A nice place to visit

November 17, 2009 | 04:17PM  | maudie dot b - gmail d c | |

Although it seems as though I've thoroughly abandoned this little spot in the interweb, it's not exactly the case. Let's just say this little spot has become the little get away spot we all wish we had more time to escape to. The weekend or vacation cabin, if you will.

It's only been six short and fast-changing years since poker became the new black. Most of us have gone the way of Twitter or abandoned the grand experiment altogether. Or, like me, begun new blogging adventures elsewhere. And, like me, have found even those efforts wanting.

I'm extremely nostalgic for "the good ol' days." Those days that had me giddy over a shout out from Iggy, or in anxious anticipation of the next post from Up For Poker, or playing a Saturday morning MTT with Pauly. And remember those pile-ons at the $25 NL tables on Party Poker?

Deep sigh.

The one constant has been the annual winter gathering. The return to the neon and glittering poker Capistrano of Vegas. I expect the requisite amount of excitement prior to and the inevitable disappoint afterwards that there wasn't more time... It's a cycle that is well established.

No, I'm not dead yet. Actually feeling pretty darn good. Will I be seeing you in a few short weeks? I certainly hope so. I have drinks to be drunk and Pai-Gow to be played with you. Please don't disappoint.

Some day...

May 12, 2009 | 01:29PM  | maudie dot b - gmail d c | |

..soon, I hope, I will be able to play poker again for more than a nickle or a dime. Not that there's anything wrong with micro-stakes kitchen table poker - in fact, I'd forgotten the fun factor involved with just bs-ing around with buds around a table and playing cards, ten bucks being a small price to pay for the priceless time spent with friends.

But... I'm jonesing for some donkey time online, for some casino time a few minutes south of here.

If I lack any other, that's enough motivation to get my butt re-employed as soon as possible. The job search is going, that's about all I can say. Unfortunately, am facing not only massive competition, but a bit of age-ism.

I'm not dead yet. Just thought I'd pop on here to say how much I miss the "community" which seems to have twittered away. Pun intended.

I'll close by throwing out a couple of congrats:

Amy Calistri & Tim Lavalli: Check Raising the Devil - the Mike Matusow bio is out and ready to become part of your poker library. I haven't read it yet - but as I am composing this post from my local B&N, I expect to walk out of here with my copy.

The Otis Family: Baby Dos said hello to the world yesterday evening. Happy, happy day!

And with that, I will crawl back into my self imposed exile.

Ciao!

Poker - she's got wood

November 6, 2008 | 06:38PM  | maudie dot b - gmail d c | |

Five. 5. V. Sixty months. Six-hundred and twenty four weeks. One-thousand six-hundred and twenty five days. And change.

That's the time between the first post of this blog and this post.

Five years ago, I launched this experiment which, for all intent and purposes, was merely a test of some newly acquired web-design skills.

Five years ago, Web Logging (which took less than a nano-second to be truncated to Blogging) was a fairly nascent phenomenon.

Five years ago, the poker boom was rippling around the world following the million dollar triumph of Every Man - Chris Moneymaker at the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Paving the way to that moment, were the revolutionary broadcasts of the World Poker Tour which lifted poker out of the depths of ESPN late night, sporadic World Series summaries into the light of hole-card cams, celebrity and jaw dropping prize pools.

I was one of many who relished the spotlight being focused on the game. Having been a kitchen table poker hobbyist for many a moon, witnessing the game being welcomed to the party was a joy. I couldn't get enough.

My bookshelf soon swelled with purchase after purchase of poker strategy books - Super System leading the way, followed by Sklansky, Miller, Caro, Harrington, Schoonmaker, Hellmuth, Cooke, Carson... and that's only a partial list.

The internet provided a welcome opportunity to apply the skills gleaned from my reading - on the heels of the WPT phenomenon was the online poker rush. One twenty-five dollar deposit on Party Poker and I was hooked.

It seemed the perfect topic for my newly launched blog. Something to write about while I became familiar with the medium and tweaked the design. I'd found a couple of other blogs via a few poker forums I'd visited and so thought, why not, throw it up there and see what happens.

What happened is well documented. What was just a handful of us five years ago has grown into a metropolis of poker bloggers far too numerous to count. We gathered for tournaments in online poker rooms. Then we took it off the page and gathered in the mecca of poker - Las Vegas - where fast friendships were formed and a tradition was established.

A little more than five and a half years ago, my life was pretty routine. I was a confirmed couch spud, content with a solid work week, capped by weekend time with friends, evening time with the TV and my books.

Poker... well, poker knocked me out of that rut. This blog... this blog spun me down an unfamiliar, exciting, twisty and turny road that had me flying solo into a city I once vowed I'd never visit, to meet a group of people known only to me by vague screen-names and blog posts.

Because of this blog, in five years I've been to Vegas six times, to Cincinnati once, Philadelphia/Atlantic City twice, Kansas City, Tunica twice, Greenville-SC, Dallas-TX and Key West. I've formed lasting friendships with people I never would have known otherwise.

After five years, the tide has ebbed. Our blog voices have thinned a bit, and enthusiasm for the game has cooled, the passion tamed. The poker industry is experiencing some growing pains and it may be some time before we see which direction it goes.

I don't play as much as I once did. I no longer rush home to log online or to grab the bankroll and head to the casino. I no longer have the all consuming drive to play I once possessed. I also no longer have the desire to write about it. But, I still love the game. That will never change.

But, oh what has happened in five years time. I was speaking with a dear friend a while ago, a dear friend found by way of this blog, and we remarked how life changing this phenomenon has been. And, oh how glad I am for that.

I'll see you in Vegas in a few short weeks.

Keep those cards in the air!