I hate it when that happens

I hate the feeling you get when you do something that you didn’t intend to do.
Here I am building a spreadsheet so I can do analysis of customer complaints when we have a power surge or something. You might have heard the scream escape my lips as the florescent light bulbs slowly re-illuminated my 11x10 brick-lined office. I wasn’t worried about the work I spent the last 2½ hours working on because I always save my documents at regular intervals. As my computer reboots I realize it is only a mater of time before I’m back to work and finishing the comparison of complaints by department as compared by product. I’m happy because in ten minutes I’ll be done and it isn’t due until next Monday. Where did it go? Recent documents? No. I’ll do a search for files created today. File note found?

Upon further review I’ve come to the realization that I didn’t intend to forget to “save file as”.



As a Cub fan and someone who realizes the beauty of the game I bring this to you.


I'm all better now.



Anyway, A and M had Girl Scouts last night so I thought it a good time to play some poker. L had homework to keep her busy and B wasn’t feeling good so he was happy to sit in a vegetative state in front of the T.V. As I fire up the tables A calls and asks me to bring something to the meeting that she forgot at home. Tilt!!! Now the trip to the meeting is only five minutes away but for some reason I couldn’t grasp the concept of a short trip. Only that the trip was eating up poker time. By the time I get home my head is so far up my ass that I can see the cavities in my teeth. I proceed to a $2 20 person sng. I played tight and waited for the right time to make my move. I get Paris & Nikki in the bb with three limpers. Blinds are 25/50 and will go up next hand. I raise it to 300 and get two callers. Flop is 99T 1 spade. 1st player is a calling station but second player is solid. I raise all in as a bet would leave me pot committed anyway. Both call. Oh shit. Player 1 has J6 both spades. Player 2 has TT. Turn 7 of spades. River 3 of Spades. Instead of being chip leader I’m stuck with 190. I get back to 670 and the final table when he calls my A-Q all-in with 8-3 and hits a boat. IGHN. Mega tilt. Blow another $2 on a ten player sng because I’m a bluegill.

Luckily L had work to do on the computer or I might have lost it all.
After we get the kids in bed I decide to try again. I’m way down for the night but I need to get some hours on the limit tables. 2 Hours later I win back all I lost plus $2 to get me to $15.45. I gambled a little by playing three tables with 2/3 of my bankroll but it worked out. I don’t know if I’ll have time to play tonight because I have to prepare for a meeting Thursday but we’ll see. Lets hope I don’t tilt…. Again.

Remember to hit save

It sucks when you spend two hours working on a spread sheet and then the power goes off. enough said.

My Wife Ridicules Me

I started my adventure four days before my blog. A little ass backwards but I must start someplace.

Anyway, while my wife and I were discussing my foray into the poker world I reminded her that I would like to get a large plasma screen T.V. My idea was to use my poker winnings to buy said T.V. After she got up off the floor she informed me that I have no chance of achieving this goal. Being the competitive person that I am, I again said that I will buy the T.V. with the winnings. “Whatever” she said. End of story.

Friday night comes around and I fire up the computer for my new quest. The only distraction I have is the eight screaming pre-teens destroying what little sanity I have left after a mindless week of work. My daughter just turned twelve and thought it necessary to invite a group of her closes friends to a slumber party. At least I had coupons for free pizza. Anyway, the quest begins around 11:00 at a .02-.04 limit table. The only thing I can say is that if people play like this at the higher levels then the plasma T.V. is looking good. 1-hour session. Up $1.27. Got off for a while because my eardrums were taking a pounding from the nonstop screams from the other room. Eventually, after explaining that you don’t have to scream to be heard, the girls calmed down and watched a movie. Yes, More poker time. Finally, after getting the other kids to bed, I went back to the ultimate grind of .02-.04 tables. I finally quit about 3:00 AM up $4.03. My wife was not impressed that I increased my bankroll 80% in one night

Saturday arrives bright and early when a friend calls at 7:30 to remind my wife of something they had planned for this morning. “So now that we are wide awake lets have some fun”. Maybe not. Good morning son. Oh well. Breakfast for the throng of bleary-eyed pre-teens and soon they were out the door with their mothers. More than one of them asked if my sanity was still intact. Meanwhile, its noon and Megan has softball practice. Now its 2:00 and Lauren has practice and since I’m the coach I’m there with her.

It is a blast coaching these kids. I can teach them the fundamentals of them game knowing that they will learn how to be better ball players as well as being better people before it is all said and done

4:00 and we’re back home getting ready to see a praise and worship group sing later that night. Good music. Very inspirational. Anyway, no poker.

Church is crazy right now. We are in the process of calling a new pastor and being one of the leaders in the church means everyone needs to talk to me on Sunday. I had wanted to play in a $100 free roll at noon but that was out of the question. I was 26 seconds late for the start. More grinding. -.64. I lost 6 1/2 % of my bankroll in one 45-minute session. No more poker Sunday.

This morning I woke-up at 4:00 AM so I could attempt to grind out a meager win for the day. I got adventurous and two tabled the .02-.04s. Up around $5 so at least my losing streak was short this time. At this pace I should have my new T.V. by Thanksgiving 2008.

In The Begining

Welcome to my humble blog.
It is here for your amusement, critique, or just to kill time.
I will in no way be confused with a poker expert or a writing god.
I only want to ramble on about life and poker.

What about me? First of all, I’m a 38-year-old married man with 3 kids in the western suburbs of Chicago. I work as the Quality Manager at a manufacturing company in the suburbs and I am competitive. Additionally, I have the genetic make-up of a degenerate gambler. Secondly, My family consists of my wife A (stay at home mom), 2 daughters L & M(12 & 9), and a son B(4). And finally, did I say that I’m competitive?

One of the problems with poker is that not everyone understands the game. I’m not talking about the rules. I’m talking about the challenge. The fact that everyone at the table is trying to take your money and that you are trying to take all of theirs. To me, playing the game isn’t so much about the money as it is about overcoming the obstacles inherent in the game. As the game gets easier I have the ability to move up in levels to increase the difficulty. Sure, the idea of gaining a few bucks while doing something I love is nice but it is only a side effect of the game.

Another problem that many of us have is that our spouse doesn’t like the game or doesn’t like the gambling atmosphere. My wife feels that poker is evil and that it will send you on the road to ruin because of its addictive qualities. She has never really cared if I played the free games but I better not put any real money into a poker site. I agree with her logic in some ways. It’s hard to justify the outlay of funds on a speculative venture like poker. But isn’t poker like a long-term investment? You will have ups and downs along the way but if you do your research right, you will have a winning proposition in the long run. I understand that the compulsive nature of the game can send you to the gutter if you let it but if you have the right safeguards in place that should not happen.

With all of this in mind, I earned $5 on a free role. Big deal. Well I showed my wife and her response was, ”They just gave you the money? You didn’t put any of our money in there did you?” Being that our money and my poker are two subjects that my wife doesn’t feel go together my response to her questions are obvious. But we made a deal.

1) I can play poker with that money.
2) No money comes out of the household funds for poker.

Not much of a deal but I explained that for me to turn it into a significant amount I would have to play many hours and get very lucky early on.

So my goals are:

1) Move up levels in LHE staying within my bankroll
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
b) Stay within buy-in limits

2) Play SnGs as bankroll allows
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
b) Stay within buy-in limits

3) Play MTTs as bankroll allows
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
b) Stay within buy-in limits

4) Win a MTT

5) Prove to my wife that poker is an investment, not gambling.

6) Achieve a bankroll of $3000.

My thinking is that a buy-in is equal to 40 big blinds. I would use a different method for a NL cash game.

Does any of this mean that I will be a successful player? No but I’m a competitive person who hates to loose and I’m goal driven. If I loose it will be because I go broke. There will be bankroll fluctuations that I will have to deal with but I am determined to succeed. Additionally, I will only go broke if I ignore my bankroll restrictions so here is to the future.
These goals are achievable if I play solid poker and stay within my limits.