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How did you get into poker?
Friends playing?
TV adverts / poker on TV?
Always gambled?
For me, I've always been a bit of a gambler. Played cards at college and then onto ( losing ) at roulette, blackjack at the casino.
After a while I developed a brain and stopped the casino games. A few years later I had a friend who played who used to talk to me about poker. I also watched programmes like Poker Night Live and started playing play money on a site.
Eventually took the plunge and went to the casino for a competition.
I was hopeless but hooked.
Comments
Didn't play any for a few years, but gambled lots and eventually gave it a go online when reading articles in Inside Edge, before they gave up writing strategy articles on sports betting and focussed wholly on poker, mixed with a sign-up offer through one of the sports book sites to their poker.
Think I've gone backwards though since that first dalliance... I used to easily keep spinning my small stack up to £50-£150 a month on the 2c/4c tables... shame all the winning always went to clear student related debts... would struggle to even break even on the 2p/4p tables on Sky despite several attempts to crack them, just cannot play as nitty as I used to back in the days and people at least know the absolute basics of poker at those levels now
Look forward to reading some of the other responses on here, especially any of those that came to the game from slightly dubious live games rather than televised or online poker!
Gathered some friends together and we all learnt to play the game at the same time, just for fun at first with no money. Of course we all got to the point where the fun disappeared as there was nothing to play for, so eventually we started regularly playing home games for a £10 or £20 buy-in each.
Eventually started going to a local card room to play a few tournaments but eventually that closed and thus I find myself here on Sky.
A big pair
Yup that about describes what first attracted me to poker. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. It can be argued that all events can be traced back to a single event that starts everything in motion. In chaos theory there is a very technical name for this. In the real world it is called the "Butterfly Effect". The butterfly for me was the guy who invented the TV Remote Control. That then led to the ability to change between all "three", that's all there was when I first started watching TV, at the touch of a button. However even though we only had three channels to chose from, that didn't stop the male psyche from developing that bastion of male control....... Channel hopping.
Channel Hopping. That most amazing of male past times. Women just don't get it. Why watch one channel for an hour when you can watch several in 30 seconds. Well that's what got me playing poker. Channel hopping. It was late on a sunday night. I was flicking between channels, the wife had gone t bed early so I could get away with it. When i suddenly found myself looking at a rather attractive women, leaning forward over a table. Showing a large percentage of her, not inconsiderable, cleavage to the TV camera. No it was a soft adult entertainment channel that I had discovered. She was leaning forward so she could scoop up the mouton if chips that appears to have become her property. At the same time as this lovely lady was scooping the chips, two male commentators were going insane..... At first i thought they were being rather crass, and quite frankly rude. How she had faked it with just a big pair. I mean come on guys...... How could they tell they were fake they looked plenty real to me. As I continued watching I realised that they were making reference to the cards that were lying on the table and not the amble chest that had first caught my attention. So there you have it. Every time I win a pot i thank god that it was Vanessa Russo that had won that pot and not Texas Dolly. I can assure you that Doyle's sagging face leaning across the table would not have caught my attention nearly as effectively
From that point on I was hooked. I didn't have a clue what was going on, i just knew this was one of the most exciting things i had ever seen. In the coming nights I channel hopped like a man possessed. Searching for more poker. Eventually I came across Sky Poker. Not only did this channel show you poker being played. It showed poker being played by me....... Well not literally me, but lots of other "me's". Players up and down the country were sitting at their computers playing poker and the guys on the TV we talking about it. How cool was that. Now all that was needed was "Know how to play the game"