Alright... here's where I've been:

I started playing poker in nickle-dime-quarter affairs as a teenager with my extended family. By "poker", I of course mean dealer's choice queen-and-what-follows, low hole, man-with-the-axe craziness. I still host and sit in these kinds of games regularly, if for no other reason than it can be a fun social thing, and often getting a full game of "serious" players together for a Hold 'Em table just isn't possible.

In college, I played more often with roomates and friends, always in dealer's choice games where you showed up with your bank bag full of silver change. I won some and I lost some... like everyone, I'd like to say that in the long run I was "up", but who knows? I do know that I always had quarters for laundry money, and never had to break bills.

Fast forward a few years, to early this year... with the Hold 'Em (hereafter abbreviated "HE") craze on the rise thanks to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP). After talking often with a friend of mine about it, and playing some play money tables at partypoker, I decided to deposit the $50 minimum and have a go at it.

I'd like to say I was good. I'd like to say I started making money. But that didn't happen. I sat at some $0.5/$1 limit tables and was able to take a few pots, but ended up losing my money in a few hours time. Looking back now, I know I made a lot of errors... most notably thinking that I could play low-limit similar to how I play no-limit. Embarrassingly, I admit to buying in 2 more times for $50, and somehow rather quickly losing it all on the $0.5/$1 tables. That's -$150 for those of you keeping score.

Also this summer, I participated in some of those extended family games... but at some point they have moved to NL HE tournaments! (We're talking $10-$20 buy in here) If they were not 2.5 hours away, I would possibly have a regular weekly game. I did so-so, but played generally too loose, and risked too many chips, too often.

Bored and thinking it an entertainment expense, I made my 4th $50 deposit in July on partypoker, and did much better. I took my $50 on a week-long ride up to $130, and eventually of course, lost it all back. In the process though, I managed to easily rack up the 1000 raked pots that I needed to participate in to win 2 free shirts and a hat from partypoker. -$200 at this point, but I have 2 shirts and a hat. More importantly, I got a ton of experience, a much improved game, and some confidence that with a bigger bankroll, I could have withstood the unholy variance of low-limit HE.

I'm currently playing on my 5th $50 deposit... having used it to win a $5 sit and go NL tournament and still trying to ride the low-limit pony. Wish me luck.