Final Four

I'm leaning towards Georgetown and Florida today although I'll probably watch the lines right up till game time before I place my bets.

G'town - Ohio St

I think G'town will pull this one out. Ohio has looked shaky at times during the tournament. Oden is a beast for sure but I think Hibbert handles him on defense. Foul trouble on either could push this game either way but all factors considered I think these teams match up well then you throw in Jeff Green for G'town and that puts them over.

Florida - UCLA

I think experience and coaching will help Fla pull this out. I personally think this game will be close though so if the line moves more I may take UCLA.

Sanjaya - The Next American Idol

I pretty much hate the TV show American Idol. I will often watch the first week or two to see the disastors who try out and then are ripped to shreds by Simon Cowell, but let's face it - the show blows.

Well now I'm a fan! There is a website out there www.votefortheworst.com which wants to make a mockery of Idol by encouraging people to vote for the worst contestant, who from what I'm reading, is this Indian kid, Sanjaya. I guess this is causing quite an uproar, is getting the attention of the mainstream media, and Idol is threatening lawsuits. Awesome! Being a contrarian I'm all over shit like this, I think I'll even vote for the first time in my life, although I doubt I'll watch the show.

Anyway as I mentioned, many people are taking offense to this and its not only the frontal labotomy crowd that actually watch this drivel but none other than Daniel Negreanu. Daniel's last blog entry is all about what a fantastic show Idol is and how this site is ruining something great for the American public. He even makes this analogy:



"Frankly, it's not all that much different from what terrorists are trying to accomplish. They want to take your liberties and your freedom away from you. They've accomplished a lot, and anyone who's ever been to an airport since 9/11 should understand that.

Terrorists don't want you to be happy. They don't want you to enjoy things and if they can find a way to destroy something you enjoy, they'll try."

???????????????? What? Are you kidding me? Daniel is an amazing poker player but some of the things he writes in his blog make me wonder if he isn't an idiot savant or something.

Anyhow I don't know anything about the voting process but I'm going to look into it and if it's 35 cents to vote or something I know I'm devoting $10 a week to this worthwhile endeavour.

Juanda Poker Face

I've figured out why FT's customer support is so shitty, they spend all their money on marketing....they truly do have the best ads.

Back from Palm Beach

Well I'm back from Palm beach....actually have been back since Monday. Man what a fantastic time I had. Great condo right on the beach, 3 great friends, lotsa great food and copious amounts of booze. Florida is a funny state, the disparity between rich and poor is as great as anywhere I've ever been. It's like the Intercoastal Waterway is the proverbial train track (on the East Coast at least). On the Ocean side = good. On the other side = bad. If you're on the right side it's a great place to be though.

One highlight was dinner at Cafe Boulud in the Brazillian Court Hotel (picture above) then drinks out in the courtyard until the wee hours. I actually met the owner/manager of the outside bar when I was buying cigarettes. This non descript guy comes up and says "do you have a light" so I gave him my whole pack of matches, we chatted for a couple mins and he says "this is my place, let me get you a few rounds." What goes around comes around.

The Brazillian Court Hotel is a condo hotel with a 400sq ft condo selling for $700k. The cheapest house (townhouse that is) in Palm Beach (I learned from the bar manager) is about 1M. If you do own property taxes are 30-40k minimum, pool maintenance 7-8k, lawn maintenance 12-15k and judging from the valet parking at the hotel you'd better be driving a Bentley. Sigh, how the other half lives.

Depressed to be back at this job as usual. Actually some good news on the job front. I applied for this really really cool job with a firm which provides litigation support. I really don't want to say more than that but I've always wanted to work there. They are routinely in DC's top 10 employers. The great thing about the job is that it's somewhere I want to work, doing something I wouldn't mind doing AND it's to fill in for a maternity leave so it's 6-9 months max and I can still make my goal of being a PT by November. Have an interview next week. Wish me luck.

Have't played any poker since back. Finally got my WEB ATM card so I can now upload some dough to FT and play the bracelet races...congrats to Hammer Player for taking one of those down!

More soon.

Update

Well after amusing myself on YouTube this morning it's time to face the music.

Poker: To quote Worm from Rounders, "I'm not going to lie to you Mike there have been some set backs." See my updated totals in the sidebar and you'll see that I went from averaging +100/hr to less than a Burger King employee. Poor bankroll management, playing above my roll, and then a horrendous run of cards have left me pretty close to the felt. That combined with the fact I've been mainly playing tourneys as of late has left the roll pretty thin. Am going to go on vacation, relax and then come back and begin grinding again, back to the $50 & $100 NL tables. Back to grinding out deposit bonuses. I'm still going to focus on WSOP satellites but will have to balance that with building the roll. At least I'm learning these lessons now while I'm employed.

Have identified one major leak in my tournament play which is, getting my money all in preflop too often in coinflip situations. Was playing the 25k the other night and was the chip leader after the second break then lost races with JJ and 77 against AK all in preflop both times. Had position both times. Should just call the raises and then take it on the flop or maybe reraise but no need to shove here. If I'm short stacked or even medium stacked yes but why do I want to risk chips in coinflip situations as chipleader? Fold equity is great but how much do you have against sort to medium stacks in tourneys? Am I wrong?

Sports: I'm 15-10-2 over the last two weeks betting sports. That's 55% which is what every professional tout aspires to, yet I'm down about $90. Why? Because I vary the size of my bets. If I bet $50 a game over that span I'd be up $250. Enough said. Standard bets from now on.

The Plan: Moving along well. Paying down the debt and building savings. Got off my ass and registered a few domains and set up a web host. Will have a few sites up shortly, hopefully. Well maybe not shortly since I'm essentially teaching myself web design but I will have one up by opening day of MLB.

2007 Goals: Moving along o.k. Will update at the end of the first quarter (March 31).

I have added 3 new blogs. Check them out: Shaniac, Jerry's Blog (one of the group of players which includes Shannon Shorr and Jcardshark) and Poker Road Warrior.

Also have found two new sites which are related to lifestyle arbitrage and perpetual travel which are definately worth checking out:

(1) Laptop Hobo
(2) The Nunomad

Saw 3 movies recently which I highly recommend:

300 - Great battle scenes, awesome!

Zodiac - Downey Jr is one of the best actors out there period.

Black Snake Moan - Not quite as good as the first two, but still pretty good. You've got Samuel Jackson and Christinna Ricci (naked or near to it almost the entire movie).

Anyhow that's about all. Feeling upbeat despite the setbacks and looking forward to the R & R and inevitable excessive boozing in West Palm. Here's where I'm staying the first night.


The second night it gets even better and I'm in a sweet ocean front condo located next door to the Ritz Carlton. Hooked up through friends from a prior life lol.

Ivey Aussie million

Ivey picked off. Personally I love the River bet, great call by the other guy but looked more lucky than thought out. Just my opinion.

Phil Ivey Vs Erick Lindgren

Ivey is soooooooooo sick.

Mike Matusow vs Allen Cunningham Full Tilt Poker commercial

I love this Commercial

A New Sports Betting Site

I was contacted by www.freepickoftheday.com asking me to add them to my sidebar. This site has daily free picks (they are 7-2 for March) and sells their "Locks" for $50.00 per month. There are two things I really like about this site:

(1) They post all their picks. Not just some record which you can't verify which says "14-2 yesterday, 22-23 winning days, plus 1 Gazillion Units" like so many of the scamdicapper sites out there. Here you can see the picks they've made.

(2) They only have 7-8 Locks per month. For the $50 they give you 7-8 games they really like each month. These are games they determine to be strong selections. This makes sense since there can't be "Locks" every night despite what some sites would have you believe.

The site says it's run by a guy who works full time and bets sports succesfully as his second job, another thing I like which means he isn't relying on selling picks for a living. He also bets every game he touts.

In exchange for the write up on here they are providing me with their Locks free of charge for a month. I rec'd one tonight by email. My plan is to bet $20 on all their free picks and $50 on their Locks and see what happens. I won't be releasing the Lock before the game for obvious reasons but will report on my wins/losses using their service. BTW I think to justify paying $50 mo. for 8 games you'd have to be betting at least $100 per game. If they were to hit 60% that would be +1.6 units = $160 less $50 = $110.00 profit on $800 wagered.

Anyhow check them out for yourself here.

UPDATE: 0-1 Pick was Arkasas +2.5 over USC. -$50

4-0

4-0 today when I'm betting chicken shit amouts. Still nice to win though.

4 more picks:

Virginia Tech -3 $15
Arizona -3 $30
New Mexico +8 $20
Southern Ill -8 $20

A little at a time, a little at a time.

Miami Ohio

Sinngle #69737349
Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
NCAA TOURNAMENT Opening Round @ Spokane Arena - Spokane, WA
(645) Miami (Ohio) +9 (-115) Fri@5:05p
Competitor: (646) Oregon
Risk $30.00 to win $26.09

So far so good today. ND is getting crushed. Probably the two teams I despise most in all of College Sports, Duke B-Ball and Notre Dame (anysport) are going to be gone from the dance.

Man this live feed NCAA stuff is great. I don't even mind being at work, altho being at home in front of the fiddy inch big screen would be nice.

3-0 Start

Let's go Winthrop!

I also layed $30 on Nevada -2 1/2 over Creighton.

Instead of going for broke I'm just trying to win me some tournamnet entries.

March Madness

The great thing about March Madness is that I can get all the games live at work on my laptop.

Being a complete degenerate I've laid $$ on all of the first four games today.

Here is who I took:

Virginia -8 1/2 $40
UNLV +2 $15
North Texas +19 $20
Winthrop +3 1/2 $20

Let's win enough to bust out of the 25k again tonight on Bodog. LOL.

P.S. Duke Sucks

That was an awesome game. Too bad I only had $50 on it and not 5k.

Sigh

153rd out of 450+ in the Bodog 25k when my QQ was no good against AK. As Matusow says "I never win a race." Played awesome laying down JJ preflop twice and 2 pair on several occasions all when beat. One of these days soon I'm going to make a score....

AGLOCO

I've posted here previously about AGLOCO. Click on the link in the sidebar if you want to learn how AGLOCO works. The browser should be launched by AGLOCO this month. It is free to sign up and free to use. Essentially AGLOCO gives you back a portion of their ad revenue from your web surfing. Mozilla is a similar business model except they keep all the $$$ for themselves. If you sign up through me and do nothing else except use the browser to search the web you'll probably earn a few bucks ($20) a month - beer money. If you sign up other people you can make alot more.

If you like my blog and what I have to say I'd ask that you do me a favour. Sign up. Again, it's free, you have nothing to lose and can make a few bucks. If the browser sucks don't use it - it's your choice. I currently have over 250 referals but they are largely due to A-Law who signed up through me (thanks dude). So do me a favour and help a guy out. God knows, the way I've been running lately (see post below) I need it.

Getting Pounded

I've been getting absolutely pounded at the tables recently. It's like the Gods of variance have decided to deliver a years worth of the runner runners, 2 outers, set over set beats all in a 30 day time span. This coupled with being absolutely burned out and just fucking sick of the job have resulted in me just feeling pretty depressed and lethargic lately. The bankroll has taken a pretty nice hit at the worst possible time, March Madness and WSOP satellite time.

A few highlights:

(1) NL 300 - Raise to $11.00 in EP. Call in MP and raised by me to $45.00 in the SB with KK. EP calls and MP folds. Flop is 696 with 2 diamonds. EP Player is a maniac so I check so I can checkraise. EP raises $45 or so, and I pop it to $125. EP reraises all in and I call. $700 pot. He flips 79 off suit, not even a diamond draw. River is a 9. Have been at least a dozen of these disgusting beats in cash games as of late.

(2) Was playing a Tournament Builder tourney on Bodog. 1st place, $450 in tournament credits, 2nd $350.00. Made it to the fianl table. 3 players left I get it allin with AJ, villain flips A10. First card out on flop was 10c. Super, there goes 2 WSOP satellite buyins out the window.

(3) Lost with AA v K10 all in preflop on the FIRST hand of the Bodog 100k guaranteed.

(4) Just missed the money and the chiplead in the Bodog 40k when my AQ lost on an xAQ board to runner runner flush.

(5) Bubbled the Bodog 40k when my AK lost to AQ allin preflop.

I also found an underground card club in Baltimore, MD. Cool place, they have fulltime dealers, provide food,flat screen TV's, naked dealer night on Friday's (don't ask). Decent environment although the neighbourhood is rather sketchy. Anyway i went up there last Sunday. The action was 1/2 NL. Bought in for $200 and was felted the first hand losing with a set of fives to a set of sevens. Fought my way back and then lost another $150.00 when I got it all in with AK preflop against AQ. The game was juicy enough that I ended up down only $33 bucks for the night but pretty shitty to spend 7 hours and break even when I should have been up $500.00.

On top of this I've managed to lose a half dozen sports bets by 1 point or so.

Not meaning to stitch and bitch but jesus I need a break.

I'm actually heading down to West Palm Beach next Wed thru Sun for some R&R. It will be nice to get away.

I'm back on the horse tonight with $50 on VCU +6.5 v Duke and am going to play the Bodog 25k in 30mins.

Doing my Civic Duty

I'm not at work today cause I was chosen for Jury selection duty. For those of you not familiar with the US Court System, that means that I will be spending the day essentially being interviewed to see if I am required to serve as a juror in a trial.
Great thing is that my employer has to pay me, I get a juror's allowance ($15), and get this, they have wifi in the juror's lounge (and I brought my laptop). Sounds like +EV to me.

During jury orientation they mentioned that trials generally run 2-3 days but occassionally longer. They mentioned one trial last year which ran from June-Oct but not to worry cause that is very unusual. All I could think was, how awesome would that be? In the US, your employer must pay you while you're at jury duty. I could go for 5 months away from work paid.

Played the WSOP qualifier last night finishing 19th out of 52 entrants. 13k prize pool so only the top 2 places paid. These tournaments start you with 2500 in chips which is nice. The blind structure isn't bad either giving you some time to play as opposed to turning into a shove fest. I feel that I played exceptionally well but just never held cards. I looked at my hand history for last night and these are the hands I DIDN"T HAVE: AA,KK,QQ,99,88,77,66,55,33. I would like your advice on a couple hands. 1st Hand: Early on I had AK in MP. Blinds are 10/20...EP raised to 50, I reraised to 150, and LP popped it to 350. EP just calls this raise as do I. Flop is 3 rags and EP raised, I fold, LP reraises and they both wind up getting it all in. EP shows 99 and LP shows JJ. River comes A and I woulda tripled up. Do you guys just shove when the LP raises here preflop? I know that you want to see 5 cards with AK but in my mind its too early. Then again the goal is to accumulate chips and your getting 3-1.

Following this hand I stole a few pots with not much and made it to the first break. Following the break I ran AK into KQ losing all but $600 of my stack when the a-hole hit runner runner flush. Instead of pushing though I remained patient and doubled up a couple times and then on the last hand just before the second break this hand came up which I'd appreciate your advice on. 2nd hand: My stack is $2300. Blinds are 100/200 and they will raise to 150/300 immediately following the break. EP who is short stacked (1700) raises to 300, MP with about 5k raises to 1k and I see 1010 in the CO. At this point I figure I'm likely a dog but decide to call anyway. As it turns out EP folds and MP calls showing AK. My tens don't hold up as a K comes on the flop. If I've got a decent stack I think its an easy fold. With my stack I think it was an easy call?

Going to try and play another qualifier again tonight if I get a chance.

Won over $150 in sportsbetting last night and won 4 outta 5 games of that ridiculous teaser missing an under by 3 points which would have given me $270. Can't complain thought.

Tonight's Action

Here's tonight's action. I've placed a hundy on VCU. They've won for me all season and I'm not abandoning them now. They should be bigger favs than this. George Mason is last year's team. VCU is this year's George Mason. Also took Nebraska and a ridiculous parlay for fun. I bet enuf on the parlay to win $270 for another WSOP shot.

Date placed:
Mar 05, 2007 5:51p Single #68660895
Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION - Championship Game @ Richmond Coliseum - Richmond, VA
(514) Virginia Commonwealth -4½ (-115) Mon@7:00p
Competitor: (513) George Mason
Risk $125.00 to win $108.70

Date placed:
Mar 05, 2007 6:00p Single #68661760
Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
WRITE-IN GAME
(524) Nebraska -1 Mon@8:00p
Competitor: (523) Oklahoma State
Risk $49.82 to win $45.29

Date placed:
Mar 05, 2007 5:58p 5 Team Parlay #68661623
Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION - Championship Game @ Richmond Coliseum - Richmond, VA
(514) Virginia Commonwealth -4½ (-115) Mon@7:00p
Competitor: (513) George Mason

Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
SUN BELT CONFERENCE - Semifinals @ Cajun Dome- Lafayette, LA
(516) North Texas -2 (-115) Mon@7:30p
Competitor: (515) Middle Tenn. St.

Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
WRITE-IN GAME
(524) Nebraska -1 Mon@8:00p
Competitor: (523) Oklahoma State

Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
WEST COAST CONFERENCE - Championship Game @ Chiles Center - Portland, OR
(520) Gonzaga -4 Mon@9:00p
Competitor: (519) Santa Clara

Basketball - College Lines (Game) Total
SUN BELT CONFERENCE - Semifinals @ Cajun Dome- Lafayette, LA
(517) Western Kentucky vs. (518) Arkansas State Under 150 Mon@9:50p

Risk $12.00 to win $279.84

What a Nightmare!

Well last night was a nightmare. I planned my day around the WSOP satellite. Got up early and went to the gym and took care of some errands. Reread a few strategy exercepts on MTT Satellites even! Didn't get smashed but rather enjoyed a 750ml of Ommegang's Three Philosophers and psyched myself up for the satellite.

Logged on to Bodog at 6:15 and awaited the start of the tournament at 6:20. Only problem was that I wasn't seated at my table at 6:19 or so like they usually do. I log off, restart my computer and there I am, great. First hand I'm dealt and I get JJ. I raise, am reraised and I repop it. We see a flop which is Jxx. I check, other person checks and Turn comes a K. Other person over bets the pot, I get ready to pop it and I time out, disconeected. By the time I get back on I see 106 suited. I call in a multiway pot and flop is 1010x. I time out and get disconnected and so it went. I call Bodog, they tell me the problem is on my end, but to their credit offer me a 20% reload bonus up to $100.00 on my next deposit. I am able to log back on, look down and have QQ and timeout. And so it goes. I occasionally get to play a few hands and seem to double up or take a big pot and then am disconnedted for 5-10 mins. At one point I actually can't even log on to Bodog (my internet conection seems to be working perfectly on all other sites.) At the point I can't log on at all it's about 1 hr into the tournament and I'm actually the chip leader or close to it and I'm about to throw my laptop out the fucking window. I call Bodog again, and the rep says there is nothing else he can do. When I point out that others seemed to be having problems as well he tells me there is no problem on Bodog's end. When I mention that others seem to be timing out, he tells me this may be a "tactic" used by players to annoy the table....yeah ok. I ask to speak to a supervisor whom to Bodog's credit was very very sympathetic and after tons of whining on my part and letting her know that I bet the amount of the satellite entry on sports, on Sunday alone, decided to give me my $270 in tournament credits back. Finally she said that she thought the prob wasn't my connection but some sort of problem between my ISP and Bodog?

After this call I managed to get back on and still had an above average chipstack despite being blinded down for 30 more mins. I then ran QQ into A6 with no luck for 1/4 of my stack but then picked up AA twice in about 10 mins and worked my chip stack back up. The problem was that at this point I was in no mindset to play as I was shaking with rage on the one hand, and panicking everytime I got a hand on the other cause I expected to timeout. Eventually I ran into trip A and that was it. The thing was though, I would have normally walked away from that hand but was in the "better try and double up now cause I'm going to have to deal with timing out for another 1/2 hour mode."

So so so frustrating especially since I was catching cards like I haven't in a LONG TIME. Not saying I would have won but I really think I would have made it to the final table where at least I woulda had a shot.

Anyhow I'll be playing again tonight at 9:20, hopefully with better luck. If there is any justice in the world I should take it down tonight. I guess it's all +EV since I got my entry back plus Bodog will hopefully still honour the deposit bonus plus I made over $100 betting sports yesterday.

This leads me to thinking....there must be some horrific disconnection stories out there involving $$$$ dollars. Anyone know any? Misery loves Company.

WSOP Shot #1

Turned $27 into a $270 WSOP ME satellite entry on Bodog yesterday. Doubled up 1st hand and was the chipleader until the final table. Top four positions paid out and I got one. Hopefully the satellite goes that way as well. So that's my plan for the day, to play that at 5pm.

Also placed this little bet:

Single #68573449
Basketball - College Lines (Game) Pointspread
COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION - Semifinals - Richmond Coliseum - Richmond, VA
(742) Virginia Commonwealth Pick Sun@3:00p
Competitor: (741) Drexel
Risk $65.00 to win $59.09

VCU has played well all year and they are at home. Many bookies have VCU as a -1.5 fav but Bodog has them as PICKEM, so I did.

Poker Players Alliance

I just joined the PPA. Its free or you can make a donation if you wish. I'm not sure how much of a difference they can make but here is why you should join too:

(1) There is strength in numbers;

(2) What have we got to lose?

(3) We need to fight back;

(4) Lederer, Raymer, and Fergusan are all Board Members. These are guys I respect, who have integrity and I believe the best intersts of the game at heart; and

(5) They recently hired former New York Senator Al D'Amato as a lobbyist. He has also become a board member. This shows they are committed to reaching the "powers that be" and bending their ear about carving out an exemption for poker.

I really think that if we're going to win this it won't be reversing the legislation, it will be exempting poker as a game of skill which I think would ne a MUCH easier sell to legislators than trying to reverse the UIEGA.

Sign Up!

Risk

Defined as "The quantifiable likelihood of loss or less-than-expected returns."

I think most of us are risk adverse. This certainly is true for the average joe, you know the type, the person who bets $2.00 on sporting events or considers buying a square in a Superbowl pool "gambling". These are also the people who get together to play cards for "fun." Nevermind that these people are often in debt to the eyeballs, they simply have an aversion to potential loss. Typically they associate gambling with the equivalent of "flipping a coin." Since "anyone can win" they believe that they have no control over the outcome. They do not recognize that in certain situations the outcome may be more often heads than tails or vice versa. Some consider gambling to be fun and are prepared to lose. I often hear people say "I take $300 to the Casino, I know I'm goig to lose it all, that's my entertainment."

Then there are gamblers. True gamblers understand the risk but try and find instances where they are getting the better of it. Then they try and take full advantage of this. They quantify the advantage and then decide what portion of their resources the potential reward merits putting at stake. They are unemotional and detached from the outcome and it's participants (at least in theory). This is why we take AA losing to KK in stride and why we're (gamblers as a collective whole) sharks, not feeling any emotion or regrets when we win someone's mortgage payment. This is necessary because the shark one day can be the fish the next.

But even gamblers have different risk tolerences. Ads for Harrah's (targeted at problem gambler's - not the subject of this post) have supposed casino customer's saying "I don't need to take big risk to have big fun" among other things. While I'm sure Harrah's is very concerned about problem gambling (wink) this actually is in their best interests. It's much better for them to have a customer religiously lose $250 every Friday than for them to blow their entire life savings, lose their job, become destitute and never play again. OK got sidetracked.

My point is that true gamblers risk because there is reward. Usually the size of the risk is proportionate to the reward. Yes a $1.00 lottery ticket can return 277M but that is not the definition of "gambling" as I've defined it (finding an edge and pushing it) Many people are happy playing 2/4 Limit Hold'em forever. Some do this to grind out a living and I have no problem with this. Usually they still try and do things to increase the reward while minimizing the risk (multi-tabling for example). This is smart and the end result is to increase the reward.

One way to increase the reward is to increase the risk. Jumping to 10/20 or 30/60 certainly offers the potential for greater reward but also greater loss. I think that true "gamblers" whether they make this leap or not would still, if you asked them, indicate that they want to. They may not because they don't have the roll, have other obligations to which their finances are tied, need to grind out the rent, etc. but the basic instinct is "if I'm going to push an advantage let's reap the biggest reward possible." It also feeds the desire to become better, the desire for action (Howard Lederer says that all high stakes pros are a little sick) but the fundamental principle, I believe, is "lets make as much as possible when an possibly advatageous situation presents itself."

Of course, one has to then deal with the corresponding losses. You will lose and you will lose big, but at the end of the day/month/year the 4000/8000 dollar player is asking themselves the same question as the 2/4 player, "where my wins greater than my losses?"

The reason for this post is that I believe I'm actually too risk adverse. I often will deposit to a site, make a nice run and then start thinking I should take the money out. I begin thinking I could pay off this debt, or buy some stock, or buy a nice watch. While a cetain amount of this prudence is certainly a good thing I'm certainly never going to make a large or even moderately large score thinking this way. Think about it, at this point I'm essentially free rolling with someone else's money. Why not take a chance and see If I can make a run - a run which will have some fundamental impact in my life beyond a nice timepiece or paying my student loans off 6 months faster.

The motivation for this post was an article in February's Card Player magazine (the one with the Grinder on the front). The article was about Dewey Tomko. Tomko is a high stakes card player, golfer and business man. A little fact I didn't know is that he has played in more consecutive World Series of Poker Events Main Events than anyone else on earth. At last year's WSOP he made the final table of the 50k Horse event and cashed over 400k in total from all events.

Tomko has always been willing to put it all on the line. There is a great story about how when he was in his 20's (he's now 60+) he had built his roll to about 98k. He agreed to fly out to Nashville to meet Doyle Brunson for a golf match. Prior to the flight he had been up for 48 straight hours playing poker so he planned to check into his hotel for some sleep prior to the match. He never made it to the Hotel, played Doyle, and lost and had to fly home to Florida broke.

There is also a great story about him playing in a poker game with Benny Binion's body guard with 10k (all the money he had to his name). Tomko bluffs his last 10k all the way to the River causing Binion's bodyguard to muck JJ, and the winning hand. Tomko quickly mucked his as Binion's body guard (who was packing a gun) was telling Tomko throughout the hand that if he was bluffing that "he would kill him."

Tomko also talks about his business ventures. He says that he can name at least 50 things he got involved with and wound up with zero - meaning he lost his complete investment. He, Brunson and Reese lost 7M on a TV station, they financed an expedition to find the Titanic and lost money, they invested in gold exploration off Venezuala and lost money.

There have also been successes. Tomko now owns a casino, a golf course and a restaurant among many other ventures. His biggest money maker is, of all things, orange groves. He invested in these when he was young, another whimsical investment that, at the time, provided a good tax write off. Now they are worth 50-100k an acre. He owns them outright and makes 2-3M a year just from selling the fruit. He calls it "dumb luck" but I don't think so.

What if Tomko had taken that 98k and said "ok, that's it, I'm going to invest this, it'll provide me with a nest egg after 30 years. Where would he be today? Hard to say, but probably grinding it out at some job he didn't like, waiting to retire so he could dip into that nest egg. I'm certain he wouldn't have the stories to tell, the experiences to share, the interesting life to look back on or the 3M in citrus revenue.

Risk.