The journey
The story starts about a year ago. Poker was one of those distant things I did not care a lot for nor were surrounded by. I'm a person that likes to try new things and respect skills most out of all things. At this time I was focusing on Photoshop basics and things like that when I realized that one of the friends I've met on the international student festival abroad is a poker player. He is a 4-5 year player playing at NL50 tables.
Casual chatting with him about it for a while made me realize that poker is a proper skill that can be learned and improved, more than it is pure gamble. Over night I decided that I want to lose some money, simply to satisfy the curiosity. Plan was to invest 10$ into wherever he is playing (turned out to be PokerStars, I did not know any poker websites before that) and see what I can do with it or at least, how long will it take me to lose it all.
However, when I asked him about this website and told him of my plan, he spammed me with few poker websites on the terminology, basics, positions and other. It was seriously overwhelming but I was still curious.
I spent some time reading into the poker theory and finally I deposited my first 20$ into PokerStars. I got a welcome bonus of 20$, giving me a bankroll of 40.
For the first month I played spin&go games and after that I switched to NL2. My fish period has started. I still remember how I couldn't play for more than 15 minutes because I was really nervous and my hands were always going ice cold.
I very quickly lost 50% of my bankroll, leaving me with 20$, which I was around for a long time. 40$ bankroll was just a distant dream at this point. I was constantly falling and going up again, ranging from 4$ total to 17$ most of the times and this lasted for most of my poker life.
Although I've felt the huge pressure coming from my personal desire not to lose the entire bankroll, I've kept pushing forward and surprisingly did not go bust.
I've started watching streamers, reading books, articles, WSOP hands and although I was still not a winning player, situation gradually started getting better as my play style changed over and over again.
I've analyzed a hand Daniel Negreanu played publicly and was approached by a poker agent offering me staking. I was seriously flattered and happy by this turn of events. The willingness of someone to put their own money behind my game was the first sign I've gotten that I might be doing something right and not simply wasting my time. However, this did not happen because I already created many accounts for various websites and the one that was still available for me to claim this staking was seriously broken. At this point, poker really grew to my heart though. It became a fun game that I loved, despite all the tilts it was giving me.
After a lot of time, my play style changed for the final time in NL2. I've passed 40$ total. I celebrated this big moment, passing the original amount of money on my account. Then I passed 80$ and finally 100$. This happened about 3-4 days ago.
Hitting a 100$ milestone, I've started playing NL5 which again rocked my world. I've noticed that the difference between NL2 and NL5 players is huge, which I was not expecting. However, despite my current feeling that could best be compared to the adventures of Alice in Wonderland and her discoveries, I'm remaining profitable still. Right now I am at 125$ bankroll and well, here i am.
That is my poker journey. Of course, nothing of this would happen without my Lithuanian poker friend to whom I may only give a big thank you.
And what the future holds... Well, I guess we will see that together
Now, back to me being new at PokerVIP, I would really appreciate any tips about the website that you may give me as more experienced users. Advice such as what I should follow, participate in and do for both fun and poker improvement would be highly welcome! You know, the average daily routine of a poker player on PokerVIP
Thank you! AA