The Bat Cave

Just when I was starting to show some consistency with my posts and get some steady traffic to my blog, things have gotten so hectic that blogging has fallen way down on my priority list. In July, my wife and I moved to Tacoma and my part-time job (playing poker) started to take up a lot more of my time with an $8-$16 game always in action a mere 15 minutes away. In late August, I was hired by the Palace Casino in Lakewood and what used to be an easy, part-time job in a one table poker room where I spent most of my time on the clock playing poker has turned into a mentally and physically exhausting, frequently intense, and often difficult 30 hours a week of running the floor of a poker room with never-ending traffic and few moments to catch your breath after noon. Needless to say, when I finish my work day now, I just want to go home and try to relax a little before I fall asleep far earlier than I ever have in my life. So, aside from my time at work, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays result in basically no productivity from me. I literally come home and do NOTHING. On the bright side, I’m guaranteed to work all my hours and to have multiple games going every day, so while my hourly wage remains similar, my net income has increased dramatically. I also have Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays off, which is optimal if your primary goal is to play poker.

Speaking of poker, August was the best month of poker I’ve had in years and September was also considerably profitable. I spent the vast majority of my time in $8-$16 and saw my win rate for the year climb to over two big bets per hour, thanks to nine straight winning sessions that resulted in pretty large upswing. While I feel like my results are a testament to the hard work I’ve put in towards mastering the game of limit hold em, I don’t think anyone is beating low stakes limit for 2 big bets an hour long term, so even though my sample size is pretty substantial, it’s important to recognize that luck has played a large role in my success. While I personally don’t feel like I’ve been overwhelmingly lucky (others would disagree), one thing is for certain: I have definitely not had many extended periods of bad luck this year. I did, however, end my winning streak with an incredible -$1800 session, the worst I’ve ever had in any limit game – in terms of big bets lost – by a mile. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to leave a game because I was no longer emotionally equipped to sit in it. I mean, I’ve had bouts of anger, frustration, even tilt – that’s normal – but after I was already stuck $1600 and flopped top set in a capped 7-way pot and lost to 65 on the 942J3 run out and a few hands later I was shown the 53 on the AK2A4 board, I no longer felt like I was fit for being in public. My internal dialogue was screaming so loud I felt like everyone at the table could hear it. So I made a swift exit. That happened in early October, which has turned out to be a difficult month of poker for me, as I’m in danger of having my first losing month of 2015 if things don’t turn around over the next few weeks. Still, I can hardly complain, as poker has gone amazingly well since I relocated to Tacoma.

(Note: since I started writing this, October has passed, and while I did mount a serious comeback, I still fell short of the black, resulting in my first losing month of 2015.)

I played three events in the Muckleshoot Classic Series in September. I felt like I was playing really good poker, but I lost every flip I was involved in during the first two tournaments and hit the rail earlier than I wanted to. In the third event, I got my 99 in against an overpair and turned the miracle set and then finally started winning some flip situations, which I was able to parlay into a 13th place finish. I felt like I was freerolling after spiking that set, so it was nice to make a deep run, but it was still ultimately a frustrating finish, as I lost two critical pots with two tables left where I was a heavy favorite and I’m still yet to final table a major tournament at Muckleshoot. Next week I’ll be heading to Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton, Oregon to play five events in the Fall Round Up, another poker room where I’ve struggled to break through. Despite multiple cashes and deep runs, I haven’t final tabled at the Round Up either and variance has never been on my side in the cash games when I’ve been there. In fact, if I had access to all the data I’ve ever compiled, I probably would discover that Wildhorse Casino is my worst location lifetime. So needless to say, I’m looking forward to finally doing some real damage on Oregon soil. You can only hold me down for so long.

I was really enjoying the consistent movie reviews I was posting and I plan to get back in the zone of posting them again, but aside from being too busy to post, I’ve also been too busy to watch any movies. Since I started my new job, I haven’t seen a movie in theaters or at home. It’s been nearly two full months since I last watched an entire film. All of our TV time at home has been dedicated to watching the entire series of “Parks And Recreation,” which is a great show, but I prefer a bit more variety in my entertainment programs. I suppose this is a minor downside of the streaming services as you can “literally” watch 100 episodes in a row without having to wait for a new disc or the next one to air on TV. Meanwhile I’ve had Interstellar at home since June and The Drop and Ex Machina since late August. It’s getting to the point where I probably would have been better off buying these movies rather than paying my Netflix subscription the last few months. We are on season six of Parks & Rec though and I’ve never been so excited for a show I actually enjoy to end. Sorry babe!