Your Poker Biography

[bennymacca]

CLIFFNOTES: long rant about how i started poker and where i see myself now, i would love to hear other's stories. they dont have to be as long as mine.

i was just thinking about when i started to play poker, and thought it might be interesting for people to share where/how they started poker. you can make it a blatant brag if you want.

so i first got exposed to poker through a show called late night poker in about 2001, which was on SBS (late at night!). after me and matt got into it, we heard that you could play online, so we pretty much literally googled online poker room, and lo and behold, pokerroom.com came up. so me and matt began smashing that site with play moneys, fighting over the dialup connection to the computer in the lounge room, and mum getting pissed off at us because we would always tie up the phone line.

we pretty much continued playing that and progressed into real money from there. i remember depositing 20 bucks american, and the first real money tourney i ever played was what they called the shark cage tourney, which was a first depositors freeroll. well i ended up taking it down for a grand total of 68 bucks, which is still one of the bigger tourney wins i have had online.

on pokerroom, i pretty much exclusively played the 5 buck SNGS, 10 20 or 30 runner. that was about as low as they went at that stage, and soon enough i went busto.

so i went back to play money for a while, but in a few weeks i decided to reload. i stuck to the 5 buck SNGs, and pretty soon i was winning them at a fairly decent rate. i would only EVER single table on my laptop, and my full concentration was only ever on the poker.

i cant remember what my win rate would have been, but i only played 1 or 2 tourneys per night for less than 2 hours, and i cashed out around 800 from pokerroom over all, over about a year but probably not too many total games. looking back, i reckon i was killing the game, i probably didn't know too much about poker back then. maybe i overthink things too much now and it gets me away from playing optimally.

some time during this time, the poker zone opened at the casino. i had played blackjack at home ever since i can remember, so as soon as we were 18 we would regularly go down there and play the 5 buck blackjack tables. so we were already familiar with the casino. so when poker came along, we decided to give that a crack as well.

the first casino game i played was 4/8 Limit poker, and i bought in for 40 bucks, the table min LOL. well i got smashed pretty quick, as the bigger stacks would just pound away at the turn when the bets doubled, and i was very weaktight with my money because i was nervous as shit, so it went away pretty quick. the next few times i went to the casino i repeated the same thing, losing mostly because i was always buying in min. it was only when the no limit tables came along that i posted my first winning session at the casino.

when NPL came along. me and matthew were really excited as we thought that this would be a step up in our poker playing career (lol how wrong were we). we soon realised that we were a fair way ahead of most of the players that were at the pub, with a few exceptions. there were many players that were new to poker, and they were very weak tight, so it was very easy to play aggro and just keep stealing.

this is where i started playing a bit more lag, and i think it has hurt me as a player since. in the following seasons of NPL, the general player base got a bit more experience and the general standard lifted and i didn't lift to stay ahead. so since then i have had mixed results in NPL. i could put this down to variance and laugh it off, but it makes me realise that there is definitely a lot to learn about poker.

these days i play once or twice a week at the kingy, and i enjoy playing and talking carp with all of the mates i have made through poker. i dont really worry about the results any more, which makes me enjoy NPL a lot more.

recently online, i have had mixed results. i am pretty much breakeven, i have good streaks and then tilt and give it all back. i think recently i have become a lot more interested in reading about poker and improving my game, and trying new things has probably hurt my bankroll a bit, but its a lot more fun.

at the moment i play on stars tourneys less than 5 bucks and the 5/10 cash games, my username is bennyjammer (same on 888). on tilt it is bennymacca, but i dont play on tilt at the moment, as i am busto and am not really looking to reload any time soon!.

i am really looking forward to the online version of NPL, as i believe that the better players have a bigger edge as there are more hands played. whether ill be successful remains to be seen, but i am excited about it.

currently i see myself as a mainly TAG player (as im sure most people do) but i have a bit too much gamble in me and i love putting my chips in the middle a bit too often. this only happens occasionally, and it means that i bust out of tourneys in the early cashes instead of running really deep, because of an earlier mistake. the thing i am most working on is my discipline at the poker table - whether its making those tough laydowns, or whether its stopping myself check shoving with AK that missed on a wet board instead of check folding. i believe that once i do that, i will be an ok poker player. whether i can ever stop that, i am not sure.

i play at the casino once every few months really, and about my last 5 sessions have been big wins, so i am pretty happy about that.

so for the future, i would just like to become consistent in my game, as i have too many brain farts for me to be happy with how i am playing.

to anyone who as read this far, cheers for reading, i am just writing this beacuse i am bored.

[AceLosesKing]

I like this topic, and I liked reading your story benny the cunt. I'll add mine later.

[maccatak11]

who is this matthew character you keep talking about? he sounds like an awesome player.

I won't write my story, cos its essentially the same as benny the cunt's (who ever said twins werent the same).

But i do remember the very first games we played using the pieces out of a connect four set, and our very first cash game where you went to the bank and changed $40 into 20c pieces cos we did not yet own a chipset.

Those were fun days, and i too am looking forward very much to playing online NPL. Good read though, i am very much interested in hearing similar stories from other posters.

[Finno]

Hard to remember where it all started. Probably when Gaz busted out a poker set when we were all around his house one night and it all spiraled from there. Pub poker started up in various local hotels including NPL at the Kingy so we (Gaz, Kyle and myself) thought we'd try our hands at that. Took a win in another league at the Golden Grove tavern which got me into their state finals and I came 5th out of about 400 odd players (won $100!). That got me into their national finals which were fortunately held in Adelaide and saw a field of around 150 runners. Came 9th which got me a sweet fat zero. Especially frustrating because 8th place would've paid $500. They ended their involvement with the GG Taven shortly after and I havent played a game with that organisation since.

In terms of NPL I won the Berri Deepstack netting a cool $1200 (a seriously cool moment in my life ), and made it into my first and so far only NPL states appearance where I came around 50th out of about 500. Have yet to crack one of these (NPL) pub events though! I've never really learnt how to properly handle super turbo events as I often cant bring myself to call such stupid amounts with marginal hands.

Venturing online I have accounts at tilt and stars (finno105) although my tilt balance stands at $0 and it'll probably stay that way. I find Stars to have more enjoyable tournaments (Badugi!) and it's where my (meagre) bankroll is anyway. I dont play often but it's mostly $2-$5 SnGs and 10c 25c ring games. I took that 2nd place in a tourney with over 4000 runners a few weeks ago which was worth US$1200, and a definite highlight. I've certainly won more than I've lost anyway. It's mostly for fun, and I try not to get too serious about any of it.

[krunchie]

Hello my Names Krunchie and I have a poker problem

Ohh- its not that sort of thread........... Sorry.


No seriously, great thread guys i love this.

My poker career only started 2 maybe 3 years ago after watching the wild turkey poker celeb show on channel 10.

My wife and I spent our beach holidays after we put the kids to bed trying to teach our selves the game heads up for about a week straight.

I then bought my self a chip set on ebay and started playing with family and freinds, all of which got sick of me bringing out the chips at every family show

The advent of Npl at waikerie in late 07 was like a breath of fresh air for me, i didnt have a computer then so this was my only real poker outlet and let me tell you I lived for tuesday nights ( and still do ).
I Finished my first season pretty low down the ladder but the next season in i found my style started to put me in the points more often than not so i stuck at it, which resulted in me winning my venue in my first full season ( back when it was 15 games)

Luckily i got my 2 best freinds to join me and we make tuesday nights a bit of a pilgramige, we all eat together then travel to the venue together and generally have a great time, in nearly 3 years the 3 of us have only missed like 4 nights total as a group.

Ive now made 6 state finals, including this season (just finished second tonight behind gundog),but one i didnt go to.

I have since made some great friends in NPL, not least of which are the majority of you guys who I talk to every day on the forum ( of which i dedicate at least an hour of my time every day).

I havent performed as well as i had hoped so far in the states, with my best finish being about 6hrs in.
I waited over 2 years for my first npl win and then managed 2 in a week, i pretty much only play exclusivley at waikerie but have played regionals ( best result a 6th) and a few games each summer holiday down the south of adelaide ( gday to all my new freinds down there).

I also bought a nice poker table early into my poker journey,which i love almost as much as my children
and have decked out my shed for poker games, it doesnt get used quite as much as it used to, for a while up 18 people would leave the npl on a tuesday night and head to krunchies shed for a tourney, nowdays thats just weekends here and there, but still great fun.

I also spend a fair bit of time on the online sites with stars and tilt about 50/50 of both my roll and time spent. I am normally playing $3 6 max games on stars , of which is seem to generally break even from month to month, tilt has been more low level multi table tourneys, that i cash in less frequently but have the occasional $100 + cash in so that roll fluctuates a lot more.

In generall i love poker, its a great hobby and i love it with passion

I also appreciate the mates i have made from the game, one of the real side benifts of this great game.

ahhh i feel great now i have that off my chest

[David]

My poker experience started when Scott moved in with me, and I asked him what the continuous beeps and knocking sounds were.

The end.

[Scotty]

and I asked him what the continuous beeps and knocking sounds were.

Not a euphemism.

[AceLosesKing]

My poker biography is still being written, but I'll write down what's happened so far.

My first introduction to poker was in Yr 12 at GHS (2006). I remember sneaking out with my mates one day during study and playing poker with my deck of Ralph cards. JD and Craig taught me the basics, I went home and was hooked, I remember trying to set up a royal flush for myself the next day - I gave up 10 mins later.

Soon, every study lesson we'd be sneaking into a free room and just playing cards. Once, we bought some paper and teared it up into little pieces for chips. When it was lunch time, we left the room and hundreds of small pieces of paper all over the place. We got in trouble for that one.

A few weeks later JD told me about pokerroom.com, and we both got into their play money games pretty hard. I ran my account up to 500k by playing the 3k 9 man sng's, a feat that at the time, I thought was pretty awesome. That continued for a few years until we heard about NPL starting. Zack, JD and I played our first game at the Kingsford. We were introduced to Matty N/Shannon. My first game at the Kinger I was knocked out early and played the bad beats - I ended up winning bad beats and getting back in. Yay.

I was having a great time, but I knew nothing about the intricate details of the game, playing from position, hand ranges, etc. It was just for fun. After playing NPL for a few weeks, I had heard of players playing online for money - which seemed so awesome. I put $50 into pokerroom and managed to lose that pretty quickly. I knew nothing of BRM, game selection, different stakes (still don't ).

I remember seeing an ad for Full Tilt and after doing some small research, noticed it kicked Pokerroom's ass. I quickly deposited $100 and played around with that for a while. Meanwhile, my friends and I were really getting into NPL, and after being yelled at to join the forum, I hopped online... and proceeded to tell Moose he has pretty hair.

Thus started my strong affiliation with the forum, and NPL in general. I've made a LOT of great friends (most of you guys) and met a ton of funny, interesting and cool people. I still remember the forum freeroll and the awesome time I had. I finished 2nd, 2nd and 1st in the BG regional leaderboard, and was feeling pretty good about myself. I was making states regularly, and loving NPL.

Then I got into online poker for a while. I didn't study the game, but I was starting to enjoy it a lot more than NPL. NPL was still fun, but it became more of a social game. Results didn't seem to matter as much, as I was starting to realise the appeal of online poker, compared to NPL. I had a few good wins online, and I was doing well at our local shed cashie every Fri night. Right about now was when I started to focus more on my own game - I started looking at different situations, what to do preflop, postflop, hand ranges from position, playing position, showdown value... and suddenly the game seemed entirely different.

And here I am today. I still play NPL pretty regularly, however not as often as I used to. Frankly because, I don't have to anymore. And the freerolls are so boring. I visit 2+2 a lot, post hands, read threads on strategy, and I'm enjoying improving my game. Right now I'm working on thinking about different situations at the table - what range of hands my opponent has, what range of hands he puts me on, what he thinks I have from the way I've played the hand... and I'm starting to exploit that. I've taken a break from online poker, I want to come back to the game refreshed and in a mood that I can properly practice BRM, my biggest leak.

I'm looking forward to states this season and the $50 deepstack

[bennymacca]

I've taken a break from online poker, I want to come back to the game refreshed and in a mood that I can properly practice BRM, my biggest leak.

standard IM convo when i see aaron online (paraphrased)

ben: u playin?
aaron: yeah in a 1/2 game
ben: really whats your roll looking like?
aaron: i just won a pot, so its up a bit
ben: lol BRM FTW


a few days later.

ben: u playin?
aaron: nah
benny the cunt: why not?
aaron: because i am back down to 150 in my roll
ben: didn't u have 500 in there the other day?
aaron yep

[AceLosesKing]

Pfft.

Its never 1/2.