Dumb Poker Kid Chasing His Dumb Poker Dreams

I've been trying to figure out how to start this blog for a while now. I just deleted 3 paragraphs worth of words because I hadn't even started talking about the topic at hand, and instead ventured into pondering the meaning of life and if any of this really matters and what the point of being alive truly is. So now I've sort of blog-Inceptioned myself, writing in this blog about what I deleted in my last blog. Maybe I should just do that other blog instead? I don't know. It was super depressing and I don't want to go down that road right now. 

So instead, let's talk about dreams. Any sort of dreams. Pipe dreams, day dreams, wet dreams. There are all sorts of dreams that each serve their own purpose. As a kid, my dream was to be a hot talk radio DJ. I grew up obsessed with a genre of radio that doesn't even exist anymore, as crazy as that is. Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don and Mike, Ron and Fez, the Junkies. Just the best era of radio that will never be replicated. 

But then a couple of things happened: 1) my voice never progressed outside of puberty, and 2) hot talk radio evaporated into thin air. Turns out advertisers didn't love DJs having strippers in the studio asking them about their sexual escapades and so on and so forth, or at least that's my understanding of why all the stations flipped to sports talk. So I did the closest thing to it- became a blogger.

I'm not going to rehash my life story, but basically I started playing poker like everyone else who watched Chris Moneymaker on ESPN as a teenager, got obsessed with it, and haven't stopped playing since. At one point I lived in Manchester, England for 6 months playing online poker because I hated my cubicle job in the US and just wanted to play poker while I figured out what to do with my life. In Manchester is where I wrote my first ever blog in June 2013, and I was hired by Dave in October of that year. Yes, this is year 10. No, I did not get a piece of the sale so quit askin! 

So through all my years as a smut blogger, rising up in the ranks and becoming Editor in Chief, I have always tried to do poker content on the side. Not as my main job, but blogging WSOP, playing when I can, etc. Then a few years ago I started Cracking Aces, the number 1 poker podcast in the world. I run the social channels too, kinda just as a side project. It's not my full time or even second full time job, but it's a fun little thing I do on the side and people seem to enjoy it. On the podcast we talk about the world of poker, interview all the players, learn strategy, and really just have a good time for an hour a week. It's not Pardon My Take or KFC Radio or Loud and Complicit, but it's fine for what it is. 

Through the good graces of being alive and having this job, I have been able to do the unthinkable- I have played the $10k WSOP Main Event. As a lad it was always "I hope to do that one day", but as an adult it's become a reality for 5 years now. Some of the years I was staked through an advertiser, other years it was on my own dime. I will truly never take it for granted.

I say all that to say this- I don't think I'm a great "content creator". In fact sometimes I cringe at the idea of that being a profession. Hacking the algorithm, being fake, living a life to accumulate "likes" aka fake internet points, call me an old man but I hate a lot of it. I always just wanted to make fart jokes online. I like blogging, I'm good at it, and I like poker, and I'm okay at it. 

So this Summer, I'm going to take a leap of faith and cross one final thing off the dream list- I'm going to play a full month at the WSOP. I've cleared it with my bosses Clem and Hubbs (and will be freerolling them a bit) and will be living in Vegas playing a fairly busy WSOP schedule, $3k buy-ins and down. There's no better time than now to do this. I'm 34 years old, no wife, no kids, and have saved money over the years. I love poker, have always wanted to do this, and will be making cool content the best I can while out there. I won't have an army of people helping me, just will be vlogging the best I can from my phone and doing blogs with updates. Last year at the WSOP I had a few chances for deep runs in a few different events, and I'm better at poker now than I was last year, so hopefully we can strike gold and make something beautiful happen.

If you want to get involved for a fun little #SummerSweat, I'll be selling action (at no markup) on PokerStake.com. Not completely sure how much yet, I think 40% or so. I'm in no way a pro, just an amateur going for it. I study poker every night, mostly with training videos and looking at charts like this

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I'm also going to get coaching before WSOP to try and plug some leaks as well. 

Maybe this works out- maybe the content is great and I book a win and it's a turning point in my life/career. Or maybe I go home empty handed. Either way, I'm glad I'm going to give a shot and follow this dream. Hope you follow along, it's going to be a wild ride!

And you can listen to the podcast here:

And follow the IG here: