SamsaraWithWords

"To outplay a man in poker is to own him in mind, wallet, and soul." - Joey Fiore, World Series of Poker champion.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a millionaire overnight? It was the start of the poker boom and that was the dream of millions of poker players all over the world. All types of geniuses, gamblers, and hustlers flocked to poker rooms with ambitions of making it big. Follow Joey, a teenager with the special ability of an empath, as he rises to challenge the greatest poker players in existence.

Empath: someone with the abnormal ability to experience the thoughts and emotions of others. (*This is a real life ability.)

*Like other sports or game novels, you don’t need to understand poker to enjoy this novel. It’s written in a reader-friendly manner. While I’ll introduce poker basics at a gradual pace in the background, the focus will be on thrilling competitions and dramatic aspects that everyone can relate to.

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Emperor of Poker

No, this is not bad news. I just wanted to thank everyone for their support so far. To everyone who's recommended this to a friend, given a spirit stone, added to library, or written a comment, thank you. They're all motivation for me to continue telling this story.


It's not easy for a first time writer. When I was only a reader, I never understood the difficulties of being a creator. Reading a chapter may take only a few minutes, but writing it takes hours. Then there's the constant doubt that we all face when starting something new. With every word written, your mind pesters you with many thoughts:


Growing up, I never really enjoyed writing. Now I realize that was only because I never found anything I wanted to write. It was probably seven years ago when I first had the idea to write this story. I wasn't reading web novels back then, but I had read manga since my childhood. That was the format I first visualized this in. However, being western, with no illustration skills, I didn't know of any path to start creating this kind of thing. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, that stopped me from starting this endeavor.


Then five years ago, I started reading Asian web novels. At that time, there were really only a few such novels partially translated into English. Now, if there aren't over 1000 completely translated, there are 800. That's not to mention the English originals. It's amazing how far things have come in such a short time. Recently, the web novel industry has grown to a size where a good writer can potentially even make a living doing this if he works hard enough. That was the turning point for me.


With Covid halting the spin of the world, I found myself with many more free hours in the day. Suddenly one afternoon, the inspiration hit me that I could write this story as a web novel. I sat down, typed my first paragraph, and from then, I was hooked. Now, here we are. 142 pages out into the world.


There's still a very long way to go. We haven't scratched the surface of Joey's story yet. After all, the road to the top is a long and challenging one. Still, I just wanted to get that out there and let you know I appreciate everything. Every little bit of support helps me and encourages me to keep writing this story, and to put the utmost care into every word I type. Thank you everyone for reading so far, and I hope you'll continue with me on this journey.


Author's Letter 1