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13 Years in the Jungle and a Lifetime of Memories.


Sect7G

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Intro-

I'm going to do a timeline blog about my Poker career broken into parts starting from the beginning of this journey which I think of as a jungle.  In the jungle it can be very beautiful or very dark and scary and sometimes all at the same time.  There are all sorts of animals and life is always uncertain but always interesting.  Along the way I've played on 5 continents, got married, 4 kids, near divorce, saved marriage, made lots of money, spent some smart and some dumb and met some fascinating characters along the way.  It all blurs together and many events happened about the same time.

upcoming cliffs- WSOP and travel, Poker Celebs<->Drinking, the highs and lows and the comebacks, the industry, and lots of fun stories.  I've changed over the years, or to be more honest, the years have changed me.  I'd ask that questions be roughly in line with the timeline of the journey and I'll try to write how I saw the events at the time and not in hindsight.  Part 1 coming soon.

Who's coming with me?

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Part 1- WELCOME TO PARADISE

Ahh what I great song by Greenday off their Dookie album way back in '94.  At the time I was a 16 year old wearing doc martin boots and a plaid shirt tied around my waist content to drift through life and see where it brought me.  Now fast forward 11 years to 2005 and well at least I changed my style in clothes.  Other than that I really had the same mindset.  I was working in "jr." management in a food distribution centre working for Canadas largest retailer "Loblaws".  I never took the job too seriously and there was really no point.  In February we learned that the warehouse was closing in September and since I was "jr" management and not part of the union I would be out of work.  Around June of that year I actually started to worry... because despite my cavalier attitude to life I was soon to be out of work and was recently engaged and had just bought a house the year earlier wife my fiancee.

Morale at work was ridiculously low on the midnight shift as many workers were to be laid off and only the senior guys would get a transfer.  I stuck with the company till the end so I could receive my package 5k or so.  My day consisted of waking up at 1pm driving to 45 minutes to the Casino to play Limit Hold em $2-$4 for 8 hours and then drive to work for 11pm till 7am and I rinsed and repeated Sunday till Thursday.  Not much money in Live low stakes LHE back then but Poker was all the rage back then.  It was on TV, products were being sold at every retailer and it was what all guys in their 20's did for recreation. 

I guess I can say I first started poker as a teen playing draw poker for cigarettes in the high school cafeteria.  The principle didn't approve so we used salt packets as chips and squared up afterwards.  I was pretty good back then as I had a strong at math and was a former National Chess champion.  After high school I went to college for a year, (no poker) and then left for Loblaws where I went from the floor to "jr" management for the next 6 years or so.

Around 2003 Internet poker came on the scene.  I opened an account on Stars using my wifes name because I didn't have an email account and thought it would look odd if I used my name yet her email account.  (didn't see the problem and it almost bit me later).  Nothing nefarious of course I just didn't know better.  My buddy would senD me funds and if he didn't answer his phone to transfer than I'd just use his account and pay him back later.  What's the big deal right?  At this time the word "multi accounting" didn't exist.  It was just low stakes and I didn't win much or anything playing LHE or small stakes SNGs.

By 2005 my LHE game was getting pretty good (for live low stakes that is) and during our work shift the managers would sit in the office and play poker and watch poker on TV.  The best show was the one with the glass table for the hole cards and Dave Ulliot was looking like an absolute boss gangster  (story on him later).  The colour commentator (we all thought was british but actually American) was screaming like a mad man and we all loved it.  One night while disciplining a guy on the floor he turned the conversation towards poker (probably to get out of punishment) and he mentioned he played LHE on Paradise Poker.  I had never heard of the site and forgot about the conversation for a few months.

I had a plan.  One of the older Supervisors was going to open a roofing company and I was set to be his right hand man.  I had worked one summer in my late teens as a roofer so felt I could still do it.  The only problem was he didn't have cash to get himself going.  He had just been divorced but was a good man so I was glad to loan him 10k from my line of credit with the bank because at least then I'd have a job.  It was going to be a 50/50 deal and the money I loaned him for a truck and equipment would be paid back from his end of work package.  You know how this one's gonna play out.  As soon as he buys his truck and we all get laid off he doesn't call me to go to job sites... in fact he doesn't even call me.  About the 10k I loaned him... well he doesn't want to touch his package because of the tax burden.  I had to sue him for the money and it came in dribs and drabs for the next 2 years.  I remember late September of 2005 sitting on my back porch, being out of work, 10k in the hole, and nearly crying to my Mom about how unfair life can be.  Renting out my basement to a single Mom and her daugher was my only income but it wasn't even close to paying the bills But I had a plan... well maybe some hope... or perhaps just a prayer.

It was simple... I went to the bank got a credit card and opened an account on Paradise Poker as I remembered that conversation with my old colleague.  A $200 deposit seemed reasonable and I was impressed with the graphics of the site.  This outfit was way ahead of it's time (the equivalent to Unibet today) in this regard.  While playing you had a coffee table sitting next to your avatar and you could put nearly whatever you wanted on it from the lobby.  I always liked the coffee cup but the hotdog was a close second.  They offered Limit Hold Em Heads up games with stakes starting at 3-6.  Seems high to start... but being HU and most hands going to showdown the swings didn't seem too bad.  Rake was only .25cents if the pot hit $20 and .50cents if the pot managed to reach $40.  Those were the days :).

September 29th 2005 became my new birthday.  I didn't lose... literally.  The table suggestion was to bring $150 and with both starting stacks at that I'd grind down opponent after opponent.  After rake I'd end up with anywhere from $125 to $140.  I never ducked anyone at first and wouldn't hit and run and if the opponent wanted to reload then I'd let him take another crack at me.  By early December my 10k line of credit was fully paid off.. I was making double mortgage payments and my fiancee and I decided to take a trip to Cuba to meet up with some friends.  This is Paradise and it would last forever...did I mention I'm rather naive and optimistic.  

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Very nice read 👍

Sure does bring back memories ( not from Paradise Poker but Absolute Poker, it also had those tables between seats where you could place things 😃 )

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Part 2- Let the Good Times Roll, Dec. '05-Sept '06

We just got back from our trip from Cuba in mid December and we had such a good time that we planned to return the first part of January.  I figured that with 3 weeks of playing LHE HU that we'd have enough to pay all the bills, enjoy Christmas and New Years and then get back to vacationing.  I mean I would have to work for nearly 3 weeks... dammit I deserved a vacation, right?  😏 I wanted to travel as much as we could because in August we were set to be married and after a few years kids were bound to arrive so it seemed imperative to enjoy life to the fullest while there was still time.  So I remember one night staying up late and prospecting what resort we'd go to in Cuba and I think I had found it.  I held off booking it till the morning because I wanted my fiancee to give the final ok.  The next morning I woke up lounging in bed and my fiancee was getting out of the bathroom with some type of white tube item in her hand that she seemed very interested in.  The conversation went something like this. 

"Katie check the webpage on the computer."  As I had left it open from last night.

"Dan I think I'm pregnant".

Stunned shock internally but on the outside it was "Alrighty then"

It wasn't planned on my part as she took precautions but apparently at 27 she felt we were ready to be parents and might have forgotten a few pills here there... to keep plausible deniability 😉... or she just stopped taking them.  I suppose it would have nice to be consulted before hand on such matters but when you intend to marry a Polish lady you learn quick that the husband only handles the important matters.  (basically, you don't get to decide sh*t :wow: )

The great news is I got to take part in a Polish Shotgun Wedding.  We were supposed to get married in August and that got bumped to April as the baby was due in August.  During this period my life routine was pretty much the same I just grinded a bit more because my wife quit her job and I wanted to save some extra money.  The games at LHE HU were great for the 3-6 (blinds were 1-3) stake.  There were some other regs but we tended to avoid each other.  My goal was to make 2k US every week... which came to about $2400 Canadian.  My old job paid less than that in a month so things were doing great financially.  I also dabbled in some MTT's on Paradise and did pretty good winning about $15k.  I never really tried moving up stakes because the rake increased at 5-10 due to hitting the $20 rake barrier and the games were harder.  At 3-6 most pots were under $20 so there was 0 rake.  At this time only sharps understood the word rakeback.  I had never heard of it and I later found out that I could have made 30% back... which would have added up but it wasn't the be all end all.  Winning consistantly at the tables was far more important then and the same is true today.  This is why 90%+ of my action is played on Unibet.

We were married April 29th of 2006 and had to skip out on a honeymoon because my wife Katie was  about 5 months along.  We had a wonderful period in our lives together (looking back on it now) getting the house ready for the baby but at the time it seemed very stressful.  I knew nothing about being a Dad but I think you're never ready to be a Dad and at the same time you're always ready.  Our daughter Samantha was born on August 15th and she was beatiful.  That day since I was 15 years old had always been an interesting one.  Some of my best and worst moments of my life happened on that day and I always anticipated something eventful would happen each year.  I never expected to be so lucky to have our 1st daughter born on that day.  We brought her home a few days later and I discovered the joys of playing poker with Headphones.  Ahh yes the beeping from the website was keeping the baby awake, or so I was told, so I had to wear a set... but from my pov the headphones could drown out the baby's crying :) so it was a win-win.

I tried my best with the diaper duties but it didn't come naturally for me but I would take the baby for walks and stuff and enjoyed being a Dad.  I was playing about 30-40 hours a week and felt no need to put in extra effort as I expected to be playing this version of poker until I was ready to retire... say around 40.  Then one day in September 2006 I logged on to Paradise and noticed the players on the site seemed wayyyy down (they had a players count icon on the main page).  There was a "news banner" on the top of the page which covered promotions but this memo had some weird letters in it.  What the hell could UIGEA mean? I thought to myself as I clicked the news button. 

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@Sect7G wrote:

Then one day in September 2006 I logged on to Paradise and noticed the players on the site seemed wayyyy down (they had a players count icon on the main page).  There was a "news banner" on the top of the page which covered promotions but this memo had some weird letters in it.  What the hell could UIGEA mean? I thought to myself as I clicked the news button. 


Great cliffhanger 🆗

They want you on the Bold and the Beautiful scripting crew 😉

 

I remember seeing Polish weddings on some travel show ( one of Anthony Bourdain's maybe? ).

That looked like a party no one would want to miss :rockon:

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Part 3- Reality is a Bit*h Sept '07-Dec. '07

UIGEA is short for Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is long for I just got fu*ked.  There was no other way to put it.  After reading Paradise's blog about what it meant I knew the end was near.  Basically Paradise was owned by a huge parent company that had all sorts of business interests in the USA.  For Paradise to continue offering real money poker in the US would have huge negative consequences for the rest of their business interests so they pulled the plug on the US market.  I am Canadian so it didn't affect me directly but the fact is UIGEA, an earmarked bill, attached to some bs port security bill, essentially cost me all my customers.  Back in this period the European market wasn't very established and 80%+ of Paradise's customers were American.  Furthermore with the prosperity of the States (at that time prior to the bank collapse) there was huge disposable income.  These players I thought of as customers.  For a small fee ($150 admitance) they could play HU poker with me and I promised entertainment.  Now the US gov't decided without warning to cancel these good citizens subscription.  The bloody nerve of these politicians.  Poker is America's game dammit!  I could write an essay on my outrage but I'd probably give myself a stroke so I'll digress.

I managed to keep playing for a few months at the 3-6 HU stake... but I'd often have to open sit and wait for a customer for up to an hour.  For a niche game like HU LHE there weren't many players and now 90% of them were gone.  The ones that remained were from Europe and South America and Canada (poker in Asia was near non existant).  To add to my troubles regs could open their own HU table and not play with me and now my chances of snaring a customer were cut in half.  Despite these new hardships I carried on and still made good money but had to put in more time on the felt (half of it waiting for a player).  I remember one time I made the mistake of open sitting and trying to change my little baby's diaper at the same time.  So I've got the poopy diaper off and I'm just about to slide the new one on and do up the flaps when I hear the beep, beep, beep from the computer.  It's my turn to act and I only have 10 seconds or so to make my decision on the table.  But before I could make that decision I had to make another decision... do I do the sensible thing and put on my baby's diaper and hand her off to my wife or do I do what I did?  Which of course is grab my naked baby in my arms and run like a madman back to my computer room before times up.  A quick glance at the monitor see's my good fortune as a whale has just sat.  I get seated just as my timebank expired and I'm sitting out. ($1 buck down) I quickly click the "I'm back button" and play should resume except my opponent now sits out.  I type in chat "I'm back buddy sorry about that."  To which he responds "I don't want to play with someone who's going to stall every hand to put me on tilt"  I reply "I just had to change a diaper gimme a break, I'm back now."   He replied "sorry I'm not playing.  You should get your priorities in order"  If that isn't a tilt inducing answer I don't know what is.  I'm steaming inside and want to curse this fish but don't want to jeopardize future action so I just stew and then and then precictably get peed on.  :dissatisfied:

December comes around and Paradise does what many businesses do when times are hard.  They raise prices.  Rake is now .25 cents when the pot hits $10 dollars and .50 cents when the pot reaches $20.  This rise in price made the game unbeatable and overnight they lost the remaining of their customers.  Is it just poker companies that increase price when times are going bad or is it all businesses.? :wow: You'd think that the opposite would occur, since if players are leaving it's time to spend money to get them back and bring in new players.  Raising prices will just push even more players away... which is exactly what happened.  More on this in later posts dedicated towards the poker business/industry in general.

I'm out of business.  14 months of Paradise has come to an end and like most poker players, when the game has dried up, I went looking for another game filled with uncertainty.

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Quick interlude-  Going to play every UOS events over the next 2 weeks.  I'm playing under the alias Sect7G and I'm challenging myself to finish in the top 10 of the overall leaderboard and I hope to finish in the top 5 in one of the tiers.  So if you see me at the tables I hereby recommending you just fold in advance.  Thanking my wife in advance for tolerating the next 2 weeks.  Best of luck all and enjoy the series.

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I must have had too many pepsi's last night because I bricked early events 1, 2 and 3.  Event 1 was particularly disappointing it was the high buy in and my Aces got cracked all in on the flop by a 6c8c9d board and the Kc Jc called and the board went J, J.  At least hit the damn flush :)

But events 4, 5 and 6 went better as I cashed in all 3.

Event #4 I went out in 15th place out of 212 runners.

Event #5 I went out in 34th place out of 310 runners.

Event #6 I went out in 14th place out of 460 runners.

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Great read so far Sect7G. Even though we played different games and mostly at different sites (Stars being the exception) I can relate so well. It was so easy to win good amounts of money or in my case live event package after package. I had horrible bankroll management but it didn’t matter as it felt like the good times would never end. . 

Looking foreward to the rest of the story. I just have a feeling I’m going to relate to some of it as well .                                             Brad   

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Couple things. 

I want to correct a typo in Part 3.  It was Sept. '06 till Dec. '09.

So far doing pretty bad in the UOS series.  A handful of cashes but nowhere near where it needs to be.  I've played all events except yesterdays high PLO as I'm terrible at the game.  (ironically I cashed the Low event of the variant).

BradST.  Here's a guy that I can't wait to discuss in some later blog posts.  What you say is right about the era of poker.  I wasn't great... tbh I was probably just good... which in todays world is average.  But being todays average is good enough to win a lot 12 years ago. 

 

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Had a decent day.  Played all 6 UOS's today and finished the first High Event in 5th place.  I could have probably milked it to 3rd but took a gamble and lost.  Decent BR booster and I also cashed the low event and I believe a bounty event as well.  Can't remember.  It's only 4 days down but I'm feeling pretty good playing.  The structures are truly excellent so props to Unibet for working hard to get it right.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well the UOS came to an end and I played ok to start for the first 5 days ranking around the top 20 in all categories for the leaderboard but my play steadily declined in the second week leaving me ranked about 60 in all categories overall.  I didn't play well and tbh the cards didn't go my way but it was a fun experience overall and was happy to have some fun with it by losing a "moustache" prop bet to @MetalWolf.  Check out his blog for the photo finish so to speak.

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December '06- September '08

Accepting the grind.  Easy to say when the grind leads to an end that leaves you fulfilled.  Not so easy when it leaves you with a feeling that you're destined for doing a dead end job that leaves you with a broken body while never having your mind pushed in any way besides the next box to pick. 

After Paradise folded for all intensive purposes I scoured the net for a website that offered HU Limit Hold 'em and came up short as all sites had high rake.  I tried out UB and Full Tilt but the rake wasn't low enough to eek out an existance.  I had some savings so I didn't just fold right away and get a job, but I'd need to either find a steady income through poker or from a regular job.  I wasn't opposed to work out of principle... afterall my nick is Sect7G which is where #HomerSimpson works on the show the Simpsons... actually it's Sector7G but close enough.  I chose that nick because I always wanted to think of myself as a common man no matter where poker took me.  I had some success in early '07 playing MTT's on Stars but I never felt that it was sure money so I never felt safe.  To be a sustained longterm pro poker player I think you need sustainability and with MTT's I never got that comfort as the variance is very high especially compared to HU LHE which was a format that decides winners and losers very quickly.

Our house was a nice older bungalow that we spent money on to restore and had a huge backyard but the problem was that it was on a busy road.  With an infant at home my wife and I decided that when she got older that the traffic would be a concern so we decided to move.  Selling our house was easy because a dear friend of mine had moved into the basement paying rent and offered to buy it off us.  Nice break for us and we bought a house in the south end of our city in a new subdivision in a 2000 square foot house.  To afford this we put down 100k and to please the banks in exchange for a mortgage I got a full time job working in a distribution centre driving a forklift type machine that you drove down aisles, picking boxes, that you put on a skid, which were sent out to the various stores.  I worked 3 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off of 12 hour shifts starting at 7pm until 7 am.  The workers were on average early 20's to 30 so it was a young bunch and I had to qualms about the work environment.  The wage was a drastic cut from what I was used to.... but for a common labourer it was fair and was enough to get by on considering our head start earned from poker.  I think I started in June '07 and did this job without thought of any other ambitions until 2 occurances which happened near back to back.  One my wife got pregnant in June of "08 and I entered a satellite to a Live Event for the first time in my life.

Well the baby business happens and we were happy to give my daughter a sibbling but in September of "08 I noticed that Stars had a satellite for a Live Event in Korea as part of their APPT tour.  The reason that stop gave me interest is my younger brother worked in Korea and had been there for 4 years working as an English teacher.  I hadn't seen him in that time and to be honest prior to him leaving we had a big fallout.  I had noticed that stop a few months prior but never thought of trying to qualify.  But the last qualifiers were showing in the lobby and perhaps to dream of a visit I entered an $8 dollar rebuy tournament that offered one 6k package for the winner.  3k was the buyin, $1800 was the travel money and 1.2k was for the hotel for six nights.  I don't have the dates exactly... but I believe it was a Thursday night and if I won the MTT I'd have to be on a flight by Monday.  Not much for notice and it was irresponsible to enter but I did and as you guessed I won.  I played the satellite for 2.5 hours as it was a crazy turbo rebuy which cost me $24 dollars that I played on the laptop while watching a movie with my wife and around the time the movie ended I announced to my wife that I'm going to Korea.  She didn't understand because I didn't tell her I was even trying to qualify as that would have brought up a debate on the merits of me seeing my brother and should I have lost the MTT I wouldn't have mentioned it but I did win so therefore I was going to Korea to play my first ever Live MTT in like 3 days.  WTF.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Remember in post 1- Welcome to Paradise where I said I opened my Stars account in my wifes name because I didn't have an email... well that's the story and I was intending to stick to it.  So I won my Package to Korea and an hour later I got the confirmation email stating "Congratulations Katie... yada yada" and that's when it dawned on me that I might have 3 problems and not just the first 2 that came to immediate mind; i.e asking my boss for a week off with no notice, and booking a flight halfway around the world. 

So I replied to the Package registry email stating that there's been a mistake... my name isn't Katie and explained to them why her name and info was linked to the account.  The reply was that it would have to be escalated for review by higher ups.  I insta emailed back that time was of the utmost issue.  And when that wasn't adressed within 10 minutes I did what all players do when an answer isn't quickly forthcoming to an inquiry... email half a dozen times in the next hour.  They responded to (you guessed it) "be patient" and "stop spamming us".  Well I wasn't going to get totally screwed if they said no and banned my account for "multiaccounting" as the CS rep did mention that this is the primary concern (whatever that meant) so I sent the 2k that I got for travel over to a friends account (just to be safe) as there's no way in the world security would be able to track that sort of stuff lol.

Now I can't book my flight until this matter is resolved.  I also can't go to work asking for a week off to go play some poker tournament halfway around the world and then say it fell through so I have to sit and wait.  Friday night at work I didn't say anything and watched as the last remaining flights increased from $1500 up to $1700

So Saturday on my midnight lunch break I called home if there was any news and an email came back asking my wife and I to send in our ID's and her to state that she never played on the account so all was ok on their end.  So around 3 in the morning I walked into the boss' office and asked to take vacation for the next 9 days after this shift.  The boss outright said that's against policy and reminded me that I'm well aware of it... I said I know it is and told him the reason for this diversion of policy.  He asked me when I knew about this "vacation" and why didn't I ask him sooner and I told him I only found out about it 2 days ago.  Since he asked me about the details I knew the answer was going to be ok and truth be told you could see he was happy for me as he was pretty young and probably played poker himself.  The rest of the shift was filled with people asking questions as the boss spread the word.  I remember one encounter that really stood out to me.  #BigBill came up to me and after I told him the details of how I won he simply said "Good luck man" and it was said with such sincerety that it stuck with me all these years later.  The truth is someone like Bill knew that a dream vacation/experience wasn't in the cards for him ever and he wanted one of his kind to really enjoy it.   

So Sunday morning I booked my $1950 flight (inflation dammit) and was all set to go the next night.  The flight was leaving Toronto>Vancouver>Seoul, Korea and would take 15 hours total leaving around 8pm and arriving 11pm Korea time.  Wowzer that's a long time without a smoke but such as life.  Before leaving to the airport we went to my inlaws as my wife was staying over and I got some really encouraging advice.  My brother in law said that this was a stupid idea and I should have just taken the 2k expenses and not bother to go waste my time but since I was going that it was imperative that I didn't make a fool of myself on camera without a word about the prospect of cashing/winning etc.  My mother in law said that a married man with children shouldn't be leaving his family for ridiculous ventures of this sort.  After the goodbye's my father in law drove me to the airport and his words of luck were "break a leg" as I walked into the airport.  The words that hung on to me were the simple "good luck man" that Bill had said. 

 

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