confessions of a poker addict

it all started with the home game. a bunch of buddies and i started up a poker game to play cards, shoot the shit, and drink beers. once a week. hell i knew nothing about hold em. we played 5 card draw, 7 card stud, and a number of variations. and then there were the carnival games. the insane games that can make or break your night on one hand... if you had the guts. a couple new guys would join the table and introduce a couple new games they knew. hold em was one of them. i don't even think we played it right.


then someone bought a book. and we started playing with blinds every now and then. mixed in with the circus games. then our game got big enough where blind games were the only ones we could really play. a lot of people hated hold em. i loved it. i took to it well, but once again it was just a weekly game with the friends.


then i went up to the indian casinos close by with some friends. hold em in a casino. we were playing 25¢/50¢ blinds in the home game. this was a single $2 blind... $5 max bet. hell i had a couple hundred bucks i could blow on this game. i sat down after an hour on the list. i played for a few hours and walked away with $100. wow! that was easy, it was fun, it was exhilarating. it was great! i loved it.


i had my first taste of casino poker and i was good. i mean i had to be if i won the first time i tried it... right? or so i thought.


i couldn't wait for the next time we would go up. i could play some more and win even more money! none of my friends did well that night, so they weren't as eager to return as i was. i did the smart and sensible thing and went up by myself. as i made that drive up there by myself, i had dreams of the movie Rounders. making my living from poker, racking up huge stacks of chips at the end of the night. sucking in some tourist. or at least adding to my income. hell, if i go up once or twice a week i'll have a couple extra hundred to spend on my other interests.


this trip up there wasn't as profitable, in fact i only broke even. bummer. i must have just been running bad. the cards were not with me. i did learn one very important thing about poker in the casinos... the bad beat jackpot. well that's it. if i can win a grand for just sitting there, or10 grand + for a bad beat hand, then that's just fantastic!


i learned of a poker room that was closing, and their bad beat was huge. and their bad beat standards were lowered in an attempt to get rid of it. well i went up again. the list was huge. i had a 2 hour wait, so i sat at a video poker machine to pass the time. what comes up? 4 aces! boo yah! $200 dollars added to my poker bank roll. it was right when i won that i got a seat. this night nothing could go wrong. i won an additional $100.

suckers. they didn't know who they were up against. they couldn't beat me... right? i finally found something that i was naturally talented at.


i was so good in fact i went up the next week. i walked away losing $200. hmm, that's strange. how could i lose? i've been playing for 3 weeks and i'm excellent. i know how to play the game, and by this point i even read a hold em book. so it must have been a fluke. plus that was profit from my last session, so it didn't matter much. i went up the next day. i felt good. i couldn't possibly lose 2 sessions in a row. but i did. bad luck. a great player like me can't possibly be beat so easily. more bad luck, i chalked it up to.


and so it continued. for every session i walked away ahead i had 2 or 3 that i walked away a loser. maybe i'm not that great, but surely i'm good, right? and i still hadn't won a bad beat jackpot. i mean with all the hours i had put into the game, you'd think i would have at least been at a table that hit it.


and so it goes. except i no longer think i'm a great player. in fact, i don't even think i'm a good player. i now have a realistic perception. i haven't put in nearly as much time into this as most people. i'm new. i'm a student. i'm a fish!!!!!!


i look back and think, man i was that cocky kid that everyone loves to sit with. the one that thinks he can beat the game, but in actuality i'm the fish that pays off in the end... of most nights.


i'm learning. i'm getting better, i'm getting my confidence back, but i realize it'll be a while before i'll consider myself a solid player. or a winning player i no longer play for the bad beat jackpot (though it'd be nice), or huge winning nights (though it'd also be nice). i play for fun and as a learning experience, so that one day i can sit down at that 30-60 table at the bellagio

in vegas, and win, while doing something i love.


i'd love to hear how some of you other addicts... i mean players got into poker. heh. kidding about the addict thing, i can quit at any time... i swear. besides, addicts go to meetings. i didn't need that money. other interests? what other interests?

You're not quite addicted yet. When you get to where the only way you'll be able to feed your addiction to flops is by folding before the flop, then you'll be as addicted as I was.


Or course, I'm not like that anymore. I can quit at any time. I swear.


Tommy

plain and simple, experience is the best teacher. Good luck weedhoper as you continue your journey...

i pretty much got into it same as you. though, we always play with antes, even holdem and other flop games. we play lots of weird variations and split pot games, but all either flop-based or 7stud-based.


then, my friend who taught me the games went to the casino. i wasn't old enough, or rich enough, or dumb enough to go then. but he moved away. and i started reading about poker. and reading more. and went to a casino 5hours away (i was 21 at this point, but my friend wasn't and you only had to be 18 at this one). we played for 14 hours, 7stud. and i lost about $400. but i loved it. and i decided i had a lot to learn about this game.


i read and read and read. i played and played and played. i was about break even for a while.


then, a couple things set me back, and i wasn't really able to go to the casino for a while. and i was saving $ to move to LA. but one night, a buddy convinced me to go. i had vowed that the next time i went, i was playing holdem, not stud. and sure enough, i got there, and there was a 5-10 going. (i hadn't played higher than 1-5 spreadlimit stud up til now). i sat down, got hit in the face by the deck, and walked away an hour later up $500. only problem was, i still didn't know what i was doing, really. only slightly vaguely some concept of 'play tight'. which at that time meant 'throw away 72o, everything else is marginal or premium'.


i moved to LA, and continued reading. went to commerce after i got my first paycheck, and played 1-2. was up 80 bucks. realized i liked holdem a lot more than stud. kept reading...


eventually i was beating the LA lowlimit games.

then i move back here to chicago. completely different climate, pokerwise. people actually fold before the flop here (not too often, but way more than LA) and don't raise nearly as much. had to learn how to play tighter, and with position. not nearly as many pots that are laying me big phat multi-way odds. and i have learned, and am still learning. and i continue to read...

looks like you got a lot more successful than i have. i wonder if there were different limits here in co, if i'd do better, playing low limits. i imagine the better players would play higher limits, but i'm not for sure.


it's still fun though, win or lose. i don't take it too seriously. when i do, that's when i'll quit. though it'll be tough.


i'll need some sort of poker patch. maybe tape the ace of spades on my arm. heh.

i was thinking of getting the Ace of Spades tattooed on my bicep. i don't know.


its not that i got a LOT more successful. just wanted to be able to be competitive at something i enjoy doing. i don't enjoy losing, and if i can't win at something, or at least be competitive, i will probably lose interest real fast (except for women. i will never lose interest, and i will probably never be competitive). so i learn or drop it. with poker, i learned. and im still learning.

I am 22 and started the same way you did. I was lucky though, I was around smart people who understood the game. I dedicated every waking though to poker and was able to caress my bankroll to the point where I can play 50-100 comfortably. My two friends who started with me (we all learned together) did well too. One of them headed out to CA to play full time as is doing well. And the other one has a 6 digit bankroll. The key to all our success was that we figured out how to get better (read and practice) talked poker all the time, and were able to analyze each others play. And sometimes it got rutheless.


So, you should try to find someone who can help you become better, instead of going at it alone.