First Entry

Guess this will be my first entry in my poker blog.

I'll go over some background and the last few days.

History

I'm a young guy, 19, with a love for poker ever since I was 16/17 when my dad introduced me to the game. I would spend my days in school just playing 10c/20c cash games with a few friends (mostly when I should have been in lessons), I, along with my friend were probably the best in the place and would talk about poker whenever we had the opportunity.

It wasn't long before I signed up to an online site: PokerRoom on the OnGame Network. I got $20 from a friend because he wrecked my edition of 'Play Poker Like The Pros'. Very generous of him. Being a rookie, with no real idea of the game (and certainly bankroll management which didn't come for a while), I started playing $5 SNGs, which were the lowest available limit at the time. I guess I got lucky playing very TAG and built it up to $100, where I decided to dive into NL25, the lowest cash game they had. I built that up to $200 odd and moved up to NL50 and as soon as I hit $400 I dove into NL100. Oh yeah! High roller baby. Within 100 hands I won a AIPF, 100 BBs deep, and that was that. I reached my peak at $850, where I dabbled in NL200, in my first 20 hands I saw AA vs. KK, AIPF, a $400 pot, which to me was an awful lot of money. That was that I moved back to 100NL and basically ended up losing my entire roll in a day. You could say I was susceptible to tilt, lol. In all that time I cashed out nothing.

I'm happy that I lost my entire roll. I'm pretty sure most you you people are pretty confused about that statement, but I have an addictive personality and not losing my entire roll would have lead to me trying to build it up again, doing the exact same thing as before.
Going busto made me realise I had just been lucky in getting where I did and I certainly wasn't ready in skill to play at the levels I did. I needed to learn. I couldn't play poker because I had no money at the age of 17/18 in full time education to re-deposit, but I still loved the game. I borrowed a frieds copy of Harrington on Hold 'em and read it, at least 7 times. Then I bought The Theory of Poker, which was absolutely enlightening.

Not long after finishing TToP for the 15th time I had some money to deposit, $60, I played $5 SNGs, 25NL and 50NL. Needless to say I still had no idea about bankroll management and quickly lost that $60. Bummer. Unfortunately I had money (I had finished my school education and was in a full time job), I deposited $200. In the space of a couple on months I was down to $15 and almost distraught at the situation: I loved the game and I wanted to make money. I thought I was good enough to do so and thought I was just unlucky, but deep down I knew I was wrong. I let my heart and soul out on the Full Contact Poker forum (http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-forum) and they recommended I posted some hands, so I did. Some of the guys there are GREAT players and gave me some great analysis on them. They pointed out all my blatent weaknesses. I went back to the tables, now with an idea of bankroll management and a new approach to the game. This was about a month ago.

I started at NL2 and $1 SNGs with a $20 BR (which is still pushing it obviously), my bankroll began to rise and in a week I was at $50 where I took a shot at 5NL. My win rate rocketed at this level and I made $150 in a couple of weeks. I then took a shot in a $4 180 man (a love of us FCP boys) and I won it. My bankroll stood at $380. A few days later I moved up to NL10 and in 4k hands (not a good sample size I admit) I have a win rate of 13BB/100. I've played a few $1 and $2.50 MTTs and cashed here and there, not had the luck to get really deep.


Present Day

That pretty much brings us to the present day, yesterday I came 6th in a 180 man (having failed to cash in 15 in between the win), I was destined to win but my KK ran into JJ, obviously he rivered a straight. Shortly after, under pressure, I pushed 99 and ran into TT. That was that. Night before that I was on the bubble of the FCP barraged $5, when my AA came up against the bigstacks 44. He flopped the trips. Standard? Now I'm sitting at $580, multitabling NL10 (up to 9 tables at once, half of them being fast) and playing in low buy in MTTs.

My Plans

I plan to build my bankroll up to $1000 and move to NL25, where I'll hopefully build my BR up to $2000 and move up to 50NL. I would like to play 50K hands at the level too. Eventually, 2 years from now, I would like to end up at 400NL, not having moved up to the levels before that without having 40 buy ins and having played 50K hands. I'd also like to have some success in MTTs too, reaching at least 1 FT a week in the 20 odd MTTs I play a week.
I intend to sign up to an instructional site pretty soon, Card Runners or PokerXFactor. Undecided so far.

I would perhaps like to end up as a known and respected MTT and cash game player. I would really like to give something back to the FCP community who have helped my game so much. I currently rail every FT a FCP member reaches I can.

Would I like to live off my poker winnings? I guess so, but as someone once said "It's a hard way to earn an easy living".

Anyway, here I'll post how my poker grind is going, post interesting hands and my dilemmas in life perhaps. I hope I provide some insight and some entertainment to the poker community I owe so much.