Live Texas Holdem
Well, I finally entered a live shuffle and deal the cards No Limit Texas Holdem game.
A community near the here has a monthly NL holdem tournament fund raiser with the monthly finalists vieing at the end of the year for WSOP seats. Buy-in was $30 that got you $1000 in tournament chips. $10 rebuys for $1000 in tournament chips available anytime the first hour and a $20 rebuy for $5000 in tournament chips at the 1 hr point. No more rebuys after that.
The community center had 20 tables with 10 players per table. Each table played until there were two players left at the table. Then those 40 people were placed on 4 tables and played until a monthly winner was decided. Top prize was $750 and a seat in the end of the year play for the WSOP seat.
Play at the tables went like this. Each player took turns dealing with the Deal button rotating clockwise around the table. Blinds and the timed blinds go up were established by the house. Info on this was provided via a digital projector display on the wall of the room.
Each table decided on a table leader to insure the game went smoothe. Communication between players was vital to keep confusion to a minimum.
I lasted 2 hours and had a ball. The cards just didn't go my way. The best hand I had was 7,7 and it was beat at the showdown.
All in all, I plan to give it two more tries before the end of year finals. I spent $50 and learned a different face of gaming.

Showing a profit.
Well, nine months of playing online poker have passed by. Until January, 2006, online poker was costing me an average of $30 per month. Hell, it costs more than that for my wife and I to go out to dinner and a movie.
So imagine how extatic I was when I finally showed a profit for January, 2006. True, it was only $6.62, but, it was MY $6.62.
Move over Gus Hansen. There is a new player at the table.
I have enjoyed this website that was suggested to me by an online opponent whose name I do not recall.
PokerChamps.com is a fun site with real money games as well as play money games. You can play freeroll games for a chance to win real money. You can play ring games or tournaments. Points are collected for each real money game that is played and the weekly point total determines the bonus amount distributed to the players account on friday.
I still have yet to experience a non-internet, live texas holdem game. I also have not played a real money ring game.
I have recently heard of a site called DoylesRoom.com. I have downloaded it, but, have not played it yet.
I am going to strive to get better at Texas holdem this year and this will be tracked by my monthly net profit/loss. I look forward to the games.

Free Roll.
During my introduction to Online Texas Holdem in 2005 I learned to look for the Free Roll tournaments at the various Holdem websites I visited. Free Roll means no money required to buy-in to the designated tournament. Anyone can enter the tournament to try to win one of the tournament prizes. Different sites set up different values.
Initially, JimFeistPoker.com offered registered players two promo coins per day (no longer offered). Each could be used to gain entry into satellite games toward a weekly $1000 final game.
Ultimate Bet.com has several Free Roll tournaments each day with prizes including Prize Pool points, Bonus Dollars, and Tournament Entry Chips (TEC). A TEC can be used to enter a $100 buy-in real money tournament.
FullTiltPoker.com has at least 2 Free Roll games per day, each playing for $40 real money.
PokerStars.com has Free Roll games into special events such as the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour.
Some sites restrict some of the Free Roll tournaments to Frequent Player Point (FPP) redemption or Real Money deposit status.
The down side of this Free Roll world is that even though you are at a table of usually 9 players, there are from 900 to 2500 players in the tournament all going for the Free Roll prize. Thus, for the small reward you get if you win the tournament prize, a large amount of time is spent in front of the computer. Some of the Free Roll tournaments last 4 to 6 hours.
I have only finished in the money once on the Free Roll tournaments I have entered. I will still enter them periodically for a change of pace from the Sit & Go games, but I will stick to the Sit & Go games in the long run.

Holdem Time

Professional poker player I am not, but, the World Poker Tour(WPT) weekly program on the Travel Channel put the bug in my head. So after watching two seasons of WPT I finally gave in to my curiosity.
I started with play money only on a site called PokerStars.net in April, 2005. I wanted to play No Limit Texas Holdem and I found a variety of games available on this website, including Texas Holdem. The site starts you out with $1000.00 play money, and will resupply you when you run low. It seemed like a perfect starting place to me.
I started to play in an area of the site called "Sit & go". This is a site where you commit a portion of your play money to a poker game pitting you against other players, from 9 to 45 players depending on the selection you make from a list of available games posted.
I was successful with my play money experiences so much that I opened a real money account with PokerStars.com in May, 2005. I registered with an internet financial site and arranged for $50 to be deposited in my PokerStars account. Enough to test the waters, but, won't break my bank account.
I started playing the 45 player $1.20 buy-in multitable game, where, $1.00 goes to the prize fund and $0.20 goes to the house. The game pays the top 7 finishers from $14 to the Winner, to$2 to the 7th place winner. It took me about 2 weeks to finish in the money. It appeared that winning real money games was not as easy as winning play money games.
By the end of 2005 I was averaging about 50 No Limit Texas Holdem games per month and was now playing the 18 player $1.75 buy-in multitable games. My in the money finishes were not able to sustain my PokerStars real money account, so, I had to replenish my account periodically. Online poker wound up costing me about $30 per month in 2005 and that is much less than the cost of a trip to Las Vegas each month.