damn man, gl with that convo.

Sounds like your cash model is fairly solid, so hopefully you will increase your tourney play and keep your cashes at same level.

Thanks... I think it went alright. Details to come.




I hope the cashes will be consistent!

I took the day off yesterday and signed Christmas cards for work while catching up on HIMYM. It was much needed break. I'm supposed to be stuffing and labeling envelopes now... but it can wait til the weekend. I'm in the card room now and having a good chat with a trusted poker friend about my decision to take a shot.

Which card room?

My "home" room is the Grand.

Are there many like you at the 2/3/5 game playing for a living?

I don't play it for a living. The game here would be mediocre at best for that purpose. That being said I don't think anyone does. A lot of us do use it for secondary income, but there are better places in the Bay to play if one were to play for a living.

That was my thought too. And figured someone with your success would be quite limited there.

You are definitely right on this point. No matter how I make pretty ridiculous income/year compared to my college friends who even went to law school, med school, grad school, etc...I still will never get the 100% support from my Asian parents who still consider me a misfit even though all my live poker friends are jealous of my success.

Just the kind of cross that you have to bear when you have disapproving Asian parents.

Yea man, for sure.

Had a very brief chat with my mom this morning. I told her I'd be driving down for a tournament this weekend.

She said that maybe I should just stick to playing tournaments on the side instead of going through with my plan. That sucked.

Still plan on talking to my dad about this, this coming Monday.

I really just want their support before going through with it.

GL Bro.

HEY!!!!

hey whut???

I've been having a slight downswing in the cash games recently. Not a good time to have one! Haha. Still confident, though.

Looking forward to shipping it this weekend!

Not to mention one of your investments is terrible, sigh...

Stop being emo. Good investment, bad market right now.

Of course I am sitting next to Lon McEachern again. Maybe I can go 2 for 2 on knockouts...

Now I'm between Lon and Mimi Luu. Hmm. They're surrounding me with the 2pairmagazine players.

If you see Sean drake rub one of his nipples with your pointer finger, hell get the memo

Yeah I'm not doing that for you lol.

Correction, they're sitting next to amusedlol.

The 2pairmagazine tournament was well run, especially for an organization first. I bought in 3 times and mincashed, meaning I actually lost money. (puke!) The drive back home from Fresno wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I had a great time and my enthusiasm for going pro continues to increase. I proceeded to go the home casino and lost a couple of racks. Wasn't due to bad play, but I decided to end the session before it got to that point.

We have a company Christmas party tonight and then I'm going to visit the parents.

I'm shivering and I can barely navigate the touchscreen on my phone as I hit the refresh button every few seconds, sweating er7eman and his run in the Harrah's Rincon WSOPc Main Event. I'm outside of a fancy Vietnamese restaurant waiting on my co-worker to finish her phone call before heading inside for our company Christmas party. The final table is down to 4 handed, with 4th place dangerously low after er7eman nearly knocks him out. My coworker finishes talking to her husband and we go inside. I let out a sigh of relief as we escape the cold. With our outer layers no longer needed, we find an empty table and set our belongings down before heading to the bar.

Wine is covered. Liquor is not. I opt for a Vietnamese coffee instead because I know this is going to be a long night. I carry the dripping espresso and glass of ice to our table and notice someone approaching out of the corner of my eye. It's a financial advisor who's been with the branch for over 20 years and he asks if he could talk to me for a few minutes or so. Apparently my mom, who he's known for a long time, had told him of my recent accomplishment in Lake Tahoe. It's apparent by the look on my face that I'm caught off-guard, but we quickly find a table to the side to have this discussion that I thought I'd be having much later... with my dad. At first, the advisor's questions are standard. How many opponents did you have? How long did the tournament take? How much did you win? How long have you been playing? I'm eager to answer him as I get a chance to talk about my victory. Then it gets more serious. He asks me what my plans are with this hobby of mine, that I'm obviously taking very seriously. I consider him for a moment. He's not a manager. He's not my boss. He's merely an acquaintance and somewhat of a co-worker.

"Well..."

I spend the next few minutes explaining to the advisor about how I would like to make the transition to a full-time poker player. I let him know that I'm confident and that I've given it plenty of thought. He asks me about my career at the firm. I tell him I did have aspirations to go into middle management, but it's taken far too long with this new 1-year training program. I also mention that there are many things that turn me off from the middle management world--the stress, the additional hours, the constant questions from just about every employee in the office... the list goes on. As we're talking, I wonder what his intentions are. What will he report back to my mom? Will he give her the peace of mind, that it sounds like I'm ready for this change? Or does he think I'm going to fail miserably? Our talk ends when other coworkers come to say hello.

For the rest of the company Christmas party my mind is elsewhere. This is how it's been for the past couple of months. All I can do is think about what's out there for me. I often miss parts of conversation because I'm thinking about travelling the circuit or playing in extremely juicy cash games. An hour later a few people decide it's time to leave and I take the opportunity to escape. Half an hour later I'm in the house where I grew up. I leave a box of items I'm returning at the foot of the stairs and make my way into the family room where my mom and dad are watching television. My mom asks about the Christmas party as I take a seat at the kitchen table. As I'm talking with her, my dad gets up, walks to the table and pulls a chair out. It's obvious that he is ready for this talk.

We sit in silence, save for the sounds coming from the television. After a couple of moments I mention to my dad that er7eman is 3-handed at the Rincon main event. He asks me how long er7eman's been down there and I tell him my best guess is a little over a week. There's just a short pause before he lets me know that my mom told him about my plans. Suddenly there are a stream of words coming from my mouth--I tell him everything I've told all my friends and all my close poker buddies, but with even more enthusiasm. He sits there barely able to look at me, idly brushing his hair back with his fingers. Finally he asks a few questions, all of which I've answered several times before. I can't get a good read on my dad.

Eventually my mom chimes in. Her worries are legitimate for a mother's: What will you do if you run out of money? You're leaving a good job. It would be okay if everyone else sees poker like you do--not gambling. What will happen if you find a girl you want to marry--will her parents accept you as a professional poker player? You'll be playing poker non-stop, what about your health? What about health insurance? Do you have enough money? If you don't like your job now, why don't you go to grad school and get your master's? It's difficult to answer. So difficult. I find my tongue tied as I try to find the right words to try and convince her. Meanwhile, there's more awkward silence sprinkled into this conversation. My dad remains quiet as I try to make eye contact with him. When our gazes do meet, he is barely able to hold it for more than a second before looking away and continuing to fiddle with his hair. Why is he being so quiet?

About half an hour goes by and I can't gauge my progress. I thought my mom was going to show more support based on the conversation I had with her a week ago, but it feels now that she's had some time to think about it, that she really doesn't want me to do this. Finally, I say I need to go back to my apartment. When I stand up, my dad stands up, too. I say goodbye to my mom and my dad walks me to the door. As I step out, I wonder if he's just going to close the door behind me. Instead, he steps outside as well and we continue to my car. We stand in the driveway for even more awkward silence.

"What do you think, dad?"

He leans his head from side to side in thought. He's certainly more animated than when we were indoors.

"Well... I'm a poker player, too. I gamble."

I stifle a laugh and for the first time tonight I feel my eyes watering. Of course, that would explain why I couldn't get a good read on him at the kitchen table.

"What about as my dad?"

He does the same thing with his head and by now I'm unable to hold it back. I have to reach up and use my sleeve.

"I can tell you already have your mind made up... so there's nothing we can do to stop you."

Now I'm a complete mess. I tell him that the last thing I want to do is make them worry about me. I repeat it over and over--that I will do my best and that I'll take care of myself because I want to succeed so, so much. I thank him before getting in my car, but it takes me a couple of minutes before I can even drive off.

Wow. You did it.
My stomach was churning just reading that.
My guage is that you will eventually show them that there is a huge difference between a gambler and a serious poker player.

I almost teared up reading this myself bro, best of luck.