One year ago today, I...

[Ixnert]

A year ago, I...

-- ...was beating my workmates pretty reliably for what felt like decent amounts of money in games after work. Thought I was pretty damn good.

-- ...really sucked.

-- ...had never played online.

-- ...thought any two broadway were really pretty.

-- ...was separated from my wife.

-- ...got very depressed when I lost large amounts gambling (used to have a blackjack leak).

In the last year, I...

-- ...made my first deposit at Party. Lost it. Made my second deposit. Lost it. Took a break for a while, made one last (and this one I really resolved it would be the last) deposit.

-- ...almost simultaneously found 2+2. Read without really understanding much of anything for a while, but even that level helped enough for the 11s.

-- ...reconciled with my wife, who (though this was the least of my worries) didn't really mind my new poker habit nearly as much as I thought she would.

-- ...eventually moved up to the 22s, where I'm solidly +ROI, and the 33s, where I'm borderline, then back to the 22s.

-- ...made about an extra month's salary from my 9-to-5 from my poker exploits, not so much as to be life-changing, but certainly enough to be able to do some nice things with it.

-- ...suck a bit less, and now recognize that I suck, though I can confidently say I suck less than the people at the tables I play.

-- ...am a lot tighter than I was a year ago, but still find myself seduced by pretty-looking hands at the worst possible times now and then.

-- ...am much more accepting of the swings of variance (especially since I have confidence that in the long run, they'll tend to work out my way), but still don't handle downswings as well as I'd like.

-- ...still leak, but at MTTs rather than blackjack, which feels like progress.

A year from now, I...

-- ...hope to have moved back up again to the 30s or 50s, maybe higher if things work out, but happy to only move as high as I can ultra-comfortably do (I have ~120 BIs on-line at the moment).

-- ...hope to have made enough to pay off some (all, in my wilder dreams) of the credit card debt I built up in college and haven't had much luck making a dent in since.

-- ...hope to suck even less.

-- ...hope to turn my MTT leak into an inflow. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Mr_Oog]

One year ago I:

-Was bonus whoring micro limit ring games to build a bankroll.

-Had a long term goal to be able to win $500 a month.

-Hadn't played a SNG or MTT


Now I-
-Regularly play the 55's and some MTT's with a solid ROI.

-Taken a few stabs at the 109's with success but realize the money still means too much to me.

-First realized that $500 a month is way too low for a long term goal

-Later realized that monetary monthly goals are silly and changed my goals to developing the ability and comfort level to play the 215's well.


Goals for the future:

-Rebuild my roll after depletion due to RL expenses.

-Learn to better handle the money at risk in a 109. (Obviously after rebuilding the roll.)

-Play more poker while still maintaining my relationships.

-Play with my 3 month old daughter more. (Can never be too much.)

-Mike

One year ago:

Never played poker

This year:

Using bots and gifted Vietnamese child labor to 800-table the 109s.

[IHateKeithSmart]

Great thread and replies. Unfortunately my story is not as inspiring as most . . .

One year ago today . . .

-I 1 tabled the $55s, drunk %20 of the time, for a %6 ROI.

-Gave a run at about 1K $11s 4-tabling. About %10 ROI.

-Played the .50/1 or Micro Omaha H/L tables

-Beat my $2/$5 blind NL home game for a decent amount.

Today . . .

-I 2-table the $55s, drunk %50-60 of the time, for a %4 ROI.

-Play too many MTTs for a healthy -%40 ROI.

-4-6 table Omaha 8 to produce an MTT bankroll, from 1/2 to 5/10, depending on where I can get a seat.

-Am almost done with my Masters degree. Once I'm done (Spring 2006), I plan on taking poker a little more seriously. This plan will probably go to hell though.

-Beat my $2/$5 blind NL home game for a decenter amount.

[skipperbob]

Wanna ride w/us to *STTF-HUC-II* [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[IHateKeithSmart]

[ QUOTE ]
Wanna ride w/us to *STTF-HUC-II* [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, I already booked my flight, but I'll chip in for a sidecar or uhaul to drag some more socal ggmilfs with you guys. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[johnnybeef]

Alright, I suppose that I should make a serious response in this thread.

One year ago I was waiting tables playing on ub as a marginal winner. I won a decent amount of home tourneys by playing tighter and more aggressive than anyone else, but I was by no means a tough player.

since then:

I won a 130 person tournament for a 5.5k score in december, deposited $500 of it on party, blew the rest in 3 weeks on clothes, booze, and women. I lost the 500 after i cashed it out to settle a debt that i made playing a 10/20 spread limit home game. In february I contacted Irie about being coached, and learned a great deal from him. In April I arbitrarily decided that I was good enough to make a living playing this game. Since then, I have had my share of ups and downs, and would be way ahead of where I currently am at if I could learn some discipline. I have seen some very rough times in which I was scraping by to get bills taken care of, but I am a much better person for it. I have learned some very good life lessons (like the importance of patience, learning to control my temper, learning to think before I act just to name a few.) I have also met some great people in my two trips to Vegas this year who have helped me out along the way, and I look forward to returning the favor some day. I have also coached about ten or so students, and I have taken a great deal from it.

My plans for next year are to maintain a healthy bankroll and to continue learning. I also hope to move out to either Vegas or LA where I can focus on playing live more often. I really do enjoy playing live much more than online as poker is a social game and I am a highly social person (which is probably the reason why I enjoy playing it so much.) Online may be more profitable, but there are more important things in life than money.

In closing, I would like to wish all of the friends that I have made (and ones that I will make soon) a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year.

Good luck at the tables everyone,
John

[skipperbob]

Ni Han [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]Beefy [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] CU @ *STTF-HUC-ii*

[junkmail3]

This is a hard format to write in. So I'm not going to bullet.

A year+ ago, I was grinding 2/4LHE. I started my career 4 years ago in college playing $11 LHE SnGs. Not too much money, and certainly a grind. I also didnt' play as much as I play now.

Since then I took another stab at SnGs and noticed my BR skyrocket, NLHE and progressed over the course of 2000 SnGs and 6 months to the $55s.

Bought a Samsung 213T to four table and not go blind. Purchased a Dell 9300 for mobility/second monitor, and have probably made more than I did in first four years - this year.

Skills increased, emotions decreased. Gap from where I am to where I think I want to be has increased, speed of improvement has decreased.


------------------------------------------------------
This thread has made me think of a lot of things. Most notablly that there seems to be a point in each one of these threads where something clicks and things take off.

I know that point for me was when I started to trust my ability, took a small risk, and took a stab at the $22s - logged less than 250 and moved up to the $33s (where I put in about 1000) but during that time I took three stabs at the $55s before I hit a good enough initial run of variance to stay. It pushed me from my comfort zone and I think that's one of the most important things in becoming a successful poker player. (two notes - I don't consider myself hugely sucessful and I don't advocate taking stupid risks - but calculated and sensible)

One year ago today...

I had been supported myself solely with SNGs for 11 months (this January 2006 is my 2nd anniversary)

I was 4-tabling the 30s and 50s... Just starting to make the jump into solely the 50s and gaining confidence.

I had just put in my order for the Dell monitor.

I was looking for apartments in Vegas.

I had just come back from a month long trip to London, Vienna, and Croatia-- paid for by poker.

I was lurking here on the 2+2 forums, and probably owed more to Strassa's posts than any others... it was the pre-"Power Tools" era, and I really think he had a better handle on bubble play than anyone else at the time.

I knew that I wasn't good, but was confident that I would improve.