A brief history of gambling and poker with Poker Elmo – part 3.

During graduate school, I gambled very little. I lived only 25 minutes from a casino, even, but was so focused on my studies that I did not have time to get back to my thoughts of gambling. This focus was necessary for me – I am not smart enough to coast through a Ph.D. program. There were occasional breaks where I could gamble a bit. I had poker nights with friends for low stakes (really low, like quarters low). I went to the casino on occasion, but overall I gambled little. Overall, my 4 years in grad school represent what could be known as “the lost years”.

Towards the end of my graduate studies, in June 2002, my wife was out-of-town on father’s day weekend so I decided to go to the casino as a present to myself. I took a break from the blackjack table to play 7-card stud. I had the “Thursday-night poker” book, which gave me a general idea of how to play correct stud, which probably gave me a small edge at 1-5 spread limit. I had sat down briefly before in the poker room, but felt so overwhelmed I quickly left. This time it would be different, I told myself.

I sat down with $20, not realizing that was a very small amount. The hours flew by as I kept accumulating chips. Before I knew it, I was up well over $100. Then the following hand came up. I am dealt T7-T, and I 3-bet for the max. I can’t remember the upcards, but someone almost certainly had me beat at this point. I got a 4th-stree 4 and a 5th street 7 for 2 pair. But, I had 3 spades and everyone pegged me for the flush. When I bet they all called to chase “my flush”. I felt so powerful to have them all fooled. When the 6th street T came up I had a boat and a well-concealed one at that. I kept max betting and all 4 who were in the pot came along for the ride. That was close to a $200 pot and was thrilled. In hindsight, I realize that I got really lucky to hit my boat, as others certainly had 2 pair beat, but that hooked me on poker. Further, having them all think I had a flush at a low limit game was not that important. But it did not matter to me then – I thought I was a natural poker player. Further, playing poker was so much more fun than blackjack and so much more mentally challenging. I guess this is when I could officially say that I was hooked.

We moved from Iowa to Raleigh a few weeks later, however, and I was no nowhere near a casino. My gambling days again slowed down. We moved in June, and I probably did not gamble at all until I made some friends there and got invited over to poker nights starting in April 2003(I call them friends, they probably call me “the annoying a-hole who wouldn’t shut up until we invited him over for poker”). I lost a bit the first couple of nights, but saw that I could beat the game if I took some time to learn it. The stakes were low, with $0.25-$1.00 betting limits or $5-$10 NL holdem tourneys. But, while low, the guys were great to hang out with and the stakes were high enough to keep me interested at that time. Soon, I began beating the game. Around this time I started seeing commercials for internet poker ...