The Electric Chair

I’ve noticed lately that people are coming out and demonizing insurance companies.  Oh, I’m sorry “Big Insurance”.  Because today, the best way to make something sound bad is to call it big, except big government, because we all know what a good job they do for us.  But I digress…

Insurance companies are called horrible because they try to make a profit at the expense of their customers.  The idea, I’m quite certain, is for us to all starting hating our insurance companies so that we’ll support the public option, which everyone knows is a step to a single payer system (if you argue with that, you aren’t paying attention.  Obama and several ranking democrats have all said that their goal is single payer, and this is a stepping stone to it.  I have respect for those who at least believe in that option and don’t hide it, but Obama has gone against his own words and refuses to admit what he said just a few years ago.)  There I go digressing again…

Yes, we’ve all heard the horror stories about people who can’t get insurance.  I have a brother who called me a few weeks ago saying he and his doctor thinks he has lung cancer, but can’t afford to get a biopsy and find out.  My heart breaks, and I immediately scan my thoughts about heath insurance, health care reform and public options.

I’m against most of the health care “reform” that has been proposed.  I don’t think it would save my brother.  I am most definitely in favor of reform though.  There are a lot of ways to do this.  Demonizing the companies that provide 90% of the covered with care, however, is not the way to do it.  Is there corruption?  Probably.  Is it wide-spread… probably not.  What makes sense is  to root out the problems, find ways to allow insurance companies to be able to cover more people and still make a profit (profit is *NOT* bad).  In short, get the government out of the way where we can, and get them involved in the areas where they must.

That, of course, won’t close *all* the gaps in health insurance coverage.  People like my brother, who haven’t held much of a regular job, let alone one that would provide health care, are still going to be left out in the cold.  For these people we do need some sort of “public” option.  Extending Medicare would be one possibility, and I’ve heard several others proposed.  Co-ops and exchanges are valid choices for some of the leftovers.  In the end I do believe government will have to provide for a small amount of citizens, but they do *not* have to take it over to do so.

Back to the demonization.  I had my own run in with the system.  My insurance company sent me a rejected claim for an MRI I had recently, and then a bill came from the MRI office for a bill of $1080.  Naturally I was pissed off.  So I called the doctors office and got the run around from them for weeks.  Eventually I went back to the insurance company.  Now here’s the rub… They were the most gracious, friendly, and accommodating people I had talked to.  They did all the leg-work for me… they called all the necessary physicians, got the necessary documentation, and got the ball rolling.  The whole mess was the fault of a lazy doctors office with whom the insurance company had made multiple requests for appropriate information.  (To be fair, I’m willing to accept that the process is far too complicated, and the doctors office just made an honest mistake — except that when I tried to deal with them, they started giving me the “it’s not our fault, you take care of it” line).  The insurance company had no desire to deny my claim, they just needed the appropriate records.  Fair enough.

I have good insurance… my company and I pay dearly for it.  I work hard, and I don’t feel guilty at all for having a plan that’s better than many Americans.  That’s not to say I don’t think others deserve care.  Not at all.  We, as generous Americans, should  do what we can to help those who *truly* need help.  I’d be proud if my tax dollars went to that in the form of health care vouchers or something that still worked within a non-government run system.  I can’t think of one thing the government gets involved with that doesn’t get worse.  We shouldn’t strive to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator, we should strive to bring everyone up!

I’m not a kook, and I don’t believe our government is run by Nazis.  I do, however, understand the true definition of fascism.  Fascism is a political philosophy that stands for a strong centralized government, with severe economic and social controls and forcible suppression of opposition (paraphrased from the dictionary).  It’s a valid theory of government, just not one that I happen to believe in.  I do believe those who are making the laws want to take over health care, and they probably have the best intentions in their hearts… it’s hard to think otherwise.  What they want falls in the definition of Fascism however, whether they believe in it or not (I doubt they do).  I just cannot believe based on all my years on this earth, and what I have seen, that a government run health care system is right for this country and will benefit the most people.

I know my liberal friends truly do think that this health care reform is best for us, and many of them believe in a single payer system.  I challenge them, however, to truly step back away from their ideals for a moment, and try to see things from the side of the people who have seen government ruin lives every day.  Those of us who see government corruption, greed of money and greed of power destroy individuals, groups, and businesses.  Where we see the successes come outside of the government.  We see true generosity come from individuals, not the government.  Bring us back into the debate, and don’t shut us out.  As we also truly want what’s best for everyone and this country.  I believe we can provide everyone health care who needs it without the government taking it over.  We can empower insurance companies with better competition (open the business borders for example!), we can correct problems in the system (put some regulations on denying preexisting conditions), encourage different type of health care plans like catastrophic care plans versus preventative care plans.  Stop with the demonization of those who already do more than the government can.  Stop with the snarky comments about “Teabaggers” (that one just makes me livid).  We don’t oppose your ideas just because they are your ideas.  We’re better than that, and so are you…

To be fair, there are many on “my” side of things that need to step away from the partisan stance they are taking.  While I believe our politicians actually do *not* have our best interests in hearts, I believe most of those outside of the beltway do.

I don’t have all of the answers, and the system will never be perfect, but let’s stop playing partisan politics and bring people together for a legitimate discussion on the best way to provide the best care in the world to all of our citizens who need it.

I’ve done really well lately, and no, I’m not above bragging.

Out of the last 10 tournament’s I’ve played, I’ve finished 6th once, 5th once, 3rd twice, 2nd three times, and 1st once.  That’s eight final tables out of ten.  The streak started with the 6th and 5th place finishes and continued to improve from there.

Part of being a good poker player is believing you are good and having confidence, otherwise you’ll let people roll over you.  The flip side to that is arrogance, which will surely make you lose.  You need to recognize other good players, and give them the respect they deserve without giving up your own confidence.  Yes, there’s a lot of psychology to poker (Live poker more so than online I think).

Here’s my problem.  Since *most* of what I play are “free” tournaments, do I count a winning streak as truly good poker playing, luck, adjusting to bad players, etc…?  Undoubtedly it’s some of all those thing and more.  It’s hard for me to deny that such a streak isn’t just pure luck, but to brag about being good at free poker seems a bit silly to me, which of I can’t help do anyway.  Also, I’m a one trick pony.  I play play really good Free No Limit Tournaments against a field of around 50 players.  What happens when I change one ore more of the variables.  Could I go deep against a larger playing field, for real money?  (Actually, I did play an online tournament the other week with a $2 entry against over 1000 other players and placed 5th getting $130 for the finish, but I can’t seem to come close to repeating that one).  I’m sure I’d lose my ass if I actually played any other game:  Omaha, Razz, Stud… I’ve proven I can hold my own in a No Limit cash game once, but could I do that regularly?  What about Limit? A good poker player should be well rounded, not just in one game, in multiple Limit structures and not *just* tournaments.

Not that I wouldn’t be fine just being awesome at Tournaments.  They do have the biggest payoffs, but to compare it to my other love, dancing, that would be like being able to really good aerials without being able to do a decent swingout.

But back to the streak.  I do think I can accept it for what it is:  I’ve  brought my game to a new level.  Once again I really want to test out whether this would translate to real-money games, but since the nearest legal gambling location is around 420 miles (Biloxi and Tunica are both about equal distance — Atlantic City is 800 Miles), it’s not likely I’m going to find out soon, or make a regular event of it.   I could tag along with some of the local players who make trips from time to time, but that takes money I don’t have right now. I know what kind of Bankroll I’d need to play comfortably, and I just don’t have it… I could play with a short amount of cash, and probably have a good time, but repeating my experience in Vegas where I paid for the entire trip by cashing in my first tournament, and continuing to cash in everything I played from then on, is just unrealistic.

I guess I’ll just have to keep at what I’m doing.  I’m building up quite a stack of gift certificates to the places I play at, at least there’s that.

My favorite sushi place here in the suburbs of Atlanta (Alpharetta) is closing this weekend.  I knew it was inevitable, as the place was always empty… The location wasn’t the best, and the economy ensured that it would be tough for most start-up restaurants.  The couple that ran are really nice,  I really liked them. Compared to all the other sushi I had tried around here, it really was the best.

I’m a sushi snob, and it’s my friend Len’s fault.  Back in SLO, we had the best Sushi place: Tsurugis.  I have yet to find a place here that matches it, but Sushi Miraku was good.  So now the search is on for a new place.   If you happen to be near me, and you suggest Ru San’s,  I just have this to say: that’s like suggesting I eat Sewage.  Buffet Sushi?  Really?  Yes.  I tried it, and tried some fresh stuff.  God Awful. Anyone who likes that does not know what Sushi really is…  It’s like asking for a steakhouse and suggesting McDonald’s.

So it’s a sad day for me.   So long Sushi Miraku!  Best of luck to you.

No, this isn’t political… sorry to disappoint   This is just some rambling because I’m bored.

I work from home.  When we moved from California to Georgia, one of the requirements I set for the house we’d get was that I needed a home office.  We bought a nice house that had a room perfect for my office.  When we moved in, I didn’t have any office furniture so I stuck all my stuff on some folding tables, threw my boxes in the corner and immediately started a bad habit of having the messiest room in the house.  It was horrible.

Eventually my wife convinced me to buy some nice office furniture.  So I picked up a really nice desk and a set of matching bookshelves.  Wonderfully masculine looking wooden furniture.  So I cleaned up, setup up the furniture and enjoyed the new digs.  But quickly the room returned to it’s cluttered state, but with nice furniture.

Then I took a trip to California.  Upon returning my office was clean!  My wife had cleaned it, organized it and decorated it! She painted the office red, which had been my request, and found some nice draperies.  I loved it!  I had the best room in the house… which I then proceeded to turn back into the messiest.

Then a friend of ours from Vegas came out to visit.  We needed a place for her to sleep, so I cleaned up the office.  Then she left, and the return of the messy room arrived.

Do you notice a pattern yet?

Just yesterday a friend of mine came over to pick up some flyers I had created for him.  I knew we’d talk for a few minutes so I scrambled to clean up my office.  It’s truly embarrassing letting people see something like that.

So today I continued the cleanup.  There’s a little left to do, but the office looks good again and once I pack up a few things more, it’ll look great!

I put all this down to virtual paper as a record for myself, and to note that I love it when things are clean around me.  It makes me feel better.  I want to be in that office now, where recently I had wanted to avoid it, and dreading work.  It truly goes to show that your environment can affect your mood.

So I resolve to keep it clean.  I work better, am happier, and am proud to have people view my “man-cave” when it’s clean.  I’m sure it makes my wife happier too.

As I mentioned before, I play a lot of free poker.

It’s not really free, but technically it is. All players can sign up at no cost, but the expectation is that you’ll support the venue that it’s held at by buying food and drinks. Free poker is similar to playing for free chips on any given online site. There’s little consequence for playing poorly, or taking chances you wouldn’t ordinarily take, so you can get pretty frustrated with bad players, especially if you take things more seriously, as I do.

Further, some poker companies allow you to pad your chip stack simply by buying drinks and food. Some places are so bad that they’ll give you 50% of the starting stack by buying a shot. Buy food, drink, and a few shots, and you have 10 times as much as a player who has not. The point of all of this is to support the venue who is paying the poker company to put on the game. It’s a great bit of capitalism, but it perverts the poker game dramatically.

Fortunately I have become involved with a company who stopped that particular practice long ago, and only awards a smaller amount of bonus chips for things like being a regular, or RSVPing in advance for the game. This has a similar effect as it encourages a regular clientele. Almost everyone eats/drinks anyway, so while it may not generate massive alcohol sales, it makes for some happier players, and evens the playing field a bit more. I so enjoy this company that I support them by running tournaments when a fill in is needed, and providing the website and web-related work for them. I’ve become pretty good friends with the owner, and am proud to be involved. (www.posh-poker.com in case you are curious).

I already pointed out the hazards of “free poker”, but I still love it.  When playing against regulars, you find they actually start developing a desire to play correctly and to improve their game.  So you quickly spot the people who are “donking” and the ones who take the game a bit more serious and adjust accordingly.  I’ve become pretty good at this.  I regularly make final tables, earning points towards end tournaments and taking down gift-certificate prizes.

After playing this way for years, I’ve improved my game dramatically.  The question became, however, was my play good enough and was so much “free” poker ruining my ability to play real poker.  I took that question to Vegas a few months back and found out, much to my pleasure, that I did have what it takes to survive a real game.  I played in four daily tournaments (one at the Golden Nugget, three at Binions) and cashed in every one.  I actually won the second tournament I entered at Binions.  I also played a few cash games, and came out quite a bit ahead there too.

There’s more to my improvement than just playing free poker, as I play online quite a bit, have read quite a few books, and immerse myself in poker media (books/magazines/tv) as much as I can.  But the regular live play has benefited me the most.  Even if you are playing against “donks”, you see a lot of hands, and I think any poker player will tell you that the more hands you see, the better you’ll get.

So if you get a chance to play some free poker, I highly recommend it.  It won’t cost you anything, and you may just improve!  If you live in an area where Casino’s are far away, you may just find some free poker companies… so look around.  I’ve often thought that if I ever moved back to California, I’d start one… even though you can take a short trip to a Casino, I think there would be a market for it where I used to live (San Luis Obispo, CA).

I have much more to say about poker, but it’s late and time for me to get some sleep… so there will be a part 3, probably a part 4, and beyond

- Jesse

Oh, by the way… I won the tournament I entered tonight, and placed 5th and 6th in the last two I entered   Go me!