How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Hi guys.

I'd posted this over in the mid/high limit holdem board, and it went over well enough that I decided to post it here.

If anyone would like to share some stories about how they got to their current stakes, what it felt like along the way, obstacles they've faced, bankroll management issues, or anything like that, please share them with us here.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as people enjoyed the other thread.

Just in case you want to read the other thread, which is obviously about limit, here's a (link).

Edit: If this thread goes anywhere, I'll post a link to it in the small stakes NLHE forum.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

a brief summary..
1st month- me and 2 friends deposit $50 and play with shared bankroll (so my investment was 16$ actually). bankroll grows a lot playing 5$buyin NL then later 25$ buyin NL and we decide to split up.
2nd month played NL50$
3rd month played NL100$
4th month played NL100+a little NL200
5-6th month 5 tabling NL200
7th " went back to NL100 to massive multitable (15-20 tabling)
8th " still multitabling
9th-13th " stop multi, start playing 6-max NL400 on 5 tables.
14th month-17th month started playing 5 table NL1000
Currently - still NL1000, now 6 or 7 tabling.

read a total of 14 books
ex- broodwar and speedchess player
before starting to play and making 1st deposit, I read a lot of teamliquid.net forums for poker tips, and flopturnriver.com helped also.

things that most marked carreer was winning 50k at promotion at stars, and losing heads-up at the final table on a WSOP satellite, where winner got buyin at main event + expenses (13k value) and 2nd place got 0$. worst bubble ever.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

[ QUOTE ]
a brief summary..
1st month- me and 2 friends deposit $50 and play with shared bankroll (so my investment was 16$ actually). bankroll grows a lot playing 5$buyin NL then later 25$ buyin NL and we decide to split up.
2nd month played NL50$
3rd month played NL100$
4th month played NL100+a little NL200
5-6th month 5 tabling NL200
7th " went back to NL100 to massive multitable (15-20 tabling)
8th " still multitabling
9th-13th " stop multi, start playing 6-max NL400 on 5 tables.
14th month-17th month started playing 5 table NL1000
Currently - still NL1000, now 6 or 7 tabling.

read a total of 14 books
ex- broodwar and speedchess player
before starting to play and making 1st deposit, I read a lot of teamliquid.net forums for poker tips, and flopturnriver.com helped also.

things that most marked carreer was winning 50k at promotion at stars, and losing heads-up at the final table on a WSOP satellite, where winner got buyin at main event + expenses (13k value) and 2nd place got 0$. worst bubble ever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow great post. Good OP question. I would love to see more of people's answers.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

I go all-in a lot.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

I started playing online in like may of 04, on a friends account.

played 1/2 6 max (limit) for a while, then played 2/4 full tables until i had about 1k (didnt know much about bankrolls back then). At one point that summer i got down to $25 and put it all on $25 NL. Luckily I got a few buyins and eventually got it back to 1k.

Started playin 2/4 and 100 NL and ended up with ~3k for the summer. Then in August I played mostly 5/10 6max limit and 100 dollar buy in for a loooong time.

When i was up to about 8k in decemberish i took a few shots at 15/30, with mixed results. I made a lot in the beginning, and thought that was gonna be it. Then, the infamous 15/30 downswing hit me for about 9k, leaving me with only about 5k to take back to 5/10 6 max and 100 NL.

Played a bunch of 5/10 6max and some live 5/5 NL at fwoods in the spring, again with mixed (mostly good, but nothing spectacular) results.

Then came the summer, when i started to take it a lot more seriously, finally getting PT and gametime, and rakeback. I played a lot of 5/10 for the first few weeks, ran well, and then moved upo to 10/20 6 max and some SH 15/30 on stars. Did pretty well in those games, and also ended up playing some 400 NL after reading a post in MHNL about how soft the games were.

I ran well for the latter half of the summer at 10/20 and 400 NL, and was able to move up. Now I play anywhere from 20/40 to 50/100 but my main game for the last two months has been the 1k NL 6max. Beginning to play some 10/20 NL, but my god its boring playing 10 handed.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I go all-in a lot.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too, and I play limit. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Thanks for the responses, guys!

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

KKF staked me cause he thinks I'm cute. Now I have a lot of money.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

I can't believe I took you off ignore to read that... I feel cheated.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Intersting post. My question is this: if you're a food NL player why would you go play limit where the variance is a lot higher and your relative edge is less since you really can't make a lot of moves (until you get to really higher limits) where all they gotta is call one more bet? Long-winded question but one I've been wrestling wth for quite some time and would greatly appreciate a response.

Kirk

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

lol, ty. put me back on please. i would love to know what i was ignored for. i black out a lot, and i'm guessing 35% of my posts are completely retarded...

ps. i feel priveleged

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Dropped about 1000 playing 5/10 limit 1st month. Spent 100 on a few books. Turned 50 into into 100k in 2 years. Climbed the ranks in both sitngos and nl. Mostly just play 400 nl 3 tables, and occasionally 1000nl when there are some weak players.

Basically by learning to raise more than call, and understanding the power of position.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Started poker in college, nickle dime quarter [censored]...absolutely crushed that game.
Once I decided I did well there I thought I would try my hand at the big 2/4 games at Canterbury Park, gradually worked my way up to the 8/16 level where I hit a bad beat jackpot for 20k. I kept at that level for some time in live games.

Deposited 250 on Party Poker and played 5/10 short hand games and tournaments. First two tournies I played there I got fifth and second, giving me about a bankroll of 3000 within one week of depositing. Started two, three and eventually four tabling the 10/20 limit games (short hand), and various tournaments still.

Eventually I started playing the big (at the time) party no limit games, 200 and 100, more 100 short handed though. I won a Super Thursday, and several smaller tournaments and built a pretty solid bankroll, so once they added the 1000 NL I played that when I could get it short handed, same with 2000 NL.

Currently you can find me in those games most every day for a good part of the day, and playing whatever tournaments I feel like doing. I also play any of the bigger limit games that get short handed, 30/60 and occassionally 50/100.

Lately, no big tourney wins, some small ones, biggest in the last few months is a 13000 cash (2nd) in a Super Wed. Gonna start playing live more now that I am 21. Had a lil success thus far at Canterbury's fall poker deal, took 7th in the openening event and cashed in another.

Oh, I have never played live at a casino that wasn't Canterbury Park, I really gotta start getting out...

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

[ QUOTE ]
lol, ty. put me back on please. i would love to know what i was ignored for. i black out a lot, and i'm guessing 35% of my posts are completely retarded...

ps. i feel priveleged

[/ QUOTE ]

Well...

I just saw your post in OOT on posting something good about your life (since a lot of OOTers seem unhappy)... and I have to admit, it was a good post, so damnit, you're back off again... stupid crapshoot.

You're mostly just on there for, I suppose, drunken OOT posts.

I don't know, this deserves a thread of its own, probably in OOT...

I'm not particularly proud that i wrote this in public (about my ignore list). I definitely shouldn't do that. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Hi,

Saw Rounders in college. Went to Barnes & Noble to find a book with the rules of Hold'em. Found one, but the books on blackjack caught my eye. Learned to count cards, played a little blackjack and was lucky. Formed a small team with my friends, won some money, started traveling the midwest looking for better blackjack games.

Took a break from college for unrelated reasons. During our biggest session (up like 5000 to be split 3 ways), found poker on the same boat as the blackjack game. Played 1-4 Stud, got crushed by idiots to the tune of $50 or so. Immediately loved poker, and saw that it was like blackjack, except hard. Went back to B&N, got many books on poker. Read and read and read; luckily found Theory of Poker early on.

Played poker and blackjack, and eventually moved up to the "Big Game" on the aforementioned Iowa riverboat: 5-10 Hold'em (limit--there were no NL cash games then). Played 5-10 Hold'em and believed I could make a living at it. Quit my job. Went broke. Got another job. Quit again to play. Went broke playing. Rinse, repeat. Never went back to school, as my poker self-education showed me what a farce my college education was in comparison.

Moved to VA with my risk-averse girlfriend, combined finances, and planned on leaving gambling behind. Managed a video store. Yearned for poker. Found a very soft local game (10-20 Stud 8). Played a few times, with mixed results. Told my girlfriend I needed to try playing pro again, and that life with me would mean going through that. She was game, and cashed in our savings account the next day, giving me half. We made a plan: Win/Save $10,000, and I may quit the video store at will. A few months of crushing the game later (it only goes about 15 hours/week), I was there. Quit my job, headed to Tunica; did well. Girlfriend warmed to poker as money rolled in and I was happy/ often available. Married girlfriend.

Played 15-20 hours a week of live poker for 2 years, steadily grew the roll. Ventured into online poker seriously, had wild swings, didn't like it much. Somewhere along the way, got very far ahead (gave online up numerous times previously), and now I play exclusively online (1K 6-max, SitnGos, 30-60 limit Hold'em, Omaha 8, Stud 8), except when I travel to tournaments 3 or 4 times per year.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

I find it amazing how so many of the best posters in each forum made some of the worst decisions possible multiple times beforehand.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

Played poker with my family growing up. Played poker in highschool with my friends (we actually played NL Hold Em). Freshman-Junior Year of College I played about 3 times total. Senior year, started playing with kids in college and at 2/4 limit at foxwoods. I made 100 dollars on one visit and decided to deposit on Party.

First night, I dropped down to 11 dollars playing 2/4 limit and maybe a sit n go or 2. Somehow, I ran insanely hot after that, and turned that into about 800 dollars in 3 months, thereby convincing myself I was the greatest player alive. I mainly played 5-20 dollar Sit N' Go's and .5/1 NL. I was an absolute rock when I played. Anything above a minraise preflop was very unusual for me. I'd fold pretty much any hand besides 1010-AA (including AK) to ANY raise. I then decided I was going to take about 2 months off before I started work in consulting to just play poker.

I played .5-1 NL on party convinced I would make about 200 dollars per day 1 tabling for 6 hours or so. This did not happen. Or even close. I decided fish sucked out on me too much and I needed to play 1-2 NL. Luckily I cashed 2nd in a multi for 1800 which made me evenish for the summer.

My job was boring, so I found 2+2. My job continued to be boring and I read a lot of 2+2. Deposited some money on UB (I was IHeartBoobies on there) and played some .5/1 NL and then moved up to 1/2 NL. By January, 2005 I had a bankroll for 2-4 NL. I switched back to Party and played tons of 2-4 NL (if you've played 2-4 on Party, 99 percent chance I've played against you). Since my job let me out at 5-5:30 everyday and I had moved to Princeton, NJ for this job and knew no one, I pretty much got home by 6 and played till midnight about 3-4 nights a week. At some point I started doing well for myself and also had some big results playing 2-5, 5-5 and 5-10 live.

This past summer, I decided I hated my job and quit. I moved back to New York City and I now play poker for a living. I will be going to grad school in Fall 06.

I'm not sure I've gotten through an entire poker book. The Harrington books are probably about as close as I've gotten. By far, the most valuable teaching instrument for me has been this forum. I read it, a ton and it has taught me thought proccesses to use when playing that really is the basis for a lot of the strategies described in books.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

2 1/2 + yrs ago my friends started playing over the summer. So I started playing. We played 10$ and 20$ buyin games. We thought we were the best alive, period. Luckily I found caro's book of tells right away and immediately could stare into the souls of my friends.

My cousin suggested super/system early on, (he plays alot of poker as well) so I thought I was the next DB having read it. Found online poker november or so of 2003 (I believe) and started playing play money on pokerstars. Was able to sell several million play chips to start a poker br. Combined with a friend, we shared a 10$ roll and played 1cent/2cent nl.

We went on "wild" swings, including going down to 4.44$, before finally we had enough for 5.5 sngs and low limit. I multitabled NL25 and .5/1 limit (on a maybe 150$ roll) for a while.

A different friend found 2p2, suggested it to me, I read ToP and studied the game here. This helped substantially.

We won a 3$ tournament, gave our br a 1k boost, and split it up. I started reading 2p2 heavily and switched from .5-1 limit to just NL. (Which is why Im a limit retard!)

played my way up... Last semester I took off from college to play "professionally" (what a jopke!) in boston. I stayed at tufts w/ friends, multitabled 1-2NL and the like (and played in some boston games) but before the summer began I returned home and realized it's not what I wanted to do.

I still play way too much and read 2p2 way too much, last month was my first losing month, (I have no idea why) and this month seems to be in the same direction! But poker has been sweet on me.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I find it amazing how so many of the best posters in each forum made some of the worst decisions possible multiple times beforehand.

[/ QUOTE ]

a)I don't know why you would find this surprising.
b)Thanks.
c)Since you were presumably referring to my post, which decisions did you think were bad?

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I find it amazing how so many of the best posters in each forum made some of the worst decisions possible multiple times beforehand.

[/ QUOTE ]

a)I don't know why you would find this surprising.
b)Thanks.
c)Since you were presumably referring to my post, which decisions did you think were bad?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Cero... a few things:

1) Your post was at the bottom of the list when he made his reply... if he was reading in flat mode, you're going to get your name attached to his response. No biggie.

Also, I'm not surprised about this either.

I mean, no one walks into this game with total knowledge of it, right?

Anyways, thanks again for your responses, guys. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

--Dave.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

cero, the best part of your post was when you married your girlfriend.

actually the whole thing was great, but I'm always happy when things work out.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

let's see... not much of a story to tell. played poker in high school with some friends... we played nl texas holdem junior year and became pretty addicted to it by senior year - literally every chance we could get. we used to play at lunch time in the cafeteria .25/.50 c blinds, writing down in the margins of a piece of notebook paper who owed each other what. i thought i was the greatest thing to happen to poker until i visited the game of this one kid in HS who was a known hustler. i thought i was better but the whole time i thought i was being cheated and kept trying to prove it. anyway stupid to play there, dropped 50 bucks, emotionally not so good.

in college i sort of dropped poker until junior year when i found the "big game" at my school which was 1/1 nl. it sort of plays bigger than that but not much but yeah that's where supposedly the high rollers went, heh. played there at the end of my junior year a bit and was pretty much a fish. friends from the game told me about 2+2. i became fascinated and started reading.

dropped poker over the summer but then picked it up again in the fall. became addicted. reading 2+2 all the time, going to foxwoods to play 1/2nl. second semester started keeping a real bankroll, started playing 5/5 at foxwoods. never anywhere else, still underage. online - worked my way up from .5/1 to 1/2, 2/4 up to 10/20 all very quickly (i am very conservative bankroll-wise so "very quickly" means i had 25 buy ins but maybe didn't feel comfortable).

ijust graduated and this summer i played a lot and doubled my bankroll. i'm not really interested in playing for a living and being rich doesn't really excite me all that much. i'm doing research for a year and next year working full time (60 hr week kinda deal) before going to school. professional poker nowhere in my plans but i hope to always keep it as a hobby, and i'm looking to focus on live, whether cash games or tournaments. there's less money due to time restrictions but for me it's infinitely more fun. right now i'm also working on becoming a more versatile player, studying other games besides nl holdem.

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

I started at $25nl on party, i almost busted a few times, but a few good books and some help from fellow wannabys i have won my way up to $2000nl online... not real sure where to go from here...

Re: How did you get to where you currently are?
 

mixing it up once in a while makes it much more fun

also, its easier to play >4 tables of limit, whereas its pretty tough to do at 6max NL