I’m just a simple guy who is very stubborn. I wasn’t born a genius, I was born in a working class city previously stripped of hope from hopeless government after hopeless government. When I was born my story was set out to go to school, get an apprenticeship and work for somebody else for my life before I retire just like all my previous generations had. The way that generations actually work is they (in theory) should improve through each parent learning through their parents positives and negatives. From day 1 my parents instilled hard work in me, when other kids played football once a week I played 6 times. Other kids were taller, stronger, more natural footballers, but through work I managed to leap frog them. With poker it was very similar.
I went to my friends home game, I was the worst player by far, both technically and naturally. But that was ok. I went away, learned how to beat them, came back the hardest worker and most passionate about it and learned to win. I went to my local casino and got knocked out in 2 hands, they asked “want to rebuy” I said absolutely not I’m way outclassed here. I went away, locked myself to the computer and library and learned how to win, went back and did well. Frustrated by the lack of hands we were playing and the pace of my improvement I went to online. Same story, I was out of my depth, it didn’t come easy to me. I made tens of thousands of posts on poker forums and eventually came back a winner, I’d later be ranked number 1 in the world.
I played my first big European tournament in Barcelona, same story, these guys outplayed me and I went back to the lab with my tail between my legs. Fast forward a few years, I final tables both high rollers for $300,000.
I went to Vegas, played 15 tournaments over 3 weeks and cashed nothing. I didn’t have the patience or adjust to how a different style of player played. I came back and won three tournaments within 10 days for $1.5 mil.
My poker journey and story wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to lose at my friends’ cash game and then give up and go partying on weekends. When I went to the casino and got laughed out that should have put me off, I should have been having nightmares about Vegas and Barcelona. I should have put restrictions on my online accounts like my friends and family told me to do. But my parents taught me that if you outwork people and keep going, eventually you will over take them. Nobody is born Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey, these people are formed over thousands and thousands of hands, set backs, rests of confidence and a little bit of luck.
