Hello there everybody. I’ve been lurking these forums for a while now so I thought it about time to say hi.
Hi!
A bit about me –
My names Mason, I’m 26 years young originally from New Zealand, I lived in Australia for a few years then made the move over to Europe. After travelling the continent for a while I done a brief stint in the UK then I moved over to my favorite city on earth – Amsterdam baby! Its where I’ve been living for the last couple of years, I’m currently working as a tour guide around the city telling people the history and unique stories that make this city tick. It’s a pretty sweet job most of the time and I don’t have to work 40 hours a week. It gives me time for poker!
My poker history –
I got introduced to poker about 6 months ago. Me and my friends were down at one of our local bars and they had a chip set so a couple of friends my mine who play a bit thought we should have a game. They sat me down and briefly explained the how the game works. I had always seen poker around as it became more popular over the years, on tv and such, so I had a tiny understanding of hand strengths and the like. I sat down and lost my 5 euros rather quickly. But afterwards I was hooked. I have always loved playing cards, all kinds of card games and I still remember my dad trying to teach me how to play 5 card draw when I was like 10. So, for the next few weeks every time my friends and I were at the pub I would be dragging out the chip set. I came second in the second 5 euro tourney for my money back! My first cash!
I soon found online poker. I actually started on just some random free texas holdem site just for play money - randomly playing before bed and before work. Then I found poker stars. I started on the free rolls and after a few weeks of playing one a night getting tiny cashes like 8 cents and shit I finally won like a dollar on the Sunday 1000 guarantee. So I started hitting the 10 cent 180 man sngs. I grinded my way up to about 20 bucks winning a couple and final tabling a few. But I soon got bored and decided to try some cash games… so dumb… I never played cash online and was out of my BR so I
quickly lost everything!
Then I found poker strategy. I was dubious as hell at first about the 50 dollar starting bonus… I was thinking yea right they will want me to enter my bank details, give them my mum’s maiden name and ask for a copy of my birth certificate. But after the very polite Indian dude gave me a call and asked a few questions I knew it might be for real. As I checked my full tilt account it was like one of those moments when you just sit there blinking in astonishment at the pretty little 50.00 USD. So I started playing again. I realize now how stupid I went about using my 50 bucks but I’ll tell you. I started in cash again… I had done a bit more study so my game was a little better. The first couple of days I done really well and was up like 35 bucks. Again I was playing out of my BR on the 5/10C tables. But I was playing tight and pretty well. But I was only one tabling which I now know is really stupid. The next few days brought me back down to earth. Losing all my winnings and getting down to like 40 bucks so I turned to the 1.10 Sngs on FT. Again, really stupid I know. I won’t bore you with everything but after winning and losing for about 2 months the losing finally was the winner and I was broke again. Bah!
My best achievement in those months was at a live game. There is a bar where a few poker players come in for a 20 euro 3 table tourney and a cash game after. After bubbling the tourney I put a whopping 5 euro on the cash table to cash out for 80 euro. The next week was the same, lost the tourney brought in for a 10 at the cash to walk out with 180 euro. Wasn’t that hard really, everyone has a few drinks and this is Amsterdam so a few smokes and I just sat there and played tight. I think I played like 15 hands and my wins at showdown were 100 percent. My best online was coming 22nd in the daily dollar rebuy for like 50 dollars. But I was so close to the final table and after playing for 8 hours I got my AK 3bet called by AJ and my shove on a King rag board called to lose to runner runner straight! If I wasn’t so tired I would have broke something.
So where I am now –
I put some money into pokerstars and am currently 8 tabling the 2/5C tables with a starting BR of 100 US. But I only seem to be breaking even at the moment. Hot streaks are followed by mind blowing down swings and after a few thousand hands I am 10 down… grrr. So I’m going back to the drawing board to do some more study and find my leaks. I know where a lot of them are, calling out of pos with marginal hands, not knowing when to lay down my mid to low pocket pairs, that kind of stuff. But I know a lot of it is psychological – if I get a few bad beats I will be the first to say that I can tilt and if I get stuck a bit I will take more risks than when I’m up. So I’m aware of it, it’s just going to take some self training to get through it.
My goals for poker are pretty simple. To be able to make some extra euros a month would be cool. And if I could move up the stakes it would be awesome.
Sorry for the massive post and congrats if you read it all. But it felt good to get it off my chest.
So, if anyone has some advice or just wants to chat hit me up.
Oh, and if anyone is coming to Amsterdam send me a message and I can give you a tour and show you where there are some fish to catch.
Peace, Love and other drugs!
and have my very first challenge against 
