Just Another kind Another dream…Oh **** that title is taken! It is a great read though. I grew up on Salt Lake City, Utah with the crazy dream of being an actor. Got accepted to NYU and entered their drama program almost 20 years ago.

Flash forward to today and I am working a mid-level administrative job at a law firm, make an average salary in a position I’m not passionate about. You can make a decent wage as a word processor in a law firm but it’s a dead end career. Most you’ll ever accomplish is making manager one day. Sometimes I wonder how I got here.

Acting is a tough gig. I didn’t end up bitter but I didn’t do all that I had hoped as an actor either. Some of my friends ended up pretty bitter; they knew it was hard but didn’t know it was that hard.

So something has got to give. I have ideas of playing in the card rooms of Vegas or maybe LA and living that poker pipe dream. LA would allow me to pursue my passion of acting/film but Las Vegas is the poker Mecca of the world. Suppose I could act out there too but it isn’t my dream to become some sort of Vegas side act for Carrot Top. A change of environment is good for you. People don’t usually move unless there is some cataclysmic event or some major event like a job makes them do it. I have no wife, no children, just a handful of friends, and no real ties to New York except my family that lives here.

The cost of living in Vegas is a lot less than New York City so that is attractive. But LA would provide me with some artistic outlets too to pursue other ventures while playing cards too. I know very little about the poker games out there and have never played in any of the Cali rooms.

LA sounds like the best solution. But first I want to live in Vegas for at least 6 months and play some cards out there. Who knows, if I like it enough, I just might stay out there.

One thing is clear however. Money equals change. It’s my ticket to financial freedom. My roll is minimal at the moment, under 1K, due to debts and other obligations that I have had to dish out for. Geez, life expendituraments.

The plan is to continue working at my job, but in the meantime playing in AC and the local card rooms as much as possible. I’ve been to Atlantic City literally hundreds of times over the years. It’s not a place that I find attractive to live, but I’ll have to play there a bit to fund my ambitions. I’ll play $1/$3 NLHE and $2/$5 NLHE in games in my current city with as many trips to AC as possible. In AC I’ll play the tournaments and tournament series. Cash games I’ll start out at 1/2 NLHE, then 2/5 NLHE and hopefully graduate (money-wise) to 5/10 NLHE. Once I have 10K in my account I’ll take shots with 1K buy-ins at 5/10 NLHE. I’ll maintain a 10 buy-in rule and not move up but I’ll occasionally take shots with 1/3 my roll if the game looks really good and hope that I run like a god and poker variance is on my side. I think about 50K is enough to get me there but I need at least 40K and wouldn’t mind having at least 75K to make the move out west.

This is an aggressive approach but I am hoping to make it happen. I’ll give myself about a year to accomplish this but I wouldn’t mind if I have the money to make the move by WSOP time 2012.

I do love to play poker. It’s not my only goal however. I am hoping to drop some weight and get back into shape too in this time frame. I also hope to quit smoking by the time I move out there too. I do have some debts which I'll have to pay off along the way, about 17K. Poker will have to cover that too.

Does this sound overly ambitious? I am hoping to make it happen but I’ll have to play a ton and hope that I am successful at my shots. I always have my job to back me up if I go busto. Going busto once even will put a real crimp in my plans.

Any advice or suggestions before I start my journey to a better life? All suggestions and comments are welcome.

Damn I think I went to the wrong school:

Well this thread hasn't spawned any initial interest but I wanted to post a little about a recent trip report and the beginnings of my bankroll quest to get more financial and life freedom.

I went down to AC from September 9th through September 11th this past weekend and the pokerz went pretty well. Because of some of the substantial debts I have had to pay for life expense lately I have tapped my roll almost entirely before I went down there. So I decided to short stack. I intended to use about $200 to play myself up a little and hope that that was enough. If it wasn't I would have to pull money off the credit cards which I didn't want to do.

I sat down at a $1/$2 table at the Taj Mahal with only $100. I was playing weak-tight pre-flop pretty much. Trying to get in cheap, I called a $6 raise with 75 with two other callers ahead pre and didn't hit. I felt upset that I spent the extra money and didn't hit. I raised pre to $17 with KK and got no callers and folded out a few limpers. Needless to say I can't totally remember how I got there but I got up about 3 hours later with $302.

I took a short break because I work the graveyard hours at my job and came immediately to AC from NYC. A half hour later I sat at another $1/$2 table with about $150. This time I was much more eventful much more quickly. I peered down at 77 in the CO. I believe I raised pre to $12 with about $175 in my stack and got a couple of callers. The flop came 478. Bingo! The BB bet out to $25 and another folded. I raised to $60 with about $55 in the pot and he called. The turn came the J. BB auto-shoves. There are two straights out which worries me some and I tank a minute on it to be certain here. There's really no way I can fold as I feel like I am crushing his range for the most part and his bet may even be some sort of spazz bet anyways. I called and the river fills me up with another 4 to pair the board. BB shows down 99 and I scoop a sizable pot and double up. I get up an hour later with about $397 for the session. Not a bad start to my trip so far.

I took a break for a while and got something to eat at the buffet which was alright but not nearly as good as Borgata's buffet. But is alright I suppose. The one thing about the Taj is the only place I really like to eat is the noodle bar. The burger stand is pretty good, the White House subs is over-rated imo and everything else is ok or sub-par. The Plate (cafe) is good but the menu is too short and I have ordered a couple of things on the menu that I didn't care for very much. Although I had a nice crab and shrimp special with some rice and asparagus later on in the trip that was excellent.

I did go back to playing on Friday night and I was still short-stacking pretty much and headed over to Showboat. I sat down around 9PM and by now I think I must have been tired. I started playing badly and was making mistakes. Don't play tired! This sucks that I work the graveyard hours and by the time I get to AC it's like 7PM or 8PM according to my body clock. I can't remember my exact mistakes but I do remember that I dwindled my stack down to $60. One hand involved calling down an opponent on a 9-9-3-2-5 board with 44; I was thinking that I was making some kind of soul read. Sometimes I make mistakes when my instincts tingle to me (my spidey sense!) and I act on that but I'm not certain enough or have the requisite information to do so. It's sort of a mental leak. Maybe I am related to Jerry Yang or something. I consciously know that winning money is more important than winning pots but I still have problems letting go of my hand sometimes. Villain called a bet by me on the river in this hand and showed down TT to win. I felt a little stupid but I suppose I have made worse calls before. It was a hand I could have avoided and was upset overall that I was playing poorly. This was surefire sign that I had been up too long and was tired. It's not worth it to play tired.

Eventually I got dealt T8 in MP3 I think it was. We were ten handed but I ended up heads up with the HJ to my left on a QT4 board. I bet out $10 on the flop and he raised to $25. Consequently I shoved for about $95 more and he tanked for a second. He must have had a really good read on me or been a total frickin idiot because he called me with QJo and the turn and river bricked out and HJ took the rest of my money. That's it, I was through for the night. At about 11PM it was time to go back to the room and get some shut eye.

That's it for now. I'll post more about my trip later. But at least this day was profitable.

Total Buy-Ins: $650
Total Cash-Outs: $999
Total Profit for the Day: $349

Just want to let you know Vegas is not the Poker Mecca of the world. LA is easily the Poker Mecca of the world. You can walk into the Commerce and play any game you want at literally any spread you want on any given day. And it's almost the same at the Bike. Oh and BTW, if you can beat the LA games, you can beat the games any where on earth. LA poker is a very very demanding different brand than any you will see anywhere in America or around the world!

I would even argue that the poker scene in S. Florida is better than Vegas. More games and more bad players. hihihih

Never played the games in LA. But I have heard that there is some weird 2/5 game with a max buy-in of 40 BBs and that is the norm out there. Vegas is the Mecca of poker in the world, because that's where all the high rollers are because that's where the action is and that is ultimately where the best players are. But I realize that for the average low-mid stakes there are probably cities where the game of the average player is better than Vegas or AC. I believe the players in NY are better than AC or Vegas on average. But the very best and biggest games are in Vegas. And it's the gambling capital of the world so even if you think the LA games are better you still have to consider Vegas the center of gambling and poker in the world.

You have never played a poker game in LA yet you believe Vegas is the poker capital of the world? Have you even played poker in Vegas? On any given day, the poker action at the Commerce in LA is busier than the poker action at all the casinos in Vegas combined! Don't let me tell you these facts. Take a trip to LA and find out for yourself why LA is easily the poker capital of the world. Vegas might be the gambling capital of the world (although Macau might have some claims to this claim), but there is no dispute that LA is the poker capital of the world.

As I said, you can play any game at any stake at any time of the day at the Commerce. If you want to bring your family and friends to the Commerce and you want them to spread a home game for you, they will gladly do that. Most of the top pros play in LA. Yes, the biggest game on Earth is played at the Bellagio on a nightly basis, but the best poker action is in LA, hands down. The two busiest rooms in Vegas are the B and the V and those two rooms combined doesn't even compare to 1/4 of the Commerce. And I haven't even mentioned the Bike.

On a good night, you might get 25 tables going at the Bellagio and then it dies down after 2AM. The same is true at the V. The W and MGM might get 15 tables going on a good night. And that's about it in Vegas. Mirage gets about 5 tables going. hihih. Caesars get about 10 tables. And they rarely have HORSE or SHOE at any of these places. At the Commerce, they spread everything and anything at any time and there's always a good game going 24/7, 100+ tables running at any given time. Ever wonder why the WPT event at the Commerce and the Bike are always busier than any casino in Vegas? Don't let me tell you this; you might want to do some research and look up these facts!

More please.

good posts!

It’s been a little while since I have posted in this thread. To bring this thread up to date I have played a few games in the NYC home game scene and won a little there with no major downswings or substantial losses. The rake however at these games is tremendous, 10% up to $12 to $15! Believe it or not, they are still profitable games.

I’ve been to AC a couple of times since with one bad trip where I pretty much decimated most of my roll aside from about $300. Luckily my job allows me to reload so I’m not totally dependent on the poker gods to play and re-accumulate my bankroll.

I’ll be going to Atlantic City this coming weekend from October 14th through October 16th. I’ll still have to play 1/2 NLHE and hopefully run well enough to buy-in at a good 2/5 NLHE game for 100 BBs. It’s probably not the best approach to try and make it quickly but since I have other sources of income it’s a little easier for me to do this.

I realize that I have not set my specific goals really and this thread seems too much like a blog and not enough like a goal setting platform/discussion. I’m going to set a much more definite plan and goals in the upcoming days. I intend to outline my specific goals and what I hope to accomplish then. Just wanted to keep this thread alive and check in.

My goals for augmenting my live roll by playing live are currently set as follows:

1. Play a minimum of 25-30 hours of live cash game poker per week.

• On average this would be about 700 hours over 6 months time, and average between $15 -$20 per hour playing $1/$2 & $1/$3 NLHE

• Take occasional shots at $2/$5 NLHE when the bankroll and conditions permit.

2. At the end of 6 months time (April 31, 2012); the goal is to have won $12,500 in total winnings (profit) from my sessions. I don't intend to dip into my bankroll for life expenditures in this time. Then I will set new goals for playing regularly at $2/$5 NLHE.

3. Play at least 2 poker tournaments per month over a 6-month time frame. Buy-ins will be from $100 - $550 as bankroll permits.

• Final table at least 3 tournaments in this time frame.

• Finish in the positive financially over this time frame.* I am hoping to run at least 50% ROI with an expectation to run 200% ROI (overly ambitious?).

* I realize that this is only 12 tournaments and not a huge sample so anything can happen. I am hoping the poker gods will be with me.

Personal Goals:

1. Lose weight and get myself into shape.

• Currently I am about 180 lbs at 5’6”. I have lost about 15 lbs already in the last 4 months. I want to lose another 25 lbs by November 1st, 2012. So I need to lose roughly a little over 2 lbs per month on average.

2. Cut down on smoking with the intention to quit eventually.

• Currently I smoke about 1 -1.5 packs per day. I want to cut back to 1 pack and then further cut down and quit altogether. This is a tricky one for me. Because I am an addict. So I can’t really give myself a time frame; I’ll have to feel it out and cut down comfortably until I can quit.

On another note, I got bad news at my job. My firm has decided to open a business center and move everyone to Nashville, Tennessee. It’s sort of like outsourcing, except you have to move to another city for your job, otherwise accept a severance package and be let go. It looks as if I may have to start playing exclusively for a living sooner than expected. Although I will have my job guaranteed through 5/31/12 but after that I will depart sometime announced next year (2 months notice) as late as 9/30/12.

Equally on a personal note, I have decided to stop playing in the city right now unless I really need to. A person who runs a home game in Queens got stabbed after some people tried to rob his game. He decided to play the tough guy and stand up to them and ended up in the hospital. He is ok now fortunately.

Finally, back to poker; I’m planning a 4-day excursion to Atlantic City starting this Friday October 28th. The plan is to spend two days at the Trump Taj Mahal and then 2 nights at Harrah’s AC. I’ll post more about it when I get back.

My goals stated earlier perhaps were under ambitious and not overly ambitious as I previously stated. But alas life takes over and I have not posted in this thread for some time. Not necessarily because I did not want too, but that I have not been playing as much as I hoped.

Quite frankly, my roll has been decimated. Not because I lost at poker. I have bankroll management issues. Number 1, life expenditures have prohibited me from adding from my roll and not depleting it. I have had to undergo physical therapy and doctor’s fees for a compressed nerve in my left hip. Not to mention other expenditures of a medical nature for which I have a $1200 deductible to cover.

But one primary reason my roll is not intact is that when I loose at a session, often I don’t have the patience to play poker and try to win it back. Not every time but some of the time I head over to the pits and play blackjack and/or pai gow poker. This is something I desperately want to cut out of my ventures to the casino. I know consciously that I can never build nor maintain a bankroll playing the house. There is no edger there for the player. It’s a patience problem and unfortunately my form of tilt.

On another note, the poker has been going decently well this year: Here are my session stats for 2012 this year.


In 77 sessions I am up $2,283. This includes about 143.17 hours of live poker played. Most of the sessions are $1/$2 NLHE but some are $2/$4 LHE when I’ve gone off and lost to the house and I’m building it back up.

Here our my tournaments stats:

Number of Tournaments played: 5
2012 Stake + Rake (Bubble Money too & Dealer Tips): $860.00
Gross Tournament Winnings: $1,125.00
Total Win/Loss (Tournaments): $265.00
ROI: 32.4%

Comments: I’ve chopped two tournaments when I was the chip leader. So I consider that I have won two tournaments, and always got more money when that was the case. But I don’t think my deal making skills are the greatest.

I am going down to Atlantic City this coming Friday and I intend to qualify for the ME of the 2012 WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars. Wish me luck! I'll post more and more often and be as honest as I can in this thread.

Augmenting my live roll by playing live. I think a more appropriate title would have been “Using my roll to pay down life expenditures.” Stayed in a beautiful room at Caesars for 5 nights. Good thing it was nice. Came down with only $300 with the hopes to satellite into the Main Event of the Circuit Event there. Well I left but not broke but I didn’t get into any circuit events like I had hoped to. The $300 that I arrived with was gone within 24 hours after playing 1/2 at Caesars and Ballys.

It’s alright though because I do have a job and was expecting to get paid on Saturday via direct deposit. Well I did get paid, but not until late Monday night. By this time it was too late to get into any of the circuit events. Not to worry. I was entered into the Tournament of Champions for the winners of any daily tournaments at one of the Harrah’s properties.

The freeroll was held at Harrah’s and had about 155 runners when I got there Tuesday morning. To my good fortune, I was dealt 22 facing a 600 raise by the lady to my right. I called to see a 2-7-6 flop. She led the flop and I called and led again on the turn where I raised her by 2500. A shove by her ensued and my set held up to win. I got it in again against another villain with 2 pair against TPTK and my hand held. By the first 2 levels (and they only lasted 15 minutes), I was up to 38K from a 10K starting stack.

Now I floundered around 35K to 25K in part due to getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar on the river when I missed my flush. It was pretty uneventful and I was card dead for a while hanging on at about 35K which is where I pretty much stayed for the next 2 hours. We got down to about 30 or so players (18 paid), when I looked down at AQ. One raise and two limpers later, I shove with the blinds at 2/4K I believe. The limper called and the OPFR folded, AJ he said, and my hand held and I knocked somebody else out again to make my stack more healthy.

On the bubble, 20 left, I went on a tear with about 120K in chips. Won a hand with JJ against a desperation shove from A7o. Got called with my KK and won an all-in 3 way pot. Before you know it we were on the final table and I had about one-fifht of the chips in play with about 325K. As usual talks of chopping ensued. This is what I hate. Comments like “the blinds get high!” “It becomes a shovefest, it’s better we chop.” I never really feel like chopping because the W is what is important to me plus I like first place prize money. Never the less it was brought up. There was about $7,068 left in prize money from an $8,600 payout. I settled on about 1K for myself with the shortest stacks getting about $800. I felt like I should have gotten more but there is always pressure to chop. I know I can refuse but these dailies always end in a chop. Anyone suggest a model for maximizing your equity while making deals?

So I won a grand and thus up $700 for the trip. Played a session of 1/2 @ showboat later on that day before hitting the bus and won $70 due to a set of sixes mostly. But went down about $140 first due to playing a drawing hand that didn’t come in and prolly shouldn’t have been played in the first place.

Got on the bus earlier today and already back in NYC. Lucky things turned out the way they did but dam, all this loot will prolly go towards my bills which sucks at the moment.

Games in New York City must be rigged. I don't play that much in them. But from time to time I will. It's not that I have anything against them, it's just that I am afraid I'll one day get robbed when I am at one. It happens a little bit to much. The funny thing is, once one game has your cell number, then another 5 are bound to have it too. I constantly get text messages about games in New York City.

So I went to one tonight near where I work. I just happen to be itching to play still.

I buy in for 300 clams and get a $15 bonus. I went down at first to about $265 and then won a hand with A6 on a KT6 flop. It was a limped pot but I bet the flop and the turn and the river bought a possible straight so I checked there and won with 2 pair on showdown.

I got up around $400 roughly when I was dealt the AK UTG. The button straddled and the blinds called for $12 when I raised it to $47. Hand History and Thread Here. I whiffed on the flop: 253 but c-bet $75, got called and turned the K. Then I bet $90 and villain shoved for $259 total giving me 3:1 odds. I thought I had repped my hand strongly and only thought I could beat a bluff. I talked myself into a call since villain was an unknown and thought his line could be bluffy to me. I was hoping there were some draws in there but I guess that is wishful thinking. I had to tank on it for a minute but ended up calling. Was this a good call? Or just a bad calling reflex? Problem is my hand to me felt like it was face up. And he was indicating he could beat it. So I must be beat unless he's bluffing. Since I didn't know villain I had to call him. He showed Q2. He asked how many times did we want to run it. But I never do business. I like to either win it or loose it. I never really do it even though others do. We ran it once and river came the Q. Sucks to loose a $700+ pot. Oh well.

I played one more buy in for $100 and got it up around $200 before misplaying a hand with JT. -$400 on the night. That sucks but it was nice to play in the city. And I forgot the games run bigger than in the casinos in AC. Going down to AC this weekend. I'll post more about it in a few days.


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