Everyone who games at casinos knows that if you put a few bucks in a video poker machine at a bar and play for a few minutes, you can get free drinks. However in Vegas, this is coming to an end. There’s a new red/green light system that lights up when you are deserving of a free drink. This new system defeats “the Vegas Hustle” where you put a $20 in a machine and sit there while you drink for free. The new system “green light” lights up if you max bet 4 times in a row which you’d know is reasonable for a free drink. The only people who should be whining about this are cheapskates who shouldn’t be gambling, or drinking, anyway.

I bring this up because the easy way out is never the best way out. The news has brought us the apparent suicide of the Facebook murderer who live streamed and Aaron Hernandez who hung himself in his cell. There are a few points of interest that I found about both stories.

The FBI received 400 tips about the whereabouts of Steve Stephens. 400! I saw a dude who I thought looked like this guy but I wasn’t going to call it in and get an innocent man arrested. How on Earth are people so sure that it’s him when they call in a tip? I imagine that the calls mostly go like, “I’m here at McDonalds and there is a man who looks like the Facebook killer, you should probably check it out.” This is probably a waste of an officer’s time but they caught the guy so it must work. With regard to the Facebook stream and Facebook saying, “we are working on these issues”, it is disturbing that sick individuals are using this medium to share these horrific acts. It has me watching my back 24/7 when I’m out in public.

Next we’ll travel to Aaron Hernandez who was acquitted of a double murder but was still serving a life sentence for the death of Odin Lloyd. He hung himself with a bed sheet in his cell. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I would succeed in hanging myself with a bed sheet. I could see an hour passing by and me being like, “is it working?” This is obviously a morbid thought but it seems challenging. With Aaron perished, I’m of the mindset that there is one less gang banger off the street. From every bit of info I’ve read, he sounded like a true jerk who held himself above the law and wasn’t a nice person.

This is a picture my dad posted today on Facebook. I added the grass and question mark for entertainment purposes.

The current picture has exactly 0 likes on Facebook. It’s pretty rare when you take a picture and receive 0 response. Total strike out. This goes hand in hand with my dad calling me this morning and asking me where his message went when it turned all blue. He told me, “I hit enter, nothing happened, and I hit enter again and it went blue.” It took me a bit to figure out what it went blue meant but it’s what happens in Facebook messenger when you send a message.

This picture was him uploading a photo to Facebook with no caption. Not to mention the picture is a bottle of soldering flux. What’s soldering flux you ask? It’s a bottle that no one on Facebook would ever care about. Talk about knowing your audience. I think he must be on to something posting content of objects that most people have no idea what they are.

I have a few skills but none is more valuable than creating pages in WordPress.

Before I started blogging I never equated what I was doing to a skill. It was fun. I spent an hour here or there and transferred my thoughts to a blogging platform. The page would get posted, read by a few people, then archived into the abyss to never be read again. Depressing in a sense when considering it from the post’s perspective. 1% go on to live meaningful lives, and the other 99% go on to perish without second thought. Yes, this does symbolize humanity.

Today I noticed what I was doing was using an A to Z formula for creating a blog post. Jeff and I set up some application and took photos of it step by step. I took the pictures and compiled them into 1 jpeg which had lapping text. I took the picture and created it’s own webpage on our website and linked to all of our product pages. We then take that picture and page and insert them into a Constant Contact post which will then be sent out to our thousands of person email list. Last week we had a 47% click through rate which was inconceivable. People actually read what we write.

How this translates to sales is another story as the conversion rate is what separates the men from the boys. Many people have built up audiences over the years one way or another but getting them to purchase is key. Our formula has continuously improved so that people can try to copy it but they might not know every little step. I’m not even an expert either but I kid you not, THIS IS SALES IN 2017. You can knock on doors. You call people 1 by 1. You can spam fax or blasts thousand of people. None of these means is as effective as building up a subscriber base, creating content they want to read, and knowing how to get them that info in a pleasing format.

We haven’t mastered the video end of the world but that’s a large leap and can get costly, quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing…which is most everyone.

Figured I’d write this post to knock down some material for the good ol’ blog and add another post to my belt.

The penny should be eliminated. The cost to produce the one-cent coin increased to 1.5 cents during 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported. So not only is the penny completely unnecessary, it loses money when produced.

I find all types of change to be utterly despicable. There is nothing I like less than emptying my pocket at the end of the day and spilling 15 coins out on my bureau that total $1.43 from daily transactions. If I’m lazy and don’t want to put my coins into my ever increasing change bag, they continue to pile up and make a mess. I can count on one hand the amount of times I purchase an item and reach into my pocket to produce the exact change without having to break a bill.

If we removed the penny and nickel, and had every item rounnd to the nearest 10th, the world would be fine. How many items cost 1¢? A tootsie roll? A night out with Mrs. Gourlay? The point is, not a lot. Change needs to change.

Approval Rating at 40%

This goes hand in hand with the hundred dollar bill. When someone gives me a hundred I know the first thing I’m doing is going to the ATM, depositing it, and withdrawing 20’s. People don’t always have change for 100’s. It’s an inconvenience to 95% of stores who do business in small bills. Unless you’re a casino or bank, the $100 has no place. People don’t use cash anymore for big purchases. You don’t buy a TV with a roll of 100’s or else you’re looked as a thief, gangster, or drug dealer. The only people who use 100’s are people who don’t pay taxes.

The problem with changing the money is that the cost to do so is generally more than it’s worth. How does the Gov’t stop circulation? “Send us all your pennies and we’ll issue you a check?” The paperwork alone would cost the American people billions of dollars. Unless you could set up US Gov’t coin counting machines around the US (also costly because you’d need 1000’s of these machines), it won’t be cost efficient. What a mess.

I turned my phone to vibrate and it was liberating. I didn’t hear the *ding* when any message came in and I realized how much my phone owns me. I’d even go as far as saying I hate my phone.

There’s a sense of “I have to be on top of all means of communication in order to do my job to the best of my ability”.

• Answer every email as soon as it’s received.
• Respond to every text message so the person doesn’t think you are ignoring them.
• Chat back to the person who Snapped you a message

I will advocate that if you want to get ahead in life, responding as promptly as possible is essential. People look at you as reliable and conscientious of them. Big brownie points when you do this. HOWEVER…

I counted 70 emails that I declared pertinent (ones I didn’t automatically delete) on Monday. I’m sure this isn’t even a large sum compared to others, but it’s enough to make my phone ding often enough that I notice it. What this does is that every time my phone dings, I drop what I’m doing and look at my phone to react to the latest message. This is not healthy and didn’t have to be dealt with a decade ago.

During the week, this doesn’t bother me much because it’s my job. I’m being paid to respond. I do notice though that when I go home, my phone doesn’t stop dinging and it is still begging for my attention. This is where I start to get annoyed.

When I leave work, I try to separate work time from me time. I’m not being inconsiderate if I don’t respond to you. My phone is not attached to my body. I don’t bring my phone everywhere I go. I don’t owe you a response as soon as it’s received. Believe it or not, maybe I’m thinking about how to respond to you before I actually respond. There are also times when I’m drunk as a skunk and either not paying attention to my phone or know that it’s dumb to answer. I don’t not respond purposely so don’t take it like a sleight of disrespect or dislike.

It’s wasn’t this way 15 years ago and society still survived. I would never argue that it isn’t easier without the connectivity of a cell phone. But there also aren’t rules that should be established that the cell phone trumps all and people who don’t use it accordingly are wrong. There isn’t right or wrong with cell phone use. The user can use it any way they please and not be judged on how its used.

I called Sam on Saturday and he didn’t pick up. He didn’t call back. I wanted to talk to him and he was either busy or didn’t want to respond. Do I find that annoying? Yes and no. 1% yes because sure I wanted to talk to him and he didn’t want to talk back. 99% no because he wasn’t doing it intentionally because he had other moving parts of his life and I judge him as a human far more than his phone etiquette.

Robots as humans in Westworld…not far off.

I know I’m becoming old school. I have no idea what the school kids are doing nowadays but I imagine their phone is being pinged 24/7, 7 days a week.  They probably respond at the drop of a hat and it’s considered rude if you don’t. I find it somewhat sad because we are becoming more machine like day by day. Minority Report. I Robot. Blade Runner. Demolition Man, Back to the Future. These aren’t movies. These are going to be real life. Robots and machines will start to become the norm. You already see it happening with drones and self driving cars. AI is taking over one way or another and the cell phone/internet and its ability to distribute information quickly is why it is accelerated. How that relates to me being annoyed by my phone, I’m not exactly sure, but I’m 100% sure they are related.

I don’t expect comments but I’m curious if you feel that the phone has made human beings unhealthy?

This is a comment I received on my blog pointing out my inaccuracy in this post:

Few funny parts about this comment.

1. How did he find the blog? – Easily the most important question. Bill Treasurer comes off to me as a man who Googles himself. Somewhere along the line my post must have popped up in Google and he read it.
2. Is this his marketing strategy? – There is nothing wrong with finding the most popular blog on the planet and commenting on their website. I get it. Smart, CEO, like move.
3. Did I send him my address? – You damn right. I treasure bills too.

Who says rnningfool.com doesn’t make the rounds in certain circles?

Gambling money. We’ve come to a permanent ebb. The word permanent is used loosely and should probably be changed to temporarily.

I promise you those aren’t presents.

On Thursday night I was separated from the last remains from my Bovada account. It’s nice that there isn’t a continuous counter because I’m saying I’ve only lost $600 dollars since the start of the NFL playoffs. Some would say that’s a lot of money, and they aren’t wrong, but it provided me countless hours of entertainment for the past 80+ days. If you saw a movie every other day, you’d have spent the same amount and society wouldn’t think you a degen. As such, I’m busto and deciding if I want to jump back in or take some time off.

How did such a qualified gambler like myself lose this money you ask? I’m not pointing fingers but it was definitely Adam’s mis-information that led me astray. He just liked my Venmo payment of $100 to Sam on the Sixers bet which is why I’m tearing into him. I respect the Shee’s sports information but I didn’t consider that the guy has been out of the game too long. SMU. St. Mary’s. Michigan. Purdue. With his help I lost 6 straight (2 of my own) to drain the account of $750 over the course of the tournament. Jesus.

I’m not done yet. Losing the $100 to Sam on the Sixers winning over 27 games is a goddamn travesty. The Sixers are undoubtedly horrible. How they win these games has to stem from the other teams not taking the game seriously. The Bulls are more of a dumpster fire than the Sixers so it’s like they are stealing games at the end of the season which I’d compare to a back door cover. There’s no doubt Dario is a good player but the other team isn’t game planning for Dario Saric. He’s currently flying under the radar but once other teams realize he’s the only player on the court, they shouldn’t win another game. Shawn Long (the guy who hurt Ben Simmons) was a +32 last night.  Christ.

Dipshit.

As you’ve probably heard, Louis lost to a schlep named Ross Fisher last night on the 2nd hole of the playoff. The day was going perfectly with Louis beating Masuyama, and Fisher topping Furyk, which was exactly what I needed for a playoff. Lou hit a perfect drive on 1 while Fisher hit it way right. Fisher, on a miraculous shot, put it to 15 ft and Lou chunked an 83 yard shot which was his golden opportunity. They tied the hole and on the 2nd, Fisher put an 8 iron within 15 ft while Lou once again hit a shitty approach shot, and that was all she wrote. Not only did I lose money, but the unofficially ranked #1 golfer of all time lost to some journeyman. Mother of god.

Tom, why don’t you take a break? You’re clearly not cut out for this action and your lost in your ways. As the wise Andrew Gourlay told me, and I’m paraphrasing, “the only way to get your money back…is to keep gambling.”

Doug Polk has created a Vlogging formula within the poker world that should not be overlooked because of how compelling the material is. He’s a high limit poker player who regards himself as the best NL Heads Up player in the world at the current time. I can’t write much on his game but I’ve been following his videos and antics for a few months now. His delivery in the Video Blog format is pretty damn good and I would copy it once I feel like putting in the time (or have any content of interest which currently does not exist). He stirs up the pot and divulges what’s actually happening in the poker world which I’m sure people dislike him for.

Anyway, he created this video called How Much Money Do Poker Players REALLY Have?

I’ll answer the question since I know you won’t watch, the answer is WAY less than you think. Aside from guys who strike it rich in big tournaments, or guys consistently beating the higher stakes online, most likely a poker player is not that wealthy. Doug makes good points like traveling costs, taxes, rake, tough games, being staked by other people, and generally having bad bankroll management that isn’t conducive to making money. A few examples:

• A mid stakes, online, (2/5) grinder, who plays a million hands a year, can make 150k. A million hands is a lot of hands by the way and this was at a win rate of 3bb/hour. This number ranges depending on how good you are.
• Higher stakes online players can make more, but game selection dries up and there isn’t as much easy competition.
• Online tournament players who enter 400k of buy ins for tournaments, and have an ROI of 50% (this is quite good, mine was 8% when I used to play), they only make 200k every year. Taxes not included.
• A live tournament player who buys in for 500k of tournaments, who has a high ROI of 100%, will make 500k. WRONG. Travel expenses, taxes. Yada yada.
• Live cash games he said have the most money being thrown around and are the most difficult to track.

Now, the point of this post was to actually look at how much money is being thrown around in High Stakes Poker. When I was in college, I couldn’t conceive how much money these guys were playing for. I thought they were playing for millions of dollars which does happen from time to time but I didn’t look that closely. These million dollar pots are the rare exceptions in televised poker. It should be noted these guys bought in for between 100k-250k in the video below.

That hand was a 575k pot in a 400/800 game. This was when High Stakes Poker was at its biggest on TV. Nowadays on the Poker Night in America, that just came to the Sugarhouse, the big game was people playing 50/100 and some players were buying into these TV games with 10k. Heck, people I know could buy into this game. These games have gotten smaller as online poker has squelched and the games fish have left the pond.

The point I’m making is that when these maniacs in High Stakes Poker, playing 10 years ago, WERE PLAYING FOR A LOT OF THEIR MONEY. I don’t know what their bankroll is, but you can tell that when guys get it all in, and it’s time to gamble, they are thinking real carefully how it will alter their current financial situation. I used to think these players bankrolls were endless, but after watching Doug’s video, you get the impressions that these guys aren’t as rich as you think. A bad day’s loss hurts the soul. Watch this video of Vanessa Selbst losing 6 figures like a noob.