Thursday, September 28, 2006

New Phone Number

Well.... I have been here over 6 months now, so I finally got a local number in vegas. I still didn't bother getting a home phone, but I did change my cell phone to a vegas number... so I guess that means I am going to stay for awhile :) However, in my infinite wisdom we bought a marvelous new couch at Walker furniture. It has 2 recliners, and a sleeper sofa... so very comfy! We both LOVE it. In order to make getting the couch the MOST challenging possible, we gave them my old phone number to call for delivery directions... then I went to Cingular and changed it. Obvious this worked very well when they called to get directions! We ended up having to call the office, get the number changed, have them call the driver, blah blah blah... Long story short. We have a couch and a living room... very exciting.

I mentioned earlier that I was working to get my hours in for the Station Freeroll in October. Estie had 74.9 out of the 75 hours she needed, and I was not quite as close. So Estie and I headed up to the Red Rock to work on my next installment of hours. I decided to make this as challenging as possible and dropped 400 dollars in the first hour. I managed through some miracle to get back to even and even cashed out a nice 60 dollar profit (which was a huge improvement over down 400). Estie was killing the 4/8 game turning a 90 dollar profit in the same time (she was smart enough not to stress herself out and stayed up almost the whole time). The night really got interesting when about 9 PM the 200,000 dollar station casino bad beat jackpot was hit at Boulder Station. Luckily the rules of the bad beat are the loser gets 45,000 of that, the winner gets 35,000, and every other player in every other station casino gets to split the rest of it. Estie and I were both playing when it hit, so the two of us along with 387 of our closest friends all got $345 each. It was a very nice capper to an already fun night out together playing poker.

Friday afternoon on the way home from work I stop to see how close I am to my hours... I need 75 and I have 67.7! BAH! that is 7.3 away from the requirement and I have to work Saturday night and we are going to some friends Saturday afternoon... so I guess I need to finish it Friday Night. An 8 hour marathon here we come!

So I buy in for 200 (the max at 1-2 no-limit), and on the 3rd hand run into Ace's with my 6's on an 8 high flop and manage to only lose 120 on that hand... so I cap off for another 100 and build back to even before hitting 2 pair against better 2 pair and going back down to 100 and recapping off to 200 for my final cash in my wallet. A few missed draws, and some missed flops and I am sitting at a little over 100 out of my 400 left, and only about 1.5 hours into the night... BOO!!!! I buckle down and determine not to play scared, but to play smarter... If I lose the 100 I have left, then I just won't get the hours... whatever, it has still been a good week.

7 hours later I am still playing, recouped all 300 of the lost money and another 525 on top of that. I really didn't play any huge hands, just nickle and dime stuff. I got Aces 3 times and managed to win all 3 times with them for a net of about 200 on those 3 hands, a flopped flush, and a straight made nice payouts... A very satisfying night until the end. Now Red Rock uses these login/logout system where when you get up from the table they push a button and you get no time while you are not there. It is a solid idea, and prevents abuse of people logging in and going for a 3 hour lunch... however, when someone forgets to punch you back in you fail to get the time, or as happened to me when someone logs someone into YOUR seat you get booted out and get no time. So I finish my 8 hour marathon and head to check to make sure I am all good and after 8.5 hours of playing, I am credited with 6.5! WTF! Apparently I lost 30 mins to dinner (which I expected) and another 30 mins to someone else sitting in my seat! BAH! I was falling asleep at the table (I don't play well asleep...) and even though I am still 40 minutes short I am going to bed anyways... I will find a way to get an hour tomorrow I guess.

The work schedule is out for next week, and with 1 person leaving for Green Valley I am back up to 4 days including 3 8 PM - 4 AM shifts (my favorite shift) and I got a 7 PM - 3 AM shift added for this coming Saturday. An overall very decent schedule for the week, and with thursday and Friday off a good time to take a ride up the mountain or go do something else fun.

The return of the Prodigal Shoe

OK... so now I think even my clothes are making fun of me. I put off working out because I lost my tennis shoes, and finally go out to get new ones... Everything is marvelous until my old shoes show back up! Apparently I had put them in the "perfect" spot, I just had no idea where that spot was... So 3 weeks later, I buy a new pair of shoes and boom! there are my shoes. Bastards are gunning for me... I can tell.

A cold front has moved through Vegas and snapped the weather from it's marvelous 100+ degree days with 8% humidty down to 85.. Wow, what nice weather that is. I can't even describe how nice it is outside at 85 degrees and no humidty! I thought I didn't like being outside, I now realize I just don't like being outside in hot, sticky weather! I LOVE 85 degree weather in vegas... I especially love looking at the weather on the news and seeing the 7 day forecast as Sunny, no humidty, high of 85, low of 60 every day... It is like they cut and pasted the weather across the week!

Work has been slow since I got back from my trip. Poker is slow this time of year, and so we are only getting 3 days a week for the extra board dealers... I had a long conversation with my boss the other day and now understand completely how everything works at the poker room. The short story is that Extra Board dealers are guaranteed 0 days a week, while full-time is guaranteed 5. He tries to make sure all regular extra board get 3 days minimum ( which is all we have been getting lately), in addition fulltimers cannot be sent home early unless the volunteer. Extra board can be sent home anytime after 4 hours of their shift...

The nice thing about extra board is that anytime I have something else to do, I just have to tell them and I am off. I don't get paid of course, but it has no impact on any of my future at the company... So I am going to take a week off in December to go deal on a poker cruise, and then probably another 2 weeks in January to go deal in Tunica at the WPT Gold Strike Classic. I really like having that flexibility, and I am like 6th in line to get a fulltime spot... so that means I need 6 people to find other jobs... Hmmm... not a decision I have to make right away at least.

Station casinos are running the qualifications for their next freeroll and you need 75 hours in 3 months, those 3 months end the 30th of September. Now July was the World Series, and August I started the new job and finally got to spend some time with my wife, and September I went to visit my parents.... So finding 75 hours was tough, and with 1 week left I needed 20 more hours! BAH! So I went into overdrive, and have been playing every day. Apparently that was something I needed.... since I have been playing much better, showing a lot more discipline and patience, and have managed to make almost 800 dollars the past week while working on my hours. I still need about 7 more hours... so let's hope I can keep focused while finishing that up the next 2 days.

It really is amazing in poker how much your mental state makes a difference! A good attitude, a marvelous marriage, and a supportive wife... makes such a HUGE difference. It is really not that easy to sit with 9 strangers for 4-5 hours at a time without losing your focus. Especially since so many of them are SOOOO annoying, and the more fun I am having the worse I play!

Lots of fun stuff coming up the next few months... Vegas RenFest the first part of October, friends coming to visit in October, November, December and January. Christmas in Orlando at Disney, poker cruise to the Mexican Riviera! Sheesh... I need a vacation from my vacations!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

A little misinformation

They say in poker to change up your game and always keep them guessing. I suppose I carried that over to real life when on June 23rd I married Estie Moller and kept the secret from my family. I didn't do it for any deceitful reasons, but my sister was having her first baby in early June and I didn't want to distract from that. I knew that if I told everyone they would want to come out and be part of the wedding. So we got married in a small ceremony at the Mon Bel Ami chapel in downtown Las Vegas. It was a gorgeous ceromony and I can say I now know why so many people get married in Vegas. It was SO easy and relaxed... I really enjoyed the wedding and the amazing Steak afterwards at Smith & Wollensky's. In keeping with the simple approach we registered at Amazon.com and are going to have a party next summer to celebrate our 1 year anniversery and invite everyone to attend then. (So consider this your fair warning!)

I sprung this news on my family this past weekend when Estie and I went for a visit. It was a marvelous visit and even though we had connecting flights both ways, no bad layover stories are to be told. We got to see my sister and her new son Keith (whose first name is Charles... so when HE becomes a dealer, he will be using THAT name... Hpmmph). They are moving down to Columbia soon, so all the young kids will be around north georgia (my 2 younger brothers are in Athens).

While I was in Athens visiting my 2 brothers and sisters (and their marvelous spouses... on a side note, how does EVERYONE in our family manage to marry outside their class? Every one of us managed to marry a marvelous spouse which we so totally do not deserve... It is obvious God takes mercy on those less fortunate) I got a phone call from CardPlayer Cruises inviting me to go deal on a Poker Cruise to the Mexican Riviera in December... I have to get it approved with my boss, but a week long cruise that I get paid to go on seems AWFUL nice.

Work is still going well, and I am getting back into playing poker now that things are settling down. I need 20 more hours to get to the 75 hour minimum for the freeroll in October at Station Casinos. A guaranteed 100 dollars and a first prize of 70K is awful good... not to mention that in October I plan to start playing at the Rio again, and getting into their monthly freerolls. 40 hours a month is doable, and first place in the freeroll is a 10K entry into the WSOP in 2007.

I have discovered a minor flaw in my "amazing" poker skills. They only apply when *I* am not playing. I am really good at knowing what people have in their hands when I am observing the game from the dealer box... I am about 95% accurate on who is going to win and with what in the games I deal... However, when I am playing, for some reason all that goes out the window and I let emotion rule my decisions. Last night I have pocket 10's and the flop is J56 rainbow. I raised and got reraised by an aggressive solid player. He often made plays at pots, but had not made reraises or called with weak hands. So his reraise said at LEAST AJ and probably 2 pair or better. So since I had 1 pair that could not even beat AJ I reraised all-in. Of course, he called and had 2 pair and I lost 200 on that hand. It was obvious to me outside of the game that he had me beat... but in the heat of the hand I decided I should win since I had a good hand... but not good enough to win. It is very frustrating to look back and see how poorly I played and know I can play much better, I just have to seperate emotion from reality. A real challenge for me, since I tend to be overconfident at times :)

I mentioned the other day that I intended to start working out when I got home. So Tuesday I was recovering from my flight and had to work that night so I planned to start on Wednesday. Wednesday I overslept (well I slept really well and long with no reason to get up... so it kind of counted) and I got up around 3 with the intention of going to work out (after spending an hour relaxing, and another hour watching TV and playing games) and ran to the closet only to remember that I had managed to lose my shoes in my tiny little apartment with no furniture in it (I think they returned to Atlanta without me, not sure why... I think I forgot to wash my feet and offended them. Or maybe it was the friends who visited and picked them up by accident... but I am sure they walked back to Atlanta in a tizzy).... so my wednesday workout was killed by not having any shoes. Wednesday afternoon I went to get new shoes :) However, I have flat feet and the only shoes I have ever liked are Reebok's so I went to Target to get some, but they don't have reebok's, and then the shoe place near me doesn't have any I like, and the reebok outlet is far away from here (like 10 MILES!) and it was 5 PM and there was traffic and I wanted to play poker, so I didn't go! In hind sight 40 dollars on shoes would have saved me 300 in poker and allowed me to work out Thursday morning... but whatever I had a learning experience... BAH!

Now I have shoes, and motivation (I bought new pants which don't fit but I like them so I have to exercise).... so tomorrow... for real this time... tomorrow. IN the meantime, work tomorrow at 1 PM as well as Saturday, poker every night, World of Warcraft and KOTOR II, and I placed a few bets on football (Florida State can't cover 29 against a high school team, Georgia has been covering everything this season even 27 against Colorado is a good bet, Baltimore will beat Cleveland by 15 or more and the line was only 6, Tennessee has looked very bad recently so 22 against Marshall was too much, Steelers and Bengals are going to beat each other up and over 41 total seemed a good bet. So I basically bet that TEN and FSU suck and can't cover huge spreads, BAL and UGA are better than the other team and will win handily, and Big Ben and Carson will put on a show and score over 41 total.)...

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The "Night Life"

I never thought I would "get used" to the heat. I mean I lived in Atlanta and it hit high 90's often, but I sitll thought 120 was FREAKING HOT! and it is! But now, I go outside and I am like "Oh it is fine... a little breeze and shade". The heat freaking MELTS my books when I leave them in the car... but I go outside for walks. BAH! It is frying my brain... that must be it!

Imperial Palace is going well. The more I work there, the more I like it. I got moved to swing shift, and it is great! I work 4-5 days a week and get 8 hours almost every time I go in. Fortunately for me, the rest of the dealers want to go play poker... so I can stay and they go early if it is slow. I had to make some adjustments to my dealing from the Series to here. The players at the Series were there to PLAY, and there was nothing you could do to slow them down if you were lost. At IP they are there to drink, hit on the waitress, tell stories, etc... So you really have to push the game along. If you don't, then you get no hands out, and you get no tips. The really nice thing is working the night shift at IP, in at 8 or 9 PM most nights is awesome... the sun is down, the weather is beautiful, lots of peopel coming and going, and there is a night club right outside the poker room and the only bathroom is past the poker room.

Poker has been a little more challenging lately. I moved to no-limit and did very very well, making almost 2 grand in a week or so, but then I got cocky and thought suddenly I was better than everyone else at the table, and then I lost :( a LOT. So I went back to limit and lost, and went back to no-limit and lost, and the idiots got lucky, etc etc. It is really tough when you combine overconfidence and running bad! I had to go back to the basics and re-evaluate my game. I played a lot better when I was focused on improving my game, evaluating what I was doing every hand, etc.

The last week or so I have been playing on my off days and before work, and doing much better. Playing with more respect for the game, and listening to my knowledge a lot more. I am heading to Atlanta for a visit this weekend, and then after that will be able to really focus again. I am also going to go back into the gym starting next week... It is just too important to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you have no sick days! Not to mention, all the women playing poker now don't tip fat bald guys nearly as much as they tip bald sexy ones!