So you want to play some poker, eh?

I'm not looking to become some famous poker star with a huge endorsement deal, tons of t.v. time, and magazine covers. I will however accept a huge endorsement deal, t.v. time, and magazine cover if any of these were to be offered to me. (wouldn't you?) In this blog, I will share my my thoughts and experiences as a poker player. Wait...stop. Poker player? I'm saying that as if I spend countless hours grinding it out day in and day out. No, I'm just some guy who watched the movie 'Rounders' one too many times and decided to take a crack at the game because if Matt Damon can do it, so could I. Until I pay all my bills with my poker winnings, I'm just some shmo who plays cards from time to time. So needless to say, I have a real job working 5 days a week and squeeze in poker when some free time opens up. I am however trying to live out my version of the american dream and make some big money in this silly game called "Texas Hold 'em".

The first time I actually played poker in a casino was about 5 years ago. I was so nervous and shaky, all the other players at the table must have smelled this fish coming all the way from the parking lot. I sat down with my eager $100 in a $2-$4 limit hold 'em cash game and got my butt handed to me in under an hour. I didn't really know what I was doing and was probably involved in almost every hand because I just wanted to be in the action. I never had so much fun losing the $100 I came to the casino with. I got up from the table with the biggest smile reveling in my very first casino poker experience and my adrenaline was pumping. Even though I had lost, I was hooked.

I went home and bought a few poker strategy books and a subscription to Card Player Magazine. Doyle Brunson's "Super System" and Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold 'Em" are a couple of great recommendations. I started playing in some daily tournaments and cash games at the local casinos and would make a small profit from time to time. My first experience playing in a major tournament was at the 2007 World Series of Poker. It was a $2k No Limit Hold 'Em event and I went from playing in tournaments that had averaged between 50 and 100 people to a field of over 1,000! Holy smokes! This was quite the experience to say the least. I was in an arena with all the biggest names in poker and it was awesome. This was the big time. I was able to meet some of the players that I admired and had a chance to sit down and play in a bracelet event for a huge amount of money. I didn't cash, but I did outlast over half the field including some pretty notable players like Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein. Most of all it was a great learning experience to play poker in that capacity and it made me want to step up my game, so I hit the books and practiced for free online.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009. I had received a $50 Visa gift card for my birthday and for the hell of it, decided to give online poker a shot and play around with it to see what I could do. I deposited the money and started playing low-limit single table Sit & Go tournaments. I also adopted a highly conservative bankroll management plan so that I wouldn't get involved in games that were way over my head and that I was able to survive the natural losing swings in poker. Basically I allowed myself to only buy into games that represented 5% of my total bankroll. This way I would never go bust and only play on a level my bank-roll allows me to. After about 5 months of occasionally playing online, I was able to grow my starting bankroll of $50 to just over $650. In March 2010, there was a WSOP Circuit event coming up in San Diego and some of the preliminary events were around $300. So I decided to lay it all out on the line and buy into a couple events. I figured if I lost, no big deal, I'll just invest another $50 into online poker and start all over again. This went against my rules but I felt confident enough to step up and give it a go in a big tournament.

I went down to Harrah's Rincon in San Diego to the WSOP Circuit last March and met up with my parents. They are big poker fans and love to go to casinos to play slots and other table games, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. Long story short (we'll save that one for another posting), I bought into a $340 event with 196 other entrants and finished in 1st place for a prize of $15k and a WSOP Championship Ring. What?! All those years of studying and playing for experience had finally payed off in a big way. I had put myself on the map as a serious poker player. In a single moment, I went from being a nobody to being a nobody with a WSOP title and a decent bankroll to play with.

Since March, I have played 3 other WSOP Circuit events with no cashes and a handful of local daily tournaments with a couple of small cashes and 2 final table appearances. As you can see, I'm not a young college student skipping class and spending his parents tuition money on online poker. I'm not some business guy who takes his hedge fund profits and plunks down at a poker table with expendable amounts of cash. I'm just an average guy who is trying to make something out of nothing. I think I'm off to a good start. Things could get interesting.

We'll see...