How did you discover Poker?

[ThinkerJE]

So 2 questions for APAT members in order to find out a bit more about ourselves.

a) How did you discover the beautiful game of Poker?

b) How did you find out about APAT?

I"ll start off. 

I got the Poker bug when I happened to stumble in late one night and switched on the tv which happened to be on channel four.  This laid back, extremely confident guy in shades was playing cards with this little old lady.  Immediately I was hooked.  The words chosen to describe the action added to the intrigue and excitment.  Late Night Poker, Jesse May & Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliot introduced me to Poker, and they managed to do it whilst I had know idea why a flush beat a straight.  I could not wait till the next week and set up a game between friends in the meantime.  None of us knew how to play, none of us cared.  Poker was the game to play.  I have been playing it ever since.

With respect to APAT.  I was flicking through Pokerplayer magazine when Tikay"s mugshot jumped out of the page at me.  Naturally I had to see how he had managed to get himself into print.  The article explained the launch of an association & tour for amateur players.  I thought I play Poker, I am an amateur, this could be for me.  

[RioRodent]

I had a similar introduction to poker, although on the few occaisions I "flicked" past Late Night Poker I found it really boring... it was the WPT that caught my attention and held my interest.

I had been part of horse race betting syndicate (we had had an unbelievable run of good information!!) and I had money dotted around in several bookis sites... I eventually took the plunge and had a dabble on Sporting Odds. The rest is history.

APAT actually contacted me as I had a website for a poker "club" that I used to run.

[FlyingPig73]

My introduction to poker came as a young boy in Wales.. We had a caravan and we used to go there every summer. As you all know, when you are on a caravan site, in a caravan, and its raining there is not much to do apart from play cards. In the caravan we played nap, cribbage and poker . I was first introduced to 5 card draw and stud, 7 card stud, and 3 card brag. I played these all the time with my brother and couisins for coppers. Coppers soon added up to real money, and as an 8 year old boy there was no turning back.

I started playing Holdem about 2 years ago. I seen it first on the TV and I think it was the WPT, this caught and captured my attention. From then on in, it has been texas holdem all the way. This is now my game of choice.

My mate seen an advert for the apat in a magazine, and the live comps looked really good, compared to what was getting offered else where. He told me about it, and that was that..

[kinboshi]

Guess I"m a late-comer in terms of playing poker.  Only started playing about two and a half years ago.

I used to be a decent chess-player when I was very young, and was playing a bit on the Internet a few years back when I realised that there might be something else I could play where I could actually win some money at the same time.

I"d seen the Poker Million on Sky a few months earlier, and the game intrigued me, although I"d never played.  I knew the basic rules, but that was about it.  So I went on the web and read about the basic rules and strategy and thought I"d give it a spin.

I had a look at a few sites, and it was VCPoker.com that had the nicest interface (IMHO) and so I set up an account and started on the play-money tables.  Half-an-hour later I realised that even though it looked like poker - it certainly wasn"t!  So I deposited £20, and started playing on the lowest tables they had at the time - which were 5c/10c.  Managed to spin that up a little, then decided that I needed to read a few books.  Not knowing what to buy - a bought a few, including the beginners one by Tom McEvoy & Brad Daugherty, and the first Harrington book.  This is depsite the fact that I was playing cash games...but nevermind they didn"t do me any harm, as I managed to build a bankroll and moved up to the dizzy heights of the /20c tables.

Then I bought every book I could. I read as much as I could on the web, and most of all - I played a lot.  Still almost exclusively cash, and with the exception of a couple of live games with friends, all online.

I"d played a few MTTs, cashed in a few, but didn"t really know what I was doing (nothing"s changed there really).  A friend from a car owners club that I"m a member of told me about this deepstack tournament in Birmingham aimed at amateurs with a £75 buy-in.  It sounded like great fun, and was my chance to play in a tournament that resembled the WSOP main event (just on a smaller scale).

I played a few more tournaments online to practice, bought the second Harrington book (and a few others), and went to play poker in a casino for the first time - two £10 rebuys in Bristol that were....interesting.  The Brum tournament was done via the ballot, and I was 69th on the reserve list - so I"d pretty much given up any hope of getting in.  My friend who"d told me about it didn"t even get on the reserve list.  Anyway, you know the rest, and now I still play mostly online, predominately cash (now at 50c/$1 and sometimes $1/$2 tables) but interspersed with regular MTTs. 

The APAT events are the ones I look forward to, especially the live events. 

[Paulie_D]

How did I discover Poker.

Probably the same way most of the recent crop (of which I am one) of UK Poker players did...on the TV.

After that, I dabbled on 888.com and thence to online poker.

I was (and still am) a regular visitor to Vegas where I, in the past, I stuck primarily to Blackjack. So, on a previous trip a couple of years ago, I took the plunge and dipped a toe in the live poker experience. Limit Poker, that was the name of the game for a first try..didn"t get hurt to bad and got the bug.

After that, it was off to Google to try and find some live poker in London. This is where I found my new home http://www.londonpokermeetup.co.uk/. A great bunch of people (primarily in South London but from all over London and the Home Counties...we"re over 900 members and still growing) who REALLY enjoy poker in all it"s forms. A trip to Clapham for (Spursman) Jim Lynott"s Friday £10 F/O Lodge Game and I was hooked.

Moved on from HE to PLO/PLO8/Razz/Stud and some varieties that are pretty much exclusive to the LPM (RRP anyone?) and loving every minute.

15+ LPM"ers (inc. yours truly) head off to Vegas for a week on 14th July. It"ll be a riot. If anyone else is out there then, look for us, we won"t be hard to miss even in Vegas.

APAT.

Well, a few of the LPM are friends with Des and when the APAT was launched we all jumped in with both feet.

Newcastle & Cardiff are the only two (except for Dublin this weekend) that I managed to get seats for but thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Can"t wait for Season 2!

[Scott]

How did I start?  Late Night Poker.  The Hendon Mob sucked me into the game.  The whole idea that playing this game was cool and you got to wear flash suits and shades. I watched for a few years, then took the plunge into on-line poker, then venturing, finally, to the casinos to play.

As for APAT, I think it was in PokerPlayer magazine.  Got the chance to play in my first APAT event in Newcastle and fell in love with the concept of getting to see some new places whilst playing a pure form of poker rather than the "loldonkaments" on-line and run by casinos.

[Bodddders]

Started playing poker when I was about 7 yrs old. My dad taught me and my brother to play 5 card for matchsticks. We used to go on family camping holidays when I was a youngster and thanks to the good old English weather many an afternoon was spent in a tent playing some form of card game. I have played mostly 7 card stud for the last 25 years, until I came across Late Night Poker on Ch4.
I didn"t like it at first, all that raise, fold with hardly any flops, seemed a bit boring to me. I stuck with it though and soon became hooked. The arrival of the WPT on Sky TV gave the game a sense of razzamatazz and soon a lot of friends and workmates were talking about or playing poker. Started playing on-line (Corals) about two yrs ago, mainly STT and MTT. Play most of my poker on Pokerstars now, I prefer the 1,500 starting stacks in their STT. Have played live a few times at the Fullhouse in Reigate, even managing to cash on a number of occasions.

A friend of mine pointed out the Apat article in Poker Player Mag. and we both joined straight away. He managed to get a seat for Birmingham and I went along to see what it was all about and lend my support. Name on stand-by list and about 9 hours later I went out on the last hand of Day One. Managed to get a seat in Newcastle  and Cardiff and think the Apat Live events are fantastic. Great structure and more importantly great people and atmosphere.
Keep up the good work and see you all in Dublin.

[Jon MW]

Me and my siblings were taught a very basic version of draw poker by my dad when we were little, but we only played one session then forgot about it.

So my real poker playing started last year after the first series of Balderdash & Piffle   - the process went from Balderdash & Piffle to Google to, "hmm poker, that could be interesting". So, in contrast to a lot of other recent newcomers to the game I didn"t see any poker on TV until quite a long time after I"d started playing it.

Once I decided to learn how to play I learnt the mechanics of the game from The Hendon Mob site, then I spent 5-6 hours trawling the net for "how to..." features for other advice. Followed by another 5-6 hours of play money play before I took the leap to deposit real money. I had a few early cashes but it took about a  month before I"d gathered enough nous to actually win anything.

The intellectual challenge has always been what interests me in poker, this has meant I"ve tried to expand my knowledge of different variants as much as possible (although I still only really know what I"m doing in NLHE, any success in other variants is only because I"m less bad than the other entrants). But the challenge of deepstack live poker was the part of APAt which initially captured my attention.

Since then, of course, the social side of it has really come to the fore - but I refuse to actually say anything nice about any of you so I"ll just stop there.  

[kinboshi]

Once I decided to learn how to play I learnt the mechanics of the game from The Hendon Mob site...

Snap.  I liked the interactive thing they had on there (still there probably), tutorials and a quiz I think it was.

The intellectual challenge has always been what interests me in poker, this has meant I"ve tried to expand my knowledge of different variants as much as possible (although I still only really know what I"m doing in NLHE, any success in other variants is only because I"m less bad than the other entrants).

You must know what you"re doing to qualify for the WSOP!  I think you"re doing yourself a disservice.  The argument that you"re no good, but just that the others are worse is the same for anyone.  You could be the 10th best player in the world - you don"t want to be at a table with the other 9...

[Ericstoner]

I frst learnt about poker at my dads knee,whilst he played with his brothers and wives,when I was five or so. It was slow old draw poker, but it ment i knew the rules.
In my teenage years I used to play in my local, varients like southern cross and other stud games,then on to three card brag, which I played sometimes for biggish stakes untill the kids came along.
By 1991 my work ment i had free time in central london in the afternoons, so I found blackjack among the chinise migerent workers in shaftsbury ave.But although i read the books,and tried all the systems, couldn"t win a bean.
A couple of months later I slipped into the Vic and noticed the poker room I signed up for the £20 plhe r/buy without knowing the rules, and i was hooked.
I open my first paradise account in 1999, as we"d moved out of london, i"ve played online every year since. and continue to play occasionally live.All over the UK, Ireland,Spain (Baralona)and Holland (Ammsterdam)

As for the APAT, i signed up as soon as I could, it suits my stricktly amateur status,and the social side is second to none.

[Divitts.]

I first started playing poker about 4 years ago when a friend bought himself a PC and invited us lads round to marvel at the fact you could play cards for money at the click of a mouse. The lads and i have allways been card players,3 card brag being the game of choice,and have won and lost a good few bob over the years.

Treated myself to a PC,joined a few sites and lost every penny!(major fish in those days) Bought Play Poker Like The Pros and subscribed to Pokerplayer and then Inside Poker which helped a lot. Practice certainly helped my game too. The dream is to build a bankroll to take me to the world series and its coming along nicely.

First heard of APAT in Pokerplayer magazine and thought it was great value for a fiver. I think it gives the amateur player a wee chance of fame and fortune.

[HaworthBantam]

I frst learnt about poker at my dads knee,whilst he played with his brothers and wives,when I was five or so.

"Wives" ? Blimey, how many did he have ?

[Rich]

I feel like a right newbie compared to you guys! I only started playing about a year ago, not sure the exact reason why maybe a comination of seeing it on tv and being a enjoying gambling but I really wanted to play poker and so started on the Play Money tables of Stars, after a couple of months I was playin live 3 or 4 times a week and havent stopped playing almost every day since!

[suited_jock]

a) First discovered it about 3/4 years ago when lads from my then work were playing freerolls on totalbet. I was like money for nothing there must be a catch... there wasn"t lol. So I googled Texas Holdem found the rules etc didnt really know what i was doing.. somehow won an interpoker freeroll for $200 and quickly lost that playing $5/10nl. Started reading books started with supersystem and jumped straight into low level MTT"s. In my first proper year of playing i took down the £50 mtt on crypto for £3k cleared all my student debt, a live £20r for £1k and then a WPT atlantis package worth $12k. I"ve not really done anything significant since that.

b) Pretty sure it was a thread on blondepoker that I found it looked right up my street and have managed to cash in 100% of the live events ive played in which is 2/4 .

[Harmony26]

a) I met The Beard and Bainn... say no more... life has never been the same ever since  

b) Read about APAt in Poker Player magazine and signed up immediately.