Hello TPE Nation!
I have never really blogged before so this is all a bit new for me, so bear with me. I am sitting in front of my computer partially talking to myself as I write this out and I am starting to garner some funny looks from my wife. Where to start, well I guess the beginning is probably as good a place as any so lets go for that here and then we can build from there. My poker journey really began in earnest about a year ago. I was sitting around and had recently abandoned playing World Of Warcraft (it was starting to take some much time and effort that the wife was getting a bit grumpy, and there was no return on the time in so it fell from favor) and was bored and looking for something new to do. I had always been around poker, mostly Texas Hold’em, and had some idea how to play, but never seriously thought about it. Whenever I had gone to Atlantic City or Las Vegas I had always been too afraid to jump into a cardroom, but I loved to watch. So there it started, I went to Pokerstars and fired it up and promptly got my ass handed to me on a silver platter in the cheapest stuff I could find. Had to say, was so irritated by it that I decided I had to do something about that. I have always been competitive by nature so losing was just not going to work for me. I did some searching around and joined a training site (we shall refer to it as the before time, when i was weak and there was no TPE 🙂 ) and learned about the SnG. I started playing them constantly. Dissecting how they worked, what strategy should be used, how to beat them and started having mild success (at this point I will define mild success as not hemorrhaging money). It didn’t take me very long to figure out that 1-1 coaching is perhaps the greatest thing a player can invest in to further themselves. I spent a couple of months working with a mid-stakes pro SnG grinder from the prior site and really made significant growth. Then it happen. What happened you ask. Well I got ballsy, that’s what happened. A couple of guys I knew put out a prop bet for best total profit over 1000 games at $6.50 Turbo SnG on Stars. Well lets just say this is pretty much the reason you will NEVER EVER see me playing a STT again. By the time the month was over for that prop bet I was so utterly devastated by my inability to generate any results that I abandoned the SnG. I spent most of the months of May and June analyzing what the hell went wrong. What did I do, what did I screw up. In the end I was just so frustrated and I couldn’t find the answers that I was looking for that I gave up on the form. I still loved poker and had casually started mucking around with MTTs after this little debacle. Well if the first foray into poker taught me anything, it was the value of training, perspectives and coaching. So I went out and did my research and here I landed, and I have to say I couldn’t be happier. The content, forums and most importantly the players I have met and talk with on TPE are some of the best I have ever encountered. From July until now my MTT game has changed radically. I have been able to grow leaps and bounds from where I started until now, and to that I can’t thank you all enough. So where am I now. Well, I am playing some of the best poker I have personally ever played, which is exciting and encouraging. That being said, I am actively involved in 1-1 coaching (and would HIGHLY recommend it to everyone who will listen) and looking forward to the remainder of December and the rest of Mini-FTOPs. Event #1 was a reasonable success, managed to min-cash it and when I went back to look at my play, I am not disappointed in what I saw, so I am encouraged. For those who have nothing to do, hit up chat on Saturday, I should be in while I go for my next event, Event #10. Stay tuned and I’ll update everyone on how it goes! Until next time, this is the Gman signing out. Gl and may all your flushes be Royal!