OK, so I quit, thankyou and goodbye...

Hello everyone,

Its been a few weeks now since I posted a rather bizarre message in the middle of a blonde $ 10 last longer challenge thread. The dust is settling and I'm in a better frame of mind to expand on that post and to say goodbye properly...

As many of you knew I was on exercise in Norway. Whilst there I had a lot of time to think about my life; one thing I realised was that I was playing too much poker - and this was at the expense of my young family. I was probably playing too many hours, waking up irritable and not paying as much attention to my wife as I should have done (no lewd comments thanks).

Anyway, a seemingly happy phone call to my wife (whilst multi tabling) kinda turned angry. I would always dumb down/quit poker of my own accord - but never be TOLD to do so. Big mistake. This triggered a bad phone call. My wife wanted to leave Germany and so I flew back home to convince her to stay.

At this time it also became apparent that my son is having asthma related difficulties; so a house move was required. In 3 weeks we have moved house at short notice, stayed in hotels and moved into a (lovely modern) new house. Unfortunately we have still not rid ourselves of the trigger for Ellis' asthma/croup. So there is still some way to go before we can sort the little man out. The medical services over here are very frustrating.

But through all of this we have not argued once and have become closer again. We are getting on well and I hope we can make it work.

My wife and family mean everything to me; so it is that I have promised to quit poker and hopefully the change in lifestyle will 'bring back the old me' and we will get along better. I desperatley do not want to have my wife and kids to go back to the UK, as a seperation is bad enough but the distance and demands of service life multiplies the difficulties.

If we do split then I will inevitably leave the army and return to the UK. But for now I have to concentrate on keeping my wife and family - and that means quitting poker and changing some of my ways! The only way back to poker is if things don't work out, but naturally I want my wife and kids alot more than I want poker. So hopefully I won't play poker again...

I have had a fun couple of years playing poker and have met some wonderful friendly people through blonde/apat. Its also been great posting on Blonde, which is without doubt the best poker forum in Europe. Thankyou to all for your advice on topics ranging from Anti Virus to PHA to Football topics and even more bizarre. I've really enjoyed my time on Blonde.

A special thankyou should go to Tikay, Des and Tighty. 3 great guys who do alot for the grass roots and really made me feel welcome in the Poker world after my Welsh win last year. I should also like to say thanks to other Blondes I have met - Kinboshi (good mate now), KP (for putting up with me in Cardiff), LeKnave and that tramp fella Linux, Ironside, Geo, Eric Stoner, Technolog (for dishing out lots of bad beats to me) and so many more...oh yeah to Boldie for always having the first forum reply!!!!!

Funnily enough it was a post by M3Boy that got me thinking about the costs to family life inflicted by poker. He was right. I'll just say, stop every now and then. Double check that you're not playig too much and that your loved ones aren't feeling neglected...its not worth risking losing them....

Anyway, this has already taken up too much time.

Good luck to you all at the felt, may your suckouts be great and many whilst your opponents are TAP/unlucky...

Lee