Beginning Inventory continued....
freehatch, Dec 05 2008
There is about 2 miles from the highway to my house of "28th street". When I moved to this city 28th street was the weekend hot spot. Lots of restaurants, stores, a movie theatre, a strip mall, etc... Up until 2 months ago I worked in the middle of that 2 mile strip for 8 years for a corporate restaurant. When that restaurant opened it was one of the busiest restaurants in the company, winning awards for breaking sales records. Across the street there is Studio 28. When Studio 28 opened 43 years ago, it was the biggest movie theatre in the country and it had the most advanced sound system in the country. George Lucas personally came to Studio 28 to supervise it being installed. A block down the road there was "Rogers", once the largest department store in west Michigan.
Last week, Studio 28 closed down. Once the staple of weekend nights for the entire city, now a giant empty building with a parking lot so big it now resembles a desert. Rogers shut down about a year ago. The fazzoli's that was across the street from my restaurant shut down about 2 years ago, and the building has been vacant every since. Before that it was vacant due to IHOP shutting down. In fact, as I drove down 28th street from the highway to my house last night, I counted 20 businesses that have shut down on that 2 mile stretch just in the past 3 years. At first it was the small mom and pop shops. Then it was a few buildings which seemed to have a revolving door of local restaurants. Rogers shutting down was big. Studio 28 was a shock.
About a mile away on 36th street, the GM plant is shutting down next year. They have already laid off 100's of jobs, and before the actually factory closing, 100's more will go. Over the last 3 years I've slowly watched the economy around me slow down, but it seems to be hitting a breaking point. The mom and pop shops having been struggling for years, but the large companies have been able to hold on. Now I am watching what was the largest movie theatre in the country shut down, the largest auto manufacturer in the company shut down a factory right down the street. I work for the largest casual dining company in the world, and today it announced another round of mid management lay offs, and everyone company wide will not be receiving a raise for at least through the end of 2009. If that was not grim enough, the big 3 auto companies are literally begging for a bail out. As much as I hate the idea of bailing out a business that has utterly failed to adapt to market changes for short term gains, if they are not bailed out Michigan will be utterly fucked. The economic slow down that I have watched around me and within my own company will most likely be dwarfed by the consequences.
In that light, my goals are for poker to be my stop loss. In a region where there are more unemployed than available jobs, there is a great irony that poker is probably my most secure course of action. The point of posting this is to measure my goals with poker against the seemingly overwhelming economic realities around me and to display its progress.
Beginning Inventory
freehatch, Dec 03 2008
I hesistently admit I was drawn into poker from the prospects of making a lot of money. I was first introduced to the idea from ilnp's money tracking website he started years back, but I did not start until the launch of LP. I had losely followed the poker talk on TL.net, but had not gained enough interest to give it a shot. I initially started with a free $50 bucks from partpoker, a free 20 from CDpoker, and a free 20 from pokertime. I naively thought I could hop on board the poker train and get rich quick. 2 months later I had gotten nowhere, and my interested faded. Then my poker accounts were locked out becuase apparently poker players are terrorist. I quit for 3 years.
I started again this past summer, and I am comitted to being successful. I am 100k hands into my poker experience, and have grown to enjoy the game, yet admittedly without the prospect of financial gain I would not still be playing - it's just to damn frustrating. Here I am less interested in tracking my poker ups and downs, but rather the impact it will have on my life. I expect this to only be interesting in hindsight.
Status:
Bank roll: $526
Limits: NL10
Monthly poker take home: 0
Job: Restaurant manager
Salary: 42k
Hrs/wk: 50
Debt: 10k credit cards. 120k house.
Discretionary income: 0
Goals:
Short term: NL50 in 2 months
Mid term: pay off debt
long term: quit my job
Will attempt to update weekly.
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