New House, Fences and Trick or Treating...

I have been very busy with our new home. Especially with it being brand new, had to hang blinds, had to frost some of the windows, had to set up the washer and dryer, instead of having the new furniture delivered (to save money) I picked it up and put it together. Just a few of the things we had to do as a homeowner, not to mention all of the items we had to purchase. For example, a lawnmover, I have a decently sized yard and three hoses, and three yard watering devices, weed eater, shovel, brooms and the list goes on. It is awesome being a home owner and scary, can't just call the land lord and say come get this fixed. It's on me! Through all of this, poker has always been on my mind. I am always reading people as I ask them questions, through the house hunt and working with our agent in the subdivision I asked a question he could not answer ,"how are race relations in this subdivision?"and I read him and was very comfortable with my read and it looks to be a good one...so far!
So this past Saturday we had trick or treating in the neighborhood. One of the families took it upon themselves to make flyers and pass them out indicating that we are going to do so in our subdivision. We have about 40-50 homes in our subdivision with more being made daily. Our HOA does not start until 2015, so I called the subdivison agent and asked if they sent that flyer, no they had not. Now, I guess that was a good idea, with Halloween being on a Monday, but I did not like something being done without my input, some of my neighbors felt the same way but for the kids sake we went with it. My kids started by giving out candy, then saw how heavy the kids bags were before getting to us so they asked to go themselves, my seven year old went on her own, that is another thing I love about my neighborhood. My ten year old went by himself as well. I walked my three year old around and she ran up to the houses with me sitting in the street, she had a ball! I look forward to being a part of the HOA, setting up block parties, rules and regulating the ones in place. I mean people have white mail boxes, only black allowed. Putting up a fence should have the good side out, some have put the bad side out and they did a crappy job of that! This leads me into my final point...
I started to put up our fence this weekend, well we started yesterday the 30th of October. New home, fences do not come with them unless you buy them but we did not know about the option but no worries my wife wants one, I will deliver!
Well, I got a helpful hand from our kids grandfather. We got the auger, 10-10 foot 4x4 and 30-8foot 4x4. We didn't get everything as we wanted to get the pieces as we went along. We started at 10am after eating a quick breakfeast, we drilled the four holes, lined out the fence line, and thank GOD for Mr. Rudy as he was instrumental in setting everything up. I learned a lot and am in awe, he is 57 and moves around like a 25 year old. Full of energy and gracious enough to take a couple of breaks for my sake. After we had the fence line marked we spaced it out for the 4x4's and started drilling, this was the hardest part of the job, we had to go down 3 feet for the 8 foot 4x4's and had to use the extender to get down two more feet for the 10 foot 4x4s. It wasn't easy peasy either as we had to sit on the auger at times to get it to dig down or we would hit a couple of roots where Mr. Rudy got down and had to move the auger's blade manually in order for us to pull it out. We got the poles into the ground but did not level them out yesterday as we finished up at about 5:30 pm. Today, I am beat! We have a trunk a treat tonight that we are going to in Ponchatoula at the park. I love Ponchatoula, if you don't mind the drive into the city and are looking for a good place to live...look into Ponchatoula, LA!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Holiday weekend

As we move into the holiday weekend, Labor Day comes on the 5th of September, I tried to track back to see when I had that day off before starting my new career here at Lennox Industries. I had to go back FIVE years, when I was with Iron Mountain. I have been asked, don't you miss Frito...my answer is a very clear..."NO."

This would be an excellent opportunity to get away for the weekend and get some quality play at the tables. Maybe play a weekly tournament or two! The action seems to have grown, Harrahs has a Wednesday and Saturday tournament. The Beau and the IP have weekly tournaments. I understand Shorty's has a weekly tournament as well. This is my brief knowledge of some of the surrounding casinos. I hope to get back out there and travel to many of the poker rooms to check them out. My first excursion may be into Baton Rouge where I believe they have two poker rooms now, please correct me if I am wrong.

We are getting ready for a tropical storm and that is going to be fun.

I'll close with this, to anyone living in the Ponchatoula/Hammond area...where is the live action? Also, looking for participants in a dead money satelite. If you do not want to comment here e-mail me at bellyred@yahoo.com.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Understanding

I have been hearing a lot of alleged scams that have involved some of our seasoned pros! To my understanding, it all centers around...MONEY!


I understand that this world we live in is driven by the demand for more...but why compromise your morals for it?


I understand why we do, when we want more when we have less...sometimes we make some weak willed decisions in the pursuit of what that MONEY will get us! Want an example, look in the paper, watch the news.


I understand because I have compromised my integrity at a younger age and I will have to live with it and yes, if I could I would have willed myself to not make such a decision. Of course it was not illegal but in retrospect, it was not tottally cool and I hate that part of myself for going there. Maybe, if I get enough questions. I'll go there.


Poker has taken a big step backwards but it will be one of those things in life that will not go away. Texas Hold'em was not the most popular choice but it is today and could stay that way for sometime but another game may take it's place, hello omaha? Who knows, but the strategy and the ability to play with anyone and win will not go away.


Just understand...some of the integrity of the game got some dirt thrown on it, but overall it is straight up.


You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Abrupt slow down on the learning curve.

Pretty wicked couple of days, two of the biggest sights, are shut down to U.S. players, Poker stars and Full Tilt. This has affected several friends that are not in close proximity of brick and mortar casinos and were making a comfortable living off of all of those lunch boxes on those sites.

Well I just wanted to get a quick opinion on what I think is going to happen:

I believe other poker sites are taking on U.S. customers but how are they going to pay them? This way of making a living is going to be hurt for the next few years. We will lose the Poker stars funded tournament series, we may lose poker after dark and the coverage of the WSOP. All may have been funded by those sites. Casinos are going to lose a percentage of players in the long run due to the lack of on-line play. Live tournaments and cash games at those tournaments are going to get a nice increase, especially at the lower buy ins, of people, but over time that will fade. The huge fields we had in the past are gone! Poker sites sent tons of these folks to play through sponsorship, through winning small buy in tournaments, or because people did so well and made the money through beating other people. Without being able to multi-table and show film of what was done to help with training videos there will be a set back in the learning curve. Before when you could play more hands in a month than an older seasoned pro who has 20 years under their belt, is going to go away...unless you like play money or you are moving out of the U.S. Poker will not die, it may fade a bit but it will still be popular but we may not get as many younger players in as their only means of playing for real money will be in casinos and most of the time they need to be 21, unless they can Phil Ivey their way in.

Again, Poker will not fade away into the night, it's popularity may fade a bit but we will have a new generation of lunch boxes and those who play in casinos should be ready to reap the riches!

Just my opinion...you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

April Fools Day!

What is up? Say? Where the heck did April Fools day come from? Just curious. My oldest daughter wants to team up with my wife to try to prank me, they think they will be successful but I asked them not to try. We will see what happens.

Looking forward to the games tomorrow, we have VCU and Butler and on the other side we have Kentucky and UCONN! I'd like to see Butler play UConn and UConn get the win, they need to represent the Big East! I am very happy about where Butler is as they barely beat Pitt so I am one who wants the team that beat my team to finish it out and they seem to be doing so.

I have been grinding out online a tad bit, it has been fun nothing substantial to talk to but I really want to get back to a table, feel the chips, and felt someone. I hope to do this in the WSOP circuit event coming to Harrahs New Orleans, soon. Through that I hope to take the family to Vegas, visit my sister, see some friends and maybe get a tournament in, but cash games will be played!

Still going through a lot of my magazines, notes, books and what not and it is amazing how much you can miss when you are not playing on a normal basis. All successful players have a sense about things at the table, a "spidey sense", and I remember when I had it. That feeling of when to call someone down with King high and when to lay down a set of jacks when broadway was made on the river. Now, it takes me time to get my rhythm back but this is the price you pay when you work as an exempt manager, supporting 3.5 kids and a wife. When you come home, it is tough to leave the little ones and wife as they are all just awesome to be around. However, there is always that itch that wants to get back to playing on some type of consistency. Just me blabbing away...so until next time.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Know yourself...then maybe wins will come.

Over the years playing poker you learn a lot of things through normal play, talking about hands with others, reading about poker etc. These lessons can stay with you, they may become your culture and you just do before thinking or they may be things that you used to do, switched your game up and may have forgotten but one day you re-read something or over hear something and it reminds you of a piece of your game that you could possibly go back to.

My wife really hates the fact that I have books, magazines and notebooks full of notes and has asked me to start getting rid of...something. I started by looking through my poker magazines and I happened upon an interview in Cardplayer August 2009 with Matt Hawrilenko, under the Capture the flag section with top cash game pros. Matt talked about an important aspect of his game and that is not learning to read your opponent's hand but learning to read your own hand. Here is an example of what he means, "Suppose someone raises, the big blind defends, and the board comes j-6-5 with two hearts. Some guys in the big blind will never check-raise a 6. All they will check-raise is a jack or any sort of straight draw or flush draw. So, when he check-raises, the bulk of his distribution will be flush draws and straight draws. If the board runs out Q-J, there are a lot of guys I'm calling down here with king high, because their hand distribution is just so heavily weighted toward drawing hands that have missed. This is where good players just eat people up. It's very important to have the appropriate mix of different types of hands in every situation. When I was really improving, that is the thing I focused on the most."

My take is this, when you are playing tell a good story in every hand that you play, bet size correctly to get the most value and represent your hand correctly, in doing so your game will improve and your wins will add more green to your pockets! Stay within your comfort zone and play to win, but try not to bluff bad!

Stay nice as Rice and Mello as Jello!

Attention to detail

As an Ops Manager for Frito Lay, I am pretty laid back and not hyper aggressive. I tend to let most things go and allow my people a lot of leeway. I come down on the big things and continue to coach and train on the smaller issues. Working in the environment that I do it is important that you pay attention to details, address them before they become bigger issues. I know, it's only chips, but it is a business and it exists to make money. My point is when I am at the table I am very opposite of how I am at my job. I am very aggressive at the poker table, sometimes too aggressive for my own good. I make good reads and have been able to play a loose aggressive game for most of my poker experience. Recently however, I have transitioned to a more tight aggressive game. I don't get to go play very much so I have to reduce my negative variance. The key though is to watch out for the details. How did his hands move when he saw the flop, people have learned to control their facial features, however they still have not been able to work on the neck down. Watch and observe if you are not in the hand and see if they move towards the table or away after the flop and if he/she goes to the river what did they have? Usually when they move closer, their hand is pretty strong. Moving away sometimes indicates weakness. These are a couple of the basic reads. As you play, continue to observe the table when you are not in a hand. I know that others like to watch the ball game, cocktail servers or what have you, I suggest you watch the other players and how they might put a chip on their cards or keep the left hand on for a strong hand or their right had on for a weaker hand. How they bet could also indicate strong versus weak...if they throw in a big chip, they might be strong, if they bet smaller chips and try to make them look right, might be weakness. Consider this, because I am still working on this myself, when you are playing this game you are playing with real money, do everything in your power to get it in for the most profit. Observe the other players because when you do get into a situation you may have seen something from your opponent that would give you that extra insight to make the right decision. Pot control, bank roll management, bet sizing. These concepts will always be important as you continue to try to become a pro or if you are a pro. I just wanted to give my two cents...get out there and make the right decisions and you will eventually be rolling in the dough!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!