The Fine Art of Maximizing your Loses! Volume 1.2

[Nathan Butler]

My first 1K session and the day Brett Quit poker!

This is one of my more particularly funny stories and really takes me back as both of these events occurred on the very same day when I was still relatively new to poker.

The day, a Friday, the year 2006, the location Pakenham Victoria, the setting; A Garth and Brett home game in the late hours of the night after an A-P-L tournament. I had been invited over for yet another brutalizing by my poker idols, everyone but me seemed to know I was destined to ship Garth all my money but none the less with a dream of beating my mentor, I packed my wallet with small bills and headed over to play some cards.

As per usual we played a series of $10 buy-in turbo tournaments, drank, ate and watched poker on the TV in the background, all very standard for our home games. On an average night we would play anywhere between three and six games and mess around in middle after getting busted. It was during these times I had my first real introduction to the never-ending money pit that is online poker.

I already had an account and I had played plenty of free and play money games but on this particular night after being eliminated early from one of our games I decided to deposit for the first time and really give it ago.

I deposited $100 into Full Tilt and got cracking straight into a 25/50cent game. I played with some small success for about thirty minutes in wait for the next live game to start, fortunately for me the next game never started as most were poker’ed out and decided to head off, this left me free to continue playing online and that I did. Boy the time flied while I was playing online, it wasn’t very long until everyone had gone to bed and I was the only one still up so I settled in on the couch at my home away from home with my eyes glued to the computer screen.

Now to cut a really long story short, I played all the way through the night until the next morning when everyone was waking up, oh and I was kicking some poker butt too. After doubling that first $100 I moved up to 1/2 dollar blinds then after tripling my two hundred I jumped to 2/4 dollar blinds, all in all I was the poster boy for bad bankroll management but I didn’t care, I didn’t even know what bank roll management was and hey, I was winning!

As everyone was getting up Brett joined me on the couch to see how I was going, low and behold his expression when he saw that I was playing 3/6 with nearly a $1000 on the table! Now Brett is a very intelligent person and immediately encouraged me to call it a night, he knew I was tired, inexperienced and well just an all round terrible player but I was winning and I didn’t want to stop! I continued to play for little while long really hungry to hit that $1000 mark and yes I did hit it and I did it will style.

Brett was still telling me to stop and I was still saying “just one more hand, just one more hand”. Brett and I finally came to an agreement, I un-ticked the auto post blind option and just mere lap of table left to reach that $1000. I folded every hand until I was under the gun and dealt the ace of clubs and the two of clubs, Brett told me to fold and be done with but instead I told him I was going to be dealt a straight flush and had to call. Brett’s response to my ridiculous premonition was “if you hit a straight flush I’ll quit poker for good”. I knew my chances were incredibly slim and I would probably just end up losing money but I was now committed to playing this hand.

I managed to see the flop cheaply and sure enough the three and the four of clubs hit the board. I could feel the look on Brett’s face. I was four fifths of the way to my straight flush and I wasn’t going anywhere. I had to pay to see the turn and it didn’t help. I was starting to worry now, am I about to dump all my hard work on this one stupid hand? I was very lucky to see a cheap river and last card hit the virtual felt my heart sank to my feet, OH! MY! GOD!... It was the five of clubs!

In one foul swoop, I hit my first straight flush, had my first $1000 poker session and destroyed Brett’s entire vision of poker. Of all the experiences I have had playing this game, this one would be one of my greatest! Props to Brett too, it took him some time but he pulled through fully recovering physically and emotionally and is back on the horse and still playing poker.

[Nathan Butler]

Sub-Notes:

For those that may not completely understand all the references in this story...

Garth and Brett Kay are brothers that I met on the scene of A-P-L they helped mentor me, eventually hiring me to work with them and since becoming friends and colleagues we have all moved to work with the 888PL poker league, Garth being our National Poker Manager.

If you enjoying my blog will try to fill up some of the gaps and personal jokes you might miss with some follow up notes.

[Brett Kay]

Nathan it was the 2 and 4 of clubs.

And yes it still haunts me to this day.
and the exact words were. Have it on facebook.

"Your playing 2 4 clubs, If you get a straight flush i am quitting poker"

FML, he did. Soul destroying moment.

[muzzington]

Haha, that story made me smile.

[Garth Kay]

I know I laughed on that day.

Run good one time lame horse!

[Origami]

likes this ....

blog on ...

[Swanky]

Man, that means there is hope for me!!!

[thelaw88]

Great story, reminds of my first real money experience online, was only 16 at the time and the winfall wasn't as big, but bad bankroll management nonetheless:

My first online poker experiences were on Absolute Poker, they had been advertising during the WSOP so I went online to give it a try. The initial $50 US deposit minimum was too high for me at the time, so decided to play their $50 1000 player freeroll.

First try and behold, 3rd place to pocket a measly $4 after 6 hours of play.

2am by this stage, decided to play 0.05/0.10 and try to build it up. In a nutshell, after some luck and an incredible run of cards, ended up on 1/2 with $200. Doubling up once more I decided to call it a night (as it was 8am and I started work at 9) and tried cashing it out.

After 4 weeks of getting the necessary documents in order (had gotten a friend to register my account) and waiting for the cheque, I finally received my $460 or so US dollars, which at the time worked out to around $600+.

It's what got me sucked into this game, and I can't complain as I'm up from cash games by quite a bit (easily in the 1000's from crown + online), but always seem to spend my poker bankroll on other things and having to start from the bottom again...

Bankroll management is something I need drastically, but when the money is just sitting there it's hard not to spend...especially when it's poker winnings, maybe it's just me but I doubt it

[Caleb]

It's what got me sucked into this game, and I can't complain as I'm up from cash games by quite a bit (easily in the 1000's from crown + online), but always seem to spend my poker bankroll on other things and having to start from the bottom again...

Bankroll management is something I need drastically, but when the money is just sitting there it's hard not to spend...especially when it's poker winnings, maybe it's just me but I doubt it

It's like I have a twin.

[AceLosesKing]

Awesome story Nath, love the personal touches too.