The Beginnings // Capitol Hill (D.C.) Game
Hey all,
Welcome to my poker diary... It's ya boy Craft... Some folks might not think I'm important enough to even have a poker diary... But hell.. It's 2005 and I can do whatever the 'hell' I want... Right?... I've been playing poker since August 2005 (Texas Hold'em to be exact). My good friend Jason got me into the game... I remember my first game with the Anser guys and I got completely owned... I was out within the first 15 minutes... I felt soooo bad. For anyone that knows me.. I'm VERY competitive and I don't take losing with a smile often (although I've been more of a gentleman at the table lately). After playing a few more games and a conversation with my buddy Brian Scanlon, I decided to pick up some literature on the game and "get smart." I was told by Brian that his friend Scott Gallant (Doubleas) went hard on the poker literature and he saw his game greatly improve... Well... Hmm... I'm a smart guy... I have an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech... I'm good with numbers... Let's see "what it do" (c) Paul Wall... After all... If I'm going to be dropping $20-$30 at these home games, I need to at least have some sort of knowledge of the game from the books so that I can compete.
Someone tell me if I'm too long-winded in my posts... I WANT YOU FOLKS TO SEE MY GROWTH DAMN IT!... The books I've been reading have been great... Especially Dan Harrington's Hold'em books (awesome - highly recommended) ... But nothing beats good ol' fashioned experience. I started noticing that I would leave home games with a little bit of cash 'cus of my reading... but the pure process of playing hand after hand after hand is the key for any poker player... You might read in a book about "getting away from a hand" but until you have AA KK QQ and ESPECIALLY AK cracked in person (online is 100000x worse to me).. you have NO clue how sobering and saddening that feeling is... Luckily it's been more sobering for me... While I'm still an "amateur," a lot of the poker buddies that know me can tell you how well I can "get away from hands" ... Sorry if I'm ramblin' all... Reading and live games folks... That's your education... I'll get into online poker (the Anti-Chris(t) right now) and my troubles with that in a later post.
Fast forward to November 2005... Brian and I are coming off a DREADFUL poker trip to Atlantic City... You will HARDLY ever hear me talk about "luck"... I don't believe in it... But gosh darnit... Brian and I had some "bad luck" in AC at those damn $1-$2 tables... But whatever... that's how it goes... Honestly ya'll.. I almost quit playing... But my buddy Willock (Jason) gave me a good pep talk and said I shouldn't waste all my playing experience and studying over one bad weekend (I lost $480.00 people - not much to some of you.. but a brotha is on a budget!) ... He told me that if I was really serious about playing this game that would pick myself up and bounce back (that was the sensitive moment of this post - I'll try to keep it to one per three posts). This Monday we went over to Phi's house in Georgetown for a super fun cash game with some of my favorite guys to play with (Nicky, Quan, and the host Phi) ... I did solid.. not a bad night... Anytime I leave with more money than I came with... I'm okay... Below is a picture I took of Phi's new poker table that he made his damn self!
Welcome to my poker diary... It's ya boy Craft... Some folks might not think I'm important enough to even have a poker diary... But hell.. It's 2005 and I can do whatever the 'hell' I want... Right?... I've been playing poker since August 2005 (Texas Hold'em to be exact). My good friend Jason got me into the game... I remember my first game with the Anser guys and I got completely owned... I was out within the first 15 minutes... I felt soooo bad. For anyone that knows me.. I'm VERY competitive and I don't take losing with a smile often (although I've been more of a gentleman at the table lately). After playing a few more games and a conversation with my buddy Brian Scanlon, I decided to pick up some literature on the game and "get smart." I was told by Brian that his friend Scott Gallant (Doubleas) went hard on the poker literature and he saw his game greatly improve... Well... Hmm... I'm a smart guy... I have an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech... I'm good with numbers... Let's see "what it do" (c) Paul Wall... After all... If I'm going to be dropping $20-$30 at these home games, I need to at least have some sort of knowledge of the game from the books so that I can compete.
Someone tell me if I'm too long-winded in my posts... I WANT YOU FOLKS TO SEE MY GROWTH DAMN IT!... The books I've been reading have been great... Especially Dan Harrington's Hold'em books (awesome - highly recommended) ... But nothing beats good ol' fashioned experience. I started noticing that I would leave home games with a little bit of cash 'cus of my reading... but the pure process of playing hand after hand after hand is the key for any poker player... You might read in a book about "getting away from a hand" but until you have AA KK QQ and ESPECIALLY AK cracked in person (online is 100000x worse to me).. you have NO clue how sobering and saddening that feeling is... Luckily it's been more sobering for me... While I'm still an "amateur," a lot of the poker buddies that know me can tell you how well I can "get away from hands" ... Sorry if I'm ramblin' all... Reading and live games folks... That's your education... I'll get into online poker (the Anti-Chris(t) right now) and my troubles with that in a later post.
Fast forward to November 2005... Brian and I are coming off a DREADFUL poker trip to Atlantic City... You will HARDLY ever hear me talk about "luck"... I don't believe in it... But gosh darnit... Brian and I had some "bad luck" in AC at those damn $1-$2 tables... But whatever... that's how it goes... Honestly ya'll.. I almost quit playing... But my buddy Willock (Jason) gave me a good pep talk and said I shouldn't waste all my playing experience and studying over one bad weekend (I lost $480.00 people - not much to some of you.. but a brotha is on a budget!) ... He told me that if I was really serious about playing this game that would pick myself up and bounce back (that was the sensitive moment of this post - I'll try to keep it to one per three posts). This Monday we went over to Phi's house in Georgetown for a super fun cash game with some of my favorite guys to play with (Nicky, Quan, and the host Phi) ... I did solid.. not a bad night... Anytime I leave with more money than I came with... I'm okay... Below is a picture I took of Phi's new poker table that he made his damn self!
Yesterday was my 4th try at this new game I'm playing on Wednesdays hosted by Chris Darmanin (check out Chris' brother's site at http://www.darm.com) ... Pretty solid competition there... I'm at the stage of my "career" where I'm just trying to play with all types of people... Aggressive, passive, loose, tight, drunk, etc... This is a 18-person tourney with a $30 buy-in... And I came in 4th... Ah man... I felt really good about my play last night... I survived several all-in moments - a race when I was holding a pair of 8s against Ace-something - and my BEST call of an all-in to date... my pocket 7s held up against Q7 suited... It was a gutsy call but I felt good about it... I got knocked out when my A 10 ran up against big slick (AK) ... Oh well... That's how it goes... I pocketed $50 bucks... And it makes me hungrier for next time.
That's it until next time... I might play at Scott Gallant's Thursday home tourney tonight (a tourney that I've won once already - not bad)... and I might host my first Saturday game this weekend while the wifey is out of town... So you'll be hearing more from me... LEAVE COMMENTS FOLKS!... Oh yeah before I go... Everyone go check out Brian Mollica over at Poker - MySportsRadio.com ... He hosts a really good podcast called "All In" ... I'm just spreading the word... See you in Vegas Brian M.!
You will soon be able to get to my blog by going to:
http://www.pokerrico.com
Join my sports / poker message forum!
To learn more about the music side of Rico - Check out:
http://www.shamanwork.com
http://www.essdub.com
http://www.aljera.com
Peace and Blessings,
Chris "Rico" Craft
ricocraft@gmail.com
posted by Chris "The Work" Craft @ 11/17/2005 02:00:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Man... You know me and the 'net dude... All day!
Craft
Thanks Chris!... I really enjoy your games man... See you next time bro.
Craft
Thanks for the shoutout, Chris. I hope to make it to your Sat game sometime soon. Weekends are usually pretty hectic.
No doubt Phi Phi... We'll make it happen one of these days homie.
Chris.
Chris,
Nice post and thanks for the words. Like I told you before, it took me over a year before I started to win games. You are already ahead of the curve, my friend. Keep at it and you'll be crushing games in no time, except when I'm playing...
-B Scan
B Scan!... Thanks for the note buddy... See you later on tonight for Quan's game homie.
Crafty
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