Finding My Passion

Growing up I always followed the advice of my friends and family regarding what I should do in life. Through my teenage years and early twenties I've fought the battle to follow through with everyone else's counsel and focus more on what I wanted in life. Not until more recently have I been able to break free from them and journey out on my own quest for answers.

Back in the summer of 99 I was fresh out of high school and was wondering whether to test my abilities in the work field or continue my education. I decided to give work a try and landed a full time job as a 411 operator (directory assistance). By 2001 I was fed up with working for incompetent management and making minimum wage, which at the time was $6.25/hr. I now wanted to go back to school. If anything, I needed a change of pace in my life from that soul-snatching job. Junior college was a big stress reliever for me for the time being. I spent two years in school studying music. My goal was to transfer from the small junior college I was attending to CSU Hayward (now CSU East Bay...dumb!). Just one year before my transfer I started feeling the stress of school weighing down on me. Music, the very thing I loved, now started to feel more like boring tedious work. Teachers were starting to tell me what mouthpieces I need to play on, what kind of sound I should work on, etc. Music wasn't fun anymore. People were telling me what to do all over again. I soon gained a renewed confidence in my studies when I met the perfect woman for me. She was also a music student and was starting her first semester at CSU Hayward. The relationship only lasted about 4 months but during that time I made several trips to the campus and attened most of the jazz concerts held there. The campus was very nice with an excellent view of the bay and I couldn't wait to transfer. When my girlfriend dropped me like a wet noodle I was devastated (it was two days before my birthday in january). I now had one semester left of junior college before I transfered to Hayward. I managed to hold my grades up but my music performance became terrible. Everything that I found joy in in music was gone. The semester ended and I sent my transcripts and other papers to Hayward to be transfered. During the summer I landed a job at a movie theater in Dublin and moved in with my brother and his wife. The summer gave me time to reflect on what I truly wanted to do in my life, career wise. I came to the conclusion that music was more of a hobby for me than a career. Registration time for Hayward came and passed that year for me. I now knew that I didn't want to hump some crappy job the rest of my life but I also didn't desire a career in music either. Time ticked away for me as I dwelled pondering what my true passion in life was. Then it hit me!

During the two years I was going to junior college in Sonora, me and my best friend Marc would hit Jackson Rancheria on our time off. I remember I would spend 6 hours straight at a blackjack table loving every second of it. Afterwards my friend and I would spend hours talking about different strategies on blackjack. Also about once a week a bunch of my cousins would hold a poker game at one of their places. It was the usual dealer's choice type of game with wildcards and such. It was a fun and social game which went on for long hours every time. Although fun, at the time I didn't think of gambling as something that someone could make an income off of until I saw the 2003 WSOP on ESPN. I was elucidated to the fact that there are actually people who make money playing poker. They do it for a living! Wow, I was thrilled!

In the beginning of 2004 I now had a road to follow. I soaked up all the information about poker that I could. I read and reread all the major poker books on the market. Sklansky, Brunson, T.J., Lee Jones, (and yeah, I read Hellmuth's book as well). I searched through postings on RGP and posted some questions of my own as well. I also gained some experience in the cardrooms at the California Grand in Pacheco, Lucky Chances in Colma, Oaks in Emeryville, and Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno. The beauty of my move to Dublin was that I was now equi-distant from all the major cardrooms in the bay area. 2004 gave me a wealth of valuable information through soul searching and inspiration. Now a new year, I have a fire burning in me that's hotter and brighter than ever before. This year isn't without it's hardships, though. A trip to the hospital sets my plans even further out, but all this will be in my next post.