The past two years

Seems like a good time to start blogging again. My last post on www.fellknight.blogspot.com was about ATLARGE weekend, 2007. Well, ATLARGE 2009 happened this past weekend, but I wasn't able to attend (more on that later).

A note for those who read the old blog:
- This blog is going to be a little less about the poker, and more about life, politics, and other things that catch my fancy.

Ok, so where do we begin?

After ATLARGE 2007, the store that Tanya and I had opened, RagZ for TeenZ, in Kingman, Arizona, continued to have a lot of trouble financially, and we made the decision to pull the plug on it. I played poker "semi-professionally" (read: I couldn't do anything else in the USA), and contributed what I could to the household with the aim of getting me back to Canada. I attended dealer school in Las Vegas at this time, and learned to deal blackjack and poker to a casino standard. I got the opportunity to test my newfound skills in April 2007 onboard the WPS Cruise III, and had a great time overall.

That takes us to around June 2007, and the World Series of Poker. I was fortunate enough to have been offered a stake to attempt to win some money in the satellites there, but they were run just so badly that I was averaging about 2-3 per day. I started off poorly, then had 2 outright wins in a row which ballooned the bankroll, and then it seemed that nothing could go right. I ended up losing the last of the stake near the end of June, and had to leave Vegas dejected. Tanya got an advance from one of her clients and gave it to me to drive back to Canada to get some work. I had been in contact with beermankirk from RGP, and he offered to let me rent a room from him in Abbotsford, near Vancouver, BC.

The next few months were fraught with financial difficulties. I was doing odd jobs, had to borrow money to live on and pay bills while trying to find a decent job. I delivered pizzas for awhile, went down to Costa Rica to deal with the WPS again (a story which in itself was a mess, as I returned home with nearly no profit), and eventually, in November, was offered a position at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, but not as a dealer, as a slot attendant. Not being one to turn down a good break, I dedicated myself to the job as hard as I could, and made many good friends and enjoyed my time there greatly. The commute from Abbotsford to Coquitlam, however, was too much (gas was over $5.00USD/GAL at that time), and so I moved out of Kirk's place and into a basement suite in Coquitlam, less than a 10 minute hop from work.

Finally, with a decent paying job and few bills, I was self-sufficient again, but was not making any headway on repaying old debts or even building up some sort of savings as I would need to in order to replace or repair big ticket items (such as a car troubles). So, after some deliberations, I finally decided to re-enlist with the military. I completed my tests in March 2008, and was posted to Kingston, Ontario, in June. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was worried at first because I felt that it would lock me into a life path for the next few years when I had hoped to return to the USA and Tanya, but I realized that even if that is to happen, it will have to wait a few years anyway, while Tanya's daughter finishes her schooling and we both try to recover financially from our failed attempt, so perhaps it will still happen in the future, but not likely for the next several years.

Finally, in Kingston, I could now start to make headway on my debts. I took the cheapest accomodations available for my rank ($200 a month for a one bedroom, shared bathroom in the shacks), and have been paying off over $1000 a month to old debts.

Shortly after arriving in Kingston, I was staked by a poster on 2+2 poker forums to play in the $216 buy-in Seven Card Stud event at the Full Tilt Online Poker Series. I played an extremely good game, had my share of luck (but also created my own), and ended up finishing in 2nd place out of about 600 players, for a winnings of $17,500. Of that, a good portion went to my kind backer, but I was able to play in the World Championship of Online Poker on Pokerstars, and came tantalizingly close, twice, out of fields of over 1,000 players, to winning life-changing money. As it is, I won a little bit of money over the course of the series, and began to feel that maybe I was back.

At work, I had been busy with training, trying to reacquire many skills that I have not used in over 5 years (2 years out of the military and 3 years before that posted to an air force base in a desk job). I finally had a position where I was directly supervising a younger private, and began to feel like this was really what I was meant to do. I went to Norfolk, Virginia, to participate in a joint exercise in November, 2008, was there to witness the historic election of President Obama, and then was moved over to the regular troops in January 2009 to practice my skills as a communicator and senior corporal more effectively. It has been great. We have an excellent team, and one that shows a ton of promise in the future.

I was slated to go to Cyprus for 3 months starting in early Feb 2009, but got pulled off the tasking. Instead, they sent me up to the Arctic as the Signals Detachment Commander for an Advanced Winter Warfare course. It has been a learning experience, and I am glad for the opportunity to have come up here.

Oh, for those of you who are not faint of heart, here is where I am writing from now:

http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm

I am in Resolute, look at the North Pole, and go left until you hit the first town above the line. Currently, the temperature is: -63.4F (-53C) with the windchill. IT'S DAMN COLD.

I return back to civilization this weekend, and am back to work after a week off. Plans for the future include a trip to the World Series of Poker in June with several friends, and a trip back to Vegas in August for BARGE 2009.

I know I have left out a lot of the past two years (some on purpose, some not), but I hope that the reader has a better understanding of me now.

Until next time,
Fell