Me and Poker: A History

Posted on October 22, 2004

Earlier this week I had been thinking it would be good to do a post about my history playing poker. After the big win last night in the poker blogger tournament, there isn’t a better time for it, so here it is…

It all started around this time last year when my friend/boss Dave talked me into playing poker online. Thanks Dave! One of the first things I did was print off hand rankings because I had never been able to remember them exactly. Then I bought Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth and was well on my way. Yeah, I know, the book is pretty weak, but I still think it’s a good introductory book that’s goal is to teach the strength of the big hands, which it does well. I signed up for an account on Ultimate Bet and started playing the play chip tables. I was pretty apprehensive about depositing money at that point because I didn’t have any experience at all.

After doing well on the play chip tables and moving up the ranks I finally go to the point where there weren’t any higher limit games so I made a $50 deposit and started at the .01/.02 tables. I can honestly say that I’ve never had a losing session playing these on UB…ever! After I increased my bankroll I moved up to the next limit, which is quite a jump to .25/.50 at UB. I got Doyle Brunson’s Super System for Christmas from my brother and read through some of that for a few new ideas. I even played $5 and $10 Sit-n-Go tournaments for some time. At one point during the last year my bankroll was up to $300 so I decided to try the .5/1 games at UB and got my ass handed to me. Combined with a bad streak in the SnGs I went back down below $200.

Over this period I won a small home tournament with a field of 13 and played in a few others. On a business trip to San Diego earlier this year I played quite a bit at the Viejas Casino. I even played for 14 hours straight one night, capping it off by winning back over $200 in less than an hour playing $3/$6 to end up around even for the day. I’ve played a few times at the Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan as well. One night a bad beat jackpot hit at the table I was playing and my share came to about $325. Overall all, I’ve lost money in the casinos, but I haven’t played in awhile and I’ve improved quite a bit.

Towards the end of 2003, I started looking for sites so that I could learn how to do some poker chip tricks. I didn’t find much useful information so I learned a few tricks, shot some videos and posted a simple little page with the videos and instructions. Last month I expanded by launching Poker Chip Tricks, a site completely devoted to the tricks. It’s complete with numerous videos for each trick and a step-by-step walkthrough of doing them. So far it’s been a success!

Over a month ago I purchased Small Stakes Hold ‘em: Winning Big With Expert Play and I haven’t looked back since. This book is the bible of small stakes poker if you ask me. It’s completed changed the way I play the game. About three weeks ago, I dumped some money into Party Poker and Empire Poker, finally deciding to get serious about the game. I cashed out of UB with a profit of $130 over the course of the year and added $250 to the original $50 for a starting online bankroll of $300 with some profit added in there. In just three weeks, my bankroll has increased by a 4 digit number. Most of this is from the big tournament win of course, but I’ve almost doubled up the starting bankroll in .5/1 cash games alone. Either I’m running really good or I’m getting a better at this game.

I’ll see you at the tables…

Filed Under Cash Games, Casino Poker, Home Poker, Online Poker, Tournaments

Comments

5 Responses to “Me and Poker: A History”

tp on October 22nd, 2004 1:31 pm

Congrats on the win Dew! I was rooting for you after you knocked me out of the game.
Joanne1111 on October 26th, 2004 4:14 pm

Congrats on the win in the bloggers tourney. I didn’t know that was you at pokerchiptricks.com, I have visited there many times - excellent site!
Matt on November 2nd, 2004 9:07 pm

Hey Nick, just wanted to say thanks for the SSH book recommendation. Ashamed to admit I had never even heard of it before (I have “hold ‘em poker for advanced players” from malmuth/sklansky which tends to focus more on mid-limit games), and ordered it after you talked about how useful it was.

Let me tell you, it came last week and I have been destroying the $2/4 tables since then. Bankroll is up $600 in just two days! I’m sure that kind of win rate can’t be sustained, but as long as there continues to be an influx of new players I think we’ll both do quite well.
Nick on November 2nd, 2004 9:36 pm

Glad you like the book Matt. I’m still playing at the $.50/1 tables for now. I have the bankroll (from the big tournament and been tearing up the $10 Sit & Gos lately) to support moving up at this point, but I want to get more hands in before making the jump to $1/2.
Matt on November 2nd, 2004 9:42 pm

One thing I’ve noticed (and I don’t want to push you to higher levels before you’re ready to) is that the level of play at $2/4 is juuuuust about perfect for me. Fishy enough to have lots of people in the pot for my drawing hands, but not so fishy that someone will always be staying in to get runner-runner flush or straight to beat me. You might find the variance to be a bit less as you start moving up, but by all means give those $1/2 tables a good thrashing! I really like the $10 SNGs as well, but one mistake in those and I’m out, whereas the ring games probably afford me a better hourly rate, and I can be much more passive… just keep a window open while I’m doing something else.

Anyway, bottom line is expect to have to adjust your play style a little bit as you start to move up… but I’m sure you’ll do fantastically.

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2 Hole Cards is a poker and gambling blog written by Nick Momrik.

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