Moving, AC, and Poker Updates (8.24.2010)

I was around Atlantic City area again during the past weekend.  I finished up a total of $300 in about 12 hours of play.  Yes it could have gone a lot better, but that wasn’t a bad result based on the hourly rate, especially playing just 1-2NL.  At least my efforts on the tables paid for the hotel, gas, and tolls.  The lack of posts has to do with being really busy and not putting in the volume online.  My number one priority has really been lining up a place to move to and getting everything in order.  I’m really charging ahead here.  And for some topics:

Place in Brigantine NJ almost lined up

For those of you who don’t know Brigantine is a chill little beach town that is separated from Atlantic City by a single bridge.  It is rather secluded.  However, it is still only 5 minutes max from the Borgata and really close to all of the action without the filth of Atlantic City.  I’ve been looking at yearly rentals this entire month.  This weekend I found a house that was exactly what I was looking for.  I jumped and put in a good faith deposit to try to take the house off of the market.  It is a few minutes from AC, I can even see Harrah’s across the water from my theoretical balcony.  It’s also a few blocks from the beach.  The feel of the place and location is just awesome.  Once my credit checks out and references go through everything should be ok.  I’m pretty pessimistic by nature, but this is very close to a done deal.  I have a very strong employment record, credit history, and references.  I have no worries about my ability to pay rent going forward.  I have at least 8 months set aside (I haven’t been living at my parents the last 6 months+ for no reason).  The move in would most likely be somewhere between mid-September and October 1^st.

Roommate Situation

I will need two roommates to help me pay for rent.  This will make my life a lot easier.  The house can comfortably support three people.  Well the roommate situation took a really interesting turn of events during the past week.  I met a girl who 100% is committed to moving in.  I feel SO DAMN LUCKY that I found her out of nowhere.  Crazy enough she seems to feel the same way.  She is very stable and has a full-time job.  She is also drop dead gorgeous which is kind of irrelevant, but yeah I was sort of shocked.  Anyways we seem to get along great; she is really a sweet girl with an awesome sense of humor.  She doesn’t smoke or do drugs (like me), but definitely likes to get down for a few drinks (like me).  Such a good match out of nowhere, I’m very excited.  When I was on the tables Sunday we exchanged texts for several hours.  Her being committed makes me much less stressed out about this situation and taking all of the responsibility myself.

As for the baller poker player who was going to move in, he has spooked the fuck out of me a little.  Let me start by saying I really do like the kid and we get along very well.  I’m very much hoping he gets his shit together so he can move in.  Unfortunately it sounded like he took quite a hit at Turning Stone last weekend, and suddenly he’s dropped from 100% committed to not sure.  Deep down I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have substantial money pulled together to pay rent and play full time safely enough.  He won over 100k at some point last year, but obviously lacks the discipline.  I did some sweat sessions with him over the weekend and he is the real deal.  He’s a much better poker player than me.  Watching him get up 20+ tables on one monitor with seemingly no effort made me realize how much work I still have to do.  However, he’s not as mature and he lacks the DISCIPLINE.  Skill level won't always overcome poor discipline and bankroll managment.  He also seems a little careless with the cash.  The kid rolls up to the hotel room with a $700 vaporizer.  I mean sell that and don’t smoke weed as much and its 3 months rent saved right there.  What is the problem here?  We go to a diner; it’s a really expensive steak for lunch.  Its things like this.  For someone who has taken quite a downswing he doesn’t seem to be living as modestly as he should. 

That being said I want to stick my neck out for him.  I know once he stabilizes he will be an absolute monster.  He is going to tear things up one day.  But at the same time I really don’t want to screw myself over.  The last thing I need is a roommate defaulting on the rent and I have to cover that extra $450 per month out of my pocket for a month or two.  And what happens if I’m running badly at the same time?  Yes it’s a lot to think about.

Anyways, I’m giving him a few days to get his shit together and give me a final answer.  I’m still willing to work with him because we get along really well, I understand his talent, and have a good feeling about his potential.  However, if he falls through it would suck, but not a deal breaker.  I will have several weeks to line up another roommate.  And I still have my “dream girlie” roommate.  Also, two other stable girls have contacted me about being interested in living together and sharing rent.  Sure they didn’t almost get Supernova Elite last year, but that is life.

Poker

Not much here, but I’ve been playing live on the weekends plenty.  Its crazy how much more comfortable I feel playing live.  I feel so far ahead of the players who frequent those games after playing a few hundred thousand hands online and putting the study in.  Worst case scenario I will be grinding out live to earn what I need to live off of and save for each month.  Even this would be a hell of a lot better than corporate.  I have no problem grinding up a few thousand on 1-2 before I go up to 2-5.  It's all about feeling good about yourself.  I'm going into this very humble.  I still haven’t resumed the online grind yet.  This might end up being a month almost completely off from online.  Hopefully this weekend if I don’t go to Atlantic City I can put some good sessions in again.  But I really might have to go and help set up this place.  If the grinder falls through I have to meet other people and make a quick judgment call on the 3^rd roommate.  I also want to meet up with the girl and decide what furniture should stay and go (the place is furnished).  She is moving a lot of her own stuff and sounds paranoid about lame furniture being there (so female).  It shouldn’t be a big deal as long as we tell the landlord exactly what we want gone several weeks before the move. 

Sounds like a date!!!!  Just kidding just kidding, we are roommates I really have to do everything in my power to keep this professional.  Or do I?  I have no idea.  Can I really live with someone with this sort of connection and not seriously hit on her once over 12 months?  That sounds impossible.  AS long as it’s mutual I guess.  Nice distraction I found here, I’m sure it will ruin my life. 

Anyways, I just started importing all of my hands on my new PC last night around 10p.m  Well now it’s 24 hours later and HEM is still importing…………  God only knows how long this will take.  After that I have to transfer notes and re-set up the HUD, so fricking annoying.

Oh sweating the kid this weekend made me realize even more how much I really should have a hot key program installed when serious multi-tabling.  So I’ll be looking to purchase Table Ninja shortly after I set everything up.  This is not something I should be neglecting.  I wanted to do this a while ago, but I forgot about it and it fell off my radar.

Today I’m $3,000 richer (sort of)

Quite an interesting find.  My future landlord wanted a record of steady employment and some recent pay stubs (a reasonable request).  The problem is that during the past 2 years+ I have had direct deposit set up.  I really never review the actually details of my paychecks.  I just see a deposit show up online in my checking account each week and think "ok seems about right".  Terrible I know.  So I had to contact my recruiter and find out how to view everything online.  It took about 20 minutes to figure out.  So as I'm getting some paystubs together I realize a small percentage of each check has been going to a 401k plan (retirement account).  Apparently when I first started my employment at the evil corporation I was auto-enrolled for a 401k plan where about 2% was taken out of each check.  I never noticed the 2% being taken out.  I gave them an email that I never check, so I also saw no emails about the status of the account.  So where the hell is this 401k account?  I spent the morning tracking it down and found the account with a little over $3,000 in it.  I really had no idea this existed until today.

So if you see a clean cut dude with a really attractive roommate on the roulette table at your local casino who says: "$3,000 on black please" that might be me.  My dreams of putting $3,000 on black were soon cut short when I realized that this was a retirement account and it's seriously hard to withdrawal the money, especially while still employed for the company that set it up.  Actually while still employed it's pretty much impossible to withdrawal on until you are 59 or something stupid.  That's  um 35 years.  I haven't even been alive close to 35 god damn years.  You can take loans out on it, but that's not really worth the effort if it's not an emergency.  I found this all a little ridiculous, especially considering I didn't even know a portion of my income was going towards this account.  Besides it's my damn money and I can't even draw 50% out in case of an emergency?

I NEED EXTRA CAPITAL TO THROW AROUND TO PLAY POKER FULL TIME.  HOW IS THIS NOT AN EMERGENCY?  HELLO?

Wow thanks for the amazing deal and looking out for me!  However, once I'm let go or quit by the end of October it's a different story.  I can then basically roll over the account and have the flexibility to withdrawal with a 20-30% penalty.  During the past two years the account made 17% on top of what I put in so it performed rather well.  So once I quit I have at least $2100 I can draw on that I didn't even know I had.

This is pretty solid.  If the plan wasn't set up I surely would have just spent the small amount of money received each week instead of putting it towards this account.  I would have been used to the extra $20-30 or so per week and just spent accordingly.  So in the long run I think it's actually better I had this account without my knowledge, even if I end up withdrawing with a sizable penalty.  So a decent day.

-bag