A trip down poker memory lane

After writing my last blog, I wanted to share some of the highlights of my poker journey. Feel free to read my previous post about how I got into poker.

Over my poker career, which is now 13 years (crazy!) I think I've made a profit of around $160,000. From 2011 to 2013, I was purely living, breathing, and eating poker. It was my life. For those two years, I was probably spending 60 hours a week on poker. Whilst most of that was playing, I spent a good 10-15 hours a week just studying the game.

My first moderate success was back in March 2012 when I was playing at home over a weekend. On Saturday, I won a $3.50 re-buy tournament online for $1100. The next day, I finished second in an $11 game for another $1100. For the rest of the year, I was making a decent profit, but not enough to cover expenses if I lived out of home.

In 2013, I finally caught a break when I won a ticket to a tournament at Crown Casino. After three days of playing amongst four hundred players, I came in 5th and walked away with over $23,000 in my pocket.
A month later, I entered a big online tournament for a $5.50 re-buy. I finished 3rd out of 15,000 players and won $10,000. After that tournament, I could feel myself falling into a trap. I started blowing money for the sake of it. I must have lost around $7000-10,000 in two months. My mum intervened at that point, and I ended up taking a break from the game.

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Later that year, I made a return to poker and won my first satellite tournament back. The prize was a poker trip to Queenstown, New Zealand. More specifically, I won a package worth $5,000 inclusive of flights, accommodation, spending money and entry into the AAPT Queenstown Main Event. Admission to the event alone was $3,000, and the buy-in for the satellite tournament was $62, which ended up being the only money to come out of my pocket that whole trip.
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Mum wasn't too keen on the idea of me going to New Zealand because she'd already booked a trip to Bali and wouldn't be able to take me. I didn't care. I was still determined to go. I rang around to see which of my support workers was available, but none of them were. As per usual, I didn't let this stop me. I reached out to friends and even friends of friends. In the end, the brother of one of my friends was free to accompany me. Problem sorted!
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In the days before I flew off to New Zealand, people kept wishing me a good holiday. I didn't think of it as a holiday, though. I treated poker as a job. I'd usually reply with, "this is business, and I'm ready to win".
Finally, I had touched down in New Zealand and was ready to play. Unlike previous tournaments, it was a small field of 126 players, but it was the most challenging field I'd ever played. I was just one of a handful of amateur players on the field. I could tell that some professional players underestimated me because of my disability, and I played on it. It was my advantage.
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After 27 hours of play across four days, it came down to Daniel Laidlow and me. As I looked down at a pair of black kings, Daniel said, "All in". I reacted quickly with a "Call". He revealed his hand - an Ace and a Queen of diamonds. To win, I needed no aces to appear, and fortunately, none did. After the final hand, I lifted my shirt sleeve to reveal my tattoo: a pair of black kings. It was the same hand I finished the tournament with and won $93,000. I couldn't make this up if I tried. It was a perfect ending.

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After that massive year in 2013, I stopped playing seriously for a few reasons. The primary reason being that I lost the drive for the daily grind and the motivation to keep honing my skills. I find it irritating when people, particularly poker players, attribute poker entirely to luck. While luck plays a part, I've found that those who study the game and are dedicated to improving their skills end up making a decent profit long term.
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I'm no longer up with the latest theories and strategies like I once was, but I still like to think I'm a decent player. I've had a few small wins over the past seven years, but I'm happy with just that these days. Poker played a massive role in a fundamental part of my life, and I'm lucky to be able to look back on those experiences fondly but move forward happily.