How I Got Into Poker

I am forever fascinated by the various stories people have on how they came to be involved in poker. For many players it is the first step on a glorious run that sees them net millions of dollars and changes their lives completely. For others it is a start of a great hobby that they get lots of pleasure from for many years. For others it is the start of a darker road, but fortunately poker has been good for me. Here is my story.

I discovered poker when a friend of mine in 1999 when I was at University was bored one day and downloaded Ultimate Bet onto his machine and started playing in a play money tournament. (There is no way a university today would allow a poker client to be downloaded onto their machine!) I joined him and we played a few games, I was terrible and not really that bothered about poker, so I stopped playing. In 2002 – 2003 I watched an episode of late night poker, and was intrigued by the mystical green felt and how players seemed to be able to play the game. Was it not all luck? I decided to investigate further. I read a few books and started to play small stakes online. The Moneymaker won the World Series and suddenly everyone was playing. Unfortunately for me I never became a millionaire, but because I was still financially recovering from University I did not feel comfortable with the gambling with money at that time I did not have.

As I learned more about the game, in 2005 I played in my first £10 tournament, coming second for £100. The local players were all supposed to be very good, so to cash for me was both a surprise and a confidence boost. I was very pleased that I seemed to be able to read my opponents well and found the tough fold easy to make. I sensed I may have ability at this game. I still found myself not wanting to gamble hard, so I became an avid spectator and even dealt for friends during their home games. I started to participate more on the online forums, and more of my spare time was spent learning about poker and I was determined that when I did begin to play poker regularly, I would have an edge on the competition.

Around this time my first poker blog was born, and I found I very much enjoyed writing about the game, and following the professionals each year during the WSOP online with the live chip updates. I started to play more and more poker online, and kept up to date with news.

In early 2009 I set up a poker website which is a news site that also does podcasts every week. I feel that poker has given me the opportunity to indulge many passions, both running my site which I enjoy, playing and learning about all forms of poker, and writing about it, possibly my biggest passion of all. Poker is a game where you are forced to sit at a table of many people, it is a sociable game! If you have never played live then try it out. As fun as online poker is you are missing out on the social enjoyment poker can bring. It is also not all about playing the game; you may find that you enjoy commentating, dealing the cards or running a business to market poker rooms. Everyone can enjoy poker, in its many forms.

Malcolm Clarke