"Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire" – Elvis Presley, 1964.

Christmas Day 2004, and I’m sitting in the Qantas Club at Adelaide Airport with an old Army mate, waiting for our flight to Sydney, the first leg of a whirlwind tour of the US. And I was excited. Why? Because the first port of call for us would be the place I had dreamed of going for years, Las Vegas.

I thought I was. Turns out I’m a person who enjoys and plays poker.

After I wrote my first article for this website, I was kicking around ideas for my second one. Nothing really stood out for me. Then I received news that really affected me, more than I realised it would. It also made me gain some perspective on my life and the way I perceive poker.

I guess the first blog/column is always the most difficult. It’s trying to introduce people to who you are, why you are relevant and then let them decide if they want to stick around. I have read some of the other articles on the Mistress Poker website and am definitely looking forward to some more of the wisdom and insights from other players and friends.

Things that you know you know, things that you know you don’t know and things that you don’t know that you don’t know. Huh?

Growing up in Adelaide, many will know that our poker community is full of phenomenal young guns. The likes of Jarred Graham, James Obst and Jono Karamalikis are who I and many upcoming players aspire to emulate. Their lifestyle, their presence and notoriety in the poker world, and the money and titles they have won is something I look up to. This is my journey into that world.

I would expect almost 75% of people who read this article, in the first two weeks of posting it, would have some preconceived notion of who I am. For those of you unaware I am the National Poker Manager for the 888Poker League and as such I have a very different relationship with the Mistress than most other contributors on this site.

There's going to come a time during your poker life when you become “self aware”, for lack of a better term. What I mean is, you're going to start realising when you are playing well and when you are playing badly, when you are riding the rush and when you are just smacked by a cold deck