It seems like tons of other forums have an introduce yourself thread.. and we seem to get a few threads per week where newbies introduce themselves.. so let's all do it here

I've been playing poker since I was little, when my uncle would play 5card draw, baseball, and whatever crazy game he could think of. Cards were always the one thing my family always did together.. so I've always had a love of cards. I started playing hold em in October of 2003 when a few friends showed up and said hey get some change together and lets play this card game we learned. I thought it was ok, but not my cup of tea. I played it again, for pretzels this time.. a month later at another friends house.. and this time I was hooked. From then on, my friends and I had a weekly $10 sng... awful structure.. something like 5/10 blinds (that we almost never remembered to raise).. 50,000 starting stack. Games would go like 10 hours... with usually myself and another friend chopping.

In December, I broke my foot playing basketball and was in a cast for 7 months... and that's when poker took over. Play money at first..but then I came across all of the free $50 sites for party poker, and their skins..and I signed up so many times with those, and busted every one. I did them all... 4 free sng's at true poker.. free $10 at VC poker.. free $10 at royal vegas poker and all of it's skins.. I did them all, I did them several times..and I busted every time.

I played play money some more.. until a friend sent me $25 on stars and taught me how to play the micro games... and from then on, my poker life consisted of grinding out a few hundred, cashing it out..starting over. I've always played a mix of sngs cash and mtts.. so I'm competent at all 3, but have huge leaks in all 3 as well... but I find it fun playing different games at different times. Overall, I'm happy with what I've done so far with poker.. having only deposited small amounts twice to take advantage of some crappy bonuses... and now I'm actually giving myself a chance to see what I can do if I give myself a chance in games that aren't super micros.


tl;dr....... gtfo

My name is Jake. I just turned 18 years old and I just recently got into poker about a month ago. I go to a small college in western PA and I hate it! I want to go to turning stones and play some live poker but NO ONE in this ****ty town plays. Damn it. In one month, I managed to dig myself a pretty big hole for a college student my age by successfully implementing the exact opposite of what all these BRM threads tell you. I have just recently decided to stick to 2nl with my 100 dollar bankroll and grind the micros and build up and hopefully grind 50NL someday. Small goal, but it should be attainable if I'm not a complete idiot! If you leave in PA, holla at me.

Any thread that Ice makes is a good one to participate in.

My name is Mike and Im 42 married with a 20 year old son. I enjoy playing poker when I get home from work and it has allowed me to make a few extra $$$. I introduced my son to chess when he was young and I ended up getting hooked on the game. The strategy aspect and trying to improve my game was pretty fun but then the poker boom took place and I found a new game that would possibly provide a few extra $$$ and so here I am.

I enjoy all forms of poker and my latest game of choice is 6max NL. Im no longer cashing out and I'm trying to see how high in stakes I can get my game up to.

what college?

My name is James, I'm 29 years old, and I live in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. I moved here 8-9 months ago b/c my old career wasn't my calling and I really wanted to live in the Rocky Mountains and chill out for a while ... currently saving up for a big Overseas trip (South Korea, Thailand, AUS, NZ) ... hopefully poker will supply a healthy amount of funds before and during (hostel games, live)

I started playing with friends 3 years ago ... got online 1 1/2 years ago, and have been a winning player for about 8 months now!

My name is Mo. I guess I am an old man around here since I am 26. I graduated from college with a B.S. in Professional Aeronautics and am currently a flight instructor in Texas. Starting playing in 2008 when my student wanted to fly to Vegas.

I'm 21, junior at the University of Toronto. I'm terrible at poker and feel like I'm 50 right now; currently having a midlife crisis as well.

cheers

I had Bitchi pegged as a 40yr old cynical bastard. I'm surprised you're 21 to be honest!



29 here. ex golf pro. going back to college for engineering. Playing micro limits when I have time.

I'm Paige. 21 years old female, just moved to Las Vegas, and make a damn good pie (right, run.it.twice?).

I started playing three years ago when my housemate introduced me. We'd both sit in our room and grind micros for hours, and just in general be bad. Then his poker career actually took off, and mine stayed in the mud (just breakeven for a very long time) until fairly recently. This morning I started tinkering in 50NL.

Poker lead me to my current field of employment (blackjack dealing). If I hadn't been around cards like I was, I never would have gotten even interested in a casino.

Justin, age 22
Senior at NYU, will be working full-time as a trader at a major bank. Started playing poker at the age of 16 or 17 and compared to now (which isn't great) I was absolutely AWFUL. I learned only barely enough to beat the home game. Last summer I interned at the same bank and started making real $$$ so I decided to delve into internet poker. Friends cautioned me to read some books first so I read the poker books by Phil Gordon and Collin Mosh..something. They helped, but I was playing way out of my league (I lost about a grand that summer).

This past winter I deposited $50 back into Full Tilt, joined 2p2, got the pokertracker trial version, AND READ AND STUDIED A TON, and am now in my second foray into online poker. Currently BR is at $250, and I'm planning on moving through to 25nl and 50nl before I graduate in May.

I'm Steve age 21. College dropout. Was attending Michigan Technological University as an Electrical Engineering major until it got to be too expensive and too boring. I now live with my parents and work at a local grocery store to make student loan payments and save up some money so I can move into the city and try to get some sort of entry-level drafting job at a factory or engineering firm.

Growing up I used to play a lot of strategy games with my brothers (Chess, Checkers, Connect4, etc.) and real-time strategy video games (Warcraft series, Starcraft, Command and Conquer). I played a lot of card games with my family and friends (Euchre, Gin, Rummy, and occasionally different varieties of poker). I was always into magic tricks and have learned sleight of hand quite well which is why I try to avoid home games due to temptation to cheat. Perhaps I should try dealing cards at the nearby Native American casino instead of my current job.

After dropping out of college while all my friends were still attending I found I had a lot of free time on my hands and started playing Starcraft online. I got in touch with one of my old Starcraft buddies to see if he wanted to play some zerg vs. protoss. He said he was playing online texas hold'em so I asked him about it and it sounded like a fun strategy game with the opportunity to make some money. I deposited $50 on full tilt, lost it, deposited another $20, lost it, moved to pokerstars, lost a couple more small deposits, then decided I was going to stop bleeding money into the poker economy. I started reading books and articles which eventually led me to the 2+2 forums. I made a New Years goal to be playing NL25 by the end of February. Thanks to the information I've found (particularly WCGRider's "Why you suck at uNL" series) I'm currently grinding out NL25 and hoping to make it to NL50 by the end of February.

Oh haii im Richard,im 21 and from Edinburgh in Scotland but currently living in western Ireland.

Im currently jobless with no gf and tbh no real prospects in life,chin up tho and all that aiii.

I'm Nick age 31. Been playing for about 4-5yrs. I suck and don't take my advice.

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY now live in Scranton, PA.

I never went to college (unlike most ppl here) I suck at math but the strongest point of my game is being able to put ppl on hands. My weakest points are the math, paying ppl off when I know they have a better hand, and trying to bluff at the wrong time. I just started reading poker books after all this time. I figured if I am going to continue playing I should crack open a book and get up to speed. So far it has helped a bit.

I enjoy playing live more than online. But I am always online playing.

That's it for now.

Oh yeah and I am going to win a Sat Shanooobians 13:00 in this month (or whatever it's called).

Nick (Nusiance)

I play on FTP, at 5nl. My story is pretty simple, I played at 2nl at first, lost, moved up to 5nl because then I can "MAKE MORE MANIES AT 5NL LOL" and lost there badly, then moved up to 10nl because "OMG DOUBLE TEH STEAKS". Stopped playing like an idiot and moved back to 2nl to learn fundamentals and basics. Beat it for a good amount and decided to move up to 5nl again. I'm breaking even but over this month I am planning to move up to 10nl if I have good results.

I got started in poker while I was in the mortgage business (great time to be in that business in 2008 lol). While I was learning the ropes the company I worked for went under, and so I decided to go back to school. Currently at Washington, and working on becoming an air traffic controller. I actually would love to play poker full time, and if I get good enough move out of micros this year.

I've already decided if I play well and have a decent BR to move to Vegas and play live/online. Might as well take the shot before I start having responsibilities.

(In before "Hello, my name is Bumblebee, and I'm an alcoholic.)

Anyways, Hi my name is Sam and I am from Ottawa(Canada). I am a 25 years old business major. My brother got me hooked into this game on November, 2008. I played playmoney on Pokerstars since then until February, 2009. I made a 15$ deposit and started grinding from there. Thanks god a friend of mine directed me to this website so I had the change to learn quickly.

Long story short. I have been grinding since then, working very hard on my game and reached 3000$ on my bankroll. I recently made a major cashout to buy a ballin computer so my bankroll took a huge dive, which means that 100NL will have to wait for a little longer. I am currently a 50NL regular and I am very happy with my poker success thus far.

I am also a video game player. Currently I only play a warcraft 3 mod called DOTA (Defense of the ancients) and Rockband2, but I also play other video games on the side such as Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike and stuff like that.

Some interesting profiles around here...

I'm Matt, 19.
Studying physics & astronomy @ Ohio-State, golfer, & B-class tournament Raquetball player. I started poker about a year ago, lost around 2 grand before I realized poker wasn't pure gambling & decided to learn about bankroll management lol. Put my last 10 bucks on Pokerstars about 2 months ago and have so far halved my deficit, so I'm starting to play alot more, my secnd live tourney is set to be next week. My goal by graduation is to have a bankroll from which I can either make a temporary living from poker or if the job market is open, pay off most of my loans and pursue a research career for the gov't or my University (GO BUCKS), both options would be fulfilling.

I sorta go to Ohio State. I miss playing golf

Jason, 37, from BAHstahn. Photographer, network engineer and programmer by trade, currently working on a web-based program to help people improve their hand-reading skills. Former Go player which actually goes a long way toward explaining why I like poker so much.

Moved from Rockport, MA to upstate NY, affectionately known as "the armpit" (and correctly so). A lot of people ask why I'd move from an oceanfront apartment to here and the answer is my fiance, a harpist, physicist, linguist and RPI grad.

Which means that when we play Scrabble, well, I get my *** kicked.

Besides being amazing in general, she puts up with my swearing at the monitor and spending about 3-8 hours per day, every day, playing, reading or studying poker.

Picked up poker a few years ago, read Ken Warren Teaches Hold'em which is, by far, the sh*ttiest book ever written on the subject. Luckily I stopped playing after about two weeks so none of that mindrot gained any footing.

Refound poker in June of '09, don't even remember how or why, discovered 2p2 shortly thereafter. Started with 2NL, moved to $2 SnG's, moved back over to 10NL Rush and happy to say I'm beating those stakes at a modest 1ptBB/100. Deposited $80 to start, ground that up to around $270.

There are many people who have taken the time to post replies but particular thanks goes out to Cry, Aces, ajrenni and Wilcox.

Steve, 28

I'm a former Starcraft / Warcraft player turned poker player. I needed something to do after quiting WOW (the endless grind) so I started playing practice games on FTP. In January I deposited 50$ on Pokerstars and started grinding the micros. I was extremely aggressive and my swings were wild for the first few weeks. I found out that I really enjoyed the in-depth strategy of the game and I think that I would love to play very competitively someday in the higher limits heads up. I have a long ways to go to get there though. Currently I'm ginding 10NL and trying to move up to 25NL. I may or may not continue to play after Starcraft 2 comes out we'll see.

You should update your profile info under your avatar to show Vegas! Gotta represent!

I'm Jon, 20 from Boston. Bodhi, my parents live in Gloucester now and thats where I was born.

I'm a late Freshman at the University of Kansas (the one with the best basketball team in the country ainec). Majoring in Poli Sci.

Yeahhhhhhh

I'm 24 and trying to learn poker. I'm also not American. I started around 3 years ago when i stumbled upon a pokerthread in a big forum, deposited some $$ on Everest, mainly to help other people out with swapping $$ from bank to Everest and backwards, then i started playing 10NL with a $20 bankroll. After 1.5 year i made from that $20, $200, i didn't play often. Then i bought some books, made some deposits on VC, Party, 4ofHearts, PS and Pacific and played there for some time, just joking around. This year i want to take it serieously and make poker a profitable hobby so that i can earn some money with it.

I finished education (dunno how's it called in USA) as a gardener, but i don't like the job and now i work in a greenhouse. I don't like that euther anymore so i'm now looking for something else.

Wp OP.

My name is Luka (and I don't live on the 2nd floor). Age 29 and I'm from Belgrade, Serbia. I'm into poker for 2 years almost - seriously online about an year. Strugglin at micros nl10 and nl25 on FTP.

I'm employed and studiying at the same time so poker has a little space in my life atm but enjoying learining it and improuving my game. Would be nice if i could reach nl100 by the end of 2010. but then again I don't rush anywere - one step a time.

I think I have decent understanding of game and I'm willing to help as much as my knowledge boundries allow so. Also if someone is up for sweats, HH, discussion etc - feel free to PM me. My time is GMT+1.

All the best and good luck at the tables.

Hello I'm Shane. 21, Eng Lit student, post/posted here a lot, for about the last year and a half. Learned a lot and still learning. I am a writer, but also used to be quite into the RTS scene. Will be looking forward to SC2.

Great thread to see who everyone is.

I'm Jason, 28 years old. I live in Manchester NH I've played in home games for years but never took the game seriouse, always just loved to play, usually drunk with friends. About a year ago my wife was out of town with our kids for the weekend and I was bored out of my mind, started looking for something to do, so i figured I would play some cards online, I never knew there was such a huge online poker community

Long story short, after that weekend I deposited on UB played like a donkeyfish and busted my roll about 10 times ( only $30 each time ) I was hooked on beating the game, so I opened accounts on all the other sites and started playing as much as I could, now I play about 3-4 hours at night when my kid's and wife are sleeping, all micros.