Vegas, Now

It's been so long since I've written anything. Should I discuss poker? Poker is a means to an end. It's one I enjoy but it is only to scrape together enough money to be able to do the things I find important in my life. It's the same as the job you have, no matter what that may be. Besides, right now, poker is really pissing me off.

August was rocky. Up and down, ahead and behind, and always wondering how I can keep it up. I swear I nearly gave up the game completely in about mid-August. The pressures are immense at times, and it becomes a very real chore to have to drag myself to the poker room. Today is one of those days.

I can rationalize the time away from the table as necessary because I will be playing in Vegas for about a week. Southwest has incredible fares and fly direct from Jax. I plan to play many hours of poker. I've also packed a second dufflebag to be able to carry the money I am going to win. If I sound like I am psyching myself up it's because I am.

I should be psyched to go to Vegas regardless of the situation, but four losing sessions in a row have me questioning things, again. This has happened many times before, and will happen many times in the future, but it really makes things difficult. I imagine the President has these same doubts, and my kid's teachers at school, and the boxer as his opponent's fist is about to collide with his face. We just try to overcome, right?

Speaking of collisions... The Republican debate is tonight. It's strange to me that Rick Perry is leading the polls. He used to be a democrat, and he didn't recently change to Republican. He flipped in the 90's, I think. He is exactly what the Tea Party does not like, in my opinion, a career politician.

I wonder why no one seems to want to change the tax system? In poker the house makes money by taking a rake out of each pot. If you don't play the hand you theoretically don't pay any rake for that hand. I would argue that in reality the rake comes out of the blinds for each and every hand and everyone pays equal amounts of blinds, but I guess that is debatable. Maybe a clearer way to say it is you don't FEEL like you have paid the rake unless you are involved in the hand.

If you fold before putting any money into the pot then you have not lost anything. Of course, you can't win by not playing hands.

Why can't the tax system be just like that? You wouldn't even have to FEEL it.

Why not if you spend money, you pay a sales tax on each purchase? You have to spend money to make money, and the more you make the more you spend, and the more taxes you would pay. It would just feed off itself, painlessly, like a tick that has burrowed it's head into the fatty tissue of your thigh. You don't even feel it, but that tick is drinking your blood.

How is it our current tax system is so complex and confusing that we have to hire professionals to help us avoid paying too much in taxes? Is there anything more ridiculous? Who sold that gem to the American public? If the professionals we hire are not too help us avoid paying MORE than our share then they are certainly to help us avoid paying AT LEAST our share. So, using that logic we have an open profession in the United States assisting in the criminal activity of tax evasion.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

Just do the Fair Tax already. Quit screwing us over, please. There are ways to do the Fair Tax so those below the poverty line actually pay nothing in taxes. Look it up, if you care.

Back to poker. Poker is life, guys. You win some, you lose some, but everyone has a fighting chance. Notice I didn't say equal chance. Nobody is equal at the poker table. Everyone is different, and everyone plays poker at a different cognizant level. One can move up the ladder or down the ladder, what happens is up to the individual. "Get better, or go broke trying" ought to be our country's motto as it is poker's motto, at least in my mind.

I'll tell you one thing, there are no handouts. There are no physicians labeling your bad play as a "disease" and offering you free government therapy sessions. Oh wait, maybe that's what gambler's anonymous does. Do stock traders go to GA when they are on a losing streak? I wonder.

So, watch out for Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. I don't trust those two. I don't think they speak from the heart. I may be wrong about them both, but I have a Doctorate in People Reading and Bullshit Exposure. It took me 15 years and thousands of dollars to obtain that degree, so respect me.

I just laughed aloud, to no one, as I wrote that last sentence. Vegas Baby!

Codsey out.