A few weeks into the second year of my law degree (about 9 months ago) I decided to try playing a bit of poker online in the university library. Little did I know at this time how much my life was going to change as a result of this first small step. I had been taught how to play poker (as in the rules) by my mother when I was about 10. Card games were the main pastime during family gatherings and were generally a bit of fun although I remember being shouted at on many occasions for making stupid plays when first starting out. I was always determined to be able to play with the “big boys” (my uncles, cousins and so on) so I stuck at it learning the rules of many different games which were played and trying not to get shouted at.
Various forms of poker were of course played and I remember clearly that poker games were always my favourite as I could usually hold my own and seemed to be quite lucky. I remember clearly the first time I ever checked raised. It was a game of 5 card draw and I was around 12 y/o. I was dealt 4 parts of a straight and was UTG so I was unable to open. My uncle opened (jacks or better) and 4 or 5 of us called the Irish pound including my elderly grandmother whom I adored. This for some reason did not deter me from the deception which ensued as I made my straight and (thinking I was really smart at the time) proceeded to check letting the betting unfold in front of me. There was a standard raise from one of my uncles and then my unsuspecting grandmother who was the dealer and had clearly fallen in love with her hand went on to raise with a big smile on her face. I then of course put in the rest of my money much to her shock and confusion as such a (sneaky) play was, in her words, “not allowed when I learnt the game you little devil!” A heated discussion followed as to whether my actions were to be allowed in and it was finally decided that Granny would have to put in more of her money. She flipped over 2 pair and I thought I was a genius [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Back in the university library I have decided to play no limit hold em for the first time beginning with mtts on party poker. I decide to invest in a copy of Play Poker Like the Pros by Hellmuth and go on to win my first 5 table tourney soon after. I was able to see it just as a bit of fun and never think any more of it for all of about 2 weeks but after buying and digesting Super System shortly after I started playing more and more with immediate rewards deciding to concentrate completely on no limit hold em. As the weeks went on I found myself attending less and less lectures as all I could think about was getting back to the tables. One evening I was going particularly badly in my usual $10+1 mtts and was becoming increasingly frustrated. I was about to leave to go back to my flat when I decided to take the last $40 left in my account to a $1/2 cash table, something I had never tried before. I left the table that day $350 up and shaking from the adrenaline of my first cash game experience.
For the next 2 weeks I went to less and less lectures and managed to build my roll up to $2500 dollars, mostly playing only $1/2 for about 5 hours each day. Everything seemed so clear to me and I honestly felt invincible at the tables. This is when I started to cause serious troubles for myself. I found myself playing higher and higher stakes until I was sitting down at $25/50. As you can imagine I lasted 2 days. At one point in my first day I was up to 7k through my overly aggressive play and some lucky catches (at the time of course I thought I was playing great). By the end of the second it was all gone. I bought back in with the remainder of my student loan whilst on mega tilt (much to the delight of the sharks who were jeering me on in the chat box) and went on to piss it all away within the next 30mins.
The walk home from the library that night seemed much longer than usual and was the start of the worst couple of weeks of my life. I felt like I had been crushed and found myself without the willpower to leave my flat. My mental state was soon mirrored by my physical as I fell ill destroying any hope of me recovering weeks of study that had been lost previously. I was well and truly a degenerate and I knew it for sure.
Having resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to complete my degree I went back to the tables as soon as I managed to get some money together, playing more at the local casino rather than going back online, partly as I didn’t trust myself.
9 months later and I constantly learning the importance of money management skills, maturity and discipline on top of the playing ability one brings to the table as a poker player.
P.S. sorry for dragging on but it’s my first 2+2 post and I wanted to get this off my chest
DEVILSET