The Old Gang
I got into blogging by accident. I'd written a little article and posted it in the PokerWorks forum. Linda read it and asked me if I wanted to do some articles for the site. That started me toward this time and place. (PokerWorks forum is slow but I don't know why. It'd make a nice meeting place for the current gang.)
I write quickly. Doing a blog or article is limited more by typing skills than prolonged thought – you knew that, right? But, I make mistakes. One of my better one is leaving the negative change off verbs – reversing or mudding the meaning of the sentence. Or, using there instead of their. I'd did buy a copy of a writing manual and I still intend to get around to reading it. In this respect I am your typical poker blogger. Notable exceptions are obvious in their superiority to our casual approaches.
Well, this didn't fly doing articles. Rather than just turning my can into a can't, Linda would markup and return. This put us both on edge and things deteriorated. Then she decided she could live with my cavalier approach in a blog. So, she made an offer. I made a counter offer to do it for half the price. She demurred. I was all of a sudden responsible for a minimum of three blogs a week.
There was a high maintenance/value blogger on the site – Michael Craig. The other was Craig Cunningham – who's player interviews still set a standard. Linda's blog was still from a dealer's perspective. I became the low rent addition.
Linda's timing can suck. I was hired not that far ahead of the UIGEA which changed the landscape and revenue stream. It also created fodder for my rants. In those early days, I often had 8 or 10 blogs ready. They were a combination of basic about poker, rants about politicians, and dissing Harrah's management over earlier WSOPs. But, times change and that three blogs a week commitment began to look like a mountain.
When it started, I was playing a lot of Hold'em. I'd play ring, SnG, and tournament. There I'd get in ahead and you know the rest. The rants about that happening are at best a 50% cop-out. But, it is cumulative. While I don't throw or break things the repression sent me looking for something else. I went after HORSE and then started playing the various flavors that make it up. I played a lot of RAZZ and then migrated to StudHi – which stuck.
Now Stud is about as de classe as poker gets. What the knock? Old mans game; grinders; unimaginative. It a lot less true today but it had even greater variance than Hold'em but a bit less than RAZZ. The problem was I was getting paid to attract eyeballs. Nobody said anything but I was aware of it.
Then, Tiffany Michell hit and UB got axed (temporarily it ended up) by TonyG. Nothing about the corruption; this was about sponsorship. Where was I playing? Yup! So now I've got another strike. Rather than choke up on the bat I mixed metaphors and fold my tents.
Now tent folding was something I had become good at. I'd tried it twice over my years at Pokerworks. I'd 'quit' and then relent. So, this time I quit at the last minute making it a fait accompli. It was two weeks notice at the end of a month. I'd started on the 10th at the beginning so I gave them two weeks without pay to give full value.
In retrospect, I might have done it better but I didn't know of a better that would work. I'd already made an ass of myself – twice. I needed a new approach and that brought the appearance of being a self-serving twit. What happened was I'd run out of things to say and really wanted to leave before being asked or being the charity case.
I'm happy with how it worked out but miss the old gang. But, blogging is again fun. I've always run my mouth at the ragged edge of intellect. I can do that here without the pressure of purpose that paid blogging engenders. Would have been nice to leave under better circumstances but sometimes you do what has to be done and hurt people you shouldn't. I guess I'm even better at that than I should be.
ADDENDUM:
Linda has said to me that she has a ton of content she could create from her dealing days. She doesn't. My guess is that it is a part of life she enjoys being in the past. We get hints of what's not said. The other day she played with a friend and had one of her old cheating types at the table. Name or not, that'd be an interesting story. Hopefully, she'll get off her duff; bite the sour fruit; gives us a bit bit of the good ol' days that weren't all that good at times.
Poker rooms are an interesting microcosm that we often enjoy. Part of that enjoyment stems from being able to stand up when we want. If you are stuck for a paycheck in such an environment, I can see why you might not want to recall it. But, they were such damn fine stories.
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