myWhidbey because we don't live under the rock.

...and In 'N' Out.

November 15 came and went, and in the end I fell short of the $1,000 goal for my poker bankroll; what's worse, I fell short by just $90. Only $90 more and I would have earned a free sushi dinner and a grilled cheese from In 'N' Out. I say earned because it was no cake walk winning all these tournaments over the past 30 days. Considering that I started playing tournaments just over a month ago, I should be happy with the result, even if it costs me a sushi dinner.

Before tonight, my bankroll stood at $840, having lost the $15 I made playing online. I should add that playing tournaments online is not as easy as I thought. I will definitely need more practice in this area, but I am still committed to building my online poker bankroll without making a single deposit... it's just going to take some time.

I played a tournament tonight in order to bring my bankroll to where it stands today. The game was a lot of fun; we had seven people and the buy-ins were $20. Including a $20 re-buy, I was committed for $40 total. After two and a half hours of play, the tournament ended with me in first place, taking $110, or $70 after expenses.

Anyway, here are the stats for my first month, ending November 15:

Tournaments played: 8
Tournaments won (placed in the money): 6 (75%)
Largest prize won: $340
Largest loss: $120

My average net winnings for the six tournaments I won is $178, after deducting expenses. I'm very confident I can increase my bankroll to $2,000 by the end of the year, even with all the holidays in between. I also found a new venue where to play; so hopefully I'll have plenty of opportunities to reach this goal.

Anyone care for another wager?

Finally! After trying a half dozen times, I finally placed in the money playing a freeroll tournament. This is a very important step, as it officially funds my online poker bankroll.

For the uninitiated, a freeroll tournament is nothing more than a regular poker tournament, sans the entry fee. In other words, you can play the tournament without investing any money, and the winner (or winners) receive a cash prize. It is a great way to circumvent the primitive and misguided online gambling laws of the freest country on earth.

If you're thinking there's a catch somewhere; there isn't. The money is real. I can withdraw it any time and use it as legal tender anywhere greenbacks are accepted. Of course, I'm not going to do that, and that's exactly what the online casinos are banking on. If I leave the money in my account, I'll play more games, and eventually even deposit more money to play higher stakes. That's what the casinos want. I have other plans; they include winning tournaments and taking money out of the account. My goal is to not deposit a penny into this account, and see how big I can grow it.

As for the freeroll tournament this weekend, it started at 1 AM and ended at 5 AM. I finished second, after a grueling four hours of play against 300 other players.

And how much does second place pay, you ask?

A whopping fifteen hundred cents! 1,500 cents!

That's right; I played four hours and went to bed at 5 AM, in order to win a piggy bank full of pennies. Sometimes I wonder about myself...

At least I got to cap my freeroll weekend with some awesome sushi rolls. On Sunday afternoon, Taichi from Chiso delivered the best (and only) sushi experience to South Whidbey. Taichi, you are the sushi god!

Update: It's now Monday, and my online bankroll is down to $11, after losing one tournament and winning another. My overall poker bankroll stands at $851. I have one more tournament at Cozy's before the Wednesday deadline. It's going to come down to the wire!

Distance traveled: 350 mi / 563 km
Fuel spent: 15.67 gallons / 59.32 liters
Fuel inefficiency: 22.3 mpg / 9.5 Km/L
Fuel cost: $54.84
Ferry cost: $43.84
Combined cost: $98.68
Dry-cleaning: $14.16
Hours spent commuting: dunno... I always forget to start the timer.

Moving right along to poker...

I went to Cozy's again this evening. I played with the usual suspects, an all-around fine group of ladies and gentlemen. It was one of these ladies with whom I had the pleasure to play the last hand. In a heads-up game, luck can go either way, and tonight it was lady luck all the way.

I'm comfortable with the outcome though, having finished second place in the tournament. This was the third time in a row that I placed either first or second, and the fourth time overall (out of five tournaments played). After buy-ins and tips, I picked up $130 and increased my poker bankroll to $840.

There is no doubt in my mind that if I was a deadbeat father, or a loser husband, I would have reached $1000 by now. I've had four opportunities to play at Cozy's since the start of the side bet. The odds were pretty good that I would have done well in more than one of those tournaments.

Alas, I only played one tournament.

You will remember that family comes before poker in my book. This was one of those weeks when it was more enjoyable to spend time with my family, even at the expense of a sushi dinner and a grilled cheese from In 'N' Out.

All hope is not lost though. I still have one more chance at Cozy's on Wednesday, and I may play a tournament on Tuesday at Club Hollywood. If I make the $1000 by Wednesday, victory will be that much sweeter; If I don't, then my wife will owe me a sushi dinner and a grilled cheese from In 'N' Out.

Distance traveled: 336 mi / 540 km
Fuel spent: 15.87 gallons / 60.06 liters
Fuel inefficiency: 21.2 mpg / 9.0 Km/L
Fuel cost: $50.44
Ferry cost: $54.80
Combined cost: $105.24
Hours spent commuting: ~ 13 (I need to remember to time my commute.)
Percentage of my week spent commuting: 7.7%
Percentage of my week spent playing poker: 6%

Moving right along to poker...

By Friday evening, I had laid down $160 in tournament fees this week with nothing to show for in return. The Sunday tournament at Cozy's cost me $120, and the Thursday night game at Google dwindled my overall proceeds another $40. Since the start of my blog, the net proceeds from poker stood at a mere $220; pretty measly for my first three weeks on record.

... and then came last night's tournament at Cozy's. As far as I know, Cozy's is the only place on the south of the island that has regular poker tournaments. Now that I'm focusing on this style of play rather than cash games, I'm trying to make a regular appearance at least one day a week, but especially on Saturdays, when two tournaments are held.

This Saturday, Cozy's hosted a $30 tournament at 6 PM and another one ($20 buy-in/re-buy/add-on) at 9 PM. It was my first time playing both tournaments back-to-back, and by the end of the night – seven grueling hours of absolute focus on my game – I finished in first and second place, respectively. After deducting my entry fees and other associated costs, I drove home $490 richer and with a big grin on my face.

My current net proceeds stand at a healthy $710. I'm hoping I can reach $1000 by the 15th of November, exactly one month since I started this blog.

Anyone care to bet me on those odds?

Tonight's commute took one hour and seven minutes, rounding up to the nearest minute. I left work at 10:29 PM and got to the ferry seven minutes before the scheduled sailing. If I leave work 36 minutes past the hour, I may have a very good chance of making the entire trip in under one hour.

Then again, I also may have a very good chance of missing the boat and turning my one hour commute into two hours. There are about 15 stop lights between Kirkland and the ferry terminal, and I need to hit all the green lights in order to make it to the ferry in 24 minutes. I'll try this next Tuesday and see how it goes.

Oh, and now I'm down to $220 in poker winnings since I started by blog. I played last night at Google for $40 and did not place in the money. I'm sure glad I won that tournament a couple of weeks ago...

Today was dry-cleaning Monday. I spent two hours commuting into work, inlcuding the 15 mile detour into Seattle.

- Gasp! "Two hours???, You have lost your marbles!" - says the anonymous reader.

Bah! Whatever, you pansies. I've had it worse, and at least I'm doing something
about the sorry state of affairs in the dry-cleaning business. No perc for me, thank you very much!

And for the record, my car consumes only 87 ounces of gasoline during the detour, not two gallons. That's 33 gallons a year, and less than 200 pounds of carbon dioxide; a cheap price to pay in order to save my health and make a statement.

Speaking of making a statement, a guy came to my work today to repair my Herman Miller Aeron chair. I broke the chair a few weeks ago; or I should say, I thought I broke the chair. I could not figure out how to put it back together, so I called the local repair person and made an appointment to get it fixed. The guy came to my work, tools in hand, and fixed the chair.

Are you ready for the kicker?

The repair was free of charge. You heard that right. I own a chair that is so ass-kicking expensive, it comes with a 12-year warranty and free on-site repair. Herman Miller rules!

Free repairs are awesome. They are like medicine after a bad poker day. Alas, I could have used two free repairs today...

Cozy's had a big tournament on Sunday, with close to 30 players and a first place prize of ~$1,100. The last time I played there I came out first place and netted $340. Sunday's affair was, to the disappointment of none of the other players there, a completely different story.

I don't mind losing a tournament when I play well, but it irks me to lose when I'm playing like crap, especially when I make abominable mistakes. Going all-in on a QQ8 flop with 84 in the hole against one other player qualifies as abominable. I'll spare you the details in order to not embarrass myself any further; suffice it to say, the $120 that I paid for this poker lesson is going to be money well-spent; I'll make sure of that.

Here is a list of the top five things I like:

1. My family
2. My island
3. My job
4. My iPhone
5. Poker

I would place poker higher on the list, but my iPhone is just so darn delicious! Mmmmmm.... iPhone.....

Tonight I played a tournament at a local pub called Cozy's Roadhouse. This pub is the epitome of the quaint and charming Whidbey Island of years past. You can't miss the hospitality and friendly smiles when you step in the door. Unfortunately, I like bar food as much as I like the all-new "iPod killer" from Microsoft, so I never eat there.

But I like poker, so I have a reason to go in. Tonight's game was brisk, lasting about two hours and 45 minutes. I want to say we had about 18 players, but I don't know for sure. The game was Texas Hold 'em, no-limit; buy-in was $20, with unlimited re-buys for the first three rounds, plus the option of an add-on after the third round. All that poker lingo means simply that there was a lot of money in the pot!

When the last chips changed hands, I walked out of the game in first place, taking the $400 prize. After my buy-in and subsequent add-on, plus a tip to the gracious host, I netted $340, or about $123 an hour.

If only I was a good player, I could do this for a living...

Thursday nights are poker nights at Google. Tonight, we had nine players: five Googlers and four guests. When the last card was dealt, I walked away from the table $40 richer...

...or in islander terms, I netted myself seven free ferry rides!

In poker, unlike other gambling games, it is legitimately possible to become a skilled and successful player on your own merits. In fact, the two major draws to the game are, a) good poker players don't gamble, and b) bad players do. With so many bad players in the pool, professional poker players feed on this in order to make a living, and a living they make. Of course, none of the players tonight were professionals; so a mediocre player like myself has a decent chance to do well.

Tonight's game was lively, lasting about three hours. The buy-in was $20, with a payout structure of $100, $60, and $20 for first, second, and third place, respectively. This was the second consecutive poker night where I finished in second place, and that's having made three or four critical mistakes along the way!

As for the commute, it was brisk and breezy, like the weather today. I took the noon ferry on the way to work, and 11 PM ferry on the way back. Total commute time: just shy of three hours...

Not bad for a hard day's work plus forty bucks.