The first player we featured in this section is in all likelihood, one of the most fascinating we will ever find and now has become the only one we will.

It has been decided, as this is one of the best learning tools for basic texas holdem we have ever come across, to make the journals a permanent part of our web site. Now on to the story............

There is a forum that is a featured link on this site call 2 + 2 Poker Forum. It is the premier forum on the net for posting hands and getting feedback on your play. The players/members that post there are some of the strongest player both online and live. You may have heard of a guy named "Fossilman", who before he became a world champion, was a regular fixture on the forum.

One evening while scanning through the posts this appears;

"I am going to conduct an experiment and anyone who is interested can follow along with me. I am off work for the next little while and I am going to see if I can make a living playing 5/10 at paradise. I work as a contract computer consultant and after 9 years of working every day for the 2nd time in 6 months I have no clients. It will be a few weeks at least before I start again so I thought it would be interesting to see if I can do this. In order to replace my regular draw, I need to make $1,400 a week (US). So my goal will be 200 a day. Based on my earnings over the past 2 months I think it can be done if I put in the hours. I estimate I make about 30-40 an hour online. That is playing 2 tables at around 70 hands per hour. I think it equals 1 BB/hr live if you go by hands played."

Little did anyone know, including davidross himself, that this was the starting of the most followed journal in 2 + 2 history.

After posting a hand on the forum you can normally expect five to fifteen responses. Maybe more sometimes if it encompasses a theory that everyone seems to have a different opinion on. It was not unusual for davidross to see as many as 100 and as the journals progressed so did those that followed them. One of the funniest thing that ever happened was when davidross actually stopped posting after the 52 weeks. Members were begging for more, saying they were going through "withdrawals". At this point. davidross started posting maybe quarterly updates that you can still find by searching the archive section of the forum.

Davidross still plays for a living today, though much higher limits than when he started. He still posts quite often on the forum and his advise and comments are highly respected. Rumor has it that he may even be writing a book about his true life experiences playing online poker. If the rumor is true, you can bet we would be one of the first in line at the bookstore the day it's released.

The journals are a long read but well worth the time. In fact we would suggest that this is one area you might start your reading aspect of learning the game. They go through the trails and tribulations of playing online and one mans life. But the lessons you will learn about starting hands, position, and strategy cannot be found anywhere else.