Inaugural post on election day
I have played various forms of poker for years at family gatherings.....Holidays...Etc. I always enjoyed the games, the competitiveness, the rush. Approximately a year ago I found online poker and began dabbling in the free money games on Party Poker.....Texas Hold 'Em. Money was tight (as it still is) and I looked at it as an enjoyable way to kill some time once in awhile. I browsed a few discussion boards and became increasingly interested in getting some real money deposited online. As summer 2004 approached I spoke with an acquaintance who recommended UB due to their user friendly interface. He was the first person I had known to have played online for real money and I trusted his input........I made my first deposit. That is where I began......June of 2004........Sitting at a 1/2 limit table on UB. I had no real clue what I was doing at that point......Although I thought I did. I was playing way over my bankroll and playing different limits, sit-n-go's, and multi's nightly. I hadn't played online for over a week when I was in Las Vegas for my anniversary determined to get some Texas Hold 'Em in during my stay. New York New York didn't have a poker room so I made my way to the Bellagio Friday morning.......Sitting at a 4/8 table after buying in for $100 I did well that first day playing for 5 hours and cashing out for $350. I thought I was good........Didn't realize then that I was just lucky and playing way over my head. Sunday morning didn't treat me as well as I burned through my $100 buy-in like gangbusters. I re-bought for another $100 and when all was said and done I cashed out a total of $50 down for the day....Another 5 hours.
I was in love.
I still didn't realize how over my head I was playing in those 4/8 limit games at the Bellagio until I got back home and re-entered the online playing world at UB. I went through my initial deposit within the next couple of weeks barely clearing my bonus in the meantime. I re-deposited and began slowly losing that as well. I then became determined to LEARN all I could. I had been playing without a plan and desperately needed to develop one. I held off playing for a couple of weeks and bought Jones WLLH book. After reading it I was determined to focus on my pre-flop play. Once I am comfortable with handling the pre-flop decisions then I can focus on learning situations post-flop. I didn't think it would take soooooo long. I am improving steadily now. I began reading discussion group boards and stumbled across The BlogFather. I read uber post after uber post.........Explored many of the links and am still searching through them. (Those of you that have read the Guinness fueled uber posts know why it has taken so long) The various blogs showed me that I wasn't alone and there were people out there that had gone through exactly what I was going through.......People that were working on exactly what I was working on......And people who had tried the exact same thing and didn't make it for various reasons. This definitely helped me out big time.........
Since that time I have continued to play on UB working off a sizable bonus from a referral I made to the site. I have learned what limits my current bankroll can handle and stick to them even if it will take a lot longer to get where I want to be.......I look at it as my education now......I probably would never have gotten to where I wanted to be the old way. I have learned a ton and plan on picking up a new book or two on Texas Hold 'Em. Probably Small Stakes Hold 'Em by Sklansky and another one I haven't decided on yet. I have a monthly limit game that I play in and we're considering going to a no limit ring game. I play in sit-n-go type tourney's live a couple times per month and a bigger multitable no limit tourney every other month.
I have two immediate goals for my Texas Hold 'Em play:
I was in love.
I still didn't realize how over my head I was playing in those 4/8 limit games at the Bellagio until I got back home and re-entered the online playing world at UB. I went through my initial deposit within the next couple of weeks barely clearing my bonus in the meantime. I re-deposited and began slowly losing that as well. I then became determined to LEARN all I could. I had been playing without a plan and desperately needed to develop one. I held off playing for a couple of weeks and bought Jones WLLH book. After reading it I was determined to focus on my pre-flop play. Once I am comfortable with handling the pre-flop decisions then I can focus on learning situations post-flop. I didn't think it would take soooooo long. I am improving steadily now. I began reading discussion group boards and stumbled across The BlogFather. I read uber post after uber post.........Explored many of the links and am still searching through them. (Those of you that have read the Guinness fueled uber posts know why it has taken so long) The various blogs showed me that I wasn't alone and there were people out there that had gone through exactly what I was going through.......People that were working on exactly what I was working on......And people who had tried the exact same thing and didn't make it for various reasons. This definitely helped me out big time.........
Since that time I have continued to play on UB working off a sizable bonus from a referral I made to the site. I have learned what limits my current bankroll can handle and stick to them even if it will take a lot longer to get where I want to be.......I look at it as my education now......I probably would never have gotten to where I wanted to be the old way. I have learned a ton and plan on picking up a new book or two on Texas Hold 'Em. Probably Small Stakes Hold 'Em by Sklansky and another one I haven't decided on yet. I have a monthly limit game that I play in and we're considering going to a no limit ring game. I play in sit-n-go type tourney's live a couple times per month and a bigger multitable no limit tourney every other month.
I have two immediate goals for my Texas Hold 'Em play:
- Finish getting my bonus off of UB and transfer my money to Party Poker.
- Purchase Poker Tracker and learn how to best utilize it to help my game.
If anyone stuck around for the end of this......THANKS! I think this blog will help keep me focused in my poker playing. Sorry if I was all over the place in getting started.......I felt like I wanted to go a thousand different directions.......And maybe started to go several of them several times.
Special thanks again to The BlogFather, IGGY, who I am pumped to watch in his own journey after quitting his job to play poker full time. Good luck man......You're the reason I'm starting this blog.....Who knows where it will go from here.
posted by Bazkar at 8:07 PM
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