Where was that kinda cash when i was a player?

i think i earlier eluded to the fact that in my youth i was a serious chess player. My best result in PA was placing 2nd state-wide in 8th grade with a score of 4/5. By my sophmore year of high school I had stopped training but was coaxed out of retirement to complete masterman's tenth grade team as my friends Caitlin and Andrew wouldn't have been able to compete otherwise. By some miracle of good calculation and relaxation I managed to place tied for 14th in the our age group in the country helping us win the national 10th grade title. I also played on a couple other national championship and runner-up teams.

I never liked playing several hour long tournament games as much as i liked speed chess where you have to make all your moves in less than five minutes a side. it was much more focusing and exciting. When the big tournaments were happening, i occasionally played for money in the evenings when the days games had concluded. Sometimes for a couple bucks, and sometimes more, i won anywhere from $5/10 to one night when i was an early teen when I won over $200. Never in my life had I heard or seen anything like this before reading it just now. The best player to come out of the Masterman (our philly public school) program was a guy name greg shahade. He just was involved in a series of games with stakes exceeding $50,000. Check it out. He is a fun writer and you can learn a bit about poker and chess gambling culture.