So November/December 2008 I tried for the first time in my poker career to 'grind' rather than flirt, and start analysing the game instead of randomly clicking buttons based on the movements of the planets.

I set my sights low, with $1K in my Stars bankroll I decided to hit the 25NL tables. I had about $3K behind in Neteller and various other sites should I have needed it and mentally I was writing off that $1K as the cost of learning. Although secretly of course I knew that I wasn't going to lose it as how exactly does one go about losing $1K at 25NL? I mean, if I couldn't beat that game... oh, pass the suicide.

As it happens I left my job a couple of years ago and ran a small business that shut down in August last year, so I approached things semi-seriously. I had money in the bank to live a year or so but my deepest, darkest goal was to get good at poker and sear my way through the stakes so I'd never have to work again and live a life of luxury etc. etc. Or at least, reach 100NL sometime this year. So off I went to 25NL, knees trembling, nervous fingers clicking the raise button, certain that everyone I was against was some uber-shark intent on outlevelling me every hand. Two minutes later and I realised this wasn't the case at all and that in reality everyone sucked harder than a blowjob from a vacuum cleaner.

I started playing 4 tables, that quickly became 6, that quickly became 8. Quite the achievement for a knackered old sod like me since on the one hand I have the attention span of a randy mosquito and on the other the propensity to get bored about two seconds into anything, ever. Fortunately these qualities seem perfect for multitabling and saved me from my past demons that involved raising any two cards and calling any two cards just for the fun of it, and would invariably ruin any session I played lasting longer than an hour.

I watched videos on Stox (Leggo is better though), bought a cardboard Buddha head to sit on my desk and stare serenely at me, and a maneki neko - or lucky cat - to wave its little arm and forever bring in good fortune (or customers, whatever). I'd never strayed much beyond 25NL previously but I've probably got 100k+ hands there lifetime as a slight winner so I was pretty comfortable at the limit. My goal was 40K hands by the end of the year, something I achieved as follows:



Redline was also above zero, which I understand is quite good for the micros.

So that's the abbreviated version of my 25NL story, with the longer tale transcribed for posterity in my old blog. I had no plans on hanging around 25NL, once I got past $1K profit with a bankroll of $2K+ I was heading straight for 50NL with an eager grin and wads of virtual notes stuffed into my pockets. That's where I am now, and have been since January. New places, new faces. My next post will recap just where I am at the moment. Am I winning? Am I a huge fish? Has my lucky cat run out of batteries? Find out in the next exciting update!

Thanks for reading.