Poker Coverage: Poker Legislation Poker Business Poker Tournaments

Back With A Vengeance!

 

by fillhellmouth  |  Published May 19, 2012

Print-icon

It's been over a year since circumstances scared me away from internet poker but I am dangling my toes in the water again.
Why did I stop? Well, first Neteller decided that even after being a customer for several years, I had to prove who I was again. I sent them a copy of my passport, but this was not enough for them and when I transfered $100 from one of my poker accounts to my Neteller account, they promptly froze it, claiming I'd used it illegally.
Of course, I was fuming and told them so. In hindsight, I should have waited until I'd calmed down before sending a ranting email. I eventually gave up on the money (stupid. I know). At around the same time Full Tilt Poker suddenly closed down with $150 of my money. This was the final straw. It seemed that everyone in the poker world was cheating me. I can take losing to bad play (my own or my opponent's) but I will not stand being stolen from, and that was what it seemed everyone was doing, so I emptied every online account I had and stopped playing.
Fortunately for me, I record every game I play on the Cardplayer Poker Stats Tracker so I knew that since 2005 I had made a clear profit of around $7,350. This is not a figure I can retire on but I did pay for a good holiday out of it and payed off a few bills.
Knowing that I was a winning player, and seeing that internet poker as a whole didn't completely collapse and rob everyone blind I decided to give it another try.
I put $50 into my Pokerstars account but I treated it like a single stake and it didn't last long but I had fun and got the bug again.
I deposited another $50 into my newly returned Pokerroom account after the offer of 100% bonus. This time I treated the $50 as a professional would treat a bankroll and dropped down to micro stakes (2c/4c and 5c/10c cash, fixed limit tables to begin with). Keeping mostly to tight bankroll management rules, I managed to double the $50 and then withdraw the original $50. I then went back to Neteller and tried sending my passport image again and this time it was accepted. I still had $58 left so added it to the $50 already in my account and stepped up to 15c/30c fixed limit cash games and $5 Sit and Go tables.
A month later and my account has over $260 in it and I'm playing $10 Sit 'n Go's and 25c/50c cash tables and planning on moving up to the 50c/$1 tables when I reach $300.
It is good to be back and building a new bankroll for free.