Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how much people love to complain about how much something costs. A couple of weeks ago when I told a guy about my ATMs he started complaining to me about how he went to some state fair type deal and had to withdraw some cash and got “gouged” for $5 just to get his own money. Now I’m not saying that it’s reasonable to be charging $5/transaction at an ATM, but no one put a gun to his head and made him use that ATM. He could have planned ahead better and withdrawn some cash at his bank before he got there or if he really wanted to he could go and buy his own mobile ATM that he could drive to these state fair type events and charge people only $4/transaction and theoretically he should get more business than the other guy by undercutting him.
When people complain about how much something costs, what they are really saying is they think that the person providing that service is overpaid for the amount of work they are doing. Instead of complaining about it, why not try to emulate that person?
Now I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this myself. For example, in Seattle I think parking is vastly overpriced. Typical rates for spots in parking lots (not state owned side streets) is $6 or $7 an hour. For special events like soccer games, spots close to the stadium can cost you $40-$100. Instead of complaining about how expensive it is I should be planning ahead better by anticipating where I can get cheap street parking or I should take the bus more, or bike or walk to my destination. The other thing I could do is look into buying a parking lot myself. Now owning a parking lot isn’t the sexiest business or anything, but I’m sure its very profitable nonetheless. I’m not saying I actually have plans to buy one or that I’ve even done the slightest research into owning one. All I’m saying is that this is a great way to come up with business ideas. Think of someone who you think charges too much for what they provide and figure out how you can become that person.
Now your next excuse will probably be that you don’t have enough capital or will to go out and create a whole new business yourself. Well, you can do the next best thing and buy stock in that company. Think gas is too high? What you are really saying by that is that you think your $3.05(insert current market price of gas) is more valuable than one gallon of gas. What you should do is convert your dollars into oil by buying US Oil stock or if you don’t believe in owning straight commodities go buy stock in oil companies like ConocoPhillips or Chevron
To relate this to poker I think a lot of people are jealous of a guy like Leatherass. “Oh he’s not very good, he just plays a lot of tables and hands. I’m a better poker player than him.” Guess what he makes more than 99.9% of you haters. Instead of complaining about how it’s “unfair” he makes more than you when he’s not as good as you why don’t you try to emulate him and 12 table 8 hours a day. I bet you can’t.
I’ve been playing a lot more mixed games lately, mostly the 7 and 8 game mix $40/$80 with a little $20/$40 thrown in. I’ll play the $75/$150 O8 game when it runs on stars, but that’s hardly ever unfortunately. I am still pretty horrible at the stud games, but getting better every day I think.
I’m starting to become seriously worried about the state of the games for the first time in awhile. Hold’em is totally dead above $2/$4 and while plo is not as dead, the games above $2/$4 are also becoming very tough. I’ve been playing a lot with big name pros and the novelty of them has certainly worn off and it’s just annoying that Brian Townsend and Stinger are grinding the same games as me. $40/$80 is decently high I suppose, but not so high that I think I should be facing world class competition on a daily basis. Anyways onto some fun hands against them…
I call down Stinger with Queen high! Lol limit hold’em.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4585075
He more than gets me back later by inducing my bluff. Not sure how I feel about my river bet. How often is he going to call with a Q high straight, 2 pair or set? I figured him for some flopped weak 2 pair like he had, but it would certainly be a sexy way to play the flopped nuts vs someone aggressive like me actually willing to bluff in PLO.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4585081
I stack Btown in a pretty standard spot. My peel preflop is a bit loose, esp vs him but it doesn’t really matter when you flop the nuts.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4585086