Welcome!

Day to go till finals: 28

With Exactly 4 weeks to go before my first exam and only a modicum of revision under my belt, I thought, "when could be a better time to set up a blog than now!"

I discovered Poker about 3 months ago when trying to access FHM's "100 greatest games". They'd changed their website design and right next to the link for "100 greatest games" was the link to "FHM Poker". Things have kind of spiralled from there. I started playing on the 'play money' tables and then deciding that that was far too easy I moved on to some really low limit tables (bets were about 5-10 pence); I was reagularly beating the 'play money' games so why not venture into the world of 'real money'? I duly opened an account depositing £10 and swiftly turned it into about £30. Wow I thought to myself, I've got a natural talent for this lark!

Having now read up a fair bit on poker strategy and a lot on internet forums, my first week or so would acurately be described as "begginers' luck"! This is what the interenet poker sites revel in: A new player signs up at their site, makes a bob or two and consequently believes he has world beating potential. Any subsequent loss - even of everything - will then be put down to "a spell of bad luck", because after all, "you can't just lose your skill can you?" and shortly folowed by cracking open the wallet and re-depositing.

My good streak duly turned to a bad streak and I duly re-invested! Fortunately for me, I also invested elsewhere - a quick browse through amazon's poker book reviews and I plumped for a book which has now become my bible, "Internet Texas Holdem - Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro", by Matthew Hilger. I couldn't have made a luckier (!!) choice. This book was my God-send and i quickly discovered how utterly crap at poker I really was!

Well, three months on and four weeks before finals, I find myself in a bit of a predicament. Am I a world class poker player yet? Answer: No! Am I going to fail my degree? Answer: Probably not. Is there a future for me with poker? Well, ask me again one year from now. As far as I see this is the situation at the moment: The best I can realistically hope for from my exams at the moment is a 2:2. If I spend the summer and as much of next year as my course will allow really working at my game and reading shed loads about poker then this time next year I'll be in a position to decide weather I can make it in the world of poker.

Watch this space!!


P.S. May I recommend a website: www.internettexasholdem.com. This is the website of Matthew Hilger. After I had bought the book, I discovered that you could get it free by signing up with various internet poker clients by following a link at this site! It also has an excellent forum, with some top quality advice.