Uneven Start to the Poker Year

With the beginning of a new year, I decided for the first time to carefully track my poker cash game wins and losses. Being someone who is not always able to get to a casino but instead goes in spurts, I have never taken a solid, realistic look at how much I win or how much I lose. Almost always, I play $1/2 or $1/3 No Limit.

This past fall/winter, I felt pretty good about poker whenever I took trips. While in Australia in early September, I made a good haul when playing at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The cash games seemed pretty soft and I was able to play some good, aggressive poker. Between Christmas and New Year, I had some great sessions at Harrah's New Orleans.

However, in generic trips to casinos, I didn't fare quite so well. I had very uneven results at some of the local charitable games and at select casinos I can get to by car (Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria, IL, Harrah's in Joliet, IL, Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL and the Horseshoe in Hammond, IN). It's interesting how sometimes the wins in poker rooms come in bunches. The ol' sockroll seems to get a bit thick, and then suddenly I wonder where it all went. The next thing you know, the bills have been replenished.

I started off 2019 by playing two sessions in the local charitable games. They actually are run by Chicago Charitable Games, which comes down about twice a month. I got nowhere in these games and lost a bit. Then last Sunday, I went to the riverboat (Par-A-Dice) and had a great afternoon/early evening session. How to explain this? I don't know.

This coming weekend, weather permitting, I will be back at Par-A-Dice. Even though the boat isn't that great, it certainly beats the charitable games atmosphere -- uncomfortable chairs in a Moose or Elks hall, little food, nothing else there. Hopefully I will be able to sharpen my skills a tad before returning to Las Vegas the night of February 10. In Las Vegas, I have noticed that I seem to play better and win more at the nicer places with $1/3 poker like Wynn and Aria. Still, Bally's Mirage and MGM are the places where I feel very comfortable.

Of course, it might also be time to face what could be the real story: until I retire and get to spend more time pokering, I might not be quite as good as I'd like to be. I could make that sound much worse, but I won't degrade my skills more than that!

Thanks for reading!