Getting started

Well, I have been wanting to start a poker blog for a while now. Mostly its to have something to look back on and share my thoughts/rants/journey of an attempt to become a professional poker player.

A quick history - My family played every kind of card game you can imagine. I wasn't great at reading people, but I was great at figuring out the odds as I was always mathematically inclined. So, about 5 years ago I found out about party poker, deposited some cash, played $1 tourneys when I was drunk, and promptly forgot about poker when they pulled out of the US. About 3 years ago I moved back to Kansas for a job and to start building a life that wasn't centered around drinking and girls. Got a good job in a place with no party freinds. It was all good, but I was kinda bored, so I deposited at Tilt. I played micro tourneys and lost a little. Found Harrington on hold em, and suddenly I was a slight winner. Found poker tracker, and I was able to play two whole tables at a time! Then one day, I decided to try cash games. Started with 6 max, and that didn't go so well. I was a slight winner at 2 and 5NL, but the retarded levels of aggression tilted the crap outta me, so I moved back to tourneys, switching to the 9 man SNG's at stars (I found out about VPPs!). I was only making like ten cents an hour, but it was fun.

Then I moved to full ring 2NL. Suddenly, I was making a consistent profit and building my roll. I bought a new monitor and was playing 4 tables. I started reading 2P2, and was well on my way, eventually getting to 25NL with a decent win rate when I discovered the CainisAbel blog and mass tabling. HOLY CRAP! Here was someone playing 100NL and making a great living. I wanted to do that, so I started over at 2NL running 12 tables, and eventually got to the point where I could run 20 tables easily. Built my roll back up and got to take a shot at 50NL (that didn't go so well). Anyway, I was making some good money, and everything was going great. Bought my fiance here engagement ring and paid for a vacation with poker winnings. Then the water heater broke, and suddently my roll was decimated. My finace was on bed rest at the time due to pregnancy complications, so I moved to tilt (rakeback rocks) and started playing in bed with her at night. Things were going well, and I built a roll for 10NL and was working some prop bets to help pad the roll. Then the baby came. So tired. No time. No poker for 4 months.

I am now playing poker regularly again. Built my roll back up and I am again playing 25NL. I was a little rusty, but my game is getting much better. Apparetnly playing rush turned me into a LAG (or just gave me the confidence to steal more) and things are going well. I was up 4 and a half buy ins through 2K hands until last night, which was both a nightmare and very encouraging. I had an attrocious run with AA and KK. I had KK 7 times. 3 times I took down the blinds. 1 I won 25BB. And 3 times I ran into AA and I wound up loosing 2 buy ins (gotta love people for not buying in full). AA wasn't much better. I lost a stack to KK AIPF and ran AA into AA another time. Wound up only making $5 with AA overall. And I wound up even on the session! I honestly think I only missplayed a couple of hands the entire session, which is pretty damn good for me. I have been experimenting with squeeze plays, light 3 betting, and taking pots away with hand reading (I am a decent hand reader in general, but until recently I always used that to thin value bet instead of trying to take pots away). So, yeah, overall today I am variances bitch, but in a pretty good mood because even 6 months ago that would have been a train wrech of a session.

More to come later