JJ BANKS’ Blog

     I took a break from poker on Wednesday. I especially didn’t feel great about how I went on “tilt” at The Luxor the other night and donked off $150. So Wednesday was basically just a day for drinking, hanging out around Vegas and acting like someone on vacation. Ironically, I did play some $2/5 NL Hold’em at The Bellagio where the bad players are few and far between and I won like $10 after a few hours, but since I didn’t approach the game like I normally do I’m not counting the win towards my losses so far.

     I got back to serious poker playing on Thursday when I sat down at a $1/2 NL Hold’em table at the MGM Grand. “And eventhough I never won with my AK the MGM Grand was the beginning of a good day!” I didn’t really get involved in any big hands, I just picked up a pot here and there and after three hours I was up $130. However, The MGM Grand has that gay “LA” rule of not being able to buy in for more than $200 at a $1/2 table, so there never was much money on the table for the taking. Realizing I would have to run extremely well to make a windfall at this table, I got up and left for brighter and greener opportunities.

     For some reason I kept finding myself at The Mandalay Bay poker room during my trip. Maybe it was because the poker room at the hotel I was staying at, The Luxor, was kind of chitty, but MB is where I went next. Now, I define myself as a tight player so you know its a pretty big deal when I say that the table I sat down at was one of the “tightest” tables I’ve ever played on. Phil Ivey once said that you should never go into a poker game with a strategy, instead you just need to react and adjust to the players you’re playing with. Normally, I’m the tight player in a game full of “loose splash the pot with chips” kind of players, so being a tight aggressive player is the way I apporach those situations. Here however I had to make a 180 to my normal playing style. Here I got to play like a Gus Hansen or a Tom Dwan and I was the “loose bet/raise every hand” player because I knew the players at the table we’re only going to continue or playback with basically nothing short of the nuts.

     But don’t get the idea that I’m exploiting the playing style that I normally institute. Like I said I’m a tight player, but I’m a tight “aggressive” player and there’s a difference between a tight “aggressive” player and a tight “passive” player which would take another blog in itself for me to explain. Just let me sum up that the tight passive approach is perhaps the worst way you can play No-Limit Texas Hold’em and after 5 hours of playing with these lambs I was up $371.

                                                                                                   The Venetian Poker Room - Las Vegas, NV

     Friday was my final full day so I spent it at my favorite poker room in Las Vegas; The Venetian. And although the layout of The Venetian poker room reminded me of my homebase at The Borgata the result of this session was back to the typical Vegas luck I had been having for the week: 8 hours of playing = -$178. 

     So after five full days in Las Vegas I only had one shining moment so I guess when you look at it like that it’s actually kind of amazing I only finished down -$702. I’ve been told that this series of blogs have sounded kind of depressing to the readers and while it is fun and exciting to be in Las Vegas…let’s face it things in life are always a lot more fun when you win! Everyone feels smarter and better when they win and self-dout and insecurity can creep in when you lose. But when you play poker, really play poker, the day-to-day ups and downs shouldn’t bother you. All you should be concerned with is if you’re playing the best you can which means are you constantly making the right decisions? I honestly feel I played good the whole trip except for that one late night donkey buy-in at The Luxor for $150. To me that was the only time I was playing on “tilt”.

     While I was playing at The Venetian some old local player said the following: “Can you imagine playing this everyday? I can’t. I hate this. I play 4 times a week and I don’t know why? My first thought was “well you’re just a degenerate gambler” but the more I thougt about it the more I realized that there are no short-cuts in life or in poker and you really need to learn to enjoy the journey. Maybe now wasn’t my time for WSOP glory. Is the kid that won event #34 and $500,000 a better poker player than me? I don’t know, I’ve never played against him but then again I shouldn’t be concerned either way about it, because in order for me to really start to enjoy the journey I can only focus on myself and my game. Will there ever be a World Series of Poker Final Table in my future? I don’t know. I’ll just have to keep playing and find out.  

                                                                                                                      The Final Table

AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE TRIP WAS OVER…..!!!!

                                                                                                               Wizard World 2009

     So what do you do when you come home hungover from your trip to Las Vegas? Most people might say spend the day in bed watching porn, but not me, instead I grabbed whatever leftover cash I had and headed over to the Philadelphia Convention Center for Wizard World 2009.

     Wizard World is an expo of everything involving comics, toys and TV/movies. And maybe I was somewhat desensitized from a week full of winning and losing hundred dollar pots at poker that I was indifferent while paying $10 - $25 for some old comics I wanted to add to my collection. This convention did rock though. Most of the vendors were nice and willing to make deals and the comic selection well exceeded my expectations. Just imagine if I had won Event #34….I definitely would have purchased a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15.

But back to reality, here is what I picked up at Wizard World 2009:

The Nam #1 - 11, #16

X-Factor #24

Marvel Comics Presents: Weapon X #76, #77, #81

The Incredible Hulk #340

Wolverine #2, #3, #7 - 10

Wolverine (Mini-Series) #1 - 4 

The Punisher War Journal #6

The Uncanny X-Men #103 - 106, #108, #129 - 132, #139, #183, #229, #232 - 233

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     So a month after Tax Day I’ve finally found out what our tax dollars pay for:

     The Feds take an estimated $938.7 billion from taxpayers.

     $337.9 billion - funds Social Security, Medicare, and other retirement benefits.

     $215.9 billion - funds national defense

     $178.3 billion - funds assorted social programs

     $112.6 billion - funds student loans

     $75.1 billion - pays the interest on America’s $9.4 trillion federal debt

       $18.8 billion - funds federal law enforcement agencies

     Taking a closer look at this you can see the biggest chunk goes to old people and wait….Social Security? Now why do my taxes go towards Social Security when I have money already taken out of my paycheck for that? You want to know why? Because federal programs don’t fucking work!!! The Government goes by The Golden Rule - those who have the gold, make the rules. And since the Federal Reserve basically runs this country flawed government institutions will continue to go on and us the taxpayers will continue to foot the bill. Some people say America should have Universal Healthcare. Are these people out of their fucking minds? It’s not my fault you didn’t pay attention in class so you weren’t able to get a good job with a good company that has health benefits. Now you want The Government to bail you out? Good luck, because you can see how efficient they are with money based on our $9.4 trillion debt. Besides, an individual’s health is their own personal responsibility and not the duty of the state. If you let The Government in charge of your health you’re just giving them more control than they already have of your life.  Â

       

     Here’s the story: apparently you can boil a frog alive if the water is heated slowly enough. It is said that if a frog is placed in boiling water it will jump out, but if the frog is placed in cold water that is slowly heated it will never jump out.

      Is this true? I don’t know and I don’t care, the point is that radical change scares people and doesn’t work. Turn up the heat on them slowly and they’ll never notice. The Government understands this. Income Tax and Social Security are withheld from your paycheck. You never even had the money in your hand so you never miss it. And it’s funny how excited we get when The Government sends us our refund checks in the spring, eventhough this is an interest free loan we give them and is basically the equivalent of you getting your change back at WaWa after buying a Reese’s Big Cup with a five dollar bill.

     So why are our pots starting to bubble? It’s because a whole heckuva lot of people out there think the government should be doing everything for everyone. So we have a situation where The Government is doing for people what people should be doing for themselves and the taxpayers footing the bill are barely noticing. We’re inching toward full-fledged socialism without even realizing it.

     Maybe what we need to do is make taxes due one week before the general election. I’m sure this would get some conversations started about how much is enough when it comes to The Government’s spending.

HAPPY TAX DAY!!!