Earlier this week I had been thinking it would be good to do a post about my history playing poker. After the big win last night in the poker blogger tournament, there isn’t a better time for it, so here it is…

It all started around this time last year when my friend/boss Dave talked me into playing poker online. Thanks Dave! One of the first things I did was print off hand rankings because I had never been able to remember them exactly. Then I bought Play Poker Like the Pros by Phil Hellmuth and was well on my way. Yeah, I know, the book is pretty weak, but I still think it’s a good introductory book that’s goal is to teach the strength of the big hands, which it does well. I signed up for an account on Ultimate Bet and started playing the play chip tables. I was pretty apprehensive about depositing money at that point because I didn’t have any experience at all.

After doing well on the play chip tables and moving up the ranks I finally go to the point where there weren’t any higher limit games so I made a $50 deposit and started at the .01/.02 tables. I can honestly say that I’ve never had a losing session playing these on UB…ever! After I increased my bankroll I moved up to the next limit, which is quite a jump to .25/.50 at UB. I got Doyle Brunson’s Super System for Christmas from my brother and read through some of that for a few new ideas. I even played $5 and $10 Sit-n-Go tournaments for some time. At one point during the last year my bankroll was up to $300 so I decided to try the .5/1 games at UB and got my ass handed to me. Combined with a bad streak in the SnGs I went back down below $200.

Over this period I won a small home tournament with a field of 13 and played in a few others. On a business trip to San Diego earlier this year I played quite a bit at the Viejas Casino. I even played for 14 hours straight one night, capping it off by winning back over $200 in less than an hour playing $3/$6 to end up around even for the day. I’ve played a few times at the Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan as well. One night a bad beat jackpot hit at the table I was playing and my share came to about $325. Overall all, I’ve lost money in the casinos, but I haven’t played in awhile and I’ve improved quite a bit.

Towards the end of 2003, I started looking for sites so that I could learn how to do some poker chip tricks. I didn’t find much useful information so I learned a few tricks, shot some videos and posted a simple little page with the videos and instructions. Last month I expanded by launching Poker Chip Tricks, a site completely devoted to the tricks. It’s complete with numerous videos for each trick and a step-by-step walkthrough of doing them. So far it’s been a success!

Over a month ago I purchased Small Stakes Hold ’em: Winning Big With Expert Play and I haven’t looked back since. This book is the bible of small stakes poker if you ask me. It’s completed changed the way I play the game. About three weeks ago, I dumped some money into Party Poker and Empire Poker, finally deciding to get serious about the game. I cashed out of UB with a profit of $130 over the course of the year and added $250 to the original $50 for a starting online bankroll of $300 with some profit added in there. In just three weeks, my bankroll has increased by a 4 digit number. Most of this is from the big tournament win of course, but I’ve almost doubled up the starting bankroll in .5/1 cash games alone. Either I’m running really good or I’m getting a better at this game.

I’ll see you at the tables…