Bill Ricardi - Brave Little Toaster

It takes... a lot to anger me. First of all, if it's poker related, nothing at the table angers me. I don't tilt. My frustrations last for a few seconds, and it's back to business. The things AWAY from the table are the ones that make me see red. Things like unreliable people, screwed up events, misinformation, and the like.

The thing that angered me recently involved a major poker room, an Irish headhunter, moving 11 thousand miles, and an utter lack of communication.

Three months ago, I started talks with a major poker room to fill a role that I was not only highly qualified for, but perfectly suited for. The headhunter kept saying 'you have the job, you just have to be patient'. The contact at the major poker room said 'We need to talk, I like what I see, it's just so busy here'. I was moving to the U.K either way, but not knowing when I started this 'sure thing' job was throwing wrenches into the works left and right.

This went on for three months. one prior to the move, one during the move, and one after. Then, the HR department makes their move over to Green Isle, and suddenly... the position doesn't exist. The backup position doesn't exist. No position for me exists. Three months of negotiation, phone interviews, resumes, and effort flushed down the drain.

Now I have friends at this major poker room, so I'm not going to bad mouth them. I'm not going to be unprofessional. I'm simply going to express that right now, I feel a measure of seething anger hotter than a dozen suns. Luckily, this is anger at my situation, not at any individual. Nobody is to blame, it was a group-effort failure. I'll even take a little blame... but not much. I bent over backwards for this supposedly life changing opportunity, make no mistake.

Life handed me a bad beat on the grand scale. I'll recover, I'll find something else to do that is grand and meaningful. Maybe I'll start another company. But this has been a reminder that the poker world can be dark, misleading, and frightening, even in the era of ESPN and Bravo.