Thanks mate, and as a token of my appreciation....

Chapter Eight

A new beginning

Once I got back home, I started to reflect long and hard about my life and it was clear certain things needed to change. Since I was broke and without a job, I needed to make some money to sustain myself so once again, my car had to make way and sold it to a team who competed in hill climb racing. On a quiet Sunday afternoon, I was reading the Sunday paper and noticed a Games Customer Service Agent vacancy for a big I-Gaming company that was moving to Malta. Without hesitation, I printed a CV, wrote an application letter and sent it via post.

Two weeks later I get a call from the HR Department, letting me know that I was scheduled for an interview in a few days time. This made me quite excited and since I had been off drugs for about 3 weeks, I had a clear enough head to plan my interview strategy. When the day finally arrived, I put on a suit and headed towards their offices, confident that my personality and knowledge of poker would land me the job. When I got there however, I was soon pushed off my mountain as literally 50 people stood in line before me. Everyone looked like they had just graduated college in business studies or something, whilst I was just coming out of Degen School...

About an hour passed and there were still about 20 people in front of me so I decided to cross the street, head into a bar and get myself a beer, or 2 or 3 before it was my turn to go in. Obviously no longer stressed about my competition, I met up with * Joe and * Jack, who were the Heads of the Customer Services Department. As they walked me over to a small interview office, a strange smell of poo started to be inhaled and when the interview room door was opened, all 3 of us felt like we had just been slapped in the face with a giant douche! After quickly skimming through CCTV footage, it appeared that the guy before me got nervous, broke down crying and **** himself :-)

One and a half cans of Febreeze later, I was let into the room and was told to take an exam to gauge my knowledge in sport and poker and that I had 30 minutes to finish it. Sports and poker?! Easy! I actually called them over after just 10 minutes and I got 29/ 30 correct, with the only mistake being a cricket question but that sport is for queers anyways. We then started to talk about my experience in playing poker as well as my passion for football and cars, something which both Joe and Jack loved as well. The interview lasted just over an hour, with half dedicated to the actual job requirements and the rest about sports and poker. Before I left, Jack told me that although I should not count my chickens, I was a very strong candidate for the role as I had the best poker knowledge from all the rest and also seemed the most confident without being cocky. I went home and celebrated by not taking drugs or alcohol, but by picking up a football for the first time in almost a year and having a kick around with some neighbor's kids.

I spent the next week getting myself back in shape as playing football reminded me how much I had missed it. I returned to the sandy beaches and started jogging with weights again, slowly building back my stamina. All the abuse my body took over the past 2 years were quite evident but after putting in the hours, I started feeling good again. Although I had no friends, money or car, I always was a person who could entertain himself (and no, I am not talking about fapping to the computer) so I never really felt lonely. What I did feel though, was a complete sense of being out of touch with my senses, especially emotion and by time, instead of trying to fix it, I just learned to live with it.

2 weeks had gone by since my interview and I still hadn't heard back from Joe or Jack so I was starting to feel down that I missed my shot at finding a decent job. As is normal with any man, I was going through my morning ritual of waking up, scratching my balls and sit on the toilet. As soon as I gave my first push, the phone rang and it was Jack! The company had been trying to reach me all week but had misplaced my number - I had been given the job and was to report to the office the following Monday at 9am sharp! Happy days :-)

The first month was quite interesting, I was starting to learn how online poker works as a business and although I was placed in the Customer Services department, I was soon assigned as a Poker Specialist and was dealing solely with poker related issues that the customers had. When I got my first paycheck I was thrilled as it was more than double what I had ever made in a normal job and as soon as I got home, I fired up the pc, logged into my poker account and deposited $500. I was as focused as ever and started playing $1/ $2 on two different table. As it was a Friday, I didn't worry about having to get up early the next morning for work so I kept on playing all night. At 6am I heard my mum make tea and so I decided to finally go to bed and sleep but not before checking my bankroll, which was up to $1,200 - not bad for a night's work.

After 6 months of working as a Poker Specialist, the Head of Poker (at the time) approached me and asked if I was interested in becoming the Assistant Poker Room Manager. My exact reply was "Does a bear **** in the woods?" He told me that the professionalism I had shown when dealing with all sorts of issues, the extensive research and documentation of the poker tools I had done and most of all, my work ethic put me on a level nobody else was so that was a huge confidence boost for me. Of course, the task at hand became clear when I actually started working behind the scenes of running a poker room, creating tournament schedules, monitoring liquidity and overlays, compiling reports and a lot more proved a challenge but I loved it. Not only that, but my salary was bumped up by 35% and because I had been responsible (not burning money on drugs or alcohol) for the last 6 months, I actually had saved up over $8,000 and also had close to $7,000 in my poker account. Time for a reward... enter Project Celica!

Good stories! Makes me glad to be me!
Just Read Chapter 8, Very intresting read.

Am working on the next bit so that should be up at some point today

STFU!!

Good read so far, keep them coming!!

Also, take your time... fill in with the details. Seems like stories lose in quality as you tend to rush up with the story telling.

Chapter Nine

Ambition pays off; stupidity takes it all away

After contacting a friend of mine who lives in Japan and works for a car tuning company, I finally found the car that I always wanted, a 1999 Toyota Celica with a VVTL-i engine churning out a healthy 198bhp. Aside from its looks, I had actually done some research and found that the 1.8ltr engine is actually one of the best out there (also found on a Lotus Elise) and having a head developed by Yamaha meant that it could rev past 8,000 and really push it to the limit. Combined with a 6-speed gearbox and a bunch of extras, this car was the one for me but it wasn't enough, so I asked my friend to having it dressed in a nice body kit and also throw in some light weight alloy rims to seal the deal. Once it was complete, the car took the 6 week journey by boat, left Japan and headed towards Malta.

During those 6 weeks, our company was in the process of migrating from a network to becoming independent so it was a very busy time for me and I barely had time to play poker after work. One of the very rare times that I played proved to be enough though, as I entered a $100 MTT and took it down, cashing in a cool $3k. When the car finally arrived, which happened to coincide with the launch of our new poker software, I was both happy and proud as my 2 biggest projects had successfully been delivered. After weeks of long hours and stress, I took 2 weeks off and decided to head back into my garage, a place where I hadn't been since the death of my friends.

Before the car had arrived, I got in touch with an American company which provided after market parts for my car and I had spent about $5k on my selection. The shipment arrived just in time and within a few days, most of my car was in bits as I fiddled with the engine, transmission and a bunch of other things. For those who are interested, I had actually wrote a detailed blog about this project and if you want to have a read and look at the pictures, the link is here:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/315685...-toyota-celica

Those who just want to see the finished project, well here it is:









As it so happened, the company I worked for also put up some WSOPE Main Event packages for grabs and once the Event started in September, I formed part of the Team which was taking care of the players. As this was only the second time I ever went to a big live event as well as my first time in London, I was truly amazed about how much effort is needed to organize such a thing. I was only there for 5 days as other priorities in the poker room itself didn't allow me to stay any longer but getting to see some of the world's most famous Pros right in front of me was a great treat and I also got to play some poker at the Empire, which turned out to be quite boring but I took it in my stride and had fun anyways.

I did manage to watch the first Event take place, witness a moment in poker history, the first ever WSOP bracelet awarded outside of Las Vegas and the atmosphere was quite special. After the award was handed out, we all went out for a celebratory drink but at the end of the night, I was the only sober person left and it was funny to watch my bosses barely able to walk. On my last day, I decided to play the tourist and take a bus tour of London and I honestly was surprised by just how much the city had to offer. I went back to the Empire casino to say goodbye to some of my colleagues around 6pm and after picking up my luggage from the hotel, took the underground and headed to Gatwick.

Once back in Malta, I got to work on reducing some big overlays and with a bit of effort and concentration, the manager and I actually exceeded our targets and that earned us a nice Christmas bonus a few months later. I was starting to get used to this kind of life, earning a decent living and staying away from trouble. I had even started playing with my old football club again and after some hard work, got back into the team. On my second game, I scored what would be the winning goal in a local derby and I was instantly a hit with the team and fans.

The coach treated us to a nice dinner but afterwards, instead of going home, some of us ended up in a club and got wasted. As stupid as it may sound, I just got caught in the moment and I would pay for it! Some players from the other team also happened to be at the same club and the alcohol got the better of us, so of course, stools and ash trays started flying in the dance floor! The bouncers quickly intervened and proceeded to kick the living **** out of anyone they got their hands on. Thankfully, some of them recognized me from my own time in the clubbing scene and just asked me to leave without making a fuss, which I did.

On my way out, one of the players who we fought against pushed me from behind and caught me by surprise and I tripped down the stairs. The fall itself didn't hurt and the alcohol was partly to blame for this but what got me screaming in agony was trying to get up. I had twisted my knee and as soon as I put some pressure on it, I was done for. Security called an ambulance and after a few late night tests in hospital, I was told that I had just torn my ligaments and would be in crutches for the next 4 months. So much for my comeback in football...

Have you written the chapter where you come out of the closet yet ?

It's right after the chapter about me screwing your mum, it was so bad that man-ass looked attractive when compared to hers :-p

I'm starting to think OP is on another level than the rest of us...

Either way, I'm just sad that it sounds like we're catching up to present day. OP, would you be up for turning this thread into a well so we can ask specific questions about certain things you wrote, that way you can cover it in more detail?

For instance, I was particularly interested in the story about your grandfather and was hoping to hear more, but we've already moved on past that...

5* but can we fast forward to some degeneracy please?

This is not a level and please, feel free to ask me about any subject you want. Oh, the degen stories will soon be coming. AS you can imagine, ending up in crutches would not help me...

Amazing stories, so sad how death is allways around you.

MOAR!

This is awesome! Man, it's much better than a book. Hope to a good ending Really wish you the best. Especially given all the bad things you suffered. Great read again and looking for next chapters!

Don't give up, its a good story! I think people will eventually find the thread and get hooked, the title threw me off and I didn't expect the content to be what it is

Great stories, moar please! Nova SR ftw, my friend had one of those when we were teenagers