profile picture

303218226

I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me

I currently work as a Senior Program Manager (fancy speak for a project manager) for a large cellular telecommunications company. That pays the bills.I am also an aspiring "semi-professional" poker player. Semi-professional meaning that it does not pay the bills. I am a winning player though...and that is rare among poker players. My only claim to fame in that arena is that I played in Event #3 of the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and finished 176th of 2,776 players. That was alot of fun, a great personal accomplishment and paid for a week in Vegas having fun and playing poker. The plan is to be able to quit the "day job" and play for a living within the next 5 years. We'll have to see how that goes and poker is probably something I will be talking about a bit here on my blog.I am also a very avid watch collector. I currently have about 120 watches and most folks think that watch collecting is a bit of a strange hobby. However, I am totally fascinated with watches and love to collect them. I tend towards the larger and heavier watches that make a bit of a statement when you wear them. If you have any interest in watches at all, I highly recommend you check out my friends Jim Skelton and Shawn Wilsie at ShopNBC.I have been involved in the martial arts and the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for over 25 years. I have traveled all over the United States and Europe teaching at various seminars with my instructors as well as writing magazine articles, helping to produce video training tapes and have also co-authored a book on the subject. I currently hold a Godan (5th degree black belt) and Renshi teaching license in Ryukyu Kempo Karate-do as well as black belt rankings in other various arts.I am also very interested in card magic and mentalism. I don't perform in any sense, but it is always nice to have something "in your back pocket" to blow the mind of others when out at the local pub or at a party. I really enjoy the reaction of others when you do something that is seemingly impossible.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Strangely enough, I have met most of the folks in my life that I have really been interested in meeting. However, I would like to meet my two friends and fellow watch collectors Jim Skelton and Shawn Wilsie. I communicate with the both of them on a regular basis via email, so it would be nice to finally meet them in person.I would like to meet a gentleman by the name of Steve Forte. He lives in Las Vegas and is probably one of the best card "mechanics" in world.

My Blog

Well...I took the BIG step!

It has been a while coming, but circumstances at work have made it such that I can take the "big plunge"...that being that I will be playing poker for a living. If all goes well, I will be "unemployed...
Posted by on Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:51:00 GMT

My buddy Jims secret girlfriend!

I could not believe it when I ran across this on the net! WOW! LOL!
Posted by on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:01:00 GMT

My martial arts background

When I first set up this MySpace page and profile, I would have never expected that my background in the martial arts would garner so much attention from other folks. I figured the poker and watch top...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:15:00 GMT

New camera arrived - Fuji FinePix S700

I finally got tired of my old HP "point and shoot" camera and the generally crappy pictures that I can get with it. After ALOT of research, I finally decided on the Fuji FinePix S700. I got an absolut...
Posted by on Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:46:00 GMT

Invicta (OTV) Skeleton

Invicta (one of my favorite watch companies) recently had an OTV (Our Top Value) on the ShopNBC shopping channel that introduced this wonderful new mechanical skeleton. Wow! What a really, really nice...
Posted by on Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:21:00 GMT

My new 32 Degrees Apogee watch

I just got this Apogee model watch from a new company called 32 Degrees. For those familiar with the watch, it is a take off or "homage" to the Breitling Navitimer, but at a MUCH lower cost. Here are ...
Posted by on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:52:00 GMT

Closing out 2007 with some positive numbers!

When it comes to poker, I am concentrating on Sit and Go (SnG) tournaments. For my friends not familiar with poker, a SnG is a single table tournament. Everyone puts up a certain dollar amount and whe...
Posted by on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:15:00 GMT