I joined the Marine Corps right after I graduated from high school in August of 2002. I served in the Marine Corps for five years on active duty. During this time I was fortunate enough to travel to thirteen different countries around the world. I was a Marine Security Guard and it was my job to protect classified information, United States government property and U.S. citizens at United States Embassies and Consulates around the world. It was a very rewarding experience for me and I would not trade it for anything. I met the President of the United States at the time, George W. Bush on two different occasions. I was also fortunate enough to meet then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a few times as well.
Like most of you guys, I caught the poker bug after the WSOP Main Event of 2003. Chris Moneymaker won the event against a field of professional players. I thought to myself, ‘If this guy can do it, why can’t I?’ So I begin to dabble around on PokerStars with play money and small buy-in tournaments. I was in the Marine Corps at the time, so I really didn’t have much time to take the game seriously.
My first experience playing live poker was in the Dominican Republic. I was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and had a few days of leave. So I went across the border to a resort in the Dominican Republic. There was a casino in the resort with one poker table. They only had a game going at night. I couldn’t wait to play. I had seen a ton of World Poker Tour DVD’s and I couldn’t wait to see if I had what it took to win at the game. I played there for a couple of nights and made a profit of around 500 dollars or so. I was on top of the world.
A few months later I was home on leave and decided to play the big Sunday PokerStars tournament. I believe it was a $250,000 Guarantee back then. I had read the first and second volume of Dan Harrington’s “Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments” and I was ready to put it to good use. I bought in for the $215 and played a field of about 4,000 or so players for about 9 hours. I finished the tournament in 9th place and took home 9,000 dollars. Again I was on top of the world.
Later on, after reading a few more poker books I ended up in Riga, Latvia. I was on an assignment there and during my time off I would go down to the casino and play in the poker games there. I was first introduced to the game of Omaha while in Latvia. We played a mixed game where half of the time we played No-Limit Texas hold’em and the other half of the time we would play Omaha. I played there for three or four nights and made a profit of two or three thousand dollars. It was then that I really began to realize that good money could be made at the game and that it may even be possible to play professionally. I continued to read every book that I could get my hands on to get as much poker knowledge in my head as possible.
In August of 2007, I finished up my time with the Marines and I found Cardrunners.com in September of 2007 and decided to join. It has been one of the best investments that I have ever made in my life. I had gotten frustrated playing online earlier in 2007 and decided to take my money out and put it back in the bank. I got a job with an armored car company and worked there for about a month. After about a month on the job I decided to quit. It just wasn’t worth risking my life to protect other people’s money. I continued to watch training videos, read books, and browse through the poker forums on cardrunners.com and twoplustwo.com
I have been to Atlantic City several times with my Dad. We always go to the Trump Taj Mahal to play poker. I’ve averaged making at least $1,000 each time we took a trip up to New Jersey. I’ve always enjoyed these trips, but I knew I would not like the lifestyle of being a live professional. I would not like living in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, and the freedom that online poker offers looked very appealing to me.
So in February of 2008, I decided to give online poker a serious shot. I deposited $600 on Full Tilt Poker and started playing the micro stakes games. I have not looked back since then.
Thanks for reading,
JWW84
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