So itz been a while since I posted.  This year, I've won $50K and lost $110K a month later playing blackjack.  I haven't played since my latest loss and it's been pretty easy so far.  Hopefully it'll stay that way.

I really get more and more amazed by the poker games I've been playing these days, online and live.  But mostly online.  I play $15/$30, $30/$60 and $50/$100 limit hold 'em online as well as tournaments sometimes just to kill time.  This isn't pocket change folks.  You can easily lose 1K to 5K in a couple of hours or so if you're not careful in these games.  And with all the literature out on poker these days and so much advice being given out liberally, I figure these players would be getting better.  But it's been the exact opposite.  People have actually gotten worse.  And the new breed of player I see these days are the ones who are mind boggingly horrible yet think they are good.  And when they do go broke they blame "running bad", other players, the dealer, or the online software as being reasons.  As a guy who plays poker for a living, I love seeing these bad players with big egos.  I've been running pretty good lately too, so I pretty much just sit for a couple of hours, let four morons or so gift wrap a few thousand for me, and then I'm done for the day.  But as a human being, seeing other human beings who are this stupid and who act so illogical really bothers me.  I usually embrace bad players, but the bad players today are so dumb and have such asanine personalities I really sometimes secretly hope that they keel over and die on the spot right after they lose all their money.  So to sum up what I'm feeling, my poker has been going great.  My faith in humanity has gone down a lot though/

I've been having an unbelievable last few days of poker.  Two outers, 3 outers, even 1 outers galore.  Getting crushed.  I was pretty close to cracking my monitor today, but I was able to stop myself.

Anyway, my boy jeff played a $3/$6 7 card stud hand the other day online.  If you play 7 card stud or any poker at all for that matter, the description of this hand will be hilarious. 

JSRangan: so i am dealt KQ in the hole
JSRangan: 6 showing
JSRangan: i raise the bring in guy
JSRangan: some guy with a 9 showing calls
JSRangan: bring in guy calls
JSRangan: 4th street gives me a J
JSRangan: i believe bring in guy gets a K and checks
JSRangan: i bet, 9 guy has Q showing and raises
JSRangan: bring in guy folds
JSRangan: i 3 bet and he 4 bets
JSRangan: i scoff and call
JSRangan: 5th street gives me an A
JSRangan: i check, he bets, I check raise, he calls
JSRangan: 6th st is a blank, bet call
JSRangan: 7th st gives me a T, bet call
JSRangan: i surveyed the situation, patted myself on the back for a hand well played and got the hell out of there

I keep saying I'll write in this thing more.  I really have no excuse since I really have no life and I have all this time on my hands.  I seem to enjoy just wasting away on my couch watching television all day.  Anyway.....

Went on another trip to Vegas in October.  The blackjack bug hit me again and I lost like $11,000 there.  If only I could stop playing that wretched game.  I would go to gamblers anonymous, but they would probably tell me to quit poker too.  I don't think I could handle that.  Then I would have to get a real job and shit...

I really haven't had very many interesting hands lately.  The games I've been playing online and live have been absolutely amazing.  I always wonder where these morons get money from.  They must be smart somehow to make money so that they can blow thousands a week.  But how can you be somewhat smart and then blow thousands on poker because you make absolutely horrible plays?  As a poker player, I love seeing this, but as a lover of humanity, it really depresses me to know how many truly stupid people there are in the world. 

It took me a while but I reached my online goal for the month on sunday.  My plan was to take three or four days off, but of course I'm way too addicted to poker to do this, so I played last night at Broadway (my friend's poker club in Manhattan).  I went drinking with Laurie and I was beyond drunk.  I raised about 90% of my hands preflop.  I was hitting on the massage girl there as well and tipping her for every hand I won.  The whole night was pretty much a blur, I don't really remember much of it since I was so drunk.  I do remember walking away as a 500 dollar winner, haha.  I can't imagine what everyone at the table thought of me.  My memorable hand of the night:  There was this one Asian guy to my left who was killing me, sometimes having monsters, sometimes just giving me bad beats.  Anyway, UTG was the $15 kill (this was a $10/$20 half kill game), I made it $30 with the powerful Qh4h from UTG + 1, the asian dude cold calls, I think everyone folded to UTG, who calls.  Flop comes Th 9h 4d.  Checked to me, of course I bet, Asian dude raises, other guy folds, I call.  Turn is Qc.  I check, he bets, I raise, he 3 bets, I curse under my breath and call.  River is another Q.  I check, he bets, I raise, he just calls and flips over black 99.  Haha, ship it!  This was a good example of how badly I played.  I had fun though, I think I need a session like that every so often to let off some steam. 

So blackjack is the worst game in the history of the world.  I think I play it out of boredom, but man I gotta find a cheaper way to deal with my boredom!  I've probably lost like $25g's or so playing that game the last couple of months. 

I played a little $5/$10 today with my boy Hutch on Eurobet.  I only played like 25 hands or so though, so it really doesn't count.  Like I said, I'm trying to take some time off so I don't burn myself out.  I got a rakeback deal on Eurobet that pays me 28% of my rake back.  Pretty good deal so far.  Free money.  I highly suggest it to anyone who plays a lot of online poker.  I think I could make like $3000 a month if I really try.  This month I went to Vegas for a week, the Borgata for almost 2 weeks, and I still made $500 rakeback.  I can't wait to see what I can make next month.  Until next time.....  

So I really gotta start writing in this thing more....

I had a pretty good past few weeks in live poker.  I had one nice $3000 win in $20/$40 three weeks ago and a $5000+ win in $40/$80 two weeks ago.  I spent a lot of money the last couple of weeks though just hanging out and partying. 

Then came the big disaster:  I went to AC this past week intending to play very little poker and just hang out playing the regular games at the casino.  Now I used to have a pretty big gambling problem.  I never really lost huge sums of money before but that's because I didn't have any money.  I would lose everything I had and go to my friends to borrow some just so I could pay bills and such.

I quit gambling for about a year and started it up recently again.  I could play a couple hundred bucks and leave pretty easily.  But then the last couple of weeks I suddently snapped.  All of a sudden 200 bucks wasn't enough anymore.  I started buying in for like 500, then 1000, then 2000!  Playing 100 bucks a hand, sometimes 200, sometimes 300!.  I was having a great month or so of poker, so I don't know what set me off.  Maybe boredom of poker?  General boredom of my life?  I have no idea.

So $13,000 later, I am looking back over last week.  Yes I got very unlucky.  Seemed like the dealer beat all my good hands and destroyed all my bad hands (blackjack I'm talking about).  Everytime I got a good run going and upped my bet, I'd lose 10 in a row.  But thatz not the point.  The point is that I put my money into a guaranteed long term losing situation.  I thought I could control myself because I had been doing well in that department, but I obviously failed there as well.  I played at first for entertainment, but then I changed to playing to get my money back.  I now realize that I will never be able to control myself playing casino games.  While I can't promise that I won't gamble anymore, I think I can promise that I'm officially done with blackjack forever.