My name is Billy Westom, I am a 20 year old college student, and I play poker in my free time.

Once when I was about 15, my friend, Daniel, my brother, Jason, and I went to stay the weekend at my mother's and stepfather's house. While channel surfing, we came across HBO, which was showing the movie "Rounders." Daniel told us that the movie was really good, and started explaining the ideas of hold'em, so we would understand the movie. We watched it, and I started getting interested in the game.

A couple weeks later or so, my brother (who was 11 at the time) and I agreed to buy a deck of cards and try to play no limit hold'em together. We each gave ourselves $5 worth of nickels and used them as chips. We played this game over a TV tray for months, with the same $10 going back and forth across the table. We were so inexperienced that we played for a while thinking that a straight outranked a flush. I eventually went to the internet to study up on the rules.

After a year or so, we started organizing our own home games. We bought a couple sets of Hoyle plastic poker chips and a folding card table and invited his and my friends over to our attic room for $5 buy-in games. The game got so popular that we had recruited over 20 high school kids to the game and were running daily tournaments in our bedroom. Most of the time it was always my brother and I making it heads up, and we usually split the winnings.

By the time I turned 18, I decided to try playing hold'em in a real casino. My first casino poker session was at Chinook Winds Casino in Oregon, while my dad and I were waiting for a George Carlin show to start. I played $2-4 hold'em for about 40 minutes and made $80. Little did I know that this particular casino had a minimum age limit of 21, but I never got carded!

My next sessions were at the Last Frontier Casino in La Center, Washington. I drove down there from Longview three times, buying in to the $3-6 game for $60 each time, and losing it. It was during the last session that I remember my first experience of getting pocket aces cracked by a runner runner straight. I vowed then that I would never play limit hold'em again, because it seemed that it was all the luck of the draw, and decided to wait until the $20 tournaments started at my local casino, the Cadillac Ranch.

Those tournaments didn't start when they were supposed to. I decided to give the limit game another try. After a few weeks of playing the $3-6 game, I had been winning $60 to $100 per session routinely. I became known as a regular, which was unusual for an 18 year old at this casino. Another local regular, Fred Johns, even gave me a nickname, "West Kelso Willy," since he felt that every good player as young as I deserved one.

Eventually, the Cadillac Ranch started up their $20 buy in no limit tournaments, and I started to make money in them constantly. These tourneys consisted of about 30 players and were held every weekday. One month I won the tourney 7 times. The floor person of the poker room informed me that I held the record for most wins there.

Later on, I started traveling back down to La Center to play in the $4-8 games, and did well there also. I played these low limit cash games and the mini-tournaments until I was about 20.

Now was the time when I learned of a tournament that was being held each Saturday at the Last Frontier. I was confident that I would do well in this $60 buy in tourney. I didn't know, however, that most people bought all the rebuys and add-ons at once for $210, giving them 7,000 in chips, whereas my $60 investment only gave me 1,000. Needless to say, I was out quickly in my first attempt. I tried the tournament again a few months later, and decided I had to get all the chips at once. I placed 5th this time, which payed about $500. This was the biggest win I had ever had in poker. During the next few times I played in this tournament I took a 7th and a 10th, but it was the time after that I hit big...

Now was the day for my next big win in hold'em. I entered this tournament again, and bought all of the 7,000 chips at once. The next thing I know, I am the chip leader going into the final table. I called my dad during the break and told him that I felt that I might win the tournament. He asked, "What will that pay, like $1000?" I told him if that is what he guessed, I better just surprise him later. I made it to heads up with Mark Vandehey, and we agreed to a chop of the prize money, which amounted to over $2300 apiece (see the "My Poker Achievements" tab above). I brought the poster home, and the amount of my win was unbelievable for my family. Everyone wanted a photo copy of the poster for themselves.

A third place win was in the future also, with a bad beat story to accomodate it. While down to three players, I was dealt 5-5 in the big blind. The player on the button doubled the blind, and I called. The flop came Q-9-3 rainbow. Before I even had an opportunity to act, he declared that he was all in. I knew from his action, especially the speed and the tone of his voice, that he was nervous about his hand, and he was not that strong. The dealer asked if I wanted a count, and I said, "No, I call." To my surprise, he turned over 4-4. Of course, I was excited. I knew that if I won this pot, I would win the tournament for sure, and would put another $3,000 in my pocket. The turn paired the queen, and I was still in great shape. Even if the board paired the nine on the river, my five kicker would play. Now comes the worst beat (considering the situation) of my poker career...a FOUR ON THE RIVER! I couldn't believe it; I was sick. I had made one of my best calls ever, and I was down to a few thousand chips, ready to get blinded away. I went out in third place for a win of about $1,000.

Now that my bankroll was filled up a little bit, I decided to try a bigger game. I played the $10-20 hold'em game at the Last Frontier, and made $800 in my first session. It seemed like I was on a roll, but the rush, I guess, has to stop somewhere. Over a span of a couple months, I started losing more and more, and I couldn't quite figure out what I was doing wrong. I also was spending my money to carelessly. I was buying clothing and even bought a $2,000 car. It all came to a halt one day when I went to play $10-20, and lost over $300 in the $4-8 game and over $500 in the $10-20 game. I had officially gone broke. I knew that my dad would be dissapointed that I had let myself get into the games so deep. He agreed to give me a $400 loan until school started again and I could get my financial aid check.

My bad streak only lasted a little while. I worked up the courage to play again, and went back to my roots at the $3-6 game and the $20 tourneys at the Cadillac Ranch. I made over $1,500 in a couple weeks and paid my dad back before school even started.

I continued to play the tournament at the Last Frontier, but was on a dead streak. That is, until I repeated a first place win in April of 2005 (see the "My Poker Achievements" tab above).

I went into this tournament wearing the same sweatshirt that I had worn when I took 1st place before. I figured a little luck never hurt anybody. I went into the final table at about 2nd chip position, and made it heads up with Bob Sweedler from Portland. You can read the caption of the poster on the "My Poker Achievements" page to see the circumstances in which I took a $3,000 win.

I am now playing $10-20 regularly, and rarely play the lower limit games anymore. For a month I played the $10-20 game and didn't have a loss in over 12 sessions; I made over $4,000, which is the biggest streak I had ever went on in cash games. I am making sure now to not get busted as I did last year...

To keep track of my progress, I have started a journal on this site. Click on the "Poker Journal" link above to read about my sessions.