After reading several blogs throughout the forums, I decided that it might be useful to start my own. It's incredible seeing all the stories from people who progressed and improved rapidly and how they have become the good/winning players that they are today. I know that a good portion of the success can be attributed to both sharing their experiences coupled with the feedback/support from this forum community. I want to thank RovarTry in particular for encouraging me to take up this endeavor.
This will be my first blog ever... so bear with me as I find the best fit both content-wise and in style.
My Story
:spade:Name: Eddie
:spade:Age: 28 years old
:spade:Nationality: American
:spade:Currently Resides in: Mexico
:spade:Languages Spoken: English (native), Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish
:spade:Status: Single, Gainfully Employed
I was born in the USA, but I was raised in the awesome country of Brazil, where I lived for a total of 18 years. My parents are of Taiwanese origin and have taught me Chinese starting from a young age, and while in Brazil I was sent to American school so I would consider English to be my best language. I was a happy kid with a bright mind and (almost) always got good/top grades and test scores.
After completing HS I moved to the US for my undergraduate (university) studies. I enrolled in a very good school studying an engineering degree, but because of my family's financial situation and the fact that my parents weren't American, I was forced to pay quite a bit for tuition and take out a lot of loans. I also ended up taking up a student job on campus that worked night shifts, and soon enough I was falling deeper into the hole of not making it to class and not being able to maintain a healthy sleep schedule. To make matters worse I started to play an MMORPG and quickly got addicted to it (no it was not WoW ;)). By the beginning of my last year in college, I completely lost interest in my studies, was not doing well in my classes, and compounded with the financial pressures and odd work schedule I decided to drop out.
After working a couple of meaningless jobs, I decided my life needed a change in direction. Fortunately my parents were very supportive and allowed me to move back with them for a while and help out with business. Last year I had the opportunity to take a course in a Chinese university for a semester and it was one of the happiest periods and best experiences in my life thus far. At the beginning of 2012 I was hooked up with a very good job opportunity and since March I have been working like a slave (sometimes up to 18 hrs/day) but steadily and thankful for it.
The Poker Part of It
Like so many others, my introduction to Hold'em was watching the mother of all poker movies, Rounders. To this date it remains one of my all-time top 5, and along with this movie came my tremendous appreciation for Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and Teddy KGB, I mean... John Malkovich ♦. As a child, I vaguely remember constantly borrowing an older friend's scientific calculator to play the video poker game that came programmed with it and I would play until I set all the record scores lol. So I guess that even before playing any real poker, I already had a very good grasp of hand rankings hehe.
Then in college I began watching all sorts of televised poker shows, starting with the 2003 WSOP Main Event won by Chris Moneymaker. What really impressed me, however, was not that or how an amateur took it down after qualifying online, but rather how Sam Farha played. To me back then, Farha was the portrait of the consummate pro, the "too cool for school" card shark that would totally dominate any game in Vegas. I was blown away by how good (I thought at the time =D) he was. Soon afterwards I would find myself playing with play money at PokerStars, but it wasn't until some colleagues from my night job started playing SnG's on FTP during the late shifts that I started contemplating playing for real money. I actually don't remember exactly when I made my first deposit, but after I left school is when I began thinking this could be a viable career option. Of course I had no clue what I was doing, and sure enough the first 2-3 small deposits ($15 and $30) slowly but steadily went down the drain.
I decided that before my next deposit I would study a bit to see if I would fare any better, so I began to buy books, watched as many shows/instructional vids as I could, and listened to podcasts such as the ones on PokerRoad Radio. Between 2008-2010 I picked up Collin Moshman's Sit 'n Go Strategy (which I unfortunately did not finish reading), Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed, Doyle Brunson's Super System, and Barry Greenstein's Ace on the River, among a few others. The next $50 deposit was going well, and with the help of a sign-up bonus I ran the account to over $100 by playing mainly $1.10 STT SnG's. But right around that time, with all the struggles I was having in real life, I decided to move back home and kind of left poker behind, as my parents were very strictly against it. During my wonderful stay in China, Black Friday struck, and I know I didn't lose a whole lot, but that was symbolically the final curtain for me (or so I thought =D).
Before returning to Brazil from my China trip, I stopped by the US for a few weeks and during this period I picked up ElkY's "The Raiser's Edge". The depth and complexity of the strategies that he gets into made me realize how far behind the curve I was (I still think that some things are way over my head hehe), and I vowed that if I ever went back to playing with any degree of seriousness I would have to go through legitimate and rigorous studying and training before depositing a single dollar. Enter PokerStrategy (oh why didn't I find out about it 3 years ago)!
