A Release

I’ve returned from a Vegas weekend. We decided to extend the weekend by 1 day. It was nice not having anywhere else to be. This was definitely a trip for celebrating and releasing. I found myself start to get a bit frustrated when I thought about losing my job. It never got to the point.. why me? I don’t question my abilities. I knew why my number came up and it didn’t have anything to do with my work.

I couldn’t help myself. I’m in Vegas, it’s the last birthday of my 20s and I was 2 days into unemployment. What can I do? I needed a cocktail.. and keep ‘em comin’. I used to like to have a drink or two when I sat down at a table.. I was new to live play and I need to calm the nerves. As I became more confident in my game, I felt like I took too many chances and became too chatty when I drank at the tables.. this soon became a leak in my game that I needed to fix. So that was the end of that.. which means no poker on Friday.. but celebrate we will.

Saturday was a day to play.. so I entered an $80 tournament at Planet Hollywood. Players were not good and unpredictable. I tried to be patient but the play was just so bad and luck just loves those bad players… so I was out in 2 hours. I moved to cash. Players were better-ish than the tournament.. I had my favorites for taking pots off of.. I made back my money from the tournament and an extra $50… but I decided to have a few cocktails.. I was just in the mood to drink and my table had a few fun guys.. soon I became very chatty.. I was holding back playing hands though (because I couldn’t shut up and pay attention to the play).. so I knew it was time to take my winnings and split before I started to gamble. Another rule for playing I have is, If I’m in need of blowing off some steam then I should leave the table.. and that’s exactly what I did..

Waking up on Sunday I realized how badly it’s going to hit me to wake up on Monday morning and not go into work.. It was beautiful out.. so why not stay another night? We went to the pool for a bit and walked over to the Luxor and decided I’d play in their 4pm $55 tournament with my winnings from Saturday. I know the starting chips are bad, the play is bad, and the overall structure is just terrible.. but whatever, I want to play and I’m freerolling. Now.. when I say the play is bad.. I mean this is seriously like playing against a few monkey’s you just taught Tiddlywinks and then sat them at a poker table. Due to the fact that they have a horrible poker “area roped off on the casino floor” they could only allow 20 players and 5 alternates. Well, I played my game and ended up chopping for 1st for $450. That totally worked for me.. I could definitely use that money towards April’s rent. That was the extent of my poker on the trip. I tried to play smart and sober and if that meant I only sat on those 2 occasions.. then fine. I’m not about to play if my head isn’t into it.

After returning back to LA.. I needed to get serious about getting my unemployment claim in to the system. I discovered this article in the LA Times from February 22nd. The article says, “You can apply on the phone, but those lines are so tied up these days that it would be easier to get through to a radio contest.” Now, I’m one of the “small percentage of laid off workers” who can’t apply online. I have to call because I worked in FL 18 months ago. I had no choice but to get my claim in online because it was the only way I could get myself set up in the system so they will at least call me to review my info. It’s definitely tough getting myself set up and I’m doing everything I can right now to work on freelance, sell handmade jewelry on Etsy, and play poker to get me through to the next month. So afraid my buffer will run out…

Hope everyone’s March is treating them well so far. It rained today but I still made it out for a nice walk and enjoyed the dark clouds hanging over the beautiful San Fernando Valley.

Cheers.