Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricky1231
First
I only know you by reputation. Who are you? How old, location etc. And ofc what's your poker story?
James Daniel Vonderhaar Jr. I'm 25 and I live in Chicago.
My poker story is I started playing seriously in college. I had a buddy that was decent and we played a couple times and I started getting the hang of it. We played .25/.50. He then took me to a couple fraternity games around campus. I just crushed these games and I was terrible.
My first online experience was on Party Poker. I deposited $200 and turned it into a grand in a couple days playing SNGs. I knew nothing about 2p2, pocket fives or bank roll management. I started playing $100 SNGs and busted in 4th in like 6 straight to terrible beats. I convinced myself that online poker was rigged and swore off it. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how if I knew about simple bankroll management back then I would be a multimillionaire now.
Anyways, I did really well in college. When I graduated, I just planned on grinding 5/10 limit at hollywood casino in Aurora, IL until I found a job. This has to be one of the softest games on the planet. But I ended up getting a job at Ronin Capital and I took it.
So about a year out of college my buddy came over. He brought his laptop because he was planning on playing a tournament. He told me him and his buddy used to make bank in college playing online. So I asked him about the tournament he was playing. It was the Sunday Million. I was like, "wait, so every week there is a MILLION DOLLAR TOURNAMENT?", lol. He told me about online poker and all that and I was like, okay this is definately for me. I put $200 on there and started playing .5/1. I built it up to $1000 in a weekend and never really looked back. I was 6 tabling and pretty soon I was 12 tabling. This was September 2007. I made SN this year, and towards the end of the year I went on a really bad run and was kind of sick of poker. I decided to change it up and play MTTs. Like a week or two in, I made my first final table and made like $800, more than I had ever made in a day iin poker. The next weekend, I final tabled another tourney on stars for 3k. I was like, okay, tournies are sweet.
A couple weeks later, I had my first 10k score with a second in the Saturday 109, that same night, I took like 20th in the nightly hondo and busted with KK to AA. Either way, I started to get really confident about my game. I transferred some funds to FT, and final tabled the second tourney I played on that site (the first night) for 4k. I was a successful nit tourney player. I final tabled two Sunday majors in six months, winning the mulligan once.
Then my doomswitch got activated. I busted every tournament deep to horrible beats. Like every time I made the final two tables I got it in dominating someone and lost. It was disgusting. Then finally I was pushed over the edge at the nightly hondo on stars. I got it all in on a 8 3 4 rainbow flop with QQ vs Q8 for 25% of the chips and a dominant chip lead at the final two tables. I was running over the table, but the 8 rivered and I remember this so clearly. I didn't freak out, break or throw anything like i normally would. I just closed my computer and laid in bed. It was a Thursday about 2 a.m. I had to wake up for work in less than four hours. But I just laid in bed, dumbfounded at how bad I had been running for two months. I just expected to lose every hand. I decided I was done with poker.
Obv that didn't last too long. About two months later it was double VPP week and I was back. I decided to grind 1/2 though. I think I was playing like 11/7 or something, lol. I was so bad, but I was still a winner. At the end of the year I went on another bad run chasing the 400k milestone. I had just started classes at University of Chicago and grinding was tough. But I did it anyways. I decided that I had a great job and was going to an awesome grad school, so to make poker worthwhile I would have to make more. The obvious solutiion to this was to move up, lol. I was so bad for 400 and 600NL. I broke even for 3 months, always blaming luck. I would tilt like a mother f*cker. Then one day I read a book called 'The Poker Mindset'. This totally changed my poker life. I decided the next month, I would make 25k. Keep in mind that I had not made a dime at mid stakes. I did not get coaching or read any strategy or anything. I just decided I would not tilt, I would concentrate and play solid. I made 26k this month.
Since then I have been a 3-4 BB/100 winner. My ptr doesn't show this because there is over half a year of me playing awful at 1/2 and three months of losing at midstakes. But now I am a totally different player.
That's my story. It's been a long road.