Unemployed and Playing Poker
This is seeming a little strange.. I am approaching my 29th birthday and I find myself unemployed… again. It seems like a dream.. like it’s just a long weekend. I had planned a Vegas trip for this weekend so it just seems like an extra day off was tacked on.. Well, yesterday while I was eating my salad at my computer.. in my dark corner of an office.. I was approached and asked to come to a meeting. I knew it. I sort of knew it was coming with all the lay offs and my lack of seniority at this company. The moment they say the words though, it is real. Another victim of our terrible economy.
Without a severance.. I start to panic. I am shaking and nervous.. How am I going to do this? There’s always unemployment but they are so backed up I haven’t been able to get my claim in yet. That’s scary. I have a bit of a buffer to get me through for awhile and support from my family. I’m not too worried.. yet.
Today I enjoyed a nice day outside.. it’s beautiful in LA. Sunny and 70. Can’t argue with that. I’m inspired to be creative again and work on my own projects, which is great.. I always have potential freelance.. because honestly, a full time job is not something I’m looking to rush into. I’d like to find alternate ways to support myself. Which leads me to poker.
i am playing poker again. I recently came back to the game after taking 2 months off to regroup and study after a bad end of 2008. Things have been going well so far.. so now I’m about to take another stab at poker as a way to support myself.. and my cats. We’ll see how this goes. I’m keeping track and managing my money very carefully. This worked out well for me at this time last year. I didn’t even want this job (I was just laid off from) when it was offered to me last April. I wanted to continue freelancing and playing poker. Maybe it’s the mindset of supporting myself with poker that makes me play smarter and more focused. Well we’ll see how it goes. I plan to blog my journey here often.. (I mean what else have I got to do, right? ha!). I am also on twitter and posting regularly.
Please follow me on twitter if you find that a crazy unemployed cat lady playing poker for a living something that’s interesting to read.
Cheers..
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Comments
It seems like these types of stories are becoming more and more common these days. It still doesn’t make it any easier though. The economy has taken its toll on millions of families across the United States. There is a ray of hope that more jobs will become available soon for all those people who are currently unemployed. It just seems like these jobs aren’t becoming available soon enough. What’s hard is that even if you’ve been laid off due to cut backs in the company, it still doesn’t stop the bills from pouring in. This is the first time I’ve heard about people turning towards poker after being laid off. I don’t think this would actually be a wise idea. The money left in the savings accounts should go towards bills and groceries until the economy becomes stabilized and people get back to work. I just don’t think that taking the chance on gambling away the only savings you have will prove to be beneficial in this situation. Unless, you are as close to a professional poker player as they come. If you are an expert at the game then it might pay off to walk out of a casino with the big winnings, which will certainly help out being that you are unemployed.
The amount of Americans that are unemployed right now is at an all-time high since millions of people are without jobs in the US. Blandino Gines happens to be one of the millions of unemployed people right now, but he has managed to turn his misfortune into an excellent opportunity as he recently won a $20,000 seat in the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship that will be held in Las Vegas.
Gines was able to defeat 590,000 other players through a series of poker satellites and qualifiers to earn his seat to the event where over $500,000 in prize money awaits. And the win has brought great joy to the unemployed San Jose man who has been waiting patiently to secure any kind of job he can. Now Gines finally has something to cheer about during these tough times as he will be heading to Caesars Palace with a guest very soon. However, the question must be asked, “Should he have been playing poker in the first place?”
Of course it is Blandino Gines choice on what he will do with his time off of work, but it seems that playing poker might not be the best idea right now. And I like poker as much as the next person, however, I don’t think you should be playing if you don’t have extra disposable income rolling in to play with. And this doesn’t just go for Gines either as there are plenty of other unemployed people that are playing poker when they should probably be focusing on other more important things.
Now it is everyone’s dream to make it big playing poker or even just to win an incredible prize package such as the one Gines scored. But for every Gines that wins something like this, there are thousands of other people that lost money in the satellites and they don’t have a job to back them up. I definitely fear that there may be some who are spending more money than they can afford to as well.
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Dx
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http://www.pokerraking.com/vip/-http://www.pokerraking.com/vip/
Hey Kat,
Sorry about the job. Hope you find something soon…that is if you want to find something. My advice, apply for unemployment immediately!