Life Rush

           Holy cow! What an exciting summer this has been. I feel like my blog readers are going to start to hate me soon because all I do is gush about how awesome my life is, but seriously, it’s pretty damn cool lately.

I didn’t really think things could get any better after the kick ass premiere and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the documentary. Then, Full Tilt Poker came along and offered me the opportunity to represent them in the Main Event. To say this was exciting news for me is a massive understatement.

<---see I'm excited!

 

 

Back in the good old days, when I was building my bankroll up on Full Tilt Poker, my dream was to someday be sponsored by them. Like a Bronx kid grows up and wants to wear pinstripes, I wanted to “grow up” and wear a FTP patch. Then, Black Friday happened and like many of my other dreams, that one went out the window. Even when Poker Stars acquired FTP, it seemed completely unrealistic to think they’d want anything to do with an American player, when the American market is (for now) closed to them. So needless to say, this opportunity was a very unexpected surprise.

Now, this Main Event deal was presented as a one-time deal with no long term implications. It isn’t a FULL sponsorship, but still, it’s a 10k buy-in into the biggest, most exciting poker tournament in the world. What’s not to love??

 

This is the part of the blog where I’m supposed to tell you I went super deep in the tournament and I’ll be back to play in November for a shot at the title and the ultimate fairy tale ending. Unfortunately, the actual story is I didn’t play particularly well, nor run well and I busted out on day one. Booooooooo. My dreams of making a deep run and having Full Tilt present me with a long term sponsorship offer were for the moment, gone. 

          But wait!!! There’s more awesomeness. Even after my poor showing in the main event, FTP decided I looked really nice in that patch and they want me to wear it again to the UKIPT Full Tilt Poker Festival in Galway, Ireland.

 IRELAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I hope my excessive use of exclamation points is accurately conveying my feelings towards this new development. I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland but kind of assumed it would be one of those things I’d do many years down the road. Now, I only have to wait a little over a week longer. Weeee!!

Random story regarding this: When the FTP rep first asked if I’d be willing to travel to Europe for the UKIPT Galway series I snap said yes. I was so excited, I’m not sure I listened to a word he said after that except that it was still a secret and I shouldn’t tell anyone. I don’t think he realized A). how excited I was and B). I’m a woman. Not telling anyone wasn't really an option! But, I didn’t have a chance right away because we went directly from dinner to the WSOP screening of the documentary. I spent the entire time during the film (I’ve seen it about 10x now), daydreaming about going to Europe. Then, after the film was over, and as soon as I possibly could, I shared my secret with my friend Jay. After giving him the details he’s like “Sweet! So where in Europe are you going?” I then realized, I had been sitting on this news for around three hours and I had no idea where exactly I was going. We quick googled “Galway” and my exact words were “Oh my f*&#ing God, I’m going to IRELAND!”

 

    So, again, this is another one time deal with no long term obligations on the part of either party but for right now, who cares? I’m going to Ireland! If nothing more comes out of the relationship I’ve developed with Full Tilt Poker, I can still walk away with a positive feeling. This is a life experience I otherwise wouldn’t be having and for that I am (again) humbled and grateful.

             If anyone has any tips on what to see/do in Galway or ideas on how I can start liking the taste of beer in the next week, let me know!

Until next time friends,

Danielle

BTW:

- For those of you tired of my use of the words “excited, awesome and happy,” I plan on balancing my blogging range soon with a post about sick puppies and bacon shortages. Stay tuned for future super sad stuff!

Vegas and Back Again....

I’m currently back in Las Vegas for some poker after spending a week at home recovering from the “Bet Raise Fold” premiere festivities. While I’m excited for new Vegas adventures, it’s hard to move on from the awesomeness of the premiere. The day was one of those rare days where your head hits the pillow and you don’t want to go to sleep because that means the fun is over. I’ll document some of my favorite parts here for both my readers, and myself to relieve 

• Completion of the documentary and the actual screening:

As I mentioned in previous blogs, the start to finish journey of participating in this documentary was challenging. To finally be able to share the project with others was really satisfying. It was such a bizarre feeling to be sitting in a theatre with about 200 people, most of whom I didn’t know, watching a movie about such a major part of my life. It made me really happy to look around and see them smiling when my son would do something cute, or I’d say something funny. On a related note, it was also oddly satisfying to have the theatre be dead silent and somber during the Black Friday parts. I felt like the audience really connected with the moment and for that I guess I’m kind of proud.  Maybe my favorite moment of the whole screening was during a part I was initially pretty embarrassed about. I won’t give too much away, but I basically lose a big hand at LAPC and in frustration I say “F*$@ my life!” When I first watched the documentary I was horrified by this. I thought “I look like such a whiny baby, people are going to hate me. How could I let myself throw an F’ bomb like that on camera? I’m so blessed and I use such a horrible phrase. I look so terribly self-centered.” During the premiere I cringed as that part grew closer. I was sure that even if people liked me up until that time, they would see me at such an unflattering moment and I’d instantly become a villain. Then, the part came…..and everyone laughed. Like, they really laughed. Mike Sexton was sitting a row in front of me and I saw him laughing so hard he threw in a knee slap. I then realized I was being over-dramatic and ridiculous. While I typically pride myself on good sportsmanship and conduct at the table, every poker player can identify with that ridiculously frustrating moment where a donkey clicking buttons takes your hard earned chips.  If throwing an “F-bomb” is the worst thing they captured when following me around for countless  hours with a camera in my face, I should probably book it as a win. 

• Sharing the experience with my friends: 

I am forever indebted to poker for all the cool life experiences the game has brought me. From playing high stakes with a legend like Manny Pacquio, to doing a shooting contest at halftime of a Clippers game, I’ve accumulated some pretty sick brags. The one thing I feel like has been missing during these experiences was my loved ones. When Jay first told me the premiere was a go, I knew I wanted some of my family/friends to come with. 

 My husband is a pretty introverted guy and I knew going to a premiere and after-party where he wouldn’t know anybody, wasn’t going to be his idea of a good time. When I mentioned he could maybe get out of going if I invited my friends, he jumped at the opportunity to play hooky. So, I invited about 12 of my closest friends and seven of them were able to make it for the event. While partying in a vila suite in Vegas with an all-night open bar, might be a pretty standard experience for some poker players, it is definitely NOT something that happens in the everyday lives of your average Minnesotan. Getting all dressed up and having them join with me in our mini-VIP experience was a blast and I’m so thankful they were able to join me.

• People

One of the awesome things about the premiere, and after-party was it brought together people of all varieties from the poker world. You had people directly involved in the film making, online superstars who supported the film financially, poker media members, poker celebrities, executives, and just straight up poker fanboys (and girls). I had such a good time engaging in conversation with people from every one of these categories. As far as I know, you add an open bar to a room full of unique personalities, and it’s a guaranteed good time. This evening did not disappoint. 

Also, while I’ve never really been one to get “star struck” by celebrities, I have to admit it was pretty cool to have some poker rock stars introduce themselves to me (ha!), and say great things about the documentary and my role in the film. I have a ton of respect for sickos like Tom Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Brian Hastings, and Liv Boree (among others), and to throw back drinks and hear their thoughts on the film was a little surreal. While I admit I’ve had some decent success in my career, I sometimes still just feel like a fangirl, intruding into this world of poker superstars. I can honestly say everyone I met was super laid back and easy to get along with.

As you can see the night was a true success. Now, it’s just a waiting game for June 30^th when the rest of the world can see the film. Can’t wait to hear more feedback from a non-biased crowd. 

My plans for this week include playing a 1k WSOP event, two ladies events, grinding some cash, and celebrating my friend Jays’ birthday with some fun Vegas event. After that, I will return home to spend 4^th of July with the family before returning for the MAIN EVENT! I really can’t think of a better fairytale ending to this journey than making a deep run in the main!!!! 

Thanks for reading 

The Finish Line is in Sight....

The feature length documentary I naively agreed to be in over three years ago is finally finished and will be premiering in less than a week at the Palms Casino, in none other than Las Vegas. It's hard to believe it was three years ago that I got a random message on 2+2 from some creeper named Ryan Firpo, who wanted to know if I'd be interested in being featured in a documentary. It's even harder to believe I heard the creeper out, decided maybe he wasn't a creeper, and agreed to be featured in the film. 

It’s been a really long, sometimes challenging, but incredibly rewarding journey to be a part of this documentary. When I first agreed to be a part of this film, poker was going wonderfully. I was at the peak of my career, doing well in some of the toughest games online. After hiding behind my screen name for so many years, laughing whenever some smart ass would comment in the chat box about how lame I was for “pretending” to be a girl, I was finally starting to open myself up to the poker world and the attention I was receiving was flattering. 

Life was good. 

While I was hesitant, it seemed like it might be kind of cool to be part of a documentary, get my name out there, and have a visual record of this amazing journey I was on. What I didn’t know, was that in the near future my world was going to come crashing down. Having a camera in your face when you are on top of the world is easy. Having it there when you’re devastated, frightened, angry, and emotionally exhausted? Not so much. 

I’ll be honest. If someone told me Black Friday was going to happen in the middle of filming, I’m not sure I’d have agreed to be a part of the film. When the crew came out to Minnesota shortly after, I struggled with the instinct to protect myself at a moment when I felt so incredibly vulnerable, versus the desire to let the cameras see the raw, unscripted pain of the moment. To let myself go completely, felt like a betrayal of my own privacy. To not let my guard down, and show the despair I was feeling, felt like a betrayal to the thousands of poker players, equally as devastated, without a public medium to show the impact on their lives. I think that internal struggle is something almost anybody who has gone through a tough time can identify with. It’s one of the reasons the scene in the movie where I am in my office, choking back tears, with bags under my eyes while discussing the uncertainty of my future, has such an impact. It’s real. It hurt. 

In a bizarre way, I’m excited to share that pain with all of you. “Bet Raise Fold” will be digitally released worldwide on June 30^th. I hope you will buy it and show it to your friends and family. Not because I want to be famous, or because I will make money from your purchase (ha!), but because I am hopeful it can somehow, maybe, in some way, shape or form, make a difference. 

Maybe it will make someone who brushed off poker as just another form of illegitimate gambling think twice? 

Maybe it will somehow make my 1^st grade teacher realize that I have not, in fact, failed at life. Nor do I need rehab for my gambling “addiction.”

Maybe, it will make someone, who isn’t even directly impacted by poker realize it’s silly our government allows horse racing, slot machines, lottery tickets, etc. etc. but fights against a skill based game that has been around for centuries. 

Maybe it won’t make any difference at all, but there’s a chance it will and I’m proud and honored to be a part of the process. 

I hope I represented you well poker world. 

May the Force Bring.... Adequate Rest

I promised one blog a month and in typical Danielle Andersen style, I’ve procrastinated writing it until the day it’s due. Nice. So, here I am hours before my deadline, rambling with my laptop on my lap in bed. Enjoy!

I just returned from a weeklong trip to the Commerce Casino in LA for some live poker action. I timed the trip amazingly, as the day I left (May 1^st), Minnesota had ANOTHER blizzard. I seriously felt like I was losing my mind when winter pushed into the month of April. For the sake of my husband and child, it’s probably a huge blessing I wasn’t around for a frigging May blizzard. I can’t imagine I’d have been very pleasant to interact with.

As I’ve mentioned before, my transition to live poker was more difficult than I anticipated. One of the things I really struggled to adjust to, and far and away my least favorite part of live poker is the variance involved. Every poker player knows that the bigger the sample size of hands, the less luck plays into the outcome. Since live poker plays at SUCH a slow pace compared to online (I usually see 500 hands/hr online and only 25 hands/hr live), I went into my live poker career with the mentality that I had to play a ton of hours. Knowing I was only out there for 7-9 days, I would try and get in at LEAST 100 hours of play, which averages out to 11-14 hours/day. Sometimes I would sit in a game at 10am, play until 5am the following day, sleep for 5-6 hours, wake up and repeat the cycle. This is SOOOO not the kind of practice Tommy Angelo recommends, but for some reason I thought I could overcome the physical obstacles with enough determination.

In hindsight, I should have been smarter and realized my body was just not capable of keeping up with that pace. As a result of my poor sleeping habits, I noticed a common theme in my results. I’d play sharp and accumulate chips for the first half of my session. Then, my decision making skills would deteriorate, I’d become more compulsive, and I’d end up donking off whatever progress I had made in the last hours of my session. I’d wake up, frustrated by my lack of positive results and rush back down to the tables to try again. It was a serious recipe for disaster, but the pressure I felt to make profit on those short trips drove the madness.

It took a few trips, but a light bulb eventually went off and I had to admit to myself this wasn’t the way to make money. Because I always feel like the clock is ticking, and my time in LA is limited, it’s required some serious discipline to force myself to pick up from the tables even when the game is good, due to fatigue, but the results have definitely been positive. I’m making fewer mistakes in big pots and I’ve become much more aware of my mental acuity. There are a few hands I look back at this last trip where I think my play was pretty questionable, but there is only instance where I can say I played a hand horribly. It involved trying to take a check raise river line against a crazy tilted Russian dude who is never ever folding. I mean, he’s Russian!?!?! May as well take a Sharpie and write “I’m not folding” across the dude’s forehead. In a clear state of mind, I can look at that scenario and know it’s silly to even consider trying to bluff the guy, but in my fatigued state I somehow justified it to myself. If there is a “silver lining” (loved that movie!), to the horrible play, it’s that I pretty much instantly picked up and went to bed. The old me, would have rebought and settled in for a long night of trying to get the $ back.

I’m certain that this lesson will also help me in my online game. Live poker is so slow that it’s easy to look back at big hands and identify mistakes made because you are maybe only involved in a few big hands per day. Online poker plays at such a fast pace that you are involved in more significant hands and probably won’t even remember all of them by the end of the session. I have to assume that playing in a fatigued state online, leads to the same muddled thought process. I just don’t reflect as much on online hands, thus I probably missed it. So, added to my 2013 goals of no Mountain Dew (still staying strong!), and blogging 1x/month (2/2!), I’m going to try damn hard to be very self-aware of my mental state and only play when I can really bring my A game. Any aspiring poker players out there should honestly learn from the mistakes of fools like me. Get adequate rest. Eat well. Take care of yourself. It’s not about how many hours you play, it’s really about how many QUALITY hours you play. I’m confident doing those things will lead to more profit in the long run.

As a super bonus to my new, more balanced mental approach to live poker, I get an excuse to get out of the Commerce and do some kick ass stuff with friends! This trip, I made my first ever trip to Dodger’s stadium, did some shopping, and hit up Hollywood Boulevard for the first time. Also, in a super random turn of events, I went to a private screening of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with my good friend Jay “Whojedi” Newnum. Now, I have never really been a sci-fi fan so I literally knew nothing about Star Wars, but Jay is a huge fan. He had an extra ticket to this event at a cool theatre smack dab in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. I knew it was an opportunity most Star Wars fans would kill for so I felt guilty passing it up. I figured if my son grows up to be a huge Star Wars fan and finds out I passed up on this event, I may lose my status as the coolest mom ever. So I went, and had a blast. Jay was able to give me a nice synopsis on the previous Star Wars episodes and I actually felt like I knew what was going on. I will eventually check out the rest of the films and have decided I’ll stop making fun of Jay for being a Star Wars nerd.

Less than a month until I hit up Vegas for my first 2013 World Series of Poker appearance!!! I’ll be updating the blog with my finalized plans soon. In the meantime, I wish you all many blessings and lots of run good! Thanks for reading.

My First Crappy Blog in Exactly One Year

Michael Phelps

Hey all,

I first want to say I’m sorry for again promising to blog more and then failing miserably. I made two New Year’s Resolutions for 2013. The first was to quit drinking Mountain Dew (I’m an addict), and I’m proud to say I haven’t had even a sip in over three months. The second was to start blogging more. The problem I have with blogging is that I take it way too seriously. I have started and deleted countless blogs because they weren't "perfect." I tend to feel like if I don't have some earth shattering stories or epiphanies, my blog isn't worth sharing, but screw that! From now on I'm going to sit in front of the computer and just write. It might be crappy (in fact I think this blog is kind of crappy, hence the name), but it's something and nobody is forcing you to read! So, prior to this crappy blog I’ve made zero progress on the second half of my New Years resolution, but it changes today! I, Danielle Moon-Andersen herby promise to blog at least once a month for the rest of 2013. If I go one month without a blog post, I will donate $100 to a charity. Again, no promises on the quality of my writing, but the quanity will be there!

So….I have a website. For the same reason I think it’s bizarre anybody wants to read what I write and therefore I find it ridiculous to have my own website. But, my good friend Jay “Whojedi Newnum did such an awesome job making it look pretty, I feel like I better use it. Plus, I figured I better snatch up the “dmoongirl” URL before some idiot turns it into a porn site or something. So, welcome to dmoongirl.com :) Let me know what you think, or if there is anything in particular about this crazy lifestyle I live you want to hear about!

Typical night in LA.

Life has been good since my last blog update, which was made exactly a year ago. Whoops! I’m still traveling back and forth every 6-8 weeks to play live in LA. The live poker transition hasn’t gone as smoothly as I would have liked (apparently you can’t spew quite as much in 10  handed live poker as in 6-max online), but I’ve had some pretty kick ass life experiences, and met some awesome people during my travels. Since going back to back in January and February, I took the last two months off but will be back out May 1-9^th to grind.

One of the reasons I wanted to start blogging again is to document the cool experiences I’m having so my kids can read about them someday. I think if my mom played poker with her time-periods equivalent of Manny Pacquio, Bruno Mars or Michael Phelps, I’d think that was pretty awesome.

This poker journey is a crazy one and someday when I’m old and hustling people at the retirement home, I think having some written documentation of cool stuff I did would be neat.

Sunrise with Bruno Mars, whatever.

In addition to playing live, I’ve also started playing online at True Poker. For those who are confused as to how I am playing online when the US basically shut down online poker, it’s because the Department of Justice pretty much only went after the three biggest poker sites, assuming the small ones would fold or leave the US market. Instead some of them have continued to operate and offer games to US players. It’s risky to have much money on most of these sites since they could be shut down or fold at any time, but so far True Poker has been nothing but professional. Their cash outs are quick and they seem to be doing well. I’m optimistic I can continue to play here until the US fully legalizes online poker. Unfortunately there isn’t near as many games I can play due to the decreased volume of players since Black Friday but some games are better than none I guess. Plus, I’m hoping volume will continue to pick up as US players learn about True Poker.

In other exciting news, the documentary I’m a part of is SOOOOO close to being finished. This has been a long journey, and I’ll probably devote an entire blog to it sometime but for now, you should all go check out www.betraisefoldmovie.com where you can check out an updated trailer and sign up for updates about the movie. Word is JUNE will be the premiere and I can’t wait! Also, I get a sneak peak at the film sometime in the very near future and I’m crazy excited about it. I am really proud to be a part of this project and I hope it can maybe help the general public see poker in a different light. We need all the support we can get with important legalization events happening and the more people that see this film, the better off we will be.

In the meantime, I am keeping busy, which means I don't have 18 hours in a day to work on this blog.  However, I am going to do my best to keep you updated here the best I can.

That’s it for now. I have a very important racquetball date to attend. Thanks for reading! Promise to be back soon….

D

Finding the Good

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. - Unknown

���

I'm not a "dates" person. I don't love my husband any more on Valentines day than any other random time. I am not extra patriotic on the 4th of July. I sometimes get my anniversary wrong, and I don't care if a black cat walks in front of me on Friday the 13th. For this reason, I am surprised by how painful today, April 15th 2012 is. Today marks the one year anniversary of what is known as "Black Friday," in the poker community- the day online poker was essentially shut down in the United States. It marks a day that life for myself, my family, and millions of poker players around the world changed forever.

I remember sitting in front of my computer fighting back tears, and eventually just sobbing as I constantly refreshed the poker forums for the latest news. I remember my mind racing with countless questions, "Can they do this? This has to be unconstitutional, right? What about the money in my account? Will I ever get it back? What am I going to do? Is my poker career done forever? Can I ever achieve my poker goals?" It was a day of raw emotion, ranging from disbelief, to devastation, to anger. I'd be lying if I said some of those emotions aren't still, in varying degrees, present . I'd say the disbelief has passed. Fair or not, this clearly did happen. For the most part the devastation has passed as well. Does it still hurt? Of course, especially today as I sit here reflecting on the pain and anxiety it caused. However, I would say the "devastation" phase has passed. As I'll reflect on more in depth shortly, I now know myself and my family will be okay. I wasn't so sure of that, in the initial panic. The anger is the emotion that still strongly lingers. I'm angry at Full Tilt Poker for shady business dealings and for stealing player funds. I seriously despise thieves. I'm even more angry at my government. It's been a year and I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that I cannot play online poker, a game of skill, from the comfort of my home, with MY money. Yet, I could go to the store and buy an unlimited amount of lottery tickets, with no skill involved and the odds stacked against me, and my government would be pleased with my purchase. I'm pissed that a country that is founded on the principle of freedom, would so blatantly violate mine.

That being said, I think I've touched on all of the negative things involved in the shutdown of online poker in previous blogs, and while I will never forget, I don't believe dwelling on things out of my control are healthy nor conducive to living a happy life. So here, are a few of the very many positives that have come out of my life transition since the shutdown of online poker:

* Live poker is fun. Since Black Friday I've been traveling to play at the Commerce Casino in LA. My typical schedule is to head to LA for 7-10 days every 6-8 weeks playing 12-16 hours/day with an evening or two off to hang out with friends and get some mental relaxation. While I feel like it took a while to transition from online to live poker (Huh? Five limpers pre-flop?!?!?), I think I've finally made some necessary adjustments and am playing well. I've created some fun memories with awesome friends (endless bacon, Clippers suite, and limo bomb fail?) and had some unique life experiences like playing 100/200 in a private game with Manny Pacquiao. As an added bonus California has some ridiculously good food (sometimes complements of the ghetto) and for a food fanatic like myself, that holds a lot of value in the life enhancement category. While I'm always ready to return to life in Minnesota, I generally enjoy my time playing live.

Family time: On the surface it would seem my traveling would cut back on family time, but I actually think the opposite holds true. When I was playing online poker my son would attend daycare during normal work hours M-F. Sometimes I'd spend this time sleeping because I was up all night playing, sometimes I'd spend the time actually playing poker. The problem was, even when my son was home with me, I was never really "off" of work. Making a good living at the games I was playing really required paying attention to what was happening at the tables. At the higher stakes I was playing, the games weren't always running. When they started if you weren't at your computer ready to take a seat you were left on the outside unable to play. So when I was home (sometimes even when I wasn't) I basically had a laptop within reach at all times. This definitely cut into my attentiveness at times. Now, with no online poker, when I'm home it's with no distractions. I can relax and enjoy the quality time my son and I have together. I'll also say that my husband, my son, and myself all appreciate each other more because of my traveling. We miss one another when I'm gone but we are sure to fill my time home with lots of fun activities, and my four year old is always ready to give me those 'snuggles" every mom cherishes.

New job: In the early days of my online poker career I was in school to be a teacher. The realization that I could make more money playing poker combined with some second guessing on my career choice led me to drop out with one year left. I played online poker for a few years with no real motivation to return to school until I had my son. While in the hospital I came to a sudden epiphany that I wanted to be a nurse. I applied to nursing school right away, making the application cut-off by a few days. I graduated as a registered nurse with no real idea when I would use my degree. When Black Friday happened I was hopeful I would be able to find some sort of flexible nursing job that would allow me to continue traveling for poker. In February, I was hired for that job. I now work as a mental health nurse at a Community Behavioral Health hospital about 30 minutes from my home. I've always been interested in psychology and mental health, growing up in a household where both parents worked at the State Security Hospital which housed people with a wide variety of mental health disorders. A behavioral health hospital seemed like a natural fit for me and so far I love it. The best part is that it's an intermittent position. This means when shifts are available, they call and offer them to me but I have no obligation to accept any shifts. So I can pick up hours when I want, and still maintain the poker traveling and family time I desire. Even if online poker comes back I plan on continuing with this position. In addition to the extra money, it's also nice to use my degree and feel as though I'm contributing to the world through my work, something that was lacking when I was only playing poker. As some of my coworkers are newly added Facebook friends, this blog will probably act as my "coming out" as a professional poker player at work. So hello co-workers. I promise I'm not a crazed degenerate gambler. I'm the same semi-normal chick you've gotten to know the last couple months. I just have more cool stories than your average 20-something female and I travel a lot J

Thinking about the events that transpired a year ago make me sad. It still feels unfair and I don't think I'll ever forget how horrible the stress and uncertainty of those first few weeks felt. But, the reality is, it happened and I can't change it. So out of a miserable situation, I look to the good that has come. I was blessed before Black Friday and I am blessed after. My blessings might look a little different now, but they are certainly still present and I am more aware and appreciative of them now than ever before. This experience has ultimately made me a better mother, wife, friend, and poker player and human being.

���

But seriously, bring online poker back soon please. I'm dying to pay some taxes here!

Post BF update, WSOP, a different kind of 'Rounder?!'

It's been three months since online poker was essentially shut down in the United States, a day now known as "Black Friday" amongst the poker community. I apologize for my lack of blog entries during this time. I actually sat down and started writing numerous times but couldn't ever get very far in my entry before quitting. In all honesty, it was (is?) still too painful and I didn't want to come off as some dark, gloomy minded, "poor me" chick. Yet, I'd be doing a great disservice to truth if I ignored Black Friday or said it wasn't one of the most painful days of my life that will continue to impact me deeply. Three months later, and the ever changing emotions of anger, uncertainty, and disbelief are still there.

After Black Friday my husband and I spent a great deal of time trying to evaluate the best course of action for our family. We came to the conclusion that at this point in time we cannot justify moving for poker. Minnesota is where I always wanted to raise my family. Despite the fact that I hate the winter cold, it's a place I love. Our entire family lives within thirty miles of our home. My son has never known anything other than frequent visits with all of his grandparents and constant love and attention from his aunts and uncles. On top of that, my husband was recently hired for a full-time physical education teaching position at a school a few blocks from our house. Physical education jobs are few and far between so this is a pretty exciting opportunity for him and, for pretty much the first time ever, it will bring a routine, dependable paycheck to the Andersen household! Don't get me wrong, poker has provided wonderfully for my family, but the fact is, I never knew exactly how much money I was going to bring in month to month. Having a set amount of money we know will show up every two weeks is something we are looking forward to. If moving to Canada or some other foreign country could guarantee me a set paycheck that would with 100% certainty add to the financial security for my family, I'd consider it for at least a short time. With the ever changing poker landscape, I just don't feel like I have enough of a guarantee at this time to make the move. Also, I'm keeping my fingers crossed the US will get their act together and regulate poker sooner than later. I'd hate to go through the stresses of moving the family to have regulation go through and realize I'd have been better off just staying in Minnesota.

For now, the plan will be to stay in Minnesota and travel to play live. Unfortunately MN doesn't allow no-limit poker. There are casinos with poker but they play limit or very small spread games. Limit poker doesn't bode well to my style at all and the spread games aren't big enough to make a living. It's looking like I will be traveling to LA or Vegas for about one week out of every month. This isn't exactly ideal but quite frankly I'm not ready to get a nursing job and give up on poker yet, and without moving this seems to be my best option. The worst part of traveling is being away from the little guy, but I'm super blessed to have an amazingly supportive family and my husband is a very hands-on dad so I never have to worry about his well-being when I'm gone. Of course I miss him but we Skype frequently and the time always flies. Once again, I'm really keeping my fingers crossed legislation passes soon and this is only a temporary arrangement. To help pass the time between live poker trips and to keep bringing some money into the household I've started working part-time at a friend's bar. It's the first "real" job I've had since my first years in college. It's a very relaxed atmosphere and I'm friends with many of the girls who work there, so it's far from stressful and thus far I've enjoyed it. The downside is, I've had to miss a couple fun life events I'd normally have attended because I was working. Not going to lie, that pretty much sucked! It again reminded me of how blessed I was to have the flexibility of online poker. I realize I'm not going to get rich working at the bar, and being there long term doesn't really fit into my life goals, but thus far I've enjoyed it. In this economy, I think I'm pretty lucky to find any job. Having one that is fun, with a boss who is flexible and supportive of my poker career and the crazy travel schedule can only be attributed to life run-good. Btw, the bar is named "Rounders." How awesome is that?

I just returned home from Las Vegas where I played in a few WSOP events. Unfortunately I didn't have any tournament cashes but I feel like I'm playing great tournament poker and I'm on the verge of a major breakthrough. I bubbled both the Venetians and the WSOP Ladies events. Those were pretty disappointing as I was cruising along nicely in both of them. In the Venetian's I busted with [As][Kc] on a [Ks] Xs Xs board. The bb had defended with [Qs][7s] and flopped the flush. Chips got in on the flop and I bricked out. In the WSOP Ladies event I lost the classic QQ to AK race. When the cards were flipped over the girl next to me tried to encourage/comfort me by saying "Oh, I folded an Ace!" Another girl across the table piped in that she folded a "K." This of course meant the writing was on the wall and my QQ was screwed. As expected a K hit the flop and I was crippled and out shortly thereafter. I also played a $1500 NL event and the Main Event. There was really nothing notable about the $1500 event except that I was card dead and the fast structure made me flip for my tournament life a few levels in and I lost. I made day two of the main event and was feeling very good before I was coolered by the big stack at the table. I really wish I could have played more WSOP events but I could only be away from home for so long and I needed to account for some time to play cash games. I love tournaments and feel like I can be very successful at them but I'm just not able to put in much volume at this time. For now, cash will remain my bread and butter on most of my trips.

Despite the tournaments being pretty forgettable, Vegas was, as always, awesome! I was lucky enough to have my husband accompany me for the first half of the trip and my sister-in-law Kristi, and our friend Rachel come out for the second part. Kristi is getting married next month so this was sort of our mini-mild Vegas bachelorette celebration weekend. We ate good food, stayed out late, slept in, and had a blast. For a good laugh and to burn off at least a few of the calories we consumed, we opted to try a pole dancing class. I have a newfound respect for strippers! I consider myself pretty athletic and strong but I was the worst pole dancer ever! It's really incredibly difficult and I'm perplexed as to how these women do it AND manage to look good in the process. Next time you guys are at a strip joint remember to tip well because suspending yourself in the air, while hanging onto a pole and looking sexy, isn't an easy task!

Another highlight of the trip involved tagging along with the 'BOOM' crew to Daniel Negraneau's house for an interview. He's truly a charismatic guy and was just as nice and funny in person as he seems on television. It was really interesting to hear his perspective on some of the current happenings in the poker world and I now have one more reason to eagerly await the release of the film.

For the majority of the trip I was really busy with poker so I didn't get the chance to enjoy the Vegas nightlife. After I busted out of the main event I was pretty bummed and figured it was as good of time as any to have a drink. My poker media buddies Bill (Zimba), and Jay (Whojedi) along with Micros creator John Wray were happy to oblige and join in the fun. We met a bunch of other people in the Rio bar and had a blast. After the obligatory Pai Gow Poker session in the Gold Coast, I arrived back to my room around 5:30am. The crazy part is Jay and Bill had to work the next day. I have no idea how they functioned but I'm still, very impressed and honored they sacrificed precious sleep to cheer me up and have a good time. It seems every time I take a poker trip I meet some fun, interesting people who end up being lifelong friends. This trip certainly didn't disappoint and I'm already looking forward to next the reunion at the 2012 WSOP.

I promise I'll try and update this blog more frequently! Hopefully once I get into the new traveling routine I can post monthly updates for those who are interested. Also, my friend Bill did an interview with me while in Vegas that is posted here: http://www.gosugamers.net/poker/features/2758 It has much of the same information as this blog but also contains some information on how I got started in poker that some of you may find interesting. Check it out, and let me know what you think. I hope you all are running well in cards, and more importantly in life. Thanks for reading!!!!

Danielle 'Dmoongirl' Andersen

*Some pictures because I am much more likely to read a blog with pics

Jay 'Whojedi' Newnum took this shot of me grinding the Main Event.

The girls and I after our (failed) pole dancing lesson.

Taking the manditory shot in the giant shoe at the Cosmopolitan.