My career as a poker player, Beggining till now, SUPER LONG TLDR ETC

I got a recent request from a follower to post my story of how i got to where I am today.  I have made a lot of mistakes in the past, but the best way to utilize these is to learn from them.

I was introduced to poker by a friend of mine from high school.  He taught me the basic rules of No Limit Texas Holdem and I soon became addicted and intrigued with the game.  We would play with whatever change we could find at his house usually on weekday nights.  He set up a tournament a few months after we started, and another friend of mine won it who barley knew the rules of the game. (luck game obv).  I think my junior year of high school I went to a kid's house where a 'big game' was being held.  $50 buy in to a .25 .50 cent game.  I was scared to death when i bought in, and lost my money real quick when i went all in with QQ and got snapped off by Aces.  Although I was not what you would consider poor growing up, my parents definitely watched my spending and restricted me with money.  I would continue to scrounge up money and play the 5-10 dollar buy ins for fun, never really getting anywhere, but getting more intrigued with the game.

I deposited my first time online the summer after my freshman year of college (2006).  Like most other players, i started with a small deposit of $50.  My roommate at the time was also interested, so we decided to split the money and see what kind of damage we could do.  We lost it that night.  I of course deposited 50 more, lost, rinse and repeat.  A few months later i deposited $25 and somehow ran it up to 2k on party poker playing up to 1/2nl.  I lost it the next day, but instantly saw light in the game.  There were some sickos living in Athens where I went to college (Univ of Georgia).  Yellowsub86 was one of them, and they lived in the same apartment complex as me.  I would constantly give them 1-200 cash for money online and lose it all the time.  One time i managed to run 100--->10k  playing 6 max cash and some heads up and managed to cash out enough to buy a new Plasma TV and ipods for my girlfreind at the time and myself.  Life was good, I felt like such a baller.  Went broke a few weeks later.

During my junior year, I deposited some more money (obv busto throughout most of college) and somehow ran my roll up to 100k playing mostly 6 max cash, and heads up cash.  I was so excited.  I decided to be responsible with this sum of money so I told my dad about it and he helped me cash most of it out.  I left myself with 20k online and thought no problem I can run this up.  I was busto a couple days later, and didnt want to ask my dad for any more money.  I ended up getting some stakes on which i went busto with a few weeks later and quit poker.

I got a job in Myrtle Beach after graduation working in real estate.  It was a good job, in a nice place, but I hated it mainly because there were no kids my age living there.  I came back to visit Atlanta, and realized how much i missed my freinds/gf etc, so I moved back after talking to an entrepreneur and got a job shadowing him (no pay).  After 6 months of shadowing him and basically getting nowhere (although he himself was brilliant) I got some more stakes online soon after.  I ended up breaking even for a while and eventually lost.  In Decemeber, I managed to scrap together 400 of my own to deposit online.  I played 25c 50c cash and worked it up to a few k, then parlayed it at 50c/1 and had a huge end of the month at 1/2.

In January of this year with about a 12k roll, I decided to mess around in some HUsngs, the 115 turbo 4 mans while I was waiting for cash action.  I started crushing the regs very quickly at this level, even with all the leaks in my game.  I talked to dl184, and he said i'd eventually become a husng reg, i told him he was NUTS!  I started playing more and more games as i was crushing, and had a 30k month in january, not to mention all the vpps and fpps I accumulated.  I played a ton and kept moving up the husng ladder, and in April I found myself playing 5ks.  I had an upswing at high stakes for a while, then a big downswing, and it would go back and forth.  I decided to go to the WSOP for some live events this year ( never played live before) and went 0-5.  I took 2 trips to vegas, one by myself and one with my gf at the time.  Each time i blew about 30k.  It was a huge setback to my goals and my roll.  I hope to be more responsible this time around.  I got SNE in July 10 and a lot of my profit has come from that, mainly because of my lack of discipline in playing high stakes games.  I got some perspective talking to Iftarii, when he told me even the best regs vs the worst players will only win 65/100 games.  Recently I have also been inspired by mid stakes grinders like Treezer, Fishenzon, Plauzee, Carryhero, Madamadadonk, Dibasio Old Time Gin and so on, who have grinded consistent profits this year.

I made a lot of mistakes, this year, including flipping massive amounts, sports betting, buying action and staking.  Mostly just got caught up in upswings and didnt really make good decisions.  I hope that next year I can become a more consistent grinder at the mid stakes, because I know I am one of the top regs at 1k down. (evident by the fact that regs sit me rarely).  Not to sound cocky, but I think that if i stick to mid stakes next year, and do +ev things, I can be one of the top online grinders for heads up.  At this point, its more about money and where I am in my life rather than beating a reg in a war or beating a certain level.  $ in the bank is going to do a lot more for my future goals of starting a business or opening a hotel than my ego ever will, and thats why my attempt for 2011 is to put it aside.

Wow this post was ridiculously long

Going to Prague on Thursday, looking forward to having a great time and hopefully doing well in the live events there.

Need 112k more vpps this month to get 1.75 milliion

Gl All, hope you enjoyed my life poker story