1 year as an underage player

[ggbman]

As of today, I have officially been playing internet poker for one year. I just graduated high school 4 days ago, and the last year has been very interesting balancing poker with my personal life and school.

I have had an interest with poker for a while, and since my academic performance was pretty solid during my junior year of high school, my parents decided to let me set up a Party Poker account last summer. There were a few ground rules, which were as follows.

1.) No playing more then 2 hours per day
2.) Only deposit $200 into the account, and if I lost it no future deposits could be made.
3.) I had to keep them updated on what stakes I was playing at all times

I was perfectly content with this arrangement, so I made my deposit. At this time, I had good poker instincts, but not enough knowledge about bankroll management and other crucial skills I would need to acquire.

At the beginning of my poker career, I bounced around a lot, playing SNG’s, a little bit of limit cash games, and some NL as well. In my first 3 days, I ran my $200 into $425. Somewhere along the line I started playing SNG’s exclusively. During a brutal run, my account balance dwindled down to $47.00 I then took 1st place in a $10 SNG, and this somehow gave the feeling that I was going to get past this run. For a while I was so emotionally drained that I told myself I would get my initial $200 and quit playing.

As the month of July wore on, my confidence grew, particularly after one all night session where I managed to grind out $180 playing $10 SNG’s. Anyway, by then end of the month had my account balance up to about $1300.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, my bankroll management skills were horrendous. For some reason, I convinced myself that it would be ok to play some $100 NL tables. After taking a couple of brutal beats, I was on major tilt playing above my head at $50 SNG’s etc… By the end of the night I had lost about $700, which was an ridiculous amount of money to me at that time. Anyway, at one point my account balance was back down to $400 when I vowed to be better with bankroll management and get myself out of this situation.

Over the next couple of months, I grinded it out at the $10 and $20 SNG’s and built my bankroll to about $2900 the beginning of October. Then, on a whim, I decided to play some $2-4 limit. I immediately realized that I had a knack for limit poker, and I immediately started crushing the game. I didn’t have poker tracker at the time, but I can tell you that I won about $4700 in October 4 tabling 2-4 for about 15 hours a week.

In November, I moved up to 3-6 and had some good success there, and although I took I week to move back down to $2-4, I still ended the month up $3700. I had a frustrating first week of December, and it ended up being my first break even week since I started playing limit. For some reason, I thought it would be a good time to move up to 5-10 6 max. It was pretty scary for the first two days, but I ran insanely well and ended December up something like $7800, which was about 2 years work at my job. I had been a service attendant at a nice restaurant for almost a year and a half, and while I had some good friends there, I decided that it was time for me to leave.

I continued to have success at 5-10, but in January I decided to give the 10-20 6 max a shot. I quickly had a 200 BB upswing followed by a 200 BB downswing. After the downswing, I realized I wasn’t emotionally ready to play for this much money and moved back down to 5-10. A month later I was giving the 15-30 full games on party a shot. I got off to a blazing start, winning something like $6,000 in my first week. I made this my new home, and made another $5500 in March, when I also finally set up a rakeback account and staring pulling in that extra income. I was a little disappointed with this result, as my winrate was significantly less then it had been at all the other stake levels I had been at. Anyway, April was a difficult month for me, I had some serious issues with my girlfriend with whom I had been together for almost a year and a half. We split, and I ended the month even not including my rakeback. At the beginning of May I was rejuvenated ready to have a huge month. I went on a tear playing everything from 10-20 6 max to $1000 NL tables and was up 7k by the 11th of the month. Unfortunately, a large chunk of this money came after having a few solid sessions at 30-60, and my downfall was inevitable. I dropped 8k in 24 hours, which is a sick amount of money to a 17 year old. I realized I couldn’t hand the swings, and I dropped back down again. I was running so bad and my play was rapidly deteriorating and I knew I needed to take a few steps back.

At the end of last month I moved back to the 5-10 6 max to rebuild my confidence. I’m up almost $5600 this month at the 5-10 game as I am writing this, and I’m back on top of my game. I’m going to stick it out at 5-10 for July and then give then 10-20 6 max a shot in August, I am confident about my prospects in that game given my results from May. After 1 year, my $200 in now somewhere around $ 38,000.

I have come a long way in the last year, both as a poker player and as a person. One thing I am particularly proud of is the fact that I have kept my life balanced despite poker. I have had more then enough time for my friends and for my on and off again girlfriend. I was able to keep a 3.4 GPA and I got my SATS up to a 1330. I also have matured as a result of poker, most poker players know how brutal the swings can be, and they make other things that used to bother me seem mundane. I will be attending Bentley college near Boston next year and would love to meet up with any 2+2ers in the area.

One thing excites me is how far I have come in the last year. I feel that if I continue to work on my game and focus on improving and playing my best at all times, I have a lot of potential. Poker has enhanced my life, and I hope it continues to do so.

Sometimes I still need to pinch myself to absorb what had happened to me in the last year, while I have worked hard to get where I am, it’s hard to always feel like I deserve the success I have had. It certainly makes me feel like I have more responsibility to do good just because of how fortunate I have been. So thanks for all the feedback, and hopefully year 2 will be even better than the first one.


Gabe

[nathan_hicks]

Damn, 38k and you're 17. What do your parents think of all your success?

[ggbman]

My mom was pretty weirded out for a while, but they are incredibly supportive. I still look forward to college and dont particularly have aspirations to be a full time pro, which i think eases their minds. Obviously it's difficult for them to relate to it sometimes, but i am fortunate to have great parents.

[ClaytonN]

holy hell. you rule.

I'm doing same thing as you, 'cept I started with 300 June 3 and I now have 1400'ish.

But wow, you just kept moving up. I'd love to be where you are at, but college life comes soon.

[nathan_hicks]

What are you spending all that money on? I can't imagine you have many bills, so you must have a lot of toys, or you're keeping it as a bankroll.

[terrapin314]

Congrats on your success!

However, one caveat of wisdom from someone 14 years your senior:

Enjoy college for all its worth. Don't spend an inordinate amount of time in front of a screen. It really will be the most fun you have in your life. Poker can, and will wait. Savor every moment of your undergraduate experience...

Again, kudos for your success!

[Biggenx]

Did you make all that money without reading any books?

[ggbman]

You should move up at your own pace just like you're doing clayton. I have been fortunate to have some hot runs at good times which have helped me with my sucess, but you keep doin what you're doing and it will come. Remember that while moving up is good as long as you can beat the games, as a young adult the emotional factor is key, and there have been many days when i lose a few thousand dollars and have to go study for a test or whatever, and it's not easy. You sound like you're doing great, the only difference between you and me is probably that i have gotten hot runs at conveienant times. Next year my priority will be making new friends and partying, but since i'll be spending so much less time in class, i'm confident that i'll still have more then enough time for poker. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I also gotta be sure to keep a 3.3 GPA to keep my partial scholarship, which is a whore because both Bryant and Northeastern offered me similar amounts while only having to maintain a 2.5 and 3.0 GPA respectivly.

[ggbman]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you make all that money without reading any books?

[/ QUOTE ]

Lol no i read a shitload of books.

[mat]

i wish i would have had your parents in high school