My AP Story

2009 is my third year playing full time.  How did I start on AP?  In December 2006, during break from finals, I was super bored, like I mean REALLY bored.  How bored?  Well, let’s just say prison inmates who were sentenced to solitary confinement weren’t as bored as I was.  I decided to create an account on AP, my initial name was amazing, even better than my current.  Heinous_Anus.  This name didn’t last long, apparently it offended some people.  Whatever.  Anyways, I chose AP because AP had 9 person sit n gos instead of 10, previously I dabbled on bodog, where a sit n go would seat 10, thus reducing the cash rate to 30% instead of 33%.  I presumed my chances were better on AP. 

They were.

I did well.  I was still delivering pizza and finishing my economics degree at the time.  I was an idiot and decided a sample of like 900 sit n gos was enough for me to stop my job and play on AP full time.  Of course, I wasn’t giving up a lot, for my job paid only 15 dollars an hour but the 15 dollars an hour suited me just fine, especially while I was a student.

One night in 2007 I decided to play some multi table tournaments on AP, I think I played the 8 pm 10k guaranteed, it was like a 50 dollar buy in, first was 3k or something.  I basically was super lucky and won the tournament for 3k.  I thought I was awesome and I could like do that every night.  That summer I did, I ended up winning the 30r, at the 100 dollar freeze out, and both of the 50 dollar freeze outs in a weeks time. bye bye sit n gos! 

Or so I thought…

I continued to play mtt’s across most sites, I made a good bit of dough, enough to keep me from getting a job after graduation, unfortunately I wasn’t smart enough to realize how far above expectation I was at for my buy in level.  I hit a downswing in fall 2007.  2008 rolled around and it wasn’t much better, I liked AP’s tournaments because the overall fields were a tad softer than other sites.  I dabbled in local cash games and live tourneys.  I decided to try playing live tourneys full time and stuff.  My first one was a 300 dollar buy in at the beau rivage, it was my first significant score, we chopped 3 handed when effective stacks had like 12bb, I realize now that this was an error, as I was way better than my opponents and the money wasn’t life changing.  It was my first live 5 figure score and I was pretty happy.  I then realized again how stupid I was, traveling costs were such a huge percentage of my buy in that it made no sense to pay like 35% in food/plane/gas/etc.

So I was in limbo for a bit.  I knew I wanted to play but didn’t know what game I should focus on.  MTT’s had a ton of variance that made me sad, I don’t think I am good at online cash games, “wait, what about sit n gos, that’s it, I will do that again!”

So I did.

In july 2008 I made my return to AP.  It has been the best decision I have made in my brief poker career.  Many might wonder “why AP, bigger player network on other sites, why not go there?”

That question is so easy to answer, and the answer is “I like money”

AP and the Cereus network offer the most “bonus” money.  No joke man, the most.  Credits for cash, reload bonus, free rolls, rake back, rake races, rake races via rake back sites, interest bearing accounts, tournament leaderboards, and probably more I can’t think of.

Since I get bored a lot I decided to calculate the amount of rakeback I have received since july 2008, the total was an astounding 79%.  That’s right, with an avg buy in in the 80-100 range, you can achieve nearly 80% rakeback if you factor in all the free money AP is generous enough to dole out.

This makes me especially happy since I am in the middle of my worst downswing ever; i think I have lost 19,200 buy ins now in the past 6 months or so, awesome. =)

Just remember, if your stack ever GETS DOWN LOW, you aren’t out of it, on the cereus network I have made comebacks from as little as 15 chips….pretty neato since like 9000 were in play.  It’s important not to just spit on it and call it a game after you suffer a crippling blow.  Insert chips and chair reference here.

So yeah, the cereus network knows how to attract players and keep em coming back for more, sorta like a good woman.  It worked on me.