So I think I left off at the start of the poker boom. It had a big effect on me, and also on all of my friends. We really got serious about poker, and starting playing poker at least once a week for a few years. I started off bad, we all were, but I read a few books, played a little bit online, and kept trying to improve. We played with 5 dollar stacks (We had no money lol) but it got to the point that I would leave every game with a 20 dollar profit. Taking a stack from 4 of my friends every time we played, needless to say, they started to not want to play anymore lol. Slowly we all stopped playing poker together, but I kept at it playing online at pokerstars, and full tilt. I played mostly micro stakes, usually topping out at 25 NL. (I play no limit texas hold em btw. And 25 NL means I was playing with .25 cent blinds and 25 dollars on the table.) I would usually deposit 50 dollars and run my money up to 200, and then slowly lose it all back. (Variance ugh) I reloaded only one time before I went to college, and that's when everything actually changed for me.
I graduated from high school in 2007, and was headed to Drexel University that fall. The first thing I did when I got there was search facebook for any poker groups on campus. (My attempt to try and find some friends with the same passion as mine) I found one group that played 10 dollar tourneys, and decided to go. That is where I met one of the biggest influences on my poker game, another student and fellow pro by the name of Ray Ross. A very smart guy, I think a computer science major, he was a big online tournament player, as well as an accomplished cash game player. He showed me how to properly play online Sit and Go's, and deposited 50 dollars on full tilt for me to play. Playing against Ray was always frightening to me because he was on such a higher level at the time, but it was also such a great and cheap learning experience. Playing against him, really helped to jump start my poker career, just from seeing how advanced he was, and by seeing someone who was actually playing and winning. Up until this point, everyone I talked to viewed poker as just another form of gambling, all luck. But I was able to witness in person the skill needed to actually win, and that it's really possible. It gave me a very big motivational boost. And I was in a sense lucky, lucky to find a winning poker player. Here is a fact that most people don't realize, most people who talk big about poker, like they are really good winning players.... are most likely lying, or too dumb to realize that one time big win of theirs for a couple G's still doesn't offset their 5,000$ losses. The truth is, only 3% of people that play poker are winning players, and only 1% actually make enough for a living wage. (I fall into the 1%. But I wouldn't say I'm making 100's of thousands)
So I learned how to play SNG's from Ray and grinded my bank roll up from 50 to about 500 and took most of it out. I never really played with Ray much after that first year of school, but I did see him from time to time. I know now and days he plays 5/10 nl at the borgata, but he graduated a while ago and is probably working a legit job and doing poker part time. ANYWAYS, I decided I did not like the variance from playing SNG's too much, and also saw that the more skillful players were cash game players (Which they are) so I made the switch to playing cash games and wanted to start at the bottom of the cash game latter. That's right, I started with 20 dollars (What I left myself from the previous cashout) and started playing cash games for pennies... LITERALLY PENNIES!!!! I played 2NL, the big blind was 2 cents. Boy did that take a lot of patience, but I felt that it was very important to start from the bottom and move up for a couple reasons. 1. I gained a lot of patience. 2. I learned proper bank roll management. (This is the one thing people don't properly learn because it sucks so much. After having played for 100's of dollars and having to drop back down to play for a few dollars at a time really really really reaaaaallllllyyyyy stinks. Which is something I had to do lol) 3. I learned how to play against bad players.
Long story short though, I climbed the stakes by playing in my spare time and won thousands of dollars just from a small starting amount of 10 dollars. Never believe anyone who feeds you the bullshit that poker is all luck, or unbeatable, or that you can't beat the micro stakes.... blah blah blah. It's all bs that people will tell you because they couldn't do it themselves. They'd rather blame the game then themselves. To become a pro, you really have to understand that poker is all skill, that it isn't "gambling" but a game of skill. There are also numerous other things you need too, but I will get into that another time.
Recent actions by the U.S. Government though has banned online poker. So my now I am attempting to play my way up the cash game stakes in live games. The casino I'm playing at is Philly Parx (A pretty good new poker room, a big one too) I am going to be trying to play at least a few hours a night after work, and record how I do, and the significant hands here.
Cool, I'm tired, peace out
-Coopb20
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