How I got to here.

[Bob T.]

Arkady asked me about how my first few months playing were, once I started composing a reply, I decided to post it, instead of sending it to him in a PM.

In the 1999 Legislative session, Minnesota approved a card club at Canterbury Park.

I played a lot of home games through college and my early twenties, and when I knew that a card club would be opening in my neighborhood, I decided that I wanted to play more than the occasional home game that I was participating in.

I have relatives and friends that live in Las Vegas, so I made a trip there almost every winter, when I was there, I noticed that there were a lot more holdem tables than anything else, so I decided that I better learn that strange game. I looked on the internet, and found a site IRC poker, where they played play money games, but what was cool about that site is that there were different level of games, and to get into the upper level games, you had to have a certain size bankrolls. So the upper limit games played more like real money, because people were competitive enough to win, and also had pride in the size of their bankrolls. Whenever you went to a table, your entire bankroll went with you, so if you wanted to play PL or NL, you wanted to find games where you bankroll was safe.

I started playing regularly in a home game then, and I didn't realize it, but it was a fairly tough game. Later, I realized how tough, 7 of the regular players are winning live players in raked games, and one has become a full-time professional. I played extremely weak-tight, but I was able to consistantly win about $50 every week (in fact it was a joke that they should just rake the pot, and give me my $50 and give the seat to a live player). So I was building a bankroll for when the cardclub opened. About this time, I got HPFAP and read it.

In January of 2000, I had my bankroll up to about $600, I heard about Paradise, and I deposited $200 there, and quickly built it into $500. I withdrew my deposit, and quickly lost my money back. I redeposited, and it took me about 1 day to lose the $200. I realized that there were serious problems with my game, and I bought WLLHE. Paradise introduced .50/1.00 games about then, and I deposited another $200, and played microlimit games with WLLHE open and in front of me. I lost about $100, and then things turned around. By the middle of April, I was back to about $50 ahead. I withdrew all but my profits, because the cardclub was opening, and I needed a cash bankroll to play there. I would play about a half hour of online .50/1.00 to get warmed up, and then I would go to the card club, and play live 2/4. My plan was to win 150BBs at each limit, and then move up. It took me about a month to work my way through 2/4, and then I moved up to 3/6. About 2 months later, I was playing 4/8. But the live 4/8 games were too tough for me to get ahead in, or maybe I was just running bad. (For what it is worth, for the last year when I have played live 4/8 I have averaged over 3 BBs an hour, so those games couldn't have been that tough 4 years ago.)

Sometime after Canterbury opened, I found the 2+2 site, and started posting here. The small stakes forum had these guys Clarkmeister, Dynasty, Jim Brier, and Dave in Cali (Al Capone Jr), who responded to almost every post (How lucky is that?).

Paradise had started spreading 1/2 games, and my $50 practice money was over $200 so I started playing 1/2. I was still stalled in live games, but I started running good in online games. November I won over $1000, and moved up to 2/4, in December, I won about $1200, and started cashing out profits!

I went out to Las Vegas in December, and did well in the Mirage 3-6 game, and by accident met a local pro, who was waiting for a seat. I got an email mentor that way, and a lot of help for my game. January and February the next year, I won over $1500 each month. Poker is fun! I was going to go to Las Vegas in the spring to get some early golf in, and one of my friends told me about the Casino Employees event at the WSOP. Four of us made arrangements to go. My wife and I were going to stay with friends, and the other guys reserved a room downtown.

Reality strikes. I am not sure if I won a single hand of poker in March. It sure didn't feel like it. In order to pay for airfare and have a bankroll while in vegas, I had to cashout down to about $600 on paradise, and I ran bad and went back to the .50/1.00 games. The first part of april, was better, and I think I had advanced back to the 1/2 games by the time we left for vegas.

Before we left, a friend who is a very good stud player, announced at work that if anyone cashed in the tournament, it would be me.

In Vegas, I went back to the 3-6 mirage game, and was running good, and having fun. I had a $350 win in one four hour session. I entered the Employees Limit Holdem event a with what felt like a monstrous $500 buy in. That event alone is worth about a chapter in a book, but the first two hours, were the hottest card holding that I can remember, at the first break, I had 3500 in tournament chips, and until I was in the money, I was able to play weak tight, and pick on short stacks. When there were three tables, and I was in the money, I made a questionable preflop decision in a multiway pot with KTsuited, and the flop came AJx with two of my suit. Turn a magic Heart, and I more than tripled through, and combined with some blind stealing, I had enough to get me to the final table.

The final table was played the next day. My wife is from the Phillipines, and has that latin exciteability. My friends from LV came down, my buddies that from work were there, and I had the loudest rooting section in the bleachers. I started in in fourth place, and after my first two hands, was in danger of going out ninth. One player, got AA, flopped top set, against a suited broadway connector who had a royal flush draw. The AA got all in on the flop, and when the cards were turned over, said 'I have a bad feeling'. The river favored the draw, and we were down to eight. I was in survival mode.

UTG raised, LP called, and I had 1.5 big bets, and I looked down at JTsuited in the BB, I thought that I have mulitway action, and a real hand, I went all in, and top pair of Jacks stood up.

The next hand, it was folded to me in the SB, and I look down, same two cards, I open raise, and the BB threebets. Flop comes ten high, and after some bets, I double through.

Eventually it comes down to four of us, with one being very shortstacked. One of the players keeps isolating him, and eliminating the other two of us from the pot, and we miss out on eliminating him three times. I get ATs on the button and openraise, the former shortstack threebets and I call. The flop comes Acehigh, He bets, I call. The turn is a King, he checks, I bet, he raises, and I raise-allin. He had pocket Kings, and I was drawing dead, and I was out in fourth. $6500 and change isn't all bad for a 3-6 holdem player from Minnesota [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

I go to the Mirage after the final table, and there aren't any 6-12 games going, so I sat 3-6. I was so in tune with the table, that I played for a while without looking at my cards until the turn. I just knew what they had, and played accordingly. Later in the game, I had a couple of bad beats, and got down to about $40 in chips. I asked the dealer if money plays, and he told me only $100 bill play. I knew that, but I had to ask before I did this, I took out the $5000 bundle from the tournament and placed it on the table, as well as the cardholder that they give final table players. You know what, noone messes with WSOP final table players at the Mirage 3--6 game [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]. With my enhanced image, I was able to work my way to a win.

When I got back to Minnesota, all of a sudden, that 4-8 game that was unbeatable to me, became very beatable.

I put 2400 in my bankroll from the tournament, and had a nice working bankroll for about a year, taking regular withdrawals, and maintaining it for online 3-6 and live 4-8.

The next year, my wife became pregnant, and had a difficult pregnancy, she was out of work for 6 months, and I had to play LL well enough so that we could make up the salary that she was missing. When our son was born, he had an enzyme problem, and spent the first two months in the hospital, and went through one major, and two minor surgeries. After those bills, I was back in the .50/1.00 games again, but I rebuilt again, and was back in the online 3-6 games, taking shots at the 5-10 games.

When our son was one and a half years old, my wife decided that she wanted to go back to the Phillipines to visit her grandmother who was in bad health. The two of them traveled there for two months, and it is sort of traditional that when you go back there, you bring a lot of presents for the family. So traveling expenses, and presents came out of my bankroll, the first month that they were gone, I had my worst month as a player, and lost nearly $2000, a combination of running bad in live 6-12 and online 5-10.

A week after they returned, her Grandmother died, and they had to go back for the funeral. My father-in-law, and mother-in-law also wanted to go, but didn't have the resources for the trip. So, my bankroll bought five round trip tickets, spending money, and gift money, and was essentially gone.

Back to the .50/1.00 pond. If you are familiar with the rule of 72, I decided to apply that to my bankroll. 72 1% increases doubles your resources. So if you make 1% on your bankroll every day, it will double every two months. I would come home, pick an appropriate limit to make my goal, and play until I made 1%. I started running real good. I think the simplicity of the goal, and the conservativeness that I was using made me play well within my skill and bankroll. Since then, I have been running good. I have a streak of 13 winning months, and 8 straight months where I have had earn rates in double digits.

Good luck,
play well,

Bob T.

[colgin]

Nice post, Bob. I always enjoy reading your stuff. Keep up the good playing.

Colgin

[WDC]

You are my hero. I would like just a couple of consecutive winning months. Since my wife and I agreed that I would not play any more online (she has a real phobia about online poker, and thought tht amy hobby was becoming an obsession),
I get to play at CP about 5 times a month.

On your advice and a couple of encouraging posts about a year ago, I started playing the 6-12 game, which I do believe is the most beatable game in the house, at least foe me.

BTW I do think that the 4-8 game 2 years ago was about 50% ttougher than it is now, or I am 50% better.

[arkady]

You made a good decision to post the reply here, this is definitely for many people to see!

Thanks Bob you are an inspiration!