It's been awhile since I wrote about my favorite leisurely pastime: the great game of poker, so let's talk about this game shall we...
I used to play a lot of online poker when it was readily available, and I used to make pretty decent money at it. In fact, I hate to pat myself on the back (but I will), I made some very supplemental income. According to number of websites, I've made over 35K in tournament winnings, not to mention I've carved my teeth in the 2-4, 3-6, 5-10 Limit cash games on Paradise Poker and Poker Stars. The best part about playing online was these ridicously high prize pools for micro buy ins. You can play a $5 tournament on Pokerstars and if you can navigate through 5,000 people, there a huge pot of gold at the end..usually between 3K-5K. It was insane how much money you can make playing online poker. Although I never made "life-changing" money, I did pretty well, that was able to withdraw $100 here, $300 there, $900 here. Checks would come in a week or so, I never had a problem cashing them..it was the ultimate "second job". It was lucrative, addicting, and fun, then every online poker players with dreams of playing poker a living in the UNITED STATES shattered when this happened:
BLACK FRIDAY (And I'm not talking about the busiest shopping of the day), I'm talking about Apr 11, 2011.
I remember I had just cashed in a $2 tournament on PokerStars, ran some errands, and when I went back on my computer to log onto PokerStars, I got this:
Of course when the reality of not having online poker set in, I had major withdrawls. For weeks, I logged on to PokerStars and tried to get on hoping this was just a bad dream, but everytime I would get, it would tell me I couldn't play online poker....it sucked!!
FAST FORWARD to Apr 30, 2013...The day Ultimate Poker opened it's legalized, regulated online poker in the state of Nevada. Funny, I wasn't rushing to my computer to make a deposited because something unusual happened on my way to online poker riches...I didn't have the desire to get back to online poker. I began to play a lot of live poker, not that I didn't play live poker before "Black Friday", but I concentrated my efforts into being a decent live poker player...that by the time poker was legalized in Nevada I was conditioned by the "live" poker way and initially I was stubborn to get back into the online poker. I'm lucky enough to be a resident of Nevada, therefore online poker is legal, and thus I can play.
My wife deposited money into WSOP.com, the other online poker site and began playing small sit and go's. I watched her for weeks having no desire to play myself, but as the days and weeks passed, I began to get intrigued (mainly because my wife was cashing a lot). Finally, I set up an account and played a freeroll. I played for an hour, busted out, and smiled because I felt the juices flowing through my blood and began to remember why I loved online poker so much. It was the convenience and the addiction of the thrill that hooked me again.
So, two weeks ago, I made a small deposit on WSOP.COM and started at the VERY BOTTOM of the ladder, 2-tabling 1c-2c No limit....NOT 1 DOLLAR-2DOLLAR NO LIMIT, 1 CENT-2CENT NO LIMIT!
Although I'm playing at below micro limits, I'm trying to look at it as playing for real money. Trying to play my "A", and making the right decisions. The thrill of winning (even it's it's 30 cents, 14 cents, or $1.26), is back and I'm loving online poker again.
From here on out, I'm going to blog about some of my sessions trying to grind from the bottom. Not thinking about money.
Yes, online poker is back (In Nevada) and loving every minute of it.
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