Hello! I've finally decided to start a blog, and hopefully I'll get enough hits to make it worthwhile. Let's see, a rundown of my poker career....

I started playing poker in the year 2003. I was not a direct product of the Poker Boom, but I believe that those who are responsible for getting me into it were. They'd invite my little freshman self to their senior game, all wearing their little sunglasses and their crappy poker faces. Unfortunately, back then, I had no clue what I was doing, and I never won. But I continued to donate $5 to the pot every saturday night, until suddenly, the games stopped. I quit poker for a while, and I'm honestly not that sure when I started up again. Eventually, games with friends my OWN age began to turn up, and I'd play at them. None of us really knew what we were doing, so I'd occasionally win one or two, even besting our local pro (well, for our age at least) in an epic heads up battle for the $35 first place money (Good times)!
It was around this time that my buddy, Kevin (the 'local pro' of sorts), made a HUGE cash in an online tournament, about $1200, which is mighty fine for a... well, let's just say that's GREAT for our demographic ;) This was on September 23rd, 2006. Damn near a whole year ago, and he's already cashed out enough to buy a car, and a beautiful new bass and amplifier set. But enough about him, this blog's about me, damnit!
After his big win I decided that Poker was officially a game of skill, and not so much luck. I didn't get any books, but I started playing play money on Pokerstars.. a LOT. I got a lot of experience from that. Then I started doing frequently better in our home games, cashing and winning a a LOT more often. But that all pales in comparison to that fateful night in North Carolina.

January 3rd (ish), 2007

I had been in a big poker mood lately, and was dying to play a game. I was visiting my brother, a Marine who lived in Camp LeJeune, and while we were there, he told me of a local game that he often played at. He warned me before I accepted the offer, that some of the guys there were professional players who played for a living, and that some of them had WSOP and USPC experience.. but I wasn't afraid.
Since it was just a social game, the blinds were fairly small, at $1/$2 (high stakes to me) and I only had $100. Apparently this is what everyone bought in with, so I didn't feel too ashamed with my smallish chipstack (which was miniscule compared to the others--they had already been playing for 5 hours). I bought in, and played a real tight game. Next thing I know, I'm up $100.
I started to gather my chips and head for the cashier when my brother said "dude, I'll stake you if you lose anything just keep playin' your game, you're doing fine!" So I sat back down and continued to play. During one of the key hands, I had some type of pocket pair. Whatever it was, I flopped a set with it, and the turn paired the board (lower than my set). After the river, the guy put me all in, and I called, and he said "Full house!" Showing a matching card to the pair as well as an Ace, which was also on the board. I said "Fuck" and turned over what I thought was a cooler, but in actuality was a higher full house.
So there I am, with $400, sweaty palms, etc. giving off tells left and right I bet. I was playing like a total donk. But oh well, I had plenty of money :D The next big hand was my last, I flopped top pair and bottom pair, and on the river, I called an all in, and beat a worse two pair, and had $800. As I began stacking my chips, she pushed them over (jokingly..what a bitch), and my brother came right over and started stacking them for me saying "dont' worry about it just keep playing" and I said, "No, I'm really done now, this is enough for me, haha"
So I cashed out, (pictures below).

A month later, I used the winnings to purchase a 50" Samsung HDTV (Which I am now using to type this blog :D)

It was after this that I began to get real serious, and I deposited my first $10 on Pokerstars. And if you want to see how that venture went, go ahead and sharkscope me: Emperor IX

Yeah, not pretty.

Neither were the next 5 deposits.

Finally, I stopped depositing, and instead accepted transfers from some GREAT CC-ers..., well one at least. V sent me $10 and told me to have fun, and boy did I, I doubled it up and sent it back, then lost what I had left. This happened twice more.
My amazing girlfriend, Amanda, got me Super/System 2 for my graduation. I read it and LOVED it, next thing I know, my poker book library consists of:

The Theory of Poker
Super/System 2
Online Poker (Brunson)
Tournament Poker and the Art of War (Great book)
Zen and the Art of Poker
The Tao of Poker
Harrington on Hold em (all 3 thanks to Combuboom!!)

I took a month off in August, due to some personal problems and a need to study the game a bit more without the pressures of actually playing. During that month I re-read the Theory of Poker and I read The Art of War and Zen and the Art of Poker.

After August was over, I decided to start playing again, but I had no way of getting money online, and quite frankly, I didn't want to. I wanted to do it as cheaply as possible.
Luckily, Cardschat is the greatest site ever, and offers many freerolls every week (www.cardschat.com put Emperor IX as your referral ;)
I played in the Bodog freeroll and took 1st place out of 144 for $30. All my studying had paid off. I took the $30 to a $0.25/$0.50 LIMIT hold em table, and double up to $60, then began playing 10max constantly. Boy are Bodog players suckers. I now have $150 in my account, and I'm still growing, because i'm following STRICT BR management rules, those of Jesus Ferguson.
The other day I played in CC's freeroll on Full Tilt, and I placed 67th out of 900. I'm absolutely POSITIVE I'd've final tabled it if I had not decided to steal blinds at the PRECISE time the only chipleader over me at the table picked up AKs. My skills have increased astronomically since I joined CC, and even MORE after I took the month off to study.
Even with my friends home games, I've won 3 of our last 4, and got 2nd in the fourth one. It's almost not fair ;)

I'll be posting updates after every session I have time, but for now, this shall do. Here are some pictures from North Carolina: