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[QUEEN-BEE]

ENTRANT - nick7240

My Journey ( Click here to vote )

My Journey
Flop, Turn, River, these are the words that I would hear all the time, on the internet, at school and on the TV. I was puzzled to what these words meant and was determined to find out. One night whilst flicking through the channels on a mates TV and saw poker being broadcasted, I then changed the channel and took no interest in it what so ever. The next occasion I watched it I viewed it from start to finish, and at the beginning of the show they told the audience the rules of the game, I listened and tried to take in to what they were saying but I just couldn’t grasp it fully. A few years on my dad bought a poker set back from England and we had a small family game, of course I had no idea of how to play back there but I had a go. My dad won as he knew how to bluff and I couldn’t get a read on him. The next year I played a large 10 handed game with all my cousins which was really fun because the whole family joined in, I ended up placing second in it which I felt great about. From this occasion onwards I began watching poker games that were shown on the TV and became more and more interested, it was from this occasion that I wanted to learn more about the game ‘Texas Holdem’.
VCE then started for me in 2007 and I basically forgot about the game and focused on my studies, I worked extremely hard during my 13 years at school and hence I wanted it to pay off. On one of the last days of school I was unfortunately involved in an accident where I was tackled in a game of footy and went down extremely hard. I firstly thought that it was nothing but that soon all changed when I put weight on it. I heard cracks and my leg basically collapsed, I was now extremely worried. I was rushed to hospital and was hoping that it was nothing bad, like a small break, where I was on crutches for 2 weeks, I was sadly mistaken. After X-Rays had occurred I was told it was severe leg fracture which would require hours of surgery, I was shocked at what I’d heard but I had to cop it on the chin. The time spent in hospital was a very depressing time and was lucky to have my friends and family around me. My leg was operated on and I spent the next days following the operation in a hospital bed hooked up to a morphine clicker. I found it really hard to get a good night sleep because I couldn’t get comfortable or my leg was in so much pain, I couldn’t bear it. I knew my year 12 exams were coming up and was desperately trying to study for them because they were only days away. However whilst talking to my surgeon he said to me that it would be best to not sit my exams. I was shattered and disheartened as I had worked hard all year and now I couldn’t show off what I could really do. I ended up receiving a derived score for my VCE, which didn’t turn out as well as it could of if I were to sit my exams. The time spent on crutches was tiring and very depressing but my family and friends got me through it. I went to visit my GP who wanted to know what really happened, I told him the story he had a looked at the X-rays and said it was one of the worst fractures he had ever seen. I was shocked at this statement as he has had many years of experience under his belt and for my leg to be one of the worst he has ever seen, then it must be really bad. Months and months spent at home crawling around on the floor and bathing with a plastic bag over my leg. I was sick to death of it. However while at home however I played Facebook poker which I soon became quite good at accumulating over 5 million in chips which I was incredibly proud of. I needed some more excitement in my life, especially after my broken leg, hence why I chose poker as a hobby because of its thrill.

My cousin Sean came over from England and stayed with us over Christmas which was really great. He was really supportive of me and motivated me to keep at the physiotherapy because he went through something similar, however not as serious. We played a small poker game together with about four of us, and in the end it was just Sean and I left standing, after many folds all INS and chip ups I was beaten on the river. Here I learnt that in poker that not everyone can win, therefore from here I have always wanted to learn more about the game, learning when to bet, when to fold and when to push all in. What ive found is when first timers play poker they like to be involved in every single pot and this is the mistake I made. I soon learnt from this mistake and this and a lot of many other strategies have got me to where I am today

I then turned 18 and thought it would be great to go Crown and try my luck on the table. On sitting down I was shaking and unable compose myself. After a while however I was ok. That day I only bought 50 to the table which was the minimum on 1/2 game. People were playing extremely aggressive that day as they do on this table and shocked me and I rarely involved myself in a pot due to an over bet which I couldn’t afford without losing all my chips. I’d been playing for an hour and lost more money than id won, I got impatient and pushed all in with a pair Js 9d with a 4s Ks Js seeing that I had a potential flush draw I thought I was ok. Until I got one caller who flopped a flush, I was annoyed but got over it. But then I said to myself, I’m not ready for this game yet, there is still a lot more I should be learning. I then read books, and watched videos on strategies to assist my game. I also played Poker Pro a bit which is computerized poker game which is situated at crown, i like to stick to that as its 20 buck minimum and normally build my balance to around $50-100 which is always good and of course I don’t always win. I haven’t played that much online but when I do I enjoy playing the free rolls on Poker Stars which are always fun.
The Aussie Millions was drawing close and so I played a lot of free rolls to see if I could get in, some I went out in the first hand, others I lasted for 3 hours and then went out on a bad beat. Since these experiences playing at crown I have learnt a lot and will never make those mistakes again, I begun reading many poker books and learning strategy from them and have benefited immensely from as it has changed the way I play. When the 2010 Aussie Millions came around in January of this year I wanted to go watch and see how the pros played, I saw some of the greats in action, Barry Greenstein, David Stiecke, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem and Gus Hansen plus many other greats. I watched a few hands behind the rails and loved every bit of it, especially when I saw how Phil Ivey played one of his hands.
Around 5 months ago “Cindy Morgan aka. Queen Bee” added me on Facebook, I wasn’t sure who she was or where she was from so I accepted her add. We had many conversations and I learnt that she plays poker very seriously and has done well at tournaments especially at Crown Casino as well in QLD. She showed me a couple of sites in which she was ambassador for which I took a browse at. She then went onto telling me about the Australian Poker League (APL). I was puzzled about this concept of free poker but soon understood what she was saying. I then visited [url]www.playapl.com.au[/url] and searched for a venue that was close to me and decided to go along. I was nervous about what I was about to face but went a long anyway. Going into my first event I knew that no one knew who I was or knew how I played, so I had the advantage. I played loose and tight that day, flopped flushes, straights and hit full books on the river, playing some hands appalling and other to perfection, at this time I was excited. I ended up making it to the final table with about 1100 behind me, playing extremely tight I picked up 10 10 on the small blind so I pushed all in. I had a caller who flipped over A Q I was scared that I would get out draw but luckily all cards were ‘rags’ and I almost tripled up. I was pumped. The numbers dwindled and got down to 4, still playing tight I made it heads up with one of the toughest players of the day, he had chip advantage over me but it didn’t concern me. I won a few pots on the trot and before I knew it I was chip leader. I was pumped because I thought I can really do this. I can’t remember the hand but I won the tournament, beating 23 people which I was thrilled about. Since then I have been attending most APL events in Prahran on a Saturday, made 2 monthly finals and joined an extra 2 poker leagues, NPPL and 888PL. I have met some amazing people playing APL and will continue to make more. Although I do not see myself playing poker full time in the future, I shall play the occasional tournament at Crown and continue to play APL whenever I can. I am a keen follower of poker and enjoy watching High Stakes Poker and 'Poker After Dark' on [url=http://www.youtube.com]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/url] , I also enjoy following Peter Aristidou who was 'Crown Poker player of the year', he is a great player who recently won a title at the ANZPT, and made the money in 2010 Aussie Millions and therefore in the future I hope to compete him. A quick run down about me I am a 19 y/o University student studying: Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) at Swinburne University. To be honest I’m loving every moment of it, loving meeting new friends and enjoying the course overall. Some time I hope to work full time in Real Estate or valuation, but till then looking to study a fair bit, travel. I’m your typical 19 y/o young man, love hanging out with mates, having a few drinks, clubbing, watching the footy and of course playing poker every so often. My dream one day is to win a seat into the Aussie Millions paying the least amount possible and of course playing against some of the pros. Once again I thank Cindy Morgan for her support and guidance. Well that’s all folks, stay safe.

Nick

[QUEEN-BEE]

Entrant - TassieDevil

From The Devil's Den: My Journey ( Click here to vote )

In the spirit of supporting this great initiative from Queen-Bee and in a desperate attempt to stop Duckworth from winning I thought I’d share my poker journey with the PNW community.
My story starts very similar to many, but my road has been rather unique. Poker is no longer a hobby, or even a profession. Poker is an all-consuming existence...three parts rewarding, one part excruciating.
I can’t remember the exact moment that I first saw poker on TV. It may have been a little of Late Night Poker but it was definitely in the early days of the World Poker Tour that I really got interested. I was hooked and I thought to myself that they must play this game online somewhere. I jumped onto Google and found myself on this interesting forum site known as PokerNetwork. They all seemed to be Aussies talking about this fascinating game, and the banter was more than eye opening. The witty delights from yoyo, pokerbok, MakybeDiva, Bugsy, zero, and danielg, the inspiring tales of success from PokerMike, DamienCarroll, Goldy and BlueBear, the latest and greatest in poker chips from joethenuts, all overseen by the respected master. This place was great!
My first adventures into online poker were on Party Poker. I’d play the 2,000 player freerolls and think I was great for getting 50th. I would also play freerolls on Bugsys and PokerHost where you could win points that you could then turn into a few dollars cash. My records date back to April 2005 which means I’ve been doing this for over five years now. I remember scoring a $250 win in a $5 tournament on Noble Poker in mid-2005 which was my first tournament win, but I remember the money didn’t stay with me long. I kept grinding freerolls over various sites and I even had a schedule written out so that I knew what times the best freerolls were on across the various sites.
Eventually I took a stab at depositing and dropped $50 into Party Poker on the credit card. I think I played $1/$2 limit but the money didn’t last long.
So I’d been lurking on PokerNetwork for a while and eventually decided that I needed help. I posted a vague question, something along the lines of “where do I start?” and I got a response from a guy called yoyo, who many of you would know as Jonny Vincent. He became a great mentor and friend over time. He showed me the ropes, inside out. I decided to get serious about this poker thing and deposited a few hundred. I’ve never re-deposited since. I started out bonus whoring, learning the game playing short-handed limit Holdem. I would break just over even, but with the bonuses, the hourly earn wasn’t bad for someone learning the game. I rarely played tournaments at that time. In fact I rarely played No Limit. The only time I’d venture into NL was to play in the PokerNetwork freerolls or online leagues. I will always remember finishing 2nd in a freeroll for a WSOP package. I ran pocket sevens into pocket eights heads-up, and I’ve never been anywhere near as close to that WSOP opportunity again. I also recall in the early days playing regularly in the PNW online leagues with a strong player called “grunter”.
I eventually had a crack in a live game on a trip to Melbourne and managed to finish 5th in my first tournament at Crown. It was a “Shootout” and I had no idea what that meant, but the top three from each table progressed. I don’t remember any hands but I got lucky enough to get to the final table. I remember at the final table being “smart” enough to fold my way into 5th place as one of the short stacks, watching the others bust around me and jumping up the payouts to pick up about $400. Danny MacDonagh was the TD and the Crown Poker Room was a spec of what it is today.
Somewhere along the way I got drawn out of a hat in a PokerNetwork promotion for a $1,650 seat at the special Mansion Speed Poker event at the Aussie Millions. I played like a nervous nit, and I can no longer remember many hands, but somehow I got deepish. I remember being short approaching the bubble, but being on a freeroll, and not understanding bubble play or the significance of anything particularly well, I unfortunately busted in 38th place when I shoved pocket nines against Arul Thalai’s ace-jack and he made a straight. The top 36 finished in the money and received guaranteed television time in the shootout semi-finals. Sigh.
I kept working on the bonus whoring and with Neteller setup I was able to jump around sites pretty comfortably. My game was improving and I read every poker book I could get my hands on as video training was pretty much unheard of at the time. Jonny was also involved in a few other projects with PokerNews and it was at this time that he handballed a few writing opportunities onto me. I have no writing background, and have always been a maths person than someone who enjoyed working with words, but it was an opportunity to make a few extra bucks writing about bonus whoring, online poker reviews, and other bits and pieces. Jonny then started managing the PokerNews Casino website and I wrote most of the content for that site under ghost names, writing about casino sites, bonus offers, casino game rules, tips, strategy, etc. Jonny also showed me casino bonus whoring techniques which was a pretty scary thing. They was always +EV but the variance was brutal and I didn’t enjoy the gamble. Still to this day, I’ve never been more tilted in anything in life, than I have trying to clear casino bonuses playing Blackjack.
Meanwhile I was working out this poker thing and thanks to a switch to no limit cash games, my win rate improved. For a period of three months I barely had a losing session and was grinding 0.50/1NL and 1/2NL pretty comfortably, with occasional shots at 2/4NL.
Then an opportunity came up at PokerNews to work at the 2007 APPT in Sydney. I had no training, no writing background and little tournament experience. I rocked up to StarCity and started on the floor as a tournament reporter. I was completely lost. I knew about only about two of the players in the field, and had no idea what to report. At the end of the eleven-hour day my legs were shot and I was wrecked. Three days later I blogged the entire final table solo and enjoyed a young Aussie named Grant Levy grab a historic win in an amazing atmosphere that I’ll never forget.
From there things snowballed as I became more involved with PokerNetwork and worked events at the Aussie Millions, PokerNews Cup in Austria, EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, APPT events in Manila, Macau and Korea and worked at the grand-daddy of them all, the World Series of Poker. There are too many memorable moments to mention but last year I was honoured to be given the opportunity to blog the prestigious $50k HORSE event (and a marathon twenty-hour final table), and also witness Phil Ivey win his 7th bracelet.
Meanwhile I continued to enjoy to play, but for the most part, playing took a backseat to work. In 2009 I turned my attention to tournaments rather than cash games on the back of a prop bet with Ducky. I wanted an incentive to land a live tournament cash score, and this bet was my motivation. One night on PokerStars I managed to turn a $16 investment into a $240 seat which I then turned into a $2,700 ticket to the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event. This wasn’t my first major live tournament event. I’d managed to satellite into two Aussie Millions Main Events and an APT Manila Main Event at the start of the year, and also played in one WSOP donkament. Most of those tournaments ended in very disappointing fashion, and I was pretty determined to land a decent cash result. The day before the tournament I was chatting to Ducky and we were saying how incredible it would be to get through Day 1 with 100k in chips. I ended up bagging up 210k. Many people don’t realise that on Day 2 I lost KK vs AK in the first level of play for a 150k pot, so I was back in the pack almost immediately. I played ordinary and ran like God on Day 1, but I ran poorly and played really well on Day 2, and snuck through to the final table as one of the short stacks. I played about as good of a final table that I could that day. I got back into it with KK vs TT, I bluffed Jie Gao in a big pot with 52o, and I re-raised Kristian Lunardi with AQ and made him fold AK. I had some luck heads-up but the luck went against me in the final hand as my QQ fell to Chris L.’s AJ all-in preflop. I still have nightmares about that hand, and wonder if I’ll ever get that opportunity again - 70% favourite for $60k and two trophies.
It’s everyone’s dream to win that big tournament, and I still harbour that dream. However I’m more than satisfied with what I’ve achieved in poker and the opportunities that poker has given me. If there are new people starting out reading this, then I fully encourage people to go down the freeroll chasing, bonus hunting path. While it’s a little harder than it once was, and the games are now tougher, it’s certainly a great way to learn the game, and eventually if you apply yourself then good things can happen. I’m also always more than happy to help in any way I can, so feel free to send me a PM or add me to MSN at anytime. Good luck!
For more stories please visit my personal blog at [URL="http://www.tassiedevilpoker.com/"]tassiedevilpoker.com[/URL]

[QUEEN-BEE]

Only 9 days to go in our blog challenge. Please NOW is the time to get your bogs in. Remember to vote for your favs.

BEE

[Suicide_KINGS98]

why dont we just get all our mates to vote from the pub?

[QUEEN-BEE]

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT FOR OUR WINNER TO BE DECIDED. GET YOUR VOTES IN. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW............. Thank you to those that participated and thank you to those that voted. The blog section is a great way to get your word out. Please continue using this section and big thanks to PokerNetWork for your support during the challenge :-)

Mmmmmm any suggestions on what we should do next!!!!!!!!!!!

[QUEEN-BEE]

BLOG CHALLENGE WINNER

Clintsmydad


The world is my onion


Clintsmydad has won for his efforts

1. $50 on either Poker Stars or Full Tilt donated by myself.
2. $100 donated by Sal Fazzino.
3. $100 worth of buy-ins at Sin-city Seagulls or Jades

The winning blog

Due to a $150 carrot I have decided to allow the world into my little life for a few moments a week. If government departments and anyone else, may want to one day use this blog as evidence, I have to say that the majority of this blog is fiction .
So to start with a little about myself. I used to be a very sociable easy going outdoor type with no weird habits and a super fit body. This however was 2004 - the year before I was cursed to find online poker. As the majority of players know poker players are strange, online players are worse. I am one of these unfortunates who has sacrificed his body for the cause. I'm an individual who is now socially inept and so awkward in almost all situations that I cringe at the thought of actual social interaction.
I grew up in pubs watching races and playing pool, winning and losing from the age of 10. When I was about 13 I saw some men playing poker in the corner and thought "that looks a bit gay", I mean I would play a little blackjack from time to time, but sitting there not doing much seemed a slow boring exercise. But when I had nothing to do, I would sit and watch. This taught me two valuable lessons: losers always lose and always have more money than the other guy your playing.
After a few weeks of watching I asked a few questions, learnt some basics of draw and stud and then lost interest again. I mean why would O want to sit there for hours playing to win a few dollars when I could just play the winner at pool? Playing for 3-4 hours seemed pointless when I could make that kind of money in 2 or 3 games of pool. So I sort of just left it at that but still watched occasionally. About a year later we changed pubs and I found at the new place in Newcastle their pool game was a little stronger. After getting skinned by a few who were just too good, I decided I needed to change things up . I could still play well enough to beat 90% of players but the only money you could win was too small and even at 14 my reputation preceeded me. So I switched to basketball and learnt that fighting Tongan kids to make sure you got paid wasn't worth it. Then one day some old guys were playing bridge in a corner and I went over and started talking to them. They were nice guys but terrible teachers. After about 20 minutes I realised i had no interest in bridge. The game was breaking up and they asked if i wanted to play. I declined but started playing with the cards when a guy that had one to many sherbets came over and asked if we were playing poker. Without hesitation i replied "we are now" and that's where this crazy adventure started.


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