New Orleans, My Home

New Orleans has taken me back again, and I don't know why. It needs another college grad turned poker player like it needs another hurricane. Yet here I am, wondering what the city has in store for me now, at age twenty four.

There has been no shortage of offers to move elsewhere. Florida, ground zero for a whole new wave of live poker revival. Vegas, which will always be there. Los Angeles, which intrigues me every time I visit. Yet, I stay in Louisiana, where most of my friends have gotten stuck like flies on flypaper. I would hate to end up a fly.

There's something else to the equation. Lately, poker has taken me on quite the ride: swift, sharp upswings followed by severe downswings. My variance had never been this catastrophic before. Finally I decided to step back and take a semi-hiatus of sorts. I haven't played live cash in over a month. I've been hitting the online tournament grind on Sundays, and some online cash here and there.

My break from day to day poker has been a mixed bag. It's given me perspective that is hard to see when you're living the grind. I realize poker has afforded me the ability to travel, make and spend money, and meet some of the most eccentric people on the planet. I've seen the dark side of poker and gambling, how it can change people. I've also seen countless success stories, mostly with regard to young ambitions people who probably would have risen to the top of any field they decided to enter. I can't go a single week without hearing about one of my friends winning tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands.

The time away has given me more time to write, compose my MFA applications. My stress level has fallen, as I'm not required to perform at the table, and I don't have to spend long days in the casino, truly an awful workplace environment. But now the stress is starting to creep up. Money is tighter than I'm used to. Most of all, writing lacks the instant gratification reward of poker. For the most part, I'm feeling old and unaccomplished. Boohoo. I know.

 So I've been looking hard around the bars, college campuses, parks, and broken avenues of New Orleans trying to figure it all out. Each year seems to bring a new turning point in my life, which I probably should not complain about. At least my life has not gotten to be watching sitcoms, bitching about politics, and raising a family. For this I am thankful.

Poker has not seen the last of me. I still play regularly, and that will not change. But for now, it is time to construct some balance and stability in my life. It is time to write, perhaps to teach.