I'm now a shark, a Full Tilt Freeroll Shark

Another musing I'm writing for those who care to read. One of my favorite hobbies now a days bein a college kid and all has got to be poker. Best game is the one you see on TV, No Limit Texas Hold-Em. Sure I know how to play most of the games, Omaha, Razz, 7-Card Stud, Triple Draw, so on and so forth and I've won Sit-and-Go's in all of them(A sit and go is a ten man tournament). But my mindset and best knowledge of poker is No Limit Holdem. I won't even play limit holdem because I know very little of the strategy and it's 2 entirely different games. When I first learned to play I kept wondering, why oh why do I keep getting eliminated so early. I must suck, An ace is a good card right. I watched the WSOP on TV and saw how the big players do it. They play tightly and don't go after medicore hands. After watching and trying out new styles, I got a lot better. Not real money ready but close. I played a lot on Ultimatebet. My best finish to date is a respectable 120th out of 2500 players. Won 5 bonus points. Techincally my best finish is 27th out of 2500 but the tournament ended once 50 players remained and I just kept folding hands because I had more than enough to keep me alive. Then I found UB has a lot of bad beats. A bad beat is where you have like a 75%-higher chance of winning with one card to come, yet that one card comes and you lose big. I got frustrated at my game and went to Full Tilt Poker.
After 1 month I got a 6th place finish in a tournament. 6th out of like 590 players is good. The best finish in a big field event was like 7th out of 50 in a 5K race back in the day. The next week I had a 9th place finish and came to the conclusion it's not me, it's the beats. I'm playing great poker to make 2 final tables. Came really close to making another one earlier today with a good hand but lost to a better one. I can't be angry at that. Finished 31st. I'm certain it's the beats that keep me from doin well at UB. I'm quickly becoming a threat at poker. Am I real money good? We'll wait and see. But is my game a lot better than when I first started. Oh yeah!!. Here are my career highlights. Peace

3 Top 50 Finishes in UB TEC Freeroll (27th, 34th, 41st)

2 Top 150 Finishes in UB Points Freeroll(120th, 140th)

1 Top 150 Finish in a UB Bonus $$ Freeroll (100th out of 2000)

UB Sit and Go Victories in
No Limit Holdem
Pot Limit Omaha
Triple Draw A-5
Triple Draw 2-7
7 Card Stud

3 Top 50 Finishes in Full Tilt Freeroll (6th, 9th 31st)
2 Final Tables in a Full Tilt Freeroll

Victories in Full Tilt Sit and Go's
No Limit Holdem
Razz


Not a bad resume for a player with less than a year experiance.

Thanksgiving Break, a much needed head Clearer

Well I'm back from Thanksgiving break. Cambridge is a lot better than ol' Penn Place let me tell you. The four days away gave me some time to really clear my head up. The actual Thanksgiving day, I spent up at my Grandmother's house and I ate a lot. I look back and say what am I thankful for?? I'm thankful that there are people who actually care about me, who actually are on the same level as me. My family did ask a lot of questions about how are classes, how is Ohio State. For the first time I was really excited to answer questions by my family. I'm thankful for people at work. I struggled so hard at Wal-Mart giving 15 long months of service there to get to the ultimate goal, a return trip to Ohio State. Working at Wal-Mart again even for just 2 days(Friday and Saturday) gave me a chance to reflect on how lucky I really have it. Working was rough business. I can't imagine how I managed to go through all the stress for 15 months. I suppose that means now that I have my ultimate goal reached, I can't stop there. Once you climb one mountain, you gotta find another even taller one to climb. I can't allow a few jerks in my dorm hall to let a long struggle go to waste. I've overcome what I feel is the biggest struggle against the longest odds in getting back here and I'm not about to allow a few people to deter that. I'm leaving this dorm soon and going to the "Real Ohio State" very shortly. If I can survive 15 months of wondering where I will be at, I certainly can survive 2 weeks in a place flooded with jerks. As an old friend told me a short while ago "I'm from Cambridge, Embrace it" I wouldn't go as far as saying it's the greatest place around, but it did give me a chance to clear my head for a few days and reflect on what I've overcome to accomplish a dream of mine. That is more powerful than some pissant jerk who thinks they're self-proclaimed king or queen of Ohio State. I'm gonna ride this dream to the fullest.

PS. Also in Cambridge, I finished 9th in a Full Tilt Poker tournament out of about 650 players. Not too shabby for an online amateur. Suprisingly I didn't feel like the "Agony of Defeat guy" If you wanna know what I mean look up the final table of the 2004 WSOP. Wish me luck in a certain future victory

Eric