How did you get where you current are?

[elmo]

I started playing chess in 1st grade or so and met Ike. In 7th? grade he tells me about this game hes been playing on the weekends called magic. Flash forward a few years and I've gone about as far with that as I can, and realize that all the good players are playing poker now, instead. So I found a new game.

A friend bought me in several times on UB for like 500 total where I played way out of my bankroll after a week of grinding .5/1. I read some books, grinded the TS 1-3 over winter break, learning with Ike. bought back into UB, got good at HU, and played way out of my bankroll. Eventually got up to 30/60 with around 5k in the account. Ran that up to somewhere in the 15k range playing all sorts of limits, and was luckily succesful... alot of it depended on running well, and HU opponents who folded way too much.

I found Party Poker, and started multi-tabling the 15/30. Took a 2k shot in the 100/200 on interpoker. Ran that up to 30k and then down to 0 in the 150/300 pound game. Withdrew 60k (almost all of my BR) to invest, and lost 30 BB HU to someone lousy playing 300/600. Played on my friend's roll while I tried to get my feet under me, and proceded to run terribly in the 15/30 and drop 250 bets.

Then it was smooth sailing from there. Found rakeback, started 8-tabling (now 10), stopped taking shots for a while, 100,000 hands in the 15/30 and 150,000 in the 30/60.

Then the party thing happened. Since I couldn't run my game, I decided to take a 40 bb shot in the UB 150/300 when the games were good. Lost about 12k, and decided to just go back to 30/60. I really way more comfortable with the swings there, and shouldn't be in a hurry to move up.

[baronzeus]

It was almost 6 months ago to the day.

My friend (who lurks and goes by ncray on the boards) told me about a promotion called "Instant Bankroll." They were basically handing out $75 to everyone who signed up under their affiliate name. I hadn't really played much poker before that time; a few games between my High school friends and me was really my only experience. There was also some promotion Pacific Poker had the year before where I got a set of free poker chips by playing 500 hands at .02/.04. I even took a shot at .25/.50 during those sessions and made something like $8.

So I went ahead and signed up for Instant Bankroll. Can't be too much of a hassle, right? Within 4 days I had $75 deposited and my account and I was playing.

Over the first 3 days I lost $30 of my initial $75 at .5/1. I couldn't understand why. The players were so bad! How could I be losing money [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. I honestly had no winning sessions over the first week of my play and was ready to call it quits.

Then came the Party Poker new player free roll. I hadn't really played in any tournaments of the scale before and I just sat down to play one day when i was really pumped. The tournament was like watching paint dry. My strategy was basically to wait for good hands and trap my opponents. And they kept coming over and over! I steadily built up my chips and after 3 more hours of boredom I was at the final table.

Once I got to the final table I realized I had no clue what I was doing. After several hands of getting "sucked out" by flushes I busted out in 7th. It was still a big victory for me though not only because it gave me some confidence but also because it added to my roll --$150 in prize money!!

After the tournament and a $25 bonus from party, my roll had reached nearly $200. I "borrowed" my friend's copy of Small Stakes Hold'em and after flipping through it for a few minutes decided it wasn't worth my time and threw it on my floor. My goal was just to grind each limit until I had the roll to play the higher limits, and I was going to get better by playing rather than reading some stupid book.

After winning that tournament I started running hot. Of course, I had no idea that I was running hot -- I thought I was just really good at poker. My roll reached 300. I withdrew 200 and deposited 100 on some prima for some bonus. My roll reached $400. Then I moved up to 1/2.

This was the middle of may. Around the same time another friend of mine (goes by AK13 on the forums) introduced me to two plus two and I started posting. At first i thought it was stupid to post here but then I got more and more interested.

The "middle of the story" is more of me grinding and bonus whoring. I did some of that, moved to 2/4, did a lot more of that and suddenly found myself with a 2K roll or so. It was pretty sweet. I made $2000 playing poker! I rule! Along the way I made some retarded posts on 2+2 and got destroyed. by the members here (namely Joker122 [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

It was now the middle of june and I had been playing poker for 3 months. My roll was sitting at 2500 and 2/4 was becoming stupid for me. But people kept telling me that 3/6 sucked and so I started playing 6max on party. TO learn, I played 1/2 for a while, but I was way too retardedly aggrssive lost 200 quickly. I moved back to 2/4 to recoup my losses.

A few days later I was watching a 5/10 table that my friend was sitting at. There was a player named "Prettyboy33" sitting there who I watched and was just absolutely horrible. After a few minutes of watching an open seat popped up. I immediately grabbed it. I mean, 250BB roll, that's gotta be enough, right? (wrong of course but I was retarded) After a few minutes I took $90 off of him and searched for the otehr tables he was at, and sat at those. I played for about 30 minutes and took $170. Sweet. That's like $340 an hour. I rule.

To keep the story short, I'll just tell you that I ran extremely well for the rest of June and the first week of july or so. I made about 450BB after a lot of playing and after rakeback my roll was sitting pretty nicely at around 8K.

Then came the monster of all downswings. One day, in the first few weeks of july, the "Win" switch just went off. I started losing -- every day. My roll kept dwindling. I had withdrawn 3000 for expenses for cars and housing and after the downswing reached 300BB I began to get desperate. I tried everything. I played SNGs, I played NL ring games, I made sad posts on twoplustwo, I really had no idea what to do. I kept losing every day for the whole month. Suddenly, my bankroll was back to 2000. I played in a few tournaments, tilted away another thousand, kept losing, and a 400BB downswing left me with $500 to my name. My friends could tell that I was pretty depressed about the whole thing but I was really out of options.

So I made one more post on 2p2. If it led to nothing, it would have been my last. It was a desperate post asking for coaching. I got several offers, but they were all too expensive and way over my bankroll. Fortunately, NLSoldier had recently drafted me to his HULA team with ALL1N, who had sent me a few messages about "getting to know me" since I had no idea who he was (and vice versa). After replying to his post, I solicited coaching from him (yes I know probably bad) but he said it was something he wanted to do and he was willing to do it for a fair price since he had never coached before.

I took $200 out of my $1400 rakeback check and essentially gave it to him. That was really all I could afford at the time. The end of July was nearing and finally we had our session. I played 200 hands of the best poker I could, sent him the HH files, and he looked them over and we talked. A lot of the things he said were standard to me but a lot of the things were really new to me. Either way, he said a few comments about my play which really instilled confidence in me again, and I went back to playing. 3/6 6max had just been opened and I used my $400 + $1200 left to start playing.

It was as if the "Win" switch had been turned on again. I went on a crazy upswing starting at the beginning of August. After 15K hands of 3/6, 15K hands of 5/10, in addition to rakeback, I was making almost 3BB/100 at those limits and my roll was hovering around 10K.

Then I made the "big jump" starting in the first day of September. 10/20 6m was scary to me because people always talked about how aggressive it was, but I felt like I needed to do it to be better as a player. I played around 20K hands of 10/20 and ran just over 3BB/100 again. By the end of September I was running well and had moved up to 15/30 and 20/40. Soon I was at 25/50. I've played about 10K hands at 15/30, 20/40, and 25/50 each since late september, and my roll is sitting at about 50K.

One thing I regret right now is taking shots at the huge games. I played a little bit of 50/100 in which, although I felt like I had an edge, I lost 60BBs. THis was accompanied by a 100BB downswing at 30/60 so I dropped 12K in like 3 days, knocking off my winnings for september down to 8K or so. But I will keep grinding and getting better and will move up whenever I feel like my edge is big enough that I can handle the variance.


There's my poker story. Not very interesting but at least you get to know who I am.

[yellowjack]

An excellent post. Great to see someone go through ups and downs and end up way in the green. Also refreshing to see not everything begins with a big tournament win. I won a B&M tournament but had to invest that cash so I'm stuck playing $1/$2...sigh.

[PokerPrince]

This is kinda funny cause I'm extemely drunk right now. I honestly don't talk about how I got into poker much but I guess when you've had a few drinks it doesn't matter much. I worked a LOT of odd jobs. I worked at a grocery store nightshift stocking shelves, as a security guard at creepy hotels, as a blackjack/baccarat dealer at a casino. None of those seemed to feel right. I always felt different amongst the crowd of employees. My thinking has always been very outside the box. When I discovered the world of poker in about 1999 I emersed myself in it. I really enjoyed the complexity of the game and felt it to be kind of like a chess game with a social atmosphere. I continued to work and play every few nights in house games, usually around 5-10 limit. I did quite well. I made notes on players and on my progress, feeling very content not just financially but emotionally. My paychecks would become a fuel for me to ignite my pashion for the game.

Eventually I realized that working in a regular job was not for me. It was around this time that I was diagnosed with manic depression. My ups and downs were quite ridiculous. I jockied from medication to medication hoping desperately that I would find the right one to aleviate my insanity. I would take time off work to play poker and -EV table games such as blackjack and baccarat. I blew paycheck after paycheck after paycheck. I would say that within a years time I could probably buy a porsche with what I spent gambling. Only one game stood out from the others in terms of mental satisfaction and profitability...poker.

Eventually I quit those horrendously unprofitable house edge games and realized that if I really put my mind to work and focussed on getting better, I could maybe make a living in poker. When I first told my parents, "I'de really like to attempt to make some kind of living playing this game." they looked at me with strange eyes. I felt like an outcast, like I had put a spell of shame upon them. I quit my odd going nowhere job and took my beat up car to Toronto where there was a myriad of local club games to chose from. I was alone, for the first time in my entire life.

The first night was filled with fear. I only had a couple thousand with me and the game was full of mean ugly street thugs who cared not about me or my needs or aspirations. From this day forward I would come in here at 7pm and play til dawn playing tight unimaginative poker. I would sleep in my car for 7 months straight, reading The Theory Of Poker and Hold 'em Poker For Advanced Players under flashlight. Man it was cold and lonely. Only my thirst for knowledge and profits kept me going. I still look back and laugh at the most insane night ever when I hit a HOT run playing 10-20 and won 3700 in about 3 hours. I was followed out to my car by two angry players and had to thwart them off using my boot knife(very very scary and adrenaline pumping to the max).

I worked my meager bankroll up to enough to finally rent a room in a house outside of Toronto. It really wasn't much, but a far cry better than the back seat of my 88' Cavalier. I got a cheapo computer and dabbled a little with online poker. At first I thought, 'What a scam! This can't be legit!' I blasted through a good portion of my roll in some games on paradise and ub. One night after surfing through some porn I noticed an banner for a poker site that need Props. Hmmm this could be interesting.


I won't go into extreme detail of the sites I have propped for but to cut a long story short, I was evenutally staked by the manager of the prop program. He gave me 1k to play with and I got half profits and prop pay for my efforts for three months. Not bad seeing as I was near broke. I worked HARD. Played alllllll night and slept allllll day. After three months I had turned that 1k into about 21k playing 3-6 and 5-10. I got half of that and went out on my own. From 0 dollars I have worked it into buying a condo, a new car and a healthy bankroll for mid/high limits. I DO NOT take any of this for granted nor should anyone in a similar situation. Kind of a rags to riches story(though not quite rich, lol). I found the right medication that keeps me balanced and happy and mentally sound. It had been a very rough road to travel. With all of this came sacrifices, such as a real social life and acquiring knowledge of the world around me. Do I have any regrets? No. Would I do it all over again? Of course. I don't answer to anyone. I am my own boss. I am my own master. The knowledge that I have gained within a few short years is worth a lifetime of laboring punching clocks with the commoners. We are all worm-feed from birth, why not take some chances before we are put to rest? Thanks for reading.

[Diplomat]

Awesome post. Stick around a while, eh?

-Diplomat

[jph0424]

I started playing when I got to college in the Fall of 2001. It was just a $10 buy in home game at the fraternity house but I found myself consistently winning and bought a couple of books with some of my profits (TOP and HPFAP). After reading these I began to do even better in the game at the house but had no idea online poker even existed.

In the Spring of 2004 I studied abroad in Australia and New Zealand. I was not old enough yet to play in the US but saw that there were some casinos there that offered hold em and I gave it a shot. After playing 4 nights in Melbourne and 2 nights in Christchurch I had made over $2500 playing 4/8 (ran really hot and the play was horrendous). This was crazy money to me and then I really caught the bug.

When I got back to the US I noticed one of my friends playing on Pacific Poker and I offered him 10% of my winnings if I could play on his account. I played .5/$1 and made a couple hundred bucks before I decided to open up my own account and eliminate the middle man. I gradually moved up in stakes and by the end of the year I was playing 5/10 full and $30 SNGs. I made about $10k in 2004 playing cards and thought that was ridiculous. I ordered some more 2+2 books and finally decided to visit the website.

After I found twoplustwo.com I learned about rakeback, poker tracker, multi-tabling, and 6 max games. I am forever in debt to this board for it. I opened up an Empire rakeback account and played 10,000 hands of $1/$2(6max) during which I ran at 4BB/100 so I moved up to 5/10 in April. I played over 50k hands of 5/10(6max) and ran at 2.5BB/100. Then I made the move to 10/20(6max) played another 40k hands and ran at 2BB/100. I also played 40k hands at 15/30 6max at 2bb/100. I currently play 15/30 - 30/60 short and have continued to do pretty well. During my time at 6 max I have endured a 300BB downswing and a 30K hand breakeven stretch. I hit the $100k mark last month but am still in school and will graduate in December. I am actively seeking a job because I have no desire to JUST play poker for a living.

-JP

[J.A.Sucker]

I played poker. A lot of it. Eventually, I won enough to win more. Rinse, repeat.

[Gamblor]

Great story, just make sure you're not checkraising runner-runner straight draws in high-limit games against anyone but the unluckiest Port Perry fish anytime soon.

Let's hit the Niagara big NL games this weekend. I'll call Diplomat

[TxRedMan]

I walked into a 5-10 limit game and made like 45 BB's the first time I ever played and was hooked. I lost a small fortune in 15-30, then won a 100 NL tourney on PP that cushioned my BR with an extra 8K, so that helped. But i read every single book I could get my hands on and drove my opponents mad with my incessant discussion about hands, whether they were in the hand, and what was really bad, I used to always ask them what they had when they lost a pot...oops.


curiosity killed the cat and made me a better player.

also, being in front of a cpu at work all day helps too, especially when you dont have to deal with those stupid firewalls.

[Diplomat]

[ QUOTE ]
Great story, just make sure you're not checkraising runner-runner straight draws in high-limit games against anyone but the unluckiest Port Perry fish anytime soon.

Let's hit the Niagara big NL games this weekend. I'll call Diplomat

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a working/married stiff now, so this weekend will not work...next weekend could though.

-Diplomat