After a couple of weeks at home following 888LIVE in Manchester and UKPL in Leeds, it’s back on the road for another UKPL, this time in Reading. It’s the first time the town has been included in the 888 calendar since I joined the team, and it happens to hold a special place in my heart. In fact, without my time spent in Reading over a decade ago, there’s very little chance I’d be playing this game for a living right now.
A Journey that Started in Reading
In the summer of 2009, I had just finished my A-levels and had been accepted into my first-choice university, Reading, to study Philosophy. My experience with poker at the time was limited to 3-handed games with friends from school, and I had no intention of turning it into a career. My focus was solely on getting my degree and enjoying life at university.
That changed quickly, though, as I sought out one of Reading University’s many societies, social clubs where like-minded individuals could practice and enjoy their hobbies. This is where my love for the game began to flourish, and I made friends that I still have to this day.
Hopefully, this “lucky t-shirt” will lead to winning ways in Reading.
Discovering Online Poker and Cash Games
Alongside the poker society, I started to play online poker for the first time. I deposited $20 in my account and played two hyper-turbo tournaments, coming second and first. From that point, I never looked back.
At the time, I thought I was the best player in the world. I found a small niche in 45-man sit-and-go tournaments that I seemed to crush. I’m sure a lot of it was luck, but it certainly helped that, back in 2009, most players were far from great. I quickly built a small bankroll, and poker became a valuable side income to supplement my studies. It gave me financial freedom early on in life, which was a huge draw for me to pursue it further.
“It certainly helped that everyone in 2009 was absolutely horrendous…”
It was also in Reading where my passion for cash games truly developed. Battling it out in the many home games hosted by the poker society was the highlight of every week, and I started to live and breathe the game. If I wasn’t in a lecture or writing an essay, I was playing poker in any game I could find. Most of my university relationships were based on a common love for the game, and looking back, those experiences and friendships were far more valuable than any degree I could have earned.
Full Circle
It’s quite poetic that life has come full circle, and I’m back in Reading this week to play in the 888 UKPL. Success in these tournaments has been limited, as you may have noticed from my previous articles, and it’s often been a frustrating experience. But, even for someone as pessimistic as myself, and even though I promised I was done being positive after a brutal stretch of results, it’s hard not to feel good heading back to a town that means so much to me.
And even if I get knocked out of the tournament early once again, I’ll be sure to take some time to walk around the town and visit my old university campus, reminiscing on the very good times I had there over a decade ago. Who knows, maybe there are more good times ahead this week. Stranger things have happened.
Above all else, I’m looking forward to coming back to a place I once called home. And although I know it doesn’t exactly work this way, if I was to win anywhere, it would feel the best to win here.
