What a First Year of Poker!

Exactly one year ago today, Jan. 3rd, looking for a bigger challenge than my Sony PSP WSOP game, I signed up to Pokerstars to play in their play money tables and freeroll qualifiers .

A week later, I made my first post and started this blog as my poker journal.

Over 230 posts and $6100 later, all I can say is I don't think anyone could have scripted my first year of poker any better.

This is a rough graph of how my bankroll grew from nothing to $6xxx in 12 months:
Below is the my recap of 2006.

At the beginning, I didn't even know if I could even win a dollar in freerolls, but after donked into my first final table in a mega Stars freeroll qualifier 3 days after started playing and I was hooked.

Just a week later, I cash in my first two tournys for a grand total of $1.72 and my bankroll got started.

With my freeroll winnings, I start to learn the cash games playing ultra micro limits.

My first freeroll win was in mid March, and I made my first withdraw from a poker site (poker.com) and thus first deposit into Neteller early May.

By winning twice more in May, and withdrawals from two more poker sites, I got my Neteller balance to $160 May 23rd.

My first ever deposit from Neteller was $100 into starluck casino on May 27th and my casino whoring days began.

Collecting my early casino bonuses at the end of May allowed me to deposit $80 into WilliamHill on May 31st, and my poker bonus chasing started.

On June 6th, my bankroll broke $1K.

I cashed out for the first time converting $350USD into real cash using my Neteller card mid June.

On June 18th, entering with completely no expectations, I ended up 14th out of 2247 bloggers in PokerStars World Blogger Championship freeroll. I was actually 3rd with 18 left but went through a surreal moment of not wanting to win since the top 10 won seats to the WSOP in Las Vegas. Never again.

Got the bankroll to $2K, June 22nd.

My first massive tilt was on June 29th. I can still feel the $713 of pain.

That stopped my casino whoring to a large extent, and got me to think through psychologically how I'm gonna deal with making money this way and to accept the natural zig-zagging that a bankroll will go through. If (when) I ever go through another 20% drop in my bankroll, I'll see if my acceptance is any better.

I started to learn the 1/2 FL game, and including a one month break as I moved to Australia, it took me three months to get my bankroll back over the pre-tilt $2.4K level.

Moving to Australia allowed me to chase the other lucrative poker and casino bonuses of the Crypto network and with that overlay and the start of rakebacks, my bankroll accelerates.

$3K Bankroll, Nov. 8th.

From mid November into most of December, I start my first 200+BB down swing over 5K hands. (more on this in a later post)

In the midst of which I win my 11th freeroll of the year and my first every big payday, £1250.

That took my bankroll over $6K.

The year had a bit of everything. From starting as a complete poker newbie, I ended up on December 31st, 2006:

Net Winnings for 2006, $6255.59.
Freeroll Wins, 12.