I am curious about our successful high stakes poker players on the forum like blackfade and creative. Can you guys explain how you got to your level of play and what hurdles you all got through?

Do you guys think that any player could eventually get to your level with skill and dedication or its just a talent you guys have?

I'm a decent poker player but I dont think I have the skills or the balls to go as high as you all obviously have.

I played on the $.50/$1 tables...and made $72 in 90 minutes.

I said i wanted to hear from successful high stakes poker players like creative and blackice. not how you made your rent last month.

what is it that you want to know

to get where i am now you have to be obsessed. theres no way around it.

having natural talent(math/logic/risk taking) is necessary but without dedication (re: obsession) you wont get there.

i dont feel like typing a detailed response, sorry.

I was just wondering where you got started, like what limit, and how quickly it took to build your bankroll. I don't attend on trying to mimic you or anything I was just curious.

Are you one of slikmaoriboy, cwonsie, or coche7 sipher?

It's a lot more difficult now to make progress then it was in the past. I study poker a lot. I am an active member of Card Runners and I diligently study the same video 2-3 times, taking additional notes with each viewing and reviewing them during my play.

I've spent 1.5 years now working from 10nl-50nl and I'm just getting to a point where I'm really starting to feel a lot of "A-Ha!" moments where I feel a lot more aware of what is going on than the other players at my limit. I hope to move up again soon, but I took the worst downswing I have experienced in March and I'm rebuilding from that.

To answer your question, there is a lot of competition and it is very difficult to start from nothing and make it to mid-stakes. If I ever get to 200-400nl I will be happy.

I think you can go far on dedication alone, I don't think I have any talent for this game. But.. you will obviously not reach the very top or have the highest win rates for your level if you do not have a bit of talent. But you can still make very good money.

gameselection is key btw, equally important as bankrollmanagement if you're not one of the very best.

BF, you going to the wsop this year? ill in LV for the whole month of june

if so lets meet up sometime

i wont stab you i promise

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to creat!ve [7s 3s]
Karoly_NL: folds
MiniMitiMo: folds
Karoly_NL leaves the table
creat!ve: raises $20 to $30
kkolsen has returned
King_Nine: calls $20
*** FLOP *** [6h Qc 2d]
morello05 joins the table at seat #4
creat!ve: checks
King_Nine: checks
*** TURN *** [6h Qc 2d] [Th]
creat!ve: bets $54
King_Nine: calls $54
*** RIVER *** [6h Qc 2d Th] [8h]
creat!ve: bets $150
King_Nine: raises $350 to $500
matate has returned
creat!ve: raises $1280 to $1780
King_Nine said, "blah"
King_Nine said, "nh"
King_Nine said, "st8"
King_Nine: folds
creat!ve collected $1166 from pot
creat!ve: shows [7s 3s] (high card Queen)

fun hand :]

Bren it's looking more and more like I'm going to get this Cardplayer internship to cover the WSOP. I'll be getting paid and have a free place to stay if I do get it. I just got the e-mail saying I'm a finalist. We should meet up or something. Hell I might even buy you a beer even though you've got the deep pockets. For as average a player as I am online I absolutely kill low-stakes in Vegas though :] I can't wait till series season to crush the tourists.

Originally Posted by creative

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to creat!ve [7s 3s]
Karoly_NL: folds
MiniMitiMo: folds
Karoly_NL leaves the table
creat!ve: raises $20 to $30
kkolsen has returned
King_Nine: calls $20
*** FLOP *** [6h Qc 2d]
morello05 joins the table at seat #4
creat!ve: checks
King_Nine: checks
*** TURN *** [6h Qc 2d] [Th]
creat!ve: bets $54
King_Nine: calls $54
*** RIVER *** [6h Qc 2d Th] [8h]
creat!ve: bets $150
King_Nine: raises $350 to $500
matate has returned
creat!ve: raises $1280 to $1780
King_Nine said, "blah"
King_Nine said, "nh"
King_Nine said, "st8"
King_Nine: folds
creat!ve collected $1166 from pot
creat!ve: shows [7s 3s] (high card Queen)

fun hand :]

I feel really pro when I do that with $30 stakes(I play .50/1)

I am no where near brave/rich enough to do that with $1000 :/

Originally Posted by creative

BF, you going to the wsop this year? ill in LV for the whole month of june

if so lets meet up sometime

i wont stab you i promise

Me and some friends have booked a house from 15 june -> july 17th

should be fun

BF/adroit

as the series approaches we'll have to setup a lunch or dinner sometime during the month

i hope i end up in vegas june-ish as well
i've had bad luck so far with 1-2nl there so far :[

btw, semi-serious but kind of complete answer to the question in the OP:
most online players start with either 5$ or 10$ sngs along with 25$nl cash game, or sometimes even .5-1.00 limit hold'em like i did

one of the earliest and most important resources regulars and "obsessed" players use is regularly visiting one of the popular poker forums that are online (see: 2+2, pocket fives, etc.) and reading the subforums associated with their stakes

it's easy to make some decent money at the games earlier mentioned, which leads to buying pokertracker + pokerace hud and a subscription at cardrunners or another poker video training site

from then you can move up limits and expand your game from just sngs/ring to heads up (i think crea has won a lot there) and larger buy-in tournaments

assuming you're somewhat competent in poker at the beginning (meaning, you have some experience in that you've read a book or a basic website like pokertips.org outlining a tight-aggressive strategy), you shouldn't need an initial monetary investment of over 500$ if you're willing to grind your way through the stakes. i personally started with only 100$ at party, which + the deposit bonus was enough to scrape by at .5/1.00 limit until eventually being a regular at 100nl

*edit okay i realized this isn't a good answer at all to the original question so just ignore this

it is my opinion, however, that anyone with enough dedication (or, like crea says, obsession) can make the stakes. i personally can't put in the raw thousands of hands like ballers do to get high :p

.5/1 for me.. never really won.

5,000th Post: My Poker Career, Start to Finish. WAAAY tl;dr - Two Plus Two Forums

theres a really, really good story for you about a high stakes player


fwiw he was my coach for a little bit, hes a stud

Originally Posted by creative

5,000th Post: My Poker Career, Start to Finish. WAAAY tl;dr - Two Plus Two Forums

theres a really, really good story for you about a high stakes player


fwiw he was my coach for a little bit, hes a stud

You think he is really going to quit?

quit professionally? yes

quit playing all toge3ther? no