RE: Forced to Move Away From USA to Continue a Career: Pro Poker Stories Part 1
Hey there daut44! I used to play at Pokerstars back in the day, and it was my 'Summer Job' in 2006 (I'm a Music Teacher so I don't do anything during the Summer).
I remember all of the hassles it was to get money in and out at that time. I remember the Netteller account and card that was the only way I could cash things out , or by converting the money to Magic the Gathering Online Event Tickets (Basically, people used it as digital currency - You'd get .90 pokerstars $$ for 1 tix or vice versa with various exchange rates).
I live in New York, and we were the first 'State with DFS to not have DFS', until recently when our State government passed the DFS bill. Unfortunately, the Online Poker bill only passed in one of the 2 legislative houses, so we have to wait another day...
I would love to play Poker Online legally again, because I stopped playing all together. Especially now that I have a lot more saved up than I did back 10 years ago.... It's funny how that happens sometimes.
Anyways, I wish you the best of luck in your DFS and may you never get hit with a Bad Beat that isn't rewarding a jackpot.
YEAH BUDDAYYY!!! I UFC'd!!! (Upvoted, Followed, and Commented)
Seeya in the steemit.chat!!!
-bigedude
That summer off teacher schedule must have been perfect for playing poker. Not to mention I assume you had less lesson planning and assignment grading than say an English teacher, which I'm sure gave you extra time to play on weeknights. What were you playing back then?
Yes, I remember the Neteller days. I actually had $100k frozen on Neteller for about 6 months in 2007. The runner up to me at PCA, Isaac Haxton, had over $700k stuck there. They responded to the UIGEA by freezing US balances, but eventually returned them. Would have been nice if we could have cashed out through bitcoin back then huh?
The NY DFS bill is such a triumph. Dean Murray is a hero. Slowly but surely poker and DFS will be regulated country wide, but who knows how long that will take.
There are still a couple sites you can play online. Bovada takes bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. BlackChipPoker too. Both are a far cry from Pokerstars, but if you miss the game you can still find ways to play.
Appreciate that, and love the UFC acronym. Will remember that and yes, will be present in steemit.chat when I'm on the site
OMG - Funny story about Isaac Haxton!!! I met him when he was probably 14 at many Magic tournaments (He grew up in the Syracuse area and I grew up 30 minutes away)!!! He was just getting started and eventually made the Pro Tour multiple times. I know most of the major tournament players all got into Poker - I remember being at Origins in Columbus,Ohio when the Nationals were still held there (1996-9 I think were the years I went) . There were Magic people playing poker everywhere!! This is well before David Williams' well documented run at the WSOP in 2004.
I didn't have much $$ in 2006, but I did very well in Tournaments. Ten years ago this month, I finished 2nd and 3rd in two $3 Re-buys with over 2000 people each - I made about $5k in the span of a week. That was pretty awesome back then.
If Bitcoin had existed back then, it would've been very different, I agree!!
I've played some free Poker here and there - like Zynga and stuff, but I've been busy with my YouTube channel in which I play a ton of games on my Phone, and it's pretty time consuming. However, it's worth it because I now have over 93,000 subscribers, and I make a nice bit of change on that every month hahah!!
Great to see you here and ROCK ON DUDE!!
-bigedude
Yes, Ike originally tried to play chess competitively, but it wasnt for him. Then he switched over to Magic, and the following leap to poker was much more fluid. The two biggest feeder games into poker are MTG and Starcraft.
The small rebuys were a lot of fun back then. I was always a cash game player so I never had the big rushes of going deep in them early in my career, but I had friends who built their bankrolls on tournaments like the ones you final tabled.
Do you ever twitch? It seems like the subscriber system on twitch can be incredibly profitable. Or did you find for your specific content that youtube was more profitable?