November News & Notes

- As you loyal readers have noticed, I haven't been a loyal blogger lately. As I've mentioned before, things just aren't as blog-worthy after 400 entries, especially the day-to-day grind. Special events and road trips are still interesting, and I do have two more trips planned for this year.

Another reason for lack of blogging has been lack of playing. I started dating a young lady named Karen back in August, and that really cut down on my poker. However, that relationship has fizzled out, so I have more time for the tables.

Does that mean I'll be blogging more? Well, like most poker questions, the answer is "It depends." There will be times that I'll be motivated, and times that I won't. I may do three entries in a week, and then go three weeks without a word.

- Just like last year, I'm heading to Lake Tahoe for the WSOP Circuit that starts on Thursday. It's too far away to drive back and forth every night, so I got a hotel room from Sunday to Wednesday, and will be heading home on Thursday.

I'll be grinding tournaments and the $1/$3 cash games. Unfortunately, the WSOP decided to up the juice on the tournaments. Last year's $345s are now $365. and the $230s are now $250. It's really annoying, but if things go as well as they went last year, I won't mind as much

- With my good tournament score in an Omaha-8 tourney last month, I decided to crack open the database and look at my numbers for these non-"TV Poker" tourneys. By far, I've played more Omaha-8 and HORSE tourneys than another games, so I just looked at those two.

Since I moved out here two years ago (yes, it's been two years), I have played in nine Omaha-8 and seven HORSE tournaments. In those 16 tourney, I have had five cashes, three wins/chops, +$1445, 26.3% ROI.

Overall, pretty solid numbers. Granted, 16 tourneys is a rather small sample size, but these numbers do include my $1500 airball back in June.

- On a personal note, I'm currently looking to buy a house, something small and relatively cheap near where I work. With the recent "housing crisis", you would expect there to be plenty of homes to choose from. But you would be wrong.

There is currently a shortage of "cheap" homes in Reno, mainly homes under $125k. This is due to investors gobbling them up just a couple of days after the homes go on the market. Most of those homes involves a Short Sale, which means they are selling for less than the owners owe the bank on their mortgage. The investors are usually paying cash, which speeds up the process.

If I wanted to by a larger home on the other side of town for around $200k or more, then there are plenty to choose from. But I don't need the bigger home just for myself, and I certainly don't want to drop that kind of money on a house.

The good news is the I want to buy a home, but I don't need to buy one. I'm in no hurry, so I can stay patient and wait for the right opportunity. Something could happen next week, or maybe sometime next year.

- The casinos around here often have drawings for money and prizes. Sometimes it's small drawing for $100, or as big as $20k. You earn entries by playing slots and table games. Poker earns you basically nothing, so I've never seen my name called for a drawing.

However, I was playing at Grand Sierra on Friday night. The Floor told me that my name was on the screen. I knew they were doing a drawing, but I wasn't paying attention to it, so I have no clue what I had won. I hurried to the drawing area, and handed them my players card. I still had no clue what I won. Obviously, a big prize would have awesome, but even a $100 was still free money.

But... that's not what I won. Instead, they handed me a DVD of the San Frisco Giants, and the perfect game they had this year. As a life-long Cleveland sports fan, I can best described my reaction as speechless. I politely thanked them, and headed back to the poker room with my bounty. The Floor was curious what I had won, and I showed him the crappy DVD. After he stopped laughing, I left it with him. Reno is a Giants town, and I assumed they could give it away to someone who actually gave a shit about it.

Two hours later, I went up to counter to cash out, and the DVD was still sitting there. They had tried to give it away, but nobody wanted it. So I took it with me, and left in on a table somewhere in the casino. For all I know, it's still sitting there.