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#1
10-22-2006, 02:22 PM
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1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
It’s been a little bit over a year now since I first started playing poker. It’s hard to believe that I’ve come as far as I have in that short amount of time and I can honestly say that I owe the majority of my success and knowledge to this forum and its members.
For my 1000th post I wanted to talk a little bit about what I’ve done to get where I am today. I played poker as a kid – penny ante type stuff with my parents and grandparents. Mostly it was 5 card draw or 5- and 7-card stud games that I was familiar with. My dad also had a weekly Thursday night game that traveled from one house to the next and through observing and generally being a pest I came to understand the basics of the game and how to play. Years later, during my teenage years, friends and I would get together and play a friendly game of draw poker on occasion in which I almost always lost. No scratch that. I ALWAYS lost. It wasn’t until many years later that I was invited to a friend’s home game and was introduced to the game that was taking the nation by storm – Texas Hold’em. This was July of last year. All that it took was one night playing and I was hooked. It didn’t take me very long to make my way to the online sites that offered ‘Free Play’ or play money games. Thanks to the advertisements that ran throughout the WSOP broadcast on ESPN, I started playing on PokerStars and became incredibly interested in the game. I really wanted to make a real money deposit and start playing for cash but, fortunately, I’m a very resourceful person. I knew that playing for real money involved a bit of risk so, before I made any type of deposit online, I did a little research to find a few books that would help me along with my game. At this time the most recommended books were the Harrington on Hold’em series, which I ordered from an online reseller and proceeded to read through both volumes in a matter of days. It was at this time that I started to see the fact that poker really was a game of skill and that the more experienced and knowledgeable player really could turn the edges in his favor. I’m also a very mathematically-oriented person. My friends have always referred to me as a human calculator. So, naturally, I felt like I had a real talent for a game that was centered around the idea of probabilities and statistics. So, I tore through HOH 1 and 2. I made the first of a series of small deposits onto PokerStars and started playing the $1.20 45-player sit n’ gos and micro limit cash games. I did fairly well at the sit n’ go games but I always seemed to lose at cash games no matter how well I played. It was around this same time that I saw the website address for Twoplustwo.com on the back of the books and thought to myself that it couldn’t possibly hurt to become involved in the discussions here. At first it was very hard to become involved because, to be honest, the general nature and tone on these forums can be a bit intimidating to someone who isn’t a part of the community. I was afraid to post hands and offer advice due to the fear of ridicule. A few small deposits later I came to the conclusion that small sit n’ go games would never get me where I wanted to be and the bad taste left in my mouth from micro limit NL tables pushed me towards the Limit strategy forums here at Twoplustwo. I also picked up SSHE and TOP and tore through those books in no time. While browsing the strategy forums one day I came upon a post from CardSharpCook who offered a challenge. He claimed that he could take any ‘green’ player and turn him into a winner playing limit poker. I promptly sent him a PM here on the forums and just a few weeks later I found myself as one of 3 students that he agreed to take on and teach. I made a deposit of $600 on Party Poker and started off playing .50/$1 limit. CSC was a great teacher and influence and, to this day I still consider him a great mentor. Unfortunately, the stakes he was used to playing played out a lot differently than the .50/$1 games did on Party and the style he was teaching me didn’t appear to play as well as it did at his regular $10/$20 game. After countless sessions of him sweating me and reassuring me that he didn’t see any glaring mistakes in my game I decided to take the $275 I had left and move it back over to Stars. As a result of my time with CSC, I had also met a few posters from these forums and we started talking on AIM away from the forums. I would talk to Twisted Echo and mikeymer via AIM on an almost daily basis at this point and, just a few weeks later, had the good fortune to meet gobboboy and start up discussions with him as well. I started playing the micro limit MTTs on PokerStars and had a limited amount of early success. The guys I was talking to regularly were just starting to come into their own at this time. Not only that, but they were incredibly helpful and some nights we would have some amazing discussions over AIM and, eventually, via Skype that would go on until the sun came up (or in the case of Twisted Echo, until lunch time!). After about a month of talking strategy with my newfound friends I started to see some real success, finally culminating in me winning the PokerStars 20k guaranteed tournament for what was a considerable amount of money to me at the time. I went on to have a bit more success and moved up stakes, starting to play a little higher than I ever had. Over the course of the past year I’ve now made around 20 final tables and feel that I’ve had a good amount of success considering that I’ve only been playing the game seriously for just over a year. In that same time I’ve also experienced some downswings and uncertainty in my own game. I’ve made the move from MTTs to cash games – back and forth – more than a few times now. In recent months my focus has been more on cash games but MTTs have always been my first love and still are to this day. I always seem to end up back here in the MTTC and MTT strategy forums because they are what I consider my ‘poker home.’ When I think about the developmental stages I’ve gone through I always think back to MLG’s famous post where he coined the terms confuzzleds, leapers, and a few others that I can’t recall of the top of my head. For anyone who has never read that thread I highly suggest it.. When people say that poker is a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, they’re not kidding. I had no idea how true that statement was when I first started but today I know it to be a fact. I’m always learning, both at the table and away. To date I’ve read 17 titles from the Two Plus Two library – many of them I’ve read twice and I’m in the process of reading a few select ones a third time through. I’ve read a few books from other publishers but Two Plus Two makes the best books on the market, hands down. Every time I’ve gone back and re-read a book I had read before I am able to see things in a whole new light. Theories and strategies that never seemed to click before are now easy to understand. It’s that combination of study and experience that is so valuable. When you couple both of these things together you really can become a very strong competitor in just a short amount of time. Often times I’m presented with opposing thoughts on studying strategy and the ideals that I have had ingrained in me since childhood. My father has always pushed the idea of continuing education and that’s an ideal that I carried with me into the poker world. I know that there are some players out there who have never so much as cracked open a single poker book and they are huge winners. Sure, that’s a possibility and I don’t deny the fact that someone can learn to be a winning player through experience alone. The books and study time are not a prerequisite to becoming a winner. What the books and study DO accomplish is providing the new and inexperienced player with a shortcut. It’s the fast track to learning everything you would over the course of years sitting at a table. A new player can pickup a few books and have a wealth of information at their fingertips that would normally take years to learn through experience alone. The learning process in poker truly is never-ending. I am always amazed at how I can look back at my game months ago and feel like I was ‘such a fish’. In recent months I’ve even joined some of the poker mentoring sites that popped up because the learning process really is that important to me. I honestly believe that a player armed with all of the information that’s made available has a tremendous advantage. I honestly feel that my latest endeavors have paid off enormously as I feel that my understanding of poker has grown by leaps and bounds in recent months. Most of all, I think this forum has been the biggest and most incredible asset to my game. The sheer mass of incredibly talented players who grace these forums with their knowledge is mind boggling. What’s best about it, though, is that everyone gives freely of themselves and that, in turn, is passed on from one generation of player to the next. I’ve now been here long enough to see many of the top players make a hiatus from the discussions, or leave entirely in some cases, only to be replaced by a new crew of ‘experts’ and extremely talented players. I’ve watched the fish of the forum grow into hugely winning players as they are replaced with new novices to the game eager to learn. The most amazing thing of all is that I’ve watched myself grow from a total fish into someone who has been successful this entire year. I can look back at the different stages and see where I truly was a confuzzled and a leaper – whereas today I honestly consider myself a poker player. Even with some of the minor downswings and losses I still consider myself a winner overall – and my results can back that up. Since moving my tiny bankroll from Party to Stars I have never made an additional cash deposit into any of my poker accounts other than to take advantage of a bonus. It’s really amazing that I can look back over the last year and see the changes that I have made. I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to ALL of the posters here for making Two Plus Two the outstanding community that it is. I’ve looked at other forums in the past and I can say, without a doubt, that this is the greatest collection of players and poker strategists that I have ever come across. Beyond that, I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made through this forum and the wonderful people that I’ve had the opportunity to talk with on a regular basis. Without the help and encouragement of all of you I would not be where I am today. THANK YOU ALL! I’ll see you all at the tables! 
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#2
10-22-2006, 02:25 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
tl;dr
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#3
10-22-2006, 02:33 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
[ QUOTE ]
tl;dr [/ QUOTE ] Tom, Is your comment really necessary? It shows a total lack of respect as I clearly put a lot of time into that post. I can see very clearly why you have two *s under your name. In the future how about you show some class and don't say anything... It's comments like yours that made me not want to post on these forums in my earlier days. Now I know better... It's rather unfortunate that you don't. Grow up.
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#4
10-22-2006, 02:47 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] tl;dr [/ QUOTE ] Tom, Is your comment really necessary? It shows a total lack of respect as I clearly put a lot of time into that post. I can see very clearly why you have two *s under your name. In the future how about you show some class and don't say anything... It's comments like yours that made me not want to post on these forums in my earlier days. Now I know better... It's rather unfortunate that you don't. Grow up. [/ QUOTE ] Well put, Nice post.
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#7
10-22-2006, 03:09 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not even sure what "tl;dr" means. Fantastic post. I really enjoy these. Good luck to you as you continue to improve. [/ QUOTE ] too long; didn't read
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#8
10-22-2006, 04:26 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not even sure what "tl;dr" means. [/ QUOTE ] It either means: 1) This thread is too long, I didn't read it, so please forgive me if my response has already been posted. or 2) I'm gonna be a prick. I'll let you figure out which version was used here... Nice post Cybr - hope one day I'll leap up from whatever stage I'm in right now...
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#9
10-22-2006, 04:44 PM
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Re: 1000th Post: I\'m finally not a confuzzled leaper!
It feels silly defending Tom here, but he's a sensationalist. Probably didn't make him cream his pants, but you can be sure he read the damn thing [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
Good read for me, but it wasn't Gibson. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] Having peers that share the love for the game kicks ass, huh? GL with your climb.
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