Getting Started

There are more than enough bad poker blogs out there so I hope not to be adding to the slush pile.  Whilst it may be the reality of an online grinder that we get up, play several thousand hands a day, moan about how epically bad our luck is, and spend hours agonising over whether or not flatting the turn or shoving would have made us an extra $2 over a hundred hand sample... well it can just be a bit boring, especially to the more casual poker fan. I'm looking to use this blog to properly record my occasional live poker trips, especially to bigger tournaments and events, and to capture some of the fun and messiness of hanging around the fringes of the live poker circuit.  Vegas tales are, I think, far more fun than debating the merits of triple bet range merging.  I'm also hoping to rehouse some of the material I have built up on the PKR Forum, where many of you will probably know me from, as a player moderator under my alias 'LockeLamora'  .

I'm not pitching this exclusively at the pro/semi-pro crowd though and often little to no poker knowledge will be required. Expect plenty of film and music talk along with other cultural waffle and the occasional rant about the state of society/the economy/how filthy my kitchen is and whatever other nonsense pops into my head. Let me know what you think and feel free to make suggestions if there are particular things of interest that you would like to know about. 

I started playing poker about seven years ago when the post 'Chris Moneymaker' boom really kicked off.  Something about it just clicked with me straight away after my first home game experience whilst studying for an MA in Norwich.  At the time I was working weekends for Ottakar's and went through the poker section for something to read the next time I was in.  I bought Phil Hellmouth's 'How To Play Poker Like The Pros' and read it cover to cover twice.  After this I made my first online deposit on Party Poker and never really looked back. This combination of an early interest in the strategy with my natural level headedness means I have never had a losing year in poker.  That is not to say I have not done some daft things along the way but it was always profit that took a hammering and never my own wallet.

About two years ago a combination of needing to move location and an increasing sense of frustration with being a Branch Manager for Waterstones led me to quit my job and give poker a go full time.  I have not exactly set the poker world on fire but I have made over $40,000 in that time and had a a lot of interesting experiences.  I have played in four World Series of Poker events including this years $10,000 Main Event.

So there are a lot of stories to be told, or retold for those of you who live on the PKR or Black Belt Poker forums, and new adventures to be had.  There is experience to be shared, of winning tournaments with several thousand people in, of blowing up a poker bankroll in the worst possible ways, of learning to start all over again, of coming close enough to touch large sums of money only for the chair to be pulled out from underneath in the cruelest possible fashions.

It is a funny old game populated by funny old, and young, people.  Please join me whilst I spend my time grinding from the sidelines.  If poker terms are new to you a grinder, or a rounder, is some one who eeks out a living from the games.  In some respects all professional players can be called this but there is definitely a difference between the hot shot high rollers and tournament demons and those of us who count our hourly rate in dollar rates more akin to ordinary work than in epic swings and huge pay days.