Ex Poker Pro

Well some people have been wondering who I am and what I play. And unfortunately I am not going to say. I really want this to be a place where I can discuss my honest opinions and talk strategy. If the people who I play with every day ever read this blog and knew it was me, I would be at a big disadvantage. So I don’t want anyone to know my real identity. So, when ever I talk about the game I was in or who I was playing against ill try to keep some of the details a little general. I am sorry for all those people who really wanted to know. LOL maybe nobody cares yet. But it think it will result in a more honest blog.

Well The year is almost over, and that means time to figure our your taxes. If you are getting back money its almost time to file. If you owe money you have a few more months to earn enough money to pay what you forgot to save over the last year. I always seem to be in the ladder of the two. What I have been hearing is that the IRS is planning on targeting Professional Poker Players for Audits. Now I think I keep better stats then most but that would still be a nightmare. I try to pay all my taxes but sometimes I am not 100% on the numbers and if they were ever to ask about a few years ago I would have no idea what some of my chicken scratch notes mean. So I am trying to be a little more proactive this year and figuring things out before the year ends instead of in April. This way I may be able to do something that saves me some money. If I hear of anything to save money on taxes believe me ill let you all know. For right now my advice would be either claim it all and suck it up be a good citizen, and pay your taxes. Or don’t claim a dime and pray. If you claim only a little you may get flagged and a closer look may reveal that you owe more. I am on the side of Pay your taxes. The real bad beat will come 3 years down the line when they say where is our money and oh by the way, we want 50% more for interest and a penalty.

Every day I go to the casino I play poker. I only play poker, and don’t consider it gambling. I would consider gambling to be anything where the odds are stacked against you, however so slight, but with a chance to win some prize or jackpot. Poker, If you are playing against people worse then you, is not gambling. I hate to see the players that win big then go lose half the money, or all, at a black jack table. They work so hard to play well and then blow it. In the last few months of playing I have not played one single hand of black jack. No craps, No Pia Gow! Ok I put $10 into a slot machine while waiting for a game once. They got me that day. But what I am saying is if you keep track of your poker winnings then you should also keep track of your GAMBLING winnings. Especially the days you win playing poker. If 50% of your winnings always goes back to the house at a table game it makes being a winning player much harder.

Stay away from the table games! If it means using a different entrance, use it. Walk a little further, etc. Those extra steps could be making you a lot of saved bets. As always a saved bet keeps money in your pocket just as much as a bet won.

Emotions should never play any part of your game. They should only be evaluated when judging someone else’s play. There are some people I play with that I know just bug the heck out of me. There are also some people who play with a stile that screws with my game. This has forced me to switch tables just because they have joined my game. Now most people I can ignore or they just don’t effect my game but if you cant then don’t play with them.

During the day you are going to get bad beat all the time. People will draw for flushes no matter how many bets they need to cold call. And People are going to hit their little sets on the turn. If you both lose the hand with them, then do them the favor of playing bad against them. You get beat bad twice.

I had been playing about 6 hours and didn’t more up or down more then 10 bets. Then the deck smacked me right in the face. I won the next three hands and then two more in the next two rounds. They were all monster pots and I walked away up a lot of money. You really got to love it when they fold on your bluffs and you catch your draws when they don’t.

So It was a really good day. No real specific stories to tell other then patients is usually rewarded in poker. If I had lost a bunch waiting for that rush I would only have been up a little. Maybe even only even.