Where Did You Start? Where Are You Now?

caligula

caligula

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Hello everyone.

So, I first got into poker in 2014, at the age of 20, when I stumbled upon a documentary on cable called "All In: The Poker Movie". I had never played a hand of poker before nor did I know the rules. I went online and learned the hand rankings and the rules. It took me a week or two before I felt comfortable enough to even play for play-money online.

I started off playing for play-money on this gaming website (I think it was pogo.com), and eventually I downloaded Zynga Poker on my phone and began playing that often. I got a couple of my friends into it and would play with them as well.

After discussing my newfound love of poker with some friends, we began playing $5 home games at my friends house. I, being the one interested in poker the most out of everyone, was regarded as the best player, and I would consistently win money. I felt I was a much better player than I actually was due to success at Zynga (lol) and my superior knowledge of the game compared to my friends, along with my winning results in those home games.

The first time I ever played at a casino was a few months after these home game started, during a trip up to my friends beach house in Santa Barbara, CA. There's a casino called Chumash Casino nearby, and we drove out there. I played in the $1/2 game where I bought in for the minimum of $60. I was very nervous/excited, and that $60 felt like a lot of money to me at the time. I doubled up after turning a better full house against an opponent's flopped full house, which was so exhilarating. I left the poker room after that, up $60 and feeling like a straight rockstar.

My 21st birthday was a couple months after that first casino experience (At Chumash you only needed to be 18 to play) and I started playing at Commerce Casino. My first time there I lost. The rest is history after that. I played the $40 cap 1/2 game regularly for a long time, eventually moved up to $100 cap 2/3 and played that for a while, then for the longest time played $200 cap 3/5. I'm 23 going on 24 now and I currently play 5/5 Hold'em for the max buy-in of $500 (min buy is 300). I'm loving it at my current stakes and have been racking up solid, consistent wins.

That is my journey. From Zynga, to $5 home games, to the casino and the slow ladder climb up the stakes. It's funny how your pain threshold for losing money rises as you progress through this game. I remember losing $120 playing 1/2 at the casino and driving home angrily pounding on the steering wheel and feeling like a degenerate. How different I've become since then. This game, as I'm sure many of you know, will fundamentally change you as a person if you go deep enough into it.


Thank you for reading. Please share your stories along with any questions/comments, as I would love to read all of them.
 
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JAAMEZz

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def back in the day watching the wsop seeing moneymaker win that ****ing pile of money, that got me interested. then playing when i was younger and knew nothing. now reinterested from watching streams
 
Jamesuri

Jamesuri

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Thank you for sharing your story, i started from Pokerist didnt know anything about poker ( i was 33), after playing for few months i felt in love with Poker as an entertainment i decided to registered PS and 888 this year, but play money and real money games are very different, i lost about 1k and i decided stop depositing and started to learn poker seriously, but,i had so much difficulties upgrading my knowledge, i'm non English speaker, no poker book in my language, no video, no friend to study together. Now i still feel poker is the most exciting cards game still wanna learn, i am reading Phil Gordon the little green book, and seeking for someone could guide me. Any advice is highly appreciated
 
caligula

caligula

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Thank you for sharing your story, i started from Pokerist didnt know anything about poker ( i was 33), after playing for few months i felt in love with Poker as an entertainment i decided to registered PS and 888 this year, but play money and real money games are very different, i lost about 1k and i decided stop depositing and started to learn poker seriously, but,i had so much difficulties upgrading my knowledge, i'm non English speaker, no poker book in my language, no video, no friend to study together. Now i still feel poker is the most exciting cards game still wanna learn, i am reading Phil Gordon the little green book, and seeking for someone could guide me. Any advice is highly appreciated
Thank you for your response. Firstly, your English was good enough to write that post which I understood completely. So my first piece of advice would be to keep on learning English so that you can better comprehend poker videos/books/content. My second piece of advice would be to just play as much poker as possible, whether play money or real. Play as many hands as you can and try to think and analyze what you're doing and why you're doing it. If there's a casino near you, maybe go try playing some live poker instead of online.

I hope you found my advice helpful.
 
393700

393700

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I also play poker for more than a year, and in 2018 I plan a trip to the casino. in Russia they are few, but having a great desire, I'll get to them and test myself.
 
Bozovicdj

Bozovicdj

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Very interesting thread, would probably fit into "learning poker" as well :)

First contact with poker was with my older brother, when I was 15 he already won some solid money in poker (winning few tournaments online cashing over 1000$). So eventually I started playing with several friends, same as you, 5$ home game, and just as you, was regarded as best player since I won most of the time, and was always in profit.
As soon as I turned 18 (legal age in my country) I went to a local underground casino to play live, the game was 0.1/0.2 with a 30$ buy in. I remember making it to about 75$ in the first 30 mins, just to lose it all in the next 15 :D
After that, I was encouraged to play more, thinking I can play just fine against more experienced players.

For the next year, I didn't go play there, only with my friends (in the meantime I found some new buddies to play poker with), and was also watching a lot of poker on Youtube, mostly WSOP events, Highstakes poker, Poker After Dark etc.

After the year had past, I went to that underground casino again, cashed in round 30$, then few days after cashed again, and again and again. I was on a great roll, cashing round 100$ a week.
Unfortunately, since I started studying at the university, I wasn't able to play as much as when I was a teenager.
I was going occasionally, up until a point where that casino started making tournaments once a week. On the day of the tournament, I went online, Youtube-Tournament advice- went to the casino and won (200$ 1st place).
I fell in love with tournaments instantly, after which I found another casino with tournaments only, where I also won the first time I went there (that's 2 out of 2).
Since my studies are kinda hard, and time expensive, I had to stop playing for about half a year, and when i started again I wasn't nearly as good as before.
Made bad plays, mistakes, playing out of position with bad cards etc.
Eventually I started playing online, cash games at first where I had some success, but nothing of importance, and only after a while started with SnGs and tournaments.

Today (23yrs old) I make around 1000$ a month on poker, playing both live and online but not every day. However, my game is currently not improving, because again, I have no time to play constantly cause of my studies. I even had some offers from ppl to stack me, and split the profit, which I had to turn down.

To sum it up:
watching brother play and watching online - 5$ homegames - one attempt of playing in a casino - year of playing with friends and learning strategy - 2 years of grinding and winning both cash games and tournaments - year of pause due to studies - this year, and probably the next few just playing as a hobby, not improving, being in profit but with a feeling I can do much better if not for all the commitments outside of poker. :)
 
Jamesuri

Jamesuri

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Thanks for your advice, i'm reading books and learning many new vocabularies, i think i should focus on that first before i spend more time on Poker, i am a father of three now. Will be preparing to play poker like a pro when they're all adults ( lol )
 
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