Hello and welcome

If you are reading this, then i am already de.......... Just kidding.

Hi. My name is Dan, I'm 26 years old and currently a rested actor. Normally i would say i am a resting actor. However, i have been restING so long that I am now restED. Can i have some work please??

My main hobby is poker. Around 13 months ago I saw that my younger brother was making some dough on the side playing poker on the internet. This was a new thing to me. I was aware of poker's increasing popularity as a topic of conversation, people organising poker nights etc, but i did not realise to what level it had risen. I was at home in Yorkshire during christmas 2005 when, after watching my bro play, i logged onto the internet, created an account on pokerstars and deposited 50$. I sat down at the biggest table i could and after about, hmmmm? 15 minutes? tops, i deposited again and was shortly relieved of that too. Cue the beginning of a very interesting journey. roll credits

I had seen people playing poker who were not that smart, whether they were winning or not, i don't know, but i thought nothing to it. If so and so can do it, so can I. Anyway...long story short, i was hooked. I have always played computer games and considered this to be a game where my accumulated "points" could be exchanged for goods and services in the real world. If i became good, i could work from home, earn money and do all the decent quality, low paid acting i wanted. I have always worked in bars and restaurants. I had no desire to go back to another one. Unless i was doing a number on its food/alcohol supplies.

When i came back to London i bought my first poker book. Hold Em Poker by David Sklansky. HOLY MCMOLY! that's a good read. He's a laugh isn't he? Just kidding. It wasn't the right book for me at the time, is all. I made a start playing limit poker. For the simple reason that i was somewhat more in control of the losses. I developed a habit of making patient plays (whilst sat with my Sklansky hand rankings) and doubling or tripling my buy in low stakes. At this stage another part of the habit would take place. Once i had some money built, I would begin to make looser calls, play more hands in, what i know now, to be less favourable positions. At that time A,10 off suit was a monster to be played anywhere for as many bets as were going in the hope of hitting a golden flop. Needless to say, in not much time, i would decimate a nice little stack that had taken me a few hours to patiently build up.

A year on. I still play limit from time to time. Mostly though i play no limit. I have played stakes from 1c 2c limit to 1/2 no limit. I play cash and sit and goes, single and multi table. I have been playing more and more tournaments recently. I read constantly about poker, I have just used pokerstars points to buy Kill Phil by Blair Rodman/Lee Nelson, Winning Low Limit Hold Em by Sklansky/Miller and Barry Greensteins Ace On the River is arriving tomorrow. I am currently rereading Harrington Volume 1 and Super System 2 is by my bed. I subscribe to WPT, Poker Player, and now the revamped version of Inside Edge magazines (maybe called Poker Edge now, i cant remember). I watch poker on TV, i own the WPT box sets. I watch High stakes poker on You Tube as it is not airing here yet as well as tonnes of high stakes live hands on the internet especially on Full Tilt. I am also a regular reader of Pocket 5's, 2+2 and Blonde Poker. As if that wasn't enough i have just discovered poker blogs, another amazing resource. These bloggers have inspired me to write my own.


I would love for this to be read by others interested in people, acting, writing and poker. But, the main reason for writing is so that i can keep clear accounts of my actions regarding plays and my finances. Some other bloggers have mentioned that by writing about the swings poker presents, they can gain a greater understanding of their game and hopefully discover the holes that may exist. This is what i want. I have read the books, i will read them all again, now i need to plug gaps in my game and be the best player that i can be.

In the next post i will talk about books, ambitions, bloggers, my wins and losses as well as my poker challenge.

And finally... when i read other peoples blogs i start at the beginning and work my way to the current post. Doesn't everyone?? Sometimes, early in a blog, i might want to comment on something, but don't bother as it was written a long time ago/ they might not remember/ might not want to talk about it etc. i want to say of this blog that if anyone is reading and you want to say something. say it. It doesn't matter when you say it, or when your comment is from. I want to hear it. if you post it on an old post and i don't see it, post it on a current post in block capitals instead.

OK. enough for now.

sleep tight

Dan

Currently Reading - Harrington On Hold Em Volume 1 - Dan Harrington
Up a Yum Bum Tree - Martin Plicher
Currently Watching - 24 season 5 (omg!)