I'm going to start this blog by apologizing for any grammar, mathematical, sequencial, and/or any kind of mistakes that I may make. With that done with, I want to start reminiscing how poker has changed for me in the past 6 years. I remember playing 4-8 limit hold'em (I barely got into the game with a long wait list) to watch Chris Moneymaker winning the main event. I remember my friend Richard running across the old Morongo's Casino telling me "Man WTF! That Chris Moneymaker won! Dude, he's so lucky!" Haha. Rich-Diggety, how can I forget those days... Anyways, I played poker all summer long with certain gambling friends (Richard, Jeff, James, Kyle) after my graduation of 2003 and man was I stuck in a never-ending roller-coaster. I remember I loved to play the game, but the only problem was that I couldn't figure out how to know if I were any good or not. I was never the reader or write-type of student in grade school, but more of the mathematical, counter-strike playing, wanting-to-gamble in church retreat type of kid. I was immensely ahead of my class in math at an early age thanks to my mom who would put my sister and I into a private tutoring studio called 'Kumon'. However, she would brutalize us until we got everything 100% right and maybe that's why I'm still traumatized by numbers. If I were to close my eyes, visualize those days, and if I fall deep asleep, I'll probably have nightmares... by the time I was a senior in high school, I absolutely hated math and wanted no part of it. I just wanted to play poker every day and drink on the weekends. I remember writing my own "doctor's notes" during Physics class and driving an hour and a half to the Morongo's Casino only to realize that there were no games. The very first game my friends and I played was 7-Card Stud. I had previously watched my dad in 8th grade on the side beat out 3 other guys (who were friends) who tried to cheat my dad knowing that it was his first time playing. However, my dad won all the money and when he saw the sad look on those guys' faces, my dad ending up giving them all of their money back. I remember I angrily yelled my dad, "Dad! You could've at least saved some for my Oakley's!" So 7-Card Stud was the game I chose for all of us to play after turning 18, and no more Psoy (which I was one of the elites from Torrance lol), but the game quickly changed to limit hold'em after we started going to the casinos... (to be continued)