The fishing pole is back in the water

In my original post of this blog, I made a comment that I would not play for a living. It’s funny how life will throw you curves and you have to make a play.

After the election, I quickly discovered how weak the job market is in Billings. My original plan had been to begin studying for my LSAT and bring in money as a dealer. At the elections conclusion, I discovered I am not ready to head back to school. I began a job search. Knowing that I did not have enough money saved away to JUST search, I knew I would need a source of income. There was no way in hell I was going to take some high school flunky job either. So, I took what little money I had and began to play poker, every day.

I will spare the details of living the poker life for another post. I ended up playing for about 4 months. Living on nothing but poker winnings. I finally secured a job as a marketing director, designing brochures/websites/etc for a local business.

Until last night, I had been on a poker sabbatical. I have once again started playing on a recreational yet serious basis. My fishing pole is back in the water and I hope to entertain you with the stories that will be upcoming!

Who I am and what we (yes we!) are going to do!

Often times when I read blogs, I always wonder “who” this person is. Most of the time you find out by reading pages and pages of said blog. You know what I mean, you read about all the experiences they write about – from bad beats at the table to bad beats in real life. There is one problem with that method – your finding out who YOU think they are. You never really get a sense of who THEY think they are. You are constantly reading their posts putting in your own bias.

Well I am going to provide at least one CLEAR post where I put up who I am and who I think I am.

I am 23 year old recent college graduate. In May I graduated from Carroll College in Helena, Montana. I received a double major in Political Science and Communications. Immediately after graduating college, I took a job with the Montana Democratic Party working to get local legislative candidates elected. The job moved me from Helena to Billings. It is here in Billings that I really discovered my love for poker.

During one particulary long stretch at work, I took a break and while looking through my bookmarked sites I found pokerforums.org (www.pokerforums.org). I started reading threads again and soon enough I was addicted. I depoisted money on Ultimate Bet and quickly ran my 45 dollars up to 160.

There was something stale about this whole process of Internet poker. It lacked a human connection. This bugged me for a month or so. Then by pure chance while back in Helena for a friends bachelor party, I was discussing it with someone who grew up in Billings (this discussion was before 2 kegs of beers and a thousand on strippers) and he told me to check out the Little Nevada Casino.

I went once and was hooked. Pretty soon I was playing 2-3 days a week. To be honest at first I was terrible, I gave off every tell in the book, I was play with too small a buy in. My biggest problem was just using an ATM, there were few nights I regret it (it managed to cut into my other fun funds – liking drinking!). I was going bust at the table because of this factors forcing me into scared play. However, I was still sure that I could be a winning player at the live table.

After depositing again into UB and running my 100 up to 250 in less than 12 hours of play, I was revitalized in how to play. I withdrew and made this my live bankroll. It is pretty small, but it works. I have now ran up to 500 three times at which point I put 300 in savings.

The games I mainly play at Little Nevada Casino are 2-8 spread (though I take a no limit button ALWAYS) and their 40 dollar max buy in NL on Wed/Sunday. At the moment, I am playing every night after work (that’s every day) for at least 3 hours and the weekend nights I am trying for 6 hours.I am a hold-em specialist who is learning to play Stud hi/lo and Omaha hi/lo. I would consider myself a poker enthusiast, who has no dreams of playing for a living (that’s not to say it doesn’t provide me with a little extra income!)

After Nov. 7 (election day) I will be working as a dealer at Little Nevada and playing more poker than I do now. While some people look down on being a dealer when you have a college education (I struggle with justifying sometimes too) I need some time to relax. Working in politics is long hours that are full of stress. I plan on being a dealer so that I can bring in money and start studying for my LSAT (Law School Exam). Being a dealer provides a relatively low stress environment that lets me do something that I love!

That is my life in a nutshell. Obviously, it does not address my life outside of poker or before poker, but that’s not the point. What I want to do with this blog is to write about nights that I play. For the most part it will be about the fish at the table and the funny stories they provide. There will be a few posts about hands I played (outside of fish ones!) and there will be a few about other players that I respect and have learned from.

Now why did I say we? Because, I want your comments and feedback on my posts. I know that right now my readership is ZERO, but it will grow from PFO and others. I want your comments and feedback to make this blog fluid. If you don’t like stories about Fish X, then I’ll scrap em. If you want more stories about players I respect, I will make sure to add more.

Thanks for reading,

MTPP