine who I have chatted with for a couple of years that lives here in Vegas but we have never met in person yet and we are planning on grabbing some dinner and a movie together so that should be enjoyable as well.


Disability Update

I received an update form from Social Security asking if my medical situation has remained the same, improved, or gotten worse since October of 2015. My health situation has gotten worse, but these update forms are always a little nerve-wracking because disability companies and Social Security has a habit at times of not taking all available information and making snap decisions without all the facts. I've got a friend of mine sometime back had a good portion of their disability taken away, but it was because the disability company they are involved with had only talked to one or two of their doctors and not all of them. They were able to get it straightened out, but it took nearly two months in the process. If that happens to me I'm going to be homeless and sleeping outside because I don't have any money in reserve to get me through a few months of the process like that. I did a little Google search and according to Social Security only 2.5% of those update forms get referred for a full I think they called it a CDR review and considering that I am going to be 50 years old very soon and they can see the doctors that I'm seeing and because quite frankly they been paying for it I don't think I have too much to be worried about but let's all keep our fingers crossed that they don't do something stupid.

I'm always a person that likes to prepare himself for the worst-case eventualities and I talked to my buddy and roommate ManInBlack about the whole thing. I had asked him, if God forbid the worst case scenario were to happen and I ended up getting my disability discontinued for awhile and ended up having to lose my spot in the house and sleep outside for a while if he could stash some of my stuff in his room. Things that I wouldn't carry around in a backpack like files, extra clothing, pillows and blankets, that sort of thing.

I told my bestie and roommate ManInBlack about what was happening and what the situation could result in and I did so because I wanted to ask him a favor that if that did in fact become my reality if I could stash some things of mine in his room that I would not be able to carry around with me on a daily basis in a backpack. My thought was my files and extra clothes that I would not be able to take with me, blankets, pillows, that sort of thing and fully expected for him to tell me that he would be willing to do this. However, instead he looked at me and he said to me,

"You know if anything like that weretohappenthere's no way I'm going to let you sleep outside. I would lend you the $400 a month rent that you need for however long it took until things got straightened out."

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Never before in my life has somebody offered to potentially help me in such a way. I was almost speechless, could barely utter the words thank you, and damn near had a tear come to my eye that's how I moved I was. I still can't believe that if that situation were to happene that somebody would be willing to do that for me. I don't even feel I'm worth such generosity, but let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen, that is one hell of a friend.


Medical Update

As for the medical part unfortunately the fact of the matter is I have gotten worse since October of 2015. Since that time my breathing capacity has gotten worse and last appointment with the pulmonologist I was only at 67% of capacity. I also need to see a heart doctor because I am experiencing a lot of heart palpitations at various times with intermittent PVCs, preventricular contractions. I could just be laying down ready to go to sleep and the inside of my chest feels like it's shuddering and in addition any exertion is racing my heart in what's called tachycardia so a cardiologist is going to be in my somewhat near future. Of course if you put me on a medication that will be an additional $50 a month and which case I'm definitely just continue in that one and they are just to even things out.

I saw a back surgeon and he told me that yes I am going to need back surgery in the future, but we're not going to do it now. He also told me I have to lose a lot of weight before I could have any type of surgery, but I have what is called grade 1 anterolisthesis of the vertebrae L5 on S1. What it means is my L5 vertebrae is slowly slipping. When the surgeon took one look at the MRI, even though it's 14 months old, he told me straight out you cannot walk very far and you cannot stand for very long at all. I didn't even have to tell him he told me what I was going through.

I also have a bulging disc on vertebra L4 through L5. which means A spinal disorder in which a bone (vertebra) slips forward onto the bone below it and I have a grade 1 spondylolisthesis of L5 on S1 resulting in moderate to severe bilateral neuralforaminal stenosis which means severe foraminal narrowing, or stenosis, occurs when the foraminal canal — the space next to the vertebrae that allows the nerve roots to exit the spinal canal — narrows due to age or another spine condition that has protruded into the empty space of the canal. Gee...... thrilling. Along with arthritis in my knees and shoulders and a torn right shoulder, the surgeon told me that I have arthritis in that lower back and one of the vertebrae is pressing against the nerve. Man I'm telling you this guy was nothing but a barrel of laughs with his medical report, but as I have said many times in the past and it may be an overused expression, but it is what it is and all I can do is try to deal with anything that comes my way. I refuse to surrender, I refuse to give up, and I refuse to let anything keep me down permanently.

After talking with some cousins on Facebook it turns out that early-onset arthritis apparently is something that runs in the family. The body may be giving me fits but my mind is still ultra sharp and I think poker has a ton to do with it as a matter of fact I think I read one place that poker players have a lower incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's but I can't swear to that. However if true it does make all the sense in the world and the fact that my mind is as sharp as it is is something I am extraordinarily thankful for.

Well that's a wrap up for now. I'm going to be starting my league games this upcoming Thursday and I will start playing Sam's Town on Wednesday the 4th unless I need to rest up from activities on the 3rd. The fact of the matter is when I go out for a day or two sometimes I need to rest and relax for the next couple of days this is why only playing half a dozen tournaments a month is not any great hardship to me because it's not surprising if my body won't allow me to play more than that. Maybe it will maybe it won't, but we will see what there is to see. I'm actually looking forward to getting out and about again and dealing with real people again in-person socializing. I mean we as human beings we are social creatures and being locked up in my room for the last couple of years was not healthy, but it was the only real choice I had considering the money available. That's all for now. I will definitely update you sometime in the beginning to middle of November I would imagine so until then take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

October 29th 2017


On October 26th I celebrated my 50th birthday. I had been dreading the approach of it as I just do not like birthdays that have zeros in them and to be quite honest I usually let my birthday come and go with no fanfare and just kind of keep it to myself with a quiet night at home. I had planned the very same thing on this particular birthday as well, but ManInBlack decided that was not going to be the case.

Although my buddy Joe had already given me a birthday present earlier in the month he decided that I was playing poker on my birthday. Now he didn't care if I went and played my league game at the sports bar or if I went to Sam's Town, but one way or another I was going to be doing something I really enjoyed on my birthday and that was playing poker. Since it was my birthday he was not going to allow me to take a bus anywhere and decided that he would be sending me via Uber to and from. I did not have any money, I think like $7 in my wallet since it's the end of the month which that's typical for me, so Joe said well if you want to play at Sam's Town this is what we'll do. We'll each go in for 50% $20 each I will give you my $20 and then I will lend you your $20 and then we can split anything you make 50/50. Obviously this is an offer I am not going to easily refuse anytime soon so off to Sam's Town I would go.

I was chit-chatting with a friend named Alysia on Twitter and I happened to mention that I was going to be playing at Sam's Town that night and would probably have a birthday drink or two and when she realized it was my birthday she said oh I am totally there and although she is used to significantly higher quality tournaments shall we say, because it was my birthday she came all the way down to Sam's Town so that we could play in the tournament together which I thought was totally awesome. She also brought me a fantastic birthday gift which I absolutely love. She brought me a book called The LIve Poker Players Journal Black Edition and inside on each page you can jot down the individual hand history in whatever game you're playing. She had warned me she was bringing me a birthday gift and I told her it was completely unnecessary, but this is Alysia we're dealing with and if she wants to do something she does it there's no stopping that little hurricane and I was so thankful and thought that her gift was just so totally cool and awesome considering I start my exclusive live play, as much as I can that is with available funds, in November.

At Sam's Town you are not assigned a seat you actually pick a seat. They have cards spread out for each table position on each table they're going to have so I selected table 3 seat 10 and although I had not told Alysia which table I was on she also ended up picking table 3 herself. Although we had once played in the Friday night Orleans tournament at the same time we had never played at the same table before so this was the first time I was able to see what this incomparable gal was like at a poker table. The woman is so lively if there was a sudden electrical power loss she could light up the table with her glow. She is funny, outgoing, lively, and a total smart ass, all things that are great to have in this world. I was having so much fun as we bantered back and forth at times like in one incident where when the dealer had jokingly said something about that it was going to cost her more chips than was really required and Alysia looked at the dealer and said "Well I'm color-blind so I'm putting out 2 green chips." and without missing a beat I looked over at her and I said "If you're color-blind how do you know they're green" lmao. It was this kind of jocularity and a lot of laughter which started this tournament out just on a great great note and quite frankly I was having a blast. When I had my first birthday drink of the evening, my beloved Colorado Bulldog, she tried to get the entire table to order Colorado Bulldogs just because I was getting one and although a couple of people did that was not enough so she decided that she had to not only get our table, not only get the table next to us, but the entire poker room singing Happy Birthday to me. I heard them singing it 4 tables away lol. I am sure I turned 50 shades of red and wanted to crawl under the poker table. I told her I would totally get her for that, but confidentially I actually loved every second of it because it was just a funny thing for her to do. I mean most people might get two or three people to get singing, but not Alysia, she gets the whole room going!!

The tournament was the 7 p.m. one so there is an additional blind level as compared to the 1 p.m. that they hold on a daily basis. Very early on I get dealt pocket aces and I raised to 1200 with blinds of 200/400 and get about four or five callers in the process. The Flop was King King 10 I think was the third card with two diamonds. With this many people and that flop I know it's going to be trouble. Bottom line is somebody had a king 3 I believe it was and ended up winning but it only cost me an additional 500 chips post-flop because there was no way I was going to get over rambunctious with the pocket aces on that board.

For 7 solid levels I was virtually card dead with a few exceptions here and there. In one hand I had limped in late position with a 46s and it got checked around the flop. I turned a flush draw and completely missed when a king hit on the river and when the other two opponents checked I fired out 1500 with 6 high and took it down. I never ever show Bluffs or show my cards generally speaking unless I have quads, but on this occasion I showed the bluff. It's probably like one time in a thousand that will happen, but I figured well first of all Alysia was at my table so I kind of did it for that reason because I had a friend there, but I also knew that the next time I bet on the river I would have the goods and might get an easier call of course that would call for actually having cards and having a hand to bet on the river. Three levels and a break and then four levels and a break and it's just a slow bleed.

The table broke and Alysia got sent to one table and I got sent to another. I was in the big blind and look at 67 suited. I had already posted the big blind of 1000 with only 5 bigs left in my stack. A guy who had been somewhat aggressive raises to 3000 and another calls and with 5 bigs in the big blind and a suited connector this is a no-brainer to me and I shove for my last 5400. Both of the players ended up calling and I flop a flush draw. The original raiser bets the flop and gets the cold caller out of the hand and the original raiser turns over JJ. There was I believe an ace on the turn and then a spade hit the river which tripled me up to over 18,000. After that things generally moved in a positive direction.

There were 53 players in this and the top five were getting paid. We reach the final table and we were down to eight handed when somebody spoke up and asked about saving the bubble or possibly bubbles. There was a middle eastern guy in seat 10 and before anything could be discussed he immediately says no. I leaned over to the woman directly to my right and said to her "if tradition holds he'll be the next one knocked out." He was an aggressive type of poker player but he limited his aggression to post-flop play rather than pre-flop and then had this habit of either jamming or betting large amounts on the flop in comparison to the pot. We were still 8 handed when I got dealt pocket kings and decided to set a trap targeting specifically him. I was in late position with about 24,000 chips in my stack with blinds of 1000/2000 and I limped with pocket kings. This is something that I have done many many many many times online and it works to perfection a solid 80% of the time. There are a few people out there that do vlogs that seem to think that this is something that was only done in the 90s and not done or should not be done in today's day and age but I beg to differ with them. When something works 8 out of 10 times you do it, I don't care what year it is. If you want to call me old-school I'm fine with that as to me that's a badge of honor, but the fact of the matter is I will continue to set those traps, but obviously not every time.

Nobody raised after me in the blinds which I expected and obviously no matter what that flop is, provided there's not an ace on it, I am going to be jamming, and perhaps even if there is an ace on the Flop depending on what the immediate post-op action would be, but be that as it may the flop came out 69X and as was not totally unexpected seat 10 who was in early position in this hand immediately goes all in and he definitely had me covered. I said to the table "well I hope I didn't just get caught in my own trap and I call and show the Kings and seat 10 shows 78 an open ended straight draw. I dodged and doubled up to a shade above 50000 and was in about 3rd or 4th chips at that point. This hand instantly put seat 10 on tilt.

For the next 6 or 7 hands he switched his mode and all of a sudden he was jamming preflop at one point three times in a row and one of the hands that he had to show was QJs so apparently as long as he had a couple of Broadway's he was good with it. He doubled up once then lost a good portion of his stack and as I whispered it to the lady to my right he was indeed the next one to get knocked out. Once that happened the remaining seven of us immediately agreed to set aside $50 each for the 6th and 7th place finisher taking this from first and second place money. Good riddance Mr. Cheapskate Aggro see you wouldn't want to be you and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Now here's where it comes into play that I could have been the next one knocked out because they immediately start talking about chopping it seven ways, but let's be reasonable about this. At this point I've got a stack of $5,000 chips a foot high. I looked to my left and one guy has only two 5,000 dollar chips another guy has three 5,000 dollar chips and I immediately shook my head no to the dealer and said to the table not at this time which indicated that I would be open to a chop later on so and that I wasn't being a total ass but there was no way I was chopping seven ways evenly when somebody has 1200 in their stack and blinds are 2000-4000. I know poker tradition holds the guy who refuses to chop gets knocked out but I just felt a chop was completely unreasonable under those circumstances.

The saved bubbles got knocked out then fifth-place got knocked out and when we were down to four handed I had an opportunity to take the absolute massive chip lead but my QQ got beat by A3. It wasn't for a huge portion of my stack and the person that did beat me did end up getting knocked out in 4th anyway. We were down to three people and we had pretty much identical chip stacks. One guy had more than me and I had more than the other one and when one of them recommended a chop we all agreed very quickly and it was, after the tip for the dealer, a payout of $360 which meant $180 each for me and my buddy. What a great way to wrap up a great birthday.

November 1st 2017

November has arrived and I am preparing myself for what will be my somewhat full-time live grind. I am excited about the prospects and definitely looking forward to what will be me getting out in the fresh air more and more and more. I understand my physical limitations and realize that I'm not going to be able to do this 7 days a week, week after week, as much as I would like to be able to, but even at that it's going to be so much more healthy for me, at least I believe, to be out there interacting with people, socializing with other human beings, and generally speaking moving around getting some exercise albeit I can't do much and even though I have to take a lot of rests after walking just a little bit, I still get from point A to point B I'm just slower than everybody else. I think the most important aspect about all of this is I am going to be a much much happier individual and feel like I'm actually living life instead of just going from day to day.

I did have a sad realization however. I mean I knew it was coming, but you kind of try to avoid these things, but it is here and I couldn't stop it because if I had stopped it I would be dead and what fun would that be. I mean that would seriously interfere with the grind right, but now that I have turned 50 I qualify to play in, God help me....... seniors events. Please excuse me while I stick my head in the oven and turn it on lol.

It cannot be overstated that this live tournament play may not last long this month for I will be starting out with a bankroll of $400-$450, but that exact amount is not yet known. Even if it is the higher amount of $450 I am looking at exactly 10 buyins and not a buyin more. I should actually have $630 left over after all bills and miscellaneous are taken care of, but I have the meet up with that friend that I mentioned who I will call "Stacey" I call it a meet up she calls it a date so whatever. I am unable to drive because of my vision and she does not drive either and like myself utilizes public transportation to get around, but I told her that was not happening I would be sending a car by for her. That sounds a little more polished than it really is as I'm going to send Lyft to pick her up and take her to where we are meeting and then I will send her home the same way. I'm old school when it comes to these things and as far as I'm concerned a gentleman would do no less. I'm setting aside $140 which I'm hoping will be enough for dinner which I already know will cost around $50 and a movie with all the fun fixings like popcorn drinks candy that sort of thing. I already know the Lyft will be about $25 in total and dinner is going to be about $50. I have not been out to see a movie in several years so I may be a little out of touch with the prices of things, but I got to figure $65 is enough for 2 people to see a movie together, but if I run a little short no worries I will have extra money in reserve it will just be deducted off my starting bankroll amount. I'm also planning on meeting up with another friend for lunch this month so I'm going to need some money set aside for that and I figure $40 ought to cover it. So if my figures are correct the starting bankroll will be $450 as I am taking every last dime remaining and putting it towards the November live tournament grind.

I was planning on getting my new eyeglasses this month, and my insurance will cover the eye exam which I have an appointment for that on the 7th. The place I'm going to is offering two pairs of glasses for $79. So roughly speaking the glasses would cost me $40 as my insurance will cover $37 of it, but that's going to be the standard and not any anti-scratch or any enhancements so I'm putting the actual eyeglasses purchase off until December.

I will be making Sam's Town my home casino to start out with for they have least expensive tournaments with a relatively decent blind structure to them for the price. Don't get me wrong it's a far cry from the structure the Golden Nugget offers, but I have cashed in three out of my last four played there and although I do not by any stretch of the imagination believe that I can continue results like that, it does show that the structure is not so contra profitable for me that I can't make money doing it.

They have two tournaments a day I can play from Sunday through Thursday. The first is the 1 p.m. $35 plus $10 single add-on or rebuy whichever term you prefer which you can take immediately as soon as you sit down before the first hand is dealt for a total cost of $45 which I always do when I play this one. This one runs 7 days a week. The 7 p.m. tournament can be played Sunday through Thursday as on Friday they have their rebuy tournament which you only start with 30 big blinds and I really have no interest in that one and Saturday they have a higher buyin tournament for their 7 p.m. offering. The 7 p.m. tournament adds an extra blind level of 400-800 which I feel is better for me, but two out of the three cashes that I have had have been in the 1 p.m. tournament so go figure. What I decided to do was to play the 1 p.m. offering and if I make money in it and cash then allow myself to also play the 7 p.m. depending on how I am feeling. Those poker chairs do a number on my back to say the very least not to mention the hips and the knees and anything else you might be able to think of. However, if I go about it in this manner that guarantees me 10 playing days in the month of November and it will be more unless I go 0 for my first 10.

Obviously I want to stretch this live play out to get me throughout the month as much as possible so to that end as I had stated in a previous post I am going to get back involved with the Nevada Poker League which is the free bar League that holds a $5,000 freeroll every 8 or 12 weeks. You go to the bar and you play three single-table tournaments and every time you finish first place this gives you a thousand starting chips for that end of the season freeroll every time you finish second place it's worth 500 chips and every third place finishes worth 250 chips the most chips that you can earn as a starting stack for the big tournament is 25,000. The next big tournament is the beginning of January so I will have the rest of November and most of December to see how many starting chips I can accumulate.

Now let's talk a schedule and unfortunately I do have to be reasonable about it which kind of sucks because who wants to be reasonable. The fact of the matter is I can be out and about at most 3 days in a row and after that I am going to need a minimum of a full day of rest and recuperation and then I can get back at it again. The league game is on Thursday and Friday so doing both of those I can then take Saturday off. I figure I can play Sam's Town on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesdays, take Wednesday off, play my league nights Thursday and Friday, take Saturday off, wash, rinse, and repeat. I wish I had the physical wherewithal to play Sam's Town 7 days a week, but I know I don't and quite frankly with only 10 buyins this guarantees me three full weeks of tournaments. Granted I'm only playing 3 days a week, but the idea here is to be getting out enjoying life and hopefully making money in the process and the more I can stretch that out the better for me.

Sunday: Sam's Town
Monday: Sam's Town
Tuesday: Sam's Town
Wednesday: Day off
Thursday: League Game
Friday: League Game
Saturday: Day off

Money is going to be tight starting out. Hopefully I start having some earnings which will make money less tight and I can actually pay for expenses out of the poker bankroll, but that is not the way it is to start. To start out with I'm going to have to have some seriously strict discipline. No playing horses in the Sportsbook, no Sports bets, no slot machines, no video poker, because when it comes down to it I'll have to ask myself is this $40 that I could end up spending worth giving up a buyin to a tournament that could return me hundreds of dollars and the answer would obviously be absolutely not.

Now, let's talk about December. Depending on how things go I could have $600 available to me in December. That is the month of Christmas but there's only a couple of people I buy for so I'm good there. It is all going to depend whether or not the state of Nevada stops paying for all the medical things that they cover at the end of November or the end of December. Right now that is truly up in the air which one it will be. You would think that they would end things as fast as possible, but after talking to a representative I found out that is in fact not the case, but we will see what happens. If it is the end of November that I will have $300 a month left over to be able to add the bankroll, but of course I am hoping that I'm not going to have to add any more money and that I can start out on a good positive note with some good positive results.

That's going to wrap this one up . My first tournament will be Sunday the 5th. I am so looking forward to this I cannot wait to get at it. Till next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

November 4th 2017


After a couple of days of figuring the ins and outs of the potential and possibilities ManInBlack and I decided to go in on a half action sale for my tournaments played at Sam's Town beginning tomorrow. Selling half action has both advantages and disadvantages and it needed to be thought out before I had made any decisions. The first and foremost obvious realization is that any earnings that I make I would only be getting half of it. If I chop for $300 instead of that $300 being added to my bankroll it would only be $150. However, this has to be balanced with the fact that it is only costing me half price to get into these tournaments. It's a balance scale and as long as the scale balances evenly I believe it's definitely worth it. Not only that it gives me the opportunity to possibly make some money for my best friend and what could be better than that. I also did not have to come up with $450 to start my bankroll and instead was able to do so with just $337.50.

I warned him from the very get-go that since I had been running rather warm lately I could enter the tournament ice age at any second and I did not want any hard feelings were that to happen. He kind of looked at me, shook his head slightly, and gave me the look that Joe gives me when I have said something that he finds completely ridiculous and pretty much the message to me was "You know better than that"

Since he wanted to get in on half action I decided that I was going to attempt to play Sunday through Thursday and I decided I would not, under those circumstances, be playing in the Nevada Poker League after all. If I'm able to play five straight days in a row, which I fully admit is in question, I will be taking Fridays and Saturdays off to rest up what will undoubtedly be my aching body and what will feel like an absolutely broken lower back. I will be playing the 1 p.m. tournament and if I cash in it then I will stick around for the 7 pm. I can absolutely guarantee you if I play two tournaments at Sam's Town in a single day I will require the next day off and of this I have almost no question.

I am the first to admit that five days a week and playing five days in a row even I only play a single tournament a day is not something I'm even sure I'm going to be able to do and I warned ManInBlack about this from the very get-go so he is fully informed that this may or may not be possible. Right now our main plan is for me to play 15-20 tournaments in the month of November as there will be a couple of days that I have to take out due to medical type appointments including getting my glucose tolerance test which I am not looking forward to hanging around that lab for 4 hours, but I got to do what I got to do. The aspect of playing live poker to what to many would be on a full-time basis thrills me beyond words, but I have got to make sure I don't push myself to the extreme or overdo it just because I don't want to miss a day. I will have to listen to my body and do what it wants me to do not necessarily what I want to do.

I don't know what the final answers will be the only thing I do know is I am definitely playing the 1 p.m. tomorrow and I am playing two tournaments on Tuesday as Chris tagged me in a tweet that he and his friend who is visiting will be playing at Sam's Town at 7 p.m. on Tuesday so I will definitely make sure I pull a double header that day.

Speaking of Chris a shout out of congratulations to him and his Houston Astros winning the World Series. Being a lifelong Red Sox fan and a die-hard fanatic even back during the years where it was disappointment after disappointment, but we fans never gave up, I know what it's like to root for a team and I know that feeling when they win it for the first time. Enjoy it Chris, because even though we just may be fans of the sports team, you will always remember that feeling of the first World Series ring seen for your team in your lifetime.

Had a date or a meet up with a friend of mine yesterday. I called it a meetup she called it a date, but no matter how you look at it we had a lot of fun. I took her to the Friday night seafood buffet which we both absolutely loved. It's been years since I ate that much Dungeness crab and every bite was like being in heaven. We played some slot machines, I taught her how to play Blackjack at the tables and overall we both had an absolutely great time. There is definitely nothing romantic that will come from this as I would not want to do anything that could spoil a friendship. Not to mention I'm really not looking for a relationship. Since my wife passed away I've had about 9 of them and for whatever reason none of them ever worked out for the long-term with the exception of my former and now late fiance and I ended up leaving that relationship. The way I look at it I had 12 of the best years of my life with the best woman in the world and if that's all I get that will be more than enough for me. Oh I know people will say well you just haven't met the right person yet, but with the medical stuff that I got going on I am not actively searching and I just hope that she looks at it the same way because it's a little awkward if one person wants something further and the other one doesn't so let's keep our fingers crossed that that is not the case here.

That's going to wrap this one up. Heading out for Sam's Town tomorrow morning to get there around noon so that I make sure I register by 12:30 in which you get an extra 500 chips. I know 500 chips doesn't seem like a lot, but in tournament poker every chip is another piece of ammunition and I refuse to give up one chip if I don't have to. As I am playing these tournaments at Sam's Town I will be tweeting updates for anyone that is interested. So, until next time friends and readers, take care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.

Bankroll: $337.50

November 12th 2017

November started off on a real positive note when I chopped the first tournament that I played in heads up for a total return of $370 in which $185 of that went to me. Unfortunately the next five tournaments did not go exactly according to plan. I would say in two of them I made some errors and then the other two I believe I played as close to perfect as a human being can and it just was not to be.

The main problem with poker players in general is that we are all human beings and unfortunately human beings will make errors from time to time. They will let emotion take hold of them, they will make calls that they probably shouldn't and in two of those tournaments I did just that. The first one happened Sunday night after the Sunday afternoon cash. Right before the first break in fact the last hand before the first break. Blinds were 100-200. I saw a flop with a QTs and this young kid who had been pretty aggressive had limped in as well. I guess somebody could say that I should have raised with my QTs but that is not a particular hand that I find a lot of comfort in raising especially in middle position with limpers already in. Maybe I'm wrong on that and I welcome any comments to that effect, but for better or for worse it's just not a hand I'd like to raise with unless I am in late position and it has folded to me then of course it is a hand that I'm going to try to steal the blinds with. However, I digress. The Flop was KTT and Mr. Young and Aggro jams for his last three thousand chips. I obviously snap call and little Mister aggro hits a king on the river as he had limped in with K3o. Yes, you read that correctly K3o. When we came back from break I put a target on his head. Obviously that's letting emotion get in the way of Poker and I ended up all in with him with an ace queen vs. Jack Jack in a situation that was not called for.

In one of the other six tournaments that I played I found myself getting in the habit of calling flop bets when I was flopping second or third pair and not immediately believing my opponent when he bet, but in each of the cases that I did so it was against a older gentleman, late sixties or early seventies, and from what I can tell thus far these guys in that age range, if they bet they've got at least top pair. There are exceptions of course, but in each of the occasions, because the opponent that did lead out ended up showing down against another opponent they in fact did have top pair or better. I wasn't calling the turn bets but when you are spending chips foolishly even a smaller flop bet, that is simply chips that you do not have in your arsenal.

As for the other three tournaments I have just been on a cold snap of late. Flush draws are not hitting, I think I've had KK once in the last five tournaments to be honest and maybe QQ another time. I flopped only two sets and one of them couldn't even get any money from other players as nobody had anything. It's just been that kind of a somewhat chilled run.

This was only the first week and I've only played 6 tournaments and to be quite honest I'm just having a lot of fun and I am totally enjoying myself playing live tournaments getting out a few days a week and just doing what I want to be doing. So what did the first week tell me. First of all, if I play a doubleheader and in this case playing both the 1 p.m. in the 7 p.m. tournament, I definitely need the next day off to recoup because after all those hours I definitely need the next day to rest and heal up my tortured lower back not to mention the knees. During the first week except for Tuesday where I had a meet up with some people, including Chris Abramski, Luke Johnston, and a couple other guys, I have been playing the 1 p.m. tournament which is the single rebuy with the one less blind level, and if I cash I would play the night one. I decided that might not be the best approach.

Since there is a variation to the two tournaments specifically speaking the extra blind level and the fact that the 7 p.m. is a reentry and not a single rebuy, if I limit myself to just the 1 p.m. it could be a possibility that the 7 p.m. might have gone better if I had played both of them. So going into week to what I'm going to be doing is when I play at Sam's Town it is going to be both of the tournaments each day I play. I am planning on playing on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, taking Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday off.

ManInBlack and I have reinvested the small profit that that we have made thus far and we have 14 tournaments left for our investment. Up $57 each so far and we have tossed that back in. Originally the $675 that we came up with between the two of us was for 15 tournaments. I have played 6 so that left 9 remaining, however we have reinvested the earnings that came from the very first tournament I played and we now have 14 tournaments left in which six will be played each week and possibly 7 as I might toss in the 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Saturday night is there Higher by in tournament so they're definitely at this point I would not be playing that. The 1 p.m. on Saturday will only be played if we're showing decent earnings in week 2 as Saturday is the last day of the week since I started playing tournaments on Sunday the 5th so the week runs like a normal week does according to a calendar, Sunday through Saturday.

So that's a wrap up for this entry. Only $57 made this week, but that's the way tournaments are. I could make hundreds of dollars this week or I could lose everyone we just have to see how long this little coat snap less and the only way to get through it is play through it. I will report back in at the end of the week to let you know how it went and as always I and posting some updates on Twitter from time to time. So until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

Bankroll $394.50

November 29th 2017


On Thursday November 16th, I made the realization that I needed to suspend my live play and return to online temporarily. The fact that I was running cold had nothing to do with it because with the performance that I had in the end of October I was still a few hundred dollars up on my live play at Sam's Town, but the evening of the 16th things got so bad, physically speaking, I could barely take 6 steps, before I could walk no more. Then maybe take another six or eight steps and have to sit down. It actually felt like my body was quitting on me.

I had a pocket full of cash, but I got in touch with my friend Michelle and asked her to lend me a quick $20 via PayPal so that I could get Lyft home. If she was unavailable or wasn't able to do so I would have paid the nearly $30 for a cab because at that point it would have been a physical impossibility for me to make it home without collapsing and consequently ending up in an ambulance and inside an emergency room. Fortunately she was available and was able to help me out and I made it home.

Overall for October and November I ended up going 5 for 16, for 31% in the money. November was a $27 loss for me personally, but October, although I didn't write it down and I should have, was about $500 for my share in earnings. Most of this money got spent on having fun, eating at the casino, a couple of dates with a lady friend of mine, delivery orders, tips, food runs on the way home, in other words everything that a low limit, under bankrolled poker player should not be doing.

Since I was in a poker business partnership for poker with ManInBlack for the month of November, we decided to continue this online. We each threw in $132 and set me to task at the $3 deepstack rebuys with more money to be added later to finish off the month if it was needed. I ended up making each of us about $125 in profits and as December approached absolutely disliking online play, running somewhat cold as it was, I decided that I wanted to get back to the live game, but could I do it without my body wanting to quit on me once again. I think I can and I think I've come up with a plan that just may work.

First let's talk money. It looks like I will be getting one more month of the higher disability amount before my medical expenses will be increased, so the minimum that I will have to start up December will be $600 for poker. I am working on a couple of angles where that could be increased by an additional $200. So let's assume that it's going to be the $600. I've got two choices. $600 is 15 buyins at Sam's Town or it is 8 buyins with $40 legt over at the Golden Nugget. The Golden Nugget has the better structure, but the tournaments are $30 more each. I think there's no real question about this as I need to give myself the most chances at making money and I also have learned some lessons and when I start playing live again in December there are several things that are going to be changing not because I want them to, but because they have to if I want to have any hope at pulling this miracle off and maintaining a live bankroll.

Slot machines are out of the question. So are video poker machines, sports betting, horse racing, $3 blackjack tables or anything else that you can think of that can tempt somebody at a casino. Food costs need to be kept way down and since I generally bring a backpack with me there is no reason in the world that when I go shopping for my monthly food trip on Friday, that I cannot purchase things that I can snack on while playing a tournament or on the way home or during a break. Fruit bars, granola bars, packages of peanut butter or cheese crackers, things of that nature jump to mind. They do not need to be kept refrigerated and they are easily carried in a backpack and are very lightweight. The $600 or $800 or whatever hundred dollars that may fall somewhere in the middle needs to be dedicated exclusively to poker and poker only. Not stopping off at Subway on the way home, not eating at buffets or delis inside Sam's Town even though the prices are extraordinarily reasonable, this is not what the struggling poker player needs to be doing with the money. I needs to be dedicating it to poker and poker only.

Now let's discuss the changes that are going to be made so that I do not run into a body collapse moment where everything feels like it's just shutting down. First of all what caused this?? Well obviously the physical issues that I have going on that I've discussed previously like the back problems, not to mention the knee problems. The shoulder problem is not too bad since I'm on cortisone. I think what caused it in November was the fact that I was trying to pull several tournament doubleheaders during the week, definitely not getting enough sleep, and even though I was taking a significant break in between the tournaments it was just too much for the body and my overall system to handle.

What's going to change is that at least until I am able to get to the pain management clinic, what I'm going to do is I'm going to stick with playing a single tournament at Sam's town when I do play and it's going to be the 7 p.m., the tournament was the additional blind level in the structure. I figure I need to give myself a day off after 2 days of playing. A schedule I'm leaning towards is play on Sunday and Monday, take Tuesday off, play Wednesday and Thursday, and take Friday and Saturday off. I don't particularly care for the Friday night tournament and the Saturday tournament is highet priced anyway so it's no great loss.

I think this kind of plan will allow me to get all the sleep I want since I won't have to leave until about 5 in the afternoon and the most amount of time that I will be there will be 6 hours maximum. Not to mention since I will be starting with the 15 buy-ins for the 7 p.m. tournament, that means that with a schedule like this I will be able to play most of December even if I go through a horrendous cold run. I'm hoping the Poker Gods treat me well. I'm not looking for anything special I'm just looking to run to expectation. My expectation is 3 or 4 cashes in the first 15 tournaments played. The month of December I will also be running solo on this as I will not be selling any half action into these tournaments.

Well that's going to wrap this entry up. Hopefully with the schedule I've come up with and with the lessons that I hopefully have learned I'm hoping to have a prosperous and profitable December. December will be a testing ground. If this schedule proves doable during then perhaps I can toss in a double-header here and there in January, or perhaps I can add in an afternoon Saturday tournament, but this time I'm going to take it slow and easy and for December I will stick to the schedule that I have come up with to the best of my ability. I will be keeping track of everything on my poker bankroll income app that I have on my phone. I have the full version I spent 10 bucks for the damn thing about 2 years ago or something like that so I will be able to keep track of everything. Until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

April 1st 2018


It's been a good long while since I posted and as a matter of fact I think this is the longest I have gone without posting since I started this blog. A lot of things been going on in my life, poker and personal, so I'll bring you up-to-date. First the poker then the personal.

I only played online for a couple of days in January but long enough for me to drop a quick($70) I did get a $10 bonus and $3 in rakeback for a grand total loss of $57 for the month of January online. I then switched over to exclusively live play, but because of the chronic pains that I experience I was only able to play four times live on the 8th, 15th, 24th, and 25th for the month of January. The rest of the days of January I could just tell by how I was feeling I was in no condition to be traipsing around town at different casinos. Mostly because of the heart affliction I will touch on my transportation to and from casinos had to be by Lyft or Uber and with not a lot of money that I could put aside for that four times in January was all I could play. Those four days were somewhat profitable. Although I lost $140 playing tournaments, at the limit and spread limit cash games I earned $427 and I also earned a $106 straight flush bonus at Sam's Town to add on to that so all in all those four days were pretty profitable for me.

I began the month of February continuing to play live, but only got 5 days on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 7th and by that time I was really really feeling it bad and realized the morning of the 7th that it was going to be my final day in February for live play. February overall was a definite struggle. For live play ($135) in tournament losses and another ($266) in cash game losses. For the remainder of February I kept to online, but it was a rough month with a total of ($150) in losses at the tables and only one $10 bonus cleared. Year-to-date at the end of February was a total of losses of $205 counting everything and ($197) of that from online play. Not exactly the way I wanted to start off 2018.

So in comes the month of March which began on a much more positive note when I pull down a second-place finish in the very first tournament I played on WSOP in March for a return of $136 so that was a pretty good way to start things off. As is usual after a very deep run I go through a stretch of not cashing. This has always been the way since I got on WSOP for my first full year on this site in 2016. During the course of that year and tournaments on WSOP alone I earned in the neighborhood of $2,000 so going through long stretches of non cashes after going deep is just typical as on that site I basically run an in the money percentage of about on average 14%. This time was no different as after the second-place finish I had 1 min cash over the next 18 or 19 tournaments so completely typical.

However something has always nagged at me that why is it that I have such long stretches of non caches. I believe the most I have gone through is 23 straight tournaments, but I just figured that's the nature of things, yet other players that I play against on WSOP and specifically the regs they definitely have a better in the money percentage than me, but could that be because they do multiple buyins in these rebuys and I refuse to do so.

At the same time I watch and subscribe to a few poker vlogs. The two ones that I will make specific are Andrew Neeme who is a cash-game full-time professional player who play as much $5/$10 No Limit and Jeff Boski who is a full-time professional tournament player and something that I noticed in these videos as I watched them as they reported on their games they played and went over hands is that they both whether the cash game or tournament they open raise a much wider variety than I do.

I've always considered myself a very tight and conservative player and for example small and medium pocket pairs. The way I learned it with these hands you want to get in as cheap as humanly possible for the purpose of set mining, but these players open raise these whether it's a cash game or tournament. Ace suited cards as in A8s or A5s they also open these in middle position where for me these have always been an instantaneous fold or limp only depending on the circumstances, but never raised with such things, but when March 14th hit I decided that I would spend the day in the tournaments that I would end up playing to try to open up the range and open up the raising.

I initiated this change on March 14th and for the tournaments that I played from March 1st to March 13th I went 2 for 20 which is 10% in the money and the tournament that I played on WSOP from the 14th to the 31st I went 8 for 35 which is 22% in the money so there is a distinct difference. One could say it's too small of a sample size but overall from when I first started plan on WSOP I hold as I stated before I hold an overall average in the money percentage of only 14%. In order to see if the higher in the money rate is legitimate I will have to see how this does in April, but when all was said and done for the month of March earnings were $143 online. Not great but better than 2018 started off by far. $86 earned in tournaments, $40 in cash games, $22 in rakeback and bonuses, and ($15) lost in SNGs.

So what's ahead for April?? Well you'll notice that I earned $40 in cash games which means I have also been adding a cash game or two to my repertoire. I still don't like playing cash games online and I don't think I ever will like playing cash games online, but if they can add a little buffer to tournament cold runs then I guess I really can't avoid them. So what I'm going to do in April is pretty much what I was doing in the last half of March and that is add a cash game or two at the most to go along with a tournament I'm playing in and when the tournament is over the cash game is over and I'll be able to take a break and then when the next tournament starts up again I'll fire up a couple of more cash game tables. Sometimes it may only be one sometimes it may be two depends on what I feel like. I'll try to get started at 12 noon at the latest and my day will end whenever the last tournament that I am playing that day ends. I can't even give an estimate of goals for hands played because since I'm only playing the cash games while I am also playing a tournament I have no idea how many hands a day I will be playing so for the April goals let's just have one...... make some money.


Personal Update

Now for the person stuff. First of all unfortunately a friendship has come to an end after more than two and a half years. Michelle and I are no longer friends. We have unfriended each other on Facebook we have unfollowed each other on Twitter. Although the situation is not what it once was I will still be respectful and I will simply let my readers know that it was caused by a intense argument that was carried out on Facebook over politics which is no big surprise and certain things were said that can never be taken back. It's sad to see a friendship end, but these things happen. I definitely can be civil to her and I wish her nothing but success and for her future, but the friendship which we had has unfortunately been destroyed. If you ask me it was her actions and I'm sure if you ask her she would say it was mine, but in the end it really is unimportant simply the fact that it happened is.

I believe I touched on this before, but there has been something definitely wrong with my heart. Walking 30 of 40 steps in your heart racing so fast you have to stop sit down until your heart slows down just so you can do another 30 or 40 steps and repeat the whole process something is definitely wrong. I visited a cardiologist at the beginning of March and I told the physician's assistant I simply wanted them to prescribe a pill that would slow my heart rate down, but she said that couldn't happened and they ordered me to undergo a couple of tests. The physician's assistant that I dealt with on my initial visit she's a real piece of work. The woman came off as a cross between Heinrich Himmler and Attila the Hun and had all the charm and grace of a spitting cobra. On my very first visit she walks into the examination room, doesn't even say hello, and instead simply looks at me and says "So why are you here?" Woman's got the personality of a spiny cactus plant.

On March 8th I had a nuclear stress test where they actually inject radioactive material into your body and I'm here to tell you ladies and gentlemen when radioactive material is injected into your body your body has some unfortunate reactions to say the least. They followed that up with an ultrasound of the heart also known as an echocardiogram on the 16th and then on the 28th I went back to the heart doctor, actually the sane physician's assistant and find out what those tests showed. She tells me that my heart is in great shape. I could tell by her reaction she was actually surprised that she was saying this to a 50 year old guy, but she told me there is absolutely no blockages at all. My heart is a bit enlarged because of my weight condition, but that is to be expected and she felt that a lot of this rapid heart rate is because of my weight. She was extraordinary happy that I had lost 28 pounds in the last 3 months and in fact when I told her I wish it could come off faster she even said my weight loss is actually going a little faster than they would like, but all in all keep doing what I'm doing and increase my blood pressure pill twice a day.

The more I think about this cardiologist experience the madder I get. I mean think about it. I went in and told them I needed a pill that would slow the heart rate down, but they insist that they have to do tests. So they put my body through hell injecting me with radioactive material and then an ultrasound that had a technician pressing down so hard on my rib cage I thought my ribs we're going to snap in two, just to go back for her to tell me to increase to 2 times a day a pill I'm already taking. I mean hello this is what I wanted and asked you people for in the first place you half-wits!! It's so frustratingly irritating to say the least that I just want to punch a hole in a wall, preferably a hole in their wall at their office, but of course law enforcement would take a dim view of this so let us not go down that road shall we.

The most major personal update is that on Christmas Eve I was found by an older half sister of mine. We have the same father but different mothers and she's someone that I never knew about. Actually it was her best friend that made the initial inquiries and then me and her talked on the phone and we have been talking and texting almost constantly since Christmas Eve learning about each other, me providing information about her father side of the family that she has always craved but had no way of knowing. I have to tell you it's kind of cool when I can refer to someone as my sister and also getting to know some of my nieces. I grew up an only child so I never thought I would have nephews or nieces. I also have another half-sister who I have maybe spoken to three times in 30 years. Yeah dad was a tomcat when he was younger God Rest his soul and over the years I've been just like my dad just no kids. I was always very careful about that.

That's going to wrap this one up. My bankroll online is a little over $550, more than enough for the $3 deepstack rebuys that I am playing and even a few $5 ones tossed in. When I get paid in April I'm thinking I might get myself out at least one or two days during the month for some live tournament action, but we will see about that. Sorry this entry has been so long in coming and I will try to be more consistent, but the heart situation that I was going through was taking up a lot of me and I just wasn't into writing the blog. Till next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

April 16th 2018

April definitely started pretty well as once again the first tournament I played in the month I ended up with a final table appearance finishing 4th for a return of $62. No poker played on the 2nd and 3rd and on the 4th I only played one tournament that day however it was good for a win coming in 1st out of 73 players for a $159 return for my $6 investment.

Following the win for $159 I hit a 2 for 24 run and because of that going into Saturday the 14th, for the month of April, which at one point I had been up over $200 for the month, I started the 14th up a grand total of $57 for the month of April. I realized going into the 14th that the last couple of days of tournaments I had gotten stubborn, and impatient and going into the 14th that was something that I wanted to immediately rectify.

On Saturday the 14th I only played two tournaments because of a continuing screwed up sleep schedule I ended up falling asleep at 4 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 10:30 at night. I was able to get a min cash out of the two that I played which was very disappointing, but after going 13 straight tournaments without a single cash getting something was better than nothing I suppose.

So that brings us to Sunday the 15th the last day of the first half of April and since I did not get up until 10:30 the previous evening Sunday was going to be a full slate of tournaments. Sunday was also going to be a day of getting 2 outted on 4 separate occasions. I think the only thing more frustrating than getting 2 outed is finishing on the bubble. In all I played 8 tournaments on Sunday. I was in for a total tournament cost of $84. All in all it turned out to be a pretty profitable day as I went 2 for 8 with two final tables with a fourth-place finish for $63 in the 4 p.m. $350 Gtd and a second-place finish in the $800 Gtd which was worth $187. I ended up finishing the first half of April with total April earnings of $218. Those two final tables and three cashes in my last 10 tournaments played helped to get back into form.

Over the course of the first two weeks I had also been adding a cash game or two into the mix here and there. After the finish of Sunday's play in less than 1500 hands I ended up making $43 which is a nice earn rate, but as usual being online cash games are not something that I really enjoy, but if it's something that I am going to earn money at I should find some way that adds these into my daily play schedule rather than making excuses why I don't want to play them. I definitely don't want an all day cash grind because that would be almost worse than tooth extraction. For a majority of the first couple of weeks I've been kind of stubborn about it saying it's not something I really care for so I'm not going to do it, but they say treat poker like a business and if this is something that shows profits, from a business standpoint, I need to be doing it plain and simple.

One thing that I find is that these days when I play online poker I like to keep it to a 3 table maximum. This never used to be the case, but these days I find three to be the most comfortable for me. What I'm going to try to do for the second half of April is while I play tournaments each day fire up one or two cash games, keeping it to that three table maximum. If I am playing one tournament then I will have 2 cash games going, if I am playing two tournaments I will have one cash game going, and obviously if I am playing three tournaments I won't have any cash games going.

Many of my readers have previously stated that they think I should take more breaks during the course of my day especially when I get started at 9 in the morning and sometimes things don't end till after 1am which was in fact the case on Sunday. I've always known they were right about this, but again it's always been a act of stubbornness by me, but if I am not playing in a tournament at some point during the day then this will be the perfect opportunity for me to take a break. This should also solve the problem of not getting bored playing cash games because if I am playing them that automatically means I will have a at least one tournament going at the same time and as long as I am playing a tournament then getting bored and just saying to hell with this should not be an issue. I think this is a nice little compromise where I am not ignoring the potential for earnings, but at the same time I am not sitting there playing and preferring someone end my suffering by throwing me into a cactus plant. I think this is going to be a nice middle-ground. We'll see if it works over the next two weeks.

Another thing that absolutely has got to stop is my refusal to get up when the alarm goes off and get on these tables. For the last two weeks I can't tell you how many times I've slept till 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and even after 4 p.m. in the afternoon because when the alarm goes off I'm just shutting it off and staying in bed and going back to sleep. I am not going to be making any money to get to my goals which is to be able to take money from my online account and play live from time to time or better yet more than just time to time if I am sleeping the day away. I think for the first two weeks of this month I simply fell into a period of complete laziness and that stops here and now.

Finally I'm trying to figure out exactly what kind of a bankroll management plan I want to be utilizing and exactly and specifically what my goals are for not only online play, but getting out for a live play as well. Specifically, how much money do I need in my online account where I can allow myself to toss in some $20 tournaments which I have done in the first couple of weeks, but I think I've been doing it with slightly too little available dollars in my account balance.

My first thought was as long as I had over $500 in my account that would be satisfactory enough with my thought process being that $500 is 83 buyins for the $3 deepstack rebuys which cost me $6 for each one of them usually and 83 buyins is more than adequate for that, but at the same time I have to remember that that money is also going to be utilized in cash games and when you are also adding $20 tournaments into it you can find your account balance being depleted with just a single bad day of tournaments. Sunday was a prime example as when I started the day I did not expect to be investing $84 of the $612 that I started the day with in my account balance.

So with that said I think my approach needs to be adjusted. So I'm thinking that instead of allowing myself to toss in a couple of $20 tournaments on a particular day instead of needing $500 that I should force myself to have a minimum account balance where I allow myself to add one at a time. If my account balance is at $600 then I may add one $20 tournament that particular day. If it is $700 then I may allow myself two $20 tournaments that day, if it's at $800 then I may allow myself to play three of them a day and finally if it's at $900 I can play 4 of the $20 tournaments that are available to me and at $1,000 I can also in addition add the $25 one that is held on Saturdays only. Since I started today with an account balance online of $772 I can allow myself to play two $20 tournament today if I so desire.

As for getting out and playing live poker obviously I have to decide what is the base amount that I want to keep online to be able to play the tournaments online that I wish to and how much over that do I need to have before I withdraw it to play a few tournaments in a live setting and I think just from what I wrote in the previous paragraph that base amount should be $1,000 and when $500 is earned above that thousand dollar number giving me what would be $1,500 in my account I can then withdraw $500. Whether I choose to play the $50 tournament at Sam's Town, the $70 tournament at the Golden Nugget or the $100+ tournaments at The Orleans or the Aria or quite frankly whatever other one that I wish to play provided that I have the money in my pocket to do so so simply be whatever I want or feel like doing at the time.

So far April's going pretty well although it has fluctuated, but nothing new there. For the final two weeks of April I want to continue to improve my tournament game. As you know I made the adjustment to my tournament game on March 14th by opening up the range, and opening up the open raising instead of open limping. It has shown definite results. This adjustment was definitely and directly responsible for my win on the 4th for $159 and I will go as far as to say that it was probably directly responsible for my second place finish in the $800 Gtd last night because going back and looking over the hands with substantial increases in my chip stack because of the adjustment I made it accounted for me having 57,000 more chips when I hit the final table then I would have previously. Did that 57,000 chips make the difference in where I finished in the tournament?? We can't say one way or another whether it did or did not, but I feel it's at least possible.

The numbers for tournaments for 2018 tell the real story. Previously to making the adjustment on March 14th I went 5 for 42 tournaments played which is an in the money percentage of 12%. After making the adjustment to my tournament game through as of last night I had gone 15 for 72 for a 21% in the money percentage with nine of those 15 in the money finishes being a final table appearance. A definite and decisive Improvement. Now the question going through my mind is can we even improve on that. Are there areas where I can open up my tournament game even further without bordering on reckless. It's a very fine line that I am trying to walk and there will be a certain amount of trial and error as the days and weeks continue on.

That's going to wrap this one up. So far so good for the month of April and I am hoping that we can continue things in the right direction. Until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

And with this one you guys are up to date!!

April 23rd 2018


I tried to continue to play the cash games, but as I did so no matter what I tried, 2 tabling, 1 tabling, even 3 tabling at one point, I just could not help being utterly uninterested in it even detesting it to a certain degree. Take the 18th for instance. I jumped in a $20NL game, was only playing one cash game at the time and soon into it I get it all in preflop with AA vs Villain' s KK. The aces hold, I double up to $40, and that should have given me some sort of positive emotion from it, but all it generated was a blase feeling. All in all I'm up $53 this month in cash games, won another $40 from them last month, but whether I'm winning or whether I'm losing I just really cannot stand it and I can't explain why. It's poker I'm doing fairly well at it, I should love it, but I hate it.

On Saturday the 21st I finally decided that if I dislike something that much then it's definitely not something that I'm going to be doing in my poker. I mean let's face it poker is enjoyable first and foremost. Every player out there that plays, I mean we do it because we love it and if I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum regarding a certain aspect of my poker then it's just something that I need to not be doing. I personally believe this inherent dislike has been affecting me in other areas such as these long sleep sessions that I've been having. I think this is directly related to the fact that whether it's in my conscience or subconscious mind, something is telling me I don't want to get up because I'm going to be doing something I really don't want to be doing. Even the fact that I would be playing tournaments also during that day isn't enough to overcome that. I end up just turning off my alarm and sleeping for 12, 14, and even 16 hours. This is exactly what happened on Friday the 20th, and I did not get a single hand of Poker played so going into Saturday I finally said enough. I need to do what I want to do, I need to do what I love and I think I find it more than a coincidence that at no time during the course of Saturday did I even consider wanting to go to sleep and on Sunday morning I got up with my alarm for the first time in forever. Well actually I woke up with the second alarm but I was up and at it for the 9 a.m. tournament. On Saturday or Sunday I did not play a single hand of cash and instead, as the day progressed, I just kept looking forward to the next tournament coming up.

A situation I find I am facing is that what I wrote in a blog entry recently, when I tried to put it into practice, I found the implementation of it not being what I thought it would be and found myself backing away from what I thought would be an extraordinarily simple situation. On my last entry I wrote about how as my bankroll increased by $100 increments how many different $20 tournaments I could add to the mix. In part I wrote the following.


"If my account balance is at $600 then I may add one $20 tournament that particular day. If it is $700 then I may allow myself two $20 tournaments that day, if it's at $800 then I may allow myself to play three of them a day."

Well on two separate occasions during the last week I've had my account balance starting the day at just over $800, but when it came to the implementation I realized I had no intentions of playing three $20 tournaments on either of those days and in each case I kept myself to just one $20 tournament the first time I faced the opportunity and a single $25 tournament the second time I had the opportunity. I mean it seemed completely reasonable to when I wrote about it, but when the time came to actually put it into play I backed way off. The question is why? Why am I all of a sudden developing, what to me is, an ultra-conservative bankroll management approach and more importantly by doing so am I letting potential value escape me.

Maybe it's because with only a few hundred dollars left over each month $800 is not immediately and easily replaceable, but actually that doesn't make sense because the worst that I could be even if I lost three of the $20 tournaments would be from $800 to $740 and obviously that's not counting any losses I might taking in my normal tournaments that cost $6 and $10 that I play, but no matter how you look at it three $20 tournaments on any particular day is not going to make or break me so why am I being so hesitant? Am I'm being smart about it or overly cautious. I don't know what the answer is all I know is that as my bankroll increases I'm becoming more restrictive with what I'm willing to spend it on pokerwise. Is this a fault or a strength? Is this being smart or is this being fearful? I'm really not sure all I am sure of is the higher the bankroll climbs the more protective I am being with it.

Another area that I'm questioning myself is something that I tweeted about on Twitter and if you don't follow me on Twitter this is what was tweeted in part.


"If your bankroll allows u to play a $20 tournament once a day & other than that your bankroll stipulates you play in lower priced ones during the course of the day. When you're running a bit cool would you still want to play that $20 tournament each day because your bankroll says you can or would you prefer to wait until you see signs you're heating back up before throwing that $20 tournament in there. Something can be said for both sides as that $20 tournament could be the one that snaps you out of your cool run in a big way then again it could be considered throwing good money after bad when you know you're not running well."

Again here I have been taking the more conservative approach. If I see myself taking bad beats to get knocked out of tournaments or running into coolers or not seeming to be able to win a coin flip and I find myself running 0 for my last 7 or 0 for my last 9 I generally, no matter what the bankroll may be at that time, will pass on playing the $20 tournament until I see some signs that I'm coming out of it. The question again is this the intelligent approach or is this just another aspect of fear slipping in the equation. I really don't know the answer to that question either. As always I welcome all thoughts and opinions to any of the topics touched on in this entry.

I will continue to throw in a single $20 tournament providing my bankroll is at $800 and above or even $700 and above. When will I be comfortable tossing in multiple $20 tournaments per day....... I don't currently know the answer to that. Will I feel comfortable doing it when I have $900 available to me or will it not be until I have $1,000. Ordinarily I would just simply tell you what the answer is, but I am finding from my recent experience of the $800 account balance that I'm not going to know until the situation actually presents itself.

So to conclude let me bring you up-to-date with what the monthly situation is through Sunday the 22nd. After play ended on Sunday the 15th at that point for the month I was up $218 in total earnings. As I entered Sunday the 22nd total earnings for April were $191 down $27 for the last 6 days with planned tournament costs for the day coming in at $54, but some additional rebuys when I got in a little bit of trouble in a couple of tournaments ended up making it $65. Unfortunately over the previous six days I hit a bit of a tournament slump going to 2 for 16 with a 5th place and 4th place finish in two different $3 deepstack rebuys. I was also 0 for my last 9 played.

The 9 a.m. $350 guaranteed, 12 p.m. $400 guarantee, and 3:15 p.m. $350 guaranteed 6Max went nowhere bringing me to 0 for my last 12. The next two tournaments were the 4 p.m. $350 guaranteed and the 4:30 p.m. $500 guaranteed and it was in these two tournaments that I noticed things starting to turn back my way. It wasn't turning back my way because I was winning some large all-ins, but when you re in a tournament cool stretch and you're not winning coin flips to save your life sometimes the sign you're coming out of it is just a hand playing to showdown where you have for example KQ vs Villain's 99 and you end up winning the hand. It doesn't have to be for a lot of chips just an instance where you were a coinflip pre and you end up winning the hand even if the pot is small, that doesn't really matter, but these are the signs that you look for that things are starting to turn back around.

I noticed it first in the 4:30 p.m. $5 deepstack rebuy $500 guaranteed and I actually ended up finishing out of the money in that one, but that's where I noticed the first signs and in the 4 p.m. $350 guaranteed I ended up finishing 3rd for a $72 return. It was a very disappointing 3rd as at one point with five or six players left I had a substantial chip lead. With that $72 cash that guaranteed me having a winning day of a grand total of $7, but I still had two tournaments left going. The 7:30 p.m. $800 guaranteed and the 9:30 p.m. $500 guaranteed and I was able to pull down a 6th place finish in the $800 guaranteed for an additional $57 on the day. I played tournaments for about 15 hours and ended up making $64 or a little over $4 an hour, but that's the amazing thing about poker. If just one or two hands goes just a little bit differently then that same day I'm making over $30 an hour. You just gotta love it.

There has been an additional issue in April. I am not running well at all in the more expensive tournaments. Completing action yesterday in $5 and $10 deepstack rebuys and $20 and $25 deepstack and superstack freezeouts I've gone 0 for 21 in these tournaments with losses of ($324). The $3 deepstack rebuys have been my saving grace as when action was completed yesterday this month I had gone 11 for 41 in those with earnings of $521. I don't know why there's such a discrepancy and it may simply be that my sample size is too to make any significant determinations, but it is definitely and obviously a noticeable difference.

Going into today for the 3rd time in the last 7 days I start with a bankroll just over $800. Obviously I have started running a little warm again so there will be a single $20 tournament played today unless of course I run very deep in something early then possibly and probably a 2nd will be tossed into the mix. I only got about an hour's worth of a semi-sleep situation because of something very interesting that happened during the overnight and I'll let you know about that in my next entry probably within a few days followed by an end of the month report for April's final results and May's goals. That's going to wrap this one up. Until next time, as always, take care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.

April turned out to be a winning month like March, but April was over twice as better. April earnings were a total of $306 with $250 earned in tournaments, $53 earned in cash games, satellites cost me ($4) and the rakeback that I was able to gain was $7. My bread-and-butter tournament definitely were the $3 deepstack rebuys and whether they were 55-minute rebuy periods or 85 minutes it didn't seem to matter which was actually surprising to me as I usually do considerably better in the 55-minute variety. Earnings were $293 with a 124% ROI on the first and earnings of $202 and a 259% ROI on the latter. I struggled in the $20 tournaments that I played. Whether they were freezeouts or $10 deepstack rebuys that I do an immediate rebuy in to make it a $20 tournament cost no matter how you look at it in those I showed losses of ($170) ouch!! I lost ($25) in the one Superstack Freezeout I played and didn't cash and in the one tournament I sold action on my portion of the loss was ($19) so none of that was exactly exciting it. In the $5 deepstack rebuys I lost another ($110), but I bounced back with $79 in earnings in the 6-max $5 two rebuy one add-on tournaments I played in.

All in all April got me back to being in the black for 2018 for a grand total of earnings of $234. Believe me that is not a brag as I find those numbers to be very disappointing, but February was a month that I took a significant hit with losses that month of ($541) so I had to climb my way out of a hole even though January was a winner for ($336), but I am somewhat proud of myself that I was able to buckle down and do what I had to and was able to climb out of that hole even if I've only made $234 over the first four months. I'm hoping to do much better over the next four.

The first 4 months of earnings and losses will all be combined into one grouping because as most of you I'm sure already know that WSOP has merged. May 1st the merge took place and now all three states are in the same player pool and the way I understand it some additional skins were added but I'm not completely sure about that last part so don't quote me on it. Many of the tournaments that I have been playing are either no longer on the menu, or their buyins have increased, or the guaranteed prize pools are considerably higher. There are also several more tournaments for me to choose from now.

My next blog entry will be more in-depth about this merge after the first week has been completed. I will update you on how I'm doing so far and what tournaments are available for my personal preference. There is another aspect also. With the merge WSOP has increased the number of players that they are paid in their tournaments. The whereas before it was approximately 10% or 11% of the field they now payout on average from 17% to 19% of the field. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Overall when I combine all my tournaments played online over the first four months of 2018 I've gone 27 for 154 for an in the money percentage of 17.5%. My tournament costs we're $1,267 resulting in earnings of $274 for an ROI of 21.6%. Obviously with an increase of the player pool being paid in tournaments my in the money percentage should increase, but with less money to be had in the top spots how will that affect my ROI? That is something I do not know and something I'm not going to be able to answer until I have a sufficient sample size played under the new system to compare to so time will tell. Stay tuned my friends and we will find out how it pans out one way or the other.

I'm going to wrap up this entry by letting you know that I will definitely be playing in my first World Series of Poker event this year. I am going to be entering The Giant a $365 bracelet event. This is the same tournament that last year got about 27,000 entrants, but I don't care it's going to be my first experience at the World Series and I cannot wait for it to happen. Because they have five different flights for day one and then day 2 being a specific day and the final day 3 being a different day my physical limitations that I have experienced over the last several months should not come into play. Looking at the structure it looks like it's only 6 actual hours of playing time on day 1 so all should be good on that end. To say that I am absolutely excited would be the understatement of the century.

That's going wrap up this one up. May will be nothing but tournaments played on WSOP as there are so many choices I don't have time for anything else and all my readers know how I feel about playing cash games anyway. I also decided to cut my maximum tables playing tournaments each day down to two. It's forcing me into a position where I have to pick and choose what I feel are the best tournaments for me instead of just clicking on anything and everything that's available and I think overall that can only be a good thing. The reasoning behind the maximum of two tables is because I feel the flow for me goes much better and I am able to pay close attention to everything that's going on on both tables. I find that when I increase that number to three there is definitely a lapse of concentration and for a poker player that's not something you want. So until next time, take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

Tuesday May 1st was the first full day of the WSOP merge for Nevada and the eastern states of Delaware and New Jersey and for tournament players the results are awesome with many many more tournament options now available. Some are tournaments that I would have no interest in playing, but there are several that I definitely want to be taking part in. They have also put back less expensive tournaments for those trying to build a bankroll which I think is really great. Not everybody wants to keep hundreds of dollars online and for those players that maybe only have a hundred bucks they can get in the game with tournaments of $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, and $1 available to them.

It's a whole new world, and it's more expensive. On WSOP prior to the merge my basic poker day consisted of playing four $3 deepstack rebuy tournaments a total cost for me of $24 as I do the immediate rebuy, but not the add-on, and a $5 deepstack rebuy tournament if it actually went off with a cost for me of $10. The total cost for me not including if I tossed a $20 one in here and there was $34 per day. After looking over the tournaments, and experimenting with some and then deciding whether or not to continue with them in the final analysis I have 9 tournaments a day I want to be part of my daily play schedule, but unlike the cost of $34 per day previously, the cost now for me per day will be $81. The tournaments I want to be playing are listed below.


9 a.m. $5 NLH Deepstack Rebuy $350 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 55 / A

12 p.m. $3 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 55 / A

1 p.m. $20 NLH Daily Freezeout $700 Gtd
5000 / 10 / A

115 p.m $1 NLH Daily Rebuy $100 Gtd
2500 / 8 / 60 / B

3 p.m. $5 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $500 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 75 / A

5:15 p.m $1 NLH Rebuy $500 Gtd
2500 / 8 / 60 / B

5:30 p.m. $7 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $750 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 75 / A

7:30 p.m $15 Daily NLH KO Freeze $500 Gtd
4000 / 10 / A

8:15 p.m $1 NLH Daily Rebuy $500 Gtd
2500 / 8 / 60 / B


The numbers that I have separated by a slash beneath each tournament listed is the starting chip stack, how many minutes per blind as under the old system it was 10 minutes, but now some of the tournaments have only 8 minute blinds, how long the rebuy period is in minutes or if it's not a rebuy tournament how long the late registration is, and finally what is the blind structure A or B. Another thing that changed with the merge is their tournaments have one of two blind structures.

There are other tournaments such as 6-max and re-entries, which allow you to reenter the tournament if you have one chip or less, but these tournaments only start with 2500 chips and anyone that reads this blog knows that in tournament play my strength lies undoubtedly in deepstack, slow structured, full ring tournanent play. The difference between structure A and B you will find that by the time level 10 is reached the blinds are double what they are in structure A and antes have kicked in five levels earlier than structure A. If you will notice on the list of the tournaments I want to play the ones that have structure B are the $1 tournaments, the cheaper ones and to make matters worse there also have only 8 minute blinds.

So why would I even play them you might ask? Well, actually there are a few reasons. The first is two of those are $500 guarantees and a simple $2 investment can pay out over $130 if you take it down. The second reason is they are also just a smidgen closer to the tournament structures I will find playing live. No, I am not saying they are close to it, but they are at the very least closer. That might be a stretch to use that as a reason, but none the less it is a factual one. The third reason is it helps to keep down my average buyin also known as the ABI. Along with this more expensive cost it's going to require an updated bankroll management approach. I went into today with a bankroll of $729 and $81 a day could be a bit expensive. If you look online looking for bankroll management suggestions some will say 100 ABIs as the suggestion, but on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being ultra-conservative and 1 being Ultra crazy on the risk assessment scale, the train of thought seems to be that a 100 ABI bankroll is around 4 to 6 on that scale right smack-dab in the middle.

I make no secret of my financial situation which is that although I have $300 left available to me each month after bills are paid and expenses are set aside such as food and whatnot, a portion of that remaining $300 has to be delegated for Uber or Lyft rides if needed, or perhaps I may want a simple food delivery order once or twice during the months, or I may want to keep $100 aside for an emergency fund just in case something comes up like the other day when I lost my vape pen and had to go to the vape store and spend $40 for a new one. We never know what little thing might come up from day to day so it's always best to keep an emergency fund set aside even if it is only $100. So while if I did nothing else I could replace $300 of my bankroll if absolutely needed I don't want to put myself in that position so a safe bankroll management plan needs to be established, but one that still allows me to play the higher-priced better-paying tournaments and I think I'm came up with one that I'm pleased and satisfied with.

I needed to decide on a base bankroll amount that allows me to play what I call my Mainframe 6. For me this would be the two $5 deepstack rebuys, the $3 deepstack rebuy, and the three $1 tournaments. That's a total of $32 divided by 6 tournaments which equals a ABI or average buyin of $5.33. The base bankroll I want for these is $700 which gives me 131 average buyins in the bankroll and overall 70 buyins for the highest priced tournament that I would be playing each day. I find this to be a nice middle ground. Even if the bankroll drops below $700 I still will play the Mainframe 6 until I'm back over $700 again or I'm broke.

At the beginning of each poker day anything over $700 is set to one side so to speak and whatever that amount is I then decide what will be played with what is available. The choices being the $20 freezeout, the $7 deepstack rebuy $1,500 Gtd, and the $15 Daily KO. If I have $49 available as in I started the day with $749 then awesome no problem I can play all three and if I start the poker day with less such as going into today I started with $729 then choices have to be made and I have to pick and choose what I feel is best. So starting today with $729 I had $29 available and I chose the $7 deepstack rebuy with a total cost of $14 and the $15 KO.

That's going to wrap this entry up. My next entry will let you know how the first 10 days went, but if the first six is any indication it is not going to be a pretty sight. You can follow along how I'm doing over on the right side of this blog, but it is loaded with a lot of red numbers unfortunately, but we keep fighting on because cold runs don't last forever they just seem like they do. So until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.


Bankroll: $729
May: ($130)
2018 YTD: $103

Very true...

First off, this Blog has now reached over 100,000 page views. When I started writing this blog something like that never even dawned on me and it is thanks to you, my readers, that keep coming back over and over again to find out what's going on in my life, in my poker, and I just want to say thank you to each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart. You guys are the reason why I continue to write this blog.

So much to report on. First off when the merge of WSOP between Nevada and New Jersey was initiated on May 1st I looked at it as a dawn of great things, but for me it was a dawn of disaster. I ran so bad that it seemed to me like there must be something that went wrong with something when they did the merge. Of course I was just accused of a being a conspiracy theorist but in my heart of hearts I actually believed something was not working correctly. I went through things that I have never, repeat never, seen in 14 years of playing online poker and this includes the years I was on PokerStars and any of us that used to play on PokerStars knows exactly what I'm talking about.

I started off the month with $759 in my online account and on the 3rd I deposited another $100 then another $80 on the morning of the 8th which if I had maintained just breaking even would have given me $939 on site, but by the end of the day on March 8th I was completely fed Up and ended up cashing out for $684 so that was a ($255) disaster which destroyed the entire year's online earnings not that they were very much being we were already 4 months into the year. I went and played a couple of $70 tournaments at the Golden Nugget In which I chopped one heads up for $320 a piece and lost in the second one. I got to tell you nothing emphasizes your suspicions about online play better than going to a casino and chopping heads up the very first live tournament you get into. I spent some of the money I won and decided my little temper tantrum was over and deposited $760 on site on March 14th and I kid you not, got so disgusted that I withdrew $721 two fays later. For the year that brought me to ($52) in losses in online play.

I was absolutely convinced I was not returning to online, but life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls and this is what happened. During that seven-day span that I had to pick up that withdraw from the cashier's cage that I had it sent to, Walmart did not get their shipment of Percocet in. It's a narcotic painkiller that I desperately need to function in life and because of this I was unable to get out to the cashier cage to pick up that withdraw. I had from March 16th at approximately 6:42 a.m. to March 23rd 6:42 a.m. to pick it up and I just could not make it out. I was just in no condition to do so and after 7 Days the withdrawal expired. During the course of all of this I saw the nurse practitioner for a regular visit and what happened next I never expected.

For a couple of months I had been having a very severe pain in the upper inside thigh of my right leg that seems to spread into the groin area. Doing a little Googling the most likely problem was a groin strain or some sort of muscular strain. Knowing that it takes these things time to heal I gave it the time needed, but after over 2 months and the pain not subsiding, but getting worse, I decided to tell the nurse practitioner about it. Part of me wishes I did not do that and the other part of me knows that it was good that I did as she immediately suspected after hearing what I had and have been going through, and showing her the precise spot on the leg where the pain was extremely intense, she feels that there is a great possibility that I have a blockage in the main femoral artery in the leg.

Since I've suffered from blood clots for over 22 years this would not be at all surprising to me, but unlike the normal blood clot if there is a blockage in this femoral artery it's either going to be a new medication or they're going to have to do an angioplasty procedure on that leg. As the nurse practitioner kept saying "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it." and she immediately ordered me to get an ultrasound. There must be an awful lot of people in this area getting ultrasounds because the first available appointment I can get is June 27th. Actually to be totally truthful it was June 25th, but they wanted me to be there at 7:45 a.m. which would have required me to be up at 5 a.m. so we settled for two days later and I have to be there at 9:45 a.m. something considerably more reasonable in my opinion.

The withdraw for $726 expired, but it wasn't put back into my account and after a phone call to WSOP they inform me it takes an additional 48 to 72 hours to put it back which is something that they never tell you in their email. I took to calling them, then emailing them, then trying to get their attention on social media that I found the situation to be unsatisfactory. Not that I ever got any response from them and it took them only 30 hours to put the money back into my account which was done at 12:01 p.m. yesterday afternoon the 25th of May, but I'm still not thrilled that they are not totally forthcoming in their withdrawals emails.

As I said I'm still not happy about the situation, but at least the money was put back and there it is going to have to stay and I am going to have no choice but to play online and endure whatever I'm going to face, because if there is a blockage in that femoral artery and if that blockage breaks free from what I am told it could go straight to the heart, and if it does that the results could be somewhat unfortunate as you might imagine. I'm essentially a prisoner in my bedroom now grinding online watching the poker Vlogs that I like and Star Trek Discovery which I finally broke down and paid the monthly fee for CBS All-Access and I'm loving every second of Star Trek Discovery. Yes ladies and gentlemen Flushhdraw is a Star Trek nut.

The reason I'm trapped in the house is I need to keep my movements to a minimum so that if there is a blockage there it will not break free and I'm only going out or when absolutely necessary as in picking up medicine or buying groceries. In accordance with all of this I have had to cancel playing in The Giant in this year's WSOP. This is a complete heart breaker more than I could ever possibly explain. Yes, I've had people on Twitter already telling me it's a ****fest anyway, but it was very important to me to be able to play my first World Series this year, but because of medical issues it would be very dangerous and overly reckless and possibly deadly to play in it. This is no joke and nothing to take chances over . It also eliminates me playing any live tournaments or cash games for that matter until this is settled and while the ultrasound is June 27th it will take a few days for them to send the results to the doctor's office and then on my next appointment then we will discuss what is on the ultrasound, so I may be in the self-imposed prison cell in the house well into July.

It's officially 2 in the morning so the poker that I played would officially be considered yesterday. I decided that I had no choice but to add cash games into my mix. When things are running colder than an iceberg in the tournament game hopefully some cash game play will counteract those disasters. As it turns out there are only 6 tournaments that I would ever be interested in playing from the new offerings since the merge. I am not playing in the ones that have a structure that's twice as fast as normal and I am not playing in anything that has 8 minute blinds so that means that I will only be playing in tournaments that have 10 minute blinds or longer and have structure A, the longer slower one.


So with what I have just stated in the above paragraph these are the tournaments that are available for me.


9 a.m. $5 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $350 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 75 / A

12 p.m. $3 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 55 / A

1 p.m. $20 NLH Daily Freezeout $700 Gtd
5000 / 10 / A

3 p.m. $5 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $500 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 75 / A

5:30 p.m. $7 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $750 Gtd
4000 / 10 / 75 / A

7:30 p.m $15 Daily NLH KO Freeze $500 Gtd
4000 / 10 / A


I had to pick up my meds today and some end of the month groceries so I didn't get on the tables today until 3 pm. $721 is not a big enough bankroll to play $50, but it is enough to take a shot at it and I did that today but with a strict stop loss in mind, but it went relatively well as that $50 I played 161 hands and one just under $35. I lost $0.20 in 90 hands at $10, and a $20 and 272 hands won a little over $20. I only play two tournaments the 3 p.m. $5 Jeep Zachary buy and the $15 nightly KO $500 GTD. I actually finished fifth in the 1K GTD which is worth $129 so on the day a hundred $4 one and tournaments $52 1 in cash games total earnings for the day $156 shooting the bank roll from the $721 they put back on today up to just under $878.

As I posted on Twitter.

"So I did that withdrawal but couldn't get it and after 9 days they put it back into my account. My very first day back I make $156. $104 in tournaments and $52 in the cash games. Almost seems like they let me earn some money so I wouldn't withdraw again.
That is the only logical answer because the only other possible answer could be that I was more relaxed and not stressed,, but that could not possibly influence my play. No............. never happen........ impossible........ let's not even discuss it.

Obviously it was a joke tweet, but the fact of the matter is I was very relaxed yesterday. I was also very fortunate as finally two outers actually fell for me. They were situations where I ended up running into coolers and got bailed out and more than once in that tournament that I finished in 5th, but be that as it is I was more relaxed and I think it's because I knew I was going to have to be playing online. I wasn't continually looking forward to making some money and being able to go play live. I don't mean for that to sound like an excuse, but maybe when my mindset is that way, which it usually is, wanting to do so well so that I can get offline back into some live play maybe perhaps it is affecting my decision making processes. I don't know if that is true or not, but I have to at least consider it's a possibility and therefore anytime I am online grinding poker I'm going to have to get that playing live poker out of my thought process and focus on the here and now.

Well that's going to wrap this one up. I was thinking of making this a two-parter but my readers are used to my long blog entries by now. I've been told I'm even outdoing Rob of Rob's Vegas And Poker Blog in blog length. You can find his blog at Rob's Vegas And Poker Blog Today's earnings got me back into the black for online play for 2018 at $104 in earnings. The Golden Nugget tournaments that I ended up chopping heads up got me into the black for live play to the tune of $172 which equals $276 in earnings this year. Absolutely hideous, but if we can just continue some sort of positive momentum that will be a good thing. June officially starts the poker season here in Las Vegas and I'm going to utilize June to start keeping detailed statistics for the rest of the year instead of just clumping them into a multi-monthly span like I've done so far at least I'm going to do my best. So until next time friends and opponents, be well, take care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.


2018 Earnings

Online: $104
Live: $172

Bankroll: $878

No poker in this, but I'd like just to set the record straight. I copy and paste my blog entries that I write on Blogger over on two plus two and on CardsChat as well. Some people over at two plus two seem to think that if I can go play poker even a few times a week then I should be able to get a job at an office where I'm sitting down. Most of the people that read my blog on Blogger and especially those that follow me on Twitter know what is going on with me, but for those that may be ignorant about my conditions I'm going to lay it all out in this post.

Venous stasis in the legs is what put me on permanent disability in the first place and what Venous stasis is, is that the blood flows through the arteries down the leg just fine but does not come back up through the veins very well and what happens with this condition is the blood will pool at the bottom of the leg and disintegrate the skin from the inside creating ulcers which are open wounds, rather large, that take 12 to 18 months to heal and during that time you are hit with multiple infections not to mention the pain is extraordinary. When I have suffered with leg ulcers.

I was judged to be permanently physically disabled in November of 2015 and started collecting disability in June of 2016. In the two years since that time I have been diagnosed with arthritis in the knees which is getting progressively worse, arthritis in both shoulders with a muscle tear in the right shoulder which requires cortisone shots every 3 months, as the orthopedist does not want to do surgery on it because the chair is small, but still painful, and arthritis in the lower back with one of the discs being bulging and a different disc is slipping, slow but sure, and the back surgeon told me one of the vertebrae is pressing against a nerve and that's the major reason and the need for the Percocets, muscle relaxants, and now the newest prescription a nerve pain killer.

In the last 6 months I have also developed a heart issue in which if I walk 30 or 40 steps my heart rate will jump to 130 to 140 beats a minute. As a matter of fact a nurse at a cardiologist office saw this with her own eyes when I walked from the waiting room into one of the exam rooms at the doctor's office and the heart rate was at 131 beats a minute for that very short walk.

I also have a breathing condition COPD and Asthma and in the summertime the intense heat aggravates that to the extreme. Because of whatever the cardiac condition is going on if I walked the two blocks to the bus stop from the house that I live in I will have to stop and rest and let the heart slow down at least twice. If I decide to go out and play poker and specifically if I play a couple tournaments that day I can barely move or straighten up for the next 24 hours and it takes 48 hours to completely recover from that outing. If I had a job in an office where I would be sitting for 8 hours the same thing would happen I would be unable to function for the next 2 days. How many employers do you think would put up with that.

Everything in my life is done in slow motion for all intents and purposes. Just getting out of my bed is it least a 30 second process. On those rare times where I go out with a friend on the Strip to hang out just walking through a casino I will have to stop three or four times usually and rest. This is one reason I don't like to go out with others because I know I'm just going to slow everyone down, but my friends are good people and they let me know all the time they don't care and it doesn't matter how long it takes to get where we're going to because we will get there eventually. Good friends are a priceless treasure in this world.

I have had blood clot issues since I was 28 years old and blood clots once put me in a coma for 10 days and to this day the doctors in Massachusetts do not know how I survived it as I had seven blood clots in my body. Currently right now the nurse practitioner that I see at my doctor's office thinks there is a high degree of probability that I have a blockage in the main femoral artery in the upper right thigh. I am scheduled for an ultrasound June 27th so between now and then I have to keep my movements to a bare minimum only going out when absolutely necessary such as picking up medicine and getting groceries. Too much movement could dislodge that blockage if there is one there and send it straight for the heart and that could have some very unfortunate results. A sitting job is a sure-fire way to get blood clots no doubt about it and say I was a file clerk in an office having to get up from the desk would be an experience. If you talk to some of my friends that have seen me getting up out of a chair they will tell you it's an adventure and the tendons or ligaments or whatever the hell it is cracked so loud it sounds like a rifle shot and they have asked me what that was and I simply told him those were my knees. Getting up is a slow painful process.

People will say, but with everything that you said and how much you are out of commission after a day of playing poker it would make sense for you to not to do that and just stay home and rest and take it easy and you know what, they would be absolutely right, but that is not living. My body may be broken in multiple ways, but if I did not play poker and I did not take those opportunities to go out and play live even though I know what it's going to do to me for the following two days that would not be living that would be existing and I refuse to do that. My mind, heart, and soul are still so strong and I have such a zest for that will never die even if my body refuses to cooperate.

I would rather be dead than just exist day to day in this world. Does playing live poker end up hurting me for the following two days, yes it most certainly does, but I will still do it as many times as I can, I will put up with the pain because I love poker that much. Not to mention the fact that all the work I ever did was in retail and no office job is ever going to hire somebody like me even if I didn't have these health issues going on because I have absolutely zero experience in that field.

It seems to me people should think before they open their mouths and tell people well if you can do this then you can be doing that. Because if you are able to go out and play poker you should be able to get an office job. I don't know if you realize it but that is probably the most ******ed thing anybody could think because you don't know what the after effects of these things are and what the after effects would be if I was sitting at an office job for 8 hours a day and you don't know or have seen the day-to-day struggles that I go through. Instead some people should remain quiet and let the world think they are ignorant instead of opening their mouths and removing all doubt.

For the first year-and-a-half I lived on approximately $800 a month and $400 of that went to rent. If you think that's an easy life you've got another thing coming. If I could work I would be making considerably more than that even in the retail field. Yes I was fortunate that as a widower I was entitled to an extra benefit and that has made my life financially easier, but there is no way on God's green earth I could go out and get a job and if I try to tell an employer yes I can work for you one full day but I'll need the next two days to recuperate let's see how fast that gets anyone hired.

The bottom line is that if I'm in a job where I am standing which with the arthritis in the knees I could never do, but even if I did that is what creates Venous stasis ulcers, long periods of standing on your feet. If I'm sitting at a job like office work as has been suggested I would definitely within a month or 2 be getting blood clots and in the hospital. Oh yes, I can totally see an employer putting up with that having me taking time off two, three, or four times a year to go in the hospital so they can cure the blood clots.

Before anybody says that yes I can get the blood clots from playing poker because I'm in a seated position as well, since I don't play live poker everyday and even if I had a million dollars to play poker my body would never allow me to play more than 3 times a week if that so the chance of blood clots are reduced under those circumstances because I'm not doing it for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

I would like to conclude this entry by saying anybody that has the opinion that if I can do one thing I should be able to go to work I'd like you to live in my situation for a month. Go and live within my body for 30 days and see what I go through, the aches, the chronic pain, having to take 18 pills a day and after it's all said and done then you tell me what you think I should be able to do on a daily basis. In other words shut the **** up. You don't know what the hell you're talking about, you don't know the exact circumstances of what I go through and you never will. Nobody wants to be disabled, it is not something that they look forward to when they hit their late 40s, but it's something that I have to live with and that's the key word live. No matter how bad off I am, no matter how much I may hurt hour after hour, I refuse to roll over and stop living and if this, for some reason you find offensive well I got a real great suggestion for you.......... go to hell!!

Thank you for your attention in this matter I hope this has cleared up any further questions you may have, but if you do have further questions please submit them in triplicate and then shove them so far up your ass you can't feel it anymore. As always, take care everyone, and whether you like it or not, I'll see you at the tables.

First things first. Unfortunately I will not be playing in the $365 NLH tournament called The Giant in the 2018 World Series of Poker. I've been having severe pain in my upper right thigh for quite some time and after first suspecting it was a groin strain or other such muscular strain and after over 2 months later it was not getting any better and instead, progressively getting worse, I let the nurse practitioner who I see at the doctor's office for regular appointments know what was going on. When I pointed to the exact area I was having the pain and asked her what's there in that area of the upper thigh that could be hurting so much, she immediately suspected that I may have a blockage in the main femoral artery which would not be all that unusual considering my 22-year history of numerous blood clots in the legs and lungs. She immediately wanted me to get an ultrasound.

This was approximately the middle of May and there must be a lot of people getting ultrasounds in this area because the first appointment I could reasonably get was June 27th. Since I made the appointment the pain has gotten even worse and I called the doctor's office today to find out if there was another avenue we could pursue, perhaps in a different location to expedite this Ultrasound. The medical assistant I spoke to told me that she would call me back later today and as it is now 1150p.m. I'm fairly certain later today has now expired lol. Oh well, maybe I'll hear from them tomorrow.

Be that as it may the reason that the World Series has to be canceled and in fact any live play has to be canceled is I can't be moving around too much and going from here to there in a live tournaments situation and especially the WSOP could cause that blockage, if they're actually is one, to break free and could in fact head for the heart and those results could be rather............ unfortunate. I'm fairly certain a heart attack would interfere in the daily grind to say the least. So, until we find out what's going on, I'm basically a prisoner on a self-imposed house arrest, but I'm going to tell you I am going to be one extremely irritated, aggravated, and infuriated individual if this turns out to be a false alarm which would be a good thing health-wise, but would suck that I cancelled the World Series for nothing.

After completing play tonight June 5th, and having played 100 tournaments exactly since the merge on WSOP my total earnings for 2018 online are negative ($16) The main thing that concerned me was in at least 60 of these 100 tournaments I was knocked out as at least a 65% favorite. This concerned me somewhat as I know that live player's do not experience such things over the course of 100 live tournaments and I pretty much figured that it is the way of online. We all know online and live are not the same. To confirm this fact I was on Twitter chatting with my friend Alysia Chang, whom I respect not only as a person, but as a poker player and specifically a tournament poker player. I asked her the specific question about live tournaments and a 100 tournament sample size and getting bounced out of 60 of them as a 65% favorite and I already knew what the answer was going to be and lo and behold the answer she gave me was completely opposite to what I thought it would be.

She assured me that things of that nature do in fact happen in a live setting, but more than that our conversation dealt deep into the aspect of online play, specifically my online play and even more specifically my various activities during my online play. She posed questions which I answered truthfully to the best of my ability and she decided that I needed to do a little experiment for about a month and we settled on the rest of this month although we are five days into it. My life is about to change and I am fairly certain I am going to die!!

For the rest of June beginning tomorrow, I am only allowed to play one tournament at a time. I am not allowed to have any cash games running, I am not allowed to have the TV going, I am not allowed to watch or listen to Vlogs, I am not allowed to answer my phone whether that be from someone calling or texting me, I am not allowed to listen to tournaments in the background on my computer on Pokergo, and I am not allowed to enter tournaments under late registration. The only thing I am allowed to do is when I am playing that tournament is to focus 100% of my attention on every single hand that is dealt, the actions of every single player and under no circumstances am I to have anything interfere with this.

No blogs or Vlogs, no 2+2 forum, no TV, no Twitter, Facebook, or other various social media? I do not know if I can live through this, it may kill me, but I am going to do it. I tried to negotiate certain compromises a little here and there but that little Firecracker would have nothing of it. It was her way or the highway and quite honestly that's the way it needs to be because I know me and I'll come up with any excuse to be on social media while I'm playing poker, but not for the next 25 days I won't. I decided not to ask her about my cat Diamond because I kind of figure I can just reach my hand out and give her a quick pet when she wants one, provided my eyes do not move off of that laptop screen.

The whole idea behind this plan is to get me to focus on the tournament, every aspect of the tournament, every player at the same table that I'm at. See who are the weak players, the calling stations, who are the ones that 3 bet light, who are the ones that I can 3 bet light against, you know stuff that I do when I'm playing live poker, but things that I don't necessarily do when I'm playing online because of all the easily available distractions. I told her if I end up winning the first one I'm going to swear it's just a coincidence, but I've gone 5 months and 5 days with earnings of minus ($16) online. I've never struggled like this online in 14 years that I've been playing, but I must admit back in the PokerStars days we didn't have a lot of these things or if they had them I did not take part in them. Hell even when I arrived in Vegas 3 years ago I barely went on Facebook, the only Vlog I ever watched was Trooper and I'm not even sure I was watching Vlogs for the first year-and-a-half I was here so when I first arrived even playing online there was not much to distract me. Back in the PokerStars days I might have had a TV on and that was it so back in those days I was focusing at what was on my screen, the same as I was doing when I first arrived in Vegas when I made thousands playing online in my first full year here, and I will be doing so again.

When I'm not playing in the tournament my time is my own. I can run my 3 cash games and do as much social media as I want although that's probably not the best idea either when you really think about it. It also is bringing up the dilemma that since for the next 25 days I'm not allowed to play more than one tournament at a time and if the current tournament I'm in and am still in it runs into the time the next one starts, then I wait for the following one so it's going to make me pick and choose just which tournaments I want to be playing in. Do I want to be playing in the 9 a.m. $5 deepstack rebuy which has a total cost of $14.55 and only gets 80 or 90 players, but only has a $350 guarantee, or do I want to wait and play the 12 noon which is a $3 deepstack rebuy with a guarantee of $600 but gets considerably more players, but only has a cost of $8.73. Do I want to forgo that one and play the $20 Freezeout at 1 p.m. Should my main focus be on the 3 p.m. $5 deepstack rebuy $1k Gtd which if I go with the 12 p.m. could interfere in playing the 3 p.m. tournament, but then there's always the 5:30 p.m. tournament that is a $7 deep stack rebuy $1,500 Gtd with a total cost of $20.37. Decisions will have to be made and they will have to be made in the most logical manner that I can muster. What tournament do I feel I have the best edge in, what are the pros and cons about picking this tournament over that tournament, previously the tournaments I played during the day was like having an all-you-can-eat buffet, but now it's like I'm in a French restaurant with portion sizes you can fit under a microscope so I need to pick and choose wisely.

There is only one dilemma with the Firecracker challenge and that is that bankroll management just got tossed out the window. I was utilizing an average buy-in method in which two of the tournaments that I played each day only cost a total of $2.90 which helped keep the average buy-ins down, but now those aren't even going to be in my list of possibilities. The possibilities are listed below and with a bankroll to start this challenge of $958 that's not exactly a hundred buyins, but I've heard in the past you should never spend more than 10% of your bankroll in a single day and I won't even be coming close to that under normal circumstances. I usually go deep in the tournament I play insofar as I'm in them for a few hours before I get knocked out, usually 2 or 3, so I could just discount the 9 a.m. entirely because of the lower guarantee and begin my day with the 12 p.m. which is definitely going to be a staple because of the lower cost and decent guarantee. If I'm still in that tournament 3 hours in which happens frequently then the 3 p.m. is tossed aside and the 5:30 p.m. would be played and if I'm still in that 2 hours later than the daily KO is bypassed. So there may be days that I only play two tournaments. Ughhh how revolting, but these are the rules of the Firecracker challenge. If I'm having a particularly hideous day then I could end up playing in 4 tournaments for a total cost of $58.65. If it's Ultra hideous and I get knocked out of the noon tournament within the first hour then I will jump in the 1 p.m. $20 freeze-out in which case the day could cost as much as $76.28, but under my current bankroll to start the Firecracker Challenge that is still less than 10% of the bankroll that I'm starting out with. Actually when you think about it only playing two tournaments a day would be the best of all worlds because that means I'm running pretty damn deep in the two that I played. It should be noted that I do not know how much that special Sunday-only tournament cost and total. It could be $20.73 but I will have to confirm that. You will be able to follow along with this challenge on the right side of this blog.


12pm $3 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $600 Gtd / Cost: $8.73

Sunday Only
1215 p.m. $7 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $2k Gtd

1 p.m. $20 NLH Daily NLH Freezeout $700 Gtd / Cost: $20

Mon - Sat
3pm $5 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $500 Gtd / Cost: $14.55

5:30 p.m. $7 NLH Daily DS Rebuy $1500 Gtd / Cost: $20.37

7:30 p.m $15 Daily NLH KO Freeze $500 Gtd / Cost: $15


Well that's going to be a wrap up. The one great thing about all of this is no more getting up at 8:30 in the morning as I really did not enjoy that anyway. We shall see how things go and just how improved they might potentially be and if they are significantly improved then I owe a world of gratitude to Alysia for putting me through this hell I'm about to endure. Just kidding. When it comes down to it we all could use more focus and discipline in our poker. Until next time take care everyone and I'll see you at the tables.

Welcome to the second half of 2018. The first 6 months are gone, good riddance to them, hope to never see it again, and let's proceed on a very much more optimistic note, at least poker wise anyway. Life Wise and personal wise it's another thing entirely but I'll get to that later. You can see this information I'm about to relay on the right side of this blog but I'll go over it anyway. The first half of the Year from January through June, and yes I know that if you count the days July 1st was not technically the 2nd half, but it was the first 6 months complete and July began the 2nd six month time period so I'm counting that as the first half being over and the second half has begun so we're going with it.

The first half of 2018 was nothing but one struggle after another. The merge on WSOP certainly didn't help things as the increased tournament cost made things somewhat difficult from a bankroll management standpoint. However, during the last week or so of June roughly I started turning it on somewhat and the final eight days that I played in June had a 7 for 27 run with two three digit cashes. So I ended the first half of 2018 with a whopping profit of $14 online and $127 in live play. Not exactly tearing things up, but that rush that I had at the end of June did allow me to actually be in the black for the year in online play and it allowed me to start July, the second half of 2018, with a bankroll of $1000.75. This is a high point for me since I have been in Las Vegas which is approaching 3 years. I do not recall having a bankroll this high since I have been here. Granted my physical ailments and specifically the upper right thigh which the Ultrasound was rescheduled to the 12th kept me from doing anything foolish like pulling it all off and going playing some live tournaments under rolled, but for whatever reason, good or bad, this has been the highest bankroll amount that I have had since moving here. However, things are all not all gravy and even with $1,000 there are still complications.

As my readers know I have always been very open and honest with my personal finances my personal life, and that's not about to change. My financial situation is roughly the same as it has been since the Boost in the disability coming from the widowers disability benefit giving me approximately $300 left over after all expenses and bills are paid. However, that is the entire amount left over so if I were to put that all towards poker there would be no money for anything else for the rest of the month so I find that as my bankroll increases, and I've probably mentioned this before when I was at $500 and $600 previously I am getting much much more protective of it because for me $1,000 is not easily replaceable and in fact it would take 4 solid months to replace that and that would be with doing nothing, going nowhere, and basically not living so to speak, so with $1,000 bankroll I am more protective and am utilizing a bankroll management approach that is so conservative it makes Donald Trump look like a liberal. The higher tournament costs since the merge on WSOP are not helping things. As far as tournaments go I finally came up with a bankroll management plan I could live with and to say it is somewhat conservative would be an understatement. For all intents and purposes I'm never spending more than 6.5% of my bankroll in a single day, but since there are set tournaments that I want to play as the bankroll grows and since their minimum cost is $14.55 for me as you can imagine in order to add those I would need that $14.55 times 16. Here is what my bankroll management plan is for playing tournaments.


$300-$500
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $18.73

$500-$800
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
3pm: $5 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $33.28

$800-$1100
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
3pm: $5 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
730pm: $15 KO $500 Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $48.28

$1100-$1400
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
1pm: $20 Deepstack $700 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
3pm: $5 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
730pm: $15 KO $500 Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $68.28

$1400-$1700
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
1pm: $20 Deepstack $700 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
3pm: $5 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
530pm $7 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
730pm: $15 KO $500 Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $88.65

$1700-$2000
9am: $5 DS Rebuy $350 Gtd
12pm: $3 DS Rebuy $600 Gtd
1pm: $20 Deepstack $700 Gtd
215pm: $10 KO 6-Max $250 Gtd
3pm: $5 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
530pm: $7 DS Rebuy $1k Gtd
730pm: $15 KO $500 Gtd
Total Cost/Day: $103.20


$2500
Withdraw $500 each time $2500 is achieved for live tournament play, food, and transportation expenses.


With a bankroll of $800 to $1,100 I am only allowing myself to spend $48.28 per day in tournament buy-ins. When I look at this I realize it seems completely ridiculous. I mean who ever heard of restricting yourself just $48.28 in buy-ins when you're sitting there with $1,000 and I know it sounds completely ludicrous. There are two points to this though that I'm going to make you aware of. The first is this thing took me 10 days of calculations and recalculations and deciding what tournaments to add and removing the small buy-in, accelerated structure ones, that I just cannot stand playing to come up with this plan. The last thing I want to do is play a tournament for 4 hours and make $25 or play a tournament that it feels like the damn thing just started and all you're already looking at a 500 big blind. No thanks I'll pass on that. The second thing is my original bankroll management plan was even tighter than this if that can even be believed where I wasn't allowed to spend the $48.28 per day unless I had a minimum of $1,000. At least I knocked a couple of hundred dollars off of that, but I dare say that my readers comments on this blog entry may tell me I am being far too nitty with my money, but this is what I mean when I say I find myself becoming more and more protective. A mother bear and her cubs has nothing on me and my bankroll as we will both defend it to the death lol.

Another question is can I keep going online until I in fact have $2500 before withdrawing $500 for some live play. I'll be perfectly honest, if I am feeling better I would be hard pressed to do so. I want to get out and about so bad I can taste it, so it's going to be a major test of discipline, but honestly if there was a bet on whether or not it will actually happen, although I will try my hardest, even I wouldn't bet on me pulling that one off. I can turn the $1000 into $2500, but can I actually wait until I have $2500 before withdrawing....................all I can do is wait and see.

If you're wondering why I'm going with a percentage amount per day rather than an average buy-in is because if you look at where I am right now in bankroll range of $800 to $1,100 which allows $48.28 to be spent per day if you divide that by 4 you come up with a $12.07 for an average buy-in or ABI which means it would take a bankroll of $1,200 before I would even be allowed to spend $48.28. Granted that does create a situation where it would be 100 average buy-ins and it would be only spending 4% of the bankroll each day, but at the same time with the payouts being roughly 18% of the field on average I don't feel it's completely necessary and God I hope I'm right. Considering I'm not doing the average buy-in form of bankroll management maybe my plan isn't as conservative as I thought maybe it's even too aggressive, but I've been fighting with this for the last 10 days so what I've come up with is what I'm going with.

The first 4 days of July were really unimpressive. Eight tournaments played, 3 cashes, nothing overly deep, no final tables reached, nothing too exciting at all. Tournament losses thus far this month are ($2.61) and it was yesterday on the 4th that I decided that it might be a good idea to grind some cash game tables so that although the cash games aren't going to be able to give me a day's buy-ins 99% of the time, any earnings that I can get from them will help and I decided to go with the PLO8 cash tables instead of the No-limit Hold'em ones. Yes it's a split pot game, but the fact of the matter is that reduces the variance and on my limited live play this year I did much better in limit Omaha 8 than I did in the limit Hold'em cash games so let's see if I can continue that trend on the online tables although granted the online tables are pot limit. When I am playing a tournament I am not playing any cash games at all and I am simply giving all my focus to my tournament or two that I may have going at any one time or possibly three later on. When no tournaments are being played that's what I'm firing up or will start to fire up whatever $10 PLO8 cash games available since that seems to be all that's generally available. I didn't fire up the cash games yesterday until 9 p.m. and I didn't play all that long maybe an hour or slightly over, but it was good enough for a $13.52 profit in 173 hands played and thus after the first 4 days I find myself up $10.91. Oh joy I am averaging less than $2.75 in earnings per day. Exciting huh? I know I know keep the applause to a minimum as my humility can't take the adoration lol. The overall earnings can be seen on the right side of this blog and the individual tournaments can be accessed by clicking the Second Half Tournament Results tab which is located right above the latest blog entry and right next to the Home tab.

A quick personal update. I've come to the realization that the chronic pains has completely sapped my independence and I've come to the conclusion that one way or another, as the times I have mentioned this to a couple of doctors they seemed reluctant to prescribe it, but I definitely need one of those mobility scooters, but I am a heavy man so I would need one of the heavy-duty ones and brand new ones are extraordinarily expensive I mean some of the smallest prices I saw are over $1500 and as high as $3,500. I could potentially get a used one off of Craigslist, but when it comes to something like that it's let the buyer beware. I mean I really don't want to spend $300 or $400 on a used one from a private party and have it break down on me 2 days later giving me no recourse and my money down the sewer, but if I want to have any chance at an enjoyable filled life, a life of playing live poker tournaments, a life of just being out and about going down the sidewalk on the strip or floating around the Fremont Street Experience downtown then a Mobility Scooter is not just a want but an absolute need.

That's going to wrap this one up. I've stayed up all night so that I can get a full day's worth of Poker in because I'm trying to get my sleep schedule back on track. I keep setting the alarm for 11 a.m. and I keep turning off the damn alarm so I'm missing the 12 p.m. tournament, but not today as today is going to be a full day. Until next time, take care everyone, and I'll see you at the tables.