I had my clothes laid out and my alarm set for something like 4:45 in the morning, anticipating making a few extra bucks. Sound asleep sometime around 3:30 in the morning, I heard my phone going off on the nightstand. Of course it was work, and this time they were asking me to come in at 5 am instead of 6. The graveyard dealer had to get out by five, and there was an all-night no-limit game going. So I hopped out of bed, did my morning ritual, and hustled down to the casino. I did a fly-by of the poker room on my way back to my locker, and saw that there was indeed a game going.
I had about ten minutes to spare, so once I got dressed, I headed over to the dining room to get a cup of yogurt and some juice.
On my way back out to the floor, I saw the graveyard poker dealer standing at his locker in his street clothes. That wasn't a good sign. If he was there, then there wasn't anyone playing poker--I was his relief.
I was like Dude--what happened?
He said that one player got up from the game about a minute after I walked by the room, and then on the very next hand three players went all in, and the guy with the biggest stack busted the other two players, and the game broke.
F*ck.
On the other hand, the next thing he told me softened the blow a bit. He said It's not a game you wanted to deal anyways. They were a bunch of f*ckin' stiffs.
He headed off to the garage, and I headed over to the poker room, where I sat on my ass doing absolutely nothing for the next three hours until the 8:00 am dealer showed up. Luckily the little hottie Bulgarian cocktail waitress had nothing to do either, so she hung out and kept me company. Even all our old foga's that come in every morning got a late start, so I didn't pitch my first card until 8:30.
Half the old farts weren't there anyways, so it was a short-handed game, and the average pot was about eight bucks. And there were two old stiffs in the game, too, so I made a whopping $27 in tokes in the two downs I did. It was awful. I had a double break after that because there was another dealer that came in at 9:00 am, and I was out by 11:00 when the two eleven o'clockers showed up.
We're hoping that once the holiday weekend hangover goes away and all the cash games at the Rio dry up later this week, we'll be back to being busy again. But man, these past two weeks have been awful, with the exception of last Thursday.
Once I got home, I started to sort some of the boxes out that are still stacked in my room, but I got a text message from Angy and I logged onto the computer. We chatted for about a half hour, but I was so sleepy that I dozed off and accidentally logged out of the yahoo messenger thingy. So we said our goodbyes and I had a three hour power nap.
Once I woke up, I puttered around some more, wasting time on the computer, doing a little bit of reading, and playing in some of those ten-cent micro-tournaments on RiverStars. I'm to the point where I absolutely detest online poker, but these little micro tourneys give me a chance to play against 350 or more players basically for free. I'm not really in them to win--I think first prize, if you toil away for two hours and beat 360 people, is like eight bucks. But I use them to test theories about how to play certain hands in certain positions, and the info I glean from them is quite useful. It's much better than running computer simulations.
But the funny thing is, even though it's nickel stakes poker, I've gotten so competitive that I still get pissed off when the donkeys make a bad play and draw out on me. On the other hand, I get to play crappy cards to remind myself why it's a bad idea, and I can practice bluffing, semi-bluffing, and other crazy moves and such without exposing my bankroll.
Anyhow, around 9:30 or so, I'd had enough self-abuse on the computer, so I drove down to Green Valley Ranch to catch a movie. I hadn't seen a film at the theater since last July when the Simpsons Movie came out. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to choose from.
So I coughed up the ten bucks to see that latest Indiana Jones movie. Oh my god, it was the worst thing I've seen in years. Seriously, what the hell were they thinking? Poor script, ridiculous special effects, and a completely unbelievable story, not to mention the gaping holes in the plot. I sat there shaking my head through the entire movie, and about halfway through I was thinking to myself Are we there yet?
Good lord, what a waste of money. I can't believe Harrison Ford agreed to do it after reading the script. Seriously--he gets pitched halfway across the desert by a nuclear blast (while huddled inside a refrigerator no less), and emerges unscathed? And don't get me started on the whole waterfall thing, either. I could go on and on. I don't know why, but watching that movie, I kept hearing Slater's voice from Dazed and Confused saying George Washington was in a cult, and the cult was into aliens, man. Anyhow, I felt like I got ripped off, and I really didn't enjoy it very much at all.
Once I got home, I checked the email and got an interesting message. It seems that one of my readers, whose identity I will protect, has been following my poker exploits as of late with great interest, and had made me an offer of syndication. Basically, he wants to
Hmmm... It's an interesting proposition, and 90% percent of the pros sell pieces of their action, just like up-and-coming golfers. I never really considered it before, and it's something I'll have to mull over. One one hand, it'll make getting into the big boy's tournaments much easier, but on the other hand, Damn--I don't know if I'm ready for that. And being on the hook to an investor adds another level of stress to an already stressful proposition--weeding my way through a field of sharks in a big tournament is hard enough as it is.
Like I said, I think I'll have to chew on that one for awhile. I *know* I'm just on the cusp of being good enough to compete with all but the very best players out there, but I've still got a ways to go. My only limitations are experience, time, and bankroll. I get more and more experience every week, so that's just a process. Time, well, my work schedule kind of dictates how much time I can dedicate to my game, but now that I'm working less but generally making more money, that seems to be taking care of itself. Bankroll is the biggest limitation, so that's why I'm considering offers.
However, it's been four tourneys and over a week since I've cashed, and that ain't the kind of results that 'investors' are looking for. So this might be an ongoing process that we'll have to revisit once I feel like I'm back on track.
But I know that my skills are there. The biggest difference I see in my abilities now versus a year ago, is that I'm no longer afraid of strong players. I can identify them and, like Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, I've learned how to sidestep a few land mines. It's not the good players I worry about--it's the people making bad calls who get lucky that I have avoid. And nowadays, every time I go into a tournament, I truly believe that I'm gonna make the final table, if not take down the whole thing outright. Before, I used to just be happy to be there trying to see how long I can last. Those tourneys at Binion's this past month--I fully expected to be there at the end every time. And I made it deep into four out of six of them. I no longer consider myself dead money in any tournament I play in.
My skills have improved gradually, but my mindset is completely different than it used to be. Anyhow, it seems like I'm to the point where I'm rambling, so I'm going to shut it down until tomorrow. I'm on call again, but I seriously doubt I'll be going in to work, so I'm going to spend the day doing the big push of getting completely settled in to the new place.
Mikey
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