I am a 20 year old aspiring poker professional eagerly waiting to be of legal age to be in a casino and test the waters. For the mean time, I have been playing online poker to scratch the itch. For the past 2 years, I have been grinding it out and having a lot of ups and downs. No wonder they call poker the game of life.

When I started first playing online, I was too afraid to play for money so I practiced at play money sites. After a couple months or so, and getting tired of the bad players, I decided to deposit at a site. My first deposit was $100. Long story short, that money was gone rather quickly. My problem was not that I wasn’t good enough, but it was that I was getting a lot of bad luck, or what the poker world labels as bad beats. This is when you put your money in when your are a huge favorite to win a hand, but lose when your opponent catches his card when they were a 10% percent underdog or so. Bad beats are part of the game, and we are told as poker players that all you can do is get your money in the pot when you are a favorite, and let the cards fall where they may. But as a human being, having this done to you 4, 5 games in a row can make a person go crazy. In fact, a poker player has to accept that there will be times when this will happen, and they should not let it affect him or her. Doing so will put their poker game at a disadvantage and cause them to play horribly.

Anyways, after that first deposit, I went to another site and decided to put $50 in. By the end of the first week, I had won over $1500. After this run, I told everyone I knew what I had won. I thought that I was the best player in the world at that time. But lo and behold, my money would be going up and down for the next few months. It was very frustrating at first, but I realized that it was just a part of the game.

Today, I still play poker online. I know it’s a hard living to make, but poker is a game that I love so much. It is what I want to do with my life. I know the road ahead is rather bumpy, but I am willing to see where the journey takes me.

FYI: just 289 more days till I can get in a casino. It’s so close, I can smell it.

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