My name is Mike, i'm a 25 year old online professional poker player, i play exclusively on Pokerstars.com.
I first started playing poker back when i was in College with friends, in home games for fun, this was probably 2004-05'. We used to play on a Friday/Saturday night if we decided we weren't going to go out that night and get drunk (which wasn't very often!) but soon we all started to love the game. By nature i am a very competitive person and along with one other friend in our group, used to win almost every single time we ended up playing, it would either be me or him, usually both of us head-up as well! So that got me thinking there is obviously more to this game than a stroke of luck, so i started scouring the internet for ways to learn and places to play. I soon stumbled upon Pokerstars after a quick Google search and deposited $30-$50 i can't actually remember the exact amount, but started off with some $10 sit'n'go's, sick bankroll management obviously :) Busted my $30 or so a few times then joined sit'n'go grinders website and watched an absolute ton of DarinVG videos, and WOW! Couldn't believe how much i had learnt. So the next time i made a deposit was also the last time i ever made one! Started playing some $1 9-man sit'n'go's and just gradually moved up, always watching more and more of Darin's videos. I made it to be a regular at the $15 9man games and then went onto 180-man turbo's, where i formed this graph over time just playing evening's after work:
When i'd been playing sit'n'go's for a while i decided one day to make a change and try out some cash games for fun, because i used to play 18 table's or so of the 180-man sit'n'go's i did exactly the same thing with cash game's, so i loaded up 18 table's of 100nl full-ring, jumped straight in the deep end with no previous coaching or deep play experience what so ever under my belt! Haha, such a ridiculous decision looking back at it, but by some miracle i managed to break even over my first 50-60k hands or so.
I think it was around this time i found two plus two, i started talking a lot to the regular posters there and taking part in the small stakes full-ring forum (where i still post to this day even though i haven't played full-ring now for about 2 years!). Made a lot of what i call good friends even though i haven't met most of them, online world can be strange sometimes :) So with help from players on 2+2 and some training sites i moved up playing full-ring cash games, i was a 200nl regular and took shot's at 400nl and 600nl which went absolutely horribly.
From there i have basically tried most forms of poker and now decided to settle with 6-max cash game's, i find them more exciting than full-ring. The reason i actually made the switch to 6-max is quite funny, painful for me to talk about, but probably funny for anyone reading lol So when i was playing full-ring 200nl for my living one day i decided to withdraw a load of money, i went on holiday, got drunk A LOT, when i got home i decided i couldn't be bothered to play poker, unfortunately that attitude carried on for about 6 weeks! I kept on withdrawing more and more from online bankroll to go out, buy clothes, get drunk, have fun, i bought a car as well, that Toyota Supra on the next page. Anyway, i ended burning through my entire bankroll by the time this 6 week stint was over, which at the time was like $11-$12k. I felt so stupid afterwards and just wanted it all back because all i had to show for my old bankroll was a pair of jeans, a few t-shirt's and a 4kg tub of chocolate protein lol Not bad investment for $12k huh? :( Oh i had also sold the Toyota again, towards the end of this 6 week period and burnt through that money also......fml.
So, i deposited what i had left, like $300 i think, back onto Pokerstars, decided to give 6-max a whirl this time, started at 10nl and worked my way back up through the stakes. And after a few other small hiccups here i am! Attempting SNE at the Stars ZOOM tables in 2013 :)
Poker is unlike any other job, is what I found out through this long journey of up's and down's. In poker, you have no boss telling you what to do, you have no time you need to set the alarm for in the morning, you don't have to be at the bus or train station for a certain time to make sure you get to the office on time, it's all down to you. And what i finally found out is, that if i don't get my arse out of bed in the morning and start working on my game with my friends on Skype, or logging into Pokerstars and playing a session or 5, then i will have no money, and no money let me tell you is certainly no fun! So i think for the most part I've finally plugged some of the mental leaks i had, and i'm ready for the biggest challenge of my life so far which is SNE. Wish me luck for 2013 and please follow along in my journey either here in this blog, or on 2+2 or twitter (maybe all three if your generous) GL to us all in 2013!!!
I think it was around this time i found two plus two, i started talking a lot to the regular posters there and taking part in the small stakes full-ring forum (where i still post to this day even though i haven't played full-ring now for about 2 years!). Made a lot of what i call good friends even though i haven't met most of them, online world can be strange sometimes :) So with help from players on 2+2 and some training sites i moved up playing full-ring cash games, i was a 200nl regular and took shot's at 400nl and 600nl which went absolutely horribly.
From there i have basically tried most forms of poker and now decided to settle with 6-max cash game's, i find them more exciting than full-ring. The reason i actually made the switch to 6-max is quite funny, painful for me to talk about, but probably funny for anyone reading lol So when i was playing full-ring 200nl for my living one day i decided to withdraw a load of money, i went on holiday, got drunk A LOT, when i got home i decided i couldn't be bothered to play poker, unfortunately that attitude carried on for about 6 weeks! I kept on withdrawing more and more from online bankroll to go out, buy clothes, get drunk, have fun, i bought a car as well, that Toyota Supra on the next page. Anyway, i ended burning through my entire bankroll by the time this 6 week stint was over, which at the time was like $11-$12k. I felt so stupid afterwards and just wanted it all back because all i had to show for my old bankroll was a pair of jeans, a few t-shirt's and a 4kg tub of chocolate protein lol Not bad investment for $12k huh? :( Oh i had also sold the Toyota again, towards the end of this 6 week period and burnt through that money also......fml.
So, i deposited what i had left, like $300 i think, back onto Pokerstars, decided to give 6-max a whirl this time, started at 10nl and worked my way back up through the stakes. And after a few other small hiccups here i am! Attempting SNE at the Stars ZOOM tables in 2013 :)
Poker is unlike any other job, is what I found out through this long journey of up's and down's. In poker, you have no boss telling you what to do, you have no time you need to set the alarm for in the morning, you don't have to be at the bus or train station for a certain time to make sure you get to the office on time, it's all down to you. And what i finally found out is, that if i don't get my arse out of bed in the morning and start working on my game with my friends on Skype, or logging into Pokerstars and playing a session or 5, then i will have no money, and no money let me tell you is certainly no fun! So i think for the most part I've finally plugged some of the mental leaks i had, and i'm ready for the biggest challenge of my life so far which is SNE. Wish me luck for 2013 and please follow along in my journey either here in this blog, or on 2+2 or twitter (maybe all three if your generous) GL to us all in 2013!!!
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteJust came across your great blog, I've been playing poker semi-seriously in my spare time for about 3 years, I've swapped from cash to sng's to HU sng and back to cash. Ive made money playing sng's but find them boring but really enjoy playing cash although I've consitently lost money, even playing the micros. I want to now really focus on cash and would really appreciate if you could let me know what are the best videos for full ring cash you have come across?
Gl at the tables
Neil.