House is ready for the market

The weather here has been terrible - raining every day for like the last week which made things like taking cardboard boxes to storage problematic. But the house is now done. The staging lady came tonight and did the finishing touches and I've got to say it looks nice. As always it took much longer to do all the busywork involved to make the house look pretty. Touching up the wall where our coat rack is turned into me just painting the entire entryway; putting in sod; putting in mulch; vacuuming; dusting; mopping; cleaning all the kitchen appliances; etc. All I have left to do tonight is do one last cleaning of the floors and clean the bathroom. Hopefully the potential buyers will think our house is as nice as we thought it was...

Still working on the house

Our plan is to get the house on the market by the end of next week so I have been working at getting it "openhouse" presentable. I have done the vast majority of the work so this week and next will just be taking the last couple of loads to storage/goodwill; doing some minor paint touch ups and then cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Our backyard was looking a little straggly so we decided to lay some new sod and to try and reduce the money pit that this house has become I figured that I would try and do it myself. So I rented a tiller from Home Depot, got it home, and even figured out how to start it up and use it. For me, this is a pretty huge accomplishment considering that changing a lightbulb is about my peak for doing handyman type stuff. So it shouldn't be a big surprise that as soon as I set the tilling blades into our yard the whole thing went KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK and spit out a brick and then stalled. Stupid me figured that it was just some stray brick so I crank it back up and hear and feel the same massive KA-CHUNK as another brick is thrown out of our yard. So now I sigh, get the shovel and spend the next 2-3 hours shoveling the whole back yard and unearthing about 50 bricks that were all about 1 inch under the top soil. Of course I rented the damn tiller for only 4 hours and if I went over the price went something ridiculously high like from $75 to $225 so now I had to scramble to till the yard so that I could return it in time.

Long story short - I got the job done, but man what a hassle. The yard does look nice now though - hopefully the sod takes. It's supposed to rain this whole week so that should help.

Pokerwise, I have been playing short sessions of Heads-Up $10/20 Limit. It's a super swingy game but I am liking it because I can play for small sessions which fits in with letting me be able to get the house prettied up.

Some Progress

I rented a storage unit and have made quite a few trips with my pickup so the house is looking emptier. It is still a mess and there is still quite a bit to do, but progress is being made. We are going to be putting it on the market at the end of this month and then we'll just hope for the best.

Poker is taking a back seat at this point but I have been playing some cash both online (up and down) and last night I went to a local casino with some friends and made over $700 which always feels nice.

Sick and Tired of Losing

I

AM

JUST

FED

UP

OF

LOSING!

whine whine whine, cry cry cry. Same old same old. Play 24 tourneys. Cash in 6 of them. Get a 16th, a 17th, a 25th, a 33rd, lose money for the day. Rinse and repeat. I need to stop getting coolered late, I need to win a flip late....

I NEED A FUCKING WIN!

Too much work

We were supposed to go to Carmel Valley this weekend with my wife's family but my wife has too much work to do to prepare for a grand rounds presentation that she has to give next week. I have major problems in general with how many hours our medical system makes residents work in general. I understand that they have to get their training somehow and that involves lots of hours but I think they should probably add a year of residency to each program so that the residents are working more like 60 hour workweeks rather than 80 hour workweeks. On top of that, I think making residents have to do all this extra work (M & M's, grand round presentations, and a chief year project) is just ridiculous. Anyhoo, the trip is now off so I should be putting in some volume this weekend instead.

Poker continues to frustrate the bejesus out of me. I have 2 10ths and a 7th in my last two sessions. My 10th today was in a $55 tourney on stars that had over 2000 entries. First place was worth over $15k, 10th brought me like $700. Bah.

Our whole house fiasco has also occupied a ton of my time this week. I have done a lot of research into the financial implications of renting our house out rather than trying to sell it. While there are some tax breaks, we are still going to take a huge hit no matter what we do so I still am leaning towards putting the house on the market, taking our lumps and moving on. We shall see...

Stressed Out

Poker continues to go poorly (even though I feel I continue to play well). Our house situation is just going to be a huge money drain that is looking like it's going to be ugly ugly ugly. My wife has like 3 different projects going on on top of her 80 hour workweeks. So all in all, life is not at its pinnacle right now.

A huge cash infusion from a nice poker score sure would be nice....

Back in the Saddle

I've spent the last couple of days getting the house at least somewhat presentable. I have net with 3 different realtors and now will have follow-up meetings with all of them where we get into the real nitty gritty and discuss listing prices, costs, staging, etc. The market in Sacramento took one of the worst dumps in the country so I am not looking forward to this at all because it is very likely we will not only lose our entire down payment but will also have to bring a check to closing. But I am also not real keen on renting our place, having to be landlords from a distance and taking a monthly hit since we wouldn't be able to rent it for close to what our monthly mortgage payment is... and then still having to put it on the market in a couple of years with no assurances that the housing market is going to rebound significantly.

So long story short, I think we are just going to tuck our tail between our legs, take a huge financial hit, and be done with it and start over fresh in Fresno.

On the poker front, I put my first session in last night and it was the same old story. I cashed in 6 out of 20 tourneys with 2 8ths, a 14th, a 21st, a 27th, and a 33rd. So yeah I continue to get deep in lots of different tourneys and I just fail miserably at closing.

Back Home Again

I'm not super keen on announcing my future vacations on this blog just because I don't really love announcing that our house is going to be empty for a decent period of time. So that's why I wasn't updating a lot recently. My wife had a week off and we headed to Santa Barbara. She had to do quite a bit of work while she was there so it wasn't a super exciting vacation, but it was nice, as always, to just relax and be treated like royalty. My sister's kids are the biggest germ carriers I've ever come in contact with so whenever I visit them, I get sick, so unfortunately I spent a good part of this last week recovering from a nasty head cold.

Anyhoo, I just got back from the 6 hour drive home. I am meeting with a couple of realtors tomorrow. And then I hope to be getting back into the poker swing later this week as well. Right now I am more worried about getting the house ready to be put on the market then anything else, so we'll just see how poker fits in and I'll go from there.

Driving Miss Daisy Coming to an End

So I've spent the last half-week here in Dallas. My only true job duty was to drive my sister's kids to school (and one ballet lesson) and pick them up. My mom was also here so her duty was more of the true childcare role and I have to admit that she took the vast vast majority of that role so I had somewhat of a cakewalk. I was able to sleep in. I didn't have to wipe any butts or make any meals. But I did at least give her a bit of a break every day when I played with them and bounced them on the trampoline, or pushed them on the swings. Anyhoo, I am heading back home tomorrow and my real life will be ready and waiting for me.

My backer has decided to let me go and I really can't blame him. I have been a losing/breakeven player since August so paying me to either lose money or breakeven just doesn't make a lot of sense financially. 90% of a negative to a breakeven number is still a loss...

I thought about trying to keep putting my salary deal out there but I have decided that I am just going to bite the bullet and resume playing on my own dime. To be honest even though it definitely adds stress, I am also looking forward to it. I want poker to be my career. And if it is going to be my career then I either need to make money playing the game or I need to find another career. So it is sink or swim time for me, and I am hoping that everyone sees me swimming like Michael Phelps sooner rather than later.

Off to Dallas

My sister is going on vacation with her husband to some exotic place and needs someone to drive her kids to school and soccer and whatnot while she is gone, so I am heading off to Dallas tomorrow to re-enact Morgan Freeman's role in Driving Miss Daisy.

I have been working really hard this month so that I would be able to get my 400 tourneys in before I left for Dallas and I finished my 400th tonight. So far I am about as close to break even as you can get for the year (I am up $132.55 to be exact). I am really liking how I am playing lately. My in the money percentage is at close to 20% and I am getting deep in many different tourneys - I just need that elusive late run good and everything should fall into place.

Once I get back from Dallas my plan is to start calling realtors and tying up whatever loose ends are necessary to get our house on the market.

Broken Record Post

I almost didn't post this because I know it will sound like a broken record, but I haven't updated in a while and I don't want those who actually do check this blog out to think I have died.

So poker has been the same as it has for a long time for me. I am making a lot of deep finishes. Even a couple of final tables, but still just can't get that big score.

Everyone keeps telling me that all I can do is continue to put myself in the position to make the big scores and eventually they will come. My only worry is that maybe they just won't come anymore...

Back to winning

I was supposed to go to the driving range this morning, but it was raining so instead we just had breakfast and shot the shit. I then got some errands done this afternoon and put in a smallish session tonight. It started off about as bad as it can get with bad beats/lost races/and just getting brutalized over and over again with KK (either running it into AA or raising per getting called and having the flop come A hi). Anyhoo I stayed the course, ground it out and somehow managed to make a profit for the day.

The day was still frustrating - I got 2 14ths and one of them was in the 75k which I just seem to love final table bubbling; and my JJ lost to 55 all-in preflop for a 30+ BB pot at a $100 Final Table putting me out in fourth.

But.... I did also make two final tables and I am now back to just barely profitable for the new year. So instead of ruminating on the frustrations I am going to try and focus on the positives.

I am playing well. I am giving myself every opportunity to get deep in tourneys and get big scores. I am healthy and still get to make my own hours. So hopefully this will be a good way to kickstart my long weekend where I am heading to S.F. to hang out with my family.

I'll be back grinding away again next week.

Not a lot to report

We went to D.C. for a family reunion over New Year's which was short but sweet. I don't see my step-brothers very often so I enjoy it when I get to see them and their families. Watching the Badgers lose the Rose Bowl was disappointing but at least it was a really fun game to watch.

Pokerwise, the new year is unfortunately starting off very much the same way it ended. I play well, I get deep in some tourneys, I keep missing that elusive huge score. Tonight I played a small session after watching the Seahawks/Saints game and managed to final table and get 5th in the nightly 75k on Tilt. It was a nice chunk of change but it was also agonizingly close but not quite there to a huge score. 1st place was over $18k, and my fifth place finish was under $5k.

I will keep grinding and hopefully have a huge post to report soon.

Update

Between trying to grind out my last tourneys for the stake I am doing, traveling to Dallas for x-mas with my sister and family for 5 days before x-mas, having my wife's family come here for the x-mas weekend, and now getting ready to go to D.C. for New Year's I have been busy.

I love spending time with my family so I have really enjoyed the last couple of weeks.

If the clinic in Fresno agrees to the changes we suggested in my wife's contract, then she should soon be signing her contract and we should be moving to Fresno at some point around July next year.

Pokerwise this year has been so frustrating that I am glad that it is ending and that I can start fresh next year. It was a crazy up and down year and it ended so poorly that this is the first year that I actually lost money playing professionally. Over my last 1200 tourneys I am down close to $38k. Luckily with decent bankroll management, and staking myself I still will have a roll to grind when we finally make our move to Fresno. I am also an eternal optimist so I truly believe that next year will swing back around for me and that really big things could be in store for me pokerwise.

We shall wait and see...

I'm a lawyer again...

but hopefully not a practicing one anytime soon.

I swore in yesterday to make sure that I don't lose my bar privileges and then as soon as I get my bar card I will change my status to inactive so I don't have to pay the normal yearly dues.

The nice thing is that it appears to be relatively painless paperwork to become an active member again so if I need to start practicing law again I should be able to start the job search and start work quickly.

On the pokerfront the maddening, gross, frustrating results just keep piling up. I made another final table yesterday but all it did was make me break even for the day. I am still waiting for that one big score to make all those dark clouds dissipate. We shall see....

I saw another glimmer of light

I won the $55 6 max on Stars today. Feels good to win.

Another Deep Breath Time

We had a really small but nice thanksgiving. My wife's best friend from her residency program came over and I cooked a turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, the crescent rolls from a can, gravy, and a salad. The only dish that failed was the gravy which I don't eat anyways so all-in-all it was a success.

Poker has been such a mental clusterfuck this year that I have been really really bad about pushing the bad days away and remembering everything that I have to be thankful for. So a day away from the tables to regain some perspective is always a good thing. I have a great family, friends, my health, my dog, a job where I still get to sleep in until noon everyday. Life is good.

I continue to have difficulties focusing on how blessed/lucky/good life is when I am losing at the tables, but I will also continue to try and better myself in that regard.

I want the light back

I am continuing to just play one night session and just keep registering for tourneys until have hit somewhere around 20. Out of the 19 tourneys I played tonight I got another 17th, 13th, and 11th. When I finished my last tourney tonight in 17th place after another retardedly standard lost race I just started laughing. I mean my late luck is either going to get better, or its not.

On the non-poker front, it looks like we are going to have a small thanksgiving this year but I will be cooking a turkey nonetheless, which I need to get tomorrow.

A little more light

Another 3 more 10th-36ths but also another FT tonight. Again it was a small tourney so my total profit for the day wasn't much but my confidence level is much higher.

I also am back to playing backed, so it feels good to start the stake on a positive note.

A little light...

I got 4th in a $26 FO on Tilt for a little over $2k, and I also got a frustrating 32nd, 23rd, 21st, and 15th in 4 other tourneys. So while I made a little bit of money for the day, it still is hardly enough to cover my buyins for my next session.

I need to stop getting all of these 10th-36th place finishes and turn them all into final tables for life to start smelling like roses again.