The Followers

I found myself again in a rut.

Not only had I not played a single hand of poker since the SFPT finale, it seems like I hadn't been interested in even reading or watching about the game, much less playing.  I'm not sure why. 

But, unlike the last time, I had confidence that I would be able to climb out of feeling that way. How it would happen I wasn't sure; I figured it would be the act of actually playing some hands, or coming across some coverage on TV that sucked me in.

I did NOT expect what actually happened.

Any time I am in one of these ruts, the one aspect of my poker playing/fandom that does NOT go away is keeping up with Twitter.  I follow any number of poker players, along with God-knows-how-many poker news outlets, media members, and the like.  Only rarely do I interact with anyone I don't know; I can probably count the number of times I have done so on one hand.  I've been trying to branch out with that recently, and in doing so I got a huge surprise.

Searching through my timeline a few days ago, I saw a post from online pro Katie Dozier, which promoted a book she had co-authored called "The Superuser".  I checked it out on Amazon, decided it looked cool, and added it to my wishlist.  As a wannabe author, I know how much even the slightest bit of positive reinforcement can help my psyche, so I fired off a quick tweet:

Imagine my surprise when a few minutes later, Dozier "Favorited" the tweet.  Hey, cool - unexpected for sure, and nice of her to acknowledge.

Then, the shocker:

Wait, what?  I'm still confused as to why she would follow me - there's nothing in my profile or tweets that would be interesting for a poker player, I don't think, except for MAYBE the list of people I follow.

Either way, very cool, and somehow, I feel motivated to get back in the game.  I now officially have the eye of a legit poker pro, and while I don't know if it'll last, it's cool.  (People clean out their "follow" lists all the time for many reasons.)

Some reading of "Bluff" this morning at the gym enhanced that feeling.  I was hoping to play some online today, but work isn't letting me.  Damn it.

I will get to it before Turning Stone in a little over a week, and while there, I want to remember to tweet some results so I have some legit poker in my timeline, and see where that brings me.