In the beginning...

As time goes by, thoughts of playing poker invade my brain. What a game!?! I originally wanted to start a blog due to my first bankroll project. Now that I sit here typing, I think it will become more than that. I suppose a brief history is in order....

Like most American kids, I was exposed to card playing at a very young age. Playing rummy with my grandmother when I was 7 and watching my parents play euchere with thier friends every Friday night. Learning to play 5 card draw on Saturday night with my dad's buddies. The poker always seemed more fun because of all the money on the table. Learned spades while in the Marine Corps and made some nice change with a solid partner. After the Corps, I still had a wander bug up my ass, so for about 6 years I traveled all over the east side of our country and ended up in Florida in 1995. During those years, I met alot of people and saw alot of nature but really wasn't involved with any gaming. Once in Florida, I bounced around with occupations until I found the one I have now. I'm a drilled shaft foundation superintendant for a major company. It keeps me traveling alot and that is probably what got me into playing so much on-line.

I was at home( Seminole, FL) for a couple of days in between jobs. ESPN was showing coverage of the WSOPME( 2001/2002?) and I was bored, so I kept watching. The play was amazing since I'd never heard of hold'em before that. I saw the PS commercials and decided to download the software to see what it was like to play. FREE-remember. I played for a couple of months but never really built up any chips, playing on and off in between jobs. There seemed to be something missing about the play. Money!!! That's it. What good was playing if there wasn't money involved. For a reason I can't recall, I couldn't deposit any money at PS but I could at Doyle's Room. So, unbeknowst to my wife of 3 years, I put $100 in the account and started playing. Playing small tourneys and not really knowing what was going on. I hit one and won a copy of Doyle's "SuperSystem". It arrived in a couple of days and the poker world started changing for me.

By nature, I love to read and what a compelation of information!! You mean I shouldn't play 72o? Wow, never thought of that. Position? Interesting. As I read, my play seemed to be getting worse. $100 gone. Oh well, that was fun. I put it away for a few months in search of another hobby. RC Helicopters, the bass guitar, throwing knives. Fun, but where is the real challenge and damn this stuff can get expensive. It was about a year later when I put another $200 in at Full Tilt. I managed to play for about 6 months with that playing low buy-in tourneys. I found that whenever I played ring games, I still got my ass handed to me on a shiny platter, so that was out. $200 gone and the wife didn't notice, so okay.

I got my first laptop with wireless internet in the spring of 2006. Being on the road so much, this was great!! Something I could use to keep out of the bar. Side note- alcohol and heavy construction seem to have deep rooted relationships that I can't explain!! Rather than playing poker, I was playing D&D online( one of my childhood games-awesome). That too ended up becoming boring after about 9 months. In the spring of 2007, I ran across freeroll tournaments at UB. Top 30 players win cash and tourney seats to bigger tourneys. "Wow!! It won't cost me anything to play!!" I thought. Only have to make it through 5,000 contestants. This should be easy, right? Yeah, right!!! I did place in 2 but as soon as I got the money in my account, it left just as quickly. I tried that for about 3 months and can't recall how many I played but the value just didn't seem there.

Then a brainstorm came to me. If Doyle wrote a book, there must be more. So off to Barnes & Noble I went. Not a huge selection and what am I looking for anyway? The Theory of Poker by some guy named Sklansky. That sounded familiar. So, I picked up that and Killer Poker-crushing the on-line game. Sklansky confused the hell out of me but the other gave me hope. I got on the internet and somehow( quite by mistake) googled PokerFox.net. What is this? Training for the online game. Free trial. Why not. That was in November of 2007. Game on!!!
I deposited another $100 at FT. Lost that in a month. "Damn, what's wrong with my game?".
More books, training programs, and websites. If you haven't noticed, I have an obsessive/compulsive personality. Also a strong need to be the best at whatever I do. I believe I found the hobby that can pay for itself.

I deposited $100 at PS in January. Study,study,study-play,play,play. That deposit lasted up until mid-June of this year. Since January, PF joined with PXF, and my game has continually improved. At the beginning of July, I deposited $200 at Cake poker, hearing how bad the play was. On July 4th, I won my first tournament. WooHoo!!! My wife thought I hit the lottery with the way I was carrying on. I won alittle over $100. Probably the sweetest $100 I ever got. In the next 3 days I won 2 more and my bankroll was over $1,000. Of course my first thoughts are about what a great player I am. So, I preceded to blow those winnings playing higher buy-ins than I should be and the roll plummeted to just over $200. HELLO DONKEY!!!!

I started a bankroll project on the 21st of July. Basically decided if I'm going to make a profit with my hobby, I need to learn to stay within my limits. It also keeps my wife very happy. She is not a fan of gambling but isn't against making alittle cash on the side. Sound familiar to anyone?

As this has been seemingly long winded, I shall bring this post to a close. It is the first of many to come and I shall bring everything up to date in my next post. Good luck at the tables everyone!!

Caisson