old biographical article

Here I sit hungover as fuck bored a few days after thanksgiving in my room at the Bellagio after a long night of playing poker then going out with a bunch of friends and then a little bit of drunken poker where I ended up losing like 18,000$ in a 20/40 NL game. I was sitting here mentally beating myself up a little bit about it saying "God damnit Dan why the hell did you go and play drunk again..LOL," but then I realized I am far too fortunate and have too many things to be thankful for to ever be negative or depressed about anything ever. I am 23 years old and I have the ability to wake up hung over as hell at 4 PM after a long night of partying, blowing money on strippers, and gambling like an idiot without feeling a single negative consequence in my life...well, except for a killer hangover.

When I was in highschool I always knew the answers but I never raised my hand. The teachers knew I was one of the smartest kids in the classes due to my test results but I always made sure not to make eye contact with the teachers when they asked questions to avoid being targetted for an answer out of shyness or fear of being wrong. The nicer less douche baggy 'popular' guys and girls always tried to befriend me but I basically shut them out for retarded reasons mostly being I really did feel inferior. I was lucky that I was one of the taller nerds in my school and bullies were not as inclined to pick on me as they were to other of the tiny geeks, though I did get my fair share of being punked around by a certain guys. I never bothered telling anyone that could do anything about it because I feared the harm that would come from further provoking them far outweighed any possible salvation. There was a girl I liked a lot but I never had the balls to ask her out (she would have rejected me for sure though LOL). I had tons of interests but I never bothered joining any groups or activities because I wasn't friends with anyone in the groups and I feared being ostrasized and rejected. During senior year our class played a few months long partners' 40$ entry game called 'Liquidation' that involved acquiring a new team as your target each week and basically during that week you had to get them wet with water (cup of water, water baloon, squirt gun, silly covert operations) but the only catch was you couldn't get them while they were at work or school or church or whatever but you could when they were leaving. Sounds easy? Well everyone was really into that game so while you were going after your targets you had to becareful of the team that was targetting you. For a team to be eliminated both partners on the team had to get 'Liquidated' during the course of the week. There were a lot of other rules like you had to have witnesses and stuff but long story short my friend and I ended up winning because A. we had nothing better to do than stalk people and get them liquidated and B. I never left my fucking house cause I was a nerd playing computer games all day so no one could ever eliminate us. But at the end the remaining team that we were against lied to the people running it with a lying witness and acted like they got us out. I was really heated about it but once again the judges wouldn't budge so I just let it go because I was too much of a pussy and let those two guys, popular football players, split half of the final 800$ prize with us The judges deemed it a stalemate and split the $ prize because of our conflicting stories. I should have gone to a teacher that would have helped, I should have put up more of a fight, I should have atleast tried to bring justice to the situation. But I didn't because I was a poor little powerless nerd. I contemplated getting some sort of revenge like slashing their tires or something but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk.

So there I sat at high school graduation watching as everyone before me got called up to recieve their diplomas. On the big screen they had a powerpoint slide for each individual listing all their achievements, clubs, and activities. I watched as those two fuckers who screwed me over in the Liquidation game high fived all their friends and kissed or hugged hot girls as they walked up on stage and recieved their diploma from a principle who had a big smile that just beamed "Congrats guys, you guys are awesome." I sat there quiet and angry not only at that but knowing that my powerpoint slide was going to have no accomplishments and that I would walk up on stage with no hot girls hugging me or clapping or smiling, with no principle shaking my hand like we are true friends, no cool kids high fiving me. I walked up there as fast as I could and got it over with. The only cheers I got were from my family which did bring atleast some light to the situation at hand, but surely did not quell my frustration. What is normally a very happy day for a young man entering adulthood felt like a fucking trip to the dentist...it had to be done and I just wanted to get it over with. Afterwards there was a semi-party for all the graduates and their families in the parking lot outside of the convention center it was hosted in and everyone was laughing joking with their friends and families. I just stood around quiet and angry asking my parents if we could go home already cause all I cared about was getting out of that hell and back into my computer room playing Starcraft.

The reason why I was never a depressed little emo nerd during high school despite all those short comings was StarCraft. Playing Starcraft online was my little escape into my own fantasy e-world. A place where I could freely speak my mind and trash talk people without reprecussions. A place where I could foster the respect of others based on my ability to play a silly computer game well. A place where I could befriend tons of people from all countries of the world regardless of looks, race, religion, etc. A place where I could actually use my abilities to out-perform and defeat people and feel a sense of accomplishment. A shy angry nerd without any brass in real life and a pompous intellectual cyber athelete on the internet. It was all I had. It was all I looked forward to during classes. It was what kept me sane as I sat there in study-hall bored with nothing to do because I always completed my math homework incredibly fast. I would think about strategies, I would think about all the different players that I played with the previous day and the strategies they used and how I could adapt that into my own game or use it against theirs.

I was actually one of the biggest Ego-heads in the online Starcraft community. I always had to be right about everything and I always did my best to trash talk people that I felt were inferior for whatever reason. I was lashing out and venting because my real life sucked, though I wasn't really aware of that fact, I just believed that I was the coolest on the internet though I guess deep down I knew the truth. Online some of the people that hated me often told me, "You act like such a badass online but you're probably a faggot pussy in real life." Even though I denied it at the time and mentally blocked out the truth of the situation; they were right. Everyone has their defense mechanisms to forget about or displace their own short-comings and the online StarCraft world certainly was mine.

I was accepted into the University of Cincinnati with a small scholarship due to my good test scores and after graduating during that summer I got a job at a Honda factory in a repackaging plant. We took parts anything from tiny screws to entire engines straight from the manufacturer then unpacked them and packed them into the packaging that they were to be sold in. As I put parts into boxes and mundanely pumped them into the automatic taping machine over and over my mind lulled as half of it was thinking about going home and playing StarCraft and trying to get higher on the ranking system while the other half of my mind acknoweldged the reality of the situation: I was about to have to get a life and escaping into my little e-reality world was not going to be an option anymore very soon. I did my best to shut it out of my mind though and continued packing them auto parts into boxes and strategizing how I'm going to counter some korean guy's mutalisk rush.

Though all that strategizing was not in vein because I won the USA championships for Starcraft at the World Cyber Games in LA (won the plane ticket and invitation at a preliminary event in Ohio.) Winning the USA championship meant I got an invitation and plane ticket to the world finals in Korea. The trip was during the beginning of my first year of college at UC and that bothered my parents but they let me go to Korea anyways. I loved it in Korea so much. I met everyone in real life that I had known online, specifically ElkY and Giyom who were already professional Starcraft players in Korea. It was my 1 week in paradise and the most fun I ever had in my life even though I got owned by the other top international players. I thought maybe if I won I would get invited by a pro-team to stay in Korea. I was a little bummed out when I lost and realized nothing could amount from Starcraft after all those hours playing in my dark computer room. I didn't care though because it was the best experience I ever had in my life. But as I sat on the plane taking off back to USA the reality of what I was going back to depressed me, as the buildings got smaller and smaller so did my hopes.

The next few months at University of Cincinnati were good and bad. I didn't make many friends because I was a shy and unmotivated person. I didn't go to all my classes and always rationalized excuses in my mind for why it's okay for me to skip classes. I started drinking some but not too often and when I did I was still very anti-social at parties. During my first few months I still managed to procrastinate and put my life on hold and just kept playing StarCraft. My grades went downhill but hey! My ladder ranking was going up! I was shortly after re-introduced to a form of poker called Texas Hold'em from an online Starcraft friend named Dudey. He originaly had shown some of me and my other Starcraft friends (who are now some of my best friends) poker while I was in highschool but I had no money to play with really and didn't think much of it. He showed me that I could make decent cash playing tables online where you buy in for 10$ and play extremely safe and profit off of people who are just splashing around money like idiots with no sense of how to play the game. The fact that I could be making money clicking my mouse instead of just making nerds from other countries angry by beating them in a computer game intrigued me. The fact that skill could be incorporated into a game of chance intrigued me. A possible chance of escape intrigued me.

Poker began to consume me more so than StarCraft ever did. I became extremely anti-social and played literally 12 hours a day, sometimes more. I stopped going to classes completely except for exams so that I wouldn't totally flunk because my dormatory was a safe haven from my parents and what they might have done if they found out what I was up to. My sleeping and eating schedule became so completely fucked up that I ate an average of 1.5 meals a day. I started taking adderall aquired from one of my friends who had ADD to stay up long time and play forever and ever...once even 52 hours straight. I was not playing good and was doing a lot of stupid stuff like risking too much of my online bankroll and going broke all the time thus hampering my ability to improve as a player. I was a mess and I was emaciated and I didn't care. Over the course of my second semester I managed to make around 3,000$ from all that poker playing, and 2,000$ of it was from a lucky tournament 3rd place finish in a live event at a charity casino. I played an average of 12 hours a day for like 5 months straight. Thats 1800 hours. 3,000$ in 1800 hours of work. Thats a staggering 1 dollar and 67 cents an hour wage. Nice I was throwing my college education, my parents money, my health, and my future away for a job that paid me one third of minimum wage (though the job did have its perks! I could work whenever I want and I could work at home in my underwear!). To the few people I even talked to I was even pathetic enough to brag about how I've made thousands off online poker in a desperate attempt to gain some superficial respect from 'cool kids.' Though their responses were merely "HEY IF I GIVE YOU 500 DOLLARS CAN YOU TURN IT INTO 2000 FOR ME PLEASE?" then when I responded, "lol no" they instantly stopped talking to me. Way to go Dan ur the man now.

I was home during some break for school, I forget when but my parents saw one of my report cards that reflected how poorly I was doing. My father did what any good father would do, he threatened to take me out of school and make me get a job in the factory again if I didn't get my act together. I sat there on the couch next to him looking straight into his eyes promising him that I'll get myself together and start trying hard in school and bring my grades up. But it was all bullshit which I am sorry for...I was merely like a meth head doing whatever he could for another dose. The thought of not being free from my parents supervision and a real life in my little dormatory safe haven scared the hell out of me and I begged and pleaded until he agreed to give me another shot.

I got back to school and commenced my poker grind and addiction. I was learning but not very fast and the ups and downs from poker got to me and sometimes I would get frustrated and just do stupid stuff...so even though I was improving as a player I was not making much money at all. I did start going to classes a little bit more but then one day my books got stolen by one of my shady roommate's shady friends. I filed a police report but my roommate denied any involvement obviously and there was no proof so nothing happened. I spent 500$ buying my new books angrily but whatever...my fathers threats scared me too much to atleast not try somewhat. I also was on a 4,000$ upswing in a couple weeks from online poker so I was happy and motivated in all things for the first time in a long time. I started calculating how much I could make doing this for a living and my estimations were like 75,000$ a year starting out then as I got better possibly even more. I was feeling great and happy and my grades actually started to upswing a little bit.

A few weeks later my friend ElkY who was in Korea playing Starcraft professionally asked me if I wanted to come to Korea again and join his team. I kinda brushed off the invitation because while it did indeed used to be one of my dreams I was too into poker now. Then in the next few days I ran bad in poker again and lost all of the 4,000$ that I had just earned. I was feeling pretty depressed but not all my hope was lost. Then, I was walking back into my dorm from physics class one day and no one was in the room and I saw my book drawer open and thought to myself "Hmmmph, thats odd I remember closing it." I then walked up and realized it was empty. My books got fucking jacked AGAIN. I slowly moped over to my bunk angry as hell. My face was burning red and to help I accidentally kicked the leg of a desk with my tiny toe as I was walking by it and it really fucking hurt and compounded my anger. I sat down on my bunk kept saying "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK." As the pain subsided I remembered that my books had just gotten stolen and I sat there motionless on my bed staring at the floor for a minute or two. Then I snapped.

"What the fuck is going on this is ridiculous...

I don't want to be a fucking computer engineer, or a fucking psychologist, or a fucking cop...

I don't want to have to live with some mother fucking gangsta who lets his friends repeatedly steal my books...

Not to mention that mother fucker always eats my fucking left over pizza without asking...

I hate all these cocky frat kids who strut around acting like they are cool...

I don't want to lie to my parents...

I don't want to look at Fucking fat sorority bitches strutting around everywhere in skimpy outfits trying to be something they aren't...

Fuck this FUCKING city. FUCK Cincinnati. FUCK OHIO. FUCK EVERYONE...FUCK"

I then sighed and sat there silently and remembered the offer ElkY had put on the table for me. My anger dissapated and I felt an amazing sense of hope when I had the ephiphany that I could just escape all of this and live out the dream I had in highschool...going to Korea once again for good and playing Starcraft professionally. Why the hell not!? I logged on MSN instantly and to my relief ElkY was online and I immediately started talking to him and figuring out just what I'd have to do to to make this happen. Dropping out of school and getting my body into a foreign country permanently was no simple task for me considering I had trouble mustering up the courage to simply raise my hand and answer questions in high school. But I had never felt so motivated in my entire life. I felt purpose and direction. I envisioned new adventures, new experiences, new friends. I was going to make this happen at all costs and luckily my dollar and sixty seven cent an hour job had earned me like 3,000$ which would be enough to buy a plane ticket and scrape by in Korea with the support of Elky's team.

I was the happiest I had ever been in my life. I totally stopped going to all my last classes and whizzed through all my exams failing all of them. All I did was practice Starcraft and I tried my hardest to improve. I knew my GPA was going to be like a 2.2 which meant I lost my scholarship and my parents would have to pay more so once my first year of college finished and I went back home I didn't tell my parents the truth when they asked how I thought my grades would be. I started planning everything out secretly with the help of ElkY, his manager SuperDaniel in Korea, and my brother who I trusted with my secret. Within two weeks my report card arrived while I was playing Starcraft on a Saturday. My parents walked into my computer room and flipped the switch on the computer turning it off.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING I WAS IN A GAME!!!!!"

"Come out to the living room Daniel, we need to have a talk."

"oh ok" I knew what was coming...

"Look at your grades, this is pathetic, we gave you a second chance. There is no way you're going back to school next year you have to get a job starting RIGHT NOW!"

I sat there with a smug look on my face, "Oh don't worry about that I already got a great job lined up actually."

"Oh really?!? Where?"

"Hexatron."

"Whats that? Another japanese factory? Is it close to here?"

"HAHA no it's pretty far away actually."

"Oh like in Piqua or Dayton?"

"Nah, Seoul."

"What where???"

"South Korea."

"WHAT?"

"South Korea. You remember...I went there for the World cyber Games..."

"............."

I then came clean and explained to them everything. The only thing I was untruthful about was the length of time I was going to stay there. They actually did want me to try school again because they are very supportive parents and weren't about to give up on me so I told them I only intended to stay throughout the summer to give it a shot and if I do well then maybe I'll take off a year in school to pursue it further and if not I just go back to school. That wasn't my plan at all though. I had no intentions of ever returning to college no matter what the risk or cost was. My parents agreed and helped me get my visa ready and helped with flight arrangements. The little money I had earned was enough to get me going. As I was leaving my dad looked at me with an eerie all knowing smile and said "You're not coming back are you," I was thinking "Damn how does he know I'm never going to live in Ohio again or go to college again LOL," but I was just like "nahhh its only for the summer." My mother had a tear as she dropped me off and hugged me goodbye at the airport. I love my parents and was sad to be leaving them but the feeling of being free and on my own making my own destiny empowered me.

My starcraft life living in the apartment building with my pro team Hexatron in Seoul was another great experience. I made tons of friends had a lot of fun and improved at starcraft by leaps and bounds. But as time wore on I didn't have any success. I tried my best but the Koreans were just too damn good. They practiced harder, had better hand eye coordination, and had much more cunning play styles. I couldn't compete no matter how hard I tried. I continued trying even though after 4 months I realized I was screwed again. I kept thinking about life in high school and life and college and it scared and motivated me to try even though I knew deep down being a professional starcraft player in that day and age was just too far of a stretch unless someone has uncanny talent at all aspects of the game, and while I was very good and good enough to win the USA championship I didn't hold a dime to the koreans' skills and work ethic.

ElkY and Giyom were part of the team but they didn't live with us at the team apartment, they had their own apartment that was nice and they paid for because they were very successful Starcraft players and were paid salaries in excess of 100,000$ a year and could afford it. Though they were my friends I idolized them. ElkY came over to the practice apartment one day though to practice strategies for an upcoming TV game he was going to have but once the manager left he loaded up PokerStars and started playing the 5/10 blinds 1000$ buyin tables. He was winning and losing pots up to 3,000$ in size left and right. I knew he kinda kept up with poker but I had no idea he had make it to this level. I was watching this guy win and lose amounts greater than my net worth with a few clicks here and there. One hand there was 1250$ in the pot and ElkY had queen-high on an ace high board which means he had jack shit. He had 800$ left and he bet it all. I was thinking "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GUY CRAZY HE'S FUCKING DUMB." But I respected him too much to open my mouth and voice my worthless opinion. After ElkY bet all-in the guy folded and ElkY won the 1250$ in the middle profiting 625$ just by having the balls to run a big bluff. I was like "Holy shit nice man when did you get so good?" He replied "haha poker is all I have been doing, fuck Starcraft haha."

My head fricken exploded. This guy had already accomplished my high-school nerd dream. He was a superstar playing a video game in Korea on TV earning over 100,000$ a year having thousands of adoring fans, getting asked for autographs all the time in the street, always surrounded by beautiful Korean girls wanting dates with him. Starcraft isn't like riding a bike, you need to constantly practice to maintain a high level of skill and ElkY was just basically throwing away his Starcraft career, one that I would have given anything to have, for the game that fucked up my life in college. If a man of such talent and intelligence is moving to poker than I certainly should too.

I doubled my efforts in learning the game of poker along with the help of ElkY, Giyom, and other various online starcraft friends that had gone the way of poker. I played secretly behind my managers back and I got really good really fast. In college I thought I was the best and smartest and never took anyones poker advice. But this time around I threw the ego away. I realized that humility is not only a happier way to live life but the key factor in succeeding at life. I earned enough money in a few months time to be able to afford to move out and get my own apartment in Korea and continue living there with my friends and improve together at this game that allows us to grow money on trees for real. Over the next two years we were all making hundreds of thousands per year and living large.

Poker is a game of skill. There are atleast 3 losing players for every winning player. Poker is a dangerous game. The house always has an edge in any game it spreads and the casino or online poker room is always raking a small % of every pot so you need to be much better than your opponents to profit in the long run. Thats why its possible to safely and consistently make money in a game that involves gambling, as much sense that doesn't make. You are competing against real people in a game of skill taking their money rather than playing a game like blackjack where you're playing against the house and the house has a 2% edge on you even if you are playing perfectly. You cannot win gambling at any game in the long run except playing poker against real people. Slight differences in skill can make the difference in earning 5 figures a year or 7 figures a year. There are plenty of people that think about the game just like me and understand everything but just don't have it in their personality to summon the balls to run a huge bluff, or don't have the ability to precisely psychoanalyze their opponents thought process, or cannot look someone directly in the eye and know if he's got the goods or not. Those differences are why they have to try really hard to make only 10,000$ a year, and why I have a WSOP bracelet. And thats just one tournament...I'm mainly a cash game player. I'm not trying to brag or anything but if an unmotivated anti-social nerd like me could accomplish all this through pure luck then why can't someone like you accomplish it now seeing how much material there is out there that can meld you into a winning player. It's never too late to start something and for every good poker player out there there are many many more retards who have too much money for their own good spewing off thousands of dollars in poker games. If you are reading this you are probably a gamer. If you played Starcraft you are probably very intelligent, if you preferred other games you still have some intelligence (unless you played counterstrike LOL!). If you are intelligent you can make money grow on trees through poker. And remember. I did it the hard way. Its very easy to do nowadays.

Poker is like fire. It will bring you warmth and cook your food and keep you alive and well. But the moment you take it for granted or don't respect it you will get burnt. Every time you get angry due to short-term variance and do something stupid you will be losing more money. To play poker you must accept that you will lose from time to time because of the luck factor and you must realize that poker is merely a long run game. If you already have a career and a life and are happy I implore you to not ruin it to become a poker player. If you want to give it a try merely follow strict rules for play and bankroll management and treat it like a hobby until you are sure if you have what it takes or not. And even if you know you have potential realize this before hand: Poker is just money. It is not a fullfilling lifestyle. Winning lots of money from poker does not make you cool. I am still a huge nerd and I realize this. I do not feel above anyone because of how much money I can make from poker. What poker is is freedom. Sitting in your house all day playing World of Warcraft on your computer isn't a way to live your life. Creeping a bunch of goblins in Warcraft3 isn't a way to live your life. And while Starcraft is an amazing game one should not let it consume their lives. There are countless gamers out there with infinite potential who just don't utlize it because they are unmotivated just like I was in highschool and college.

Poker is money and money is freedom. I've heard some people say some bullshit like "Uhh I don't want to live my life making money just by taking it from people in a card game." Thats the wrong way to think about it. The rich bad players will always be there, ALWAYS. If you don't take it someone else will, fuck, I WILL LOL. You can pretend like you're not superficial but all humans are. We need money to survive and improve the quality of our lives whether we realize it or not. Of course it's not everything; family, friends, and health are much more important but a little green never hurts. Once you make easy money from poker you are free to do whatever you want in your life. Why work 9-5 every day working your way up the rungs when if you start now you can probably be able to afford that yacht you always dreamed of within 2 or three years max.

"Hey baby you want a dance?" said a blonde bombshell last night as she walked up to my booth at the strip club that I went to with a bunch of friends. Unfortunately for her my mind was already wandering as I sat there looking around at everyone in club and my friends as I sipped on my vodka redbull and remenisced about the past 5 years of my life.

"No thanks, BABY." As she gave me the condescending "PSSSH" then walked away I smiled and my mind shot around. It all started online thanks to ElkY. He got me to Korea and he got me good at poker and I'm always challenged to be as good as him even up to this day...the fucker is always getting better. He is now my best friend and I am thoroughly convinced he's the best poker player in the world and will prove that as time goes on. He already won over 4,000,000$ this year in tournaments alone with two heroic first place scores. And thats not even counting how much he's up in cash games too. The fearless frenchman.

I took a couple more shots and remembered the first couple years in Korea after quitting Starcraft I was braving the underground poker scene every night. The lone white guy brave enough to go in there every night and gamble face to face with gangsters. I put up fake facade of pure confidence every night in those shady poker rooms to try ensure no one would ever fuck with me. But that didn't always work. Gangsters have stomped around and left without paying what they lost to me or my friends. I've had a knife pulled on me as I was told to leave without my money after I won a few thousand, though luckily I had a badass friend that stood up for me and saved me. Long nights playing mono a mono with some huge brute who starts acting crazy in my face only to stay cool and realize he's actually a nice guy and was just trying to hustle me (can't blame him for trying!). Making cute dealer girls giggle as I make bets and talk funny shit to guys with scars on their faces. Puffing multiple cigarettes at once sitting at the same table with a Korean mafia boss who is telling his dog underlings to shut the fuck up when they bark at me. I finally stoppped going because the police were raiding places too much and there were too many gangsters taking over...but I did make an appearance randomly at a underground room a few months ago that this girl I know deals at. I got in the game and there were a shitload of people there. This guy next to me kept raising me trying to bluff me but it wasn't working. He lost all his money then was like "yeah I should just leave I heard you were here so I came to play with you." A legend in my own regard. Finally the silly lil' pathetic nerd has proved himself a little bit. I won a lot that night and there was a huge buzz throughout the underground poker world in korea. "The monster played last night at N bar!!!!" It made me chuckle when random degenerates that I knew from years past were calling me the next day after they caught wind of it.

I watched some guy try to a grab a strippers ass when he shouldn't and get slapped as my mind kept wandering. One year after I started poker even though as a kid I always told myself I would never care about money or buy flashy shit. Well I sold out and bought a flashy expensive watch, because hey...why not? I went home for a vacation from Korea to see the family and ran some errands at the supermarket. To my surprise one of the school bullies that sorta fucked with me was working the cash register. My feelings were mixed. At first I was like "LOL NICE fuck this fucker he gets what he deserves," and made sure my sleeve wasn't covering my watch so that thing could bling in his face. But then I realized hell he was just a dumb kid too at the time so I can't really hold it against him now and I started to feel a little bad. Then my feelings evened out and I smiled at him as he gave me my reciept and started bagging my grocieries. Someone's gotta bag them groceries so it may as well be an asshole like him. Karmas a bitch.

"OH HEY DAN!!!" This korean stripper that I got dances from when I was drunk last year at WSOP, "REMEMBER ME FROM LAST YEAR?!?!?!" "NO, NO NOT YOU AGAIN LOL GO AWAY." I realized just how bad beer goggles are sometimes as she was like "WTF" then walked away. Man strip clubs suck if the best one in America can have girls like that. Oh well my mind continued to wander. Thinking about the Japanese billionnaires Giyom and I met in Korea playing poker randomly at the legal casino during the APPT poker tournament. One moment I'm trying desperately to win 10$ pots in online poker in my dorm room, four years later I find myself invited to Tokyo in an office playing a private high stakes poker game with Japanese billionnaires who are drinking and forcing us to drink with them. I sat there drunk in Tokyo laughing about perverted shit with these crazy Japanese ballers while I'm up 180,000$ in one night. They didn't care at all...they were happy because I was having fun and not giving a shit even when I was losing at first due to a 60,000$ pot I got really unlucky in. Those underground games with gangsters taught me a lot. When you lose you have to show them that you don't give a shit at all and you have to laugh everything off and take nothing serious. The moment the rich fish find out that you are trying really hard to win is a boot out the door and a ban from playing in their private games forever. Getting drunk as fuck and running stupid bluffs sometimes is a great way to make them love you.

As I saw some jokers throwing 1$ bills at strippers I thought about the time this Korean guy had 400,000$ on a random korean poker site and I deposited 20,000$ on there and took his entire bankroll within 48 hours. Turns out he was one of the owners of the site. That site had been taking off but they were investing all their profits and the money he had on there was a lot of their capital. Once I took all that money the site had no money to cash people in and out and the site died and went bankrupt and they only paid me half of what I won. Sucks that I didn't get it all but I can't complain...not too shabby for 48 hours work. From making 1.67 an hour to destroying businesses.

As I finished off my 5th drink and tipped the bouncer and got ready to leave I realized that none of that stuff makes me special. It makes me extremely fortunate. Sure I earned it but if it wasn't for some lucky twists and turns I could very well be working 9-5 behind a desk right now. I'm no different than anyone of you gamers. I am intelligent and realistic and finally became willing to take the steps to better my life. Countless other Starcraft players have been so successful as well. It's no coincindence. Players like ElkY, Giyom, Smuft, Hevad Khan, Slayer, (orky)Soul who just got 2nd in the WSOP main event for a few million, Pooruser, Myth, Ryan Daut, Tillerman, Pillars, Dudey, Froz, etc etc those are just a few names off the top of my head...there are literally hundreds of ex-gamers crushing the poker world of today. There are plenty of guys who weren't even that good or successful starcraft players that are doing well in poker. Poker is easy if you follow the rules. If you played starcraft and sucked you can still succeed at poker, the very fact that you were interested in starcraft means you will be interested in poker. If you're interested and apply yourself to something you can do anything you want, as cliche as that sounds. Do not aspire to be like me, do not aspire to be like ElkY or anyone else. Simply take control of your own life using whatever means you can.

Damn that took a while. Atleast my hangover is gone now.