With a little over 3 days to go to my mini adverture I'm reminded of the time when I FIRST attempted to become a 'professional poker player'.

Ah yes...I've tried this before you know!

Back in 1997 I decided that I'd had enough of the rat race (sounds familiar) and wanted to do something different with my life. I'd been playing poker for around 5 years already and decided that I knew enough about the game to try and make a living at it.

Not for me the boring clubs of London & Reading that I'd been happily ensconed in during the 90's but I fancied a bit of sun to go with it. With this in mind and a bankroll of $10,000 I set off for the bright lights of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Park Casino Racetrack.

I won't bore you with the details as to how I knew the place but on the several ocassions I'd been there previously, for a day here and a day there, I'd always 'appeared' to do well including the time in May 1996 when, on my way to Vegas, I spent one night there winning almost $7000 playing $15/$30 Limit Hold'Em against the worst players I'd ever had the pleasure of playing upto that point in my life!

Anyway, with these thoughts in mind, I arrived in early Dec 1997 to attempt to play for 40 days until I was due back at work in early Jan of 98.

I must admit that limit poker was / is not really my forte. No-Limit games were non-existent, as were Pot-Limit games, so it was a case of trying to make do.

The trouble with limit poker though is that there's no creativeness. If you catch cards you win and if you don't you lose. In the $8/$16 I played for days and nights on end I came across several players who would NOT fold under ANY circumstances. They'd always say that there was too much in the pot to fold and would chase distant draws and two-pair hopes like they were going out of fashion.

Pots over $300 were not uncommon and with 8 flop callers, 5 turn callers and 4 river card callers you could get quite rich if you won your share. Trouble was I never did!

After 20 days of losses I called it a day and went travelling with a friend of mine upto San Fransisco where we had a great Crimbo and New Year and then I headed back home $15k lighter!

Theres no doubt the intervening 12 years have taught me a lot and I'm ready for another go. If I fail this time it'll be when I retire, in 12 years time, before I get ANOTHER go.

Quite symetrical don't you think!