Tales of a poker player who broke even.

[miziel]

"In the beginning there was nothing."

 motto 1:
The tale tells itself, he was broke, even.
    ~ allegedly Snugglepuss ~

 motto 2:
TL;DR
    ~ average internet user ~

The story must be short and captivating.
Writing one is hard but it's even harder in the "tl;dr" times.
It's been a long time since I've read any stories, let alone written them.
Where do I begin?

Born in the late 70s of last century, I was first introduced to poker by my Grandfather when I was about 10 yo.
We played jacks-or-better-5-card-draw with matches as chips. Yes, those short sticks used to start fire. Was I any good?
Let's just say I've never felt a warmth of self-lit fire back then.
Today with my poker winnings I can easily afford a box of matches. Or two, even...

But poker didn't become my hobby until much later.
The year was 2005, I was spending my time in Japan for the 2nd time, studying and having the time of my life.
Then I first heard about Moneymaker's win from 2003 and started the everlasting chase of the dream win.

I vaguely remember Paradise Poker as the first poker-room I joined. Or maybe it was Titan Poker? There were so many...
Betway, BWin, 888, Fultilt and Pokerstars of course, Doyle's Room, Bodog, Party Poker, Carbon Poker, PKR, Everest Poker...
If they had freerolls I had an account there.
I bought books, read them, even. Sklansky's Theory of Poker, Doyle's Super System, Harington on Holdem and some other now very historical stuff.

And I played.
A lot.

to be continued...

[miziel]

"And they said 'Let the tourney be free' and it was free. And we saw that free was good"

 motto 1:
Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chips for free
    ~ Dire Straights ~

 motto 2:
Do you 'member? Ooooooh, I 'member!
    ~ Memberberries ~
 

Oh, those were the times!
Times of every month reload bonuses, times of freerolls with additional material prizes, times of neverending stream of free value coming your way.
Oh, the nostalgia...

What is left from those times are fond memories and precious memorabilia: two cases of poker chips (still no chips missing), PS hoodie and tracksuit top (quite worn down now), 888 dealer button (fancy stuff) and plastic playing cards (still in mint condition).

The initial plan was simple:
a) win them all
Period.

I did it several times. Build my bankroll from scratch, 0, null.
Several times because of many poker rooms.
Aaaand yes, of course, because more then few times I got back to zip, zilch, zero.
And that's how I became familiar with a term "bankroll management".

My most vivid memory is that of Shasta tables on Everest.
The ease of winning rushed to my head, I was captivated by the stylish simplicity of design, the green of cards on the black felt soothed me and I wanted to be there every night.
I was clearly falling in love. And the love was mutual.

But the bankroll grew slowly. I had my own vision on managing it so I might have had to deposit eventually.
Well, one can only have so much patience and time to build from 0 again, right?
Especially when there's a chance to become next Moneymaker! Everest just added 2008 WSOP satties to the schedule!
$7500 and $3500 Winner's Choice packages for grabs! Let's gooooo!

So I grinded, $1+R, $3+R and $5+R satties, replenishing at cash tables and then grinding satties again. And bubbling. A lot.
And one evening I had enough. Fuck it, I thought, I am better then those damn donkeys, I can do it!
And registered directly to $22 satty. After about 2h it was over...
And to my surprise (and against all odds) I won!

Final step was 6h later, 2 a.m. local time.
With Led Zeppelin's Greatest Hits Remastered in the headphones and the scenes from Rounders playing in my head, I played cards...
 

to be continued...