My Intro To Poker

June 28, 2011

I was first introduced to poker when I was about 8, on holiday with my family, we were playing cards and my dad was asked me if I wanted to learn how to play poker. He taught me 5 card draw and I still remember making a fullhouse in my first few hands and getting beat by quad queens.

I played every time I went on holiday from then on and when I was about 14 my mate told me about texas holdem and suggested having a home game.

We manage to get 5 of us together and played a cash game £20 buy in, I think we made the blinds .20 .40 , I managed to take every penny off all my friends and one of them had another £20 and wanted to play again, so we played heads up and eventually I won with a hand I wont forget, I flopped a flush and he flopped bottom set, and we got into a big argument because he didn't think a flush beat a set. That was my first ever real game and I loved it, obviously played home games with the same people occasionally for the next few years and usually did well, this was probably because no one could ever fold if they had a piece of the board and I was good at it.

My mate told me a while later that they had online poker where you could play for real money!!

I couldn't wait to turn 18 so I could get an account, surely enough that day came, and I wont forget it.

I had recently got a part time job so I deposited $50 into Vc poker and played 25.50 NL with my whole bankroll, I won a few small pots in the first few hours and had about $80 on the table, I got dealt Kh9h in the BB the cut-off raised 4x,the button and I called and the flop came K s9s2c

And I lead for the pot, the cut-off flatted and the button raised, I cant remember the exact amounts but we got it all in 3 way on the flop, they had pocket 2s for bottom set and Ts Js for a gutter + flush draw, the turn brought the As for the flush and the river came Kc, and I took down a pot of about $190, I got called all sorts of things in the chat box so I thought it was a good time to go out and celebrate, we went out drinking and afterwards I went back to my mates to play more.

He went to bed and gave me his laptop, I was still playing when he walked into the front room the next day.

I managed to loose the $190 that was in there and deposited $10,and then another and another...

I lost all my wages that night and felt pretty sick in the morning, I didn't understand why I lost so much..All I knew was that I wanted to get good at this game...

I spent most of my wages at VC poker for the following months and just couldn't stop myself,

I was clicking through the lobby 1 day and discovered the tournaments, I thought I would loose money allot slower if I played tourneys instead as the buy ins were usually $5 $10 or $20,

I entered my first tournament one night and honestly thought that I could probably just fold my way into the money I didn't play a hand for about an hour , first hand after the break I picked up QQ on the button, It got folded to the cuttoff who was short stacked with about 20bbs and open shoved, I only called and got resolved on by the Sb I snap called and he showed KK, all I remember is spiking a Q on the river, I was so happy and so lucky, I was above average in chips and basically folded for a few more levels, I picked up loads of hands approaching the money and ended up 3rd in chips, I was so nervous every time I got dealt AK,10s etc...but most of the time it held up and if I lost an all in it would be against a short stack, I ended up coming 3rd in the tourney and cashed for about $400 which was lots of money for me to win at the time, my new found love was defiantly tourneys.

A friend told me about Pokerstars which had lots more choice of tournaments and buy ins so I got myself an account.

I mainly started out playing the $16 9 man sit n go, with a fair amount of success,

I remember being at a house party once, Obviously got hammered and when everybody had either left or passed out I found a laptop on the floor, I downloaded pokerstars and accidently registered for 2 sng's instead of 1, they both popped up and then it occurred to me that I could play more than 1 at once, I played 4 tables all night, run really well and moved up a level, I think it was $25 9 man sng.

Bottom line is I remember having $1100 in my account the next morning, I think I started with about $200 or $300, so big win for me...

I was having a pint in Yates a few weeks later and saw they had a poker night so I went along, It was a league thing rather than winning cash, so I lost interest after my second visit but someone there told me that there was a tournament coming up in Riley's which was just up the road, it was a £10 rebuy, Id never played a rebuy before but was defiantly interested.

It was a 45 player man tourney and I ended up to the left of the most ridiculous played I have ever seen, He was definitely on something, he raised EVERY hand no matter what his position and had got through about 9 rebuys before the first break, I mainly played very tight but always tried to play pots heads up against him, he would call 3 streets with any pair and just thought he got unlucky.

I didn't rebuy once thanks to the guy on my right and as soon as the rebuy period stopped they were dropping like flies, I ended up on the final table as big chip leader, and mainly waited for short stacks to get knocked out before I started splashing around, I managed to get heads up but I was no longer chip leader, We had been playing for about 5 hours I was getting a bit restless an was dealt A8, and got all in pre flop my opponent showed me AQ for the win, so I came 2nd and got £410 CASH,

They held the tournament every Thursday from then on, and I came 1st 1st and 4th in the next 3 weeks which was unbelievable, taking home about £1500 that month. Online started going badly and any money I won from Riley's went online and recycled into the poker community...

I discovered an online poker room that was available exclusively on the mobile phone, I thought this was an amazing idea and bought myself a new phone compatible with the software,

I deposited just £10 to test it out, there were 3 levels, .20.40 50.1 and 1/2 , I played 20.40 with the min buy in, I soon discovered that most of the players were terrible, generally paying off too much and overplaying weak holdings, Fridays and Saturday nights were prime time for playing, It wasn't that unusual for people to join the table, obviously drunk and playing anywhere you have got reception and just go all in preflop till they get busted. You could also leave the table and rejoin with the minimum if u wanted.

On the first night I turned £10 into £220, and started playing 50/1, Buying in for £25, doubling up and rejoining for £25.I played until my battery died on the first day, when I recharged the phone and got back online I found out that I had still won the hand I disconnected on, I then realised that you got 4 disconnect protections a day which I thought I would use to my advantage. There were a few spots where I would have a bare flush draw and wouldn't be getting the right odds, I would just pull the battery out and sometimes when some extra money...

No one else seemed to be doing this and I was making allot of money on this new site.

The first month I turned £10 into about £3000 and it was pounds not dollars...I was king...

I won an IPod touch and £200 one month in a promotion which was happy days

There was no shortage of terrible players, especially on the weekends, I was playing absolutely everywhere, I took my charger everywhere I went and stopped playing online and at Riley's.

I moved to Spain to get a job in real estate, I was getting bored in the Uk and decided all I needed was my phone to make money and I could go anywhere there was wifi,So I did.

I pretty much broke my ankle straight away and quit my job after 1 month for various reasons,

I found a wifi bar/cafe down the road, So I went there pretty much everyday playing on my phone, the only problem was the only cash out method was cheque, and it would take a while to get to my bank, even though I was making about £2000 on average a month I got a bit bored after about 4 months and decided to look for another job, I got 1 PR thing for a local English bar, I pretty much got annihilated every single night for the next 8 months, I was sober for exactly 3 days out of the 8 months, and after a while started getting a white light in my eyes every time I bent down and a constant headache, I thought I would probably kill myself if I carried on the way I was, I just could never say no to free drink and the 3 days I spent sober was in hospital...

I decided to move back to the Uk and prolong my life. I hadn't played poker for about 10 months as I was always to drunk, busy or hangover couldn't wait to log on and start making some good money again on the mobile poker site (called Aces royal). But when I logged on I was greeted with a message to say that they had basically gone bust, gutted... I really thought that was it for me, I couldn't see myself making money that easily somewhere else, it had been so long...I looked for other mobile poker sites but there was none at the time. I was terrified of going back to the online poker rooms where all the real people played, I just wanted to play with the English drunks at 4am for the win.

A friend invited me round to watch him play PLO online, I had never seen it played before but once I played it I was hooked, Never looked back since, I get bored of holdem really easily now, PLO is my first real love, at the start I was making the classic mistake of overplaying Aces and weak draws but after a few months and the purchase of Omaha manager I sorted it out. The swings can be so much more brutal than holdem but I enjoy it much more, and that's important too.

After two years of playing PLO I feel that I have gained much more discipline, I am numb to all the brutal swings due to backdoor suck outs and I am more motivated than ever to play more hands and move up stakes, I think that my PlO game is better than my holdem game, I have played stakes up to $3/6 and want to move up to $5/10 by next year.

I have learnt the importance of note taking, and reviewing good an bad sessions in Omaha manager.

I am fortunate enough to be playing for the Poker Farm now and what started as a game many years ago has turned into a career path for me... I wish myself all the best.

Thank you for reading...