Introduction

After much prompting from a co-worker, my wife and I decided that we would start a regular poker-night (which has become the 2nd Friday of each month) in March of 2004 – we had just closed escrow on a new (larger) house and felt that we would actually have room to have friends stop by without them tripping over each other. So, 7 of us played that first night and it was great; lots of food, fun, beer (spilled beer on our new carpet, thanks to Dave), and jokes & stories. The original 7 were me (Jim), wife-Amy, Ward (Amy’s co-worker), Dave and Bob (my co-workers), Mark (the prompter of this endeavor), and his wife, Rachel. Like I said, it was great, except for 1 small thing – I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

So, as the months went on and I was no closer to finishing near the money, I decided that I needed help, and bought my first poker book (on Middle-Limit Hold-em, of all things), and that seemed to help. I moved up within our ranks and eventually became a consistent threat to my fellow players for the evening prizes.

Time went on and people came and went in our little group, but we’ve had poker-night every month since March 2004. Of those originals, only Bob, Ward, Amy, and I remain, but we usually end up with 8-11 people on any given night.

At the end of 2004, I gathered my courage and went into a small cardroom in my hometown (Ventura, CA), and lost $100 I had taken with me – but I had fun and wanted to improve, so I went back every month or two. Sometimes I would come out ahead, but more often I would take my $100 in there and lose it. But win or lose, I always tried to replay what happened during these games and figure out what I did right and what I did wrong. Occasional trips with Bob, Mark, and others to Chumash or Commerce resulted in up and down sessions.

I did not keep track of my winnings / losings during this time (which is unfortunate), but in all honesty, I’m sure I lost more than I won, and since my bankroll was always $100, I was probably down $700-$1,000 from my occasional cardroom visits during the next 2 years.

The following entries will cover my experiences (all that I can remember in sufficient detail to make sense out of anyway) at B&M, or brick-and-mortar, cardrooms – generally no monthly home-tournament postings, no internet stuff. After the Oct. ’06 Vegas trip, I became more confident in my poker abilities, and began playing more often - sometimes weekly or even twice-per-week.

After the Vegas trip, I pocketed the $160 profit from that venture and started filling my poker drawer – as a tracking mechanism of my winnings / losings. These will also be posted here.

However, please be advised that I typically play at lower level tables (3/6, 4/8, or 6/12 limit tables, or $60 or $100 NL tables) – I guess I’m trying to say that I am not (nor do I wish to be) a cutting edge player:

• I don’t play for the money, I look at the money I win / lose as a method of keeping score of my play
• I will never do this as a full-time job – I’m not good enough
• I do it for fun, which it is, for me – I like the challenge and the mental exercise that comes from a good game

Lastly, if you’re looking here for poker-wisdom, you may or may not find it here – I’m still looking for it myself. That’s a large part of what this journal is about, me putting my thoughts and observations down on “paper” to help me with my analysis of my game – trying to make my own poker-wisdom as I go.

If you have any insight to offer, please do – I’d love to hear about how I screwed this up or donked that off… :-) But, please be constructive – simply saying that I’m an idiot is not going to help me play any better the next time I sit down at the table. Please tell me why I’m an idiot.

Also, if you do come across any gems of poker-wisdom in your internet-searches or book/magazine readings, feel free to toss some my way – I can use all the help I can get.