John Bolton

I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with poker starting way back, when pops and I would divide up a change jar and play for hours on end. I initially discovered NLHE during undergrad in 2000, but didn't play "seriously" until I started frequenting a pool hall, where we'd often play $5 tourneys (with beer) after closing.

I eventually moved into limit casino games, which I played regularly for probably two years before some guy unfortunately rivered bottom trips against my top two for the last time and I decided no limit was definitely the way to go. I was soon on my way, calling turn shoves with nine high flush draws, and barrelling through with gutters.

Sadly, I didn't realize the many advantages of online play until it was far too late. I dabbled briefly and with some success, but have always principally played casino poker. I also stayed in school and graduated, even forcing myself to (almost) completely give up poker for law school, which was almost uniformly mind-bogglingly awful.

After several years of personal civil legal trouble, I've decided that I'm quite done with lawyers. While I don't know precisely which way to go from here, returning to poker seems like something I'd regret not doing if I passed up this opportunity. These days, I mostly play live midstakes PLO.