Some may call me a wimp for wanting to make a big kill before I go full time, but others will call me wise because I have a wife and I’d like to keep her without moving in with her family

So far this year, I have made money every time I have played poker, including two small tournaments. One tourney paid for my trip to Vegas and the other bought me some food and gas. Last night, I averaged a bit more than $35 per hour which is roughly 28.5% higher than the median income here in Phoenix. Once I move to higher stakes, I will surely increase that and if I can double it, a 30 hour work week could generate a six-figure income for me. I have to say, for me… that would be the life. Of course, if I could parlay that info a six figure WSOP paycheck every year, I think I would be set. My only problem would be convincing my kids that they need a good education when dad plays card for a living. Oh well, we will cross that bridge when we get there. Dad has done his time and put in lots of blood sweat and tears in the trenches of “work” and as a business owner multiple times. I think dads harvest is due.

Wish me luck!

I LOVE poker (mainly Texas Hold ‘Em), but I am not a huge fan of limit Hold ‘Em. My wife asked if she could sit and play and I strongly advised her against it because she has never played limit. So what the big deal you ask?

Well, here are my notes on Limit Hold ‘Em:

1. In Limit Poker you really can’t bluff.  Well, at least not at lower stakes.  I am getting my feet wet with limit before moving up to the larger stakes.  Who knows, maybe limit will be by game of choice at the 2009 WSOP.

2. It’s easy to lose money. Even if you are playing low stakes, some people don’t mind paying to see an extra card or two, so it can hurt after a while if you don’t play premium hands.

3. The upside is that you can limit your losses.  You are limited to a few multiples of the big blind, which at least can help you stay in the game a bit longer than losing an unfair all-in hand in a no limit game.

The first time I played, I should have walked away when I hit a huge pot and more than doubled up, but I still left up nearly 100%.  Last night, I was up about 140%, but of course my lovely wife spent about $100 playing blackjack, so it reduced our net. It’s ok, it made for a fun night.  Where else can you get paid to go out and have fun instead of spending money.

I told her I was pretty confident that if I “lost my day job” I’d still be able to make some money.  Tonight I will go back to test this theory with day 3.

Remember, “it’s only gambling if you don’t know the rules”

Until next time.. play tight and play strong!

These days, I play lots of free poker at Full Tilt.  They even have “freerolls” where you can win money for tournaments that don’t cost any money to play.  Granted, you’ve got out play a lot of people to end up in the money, but where else can you get paid to improve your skills in the ultimate game?

Check out Full Tilt Poker for more info.  You can register for FREE and start making money today!

My advice, always play your best hands  - and only your best hands - especially when you have a bully or a short stacked player at the table.  You will be thankful after folding those “this could turn into something” hands once you see the short stacked player to your left go all in after you fold.

If you find yourself losing or see your chip stack dwindling down, I challenge you to try just sitting out the next several hands and only play if you get super strong hands like KK or AA.

The goal (if you remember the movie Rounders) is to win one big hand an hour. Shooting for anything else is gambling.

- BigSlick

I enjoyed the movies, but what I really enjoyed was catching the card bloopers. When Kevin Spacey is training his team at one point the cards are all faced up. The next scene that shows the blackjack table, they are faced down, and then again, they are faced up. I am not sure if that was one of those intentional bloopers, but if so, send me my prize.

If you haven’t seen 21 yet, I ‘d recommend it.