JamesSlusher.com

I realize I haven’t had much to share with everyone these past few months. I could go through the entire litany of reasons why, but you have heard them all before.

It’s not you. It’s me. Really. I love you, I’m just not in love with you. No, I don’t want to break up, I just need some time. We’re still friends, right? Right now, I think we might need to see other blogs.

Don’t read anything extra into that last paragraph. I’m just funning. I know that there are some out there that want me to put out another podcast and to write more on politics and share more of the goings on in my daily life. I want to do all that, too. And more. But with my life as it is now, I barely have enough time to sleep, let alone pursue these other activities.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been finding time for poker. But I do that as a relaxer. When I play poker, I don’t think about other things. It’s sort of a zen thing for me, like meditation whilst stripping somebody of their cash.

I’m not ruling out a comeback, I’m just in no hurry. When the podcast comes back, it will most likely be very differently structured than it has been. Part of my hesitance to do it has been that I’m bored with the format I’ve created. It’s a very standard and predictable talk, song, talk, song, talk, song, goodbye. I want something a little less predictable and something that is less Jamescentric. When I find it, I will come roaring back. Until then, I think I will just chill out and post erratically. Kind of like I’ve been doing.

To all you other Dads out there, Happy Father’s Day. I received a delicious breakfast, a handmade Father’s Day card and two paintings from Emily, a Georgia Tech license plate for my car and a fridge magnet with the Ace and Jack of Spades on it. All in all, a pretty good haul.

And, again, to all the other Daddy’s out there: Happy Day.

I am now 31 tournaments into my plan to become a professional poker player. Here is a breakdown of the numbers:

Number of tournaments: 31
Number of final tables: 7
Number of 1st place finishes: 2
Amount of money wagered: 7,750
Amount of money won: 25,986

If you remember, I said that I wanted to get to 4 final tables (because that is where the money payouts start) in 40 tourneys. I’ve almost doubled that and I still have 9 tournaments to go. I’ve more than tripled the amount of money I have wagered and I have increased my original bankroll by 250%. In 2 other tournaments I could have/should have gotten to the final table, but I blazed out in a ridiculous show of testosterone in both of them. In those tournaments (in which I placed 15th and 12th), I easily had a big enough chip stack to wait out the shorter stacks. But I got questionably good hands against opponents I felt were bullying me and tried to make something happen. Well, poker doesn’t work like that and if you put ego before sense, you are gonna lose. I knew that and I proved it to myself for the thousandth time in my life. So, I’ve calmed down and am making sure that I don’t let those blazes of ego burn me anymore.

And, of course, there have been several tournaments in which I have done precisely the right thing and gotten beat. There is no starting hand in Hold ‘Em poker that can’t be beat. Even a guy with two aces (the best possible starting hand) has a 15% chance of losing to any two random cards. So nothing is certain. The trick is to bet in a manner that maximizes your winnings when you’ve got the best odds and minimizes your losses when you get beat. And that is a tough trick, but I’m getting better at it each day.

So that’s all the good news, the bad news is that I have played in 5 WSOP round 1 qualifying tournaments and have fared no better than 297th out of 1800 players. In those 5 tournaments I have finished 827th, 608th, 302nd, 300th, and 297th. Overall, those really aren’t bad numbers. I have outlasted about a 1000 ppl in all of them and about 1500 in 3 of them. The trouble is, I need to outlast 1791 of them to move on the the next round.

I had been playing in every single WSOP tourney that came up. That sometimes meant registering at 1 A.M. That’s gonna stop. I am going to only play in the tournaments that fit my schedule and stop trying to change my schedult to fit them. If I don’t make it this year, I can make it next year. And with more experience under my belt, I will just be that much better of a player.

On the subject of poker, I am going to be attempting to register for a Round 1 (of 3) tournament that could end up getting me a free ticket into the WSOP. It is a challenging task, as I would have to get to the final table in 2 consecutive tournamnets with 1800 people in them and then be in the top 20 of the 3rd.

Registration starts in 1 minute. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: Looks like I need more luck to register than to win the tournament, registration of the 1800 filled up in under 20 seconds and I didn’t get it. Bummer.

I’ve always loved playing poker. My father taught me how to play when I was still a little kid, simply because I pestered him so much about it. I would see him playing with his buddies in our basement gameroom and thought that it was just a cool thing. He taught me to shuffle and he taught me the most important rule about the game.

I even watch poker on TV. I watch the replays of past WSOP tournaments, I watch Learn From The Pros and anything else that I see coming on. I watch these guys play and think that being a professional player would be quite fun.

Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, my poker buddies are no longer able to play our weekly game. So I’ve had to turn to other sources to enjoy this pastime. I’ve been playing on FullTiltPoker.net.

I enjoy playing online almost as much in person. Actually being there, watching their faces and talking is better, but the online game has it’s points, too. You get to see alot of hands, you get to focus on betting strategies without other players’ actions distracting you and you can mute any of the more annoying/rude players.

So I want to play poker more and I think being a professional player would be cool. That brings the question, how do I do both?

I figured out a way to ease into it without breaking the rule I linked to above. Online they have both play money and real money games and tournaments. I don’t want to get into the real money until I’m sure that I can place in the money on a consistent basis. so I have started out in the play money tournaments.

I started out with $10,000 in play money. They have tournament buy-ins of 250, 2000 and 10000. I decided to start at the $250 level and I think that placing in the money in 10 percent of all tournaments and winning at least one is a reasonable goal to prove consistent play. So I started with enough money to play in 40 tourneys. That means I would have to place in the money in at least 4 tournaments while winning one of those. It’s important that both of those conditions are met, so just placing in the money 4 times isn’t enough, I’ve got to win one outright. At that point I can go up to the $2,000 dollar level and after that I can go to the $10,000 level. If I fail to achieve the consistent play necessary, I start over on that same level. Once I’ve finished the $10,000 level, I will start playing in the cheapest real money tourneys possible, I think there are ones for as little as a $2 buy-in. So then I will start doing the same progression through the real money system.

I started my play of the $250 tournaments about 5 days ago. I’m 13 tourneys into it and I’ve had a 5th, a 2nd and 1st place finish in them. I’m very excited about that and happy so far with my play. Even if I hit the 4 placings before the 40 tourneys are up, I’m gonna play out all 40 tournaments to make sure that I get all the experience I can before moving the stakes up.

I will keep you updated on my progress. And maybe someday you can watch me on TV, giving people advice on how to play.

Wish me luck.