The poker landscape is changing--again.

I don't usually post twice in one day, but sometimes something is so weird and remarkable that it has to be documented.

I have posted often about the trouble that I have getting information, and the problems with state of Michigan regulation of charity poker rooms.  The situation has changed again, and it's a new wrinkle.

The state doesn't provide much information about the tournaments.  It just gives the city and address of the room.  I don't always know if the room runs tournaments, since some rooms only deal cash games.

My local room used to be called The Big Game Room,  The company still operates under that name. They had a standalone poker room in an area strip mall.  Then the state regulations changed so that a charity room could not be open in one location more than four days a week. The Big Game Room, as well as poker operations in other cities, offered games in more than one location so that they could be legally open seven days a week.

A couple months later, one of the local rooms closed, so in my city we only have live tournaments four days a week.  Two weeks ago, the state of Michigan list of charity poker licenses showed  a second room open in a local bar. After some investigating, I found out that this was a new second location for The Big Game Room.  Nothing on the the web site of the bar or The Big Game Room mentioned any of this, in fact, The Big Game Room web site has not been updated in a long time and they still advertise poker in the room that has been closed for more than two months.

So, more investigating, and a few minutes ago The Big Game Room told me that yes, they are going to have an operation in the bar that I asked about, but not until August.  I told the dealer (I recognized his voice) that according to the state web site, they are offering poker in that bar each of the next three days.  He told me that the state has it wrong--the poker room won't be open until August, and he had "no idea" why the state would think otherwise.

This is all very strange.  The state web site only lists poker rooms that have been licensed to offer poker, and each day requires a separate license.  So the state says they have granted three licenses for The Big Game Room to operate this week, and TBGR says that they know nothing about it.

This is a big deal because I depend on these charity rooms.  I live more than 100 miles from the nearest casino that offers poker tournaments.

The poker landscape in Michigan is so weird that I don't even know who to believe in a situation like this.  There is so much wrong with this situation that I barely know how to start, but I'll give it a try.

--------------------

Why are the charity poker rooms so heavily regulated?  What gives the state of Michigan the right to tell a privately owned business how many days a week they can be open in the same location?

Why is the state of Michigan granting licenses one day at a time?  Typical government ineffieciency--if a room is open three or four days a week, why not just grant one license which covers those days? I'm guessing that it's a money grab, with every daily license requiring a fee.

Why has The Big Game Room gone for months without updating their website?  I played a tournament there today.  Why was there no written information and no announcement of the new site made?

Why would the state issue licenses for this week if The Big Game Room did not apply for those licenses?

None of it makes any sense.

Little progress in the last two weeks.

I planned to play two live tournaments the week of July 19-25.  Some weeks I don't get to play one, so I wanted to get an extra one "in the bank" to make up for the ones that I would miss out on later in the month.  I was too tired to play either tournament.  Very frustrating, but I know that I made the right decision both times.  Playing tired would be a terrible mistake.  I have enough trouble staying focused as it is.

This week I took another shot and failed to cash both yesterday and today.  Frustrating, but that's going to happen.  If in every tournament I'm doing my best to make good decisions, practicing whatever I'm working on during that tournament (in this case, keeping track of the pot size.) and I realize what mistakes I need to fix, I can't ask more or myself than that.

Pot size has been my focus for the last 10 tournaments or so.  There are a lot of other things that I need to work on, such as watching for tells and putting players on a range--but I also know my learning style, and I learn best when I work on one small piece of the puzzle, really get that down, than move on to the next thing.

I can't just get a little better at keeping track of the pot size.  It has to become automatic  Only then can I add another piece to the puzzle.  When I work that way, I will become better at that one thing than most of the players at my table.  Then I can work on the next piece, for example, watching the player on my left for tells.  Once I can do that I can gradually add more players until I can pick up tells from most of the players at my table.

My learning style is methodical.  Some would call it slow, even plodding, and that would be a fair assessment--but I know what works for me. When I am able to play four or five tournaments a week (I have to have time for study and other things) I will learn and practice more in a week than I am doing now in a month.  Then things should really take off.

Until then, I have to stay focused at playing my best and learning what I can.  Poker is a game of small edges, and I have to keep that in mind every single day.  Having an edge on just one player can be the difference between cashing and not cashing, or between a small cash and winning a tournament.  I have to keep that in mind every single day.

Another change in my situation.

I have talked about how I got myself in my current situation, which makes it very difficult to play poker (see posts on February 26 and June 20.) Now there is a new development, which once again leaves me in an awkward situation.

As mentioned in earlier posts, there are four of us who are directly involved in my mother's care. Two of us, my sister-in-law and I, are live-in caregivers who split up the week, staying there full-time three to four days a week. My wife and my brother-in-law have full-time jobs which require them to be there at regular times, and when they are not working they do other takes like home maintenance, playing her bills, and handing her medical issues.

That was the setup, which I made the mistake of agreeing to, putting poker on hold.  The four of us would work at this until my mother-in-law died or someone in our group of four just couldn't do it any more.

Well, someone has cracked, and that family member found a replacement from outside the family (some of us were not involved in that decision) to be her on-call substutute.   She has been offered to me as a subsitute as well.  I know next to nothing about this person, and I have never communicated with her in any way.

So, now my situation is even weirder.  When I committed to this arrangement, I knew that I was 100 percent in.  Once I take something on, I don't quit.  I had one job where I worked lots of overtime and sometimes all three shifts in a week, and I missed only three scheduled work days in 12 years.  I knew there was no way I was going to be the one to pull the plug on the arrangement to take care of my mother-in-law, I would keep going until someone else quit.

So what do I do now?  I made a commitment to be with my mother-in-law on all of my scheduled days.  I don't feel right about asking a sub to take some of those days--and, since this person was sprung on me, I don't even know how much she is willing or able to do (she is 75.)  If I do all of my scheduled days (taking away from my real job, poker) am I doing the right thing, or am I a sucker?

What a mess.  This weekend I was going to so something I rarely am able to do--play live poker tournaments two days in a row.  I didn't play today.  I was too tired.  I won't waste a $50 buy-in if I'm too tired to play.

I will play tomorrow.  I hope.

Chess players, poker players and drug dealers

In a 2+2 forum post about chess vs. poker, the discussion was about things like which was harder, whether a great poker could be a great chess player and vice-versa, and which skills were needed for each game.

One person said that whether your occupation is chess player, poker player or drug dealer, you have to study and work hard to be successful at your profession.  That got me thinking about what would happen if a drug dealer thought like a poker player:

Studying is fine, but it has to be applied:

If I make a drug sale on the corner, I get x dollars, but if I go to jail, I will not only lose the ability to make money, it will cost me money in fines, legal fees, etc. I estimate the chance that I will be arrested for any one transaction at about 0.5%, so . . .