How you got started?

[WackityWhiz]

I like hearing stories about how people get started in poker. How much money you started with? how much u might have lost when you first started? How long it took you to move up in limits? Where you are at now? and what are your goals... like do you plan on making it to a certain limit and staying there or just keep moving up til you are a billionaire /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Stormwolf]

pacific $10 free no deposit, then got the bonuses(about $110) from the onlinepokerbonusguide guy from rgp

[WackityWhiz]

I want some stories *bump*

[imitation]

$50 into PS, then found out you could make money from casino whoring(this is right before they all started to suck) I put 50pounds into a casino and cashed out 250pounds. I did all of the bonuses I could find, cashed out alot too much along the way then a bit again while playing 5/10 with a 350BB roll and hit a bad patch(bad play/too many tables). Cashed out some more then grinded back from $1600 too $4000 this month then spend the last 5days logging alot of hours back at 5/10 playing 2 tables and feeling all over the game, today I finally hit 500BB for 5/10 and feel like I might finally be able to hand the swings. I've probably cashed out around $8-10k over the time. So thats about $15k from ~$150 in around 6mths.

In hinesite I wish i'd been less cocky to move to 5/10 especially with 350BB and stupidly playing 4 tables. I 4 table every other limit succesfully though but ABC works alot better at most of them.

[STLantny]

i busted out my first 400$ or so on NL, after playing live for awhile. That was aug. Took a couple months off to learn limit. Depod 200+40 bonus, in oct, started at .5/1, and now stand at about 8k, making a bunch of cashouts along the way. But i still suck at sh play. haha

[Catch of the Day]

I'll bite...

Me and Got playing in the Dorms freshman year at callege back in 02...He transfered me my first 50 dollars IRL via party back when he was a good ol' 2/4 grinder...

I decided to stick with college and now 3 table 5/10 SH in my spare time approximately 2 years later. He went pro, and now 8 tables 15/30 full time.

Now who made the wrong decision?

Doh! (Catch slaps face)

Catch-

Howvever when I get licensed as a psychologist, I will be fully qualified to aid him in his gambling addictions... :-)

[chezlaw]

29th December 1998 on a dream holiday to Australia. Watched England give Oz a good beating in the 4th test I then found myself in the Crown Casino on a fantastic run at blackjack and black rhino. In the early hours I stumbled drunk and semi-conscious, chips pouring from every orifice, into the poker room and played in a game I now believe was called Manilla. I had no idea what I was doing but there was no end to my luck on that day and almost immediately they shut the pokerroom - I'm not sure why maybe some law about it not being open 24 hours?

Then on to Sydney to watch 4 days of glorious cricket and no more thought of poker until a few months later She went back to Oz and I discovered Planet Poker and Paradise. I was hooked but may not have been quite ready for the Paradise 20/40 game I was soon playing in. Main achievement was making Angelina's Casualty list.

'257 Chezlaw, 67219994, 14. apr 01'

Lost more money then I will admit on a public forum. Took a break for a few months, started reading theory and resumed at Paradise 3/6 and 5/10. Very tough games. Amongst many, I recall a bunch known as the Vancouver mob and some bod called Erik123, don't see him anymore - maybe he busted out. Baptism of fire but I gradually improved and the games became much easier thanks to a new influx of fish

Maybe not the way everyone would choose to learn but by early 2003 I had got back to even and its been all good from there. A recent rakeback deal means I play mostly at Party now; 5/10 and 10/20 with the odd smattering of 15/30 and tournies.

I still make loads of mistakes and am struggling with this multi-table lark but the money keeps coming in. I'm currently trying to cut back on the day job.

chez

[stripsqueez]

[ QUOTE ]
Watched England give Oz a good beating in the 4th test

[/ QUOTE ]

if i remember correctly you won by less than 20 runs

[ QUOTE ]
Then on to Sydney to watch 4 days of glorious cricket

[/ QUOTE ]

Oz won comfortably when our second string leg spinner (the sheik was injured) destroyed your batting line up

in a 5 test series you got your arsed kicked that summer as usual - the final score was 3-1 to Oz and it would of been 4-1 but for a bunch of thunderstorms saving you from defeat in brisbane

it is the delusional views of you pommies that has me madly backing Oz to win the upcoming ashes series

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[helpmeout]

The Ashes, 1998/99, 4th Test
Australia v England
Melbourne Cricket Ground
26,27,28,29 December 1998 (5-day match)

Result: England won by 12 runs

Series: Australia wins the 5-Test series 3-1

Could have easily been 5-0.

[stripsqueez]

i have played cards since age around 10 - my grandmother taught me bridge cribbage and whist which quickly converted to beating my cousins at manilla and draw

whilst at uni i didnt bother with lectures and tutorials and concentrated my efforts on the rickety kate and manilla games held daily in the bar - i lived in a share house that ran 2 all night poker games a week

after miraculously being given a law degree i spent some time in the poker wilderness obtaining an occasional fix in the local casino - then one day the stupid people who ran the casino closed the card room and i was driven on-line

i started at paradise - i deposited $50 and won a bunch which i then withdrew to pay for my excessive lifestyle - after going broke a couple of times i decided to actually leave a big heap of money on-line so i didnt suffer the humiliation of depositing another $50 and working my way back to the 10/20 5 max games from the 1/2 games

then i started to consistently make a decent amount - having an addictive card playing personality i played around 12 hours a week whilst employed in a demanding job and tending to a young family - after a bit i was making about the same amount i made in my well paid job so being a naturally lazy, yet competitive person i took a year off my job in a shallow attempt to make more money than my extremely well paid partner

so today i played around 30 $100 NL SNG's, 200 hands of 3/6 draw, 100 hands of 15/30 10 man limit holdem, 20 hands of 3/6 limit omaha, and for the fourth session in a row i lost at 1/2 pineapple

its a sick life but i like it...

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
Oz won comfortably when our second string leg spinner (the sheik was injured) destroyed your batting line up

[/ QUOTE ]
Sheik played. Just back from injury and well below his best, he still got Butcher in both innings.

Easy win for you in the end but a great game, first day was the best I've ever seen.


[ QUOTE ]
in a 5 test series you got your arsed kicked that summer as usual - the final score was 3-1 to Oz and it would of been 4-1 but for a bunch of thunderstorms saving you from defeat in brisbane

[/ QUOTE ]
That thunderstorm was awesome even on the radio /images/graemlins/smile.gif


[ QUOTE ]
it is the delusional views of you pommies that has me madly backing Oz to win the upcoming ashes series

[/ QUOTE ]
Nah, you're backing Oz because they're the better side.

chez

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]

Series: Australia wins the 5-Test series 3-1

Could have easily been 5-0.

[/ QUOTE ]
And yet, as those who followed the 5th test will recall, so close to 2-2.

[MAxx]

i always liked playing cards... hearts, spades, whatever

i played poker casually in college with the boys. nuthin serious. also in college i got involved in betting on sports games and had too many close calls. it was a nasty habbit. i was betting on everything that moved, including but not limited to women's tennis. i hung it up after a big bet that got me square. the big bet from the day before was a push. it was some hateful suspense. anyway i hung it up.

i then developed a costly blackjack habbit. i finally gave it up one day.

to fill the blackjack void, i started playing freeroll tourneys for the hell of it online and studying the game. i swore i would not put any real money down....

i got talked into playing in a local hold'em tourney put on by some friends of a friend. i walked out about 8 hours later with $1,800 and a smile.

i used this roll to get me started online in aug of 2003. i started out playing tourney's & sng's online and decided soon that i would learn to be a good ring player first. i started playing .25/.5 & .5/1 full and worked my way up to destroy 3/6 full at 5BB's per 100(ok it was only over 21k hands at 3/6full). I was not enjoying success at 5/10full at party, so I moved here... and am doing ok at 2BB/100 over 50k... but not expertly. i am having fun and making some extra pocket change playing poker is so much better than my earlier gambling exploits.

[freemont]

"Amongst many, I recall a bunch known as the Vancouver mob and some bod called Erik123, don't see him anymore - maybe he busted out."

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic about Erik123? Hasn't he become like a living legend in the hi-limit internet shorthanded world? He recently took part in the 25K headsup tourney at the Bellagio in December, and regularly plays the 100-200 hu/sh on stars...

[buffett]

My story. Chapter one. Expurgated version.
Grad school in Philadelphia, '02-'04. Didn't like to study. Went to Atlantic City a few times to play blackjack.
Quickly realized I can't count cards, which is a necessary skill to have better than 50/50 odds.
Poker room at Borgata conveniently located steps away. Decide to try my luck in spring '04. I play the tightest, weakest, sissiest game you've ever seen and lose maybe $23 (a crushing blow at the time) over a couple hundred hands. Forget about poker.
September '04, hear about bonus whoring. Ears perk up.
Deposit $100 at Party. Play 0.50/1 limitHE for a few thousand hands. Get nowhere on the games, but up to $1,000 with bonuses. (Cash out original $100 and haven't deposited another cent.) Read Lee Jones.
Stupidly move to 1/2 limitHE. Play 20k hands, get nowhere on the games, but up to $2,500 with bonuses.
********Read SSHE.********
Start beating 1/2. Wisely move up to 2/4 limitHE. Play 10k hands, up to $4,000, but $1,000 of this is skill.
Hope to pay off most of grad school loans with poker. Going well so far.
-web

[BIGRED]

Being the impulsive person that I am, I immediately got caught up in the on-line/TV poker craze about 2 years ago. Knowing nothing more than the hand rankings, I deposited $100 into PartyPoker in July 2003. I was used to winning and losing hundreds, sometimes thousands at a time from years of playing balckjack (unsuccessfully) so I had no problems with risking $100 on-line. What a perfect recipe for a disaster.

For about 6 months I basically gambled away online, playing everything from .5/1 to 30/60, lol. I had no concept of bankroll management nor working up a limit. I played whatever I felt like playing on a particular day. I was the typical idiot you have on your buddy list who you see at 5/10 today, 0.5/1 the next, and 10/20 the day after. Thankfully, I have a decent paying job so I was able to sustain this feeding frenzy without getting into too much trouble, but when I look back, I can't kick myself in the ass enough times for being so stupid.

I finally woke up when one day when some guy that was berating me at a 10/20 game the day before sent me an invitation to play at his table with the message that went something like, "come give me your money".

I knew I wasn't going to stop, and after getting berated and losing what must have been something in the order of $5K over a span of about 6 months, I got motivated to actually learn the game and start playing some serious poker. I don't remember how I found this site, but I did. I mostly lurked while playing 1/2 6-max. I also found an affiliate here and discovered that 6-max is perfect for maximizing the rake back so I decided to make a home at at 1/2 6-max for a while. Things started to click soon and it has been a year now since I made the turn around. I now play 5/10 6-max, and have been on that game since June or July of 2004. I hope to keep it going as long as the games allow.

Last year has been a life changing year for me. But I still wonder if it wasn't a freakishly lucky year. I try not to take all of this for granted and try to remember the stupid gambling days in the back of my mind to keep me grounded during great runs.

[helpmeout]

I was bored and saw some WSOP event on late night TV. (They dont show that stuff in Australia) (around July04)

I thought hey I could do that.

So I played some HU against the comp on the zone, then went to yahoo. Searched all the sites for useful info.

I played at yahoo for a few weeks before putting $50 into pacific.

Played 5c/10c games until I had the BR for 10c/20c etc got to $300 then lost about half of it. I went and played 5c/10c at stars until I got to 25c/50c and thought I could beat that game.

Put $400 into Partypoker moved up pretty quick now I'm playing $5/$10 6max.

[Yads]

Well I've been playing cards since I was a kid. Played some poker with friends in university. You know the crazy made up games and draw. I sucked.
My uncle had played poker when he was in his 20s and lost big, hand't played since then. Then about a year ago I went over to his pawnshop and saw that he was playing online poker. I thought it couldn't have been good, but then he closed his pawnshop and is now playing full time.
So last summer I get bored and think about my uncle and poker and I think back to the true poker radio commercials. I decide to download it and am playing for play money in minutes. I decide to learn the game, read some websites etc. I'm killing the play money games so I decide to deposit $40 into it with the deposit I have $50. I decide hey why not play the $2/$4 game, I mean I don't think I'm quit ready for $3/$6, but I'm sure I'll crush the $1/$2 games. So I procede to lose all of my $50 in about 15 hands. Shell shocked a bit I swear off poker for about a week. I come back ot the play money games and start to get that winning feeling back.
My uncle then tells me about Ultimate Bet. I go check it out the play money games there. Software seems ok not as flashy as True Poker of course, but you know seems to be alright. I tell my friend about it and he decides to come over and watch me play. So I summon up the courage to deposit $25 in and go to play the 1c/2c games. I know, I know, big step, but it seemed like it after getting crushed at true poker. I then decide to jump up to 25c/50c so I can start working off the bonus, run it up to about $50 until I lose pretty much everything, but $2. After buying Gary Carson's book I start to understand the game. I grind it out playing 1c/2c because I refuse to put any more money into poker. I run it up to $10, when my uncle tells me to learn Omaha 8. I decide to learn it and take a shot at 25c/50c game with my $10. So anyway in the last 4 months I've ran that $2 up to about $1500 through play and bonus whoring.

[wuarhg]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought hey I could do that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly the thought I had when I started around June/July 2004. Had a friend playing and making money so I thought "If he can, I can". Started off reading the ITH book and played with the $15 free you got on royal, well I built it up to $27 playing 0.10/0.20 and thought "hey, this is easy..." then I lost it all and thought poker is all luck.

After a week or so I started reading stuff and got in the money in a few freerolls and lost it all a couple of times. Then finally I won $1.5 in a freeroll, sat down at a .05/.10 table and got to $8 and my journey began...

[stigmata]

I was round a mates house about 7 month's ago, and picked up a book from his shelf: "How to play Poker: And win".

I knew nothing whatsoever about poker - I had never given it any thought, didnt even know what texas hold'em was. I skipped straight to the chapter on tells, because I thought that was the "Cool" bit about Poker.

(BTW, the book accompanied the UK Channel 4 Poker Program "Late Night Poker", and isnt terribly good)

I have always played cards (especially bridge), so I took the book away on holiday with me, realising there was a bit more to this "dumb gambling" game than I had thought. Got back from holiday and figured I could beat the game online. Played the play money tables for all of about half an hour, before depositing $50 in Party and playing the 0.5/1. I realise now that I started off on really good winning streak. I hit a royal flush on day 2 (and I thought to myself, "I bet I don't see that for another week or two"). I quickly had a decent bankroll for that limit, but I gues I was slightly lucky not to bust out on my first deposit.


I soon stumbled across this website, which basically provided my with the standard route to becoming a winning poker player- It taught me to read the right books, grind out a bankroll, all that stuff.

Now I can actually earn a wage from a hobby, which is frigging cool - all thanks to everyone on these boards, from Sklansky down to the latest noob.

[Predator314]

I've played poker as long as I can remember. We used to play 5 card draw with toothpicks or something as kids.

When I grew up, I shot pool constantly. There was frequently a poker game going on at the pool hall. I didn't have a job back then, so the though of losing $100 in a night was horrible. The thought of winning $100 was sexy. Luckily I came home a winner more than a loser. Looking back, I was just lucky as hell. I was a horrible player back then. I was just tighter than most. I guess I would classify myself as tight-superweak.

We kept having poker games on Friday and Saturday nights. It got to where we played every weekend for about 4 months straight. Some days when the weather was bad, it was college football and poker. The next thing you knew it was 5 a.m.

Then came Party Poker. I was watching this World Poker Tour thing on TV and wanted to try out some online poker. I deposited $50. I doubled that in a couple hours. Then I kept hitting up the $2/4 tables and would lose it all.

I played way above my bankroll and wondered why I kept busting out. Throughout a whole year, I bet I deposited 150 times. However, I cashed out a bunch too. Looking back at my history, it pretty much broke even.

Then I started studying the game. I learned to love it and respect it. I kept getting better and better. I started becoming a consistent winner against my friends.

Then came last summer. I was talking with some friends about how you can become a consistent winner at poker. I explained the concept of it being a gambling game, but you could get money in the pot when odds were in your favor.

I proposed a challenge. I told them come the next payday, I would deposit $200 in Party Poker and try to turn it into $2000. I almost went broke off the bat. Things finally turned around and I progressed over the limits and managed my bankroll. I made the $2000 plus an extra $20,000 or so.

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
I finally woke up when one day when some guy that was berating me at a 10/20 game the day before sent me an invitation to play at his table with the message that went something like, "come give me your money".

I knew I wasn't going to stop, and after getting berated and losing what must have been something in the order of $5K over a span of about 6 months, I got motivated to actually learn the game and start playing some serious poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

and that is why we shouldn't berate people for inferior/dumb plays! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Watched England give Oz a good beating in the 4th test

[/ QUOTE ]

if i remember correctly you won by less than 20 runs

[ QUOTE ]
Then on to Sydney to watch 4 days of glorious cricket

[/ QUOTE ]

Oz won comfortably when our second string leg spinner (the sheik was injured) destroyed your batting line up

in a 5 test series you got your arsed kicked that summer as usual - the final score was 3-1 to Oz and it would of been 4-1 but for a bunch of thunderstorms saving you from defeat in brisbane

it is the delusional views of you pommies that has me madly backing Oz to win the upcoming ashes series

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[/ QUOTE ]

bump, well more of a bang than a bump.