Rats Answer for HHTB!

I have decide to write a blog instead of just a comment for HHTB's contest.

After reading all the pm's from my clan members, this is what i have come up with. Confidence, family, friends for life, better poker player. pride.

Most of the pm's came down to pretty much the same thing. The one common demoninator though. Joining a clan was the stepping stone to all of thier happiness on this site.

Here is what I mean. Do you remember the first day you joined. Remember that feeling you got. The same feeling you got being the new kid in school. Don't know anyone. If you did happen to know someone. They probably already had lots of friends. You were introduced, but you were still kind of shy. Then there were always the popular people, who were so cool. You just wanted to hang with them. Well that's how me and most of my clan mates felt. The popular people like Astrogini and TopCat and Pokerchix were so cool. But seemed intimidating. Then when u played in your first freeroll or your first private tourny. Everyone seemed to know everyone. Leaving you feeling left out. There was always the friendly bird who welcomed you and said hi, how are you? But that was about it, because you really had nothing to talk about. To some one you didnt know. Then you had to learn all the new slang. Like pm, bump and whoooosh, weeeeeee and woooot, lol.

Then there was the talk of clans. What are clans, why should i join. I meself always felt i wasnt good enough to join. I could not wait for the day when someone would recognize how good i was and invite me to join.

This is what i mean by clans being a stepping stone. Joining a clan opens up all kinds of opportunity's on railbirds. The most obvious is friends. You are immediatly introduced to many members who welcom you with open arms. It starts off with a welcome blog. Then come the friend requests and the pm's from members. Now when you play in a tourny, you now dont feel so lonely. You have someone to chat with. You have people willing to rail and support you,even when they are not playing. Now people are commenting on your blogs. You are no longer the lonely kid, wondering around the halls.

Many people are worried about having just friends with one clan. Conflicted about cheering for a clanmate and another railbird. Who happen's to belong to a different clan. Well clans are also a stepping stone to making friendships in other clans. All members have friends from other clans. Because of this, you are able to meet other people from other clans. now your friends list starts to really grow. You start playing in other clans private tourny's. People are now starting to remember you.

Now that clans have given you friendships. You now are starting to ask questions to better your game. Your starting to become more comfortable. You are no longer embarresed to talk about poker and maybe even offer your own advice. Lessons learned from friends and other railbirds. Mixed with your own lessons learned from playing has made u better at the game you love. Not to mention the friendly competition from clan battles and the league. Your pride in representing your clan makes you want to play even better.

Now that you are a familar face in your clan and on railbirds. You come to realize your clan is more than just a group of friends. They are now a part of your family. You relize you can count on them for more than just poker. Anything life has to throw at you. They are there for you to lean on. If one of them isnt familar with your pain. There is probably someone you met through another clan mate that does.

When i first read about this, i had no idea what to write. Then HHTB said to write an answer base on what you clan wrote to you. Most of this might sound like it is from my point of view, but it is not. I got this answer from my clan. We are starting to bond as a clan. With succes comes pride. Lots of our members are becoming succesful on the tables, and it makes every member proud. CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!

If we win this i am going to give $5 to 4 members who have no br at all on ftp. Or close to nothing. Someone who really needs it to get their br going. Thank you HHTB for this opportunity.