CC Celebrates One Year

Quest of a Closet Poker Player turns one year old today. After lurking on blogs from the likes of Pauly, Luke Kim, Wes, and WillWonka, I decided a year ago to join the masses. “These folks aren’t anything special–maybe I’m a secret poker expert and can spread my wisdom among pokerdom,” thought CC.

Well, I found out indeed they are special, that blogging is addictive, and that I’m hardly an expert! A quick recap of the year:

• July: I write for myself basically with an audience of me and my brother. Title of the last post of July: What Happens after Bankroll Evaporates. Bankroll management wasn’t exactly a concept I understood; I thought it was Bankaccount Transfer Management. $200 up to $2000 and down to zip playing $10/20 on Party til the end.
• August: With bankroll gone and having sworn off online poker forever, I went the Atlanta Bar Tourney circuit. Freerolls just like the old days, sitting on stools around one of those tall tables designed not to have people sitting around it, temporary felt and chips brought in by people whose job it is to conduct these things at bars. I won enough to keep feeding me bar food with the gift certificates they gave to top three. Tourneys were as big as sixty people, another data point in the world of how big poker was getting. Also played in my brother-in-law’s home game in G-Vegas. Played in a Special Olympics tourney in the ATL. Hand One: $10k in chips, 100/200 blinds, shuffle up and deal. I get big slick, make it $1000, two callers, flop comes A-6-3 rainbow, I bet $2,500, happy guy calls. Turn is a queen, and I shove. He says, “Well, I guess I can re-buy and it is for charity, so I call,” and flips over A-7. 7 hits on river. I don’t re-buy, thank you Special Olympics. Snuck to Foxwoods after a business trip, played in a $120 NLHE tourney that I realized was a re-buy event after everyone started not leaving when they busted.
• September: PokerStars play money account up to $400k (school of fishes–I own these guys). Katrina hits, and my sister and her family are displaced. I went to school at Tulane, so it’s more than new programming for me. I find Belterra during a business trip near Iggy‘s turf (superb uber post, by the way). Jumped back into online poker with $400 at Party. Lots of wisdom which looks pretty worthless (did I write any of that?).
• October: Lost the $400, re-buy for another $400, down and up to $2222, not sure what I ended at. It looks like my advice is: look at what is in your account at Party, then play anything that will let you sit down. PokerTracker joins my stable of tools, sweet.
• November: Not a good time. I think the term is probably clinical depression, but it was a really dreadful experience and poker was a reprieve or contributor to it all. Later in the month I have my biggest losing session to date, $1950 on a Sunday of stupidity. Oh, and my Party account had $1950.33 in it, so online bankroll sits at $0.33. I then re-buy over the next couple weeks, losing another $900. Wes states the obvious, that I’m an idiot savant without the savant. And to email him whenever I sit at a table so at least he knows someone will take care of my money.
• December: More online struggles, but finally I’m on a plane and stop in Vegas then on to Europe. Back at my beloved Bellagio, leave up $1k, then on to London. IHead to London, I meet Colin and Elizabeth from PokerSweetHome, and they are wonderful folks. I get to play at the Gutshot, home of Tiffany Williamson. Played well in a tourney there busted by a sucked out A-10 rivering his kicker vs. my big slick, then head to PLHE. I leave with a bunch of pounds, a nice score. Also got to see Fulham play Blackburn, watching Brian McBride on the pitch. On to Amsterdam for some crazy, crazy poker. I did well, again PLHE is the game, but was bewildered as I watched some guy call two all-in’s in front of him with deuces then see them hold up.
• January: I have a home freeroll tourney with lots of prizes for my birthday, and my brother-in-law beat me for the $25 Target gift card. Stop in LA on my way to Shanghai and Singapore, and pick the Bike over Commerce to spend the night. I cash in their $40 re-buy tourney, making the final table out in 8th with 85 entrants. Played very well, tried to triple up with a very marginal hand to go out (another short-stack moved all-in). A week in Shanghai working hard all day after riding up to four hours for meetings, playing online poker at night. Head to Singapore for a week, make fatal $1700 cab ride (where I am diverted to tailor shop and get convinced that I have no suitable clothing).
• February: One of my greatest posts never seen by anyone, Poker and Wonder Woman, where I explore the wisdom one can bring to the felt from this classic series. I give away a Junior’s Cheesecake after a drawing for those leaving comments. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon makes its debut. I also have a post which will bring traffic forever: Sex with Melissa Gilbert. I recap some bizarre dream I had with an adult Gilbert. In the midst of all this, Michael Craig captivates us with his Andy Beal vs. the Corporation updates, finallly taken down by Mr. Phil Ivey.
• March: Highlight is a trip report from Vegas where I hook up with my home game friend Rich and his buddies during March Madness. Just a great, great time to hang with them as they opened their crew to me. Thanks guys. n $15/30, I get to see my first set over set over set become quads over quads over boat (luckily I’m not in the hand; unluckily, I’m not holding the pocket eights). Meet Linda, the start of a beautiful friendship. Win massive $10/20 pot at the Mirage with six people staying to the river of a capped pot on flop and turn (ok, maybe five people). My queens hold up against jacks, tens, and two flush draws. I hit on the first of my explorations of what I’m battling with in poker. First, Is Poker a Sin? Then, Relationships and Poker. Part I, Part II, Part III, Barry Greenstein, and Testimonial I and II.
• April: I next turn to an even more sensitive area for me, Children and Poker. Preface, Findings (research I did), One Theory, Joe Sebok‘s view (top pro, son of Barry Greenstein), Wolverine (son of Shep, G-Vegas teen player), Wrap-Up, and My Thoughts, which includes comments from Barry Greenstein. Both series were big things for me, partly because I got healthier through the writing, and partly because they’ve been helpful to others.
• May: I started writing my Going Pro series for PokerWorks. Fascinating stuff as people told there stories of $250k months, of 50 SNG’s a day, of stumbling also. I learned a ton, and folks have really gotten alot out of them. I launch a book giveaway to get rid of all my poker books, thereby immediately making blogger tourneys more difficult. My wife Sweetie dominates a home game, check/re-raising the river to take a monster pot, calling Rich down with an underpair. It brought a tear to my eye. May was also a horrible poker slide, and I tried to work through it while documenting as much as possible. I didn’t go bust, so that was a big step forward. Candor and hard analysis led me to variance plus leaks, and I’m better for it. Also, a great interview with Steve Brown, a minister and seminary professor who has a regular national radio show. His insight into poker and faith was really great. I moved my office back to a home office environment, still waiting today for phone service to be completed. Company has transitioned back to just me.
• June: My first tourney reports for PokerWorks, lots of work but they’re pretty good. I post about a big ethical decision I had to make several years ago, where I walked away from a $500k retention bonus. I start playing in blogger tourneys, which is a good morale booster on the personal front. Quick stop at the Argosy outside of Cincy. I also write about the Top Twenty Catalysts of the poker boom. I jump into a World Cup Pool with Matt Matros and his buds, eventually coming in 2nd. Oh, and I get to go to the World Series of Poker. I met so many people, tops on the list being Pauly. A zillion photos, articles on PokerWorks, interview Juan Carlos Mortensen and Mike Sexton, on and on. Incredible. If you haven’t seen it, head to this month and check out all the photos. My poker room is completed, which is only the nicest poker room in the United States. Don’t think so? Well, you decide. Truckin’ published my first short story to be seen by anyone, which was a real treat.
• July: I also decide to bring my blog to PokerWorks, bringing Quest of a Closet Poker Player to join Linda and new blogger Michael Craig. How cool is that? And I bust out of my first WSOP event, AA cracked by Ah-Qh (not sure if I’ve mentioned that before…). All-in pre-flop, queen on flop and river. Goodbye, $2k.

That’s a year in a nutshell. It was exhausting to type, a whirlwind. The greatest things about doing this have been meeting people in person and online. I hope the second year will be even better. Whatever it turns out to be, I’ll give you all the good and the bad. Thanks for stopping by.

The Big Guy, The Little Guy, and All-In

Sweetie, the love of my life.