Saturday, July 23, 2005

The road to ????

When I started out watching poker on TV I thought that it was all about outrageous bluffs and all in "pushes!" the education of "No Limit Holdem Poker" was just about to begin....

The first couple of months of my poker leisure was spent on Ultimate Bets virtual money tables where you started with $2000 play chips and if you lost them you could just re-join the table with another 2k replenished - simple as that. Now one thing about these tables was you learned that any hand could win because no matter how hard you tried it's just to easy to move all in with absolutely sweet FA. 99.9% of the virtual bankroll poker players all did, no matter what odds! moreover, what are odds? The raising re-raising was just brilliantly boring after a while, I needed more..

Along the way you learn all the jargon wp (well played), ty (Thank You), lmao (laughing my arse off) etc. Then as you build up your stack of virtual chips and start playing the high stakes virtual tables, the jargon becomes easier to decipher --> Fish, Moron, Muppet, Lucky bastard, Yo Mama etc. Throw Phil helmet's book (play poker like the pro's and win) into the equation and all of a sudden I became a serious contender for a WSOP bracelet on my first attempt, I now had this game sussed!

Anyway next, I read a fantastic book called Mike Caro's book of tells, body language, psychology, strong means weak, weak means strong, this game is more complex than I first thought. It will probably come in useful one day when you can see your opponents online but for now who was going to become the provider of my leisurely riches.....

Enter Betfair Poker, where did you find us? "some lads I knew from the casino said they played on there so I downloaded the software and signed up my credit card and stuck £200 into my account" simple as that, mmmm... Well 12.5k later (or down the swanee) and I was starting to feel like I knew how to play the game, or maybe I felt like I was capable of making my money last longer. I did know one thing, the more I thought I knew about the game the more I realised I didn't know... I was HOOKED. What a mega easy but subtly complex game I had stumbled across, I had to spread the word.

It all started with Single table Tournaments then small cash games 50p/£1 no limit and the odd session on Jack Daniels. From the of I would have been doing ok and no major disasters but The JD sessions where the major cracks in my armour, worst because I still played like I was on "UB play money"to my bank balances detriment. I also played on UB cash games and lost $3000 in a couple of hours and then moved back to the £1/2 no limit Betfair tables. Outdrawn on them tables is the keyword, I personally found them to be bad tables to play on because when you made what would be a fair raise on a £5/10 or £10/20 was just too easy to call on the £1/2's, e.g 4 x BB in £1/2 no limit = £4 raise hence the game to me was not as true as I would like, whereas 4 x BB in £5/10 = £40 an so on to the £10/20's which is ave £80 raise; people in my opinion less likely to call with J 4 off, although it still happens.

I moved up the limits to £5/10 one reason because of the above, the other being my best friend and business partner started playing on the play money one day for an hour, got bored and jumped straight on the £5/10s and started winning a nice few quid... Beginners luck BTW but it got me up there playing with the rocks, maniacs, etc. I have never looked back, and steadily re-couped the 12.5k defecit, gradually replacing it with a 30k profit.. Now i'm playing what I believe to be decent solid poker, (notice i say I believe) and I am constantly trying to learn and adapt to players styles. I have had my weeks of very poor play and escaped relatively unscathed to some players detriment when i've outdrawn them, but that's poker, and I take the rough and smooth of it all in my stride. No tilt Honest :-)

Toshiwonka was a name given to me by a friend when I was driving about town in a brand new landcruiser Lexus that was imported from Japan and was pulled up from the police because it had foriegn number plates. The police man asked if it was my car which i said no, then he asked me who it belonged to and i replied Mr Toshiwonka (first thing that come into my head), fearing arrest because my pal was in passenger seat pissing himself with laughing I continued to say he Didn't speak english cos he was a Japanese guy the police man just said ok have a nice night, that was it... Toshiwonka became my new Betfair,pokerstars, Pokername...


Some good, bad, indifferent, very thick and very clever people exist on these tables and it's always a pleasure making new friends, also as mentioned in other bloggs some very solid players whom you must let your ego avoid or your bankroll will suffer. I play weekly "Live" games with friends and whoever wants to join; there is always more players than seats which is great and we have a proper laugh. I play more seriously now but haven't lost the ability to have fun, if I started taking It too serious I would jack in and try something else, life's too short....

This blogging is also new for me but im up for posting the trials and tribulations of life and poker along the way. I think of it as therapy away from the tables and a chance to maybe reflect on issues that get in the way of poker, everything gets in the way at the minute cos I enjoy the game so much, but life exists beyond the tables.... GG