Up For Poker: Otis biography

I am a thirty-something, graying investigative TV reporter turned poker writer turned poker blogger. None of those jobs are even remotely as glamorous as they sound. Even MIT grads can't figure out how I've managed to make a living doing any of three, let alone all of them. Though I've played as low as .10/.25 and as high as $100/$200, I've never looked to playing poker as a career. For me, poker is about two things: the friendships and the stories. I've found countless numbers of both over the past several years.

Since abandoning television, I've been fortunate enough to travel a great deal for American poker tournaments, as well as around Europe on the European Poker Tour. It's on these travels, as well as in the bowels of underground games, that I've found a sick fascination with poker, the people who play it, and the internal struggles that take place at the table. My hair has also started to gray and I've developed a pretty intense dislike of myself, although both of those traits are likely genetic or, at the very least, deserved happenstance.

Some days I think I'll just quit it all and go cover the Scrabble circuit or live blog music festivals. Then I happen upon a story like any of the ones below and I realize I'm not finished yet. The good thing about poker is that it's very unlikely that any of us will play the exact same hand with the exact same combination of cards at any point in our lives. I see poker stories much the same way. Combine different people with different games and there is unlimited potential for the chronicling of mayhem and heartbreak.

For more on my life outside of poker, you can visit my personal blog, Rapid Eye Reality.

Popular poker and gambling stories I've written:

Real Life

The Last Poker Game

Escaping Las Vegas

Snickers for Wil Wheaton

Grandpa was a Gambler

How to Play Pai Gow Poker

The Syndcate--The truth about poker chat beggars