Harrington on Hold 'em

At some point during our junior year, Frosty purchased the book Harrington on Hold 'em: Volume I Expert Strategy for No Limit Hold 'em Tournaments. We had heard about the book and how it was the leading strategy guide for beginning-level players. I'll be honest, the word "expert" scared me a little. I don't think I have the ability to be an "expert" at anything. That means top of your field. That means that you're technically perfect at what you do. I didn't feel I was ready for this type of reading. However, when Frosty bought the book, we agreed not to allow anyone else to read it. It was going to be our ace in the hole. We were tired of Lil Mac winning, and now we were going to do something about it.

Frosty ended up reading the entire book and his results improved noticeably. I'm not going to go into detail about the strategy he utilized or any differences in his game because I truly don't remember. I know he loosened up and began coming in first or second more often, so that was enough for me to buy into the opinion that this was a great poker book.

I, however, had a somewhat different experience with the book at that time. Every time I began reading it, I would feel like I stumbled upon some profound piece of advice and immediately go online to try it out. I never really got through the book. I think I read like 3 pages by the end of junior year.

In the fall of senior year, I stayed away from poker for the most part to concentrate on school. I think I played a tournament every now and then but didn't take it very seriously. It wasn't until the end of the semester, while at a party at Lil Mac's apartment, that I decided to rejoin the online poker world. Lil Mac and I discussed poker while drunk that night, and he told me about the successes he had been having as of late. For the 3rd time in my life, I became addicted to poker. The problem was, I didn't have any money in any of my accounts. They had been drained.

Problem: No money in my poker accounts. No money in my bank accounts.
Solution: Lil Mac sent me $70 in Absolute Poker money to be returned in full upon building my bankroll.

The loan from Lil Mac allowed me to put a great deal of stress on myself to succeed in poker this time. Therefore, I enlisted the help of Frosty and his magical books. By this time, Frosty had purchased Volumes II and III of Dan Harrington's poker books. Before playing a single hand online, I read every word of each of these books. When I returned to online poker in the spring of senior year, I was a changed man. Using the advice of Dan Harrington, I played tournaments of all types, depending on my mood. I knew how to play when the blinds were small, when the blinds got large, when the tables were short, and when it was time to go heads up. I built up my account steadily and fairly quick. I knew how to win.

One night during finals time at the end of the semester, I accomplished the greatest feat(s) of my poker career. I began playing at around 4 p.m. with a $2 buy-in to a multi-table tournament of 2000 players. At some time during the early stages of that tournament, I bought in to a 10,000 player satellite where the top 20 get a seat to another large tournament. By 10 or 11 (or later) p.m., I had won the 2000-player tournament. I played conservative in the beginning and turned up the heat when the blinds got large. I came into the final table in 6th place and proceeded to dismantle my opponents, all while building a huge chip stack in the 10,000-player satellite. After winning the smaller tournament, I focused my attention on the satellite, where I had just begun to realize I had a shot. There were about 2000 players left and I was in the top 100 (at one point very early in the tournament, I remember actually being in 1st after doubling up twice in a row; one of the double ups occurred by making a terrible pre-flop all-in call with jack-nine against ace-king. I hit my jack). Coming off the heels of a long tournament, my brain was losing strength and Frosty came over to keep me sharp. I got cards and played them well, outlasting the necessary 9,980 players to win the seat. After that, my brain should have been fried. However, I am a huge fan of efficiency (I got my degree in mechanical engineering), so I felt it was necessary to play another large tournament while my mind was obviously set on large-tournament-mode and firing on all cylinders. So, I took a dip of snuff and played on.

By this point, it was 2 or 3 a.m. and I was tired. I was honestly physically and mentally drained. It didn't matter though. My brain was programmed (by Dan Harrington). I don't remember anything about the tournament itself except the final hand and the fact that I came in third. I believe there were about 235 entrants. I was happy with my results for the night, but honestly should have won that tournament. When the table dwindled to 3 players, one particular player with a large stack was being super aggressive. I'm sure I was outplaying him because the final hand of my tournament found me calling his all in after a flop that included two overs to my pocket pair (5's). He held ace-four and was completely bluffing (or thought his ace was good). He hit his ace on the turn and I typed "GG, GLA" and went to sleep. I really should have won that tournament.

In short, you should read Dan Harrington's poker books. They help.