What started you in Poker playing?

[HDContracting]

What started you in Poker playing? My friends got me into poker playing. Before then i never had any interest in the game poker. Now that i have learned how play the game,i really like it!

[liladypokerpro]

Well this will be the third or fourth time for me answering this particular question here lol but to make a long story short, I've been playing since I was old enough to count cards and learn hand values, etc. My whole family is full of gambling history, so I grew up playing all sorts of different card games, and other games as well. So I guess you could say it's in my blood.

[Vito_Nuccio]

Well this will be the third or fourth time for me answering this particular question here lol but to make a long story short, I've been playing since I was old enough to count cards and learn hand values, etc. My whole family is full of gambling history, so I grew up playing all sorts of different card games, and other games as well. So I guess you could say it's in my blood.

As Lady stated. I have been playing since I was old enough to ask Mom for spare change for the holiday card game at my relatives houses. Have not looked back since.

Later,

[Roboligraphy]

Blackjack; I started playing at the casino and won a few hundred bucks then me and my friend entered the poker room. I saw a real opportunity to make some serious coin; I lost all my money the first few times I went there but started to read a lot of poker books and play online. Then I entered a tournament for charity, I placed 4th and won 400 dollars.

Following this win; I started playing with my bosses and I usually came out a winner against them. Most I ever won was 3k in a 21 day period.

[GainerRakeback]

I started about 3 years ago when a friend invited me to a Friday night home game where they played Limit Holdem for nickles, dimes and quarters. We bought in for $20. It was about an hour drive so another friend and I car-pooled, and we all brought beer or food. Kinda funny. I was really asking: So does a flush beat a straight? LOL. When that ended, I played Limit at the Casino, then No-limit, and then this summer started online.

[Poker Orifice]

I started playing poker at the age of 4. My family was into cards in general,... it's what we did when my family got together. Being the youngest of 5, I had to learn early. Poker came quite naturally to me, lots of exposure and grew up gifted in Math (was also the family chess champion as a youngster as well, involved in chess clubs etc.).
Played a ton in my teens.
Was recently sparked to get back into it in a big way as a result of so much tv exposure. It has been a cool run but pretty overwhelming and all-consuming as well. Still loving it which is a good thing.
GL!

[rlg476]

I started to play poker before we had a TV. I was about 6 my mom and her three sisters played once a week and they would let me play. They played all those crazy games: baseball, follow the queen, roll your own and 7 stud was about only normal game they played, sometimes they would play high or low card in the hole would half the pot.

Even though they where goofy games it was fun and I was hooked.

[joemac696969]

I started watching the WSOP and liked what I saw, so i began to play online. Its been 2 years since I started to play and getting better each time i play. Good Luck!

[bowlaman]

I play out of bordom. I am a +ROI player but nothing special. I dont make enough online to support myself and I wouldnt if I played full time. Its a hobby and a passion. Its just something for me to do to get away from my life and "just play" You cant beat the feeling of taking a germans money or losing your money to someone in japan or winning some off a canadian. I mean its an international money transfer and its cool to think about.

[Mika Ollila]

For me it was a bunch of friends that had for years been playing a competitive card game called Magic: The Gathering. A few jumped to online poker, and I could not ignore the money and strategy involved, and read 2 books and made a deposit at Party.

[gamer4life27]

It's a funny story. I was in a Vegas Hotel at 9 years old with my mom, sis, cousin, auntie, etc. Basically the whole family was there. The adults had left to the casino late at night, leaving the kids (about 6, all under 14) in the same room to go to bed. Well, as kids, we looked for something to do when my older cousin pulled out a deck of cards he had paid for from the casino we were at. He knew the basics of 5 card draw, like the hands, and betting. He taught us all there how to play, and I am the only one out of all the kids who took poker seriously ever since then.

[Wyte22]

I was bartending one night, and someone switched the TV to the WSOP. I was just amazed at it but never thought I could even get good enough to make any money at it. Got invited to a game, cleaned up ( I had a basic understanding of poker because I'd played 5 card draw and 7 card stud growing up). Moved to online and the rest of is history hopefully one day to be history with a few bracelets but only time will tell!

[AnArkhos]

I got into poker through my grandad. He taught me this version of stud poker known as Sökö, played here in finland traditionally. (Canadians might know a game like this by the name of "Sousem". I started playing it at the age of 8. After that it was 5 card draw and these internet served gametypes I started some years ago.

Now I've started to study poker around a year ago really and have cleaned my game alot.

I still dont like Texas Holdem as its very boring. I tend to play almost anything else THAN tex..

[BUILDMO]

started playing way long ago and will continue.

On line started with winning a freeroll and then another...........
My ACCOUNTS have increased in size, with no deposit required.
Now I am trying to figure out how not to break even and eventually have this work as a second income.

Will take advise from here since winning can occur, but the big cashes happen to infrequently.

Freerolls are a thing of the past, and increasing the bankroll is the ever present quest.

Starting is easy...........It's closing the deal in the long run that means the most.

[necoloschi]

I did not play poker, but my son-in-law has taught me about nine months, and since then I have tried to improve in and improve my style of game because this game is just amazing!

[whitenight]

Backgammon was my game all my life. Best moment: I've beaten the European number one, Slats, at three points in the consolation rounds of the Irish Open and I am the son of and taught by a former winner of the open. I could look at a bakgammon board and instantly convert what I was seeing to odds within a few seconds and be right +/- 5% over 80% of the time. But I would never have consistent interest in backgammon (my interest would flare up and die down just as quickly and repeatedly over the years) otherwise I'd have tried harder to become successful at it. As for cards, as a child I had casually liked 'Snap', 'Beggar My Neighbour' and 'Rummy' only. Over the past few years I had casually watched poker on tv. If I was flicking through the channels I might stop and watch a few hands - that sort of interest. I didn't really understand much about the game but I vaguely understood that some hands were better than others. Fair enough, I wasn't so interested in the game that I could tell anyone straight off whether a straight beat a flush etc. but I also found it interesting that the game seemed to attract so many lowlife types and that intrigued me. Why should a game like chess or golf attract a certain type of person and why should poker a totally different other?

Anyway one afternoon I was bored and in the library. I ended up borrowing a wide selection of books, one of which concerned poker. In the next few weeks I hardly looked at that book again, until one day I was reading about the great players of the game and suddenly became extremely interested in one of them. There was something about Stu Ungar which I could instantly identify with both in the way he looked and his character as described at the table. I found out more about him, downloaded some documentaries and feel a deep empathy with and understanding of him, as well as a great sadness that the game lost such a flawed genius. I know that he was probably the world's best rummy player but for whatever reason, it was texas holdem that I suddenly wanted to learn and play well.The rest, in other words, is history...

[MijZmij]

My friends started to play online poker at PokerStars, and they involved me in. I saw full tilt on tv opened account and play about year and a half

[david4444]

It was in 1997 when i first seen the movie "Maverick" (with mel gibson) , i was only in the age
of 17 and that was the first time i was actually revealed poker.
i knew of course that there is a card game called poker but i`v never fascinated from it
like i was when i first seen that movie.
after this i`v talked with my three best friend and we started to play 5 cards Draw.
for more then a year we played this game untill 1998 when "rounders" came out and that was the first time i was exposed to texas hold`em!!
till today we still laughing about that year we played 5 cards draw

so how did you start playing?

[frob23]

David, I have merged your thread with an older one that is very similar in content. We've had a bunch of threads like this. I know I've answered this before too.

And don't laugh about playing draw for a year. I played it for well over 15 before hold'em became the game of the moment. It's a classic.


Similar Threads from times gone by:
http://www.rakeback.com/poker-forum/.../how-long-488/ -- How long have you played... includes stories of when people started
http://www.rakeback.com/poker-forum/...ids-cards-242/ -- Asking about if kids should play... includes a couple stories about when people started and how (including mine)

[irishpkr]

I got into poker for the pussy. No I just, I got into it because its the perfect refuge of the antisocial so it was quite OK for me