blonde poker forum

I have had a couple of copas de cavas and just wondered how we all discovered poker.

Im guessing most of the old pro dudes have played it since the year dot and most of the young ones have picked it up at UNI so im wondering about the inbetweenies.

Some I have noticed have been encouraged by parents but I just kind of drifted into it.

I split up from my partner 8 years ago and at that time didnt even know how to turn a pc on so boredom pushed me into wanting to know how a pc worked and discovering an outside world. I had two small children and just wanted an alternative to soaps.

I used to play on a site run by Hoyle and I originally played on it for a year or so on its scrabble site, I managed to accumulate a vast amount of 2 lettered words, ran up 3 million play points on the roulette wheel and was introduced to allin poker madness, all on play money of course.

My crank it up pc died overnight...quick and painless I am sure but I spent 3 whole months spending every waking hour trying to bring it back to life and eventually I did. I learnt more in that 3 months about computers than I ever would have at UNI im sure. I was super skint at that time so buying a new one wasnt an option.

I couldnt get on to my beloved Hoyle so I looked for another scrabble site and couldnt find one that I liked.

Googled poker and signed up to VC, that was about 3 years ago maybe. played play money for almost a year before my mentor/friend suggested playing small stts so I played mostly $1 stts for a long time.

Then I joined Blonde, my eyes were opened to fact that people CAN win at poker and thats when eyes were opened and I started to learn.

I spent a fair bit over the years at low stake, nothing I couldn't afford and it was definately cheaper than a night at the bingo so to me it was "entertainment money".

I did some accounting at the beginning of this year and worked out I had more or less won back my stake money. I was really pleased about this but have since over the last couple of months lost the lot :-(

I have gone near to going bust in the past and have rocked up and scraped it back but this time its different. This time I feel I have to deposit a lump sum and play my best. I dont have the patience to play $3 games to build it up anymore.

Ooops what started as a question has had me gibbering for ages...time for bed.

Would still like original question answered please

When i was like 17/18 and in college, some kids brought some cards into the 6th form room and i said "what are you playing" and they said poker, and altho they were playing 5 card, my other mate had heard about this game called texas hold em.

So the next day my friends Marc (Steelio), Dan, Tim and myself learnt how to play it, (looking up the rules on google first) and we started playing small stakes cash games in the common room (this will have been like 2004?) and before long we had just about the whole male population of the college (and some girls too) playing NLHE cash games all day long and missing loads of lessons. I think i missed every Accountancy lesson in the 2nd year. It was a nice and constant earner throughout college for some of us. I think the blidns were 10p/20p??? but the pots often ended up full of pounds coins.

I remember a kid from the year below seeming very interested. LeKnave i think his name was, often hanging on our shoulders watching. lol.

I then discovered Party Poker in 2005? and i was a huge loser in cash games to begin with, but it wasnt long till i found Pacific Poker and soon became a winner in tournaments. (not much changes on those 2 fronts)

Trying to get rich quick with betting on Betfair, I noticed that they had a poker room. I browsed the forums for a couple of hours and decided to give it a go - had to be easier than betting eh!

Anyway, I'm still not rich but I'm loving the poker :D

Mesmerized by "Late Night Poker".....the original and best!

happy Bday suz, just seen on facebook, have a great day!!!!!!!!! wooooooooooooooooo WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 ;cheerleader; ;charmaine; ;charmaine; :birthday: :birthday: :birthday: :birthday: ;woohoo; ;woohoo; ;woohoo; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave;

I'm from a family of card game lovers, and played a lot of brag as a kid/teenager/young adult with my parents and brother.  I became aware of the online poker boom a few years ago, but steered clear for a good while - I'm a bit of a gambler, and saw it as a potentially addictive and expensive pastime.  I decided to give it a spin after seeing a few of the celebrity poker games on TV, and wanted to try my hand at holdem.  I opened up a betfair account and did a fair bit of cash before realising that, actually, I could enjoy this game without the need to bet big/win/lose big, so started playing £1 stts.  

I've surprised myself with my discipline actually.  I think if I had taken up poker a few years ago before having a family etc (i.e. when I was shite with money, and had too much disposable income) it would be a different story.

I'm glad I found poker (and blonde) - I love it, and couldn't imagine life without it now :)

11 years ago while playing relatively high stakes blackjack (for a kid) i was invited to join a cash game by some sharks in the local casino. Dealers choice. Somehow i only lost about 20% of my starting buy in.

But i loved it, then watched LNP and started playing tournaments. Recently i think i've come to fall out of love with the game. The only poker i enjoy now are the live cash games and given i work full time my opportunity to play is limited.

I watched the original series of LNP when it was first shown on C4 in about 1999. Around the same time my friends and I organised a home game instead of a traditional house warming party. My mates girlfriend was happier with this idea rather than loads of drunk party goers wrecking her new carpets in their recently purchased flat.  We continued to play our weekly game for a couple of weeks, but it eventually broke up and we stopped playing.  I hate slow players and everyone in this game had a nasty habit of continually forgetting what hand beat what each week. It was the slowest poker game in history as a result.

Around the same time, I rented Rounders on video from my local fish n chip shop/video shop. I had no idea we had poker games in the UK and assumed they were all based in America after watching this movie.  I read 'A Guaranteed Income For Life' around this time as well.

For the next six years, I forgot about poker.  One day I was in PC World and decided to buy a card games compilation box. It had poker and blackjack on it.  The following week I returned to PC World and asked if they had any poker games. The clerk at the counter told me about online poker.  To be honest, I had no idea what that was.  When I got home, I downloaded either VC or Pokerstars ( I honestly can't remember which was first, I had them on my desktop within a few hours of each other ).

So since Nov 2005,  I have played online.  I am a self confessed fish and find it impossible to build a proper bankroll.  I have got my roll up over a few thousand a couple of times and $3268 once , but always end up broke a few weeks later.  Blackjack is no longer a problem as I refuse to play anywhere with BJ, it is far too tempting  :D .  I jump from site to site and game to game constantly as my attention span is like a flea.  For the first time I am reading about the game now and trying not to let luck rule things anymore,  soon I am going to buy Poker Office to help my game as I have never used anything like that before. 

Poker is fun for me and I have no intentions to be a pro in the future.  I honestly feel that inside me somewhere there is a good poker player who is fighting to get out,  I have yet to find a way to let him out all the time though.  I will keep reading and keep playing,  hopefully I can restrain myself and avoid going broke again by playing outside my BR..... being BROKE number 18 is just round the corner I feel   :D

I started watching the Ladbrookes Millions on Sky Sports about 3 years ago and found it intriguing.  I had learnt how to play draw poker when I was a kid, but had never seen or heard of Texas Holdem before.

Shortly afterwards, myself and a group of friends were deciding what to do during our annual Christmas drink & booze-up.  Someone suggested we hold a poker tournament, but no one really knew how to play.  We tried to learn the rules, and I signed up with Pokerroom.com and play a bit on the play tables.

On the day, none of us had a clue how to play, but myself and the guy who suggested the idea ended up chopping the prize money when we got heads-up.

I was hooked and carried on playing on the play tables for about another 9 months before eventually plucking up courage to deposit some money. 

My friends have resisted the temptation to take up the game, except the guy who suggested we play in the first place.

On the internet '97 Paradise Poker.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=7124.msg152555#msg152555

I went through the bedroom door.

funny..I started the same way!

Walked through the bedroom door, found the girlfriend doing the postman and thought "Well, I've got nothing to do..might aswell try and learn poker" ;)

Seriously though.

I'm Dutch..Omaha was like a national game where I was from (Together with a bridge like game called "Klaverjassen") everybody knew how to play it..don't know how..you just did.
Didn't play for ages when I moved to the UK and then HE kicked off and I thought I'd give that a shot..Man am I happy I did..

Not sure about the exact years but I can remember playing a couple of holdem variants(Southern Cross and Railroad) an awfully long time ago. I have always played cards of some description from Top Trumps as a kid to Brag as a scally youth, the online poker came around the turn of the century. I can remember having difficulty finding anything other than limit games.

Pad

The senior guys at Ipswich FC were playing cards on the team bus and some in card schools.

Naturally this filtered down to the youth side and before we knew it everyone in our team was playing! £1 buy ins mind!

Late Night Poker season 1 late 90's
home game started same time
THM forum and online poker shortly after
First casino game Jan 01
 

I remember about 10 years ago, I was in a casino with a friend of mine who has a love of roulette.  I was there just watching and having the occasional go on the £200 slot machines..  One day I saw a group of guy in a section playing poker.  I asked my friend how I could play that, because I knew the rules..

His response to me, which I shall never forget, was a question...  If I was to offer you, for entry £100, a round of golf against Nick Faldo, playing him at the same handicap, would I play him?....  My response was, no, don't be silly, he is a pro, I would want some shots...  Well, he said, you don't have a handicap system at poker, and these guys have been playing 5 card draw in this casino for years...  You will get eaten alive..!!!  So I took heed to his advice and never played...  

So with that advice, I though, one day I will be good enough not to be somebody's meal ticket...  I got involved downloading stuff from the internet and one day saw an application called Hoyles Poker..  I downloaded it, and realised I was playing against other people and not playing a computer..  This was cool..  Eventually I found that it was just a different application for pokerstars.net where players could ONLY play for pretend money...  Someone told me that the .com site lets me play for real money and has lots more features, like finding your friends on tables...

I started with my $1000 play money and started to realise the resons why I was getting beat, why I was making bad calls, not looking at the community cards well enough and not seeing hands..  Until one day it clicked into position...  3 of a suit, possible flush out there, pair on display, possible full house out there, or quads even..  And my sill betting changed to be a little more controlled and conservative.  Saying that, I had to realise that I was still playing newb idiots like me who were all-in with any old garbage...  I had to get more play money to play the bigger entry fee tournaments to get away from the idiots who don't care about losing their free $1000...  I managed to do that and eventually built up my stack to 8 million chips..  I even played in a freeroll tournament for 300 play chips entry with 5000 people, and 6 hours later I made the final table and eventually came 2nd..  Was gutted because only 1st place got a seat in a real money game..

I played for like 3 months, and found out my next door neighbour was also using the same site, also he and some of his colleagues had just started to play a home game.  I got an invite and have never looked back..!!  I hate missing my Wednesday poker night..  I am also happy when the extra Friday night deep stack is played..

I play cash tournaments only right now because I don't like the idea of cash ring games just yet.  Won a $20 x 180 player game on pokerstars a few months back ($1080 first prize), just waiting for the next one lol..!!  Also won a lunch time guaranteed turbo on Laddys which was brill..

I then head about APAT from a friend, and joined because I liked the idea.  First on-line game was a qualifier for Edinburgh.  Top 10 get a seat..  I was 4th or so I think when the game eventually stopped.  That was a big thing for me to qualify for the first ever thing i tried for..!!  Saying that, lasted about 7 hrs in Edinburgh, mid table or so..  the I also played Dublin, not lasted as long as Edinburgh..  The postion I went out did not bother me, I had a great time, and my experience grew..

April 2007, 5 of us went to Vegas primarily to play poker, played at least 1 tournament a day, won1, in the money and final table in most...  Also while there got to see the WPT final event at the Bellagio, and saw for real some of the players like, Doyle, Helmuth, Matasau, Hachem, Hansen (Doyle and Hansen were even on the same table by the door)..  Great time was had by all..  Some of the other guys also had tournament wins there..  Now next may, back there again...

Am  I addicted?  lol..  

Love the game, just want to get better..!!

Carl..

played 3 card brag every friday with friends and familly for years...and enjoyed it immensely ,was only for peanuts,but damn good fun

had to take a rest when i ran my KKK into 333,I swear that was a setup at the time...lol

So we come along to the late 90's and LNP is on the telly with devilfish and trumper etc,was my fave prog  but it seemed to be that getting to poker in any form was beyond my means,so left it on the backburner for a few years then about 4 years ago i googled poker,found VC,then eventually blonde,and got hooked,could not believe my luck that u could play for money.....I only wish i could download my HH's from years ago..lol

I dived in almost right away with a deposit,clearly a mistake but when u take down that 1st stt ,then eventually a mtt, well i knew there and then that this was a game i was gonna play the rest of my life and made it my goal to get better and stronger,I am still learning and the road has had many bumps.....

As a kid I was always fascinated by cards games but could never understand poker, sometime later stumbled into Late Nite Poker (TYVM C4), this changed my life totally, quickly learnt the rules and then ventured online, first experience of poker and I was like a kid in a candy store. sadly was only play money on Party but gotta start somewhere lol.

First real money was a little while after trying my hand on PP, setup account on laddies deposited and erm lost, lost and lost again. Found an ad for VC on back of a mag, downloaded, signed up, read books, googled etc and won my first mtt there woot.

Sadly not really progressed much as a player but spend 80% of my time playing, love the game, have met some great ppl and thanks to poker, got myself off drugs and found a new addiction.

I saw Gus Hansen on tv.....

Pete always played alot of cards when he was in the 6th form at school,to make abit of pocket money.

But really it was late night poker.

Jacarama was so funny,Devilfish and Simon Trumper where great,Had big respect for Surinnder,Ram and pete the bandit and Lin Cai Lin not sure on that spelling but he smoked alot of cigs.

VC was our first site we joined,starting on the 10c stt's,I remember our first deposit of £10 going up, and being scared when Pete said it was time for me to move up to 25c stt's Aww those where the days the most fun ever.

Used to play 3 card brag with my da and a few of his mates and then I started playing Kalookie with the local drug dealers found I was taking their cash on more occasions that I was loosing. 

As for starting playing Texas one of my first jobs when I left Uni was as a croupier the dealers used to have a home game I attended that and since then its sort of spiraled.

Lots of interesting stories...keep them coming.

I laughed when I read someone else started on Hoyle too :-)

Interesting how many started through watching it on TV, I would have thought poker on TV would have been a bit like watching snooker or golf....damn boring unless you are a fan and a player.
 ::) :D