-Out to Lunch-

Ok I thought about this for a awhile and have decided that poke ris taking up too much of my time and with my promotion test coming up in 6 months and so many things I could be doing on this tropical island other then sit in front of a computer screen for hours on end I have decided to take an extended break from online poker for 6 months.

I have uninstalled all the poker programs off of all my PC's so I wont be tempted to play. I am going to spend the next 6 months working on a few side projects and study for my promotion test. Once I take my promotion test I am going to reevaluate whether or not I want poker to be a part of my life. If I dont I am out a little money and have a collection of poker books for no reason.

Sorry for those of you that actually read this humble space but I need to do this for me. I felt like I let my family down when I did not study and make my next rank the first try. If it had not been for poker I am sure I would have made it. Hopefully I will want to come back in 6 months as I really do love this game, but right now it is best for me just to pick my chips up for a little while.

Slow start...

I have only finished 7 of my set of 30 Tier one game son Full Tilt so far. I blame the software update as Full Tilt chose to restart their server during my prime playing time. I have gotten 4 tickets so far with 2 7ths(bubble) and 1 6th place finish they ended in me playing a 35 min HU SnG for a ticket where I finally lost when the guy expertly played flopped quads to steal the life away from me....

The games are indeed soft, but the struggle at the bubble is fierce. My eighth one just finished and again I wen tout in seventh. This time I was crippled when my AK was no match for the short stacked SB's J5o.

Brian over at talk poker to me did a really good write up from when he attempted this same type of thing. He sent me the links and I read through them and was quite interested. Especially the part about how the variance matter so much more the higher up you go. I still think that this should work out to be profitable, but if it does not at least I tried. If you want to check it out go to his blog, and scroll down until you see my name is blue. A surefire must read in my opinion.

Oh, as mentioned earlier the new software for Full Tilt was a great addition that includes a fancy customizable slider bar. Well wish me luck I am in game 9 as we speak. As long as I get a ticket in one of the next two games I will be right on track for my predicted cash rate a third of the way in.

Which way do I go...

Well to those that e-mailed/messaged me about my last post thank you…

Now moving on to bigger and better things. Well at least that is the goal. I have spent a lot of time thinking about where I am as a player and where I really want to be. I decided that I was or have not been regularly at the level I want to be. I came to the conclusion that I want to really make a go at the MTT’s on Full Tilt and mainly the $26 and above.

Now that’s great that I know where I want to be, but can I do it? I am not a delusional person so I know that my current bankroll would by no stretch of the imagination be able to withstand even a slight downswing at my requested level of play. That means I have three options available to me. I can:

1. I can say screw it and take a crack at it anyway.

To be honest I really considered this. The money I currently have online is not life crippling money. I could easily in a paycheck or two redeposit and go at it from a different angle if I did not succeed. The problem is I would be going against everything I learned about bankroll management, and even would probably not be playing my best as the money would mean SOOO much to my bank roll.

2. Grind out micro MTTs until properly rolled.

Not really an option TBH. The variance in the lower levels is so high, and I honestly believe the bad habits that I would invariably pick up would just hinder my chances even more.

3. Formulate a plan that can let me build a decent roll in 6 months time.

Why 6 months? Well as usual I have more than just one reason.

First, I don’t want to be unrealistic and think I can make the roll required to play at the medium MTT level exclusively in a short period of time.

Secondly, six months from now I will be testing for promotion and want to put forth some real effort at making it this year. Last year I did not even try and was kicking myself when the scores came out. If I make it this year I am still well ahead of the power curve and then only have to make one more rank to be able to apply for the job that I ultimately want to finish out my career.

I chose option C and started working on coming up with a viable plan to make some real money in the next 6 months. I started looking hard at the token satellite tournaments on Full Tilt Poker and decided to base my plan around these tournaments.

Ok then here is my plan. I am going to set aside $261 of my roll which I won’t lie is a HUGE chunk of my entire roll. With that money I am going to play 30 $8.70 18 man satellite tournaments for a $26 token. Now once I have managed to do that I am going take the tokens I win and play the $26 satellites for a $75 token. After that I will play $75 satellites for $216 tickets which I will unregister from for T$.

Hopefully after my first set like this I have managed to cash in 2 of the $75 satellites. If I manage to accomplish this the rest of my plan will go into effect.

First off I will sell 1/4th of my T$ for safe keeping and then play however many of the $8.70 Satellites I am able for the amount of T$ I have left. I then plan to save back 1/5 of the tokens I win and play $26 satellites with the other 4/5. So if I managed to win 20 tokens I would keep 4 tokens back. And play 16 $75 satellites, and then do the same for the $75 satellite tokens. The idea is I can put some tokens back when I run into a dry spell I will still have some tokens left over to try to make a recovery.

The other consideration is if I place 6th as the 6 place finisher gets about a 2/3 buy in profit. The plan is if I place 6th in an $8.70 satellite I will take the $14 and play a $13.75 HU sat for a $26 token. If I place 6th in the others the prize will just be added to my bankroll. As with any other crazy idea I have had I will keep all of you posted with my progress.

StUpId JuStICe

Well the title actually means two things to me. On one side I am talking about the United States attempt at prohibiting online gambling. First it seems ludacris to me that I am overseas in a position to fight for my country, and the lawmakers that won’t even send/allow their own children to fight are saying I can’t log on to my favorite poker site and play a $10 Sit and Go. It is idiotic we are grown up adults that happen to enjoy playing poker via pixelated cards.

That makes me think of some more things that congress is protecting us military members from. How about Playboy and Penthouse magazines? That’s right. I am not kidding ,they actually have a committee trying to determine whether it is appropriate to sell these products in stores on military bases. How great is it that I can spend all day learning how to not die in combat and if I want to go home and relax while reading a Playboy and playing some poker, no can do.

Sorry for the rant, but I am in a position that I am fighting for the freedoms that America represents, and all I see is a bunch of lawmakers that are out of touch with the common man, and are frankly to busy trying to protect the average American from themselves to protect our rights.

Sure some people are going to go overboard playing online poker. I have seen it personally, but when that person could no longer play on line they went on to find some other way to lose their money. To me this fight is more than just about online poker. It is about the rights that we have as Americans, that I choose to fight for, only for them to be whittled away by right wing conservative assholes. So if you’re an American that enjoys online poker DO SOMETHING about your rights being taken away. Join the PPA-Write your Congressman and Senators and try to make them understand that as an American you want them, to defend your rights, not take them away. Let our families and friends worry about protecting us from ourselves. The government should worry about protecting us from our enemies, from the members of society that may harm us. The government needs to fix education and health care. I mean, my autistic son barely gets the help he needs because the budget barely covers what schools need. That does not stop the government from wasting time and spending millions of dollars deciding what we can and can’t do behind closed doors. No online poker. If we let that happen next will be a $0.25 charge automatically added to your taxes every time you say a curse word over the phone line, or type it into a chat box or email… Wait I better shut up or the right wing conservative assholes might slide that into a completely unrelated bill. Just like they did with the UIGEA.