"Do you care if I fire up some 18 mans while I wait for Miguel (MiguelSantiago OSS) to get here?"

"No, go ahead its fine," I replied.

I first met Mike Telker (Telks) in the Spring of 2009 (wow that went by so quick). I was at the point where I started to grind a lot more volume in MTTs, and Telks had recently started to get more serious about playing online poker. I had never met him, or Miguel for that matter, but yet here he was in my house grinding 18 man $16.50 SNGs on Pokerstars. Telks was en route to Turningstone to grind a small series and was riding with Miguel. There was about a 13 hour time period where Miguel would not be around so Telks needed a place to kill time, so I volunteered my services. At the time, I was relatively new to the AIM chat group (Thank you Lab Rat for the invite), and I don't think any of us really knew each other all that well. For some reason it didn't really feel all too akward, although to most I can see how inviting people that you have never met before into your home thousands of miles away might seem a bit strange. We then proceeded to meet Miguel at a local charity poker room, played for a bit and they were on their way.

Over the summer Telks came and visited for another week. We played a huge amount of poker, talked a lot of hands, and had a pretty alright time in general. In the month after his visit, Telks had multiple huge scores (iirc a couple 100rs on a couple different sites were involved), and the discussions we had started to shift about what he should do with his future. At the time he was attending college, and already had a full fall schedule. There was a lot of back and forth, as you can imagine the decisions that were going to be made would have a great effect on the future of this young mans life. Sometime in December, he finally decided to tell his Dad his decision. He dropped out of school, broke up with girlfriend, and moved half way across the country with an older dude that he met online. What could go wrong??

A week before he was scheduled to make the move, Telks shipped the Sunday Brawl, for his largest score. It was the perfect timing! At this point, with a decent roll built, Telks went off on his own and parted ways from his backer (<3 Phatchoy). It was just crazy to me how much had changed over the last 6 months. In the summer when he last visited, I would have considered myself a better player than young Telks. By the time he visited in January, it was quite obvious this was no longer the case. His game had began to transform. Watching him play was quite amazing. He was doing things that I had never considered, and thinking about things that I had never crossed my mind. He opened my mid stakes mind to a whole new way of playing the game.
Telks lived with me from January 10 til the end of August. In the time that he lived with me, I learned heaps, had my best year online ever, and had a great time living life in general. I was sad to see him leave, but when you are a boss, why would you ever want to stay in a place for long, especially Michigan (Pure Michigan even). I wanted to travel with him, but I was stuck here due to a few houses and a business....strings. It was off to Vancouver for Telks.

After Telks left, my game began to show signs of decline. I went on the my biggest downswing ever, did not have the right mindset, and no longer had a person to talk hands. I was getting really down on myself (non-poker life related issues), running bad, playing worse. Telks was very supportive during all of this and said that I should visit Vancouver for the February FTOPS (RIP FTP). I scheduled my trip so I would arrive about 4 hours into the 1k Multi Entry. I did this mostly because I thought Telks had a very decent chance to make a deep run in that particular event. By the time I arrived to the house, Telks had a couple entries still in the event, with pretty sizable chip stacks. I settle in with a few sodas and witnessed the master in action. It was absolutely amazing to watch, and anyone who was observing can attest. Telks absolutely destroyed the field (god bless J5dd :D). Chopped it HU. Had a Horse win the $2500 FTOPS Event. It was a good week for Telks, although I failed to have any scores during my visit, I felt as if I left with a new mindset, fixed some of my leaks, and motivation to turn my game around (which I did having a very great month and a half before shit hit the fan).

On April 15th, I was cleaning up the front yard when I heard my Skype ringing. I headed in and talked with Telks and Flippa about what had just happened. I blew it off at first and thought it was just another lame scare. Telks had already made the move to the Vegas area and was closing on a house on Monday, April 18th. Luckily (I guess is the correct word?), Telks had withdrawn a decent sum to pay for the house, and have a decent roll for some live MTTs, while keeping a large sum online to provide for his stable, which had grown to a decent size. After April 15th, the Vegas house was no longer an option, as the future became unclear. All of the horses had planned on playing a decent selection of Events during the WSOP and Venetians, however Telks let us know, when it became clear that he would not have his FTP funds, that we should try to sell as much of our action as we could. Telks, though underrolled for it, would buy up whatever pieces we could not sell. He sacrificed his life roll to make sure his horses were allowed the opportunity to play the Main Event, as well as other preliminary events, and for this I am truly grateful.

After the series, in which all of the horses pretty much bricked (Telks too), Telks began to plan his future. Live pokers hadn't went the greatest, and so it was off to Cyprus to continue to play online. The sacrifice that Telks had made to put all of his horses (I love Telks) into the WSOP events and the fact that he did not have enough funds to continue playing the live circuit, led him to seek a Live/Online backing deal. Online went pretty great for him (obv shipped the 1k WCOOP and a 2nd chance and multiple over 20k+ scores), and the move was a success.

I guess the point of all this is that Mike Telker is as great a person as he is a poker player (really really great). I really appreciate everything that you have done for me, and your continued support of me on the felt. I do not think that anyone has had so much faith in me in my entire life.

Telks now sits at #1 on pocketfives.com. It is crazy to think about how much has changed since the first time I met him in '09.

(All of this information is from my memory, I didn't ask Telks about any of this, it is just how I felt about the situations, so some stuff might not be 100% true as far what he was thinking :-D)

Is living the dream similar to living the life of a professional poker player? This seems to be quite a popular discussion topic lately, and I have decided to throw in my 2 cents.

I'll start with a little background information. I fell in love with poker my junior year of high school, as did many of my friends at the time. We would play 2-3 nights a week, every week, and even more in the summer. At the time i worked in a restaurant (where I bussed tables for 4.5 years) and really enjoyed the job. It allowed me to interact with about a hundred different people a day, as one of my responsibilities was to bring out silverware and water to the new customers. The job also provided me with quite a bit of cash for a person my age, and by that I mean about $300 a week. It also allowed me to play a smart/aggressive style of poker before I even knew what an aggressive style was, as the money meant a lot less to me than it did to many in the game.

A month after graduating high school, I immediately moved into my buddies house and continued to work at the restaurant. I was accepted to an engineering school in my area, and was awaiting my first term. I took full advantage of living with out my parents for the first time in my life and had very limited responsibilities until school started. I was having the time of my life, but then a few months later that all changed. My dad was killed my drunk driver while on his lunch break. I was devastated and it caused me to grow up quick. My father's funeral service had one of the biggest attendance that the town had ever had. I was fortunate to have a strong network of friends to help me through the tough times.

I stayed working at the restaurant for awhile while I started attending Kettering University. Kettering University is one of the top engineering schools in the nation and I had dreams of becoming a computer engineer. After two semesters and one dropped class (the only class I ever dropped/failed in my life) I realized that I would never have the dedication to finish school with an engineering degree. Kettering was only 20 minutes from where I grew up, and I was finding it very hard to try to manage my social activities, poker, and then forcing myself to do course work. I decided to switch to the Business Management program, as the work load was much softer, and allowed me to maintain the life style to with i was accustomed.

During my time at Kettering, I retired from the restaurant industry and obtained a co-op position at an automotive supplier. I worked at Soroc Products six months a year and attended classes the other six months. My position was not very challenging and I was required to be there Monday-Friday from 8am - 5pm. I was making less money than I did a the restaurant, and I hated having to wake up so early everyday, however it was a required part of the course curriculum at Kettering. I worked there for a year and a half over the course of 3 years and finished my required classes for my Bachelor's Degree in Business Management. I was offered a full time position at the company, but declined as I felt the potential for advancement was slim to none, the pay was terrible, and I didn't really enjoy the job.

It was at this time in my life where I had no idea what direction I was heading. I had bought a house during the my 2nd semester at college, and felt tied down to the area. At this point I started to grind poker more than I ever had in my life. I was making pretty great money and had limited responsibilities, but my student loans were going to be due soon. I attended many job fairs, and had several interviews with companies from many different fields. Every interview was the same, and I left them disheartened, as I could never see myself sitting in an office cubicle Monday-Friday. I turned down a few more offers and justified it by playing poker and doing well enough to support my lifestyle.

After about another year of playing poker, and constant nagging from my mother to get a job, I made the decision to buy a business and be my own boss. My uncle, who is a very good business man and has many successful ventures, told me about a hair, nail, and tanning salon that he was looking into and thought it would be a great business opportunity. I took the plunge and purchased my salon in February of 2007. Everything started off great, but I quickly began to realize that even with my education, I had very limited knowledge in real life business. I gave it a go and committed most of my life for the first 6 months, but poker crept back in and began to consume most of my time, like it always seemed to do. I still have the shop, although currently I am in the process of downsizing and cutting out the tanning side. If anything working/maintaining the salon has kept me grounded, and given me opportunities away from the game. It also has prohibited me from doing a lot of what I would like to do poker wise.

Poker has stayed with me over the course of the last 10 years and has allowed me to meet several people from all walks of life. The last two years in particular I have met many people who I consider to be my good friends. I would like to thank The Lab Rat for inviting me into his chat group a few years back and introducing me to many of the other midstakes grinders at the time (most of which are the new wave of high stakes regs that just crush, but I'm still down there grinding it out :-)). It is great to know that I can travel the country and have a place to crash in almost any state I would like to visit. Playing poker and heading out to Vegas last summer was definitely one of the best times I have had in recent years. I finally met most of the people that I had been talking to for years on the Internet, and most of them seemed to be what I had grown to expect.

Overall, besides playing poker, the best job I have ever had was bussing tables at a restaurant. It is sad to say, but I made the most money I had ever made, met some of the coolest people I have ever met, and it shaped me into the person that I am today. My sister, who has the same degree as me, has been working in Ann Arbor since her graduation a few years before me, and thoroughly enjoys her job. She probably averages about 45 hours a week and makes around $80k a year with full benefits. She says she has a position waiting for me whenever I would like it, however currently I am happy and could not see myself making the plunge into the working world.

I think many of the people that play poker professionally have little to no real world work experience. I believe many are naive to how excruciating it can be to have to report to an authority figure, and bust your ass everyday with little rewards. As terrible as it can be at times, I know that poker is the best choice for myself.