My first entry

I have been jobless for months together now, which has been quite an experience for me amidst the present times. Staying mostly at home, I have finally decided to start blogging and yank off my incongruous thoughts, which can potentially explode my mind for the lack of a better ventilator. Ok, I made this up but it is partly true. With no friends around, and no work to do, sometimes life becomes extremely horrendous. This entry is about one of my recent passions- Poker, and how at times it has been a great leveler!!

I started playing Poker around 2 years ago, while I was still a graduate student at University of Notre Dame. I vividly remember that I had won a good hand when I was starting (had hit the beginner's luck). Well I never really took a keen interest then, but after a while, Poker became a favorite pass time for our group of Indian grads there. So I decided to take the plunge and eventually got addicted. Poker had then become one of our indispensable weekend acts, which would be centre of commingling, grub and fanfare.

While I saw, some of the most hilarious and ingenious game plays, I was more influenced by the players themselves. In some ways their playing styles reflected a part of their character. To me, a typical Poker session seemed like a social experiment with varied temperaments crossed each other at calling bluffs and raising bets. In retrospect, it transported me to the other world seen through a looking glass, where the chips defined all boundaries and every session or two the system purged off losers and announced new winners. Such is the game of life and death.