A Man Blog

Those who aren't familiar with poker might want to skip this blog because that is all that it is going to be about. Gambling in particular, but mostly poker for now.

I am pretty sure that my betting began as a junior bowler. Bill, Mike and I would always bet who would have the higher game ever since the sixth grade. Bill was a couple years younger than Mike and I, but he would donate his money just the same. Just kidding, I think we pretty much always broke even. After bowling, I think it was betting on football (NFL, can't stand watching college ball) that came next.

Quick story on the Football wagers. Back in high school I was working at The Stardust restaurant. I would bet on games weekly with this dish washer who was working there. There was a Monday night game coming up between the Broncos and the Raiders, I asked if he wanted to bet on it. His response was, "no, you always win, I have to give you money every week". I hadn't a clue that he was upset about giving me money every week, but I guess he was. I asked him again later if he was sure, he gave in and said "okay, but I get the Broncos"! I said that was fine, he then changed his mind and said, "no, I get the Raiders instead". I said that also was fine with me. He changed his mind again and said that the bet was off, he wasn't going to bet me anymore. He honestly thought that I had a hidden talent for knowing who was going to win, like I was psychic or something? That was probably the last of my small time gambling addiction until one year after high school. It was the same year that Brandon was visiting before he was to head off for the Marines.

The year was 1998 when a movie was released called Rounders. Those who haven't seen it need to go and rent it today. Starring Matt Damon and one of my favorite actors Edward Norton. Brandon and I attended a screening. After viewing the film we decided we wanted to play poker. We didn't want to play for a living or anything, we just wanted to play that night. We drove over to Jeff's house, Jeff was my mom's old boyfriend, and we talked him into playing with us. We only played for coins, and that night I won everything that Brandon and Jeff had. Again it was only our coin banks that we played with, but I think that I won maybe $12.00 or so. I was hooked. We talked Todd (bowling buddy) and his friends into playing later that week as well. That is when I knew that the game would go on without Brandon. He was leaving soon, so it was good that he was here when he was, for I might not have ever fell in love with the game. Games were still hard to come by though. Todd and his group of friends would play in spurts, we would get a game going every weekend for like a month, and then nothing for a few weeks to another month. This went on for a couple of years, and I think the last game I played with them was just before Sheri and I started dating.

After that most kids moved and a lot didn't want to play with me, because I hardly ever lost. I started working at Center Partners and after a year of being married a poker game was basically impossible to find. This was before the big poker boom have you. The game you see on the television today (No Limit Texas Hold'Em), was the game that I loved to play. Todd and his friends coined that game the name "Jason's made up game" because they thought that I honestly made it up. They loved to play the games where there were 4 to 8 wild cards in one deal. I hated wild card games, but still seemed to always win anyway. I would ask anyone and everyone if they wanted to play, or even if they knew of anyone who wanted a game. Then there was finally a break through. It must have been just after the big televised win of Chris Moneymaker's in 2003. A friend of mine found out about a game in Shelley, a small town about 15 minutes away.

I had finally received an invitation to this game after emailing this Joel character. I showed up at this house not knowing what to expect. I didn't know if I would know anyone, but didn't care. I wanted to play. It turned out that I knew a bunch of people that were there. It was a regular game every week. I was loving it. I was winning and becoming good friends with Joel. Joel was the gentleman who ran the game. He was a better poker player than I. He suggested a couple of books to read, which I did. I was mostly surprised about what was written in the advanced sections that I had figured out on my own. Joel knew that I was a much better player than the others. He helped me because he wanted to get me going with online poker. I was hesitant about playing online, because I didn't trust it. I still don't trust it, but that will be addressed shortly. This is where my luck takes a huge change, I had changed my style of play to mimic Joel's. He was a winning online player and had now talked me into playing online, so I figured if I played his style I would win too.

He played on a site called UltimateBet.com. I deposited $100.00 to start with and played a combination of his Joel's style along with my own. I doubled my money early, but lost it quicker than I gained. I ended up losing it all. I deposited another $50.00, lost all but $3.00. I talked to Joel and he made me realize that I was playing at too high a money level. With my three dollars I played penny tables. They actually have penny tables online and I was able to turn my luck around. By playing at the correct level for the money that I had, I didn't lose a lot of money when I did lose. I was able to make back the money I lost and was actually turning a profit. However, it seemed no matter what I would hit a wall at $300.00? I think it was a combination of playing Joel's style, lack of patience, expecting to win bigger amounts and the websites themselves. Regardless of what is said, I believe that online poker is dealt to promote action. Action is what is going to get more money in the pot and this is where the websites themselves make the money. The house (websites) takes a percentage of every pot, this is known as the rake. Thus, if there are more and more hands that promote action the websites will make money quicker. There are also hackers that can make programs to play a certain way, and thus you aren't even playing against a person but a computer program, and there have been instances where people can see exactly what cards you are holding.

Why play online at all is what you might be asking? Well, there is a simple truth to that too. There are still ways to win. There are ways to win money online without depositing money at all! Security is growing and cheaters are being outed.

Back to the story above, I had mentioned hitting a wall whenever reaching the $300.00 mark. I became sick of it and transferred my last $150.00 over to DoyleRoom.com, where I found out that my luck wasn't any better over there either. I soon realized that I didn't want to play online poker anymore because of all the above reasons. I cashed out all that remained and was willing to be a loser. I cashed out $97.00, but wasn't able to cash out the change left over. This left me 96 cents. Since then I have turned that 96 cents into over $2300.00. I have cashed out a bunch here and there, and also lost a bunch here and there. Overall though, I am probably at the moment a $2300.00 winner. My biggest lost was $270.00. One of those nights of frustration and being certain that I was cursed I decided I was going to win big or lose it all, and that is what I did. I lost it all. I had lost my remaining $270.00 on Doylesroom, this was about 5 years ago. I have since gained it all back and cashed out more here and there of course and lost again and again.

There are 4 websites that I have money on as we speak and I have won all the money on them through freerolls. Each site has freeroll tournaments where you can earn real money for free. That is how I have been able to rebound without redepositing so many times. There is Fulltiltpoker (FT) where I have $35.00, UltimateBet (UB) where I have started playing again $14.00, Pokerstars (PS) where I have $25.00, and the last is the best site DoylesRoom (DR) where I have $30.00 as well. I say it is the best because most of my $2300.00 profit is from that site alone. I will leave updates in some of my future blogs about how I am doing on each website. As of right now, my goal is to raise each website in $10.00 amounts, equally. Thus I am playing only on PS and UB right now until each of those is up to $30.00 then I will play all of them. Hopefully raising them to $40.00 then $50.00 and so on. If I somehow lose all of my money on UB, then I will drop that website for the time being. Only leaving me three to try to run up.

I have given up on Joel's style of play in the last couple of months and have switched to my old style mixed in with some new techniques, but for sure leaving Joel's style behind. I am hoping that it will enable me to keep my patience and discourage the idea of being cursed with bad luck. There is always going to be luck in poker, but it is only a small amount. With Joel's style the luck factor was much bigger and thus the reason for my big loses and discouraging moments. With my new style mixed in with the old, the luck factor isn't nearly as big, and my loses should be much smaller. I will keep updates on my progress or lack thereof in future blogs.