I'm typing this from my new apartment
in Las Vegas. I drove the U-Haul down from Reno on Monday. This post
would have been up sooner, but I've had big issues with my internet
company's wonderful customer service, and I'm posting it from a McDonald's.
I know you're wondering if I
transferred down here like I did from Ohio to Reno. Well, the answer
is "No." I quit my job, although I prefer the term “Retired Early”.
So the next logical question for you to
ask is, “Why would you walk away from a job that pays $65k a year
with good benefits?” Well, that answer is a rather complicated, and
will require a few paragraphs.
First, I've been with the USPS for 10
years, and I've known for most of that time that I was not gonna be
there for the full 25 – 35 years like most of them. The plan for me
was to save as much money as possible, and move on to other things
when the time was right.
The post office has big problems, and
has been deteriorating every year I've been there. First, it's one of
the worst run organizations in the county. Although, in their
defense, I think it's just too humongous of a company to be run with
any efficiency. Second, they need to downsize drastically, but can't
because of postal regulations and numerous union contracts. Any major
changes, like elimination of Saturday delivery, can only happen with
an Act Of Congress. But as everyone knows, Congress
is not capable of doing any action these days.
The final problem is that the post office is losing money every year. For those that don't know, the USPS is an independent government agency, and has not received any tax dollars since Nixon was in office. That's why stamps are going up every year.
At some point in the not-so distant
future, they will run out of money. (I'm not saying that to be a
trouble maker or spread rumors; it's just simple math.) Not sure if it will
be this year or next year or the year after, but it is going to
happen. And when they have a press conference saying they will not be
able to make payroll next month, Congress will then realize that
something needs to be done.
Anyways, this isn't “The Biggest
Little Postal Blog In The World”, so back to me. I said that I the
plan was to save a bunch of money, and move on to something else. I
didn't have any specific monetary goals, other than to buy a house
and have it paid for before I “retire early.” Well, the picture
below is from an inheritance check I recently received from my Dad's
last surviving aunt. Her estate was equally divided between my Dad,
his only brother, my only sister, and myself. With all the money I
had put away combined with that check, now is the time to “retire
early” and move on to the next chapter of my life.
So what am I gonna do next? Well...
duh! I'm “Going Pro” and play poker.
Although, to be brutally honest, I
don't know how long I will play for a living. I feel like I'm much
more likely to get bored with it rather then going broke from it. I
will be grinding through the end of the WSOP, and then re-evaluate the plan. I may keep playing, or move on to something
else. I wouldn't mind getting into the industry, maybe as a traveling
dealer, or getting into management. I used to run a home game for
three years, making up tournament structures and stuff, and I think
it would be cool to run a poker room.
Or maybe I'll do something else. I'm
single with no kids, no debt, and no responsibility to anyone but
myself. I have the freedom to do whatever I want, and that does not
suck.
In the opening of this post, I said
that I'm in my new apartment. I signed a 6 month lease while I look
for a house. I wanted to be as close to the Strip as possible (for
work, of course) while trying to keep it less than I was paying in
Reno. I found a place for $700/month near the intersection of
Flamingo & S Decatur. According to Google Maps, it's 1.4 miles
from my place to the Rio. Of course, it's another 1.5 miles down to
convention area for the WSOP.
So what's my plan of attack for “Going
Pro”? Well, I really don't need a lot of money to live on, so I
could just grind $1/$2 and Daily Donkaments. That will certainly be
part of my play, but that won't make me a better player.
I really feel that I'm a worse poker
player today compared to when I arrived in Reno, especially when it
comes to tournaments. I've said in numerous posts that my tournament
numbers suck balls. Whether that is due to sample size/variance or my
bad play is certainly open to debate, but the simple fact is there
wasn't much I could do about living in Reno. Daily tournaments are
all of the $45 donkament variety. There are only a few tournament series that
come to Reno, and it was rare that I had more than 2-3 days off from
work to play some events.
However, Vegas is much different, as
there are 6-8 daily tournaments with buy-ins over $120 and decent
structures, plus a lot more tournament series. Since July 2013, I've
played 17 tournaments with buy-ins over $100. I can do that here in a
month, and still grind donkaments and cash games.
For cash games, I'm going to mix it up.
Of course I'll play $1/$2 at the beginning, but I will start to mix
in some of the bigger $1/$3 games like Wynn and Caesars, and later on
a little $2/$5. I will also play some Limit Hold'em, starting out at
$4/$8 w/half kill, and start dipping my toe in the $10/$20 game at
Bellagio. I will also play the $8/$16 Omaha-8 game at the Venetian,
with occasionally shots at their $15/$30 game. I hear that Venetian
has been spreading an $8/$16 Mix game, which is right in my
wheelhouse.
If you've made it this far then you'll
be glad to know that I've come to my final point, which is, “What
am I gonna do with this blog?” Well, the short answer is, “I
don't know.”
I basically quit blogging because
playing poker in Reno with all the Super Nit locals wasn't very
interesting to me. I don't know if grind out a living will be
interesting enough for me to get back to blogging, although I will
certainly have the time to sit down and type. If I do start blogging
more regularly, then I will give this blog a new name and look, as
the current name doesn't really work for Las Vegas. I do have an idea
for a new name, but I'm not in love with it, so any suggestion would
be welcome.
6 comments:
How about calling the blog "A SuperTight Disciple In Training"? That has a nice ring to it!
No idea about a name, but I wish you good luck and am hopeful for many new blog posts in the near future!
Patrick
"Super Tight". I literally laughed out loud! Good luck, Greg. See you in June!
Vegas is clearly best for daily tourneys, but don't limit yourself on cash games. Try L.A., Philly & Maryland if the budget allows. Reports indicate the games are much better outside of Vegas, esp. 2/5. Good luck!
Going pro playing 1\2 don't kid yourself. Miss your money up here in a Reno.
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