Presenting... better know a pogger

[Stephen H]

Alright, since the 20Q on where I work finished, there's no reason to hold off on this anymore. I'm thirtysomething, I grew up near Houston and now live near Austin working for IBM as development support on AIX. Growing up, I was the typical good at school computer nerd type. College ended up being the exact opposite experience from what most were expecting for me - including me. After a bit of a juggle to actually find a college (I only bothered to apply to Rice and CalTech at the deadline, and it was a particularly competitive year for Rice and I managed to get refused by both) I finally settled on Case Western Reserve University. Academically, I just never got motivated, but socially, I grew quite a bit - joined a fraternity, got a few girls, learned how not to be a total retard in social situations, etc. So after three years of college, I left (just days before they kicked me out, I maintain) and moved back home getting a job working for my parents. They own a wholesale foral shop, and I was brought on to help manage and update the computer systems. It was a decent enough job as a sysadmin for a few years, but there wasn't much future to it, as I knew I have no desire to own my own business - especially a non-technical field like wholesale flowers. After about two years of this, my fiancee at the time decided she was going to run off with a married friend of ours, and my whole life shifted. A few months later I realized that all my friends had left Houston and I started spending more time in Austin, where I met a girl. I finally took the plunge and moved to Austin in 1998, getting a job at IBM as a contractor through a friend of mine. In '99, the girl left me (adios fiancee #2); in 2000, I met a girl sort of online - we met face to face, but we had a lot of the same online friends (who we also knew face to face, you know how it goes). A year later we were dating, and a year after that we were married (fiancee #3, for those playing along at home). And in the summer of '04, my son was born.
I've always been a huge gameplayer, and it runs in my family on both sides. I remember going to visit my great-grandparents and playing yatzee or cribbage with them; my paternal grandfather was a pretty darn good gin player in his day (I ran across several of his trophies he'd tossed in his basement). My maternal grandfather not only used to hustle Euchre for extra $$ during WWII, but would sit around the kitchen table and play board games like Risk or Conspiracy. He'd also sit on the floor with us and play Nintendo - anything for a gaming fix. I'm the same way - growing up my friends and I would play hearts or spades for 10 hours at a time; countless RPGs, computer games, board games, whatever we could find. Today is no different - My wife and I buy each other board games for xmas each year so we have something new to play for the next year. I've been playing Magic:TG since about a year after it came out, and I've played off and on since. I qualified for a Pro Tour in France, and took the opportunity to propose to my wife. (Second place story - 1st was a trip to Germany that I couldn't have taken, so 2nd was my goal anyways)
Despite all this, I don't play much poker. Live options in Texas are pretty much none, except for a nickel/dime limit game I have at my house for grins. I've played some live poker on trips to Vegas and California, but not more than about 10 hours total. I haven't taken the plunge to playing online for real monies yet, and I'm not sure I'll ever bother. I have had two players from the home game start playing online and making a profit - one has taken his initial $100 roll from about 6 months ago and is now playing a 3/6 game and using the profits to make his car payment each month, so maybe the home game isn't so bad (okay, it really is bad, no joke). Of course, not playing much competitive poker doesn't mean I don't read a lot about poker, which is how I found this site. Since I'd heard of Mafia/WW, but never really played it before (it's hard to get a large group together for a game like that) finding POG was only a matter of time. I am, of course, hooked.

[amplify]

[valenzuela]

bump for no reason at all.

[metsandfinsfan]

bump

[metsandfinsfan]

lets go n00bs lets see some 411

[Neil S]

Nice thread.

I wonder what to say about myself. I'm 28, lived in California my whole life, including the ~2 years I spent at Caltech. When I was 15 I thought studying the law would be right for me. When I was 17 I thought Chemistry was it. When I was 20 I realized that I was closer the first time around, passion-wise.

So I ended up doing computer programming, heh. Custom work, private things. Poker is just a pastime that also happens to pay for other pastimes.

My mother got me interested in computer games and card games, with a little help on the latter from a grandmother. Board games would hold my interest, too, but never really having anyone to play them with, I never got going with any of them. Except for Go, which I picked up a few years back and started studying semi-seriously. 12k* IGS. Played magic in high school, then quit after a couple of years.

Don't drink, don't smoke, don't do any of that.

Feel free to ask if you REALLY want to know about politics, but I'd prefer not to get into any discussions of those kinds of issues on here. This isn't the place for it.

Not married, no children. You can tell not I suppose because I didn't think to specify until the end, heh.

[dmk]

OK, I don't think I ever posted here, so here's my brief bio...

Poker accomplishments:

- Won the Saturday Special on PartyPoker 2 years ago for $46k
- Won 4 Seats to the PPM IV Cruise ($10k each). In PPM, was 3rd in chips after Day 1. Finished ...34th? I think. For 19k.
- Won 2 Seats to the PCA in 2006 - one for me, one for my wife. Busted 2nd day at some point when I played like ass. Wife busted end of 1st day. Sat to Raymer's direct left the entire day. She had fun.
- Won WSOP Seats in 2005/2006. Busted last hand of Day 1 in 2005. Busted a hour into Day 2 in 2006. Played great in 2006 but ran pretty bad.
- Won EPT Final (Monte Carlo) Seat in 2005. I played horribly. I like to forget about this. It was my first live event.
- Won a bunch of other tournaments online. And lost a lot too. Haven't really played at all since WSOP 2006. But, I might try to qualify for 2007 WSOP - I'm throwing around the idea anyway...

RL Bio Stuff:

- 24 years old. 5'10, 150lb. I don't think I'm very attractive, but my wife says she does, and she's hot, so I'll deal with it.
- Started "dating" my wife when I was ...13. Married for 2.5 years. We split up for like a month during college. But that was it.
- Have an 18 month-old boy named Cameron. I didn't plan on having kids...ever. But, I would do anything for this kid. I never thought I could love something/someone that much. Its amazing.
- Graduated college when I was 20 with a BS in Mathematics and a BS in Computer Science. I should go to grad school at some point, but its not possible right now.
- Currently working at a very small business. I'm basically the IT department. I might be applying for a job at NSA or something similar in the near future. My typical workload consists of software development (.NET) and database admin/development (SQL 2000).

I enjoy puzzles/riddles/anything that forces me to think. I guess I'm a nerd - I can accept that.

The first time I came to this forum I saw a sticky that said "POG Championship" and was like "...wtf? how the fk do you play POGs online?".

I think thats about it. You probably wish you didn't know that much about me, but whatever.

[antidan444]

What the hell ...

I'm 27, married, live in Hagerstown, MD. We have a dog (Mya) and two cats (Peaches, Paws).

I'm a sportswriter for The Herald-Mail and mostly cover high school soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball. I have a blog through work as well, again mostly revolving around my high school beats.

My wife, Liz, works at Mid-Atlantic Veterinary Hospital as a veterinary technician.

We've been married about 3 1/2 years and moved into a starter home last April. Our plan is to fix it up (we just put new windows in the place last weekend), try to make a little money and move into a better home. Then, who knows, maybe a little one or two.

I stopped playing poker back when the whole Bill Frist saga played out and Party Poker booted Americans out. I was playing NL100 and occasionally NL200, winning about 5.9 BB/100 hands. I wasn't great but I did OK.

Um ... that's about it.

[kokiri]

[ QUOTE ]
Except for Go, which I picked up a few years back and started studying semi-seriously. 12k* IGS.

[/ QUOTE ]

You ever play on KGS? I stopped playing on IGS when I started on KGS 'cos I found it generally better all round. Then I stopped playing almost entirely when poker took over. LOL that. I'm just getting back into it now after a year away.

[Neil S]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Except for Go, which I picked up a few years back and started studying semi-seriously. 12k* IGS.

[/ QUOTE ]

You ever play on KGS? I stopped playing on IGS when I started on KGS 'cos I found it generally better all round. Then I stopped playing almost entirely when poker took over. LOL that. I'm just getting back into it now after a year away.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah and while I vastly prefer the Chinese rules and scoring, the KGS administration and software leave a lot to be desired.