Mano e mano

Poker is beautiful in its complexity but also in its simplicity. Cutting through all the complex factors that can affect the outcome of a hand, the finality is simple. If you make it to the end with the best hand, you win. How you get there can be perilous and daunting but if you arrive and come out on top, the chips are headed in your direction. Figuring out the best way to defeat others is paramount to poker success. What works against one person will have disastrous results against someone else. The key is figuring out who you are up against.

It's with that in mind that I was drawn to a different type of poker game online: Heads up. Just you against one other competitor. One winner, one loser. I prefer the Sit N Gos, which are structured events with you and your opponent starting with the same amount of chips, the blinds rising and play continuing until one of you has them all. Heads up is often called the purest form of poker because it forces you into marginal decisions with marginal hands and requires you to make these decisions often, as you are involved in every hand. There is no time to fold, fold, fold and wait for premium cards. You have to mix it up and get a little dirty. Once I discovered these, I fell deeply in love.

And I had good success as well. Bankroll management is a necessary (and difficult) skill to master for any poker player. I certainly have had a dizzying learning curve with this over the years. Knowing how much to risk on a certain game, relative to how much you have overall, and sticking to that amount is so crucial. The heads up games were good because I could play a certain limit game until I had X amount in my bankroll and then move up from there. It helped me start out at the $20 games and steadily increase until I was playing $220, $330 and even $550 games in late 2007 and 2008. I played 35 games at the $550 level and went 18-17. Looking back on where I began, with the $5 games at the 213, I was proud and humbled about the rise I had experienced. I had learned a ton, taken on several bumps and bruises and steadied myself every time I got knocked off balance. Becoming comfortable with losing a lot in order to eventually win even more. And having a deep understanding of the greater goal in mind through everything. This was a marathon, not a sprint. Once I fully appreciated that, I never looked back.

So it was the spring of 2008. My poker game was eons better that it had been during that first hand in 2003. I'd had some tourney success, both live and online, plenty of online sit n go success and my bankroll online was over $6k when I decided to tackle what I deemed then to be the final frontier. I wanted to take my shot against the best of the best. And fortunately they would all be gathering in Vegas soon. It was almost summer. Which meant the World Series of Poker was right around the corner...