Put in a session at Pechanga the other day. Hadn't played there in over a year which is funny because it was my go-to casino for a while; just became too much of a drive to get out there, I guess.

Sat down at a $4/$8 game and played very sub-par for the first hour (thank you, Soboba). I managed to get my poker skills back in order and my play improved significantly. As the day progressed, the game actually got a lot better, too, and played very close to the $8/$16 game there (a consistently good game to play in), probably due to the influx of players from a broken $8/$16 table. The big negative on the day, however, was the rake. They're now dropping $5 every hand! That's a hard rake to beat long term - I wish California card rooms would adopt the Vegas 10% rule.

I was sitting in the $3/$6 game over at Soboba and just had my pocket aces busted up by a rivered flush (Ace of spades being the river card, natch). The guy who busted up my aces had about $250 in front of him at the end of the hand. He colored up two racks immediately. About 30 minutes later, I happen to notice that this same guy is buying in for another $20. A curious move, considering he was recently stacked so deeply just moments before. No mystery as to what was going on, but he should have been a little more covert about slipping those two black chips into his jacket; especially since he was about to get tangled in a hand with yours truly.

I get dealt pocket 10’s in late position on a kill pot and raise. I get a handful of callers, including Mr. Chip Camel. Get a decent looking flop (all unders and not too coordinated), so I bet it out. Lose one or two and get to the turn (over card). Continue to bet, getting check-raised by someone in early position and Mr. CC goes ‘all in’ with his five remaining chips. I loudly announce across the table, “that $200 that you just put in your pocket still plays, doesn’t it?”

The guy’s face turns the color of a $5 chip as he sheepishly pulls the black chips from his pocket. To add further insult, the dealer goes on to chastise him for pulling money off the table. To save what little face remained, he called the raise. I dropped out of the hand and the guy had to call another two big bets before ultimately losing the hand on a weak draw. Karma’s a bitch, buddy.

Perhaps it comes after a particularly good session or while staring out over the cube farm, but there is one thought that crosses every poker player’s mind eventually: Could I play poker for a living? Of course, 99.9% of the time reality and common sense rear their benevolent heads and keep us from doing anything foolish. This blog is going to be about that other .1%.

I guess technically you could say I’m already a professional poker player as my only source of income over the past 9 months (with the exception of a short consulting gig) has been from playing cards, but I’m not really dedicated to the cause and I’ve only been playing for purposes of entertainment. However, come January I will be moving out to Las Vegas for the express purpose of living the 'dream' of being a professional poker player, if only for a month or two. These pages will serve to chronicle my experiences on the felt.