How did you get into poker?

[suzanne]

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

[Horneris]

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)

[Graham C]

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

[ripple11]

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

[action man]

happy Bday suz, just seen on facebook, have a great day!!!!!!!!! wooooooooooooooooo WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Claw75]

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

[ACE2M]

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.

[Sark79]

I watched the original series of LNP when it was first shown on 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  .  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   

[MAF]

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.

[Acidmouse]

On the internet '97 Paradise Poker.

[matt674]

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

[RED-DOG]

I went through the bedroom door.

[boldie]

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..

[Pad]

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

[Sunday8pm]

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!