I started playing poker in 2007. I always watched it on TV but I didn’t really understand how it was played so I made my research to understand the game better. As I was learning, my dad bought me poker chips and I played it with my siblings and cousins. My older brother’s friend also brought me to a poker club here in our city. But I was really a very bad player as I was still learning the game.
Around 2008, I was searching on the internet on how to improve my game. Then I saw this online poker school who had a promo saying that if you sign up with them they will give you a starting bankroll of $30 with a poker room of your choice. I signed up but, in just a couple of hours my bankroll went south.
While I was in that poker school I was active in the forums because there were a lot of students and I knew I can learn a lot from them. I can still remember that I made a topic saying that if someone would lend me a dollar I will challenge myself to make that money go a long way. And someone gave me THAT dollar. But then again, I got busto! Until, one of the coaches noticed me and wanted to help me. He sent me emails and materials for me to read and apply in my game. But human as I am, I wanted to win big in one snap and didn’t have the patience to follow the guidelines he sent me. I always sent him a small amount of money to buy some chips but I always get busted. Every time I run out of chips I will be away from online poker for weeks and then when I feel lucky I will message him again to make a deposit. Until one day he decided that he won’t accept my money until I deposit a big amount of money (around 5-10 thousand pesos) and take it seriously and respect the game.
In these next paragraphs I will name my coach “Coach Blue”.
Fast Forward to 2012, coach blue contacted me and told me that they will be having a contest and whoever will be at the top 2 will be given the chance to have a 1 on 1 VIP training. Luckily, I was one of the top 2 people who won the contest.
As the training started I was so excited and told myself that it was the opportunity I have been waiting for. To be trained 1 on 1 by coach Blue. They gave us 300euros to start the training and every afternoon we had a session to check my hand history and find the leaks of my game. While I was on training I can really see the dedication of coach Blue to teach me everything he knows about poker. He gave me advices not just in poker but also how to handle real life situations. He always told me this, "If you want to improve your game you should improve yourself first. Just always remember to be patient and be disciplined". When he told me that, I realized that there are things you can learn in poker that you can also apply in real life. I can even remember talking to my family about taking poker seriously but of course they were hesitant and told me that it’s impossible for me to make money out of IT which I fully understand especially when they don’t know anything about poker.
Was there anything new after a month of training? Yes, there was. I learned a lot but, there was still one thing I wasn’t able to do, maintaining my bankroll. I got busted again! I felt the community was very disappointed in me especially coach Blue who gave almost everything including his time and I just wasted it. After I got busted in September 2012 I told myself that poker isn’t really for me.
After 5 years of not playing poker seriously someone invited me to play in real money online poker just last April. And I just said yes but I told myself that it would be just for fun. When I sat in the table I realized that even if it was just for fun, I still wanted to apply all the things I learned from coach Blue so I read our emails as a refresher. After a month of playing I had a positive outcome. It was my first time my starting bankroll grew BIG! Then I said that it was just luck and I already experienced this before. But I realized it was really my first time to do that. So, I continued playing and it was really going up. So, I contacted coach Blue and told him about it and he told me that it was not luck but, it was also because I made the right decisions and it was also part of maturity.
Now, I can say that patience and discipline are big factors in helping you succeed in poker. Luck will always take its part but if you make the right decisions you will always have a positive outcome.
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank coach Blue. You are a big influence not just in my game but also in my real life decisions. I will always be thankful to you, coach!
PS: The person who gave me that dollar before, he also had a very big part on why I improved my game. He is a very good poker player. Salamat, tol! :)
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