Hi, first of all, my name's not Faye, and I'm not a woman. ♦
It's kind of a long story, but I'm here to talk about poker, right? So here goes a (very) long post about my poker history.
I'm new here in PokerStrategy, but been playing poker since March, 2006. So, let me start from the beginning.
One day, I'm sitting in front of my PC, kinda bored, and all of sudden, I think "Hey, I wanna learn how to play poker". It was really all of a sudden, I can't really explain why I entered Google and started searching for poker sites, I just wanted to learn how to play. Had no idea there were such famous events like the WSOP and WPT, nor had any idea there were online poker rooms.
Of course, I found about it in less than 5 minutes on google! 
Started playing 5 draw first, played a little bit of 7 stud, then I learned texas hold'em (the rules, not how to be a good player, that I'm still learning :)).
Up to Mid-April (2006) I played freerolls, but I could never win a tournament, the best I got was 15th out of a 1000 players, and won less than $1. But dude, I was like, WOW... 15th out of 1000 players, I'm getting good!! LOL!! ♦
But then I found a site offering $50 more another $25 bonus, on PartyPoker, and so it began. It just offered the money, no articles, no strategies, no nothing, I had to learn everything on my own, and I'm very lucky I didn't go broke. 
First I started playing FR FL microlimits cashgames only... after all those freerolls, I was tired of tournaments. As I said, a little luck helped me to not go broke, and after I had cleared my bonus, I cashed out PartyPoker and decided to try another room. At the time, Party only offered microlimits for begginers (for 45 days only). I knew nothing about bankroll management, but I wasn't stupid enough to play in $0.5/$1 stakes with a $75 bankroll.
I looked for other rooms and decided to try Pacific, even though I didn't know much at the time, the very first few days there I could realize players where very bad, I liked it and decided to stay there for a while, at least until I cleared my deposit bonus.
And since I was playing at small stakes, and I didn't play a lot of time, it took a long time. In the meantime, I learned a bit about bankroll management, and went up in levels as my bankroll was growing.
Well, in January (2007), I finally cleared my deposit bonus and I had a $240 bankroll, was sick of Fixed Limit and wanted to try No Limit. Well, but not in pacific, I went back to Party Poker, sat at NL4 table, and in less than 20 minutes, I was down $15! ♦
That was all ok, at the time I was still playing just for fun, I saw an ad about this new 3d room (yes, PKR), I deposited some money there and started playing NL4 with half buy-in ($2). After losing $15 in 20 minutes, I decided it was better to buy-in for less and risk less, I knew I had an agression problem, and I had to control that. ♦
After making some adaptations (on my own, cause I at the time I hadn't read anything about No Limit strategy), I decided to play with a full buy-in.
It was around February when I really got addicted to the game, Feb. and March... I played on average 5-6 hours a day. I was on vacation from college!
Went from NL4 to NL10 still in PKR... but now I was starting to play more for the money and not only for fun, and PKR software was very slow, around 40-45 hands per hour. So I decided to try another room.
Then I met bodog, started at NL10, after I got the hang of it, decided to try 2 tables.
Yes, I was all this time, only playing one table at a time. But that made learn something, I developed the patience of a saint, sit in one table while paying attention to the game for 2 hours and a half without playing a SINGLE hand and you get what I mean. ♦ (That doesn't mean I don't tilt.)
Things were good at NL10, my bankroll had increased, ok, let's try NL25. Started with one table until I was feeling comfortable, then increased to 2 tables, then 3 tables. (and that's bodog's max number of simultaneous tables, at least for now they say.)
Everything was all nice until October, my bankroll had reached $1250 and I thought, OK, let's try NL50.
(Yes, I only move up after my bankroll has reached 25 buy-ins instead of 20, feel more comfortable.)
I was kinda tired of only playing 3 tables, so I thought, let me try another room, and there I was, back at Party Poker! 
Started playing NL50 there, one table only to get used to it, and then came the first barrier, players at party are better than players at bodog, and I started facing some difficulties. But that's OK, I was not losing, but about breaking even after 2 weeks, and then that day came.
October 16th. Tuesday.
I had a flu, my face was all red and itching, what I thought was some kind of allergy, I was not feeling well, didn't go to college in the morning and stayed home all day... and broke one very important rule in poker: "NEVER EVER play poker when you are sick!".
Well, you take the flu, the itching face (that was actually not an allergy), a few bad beatsm mix them up and five hours later I had lost $230, taking my bankroll to less than $1000, and my selfconfidence even lower. 
At least I was smart enough not to play the rest of the month until I got better from the flu, and the itching face (that turned out to be an illness related to stress). I finally did myself a favor and read a book about No Limit. That was "No Limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice." by David Sklansky.
And I got something more from this episode, I haven't tilted once in November even suffering quite a few bad beats (some of them consecutive).
That becomes easy to do when you remember you've messed up and lost an entire buy-in at NL50 on a bluff when the other player was holding the nuts and you were drawing dead, all because you were on tilt. ♦
Becomes even easier when you go to the doctor, she looks at your face and says: "You have to relax. That's stress."
But try not to learn the hard way, just don't tilt guys. (Easier said than done, I know!)
Well, went down to NL25 in november, in bodog, where I know I could beat the game, to regain selfconfidence.
Also found out about PokerStrategy in November, I was looking for people I could talk about poker and look forward to improve my game. Since my friends don't take poker seriously and are very bad players, it's no use trying to discuss strategy with them. So I had to look somewhere else, and found you guys!
My bankroll have gone up to almost $1300, so I expect to move up to NL50 again in december, that is this weekend, and see what happens. Wish me luck guys!!
Oh, and I as said, at the beginning it was poker just for fun, and now it is also because of the money. I don't expect to make a living out of it, but some extra cash is nice. I hope I'll be able to be making some money by March-April (2008), not much, just enough to pay for my dancing classes (and keep increasing my bankroll). I know my dad won't be paying for those forever, but I'm just loving it and don't want to quit, nor start working right now. So I hope one hobby (poker) helps with the other hobby (dancing).
I said it was going to be a very long post. ♦ Hope nobody's sleeping.
J 
($2.35, 2 players)
($5.55, 2 players)
