After we moved back to Minnesota from Las Vegas in 2000 (which is another story in and of itself) I started traveling again on a very regular basis chasing good poker games around. About 10 days to 2 weeks out of every month I would travel to Las Vegas, Kansas City, Reno, Tunica, or anywhere I thought I could find good poker action. Often this meant going to major poker tournaments because that's where you could find a great number of players and the cash games were usually exceptionally good. There were people with plenty of dough and many of them were true gamblers. Over time, this is where most of the $$$ would come from for regular pro's like me.
After about a year ot two of traveling like that on a regular basis, things changed for me.
Instead of leaving on a trip like I normally would, I just decided to stay home for an extra week or two.
Thankfully, I'd been running pretty well when I had been playing poker, so there wasn't a financial need for me to get out there and put in the hours.
That 2 weeks extra that I stayed home turned into 2 months. That 2 months turned into a year and before you know it, I had been away from the game completely for 5 or 6 years.
I had never made a conscious decision to "retire" from playing poker for a living. It just kind of happened. I was enjoying time with my wife and kids and extended family. I had a little niece that was born in 2000 that I grew exceptionally close to and she kind of becvame my little buckaroo. We'd spend time together whenever we could and to this day she still will come over as often as possible and loves to spend the night at our house. I've got some little 'chores' for her that she loves to do, like weigh up sage, red willow bark, etc...
These are items that we now sell on our website.
After being home for a year or two, we started looking into setting up a website to sell some of the different Native American items that we make. I do some sculpture work and I really enjoy tackling new and different projects relating to that. Since I was spending a lot of time at home now, we were making quite a few items. We had no problem selling them wholesale, but I knew if I could find the retail market myself, we'd very quickly more than double what we were making on our artwork.
We were lucky enough to be referred to a guy who had written some software specifically geared to artists who wanted to have their own website. The two of us came to an agreement and within 3-6 months we had items for sale on our new website. (Check out the link at the top of the page)
I still remember getting our first paid online order. I couldn't believe that people actually could find our website and they were willing to dish out their hard-earned money for things that we had made. (My wife & I work on most all of the items together...which is why I say, "we") I do the rough cutting and most all of the sculpture work and she takes over from there, sanding and polishing the different types of stone we work with.
It didn't take long at all for us to get exceptionally busy with our website....and we're having the time of our lives. We meet great people on a very regular basis and we have lots and lots of freedom, since we get to work at our own house. We get to work the hours we want, the time of the day (or night) we want, and if we want to take 3 days (or 3 weeks) off, we do! We get to travel regularly and almost anywhere we go, there are people that we've become friends with that we can visit. It often feels like we don't even work....because we're doing exactly what we want to be doing.
I have kind of a 'rule' that I try to follow and it is this: If I have a grandchild, a niece or nephew, or any child that wants to do something with me, whether that be walk down to the creek and throw rocks, play frisbee, go squeenie hunting, go fishing...or whatever, I will set aside whatever I'm working on and spend time with that child... and thanks to our "job", I can do exactly that! It's awesome!
I ended up staying uninvolved in the poker world completely for at least 5 or 6 years. By this time, it was on many different TV channels on a very regular basis. I got out of it about the time Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event. (WSOP) That was the last year that I was at the event...and this was about the time it really exploded in the US.
I wasn't interested in watching it on TV. I wasn't interested in playing. I basically had just completely lost interest in it.
Around 2008 or so, I was flippin' channels and I happened to come across a major poker tournament and they were showing the final table. I immediately recognized a young kid that I used to play poker with, on a regular basis. His name is Joe Bartholdi. He was a fun kid to play cards with and in my opinion, we were both good players, so we liked to butt heads, but we also liked to visit/talk cards, etc....
He also dealt cards when he was down on his luck, so we saw plenty of each other at the old Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas.
I ended up watching the rest of the tournament and he ended up winning it and pocketing 3.7 or 3.8 million dollars.
This peaked my interest again.
I started watching more tournaments and saw all kinds of players that I had played with....(and some I'd borrowed money to) making some real good money. Players like Joe Bartholdi, Jennifer Harmon, Todd Brunson, Mike Matosow, Dave Sklansky, and the list went on and on....
So....I decided to forage back into the poker world. I decided to set aside $1000 to use specifically for poker and to not take any money out of my winnings. I decided to do it the hard way and work my way up from the bottom, just like I'd done when I first started playing. (Although this time I thought it'd be easier, because I didn't intend to take anything out of my winnings)
I played twice, in the space of a week or two, at a local Indian casino, and ended up making about $1500 over the 2 plays.
I then decided to remove the initial $1000 and play completely off my winnings.
That brings us to today.... I've basically turned nothing into a low 5 digit number over the last couple of years, playing on a very irregular basis. There will be periods of time where I won't play for 6 months or so.... It just depends on what we have going on.
After going to the local casino, I realized how many people I hadn't seen in a long time. In the old days, I could walk into any casino, anywhere in the country, and somebody there would recognize me as someone he or she had played with in the past. I'd often run into friends. I was sure there were people in Las Vegas who were convinced that I'd died, simply because I hadn't been there in so long.
In my next entry, I'll talk a little about where I've been playing, (when I have been playing) and some of the little rules I've set for myself to insure I don't have to worry about losing my bankroll. I'm also going to delve into some other areas of our life...that I hope will be....at least a little interesting.
After about a year ot two of traveling like that on a regular basis, things changed for me.
Instead of leaving on a trip like I normally would, I just decided to stay home for an extra week or two.
Thankfully, I'd been running pretty well when I had been playing poker, so there wasn't a financial need for me to get out there and put in the hours.
That 2 weeks extra that I stayed home turned into 2 months. That 2 months turned into a year and before you know it, I had been away from the game completely for 5 or 6 years.
I had never made a conscious decision to "retire" from playing poker for a living. It just kind of happened. I was enjoying time with my wife and kids and extended family. I had a little niece that was born in 2000 that I grew exceptionally close to and she kind of becvame my little buckaroo. We'd spend time together whenever we could and to this day she still will come over as often as possible and loves to spend the night at our house. I've got some little 'chores' for her that she loves to do, like weigh up sage, red willow bark, etc...
These are items that we now sell on our website.
After being home for a year or two, we started looking into setting up a website to sell some of the different Native American items that we make. I do some sculpture work and I really enjoy tackling new and different projects relating to that. Since I was spending a lot of time at home now, we were making quite a few items. We had no problem selling them wholesale, but I knew if I could find the retail market myself, we'd very quickly more than double what we were making on our artwork.
We were lucky enough to be referred to a guy who had written some software specifically geared to artists who wanted to have their own website. The two of us came to an agreement and within 3-6 months we had items for sale on our new website. (Check out the link at the top of the page)
I still remember getting our first paid online order. I couldn't believe that people actually could find our website and they were willing to dish out their hard-earned money for things that we had made. (My wife & I work on most all of the items together...which is why I say, "we") I do the rough cutting and most all of the sculpture work and she takes over from there, sanding and polishing the different types of stone we work with.
It didn't take long at all for us to get exceptionally busy with our website....and we're having the time of our lives. We meet great people on a very regular basis and we have lots and lots of freedom, since we get to work at our own house. We get to work the hours we want, the time of the day (or night) we want, and if we want to take 3 days (or 3 weeks) off, we do! We get to travel regularly and almost anywhere we go, there are people that we've become friends with that we can visit. It often feels like we don't even work....because we're doing exactly what we want to be doing.
I have kind of a 'rule' that I try to follow and it is this: If I have a grandchild, a niece or nephew, or any child that wants to do something with me, whether that be walk down to the creek and throw rocks, play frisbee, go squeenie hunting, go fishing...or whatever, I will set aside whatever I'm working on and spend time with that child... and thanks to our "job", I can do exactly that! It's awesome!
I ended up staying uninvolved in the poker world completely for at least 5 or 6 years. By this time, it was on many different TV channels on a very regular basis. I got out of it about the time Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event. (WSOP) That was the last year that I was at the event...and this was about the time it really exploded in the US.
I wasn't interested in watching it on TV. I wasn't interested in playing. I basically had just completely lost interest in it.
Around 2008 or so, I was flippin' channels and I happened to come across a major poker tournament and they were showing the final table. I immediately recognized a young kid that I used to play poker with, on a regular basis. His name is Joe Bartholdi. He was a fun kid to play cards with and in my opinion, we were both good players, so we liked to butt heads, but we also liked to visit/talk cards, etc....
He also dealt cards when he was down on his luck, so we saw plenty of each other at the old Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas.
I ended up watching the rest of the tournament and he ended up winning it and pocketing 3.7 or 3.8 million dollars.
This peaked my interest again.
I started watching more tournaments and saw all kinds of players that I had played with....(and some I'd borrowed money to) making some real good money. Players like Joe Bartholdi, Jennifer Harmon, Todd Brunson, Mike Matosow, Dave Sklansky, and the list went on and on....
So....I decided to forage back into the poker world. I decided to set aside $1000 to use specifically for poker and to not take any money out of my winnings. I decided to do it the hard way and work my way up from the bottom, just like I'd done when I first started playing. (Although this time I thought it'd be easier, because I didn't intend to take anything out of my winnings)
I played twice, in the space of a week or two, at a local Indian casino, and ended up making about $1500 over the 2 plays.
I then decided to remove the initial $1000 and play completely off my winnings.
That brings us to today.... I've basically turned nothing into a low 5 digit number over the last couple of years, playing on a very irregular basis. There will be periods of time where I won't play for 6 months or so.... It just depends on what we have going on.
After going to the local casino, I realized how many people I hadn't seen in a long time. In the old days, I could walk into any casino, anywhere in the country, and somebody there would recognize me as someone he or she had played with in the past. I'd often run into friends. I was sure there were people in Las Vegas who were convinced that I'd died, simply because I hadn't been there in so long.
In my next entry, I'll talk a little about where I've been playing, (when I have been playing) and some of the little rules I've set for myself to insure I don't have to worry about losing my bankroll. I'm also going to delve into some other areas of our life...that I hope will be....at least a little interesting.
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