My story

[bicyclekick]

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

[ClaytonN]

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.

[Steve Giufre]

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.

[ClaytonN]

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.

[mscags]

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

Mike

[Justin A]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[ClaytonN]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

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

[Justin A]

Brian,
Nice post.

You owe me $$.

Justin

[Sponger15SB]

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

That was way too long.

[Danenania]

Great post, BK. Hope you continue to excel.