JeffreyLipsey.com

Today I’ve spent most of the time running errands. I got up around 9:30ish and at 10:30 or so I went in to campus and took care of a couple things. The first stop I made was to Bankier Apartments, which was on Green St and I had to get some information regarding my move out for next Sunday. The office isn’t open on Sunday so they’ll have to do a walk through after I leave.


After That I headed over to the National City Bank to get the Money Gram taken care of from FTP; that withdraw took all of 12 hours to process which is the quickest yet for an online cashout. The process itself at the bank was pretty painless as it seems I’ve become some sort of regular there, but no matter as that will probably be my last Money Gram check from that bank in Champaign.


Afterwords, I went down to get a hair cut from Custom Cuts and that took about 30 minutes. I’m happy with the way it turned out and the lady said it had been 10 weeks since I last got a hair cut. Not that it matters to me because I really don’t do anything special to my hair everyday, in fact I barely notice it growing.


After the appointment I picked up Kavin and headed to Sushi Kame in Downtown Champaign. We still can’t get over the fact that you can get good, cheap sushi in Champaign and how much I’m going to miss that. I got a Baked Spicy Salmon Roll, which was good, as well as a Breaded Fish Bento Box which was also good. I had plenty of food and could hardly finish my last piece of sushi.


So, that was probably one of the last times I’ll spend on campus, as I still have to go close my bank account at Busey Bank. I forgot my bank book otherwise I would have done that today.

Like, a goal or something. Sure I’ve set goals in my past but frankly I don’t give a care if I meet them or not, as long as I pay my bills and continue to not have to do anything. I am confident that I can have a 100k bankroll within a year from today and I really wouldn’t have to work too hard for it.


And by that I mean if I just work 30 hours a week for the next year I’d more than increase my bankroll to that amount, and that is just playing the shitty stakes of 100 NL Full Ring. So why don’t I do it? I can’t mentally…


Or is it I won’t mentally? I went through that realization tonight while talking with my poker friend Adil. I respect his opinion and frankly he works a full time job and STILL grinds poker at home every night, and he makes a ton of money. I was trying to find ways to either motivate myself or find out what keeps him motivated.


Maybe he values money more than I do right now? I don’t know, there was a time when I was in college where all I could do was think about making a ton of money. Was that the capitalistic Jeffrey and right now I’m in a communistic phase? I think a lot of it is just complacency and lazyness.


I was motivated a few years ago when I was actually buying things with the money I made. The last big thing I purchased was my TV, and even that wasn’t all that expensive. If it wasn’t for taxes I probably would hardly play at all, well that and bills.


Should I start having more fun with my winnings? Blow it on booze, food and other expensive lavishes? I think that is the only answer right now; if it increases the enjoyment that I get out of my winnings, which in term makes me motivated to play poker and then allows me to get a lot of hands in and make more money.


Now comes another question: what the hell do I need/want that I don’t already have? Paying off loans/credit cards just isn’t very exciting and frankly are pretty shitty motivational factors. Speaking solely of material possessions: I already have a nice car, I have all the video games I could possibly desire, I have a nice TV and tons of already useless stuff that I don’t already need or don’t use to begin with.


I do have some hobbies all of which right now are pretty cheap. The one thing I could maybe get behind would be to increase my stock portfolio every month if I make more than x amount of money. But that alone wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me as that really isn’t anything materialistic.


I think I’ve made strides in what it is I want to get from Poker tonight as I sit here and type my thoughts into my laptop. I think if I can find more reasons to play I then will be motivated and start to make some serious money. Until that happens though I don’t know what I should do. I’ll keep you all updated.

Well… today was a waste. I literally got nothing done: no poker, no packing, no nothing. What did I do? I have no idea.


Some of the time was spent at Lowe’s and Meijer buying Moving Boxes and Toothpaste, respectively. I spent some more time rollerblading and then everything else browsing poker forums. The time just flies when I do absolutely nothing!


My dinner was everything short of spectacular, as I continue my goal to get rid of most my food. It consisted of: Formanized Chicken Breast, Can of Black Beans and Can of Whole-Kernal Corn. How delicious! Expect more kick-ass meals as the week goes on…

I arrived last night around 11 pm or so and I didn’t waste much time, in fact I didn’t even turn on my computer. I saw that I had both Burn Notice and Psych on my DVR to watch from the end of last week and so that is what I did last night.


I got up around 9ish again and I haven’t done much, other than going over my cash flow for the next month. Poker Stars has a reload bonus and I’m trying to find a way to take advantage of it and it will have to involve some complicated cashout method with Full Tilt. Its all for $240 and I don’t know if it will be worth it, but I will have to keep an eye on it. I probably have 1-2 days to cash out and still feel comfortable receiving my money on time. Apparently FTP lets you do MoneyGram cash out too now, but it goes by a different name so I am double checking that.


I’ve been debating if I just want to start getting in the hands right now at 200 NL 9 tabling again, as I should probably start actually attempt to make money again. For some reason I don’t want to do that but I mean I don’t think it will screw up too much of my 400 NL progress.

My dad and I spent a couple hours around lunch time just relaxing around his not-hot tub and drinking beer, while people from the neighborhood came by to chat. At around 3 pm or so we got a phone call saying we were OK to go swimming in a friend of my Dad’s in ground pool.


Jane’s pool was pretty nice, although she said it was something like 67 years old. I never even knew the houses existed in that part of the woods; shit you wouldn’t even know you were in Illinois the way her property was.


My dad said she owned 100 acres or so, 100 % wooded but with no river front access. Either way the in ground pool was really nice with a water temperature of 75 degrees. It was probably 30 feet long by 15 feet wide and over 8 feet deep. I could have stayed there all night but the mosquitoes were getting bad and I have to start heading back to Champaign soon.


After dinner here at my Dad’s I’ll be headed back to Champaign for my final week.

I got up around the same time yesterday and my Dad cooked pancakes for breakfast, which is nice because it feels like a long time since I had some good pancakes.


We went driving around for a bit, my dad had to run some errands. The first stop was the local Trap Shooting club, which I feel like an outsider at. For all those that think I’m ‘country’ these guys take it to the next level; I’ve considered myself ‘Faux Country’ for quite some time though.


The second stop was to go up in a sub division and talk with a shooting partner of my Dad’s, his name was Ron. He wasn’t there though so we just came back to the house and get ready for a little bit of fishing.


It didn’t take long for each of us to catch something, although they both were a little small. My dad and I each caught a Small Mouth Bass, his was probably an inch larger than mine but they were both too small to keep. We didn’t walk away empty handed though as one of my Dad’s neighbors had caught a catfish, and apparently they didn’t want it so they gave it to us. Either way I can’t take any fish home so I’m just out there to have fun really.


It got pretty warm and humid real quick, which after ANOTHER rain last night was a bit surprising. When the sun was out it was pretty warm; we weren’t down there 90 minutes until we came back up, hopefully with the intention of going swimming. I say hopefully because we received an invitation yesterday about going up and swimming in a lady’s real nice in ground pool; apparently it goes up to 12 feet deep. He only had to talk for like 30 seconds until I was excited to go as it sounds like it will be a ton of fun.


That said, he called her back last night and she has yet to return the phone call and hopefully return the invitation again. Until then I think the White Sox game comes on soon and there’s always a nice lunch. I will be driving back to Champaign sometime tonight after dinner.

I don’t know what it is, but I can be standing 3 feet from my dad, using the same bait and tackle and not catch a single fish. Well, that isn’t entirely true but you get the point.


We started the day out at 11:30 or so, we headed down to the boat ramp to pick up minnows with a net. People always seem amazed when we they see how many minnows we get each time we bring in the net. My dad and I are amazed by people who pay for minnows. It took us maybe 15 minutes to get a few dozen minnows and we came back down to the river after eating a sandwich to start the day.


The time went by pretty fast, even though the fish were biting sporadically. My dad missed a nice catfish right off the bat and we both caught some little Small Mouth Bass; the current of the river was so fast that we had to adjust our technique 30 minutes in. We decided that it was going to be better to stick a bobber on and float minnows 3-10 ft away from shore. This was what got us to start catching fish.


My dad was the one who caught all the keepers today, he caught two nice catfish during our first fishing session. I caught my first Northern Pike today, even though it was only 8-10″ long; it was the first one caught down by the boat ramp too that I’m aware of anyway. Otherwise, I caught only a couple little bass and was skunked the rest of the time.


At 3:30 we both were pretty hot so we decided to take a little swim and dinner break. I jumped in his not-hot tub and pretty much stayed in there for at least an hour and a half. Meanwhile he cooks some BBQ pork ribs on the grill and after dinner we headed back down to the river.


I’m not lying the first cast he threw in the river he caught one of the largest Small Mouth Bass that he’s ever caught. It was pretty nice and he said it was over 16″ although I don’t know about that. Not an hour later he caught another nice Small Mouth, probably 14.5″ this time; meanwhile I haven’t had so much of a bite.


At 8 pm or so we decided to call it quits for the day; it wasn’t that unproductive if you count his fish. However, it feels like I haven’t done shit.

I am thinking about what my plans are for August. I’m up like 1 buy in this month but I’ve been BE so far at 400 NL, but its such a small sample size I can’t compare it. I’ve also had 3 negative days in a row and a lot of it is just standard shit. I think that if I make 4-5 buy ins next week in the 5 part time days I can put in playing 400 NL then I’ll continue to stick to it in August (that’s going to be hard though). Otherwise I’ll have to go back and play 100/200 NL and just get some easy money to pay bills for another month, as taxes are due again in September. I’m lucky I didn’t lose any money this month, but then again I barely got any hands in. If I get 500 hands in each day next week at 400 NL (which will be real hard), then that would bring me over the 5k hand mark at 400 NL. Its just been so hard this month because of all the trips I’ve been taking.


I still may do that anyway, and then just table select the 400 NL games while I play tournaments next month, as I’m going to be staked for a lot of majors/FTOPs events. I’m thinking the total will be close to $5k next month alone in tournaments and majors and what not, and if I’m playing those a lot of the time I’ll just be 1 tabling. That would be a good way to get in some good quality table hours at 400 NL too. I’m up in the air if I want to 9 table 200 or 100 NL, given that the only reason I’m doing it is to make money and not exactly get better. I say that because my hourly winrate at 100 NL is probably double my hourly at 200 NL, but I really don’t know for sure too much. I should probably stay at 200 NL though as so I don’t stray to far away from my 400 NL progress, and then after I pay taxes and bills I’ll start going back to 400 NL again full time in October.


Again, more thoughts and reflections…

I got up an hour later today, which is weird because I went to bed at least an hour earlier last night. It rained again last night, which after a while it just doesn’t make much sense. I don’t know/remember when the last time it rained in Champaign; there is hardly a cloud in the sky!


My grandma calls my dad every Saturday, so when the phone rings at exactly 8:45 am you know who it is going to be. It’s kind of odd that she only calls on Saturday, but it also sucks because there is no way you could ever sleep past 8:45 either given how loud the damn phone is. Who wants to start off the weekend by talking with there mother? I digress…


I guess we’ll be going fishing today, although it doesn’t really matter too much to me, I don’t really care. I’m up here to enjoy myself and that includes drinking a shit ton more Busch Light, given that I probably wont drink any tomorrow before I drive back.


I’ve been thinking more about stocks lately, which is a good thing as I haven’t been thinking about them enough. I haven’t watched Mad Money or Suze Orman for weeks, but I still have like 100 of their shows on my DVR. After a while it just piles up and you want to tune it out. Also on my DVR is a new episode of Burn Notice from Thursday night, I meant to watch it but I forgot about it; good thing I have my DVR as a backup.


Alright, well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about in the 30 minutes I’ve been awake or so. If we do go fishing I sure hope I catch something this time; I’ve had a real bad year so far.

Before I start let me give a background. Jim Cramer recommends that you number your positions from 1 to 4, with 1 being a stock you want to buy right now and 4 being a stock you want to sell right now. 2 is a stock you want to buy more of if it falls 5-7 percent in price and 3 is a stock you want to sell if it increases 5-7 percent in price.


It’s been 6 weeks since I last did one of these and that is definitely too long. I don’t know where the time has gone but now is as good of time as any. I feel like I’ve shunned my portfolio the last 3 weeks as it was tanking with market. I still don’t think the market has bottomed even though it rebounded this last week so I don’t know what is on my buy list right now.


The 4’s


None. Is this a good thing? I don’t know exactly but I don’t really feel like selling anything when my entire portfolio is down. Especially when I have confidence that my stocks will go up.


The 3’s


FRO: Frontline


Of all the stocks that I own, I feel that Frontline is the one that I put more of my faith in Jim Cramer and the shipping industry itself than any of my other stocks. Granted, I have pretty large confidence that this stock will go up another 10-15 %, back up to its 52 week high of $72/share from only a couple weeks ago. Until then I have a fallback because of the dividend that they already paid me so I can wait. I’m going to be selling FRO once it gets back up to $72/share and look for something better, or wait for FRO to go back down.


The 2’s


EP: El Paso Oil and NBR: Nabors Resources


I’m placing EP and NBR in the same boat because I believe they belong together. They effectively share my oil risk and tend to move up and down together. I really don’t want to buy any more of these as I think I have enough exposure to this market as it is, but if I can get more on a steal then I definitely will.


CMCO: Columbus McKinnon


CMCO is one my small cap stock, and in that there is some inherit risk involved; ot has a market cap of under $500 Million. It is trading at its 52 week low and has great growth prospects and a nice balance sheet with PE ratio of under 12. The only thing missing is a dividend, but I don’t expect it to pay one for quite some time as it is small cap. Of all my stocks, CMCO is the one I keep up with the least and haven’t cared much since its been down. This might be a problem but I still like the financials and growth for this company. This stock is definitely one of my longest term holds that I have and I think if it continues to go down it becomes more attractive to buy.


The 1’s


MMM: 3M Technologies


MMM is so down right now that it has no where to go but up. It has a nice dividend yield (close to 3% right now) and its trading at its 52 week low. If only I had the free cash to purchase some more of this stock as I think it is going to go up after it releases earnings July 24th.


MTW: Manitowac


I’ve saved MTW for last for a reason, because I feel this one is going to be my big winner. Maybe not right now but with the massive hit it has taken in the past couple weeks it really is a great buy. If I had extra cash to purchase anything right now, I’d keep buying this stock. I’m going to keep an eye as they release earnings in a week too.




Well, those are my stocks, this next week will be key for me as several of my companies will be releasing earnings. The results of those earnings may affect my decisions above but for now I’m still pretty bullish on several of my stocks.