The Finishing Nail
A month ago yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed indictments against the Big Three poker sites. At the time I was covering the 2011 LAPT Peru Main Event in Lima. Stunned by the news and justifiably concerned about the future, Shamus and I spent some time at dinner one night estimating the number of live tournaments each of us has covered since we simultaneously broke into the biz in 2008.
There's a hook in the wall of my home office. Well, not a hook really. It's a finishing nail that sticks halfway out of the wall, about three feet below the ceiling. I can't remember if it was there when I moved in or if I put it in the wall myself.
Hanging from that finishing nail is every media badge I've accumulated in the last three years. They are 33 in total and represent five different continents, from my first gig at the 2008 WSOP, to EPT San Remo and APPT Cebu in 2009, to 2010 ANZPT Queenstown, to one of my most recent gigs at LAPT Peru last month. Add in festivals for which I never received a badge, and festivals at which I covered multiple events, and you're looking at roughly 90 live poker tournaments that I've covered in the last three years.
Live reporting wasn't my only income during that time. I wrote for multiple magazines and multiple web sites. I consulted for major poker sites and performed legal work for various individuals and organizations on the edges of the poker scene. The live-reporting work, however, was a significant chunk of the money I made.
Was. Is no longer.
The last lanyard is on the nail. Time to try something else for a while. I'll still be doing some "scribbling", as Shamus calls it. And I'll still be floating around poker tournaments like the upcoming 2011 World Series of Poker. You just won't see me on media row, furiously pecking out how 9-9 held against A-K and trying to figure out if there's any way I can work a "triple range merge" joke into the update. You'll probably run into me trying to charm the latest raven-haired (female!) railbird to catch me eye.
Until then, you can find me at the bar.