Considering real estate investment [non-poker]

Still playing online and live, though not nearly with the frequency I once did.  Funny how life gets in the way.

As careers progress and wealth gets accumulated, I find that I'm looking for new ways to diversify my holdings.  From my 401(k), 529 and other side cash investments (mutual funds, bitcoin), I think I'm flush with exposure to the stock market.  Unfortunately (really, fortunately - it's a good problem to have), there is still continuing excess cash flow.  I've been discussing available opportunities with my brother in law, and concluded that we should purchase a property with the intent of becoming landlords via a partnership.

Combined, we have around $100,000 of available capital to deploy (that's the rough number he and I feel comfortable using), and I'm not 100% convinced that real estate is the way to go, but it seems to be the most obvious and easy choice.  The idea is that we purchase a property, start a positive cash flow stream, escrow the cash flow and in a few years, purchase another property while also paying off the first one on the backs of the renters.  Pretty simple.

I'm sure more than a few of my readers have or are finding themselves in similar situations - albeit likely with even more capital.  What are you doing with that cash besides plowing it into the stock market or a high yield savings account?  I'm plumb out of ideas...

Thoughts are:

• A franchise (which requires a TON of time)
• Commercial real estate (which I lack education)
• Beach house summer rental (lower cash flow, but allows our families to use it in the off season)
• REIT / Real Estate Investment Trust (no control over what the REIT does AND also puts more money into the stock market)

Donkin' around on Global Poker

I've been starting to play a bit of online poker lately.  Over the past week, I've run into 2 fun little hands:

It's been a fun going so far.  At the current moment, I have no interest in ramping up my playing to anywhere near levels I was doing pre- Black Friday.

I hope all is well [if there are any remaining] blog subscribers.  Things within the blogosphere have certainly changed; the wold seems to have strongly moved to vlogging.  Oh well.

If you're going to lose a hand, do it spectacularly!

Poker has been terrible for me this year.  I say that tongue in cheek; I've played little more than 5 sessions - if that much.  I've been working a lot lately, going back through last year and, in fact, my overall poker sessions are way down against my prior year(s) averages.  Therefore, I supposed I'm being quite myopic in my overall outlook because of limited data points.  As it stands, I'm in the hole for a couple of buy ins, a situation I'm not accustomed to.  I realize that it's an ego thing and I'm probably being too pessimistic since there are 9 months remaining in the year, but I worry that I'll not be able to catch up on the deficit given the rate I'm playing.  I hate being in deficit territory!

Further increasing my deficit, telling for the title of the post, I'm here in Melbourne, Florida, for work.  As usual, I try to get a feel for the local poker scene, and had an opportunity to play for 2 hours last night at Club 52 @ Melbourne Greyhound Park.

After an up and down ride, I find myself sitting on my original buy in (~$200) - it's a 1/2 game.  After a couple of limps, I raise to $12 with TT.  2 players call as do the original 2 limps.  We see a 5-way flop of T 9 7 rainbow it gets checked to me.  I want players in the pot, and it's very likely I'll get action from this kind of flop.  I'm targeting hands like QJ, Tx, random 8's, random J's, etc.  This board hits a lot of 4 other player's ranges, and a bet with a vulnerable "nut" top set hand requires a bet.  I lead for $35, wanting to keep in the more likely gut shot J's and open enders.  Much to my chagrin, it folds around to the one aggro player who's been hitting the cards like a fiend.  He check raises me to $80 or so.  I'm never letting this go, and the way he's been going, I don't doubt he has a nut-like hand or monster draw (pair and straight draw, overs and straight draw, set, etc.).  I don't want a card on the turn / river discouraging further action from him or me, so I opt to get it in right there on the flop - I shove for ~$180.  He snap calls and immediately flips over 99 for a flopped mid set.  Before I can even flip my hand over, the dealer puts out a 9, his one out, completing quads for him!  This is now the second time in Florida (and the second time in live poker) that I've been one-outted (in 2014 at the Hard Rock / Tampa, I flopped a set of K's over a set of 8's and he also turned quads).  That ended my session on a sour note, further pushing me into loss territory for the year.

Side note: as it so happens, a few of the first round games of the NCAA basketball tournament are going to be played in Jacksonville - a 2 hour drive from here.  As a University of Maryland alum, I love to watch the Terps play, but haven't yet had an opportunity to watch a tournament game up close & personal.  Therefore, I'm extending my trip to drive up to Jacksonville to watch the Terps hopefully win its first round game and move on to the round of 32!  Maybe I'll be able to hit bestbet Jacksonville again?