"You cannot live on other people's promises, but if you promise others enough, you can live on your own."
--Unknown

vi-car-i-ous
adj.
1. Felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another: read about mountain climbing and experienced vicarious thrills.
2. Endured or done by one person substituting for another: vicarious punishment.
3. Acting or serving in place of someone or something else; substituted.

It's been a while. I'm still "here," although these days "here" means sitting in an office in Dublin trying to provide you with the best online poker experience possible. It's a lot of work. So much work that these days I barely have time to open up a browser, let alone write a blog post. So I apologize to my (formerly) loyal readers for the lack of posts, but at the moment my top priority is continuing to build the foundation for an online poker environment that will allow you to get the most of your sessions at the virtual table.

I miss playing poker and writing about it. I miss reading all of the poker blogs and watching the writers of these blogs grow and develop their voices. I miss the LA home game that started at 7 pm and ended at 5 am. I can't even remember the last time I got home before 7. But that's my choice -- a choice to build something great, something that will hopefully bring a lot of happiness to poker players, poker bloggers, and anybody else willing to take a seat at the table.

So I'm trying to do something to recapture some of these things.

These days I tend to spend a fair bit of time living vicariously. Like a poker player out of action but with the bankroll to stake a few horses, I manage people and projects that I wish I could be doing myself. Watching these projects grow and prosper allows me to share in the experience and thrill that the people involved in the project are feeling.

So if I can't blog anymore, at least I can work with others who can.

I want to introduce you to a new project that I'm hoping will give me a little taste of that feeling I used to get when clicking "Publish" after a carefully crafted blog post.

And who knows, you might even find a new post from yours truly.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce a good friend and lead writer -- someone who I'll be living vicariously through when it comes to writing about poker .

I miss you guys.

Humble Beginnings: by One Angry Monkey

We all have to start somewhere.

I was just getting settled in to this kick-ass new job working for one of the top online poker companies in the world, when hdouble pulls me and my cohorts into his office to tell us about his idea for a new poker blog. Great, at least we don't have high standards to live up to. Thus the seed was planted and Poker From The Rail was born.

From those humble beginnings, we've now grown into a small sapling. Every day that we post our roots grow deeper and the plant sprouts up another inch, but it's not easy. Nothing worthwhile is. From day one we've struggled with our identity and how to fit ourselves into a poker blogging community that's already overflowing with content. Are we going to be a blog that covers tournaments and news from the poker world? Will we write about our own meager experience born from the chaos at the tables? How could we exist as a "corporate" blog without feeling too corporate?

On top of it all, there stood hdouble. This is his baby, but he was leaving it up to us to raise it. hdouble has moved on to bigger and possibly better things, but he's never forgotten the roots of his own humble beginnings and a blogging community that is still very close to his heart. This blog was his chance to get back into the game a little bit, if only to live vicariously through the three stooges he pegged to write about poker every day. The question remained, how do we pull it off?

The only requirement passed down by hdouble when we started this little experiment was that he wanted a way to give back to poker community. Yes, we all work for "the house," but that doesn't mean that this "house" has no heart. Just being a part of a corporate entity doesn't automatically disqualify us from having fun doing something we get paid for. Even if we're only getting paid in pesos.

And make no mistake, Poker From The Rail is not a money making scheme. Sure, there was some mention of SEO made in our meetings, but I still haven't figured out exactly what SEO even means. At the end of the day, we decided that we're all about having fun with what we're doing and proving that Full Tilt Poker does have a sense of humor about itself.

With that in mind, we try our best to infuse each post with as much humor and intelligence that we can squeeze out of our tiny brains. We're all poker players, but none of us are experts. We're the guys hanging on the rail. At the same time, we're able to give a bit of insight into the world of online poker that only a select few get to glimpse. We're on the outside looking in, and the inside looking out. Maybe that's why we're so confused most of the time.

Of course, we're also a synthesized version of our biggest influences. All of us are rather taken with the irreverent tone used by the boys down at Wicked Chops . Those guys always seem to be having fun, and by golly we want to join them on that road to success. We're all big fans of Pauly, Mean Gene , and Iggy , and so many of the other great writers out there. I'm also a huge fan of Bill Simmons, ESPN's The Sports Guy, and thoroughly enjoy the chance to emulate his mailbag on a weekly basis.

As time goes on and Poker From The Rail grows, we'll keep growing as bloggers and perfecting our craft. We can continue in hdouble's footsteps and carry on his legacy of top-notch poker blogging -- making him the proud papa that he ought to be.

-- One Angry Monkey

Yes, I'm still alive, but barely.

This piece of software was impressive enough to awaken me from my work-induced coma and kick the tumbleweeds off this blog for a minute.

These guys are really helping me start my journey from limit specialist to no-limit novice.

My other non-working hours are spent like this:

I'll be back, eventually.

Ok, I know a lot of people have chalked this blog up to being dead, but I'm still here. I have some good stuff saved up over the last couple of months, but for now you'll have to hold on to some of my favorite quotes from the most quotable boxer of all time.

"I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights."

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'"

"Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are."

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

--Muhammad Ali

Ok, I know the shilling is getting tiresome, but I promise to have some real content later this month.

Until then, check out the Full Tilt Poker Blog, where you can now get paid for every post you write:

Each day we'll pick one article and publish it on our blog. If we publish your entry, we'll put $50 in your player account - that's not a bad return for giving us your two cents.

I'll be on the "panel of judges," so jokes about washed-up poker bloggers will be punished!

Greetings from Dublin!

Sorry to be gone so long, and to break the silence on such a dark day for online poker, but this is important:

An Open Letter From Full Tilt Poker Regarding the State of Your Online Poker Experience