When I got off work last night, I had a spring in my step. This is because I am a fairly good roleplayer and had up to this point spent the majority of the day playing virtual poker, running a virtual $800 up to a virtual $11,518. Now, when I awoke this morning and went to practice on the app some more, something happened that shattered the illusion of using this method. Quad deuces beating trips aces, followed by quad threes the very next hand beating Ace high flush, and then, when I fold the King of diamonds and 3 of clubs because it's clearly out of my range preflop when someone bets 500x the big blind, and wouldn't you know it, flopped all but the 10 of diamonds needed for the Royal Flush, first one I've ever seen and, wouldn't ya know it, there it is on the turn. These free poker apps are rigged, folks. Top to bottom, head to toe, that jazz is malarkey. It is clear to me that my best option is going to be the real deal, live. I am never going to come to understand variance playing on this rigged trash. But, it's a fun facsimile of poker and way to pass the day all the same for someone who has chosen this game to be their hero's quest.
As mentioned yesterday, I'm going to head down south to play at the $1/$3 No-Limit cash games. The card room is only about an hour away from home. I'm goint to make a whole day of it tomorrow. I'll bring my $300 buy in with me, I'll sign up for their comps program so I can begin earning points toward my seat at the tournament, and I will have only a short list of desires for my first session: Ideally, bring home more than I bought in with but prepare to lose it all, do not tilt under any circumstances, and learn everything there is to be learned about the environment and my opponents - this is my battlefield now.
This journal is going to going to be a living log of my poker career; in addition to anything else I decide to add or speak about here of course. I am a person of many interests and talents, few of which are marketable or very flashy, but all of which I choose to be grateful for, grateful to myself and the pattern of my past that brought me here. Paramount among my interests would be theology (that is, the study of the concept of the divine), ornithology (birds, but not so much in a taxonomic-sense, more so from an aesthetic perspective), and gambling. I must admit that I do love gambling. Clearly, this is the case given the content of these journals and the content of my life, but I simply find myself writing it down once again as a salve for restless fingers and the knowledge pouring forth still feels right. I don't know why it was that life decided to bring me to Vegas as a child to raise me there, I couldn't say what caused me to go on to gain employment at a casino as an adult, or how one who played at the World Series of Poker would be my deskmate in the office who would go on to inspire me to give this all a shot. Just like the royal flush that beats quad aces, no one is able to plan what is going to be, it just is.
I hope no one ever reads these expecting me to reach the point. I'm a serial rambler. One day, who knows how long from now, this page will be like the progression through the tarot deck -- from the penniless fool to the ascended heights at the end of the deck - because every path ends eventually. By ticky-tacking away on this silly little website full of my wildest dreams I manage to stave off another moment that could be filled with the realization of the world we're in, the hand we've been dealt collectively as a society. Everything is corrupted to its core with middle-men, bereaucrats, lobbyists, and all manner of secret groups that make the rules for the rest of us and I have clear eyes that can see those rules suck. It's a big part of why I've given up on the standard path and have thrown myself full-force into this poker plan; that is the world, one of gambling, or so I see it that way.
Anyway ... ramble, ramble, ramble. I'll always have more to say, and being stuck at work all day like I am on the eve of my first battle on the Fields of Poker, I'm sure I'll have more to say in short order.
Home