My First Year as an Underage Poker Player (Long)

[Ogre]

My First Year as an Underage Poker Player

By Ogre


I started playing poker when I was pretty young. I remember playing dime quarter home games with my brother and friends. We played games like 5 card draw, Guts and In-Between. As I grew up I played poker less and less. My brother Dave (NLSoldier) started playing poker at school when I was in 5th grade. I didn't really care for it because nobody my age played. When he started playing online poker when I was about 12 or 13. He started out playing on an older friend’s account on paradise because he was underage as well. He eventually busted out and I again forgot about poker. A few months later Dave deposited for the second time, only it was on Party this time and that $50 deposit would prove to be all he needed. I watched him play 2/4 full for hours and I began to learn the game, I was about 13. At the end of 8th grade I would joke around with him about taking a shot at the Party $.5/1 game. He would always tell me that I wouldn’t be able to handle the suckouts with 5 players calling me down to the river every hand. I was 14 almost 15 when one night at the beginning of May Dave was leaving the house after putting in a session at 2/4. I told him half joking that I was going to play some $.5/1 while he was gone. He must have had a good session that night because he said, "Fine, just don't lose more then $10."

My first few orbits started out grim. I lost $15 but there was no way I was going to settle for a loss and disappoint him. I kept plugging away and eventually started winning. I won a few more pots and started a second table. I played until my mom told me it was time for bed at 12 o'clock. By that time I was up $140, (140bb in about 3 hours). It took forever to fall asleep that night thinking about my big win and my poker future. With my new bankroll I decided I would grind it out at .5/1 for a while. Soon I became bored with winning or losing $10-$20 a night, so I moved up to 1/2 full. I didn't like it very much because the game was a little tighter and there were far less tables.

At this time I was 15 and it was the summer of 2004. I had built up a bankroll of $300 in about a month or so. Dave was 4 tabling 5/10 (6 max) at the time, thanks in part to a stake from a 2+2er. He was winning much more than me and convinced me to switch over to short handed games. The 1/2 6max game was great, but I had one problem with it. I didn't change my style from .5/1 full to fit 6 max. I was playing much too tight. Folding if I didn't hit top pair good kicker and folding my blinds way too much for that game. I just watched as my pride and joy, my $300 bankroll vanished before my eyes. My poker bankroll meant a lot to me. Winning a few hundred in 8th grade had been pretty cool, and I felt horrible when I started losing it all after I had worked so hard for it. When I was down to about $20 I decided to play some $5+1 NL HE sit and gos. I had never played them, but I knew basic strategy for NL tournaments from playing with friends. I started off good but I hit a bad run at the bubble and soon found myself in the red. (I kept track of my portion of my brothers Party account separate by writing my balance in a notepad on the desktop) I realized that my whole strategy at 1/2 was wrong so Dave sat down with me and watched me play and taught me the real way to play it. I won $100 that session, but I knew it wasn't the game for me.

I started to play $5 SnGs again with a short bankroll. I had great success and moved up to the $10s very quickly. I really found my place at the $10s and played them throughout the summer until late August when I moved up to the $20s with a bankroll of about $800. I had a very good in the money % and a high ROI but I refused to move up to the $30s because I was intimidated by the stakes and the thought of flushing my bankroll down the toilet like I had done once before haunted me. I played $20s until I hit my worst streak of 13 out of the money finishes. I had become pretty frustrated by all the bad beats while on the bubble that I had suffered during my downswing. When my brother came home for Christmas break we decided it was time for him to try to teach me to play shorthanded again. Only this time it was 5/10. He had been playing 5/10 6max for a long time and had recently moved to 10/20. The idea of making money from rakeback even if I merely broke even was fascinating to me. I decided to make a jump into what I considered “the big game.” During the month of January I also took 3rd in a Party Poker Step tournament after starting at step 1. My brother had staked me in it and played one of the earlier steps, so we decided to split the profit. I took $1,000 and he took $800. I was also playing some 3 table $30 tournaments at the time to break the 5/10 grind. I hit a 7 game in the money streak in those tournaments which was a nice boost for my bankroll and got me interested in tournaments again.

I played about 12k hands at 5/10 and only made about $500 (not counting rakeback). I think my poor winrate was due mostly to bad luck but I was also still playing too tight. I started getting sick of losing up to $1,000 in a day so I took a few week-long breaks from poker. When I came back I hit my biggest win ever. I had been playing multitable touraments occasionally ever since I had started playing 1 table touraments. I had never hit it big, but March 15th was different. I entered a $30+3 MTT with 1100 entrants at 7pm and by 11:30 I was $7,000 richer. I took first of 1100. I felt I played really well, but I also need a little luck. With about 20 players left, my stack was down to ~5BBs. 1 limper and I pushed with KQo. It got folded to the BB who pushed over the top with KK, the limper folded and I found myself a 10-1 dog with my tournament life at stake. But I flopped a queen and turned another to give me a decent stack. I doubled up a few more times and got to the final table. When it got down to the final 10 I told myself that I didn't want to think back on this and regret not taking first. I wanted to win and if I didn't I knew I would "what if...?" myself forever. Anything but first was unacceptable. (I had been on the phone with Dave, who was at Canterbury and he been very effective in drilling this into my head). I had a huge hand against the other chip leader with AK vs his K5 and soon I was a monster stack. I rode my stack to the HU battle and won the whole thing with AK vs A6s. I didn't think about the money until the stack of 11 100k chips got shipped to me and I knew it was over. I was in shock.

I want to thank everybody who sweated me during the final table. The people cheering me on really gave me confidence and helped me relax. I knew I wasn’t going to fall asleep for a while but my mom came downstairs and told me to go to bed. I told her what I won and she said, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."


I haven’t played another hand of 5/10 since then. I decided to go back to tournaments. This time it was $100+9 SnGs. I have been now been playing them for a while and so far have been winning and an unsustainable rate, which makes me quite happy. I really think I have finally found a home and I will be there for a long time, but I never know for sure. I want to play what is fun, because if its a long boring grind its just not a game, its another crappy job that I will hate every time I sit down to play. This pretty much brings me to the present day. I am 4 tabling the 100s.

This has been a fun, interesting, and emotional(swing wise) learing experience for me. In 1 year I went from being a “.5/1 pro” to playing 4 tables of 5/10 6max. Went from $5 sngs to playing 4 $100s. In the beginning I would take $.5/1 very seriously and be shocked when I would open up a $200+15 SnG and watch them play for high stakes. Now I only play .5/1 to sit on ThaSaltCracka's left and 3-bet him everytime he comes in for a raise. I play $400 worth of tournaments at a time and don't break a sweat. When I look at the 5 figure number in my account the money doesn't seem real to me. Most kids my age are working crappy jobs for minimum wage. The people that know I play poker always ask me the same question, "OMG why don't you cashout??!??!" They are amazed that I have made so much so fast. I have just realized how much a 5 figure amount of money would mean to any other kid my age. I didn't expect to make this much money until after college but I have managed to di it during Jr High and as a freshmen in high school. I plan on cashing some of my money out, not to spend it, probably just to let it sit in the bank to earn interest in a safe place. I am not done playing poker and I am not scared of losing it all, I just have an overly big bankroll for the 100s.

I would like to thank my brother Dave firstly for getting me started in poker, teaching me and listening to all my bad beat stories and getting me through the tough swings. I would also like to thank Schneids and Justin A. And everybody else on the forums (mainly the 1 table tournament, multitable Tounament and ShortHanded forums). I have learned so much from reading and posting. I know I would not be the player I am with out the 2+2 books and forums. I am sorry if this comes off as a bragging post or something because that is not what it is meant to be. Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn’t too boring or long. Feel free to share your thoughts.



OGRE

[mantasm]

Congratulations, I hope you use some of your winnings taking out hot high school girls. See if you can get a senior.

[Emmitt2222]

Cool story, insane money for a kid your age. It must be nice to have an older brother to show you the ropes to playing poker. I would highly suggest asking older people around you about investing some of that money now because if you do, then by the time you get out of college you could be really set finacially. Don't let the money go to your head and good luck in the next year.

[r3vbr]

Almost every poker pro is young (under 25). I started out last year being 19yrs old. And lots of my friends that also play are 18-22yrs old. I guess nowadays, poker = young people taking money away from retired old americans that play recreationally to pass time

[jaxUp]

Congrats duder. Mantasm gave great advice on what to spend some of your $$ on. Try and get a threesome with the chicks in your bro's avatar.

[NLSoldier]

[ QUOTE ]
Congrats duder. Mantasm gave great advice on what to spend some of your $$ on. Try and get a threesome with the chicks in your bro's avatar.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, good call.

[WillMagic]

LOL.

Poker = the Anti-Social Security

Will

[ThaHero]

Nice post. Like everyone said, don't let the money and success go to your head. Hopefully your older bro will keep you in line! lol.

I agree with the other posters. Save it up, invest it, let it grow. By the time you graduate from high school, your college could be paid for. You may even have enough left over for a car, and we all know the guys wit cars in high school get all the girls, lol. But for heaven's sake, don't spend ALL your time playing poker!! lol

[morello]

Man, you are one lucky dude. I wish I was 16 and playing poker like I am.

First thing I would do would be to buy a kickass car (porsche maybe). Man..I really wish I was in highschool again, with this amount of bank.

Now that I'm an old man at 21, I have to think about the future. No car (I walk), no expensive toys. But if I was 16 I would do it in a heartbeat.

Good luck to you. The most important thing for you is to have fun. You're entering the last few years of your life where you truly have no responsibilities. Have as much fun as you can.

[jaym]

I don't know how much poker you are playing, but don't miss out on life too. High school is good times.