Sunday, March 20, 2005
Keeping Fresh
Finances are still tight right now. I'm waiting for feedback on my financial forms I submitted to the hospital to see what I can do about my huge bill. I also have to talk to a couple doctor offices to see if I can make payments on their bills as well. In the meantime I've been keeping my poker abilities fresh online playing small stakes, mainly the sit and go's. I've been doing quite well and hope to build my deposit up enough to at least pay some bills. I work best under pressure. This applies to everything in my life. I guess you could say I've got alligator blood running through my veins. Also, another task I've been hacking away at is buying parts to build my own poker table. I still can't decide what shape to build, whether an oval shape or round. I'm leaning more towards round since it's easier for everyone to deal that way.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The Setback
Okay, so the beginning of this year I started my second job to pay more bills, but more importantly to save more money to get my bankroll started. A couple of weeks into January I started noticing chronic stomach cramps. I figured this was stress due to working working almost non-stop every week. February came and the stomach pains became worse. An ulcer was on top of my own personal diagnosis and appendicitis took second place. I was a bit worried but figured if I found a way to reduce my stress I would get better. Work at my new job slowed down so they let me go for a couple weeks until business picked up again. Well, the very first day I had off I went to go get checked out at the hospital. Since I was part time at the theater and a temp at the machine shop I didn't have any health insurance. I knew it was going to be expensive but I also knew I had to go. I figured they would just run a few tests, diagnose my condition and give me some meds and be out the same day. Not even close. They kept me there at the hospital for 6 days! They took x-rays, CAT scans, urine, blood, and stool tests. I also had an endoscopy and a colonoscopy done on me. What they found was some inflamation and bleeding in my intestines. The diagnosis the doctor gave me was Crohn's disease. Wonderful, I thought. I had some stupid ass disease for the rest of my life. After my sixth day inside, they finally sent me home. They gave me a prescription for prednisone, a dangerous steroid, Pentasa (mesalamine), and Iron for my Anemia, probably due to my bleeding.
By the time I was home I was feeling a lot better. Since I had a couple weeks off from both jobs I took it upon myself to do some research on Crohn's disease. To my surprise, I found out that Crohn's was not something I really had to live with my whole life! Basically what I had to do was change my way of living and eating habits. With working two jobs I had no time to prepare any decent meals. My diet consisted of sugar snacks, fast food, and Quizno's (it was next to the movie theater). I changed my diet full circle and I am now eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, and fish. I also started taking some supplements called Primal Defense HSO. After a few days I felt like a million bucks! Then I started declining and and everytime I ate I vomitted. I figured it could be my medication since I always took it with my meals. I stopped my prescription medication and the vomitting disappeared, though I continued taking the HSOs. Ever since then I haven't had any problems.
Now came my worst fear...the bill! $46,042 was my hospital bill. $1,867 to the GI doctor and $1,200 to some other doctor. Great. How am I going to pay this off?! I called the hospital to see what I could do about the bill so what they did was send me a packet of forms to fill out to see if I qualify to have the bill written off somehow. The write-off is only for the hospital bill and doesn't apply to the doctor fees. The doctor bills are not that much of a problem. I estimated that I could have those two bills paid off in about 6 months. Now if I have the big one written-off, my poker career can start sometime in the beginning of 2006. Hopefully my time away from the tables will not stunt my knowledge and experience growth that much. I will take the time I have the rest of this year while I pay off my bills to hit the books again and study with a more intense focus than ever before.
By the time I was home I was feeling a lot better. Since I had a couple weeks off from both jobs I took it upon myself to do some research on Crohn's disease. To my surprise, I found out that Crohn's was not something I really had to live with my whole life! Basically what I had to do was change my way of living and eating habits. With working two jobs I had no time to prepare any decent meals. My diet consisted of sugar snacks, fast food, and Quizno's (it was next to the movie theater). I changed my diet full circle and I am now eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, and fish. I also started taking some supplements called Primal Defense HSO. After a few days I felt like a million bucks! Then I started declining and and everytime I ate I vomitted. I figured it could be my medication since I always took it with my meals. I stopped my prescription medication and the vomitting disappeared, though I continued taking the HSOs. Ever since then I haven't had any problems.
Now came my worst fear...the bill! $46,042 was my hospital bill. $1,867 to the GI doctor and $1,200 to some other doctor. Great. How am I going to pay this off?! I called the hospital to see what I could do about the bill so what they did was send me a packet of forms to fill out to see if I qualify to have the bill written off somehow. The write-off is only for the hospital bill and doesn't apply to the doctor fees. The doctor bills are not that much of a problem. I estimated that I could have those two bills paid off in about 6 months. Now if I have the big one written-off, my poker career can start sometime in the beginning of 2006. Hopefully my time away from the tables will not stunt my knowledge and experience growth that much. I will take the time I have the rest of this year while I pay off my bills to hit the books again and study with a more intense focus than ever before.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Finding My Passion
Growing up I always followed the advice of my friends and family regarding what I should do in life. Through my teenage years and early twenties I've fought the battle to follow through with everyone else's counsel and focus more on what I wanted in life. Not until more recently have I been able to break free from them and journey out on my own quest for answers.
Back in the summer of 99 I was fresh out of high school and was wondering whether to test my abilities in the work field or continue my education. I decided to give work a try and landed a full time job as a 411 operator (directory assistance). By 2001 I was fed up with working for incompetent management and making minimum wage, which at the time was $6.25/hr. I now wanted to go back to school. If anything, I needed a change of pace in my life from that soul-snatching job. Junior college was a big stress reliever for me for the time being. I spent two years in school studying music. My goal was to transfer from the small junior college I was attending to CSU Hayward (now CSU East Bay...dumb!). Just one year before my transfer I started feeling the stress of school weighing down on me. Music, the very thing I loved, now started to feel more like boring tedious work. Teachers were starting to tell me what mouthpieces I need to play on, what kind of sound I should work on, etc. Music wasn't fun anymore. People were telling me what to do all over again. I soon gained a renewed confidence in my studies when I met the perfect woman for me. She was also a music student and was starting her first semester at CSU Hayward. The relationship only lasted about 4 months but during that time I made several trips to the campus and attened most of the jazz concerts held there. The campus was very nice with an excellent view of the bay and I couldn't wait to transfer. When my girlfriend dropped me like a wet noodle I was devastated (it was two days before my birthday in january). I now had one semester left of junior college before I transfered to Hayward. I managed to hold my grades up but my music performance became terrible. Everything that I found joy in in music was gone. The semester ended and I sent my transcripts and other papers to Hayward to be transfered. During the summer I landed a job at a movie theater in Dublin and moved in with my brother and his wife. The summer gave me time to reflect on what I truly wanted to do in my life, career wise. I came to the conclusion that music was more of a hobby for me than a career. Registration time for Hayward came and passed that year for me. I now knew that I didn't want to hump some crappy job the rest of my life but I also didn't desire a career in music either. Time ticked away for me as I dwelled pondering what my true passion in life was. Then it hit me!
During the two years I was going to junior college in Sonora, me and my best friend Marc would hit Jackson Rancheria on our time off. I remember I would spend 6 hours straight at a blackjack table loving every second of it. Afterwards my friend and I would spend hours talking about different strategies on blackjack. Also about once a week a bunch of my cousins would hold a poker game at one of their places. It was the usual dealer's choice type of game with wildcards and such. It was a fun and social game which went on for long hours every time. Although fun, at the time I didn't think of gambling as something that someone could make an income off of until I saw the 2003 WSOP on ESPN. I was elucidated to the fact that there are actually people who make money playing poker. They do it for a living! Wow, I was thrilled!
In the beginning of 2004 I now had a road to follow. I soaked up all the information about poker that I could. I read and reread all the major poker books on the market. Sklansky, Brunson, T.J., Lee Jones, (and yeah, I read Hellmuth's book as well). I searched through postings on RGP and posted some questions of my own as well. I also gained some experience in the cardrooms at the California Grand in Pacheco, Lucky Chances in Colma, Oaks in Emeryville, and Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno. The beauty of my move to Dublin was that I was now equi-distant from all the major cardrooms in the bay area. 2004 gave me a wealth of valuable information through soul searching and inspiration. Now a new year, I have a fire burning in me that's hotter and brighter than ever before. This year isn't without it's hardships, though. A trip to the hospital sets my plans even further out, but all this will be in my next post.
Back in the summer of 99 I was fresh out of high school and was wondering whether to test my abilities in the work field or continue my education. I decided to give work a try and landed a full time job as a 411 operator (directory assistance). By 2001 I was fed up with working for incompetent management and making minimum wage, which at the time was $6.25/hr. I now wanted to go back to school. If anything, I needed a change of pace in my life from that soul-snatching job. Junior college was a big stress reliever for me for the time being. I spent two years in school studying music. My goal was to transfer from the small junior college I was attending to CSU Hayward (now CSU East Bay...dumb!). Just one year before my transfer I started feeling the stress of school weighing down on me. Music, the very thing I loved, now started to feel more like boring tedious work. Teachers were starting to tell me what mouthpieces I need to play on, what kind of sound I should work on, etc. Music wasn't fun anymore. People were telling me what to do all over again. I soon gained a renewed confidence in my studies when I met the perfect woman for me. She was also a music student and was starting her first semester at CSU Hayward. The relationship only lasted about 4 months but during that time I made several trips to the campus and attened most of the jazz concerts held there. The campus was very nice with an excellent view of the bay and I couldn't wait to transfer. When my girlfriend dropped me like a wet noodle I was devastated (it was two days before my birthday in january). I now had one semester left of junior college before I transfered to Hayward. I managed to hold my grades up but my music performance became terrible. Everything that I found joy in in music was gone. The semester ended and I sent my transcripts and other papers to Hayward to be transfered. During the summer I landed a job at a movie theater in Dublin and moved in with my brother and his wife. The summer gave me time to reflect on what I truly wanted to do in my life, career wise. I came to the conclusion that music was more of a hobby for me than a career. Registration time for Hayward came and passed that year for me. I now knew that I didn't want to hump some crappy job the rest of my life but I also didn't desire a career in music either. Time ticked away for me as I dwelled pondering what my true passion in life was. Then it hit me!
During the two years I was going to junior college in Sonora, me and my best friend Marc would hit Jackson Rancheria on our time off. I remember I would spend 6 hours straight at a blackjack table loving every second of it. Afterwards my friend and I would spend hours talking about different strategies on blackjack. Also about once a week a bunch of my cousins would hold a poker game at one of their places. It was the usual dealer's choice type of game with wildcards and such. It was a fun and social game which went on for long hours every time. Although fun, at the time I didn't think of gambling as something that someone could make an income off of until I saw the 2003 WSOP on ESPN. I was elucidated to the fact that there are actually people who make money playing poker. They do it for a living! Wow, I was thrilled!
In the beginning of 2004 I now had a road to follow. I soaked up all the information about poker that I could. I read and reread all the major poker books on the market. Sklansky, Brunson, T.J., Lee Jones, (and yeah, I read Hellmuth's book as well). I searched through postings on RGP and posted some questions of my own as well. I also gained some experience in the cardrooms at the California Grand in Pacheco, Lucky Chances in Colma, Oaks in Emeryville, and Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno. The beauty of my move to Dublin was that I was now equi-distant from all the major cardrooms in the bay area. 2004 gave me a wealth of valuable information through soul searching and inspiration. Now a new year, I have a fire burning in me that's hotter and brighter than ever before. This year isn't without it's hardships, though. A trip to the hospital sets my plans even further out, but all this will be in my next post.
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