It's about time I posted an intro, so...

First, while I am an American, I don't currently live in the U.S. The poker boom strarted after I left, so it has been really easy to notice the big differences each time I go back -- the amount of television coverage has grown exponentially. I was fascinated when I watched it on TV, but I quickly realized that they were only showing a small part of the story -- the bluffs and whatnot were just way too over the top without some backstory. I wanted to learn more, but I was never really motivated to look into it in greater detail. My prior poker experience was limited to the profitable games I played with the various sports teams I belonged to in high school. I hadn't played since then.

My curiousity in HE was relatively passive until my father passed away. He died while playing NLHE at a casino in Vegas. They said that he was dead before he hit the floor. I can't think of a better way to go -- fast while doing something that you love.

After he died, I decided that I at least needed to learn something about the game. I went to the nearest bookstore (I was in the US at the time) and bought Hellmuth's Texas Hold 'Em (the pickings were slim) and read it that night. FWIW, the book has some good pointers, and I've come to see the value in some of the advice after I played a few thousand hands, but I think that it is a terrible book for beginners.

Anyway, as soon as I got home, I just started surfing to find as much information as I could on NLHE. I found quite a few good sites, and I learned quite a bit. I read about one guy who said that he built a bankroll from freerolls, and I decided to do the same. I figured that it would allow me to learn for free, and I would be able to quiet most naysayers by telling them that I had risked exactly zero of "my own money". Of course, most of the freerolls require some action on the site or are nearly impossible to win money from (e.g., only top 5 places pay with over 1500 entrants), so this was a bit frustrating at first. Anyway, I finally found Poker Champs, and that was the jackpot.

When I started playing, Poker Champs had a freeroll starting every 30 minutes. They only payed the final table, but that was OK. I usually had 2 or 3 going at a time, so it was a lot of fun. I got in the money in two tourneys ($1 each) when the freeroll structure changed. They started having freerolls only every hour, but they paid the last 3 tables. Well, this was great for me. I placed in the money in three more tourneys, and then I had enough to try some $1 MTTs.

The MTTs were VERY easy after the wackiness of the freerolls. In my first $1 MTT, I placed 9th out of 65 or so for something like $1.36 net profit. The bust was brutal -- KK pocket, flopped a set, got two others all-in, and one dude runner-runnered a str8... sigh. The second one I got 5th for a net profit of $4.40.

After these modest successes, I decided to try the ring games. One of the guys who always seemed to be at the tourney final tables was making a KILLING at the cash tables, so I figured I could do it, too. Well, the $0.02/$0.04 with a $2 max buy-in at Poker Champs are REALLY soft. Lots of those freeroll dollars come to this table and just gamble it up. With cash game play, I was able to get my bankroll up to about $35 relatively quickly. Then, for personal reasons (nothing major), I had to take off 6 weeks from poker. I was able to do some reading, but playing was out.

While I was reading during this period, I learned about Instant Bankroll at Poker Source Online. Jackpot! As soon as I was able to play poker again, I did the challenge and got my BR up to about $150. I did another small bonus at Party, and got my BR up to $200.

The reading period is also when I found BTP. I loved the articles and the forums. The Omaha articles by Monk, especially the Omaha 8 articles, fascinated me. It at first had seemed to be a difficult game to grasp, but the articles on BTP and a few others on some other sites made the fundamentals of the games very clear to me. I woke up one morning dreaming about O8 (despite having never played), so I decided to give it a shot.

The transition to O8 was very fortuitous. I was finding the $25 NLHE games at Party to be a REAL grind. Everyone was nutpeddling, and there was very little room to make plays unless you were a LAG (I tried to be a TAG). My top two pair never got any action unless it was to a set. Most of my money was made with set over set, straight over set, or some kind of flush draw hitting (e..g. with TPTK and a flush draw). Boring. In retrospect, I think that this was when the July Party bonus came out, so perhaps that style of play was just specific to the bonus clearing period. Regardless, I was bored.

Once I started bonus wh0ring the Party skins, I decided to play $25 PLO8. Before I started playing, I used PTO to datamine and I observed LOTS of hands. I looked to see what hands people won and lost the most money with, and I think that I learned quite a bit in a short period of time. The most important thing I learned was that these games were filled with fish. The O8 games were (and are) very generous to me, and clearing the bonuses was extremely fun. I found a new home!

Well, now I am being tutored by the Omaha forum regulars (esp. Monk, Briachek, and GooperMC), and I feel like my game is getting much better. My BR is over $1000 and it's growing rapidly.

My goals are to bring in $1000-$2000 per month in extra income. I would use the money for fun stuff like fun tech equipment, house down payment, travelling, etc. I love my job, so I have no desire to become a full-time poker pro. I hope to move up to $100 PLO8 soon. After that, maybe $200 PLO8 and maybe start playing PLO (it seems like there are more games available at the higher limits).

Well, the experiment to build a BR from nothing has been a success. I would certainly say that the hardest money I earned was that first $5. While tough, the experience in those freerolls was invaluable.


Note: I have intentionally left out some details of my life (e.g., country, job, etc.) in order to protect myself from some potentially overzealous coworkers. Please PM me if you are interested in knowing the specifics.

Welcome Kuso!

I quickly checked up on that Instant Bankroll promo you mentioned, but unfortunately it's only for US residents, DOH!!!

nice background. Just wanted you to know that monk constantly loses money at O8 so maybe you should stick to listening to Gooper. As for PLO, you can trust him. However, I'm one of those "nut peddlers" that you talk about.