A year ago the poker world was shaken by Black Friday, indisputably the worst event for poker players ever. Thousands of players not only lost their jobs but those on FTP also lost significant sums of money (hopefully temporarily). If you don’t play for a living it’s hard to imagine how scary that day was for many of us. But that wasn’t the only loss suffered. At 2+2 we lost many long-time posters; people with whom we had developed a relationship. I often think about these people and wonder how they’re doing.

ITT, we will evoke the spirits from the past. We’ll reach out to those that left and ask for a quick bio on their lives and how BF changed it. Are they still playing poker, what are they doing for work now, how do they view BF now (I’m sure that some will be in a better spot now than before)? How has their life changed and if they had the opportunity will they resume a career in poker? They have no responsibility (if they don’t want) to check back in and answer questions posted. It’s not designed to be a well. Just stop by once and give us a quick paragraph or two.

So if there’s someone you’re interested in hearing from list them below. Hopefully someone will have a contact for those mentioned. If you do maybe you can pass along a link to this thread. And if we’re lucky we’ll hear from a few ghosts from the past.

PS- I’m not a big one on rules, but hopefully this won’t end up being a list of dozens of randoms. This thread could go on for awhile so I would suggest, at the beginning, that we treat it like a Hall of Fame. Keep the list of names short as we wait for replies, and make them worthy. Hopefully it catches on and we hear from a few people every week.

First nominee is someone I think about often. Undoubtedly the nicest person from this forum, she struggled as a marginal winner until her hard work and good karma she had earned paid off. IIRC, she had quit her job shortly before BF as she was crushing 100 and showing positive results moving up. LearningCurve. If anyone has her on an AIM/Skype list, I wouid love to hear from her.

done

el nino/gary
we had somewhat of a weird poker relationship (love-hate/arguably hate-hate? who knows - I referred him a bunch of students, maybe they told him. Doesn't matter, I respect a lot of what the guy has done, and loved how tilt-prone he is/was). I wonder how vegas is going for him from time to time. Plus I sometimes miss our HU funtimes. Genuinely hope things are going well for him, can't say i always felt like that though - maybe i'm growing up some...

I'm sure he'd laugh (ruefully?) to hear that poker has finally bought me a house

StrangelyLucid

left Amy a message to get in here

Contacted.

Pretty sure I have StrangelyLucid on AIM but can't remember his name.

Look how young she looks in that picture! :-)

I talk to her often, Amy does rule!!

OMGBentley

Was good chatting to him during his live poker streams.

I sent him a PM about 6 months after BF but he never replied.

I wonder what he is upto now

He luckboxed his way into a decent job as a programmer and had a baby

Good on him..!!

Nice guy

DASHORNMAN!

Hey, guys!!

Rusty, if I am the nicest person on the forum then you were (and I imagine still are) the nicest person at the tables! I'd generally realize you were with me not by spotting your avatar but by seeing your SN pop-up chat. You always made the other players feel welcome. The sessions and the game itself were just plain more fun when you were around.

I'm doing well. Thankfully, due to some weird RL logistics, I accepted a position from home doing Cancer Registry work (what I had been doing most recently prior to playing full-time) three weeks before BF. My plan was to continue playing poker on the side, as I loved the game...and the extra income wasn't bad either.

It's still kind of surreal we cannot easily play OL here anymore. I miss the mental aspect of the game immensely. It was so much fun to go through HH's and to discuss strat with other players. If there is an adequate substitute for that component of the game, I haven't found it yet. Having said that, I actually miss playing probably less than I thought I would. Darnitall, but I never did figure out how to completely detach from the game. Believe it or not, I have not played a single hand of poker since BF. Sometime I really must do it though as I seriously wonder if I even fully remember how to play anymore!

To anyone who suggests that poker is a bunch of degenerate gamblers sitting around in their basements, I would have quite a bit to say. I met a ton of really amazing people through 2p2 and at the tables. I learned so very much not just about the game but also about myself and others. There is no question my life has been enhanced by the people and experiences poker provided me.

,
LC

LC

ill get stranglylucid in this thread!

Hello all. Long long time no see.

Well, after black Friday, I ceased all online activity outside of actually playing poker under stranglylucid. At first I figured I would wait until everything had sorted out and rejoin the poker world, and I never stopped waiting.

As for poker, I had just become a full time pro at the time. Needless to say I was destroyed. There I was in the midst of a career change and planning a wedding and BAM. At first I was able to make ends meet by playing at a couple of smaller sites, mostly due to a lot of help from Gadolparah and Martin. At both sites I was making decent money and moving up when they changed formats and put me in a situation where I could no longer make a big enough profit. Then I got doomswitched. Basically 3 months and a couple hundred K hands of hideous beat and **** it I can't possibly run this bad calls. Finally had to give up and get a real job.

But I'm still playing poker. It's much harder now. It's hard to admit to ourselves sometimes that if there are 16 tables available, maybe it's not the best thing to play all of them. Maybe it's better to just play 7. But poker is in my blood now, and I will play for the rest of my life. Even if everything gets shut down, you'll find me playing on Zenya or some crap like that.

I put your name in bold and you appeared, lets try...

Kate Upton

And sadly I forgot about jiggly boobs!

After freaking out after Black Friday, I lived off my withdrawn Pokerstars roll for a while. I got one job, hated it and quit in 5 days, then I eventually got two restaurant jobs, which I ultimately hated, and quit as soon as I could.

But now I'm doing something I really enjoy. I'm an apartment leasing consultant. It's a pretty easy gig, and I'm good at sales and customer service. I have a strong real estate background from being a Realtor before I got into poker. After Black Friday I honestly thought I could never find a REAL job that I didn't completely detest, and it took me a while to find one I do like. But I like where I'm at now.

Now I'm working at a job I enjoy, and still grinding micros for lulz on Merge. I don't even play 20k hands in a month now, but it's more about fun and competition for me these days.

I even still manage to blog about once every fiscal quarter or so.

+1 !!!

I'm not sure if these are all Americans or not, but this is my short list of people who haven't been around uFR lately who I used to talk to frequently or who's posts I read on a daily basis over the past several years back before I realized I had a lot more to learn about poker.

brocksavage1
Damntra
ForGlory
gooosefrabbaa
gregGGhehe
I vi ii V7
JeanieJ
knn05
KurtSF
noidea555
notontilt09
RapidEvolution
starscream1101
xxdanimalxx

I have knn and RE on Skype. Rarely see Kelly on anymore, but did see her pop up a couple of weeks ago. RE and I chat from time to time...I'll see if I can get them in here.

HIV is now COINFLIPS, isn't he?

Otherwise JH1's list is pretty much what I'd like to see.

I played a live mix game with Kurt when he was in town late last year. He seemed happy with life, but poker had become an enjoyable hobby rather than a serious pursuit.

And pretty much the exact same story with ForGlory (aka, TheSliderrrr). Played live with him July last year and ended up seeing NotOnTilt for a minute too (who is/was doing very well with the 10/20NL games in Vegas I believe).

Ironically, I talked to Greg last night for the first time in months before seeing his name here. He just started a job he hates but is going to stick to it so he can get some experience before moving on.

JeanieJ (my wife) hasn't played poker seriously since the end of 08 and is doing well .