Hi everybody.
I used to play a lot of poker.
I could sit for hours day in and day out grinding the small stakes cash games at expekt.com.
I also played every freeroll I could ever find on various sites. Once I even won 20 dollars!
One day there was a free poker tournament in Oslo, and a Norwegian poker forum asked for dealers.
They would be paid $100 buck.
I volunteered even though I had never dealt cards in my entire life.
They discovered that pretty quickly because of my lack of speed on the table, and I was replaced after about fourty minutes.
however they still paid me $100.
Into an account at Ultimatebet Poker or whatever the nams is.
They were a party poker skin.
Suddenly I had real money to play with.
I quickly found my way to the 10+1 tables and actually did ok.
After a few weeks I was up to over 300!
Unbelieavable!
Unfortunately I decided to throw those avay at expensive big tournaments that I never made it into the money in, and when I had about a hundred left I went to a cash game and lost it in an all in hand.
I've never visited that poker room since.
The next time I decided to play poker I found a freeroll at expect.
I finished in the money and won $1.20!
I sat down at a mico nl cash game with my winnings and was dealth AJ and went all in. I quickly got called with AK. Fortunately a J came and I doubled up.
Over the next months I turned that two and a half dollars into more than 200.
However, I got bored and decided to cash out.
My estimate is that I had made about ten cents per hour.
Later, I heard from somewhere that they were planning to have a live Norwegian Poker Championship in Sweden. $1000 buyin. They couldn't have it in Norway because it's illegal to play poker for real money on Norwegian soil.
Anyway, there was a freeroll on expekt. That lead to another freeroll that led to an expensive satelite. To make the story short I won all three and had to drive all the way to Sweden to play live for the first, and still last, time of my life.
We started with 10 000 chips.
I read somewhere that it was a good idea to take chances in the beginning of a tournament since everyone is cautious and don't want to get a bad start.
So I played loose and won a few small pots.
Soon I found myself heads up with BB from late position.
The flop was K77. I decided to slowplay my monster.
Turn: Some random card.
BB bets big! 2000 or something like that!
I remember what I had learned about taking chances, took a chance, and went all in!
After a closer examination of the cards on the table, I discover that there is a King of hearts. A seven of hearts. And some random heart.
How I managed to stay calm and sit quietly and wait for ten minutes until BB decides to fold his A9 of hearts is my biggest poker achievement to date.
Everything went smoothly for a few hours, and when I got lucky on the river when I had gone all in with A8 against AJ (after an AAX flop) to hit my full house, I had something like 60 000 chips and I am absolutely without a doubt certain that I must have been chip leader. I think. Maybe not. I was doing well.
However, people at my table "pegged" me as the fish, and never respected my pre flop raises (of which there were many).
So I found myself 30 minuted before day one with only 12 000 chips left.
I decided that I didn't want to sleep in the car only to start with the same amount as everyone started the day with, so I started going all in.
Amazingly, nobody called me. I guess it must have something to do with the fact that they didn't want to loose chips so close to the end of the day.
I ended the day with 22 000 and all my friends were really impressed.
The next day I was seated at a new table.
There were a lot of nervous, tight, shortstacked people and the blinds were getting really high.
So I decided to gamble and try and steal the blinds whenever I saw an opportunity.
If I should have any chance of reaching the money (top30) I would have to win a lot of blinds and hope to double up at least two times.
Everyone folded all the time, so I was up to 28000.
Then I got AK!
I raised 5000 and a guy pushed all in and I called.
He also had AK.
Great. Split pot.
Wait.
Flop.
Three diamonds.
I don't have any diamonds.
The other guy? Phew, only one.
Turn.
Blank.
River.
A deuce.
Of diamond!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I finished as number 103.
A few places behind Christian Ødegaard, the show host of the Norwegian "Dancing With The Stars" version.
And that pretty much sums up my ancient poker history.