Actual poker content!

I went to the casino Sunday for a little slot machine fun. My parents play the slots enough to get some pretty good deals from the casino including monthly free play money. This weekend was my mother's last shot to play off her money and since my Dad was working, I took his players card with me and had $80 free to play slots! Time to win big!

I loaded up in the car with my mother and set off to do what every functional family should be doing...gambling. Now my mother is your typical lady that is mesmerized by slots. You put her in a room full of video slot machines and she loses all sense of time. Her idea of a successful day of playing slots is not necessarily winning big or even winning at all. She's had a good day if her allotted gambling money lasts a long time.... and believe me, she's like a fucking Iron Man when it comes to playing those fool machines.

So about an hour into our casino adventure, and I've spent $70 of the $80 free play and the only thing I have to show for it is a $10 winning slip in my pocket. It's exhausting to me just playing those silly machines. They make my head hurt with their stupid sound and stupid ways of taking all my money. So I give up and hand my mother my Dad's players card with the remaining $10 and told her "If you need me, I'll be sitting at a poker table back there". And off I went. $200 to the cashier. "$160 in red, $40 in white please" (my lucky starting chip distribution).

I'm 5th on the waiting list, but it doesn't take but 10-15 minutes for enough people to start a new table. And it was a good one. I'm not one to remember the details of every hand, even the important ones. All I know is that I started out with a bang which gave me a pretty reckless image that got me paid off time and time again.

I call a small raise in position and it's heads up between me and another guy directly on my right. The flop comes K,T,8 or something like that. The other guy checks and I fire out $25 hoping to take the pot uncontested. Instead he insta-check raises all-in, but it was only $11 more to call (I totally wasn't paying attention to his stack size), so I donated $11 to the pot knowing I was crushed. My opponent turned over his Aces and I sheepishly hide my pocket 7's.... until the 7 hit the turn. "Nice call dickhead" my opponent gasped as he exited stage right.

From that point for the next 90 minutes or so, I folded... garbage garbage garbage. I woke up with A5s in the SB once and you would have thought I had 2 jokers. I called a small raise with the suited ace in a multiway pot. The flop 3,4,7 with 2 spades. Double gutter and a nut flush draw, I'm gambling here after 90 minutes of folding. I check and then it the guy to my left bets something like $30 and 19 other people flat call. I shoved and NOBODY called! I had huge equity in the pot and it wouldn't have hurt my feelings if 1 or 90 people called my shove. But I was happy to take it uncontested...well because I never get there.

I busted another guy when he couldn't lay down JJ on a dry King high board facing my big check-raise. I won another huge pot when I turned a nut straight in a community pot. There was a lot of c-bets that won me some uncontested pots as well. I got in a zone for a while and the poker during those couple hours was more of a blur than anything.

I had a fun, lively table (other than the douche that cussed me for sucking out). Everyone was willing to gamble. One guy went through like 5 buyins in a couple hours. When he finally ran out of money, I racked up my chips, cashed in my loot, bought an overpriced/overcooked Kobe Beef Burger and left the casino a happy man. So happy, I kinda got that poker itch again. Me thinks another road trip is on the agenda for tomorrow. I'm going to rage solo and hopefully keep building me a live poker bankroll to toy around with.

Fishing

I just came back from a short vacation in Surf City, NC. My brother is a charter fishing captain and took us out to try to catch some red drums. The fishing sucked ass, but I had a blast just being out on the water. It was the start of tourist season and the first time I've been there during that time. I saw several hot hippie chicks that will be in the spank bank for a good while.

I also went on a little fishing/scouting expedition yesterday. We 2 awesome rivers in this area that I don't fish enough. We have the New River and Greenbrier River within 30 minutes and both are just full of fish. I don't have a boat suitable for river fishing (yet), so my options are wading and bank fishing at the moment. I love to wade fish. It's my favorite method of fishing. The New River is a bit too dangerous for me to wade in most places. I do have 1 decent spot near the dam, but it gets fished rather heavily. The Greenbrier, on the other hand, is easily waded in most spots. The problem is just finding a spot to be able to park your vehicle and get into the water. My little scouting expedition yesterday help me find a few of those spots. So the missile sirens are wailing for the Smallmouth bass population in West Virginia. I'm about to wage war on some fish.

In other news, I still don't have a job. I have been looking, but there's not a lot to be had around here. I'm about to the point of having to consider relocating, which I really don't want to do. However, before I do that, I'm going to try out giving 110% of working on my own. I have enough people hounding me every day for help with their computers, I might as well try to monetize it. I don't expect to make a killing, but if I keep my costs down and actually give it my all, I feel I can get by. It will be much more rewarding too. I plan on blogging my experience as well if I'm not too overwhelmed with work. I will probably start a new blog for that though.

Peace out homies

Crickets

Nothing but a bunch of crickets chirping in the corner of the internet lately. It's hard to keep an interesting blog when you lead an uninteresting life. To solidify that statement, I'm already in bed at 8:47 p.m. on a Thursday night. I'm bored to tears and evidently there isn't much I can do about it right now. Someone needs a new hobby!?

So I think to myself "Self, what do you enjoy doing that's cheap and would make a good hobby?". The only thing that came to mind was writing. Even though I'm not as graceful with a pen or keyboard like some people, I still enjoy writing.

I'm not sure which direction I want to take this blog. I do know I don't want it to stay stagnant. I'm working on a few things in life that are kind of fun. So I figure I'll just blog about my adventures in trying to better myself.

I'm still working on losing weight. That has come to a standstill lately as I have quit dipping snuff (another aspect of my self improvement). Tonight will be my 9th consecutive night nicotine free! GO ME! One problem though... I could eat everything in this house and go out and buy some more. Jesus Christ, I can't get full. I'm scared to look at how much weight I've gained over the 9 days I've gone nicotine free. I'm sure it's a scale trainwreck waiting to happen...and it' going to happen. But it's no big deal. Hopefully these nicotine urges I get from time to time that I replace with food will go away in time. Also, I exercised today, so that helps!

Also in the self-improvement category, I'm starting up a new business. What little money I was making playing poker went completely bye bye on April 15th, so I needed to do something to earn some scratch without having to whore myself out on the street corners. I whipped up a new business license, contacted some vendors, and now I'm just a few days away from launching a pretty sexy retail website. I don't expect to make much money from the business, but I do plan on MAKING SOME MONEY. I'm starting from zilch too! A couple drop shipped items sold on ebay funded the website. Now I'm working on the capital to have a beginning inventory. My goal here is to learn the online entrepreneurial game and establish some confidence in playing that game.

I won't bore you any further. Expect more frequent updates...hopefully more entertaining than this garbage.

Is it just me?

So this has been going on for years and I'm not sure if this phenomenon is exclusive to me or if it's a common occurrence. When I go to take a shit, I sit on the toilet like any other human. Usually before the turds release, I piss and seemingly empty the bladder. Then I commence to shitting. Usually after a turd or 2, the phenomenon occurs. All of the sudden, I'm taking another FULL piss. Where the hell did this piss come from? Did I not just empty my bladder 5 seconds ago? Were my turds blocking off party of my bladder preventing it from being properly emptying? Is this problem exclusive to fat people? These are questions that haunt me at 4:54 a.m. when I'm battling insomnia (and after taking a nice shit).

A New Years Resolution I might stick with...

When asked what I wanted for Christmas, I really had no idea. Then one day, probably while taking a shit, I decided I watch too much TV. Like 4 out of 5 weekday evenings revolved around television programs. And that's even working the DVR overtime. Something has to give. There really isn't that much quality content on the TV!

So I decided to ask for a Kindle for Christmas. I have to say, I love this thing! I'm addicted to reading again. I started out trying to read Gulliver's Travels since it was free on Amazon's Kindle store. About 1/2 way thru, I gave up. Just plain boring IMO. Then I moved onto another freebie, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was better than Gulliver's Travels, but the tales all felt like they needed a little more meat.

Then, I found a jackpot download on everyone's favorite bay ... where all the pirates hang out. 972 Kindle books in one download. BOOM! Packed full of awesome books. I decided I had avoided the Harry Potter books long enough. So I've dove into that series head first. I'm really enjoying the books. I had avoided them in the past because I thought they were for kids. But then I realized, I'm just an overgrown kid, so it's probably for me.

I'm going to finish off the Potter series (probably sooner than later). Then it's time to decide what's next! In the meantime, I'm suffering zero withdrawals from my lack of TV.

Battling with a Bible thumper...

IMO, religion is nothing more than entertainment. I am entertained while hoards of people, unable to think for themselves, blindly worship an all-powerful being that can be everywhere at the same time and still have the spare time to listen to your bitching and moaning and grant your wishes. Sounds almost like Santa Claus huh?

Anyway, 95% of the time, when I type something in my Facebook status area, it's my humerous views on life. My language is very unfiltered at times too. It's who I am. If you're really my friend like Facebook says you are, then you should have known this already.

Let's flashback about 10 years. I'm very good friends with this guy who happens to have a twin. I was friends with his twin brother for a time, but over the years, the 2 twins drifted further apart from one another in personality. On one hand, the one I still call my friend is happy-go-lucky, fun to be around, and just an all around good guy. His brother grew into a miserable, annoying fuck. Our personalities clash something fierce. I can tolerate him in small doses though. Which evidently is sufficient enough to be my Facebook friend.

So I hop on Facebook a few mornings ago and type something along the lines of "My shit's so sweet, when I eat toast and eggs, I crap out cupcakes". No reason.. it just popped in my head and I chuckled. My first reply to the status:

"Wes, you need a job. All you do is post of Facebook all the time. Quit using fowl language all the time. It shows your intelligence."

WHAT!? First of all, this is coming from a dude that has probably said "Fuck" in front of my mother no less than 10 times. But apparently, after an illness, he has found religion. So now it's his duty to censor me. My retort:

"Don't insult my intelligence when you can't spell 'foul'"

I could have busted up his response a little more, but I left it at that.

So today, I'm not sure what I actually typed that offended him so much. I went back through my statuses and the most offending word I could find was "douche". But that was just this morning, he may have seen something from yesterday or before. Anyway, I get a private message (it's getting serious now!) from him that reads:

"Wesley, i love you brother, and I love picking on you. But please be considerate of what my church friends are seeing when you post cus words"

My response:

"Brother, they aren't on my friends list and won't see anything I type. If they do, they are more than welcome to delete me."

I refuse to actually battle with a Bible thumper. It's worse than arguing with a drunk. You can't win an argument when they have an imaginary friend on their side. So I say my peace and unfriend them. In the end I win.. you just have your imaginary friend and one less virtual friend, I have the knowledge of how to actually use the most popular website in the world and cut all virtual ties with you.

Part 2: 'Nuff Said

So I've been hemming and hawing about what to put in Part 2 of my dismal story. Finally I decided that I've said everything that needs to be said in Part 1. So the bottom line was I took a swing, and I missed. I still have 2 strikes left though! Oh, and poker sucks.

Now that the holidays are almost over, I can get back into my diet and exercise routine and focus on losing weight and getting even healthier. I still have a good ways to go in this aspect.

As for making money, I'm not sure. I'm taking more computer side jobs to help with money. I don't necessarily like it, but it's still way better than being stuck in a cubicle. I like the freedom of being my own boss, but I'll need to come up with a more profitable business fairly soon or it will be back to hanging with the lost souls of humanity in a office building.

Poker? Not the best career choice. TL;DR

I think it's about that time to sum up my poker career. FAIL.

I took my shot. I don't regret it. I'd do it again. I learned more about myself the past 2 years than any other time in life. But the fact of the matter is ... I'm BUSTO. Bankroll < $100. Savings $0. Any other money I had stashed away: $0. It's not as depressing as you'd think. More embarrassing than anything.

So now I'm one of the guys that will tell you not to go pro when you post a thread in the poker forums asking if you should do it. It's a shitty way to make money. The only way I'd recommend it is if you play higher stakes and are a solid winner over at least a million hands. And then, only if you still love poker after those million hands. By the time I reached my millionth hand, I was ready to vomit at the sight of another flop, turn, or river.

I could have made it with a stricter work ethic. The problem was that I got so totally burnt that I couldn't stand to grind. I'd start every day with good intentions and then by the time I played 1000 hands, I was ready to take a day off. Grinding the low stakes games is great for college students wanting to earn extra beer money. It beats the shit out of a real job. But for someone in the real world, it's not a career.... unless you are one of the few that can bust out $100K months without breaking a sweat. The biggest downfall with grinding low stakes and basically being a rakeback whore (even with a solid winrate) is that your bankroll never grows. There's always something in life that takes that small percentage you were just able to add to your bankroll.

So what did poker do for me as a person? Physically, it almost killed me. I gained a ton of weight, lived mostly off fast food, and I became a hermit. Mentally, it freed me. The one thing in life I really hated prior to starting to play poker as a career was my job. I hated my job so much that it was so difficult to even get out of bed in the morning. I was constantly sick...but most of the sickness was in my mind because I'd stress myself out so much about going to work. This was a completely different stress than what I experienced playing poker. It was much, much worse.

So in a sense, I feel like a free man! I feel good. I've shed a lot of weight in the past couple months. I'm way healthier today than I was 3 months ago...when I was literally on the verge of death. In reality though, I'm in bad shape. I'm still obese and have a long way to go in the weight loss department. I'm also broke as a joke. Really really broke. That debt I worked so hard to shed? Pffft...I'm now dodging creditors because I can't pay my credit card bills...the same credit cards I had to live off of for a couple months just so I could make ends meet. My credit report has to be a mess. I'm too scared to look.

The worst part of this entire situation is that I feel no desire to re-enter the workplace. I love the feeling of freedom I have being "my own boss" and don't want to give that up for anything in the world.

Part 2 coming later...

Why even have police?

It’s been a hell of a week.  I’ve hardly had any time for poker at all.  I’ve been dealing with a bunch of bullshit that really isn’t my fault, but is being made out to be my fault.

Tuesday night, I drove my truck around town running some errands.  All was fine.  Then Wednesday morning, I’m leaving my parents house to go to the drug store.  On the way out of my parents subdivision, which is a fairly steep hill going to the main road, my left rear wheel just comes off my truck and proceeds to roll down the hill into traffic, causing an accident.  Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the hill with 3 wheels on my vehicle, looking like an ass.

Upon further investigation, my wheel had been tampered with.  I found all, but 2 lug nuts laying between my parents house and where the wheel came off.  I had to get the truck towed to the service station next door.  He said that if those lug nuts had been loose for any period of time, it would have destroyed the threads on the studs.  Which hadn’t happened.  He also said all the lug nuts would not have come off at the same time.

The police refused to hear this side of my story.  I didn’t get a citation or anything.  And sure, I know it’s not the other guys fault for a tire running in front of him on the main street.  But I want retribution for whomever fucked with my vehicle.  That’s a low blow.

I stayed with my parents Tuesday night and I remember the dog barking at one time.  The only thing I can figure is that someone was trying to steal my wheels and the barking dog scared them away before they could finish the job.

Also, the officer that responded to the accident, did a piss poor job.  He basically had me and the other guy give a statement, had us sign the statement and then sent him on the way.  He called the tow truck for me and when it arrived, he was gone with the wind.  I didn’t even get a phone number for the guy in the other vehicle or any of his information.  So I had to call my insurance company and just plead ignorant on any of the details surrounding the other guys info.

The entire process has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the way the police handled the situation.  Luckily, nobody was injured and there was minimal damage to my vehicle.  In fact, I was up and driving it again about an hour later.  The other truck just had a bent bumper.

How about some positivity?

I’m gonna post some fun hands from today.  I actually ran quite well today.  I dropped down to $25NL yesterday for a little over 1000 hands and pretty much ran over every table I played.  It helped my confidence so much.  Even with getting my aces cracked AI preflop twice, I managed to win almost 4 buyins in those 1000-1100 hands.

One rakeback payment later and I’m back on the $50NL grind.  I did my best to bum hunt.  It wasn’t easy this afternoon, but I still did quite well.  I’m still down for the week, but today made up for a good portion of what I lost.  Hopefully it will continue tomorrow and I can surprise my backer (if he hasn’t read this by that time).

Hand #1 (Chasing that flush on a paired board is a bitch)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843907
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $45.35
BB: $50.00
UTG: $66.35
MP: $50.00
Hero (CO): $50.00
BTN: $158.20

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with A 5
UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.50, BTN calls $2.50, SB calls $2.25, 1 fold, UTG calls $2

Flop: ($10.50) 5 4 5 (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $7.50, BTN calls $7.50, SB folds, UTG folds

Turn: ($25.50) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $14, Hero raises to $40 all in, BTN calls $26

River: ($105.50) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $105.50
Hero shows A 5 (a full house, Fives full of Aces)
BTN shows 6 7 (a flush, Ace high)
Hero wins $102.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #2 (dem’s straight clovers bitch)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843908
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $41.20
Hero (BB): $69.90
UTG: $40.45
MP: $65.75
CO: $47.75
BTN: $93.95

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 3 4
1 fold, MP raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($5.50) J 2 5 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $4, CO calls $4, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($17.50) 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets $14.50, Hero raises to $41, MP folds, CO calls $26.50

River: ($99.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $23.15 all in, CO calls $1 all in

Final Pot: $101.50
Hero shows 3 4 (a straight flush, Six high)
CO mucks A J
Hero wins $98.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #3 (spew much?)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843909
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $50.00
BTN: $67.10
SB: $52.35
Hero (BB): $54.10
UTG: $50.00
MP: $91.05

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with A A
UTG raises to $1.75, MP calls $1.75, 3 folds, Hero raises to $7, UTG calls $5.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($16.00) 3 K 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $9, UTG raises to $43 all in, Hero calls $34

Turn: ($102.00) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($102.00) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $102.00
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
UTG shows 8 8 (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
Hero wins $99.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #4 (LOL at this dude…dropped 4 buyins in like 6 hands)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843910
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $74.05
Hero (BB): $118.65
UTG: $49.50
MP: $91.65
CO: $50.00
BTN: $91.35

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with T Q
UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, CO raises to $2.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.75, 1 fold

Flop: ($5.25) T 7 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $4.50, Hero raises to $15, CO raises to $47.75 all in, Hero calls $32.75

Turn: ($100.75) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($100.75) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $100.75
Hero shows T Q (a flush, Ace high)
CO shows 8 7 (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
Hero wins $97.75
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #5 (this happens way to often to me. BUT I WON ONE!)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843911
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $74.10
Hero (SB): $50.00
BB: $87.30
UTG: $77.55
MP: $50.00
CO: $84.60

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with K K
3 folds, BTN raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, BTN raises to $16, Hero raises to $50 all in, BTN calls $34

Flop: ($100.50) 9 K 6

Turn: ($100.50) 5

River: ($100.50) 2

Final Pot: $100.50
BTN shows A A (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows K K (three of a kind, Kings)
Hero wins $97.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #6 (retard much?)
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 843912
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $41.35
BTN: $50.00
SB: $68.25
BB: $50.00
Hero (UTG): $102.50
MP: $105.20

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 7 7
Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, CO calls $1.75, 1 fold, SB raises to $3, BB calls $2.50, Hero calls $1.25, CO calls $1.25

Flop: ($12.00) 6 8 9 (4 players)
SB bets $3, BB folds, Hero raises to $9, CO folds, SB calls $6

Turn: ($30.00) 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11.50, SB calls $11.50

River: ($53.00) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $53.00
SB mucks T K
Hero shows 7 7 (a pair of Sevens)
Hero wins $50.35
(Rake: $2.65)

Hooray for winning.