I went back and looked at my original posts for this blog and realized I never made a real introduction into my poker "origins".
It was late in the summer of 2003, and like everyone and their brother, I had been bitten by the poker bug from watching it on TV. I got drunk one night and made a deposit at Ultimate Bet to play some tournaments.
My initial deposit of $100 lasted me about 2 weeks. I quickly learned that NL ring games were not the place for me ... Another deposit of $200 lasted a month or so, and a 3rd deposit of $100 started to go a bit better and I managed to build it up a bit.
On January 3, 2004; I went to work and was advised that I didn't work there any longer. In the words of Norm MacDonald, I had a disagreement with them ... I wanted to keep my job, and they felt exactly the opposite. Actually, that isn't true, I absolutely hated that job; but I was too stupid to leave before they made me leave.
Previously, the poker money was kinda "mad money", but since I'm not a great saver, every penny was going to count. That day, I went home and sat down at the computer to play at UB. As luck would have it, I had a great run at Sit and Gos that day, clearing around $300. Had I had a poor day that day, it is likely that I wouldn't have continued playing poker as I certainly couldn't redeposit again.
I realized that if my job search was going to take some time, I needed to learn everything I could about poker in order to keep playing profitably. That is when I discovered www.poker-strategy.org . I learned that there are so many poker sites ... all offering bonuses, a heretofore unknown commodity to me. Of course, I also found a great community of folks where I could talk shop and kick around poker theory and ideas with knowledgeable people.
I had done fairly well, I think I might have been around $600 in my UB account when I decided to take half my money and go to Party Poker. This proved to be a godsend. I killed the sit and gos at Party, cashing over half the time I entered, I was making almost 50 percent on my money.
Unfortunately, poker took a backseat to life when I found out my mom had become seriously ill. She had been battling leukemia for many years, but this latest time it had come back more aggressively than ever. I spent a lot of time shuttling back and forth to Memphis from my home near Kansas City.
Had I been employed, this would not have been possible. Things truly do happen for a reason. In mid-March of 2004, I got a call from my dad. Mom was not doing well, she had been in the hospital for some time. I should have come back right then, but I had a plumbing problem at my house I was trying to get taken care of.
A few days later, my dad told me that I needed to get there fairly soon. I had planned to leave the following day, but my brother called me that night and told me that even if I left right then, I might not make it. I threw some clothes together and drove the 8 hours to Memphis in 6.
When I got there, I was shocked ... mom had developed a massive infection that they could not beat, the leukemia had taken its toll and the huge doses of chemo that she had undergone to fight the leukemia (unsuccessfully) had left her immune system totally compromised. I got there at about 3 am, and they had her on a morphine pump. At about 7 am, my mom woke up for the last time ... her last words were a whispered "You made it" ... she had held on just for me. She slipped into a coma state shortly after and her body fought for 6 more days, she passed the night before my one year wedding anniversary.
I stayed in Memphis for a few days after the funeral and headed back, realizing that I was going to have to move on with my life. I searched for jobs during the morning and played poker in the afternoons, making enough to keep the bills paid. Fortunately, my wife works and we leaned heavily on her modest income.
At some point, I'm not really sure when, I started to get frustrated with the Party sit and gos. I had a run of about 10 straight where I went in with the best hand and got sucked out on. It was very frustrating, and it seemed that most of the folks at psorg were limit ring game players. So, I decided to give that a try and see if I could take advantage of the various bonuses.
I found my niche, and the rest is history. I found a job in May of 2004 that I like far, far, far better than the previous shitty job I had. In January, I bought a laptop and configured a wifi network in my house, so I can play in the den and be able to play poker in the same room as my wife. This had been a big complaint and understandably so. The laptop was the best investment I could have made.
I wanted to give some background and a better feel for how I got started to put the previous posts in some perspective.
