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Great thread James.

Poker came along at just the right time to supplement my slightly out-of-the-ordinary lifestyle. I've worked as a rafting guide since 1995 and in early 1999 I moved to Uganda to work on the White Nile. An absolute dream job but for the fact that literally days before I arrived a whole bunch of tourists that had only gone rafting the week before got hacked to pieces by some Conglonese rebels. Really heavy stuff.

So overnight we went from 5-6 trips a week to 1-2. We had a sweet setup in Kampala, the big luxury expat house with live-in servents etc, but you still need some cash to play with. I got involved with an expat holdem poker game. There were guys who worked in the UN and other crazy jobs. One night the US defence secretary for East Africa sat down with us. Nobody really knew how to play and I had discovered Planet Poker. So during the day I practiced on the free money tables and at night I tried out plays that I had been working on. It was a no limit game and I did well enough to have a really good time in Africa.

I got fired from my job over a political power-play and had to get out of the country fast. Took a flight to London with about $400 in my pocket and ended up rafting in Italy where I settled down to a good wicket. Raft in the summer for five months and play poker online in the winter while learning to snowboard. It's now seven years later and I'm still here. I've winded down the online poker as it doesn't hold me as it used to. I still think that the games are good but I much prefer to play live. So I pop over to Ljubljana every now and then and have fun with the crazy's over there.

I'm just in the process now of setting up my own nightclub here in the Italian Alps with the opening date set for June. I have to say that without poker a lot of this might not have been possible.

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