In light of the recent blog posts by my friends Brooksie and Rooster, I figured I would share my story starting from when I began playing poker to where I am today, and where I would like to see myself in the poker community in the future. Big props to them for keeping it real, I plan on doing the same. Before you start reading this I would like to mention that it wasn't easy for me to write this, but felt like every detail I included was essential in telling my poker story, so bear with me!
Let me begin with a little background on my family. My family lives in Williamston, Michigan, a small suburb of Lansing (the state capitol). I'm the oldest of three kids, with a 22 year old brother who's currently in graduate school in Berkeley, California, and an 18 year old sister who just started college several weeks ago in St Louis, Missouri. My mother and father hail from San Francisco, California, and London, England, respectively, and neither of them supports that I enjoy playing poker in the slightest. To put it in perspective, my father equates playing poker to abusing drugs or alcohol. The irony behind my father's hate for the game is that he is to thank for some of the reason why my brother and I started playing poker! Both my brother and I were very strong math students growing up, thanks in part to my father who really pushed us to be successful in mathematics. My brother really embraced the challenge, as he's now working on his PHD in Mathematics at the University of California @ Berkeley following a math degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I did as well, but only to an extent, finishing with top marks in AP Calculus my junior year of high school, but decided not to progress farther than that in the world of mathematics, as I didn't see the real world applications of subjects like linear algebra, real analysis, etc.
Anyhow, my brother and I really enjoyed chess growing up, so as we grew older the transition into poker was pretty natural. We both enjoyed the mathematical calculations within the game, as well as the game theory and the psychology. My brother purchased a set of plastic red, white, and blue chips and we started playing heads up poker games sporadically starting in summer 2003, the same summer Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP and poker began to boom. As No Limit Texas Hold'em started to boom (that was the only game I knew how to play @ this point in time) more and more of my friends learned to play, and we started playing home games in the summer of 2004. At that time I was very involved with the tennis team @ my high school, and many of my friends on the team had just picked up poker as well, so naturally this led to an increase in games. We continued to play $5-$10 buy in games all throughout high school, but eventually some of us who had part time jobs wanted to play slightly higher stakes. Fortunately, there was a group of guys a year or two older than us who played a $25-$50 buy in game, so some of us would dabble in that game from time to time, usually losing. At the time we never would have guessed it, but from that 'bigger game' came three professional poker players: Wesley Whybrew, who shipped the Sunday Million on Pokerstars for $200K when he was 19 y/o, Greg Peck, and Andrew 'good2cu' Robl who now plays the 'Big Game' in Macau. You can find the earnings for Greg, Wesley, and Andrew in the respective links.
In March 2007, I made the toughest decision of my life. Considering my home life had been somewhat tumultuous from a pretty young age, I knew I needed to get out of Michigan and away from my family to truly allow myself to flourish in many ways without my parents, specifically my father, constantly scrutinizing everything I did. Thus, I decided to leave Michigan and attend St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Although the transition was pretty difficult for me, I still think it's the best decision I've ever made. I vividly remember my father's last words to me the day I stepped onto campus, he told me "Robert, make sure you try harder in college than you did in high school." That being said, I did make an attempt to try harder in school, so poker took a backseat for me throughout my freshman year, although I did find a small home game to play in across town at Carleton College, where I was fortunate enough to meet some truly brilliant people whom I was able to form some awesome friendships with. My first foray into the casino poker scene began following my freshman year of college. I had just gotten out of a long term relationship that wasn't healthy for me and needed an outlet, so I started playing poker at the local charity room in Lansing, MI 10-15 minutes from my house. At that time the most popular game was 1-2 No Limit (!!) with a $100 max buy in. With a bankroll of about $500, I was prepared to crush the game! Not sure how I didn't go broke playing that game the summer of 2008, but I ended up winning about $1500 that summer over a sample size of about 100-120 hours.
I continued to play live games during summer and winter breaks throughout college, but also began playing online in Fall 2008 under the screenname: ericmolina. I was very entertained by his antics in the 2006 WSOP so I decided to use his name for my SN. I received a $40 transfer on Full Tilt Poker and jumped into the microstakes SNG's. After busting my first $40 transfer, I slowly ran my 2nd one up throughout my sophomore and junior year's of college. I was generally pretty busy with studying, friends and sports in college so I never put in more than 10-15 hours a week of volume and didn't have a score bigger than $300.
The summer of 2009 was when poker really 'took off' for me. I was part of a group of friends that enjoyed discussing the game and analyzing hands, which was really helpful for me. Unfortunately, at the same time my life at home was getting even more difficult. Although I wasnt verbal sparring with my father as much as I had in year's past, my grandparents had just moved into assisted living. My grandfather, who was 89 at the time, had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease since 2002, and seeing him suffer the way he did was like constantly getting punched in the stomach. I had engaged in some very tense conversations with my mother and her siblings about putting him in assisted living, and strongly pushed for my family to do it back in California several years before they got around to doing it in Michigan, which I vehemently disagreed with. Once he was placed in assisted living in East Lansing, Michigan, I essentially tried to avoid spending time with him at all costs, as it was incredibly depressing seeing someone who was such a great mentor and influence on me suffer so much. Once again poker was a great outlet from the vicissitudes of my family problems, and in July and August 2009 I put some great results together. By this time I had learned how to play PLO and was doing pretty well in a 1-2 HO game that was running @ the local poker room. I also qualified for the Heartland Poker Tour event at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, but couldn't play because my aunt and uncle had came out to visit from California to help take care of my grandfather. Regardless, I sold my seat for $1600 and the $1225 profit was the biggest poker score of my career @ the time. I made $6000 that summer playing games that were $200 buy in or less and charted my entire progress. I think I still have the spreadsheet somewhere if anyone wants to see it just for kicks, but I think I ended up making about $15-16 per hour, which at the time I was very excited about!
Fast forward through my junior and senior years of college to summer 2011. I was a recent graduate of St. Olaf, and had taken a job as a Financial Representative for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans back in Lansing, MI contingent on me passing my Series 7 and 66 licensing exams. At that time I was essentially living with a girl that I'd been seeing for a while and wasn't playing as much poker. At the time I applied for and accepted this position I was very content with my not only my girlfriend, but also with my parents, as my father and I were slowly settling our differences. Unfortunately, a lot of this progress fell apart for me. I wasn't motivated to study for my licensing exams, as I learned pretty quickly after a week or so of studying that I didn't want to spend a year being a financial rep, let alone most of my life... In addition, the relationship I was in wasn't going anywhere, and I missed spending time with my college friends IMMENSELY. Once I failed my licensing exams in September 2011, I started grinding on Lock Poker (whoops?) and simultaneously began applying for jobs in Minnesota. Considering the free time I had on my hands that fall, I felt like my poker game grew by leaps and bounds, as I read and commented in poker strategy forums and watched a lot of poker strategy videos. By December 2011, I had found a temporary job in Minnesota and was all set to move back here. Although I was totally broke at the time, I was elated that I was moving back to Minnesota.
Once I moved out here for good in January 2012, I found myself extremely busy with work, my internship with the Obama Campaign, and spending time with my friends. That left poker, and my girlfriend, on the back burner. Throughout the winter of 2012 I only played cards occasionally, as my bankroll dictated that I save for more important expenditures. I started playing more at Running Aces during Summer 2012 and in all honesty, I was kind of a jerk to players and dealers alike. Although I could tell ppl respected my game, I would totally understand if people didn't respect my attitude and demeanor at the table for those few months, as I was impolite and complained a lot to players and dealers, an issue I had never had at the tables before. Reflecting back I saw that as a transition period for me. Before 2012 I used poker as an outlet from my family problems. I saw it as not only a game where I could free my mind of some of my family struggles, but also where my actions wouldn't be thrown under a microscope. During that summer, I started throwing my own actions @ the table under the microscope, and verbally and visually expressed my frustrations. I took a break from the game at the end of 2012 to recollect myself and make sure I came back stronger than ever, both as a player and as a genuinely good person at the table.
Fast forward to 2013, even though I feel like I still have some work to do, I am incredibly happy with how my game, attitude, and demeanor have improved at the tables. I know I will never be able to take bad beats as well as some players, but I feel like I've come a long way. Most importantly, I'm genuinely happy to be playing the game and am blessed to have made some of the friendships I've made in the past year. One thing I owe that to is the #TeamHammerDong - #TeamPokerJoker dynamic, which for the most part has been fantastic for growth and entertainment in the Minnesota Poker Community. Being a member of a 'poker team' has allowed me to cultivate meaningful friendships and also enhance my profile on Twitter, which I get a lot of entertainment value out of!
Finally, I hope you, the reader, enjoyed reading this blog. I usually don't step out of my comfort zone to talk about my family life, but felt like it was important to do so at it relates quite heavily to how I got started in poker. I'm thankful that I now get a lot of enjoyment out of the game and am playing it for the right reasons, and hope to continue to do that for a long time! Thank you to everyone that's been a friend to me since I moved out here, I appreciate your friendship more than you probably think! I plan on trying to focus more on poker within my blog and hope you guys continue to read my material!
- Rob
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