The Life

Well, this is the first real post so I guess I have to decide where to start. I am going to focus on the poker side of my life, and probably mix in some stuff on girls because that is always fun to hear about right?

How I got started

19 years old, 'college poor' at University of Florida, and loving life. Now college poor is a different kind of poor. My mom and step dad had money, but anyone who has money in college gets in trouble, or wastes it. Later on, I become no different.


I remember sitting on the couch of my cheap sofa with 2 of my roomates, Adam and Ryan, in our 1k a month place (4 people). I asked where Shai (other roomate) was. They said upstairs. Now normally I wouldnt go up and bother for fear of something gross, but Shai owed me $20 and I was hungry, so I was hoping to get money for a Wendy's #6. Surprisengly the door was open, and I walked in and sat on the bed (he was at the desk chair) and he was playing a card game online. Now at the time, he and I were very proficient at spades and would work the local kids at a good game for $5 a head, but I knew it wasnt spades. I ask what hes doing and he says:

Shai: Playing poker

Drome: For money (funny that i asked that back then)

Shai: Ya

Drome: how much?

Shai: $20

Drome: Sweet, so you got my $20

Shai: not exactly, i put $50 on my brothers credit card. He said I could use it in emergencies.

Drome: Great (sarcastic), when can i get that $20.

Shai: Why dont you just gamble with me. I just started this and I lost the first $10....

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Looking back, its odd how such small things can have such dramatic affects on ones life
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He had $17 plus was in what at the time i called a 'single table tournament' for $20. I figure I will never see the $20 from him and agree. To make a long story short, he and I begin playing daily. Learning small tricks, playable hands and the like. Now one might ask how I knew how to play. To be honest, I dont know. I remember I knew how to play when watching, but I can honestly not put an exact time when i learned the rules.

About 3 weeks passed and we were allthe way up to $800 and change on his account. Now I know this may seem an odd amount to go up in that time, and how we didnt bust never playing below $20 still shocks me, but it happened. Now half the account is mine and we cash out. The money at the time was too much to risk, I had $400 which seemed like a fortune to me. Of course, we couldnt help but tell the whole neighborhood about our new fortune and tried getting kitchen table games together. It worked for awhile, but didnt really take off till our neighbor decided on having a .25/.50 NL game. This wasnt exactly your typical neighbor. He was the local 'supplier' if you will. He knew the lowlifes in Gainesville, unintelligent low lifes. Shai and I beat this place up once a week for around 6months. I remember I lost $20 once, biggest win was $70. If i had any other losing sessions it was less than $5.

From those games I remember one thing, and one thing only. It didnt matter how bad these players were, didnt matter they had no definable range of starting hands, didnt matter that they played everything, it didnt even matter that they werent even sure how good their hand was at times. I could always figure out what they had.


Money can make a man act funny

This time came and went and summer started, I got a shitty internship in Tampa that didnt pay shit. It sucked, but one important thing that happened was a call I got from my friend Craig, a finance guy.

Craig: Yo T, wut up

Drome: Chillin at my place, wut u up to

Craig: Well, I had a very important business meeting today (Craig was the classic overexaggerater and braggert, so I just assumed I was going to have to tell him I had to take a shower or something)

Ty: Oh ya, with who

Craig: Matt Heinze

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This is important only because Matt owned the one company at UF that every kid knew about. Tutoringzone (www.tutoringzone.com). Now, this oddly enough played a fundamental part of my poker career.
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Drome: Cool......uh, why?

Craig: Well, it happens to be that TZ is expanding to the accounting world, but they dont have anyone to teach it. He asked me if I knew someone cuz I am in his class (Matt was a TA till UF booted him). I dropped your name (at the time I was running a 4.0 in accounting and was known for being a pretty bright kid).

Drome: Really? What he say

Craig: Wants to meet you.

Drome: Craig, you hook this up I cut you in 5% (this was Craig's language, he loved mafia type stuff, and I knew exactly what to say to make it happen)

Well, I meet Matt and get an opportunity with Tutoringzone. I hadnt played poker in prolly 3 months, when I got my first paycheck from TZ. $1600 for maybe 25 hours of work (over the course of 4 weeks).

A few days later Shai comes up to me and asks if he can borrow money (he still owes me money to this day). I say no and he asks if I will deposit money money in his poker account. He explains how and I reluctantly agree and we begin this cycle again.........with one notable difference. I was making all the calls. Within a month we had $1200 and cashed it out. It wasn't but 2 days later, when Shai made the challenge that changed my poker career......