mahdrof45-year-old poker enthusiast from Canada Hello fellow mobbits! Some of you have known me on this forum for a long time, while newer members might have seen me only occasionally. This summer I took a break from poker other than for playing a bit of Zoom PLO, but since a month now I am back to playing pretty seriously and am ready to start posting regularly on BRM, plus I want to ditch my old blog and start fresh.
Since some of you may not know me too well I will start with an introduction. I am a 45 year old quality manager at an aerospace company, married and a proud father of two children. As a kid my older brother and I used to play all kinds of card games including 5 card stud poker, draw poker, gin, etc. When we got older and got into other more exciting endeavours such as girls, booze, cars, girls, booze, the cards were put away and did not come out very often anymore. Seven years ago I got back into playing poker, mostly online at first, and then about five years ago playing live. I experienced steady progress as a live player and progressed through different levels at the poker tournament league which used to exist in Canada, but then three years ago the activities my kids are involved in made it all but impossible to continue.
This year however we sold our farm in rural Quebec, and moved much closer to the city of Montreal. It has been quite an adaptation for this country boy, but on the plus side I am much closer to some good live poker spots. Plus my kids' activities are no longer on poker nights. And so that is primarily what this blog is going to be about, my return to the scene of live poker. I will chat about online poker and discuss a little of what I am up to with that, as well as personal items, however live poker it is. For now my target is to use some of my profits from online play to bankroll my efforts at our local bar. Once I build a bankroll there I want to use the money to start playing in bigger tournaments. I want to keep the goals simple, not look too far ahead and enjoy myself along the way.
So last Monday was my first live play in a little over two years. I didn't think it would be such a big deal to resume playing live but boy was I wrong. Our local bar runs the tournaments with a $15 BI, 1 rebuy before the first break and a $5 add on at the break. The first thing that hit me was how much the regs had aged since I last saw them two years ago, and they were probably saying the same thing about me! One guy had really been sick during my absence, it made me a little sad to see how much he had withered away, especially since he is a very good player and a really nice guy even when he is on the receiving end of a bad beat. I misfired a bunch of times, played way too loose and had to rebuy, bought the add-on at the break and barely made the final 10 (34 started) when I shoved my small stack with ace rag and got called by pocket 7 and I was gone. I think it will take another night or two of play before I can start to regain the confidence and poise I used to have, but I fully intend to improve and start cashing.
Good luck on the felt!
mahdrof