MissT74

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Location: United States

Too much about me to list here...read my blog...you'll get to know me quite well.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

I may be #9.....

BUT I'm still on the damn list. How cool is that???

http://poker.about.com/od/booksblogsmags/tp/womenblogs.htm

About.com, this site is cool to find anything about everything at anytime.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Thanksgiving and More

THURSDAY:

We arrived in Phoenix around 11:30am, in time for Bill's family's Thanksgiving dinner. I was in charge of the rolls, butter, and jams/jellies. There was about 45 people there, it was held at one of his step-brother's church's Fellowship Hall which allowed us ample room. Everyone brings something to contribute so going down the list of what was on the table is way to hard. Needless to say, we were stuffed when we left.

We stayed there until about 2:30pm and then headed out to the other side of town, even past Apache Junction for those that know Phoenix area. It took an hour just to get there, this was for my side of the family's dinner which was scheduled for around 4pm. We ate again, but just not as much. Then had dessert with them while my sisters and I scoured the ads in order to go shopping Friday at 4am. I will admit to being disappointed this year, not much on sale worth getting up for at 4am, but due to tradition, we went anyways. I'll talk about that later.

So, it's about 8pm by this time and Eric, Lorrie's husband, brings out the poker set, sets up the poker table, gets his brother Kevin and Kevin's girlfriend, along with Lorrie and myself and we play a $10 tournament, winner take all. I promised Lorrie I would blog about this "event" as it was one of the most stupidest "event" I have ever, EVER played in my poker life. They were calling EVERY single hand. NOTHING was ever folded, it was insane.

I busted out Kevin when I flopped the K high flush, I checked, Eric checked, he bet, I raised all in (Yes, that's a check raise folks) Eric folded, and Kevin thinks for awhile. He finally says "What the hell" and calls and shows 2nd pair on the board. Turn is a blank and he's drawing dead. Woot, Tanya doubles up in this game from HELL.

Anywho, the last hand was with 3 players left, I was in the BB and I look down to A,9 os. Both Lorrie and Eric limped for the BB and so I made a move and moved all in. (Eric had both Lorrie and I covered)Well, as soon as I moved all in, Lorrie says, "I'm all in" almost immediantly. Then Eric debates for about 5 seconds, and says "I'm all in too". So we all flip our cards over. Lorrie has 3,3 and Eric has A,7. Of course, the 7 comes on the flop, but oh no, let's give him another 7 on the turn. No 3 came for Lorrie, so we were both out and Eric won the $50.

However, he gave it to Lorrie, then Lorrie paid for our breakfast on Friday morning after shopping, so I still got a good deal out of it. ; )

We debated about heading to Casino AZ after we were done playing, but we knew that the drive was just too long, then there would probably be an hour or more wait, so we vetoed it. Watched Star Wars III until I fell asleep around midnight.

FRIDAY:

Woke up around 3:30 am, wasn't suppose to get up until 4:15am, but I had left the TV on and that stupid game show "The Match Game" came on and they have the most obnoxious theme music/song, so I was woken up by it. My sisters, Lorrie and Jennifer and I were in the car by 4:30 am and headed for the first stop, Target.

BY THE WAY: Shame of the week to our sister Corrie who bailed out on us. Apparantly last year's disaster at KB Toy Stores had more mental affect on her then we thought. She refused to go with us again this year, after about 6 years of tradition. What a bitch. ; )

So, we get to Target an hour before the doors opened and we strategized. I was to go to the electronic department for games, Lorrie was going to the Toy department and Jennifer was going to the Sports department. I was in an out of my area with all items requested in 5 mins. It helped that I didn't have a cart! Lorrie was also in and out of her dept, so we met up at the registers and checked out in 3 mins flat. Jennifer had a little bit more of a problem and checked out a few minutes after us, but because I didn't find her in time, I paid for her game that she requested and for some reason, that set her off into a huff. Apparantly she wanted receipts for everything bought and so totally bitched me out for not waiting for her to check out.

The game was $10.88. Give me a fucking break. I told her that I would just give the game as a gift then and she can forget about worrying about a reciept. Anyways, her attitude got worse.

We leave Target and the plan was to go to Linen's 'N Things. After getting the packages in the car from Target, we get in the car and Lorrie makes a joke to Jennifer about how we need to kiss and make up since Jennifer and I were irritated with each other. ALL OF A SUDDEN the girl just goes off (Jennifer). I have never, ever heard her scream like that and it was so out of the blue and unexpected that Lorrie and I just stared at her with our jaws dropped open and wondering what the hell had happened.

Anyways, I won't bore with the details, and I know she doesn't read my blog, she doesn't even know the link. Anywho, I think something else is going on in her life and she must be unhappy about something because no way no how someone goes off like that out of the blue for no reason. We all made up by the time we escaped Linens.

Next stop was EB Games, then we tried to go to Best Buy, but the line was sooooo long and we only wanted a few games, so we left. Then we tried to go to Ulta Cosmetics, but again, the line was toooo long for the 2 items I wanted, so then we said screw it and went to breakfast at Coco's.

I then called Bill and had him pick me up at the restaurant, since it was on the way out of town, then we headed to Heather's house (his step daughter) and visited with her for a few moments. Then we started for Vegas for the weekend. We decided to stop at home in Kingman for a few minutes before getting to Vegas and then ended up staying for 2 hours so that Bill could take a nap and I went over to KMart to do some more shopping.

We finally left for Vegas around 5pm, planning on getting to Vegas at 6pm, since they were an hour behind us. Well, we got stuck on Hoover Dam for about 1 1/2 hours, so we didn't get to the bed and breakfast we stay at until about 7:30pm.

I decided to surprise Bill with dinner plans, so I took him over to Binion's and we ate at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse on the 25th floor. We had a corner table with a most excellent view, and the dinner was divine. He enjoyed it tremendously as he had just watched a documentary on Vegas and the Steakhouse was mentioned as THE place that all the old timers used to hang out at. He's very big into Vegas history and quite enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Plaza to check out the UPC action, but by then the final table had already been decided, so there was nothing to see. We almost stopped at a strip club, but I needed more cash to get him his lap dances, but by the time we got to the ATM and had another martini with Bobby at the Sports Book at Binions, we decided to just go home and go to bed early (for Vegas) with the intentions of seeing if we could wake up for the 2am tourney at Binions. (NO, lol).

SATURDAY:

I had made a deal with Bill that I would go to ANY movie he wanted to see, if he would just play poker with me. We made this deal while driving up to Vegas on Friday, and I gave him a quick lesson on how to play LHE, and then how to play it while drunk. I wanted him to experience Vegas with me, how I do, by playing 2/4 LHE while doing shots and getting drunk off our asses.

So anyways, when we woke up we had a wonderful breakfast (as always) served by our hostess, then I went to Binions to play the 10am tourney at Binions, then I would be back home around 2-3pm. Bill was going to stay home, read, relax and maybe jacuzzi. The weather prevented the jacuzzi though as it was miserable. Cold and windy like you would not believe, it was icky.

So, I headed to Binion's and ended up busting out around 11:45am, so I headed over to the Plaza where I realized that they had their last $500 event starting in 10 mins. Oh lordy, I wanted to register for this event SOOO badly. I knew though, that if I did, and if I ended up going the distance, then it would take away what was suppose to be our anniversary weekend, so I left quickly before I could talk myself into playing.

I then headed back home to Bill and we ended up reading and napping the afternoon away, after stopping at RIO to get our tickets to the Penn & Teller show for that night.

We decided to go back to Binion's Ranch Steakhouse for dinner, since we enjoyed it the first night so much, then headed over to RIO aftewards for the show.

Penn & Teller: It started out very good, I was laughing and really enjoying it, then it just went to hell. It wasn't BAD persay, but it wasn't GOOD and I'm just glad the tickets were comped.

After that, we headed downtown for some poker. We went to the Plaza where we sat at a 2/4 game and Bill played his first hand of poker, EVER, in his life. I was quite proud when he turned over his 3,5 os to beat A,J s when the board read 5,7,9,10,4. LOL. The game ended up busting way too early and we were out of the game in about 20 minutes with me -$87 and Bill +$11. LMAO. I was so proud of him and was thrilled that he agreed to actually sit and play with me. He even said later that he was disappointed that it lasted so short, and that he would have played a lot longer if the game hadn't broken.

This was right around midnight, so I sent Bill home (willingly) and I stayed and played the midnight tourney at Plaza and then the 2 am tourney at Binions, then got home around 4:30am.

SUNDAY:

We woke up for breakfast around 9am, and then I went back to bed until about 1pm. We then got dressed and packed and headed over to Boulder Station to watch that movie that I had promised Bill. Turns out, all the movies started around 12pm and the next ones weren't until 3pm and since we had to pick up Cherissa from the airport at 4:30pm, we had to forego the movie. I apologized to Bill, as I felt that it was my fault since I slept in so late, since I was out so late the night before, he didn't agree though and felt it was no big deal.

So, we had lunch at the Mexican restuarant at Boulder, then headed to the airport. Read a book for the 2 hours we were there hanging around waiting for Cherissa's delayed plane, then once we got her, we headed home, arriving around 8:30pm.

So, THAT was my weekend, and now it's Monday and it's back to work! Plus, the end of month is coming up so busy, busy, busy.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I truly wish you and your family the very best of this holiday season, starting with Thanksgiving.

Of course, what turkey meal would be complete without the 4am shopping the next day? A family tradition with my mom and sisters that I am looking forward too, in the worse way. I LOVE shopping!!

****************

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in awhile. I was out of town, then while I was gone, my computer crashed. I stayed an extra day in Vegas in order to buy a new one, then when I got home it took almost a full day to get back online after moving over all the junk on my old hard drive.

The best news: Nothing was lost!!! I was lucky enough to be able to rescue everything from the old hard drive, so then I just had to go through the icky task of re-downloading all my poker sites.

Couldn't remember some of my passwords, what a pain in the ass!!

****************

I received my anniversary gift from my husband, I wrote about it on RGP, but it's from Susie Isaacs Collection, and I absolutely adore it. For all you poker playing men that have poker playing women in your lives, this is the place to go. Even if her website is kind of sucky right now. Of course, when Bill ordered, they talked about it so I wouldn't be surprised if Bill ends up doing a new website for Susie once her two new books are done.

I called her after opening the gift to let her know how much I loved it, Bill gave it to me early because he thought I wouldn't like it, thus I could exchange it while in Vegas this weekend.

http://www.susieisaacs.com/

This is what I got last night:

http://www.susieisaacs.com/limitededitions_si-15.htm

LOVE. IT.

*******************

So, after Thanksgiving dinner (TWO of them, one with each family) and after my early morning shopping trip, Bill and I will be headed to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary.

We plan on seeing the Penn & Teller show at RIO on Saturday night, and hopefully I'll have a chance to play a few tourneys at Binions to try and get into the TOC being held next weekend.

Just a weekend of relaxation as we are staying in our normal bed and breakfast that has a fantastic jacuzzi on the back patio, and our own private entrance right to it. We love staying there, and have recommended it to a few friends.

Turns out B&B's are illegal in Vegas, so we keep the information we have on the downlow. Damn casinos, scared of a little competition, as if they all don't have enough with all the other casinos, they have to be scared of B&B's being in town. What morons.

***************

Nothing much on the poker scene, I'm having a dry spell with online poker. Hopefully that will change soon. I haven't won an MTT in almost 2 months. I've won several (45??) of the 650W$ from PS, but nothing BIG. I'm starting to get a little down about it.

That usually happens though, and then I win one, I get all excited and then the dry spell starts again. I guess the dry spell is just part of the poker cycle that I have to really, really get used to. However, I've been having more luck playing live lately then online. Go figure.

****************

So, that's it, there...you have it. All you whiners about my not updating my blog. LOL. Also, I had to get rid of the constant spamming so I added the "enter-in-the-word-in-the-box" thingy. Sorry, had to do it.

Again, have a Happy Thanksgiving and see you all next week!!

Friday, November 11, 2005

World Poker Showdown

Yours truly has recently been hired as the Head of Public Relations for World Poker Showdown.

I will start by working the WPS II Cruise, set for 12/11-12/18, and then the St. Maartens event set for April/May.

The decision to work for WPS was hard, but easy.

It was easy because this is something that I have wanted to do for awhile, to get my foot into the door and work on the "other" side of the poker table, and to also get to know more poker business minded people. I think this is an excellent opportunity and I plan on making the powers that be proud of me.

It was difficult because of the recent discussions with Bill and traveling/poker. However, after many hours of discussion,, I have come to understand his position, just as I feel he understands mine. To reinterate, his biggest concern about my traveling was the time away from home, namely, the traveling that I would be doing outside of the immediate area. Immediate area defined as California, Nevada, and Arizona. So, while it's OK to go to Vegas frequently; traveling outside of the USA will be limited to a few weeks a year.

The reasoning for this will be because if anything was to happen, or if Cherissa was to need me, I would be able to get home in a few hours rather then a day or two if I'm out of the country.

The exceptions being during summertime, when I will be able to take her with me, and I can show her different parts of the world! My baby is getting a passport, it just tickles me!! I'm 31 and just NOW getting a passport!

So, far anyone who wishes to know more about the WPS cruise go to http://www.worldpokershowdown.com/ if there's anything I can help you with, email me or leave a comment.

If there is anyone out there who is interested in doing a kind of last minute cruise, what are you waiting for?? Come cruise with me!!!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Compromising

WOW...the feedback, both positive, neutral, and negative has been pouring in through RGP and comments on my blog. I appreciate everyone's viewpoints, whatever they were, and let's face it...sometimes you just need a kick in the ass to remember what is truly and really important in your life.

My number one priority has always been my daughter. I was a single parent for 9 years, and nothing, and I mean NOTHING is more important to me then her. So the first step on the agenda was to have a discussion with her regarding my poker and how she felt about it.

So, I took her out to dinner tonight, just me and her, and this was after the talk that I had with Bill. I'll summarize that first.

Bill, as it surprisingly turns out, does not have a problem with my playing poker. He feels, and I agree, that he has made a remarkable come around from where he was in regards to how he felt about poker two years ago. He does, however, have a problem with what he considers "gambling". That is slot machines and table games, he doesn't understand the need, the want, to simply "throw money away" and has no respect for anyone who gambles. Sitting at a slot machine is done only by stupid people. While I can understand his feelings, I don't agree, as I LIKE "gambling". I don't know why, I don't know if there's underlying issues on "why" but there you have it.

He has three issues, and three issues only. I am summarizing as best as possible from his words:

1. Cherissa: She is 13 now, and at a critical time in her life. She needs her mother. There are things that she will need me for that she won't feel comfortable talking about with her daddy, and what's going to happen...who will she turn to, if I am not available because I'm not home? This was Bill's primary concern as he sees her mood and her behaviour when I'm not home and the girl just plain misses me when I'm gone. The biggest problem is when I tell her when I'll be home, and then I extend my trip by a few hours or even the night, the dissapointment is evident on her face...and he sees that. He has to deal with her and her dissapointment at that time, and I don't, because I'm not home.

2. The Nest Egg: As as smart person knows, a nice nest egg to be able to fall back on is very, or should be, very important to any responsible adult. We have a "small" nest egg, but not one big enough to make him feel comfortable. The nest egg that we do have is comfortable to me, because it's still a lot bigger (A LOT) then I ever had as a single mother, so I never understood his issues or reasonings for a larger one as simply put, I never HAD one. So the one we have now seems fine to me, but to him it's unacceptable. I feel this has a LOT to do with our backgrounds and how we were brought up and while I understand his feelings, and I agree that the larger the nest egg, the better, I just don't put it on as important scale as he does because of my past. I will be working on this, changing my viewpoints on it, and together we will build the nest egg up to what he felt he would be comfortable with, and that should be easily achieved before the new year.

3. The gambling. In his mind he cannot picture #2 happening above if I'm gambling. He states that if we had the nest egg, and had "tons" of money (as he put it) then fine, go play the slot machine, but at this point, because we don't have the nest egg as large as he would like it, he detests gambling and the need for me to simply "throw" away money.


That was it. Those were his only concerns, but they were concerns big enough to cause him to lash out in frustration against poker and gambling when it turns out, those weren't even an issue to him. In his words, regarding poker: "In five years? Go! Go out and do whatever you want...go travel the world, go travel the circuit, DO IT. But NOT now, now is not the time with Cherissa being 13, going into teenage years and needing her Mom."

Now, onto Cherissa. Cherissa had a few concerns, but not major ones. Her biggest concern was the amount of time I spend online playing poker. The trips don't really bother her too much except for in two situations. She stated that the first few hours after I left bothered her because then she felt lonely, but after that she's fine. She is always in a bubbly, good mood when I call her from my trips, and she's always looking forward to my return. The other issue was when I tell her when I'll be home, and then I'm not home at that time, or even worse, not home until the next day.

I asked her outright if she would like for me to quit poker until she's out of high school and her words were: "Oh, gosh, NO! I want you to play poker, I want you to follow your dreams, I just want to be more involved." She does have concerns about what if something came up while I was gone and she needed me because she didn't feel comfortable going to Daddy about them, but we discussed that as well.

So the compromising began:

1. I will not play online poker until after 8pm at night.

2. We will no longer have a "Family Night" (which was Tuesdays) because EVERY night will now be a family night. When she gets home from school, she is to do her homework, and then she is to help me cook dinner. (This will serve two purposes. 1. I won't be ordering out so much, we'll save money, and I'll be providing a home cook meal to the family EVERY night and 2. She will be learning how to cook so that she's not TOTALLY inempt once she's out of the house. I've taught her some, but she's old enough now where she can learn more difficult dishes.)

3. When I travel I am to be home by 8pm Sunday night, so that we can have a good hour to catch up on the weekend together, before she goes to bed. The only exception will be if I had to fly somewhere, then she will be allowed to stay up until 10:30pm, if I'm to be home by that time. If I will be home later then that, then she has to go to bed and will see me in the morning. This situation would have less frequently as I don't fly to places much, it's the traveling to Vegas and being home later then her bedtime when I'm only a 2 hour drive away.

4. Weekends playing poker online is negotiable for that particular weekend as she may have plans, and we will defer to her. (After our talk tonight, she's already made plans to go camping with one of her girlfriends family for that friends birthday, and this worked well as we already made our family plans which was to go to Prescott on Friday, leaving her free for Saturday/Sunday for her friends birthday trip.

5. I am to avoid "gambling" as much as possible. In Bill's eyes, gambling is slot machines and "carnival" games (table games). He does NOT consider poker as gambling (Took me 2 years to convince him of that, but he's totally on the poker being a game of skill with some chance vs. a game of chance bandwagon)

6. Whenever possible, I am to take her on trips with me. Whether it's a tournament in the Bahamas or in Paris or in Laughlin or in Vegas. If I can take her with me (which means Bill, my mom, a sister, whomever...goes with us for her) then I am to do that, and as she stated, this will make her feel more involved and that she wouldn't feel so "far away" from me.

That's where we ended the night. It was a long night, but a good one. I feel a lot better and I'm hoping it all works out as described above. We all agreed to revisit the issue in 3 months to see how it's working out. We also agreed that it's going to be a major change in our lives, as we've lived the past 4 years as a family unit NOT doing what was described above, so we agreed to have patience and tolerance of slip ups.

Cherissa also made the rule that if I broke rule #3 from above, that she would be able to ground me. The punishment? A weekend without poker.

I agreed.

Monday, November 07, 2005

The Gambler

I am a gambler.

On my little sisters (twins) 21st birthday, my family and I took them to play Bingo for the first time at an Indian reservation in the Phoenix area. We had a great time, it was the first for me and my sisters, and we decided we liked it. Lorrie, Corrie, PJ and I would go back many times over the following years, sometimes just two of us, sometimes three, or sometimes all of us went. In fact, for my batchlerette party....I wanted to go play Bingo, so that's what we did. I became completely hooked about 6 months after the birthday bingo party when I won two nights in a row. The first night was $800, 2nd night was $600 (split game) and back then, as a single parent, that was a LOT of money to me, so again, I was hooked.

Then my mom decides to give me a CD rom game called "Casino". On this game, they had a 7 card stud table. I started playing it and low and behold, couldn't lose. So I then started playing on Yahoo! with other live players, and surprise surprise, was a winning player there as well. So, to me, the next logical step was with real money on an online poker site. This was about 4 years ago, and the poker site I chose at the time was PokerRoom.com. WOW, what an eye opener. I was such a fish, such a loser, it's comical looking back at it now.

That was when I decided to start playing tournaments, as the money seemed to last longer. I could play for hours instead of just for 10 mins. Also, back then I knew nothing about freerolls except for the daily noon freeroll that PokerRoom offered. There was always about 800 players, and I would play until about 4-5pm, never making the money, but always improving my standing. Towards the end, I was always in the top 10 percentile, but again, never monied in it, as only 1st won ($50).

Due to my proximity to Laughlin, and due to the fact that when we first moved to Kingman I only worked part time as I only had 1-2 clients, I started taking the daily bus that was offered to Kingman residents by River Palms and Flamingo casinos. It was free, and they also gave you a buffett coupon, bingo coupons, and a free roll of nickels! I started going often. This was back in the day when money wasn't very plentiful, so I would go with about $40-$60. It was just for the day, I was always home by 5pm.

As I made more money with my business, I had more discretionary income and thus, gambled more. I would take $100 with me, so on and so on. Some times I would come home broke, other times, I would come home even, and still other times, I would come home flushed.

I enjoy gambling. I like slot machines, I enjoy certain table games, I love poker.

I have been a gambler since the first night my family and I played poker, but yet, noone in my family saw this, choose to ignore it, or didn't think it was a big deal. This includes my husband. So now, because I'm going to more and more B&M tournaments, because I'm going to Vegas and Laughlin more frequently, it finally seems to have dawned on them that hey, Tanya is a gambler! This causes problems. My husband does not gamble, he does not like it, he HATES it. He doesn't understand why people do it, he doesn't understand why I do it. He thinks it's disgusting and although those are the exact words he's used, he's never gone deeper then that.

I can only speculate, as I know what the stereotype is of gamblers, and how gamblers are thought of, etc. I think he's disgusted with me and I think that he thinks I have mental issues, or personality problems, or "something must be wrong with her emotionally or mentally if she can just throw money away so freely". He's mentioned many, many times that we should just light a match and burn the money, as that's what I'm doing to it.

Yet, when I bring home winnings, nothing is said, unless it's a "Good Job" or "Congratulations" or something like that.

This weekend I won a total of about $4800, but I only came home with $3600. So instead of being happy that I made a profit, and that I still came home with about $3500 MORE then what I went with (seriously, I went to Vegas on a very limited bankroll, as I went for the Binion's TOC which was a freeroll) he's upset because I didn't come home with the full $4800, because that's what he would have come home with.

He said to me once before that I wasn't a gambler when he met me, and that I've changed into something that he doesn't like, after being married to him. I contend that I've always been a gambler, he just didn't "see" it because he was just my boyfriend, or he did see it, but choose to ignore it.

I recently posted a poll on RGP to see how other players/gamblers handle non-playing/non-gambling spouses and I'm anxious to see what others think or how others handle the similar problem that I am having.

I am a gambler, and I honestly and truly feel that as long as I am not out of control, as long as the bills are getting paid, and as long as I'm not lying about the money spent or money won to my husband, then it shouldn't be a problem. I enjoy gambling, I love it!! I love the excitement, the atmosphere, the people I meet, the social aspect, the occasional big wins, just DOING it. However, ever since we had our talk back in February, I have been more aware and more conscience of what I'm spending, I'm making sure to never make the same mistake twice and it hasn't been difficult. It's not like I have to constantly moniter myself or I would lose control, I don't. I take care of priorities first and THEN, and only then, do I spend money on gambling/poker. I have ALWAYS been that way, even back when I admitted to Bill that I'd been spending more money on poker then he though, I still always made sure that the priorities were taken care of, so as a gambler, I see nothing wrong with that. What am I missing???

Because this is a poker blog, I can't really see any of my readers disagreeing with the majority of my feelings above, so I ask you...the reader...how do you handle a non-poker-playing or non-gambling spouse? I am anxious to see what others feel about this.

PLEASE keep in mind that it's not a "money" issue, it's a hate gambling vs. love gambling issue.

Comments?