My name is Mark. I'm almost 19 and reside in Carmel, Indiana. Against my wishes, I'm on a one year break from school. During this time, I plan to make enough money to put me through school next fall. To do this, I'm going to get a part-time job to keep a steady income. On the other hand, I'm expecting results from the thousands of SnG's I plan to play between now and next fall to pay off.
I started playing my first form of poker "No Limit Hold'em," last October, when I was at a friends house just having fun. Of course I got ripped apart, barely knowing the fundamentals of the game, and next to nothing about strategy. However, I instantly sensed the mental sport thats embedded in poker. I knew that if I kept at learning the game, I could become a winning player. We played almost every weekend that winter, and I began to learn a lot more about the game.
I started playing Poker Stars when I found the poker download from a random link on the web. I played some play money tournaments, but I wanted to know how much of a rush real money was. During the first half of this year, I ended up depositing around $1000 all together. I tried everything from all ring games to all tournaments. I experimented with most forms of poker. There was just one small problem, I didn't care about the game. I was in a situation where money didn't mean anything to me and I didn't respect myself enough to learn the game for what it is. Hell, I just began learning about position in Hold'em over the summer. I thought the blinds were just there to be cute ;)
Fast forward to the November Gidders challenge. While I know gidders isn't picking students by the best stats, I feel I've come a long way in poker. I've quadrupled my bankroll so far, and I plan to keep going. I've learned so much over the period of this challenge it's not even funny. I've humbled myself to accepting that I will lose. But you have to be willing to lose in order to win, right? That sounds like something my High School Football coach told me every day of the season. It's too bad that I'm just realizing it after it had all been said and done. Poker is teaching me discipline, patience, and it's also giving me a great attitude.
We will all lose or fail in life. But, as people, can we have the right attitude to dig ourselves out of a hole? Are we going to be in the right mindset to take every opportunity we get in order to "win?" Obviously this compares to poker ridiculously. This game is worth more to me than just money, it's teaching me lessons that I'll carry with me throughout my lifetime.
AIM - findtherealx MSN/e-mail -
Joint Poker Blog (with Carpainter): http://frnak.thetot.com/tocarpokar
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