First post. Hopefully a good one.
BIO
I started playing with my friends after watching Rounders around 2004. We didn't even know the rules but we kinda winged it. I won our first home game tourney, 6 players, $200 pesos buy-in (about 15 bucks), winner take all. I was a student at the time, and like anyone, loved the "free money". Decided a small investment would be great. I decided to purchase Phil Helmuth's "Play Poker like the Pros". Well, no way I was just going to play the top ten hands or rate people as Lions, Elephants and whatever. So that was that. I searched around for poker knowledge, and eventually got to 2+2 and pocketfives. I really hated 2+2's format and the general condescending attitude there (not towards me, but in general, I was just a lurker). Started reading every poker strategy article. I couldn't fathom the fact that someone could actually fold AK preflop. That was probably my first realization that I didn't really know anything. I mean, these guys were winning thousands of dollars, so they had to know more than me. Dedicated a lot of time to getting better. Practiced stuff in home games, read many more books. Oh, and throughout my life, I've always loved games. Could always play hours on end, as long as it was interesting. Nintendo when I was a boy. Chess as a teenager. Poker as an adult. Sounds like a plan.
Fast forward to 6 months later. I enter my first MTT tournament. $120dlls buy-in. 95 people. I was half staked by my dad, by the way. I wasn't even going to play. Ended up chopping it 3 handed for a cool 32k pesos (about 2.7k dlls). I was hooked. Bought Harrington on Holdem. Got a little better. Now I was consciously aware of not blinding out. In total, I played 15 live tournaments over the next 2 years. Outright won two more. Cashed 6 more, for about 110k pesos profit. I deposited $50 on party poker in 2006. I just played cash games when drunk and ran over the table. I would just wake up and find out I'd won $500 or so. Ran it up to 3k. I was on top of the world! Cashed out 1k. 5 tabled $2-$4, 6 max the next day. Hmmm, let's just say that didn't go as planned. Busted the roll obviously. Learned a really important lesson though. NEVER PLAY WHERE YOU DON'T BELONG.
Quit online poker for 3 years. Got a job. Worked for the Man. Hated almost every second of it. In the back of my mind still lingered my long lost love affair with the beautiful game we love. I was making 1k per month at my job when I was 26 (3 years ago). Mexican jobs for the lose obv. In 2008 I correctly answered an Intellipoker quiz for $5. I test well. So, that was the start. It was probably around September 2008. I logged in to pokerstars, played 10c - 360's for a while. I won one and was psyched. I mean, 8 bucks for clicking buttons! I was so there. I learned about multi-tabling profitably. Really? There's actually people that can play well on multiple tables? How do they do it? More tables = More hourly. I'm so there. Started multi-tabling the 10 - 360. Played about 900 of them, with an awesome 140% roi... or 14 cents per game. Then, decided to play micro-cash. Started 16 tabling $0.10-$0.25. Made like 1.5k or something. But it was just too tedious. Entered a few 2.20's. Won one and I felt as if I had found my calling. 108 bucks!
Bought a PC with dual monitors, got a new job (which I eventually quit because I sort of hate being told what to do, at what times I could eat, etc.). Then comes 2010. I have a plan. I have a grinding schedule. I'm loving my life. Then comes May. I'm reviewing a post on pocketfives. Some random guy says something about some dude, "mrpaintball", that "doesn't experience downswings, but he's really THAT good". I check out his stats, and they ARE really good. So I send him a stalker-ish pm for some coaching. The guy answers that he's holding a ghost for $50 next saturday. OOOh, I'm so there. I watch him play. For the second time in my short poker career, I realize, I don't really know anything. His thought process is just so far ahead of mine and I metaphorically blush in shame. Props to him obv. About 2 months later, I get a pm through pocketfives. I do a "background check" (I check for his posts on pocketfives), and he's got 0 posts. I think I'm getting scammed obviously. He says "Hey, nice graph. Have you ever thought about playing the 12 -180's? I can hook you up for some coaching and staking. Let me know". I give him my secondary e-mail, send him some hand histories. He writes back that they're are definitely interested in staking me. He's in charge of getting some coaching for me. I'm in charge of eventually crushing. I'm skeptically there!
Eventually, mrpaintball is the 180's coach and I'm pretty happy because I didn't really care much for the former 180's coach, and matty's ghost in May was the nuts. I start working with mrpaintball and he just outright owns, so I get better. This whole experience was my jumping point for bigger and better things and I'm really grateful for it.
Salvador Lozano
ps: Next blog entry= Sharkscope graphs, where I am, where am I going, poker business opportunities, coaching?, etc
