2 years of internet poker... (Current blog and recap)

[ggbman]

Actually 2 years and one day, but who's counting? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] On June 26th, 2004, i completed my junior year of high school, i was 16 years old, and my parents allowed me to make a $200 deposit into party poker with money i have saved by putting all my spare change in a big corona bottle piggie bank. My life has changed an absolutley petrifying amount since that time. My long term GF and I split up pretty much right as we entered college, which was a large blow to me, as we had gone to college 5 miles apart to be together. I think in retrospect, a lot of my pain from that experience came from falling into a relationship where i was comfortable, and being single again after a long hiatus was very weird.

At the same time, being single gave me a lot more free time, and my poker career really began to take off. I had been sucessfully working my way prior to this breakup, but with the extra time and the need to be distracted, i really focused on improving my poker game, which ended up paying handsome dividends. When i went to college in September of 2005, i had my best month of poker ever to date. I made a little of 40k playing 20-40 and 30-60, and this had followed back to back 20k-ish months over the summer. I really felt like i was rolling. At the ned of September, i also made and lost back 10k in the last few days at 10-20 NL which would foreshadow some later developments in my career.

October was a very difficult month for me all around. I had this strained relationship with my ex who contacted me more than i was comfortable with, my grandmother who i was quite close with passed, and i made an unsucessful attempt to move up to 50-100 and 100-200, and ended up dropping about 25 in October. It was just an ungly combination of things coming together. During this time, i also began to drink too much. I am pretty real with myself about my habits, and while most people i tell that to say, "You are in college, there is no such thing as too much drinking." But i would guestimate that i was probably drining 6-7 nights a week and having over 8 drinks a night. I would basically get my work done, play poker, and then drink with a few people. It was not a situation i was happy with, and while it was going on, i knew i would have to make some changes and get myself in a better place, i think it was just a tough adjustment period for me.

At the begginingof November, i flew out to vegas for a weekend and met up with a large contingent of 2p2'ers and stayed with BK, Schneids, and Dave. I had already met all of them in September when i flew out to Minnesota to go a football game and Canterbury, so i already knew all the guys a little bit. They were all very cool, and i managed to grow a beard and not really get carded, which was pretty awesome. It was a very enjoyable experience for me, and i came back to school feeling a bit rejuvenated. I was up about 20k in the first 10 days of November playing 30-60, when, for whatever reason, i played a little 10-20 NL one night. I proceeded to make a few thousand dollars, and then i played NL again. And Again. And the next thing i knew, i was obliterating the game. Playing limit in a way prepares you for NL, you have to make thinner value bets and bluffs have to be omre carefully timed, so in NL,i just felt like i could put all my reads to even more use. The next thing i knew, i made 107k in November. I was running extremely well of course, but i was also playing awesome poker. FWIW, i think i played NL better when i first made the transition than i do now.

In December, i deposited some money on Poker Room and started playing some 25-50 and 50-100 NL, as well as a lot more HU limit. I made like 76k in the first 4 days of December when i had my first BRUTAL downswing. I was playing this guy Animal Doctor a lot, who in my opinion, is quite a poor player. Anyway, he ran sick well against me for like 24 hours, and i had 63k downswing in that time span. That was pretty scary, espeically having it happen so quicky against a guy who was consistently getting 15% of his stack preflop J9o or calling re-raises with K6s and calling pot sixes on all ins on the turn with nakes flush draws. I moved back to party 10-20 NL and was still clobbering it. Were weirdly exaggerated though, as i made and lost back like 50k in the next 10 days. I decided to take a 5 day break for finals, which is a longer break than i had ever taken. (I am a [censored] work horse!) I ened up doing well on finals, and also having plenty of time to hang out with buddies where we basically got baked and crunked every day for 5 days. This was actually a very good experience because i became much better friends with some guys who used to be aquaintences, and now i feel like i have a very good social network at my school.

Anyway, i went home for Christmas break, and started running well again, I played some more on poker-room, and ended up making 76k in December. I also brought home a half ounce of weed and had a few good parties where we finished it in like 4 days lol.

My and my two best friends from high school had a trip planned for the bahamas for January 4th. In the first 2 days of the new year, i made 47k, running well and playing a ton on Poker Room. I took the 3rd off, and we arrived in the Bahamas on the 4th. I played in a 25-50 NL game there the first nice, ran quite poorly, played marginally and dropped like 20k. Natrually, i went back to the hotel room and dropped another 30k or so playing 250-500 HU limit against an opponent i shouldn't have been playing. I bleeded away a ton of money over that week, a few days later i was playing 50-100 NL HU and managed to get all in with KK on raggdey flops 2 times in 5 hands, and both hands i was up against QQ. Both times my opponent hit a Q. Pker had never made me so sick before. Now despite, running badly, i had a great time in the Bahamas overall. I met cool guys like Steve G., Nomar, Jesse (Hiatus Over), ate tons of good food, and enjoyed the bahamas. I also managed to go Jet Skiing and Parasailing with this girl Lana who i met there, which was good times. Ironically, she is professional poker player who who PM'ed me asking if i was looking for a roomate in the Bahamas, but i missed the PM. We ended up in Adjacent rooms, and we hung out a lot while we were there, so i asked her if she wanted to tag along with me and my friend Joe to Vegas when we got back from the bahamas.

I feel like this is going to end up being too long, so i will condense this part a bit. We went to vegas, and i had a very good time. I met some more 2p2'ers, and i had the best meal of my life at Nines Steakhouse, where i also got to have dinner with Ed Miller, Mason Malmuth, TT, and other cool people. It was a great experience, definitly very enjoyable and a highlight of the year.

I got back home, continued to run bad, and finished January down about 55-60k. I went back to school at the end of the month, although i was very dissapointed to learn that my classes in the second semester were far less interesting than the first. I went on a nice run in the middle of February, was prolly up 50-some thousand at one point, than had yet another sick downswing and ended february down 6 or 7k.

March was good in an un eventful was, i grinded out a solid 55k month, playing good poker. Most of it was made after the party cruise, which was another very experience for me, i went on it with my best friend Mike and his girl-friend Christine. I wasn;t going to play the tournament, but the night before it began i met Strassa and he offered to take half my action, so i played it. I felt like i had a significant edge against the field, but unfortunatley the structure was not very favorable, and i didn't run well. As far as cash games on the trip, there are some interesting stories. The first night i was playing 10-20 NL, and the following hand came up. ZI have about 4k, villian is a bad aggressive player who straddles UTG. I make it 150 from MP with AKo, he calls. Flop comes A93 two clubs, he checks, i bet 375, he calls. Turn 2o, he checks, i bet 800, he calls, with $50 in chips left. I am sure he has exactly AQ. River Q. He declares, "All in" and because he has $50 in chips, i call. Unfortunatley, the dealer was obstructing my view of the $1500 in cash he has behind, so i was forced to call that. He did of course have AQ. Later in that night i played in a 100-200 game where i didn't play too well or run well. I did have a funny hand against the old PP Million champ Michael Gratz though.

He open raises UTG, i 3 bet AA from the SB, he calls. The flop is Kt7 two clubs, i bet he raises, i 3 bet, he calls, Turn K, i check call. River is an offsuit Ace. I c/r, he three bets, i 4 bet, he fives bets... In this situation, my hand is so obvious, 5 betting without KK would be pretty dumb. So i called he he rolled KT. Sigh, shoot me, how do i not win in that game? Anyway, i made up for it on the last night of the cruise when i made 8k in a 40-80 in like 4 hours. On the last night, i also managed to light up with some guys on the ship, including the son of a very well known player who i won't mention just for privacy's sake.

A few other highlights of the trip included meeting cool 2p2er's, including a very tough opponent of mine Renaud, and then playing drunken 2-4 where we paid people to leave their seats so we could play. This is hilarious when you have someone like Renaud who makes too much money, because he offered someone $200 for her sear right off the bat. Hilarity ensued, i got wasted, bought people lots of drinks, won $160 after tipping out like $200 and called it a night. I also went tubing in Jamaica, whic i found to be stunningly beautiful. I can't wait to go on the cruise again next year!

Poker-wise april was an uninteresting downward spiral where i lots of money running worse than i want to remember. In may, i played lots of hands, but had a 400 BB downswing at limit, a 25 buy in downswing at NL, and a seperate 17 buyin downswing at NL. I still ended up the month 14k, but it was pretty dissapointing for the numbe or of hands i played.

This month, however, has been a completley different story. I am taking 4 days to celebrate hitting 100k for the month, which i won playing mostly 30-60 to 100-200 limit, but there was some 5-10 and 10-20 NL in there as well. It was definitly nist have a bustout month after running so bad for so long. I would be thrilled to make the same amount in the next two months combined, but in any event, this helped me get myself back on track for the year.

So, life is good. It's summer, i'm playing lots of tennis, getting back into shape, and relaxing. I am recharging my batteries and preparing to dedicate more time to school next year and play a little less when i am there, i plan to enjoy boston more and activley pursue going out more and meeting more people other than just the good friends i have already made.

I will conlclude this huge post with some final poker thoughts... Generally in these forums, people who are running well over-estimate how good they are (I did, everyone does at some point), but unfortunatley, people think whoever makes the most money is the best player. They aspire to be like people who have moved up fast, and try to force themselves outside of their element to achieve simialr results to other posters.

Take it from someone who is currently running well and making lots of money... Variance can be sick, and you should always play where you feel comfrotable and do what feels right to you, not what someone else did that made them sucessful quickly. Thr most sucessful players over a 3 month period are just about NEVER people running average or below average. This doesn't mean the people making the most money are not the best players, they often are, all i am suggesting to aspiring players is to not get sucked in to surreal world of money that is poker, generally the best reuslts will be achieved by doing things your own way.

I had make 1k/hour of 300 hours samples, and i have a 225k hand breakeven stretch. Play where you are comfortable so that poker doesn't dominate your thoughts or your life, have confidence even when you are running poorly, work hard, and you will get where you need to be. This doesn't mean you will be the next Erik123, but anyone who really works at poker can be sucessful to a good degree in today's environment.

So, i hope everyone is doing well, i remember when i made this type of post 1 year ago and people responded saying they were in similar situations, working their way up, and i hope there is some information there that helps people. Well i guess that about sums it up... hope everyone is well.

Peace,

Gabe

[tom10167]

Really good man, good read, really inspiring.
How long did it take you to go from $200 deposit to middle limits?

[ggbman]

I moved to 2-4 and 3-6 in 3-5 months, but i cashed out 6k from those limits before going back to building my roll. I started playing 15-30 after 6 months, but i did not permanently move to the middle limits, (Say 15-30+) Until about 13 months into my online career.

[stinkypete]

so how much monies have you made?

[Kyle]

Nice post gabe. I really enjoy reading post like this. It is an inspiration to know that other players are in similiar situations.

Although mine will not be as spectacular I intend to do a two year recap in sept.

Good luck

[ggbman]

[ QUOTE ]
so how much monies have you made?

[/ QUOTE ]

$2,106,432.61.


(Not really, but more than enough for someone my age)

[mrjetguy]

Good post man.. what are you plans for the future (poker pro?)? Also, kind of a side question but I thought you had to be 21 to play in the PP million?

[tom10167]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice post gabe. I really enjoy reading post like this. It is an inspiration to know that other players are in similiar situations.

Although mine will not be as spectacular I intend to do a two year recap in sept.

Good luck

[/ QUOTE ]

That's good too because it shows that not all good players are eighteen and playing 300-600.

[ggbman]

The party poker million is one of the few poker tourneys that is 18 and older. As for the future, i plan to play poker while i go through college. If i can still make a good amount of money when I graduate, i will travel and play for a few years, i hope to be an entrepreneur, but i will have a good degree from a solid business school for backup, so we will just have to see how it all unfolds. If the last 2 years have taught me, it's that you never know how quickly your life can change.

[Davey]

Nice post. Enjoyed the read.