Playing Internet Poker Again

About 5 years ago, I deposited my first $50 into online poker. Playing at .50/$1 ring games, I quickly doubled my money and couldn’t believe how easy it was. So within a few hours, I stepped up to the $1/$2 table and promptly lost my entire bankroll.

That lesson would be one of many along the way. I took a couple days off and deposited another $50. Slowly but steadily I built my bankroll to a couple hundred dollars at the .50/$1 tables. Again it was time to try the $1/$2 tables and this time I had enough reserves to hold my own.

Then I started hearing about other site that will pay bonus dollars for just playing at their sites. I moved my bankroll to a different online site and cleared out $100 in bonus money.

Another bonus came along and I discovered that I could clear the bonus faster by playing at two tables at the same time. Bonuses were everywhere and I didn’t want to miss out, so I started playing more and more tables simultaneously.

So, I went and bought two flat screen monitors with high resolution so I could easily play 8 tables at once with no overlap. I could clear $100 in bonus in less than 45 minutes. I could barely concentrate on the poker being played, but winning or losing at the tables versus the other opponents really didn’t matter, I just was trying to break even and take all the bonus dollars as profits.

My plan was working to perfection until the new laws came into effect that drove many of the poker sites out of the U.S. market. With the competition out the way, the remaining site no longer needed to offer as much bonus money to get people to play.

So with no bonuses to clear and a sizable bankroll, I sat down at my first $200 + $10 heads-up tournament table. I promptly won three in a row and I had found my new niche. I quickly figured out that if I just won 52.5% of these tournaments, I would have enough profits to cover the fees.

Figuring by this time I was an above average poker player, I didn’t see winning just over half my heads-up tournaments as much of a problem, and I was right. So for the last few years, I have become exclusively a $200 through $500 heads-up tournament player and I’m reaping the rewards of my years of experience.