pecunia, si uti scis, ancilla est; si nescis, domina
if you know how to use money, money is your slave; if you don't, money is your master
Inspired by Braminc's blog, I decided to do a little summary of my poker career. I plan on parsing it out in a few posts.
Back around Christmas 2004, I came down with a case of mononucleosis and was ordered to do nothing but rest. Confined to a couch and a television, I had little do and even less energy. When my mom would come home from work we would sit on the couch together and watch movies, talk, etc. This is the first I ever encountered poker...she was playing it on her laptop. I began to ask a lot of questions. I deposited $50 (sound familiar?) and jumped to the NL25 tables. My first big hand I had a full house, but I wasn't aware of the rules and when I called my opponent's all in he showed a flush. I thought I was beat with my "three of a kind." I was devastated until that glorious Party Poker jingle rang and the monies shipped my way!
Throughout the next couple years, I screwed around. I would run up my roll to $500, lose it, run it back up, rinse, repeat. I think in the back of my mind, I knew there was a larger strategy to winning. Success continued to elude me. My turning point was two fold - discovering 2+2 and then Cardrunners. On 2+2, I found various small stakes videos people posted for the community to see for free. I watched every one I could find, but eventually the well ran dry. Clayton, now of LeggoPoker, had made a few of those said videos. I PMed him to ask where I could find more and I distinctly remember him saying "The guys over at Cardrunners are doing good things." Once I subscribed, my mind was blown. Not at the strategy advice provided, but rather the sheer amounts of money people were playing with. The first time I saw a 10/20 video I thought for sure it was fake.
Being in college, I had A LOT of spare time and very little money. I was determined to make a few hundred dollars a month from poker. To me, at the time, that could have been a million! I shifted aimlessly from NL10 to NL25 to MTTs to SNGs, never making any substantial headway. As soon as I thought I had it all figured out, luck would even out and I would be flat on my bum, wondering what went wrong.
The funny thing about the early part of my poker "career" is how many times I almost went bust but miraculously didn't. At least a half-dozen times, disillusion and bitter with it all, I would gamble my entire roll in a $100 or $200 tournament, NL400 or the like and tell myself "if I don't win this, I'm done." During this time, I actually several month-long hiatuses because I felt like I would never progress beyond a mediocre player. I saw all these people around me posting graphs, winning thousands every month, "turning pro" and I could barely stay above water.
Then one day (probably an amalgamation of days to be honest), I decided that I don't care what it took, I was going to be the best poker player I could be. My whole life I hadn't been particularly "great" at anything. In sports, I was serviceable but never spectacular at baseball or soccer (football!). I took up skateboarding in my early teens and had a swell time filling my adolescence with it but never progressed in any impressive fashion. I had always been a "B" student. I was sick of doing everything half ass.
In retrospect, and this is certainly a bit of thinly-veiled foreshadowing, I realize now that most things can be accomplished in life by out working other people. You might not have the highest IQ or the greatest looks or the biggest muscles, but if you are willing to do what other people are not, eventually you will overcome and achieve what you desire. Finding out what I desired and what I was best at was the next step.
gonna follow this
