ITH Poker Forum

[ammbo]

I decided to record this here in response to a questionby Da_Big_Fish. It should have been the first thing I posted on this blog!

My Background:

I was a newbie to Texas Hold'em about two years ago. I learned to play draw poker a long time ago. I have a friend, bdk3clash here and on 2+2, who brought me to their homegame a few times. I was gently scolded for playing Q5o multiple times. My first night I won well over $100 and was hooked. I gave it all back on subsequent nights though. This homegame was a great blessing for me. It was full of guys who loved poker and would talk about hands afterward. I learned to analyze hands before I really knew how to play.

A few months later (In October 2003, I believe) I began playing limit SnGs on PokerRoom for play money. I ran my $1K in play money up to 42K and made my first deposit in January 2004. I played a lot of $50 limit SnGs on PokerRoom. I learned my starting hands by referring constantly to their Expected Value Sets. I only played hands with +EV of at least .01 and at least .1 to a raise. This actually worked well preflop but my postflop play was bad. My bankroll was fluctuating a fair bit but I won about $600 in the first two months. I moved to NL SnGs because they filled up faster and my variance went way up. In total I deposited almost $2000 (I was making VERY good money at the time).

I met an ITHer (legaleagle97) at Foxwoods and the two of us hit it off talking poker. He pointed me to the site. You can see my first posthere. I bought Matthew's book through the site and read it thoroughly. It may have been my first poker book, if not it was second or third. I started reading everything I could and now own about 25 poker books, all of which I have read at least once.

I am not sure at what point I moved from break even to above average where I consider myself now. Perhaps the turning point was winning into the Party Poker Million Cruisein March 2004. I won my way on with a great deal of luck and a few tricks I picked up in limit SnGs. I was scared dumb to play pros on the cruise , though, so I began reading in earnest. I was reading and rereading Sklansky's TPFAP and other books prior to the tournament and took about 8 books on the cruise with me. In the weeks leading up to that tournament I think I learned a ton.

After the cruise I continued studying and reading/posting on ITH. Books are not a substitute for interactive advice and discussion; they only get you so far. Seadood and Scapegote helped me immensely along the way as did BD.

At this point I was hooked. I had bdk3clash in NYC taking me to poker clubs in the city and he was a great friend to talk poker with (we 'worked' together). I was hooked to the point that I was making almost as much money at poker as I was at my job. My situation changed substantially when my wife was accepted to an Ivy league law school 5 hours away. This was tipping point for my decision to go pro. Being 5 hours away from her, making plenty of money at poker, and hating my new job all led to the decision.

In short, I credit a passion for poker and a thirst to become better with getting me where I am now. ITH fueled this immensely as did some friends I had. I still do not know how good I am, but I know I can always improve.

[Da_Big_Fish]

Thanks for the write up, Ammbo. Enjoy reading it.

Will you be my teacher!

As a beginner, what do you think is top 5 things someone new to the game should concentrate on?

[ammbo]

Hmmm... Perhaps an article topic is lying here somewhere.

Off the top of my head and in no real order:
1) Starting Hands
2) Pot odds
3) Constant analysis and reflection away from the table
4) Hand and player reading
5) Discpline (avoiding tilt, etc.)