The Resurrection of KDiggity

I just can't help it. Every year around this same time, the excitement gets the better of me. It's time for the World Series of Poker.

I had effectively given up poker. I was done with it.

If you recall, my poker game in 2012 started off with a bang, then deteriorated through the summer. I had a bit of a pseudo-resurgence in the fall when I started coaching a friend of mine, took her to watch me in a cash game, and crushed it for almost $400 in three hours. I thought I was back. I put together a package for the Colorado Poker Championship in December and.....completely whiffed. It was demoralizing. I played six or seven events and didn't cash in a single one. It wasn't that I was playing poorly, necessarily, but I obviously wasn't playing my best.

It turns out there are a lot of really good poker players in Colorado. Twice a year the Heartland Poker tour comes to town and the final table of those events are regularly filled with people who live here. It's a different setting than what you find when you play in Vegas, because there isn't the tourist flow. You end up with the same players playing all the time, studying each other and their own games, and they're really good.

So I stopped playing. I even waxed poetic to my mother about how I felt like I'd never even been all that passionate about poker. I felt like I had tricked myself into believing that this was what I wanted to do. When I encountered a few obstacles in my poker journey, I bailed.

A slight digression: I suffer from depression. I don't know what it is, officially, as I've never seen a doctor about it. All I know is that I get down - REALLY down - sometimes, and it takes over my life. I don't think it's a manic-depressive thing, because I never really get manic. But the depression is there and it's very real.

Anyway, I was feeling awful about poker. I probably hated myself more than I hated the game, and trying to convince myself that I'd faked my passion for poker was, I think, just my depressive brain trying to convince myself of something else. It was an excuse. It was a way out.

For my entire life, most things have come very easily to me. I was great at any sport I played growing up. Kindergarten through high school was a breeze. I'm outgoing and very comfortable in social settings.

I now realize that any time I faced any sort of adversity, I quit. I embellished some excuses, probably made up some others as to why I was quitting, and then I gave up.

But the World Series of Poker always brings me back. The excitement surrounding the event is palpable. This even brings together the best poker players from around the world to compete for huge prize money and gold bracelets, and even then the best don't always win. It could be Hal, a plumber from Texas. It could be Tracy a teacher from Oregon. Or, in one incarnation of the fantasy, it could be me.

That's what makes the World Series so appealing. Truly, everyone can play and anyone can win.

My passion has been re-ignited for poker. It's time to put in the work. It's time to build my bankroll. It's time to finally not run away from something because it got a little difficult. I may also have a little surprise for myself and all of you, so keep an eye out for that.

See you on the felt.

-KDiggity-

Epically Excited

So I'm sitting around my mom's house after my de-herniation surgery and I'm scrolling through Twitter. I casually mention the Living Social deal for the Epic Poker League (@EpicPoker) and poker training by Annie Duke (@AnnieDuke) on Dec. 9th and 10th. I mention that it seems like a pretty good deal for two nights at the Palms, four hours total of poker training, entry into an Epic satellite, and various other little "gifts." Honestly, I'm just making conversation. My mom looks me dead in the eye and says, "You want an early Christmas/birthday present?"

Is that a real question?

I scoffed and said that plane tickets were probably outrageous, as the event was only a week away. Mom said that if I paid for the ticket, she'd buy me the package.

So of COURSE I checked. And of COURSE the tickets were still affordable. And of COURSE I'm going.

I've recently made a conscious effort and taken necessary steps to try to make poker my life. I want to make a living playing the game and I want to make a living writing about the game. Hell, I even have a part-time financial backer. This trip seems like the perfect storm of serendipity-ness. Serendipitiousness. Serendipiocity. You know what I mean.

Not only do I get world class poker training from Annie Duke, but Ali Nejad (@Ali_Nejad), Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz), and McLean Karr (@mcleankarr) are also part of the teaching roster.

I feel like that reads like a commercial, but I don't care. I'm fricken' excited.

In addition, numerous poker media types will be converging on the Palms that weekend for all of the Epic Poker festivities, and this is what I'm really looking forward to.

A while back I tweeted to a few writers and photogs and asked if they had any words of advice for someone wanting to break into the industry. The first response I got was from Jessica Welman (@jesswelman), Managing Editor of BLUFF Magazine and WPT reporter. In a phrase, her advice was "don't expect it to be easy, work hard, get lucky." Fair enough. A couple others tweeted their agreement with her, but added nothing themselves.

Then I got a response from Jennifer Newell (@writerjen), writer for Epic Poker, amongst other publications, and this one was much more in depth. She asked about what I'd done so far and what my specific interests are. She told me to keep blogging to build an audience and email poker websites and ask if they need part-time help. Bingo. She even did me a solid and followed me on Twitter and has re-tweeted a couple of my blog posts. Awesome.

So, needless to say, between all the poker lessons and poker playing and running around introducing myself (without seeming like a stalker) to poker media types, this weekend should be full of fun and excitement and has a lot of potential for changing my future.