[Tom Bayes]

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When did you start playing poker, live/online or otherwise?

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I learned how to play draw and stud from my great-uncle when I was a teenager, but I never played seriously until about 4 years ago. I was in grad school in the mid-late 1990s and luckily was unaware of IRC Poker or online poker, as I might not have gotten through school so quickly [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

In either late 2002 or early 2003 I had "learned" about holdem and online poker and started at Paradise Poker. I was reading a book on Bayesian stats earlier my first day online, thus the "Tom Bayes" nickname. I deposited $100 and played $0.50/$1 limit holdem. I was terrible and went through a couple of deposits.

I figured out that I'd better either learn how to play decently or quit. I found stuff like 2+2 and RGP on the Internet and got some books and started becoming halfway competent. My first time playing in a casino was in June 2003. Some friends and I were spending a "bachelor's" weekend in the Memphis area with a guy getting married. In addition to partying on Beale Street and going to Al Green's church, we spent a night in Tunica. I played some 4/8 limit at the Grand and had a winning night. I played a cheap live tourney the next day and got AA cracked early.

I didn't really get into tourneys until the end of 2003 when I left Paradise and started playing a lot at UB and Stars. I really liked Stars because the micro tourneys were a cheap and fun way to learn how to play games like omaha and stud and high-low. One of my first final table in a MTT was a $1 Stud/8 at Stars in late 2003. I finished 2nd and played like a real pussy HU. Somewhere in the archives I made a post about it and some dude named Fossilman told me to play more aggressively [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I stumbled across Planet Poker in early 2004. I had gotten Super System and decided I wanted to play draw and lowball, and Planet had some games. I did well in their little tournaments and found that I had more of a knack for draw games than flop or stud games. I also tend to like the more obscure in life-that goes with my taste in music, movies, books, etc. as well.

In 2005 and part of 2006, I played a lot at B2B, particularly PL draw tournaments and some of the unique games like sökö. Currently, I'm playing mostly at Stars, sometimes at Full Tilt or Planet (I still have a bit of a soft spot for that dinky little site).