The title says it all. I’m sitting in the 150 year old bar of the Napoleonic Hotel de Louvre. Its a little sickening that I’m writing this instead of hitting the town, but after a long couple of days renewing acquaintances, playing cards and liing the good life, my diligence is due.

It’s a funny thing: Whenever I mention my past involvement with the Magic community, I hear poker players smirk, but these really are mirror worlds. Caste sysems defined by game talent and success, with those being the basis for social acceptance. Winning is like membership to an exclusive club, and once you’re in, you’re in for good.

Poker and Magic players begin their tournamnt lives alone, earning the respect of their peers and only then being given the golden key. That acceptance can come from just showing up; after all, every winner loves a good loser. It’s only through repeated performances and the resulting recognition that the networking begins. It all goes from there.

Being honored this week for my work in Magic has renewed my hopes for success in poker. Community is important in games like these because the goings aren’t always good and having friends there to pick you up when you’re down can’t be a bad thing. The next time someone mentions Magic to you, instead of laughing, just understand its another social structure in which we find common threads. After all, you aren’t that removed from it yourself.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

Hello again! So, I write my first article in a very long time and follow it up with not doing any writing in nearly two weeks. I will just say that a short break for Thanksgiving did not help me in school. The work has been piling up. I just went to class without doing the assignment because I had no idea what I was doing. When I got there, someone quickly showed me how to start. A short while later, I had the assignment done and got to leave class early. I work well under time limits, which is good when you want to be a writer. I am now writing this quickly before my next class, in which I have an exam. I will then come back to my room to write a paper that is due tomorrow for a class. This shows how chaotic school has been for me lately.

Not only have I not been writing, I haven

Disclaimer 1: This will get to poker at some point.

I have titled this entry the aforementioned for a couple of reasons.

1) This was my self-proclaimed motto during college, and I would like to think I lived up to it while I was there. Whether it was a party, volleyball game or practice, long poker session, work, or weight-training, everything I did was at full speed. Even when I studied, pulling an all-nighter to prepare for the next morning

In August I was lucky enough to run into an old friend from High School in the most unexpected of places

As the holidays approach each year, I experience the same combination of astonishment and excitement. I am baffled by the time that has passed so quickly, only to bring the hustle and bustle of the holidays seemingly without sufficient warning. Yet, I am excited about the time of the year that provides a special opportunity for generosity, family togetherness, and reflection.

This year, there is an additional joy in my life as the year winds down that yields the same sort of astonishment and excitement. This is the year in which I took a giant leap into the world of freelance writing.

With all of its instability and uncertainty, it was still the career to which I had always aspired. I left a secure job with regular paychecks and benefits to dive directly into a commitment of long hours, expensive health insurance, and random paychecks. Pardon the metaphor, but I took a big gamble.

As with our beloved game of poker, my decision to become a freelance writer required much preparation, diligence, and fortitude. I was aware of the odds, bankroll requirements, and some of my fellow players in the game. Even so, I knew that it would be somewhat of a gamble no matter how much skill I brought to the table.

So, my dream of writing combined with my admiration for and interest in the poker community has allowed me the unique opportunity of pursuing a longtime goal. During this holiday season, I am somewhat surprised that everything has fallen into place as I planned. (My life rarely goes as planned!) I

Hey guys, the limo just arrived, so I’m out of here. The site will go on without me for a few days, and the other bloggers will keep you entertained.

I’m not paying for this trip, but I do have to pay for some of them, so don’t forget to click through our banners and sign up with Absolute and Bodog. I’m outta here!

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

So, It’s 3:07AM, which means I can now say I’m going to Paris today. I won’t be leaving for another fifteen hours or so, which should give me plenty of time to sleep, pack, make a couple of deposits at the bank, get some euros, buy a couple of shirts, buy a sport coat, record all of the information I need regarding travel/lodgings and do some hands of the day.

Dear god.

I need to write a couple of hands of the day before i sleep, but before I do, I just wanted to say how happy I’ve been with the quality of the work our writers have been submitting. If you haven’t been checking out our features on the front page, you should, and my blog, at one time a solo act, is now surrounded by the good stuff. Be sure to get a good look, you won’t be disappointed.

So with that, I bid you adieu. Bon voyage. Au revoir. OK, I’m a dork, but I think I’m going to have a great time. I’ll send you all a postcard.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

It happened to me, it can happen to you too. There’s one thing that will utterly destroy your professional game:

I got a job.

It’s a somewhat bittersweet thing for me. I’ll be making just about as much per hour at this job as I would playing poker online. I’ll need to dress up and walk to and from the job (It’s pretty close to the house, thank goodness). So why do it?

The answer is both funny and sad. When I apply for permanent citizenship in the U.K., they’re going to ask about my work record, and how employable I am. I’ve been told that working for someone else, at least some amount of the time, is the best route to go. Self employment is great in their eyes… part time that is.

So I’ve agreed to be a technical guru for about 25 or 30 hours a week. I’ve agreed to write for Wise Hand on various gigs for about 10 hours a week, maybe more. That leaves about 10 hours a week of ‘real’ poker playing. Not enough to make a real impact.

So my professional playing is going to be cut waaaaaay down. Most of my funds are already back in the bank. I have a couple of big freerolls coming up, for being a platinum VIP. But for the most part, I’m going to play 2 tournaments a week. If I do well, I won’t play more, I’ll play bigger, according to bankroll rules. But to play bigger, I’ll need to abandon Titan for somewhere with big GP tournaments, or weekly 500K or 1 million’s. We’ll see how it goes.

In the mean time, I’m still pumping out material for WiseHandPoker.com and our clients. People seem to love my stuff, and I’m flattered. My hope is that we get some major European contracts, and I can do live coverage at events. Again, we’ll see.

I met Oliver Tse today. Oliver, if you don’t know, is the often mocked former investigatory journalist who now represents J.J. Lieu and often preaches on the subject of poker’s impending expansion to China. He’s rubbed a lot of people in the industry the wrong way with his aggressive personality, but buried beneath all of that is a unique undertsanding of the goings on in the poker industry. I’d wanted to meet him for a while.

The conversation was a great one, going over an hour as we talked about everything from my hope he’d write for the site (not going to happen for the time being) to the direction China is going and how its affecting poker’s biggest players (WPTW and Harrah’s, not Brunson and Hellmuth). Oliver and I share a passion for knowledge about the game, but his leanings towards the business end contrasted nicely with my leanings towards the cultural. It was an incredibly educational experience.

Oliver gets mocked constantly by dorky kids on message boards because he’s got a very pointed view of the world, one he shares constantly, but the thing I’ve notice about his expression of those views is he’s never incorrect. His comprehension of where the industry is going and how the bits and pieces of hte industry fit together may be unrivalled. If I wasn’t sure about that before, the hour-plus we spent on the phone today was more than enough to convince me of that conviction. Thanks for the talk Oliver, I for one, won’t be disregarding anything you say any time soon.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

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