$10,000.00

If you were a contestant on The Price Is Right, you could wait in your seat and hope for whoever Rod Roddy's replacement is to call your name. Then you would bid $1 and hope to advance to the main event, and maybe even the showcase showdown. But first, you would get to spin the big wheel. If you hit $1.00 exactly (a 1 in 20 chance), you would win $1,000 and get another roll of the wheel. Then if you hit $1.00 again, you would win $10,000.

Or, you could play poker.

That's what I did. I've crossed five figures for the first time, and my total poker winnings are now over $10,000 for the first time!

Maybe none of my friends will read this and I won't have to buy them beers...

I know a lot of people have made much more, but I'm pretty damn proud that I've gotten this high. A quick recap of my poker career: I started playing $25 buyin no limit hold em games online in spring 2004. I first experimented with limit last fall, and eventually I decided that limit is the future if I want to grow my bankroll and move up.

There were many false starts in my limit experience. I met with some early failure on Absolute Poker in November and December, and then some more troubles at Full Tilt in December. The final straw was a huge downswing at Ultimate Bet in January. I retreated to smaller no limit games. Then I clawed my way back and had a few more successes and failures at limit poker.

Finally though, I feel like I have a solid grasp on limit, and my winrate is steadily improving at every limit I play. My regular game is still $3/$6, but I'll play as high as $10/$20 if the game is fishy.

I'd play higher if I had a real job, but $3/$6 is fine for now. I don't want to take too many chances with my only current source of income.

I remember something Daniel told me a while ago from Phil Gordon's book. In the book, he says that once you reach your first $100,000, you should take a vacation. I'm only 1/10th of the way there, so I guess I have more poker playing to do before I get any time off!