Just another Sunday

Yesterday was a Sunday. Family off to church, and dad mows the lawn. Our lawn looks bad. Last winter killed off a bunch of our grass, and while much of it recovered over the summer, much had not. I, of course, blame my lawn care company. We pay them $50 each time they visit. We agree to pay them, they agree to keep my lawn looking healthy and green. One of us is not upholding our end of the bargain. Scratch that, now there are two of us not upholding our end of the bargain, but my action is a direct result of their lack of action.

Anyway, the lawn got mowed. Family came home from church. Kids were screaming at each other about something. Wife was acting rather odd. It was at that point I decided the poker room would be a good spot to hide for a couple of hours.

When I arrived at the poker room my usual no limit game was full, but there was a seat available in the limit omaha 8 or better game. I decided to sit and pass some time. Besides, this poker room has a great promotion for their omaha game. If you start with 4 wheel cards, and don't win any of the pot, they give you $200. It's a good promotion, and seems to be helping promote the game because there were two tables running, which is an oddity.

Two hands in I bring up the promotion. I am told by the dealer the promotion is no more. I'm guessing their goal was to get two tables and then say "no mas". It's kind of funny because the money they use for promotions actually comes from the players in the form of a percentage of the dollar taken from each hand for the bad beat jackpot.

It seems the number of players have decreased across the board in this city, and the promotion money has dried up. God forbid the poker room use any of the PROFIT they've made over the past ten years to promote their own business. It's like anything else. Big business gets into bed with politicians, and the law gets written so business makes money, government makes money, and the people pay through the nose, but just a little bit at a time so it doesn't really hurt too much.

The promotion conversation led into a conversation about the poker room reducing the pay of the Dealers and raising the pay of the Chip Runners. This is quite a change.

Dealers deal the game. They make sure things are run smoothly and most importantly by the rules. A good dealer is worth his or her weight in gold. A good dealer is hardly even noticed at the table because things run smoothly and quickly.

One reason the game does not run quickly is because people go broke and must buy more chips. If the dealer changes them in the game stops. Ideally, there would be a chip runner, a person to get chips for the players, on hand for any game.

Clearly, this would be impossible, but additional chip runners would make games move along faster, thereby allowing more hands to be played, and the money made to increase.

I am assuming, because of the slow down in the number of players for each game, that fewer dealers are needed. It looks like the dealers who are slow, who continually make mistakes, and who slow the game down because of their incompetence, may be asked to become chip runners in the near future. It makes perfect sense.

The good dealers should be glad because they will have more chip runners available to them to assist in making their game run faster, and actually make them more money. The bad dealers, the one's who get asked to become chip runners, will not like it much. At least the poker room will be paying the chip runner a bit more money. The chip runners who hustle, who make a positive difference, may again become dealers. The few who choose to be slow, and not make a positive difference, will probably be phased out.

Capitalism works.

I lost 10 dollars in an hour and a half in that stupid Omaha game. But I was just killing time because I and the family were going to M's sister's house to watch the Jags play the Chargers. Tim and Sheryl were making a low country boil for dinner, as well.

If you've never had a low country boil, then you have not lived. It's Corn on the cob, potatoes, broccoli, onions, and seafood all put into a big pot and boiled in Old Bay seasoning until it smells good enough to fight over. Let me tell you, it tastes even better.

The seafood was shrimp and crablegs, and there was more of it then the filler foods I mentioned earlier. Damn, it was good. Best meal I've had in months, hands down.

The Jags got killed. Oh well. Pro football may have a strike or a lockout next year. It should be fun. I hope they do, maybe ticket prices will come down. If not, dig your own grave NFL.

After football last night, and after the kids were in bed, and the wife was winding down, I decided to go back and play some poker. It hasn't been a great week, and more hours are required.

I sat in a 2-5 NL game. Won the first three hands I played. Played for about three hours and walked out $300 the richer for it. The games are getting tougher. The player pool is dwindling. people are going broke.

People do not understand the concept of bankroll management. The only reason I get it is because I have lived it. They will live it too. Some will never return to poker. Others will realize they could beat the game, but staying in action is the most important thing. They will come back wiser and stronger, as I did.

My cousin is coming into town this week. We will be playing golf and poker and drinking about twenty beers a night. I am looking very forward to it. Hopefully we will have enough fun that there will be a good story in there somewhere.

I am feeling like a road trip is in order. The gulf coast of Florida may be the next destination. We shall see.

Codsey out.