As I've stated before, one of my favorite things to do at Poker Curious is interview players.  I decided to contact David 'Gaucho2121' Paredes after his NAPT Venetian final table success.  I haven't spoken to him much the last couple of  years, but I've always respected him as a player and person.  I am looking forward to the interview and I'll let you know when it's up.

In doing the research for his interview questions, I came across an old CardRunners page I was asked to prepare in September 2007.  It featured all the guest pros on CardRunners, with a brief bio and a picture.  It was later updated with CR 2.0 and then disappeared altogether.  Hopefully, it will reappear in improved fashion when CardRunners rolls out the next version of the site, as it humanizes and creates cohesion with the group of guest pros who create the instructional videos we all appreciate.

This is the old list:

X-Aaron Been
X-Serge 'Adanthar' Ravitch
X-Brian 'Bdog4' Cain
X-Harry 'bortarun' Greenhouse
X-Brad 'bradsmitty' Smith
Tom 'brystmar' Berg
Ryan Daut
X-Blake 'Empiremaker2' Stevenson
X-Fabian Sjoblom
X-Dan 'Fruitypro' Weston
X-David 'Gaucho2121' Paredes
X-Brian 'Hookem148' Rue
X-Ian 'IanJ' Johns
Phil 'Jackal69' Shaw
X-Michael 'Johnnydrama' Berra
X-Josh 'jsup' Supsak
X-Jason 'mkind16' Laso
Isaac 'menlo' Baron
Derric 'Sixpeppers' Haynie
X-Andy 'Tufat23' Teng
X-Emil 'Whilelime' Patel

I put an X by the names of those guest pros who moved on or who aren't active.  I had contact with each one of them in my operations manager role or preparing the videos back in the day.  So I have a natural nostalgia for an older time and place that was CardRunners in the early years.

There seems to be a natural turnover as players shift to different stages of their poker careers or de-emphasize it altogether. Many capable guest pros have filled their roles, so it's not a criticism in any way.  I commend the long time instructors like Brystmar, Sixpeppers, and Jackal69 for their longevity and dedication.

I would enjoy interviewing each and every one of them to follow up and see where they are today.  Watching their poker careers ebb and flow, along with their growth as people is satisfying to me.  Poker isn't what they are, but what they do.  When I interview players, I try to focus on a variety of issues, not so much how they play poker.  I sometimes struggle with my desire to dig much deeper into areas of personal interest that might not be of interest to the general public that doesn't know these individuals.  I'm just a curious person.  Poker Curious and life curious.