How does one get in to poker? Yes, most of us have played five card draw with friends growing up and not understanding any strategy involved. After watching a few World Series of Poker on Thanksgiving day and hearing how much strategy was involved, how the best players are always winning the money, I decided that I wanted to become a great tournament poker player.
A little background about me, I was a college athlete and enjoyed competition, I never really saw myself as a gambler and for that matter I still don't. I wanted an outlet for competition and thus gave poker a go.
I didn't really know where to begin in poker so I purchased my first book in efforts to grab poker by the horns. Looking back now, I can see that I was quite lost, I purchased a limit hold-em book and found a website and started playing with play money. I soon realized that the limit book I had purchased was quite off from correct no limit strategy and sense I am a bit of a freak when it comes to being the best I decided to purchase a few more books. One of those books was by TJ Cloutier a very tight tournament poker player. Within his book I found some of the greatest teachings on poker, for me, that is to be a super tight aggressive player but not to aggressive. Now through my experiences what I have found is that each player needs to find the right mix of tightness and aggressiveness that works for them. The mix is not usually natural and one typically has to develop a combination of tightness and aggressiveness that works best for who they are. One thing I know for sure is that if you are neither tight or aggressive you will never be a winning player. You may win a game but it will never be sustained.
I was kind of a freak about money. Being married my finances were not my own and I didn't want my wife to tell me to stop playing or that I had a gambling problem or any of those things that the general public may associate with poker. After I was consistently beating the play money games I moved up to real money. I put about 40 dollars into an account and played on very low limit games. After a short time I had built that 40 dollars into 400 dollars by playing two table sit and go's tight aggressively as TJ recommended in tournament strategy. I ended up collecting enough rewards that I played in a satellite to enter a larger tournament. I won the seat and that night and made the final table. I took down the 5th place prize. I decided to cash out the whole tournament winnings and give it all to my wife and sense that point on she has had no say in how I invest in poker.
I made a very common mistake and left myself to short. I kept playing in bigger games because I thought just through my tight aggressive strategy I would beat my opponents. Well looking back I can see that I was better than my opponents just from being tight aggressive but I didn't account for variance. I went broke a few times by playing to big for my bankroll and took a break after that.
Still not wanting my wife to be tied to my poker bankroll I had talked to a friend about Poker Stars play money site and decided to get back into it. After a week of constant play I had turned the $1000 play money chips into over a million and found a site that at the time was purchasing and selling play money chips. I got twelve dollars for those play chips and have my current bankroll of nearly four years from play money. One of the keys to poker is to not think about your money while it is on the table. This is one way that I have combat that issue
along with good bankroll management. I have played in over 3000 sit and go's since turning that play money into real money and have a return on investment of twenty five percent. I have read over 30 poker books and now am a winning poker player in most every game from five card draw to texas hold-em. What I didn't realize when I started playing was that I got very lucky to avoid bad luck early on and since I went broke a few times I needed a better strategy for bankroll management.
I designed this site so you could learn from my experiences and my friends experiences who have been instrumental to my success. I would now recommend to most players to invest in your poker. Take the plunge and soon you will be making money. Cake Poker:
is one of my favorite sites read my review and if the games sound good to you I know of no better place to start making money.
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