I've Got A Golden Ticket!

I'd have been happy just to have someplace to play poker, a game I've always loved and for which, until a couple years ago, I had no outlet.

I'd have been happy just to find a single regular tournament with a dozen or so players.

I'd have been happy just to get the rake back for BBT2 same as the first one.

I'd have been happy just for the opportunity to write a story and have people read it.

I'd have been happy for . . . you know what? Let's just say I'm happy. There is so much more here than could have been expected, ever. The state of this hobby of mine is good. It's great. And it's all your fault. All of you, reading this. Yeah, you. Your fault. And yours. And yours.

You all read Al so you already know this. Fuel (congrats, man!) and I opened up our emails today to read:

Congrats, you won 1 of the 2 spots for writers into the Tournament
of Champions. It was really tough to judge the entries, but yours was
a favorite among the judges. Good job.You will be automatically entered
into the TOC this coming Thursday.

So I guess I'm going to be playing some cards this week, which has me feeling pretty fine. It's honestly hard to comprehend the level of velvet-cloaked, bacon-strapped, SoCo-livered awesome that is Al Can't Hang, not to mention the generous bounty of Full Tilt Poker. Al of course was the guy behind the guy, who pulled the lever and then shared his prize, while Full Tilt put up a nearly 20K package for us to chase after. Not bad for a bunch of pushmonkeys and call stations and top pair fonkeys and , and (oh, let's not forget) some fine poker players too.

Oh mama, I get to play for this against a field of less than 30 (all capable of destroying me, but still)? Pinch me. It's like being seven years old and getting a real working lightsaber for Christmas. You don't dare believe it's true. You can barely touch it, for fear it will disappear. It's a reverant, silent moment. Then you fire it up and go cut the bully down the street in half.

See. That's why they didn't let you have a lightsaber back then.


Random Reflections

1) I'm in TOC for writing, not for my play. Obviously. Is it wrong that this doesn't bother me in the slightest? For some, it probably is. Not really the purist way to get into a TOC, eh? But it was a way, and a valid one. Even if you're unlike me and a really good play, you're not guaranteed a win over 27 attempts. Why not shoot an angle? I'm actually surprised less people tried this. I'm also thankful, because there are some pretty swell writers out there who didn't take a poke. Thanks, pretty swell writers out there who didn't take a poke! However, I'm probably one of the few who would be more excited to notch a seat for the pen than for the pooosh.

A little bit about me. Like most of you, I have lots of interests, and poker is not small among them. But for me, the greatest among these is writing fiction, and it isn't even close. It's basically like Waffles and WoW. To be honored for my crazy syllables feels like winning the Super Bowl, if the Super Bowl were watched not by a million people on TV, but by hundreds on a website. And if it were also a writing contest instead of a football game.

Know what? I'm going to leave this metaphor dead in the ditch and just walk away. Nothing to see, nothing to see . . .

2) It would not have bothered me if I hadn't won. Honestly and truly, I consider having written something I like and with which I am happy to be the real prize. Winning the seat? That's gravy. I've been away from any real attempt at writing fiction for a long time. For one thing, it's a lot harder to roll up my sleeves, turn on Miles Davis, really dig in and focus on writing well, than it is to just fire up an SNG, so I do that instead. But this challenge motivated me, and not just because I figured it was my only real hope to land a seat. I'm glad it did.

I sat down one night and just let it rip, and everything just kind of floated away, just me and the page, and the next word, and the next word, and the next. I'd forgotten that feeling, and I wanted it again. There's a reason my next two posts were short stories, and there's more coming. I think this little nubbin on the Interweb world tree is going in that direction. Let's face it, I don't have much new and meaningful to say about poker, other than the odd little table profile or limerick. I'll leave that to my strategic betters. I think I'll set my spaceship on a different trajectory, all the while keeping it a poker blog. How? Um, I'll get back to you on that.

3) I'm outclassed in the TOC. I'll be honest with myself. There will be no easy starting table this time, and my play's been pretty bad through the BBT2. I final tabled the first Big Game, but after that I don't think it was anything less than embarrassing. Last night I called an all-in vs. KOD with AK when he could have only had Aces or Kings. It would have been a tough laydown with TPTK, but I knew it was correct and I called anyway. Blech. So, I have to consider myself fairly dead money in a field with such luminaries as KOD, Iggy, (s)l(y)ucko and the Family Stone, Astin, Maloney, Alan, Jeciimd, JJOK, and, well, I'm doing this by memory on purpose so that I don't have to list everybody and I won't leave anybody hanging. The rest of you, too. You're better than me, I think, at least better than I've been in this round. The point is this: Free chips! Come get 'em!

4) I'm freerolling. As a result of number 3) there, I'm feeling no pressure. It's certainly not mine to lose, so I assume it is mine to win? I'm playing to win, too, baby. If I lucksack into the winner's circle, I promise thorough and detailed posting from Australia throughout, and I even promise that some of it won't be totally made up. But most of it, my friends, will be.

5) Thank you. All of you. Not for this TOC seat. Like I said, that's gravy. Thank you just for being a part of this and letting me play your little reindeer games. This is just a hobby for most of us, but so what? It's real. I've always wanted a regular poker game. Online play was all right, but I was getting sick of just grinding with no real sense of community when I first started banging out random blah blah blah I hate bad beats, blah blah blah, the players are amazingly bad, blah blah blah nearly a year ago. To my surprise, some of you noticed. Then more. You began to comment on what I'd written, and encouraged me to do more like it. You linked to my stuff, bringing more sets of eyes, more perspectives. I become a regular to you, and you to me. Now there is a virtual place to go and sit down, where I know I'll recognize most of the 'faces.' This is why we blog instead of just play. It's why (I think) KOD can't thankfully stop coming back for more abuse no matter how many times he burns his space to the ground and salts the earth. It's what poker online needs if it's to be meaningful. Kudos to Full Tilt for recognizing it.

If all of this hadn't happened for me, I certainly wouldn't still be around with a chance to bust out in the first level of this thing.

Thanks to Full Tilt, thanks to Al and Hoy and Don and Mook. Most of all, thanks to everybody who reads this.

I'm happy just to play. Now it's time to fire up my lightsaber and cut you all in half.

See you Thursday.