1 Year Ago...

Apollo Creed: Now, when we fought, you had that eye of the tiger, man; the edge! And now you gotta get it back, and the way to get it back is to go back to the beginning. You know what I mean?

”Rocky III”

NEWS FLASH: I made a mistake on the dates of the "Heafy's Honeymoon Classic". It will be on Saturday August 6th at 8.30pm EST for our North American friends and Sunday August 7th at about 10am for our Aussie friends.

I picked Rocky III for the quote today because I was about 1 year old when it came out. Speaking of which – exactly one year ago today I started my poker blogging adventure! That is right, the poker blog voted most likely to involve a pornographic film producer, “Poker On Film” has reached it’s first birthday.

From humble beginnings I come, way back when freerolls were a way of life. Way back when I didn’t know what SNG meant, and many other acronyms. Way back when I thought the World Series of Poker consisted of one event.

No doubt it has been a big 12 months for me, and not just on the poker scene either. Here is a brief point list of the events that have been covered by Poker On Film in it’s time thus far:

First real money win at Aloha Poker – followed closely by my first (and only) bust out.

First MTT win, a $27 pay day again at Aloha Poker.

First cash in a non-freeroll MTT – 4th netting me just over $100.

Going all-in and upgrading my girlfriend to fiancé status.

Winning my first poker related prize through Uwannabet in a competition where I was the only entry.

Building my very own poker table with awesome results!

A five game $10 SNG wining streak.

A dabble in the waters of online blackjack thanks to Scurvy Dog!

Receiving more free poker stuff from Poker Source Online, thanks to Go Be Rude.

My first live game experience, and shortly my first live game win.

I have played poker at these online poker rooms in that time: Aloha Poker, Poker Pages (Bugsys Club), Pacific Poker, Absolute Poker, Party Poker, Ultimate Bet, Paradise Poker, Noble Poker, Poker Rewards, Empire Poker, Poker Now, Poker Stars, Bet365, Poker Room.

I’ve tried my hand at Holdem (NL, PL and Fixed), Omaha (NL, PL and Fixed) Omaha Hi/Lo (PL, Fixed), Seven Card Stud (fixed), five card draw, Chinese Poker (why?).

My highest hands to date – 1 king high and 1 queen high straight flush.

Biggest MTT win was just this past weekend, topping the $200 mark for the first time.

Bank roll’s high point - US$1100. Currently sits at $599.

Cash outs – 3, totalling $150, $250 and $550 – grand total of US$950.

Baddest bad beat – Aces full rivered by quad 8’s.

Most promising tournament – Heafy’s Honeymoon Classic of course! Come join us at Poker Rewards on August 7th, to celebrate 1 year of Poker On Film!

I have been blessed by the generosity of other bloggers on many occasions; gifts, prizes, advice, sharing affiliate monies and sharing stories. After many ups and down, I have learned that I will never have the temperament to make poker a viable income. Hell, I still think limits like $2/$4 are out of my reach!

With one year in the can, it’s better now to look forward to the coming 12 months. Poker wise, I have some attainable goals I want to set for myself. The power of three, as it is:

1 – Bankroll to reach $2K
2 – Play in a casino tournament
3 – Be confident enough to play at $4/$8 level.

That last one might sound a little funny to some readers. I keep hearing about how bad the play is at these levels of no-fold-em bluff every second hand poker, but I just can’t get my head around the limit game. I have improved greatly in the past week at this to be honest, even though I am only playing $0.50/$1, but I have still busted my buy in on more than one occasion due to bad beats and bad calls. But things are looking up, I’m feeling optimistic.

On the free gift front, my Paradise poker playing days have finished when I reached the raked hand requirements that PSO set out, and I cashed in all my points for Amazon vouchers. I received my loot just yesterday, and I have watched the “Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” DVD from start to finish twice already. I cried for nearly 90 minutes watching that – and for $12.99 you really can’t get any better than that! I have also started on the WPT season 2, which coincidently has just started to hit network television here in Oz. I’m willing to bet after Joe Haschem’s win that poker gets a lot more attention in the coming months.

And so starts year 2 of Poker On Film – full of optimism, coming off a MTT win (which I might add, I have read about 5 other bloggers who have scored MTT wins in the past week, all of which make mine look like pocket change.). When I started out all I wanted was a few grand to be able to buy a camera to make a movie. Now priorities have changed and a wedding must come first, but I have not let the dream die just yet (despite all common sense and reason saying I should). What can I expect in year 2? More wins, more losses. More great lay downs, more bad beats. More ups, more downs, and plenty of in-betweens. More free shit, for sure.

Thanks you reading, you’ve been a wonderful audience.