How Did you start playing poker?

SpencerJames

Last night it hit me that I offer very little to this forum. Other than slatting a few idiots or causing a bit of controversy I have very little productive value.

Thats why I decided to start this thread and give you all something to do while you are 4 tabling!

No seriously I thought it would be interesting to hear how and why people on here got into poker.

I know I started in my 1st year in college playing the €5er rebuy in UCD. I believe TommyGunne was in that game. I know thats where Conbro started too. Then I made my way into the fitz €50 dc and never looked back really. Since then 2 years of full on degenercy and debauchery have occured.

I have made alot of great friends from poker and had a lot of great times.

So how did the rest of you get into poker and more importantly do any of you regret it?

a-k-47

started off with mates in the house at the wkds, few pubs tourns, joined boards learned how to play the game from wonderworld of the interweb. Never play in pubs anymore, rarely casinos. No regrets really.

stevire

Started 5-Draw when I was about 13, always had a massive penny jar!!
Only started playing Holdem around 18 mainly online... then started to go to regular games in the local casino.. Downhill from there!! No regrets...

RichieLawlor

Watched Late Night Poker, thought it looked easy, but also wanted a cool nickname like 'DevilFish' or 'Aces'

FeetMagic

Started off with friends playing 5euro games not knowing most of the rules but having a laugh. Then started playing occasionally in the cheapest game in town and then just started going to the casino starting off with the small tourneys and within months was playing nearly every cash game/tourney available.
Got way too into it over the course of a year, playing nearly everyday for many hours. Had a pretty negative impact on my life so put an end to poker a few weeks back with the exception of small dabbles online and very rare casino appearances. I gradually grew out of it and cant imagine how I ever played so much, as these days I can barely concentrate on a SnG!
I dont think Id say I regret finding poker as Im up a decent amount from it still but I know its something Im glad I got away from.

Ace2007

SpencerJames wrote: »

I know I started in my 1st year in college playing the €5er rebuy in UCD. I believe TommyGunne was in that game. I know thats where Conbro started too. Then I made my way into the fitz €50 dc and never looked back really. Since then 2 years of full on degenercy and debauchery have occured.

Ha yea i started in UCD as well - back then smoothcall and conbro were cleaning up against that guy who owned the shop, think he lost a fortune, won a ticket in dcu, for a €100 tournament for the Merrion - and thats where it all started:(

HiCloy

Started playing 5 card draw when young alright....first for monopoly money! Then pennies, then learnt holdem when around 16

First played at all seriously when in 1st year in UCD in the 5rebuy, remember Smoothcall was the shark in those days alright. Then first trip to Fitz for UCD tournament, then online....

Flushdraw

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Watched Late Night Poker, thought it looked easy, but also wanted a cool nickname like 'DevilFish' or 'Aces'

Richie "Fish with Chips" Lawlor rivals any of them mate

Slash/ED

I also played in that fiver UCD game, so did a good few others on this forum.

I played a bit of draw and stuff with my dad, but then one day in a mates house someone suggested playing holdem as he'd been to a few home games with his mates, and we ended up playing every week for ages, usual fiver rebuy structure. I'd no clue what I was doing but went on a huge heater winning nearly every week and have remained running way above EV ever since...Basically started playing bigger games in town and stuff, then started playing online seriously after a while.

Glowingmind

I heard it was a good way to meet women.

Still waiting on that big score.

Glowingmind

Glowingmind wrote: »

I heard it was a good way to meet women.

Still waiting on that big score.

bantee

Similar story to others here. I started playin with mates in house games with 5-card draw about 9 years ago and moved to holdem I'd say 6/7 years ago. We didn't have a clue what we were doing at first and used loads of change to play mini cash games and moved onto SNGs then.
Then I started playing the odd pub tourney and a trips to the casino became more frequent, with the addition of playing online and also the odd bigger buyin events around the country. Good times

SpencerJames

SpencerJames wrote: »

Last night it hit me that I offer very little to this forum. Other than slatting a few idiots or causing a bit of controversy I have very little productive value.

I believe, in your own words, your contribution to this forum is to "Lay down the law":rolleyes:

Seriously though;

I started playing 7-stud with my family at Christmas time and, same as just about everyone my age, picked it up in college and then moved to casinos.

I still suck though.

BuChan

lol, fish with chips! that's ****ing good. started in the monday night freeroll in the merrion. moved up to the big 20 freezeout on thursdays and then the nosebleed 1/1 cash game where most of the table played about 25bb deep. good times.

RichieLawlor

Flushdraw wrote: »

Richie "Fish with Chips" Lawlor rivals any of them mate

BuChan wrote: »

lol, fish with chips! that's ****ing good. started in the monday night freeroll in the merrion. moved up to the big 20 freezeout on thursdays and then the nosebleed 1/1 cash game where most of the table played about 25bb deep. good times.

No its not, also not my nickname, Its raptor, look it up

Icarus152

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Watched Late Night Poker, thought it looked easy, but also wanted a cool nickname like 'DevilFish' or 'Aces'

Richie "lol" Lawlor?

RichieLawlor

who are you people gtfo

KarlNedCarew

Funnily enough my substitute maths teacher taught me and my mates in fourth year, being fourth year there was always a pack of cards or 2 floating around the group and playing cards was a good way to keep busy and "quiet" without y'know doing schoolwork.

Nowadays we have a game atleast every 3 weeks, if not more often

digiman

Was working as in intern while in 3rd year college and when I was leaving they bought me a 500 poker piece set which was very rare at the time, was a bit before the poker chips boom started I would say. Brought it home and all the lads thought it was the best thing ever, €2 sngs started with none of us even knowing the rules properly, 23AKQ was even a straight!!!

Then in 4th year I went to the DCU poker soc and won it on my 2nd time there, put some money online and played $5 sngs and if I won that I played a $20 one. If I won that I cashed out and went on the beer for the night, rinsed and repeated.

I then started playing cash games on the tribeca network and bought in short for like $20 into a 100nl game and spun it up to $300 or so. Back then you couldn't cash out of PPP straight away, you had to wait for a few days after you won. I rand up PPP and told them to block my account so I wouldn't play on it. I think that day was the first day I posted my first hand history on baords also. My thought process is pretty good IMO!!

Dave147

Started playing back in 03 think the game was really beginning to take off then, started 5 euro home games and cleaned up, then began going to the Macau for about 4 years where I did well but never made big money, playing online two or three times a week now and doing well, did give up for a year but did miss the game alot.

Also won the pokersoc tourney in UCC with 120 runners, was huge then!

Icarus152

RichieLawlor wrote: »

who are you people gtfo

Jeez,some people are so ungrateful.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

baz2007

like alot on here started playing 5 card draw as a nipper.Then 5 card draw and acey/deucey. in pub on saturdays after sweating football results.starting playin hold em with mike and brian gjp in drogheda late 05.Hit a couple of 20k plus scores that just keep u ticking over i thinkbut still really enjoy playing.met alot of sound and interesting characters over the last few years.have 2 cut down playing as much now as not sure what way things will pan out with work,and need 2 have a bit of a tank there for rainy days.Regrets not really interested in them they are fcuk all good,always hope 2 play poker in the future in some form tks.

max_power

baz2007 wrote: »

like alot on here started playing 5 card draw as a nipper.Then 5 card draw and acey/deucey. in pub on saturdays after sweating football results.starting playin hold em with mike and brian gjp in drogheda late 05.Hit a couple of 20k plus scores that just keep u ticking over i thinkbut still really enjoy playing.met alot of sound and interesting characters over the last few years.have 2 cut down playing as much now as not sure what way things will pan out with work,and need 2 have a bit of a tank there for rainy days.Regrets not really interested in them they are fcuk all good,always hope 2 play poker in the future in some form tks.

lol yeah? Just ticking over? But how much did you lose?

baz2007

well thats basically what 20k touchs do is just keep u in the game i am not goin into detail here everything i have won and lost. i started keeping records after my first year because i think u have 2 keep a record 2 many players are saying they are wining when really they are big loosers over a 12 month period.

robinblinds

5 card draw. First game I was 6, and played with my father, uncles and grandfather at Christmas, Easter etc.

I remember my father telling me to save all my change in a jar specifically for these games.

coillcam

Back in NUIG, jaysus. It's 4 years ago now. The only thing I brought with me from college considering I dropped out. I remember seeing late night poker and thinking that'd I have to get in on this. So I bought some pocket sized tips book by Anthony Holden.

Played the €5 re-buys in college and the freeroll in the 4 aces and never won a cent . The ole limp re-raise with AKo,KK+ and limp or fold every other hand only got me so far. I remember getting into a cash game once Mike 4 aces slow playing cowboys and crushing me. I wanted to own him for so long since then and never had a chance. Started reading forums for a few months and scooped €7k over the next summer in The Crane Club (God that game was unbelievable). Thought I was the dogs bollox. Went up to the fitz for a few sessions and got thoroughly owned and realised how obnoxiously bad I was.

aodea

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

ditpoker and aodea got me in to it, so I blame them. I was coming towards the end of my final year in college (so four years ago) when they invited me over to a €5 homegame sit and go. I enjoyed it immensely, and we proceeded to play a lot of mini tournaments like that over that summer (they had been playing a good while before getting me in on it). In August 2005 I played a Vegas Nights pub tournament in Kiely's in Mount Merrion (a €20 rebuy) and I luckboxed third in it. My first casino game was Oscar's old €33 Sunday shorthanded game about five or so weeks later, and that was me for the following three years and a bit.

I shudder to think about how bad I was for the first year I played.

Ah memories. beer money every friday night off jeff and yourself was awsome many a night in the palace on the boys. i remember the games being so serious strong words were always had. like everyone else started these played college, vegas nights, 33 game in fitz. Tought it was the biggest game in town. :pac:

tylerdurden94

A friend of mine thought me how to play a few years back, he had started to run the Poker Society in DIT Aungier Street, knew a few faces from that when i started to play in the likes of the SE, jbravado, Lloyd, Troy.

Played a few pub tournies then alot of the Vegas nights games in the Cuckoos Nest and The Subamarine, that was were i first heard about Eddie The Eagle

First night i went into the SE was a Wednesday after busting out of the pub game, went into town looking for a game stolled down to the Jackpot and then on down to the 78 Club but no game so thats how i ended up in the SE. didnt have a ****ing clue totally different than those pub games, the first two people i remember playing from that game was HalfBaked and IanMc.

There has been some absolute horrible sick times when your on the wrong side of the swing, but the better part of it has been good good times for me, im glad i dont play as much anymore (10 nights staright etc etc) and im comfortable with how much time i put into now, the people i have met and got to know through poker is excellent, some genuinely great people out there so im happy to take that side from it.

I remember the first time playing with you Rory, was a cash game, we had been chatting for a good bit and you had been telling me about winning an WPT ticket, i ended up calling you down later on with AQ and spicked the Q ball or something and you looked absolutely sick

No regrets...

KarlNedCarew

KarlNedCarew wrote: »

Funnily enough my substitute maths teacher taught me and my mates in fourth year, being fourth year there was always a pack of cards or 2 floating around the group and playing cards was a good way to keep busy and "quiet" without y'know doing schoolwork.

Nowadays we have a game atleast every 3 weeks, if not more often

Kevin Spacey?

Started with fiver 6 man games with mates when I was like 15/16. That grew to cash games which led to someone always owing someone a few quid. Then a €25 rebuy game down in Dun Laoghaire most Fridays which I did quite well in over the years.. Then online & then casinos.

BigCityBanker

I gave SpencerJames his start in poker

dougee19

My 1st ever tournament was in UCC playing pokersoc when I was 17 years old, and taking it down!
followed by missing the next weeks event preventing me from back to back titles..
I then went into the macau(once I turned 18) and ran like God for 2 years and because ****ing invincible until I blew my roll in Italy and Hungary

dannydiamond

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Watched Late Night Poker, thought it looked easy, but also wanted a cool nickname like 'DevilFish' or 'Aces'

So then you join boards and give yourself the nic 'RichieLawlor'

mdwexford

Flushdraw wrote: »

Richie "Fish with Chips" Lawlor rivals any of them mate

BuChan wrote: »

lol, fish with chips! that's ****ing good. started in the monday night freeroll in the merrion. moved up to the big 20 freezeout on thursdays and then the nosebleed 1/1 cash game where most of the table played about 25bb deep. good times.

Icarus152 wrote: »

Richie "lol" Lawlor?

dannydiamond wrote: »

So then you join boards and give yourself the nic 'RichieLawlor'

Im loving the Rick Lawlor abuse on this thread, wp.

RichieLawlor

dannydiamond wrote: »

So then you join boards and give yourself the nic 'RichieLawlor'

I told ya, I always wanted a cool nickname but never got on hence the RichieLawlor

fatguy

I played 7-Card Stud with my folks for years and years, started watching Hold'em on Channel 4 in early 2002. I remember coming into college and asking my mates if they saw the poker last night. Nobody believed me that poker was a good spectator sport, expect those who'd also seen it!

One of the lads bought a poker set afterwards, and we had a weekly game as an excuse to get the lads together. I then started playing for fun in my local pub when I was in Sydney, which graduated to trips to the casino. When I came back to Ireland I started playing online, and about a year later started posting here.

eoghan104

I started off by watching my mum and the family play from about the age of 8. Picked up the rules there and eventually they let me sit in. Got into Holdem by watching LNP and loved it.

My uncle got me into playing online just for play money and i remember the first day i played you only got like 2,000 play money chips a day so i opened about 8 poker room accounts on all my friends email addresses just to saty in the game!!!

Then a mate told me about the "casino" called the fitz. He was telling me about the tournaments and me and another friend said we would try out the €20 rebuy. Having only seen casinos on the TV me and my mate thought we better dress up to make sure we got in. Ill always remember walking in in my best shirt and slacks to see tracksuit tommy in his united jersey having a go at Frank Hunt wearing god knows what!!

I ended up chopping that night 4 ways for like 800 quid and that was me hooked. 5starpool was involved in the chop too I think and Frank that owns Ban Thai. I quickly progressed to the 50dc and cash games thinking i was invincible!!!!

loads of regrets though yeh.......

jbravado

My Dad taught me how to play draw when I was a kid and was allowed to play with my folks-they had a regular card game which was always fun. I remember my Dad told me never to play with strangers as he had lost a heated pot one time with 4 jacks to a 4 kinds in the bogend of Meath.

A bit of a lull then infrequent poster here Idoubtit tried to teach me Holdem. He is literally a Maths genius,scholarship case all that nonsense. We played heads up a good bit and he tried to teach me the ins and outs. This lead to house games which Idoubtit would always win. Eventually figured there must be something more than luck involved.

Started playing in the UCD cash game Conbro Chubbs Butch John etc then it was all over.I would play all College games DIT Trinity then eventually me and another punter used to deal in the Fitz discovered a place you could play online in UCD.We played a joint account and did quite well but in those days everyone did well! There have certainly been times over last few years when I regret taking up the game,mainly because of the enviroment it exposes you too but overall I am glad I found the game.

smurph

When I was young I used to play card games every christmas with my relations, they played all kinds of games,

Southern Cross, Hi Low, one eyed jacks are wild, paduki, ,7 Card stud, etc., etc., It was for small money, and was great fun,

Many moons ago in a far away land, My uncle ran a 5 Card Draw tournament every Saturday night in my Local School hall "Our Lady of Victories", When I turned 18 he let me play in it. I was soooo young and niave and stupid. Myself and my friend Rhonda used to go to the Slipper pub on Ballymun road, have at least 6 - 7 drinks and then head to the game. I won it a few times, and won more than I made in a week at work (I was on £55 a week so it wasn't too hard)

They used to play this funny game called Texas Holdem when they got knocked out of the Main 5 card draw game. That's when I started playing it. There was no chips at the time, you played with what looked like monolopy money. It was a £3 multi re-buys for the first 20 minutes. I thought the game was brillant.

I won a ticket to play in the £150 5 Card draw Christmas game in Malahide (the biggest game by far at the time) I got knocked out early, but there was a free entry into the Texas holdem game... I Came 2nd in that for £275)
We headed to leeson street) where I hid the money in my cowboy boots lol, well it was more than a months wages...

Then I heard about a Casino in Dublin called the Merrion, where I headed into. They had dealers and chips WOW..... and I never looked back..

Then I heard about the Fitzwilliam Casino opening up, and I started going there. I sat down at the omaha £100 game one night with a single black £100 chip, and won 7.5 K, I ran like god, the next week I played the biggest pot I have ever played, last hand of the night, against Tony Cooney, ther was 8K in the middle, I had middle set and a king high flush draw, he had an up and down straight draw and the Nut flush draw, which he got on the river, there ended my stint at the £100 game. I started to spend too many nights in the Fitzwilliam playing, and cut back big time. These days I play mainly festivals now and weekends, mainly because the structure of the tournaments have improved so much that a bog standard €55 double chance game can go on until 4.00a.m.

The game can consume you at times, and I have to say I have great respect for anyone who plays cards full time, it must take alot of discipline. Trying to explain why you love the game to non poker players is a complete waste of time, so don't bother trying, they will never get it.

You definitely need to have friends and interests outside of Poker, to keep you grounded so to speak.

Anyway enough of my "back in the day" nonsense.

HibsAreIt

Started playing about 3-4 years ago id say in the place were the bad lads would go,we`d mainly play for tobacco and the odd $5 thrown in.
Mainly play online now and the odd game with mates,ventured into a few casinos but never realy got into it tbh.
Gonna sit back the next few months and do alot more reading up on the game and a wee bit of micro limits

5starpool

I started playing nearly 6 years ago at a home game organised by a few lads at work. 3 of us went for the first time that night, but the other 2 never played again. Bit of a difference. A few months later we went to the €20 rebuy game in the fitz, an went again a few weeks later for the second time. Then I started to go on my own and stopped playing the home games after a while more.

Killme00

Walked in to the Merrion one Sunday evening and got seated in a cash game next to Vera, Sammy, Victor etc etc. Played for hours that night and had a great time, havent looked back since.

William Money

Then a mate told me about the "casino" called the fitz. He was telling me about the tournaments and me and another friend said we would try out the €20 rebuy. Having only seen casinos on the TV me and my mate thought we better dress up to make sure we got in. Ill always remember walking in in my best shirt and slacks to see tracksuit tommy in his united jersey having a go at Frank Hunt wearing god knows what!!



probably just the usual thermal vest, shirt, heavy jumper and padded jacket!!

during the summer he occasionally takes the jacket off!

copperfacegaz

well i started playing poker about 4 years ago .. all started after i was in a car crash and busted up my neck and back which left me lying on the couch for 2 months .. flickin thru channels as u do i found wsop on bravo channel .. i started watchin it everyday and became addicted ( didnt see the rush back to work after this) , when i got better i started sampling in the local pubs.
After this i found the red cow on mondays nites with pokerevents ,, had some great games there and great craic .
When pokerevents finished up i wandered into many a casino to find the SE my preferred choice,, and thats me !!

applehunter

Played in local pub game in Cork then moved to Dublin 4 years ago where I headed along with housemate to the Thursday €20 game at the Jackot. Won the 1st time I went, probably the worst thing that can happen:o

Played pretty regularly live since then.

Hank Scorpio

2 years ago playing 1$ sngs on Paddypower, remember the feeling when i won my first one was great :pac:

Hitman Actual

KarlNedCarew wrote: »

Funnily enough my substitute maths teacher taught me and my mates in fourth year, being fourth year there was always a pack of cards or 2 floating around the group and playing cards was a good way to keep busy and "quiet" without y'know doing schoolwork.

I think you're confusing your life with an episode of The Wire.

KarlNedCarew

Hitman Actual wrote: »

I think you're confusing your life with an episode of The Wire.

I've never watched The Wire

eagle eye

I have been playing poker since I was very young. I got into Texas holdem though a cash game of five card draw I used to play twice monthly on a Tuesday night in a pub.

Some guys started a game and we all came in earlier to play it. I won the second night and another 15 times with three seconds and three non cashes in 22 games in that pub. I then went to a poker events tournament and won and finished second in two of my first three outings. After that I decided to try Galway on a Wednesday night with much less success I might add, although I won my seat in the 1k IPC a couple of years ago. I was winning constantly at SNGs at this time. At the IPC I went out of the main event after 9 hours and made 4.5k by the next morning playing 100 euro sngs.

I regret only one thing and thats going on to understand the game through maths and books. I honestly believe I was a better player before I did that, I naturally understood the situations without having to think about it at all, but now through learning I've got rid of most of the natural ability I had. If there was just a real eternal sunshine of the spotless mind machine, I would be first in line to get rid of the poker knowledge that I have picked up through books.

robinblinds

You can't lose natural ability, surely you can only add to it?