How'd you get your start?

Trons · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 08:28 PM

I was wondering how everybody got their start in poker (both online and RL). Here's my story (only because I think it's amusing).

Last year (late Oct, early Nov) I was sitting on the couch flipping channels (one of the few times I didn't use the guide and it annoys my wife) and I came across a replay of the WSOP (I think it was the one where moneymaker won, but don't remember for sure). I was so amazed to find poker on TV I actually stopped flipping, turned to my wife and started making fun of people who would actually watch poker on TV. I was comparing them to people who watch bowling and dominos...After several comments (all derogitory) I turned back to the TV to resume my surfing and got caught up in one of the hands...10 min later I'm yelling at the TV Telling some fool not to do it because the other guy has him beat and I was hooked...my wife at that point started making fun of me...

I spent some time learning the basic rules of the game and found a local SnG that varied between $10-$20 buy-ins, sometimes a re-buy allowed, sometimes not. I played once a week or so and ended up breaking even (side note...If I didn't win, there was another guy who always won...once I started playing regularly it always ended up being him and I heads up). My wife bought me a cheap book on low-limit play for my birthday and I've been playing online since. I just recently got started (thanks to everybody on this site) in real money and I've been having a great time...

Trons

bonchkid · #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 08:37 PM

I watched the final table of the 2k3 WSOP. I couldnt stop laughing at Varkoni's(sp) shirt. I got hooked so bad just from that. Online, Tyler gave me some money and i sorta just built it up.

Steve-O · #3 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 08:47 PM

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/p...-ruddock05.htm

A little long but I feel it is the best writing I have ever done.

Beavis68 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 09:02 PM

Ah, I love this question.... i will answer in depth tomorrow.

But I was a WPT convert.

KDawg7 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 10:13 PM

I live right by Commerce Casino in Los Angeles so I thought I'd give poker a try. I sat down at the $1/2 table and didn't know what I was doing at all.

About 30 minutes later, I got dealt AA and the flop came 9,9,2. I kept calling this guy's bets and an A came on the river. Turns out this guy had 99.

Since my Aces full (in Commerce, it's Aces full of anything) lost to 4 of a kind, we hit the jackpot, which was $3000 for my share.

The whole time, I didn't even know what was going on...

Needless to say, I've been playing poker ever since (haven't hit the jackpot again in over 2 years).

stephkg84 · #6 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 11:04 PM

My family started nickel-dime-quarter saturday nites which all different types of poker games. One saturday nite they wanted to try a hold 'em tourney so they did and then it stuck every sat nite there is a poker game somewhere and then a few will spring up throughout the week but mainly play w/some guys that I went to school with. Online came shortly after when I heard about PokerStars from a friend and got into a couple freerolls and got hooked

missy · #7 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 02:58 AM

october 2003 i was a freshman in college and a few of the guys in nomanner's dorm started playing and i got sick of him going off to play and me being bored so i had nomanner and a friend teach me and i actually won my first little game (no money) and after that i was playing in the little $5 dorm game a couple nights a week (we had like 6-10 players...lol we were so horribly bad..."it was suited!" etc.). someone set me up on pokerstars and i dabbled in play money and freerolls for a while (took 27th in that enormous nlhe freeroll and was a dorm celebrity for a night even though that gets you nothing but a few tlb points). after a while the dorm games got small cuz the people who routinely lost quit, so a bit after nomanner started playing for real money online, he transferred me $10 and i took it to the penny tables (played during some of my lectures at school, heh) until it was $120 and then i branched to sngs and higher limits and that is the story.

coash · #8 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 04:54 AM

watched WPT.
Played with real money about 2 months ago because found out you could get something worth $650 just by playing half hour a day.

Keefter · #9 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 05:59 AM

PLayed in a home game at a friends, more for the social aspect than anything else, won it, god only knows how, people made the mistake of trying to bluff the newbie and i was calling with bottom pair and A-high. Enjoyed it so i decided to dabble with play money but realised quite quickly that this was no good as it was just all in poker bingo, so i made a $20 deposit on VC and away i went playing microlimit STT, .50 tourneys, lost loads in teh ifrst couple of months maybe $120 - then started to get better, bought Dan HArringtons; Harrington on Hold em and started playing more seriously. I think the thing that really gets newbies is hand selection, it was for me anyway, couldn;t understand why i shouldn't play 57 off (i might hit a straight - lol). Anyway been 6 months since the home game i won, i haven't made a deposit in 2 months and my br has grown to over $300 playing $3 & $5 STT, so i must be getting better but there is still much to learn!!

ShawnE · #10 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 08:20 AM

When I was around 16 my next door neighbor Barbara used to gather the neighborhood kids over her house for movies (she had a bigger movie collection than blockbuster and netflix I swear) and on Sundays she would teach us how to gamble. I remember her coming from Vegas all the time back in those days with so much money she would show me, because I was one of the few who actually took an interest in gambling. She taught me all kinds of different poker games, blackjack strategy, of course she made me promise not to tell my dad. And I was hooked.

Well after a while I went into the Army kind of forgot about gambling and just focused on my military career. After I got out of the army in 2002 I saw poker on T.V it was the W.S.O.P with moneymaker (2003) on it and I was hooked again. I started learning no limit holdem, reading, playing online. Then took a break from it again, while I was living in Maryland. Then I moved down here to Florida, saw rounders and finally went into my first brick and motor casino and played poker live, and was hooked over again. Now I play every week, constantly looking to plug the leaks in my game, and build a bankroll. I watch reruns of the WPT in the morning while I get ready for work, I read the forums at work, then I play on weds at my friend’s weekly, it’s more of a serious game than a just a normal home game. He has it decked out professionally, no pun intended.