to "Make it Happen". Years and years ago I had a dream of someday having a shot at making some real money in the poker world. I was able to play in a tournament on television back in 2006 and after failing to win the $500,000 first place I had no choice but to return back to my career in the military (not that I'm complaining about an amazing 12 years in the Marine Corps). I have had small chances here and there to play the game I love but never on poker's grandest stage, the World Series of Poker.
It cracks me up reading back 4-5 years ago on this thing and reliving some crazy trips to Las Vegas to play in cash games and poker tournaments. I have met some amazing people over the years at poker tables from Atlantic City, NJ to Sydney, Australia to Singapore to Las Vegas, NV. I have even had a few offers of sponsorship but have never been able to fully take advantage of them and "take a shot". The time has finally come where I have received yet another offer and I'm at a place in my career where I am able to take a couple weeks off to head out to Las Vegas.
While I will avoid the exact financial arrangements of this poker trip, I will say that I am extremely excited to get this started and finally have a shot at making some life changing money. I am also well aware how difficult it will be to make any meaningful money.
I tried to get this blog going again when I lived in Washington DC back in 2009/2010 and was starting to play a little more online poker but I just never got around to doing it. Now this opportunity has arisen and here I am. Other than some status updates on Facebook I figured this would be the best way to keep people informed of how things are going at the tables.
Like I said above, I lived in DC for a year while I was at Expeditionary Warfare School and never really got the chance to play any live poker. When I was able to, I played some online tournaments here and there on Pokerstars. For those of you who don't know, "Black Friday" occurred last spring and online poker has become a thing of the past for the time being. There wasn't really any poker to write about for the rest of 2010. I also met someone that was competing for a larger and larger portion of my time. About 6 months prior I met an amazingly gorgeous young lady named Jennifer Pitu.
While she still lives in DC and I now live in Texas we are never more than a short 13 hours of plane rides and rental cars apart (sense sarcasm) I am currently an Instructor Pilot at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas with the VT-22 Golden Eagles. We fly the T-45C Goshawk and train the next generation of America's finest Naval Aviators.
I have been stationed here for two years now and with one more year left I have begun to explore options that will get me back to DC next summer (I know Jenn has her fingers crossed)
Other than the flying, I have rediscovered my love for playing poker since arriving here in Texas. I have met scores of people that have local home games and have been lucky enough to have a game I can play in 7 days a week if I desired to. It was after nearly two years that I received a couple phones calls from friends trying to get my email address for a friend of a friend that I played poker with back in the day. I received an email a couple days later with an offer that will finally give me a shot out in Las Vegas. In 5 days, on June 29th, I am flying out to Vegas for 16 days of craziness at the poker tables. I am starting out with some small tournaments between the World Series ($1,000 and $1,500 No Limit Holdem Events) and the Venetian Deepstack Series ($600, $1,100, $1,600, and $2,500 NL Holdem Events) and will fill in the rest of my time with various cash games. My backer has paid for my plane ticket and hotel room for the two weeks but has given me the ability make my own schedule throughout so that I can maximize my playing time, and hopefully, success.
Be sure to check out the blog and on Facebook regularly starting next week for updates.
Last year first place in the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker was $8.7 million dollars!
The 2012 Main Event starts on July 7th and I will be there...
