A Bad Week

One of the biggest problems that I have is making time for poker.  When I take care of my mother-in-law I alternate between staying with her three days or four days a week.  Since this was a three-day week, starting Sunday and ending on Wednesday, I thought I would have a day (Thursday) to catch up on my rest, and I could play a live tournament on the weekend.  It's not working out that way.

I wasn't able to sleep as long as I needed to before we got our day started.  There were a lot of errands that needed to be run, and during that time my wife dropped me off for a dental appointment.  By the time we went to the store, the dentist, the bank and all of the other places that we needed to go, it was already after 4 P.M.  I had some snow shoveling to do at home, and then we had supper.  Before I knew it the day was pretty much over.

There is one thing that really needs to be done this week.  I bought a new laser printer, but so far I haven't been able to install it.  I have the enclosed instructions and a help disk, and I tried to get it done last weekend, but the instructions are inaccurate.  There have been several times where I did what the instructions said, and it just didn't work. For example, the DVD game me three steps, then a box was supposed to pop up.  It did, but it didn't look anything like the instructions said it would.

I spent several hours last week unsuccessfully trying to figure it out. I know I'll get it eventually, but I have no idea how long eventually will be.  Until I can get that done, poker is on hold.

It's the same story almost every week.  Johnathan Little says in one of his books that it takes playing at least 100 live tournaments to be good at it.  Playing just one a week is getting harder and harder.  I don't have a car of my own or any control over my time, and I can feel another week getting away for me.

Our car needs some work, and it looks like I'm going to wind up taking a ride Saturday on city busses that only run once an hour.  The car is supposed to be done around 5:30 P.M.  A local tournament that I would like to play starts at 6 P.M.

So, I have Friday to get the printer up, and maybe I can play then if I get it done, but I'm not counting on it.  That would leave Saturday. So if I can slove the printer problem on Friday, and if the car is done on time and if I drive straight to the poker room, I will be able to play on Saturday.

I need to get 100 tournaments under my belt as soon as possible. I'm struggling to play one a week.  My status as a full-time poker player might be in legal jeapardy, with nasty income tax implications.  I'm a very good problem solver and out-of-the-box thinker, but this situation is untenable, and I have no idea what to do to fix it.

I can give up on my mother-in-law, or face reality and give up on poker (assuming that the IRS doesn't force my hand.)  I'm not prepared to do either.