Around the world on $5?: A synopsis of my poker life to date
I began playing poker how I imagine most people do; drinking beer with friends. I quickly started to take an interest in the game and read a few books. Once my dad saw I was reading and putting the effort in to learn he had confidence that I would become a profitable player and became my biggest supporter. As I gained experience and an understanding of different concepts my results improved and I started to become profitable
I have never had much money to play cards and bankroll management is just as important to your game as the results on the table. Like anything else in life it takes money to make money. Once I do get a little bit of a roll going I usually spend it on snowboarding or travel.
My biggest win before 2009 came at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. I went to Vegas with a few friends for the weekend and then stayed for the rest of the week by myself. On my last day there I decided to play a $330 guy in tournament at Caesars. I had played the same daily tournament earlier in the week with a smaller buy in and bubbled when my AK lost to AJ os rivering a flush. The tournament had 72 players if I recall correctly and I made it to the final 3. At that point it was a crap shoot with ridiculous blinds and the other 2 players wanted to chop. I was short stacked and they agreed to and even chop for 4,771 each which ended up being roughly my profit for my stay and a new bankroll was born. Until I went to lunch with my friend a couple days after returning to LA that is. He was going to Israel for a wedding the next week and I still had 5 weeks off of school so what to do was obvious. I bought my flight that day and was in Israel shortly there after.
I paid so much for my flight that there was no way I was only staying in Israel the 10 days like my friend. So I got dropped off at the bus station in Jerusalem and went off on my own for a few weeks. It was intimidating to be alone in a foreign country for the first time but those fears quickly dissipated and my confidence grew. I took a bus to Eilat, Israel and crossed into Jordan to go see Petra. I do not know that anywhere in the world exist as great of Petra, it is by far the most amazing place I have ever been. I then returned into Israel and then crossed into Egypt where I traveled for a couple weeks highlighted by sailing the Nile for 5 nights on a felucca and being invited to a Nubian wedding along the way.
Then I returned home, broke (though I now have far superior money management while traveling and that trip taught me a lot).
I am always broke, you get use to it. So maybe under that context it is believable that two of my better poker runs both began with 5 dollars. Believe it or not, it is true
A couple summers back I was at my friend’s house with three other people and they wanted to play a little 5 dollar game for fun. I had no money on me and was not smoking at the time. My friend Jeremy told me if I would hit a blunt he would give me 5 dollars and we could play, so I did, and I won 20 dollars. That night we went to a home game in Northridge, CA with a 20 dollar buy in and 27 players. The top three paid and I took first place. I forget how much it was for, but it was around 350 dollars. From there I went to the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles and played low stakes cash games all summer long 5-6 days a week with Jeremy minus a couple trips to Vegas.
When school started up again I couldn’t play as much and decided to put what I had left online. I had absolutely no bankroll management for tournaments, played way too big and lost it all pretty quickly.
I determined I didn’t care for online poker as I continued to put on 50 bucks here and there and lose it in one or two multi table tournaments rather quickly.
Then one day I had no money online and was watching team pokerstars pro Andre Akkari. A railbird asked him the question “If I have 100 dollars what tournament should I play” and he responded “play $1 tournaments, you should have at least 100/1” and right there it clicked. I have since realized that this is easy information to attain on any poker forum but for me that is when it clicked. I right there decided I was going to deposit 1,000 dollars and play using this method.
My results flourished as I pretty quickly turned my 1,000 into 7,000 playing mostly $12 180 person turbo sit and go’s on Poker Stars.
Anybody who plays poker knows it is an extremely stressful and frustrating game. I don’t think anybody on the outside can realize how brutal this game is and the ups and downs of your roll as you go through swings. About 18 months prior my dad was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and his illness was weighing very heavily on me. I was stressed out. The compounded frustrations of taking beats everyday playing cards did not help and I began to hate the game and become irritable and moody even though my downswing wasn’t all that terrible. I began to play on tilt not giving a fuck and playing over my bankroll, my discipline which previously led to solid results was gone. At this point I thought it was best to take a step back from the game and cashed out. Shortly thereafter I had the urge to play and thought I could take the beats and be stable enough to not let it get to me but that was not the case. I continued to play poorly and allow the game to make me irritable and moody. So I decided to stop playing until after my dad passed and cashed out up a few thousand on pokerstars overall.
I still loved poker and had the desire to play. I told my dad many times that after he was gone I was going to get back into playing. He was my biggest supporter and had full confidence that I could succeed at poker. While my dad was in hospice Jeremy transferred me a dollar here and there to play 10 cent tournaments just to give myself something to do when I came home at night.
After my dad passed on December 14th Jeremy gave me 50 dollars and said to mess around to get my mind off stuff. His father had also passed away from lung cancer when he was 16 so he knows how difficult losing a parent can be first hand. It was way too soon and I blew the 50 bucks pretty quick. I planned to eventually put on another thousand or two when I thought the time was right and I thought I was able to get back to playing solid disciplined poker.
Then on January 4th Jeremy transferred me another 5 dollars to screw around with. I hung around for a little while and had it up to 15 dollars and then back down. I bought into a $2.20 180 man turbo leaving me with $1.18 in my account and took 2nd place for 72 dollars. From there I built my roll up to 1,036 dollars playing mostly 2.20 turbos and I knew the sky was the limit from there.
I was still stressed, but now over money. I had been planning a world trip and a few thousand dollars from poker would help immensely. I had a dream trip in mind. Then suddenly the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.
On Sunday March 8th I played the $11 200k guarantee. 29,999 players entered. I doubled up the very first hand of the tournament with AA vs KK and it was destiny from there. I went on to take 3rd place for 15,000 dollars. My turbo experience and ability to play with big blinds is what helped me succeed most in the 200k. The blinds rose every 10 minutes and it played like a giant turbo. Obviously you have to have some luck on your side to make it that deep in a field that size but I played with supreme confidence. I told myself over and over that I was going to win it when there was still thousands of players left, “why not me?”. I am also confident at a poker table but I felt differently that entire tournament for some reason. Maybe something can and should be learned from that and that is how one should always feel. The power of positive thinking!!
It was a great victory that gives me a bankroll which makes playing a helluva lot easier. I don’t know what will happen for me in the future with poker but I do know I have a love for the game and a desire to improve. I will continue to play and give it my best shot. I have full confidence that if I continue to play with a disciplined bankroll and keep focused the sky is the limit. Equally important the bulk of the win is going to send me around the world and I’m going to experience the trip of my dreams
During my travels the ability to play cards regularly will be limited but I hope to play as much as possible. I am going to look into getting a room in certain places and try to grind online for a few weeks or a month. The first potential destination for this is Bulgaria. There is a college town called “Plodiv” which is the 2nd biggest city in Bulgaria that has sparked my interest. If I like it there I will see about making a temporary stop and giving it a go. We shall see what the future holds for me
I am real excited for how well cards have gone for me since returning to playing after my Dad’s passing. After taking 3rd in the Sunday 200k all I wanted to do was call him and tell him the news. He would have been so proud of me. When I called Jeremy (who now lives in Vegas) from the bar that night to tell him how I wished I could tell my dad, he said that is the first thing he thought when he watched me make the final table. Then he said “but he knew it was coming, we all did”. I like to think that is true, my dad knew it was coming, from the time I picked up that first poker book
I play on Pokerstars as Ubermensch84
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