2 Million Dollar Bills

It’s was Tuesday the 17th of June yesterday and that can only mean one thing, it was POKER TIME. I wasn’t ready and I sure wasn’t in a poker playing frame of mind. I had to get up at 5.30am and then I had to go and load up my container for my immigration to Barbados and the next stage in my 2 million dollar bills plan.

It was a long and tough morning loading up a 20 foot container. By the time it was complete I was well and truly knackered and bloody from various cuts on my hand, arms and foot. After the hard work was done, I had to go and deal with another one of those companies that thinks its ok to take your money and promise to deliver a quality service, then totally mess things up! You may have heard of them! IKEA, that is another story which I will be doing an article on later.

By the time I finally arrived home it was late afternoon, I went for a wee siesta, so I could rest my weary body and sore head from having to deal with IKEA! I slept like a baby for 2 hours and woke up feeling a little bit refreshed, I can only recommend siestas, our European neighbors are smarter than us Brits give them credit for!

It was curry night at the recently refurbished Crown and I had promised to take the wife there, my legs just managed the 20 minute walk there. I only have good things to say about the Crown, very nice place, the food was good and the Carling went down like a dream.

Upon my arrival back home, it was finally time to see what tournaments Party Poker had for me, because of tiredness I decided it would be best just to play a low value tournament. I registered for a $2 buy in, it wasn’t until I was seated at the table ready for the game to begin, that I realized that the game  was Omaha Hi Lo, which I was about to be playing. I have never played this version of poker in my life, I have admittedly played Omaha a few times.

After 3 hands I won the high hand with a full house, not long after this I went all in thinking I was going to win the Hi hand with an Ace Flush, but it didn’t work out like that! Someone had a full house, but I won the low hand! It was getting a little bit confusing for me. My stack now was double what I had began with, things were looking good, I barely knew what I was doing. But it all went wrong shortly after this hand, I fell asleep and before I knew it was 8am.

Falling asleep was probably the best thing that could have happened to me, because if I had continued to play Omaha Hi Lo for much longer I may have really confused myself, especially considering the physically and mentally fatigued state I was in. I wish I could say it had been fun, but the best part had been falling asleep!

Omaha Hi Lo is definitely a version of Poker that requires a lot of thought and brainpower, it is a hugely complex game. If or when Texas Hold em starts to wane in popularity, I think Omaha is the game, which will take over as the most popular version of poker in the world.

For me there is always next Tuesday, and another chance to redeem myself in the Poker world, at the present time, I may not be winning, I may not be learning anything to make me a better poker player, but I still have the dream to succeed at poker.

My thoughts on my own poker playing experiences Poker Tuesday Session No3, The Build Up

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Tuesday has finally arrived and of course that can only mean one thing, its my weekly online poker session. I suppose my first two Tuesdays have been a disaster, but I don’t feel that they truly represent my Texas Hold em poker playing ability.

As anybody that plays online poker or poker in the real world for that matter, is fully aware that you will never be successful all the time in tournament play. At the present time Im still up about $60, since I started back playing with my free incentive of $20, which Party Poker kindly gave me. I had built the free $20 up to over $100, through grinding it out playing single table tournaments.

Im confident that I can get things back on track, I remember when I first started out playing online poker probably about 2 years ago. I had a fairly sedate start not really winning or losing much money. Then I had a amazing spell where I placed about 5 times in those 90, 60 and 30 person tournaments, along with some fairly solid performances in NL Hold em and heads up play. I was up about $900 in about 1 month. I then made a typical mistake made my many online poker players, I thought I was invincible; I thought I was going to become a legend.

I for some reason I stopped playing tournaments, (wish I could explain this decision) and concentrated on NL Hold em and Heads up play. I drastically increased the level at which I was playing at. I also started playing 3 and 4 rooms at a time, I was useless at this, but kept on persisting, telling myself it was a learning curve and I would come good. I thought I could handle it, I was on a roll. At this stage I also never had a clue about bank roll management.

Within about 2 weeks I had blown the $900, I sort of blinked and it was all gone, I had quite simple tried to progress on to bigger money play too quickly. I had become delusional; I had blown all my winnings before I stopped to think about things. It was after this point, I started buying poker magazines and I started to learn about money management and the importance of building up a bankroll, and playing within the level that your bankroll allowed you to play. I could see clearly where it all had gone wrong.

Shortly after this I become disheartened with Poker, one minute I was up $900 next I was down a few dollars, I had lost my will to play poker. A game which I use to enjoy and got buzz out of, it was now stressing me out. I stopped playing for about a year, until the free $20 from Party Poker arrived. I have started playing NL Hold em tournaments because I feel that is my strongest game and I enjoy it the most.

My aim is to obviously to start placing in the prize money and to experience the ultimate buzz of winning a tournament with fairly decent prize money. In my mind its only a matter of time until this happens. Maybe I need to start playing more than one poker tournament a week, but unfortunately I haven’t got the time at the moment. I’m busy working on my 2 million dollar bills goal and that involves various other business opportunities, which I’m actively working on.

Its curry night at the local, so I’m off for a nice curry to set me up for a successful poker tournament later tonight, I haven’t decided which one Im playing in yet, especially after the way I messed up last week. I’m hoping to get some good cards and a wee bit of luck; my poker ability will take care of the rest!

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I was ready to begin my poker session, I was going to be playing a $33 NL Hold em buy in, with a guaranteed prize fun of at least $5000. The tournament was scheduled to begin at around 10.30 pm UK time. I was looking forward to the game and trying to improve on my last poker performance.

I was busy working on a web site, which I’m in the process of building, prior to the tournament beginning. This was a big mistake; I should have been preparing myself mentally for the poker war that was ahead of me. This is where it all went wrong, before I was even dealt a hand of poker!

I was so focussed on building another web site, which is an important part of my business plans and of me achieving my goal of making 2 million dollar bills, that I forgot to register for the tournament, I thought I had clicked on the register button, but it transpired that I hadn’t. Another valuable lesson in life was learned through poker, I should concentrate on one thing at a time, and give it 100% of my concentration, focus and effort.

There wasn’t any  tournaments within the next 2 hours,  which  I felt offered a decent enough challenge or prize money. I find that when you play low money entry poker tournaments, that too many of so called poker players that are playing, are solely relying on luck, they constantly go all in with crap and they sometimes luck out on the river. Guys going all in with J10 or Q8 what’s that all about!

I’m currently playing my poker on Party Poker, which isn’t my favourite site, but I still have over $100 of winnings left in my account, and it will provide quite few entry fees’ into tournaments. I personally feel that PKR is the future of poker, but that’s another story.

I needed a poker fix, so I registered for the next tournament, which was one of those unskilled low value games. It was a $2 buy in NL hold em, it had around 400 entrants, with an unexciting amount of prize money.

The first table had the usual online poker suspects from around the world, players from the UK, Holland, Russia, Germany, and Canada. The game went the way I was expecting! Out of the first 10 hands, there had been 5 quick all in’s.

After 5 hands I won 560 in chips, when I paired my A on the flop, Not long after this I had a starting hand of AJ, on the flop I hit my A, I was getting action from Chewyscat2, I was starting to think he may have had AK or AQ, but he had went all in earlier with A2, so I thought I would take my chances with him. He hit a 10 on the river, which gave him two pair, I lost 1200 chips.

Not long after this It became apparent that I had to take a chance and try and double up, if I was to have any chance of making the money. I had a starting hand of A4,  I went all in, if I won I would be back up to about 4000, so it was worth the gamble. Chewyscat2 called me, he had a starting hand of JJ, I never hit my A. So there it goes, I was well and truly shit on by Chewyscat2 for a second time! I placed 187 for the tournament.

The only way to make the money or to win these lower value games of poker is basically to have a lot of luck. One of the guys in the room doubled his stack to over 6000 when he went all in with Q9, he paired his Q on the river, and not long after that he had his stack up to 9000 with a similar piece of luck. Either he has a poker crystal ball, which is helping him out, or he is working for Party Poker, or he is the luckiest worst poker player in the word!

Another disastrous night of poker, what could I do, it was 12.30pm, I couldn’t even try and get the wife to play a game of strip poker as she was sleeping. The way my luck was running I would have probably lost at this as well, but I suppose it wouldn’t have really mattered! There is always tomorrow, as far as the strip poker is concerned!

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Sometimes life is so unfair, but such is life I suppose! Tuesday was meant to be my online poker day, where I would spend some time trying to achieve the dream of working towards making some serious money out of the noble game of poker.

But due to circumstances beyond my control, poker Tuesday had to be cancelled. I had to spend the day doing something a hell of lot less fun, I spent over 12 hours at a self storage facility sorting out my  belongings, which are getting shipped to the Caribbean in preparation for my move there. As I was putting stuff into boxes, I swear I had visions of playing cards floating past me. I was desperate for my fix, I worked as quickly and hard as I could, but by the time I finished, I never even had enough energy to click the mouse.

But today is the dawning of a new day and the game is now back on, it’s maybe a day late, but if life always ran smoothly, half the fun of living would be taking away!

I have found a nice wee tournament on Party Poker that I feel is worthy of winning, it offers me the kind of challenge that I relish and there will be some reasonable prize money. The online poker tournament is called $5k Gtd and it’s, No Limit Hold em and it has a buy in fee of $33.00, it starts at 11pm UK time.

I hope to seriously improve on last Tuesday’s online poker performance when I performed poorly, maybe I was asking too much, having not played poker for over a month. This week, I’m going to go for it big time, which could mean I could get knocked out within 1 minute or I could win it!

I tried to gain entry to the $5K Gtd via a $4 qualifier earlier in the week. I needed to come in the top 4 to gain a place, I came 5th which was a real pain, but it was what I deserved for not trying to win it. There were 5 players left when it reached the second break, I was comfortable in 2nd place, I then preceded to wait for one of the other players to be knocked out, without me doing anything and before I knew it I was forced to push all in with a rubbish hand. I took my eye off the game, I should have watched the blind levels a lot more closely and played more aggressively instead of the loser passive play that I adopted, waiting for something to happen, instead of making the action happen. I guess that’s what happens when I don’t play regular enough No Limit Hold em poker!

I will learn from my mistakes and will continue with my plan to become a winning poker player and build up my bank balance to something that is worth talking about!

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I was finally ready to begin my, soon to become infamous Tuesday Online Poker Sessions, I hadn’t played poker for over a month, but I expect it to be like riding a bike, you never forget!  My goal is a simple one, to make some serious money. I plan on starting off by playing in tournaments, which provide a decent amount of prize money.

I found a NL Hold ‘em tournament on Party Poker which started at around 10.30pm (UK time), $33.00 dollar buy in, when the tournament started there were 256 players, a prize fund of $7680, and you had to finish in the top 30 to make some money.

I was ready, my mind was focussed, I was calm and relaxed, and the excitement was building as I watched the final minutes ticking down. I had my supplies next to me, my large bag of jelly babies and 3 cans of Nutrament Energy and protein drink. I played Ace Of Spades, by Motorhead, real loud to get me pumped.

The game was NL Hold ‘em and you received 3300 starting chips. The blinds went up every 10 minutes. I was up against some characters by the names of greko222, texaspete00, bentinck1131 and another 5 weirdly named poker legends, my name of choice was exactly1111.

My strategy was to play really tight right from the start, the first hand I was dealt was a pair of Queens, I paid to see the flop and, then folded, there was a potential flush and an ace on the table. I never played another hand for about 35 minutes, I had AK off suited, and paid 300 chips to see the flop and then folded when I hit nothing, someone raised it up to 1000. I then won 400 5 minutes later with a pair of 10’s.

I made it to the first break with 2210 chips, after an hour of play, things weren’t looking too good, I had to take a chance at some point real soon and try and double up. My first hand after the break was AQ, I shoved all in and everyone folded and I was back up to 2960 chips. 3 hands later I shoved all in again with A10 off suited and got called and lost!

I finished in 77th place, which is the way it goes sometimes, If I could have doubled up at the point when I lost, I would have most definitely have made the prize money, but the poker gods were against me, and my timing was wrong. It was my first game for over a month and I was a wee bit rusty, but I will return next Tuesday ready to do battle again.

There was only one thing left to do, and that was have a week glass of Mount Gaye rum and coke, to console myself. The glass of rum cheered me up and reminded me, that I will be living in Barbados in 3 weeks time. I can’t wait to get there and play some live poker with the card sharks at St Johns!

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I got myself ready and willing to play some winning poker, I logged on to have a wee look to see what tournaments were  available on Party Poker, I still have over a $100 in my account, so it was the logical place to begin. Disaster struck a few minutes after I logged on, my keyboard packed in, my choice was either  use my laptop or go and buy a new keyboard. I personally prefer the nice big screen on my desktop and my comfortable luxurious leather reclinable computer chair, it helps me to concentrate better.

The nearest place I could get a decent keyboard was in Harrow, which was only two bus journeys away. It shouldn’t take too long I thought. The first bus turned up bang on time and 5 minutes later I was at the next stop waiting on the 140. The first bus that appeared was out of service and the next 2 buses flew past the bus stop, because they were rammed full of people.

Eventually after 30 minutes of patiently waiting, I was sitting on the bus heading to Harrow to get my keyboard, so I could begin my Tuesday poker session and start on the Journey of making some serious money. Fortunately the bus journey only took about 15 minutes and I was in Harrow.

After a little bit of searching I found the Staples and parted with £14.99  and  I was heading back home to my online poker session. I was starting to get a wee bit hungry and finally I had some luck, I passed a Nandos, now I just love the chicken you get there. It is one of the few things that you find in abundance in London, which I didn’t have in Aberdeen.

I couldn’t resist, the rain and the travelling had made me real hungry, I thought I better have something to eat before I get back and start the poker session, because I was planning on winning whatever tournament I entered and that could take between 3-5 hours.

For me nothing beats half a legendary Nandos chicken with chips and coleslaw, and a couple of bottles of Savanna Cider. Life was good, I couldn’t resist, I just had to have some of the bottomless frozen yogurt to finish off with. It was a real challenge to not have another couple of bottles of Cider, but I used extreme will power and headed into the rain.

It was time to head back home and get on with my task of playing some serious online poker. Buy the time I got home it was 4.30pm and I was feeling a bit tired, so I decided to have a wee siesta before I began my poker session, it is fatal mistake to play poker unless you are both mentally and physically rested. I needed to go and dream about becoming a winning poker player.

My Tuesday online poker session is another story, to be continued……….

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It’s another miserable day in London, the rain is lashing down, it’s kinda depressing. I haven’t played poker for over a month. I have recently moved to London as a stopgap, before I immigrate to the Caribbean. As a result of this I haven’t had the time to play poker, when I play poker I like to be relaxed and my mind needs to be clear,  unfortunately that  hasn’t been the case since I got to London. But now is the time to get back on track with the my poker, Texas Hold em to be precise, with an occasional game of Omaha, when the mood takes me. I feel I have finally got used to the mad and hectic world, which is London, my mind has acclimatized to this crazy city.

I have decided to stick to playing Tournaments with a top prize of over £2,000, with a goal of obviously winning one in the near future. My best result so far was winning a 90-person tournament where I won around $450, but that was in the distant past. I feel I now have reached the stage where I need to aim for bigger prize money to motivate me and to make it worthwhile.

My goal is a simple one I want to make a cool million dollars from playing online poker; I know it can be done, because there are  countless young kids out there have already done it. Am I aiming too high, is my dream too much of a fantasy, is my poker playing skills at a level where I can compete with these young kids? Time will tell!

Before I begin playing poker I like to have my environment nice and tidy, this helps to unclutter my mind; I then prepare myself mentally for the battle that lies ahead. I have a nice relaxing bath, I get focussed, I remind myself to play tight and aggressive from the start, not to let myself get suckered into doing something I shouldn’t, such as trying to bluff with nothing, at the wrong time, and going all in and hoping I don’t get called, sometimes you don’t, but more often than not, you do!

I also like to have some supplies with me, to help keep me focussed, like any good poker player I stay away from alcohol; my snacks of choice are a large bag of Jelly Babies and 3 cans of Nutrament Energy & Protein Drink. It is a huge mistake to move away from the poker game, until its break time. I have done it in the past and learned from the mistake, it can mean the difference between winning some prize money and getting nothing.

I’m ready, focussed and prepared to start back on the online poker dream and I’m aiming high, a Million Dollars is in my mind.

I will be doing a follow up article later today, where I will be sharing the secrets of my poker success in the tournaments which I play in today on Tues 3rd of June.

For me poker is one of the most legitimate forms of legally making money online Is poker a Legitimate Online Business Opportunity?

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