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.
