The Background Story

This is the story of how I got into poker. I warn you, it's pretty long.

I admit, I'm not a complete beginner. I was introduced in high school to the game of Texas Hold 'Em by friends in 2003 during the Moneymaker Era. We'd get together, hang out, have a beer or two and play a good game. I got hooked because I tended to do better than all of my friends, having stumbled early on upon a long-since forgotten ebook detailing the TAG style. A mediocre book, in hindsight, because it was a cookiecutter strategy manual without any provisions for adapting to your opponents, but the games I played in were so incredibly loose and passive that I basically dominated by playing just quality hands.

I tried playing online once I got to college, depositing $50 on a site here or there and trying my luck at STTs like I was used to playing with my buddies. I lost it all because I understood literally nothing about bankroll management, playing $10 games with my $50 bankroll. Sure, I got it up to $100 in no time once, but I inevitably lost it in no time too.

In 2009, I found a decent job the week after graduation, something I was pumped about because of how bad the economy was and is. It's a pretty nice setup really. I'm a government contractor that literally cannot work more than 40 hours/week. That means I have pretty much the best work/life balance an 8-hour job can give you. With a steady paycheck and a ton of free time, I turned back to poker.

I decided to do it right this time, though, investing in good poker books like the Harrington on Hold 'Em tournament and cash game books, Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed, and a few others that got good reviews on amazon.com. I also lurked (and still do lurk) in the twoplustwo forums, learning what I could there. I learned the LAG style and adapting to exploit an opponent's holes in their game, how to bluff better, how to hand read better, and most importantly, how to properly manage a bankroll.

I definitely had tilt issues, though. My Sharkscope graph looks kind of crazy... it has one major upswing from a 2nd place, $125 finish in a $4.40 180-man tournament, which was my favorite game up until a month ago (I'd play one every day or two after work). Then I had a pretty awesome, exciting time in my life because I was preparing to propose to my girlfriend (now fiancée!), donking off most of my winnings in a $50 and $20 tournament a few days before the proposal to vent some of the tension. Note to self: stay away from the poker tables during extreme life moments, good or bad. Even though I felt ridiculously awesome, it threw my game off. Poker requires a middle-of-the-road, confident mindset. I'll have to remember take some time off when I get married this October... but we'll see if that happens!

A month ago, though, I stumbled upon the HUSNGs, and just noticed how absolutely terrible the majority of my opponents were at the low stakes. I grinded up through the $2.20s in no time and had basically one long heater into the $5.25s, building my bankroll from $120-$250 with an utterly ridiculous record. I went something like 36 W 6 L in the span of two weeks, I think. Sure, some of that's skill, but a lot of it was luck, too; you can't get those numbers without some good fortune.

Last week, though, the poker honeymoon period ended. Deciding that 25 buy-ins was enough, I took a 5 buy-in shot at the $10.50 level... and got smacked down going 6 W 11 L in 3 days. Even worse, when I moved back down to the $5 level, I discovered the games weren't just magically handed to me like they were before.

So here I am, with a bankroll hovering just over $200, trying to grind up to the $300 level before I try the $10.50 again. I'd love to try and get there by the end of January, but monetary goals are always iffy in the poker world.

I'll stick with a volume goal of playing 7 games a day, and eventually the money will (hopefully) follow.

I'm excited to see if I really am a long term winner... I haven't even played 200 heads up games yet hehe. I've got no illusions about how small a sample size that really is. Am I just a fishy donator running good? Or do I really have what it takes to be in the coveted top 26% of poker players, that high section that actually makes money instead of loses it? The jury's still out, ladies and gentlemen.

EDIT! Recap at the end of March 2010:

Hah. HUSNGs. After playing for a while, I'm actually still not sure where I stand in them. Oh, how naively optimistic I was. Then again, I've started focusing exclusively on cash games since just before the AC trip. They seem more steady and predictable, with quite a bit less variance, in my experience. That said, since I still have $30 or so on PokerStars, I'll probably take that and see how I run in HUSNGs some day, trying to build it up. Til then, cash games all the way (I think I've finally turned the tipping point and become an online winner)!