Donk to Shark

Hi everyone, im Gianni, im 19 from the UK. Been playing holdem on various sites for about 3 years. I play live and online. My biggest live cash to date is about 300 quid and online im generally up about 50 dollars. I dont get to play as much as i like.

Like the rest of you i ****ing love holdem, it keeps me up at night, its exciting and clever and fun. But sometimes its a bitch.

Lately ive moved to full tilt and started on the freerolls, last month i was playing freerolls, i had my first cash after about 10 goes and then started using Fergusons Bankroll advice. All was going well. Till i had a shite day last night and donked 30 dollars in heads up 4 seaters. Hahaa.

So now, today i turn over a new leaf. With 0 in my bank im gonna start again and do it properly. That means, no more than 5% of your bankroll and all that jazz.

Im generally a tight player and look for my spots and i dont go around looking to bluff but sometimes there are situations when you just have to, i have recently been learning about 3 and 4 bettings etc but i dont think that plays much of a roll in micro stake (maybe im wrong). Im pretty confident with pot odds, implied odds and fold equity etc.

Anyways, ill keep you lot posted on here about my progress. I have 3 freerolls to donk myself in.

Peace and love.

So, you started playing illegally when you were 16, and now you're hooked. How are you doing in school? I strongly suggest you give up poker and concentrate on getting a good education and starting a career, and don't play poker again until you are 25, which is the age that the brain has become fully developed.

HAHA. I appreciate your concern. Are you american? Americans have so much regard for the law. Its cute. I am in fact going to university in september to study social work and going travelling in a few months. Life is good .

To be honest, i think most of the young players (and probably a good portion of the older guys too) on this forum started playing "illegally". Maybe not online, but I started playing cash games pretty regularly with my friends when we were 14, and that was over 7 years ago. Addictions can be a touchy subject, but I really don't think this kid is gonna mess up his career or education by playing some freerolls before he's 25. Hell, poker probably helped keep me out of trouble because it gave us something to do on the weekends, rather than say, drugs or imitating jackass videos haha

Good luck on your poker adventures.

Started playing myself in my teens. Now I am in my early 30's and I still haven't figured out how not to donk my bankroll. Hope you figure things out sooner than that. I hope to see you at the tables.

good1 lol, lets just give up and never try.

Sounds like you have your priorities set right school first poker second. I played when I was in high school, simply because I could make more money playing cards 2 nights a week than I could working 40 hours. Call me lazy.

Good Luck...but don't forget finishing school, you'll need the college diploma. See you at a table soon!

Thank heavens there is something adventurous teens can do in the US. The list of innocuous things kids, and adults, can get arrested for and hooked into the "system" forever is truly bizarre.

I'm sure there are teams of feds raking their heads vigorously trying to figure out how to arrest every online poker player.

i bet Phil Ivey was told the same advice when he was sneaking into casinos underage at AC and gambling when he was 18.
thank god he didn't listen.

Good luck to you in your adventure. Try and remember that very few people make a decent amount of money. Treat it seriously but for enjoyment and do not get too hung up on making a killing.

For every Phil Ivey, there are 1000 homeless would-be gamblers living on the streets of Atlantic City. I gave the kid good advice, and I'm disappointed that more responsible adults have not given him similar council.

The best way to make it in poker, is to start with a good day job.

she is playing freeroll?

GDRileyx, the advise to finish school, get a job etc is good advise.. few people make enough to make a living from poker.. there are some who make a nice wage from poker on this site.. but for most its a hobby or a dream.

The guy is young, he has no commitments (well I hope not) so if there was ever a time in your life to follow a dream.. its when you are young.. before you get a career, a wife a house and all the rest of the trimmings.

I remember you said in another thread (I'm not sure which one LOL) that you had been playing for 40 years.. by your own advise of waiting until you are 25 before playing.. that would make you at least 65. You may be 65 .. but I don't think you are.

From reading his post I don't think he is saying he is looking at playing for a living.. not just yet anyway!!

aw geez, someone playing online poker illegally... isnt online poker for real cash in the US and many other countries illegal to begin with? who cares what age this person was or is? anybody with cash to give me on a poker game is old enough for me...

No, Stu, my age was in single digits when my grandfather started teaching me poker.

Me and my friends frequently skipped out of high school to drink, smoke dope, and play poker. That's part of the reason I can recommend against it.

I skipped college classes frequently to play cards, and finished with a 3.15 GPA. That's another reason I can recommend against it.

Alot of good advice comes from people who learned the value, of the advice they are giving, the hard way.

The thing about being 25, and having a fully-developed brain goes to what part of the brain is the last to develop, the sense of self. Before that, people are too prone to seek external validation by joining gangs, cliqueing up, or from external measures like success at poker.

I'll bet our initial poster's sense of self-worth took a steep dive when he lost his bankroll. That's not a good thing.

The initial poster said two things that signs of an early-stage gambling addiction. He said online poker keeps him up at night, and he said that he broke his bankroll rules when he was on a losing streak. Even if he is not pre-inclined to become a gambling addict, the first alarming item is not going to help him with his school work.

I don't care about the law that much. I break some law or another every day. I ran several stop signs on my bicycle yesterday, for example. But for drinking and gambling, I think that there are minimum age requirements for good reason.

And no toledo, online poker is not illegal in the US. Only using a bank (or other financial institution) to transfer money to an online gambling site is illegal.

I do agree, but he is 19!! In the UK the legal age to gamble is 18.. OK he started when he was 16, but here its pretty normal to start a year or so under age..

The minimum age to drink is 18.. but most 17 year olds are in pubs and clubs.. and their parents are aware of where they are.

I know the legal age is 21 in USA.. to you a 19 year old gambling must seem strange.. but here its something he has been legally able to do for over 12 months.

Why do you do this Stu? Are you just looking to get my goat? The legal element of his playing now has nothing to do with my advice, but you focus on that, and ignore the main thrust of my argument. This is a habit I have brought to your attention before.

The main thrust of my argument was that he should stop playing online poker, and concentrate on school. Partly because he might be cultivating a gambling addiction. But you have to counter with "He's old enough to gamble now, and, when he wasn't, that was ok because alot of people do it."

Can you see the apples and oranges there, Stu?

Well I was originally saying that your advise was good but few would wait until 25 before playing poker.

You even claimed to have started at a younger age than that.

In last post I was pointing out that as a 19 year old man he is legally able to gamble and therefore clearly meets the minimum age required. I tried to put it into context by pointing out the differences in minimum ages between UK and USA

Now I'm not sure what it is that you are arguing about..

trust a fruitcake to bring fruit into the argument.

Woah massive derail here, sorry if i sparked any of it but i think both gdrileyx and stu both make good points. as much as we poker players like to tout it as a game of skill, there is still a luck element to it and its still gambling, and gambling addiction can be very serious.

with that said, regardless of when gianni started playing, hes of legal age now and his money is his business. nowhere did he say he wanted to quit school in order to become pro or anything of the sort, and there are certainly worse things to do with your free time then play poker. before this thread gets outta hand, i think theres 3 things we can all agree on.
1) Priorities - work/school/family/friends all come before poker
2) BR Management is important both to keeping you in the game and from developing an addiction from the rush of big up/downswings
3) poker is for fun, so if its ever stressing you out, take a break for a few days/weeks/months/years, whatever you need to feel 100% again. part of the beauty of the game is that there will always be another one.

gl all

Ya its true alot of people started when they were under the age but who cares as long as they dont win a big tournament... why do you think most poker companies added play money to hook younger kids,

P.S. Bump this to Introduction