30

So over the weekend I turned 30 after many years of denying it would ever happen. I’m sure everyone goes through some sort of attempt to better themselves when they turn 30 and I was no different. As soon as I rid myself of the hangover I found myself in the gym before 7am in the morning followed immediately by going out and purchasing a new wardrobe (Of clothes, not an actual wardrobe). This was certainly in part in an attempt to make myself feel and look younger, but also to get myself out of my current fashion faux pas.

You see I have had all manner of styles thus far in my three decades, when I was a teenager I had long hair and the grunge look, at college I had a rather embarrassing Oasis mop that on reflection looked like a ‘hair helmet’, in my early twenties I was actually pretty well turned out during my ‘clubbing’ years, but unfortunately the poker years (25+) have seen my decline into the look of ‘darts player’. Working from home not only piled on a few pounds for me, it also saw me give up on my appearance a bit and alas, free poker hoodies and t-shirts have occupied a lot of hanger space on my side of the wardrobe (Getting accidently sent 500 Winamax t-shirts earlier this year didn’t help either).

But no more, I now want to look a bit like someone you would actually want to meet/do business with/not cross the street when you see me coming. I have even started shaving every day rather than letting it grow through the week and having one big shave when I next scheduled to meet people.

I am actually quite content being 30, I have been telling people I am 30 for a while now, which is a good way of easing into it. I migrated from Radio 1 to Absolute Radio earlier this year, which I think demonstrates how I have lost touch with da yoof, and I never looked back. Much happier to listen to mid 90s rock than have to listen to some idiots butcher an old classic by putting a rapper in the middle of it (Have you seen that head, shoulder, knees and toes song?) – Christ I’m old.

So does being 30 mean I am taking stock of my life, suddenly wanting to do something outrageous and question everything I am doing right now? Not quite, but a few things are changing. I love my job, it really is the best job in the world, but I am going to try my hand at branching out a little. I really want to get into the marketing/PR (I forget which is which) side of things, I think that would be ideal for me and I assume there is more money in it. Almost always I look at press releases and promotions and think about how I would have done them differently, plus somehow just about everyone I know in poker has come to me asking for advice/contacts of a marketing nature so maybe I have been around the industry long enough to give it a go. Pokernews is still the priority, especially with the WSOPE round the corner, but watch this space on that one.

There are also some pretty huge changes to what I am doing as a player but I will have to leave you in suspense over that one (Not that exciting, just cant quite reveal just yet)

I shall leave you with my two fave youtube clips of the moment