I left off Part I right when I decided to turn pro. That would make it exactly January 1st, 2006. Well, make that January 3rd, 2006, because of the raging hangover I had (happens when you throw college parties).

I had my entire bankroll on Bodog at that point. When I was beginning, it was easier for me to have my bankroll on just one site, as it was easier to maintain, and I did not have to deal with huge tournament fields, since Bodog was still a relatively small blip on the online poker radar.

Although the tourney fields seemed to be much smaller, Bodog always had great promotions and great overlays for their guaranteed tournaments. At that time, I believed they had the 25k, the 7.5k, and the weekly 100k. Unlike today’s guaranteed tourneys on Bodog, the 25k wasn’t every night, and even the 7.5k wasn’t daily, although it was more frequent than the 25k. Other than the tournaments I mentioned, there were the regular $10 and $30 tournaments, as well as other tournaments during the day and night.

I was playing every tournament on Bodog, every day. At that point, it didn’t matter if it was a guarantee or not; if it was a No Limit Holdem tournament on Bodog, you were sure to see Hattrick8810 on the list. This is where I sharpened my skills the most, as I began to be able to get deeper and deeper in tournaments on a regular basis. This is also where I met a few people in the online community that were also regular “Bodoggers.” These relationships, which were formed on the basis of just playing online cards together, would become very important in the coming months.

Other than playing these tournaments and being able to cash on a fairly regular basis, I found out about a great promotion that Bodog began to run right around the time I began my professional career. The promotion was for their weekly and monthly tournament leader board (TLB). It is something Bodog still runs, and it was a great way for me to have a focused goal in my tournament play. Basically, it works like most TLB’s; the better you do, the more points you receive. If you win the weekly TLB, Bodog then gives you a chance to play one of their pro players for $1,000. If you win the monthly TLB, Bodog will give you a trip to Las Vegas, where you get to stay at the Bellagio and play in their $1,000 Saturday tournament.

With this goal in mind, I began to focus only on tournaments, saying “so long” to my cash game days. Within a week or two, I won my first weekly TLB and got the privilege to play Josh Arieh heads-up. I won the match against Josh, and with that I began to make it my goal to have a chance at an extra 1k each week, which would help my bankroll grow and enable me to turn a greater profit. While focusing on the weekly TLB, the monthly came a lot easier than expected, although it was a lot of work. During the time that winning the weekly and monthly TLB’s was my main goal in poker, I won the weekly TLB 6 or 7 times and the monthly TLB 3 times.

Out of all those weekly wins, I beat the Bodog Pro 5 or 6 times. It was fun being able to play with Josh Arieh and David Williams, and at one point Josh said to me, “Do I play you every week?” This was a huge boost in my confidence, and I ended up having a few conversations with Josh about poker. Out of the three trips to the Bellagio that I won, I didn’t place in the first one, I won the second one for 15k, and I have yet to go play the third tournament, which will take place in January.

By the time the WSOP came around, I had built online friendships with a few players on Bodog. I ended up getting a house in Vegas with Rusostreet, Ari, Truesyalose, and iLLNuGWichee. This was the make or break point in my career. I was already turning a decent profit from playing online poker, but I felt that I could learn a lot more and make a lot more. Living with these guys was the greatest experience of my playing career. I was around poker 24/7, and I was learning from one the best online poker players in the world.

The first weekend of the summer, I played my second Bodog monthly TLB tournament at the Bellagio ($1k buy in) and won it for over 15k! This was an unbelievable start to the summer, and it got me ready for my first WSOP. I ended up only playing three WSOP tourneys, but overall it was a tremendous learning experience. I placed in my first event for a small cash, and in the other two events I played in, I was unfortunately unable to cash.

Live poker was not the only reason I went to Vegas this summer, though. Like I said before, I was now able to learn from one of the elites in the poker community, and I took full advantage of my good fortune.

Towards the end of the summer (right around August), everything I learned in the previous year suddenly clicked. I was playing on all the major sites and was winning here and there, still grinding out a decent profit and final tabling tournaments with more regularity. My focus turned from just winning tournaments to becoming the best, which is obviously still a work in progress. My new goal, as you might have been able to figure out by all of the “RANK 8810” posts, was to be ranked by Pocketfives. That goal was the driving force of my play between the months of June through September, which was when I finally got ranked. My August and September were terrific, and I have put up results that even boggled my own mind at times.

My next and final goal as a poker player will be to be the best I can possibly be. I know it may sound cheesy, but it has really been my driving force from day one. I am never satisfied from previous results; you’re only as good as what you have done lately, and that can be said in anything from sports to poker. I will keep working hard to make sure I can get there.

Hope to see all of you at the table soon.

–Hattrick8810