Who Am I? Why Am I Here?

I promised autobiographical material, so I figured I’d try to keep my promise. Here are my basics (this is going to sound like a personal ad; nothing makes me want to stay single forever like reading the LA area Yahoo Personals):

I’m 36 years old, a dude, born and raised in Santa Clarita, CA. Growing up, I was a typical underachiever, focused on geek stuff like videogames and AD&D instead of school. Consequently, I did well on my college boards but had a 2.0 GPA in high school. To punish myself, I joined the Army. I lived in Germany, had buku adventures, drank, caroused, got laid for the first time, and generally wasted mass quantities of brain cells. I came back to So Cal, went to Cal State Northridge, moved in with my girlfriend, fucked off school, went crazy, broke up with my fiancée, dated one of her friends (we didn’t meet until after we broke up; I’m no playa), and then got a job offer in Chicago. I took my girlfriend, fell in love with Chicago (she didn’t), got married, came back to California (another big mistake), and ended up in San Jose. I lasted up there until I got laid off and then my wife and I moved down to Pismo Beach. I went to work in the wine industry, which was great for a social drinker/borderline alky like me. It wasn’t great for my wife, who drove me insane, so we split up; I moved down to Santa Ynez and basically lived the movie Sideways long before it came out (wild trivia: the building I lived in was used as the HQ for the crew on that movie; I moved out during the filming and missed my chance at film stardom playing an extra; they also filmed the scenes at “Frass Canyon” at the winery where I worked – Fess Parker).

While in Santa Ynez, I lived next to and started playing poker at the Chumash Casino; I made it to the final table at my first limit Hold ‘Em tournament (although they had an annoying format where the final table was NL and was real money; I was awful at NL so some old sharpie sucked me out and took all my winnings). I was hooked. Since then, I’ve played a ton of live and online games and now play $3-6 limit primarily. I’ve done pretty well in tourneys, but between school, work and other annoying things (like life), I don’t get to play that often. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Stud 8b and PLO and even Razz, so I hope to one day win the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event (if they ever bring it back). Poker appeals to my masochistic nature, so I am hooked for life. Okay, that’s enough about me.

Coming soon: Part 2 – More About Me