I\u2019ve read several authorities who claim that having regular sleep hours is the healthiest way to lead your life. Whether these experts are correct or not, I haven\u2019t lived my life that way. For the past 30 years, my life has revolved around when and where the best video poker plays are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the point multiplier starts at midnight, I\u2019ll be there. At 3 a.m.? That\u2019d be okay. I\u2019ll make it. An appointment at 8 a.m.? No problem. Another appointment at 1 p.m.? That\u2019s okay. Meeting for dinner at 7 p.m.? Sounds good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, I need to sleep some of the time. So, I sleep when I can, set the alarm as needed, and get to wherever I need to be. Friends and colleagues learn not to call me at such ungodly times as 10 a.m. or maybe 3 p.m. because I might be sleeping. It\u2019s better to text me something like, \u201cCall me when you\u2019re awake.\u201d Some days I take three different naps. And, because I\u2019m a male senior citizen, sometimes I wake up more than once just to go to the bathroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I take a medication that makes me slightly drowsy. I\u2019ve asked my doctor for a non-drowsy version, but he thinks the one he gives me is the perfect one for my health condition. So, I take it at night — just before I go to bed — but if I\u2019m only sleeping three hours this particular night because of a promotion, the drug is still in my system — at least a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The net effect is that when my alarm goes off, my body doesn\u2019t immediately become wide awake.. If I\u2019m going to gamble intelligently (or do anything else intelligently, for that matter), I need to make sure I\u2019m awake before I proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My three methods of waking up are showers, physical exercise, and mental exercise — in any order, often in combination. Showers are self-explanatory. My go-to physical exercise for years was jumping jacks. When my hip joint deteriorated and eventually was replaced six months ago, that was out. Plus, now I\u2019m going to need arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder, so even though I can now jump up and down, sort of, swinging my arms over my head is painful and will possibly aggravate the tear in my rotator cuff that\u2019s already there. Depending on the time of day, I often I<\/s> suggest walking around a block or three with Bonnie — which is good for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For mental exercise, I do a variety of things. If I\u2019m going to be playing a video poker game for which I don\u2019t believe my accuracy is at least 99.9%, I\u2019m studying that game — both by looking at the strategy and practicing on the computer. I wish Video Poker for Winners<\/em> still worked on my computer, but I make do with WinPoker<\/em>. I select hard hands so as to review the hands that are the most difficult. Or, I start from particular cards so that I know all the exceptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If I\u2019m going to be making a slot run, I\u2019ll review all of my strike numbers. I have numbers for more than 60 games. The ones I see every day I know by heart. But there are some games I only see occasionally — so I forget the numbers if I don\u2019t review them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n