A story of myself as the kid in poker... (Part 1)

It's a frosty night in Sweden, near xmas time. Weather so dark and cold that will make any hard-ass shiver to their bones. Near the train-station there is a huge garage-like house where the young guns went to play the game of Texas Hold'em with a gang of online veterans. I was told one of the club owners played had played a WPT tournament in his days, the rest of the owners we're just steady grinders, some of them had jobs and some made an living off this game. Let's go back 2 years before we proceed.

I was 16 years old, we we're hanging out at a friend of mines, we had a couple of girls over and they decided to play the usual, card games, but this time there were chips involved, not for any money though. They asked me to join, I declined .. I said I hated card games and I couldn't be bothered so I chose to watch TV with another friend of mine. The truth was I didn't know anything about cards, I couldn't even call out the color of the cards without thinking really hard and I didn't know what anything above two-pair was. That day passed and a week after we we're invited to one of the girls who they played with, I decided I wanted to learn this game.

We we're all beginners. We started off and I built up a good chiplead.

I picked up the infamous aces. I can remember I slowplayed them postflop to the river and then went all-in and got called with pocket deuces. I won and aces were immortal to me. The hand few people master playing without going broke. I played for about 20 minutes until I was out of our little tournament. I still wanted more. It was fun, outplaying your opponents.

A year goes by and we play home-games regulary, with 20 SEK tournaments (about $1,4) you win you get about 10 fresh bucks! One of the guys we played home-games with was a little more into poker than we were - we always feared playing with him. I always tried to outplay him and ended up broke. On his 18th birthday he got his membership to play at the local clubs. He is the one who introduced me to this place I was about to play, he gave me some ethics advice - don't slow-roll, bet out of turn, bad mouth anyone and to be sure not to mix up the words and meaning of raise and bet.

The door opened and I see this tall guy with glasses and a hat with the Full Tilt Poker logo on it. I was really excited about this and I didn't want to end up as a loser since I felt I had to make a good impression so I would be recognized as the new guy on the block who is ready to break and take the chips. The tournament started and I had a very chatty guy next to me, he was very kind and always helping when I made mistakes. About 20 minutes into the game I get pocket deuces. I'm first to act and I call, no one raises the pot and we're 4-handed. I was facing a hyper-aggressive calling-station.

The flop comes 2,6,K rainbow. I slowplay them, isn't that the way you make the money by slowplaying everything? He bets around the pot size and I raise, he raises me and I go all-in playing my hand superstrong and trying to make a statement: You go against me it's for all your chips. He calls and says: If you have a set I'm almost drawing dead, I nod and show my deuces of blazing fire. The turn gives him a flush draw and my world freezes for a second, if I lose I will be shortstacked and I'm doomed to fail and that is not what I need right now. I need my confidence in this game. The trips hold up and I shake his hand and he walks away talking to himself. I'm steadily shaking as I play, and I can't stop it, the adrenaline is too much, I'm f**kin lovin' it.

I survive the field of 42 players and I come up second. Not only that, my friend who I looked up to came in 4th and I knocked him out! LOTS of cash for me. About $400 for second place, wow. Now I'm a steady player here 3 times a week. I long to play everyday, my school is 3 minutes away and after school I go with haste and wait outside the club with 2 hours until opening in the middle of the winter. One day on the way in to the club I see a guy who took all my chips in a cash-game with his aces against my top pair sh*t kicker. He's young, and he's a smoker like me and uses his words to change your play. He's something I've never seen before. He outplays the clubowners and tilts them. He's about to recognize who the f*ck I am, I'm gonna show him in this tournament he can't walk over me.

To be continued....