Miami has the income inequality of most 3rd world countries. You see the glam and the money on the beach and along the water, but go to certain areas and you would think you were in El Salvador. A lot of these people have nothing to lose - they have no money, no family, etc. and are willing to do some ****ed up stuff. There are a lot of bodies buried in the Everglades.

I am going to try and get a story in over Thanksgiving, but I will be on the road north to the Orlando area starting tomorrow coming back on Saturday. Will be bringing my computer because how much fun can in-laws be anyway.....

If anyone is in the area and wants to meet up, I'll be in Leesburg, then Deltona from Thursday-Saturday. Would love to play something late night if Daytona Beach Kennel Club is open - I have never played there.

SPOILER ALERT

I suppose it's nice to know that you and Sally settled down

I thought he married Nicole...

When you just came to part of the story where Op is talking about your hometown.. lol.. Man Op, Corpus has some real juicy PLO action. This is where I fell in love with my affair of PLO

Second best run room in the state next to Isle. Best 2/5 action in the state next to Palm Beach Kennel club.

Overall my favorite room in Fl. Also it will be packed this weekend.

They get one 2/5 plo from time to time on the weekends.

I would imagine that Texas has some of the best home games considering there aren't many legal options and a bunch of large cities. I remember driving through downtown CC and it was basically abandoned - was it a ghost town back in 2011? If I come back to the area I will definitely message you.

The past couple days have been brutal. Yesterday I get into huge fight with "possible future mother in-law" over Thanksgiving plans and I was ready to walk out right there and then until she came by to apologize. I make my own plans to go visit Lake/Sumter county and now I am sitting in a relatively ****ty Budget Inn off I-4 between Orlando and Daytona. I would love to write a blog but I just don't have the energy to remember and put in the proper details. I will write a nice chapter on possible future in-laws because they make for an entertaining story.

I also wish I could visit DBCC but I have to head south tomorrow with Nicole's family for the day.

Downtown Corpus has always been a ghost town. Downtown hasnt really been a striving part of town since the 60's. Our city leaders really do suck and just driving this town into the Golf of Mexico. The game are not as juicy like they use to be. I use to help run and deal at a game here. It was the best game in town. We had game every night of the week. So I know where you are coming from about being a dealer and not getting paid out sometimes. Our game runner did lean out credit, but he was smart. He keot the game going all night.

We will start the game at 7pm and it will last to around 7am everyday. He had a good formula for his credit/rake ratio.

But sometimes the dealer didnt get paid out all of it, but he did make sure to pay out the players. He had the bankroll to cover the player who won, but we had to wait for whale to pay the next day.

We had Omaha night on thursday. It was a 1/2 round and round of Plo/Plo8. Game was real juicy, but a bankroll buster for the working guys who want to gamble lol. That is why we had to have Omaha only one day out of the week.

There was one night I turn $200 bucks into $5600 by the end of the night. We had this one whale who would come from the oilfield and gamble on his day off. HE was good for 5 to 7k for the night. I always send him home broke lol.. poor guy lol.

but the game got raided, because of alot of jealous game runner around town . They couldnt keep a game going like us. The reason behind that. Is because of credit. We gave out credit because we can cover it. The other games couldnt. So having books can be a blessing if you know how to run the books. which my friend did.

If you are in Texas again. I know some real juicy games in San antonio. That is where the good games are at. They have guys losing 3k at a 1-3-5 game a night

Yeah can totally relate, I'm owed thousands by "friends" that needed money for medical or housing emergencies and haven't paid me back in years because in their perspective I'm rich. I'm not rich, most rich people would consider me poor. The thing is they can't imagine a life where they could earn above minimum wage so why pay me back when I can live on easy street?

This thread reminds me of why I steered clear of raked home games or even unraked home games that were for reasonable amounts of money. Way too many shady characters out there in the poker world. I even recall pointing out to a dealer he was taking too much in rake and not only did he get on the defensive but other people backed him up saying hey man he provides free food, beer and a place to play.

Had one home game when the dealer would deal himself cards from time to time, not that he wasn't a good player but it always made one a little suspicious when someone who was hosting, raking, dealing and playing all together. More a metaphorical cold deck than an actual one.

Furthermore, I'm friends with a magician and when I see how easily he can manipulate a deck right in front of you without you ever noticing is simply incredible. Mind you he practiced 8 hours a day for months to get those skills but for the right player it's actually quite easy to set a deck in plain sight. I've always been suspicious of Antonio Esfandaria (spelling?) early days of bankroll building and whether or not he helped build that roll by deck setting in home games. Not that he did or that I even know anything about him to judge his character but I'm sure he has the skills and opportunities to do it.

Been victim to a cold deck myself at a home game but it was done as a joke where I had a royal and took down a 4 way all in royal over quads over boat over boat only to have people yell "you've been pranked dude" and I was shown they recorded all stack sizes on table beforehand and had the massive pot taken back and redistributed. Was pretty funny actually and they set it up as revenge when I went outside to talk to a girl on the phone.

which is exactly why I never loan anyone money.

Bad Cops and Restructuring

When I first started playing JV football in 8th grade, I loved playing linebacker. I was asked to play offense but asked my coach to only play me on the defensive line. Something about standing and watching a halfback/fullback break the line of scrimmage and hunting him down got my adrenaline flowing. It feels the same way when you're in position on the river with the nuts and and get shoved into only to snap it off and table your cards before the guy even knows what happened. I felt like the void in the underground poker economy was like the line of scrimmage now - just a void, waiting for someone to break through.

"Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack." - Sun-Tzu

This quote was a motto I used in football, in poker, and in life. This is why I had waited as long as I did to start my game - starting it at the height of the game with Mike was not good offensive or defensive strategy. I got a call from Josh on Saturday before Vito's game, and I asked Josh what they were doing with Mike. Mike was told that he could try and pay back his debts in his own ways, or Tampa John and Bookie could take it over, take a chunk of Mike's money towards his debts, and he could keep a small amount. He also told me that Vito would call me at a later point to discuss dealing options in the future. This was typical Vito - acting like a boss and having his workers do his errands. I told him that was fine, but he had to talk to me directly next time. I wasn't mad at Josh, he really didn't understand that he was used by Vito, but he did know about my game, and I trusted him with that info. Vito trusted him with running the Saturday game, and now Mike was just a dealer at this game and his own game.

I thought Mike should consider himself lucky - he was like a bank during the bailouts, and instead of losing his ass, now he had a proper way to pay everyone back under guidance. Josh told me he put up a big fight at Vito's that night - he said he had worked too hard to have someone take over the game, that they weren't going to tell him what to do, and had too much pride. By the end of the night, he had accepted the offer as his only option. On Saturday night I was hanging out with Nicole and got a call from Mike.

"So you are having your own game now, eh? You couldn't even tell me, I built this thing from scratch. That's kinda ****ed up."

"You seem to have a bad memory. I invited you to come to Tim's house. This game fell in your lap, and if I had known how to deal then, I would have done it myself. I thank you for showing me how to deal, but you ran the game into the ground. You should thank me for bringing you in, and you should thank Bookie and TJ for giving you a chance to still make money - I wouldn't have given you that option."

We ended up agreeing to disagree, and that was basically the end of that conversation. From here on out, I had very little communication with Mike unless I wanted my money, or he got in my way. On Sunday, I moved into my new place - one of my older poker friends, she owned a few condos on the beach, and her tenants were all gone. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I finally moved from my temporary place at my sister's to the new condo. I could literally see the Gulf of Mexico from my window with a private beach, had a pool 50 feet away, it was a perfect bachelor pad but I wasn't a bachelor anymore. It was an old complex, the rooms were small, but it was all about the location. Nicole was going back and forth between her house and the condo, she was staying with me about half the time. I felt like I was on vacation, just enjoying the beach, pool, I couldn't ask for it any better.

On Monday I was invited to a 1-2 PLO game at a guy named Kevin's house on the north side of town. I had met him at the cardroom and we were at the same table with this drunk spewy idiot that was winning a lot of small pots and was generally annoying. He was needling both Kevin and I, and Kevin had headphones and I offered chips to rent them as a joke. We ended up talking, I could tell he was a very competent player. I had invited him to Vito's house before but he didn't have a license at the time, and he lived sort of out of the way. I wanted some action and didn't want to drive to Tampa, so I told Nicole I wanted to play. She had been suffering from an ear infection, and at this point she needed to go to the hospital she was in so much pain. I told her I would drop her off at the nearby ER and would go play. Sure enough, I make the 35 minute drive, and right as we get to the ER, there is a cop near the front entrance next to a stop sign. I make sure to stop fully, then go to the front entrance to drop her off. As I am parking near the entrance the cop sweeps around and pulls me over.

"Sir, did you know that you ran that stop sign back there?"

"My girlfriend is in a lot of pain and she's going to go inside, okay?"

"I have to ask you to stay inside the car."

"Do you have me on camera running a stop sign?"

"I have a dashcam and bodycam, yes."

"Well that right there is on," as I pointed to my dashcam, "You sure you still want to write me a ticket?" His face seemed a little blank, but he goes ahead and takes my info anyway.

He proceeds to write me a citation in the parking lot while we wait. When he comes back and asks me if I have any questions, I told him that he had acted very unprofessional and made sure that Nicole got a letter from the ER that she was in fact in severe pain so it reflected the fact he had kept her back despite her condition. As I pulled away from the hospital, I saw he had someone else pulled over and told the guy pulled over to fight it in court, that he was writing bogus tickets.

I pulled up to Kevin's to find the table nearly full - of dealers from the cardroom. There are some great dealers at the local cardroom, then there are some real degens, usually the floor. A few floor guys were there and everyone was short buying at $100. I buy in for $200 and it wasn't a momentous session but there were a few nice spots. On an A89 I had 710JQ and got it in versus A8, no redraw against a drunk dude they were calling Kansas City. This dude had a Chiefs hat, jersey, and huge tattoo on him - a true fan. I offer to run it twice and he agrees even though he doesn't know what it means. I hit a flush on the first board and a straight on the second and scoop. The second hand I was in a 3-bet pot with Kevin, and we get it in on an A23 board where I hold AA89 versus his 4567 and we run it once, 3 on the turn and yes, I know I am running like god.

Everyone there is getting drunk and rowdy and I decide to cash out about 465 and head out of there. I get challenged to an O8 match by one of the floormen, but we can't agree on stakes - he wants 5-10 limit, I told him 20-40 or higher. He takes it personally but Nicole is texting me that she's sitting outside ready to go. I tell him we will finish later and I go pick up Nicole, going through the same stop sign with the same cop. As much as I wanted to just throw a full on verbal assault at him, beating him in court was even better. Nicole was out of it - they shot her up with dilaudid and she was getting all horny in the car but she was too ****ed up to do anything. I am concentrating on the game tomorrow - I had talked to Paulie, put the texts out, and all was set for a great game. I had 8 definites and 5 maybes. This game had to run well or it was never going to run again. Nazi, Bookie, Nice Shoes, Sally, and Josh would all be there, so there was a good crowd to start. I didn't sleep until 530 that night, I was binge-playing Far Cry 4 which was great for taking my anger out from the crooked cop pulling me over.

As I went to sleep, I thought of this time as a turning point in my place in the world of home games in the area, and just how far things had really come in just a year.

good job, thank you for posting.

I live north of Dallas and I play in two different home games, it is very rare to find two competent players besides myself at the table.

There is a 3rd, but when he gets drunk he lights it all on fire and I have never seen him not drunk by the end of the night.

There are also a ton of private rooms, but the rake is massive and I don;t like to play in places like that.

Hey guys, this has been a long time coming, but the past week has been brutal even for my experiences. I have considered making a move out of the area or even out of state, but somewhere that has a decent poker scene. Six months ago, I made a choice to move in with Nicole and her house is down the street from her mother's, who puts all in-laws to shame with her psychopathic nature. As I mentioned, I got into a massive fight with her mom, her dad, and after 13 years in SW Florida, I think I am ready to move on. I won't get into particulars, but she decided to use her child to threaten to get me in trouble when she didn't get her way arguing. This place has started to suck the life out of me and I'm about drained out.

As a result, I have considered leaving this place. It doesn't have to be out of Florida, but it has to be out of here. I have some options in Miami, but I considered trying the plant thing in other areas of the country such as Dallas, Vegas, LA, New Orleans, Arizona. I am about 120 miles south of Tampa, so I guess I would go for that too if I wanted to be a little closer to family and some friends. I just don't see myself dealing with this for any longer, and I know I can have a more fulfilling life away from here.

Any suggestions?

You don't have to move far. She (probably) just has to not know where you are. Don't ruin your plant business due to a failed relationship. Pause. Maybe a mini-vacay. You can probably move 10 minutes away, and be just fine. Or 60 minutes.

Not to stop the suggestions though. Hope everyone gives you more ideas.

I will start out with Vegas for the pure thread potential. But I think Austin TX or something similar would suit you better on a person level.

The place you consider needs

* Large-Medium Urban area
* Exotic Plant friendly eco-system
* Large proportion of people with disposable income's

I feel you on the living close to in-law's I fight with my parents who live literally a quarter mile from me. Constantly showing up and checking in unannounced on me and my SO. Plus working with them is hard as well.

I appreciate the feedback, just wanted to point out a few things:

I can work with plants in pretty much any southern state that has a subtropical climate, from CA/NV all the way to SC, but there is no poker there.

I would prefer a medium sized town - I even thought of moving West of Orlando in the country where I can drive to Tampa, Ocala, the new room in The Villages, and possibly Daytona Beach. I could come back to the country but travel regularly.

Although the stories would dictate otherwise, I am not a violent person. I have no record and have a college degree and don't necessarily have to work with plants. I prefer warm weather and open areas.

I find it very hard to be around people I can't talk to on similar level as myself. Nicole and her family, although they are nowhere near white trash, generally just live a boring 9-5 life and think I am the trashy person who doesn't have a regular job. I just don't have time in my life for someone to pull me down with their family. Nicole has dealt with a lot of verbal abuse from her motherand exes and it has affected her greatly, but it also affects me and I have to step in. I have been cut off from friends, family, and although Nicole would never leave me, she will try and keep me to herself.

I can understand where you are coming from. If you want to move to Texas I would suggest you move to Dallas since it is a hour from winstar casino. Winstar casino has the biggest poker room in the south and also has alot of tables running on the weekend. They have about 30-50 tables running. Good plo games that run from 1-2-5 to 5-5 plo. I dont know the home games in Dallas but I do know the games in San Antonio. I can get you in those games and also there is Botinacil Garden in San antonio. I can possibly get you a dealer position with one of my connects. Message me if you have any question man.

Damn, first time seeing this thread

subbin to read

Move to Tampa if nothing to stay key'ed into the private game ecosystem, access to the Hard Rock (new room opening in January!). Plus it seems like a lot of your contacts are in Miami which is still in a 4 hour drive.

Orlando! That's where I'm at.

Hmmmmmmmm...... warmD = tst?

Wow, if he moves to Orlando we are gonna have some fun times at BBV

No, he writes better then me and not as Degen.