Introduction/Resurrection

Allow me to reintroduce myself. . . My name is Locks. I am 22 years of age (I’ll be 23 in 6 days) and this is my first entry of my new blog. I laid to rest my old blog as I changed screen names on my main site and felt compelled to wash myself clean of all things related to that name. So here I am. Back at square one trying to inspire thought on this game of poker.

I began playing poker like many others in my age group. I was waiting on Sports Center to be shown or channel surfing and kept running across this game that my father and I played for pennies. Back then, I played 5 Card Draw or 5 Card Stud. We didn’t play that often but those were my beginnings. I love my ol’ man and wouldn’t take those memories away for anything.

Uncommon to my surroundings is the game of poker. I’m from the hood to be blunt about it and none of my friends play. Growing up around here, we played tonk, spades, bid whist, pluck, or knucks (a variation of pluck) but poker in any form was never part of the home game.

I must say I’ve always had some gamble in me. During middle school, many days I played a game called “Get Like Me“, a game in which you flip coins or dollars and your opponent must match what falls. (i.e. I land tails, you must land tails) I spent many days in pissy bathrooms doing this. Pretty disgusting as I think back to it. (lol) I usually made enough for a afternoon snack on the way home or lost enough to miss lunch the next day. This is a real coin flip.

Fast forward half my life and my first remembrance of actually watching poker is reruns of Greg Raymer crushing that year. It intrigued me. the art of playing and I was instantly hooked. I remember being excited to go to Wings and eat. They had the video version of Texas Hold’em but I didn’t understand much about it. I know what pairs beat what but understood nothing about hand strengths, betting, position. The definition of being fed to the wolves.

It was fun but I was losing. It was basically a video game but I’m too competitive to take losing and see it as being “fun”. I wanted to be that guy standing there with a bracelet. So I set out to learn how to play. Like anything else I do with any seriousness, I studied. i think I bought every e-book, hard back, magazine… Anything I could find with a tidbit of something new, I read it and afterwards. . . I was still a fish (A player who loses money. An old saying is “If you can’t spot the fish at the table, *you* are the fish.”). I started on Party Poker. I made a deposit of $50 a few times and donked that off or donked off some before realizing that I needed a set way of winning. I eventually cashed out and played single table tournaments, (sng’s) and head’s up matches on Pacific Poker.

It wasn’t an easier year and a half to say the least. I went from terrible to bad over the course of a few months and didn’t understand any concepts on bankroll management but I have come a long way since then. I made my first real cash in my third live tournament I ever played in. I came in 1st place for $968 and I wasn’t really that good. I combine suck outs with timely good cards that got me through that. I remember many hands vividly where I had coin flips (two overcards vs. an. underpair) or was totally dominated with only one overcard and sucking out. I remember thinking that that was the way to win.

Bills stacked at the time so I use the majority of my knew “roll” to get me out of a jam. I still played online though and ventured out into real gambling. To separate the difference, poker is a game of skill. To bluff, calculate odds, and understand position, outs etc. is not the same is betting in roulette on 25 with 37:1 odds and getting paid 36:1. Even when you win, you lose. That’s why you can’t beat the house. I dabbled in blackjack, roulette, and craps. I won good for a week or two and lost big the next. I see-sawed with that til i was back to square one. I stopped “gambling” the same way I started. . . with $300. I decided to get back to grinding in poker at this point. It’s November of 2005 and I’m playing $10 sng’s. I remember it well because Gidders was beginning his site, CR was just popping off, as well as RPT. I remember wanting to win so bad, I signed up for all 3. I thought the more info I had, the greater chance I had at making some serious money. Over the next few months, i turn $300 into $3k but bills again ate up my roll. It felt like I was playing Monopoly and I was headed around the board and I pull a card saying “Go to jail/Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Push play and it’s today. I traded in the grind of sng’s and upgraded to cash game. My roll isn’t huge yet but its a work in process. Ask about the 2pac pic? If he can be resurrected and his named isn’t Jesus, then I’ll give it a shot.

-Locks