Down comes the axe

Well, it happened. Yesterday afternoon, my boss called in my group (all 3 of us) and told us that big layoffs were coming immediately and there was a HUGE chance that our small group of 4 would be smaller come the weekend. Now I'm no stranger to the big corporate game, having been a victim of mass layoffs at Morgan Stanley following 9/11, so I know that reductions of this magnitude don't happen overnight. They take many weeks preparing this sort of thing and the managers involved know in advance who the victims are going to be. During my boss's long speech, he didn't make eye contact with me even once.

And that's how I knew it was going to be me.

Thank my poker skills for picking up on this 'read'. When someone avoids eye contact with you, it's because they don't want you to know something. It's ironic in a way, because I landed this job over a poker table 3.5 years ago and it's my very experience at the poker table that allowed me to figure out I was losing it too.

In the meantime, I got a pretty decent severance package and have a few months to worry about finding more employment. My phone number, which belonged to the company, is now kaput. I ran out to AT&T this afternoon to get a new phone and new number so hit me up with an email if you want my new contact details. I sent out all my contact info to the Wall Street Poker League list, but if I missed you, let me know by commenting.

Thanks to everyone so far who has expressed their condolences via Facebook.

Poker lives on! (And who knows, may be my sole source of income for a while)