I used to yes.

I don't live in IV anymore. I live downtown on the mesa. And housing in santa barbara is very expensive.

Amazing story. Congrats and (continued) good luck.

Still can't believe you've had a bigger downswing tho...

Don't jinx me. Also do you still have that screen shot of us playing 2/4 NL back in january? Some posters wanted to see it.

About a week ago you were playing on interpoker for the first time (that i knew of), and this was the first hand I saw at L10/20 full ring...

UTG limps, 3~ other people limp, you raise big in the BB, UTG goes all in for L2000~, all fold, you call.

You = KK
UTG = JJ
Flop = Jxx

UTG sits out and leaves before posting his BB. I got freaked out and stopped watching.

great story!

gl and continue ur success

aba,

FWIW, most of the top winners I know in 50/100NL have had a 200k+ downswing.

Thanks for taking the time to write this out.

Well the games a much tougher online. Also live you can usually get a pretty good idea who is capable of making a move on you. I would say get a HUD and figure out which stats help you determine a players characteristics. Then have them on your display so you can make decisions based off of that.


aba,

would you mind posting which stats you use?

I have played online nearly daily for over 4 years. Your history is very far from unique. There are so many guys moving up quickly and after 6 month finds themselves in the toughest games there are on internet. And do good in these games.

All these guys are sure it is their pokerskills that have taken them there. And most of the time it is. But what they dont understand (yet) is that there are so many other factors that becomes important. Like: How do I react when I hit my first really nasty downswing? How often do I play worse then I could? What happens when other good players at this limit get a read on me? Will I not get bored and start to play worse when I get used to the limit I play at? Will I not start to play worse when I become bored of playing poker (like u will sooner or later, maybe not each day... but after a while it is a work, not a hobby)... and so on and so on...

They guys winning big playing internet poker week after week after month after month after year after year got so many skills besides being good at playing poker. And after playing a lot on the net for 6 months and moving up all the time, u dont know if u got these skills. Come back after u have played poker for a living for 12 more months and u will see your own sucess in a different light.

Great post Kiddo.

Excellent kiddo.

I feel like I'm going through that test right now and failing it.

aba,

Great work man and great story!

kiddo,

I agree w/ your post 100%.

FWIW, (and this probably doesn't mean too much coming from an 18 year old) lately i have been more and more impressed with your posts, a maturity and humility that may always have been there is more evident, and it is evident that you are a better and more seasoned player than I gave you credit for. Just thought i would throw it out there, since i didn't hesitate to bust your balls in the past either

ggbman, I agree completely

easy there, captain threadcrapper

I really don't think i act like anything. I don't have any reason to think that means a great deal to HEK, i even said that in the post. However, there was a thread a while back where there was some conversation about him running hot, and I probably came as a little hostile, so i took an oppurtunity to pay him an compliment, it certainly wasn't for your benefit.

Also, believe it or not, sometimes people who havn't made the most money in the past 4 months don't suck, and are still decent players, most of the people i play with would attest to that. Anyway, we don't need to hiack a thread with your seemingly pointless attack, we can do it via PM if you really want, or agree on a location to throw down!

Macbowned.

I agree with most of your post and especially this point. I admit that I don't find poker as mentally stimulating as other activities and I have had trouble playing my best at "lower" stakes. I guess only time will tell if I am capable of playing my best all the time

Whoa, what happened here? Who edited this?

He did.

aba, just found this thread...great story

you've inspired me to get in some deep live games--hopefully i can find those locally when i move to sf in 2 weeks

a couple questions for you:

when you were on your meteoric rise through the nl ranks, what was your bankroll requirement? how many hours did you play per month? how many hands?

thanks. gl and congrats on that 170k score!

obv. a really good post kiddo.

aba, congrats on all your results. id be lying if i said i wasnt jealous.

350k roll sounds really short to me but it obviously doesnt matter anymore. Nice run, sounds like it happened to a good guy too.

aba probably has a million roll now