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Message: [QUOTE="Phoenix Wright, post: 5983915, member: 419963"] Cool responses so far; I've got a "story" to tell as well :) I never had much of a "thrill" with gambling like some claim and it never appealed to me in the slightest. I'm not dead-set against gambling as some people are; it is their own money and people can spend it pretty much however they want. If someone gets a "thrill" or experience out of it, then I respect that, but gambling is something I never cared for. Lottery is so horrible statistically-speaking. Slot machines are not much better and can be programmed to win more or less often at the whim of the casino and games like Blackjack are rigged for the casino to win more often (since dealer has different rules than the player). What baffles me is how many people willingly throw their money away - knowing the approximate odds that are common knowledge! Ask someone why they play the lottery. Usually the response is something like: "Well, I might win." Yes, you MIGHT, but you also MIGHT get struck by lighting, die by a shark attack, or get killed by a vending machine falling on you. By the way, all of these unlikely scenarios are more likely than winning the Mega Millions lottery and many other popular lotteries! Anyhow, I never cared to learn poker because I just never fazed interest enough to learn... That brings me to 5th grade (so roughly 10 years old). Relax. A 10-year-old doesn't have money for poker. Besides, my school had a policy against gambling on school grounds anyway. One of my friends saw poker on tv and explained how cool it looked. They wanted people to play "poker" with (I put this in quotation marks because it isn't really poker, but we didn't know that at the time). They asked the teachers several times if they could play "poker" and eventually they said yes if we didn't play for money or "bet" anything. Looking back, I'm sure the teachers only allowed us to play because: -they realized we knew nothing about poker and didn't know how to play and -it kept us quiet amongst a classroom of somewhat rowdy kids. As I mentioned, that friend of mine wanted people to play poker with. They convinced me into grudgingly playing if I was willing to learn the rules from them. As a favor to them, I agreed and we got about half a dozen fairly regulars to play. The "rules" was mostly what hands beat what. We had enough trouble identifying Flushes versus Straights and sometimes we would even have to pause the game to ask the teacher which beat which again. We knew nothing about "position" in poker - nothing about blind levels (I think we effectively played with a small ante and no blinds) and didn't even understand how kickers or side pots worked! This is why I said "poker" in quotation marks. It wasn't really the same game. Without kickers utilized, we thought One Pair could only be beat by Two Pair or better and if we both had the same pair then we split the pot (Ace kicker or Deuce didn't matter, we chopped! xD). We did know about higher pairs though, so we did know about a pair of sevens beating a pair of sixes. Basically, it was a bunch of 10-year-olds quietly sitting on the classroom floor with MASSIVE piles of the cheapest plastic chips (the thin dollar store kind) and bluffing with every other hand. We had fun, but looking back: this wasn't even close to what poker actually is. I only played with them for the rest of the school year and then all of us kind of stopped and moved onto other games like Battleship or Connect 4 (which I am super great at by the way :D ). It wasn't until years later - after high school actually, that I remembered those times. I was half asleep, but waking up one Saturday morning. You know how sometimes those random ideas just come to you? Well, I always had a knack for psychology and reading people (in college excelling at advanced psychology classes), but then it randomly occurred to me: "Huh, I [I]bet [/I]I could be good at poker." That was literally what I thought. It seemed like a cool way I could put my psychology and people-reading abilities to the test :) Of course, I was perceptive enough to realize I probably had to learn the rules and that 5th grade probably was a little different (little did I realize just HOW different!). I began by simply going onto Google and looking up the rules of poker and trying to understand the hand rankings and how action moved in betting rounds...seemed slightly complicated, but I more or less got it down. In fact, at one point, I sat alone at the dining room table dealing a deck of cards and trying to determine who goes first and such. So here I am, a college student majoring in psychology, sitting alone with a bunch of teddy bears set up at the table to represent the players (yes, I did add that for a touch of "realism" lol) and me trying to figure out how to play this card game. I needed a poker community to ask questions and learn from, but knew nobody who played poker. I researched a little online for a poker forum community and I came across CardsChat.com :) I never had a need to go anywhere else - this site had all I ever wanted. I created my CardsChat account that same day. The next few months involved me being active in the forum threads and asking lots of questions. As soon as I felt like I was confident enough in my poker abilities, I might consider playing at a casino at the lowest stakes possible just to see how I compared. Then in mid-May of 2020, I discovered the CardsChat 30 Day Course and freeroll at the end of it. I never played poker online or live at that time, but I thought it could be a good way to gain some experience. Since the course was designed for 30 Days, I had to go faster since it was already mid-May and the freeroll was at the end of the month. I went through the course in roughly two weeks time. I also studied poker in my free time, watched many YouTube videos on poker, read two poker books cover to cover during this time and lots more. Yes, when I set my mind to something, I can really stick with it and that ability has served me well in many facets of life ;) The 30 Day Course was great for me because so much of the information was completely new! At least I didn't have any years-old misconceptions that would hold me back. I learn something and I implement it - that simple. Now at the end of the course, it was lots of poker studying on my free time - me reviewing the notes I took during the course and me creating an account at a poker site to participate in the freeroll and learn how to do simple things like register. I could have an entire forum thread dedicated to that 30 Day Course Freeroll in itself, but in short, I ended up winning the entire thing! Yup, I started confident in my learning and 5 or 6 hours later I was in 1st place and the table was closing up. It felt surreal and needless to say I was excited for the rest of the night. Back in February of 2020, I didn't know the Covid-19 pandemic would become as dominating as it has been. This is March of 2021 I'm posting this and I still never played at a real casino before. In fact, I've never even been to a casino. I'm excited to go once the pandemic safely ends and normal life may once again resume. It wasn't until about a month after my CardsChat 30 Day course that I even learned this site offered freerolls lol (yes, it took me about 6 months to realize why so many were here xD). Between that time and now, I've placed 1st in maybe 3 or 4 freerolls and ITM in many more. I've joined the CardsChat Poker League and really been learning a lot! Hey, I'm still working diligently on my poker game :D In fact, I just purchased another poker book a few days ago that I'm expecting in the mail next week :) Just like anything else in life, you can improve at poker if you are willing to put the time in :) I'm looking forward to trying live games later this year. Perhaps in a few months time :) [/QUOTE]

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