Help Wanted?

I've made one of my lengthy disappearances from blogging again, I know. Things have been busy -- and stressful -- in the last couple of months. First, the good stuff. I got married! Who would have thunk it? Mr. Lonelyhearts found his soul mate. Some things are just meant to be. I'll post photos from the wedding and honeymoon on here eventually. For now, here's the link to view our wedding photos if anyone is interested:



http://tonyamelton.dotphoto.com/



Scroll down the bottom to where it says Amy and Johnny's wedding.



We honeymooned in Jamaica, the first trip for either of us out of North America. (She's been to Mexico; me to Canada.) The two of us have decided to do a lot more international travelling in the coming years if possible.



But to do that, you've got to have money and that's what has been causing the stress lately. After I came back from the WSOP, the freelance writing work was looking pretty sweet. I had work with the upstart Rounder magazine out of Birmingham, a couple of websites and my weekly newspaper poker column. But then around the time of the honeymoon, things turned sour. I lost work with the bigger website and Rounder stopped publishing (at least temporarily).

So now I'm on the job market again.

I haven't had to look for a job since 1999, when I first got out of college. Even then, I locked up my first newspaper job at The Cullman Times pretty easily since I had interned there a couple of summers in college. So you might say this is my first comprehensive job search. I'm doing my best not to uproot us so I'm trying to find a job in Tuscaloosa or Birmingham. If that fails, I could look bigger...Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans. But I like it here and I hope to stay. At least I got some good news this week. Rounder was sold to some new guys and they are going to restart the magazine. Hopefully, I can play an even bigger role in its publication.

I've been quite frustrated at the poker tables lately, too. For the months of August and September combined I won about $40. Part of that was spending a lot of time trying to qualify for the FTOPS and WCOOP events instead of grinding. But even when I was grinding, I was losing. I had several near misses in small buy in tournaments for 2K or 3K, but the worst of all was the FTOPS Stud event, in which I was the chip leader when we made the money. Then they put the guy in second (the two of us were head and shoulders above the rest of the field in chip count) at my table, directly to my left. He proceeded to make hand after hand against me...full house vs. flush, TT running down my QQ, and crippled me. Instead of a final table and chance at $30,000, I finished 21st and won about $800, with another $200 for busting Karina Jett.

I figured out, though, in my recent months' play, that I am better at Stud than I thought and so have begun playing more HORSE ring games and tournaments. If I get out to Vegas again next summer for the WSOP (and that's a BIG if considering the recent state of things, though Amy is hooked and really wants to go back for her birthday again) I want to play a $1,500 HORSE event. Not many people are proficient at all five games, and I think with the tight strategy I've developed I can do OK if I take a shot.