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- Beginners Questions (http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30)

- - My story (http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=245935)

Writing is not my thing, but I've been asked by many people to post my story, so here it is.

The bk poker story:

My family has always been card players. I've grown up playing tons of games, although we mostly play 500. We're all very competitive. We never gambled on it though. My dad still has never been to a casino, and my mom went once for about 5 minutes. There was definately some pride on the line, though. I played a little bit of poker as a child, mostly in boy scouts...but nothing extensive at all.

My freshman year of college, we would play $5 dollar buy in dealers choice...just basically screwin around...I did decent but nobody was taking it seriously.

Then 2 summers ago my friends started watching world series of poker and got into it, so we'd play 20 dollar buy in no-limit game...got worked pretty good. Lost maybe 150 on the summer in 4 or 5 sessions.

Came to school knowing a few poker players and we started playing every wed night... Usually like 5 or 10 dollar no limit. I was doing about even. Then I decided to buy Holdem-poker by David Sklansky. By then people would bring friends and soon we'd play almost every day cause we had a bunch of people to play. I then got holdem poker for advanced players and used that (even though it

was for limit, it helped me see angles) and I started just cleaning up. I won 14 session in a row. Made about 700 bucks last semester by just playing 5 and 10 dollar games. Lots of suckers around here.

I played at canterbury a few times in the middle of this - 2/4 and now that I look back, I had no [censored] clue what I was doing. Any ace, didn't know about position, etc.

Started playing freeroll tourneys on JetSetPoker and did really well.

I'm a computer science major so I've always been computer-savy and I ran into the 2+2 forums. I was such a noob. Wow. I then saw the November OIC - if you dont know what this was, TheGamingClub gave 2+2ers 50 bucks for a thing where you tried to improve your game and move up stakes and stuff. There was a tourney for all players taht turned the 20 into 2000. Anyhow, I turned that initial

50 into 150. I cashed out 50 and then lost the 100.

Then came the December OIC. Another free 50. Up and down and up and down and I was back at 50. I heard that party was way easier so I took my money to there.

Started playing 1 table of .50/1 at party and got up to like 120. THen decided 2 tables was cool. Played about 6000 hands and got up to 375. Said ahh what the hell i'll try 2/4. Got up to about 1500 in 2 weeks. Got up to 2800 after another two weeks. Then about jan 6 the world came crashing down. Lost 1300 over the next 2 weeks. Some at 3/6 party, some tourneys. Some 1/2 short handed. Just hit a real string of bad beats, and about 500 of the losses was myself getting too cockey and trying just to outplay people...turned into a LAG.

So I decided I needed to build up my bankroll again cause I had taken out the 1200 and my party acount was at 0.

So then I put in another 300 and busted that out playing 2/4.

[censored].

So then I decided to put 300 more in and play .50/1. Every time I get up to 400 I can take a 100 dollar shot at 2/4. So I got to 400, played 2/4 and lost back down to 300.

Then I heard about pacific....that it was so fishy.

So I deposited 400 and played a few hands and hated the software so bad that I pulled my money out and said it wasn't worth it.

But I still had the 100 dollar (25% free) promotion left...so I played some 2/4. Turned it into about 500 and read on here that the 5/10 game was especially soft. So I tried that, and turned it

into 1000 really quickly. Been playing the 5/10 for the past 3 weeks/month? maybe now. Sometimes I just play the one table and do homework at the same time, other times I play 1-3 tables of party 2/4 in the background.

I played 5/10 until the end of march and ran really well. With a bankroll of 10k I started taking short shots at 15/30 on pacific when the game looked especially good. The first hand I played at the limit I took a nasty beat, but other than that, I ran very hot and in 2 months ran up 35k or so playing that single table of 15/30 and 4-5 3/6 party tables.

With 3000 in my empire account and a roll(well, the amount of money I had total) of about 50k, at the beginning of June 04 I played my first party 15/30 hand. The first day i ran it up to 6500 or something like that. The next 2 weeks were ups and downs of about 1500ish. At the end of june I broke 10k on my empire account. The rest of the summer I spent 4-6 tabling the 15/30 game and when I went back to school in late august I had an 85k roll.

In september I went on a 12 day winning streak which was good for 20k. The 2 following months were very rough. My roll got to 117k on october 2nd and was at back down to 116 on nov 15, even though I played a ton...somewhere around 110 sitdown hours of breakeven poker. I won about 5k after that, then found interpoker and had the worst single day of my life. There was a super juicy 50/100 game and I dropped $7337. My previous worse day was 3181 so this was substantial. I knew I played really well so it didn't bother me all that much. I think I went and played live the next day just for a change of pace.

I went on a ski trip over thanksgiving though, and played on my laptop in the hotel room. Made about 13k and this got me out of the funk.

At the beginning of the school year I had set a goal of $150k and I was at $128 to start december so it was looking really bleak. (even though I was still pleased how much I had made).

Then I got freaking hot. Made a little over 40k in december and ended the year at 170k. I was very happy.

The new year didn't start off very well. I dropped about 6k in vegas, mostly at the 30/60. Didn't play online til jan 10, where I dropped another 5k. All in all made 13k in january and that didn't feel good.

Febuary is where I got my name - luckbox. I went back to interpoker and found it was very soft for 50/100 and 40/80. There were a few 2+2 quality players, but in general there were lots of fish.

(of course I told schneids and he's got a big mouth, combined with the fact I posted a couple hands) and the games are very hit and miss these days. I really wish I had just kept my mouth shut, definately one of my more bonehead/non-thinking moves of my poker career. I guess it has improved my game a milion fold because I've been forced to play tons of hands vs james, stox, nyplayer, nickla, schneider, gonores, lakerman and others who I don't even know are 2+2ers that play well. Also I began talking with james282 on AIM and have learned soooo insanely much, it was probably worth it long term for him to be in that game even though he's a very tough opponent.

Feb was good for 60k. I just couldn't miss a flop. I mean, I was playing well too, but running insanely better than I deserved. Ran at 4bb/100 over those 34k hands. I was still playing mostly 15/30, but got maybe 6k hands in at 50/100 and wasn't running all that fantastic.

The first two days of march I dropped 13k and that was a little disheartening. I had just came off a big heater and the floor fell out. The next week was solid, though and got me back on track.

March had a lot of very big upswings and it's fair share of -8k days but the kicker was I ran well at the higher limits. I tried 300/600 when there was a big donator in it and pulled 17k out of it

in the 165 hands I played. Started playing 100/200 and broke about even in that. 50/100 I kicked the [censored] out of though. 8300 hands, +35k. The month was good for another 87k. I'm a luckbox. I definately deserved my name.

The first day of april was good for the biggest loss I had taken yet. I dropped 17k. Most of it in 50/100 Euro. Stung, but not all that bad as I still fealt like I was running far better than average.

By this time though, the games had gotten significantly worse, partly because more and more 2+2ers had arrived and partly because we were breaking the bad players and there wasn't a constant enough supply of them. I then remembered how much more stressful the game is when you're a 1bb/100 winner compared to the 2-3 I had been for such a long time. I always figured my real rate was somewhere around 1.5 in the interpoker games, but this was my first dose of reality. Up and down and up and down and ugh. I actually lost composure a couple times. I'm sure some people will remember that 76s hand I capped out of the sb at 100/200. I've never had problems with tilting - Usually if i feel i'm getting upset, i just quit and give it a shot an hour later or even the next day. The orbit after that hand I did quit though. I'm glad I did as that could have been very expensive. I had another day where i was playing 3 handed 200/400 and they were catching unbelievable stuff, and even though I felt I had a distinct edge if i was playing well, I was down 18k to them and had to swallow my pride and quit. I was feeling myself getting to the point where losing more didn't hurt anymore cause 18k was significant and what's another 10k...so I left.

School in april was easy, so I was able to crank out 45,000 hands. Played about 35 hours per week. Ran at 1bb/100 for the month, and like i said, it's so much more of a rollercoaster. I still pulled in lots of money because I'm a luckbox and in the 300 hands of 300/600 I played, I made 50k. at 150/300 I made 17 to offset the 17 I lost playing 200/400. I was down in 50/100 in april.

11k hands, - 1k. So april was good for 66k.

So here I am. Going pro. Graduating in a week with a degree in computer science. That can wait. I may take some entreprenurial classes in a bit. I may not. I don't really have a plan, I just know I don't want to play poker the rest of my life. It's just too much money to pass up not to. I decided to just rent an apartment with two friends as apposed to buying a property as I would like to see how this goes before settling down somewhere. I also may end up out west skiing/playing poker for the winter. Time will tell.

Do I have any recomendations? Post hands. Figure out who knows what they are talking about and try to figure out WHY they recomend doing what they would do. Find some friends who are as serious about poker as you are. Just talk, go over situations. Explain your reasoning to eachother. Don't be affraid to be completely wrong. You're learning. You often have to figure things out the hard way in poker. Away from the table, constantly doubt whether you're making the right plays, but at the table, act with confidence. When you get crabby, quit. There is always another day.

I would never be where I was if it wasn't for the following people:
-Lee Jones: I read his low limit book a milion times.
-Ed Miller: for his posts. Most of the stuff in his book came after I had learned it, but it was nice to see I was on track.
-Red_Rain: He used to post a ton, one of my real life friends who got into poker with me. We've spent hours and hours discussing hands and theory.
-Nate tha' Great: played in that juicy 15/30 pacific game back in the day and tought me a good thing or two. I'll never forget when he tought me to call the turn c/r or donkbet and raise the river instead on semi-scary boards.
-Dcfrths: played a lot of 15/30 on party right when I moved up and responded to pretty much every hand I posted.
-I am B: he's got maybe 10 posts, but I've been to vegas with him twice and our conversations have improved me as a poker player a ton.
-Schneids: for teaching me a lot of short-handed concepts, as well as teaching me how to play heads up.
-James282: for playing fantastic poker and letting me sweat his hands, as well as sweating mine and being honest and giving me criticism.
-The 2+2 community for not letting me getting away with playing bad.

I owe a lot to quite a few other people, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind as the most influencial.

Take care,
bicyclekick

I haven't read this yet, but when I'm goingto the minute I am done posting this, I have a feeling I am really going to enjoy it.

Im not big on some of the no poker content stuff you have posted in the past, but I really enjoyed reading this. I'm glad things have worked out so well for you, keep it up.

Great post. I'm at the stage where I'm taking shots at 2/4 every once in a while, 'cept I'm just starting college in the fall. I can only hope to have the level of success you had, learning so much along the way. That said, I have school to focus on, but STILL.

Congrats, and good luck with being a pro. Stick to your habits. You've got a good thing going.

And when you're done raping poker, rape the market and you'll have the entire world ahead of you.

Wow, I would love to be able to pull something like that. Congrats man, you deserve it.

Mike

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I haven't read this yet, but when I'm goingto the minute I am done posting this, I have a feeling I am really going to enjoy it.

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Thanks for telling the forum that you're about to read the post. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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Thanks for telling the forum that you're about to read the post. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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It just felt right to say it [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Brian,
Nice post.

You owe me $$.

Justin

I wish you would have just posted screen shots instead of actually writing out your brag posts.

That was way too long.

Great post, BK. Hope you continue to excel.

first of all, good post.

Now, a day I'd like to remind you of is February 22nd/overnight into the 23rd. IIRC this was your first ever -10k day. At the time while talking to you, I could tell that you were a little bit rattled by it, and you made some comments that showed you even somewhat knew that you were. Thinking back to that to where you are now 2 1/2 months later, where you can easily handle this type of thing shows a major development you've made towards having the ability to be a consistent high limit pro.

And in case you have any personal doubts or any detractors, you are making the right decision by going pro. You have a great chance to do some awesome things in this game and should exploit that opportunity for everything its worth. You made a lot of thank you's in your post, and I'd like to take this chance to thank you for all the talks we've had online about poker, and all the advice and support you've given me. Good luck to you in your career.

Even for someone who talks to you everyday IRL there were details I didn't know about. I have been very happy to see your success and I "know" you are a part of mine.

(ps. it's not bragging if it's the facts)

also has a IRL friend i have to thank you for all the advice/ski trip I will call myself your personal luck box that week [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I am so looking forward to living in this pimp pad to #1 pick your brain every chance i can and #2 just watch.

But once again congrats dude awesome job!

I wonder if my claim to fame will be running better than BK did in Vegas [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Great stuff BK - between you and my experiences at the Party Poker Million WPT event, I've had my eyes opened to the fact that there is life over and above the 15/30 and 30/60 tables I have been stuck at for a year.

I'm inspired. Thanks for taking the time to post it. In fact, exactly 1 week from today is my one-year anniversary of turning pro.

great post, awesome story. thanks for posting it even if some will flame you for posting exact $ figures. .5/1 in December, 300/600 and a mid/high limit pro a year and a half later, I love it [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

That's a great story, BK. Congrats on your success.

[ QUOTE ]
Nate tha' Great: played in that juicy 15/30 pacific game back in the day and tought me a good thing or two. I'll never forget when he tought me to call the turn c/r or donkbet and raise the river instead on semi-scary boards.

[/ QUOTE ]
I wonder if you have a link to this discussion or if you can explain the situation in a little more detail?

Wow....nice story......

I don't think I'll ever get as high as 300/600.......But I guess with a little bit of dedication and skill level like yours....It can be achieved....

Makes my playing $1/$2 NL.....Seem somewhat inferior....

Holy crap...thats a lot of money and a lot of hands and a lot of skill..gratz.

I think you just inspired me to take a shot at the 15 game with a 300BB BR [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Great post man. You are an inspiration to beginners like myself. I was always interested in your story but was always too afraid to ask. I'm glad you posted it!

Been said, but great story. Thanks for taking the time to write it out.

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Holy crap...thats a lot of money and a lot of hands and a lot of skill..gratz.

I think you just inspired me to take a shot at the 15 game with a 300BB BR [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Do it! BK's luckbox nature may be contagious. I read this thread then followed a "buddy" from 10/20 6MAX to the 15.

Just ran 67 BB/100 for 61 hands.
/end mini brag

Seriously though thanks for posting this BK--it is inspirational and is great to have my eyes opened to what is possible. I thought 10/20 was big before reading this.

Even though I had heard most of this, its always nice to hear again because your success has been a big motivator for me lately. Talking to you about how many hands your a cranking out and how many dollars you are raking in has really forced me to make an effort to improve my game and log more hours.

What are I most admire about this post is that BK repeated more than a couple times that he was distressed or depressed about his performance/swings over the short-term but he soldiered on continued to play as if it was all part of some master plan. That tells me you have tons of heart which cant really be taught. No high stakes pros that play high and maintain their game at that level are wanting of heart-balls whatever you want to call it. Another thing that's funny is that eventhu you admit to game conditions perhaps getting tougher you are still making a ton of money-I assume this can be due to a combination of working very hard on your game and perhaps running fairly good.I'm surprised you've gone this far so fast.

Nice read very inspiring. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Great story.

These posts usually make me either want to go out and play, or quit. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Actually, it was pretty inspiring. Even though Im a little burned out on holdem right now it makes me want to go play.

Actual year notations would've made it a little clearer time-framewise. Minor gripe.

I always figured there's usually a good reason to click on a post of yours. This one was no exception.

Congrats on your success.

No double it!!!

Take care, man.

b

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first of all, good post.

Now, a day I'd like to remind you of is February 22nd/overnight into the 23rd. IIRC this was your first ever -10k day. At the time while talking to you, I could tell that you were a little bit rattled by it, and you made some comments that showed you even somewhat knew that you were. Thinking back to that to where you are now 2 1/2 months later, where you can easily handle this type of thing shows a major development you've made towards having the ability to be a consistent high limit pro.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah that was by far the worst poker day of my career. Usually I play and if it's going real bad, like I said, I'll take an hour off an play again...well, it went bad, I took some time off, played again, went horrible...and usually I just call it a day at that point. I quit and played again a few hours later and same story...yuck. I should relaly just quit after the second bad session. I've learned my lesson.

Thanks for the kind words.

[ QUOTE ]
great post, awesome story. thanks for posting it even if some will flame you for posting exact $ figures. .5/1 in December, 300/600 and a mid/high limit pro a year and a half later, I love it [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

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I don't think of myself as a 300/600 player. I'd say 50/100-100/200 is a reasonable assesment. I can't quite tell if that's what you were implying or not...I just wanted to clarify.

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Holy crap...thats a lot of money and a lot of hands and a lot of skill..gratz.

I think you just inspired me to take a shot at the 15 game with a 300BB BR [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Do it! BK's luckbox nature may be contagious. I read this thread then followed a "buddy" from 10/20 6MAX to the 15.

Just ran 67 BB/100 for 61 hands.
/end mini brag

Seriously though thanks for posting this BK--it is inspirational and is great to have my eyes opened to what is possible. I thought 10/20 was big before reading this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad to hear your session went so well.

10/20 is still big - money wise. Remember you're making $20+ per hour per table...that's big in my book. Might not be big in the poker world...but the poker world is a world of it's own.

Sorry about the timeline issues. I had part of it typed up quite a bit ago and finished it tonight.

Here's the timeline:
Fall 01 - play rinky dink games
summer 03 - play nl cashgames and lose in the summer
fall 03 - play nl cashgames at school and clean up.
oct or nov 03 - play first hand of limit via OIC $.5/$1
mid/late december - play 3 tables of 2/4 on party
january 04 get killed. Work things back out by end of feb.
march 04 deposit on pacific (to clarify, i had gotten things back on track on party at this point).
april 04 play first 15/30 on pac
june 04 play 15/30 party
november 04 play 50/100 and get ass kicked
feb 05 go back to 50/100 etc and do well...

I also noticed a few line errors...happened when I copy/pasted as well as a few minor clarity issues. Writing is so not my thing.

Thanks for the kind words!

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That's a great story, BK. Congrats on your success.

[ QUOTE ]
Nate tha' Great: played in that juicy 15/30 pacific game back in the day and tought me a good thing or two. I'll never forget when he tought me to call the turn c/r or donkbet and raise the river instead on semi-scary boards.

[/ QUOTE ]
I wonder if you have a link to this discussion or if you can explain the situation in a little more detail?

[/ QUOTE ]

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Writing is so not my thing.

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I thought the writing was cool. Just the time deal as far as following you through it. It read pretty smoothly.

b

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's a great story, BK. Congrats on your success.

[ QUOTE ]
Nate tha' Great: played in that juicy 15/30 pacific game back in the day and tought me a good thing or two. I'll never forget when he tought me to call the turn c/r or donkbet and raise the river instead on semi-scary boards.

[/ QUOTE ]
I wonder if you have a link to this discussion or if you can explain the situation in a little more detail?

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

A typical situation: say you raise with QQ and are called by a pretty loose aggressive player in the blinds. The flop is T64 rainbow you bet and are called. The turn is another T that puts a flush draw on the board. You bet and are check-raised.

Now, I think I probably have the best hand, although there's some chance that she'd play a T this way. It's tempting to re-raise right there but there are two good reasons to wait and put a raise in on the river:

1) If she's bluffing with very little, she may fold to a turn re-raise rather than putting another bet in the pot.

2) Waiting until the river reduces the risk of a reraise because the opponent may fear that I have a monster like trips with a better kicker or a boat (I'm assuming the player is wild enough that I don't want to fold to her reraise, but it's worth something to reduce the chance of a re-raise).

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(I'm assuming the player is wild enough that I don't want to fold to her reraise, but it's worth something to reduce the chance of a re-raise).

[/ QUOTE ]
This last sentence, are you talking about the turn or river here? If reraised on the river, do you typically call?

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I played 5/10 until the end of march and ran really well. With a bankroll of 10k I started taking short shots at 15/30 on pacific when the game looked especially good. The first hand I played at the limit I took a nasty beat, but other than that, I ran very hot and in 2 months ran up 35k or so playing that single table of 15/30 and 4-5 3/6 party tables.

With 3000 in my empire account and a roll(well, the amount of money I had total) of about 50k, at the beginning of June 04 I played my first party 15/30 hand. The first day i ran it up to 6500 or something like that. The next 2 weeks were ups and downs of about 1500ish. At the end of june I broke 10k on my empire account. The rest of the summer I spent 4-6 tabling the 15/30 game and when I went back to school in late august I had an 85k roll

[/ QUOTE ]

How many hours a week did you play? Did you do anything else while playing? No burnout?

Congrats,
What kinds of things did you do to improve your game throughout this timeline? Was it primarily reading through the forums, or did you spend the majority of your time reading books? I would imagine that it would be tough to stay motivated after having all that success.

Good post and a sad one in a way for me.

I remember when I was posting the first time in SS that you were one of the regulars there and remember Red Rain first starting to post. Sounds like you guys have focused and moved onwards and upwards while I havent, more cos I have been messing around with other games and other holdem types. So while you guys have pushed on and had a 100k+ roll I am sitting here on a 5k roll playing $30 mtt's and trying to learn Pot Limit even though I play 20hrs a week.

But I think its the grind I cant take sitting multi tabling limit when I have a full time job that more than pays my way it was hard to motivate myself otherwise, but reading this I think of what might of been (and I guess still could be)maybe not as high but I could easily have been up to 15/30 by now with a bit more conviction.

Good luck on going pro sounds like whatever happens with it you are giving yourself the best start into your adult life.

I was working part time in the inner city as a day camp leader. 1230-430pm m-f.

I played at nights a decent amount.

i'm a goofy wierdo, i haven't really experianced much burnout. There's too much money to be won...which gives me motivation.

[ QUOTE ]
Writing is not my thing, but I've been asked by many people to post my story, so here it is.

Writing is not your thing, yet you have authored 2,946 posts on this website. The internet is a strange place.

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Been said, but great story. Thanks for taking the time to write it out.

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