trip report American Place casino in Waukegan (wrote 2 months ago but never published)

 im still looking for a poker room where i can average $2000 a week in profit like i did in Texas for 5 years because inflation has gotten so horribly bad and $500-1000 a week doesnt cover the bills unless u are a young kid living with friends or family at a very low cost. almost everyone nowdays has a rent or mortgage between $2000-3000 a month. 

this is a better casino that Rivers, even though it closes at 4pm and has far less games than Rivers and ill tell u why. Unlike online poker u are only going to be in 1 table at a time playing live, so all that matters is not the number of tables going, but whether the table has action in the 1-3 NL and how loose it is, which is primarily decided based on how many people see the flop and how deep the pots are.

Not by how deep the stacks are, because the nittiest players are usually the ones buying in deep. and most of the people who buyin $100 (with the exception of me) are getting it allin loosely and rebuying a lot. 

and i knew the action would be better here since u cannot straddle the button here and only under the gun. and people say wtf i cant straddle the button here, oh well if i cant straddle the button ill just straddle utg instead. so it causes a lot more people to straddle utg than otherwise would. 

and its nice not to have to sign the list 2 hours ahead and then still have a 90 minute wait for a seat like u do at rivers. here u usually have a very short wait or get seated immediately. and being able to keep your phone on the rail unlike at rivers is nice too. plus u can sit a little drink table next to u here to put all your stuff on. 

it was also nice being able to walk to my hotel right up the street (there are about 5 hotels nearby a short walk) instead of having to hope there was an Uber driver around and close enough to do a very short trip or else its a $20 trip with a heavy surge 3 or 4 miles away to a cheaper motel but of course its anywhere from 950 a week to 1400 a week depending on the hotel so its definitely not sustainable longterm. 

to make your living playing poker u really need to have the ability to learn how to drive, which shuts a lot of disabled people out of the system. owning a car making your living expenses close to zero. All the places to stay for cheap are never within walking distance of the casino. 

think of how much Uber is all the way to rivers from here. anywhere from 45-80.

so im now up about 800 for this week with 1 more day to go before checkout at my hotel at which time i really need to do what i didnt really want to do and been put off doing. (ride the amtrak into texas or albuquerque to save money on hotel costs). but im tired of not being able to get my roll anywhere but somewhere between 21 and 25. the games are not bad though im not winning as much as usual. at least i quit losing in PLO but only because i went back to playing NL. its so hard to find games in the US anymore that do not have the button straddle killing the action. (where everyone folds around to the straddle and the straddle wins the $3 in blinds) the straddle has so much power the proper play is to fold almost everything from EP u wouldnt fold otherwise such as AJ and KQ.

i wish one of the really good coaches i follow on twitter would write an article about how to play against the button straddle. Chris murray with out of position, alexander fitzgerald, hungry horse poker etc. winning when a guy does it is one of the hardest things to do. 

just waking up, and i had a weird dream about sick call mc gee. anyone remember him? i dreamed him, and I, and a girl was all lying on the same couch fully dressed, and the girl kept talking about how she had so many of the same interests as him and how she was finding out they belonged to the same facebook friends groups supporting the governor in north carolina and colorado and she walked over and kissed him on the stomach, and i was wishing someone would do that to me. and i was the only one who knew why they had so much in common and were members of those groups, it was because of his left wing politics. 

----------------------2 weeks later-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yeah i never finished writing the blog. i feel so glad to have my laundry done, although i did it once before about 2-3 weeks ago but i dont have so many clothes in my suitcase that i dont eventually run out. the motel i was in in Rockford the laundry room wasnt working properly because the belt on the dryer broke. im at a hotel in Zion (i didnt expect to be in Zion til after i died) but thats the name of this small IL town about 15 miles north of the casino in Waukegan. i left Rockford so i could do my laundry and the games sometimes broke up much earlier than the regular closing time and they got shorthanded often too. and one day they had no employees and had to close early. 

yeah i almost took a hotel in evanston that had a washer and dryer in the room so i could wash all my clothes instead of having to wear the pants to go back and forth to the laundry room. but the price went up from 174 to 230 to 451 and that was just for 1 day and i hate booking hotels for less than 2 days and never do so i stayed here instead. this was a nice washer and dryer. no apps to download, just 1.50 a load with quarters and the dryer was drying the clothes quickly and hotly.

and i managed to win 322 tonight at poker and after losing some of the money in the video poker machine left up about 200 minus a 33 uber and a 42 Uber. and i tried to deposit money in the bank of america atm nearby on the way home, but my mind went blank and i couldnt remember the pin correctly and finally remembered it later in the Uber. i had the wrong digit put in twice. its because i quit using the same pin for the bank card as on another card and i hadnt used it in so long id forgot. 

at least in rockford i would finally win again in 1-3NL or PLO recovered about 1900 plus all my expenses so at least im now closer to 25 than i am to 20 again. 

-------many weeks later--

i planned to publish this a few weeks ago, but didnt because it wouldnt let me edit or publish and i didnt know why. lightning told me that it was probably because it was too old, and google ai said i needed to clean out my cache, which i dont understand how to do. i shouldve asked robvegas poker since he is more familiar with this. but the truth was, i found out when i was trying to approve seattle irishs comment. i never can from my phone so i always wait til im on the laptop to approve comments, and then it wasnt letting me on the laptop either. turned out my laptop had auto logged me into the wrong google account and now its been fixed. but what i dont understand is why did it let me open the blog to begin with?

Northern Chicago trip report after leaving South Bend

 i need to remember what the most important thing is. (not to go broke). its not to get even for the day, or to win a certain amount. or to stay enough hours or to not go home too early. Or to tell the wild tales i like to tell at the table. (had a few black players in my PLO table convinced i was in prison for Jan 6th, and got a pardon from Trump the other day). or convinced a different group of players the next day a famous well known household Phil offered to blow me if i could teach him how to play poker as well as me. 

and with less than 23k left im the closest ive been to going broke in many years. remember that 22k has the purchasing power that $3000 had back in the 1990s so ive got practically nothing to my name. just another 40 days of $500 buyins at the cage bought and lost. i always buy 500 in red at the cage right before i take a seat or even get called for a seat. 

and then buyin similar to the pattern of $100, 100, 100 and 200. 

i need to make sure i dont lose over 1% a day instead of thinking its too early to go back to my room once im stuck $230 and since its not too much of a loss i keep playing, but as broke as i am, it is a huge loss.

Before i left South Bend, where i was when i wrote my last blog and where i had a room for only $1310 for a month good thru Aug 27, and still havent ever told them ive checked out yet, (left when Ray came back into town and drove us up to wind creek, rivers, and american place) the games there were way too nitty and tight and i could only win because of hitting a couple of high hand promotions a hot seat drawing, and knowing how to judge when the sun/moon bingo machine was playable. (look for rows that can bingo with the maxi in it). 

there are very few hustlerable machines of any kind at the IL casinos around here. so im not having that as any type of income here. i might visit Potawattamie the Indian casino in downtown Milwaukee and a big poker room someday because i heard that just like the American place casino they do NOT allow the button straddle which is so bad for the game and kills the action. (blinds just fold around to the button which has too much power). But i dont want to pay the $20 per hour time fee there either in the PLO. 

Im about to need to pay a months hotel somewhere then ill likely be under 20k. i paid $654 for a week where im at now, which ends sunday. the only way i can keep from going broke is to quit playing online BJ, but that alone isnt enough. ive got to find a game i can actually win 200 a day or more in. 

and its hard to win in games where everyone straddles the button because theyre too dumb to understand why its bad for the game and for them personally. and i tend to play my worst when i dont really want to play but only playing because im still down or not up enough. the other week, about 2 or 3 weeks back i finally bought another $2000 in bitcoin and had it all the way up to $3500 before i knocked it back down to the $900 it is today. 

it wasnt today that i lost it it was the lost the same night i lost $673 in the PLO the night before. 

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ok, now we all know what the problem is (me going broke fast) but what is the best solution to resolve it? just so u all know, this blog wouldnt exist anymore if i ran out of money, but imagine how great it would be if i could live anywhere in the US, play in big games and buyin deep. so everyone friend or foe should want me to start winning again. 

I actually won at poker tonight, because i played in a casino id never been in before. (Hard rock casino Rockford). i was only in the game for $100 ($1-3 NL). and i eventually cashed out $574. i thought the PLO would go because there was a big list, but the players slowly disappeared and by the time the tourny ended, there wasnt enough players because they got tired of waiting for it to go. the game had so much action it wasnt even funny. it was one of the LOOSEST NL games ive played in in a long time. every pot was several hundred dollars, certainly no chops here or $10 pots. and i didnt know this until after i was already playing in the game for 20 minutes, but they also allow the MS straddle from any position. 

of course the Uber fee there was quite a bit, and i had a hard time finding one back into Chicago. so a bunch of the winnings went to Uber, and then i only played at Rivers a short while because i felt like i was not playing my best in the PLO there because i folded a couple winners. so i went home with only $39 profit there, but still up a lot overall even with the Uber fees. also id been away from my hotel for several hours by then and wanted to go home and eat again. 

now for the bad news. all the money i won all got lost on online VBJ. as much as the price of BTC and XRP went up in the last 24 hours, ive got only $593 worth of it left between xrp and btc combined. had i not lost the 2800 online a few days back, that 2800 would be worth about 10 percent more today. 

i wish there was a way to ban myself from playing online BJ, but i cant block myself from having a way to buy and sell XRP because it would also affect playing online poker. same for BTC. also i cant throw away my phone and laptop either. 

before i played VBJ tonight, i still had slightly over $1000 left of the $3600 i had the other day. (that all was off $2000 in BTC purchased a couple weeks or so back.)

yeah its impossible to grow a roll and keep from going broke if i cant quit playing BJ online. but even when i do, then i just have big poker losses every day. i dont think ive won hardly anything in live poker in the last 2 months. it wasnt more than 2 months ago i still had about 35k

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so every day i play in some pretty tight NL games and also some PLO games which arent quite as tight as the NL games. NL games for some reason are absolutely horrible most poker rooms and keep getting worse, primarily because most rooms allow the button straddle, and way too many playing are doing it because theyre way too stupid to realize how dumb it is. and the poker room managers are way too stupid to realize why its bad for the game and kills the action. and it creates a ton of folds all the way around to the button. its really hard to find good action in a NL game which is why i was shocked at the action in tonights Hardrock Rockford game. i used to think, and many still do, including Bill Potts that a good player can make a ton of money shortstacking with correct push fold strategy, though that works out way better in PLO than in NL. ill tell u why, its because in PLO its far easier to get it allin preflop than it is in NL. in NL, especially if u are forced to act first a lot u would have to overbet too much to get it allin. 

in PLO, u can very easily limp reraise all your monster hands much easier than u can in NL. in NL, u would worry those monsters are against even bigger monsters. u dont worry about this in PLO so much.

its hard to respect the other players at the table. most of whom are assholes and unfriendly. very few actually play well including the grinders there every night who think they do simply because they have way more money than u and love to carry around a ton of black chips in their gay little purse bags. and who have these annoying ear things in their ears all the time which i would never wear. almost all of them would prefer i shut up at the table, even though most people say a good game is where a lot of people are talking loudly and often instead of a silent and sullen game. if they cared about the money, they would do what i do and wait for the button to pass whenever it allowed to save money. or they would not sit with the max when first sitting down and wait and see how the others play first and how your cards are running. and then once they get down a little then addon but not before. None of the other players at the table actually have worked for the money, earned it or deserve it the way i have because theyre for the most part way too young to have put in the 40 yrs experience of daily playing the way i have. having a regular job is not hard work like grinding at poker everyday is, because when u grind poker u have constant stress u might not get paid that day, or even that week or month. so the ONLY Player at the table who actually deserves to have a big stack is ME and yet i cant because i lost all my money outside of poker, and paying 1500 or so every month on Uber since i couldnt learn how to drive. i should not even have to play poker at my age, i should be allowed to retire, and just take peoples money by force or by panhandling since they dont really deserve it people play so dumb and then they get mad at me when i point it out, but i cant help doing so as unfair as it i play so much better and tighter yet dont have their rolls simply because they got rich outside of poker from other means of income. 

the drunk guy

 the other day, while playing 1-2 NL in the poker room, there was a guy at my table who was really drunk. and i think he loses a lot there and is a regular because no one wanted to cut him off the alcohol. elderly guy too. and a lot of elderly guys get special privledges and can get away with whatever they want, they get to make rude comments, etc and are the worst about throwing their racks on the floor by their seat. 

a hand came up where he had 55 and the board was 236 and he called or raised or the other guy raised, i wasnt paying enough attention since id folded but he was paying even less attention because he turned his hand over because he thought the other guy was allin, but the other guy still had another $50 left. on the turn a jack came, and the guy shoves his last $50. and now the other guy is livid that he bet into him after he showed his hand by mistake and will not stop talking it nonstop every few minutes for the next hour and acted like the guy was a horrible person for not checking it down. 

yes, he made a mistake turning his hand over, but the other guy has 2 pair, (twos and threes) and he wouldve bet the turn even if the other guy wouldnt have turned his hand over. and do you know what wouldve been really unfair? if the guy who did nothing wrong wouldve lost out on $50 by checking. why should he be penalized $50? if anyone should lose out on $50, it was the drunk guy who made the mistake.

i got sick of listening to his complaints towards the guy in seat 2 for getting the $50 in the pot he was entitled to. 

so what i was did about 30 minutes later since i wasnt getting any other hands to play (and havent in almost a month now) was to bluff on the river when i missed everything and had only Q hi when he bet the flop and the turn and preflop. but it did look like someone might have hit a straight 45678 when 4 to it came in on the river. and of course i showed the bluff. surprisingly enough, he didnt get mad at me.

he was raising almost 65% of the time preflop. 

and the run bad continues here just like it did in Chicago. ive got almost 10k less than i had over a month ago, and no longer have over 25k and im getting really worried and stressed out about it. 

Granted, i did lose a few thousand of that online and some on living expenses but now i have zero bitcoin left and i sold most of the xrp too to gamble online (less than 400 xrp left).

at least now my hotel is under 500 a week instead of 1000 a week. Like it was to have a safe place to stay when i was living in Hammond and playing in Hazelcrest IL every day. 

i havent had a bankroll this low in many years and the cost of living is a whole lot higher now. 

as an example of the run bad, one hand i got it allin with AK against the drunk guy, who also had AK. and of course he scooped a huge pot when 4 to a flush hit the board. and another time i got it allin preflop with AK to his 77 which of course held up. Then he ridiculed me for getting it allin when he had a pocket pair and remember he was raising preflop over 60% of the time. 

and its not just him whose been beating me the last few weeks. i started out by losing over 500 a day 5 days in a row before i left Illinois. mostly in the PLO game, all of it from poker. and of course i also lost money on other games too, but not as much as i did at poker. 

then i went to someplace where id mostly not be able to play PLO thinking if i played NL more instead of PLO id slow down the losses. but ive ran AA into a set with a board of 853, ran KK into AA twice, and lost 4 out of 4 times when i flopped the nut flush draw, once with top pair also and top kicker. 

theres been about 20 hands like this in the past week and i lost almost all 20 of them. had i won even like 3 out of the 20, that would be about an extra $1000 less i wouldve lost. 

only thing ive actually won at is a little bit of live BJ. but they crowd the tables so horribly its hard to get a seat and especially hard to be able to play 2 spots so most of the time i dont even sit. ive won $100-200 twice this week. but lost it back on video poker or the dancing pigs where 28 blue pigs is a play and of course i immediately lost $150 on it. 

at least im not playing no more video craps. why? because i get no points here on it and the double your bet button doesnt exist like it did at wincreek. 

chicago trip report

i was originally planning on getting my citizenship resolved, last year when i sent my mother the $1385 needed to fill out an official govt form, (at the time a minister who was helping her in Lyons who is a mexican guy and knows a lot about citizenship, hes helped a lot of his members with it and his church is spanish speaking and small, told her she could file it for me). well it turned out it wouldnt let her and i had to file it. and then when i tried to do it using Rays sisters address and had all the paperwork done by Oscar the minister it later wouldnt take my mothers payment. why we dont know because my mother is too old and disabled to hear and understand anyone on the phone and cant hardly leave her house without assistance and she isnt able to use a phone anymore because she cant hear. so she never was able to ask the bank why her payment didnt go thru, and needless to say she still has my money. which she told me she would return someday whenever i visit. 

she also is no longer able to walk the stairs and enter the post office. remember she is 84 and isnt nearly in as good of health as most 84 year olds. 

the good news is i still have all the paperwork on me that her and Oscar did to send in to the govt. things such as copies of her marriage license, birth certificate, dates she entered and left Canada and documents proving it, etc. all of which is needed for citizenship. i emailed all those documents to lightning once so he could see what was done. i also asked him to send them to agsweep, but i dont think he ever did. but agsweep wouldve been able to verify that it was filled out properly. 

and one day, once i have a stable address for at least 3 months and another $1385 to blow and the assurance i wont be forced to leave town for any reason during those 3 months ill switch the addresses on those forms to the new correct address and file it out. i wouldve stayed at Rays longer but there really is no way suitable to be playing poker in the area daily, for a long list of reasons. most of which involve him not wanting to do a ton of driving, no matter how much money is offered. 

ive spent a ton of money, lost a few thousand at the casino a few weeks ago on things besides poker, lost a little in poker (ive only had 3 days in the last 18 that were $350 wins or more, none over $550) and in texas i won big all the time, but i dont want to go back to paying $14 an hour time and $200 min buy in omaha instead of $100 when my roll is so low. 

and yet im paying $4300 a month for rent just so im not in an unsafe hotel. well, actually $3900 eventually if i stay long enough. 

i havent figured up my bankroll in a long time since ive not looked at my bank account in over 3 weeks, but im guessing its somewhere a little over or under 30k. 

and now lets talk about Uber. i would be wasting another $40-50 a day with it if the casino wasnt letting u earn Uber vouchers for playing on their app and also depending on how much non poker play u give them daily. and the annoying thing is u cant use a new voucher until u use up all of the previous Uber voucher, and no u cannot combine 2 small vouchers on the same trip. so if u use a voucher and you have $1.02 left u must use that on your next trip instead of another $30 voucher.

and ive had some bad luck with drivers recently. i was at walmart on the 4th of July about 10pm and it was completely dead inside. almost no customers. ive never seen that before. everyone was watching the fireworks instead. and the store closes at 11pm, unlike the Meijers store $6 further away that doesnt close til midnite. so i was worried id have a hard time getting an Uber to come before the store closed at 11, and afraid the staff would make me wait outside. (but i asked and they said id be okay to wait for the ride inside). the Uber i got for a reasonable price the driver went from 4 minutes out to 12 minutes out and then basically wouldnt move even though i sent a text offering a tip if he didnt cancel he ignored it. eventually i canceled but i waited like 20 minutes to make sure he couldnt earn anything if he didnt cancel. and in those 20 minutes i had ordered and received a lyft that came 2 minutes before it closed. and of course it was 3x the price. 

Then other drivers have balked at using the tollway (its only 30c) and the heavy traffic and went way out of the way and it added $5 to my fare which i had to complain about to Uber to get reimbursed. 

they used the $8 sky bridge toll as an excuse and said they werent using all tollways, even though Uber has me pay it, not them. and this toll is far less expensive and a totally different highway. 

im getting fed up with not winning much in this place. its the cheapest PLO game in the country and the ONLY one i can afford with a roll of only about 30k. $100 minimum buyin only $3 per orbit in blinds. no bomb pot to drain u, no jackpot drop to drain u, and no mandatory straddle, although the 1-3-6 NL game does have a mandatory straddle under the gun which play at times. 

There are a lot of bad players here but also a lot of grinders but of course i dont think most of the grinders are that great since they put out $15 both under the gun or on the button when they totally dont need to. ive never understood how anyone can win when they do but some of these guys always have deep stacks even though the max is $500 and i always dont trust people and think they slip the chips on illegally. and if i get up too much for my comfort level ill hit and run by moving to NL or waiting out my 2 hours to rejoin the must move game.

even in the NL, u can hit and run by moving from 1-3 to 1-3-6 or vice versa and sitting with 100 as long as its not the same limit. both games just like 1-2 PLO are $100-500

odd they rarely if ever have 2-5 NL. the 1-3-6 is far better the blinds are bigger with the mandatory straddle under the gun plus it prevents button straddling.

and i have no idea where to find a homegame in the hammond to chicago area with good massage girls.

Its annoying as hell to see all these guys with purses in the games pulling out black chips. i refuse to carry big chips around and always keep $500 in red in a rack on the drink table next to me so i dont have to walk to the cage. here and in all the other rooms nearby like rivers and MGM detroit they dont sell u chips at the table. 

its gay. having sex with a man isnt what makes a person gay. its carrying a purse around with a little bag of chips just like a fucking euro does. and the tables are filled with these types. i dont understand it ive played poker my whole life no other income and i sure dont do this. and i know im far better at PLO than any of these guys. for years Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmouth used to offer to blow me if i could teach them how to be as good at me at poker. and yet i dont have the bankroll to sit $500 instead of $100 on the table when i first sit like these guys do. shows u what a terrible habit machines and blackjack can do to ruin a good poker player. 

if i ran a poker room i would consider it collusion for a ton of people to just call my short stack allin to try to bust me. instead of just calling the original raiser should be shoving preflop to isolate me HU when i am allin, but most of the time they never do, and its a form of cheating that they dont. and im getting really sick of seeing poker room allow sunglasses at the table. how do i know theyre not using them to cheat?

and its annoying to see people watching the world cup on TV instead of paying attention to the game. they should be watching the game, and there shouldnt be TVs in poker rooms. the world cup wont affect them financially like the game on the table where. even women watch the game and since i know nothing about sports why do they?

betting on sports is like having another person play poker for u, instead of being in control of if u win, u have others do the playing for u. 

its annoying to see people get up to eat all the time too, people should eat before they come and again when they go home, not during the day. restaurants shouldnt be allowed to exist. only the rich can afford it anyway. 

I got away with the "bluff"

 there are several characters here in Cleveland that im sure that @joesalOG (a troll on twitter whose lived and played here before moving to florida) knows well. in fact a couple seemed to know who i meant when i asked if they knew him and described him as best as i could. a guy into golfing professional wrestling who played higher stakes PLO. one guy said he definitely knew him. i wonder what players he would remember and what he could tell me about them?

anyway, Anthony is a young player in the game whose here a lot and ill bet he knows him. and Anthony is a bit of a dick and hes friends with a very rich high stakes machine player named Jesse. or it might be his middle name, i forgot. But to be honest there are MANY things a person can do which make him a dick at the poker table. such as refusing to run it twice, ignoring u when u say something to him, buying in for all green or black instead of bringing red chips to the game so the dealer doesnt run out of red and need a fill, or tipping in 5 whites instead of tipping a red chip. 

anyway after id played with him earlier for some time at another table, and possibly on a previous day (i dont know) he perceived me to be a nit. and why i dont know, because i lost my first 3 buyins in about 20 minutes and eventually was in the game for 2000 instead of the 200 dollars i was in for when i first sat down. 

I was dealt TTJQ with 3 diamonds and i think called but possibly made a small raise preflop but i think i called. i dont remember how many of us called. the flop comes up QT8 rainbow. he checks i bet and he called. maybe someone else did too, i dont remember. the turn comes a 6 and he either bets or check raises, i cant remember which. on the river an A hits and i only have about 500-600 left. i shoved (because i know if he bets ill have to call anyway so what do i gain by checking.)

he said i had the nut straight and folded and i only showed 3 cards TTJ and he said i had the ace hi straight. i said i would bet him 1000 i didnt and the camera could check it and he said lets bet 20k 

the player next to him later once the game broke and we were both in the 1-3 nl game swore he saw his hand and he really did fold the smaller straight. i really dont see how he can fold here though i did bet the river knowing the A was probably a scare card for a wrap or set of As. But just how bad was his fold? i think hes overall a winning player. of course i could be wrong on that too. 

so i wasnt exactly bluffing though he did lay down the winner. 

another key hand, in the NL table this time instead of the PLO, i had ak of clubs. i limped UTG because i wanted someone else to raise so i could shove, since i had only $109 in chips. and i didnt raise because i didnt want to be first to act on a bad flop. well 6 of us limped in. 

the flop comes A56 with 2 hearts and no clubs. i bet $20 and one guy calls. an old regular who ive seen every night makes it $40 on a checkraise and i know im behind. so i fold, and im glad to see the other guy call. 

turn card comes Kh for 3 to a flush and it would give me 2 pair. theres a big bet and a call or raise and they get allin. river comes A and im sick. wouldve sucked out runner runner, one guy had the flush and lost to a guy who flopped 555. my read on the flop was right, and it was the right fold, but i sure wish all of the money wouldve gotten in preflop. 

also the guy in seat 1 next to me quit the NL game and forgot his phone. i didnt realize it was his, and i thought he might be at the cage since he took all his chips but not a rack which id offered but stuck them in his jacket pocket. at first i thought and a new player thought it might have been put there to lock up a seat. and he was going to sit there. But the new player said it wasnt him and the other new player said he didnt put it there either. well i told the floor he was at the cage and explained if that were me id want to know immediately id left my phone and not found out when i got 100 miles down the road. but it seemed they werent going to make any effort to find him. 

it was bugging me for the next 20 minutes, wondering if God wanted me to get out of my seat and go look for him, but i thought id waited too long. finally a dealer mentioned later he found him at a craps table. so i guess someone did look instead of the floorman or the other dealer id originally spoke to and who didnt even bother to pick up the phone for about 10 minutes. 

the reason it bugged me so much is all i could think of is what would i want people to do if it was ME that lost the phone?

---------this was written over 3 weeks ago and i never finished it and published it because i didnt feel it was long enough. well im going to publish it now, because i need to write a new blog discussing all the work going on regarding my proof of citizenship. so first ive got to hit submit and finish this blog. i shouldnt waited so long. 

Holy shit, are the games in Cleveland easy to beat

 I'll start off with the easy and the noncontroversial part, (what i dreamed last night) i was at my mothers house (actually it was a place ive never been in which is common when i have dreams about my mothers house) and i was opening up her refrigerator looking for food and it was like a safe deposit box, and every door i opened was just another door behind it so it looked like having 10 huge size boxes open and still not the entire fridge or any food seen.. and i dreamed she was going to be mad. 

Then i am on a train and im some kind of undercover person as a college age kid and meeting a few others and some guy says his brother is policeman for his first day and he arrested a basket economist, whatever that is, and another guy is saying he wants something in him that rhymes with Venus, and i was guessing what he was talking about. 

I must say, my fears and paranoia are numerous and meaningful. i dont really know if they have at times saved my life (i remember the time i was afraid to get in Lightnings car when i first met him, and was afraid to be alone in Claudias house at night in summerlin with only me and her there, was worried she would plan to have me setup for a robbery). When i was homeless in seattle about 35 years ago or so, i remember playing cards during the day at Tower Lane bowling alley and the game being limit poker, 25c 50c 75c $1 on the end. i had less than $500 to my name, and i had all of it on me in cash, and if i had anything in a bank account to keep it open i cant remember but if i had a bank atm card at the time, it was less than $100. i was looking for somewhere to sleep at night in Tacoma, and a good looking woman not much older than me offered to let me get some rest at her place. any other homeless guy wouldve jumped at the offer, and the girl might've regretted what could've happened to her, had it been someone other than me. But i was too afraid of being robbed of the several hundred i had in my sock, and a guy being over there to actually accept the offer. i wonder what she thought to this day and what her intentions were? any guesses?

When i booked this hotel in Cleveland, i was trying to get a place close enough to the casino where i wouldnt need to pay for uber. but i also wanted to pay a price closer to 100 a night than 200 a night. (there is a very nice residence inn thats close enough to walk to safely but thats well over $200 a night). i thought this hotel im in now was a short 3-4 block walk without getting too far off the main lighted streets such as Euclid, Ontario and Prospect and 9th street. But its actually too close to a homeless shelter and about 12 blocks away or so so its not close enough after all to walk once its dark out. Google kind of misled me about how close it was. 

there are many long term hotels with a kitchen nearer the airport for under $550 a week with tax, but i didnt want to be paying 2 $30-40 Ubers per day. and i also found out something else about Cleveland downtown. Unlike most cities Lyft is much lower cost here than Uber. usually its the other way around. 

so what im saying is no matter how close this hotel ended up being, i still have to pay for a ride which irritates me. and its such a short ride and considering Uber or Lyft keep half or more of the $10-20 cost, most drivers wont take it since its such a short distance and that is way overpriced for the short distance. 

now lets talk about the situation at the lodge in texas for a few minutes. i shouldve updated this blog a month ago when this first happened and commented then. this has been the longest its been since ive updated the blog. 

The Lodge, as we all know, was recently raided and closed down by a few govt agencies in texas. no criminal charges were filed (nor should their be) but the state seized all the money and kept it for themself instead of returning it to the Lodge so it could be used to pay the players waiting to cash out their chips, many of whom its their life savings and needed for rent. 

the lodge was found by undercover agents of the TABC (alcohol commission) to be serving alcohol to people who didnt have a membership and they say that means the lodge isnt private like the law requires to play poker. but they never claimed that people were playing poker without one. because of this, i would advise all clubs in texas to quit serving alcohol immediately. only an idiot drinks when they play if they take winning money seriously and on top of that its a sin against God to get drunk. 

Doug has generously offered to repay the players out of his own funds, but when? his lawyer is afraid to let him do it yet, but those in desperate financial shape who have a few thousand in outstanding lodge chips cant wait years to get paid. and his other club in san antonio which is still open is afraid to do it because they dont want to get in trouble themselves. the club there has never accepted chips from the lodge in Austin. 

i never realized Doug owned a bigger share of the club than Brad and Neeme did. nor did i know of all the phantom owners id never heard of who also own more of it than brad and Neeme. i just knew he was a smart man because he got rid of the button straddle when he bought the club in san antonio

i hate that damn button straddle more than i hate anything else in poker. more than i hate bomb pots or too low a maximum buyin in 1-2 and 1-3 no limit games. more than i hate must move tables or racks on the floor. 

all straddles need to be under the gun and preferably mandatory, like they do in magic city miami in the 1-2-10 plo game. makes the game much better. 

this is one of the reasons ive had only 1 loss since coming to cleveland in the poker room, and about 7 winning sessions. the 1-3 NL here is much looser than in detroit, vegas and in oklahoma and many other places. and its because there is no button straddles here and also there isnt any bomb pots. (with the exception of time raked games at 5-5 and above). but i dont play them because the price in cleveland is a ridiculous 20 per hour. almost the highest time charge in the whole country. 

but today i played 2-5 NL for the first time and i turned an early 400 loss into an eventual 350 win. 

yeah i dont think ive ever seen daytime or nightime 1-3 NL games filled with action at almost every table and setting except for cleveland. usually theyre nitty as hell in most cities outside of texas. i think there arent many euros here because of the weather and that helps. and ive played at almost every poker room in the US at one point with the exception of most of the rooms in CA. 

if i could make 300 a day in cleveland between 1-3 nl, 2-5 nl, or maybe a short 5-5 plo session which is hard to stomach because of the time charge, that would be enough to afford the hotels and ubers. and remember my bankroll dropped to only 30k in florida and still is barely over 35k. 

i was doing quite well at the poker club in toledo on monroe street that woody runs called King of Clubs in their facebook ads. but they just do not have a 1-2 NL game often enough. maybe like 3 times a week or 4, but still its worth a lot of money every wednesday night. a lot of the regulars ruined it for everyone else by not being willing to let them use the $10 per person nit buttons when they tried it one night. then others ruined the $10 2-7 bounty game on thursday nights. 

but it sure was cheap to play there. no rake, no hourly time fees, only $10 a day to play. saves u a ton of money. 

Making plans to get out of Florida on Feb 26th

 Well many people think i should get a different phone, because of how cracked mine is and how some programs operate incorrectly (example being when i book hotel rooms on Priceline i always have to do it on my laptop instead because my phone wont let me do it), and also i need to buy a different charging cord because the old cord is broke a little in a spot. 

speaking of buying things, ive went the entire winter without a coat or jacket, even on the coldest day of the winter when it was only 28 degrees for the low temperature of the day. That was the day it got down to only 56 inside the house. and now i have a jacket that wont really be needed until i hit the state line. But it will still be cold then so im glad i have it. a dealer gave it to me FREE and its even got zippered pockets on it. 

but going back to my phone, i never knew there was an emergency setting on a phone that will dial 911 without u dialing it if the phone got wet or damaged, or the power button was hit too many times (according to google search). Thank God i found out later how to shut it off. i woke up with my phone saying it was dialing 911 and i just assumed it got a virus on it and this was after id found my phone wet about 30 minutes earlier and had went back to sleep after being unable to turn it on. So when i heard the words 911 whats your emergency i didnt respond because i thought it was a scammer and not really 911. lucky for me, they didnt hunt me down and come in person but they wouldnt know where my airbnb is. 

then they called back from another number and i still didnt answer, thinking i was being scammed. (which i always ignore so they cant hear my voice and verify that they really got my number right) it was only when i google searched phone dials 911 that i found out this can really happen and i went into my settings and fixed it so it cant ever do it again. but yeah i do need to buy another phone. it was acting funny later at the casino too, it kept turning itself off in the poker room and rebooting and then finally stopped. 

even worse news is why the phone got wet. i had it on the kitchen counter near the charger plugged into the wall, and the overhead cupboard had a glass in it that i had taken out of the freezer a few hours earlier. the glass looked cracked on the side and i was worried that id ruined the glass by putting it full of water in the icebox instead of the fridge so it would get cold much faster. i cant stand room temperature water instead of cold, and i hate the idiots in the poker room who order room temperature waters as much as i hate those who put black chips in the game. 

well it completely froze up because id went to sleep forgetting to take the glass out after an hour. and yeah the glass broke in the cupboard and shattered and the water i think must of dripped out of the cupboard onto the counter next to the phone while i was asleep. so thats how i woke up to a wet phone, kept hitting power to try to reboot it and gave up and went back to sleep. (and then later it dialed 911 on its own). 

so now i need to tell my landlord i broke a glass of hers. 

-------------------------------several days later-------------------------------------------------------------------------

well the phone wouldnt charge to more than exactly 51% (while i was in the poker room using their charging cord) so i realized when i google searched as to why it wouldnt, id have to break down and get another phone against my will. Although people have often said for a long time i should get a new phone because the screen was in such bad of shape. so the first thing i did today when i woke up, was to go to a t mobile store, and the lady there said that i only had 2 options. to either try to get approved for a regular phone that would be free instead of on the prepaid plan (and i assume id be denied) or to go to best buy instead to get and keep the same phone number im using now with the prepaid plan. otherwise id have to switch my number. 

so the only thing i knew to do was to take another Uber, $20 far away, almost to the beach to the only best buy store i seen on google. and when i got there i had no idea how to find the best buy store when the Uber driver dropped me off. all i saw was elevators going up and it looked like there was a best buy store on the 2nd floor, but when i got off the elevator (which was outside) all i saw was a parking lot, no one spoke any english, and then i saw another elevator showing it on the 3rd floor. 

once i finally got in the store, a lady spoke great english (a black lady) and arranged for the right dept to come out and help me in 15 minutes, and i got a new phone worth $300 for only $139 and got everything transferred to the other phone from the old one with her help and she was able to transfer the SIM card right at the store without me having to return to Tmobile. (i didnt believe the lady at Tmobile who claimed i wouldnt need to go back to her store). and i also paid another $8 for another charging cord. 

so this phone has just as much space as the one i had before and there was also some other reason i dont remember as to why its a better phone. 

and then since im out of food, there was a Publix down on the bottom floor, so i went there and being im only here for 5 more days, bought only 3 frozen meals and a little bit of canned food, of course that still isnt quite enough, so if i dont take the train out of here tomorrow or the next door, ill just go to the targets across from the card room. 

one thing that pissed me off when i left the Publix to wait for the Uber 15 whole minutes out, there was nothing but bikes and scooters all over the place and a very thin street for cars to pass and a cab stand. i saw a homeless guy and of course i have a very low opinion of people who ride scooters, seems like they are for gangbangers, thugs, and the general scum of the earth. punks who like to fight, etc. i would be scared to death to ride one would be so easy to die hitting a car or to fall off. i cant believe why there were so many in that area of miami on one except maybe it had something to do with it being so near the beach. 

i was glad to be out of there and in the drivers car and get home to fix a frozen meal and put the rest away. im down to only 33k again and i still havent gone to the casino yet tonight. 

i had to keep the same phone number otherwise my crypto wallets, my cash app, my lyft my Uber, etc wouldnt work anymore because id be screwed when they send a text to verify its u. i dont know why it should be so difficult to keep the same phone number and why i couldnt just buy a phone at the tmobile store. 

-----another week or more later----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well now my ticket out of here has been bought several days ago, and im leaving miami 11am on feb 26th and getting on the Amtrak into cleveland. Private sleeper the entire way, (goes thru wash dc enroute) for $714. and ive barely got 30k left. lost money 2 more times on the vbj machine in casino miami a few miles up the road. 

had a lot of weird dreams, as many times as i kept going back to sleep, many of them about being homeless and looking for a place to sleep behind some building or church. or else im in a casino around a poker table, or they involve my moms house. but the one i remember the most is im at a poker table. the pot has millions of chips in it about the size of a birthday cake, or all different colors. im holding 4 cards of TJT9. my opponent is a young black guy holding 2 cards. 

i make a bet of allin for my last $15, (weird thing is there is no board in the middle just that huge mountain of chips) and he FOLDS. 

im in disbelief. the dealer starts pushing me the pot. i throw him a couple of dollars in chips and he is just looking at me and has only pushed me a small portion of the pot so far. i realize hey this is a huge pot and throw him 2 more chips that are gray in color, not sure of how much theyre worth. 

dealer starts saying to the floor lady this guy only gave me $50 in tips for this huge pot and i tell the floor lady (in my dream its Elena the main manager of the poker room) i'll give anyone $25,000 right now if they slice this dealers tongue out and she says to me Thank you sweetheart. 

i was just mad because the dealer shouldnt talk about tips when hes not even pushed the entire pot. wait til u are done pushing the pot and on the next hand, he might not be done tipping yet. it was way too early for the dealer to speak up. made me feel like he wanted the tip upfront. 

Am i playing my best poker?

 i play poker weird, unconventially, not the way you would expect a person to play their hands. it could be helping my win rate, it could be hurting my win rate. who knows?

the other day i had JJ and raised it to $25 preflop, got 2 callers. the first caller was an asian girl id never seen before. the 2nd caller was her boyfriend sitting next to her and u could see them in previous hands not betting each other. Flop comes 10 6 2 with a possible flush draw but not for me. well with a shorter stack than most people what else can i do? i bet $75 and she folds and he calls. turn Q i shove, and he called with AA. had his girlfriend not been in there preflop, he likely wouldve raised back earlier i think and his hand not been as hidden.

then on a different hand (and i dont remember if it was the same day) i had KQ and i was going to quit soon and i didnt want to take much risk so i folded it UTG plus 2. most people wouldnt have folded it. flop comes 4KK and a black guy bets. and im thinking oh shit. turn comes K and he bets again, they all fold. i then got up and left and told them i was going to quit because i had just folded the hi hand, but it was because i had a bad kicker with my king, instead of telling them the truth and looking like an idiot. the black guy had 44, he had flopped a boat but once the turn comes i would have won. 

and then im in a PLO game, either this day or a day next to it, with TTJK and i folded preflop because of a raise, and my hand not being double suited, although im sure most dont fold this in PLO. flop comes 5 9 10. the raiser had a junk hand, but flopped 555. and the guy who called his raise preflop had 999. i wouldve tripled up and been in great shape for the day. 

and then i had Q2Q5 double suited and went over the top of a raiser preflop allin because i wanted to isolate, and didnt respect the raiser. rarely do i respect a guy who raises too often preflop. most of the time its not a good player, (otherwise known as long term winner) its just a guy with lots of money who can rebuy in often and deep. i hadnt been getting anything to play and i was tired of being down and i just wanted to win a huge pot. 

flop comes J35 and we somehow both got it allin and agreed to go twice. (i think either me or him had very little left). i ended up winning both boards, one board with 2255 to beat his AA and the other board with JQQQJ with it comes QJ the next 2 cards. 

at least its finally warm inside the house. its 66 in here tonight. this is a very old and very small place outside of the main house unit. and i just found out a lot of places in the Miami area dont have winter heating because its never needed. and there was a bitter cold spell the other day and it got as low as 33 in miami with a windchill of 28. and the inside of the house got to 56 degrees and i was freezing in here. i tried to buy a space heater when she promised to reimburse me for it and the Targets across the street from the poker room was sold out. and the following day, her cleaning lady went to 6 places to buy me one and every place was sold out. but now 1 day later, its no longer needed. but still, she should keep one on hand for future use in emergencies. 

if i remember right it seems like certain places up north in the past, possibly reno, didnt have AC because it wasnt needed either. and i remember using a fan. 

i actually managed to recover a big loss today, id brought a little less than 1400 with me to the poker room and was down to only 400 left after losing a few buyins. and i brought it up all the way back to 1486 before leaving to Uber to Walmart. i dont remember the key hand, but i do remember a pot where i called a big raise and reraise preflop with K987 double suited and then shoving on a flop of 6TK with a inside straight wrap and a small flush draw. and i was glad no one called my $400 plus pot sized bet. 

most of my bitcoin and XRP was either sold or lost gambling at blackjack online earlier this month or last, but i did send some of it to my bank account back to recover some of the airbnb charges i paid late dec to carry me up to feb 22nd. xrp is down below 1.60 and bitcoin is under 75k. 

they said its because Jeffrey Epstein ended up being the creator of bitcoin. i always knew someday XRP would surpass btc, but right now its hurting all the other coins, including xrp. 

---just waking up now the next morning and i had a weird dream in which im in a police station and im getting a phone call from a judge who tells me ill be charged with a felony if i keep taking pictures of people who dont want their picture took. but the other people in the police station, including her boss, claim thats not true. and one door in the police station has a big sign saying C Murphy district attorney democrat. then when im leaving they tell me they need to store my laptop somewhere for safekeeping and i tell them i need to be able to use it everyday to survive. and im following someone thru a hotel to go get my laptop and they enter a hotel room, and when they go to bag something up i let them know thats not my hotel room, but someone elses. but i think i was in the room on the previous day before, but had checked out. then a girl lying on the floor asks me if id placed any personal ads and said that i needed to send her the details of anyone who responded. and i was wanting her for my girl instead of anyone else. 

---------4 days later------okay i guess i should go ahead and finish this blog, i hadnt posted it yet because i didnt feel like the blog was big enough. But im down again to the lowest i had in a very long time, about 33,800. this is because i lost 1600 in the poker room today, well actually only 472 of it was lost in the poker room, the rest on the craps machine. and then twice in the past 3 days i threw away more than 1000 online blackjack. i miss the days when i couldnt lose money online because i didnt have a way to buy bitcoin. 

i will say that i attempted to renew my place another month but it was too late, she was sold out in all her units near here. (has multiple units) and the one place that wasnt it would have cost me $2912 for the month plus $500 for 4 days in a different unit, so i guess ill just go elsewhere. best i leave the area anyway. i miss not being able to make money in NL and dont like feeling like the rake is too high (with a $4 jackpot drop taken on $10) and feeling like i have to play PLO when i dont have the roll for PLO. 

i wish i could get rid of my laptop and my cell phone and still have a way to commute back and forth and function otherwise in life. shame how those things are mandatory nowdays to live. i remember when i was in AC homeless part of the time, and went to the internet cafe to pay like $1 or $2 an hour to get on yahoo messenger or pokerstars. i remember doing this in a place in vegas close to UNLV too on the main street connecting flamingo to Tropicana by UNLV, but i dont remember the name of the street. the 108 bus goes down it. because if i did that, i think my roll would be far higher. then i would stay in the poker room much longer instead of leaving as soon as i get up 200 or so, and then coming home and throwing money away online because i need something to do and want to try to get more money. better i not come home til im so dead tired all i want is to go to sleep. 

still staying in Miami

 I've got a lot to do as far as cleaning this airbnb before i check out, and switching to a hotel for 4 nights, and then ive also got to sleep, but let me post this one hand before i forget most of the details. (by cleaning it i mean throwing out all the trash, etc). lucky for me its the same person who rented me a different airbnb she also has nearby and she did not get mad that i do all my eating in bed which always gets food stains on all the bedding. 

Probably because she is overcharging so much. this house is divided up between 5 units, including all the places in the back near the laundry room, and they are horribly small. some dont even have doors or windows except for one and im not even sure if thats legal in case of fire. and she is getting close to 3k a month on all of them. some more with a little more space. although a bunch of it airbnb keeps and some of it goes for tax. 

its a bomb pot and there are only 4 of us left and the game is about to break. i lost several buyins, most of them with AAxx one of the aces being suited preflop, or hands such as AJK6 double suited and missing. 

so im already in the game for the entire $1485 i had on me when i came over. $200 buyin, $240 buyin, $320 buyin and a $725 buyin, each buyin being progressively larger as i always do it. 

i won a hand off the last $725, and id had it about $800-950 give or take (ive no idea) before the start of the hand. Black guy in seat 1, i cant say whether he is any good, but all of them had money and didnt really care except for me. the 2 players i most worried about beating all of us had just left a few minutes before. anyway ive got 27KT with 2 diamonds and one board is 732 and the other board im not totally sure, but i had no pair no draw nothing on that board. something like 853. 

he bets $100, some people fold, i call. i think my 72 might be good, but im heavily on tilt and not the wisest call. turn comes 8533 and 7326 with a second diamond hitting the board. we both check and seat 1 bets $400, other player folds and i just keep thinking hes bluffing. 

i shoved my whole stack, on tilt quite a lot. and i was hoping he would fold the bluff but he called. river comes and i hit the diamond on the bottom for a flush, but nothing still on the other board. 

and i tell him, well if u got the ace high flush u win on both boards. i was fully expecting to chop the pot. he looks at his cards a few times turns them over and folds. he had something like 7249 with the same 2 pair as me, and also missed everything on the other board. so i actually won the other board with my king high. i dont even remember what the river was on that other board. man was i shocked to scoop the pot, game broke i went to the cage and cashed out $1925 of the $1485. 

----definition of rich---

it means many different things to different people, but the main thing money can buy u is not the stuff most people waste their money on (i have no where to put anything) but convenience is what rich people have. (not to worry about the cost). for example, most people needing a hotel check in the day of their stay, and wait til in the afternoon to check in. and when checking out, they make sure to leave by 11am or noon. 

if u have money u check in the night before so u can sleep in the morning without being disturbed and can avoid having to wait til checkin to sleep instead and maybe sleeping 8am til 4pm like u prefer to sleep, or u can check out the day before too, and into your new place for the next week or month instead of dealing with the hassle of waking up on time to do it the next morning and of course having it disturb your sleep schedule, and of course if u dont own a car and drive, u have nowhere to store your stuff between 11am and say 4pm to check into the airbnb. (unless of course u Uber all the way back to the old hotel if theyll hold it and pay the Uber multiple extra times). 

same way u can eat while u are out playing poker instead of waiting til u get home like i always do. im warming up food in the microwave to eat now as i type. u really have to be rich to afford the prices in most casinos. especially at all the places that dont give food comps. 

Or to eat the much better tasting mashed potatoes like Bob evans instead of cooking them on the stove out of the instant mashed potatoes box u mix with milk and water or butter, etc. and to not have to cut prepeeled apples and eat them in the $5.99 package. 

as u can see, from this first paragraph this blog was started writing over 2 weeks ago and then never got finished and posted. im getting lazy i guess because all the old readers, most of who were democrats who couldnt handle my opinions, got tired of reading the blog and all disappeared. most of them likely died because they took the vaccine. 

im basically not getting anywhere and still barely a little close to 35k, but not over that. i dont see how ill ever get back over 40k i really do need to get out of Florida. the weather here is nice however and without a friend with a car, moving anywhere at all when i cant fly is a real pain in the ass. the closest trip that wouldnt be too long would be the amtrak to Jacksonville up north. at least the rent is paid up til feb 22nd. that still gives me a months time to try and recover at least 6k

Gordon Lamb's Pussy

 everyone who knows me well knows i wont ever use an alarm clock, or to force myself to be awake by a certain time, (often describes why i check out of a hotel the night before check out and take a second one, so i can sleep undisturbed at check out time) so i wake up when i wake up. i just wish i can force myself to sleep when im tired, but everyone who does that uses alcohol or medications to do it, which of course i refuse to do. 

so when i went to sleep around noon i knew i wouldnt be waking up til 9pm or so not counting a few trips to the bathroom. actually i would have preferred to go to sleep about 4am, and wake up about 1pm, then i couldve played earlier in the day and then went to the Target store across the street from the cardroom to buy food on the way home before they closed at midnight. 

now if i go there after im done playing, ill have to stay til 7am in the morning and all i have left to eat in here is 5 hormel meals. i ate everything else because its almost dec 23rd. 

in the dream i had last night, which seemed to be consecutive everytime i went back to sleep, im in some building where i was staying and was going to sleep, but first im in a public shower area or bathroom and im asking a guy working there what this soap is called, and he says its Gordon Lambs pussy. Isnt he a famous football star or something? i know there was a dentist on twitter who used to troll me with that name. 

And then im walking into another room trying to leave and i see a bunch of food i want to eat and i cant wake up yet because not enough people have woken up and its not time yet. i had a lot more to tell u but ive forgotten the rest of the dream. 

anyway here is the final hand tonight right before i quit the game. and in the middle of the hand i told the guy i was going to have to quit if i folded this hand (primarily because i wonder if i am playing too tight because i have too many chips on the table). i was in the game for $250 and when i cashed out, i still had $454. 

i had AK suited and i hadnt played a hand in awhile (when i raised a $10 straddle and a $20 blind bet to $125 with 10 10 and they all folded. yes i know i am not supposed to show the hand, but i was so relieved to get no action and not have to worry about losing it all anymore). maybe im also not supposed to want all to fold, or am I? 

only 1 guy calls, and i dont know if he is any good, but being a young kid with headphones he could be a grinder. i think this is not his home casino though, i havent seen him all month. its possible he either went broke and rebought earlier or maybe he just moved seats i dont remember. 

i think my initial raise was to $27. primarily to rid myself of a green $25 chip which i hate, and a purple $2 chip, which i also hate. i like to have only a bunch of $5 and $1 chips on me. Plus i consider other players assholes and annoying when they remove all the chips from the game forcing the dealer to need a fill sooner when they tip $5 in small chips instead of a red chip, but people do this shit all the time. . flop comes AQ6 with 1 card of my suit. we both check. turn comes 9 i bet $30 and he raises to $75.

i did NOT want to lose my entire stack, but i feel im playing too tight, so thats why i said id have to leave if i fold. but i asked if he would show if i folded. he wouldnt respond to me, meaning he was serious and not there to be friendly and have fun. that pissed me off so i quit. what do u guys think he likely had?

-----

Psychologically, its very hard for me to not always ask for the other players to run it twice, even when the other players consider the pot small, and even more strange, my desire to do this, even when i need to double up so i can leave. i guess its because i cant help but always think i will lose the pot 100% of the time if i dont protect myself from running it twice. this fear has no basis, and its simply mental. but since i am losing so much money with the extra $2 or $3 they take per pot if u run it twice, starting yesterday i have finally quit asking people on the smaller sized pots in the NL games and only if they suggest it do i say sure. if i can break myself of this habit i might start winning more money and pay a little less of the enormous rakes and jackpot drops they have in Miami. 

they do this many places in south florida, and also at the MGM in detroit (charge u extra rake or jackpot drop if u run it twice). which other poker rooms in the US do this also that i dont know about?