ThrillFactor
01-07-2004, 07:23 PM
Well, the cronic procrastinator in me has put this off long enough, so here goes nothing. Let me see if I can get this all out in one breath...
When I left you all last, I had just finished up my vacation week (3rd week of November) in which I had won right at $600 in 36 hrs of play at three Party .50/1.00 tables. Bankroll was at $700 and I was hoping to at least double that playing part-time over the next several weeks before I left my job. For those of you who may have missed the original post, I had plans in place for several months to retire from my glorious position of Niteclub General Manager at South Central Louisiana's largest venue. The job paid pretty well for this area (mid 40s with an eventual ceiling of low 50s) but required me to work 70 hrs per week on average. The brutal schedule, along with a general burnout on the nightlife scene both led to my decision. I hatched the scheme to play online for a living based upon my past success playing part-time at these limits. I require only $400 a week to get by, and if things don't work out as planned, I do have a college degree to fall back on. I am not opposed to, nor in any way unable to seek out and obtain gainful employment in a real-world setting if I have to. However there certainly is an undeniable allure to the idea of being able to do this for a living - at first just to get by, but then to continue building a bankroll and moving up in limits till I hit my own level of incompetence. David Ross's story is highly motivating to many people on this board besides myself, I'm sure. Most (over 90%) on this board say that it's impossible to do at these limits, that any success so far has been just short-term luck. That may be true - I haven't been playing this game all that long and they certainly know much more about this than I do. But there's only one way to find out for sure. There are some truly terrible players at these levels (6 or 7 at a table if you search them out) and they will pay you off when you make your hands. I wonder if the reason that everyone says that it can't be done is because no one has tried (or documented it if they did). There's also the argument that those good enough to do this don't waste their time at .5/1, they're playing 2/4 and 3/6 instead. Well... we'll get to that eventually - baby steps first.
Week 2 started off as more of the same. I was up about $200 over the first couple of days, but then something truly new happened. You guys must have jinxed me, because this was a first. I went on an extended losing streak. Not a downward spiral that destroyed my bankroll (I caught that after only 50 or 60BB), but just a slow steady drain. Hour after hour of nothing to play just to get sucked in with marginal cards and wonder why - after the river - I even entered that hand in the first place. Made hand after made hand cracked on the river (these are the really expensive ones). Day after day of getting eaten-away by the blinds. The losing streak lasted 9 days. By the end it had relieved me of about 120 or 130BB if I remember correctly. But I survived and was (and still am) rather proud of the way I controlled my losses. My first winning session of week 3 caught everything back up and we were off and running again.
Then another very strange thing happened. I went on sort of a reverse tilt. I had made it through the dreaded "losing streak" rather unscathed and I knew it. I was feeling pretty invincible and so week 4 was spent playing too many hands to the river just knowing I was going to catch my card. I won A LOT of money that week, a whole lot. Problem was I gave it all back chasing down draws. They were OK draws, but not longterm +EV draws. Net result before I realized it = pretty much break even week.
Valuable lesson learned (hopefully) and Week 5 saw the most impresive run of my poker career. +503BB in 13 hours. Yeah, do the math on that one. Probably the best week of poker I've ever played. Not just getting lucky and getting smacked with the deck, but also cutting my losses and knowing when to bail on a pot (see invincibility lesson, paragraph 3). Oh, if they could all be like this.
Week 6 spent prepping for NYE, not much playing time - mostly uneventful.
On December 31st my bankroll sat at $1900. I had hoped to make 2K, but it just wasn't in the cards!!! Hehe, sometimes I just kill myself. On January 01, 2004 at 12:15a, I handed over my keys to my regional manager and called it a career. Eight years - time to start over. Cashed out $700 and nest-egged it away. This along with what I had saved gets me through January without having to worry about winning a dime. If February comes a blank, I'll need to find a job! I left $1200 in for a reason. That's a 300BB b/r for $2/4 if it comes to it. If I see that I truly can't make enough to survive on at .5/1, I'll make the move to 2/4. From what I've gathered from this board, Party 1/2 is not the place I want to be. I really hope that I don't have to make that jump soon, though. I don't think that I can emotionally handle a $300-400 short loosing streak right now. I'm on very uncertain ground at the moment and I'd like to find something stable to start from.
Let's see... there may be more on my mind that I'm forgetting right now, but my hands are tired and I'm hungry. May add to this later tonight.
Which book should I start with: Jones, HPFAP, or TOP? Got all three handy, will begin my formal education this weekend.
Until next time
Will
When I left you all last, I had just finished up my vacation week (3rd week of November) in which I had won right at $600 in 36 hrs of play at three Party .50/1.00 tables. Bankroll was at $700 and I was hoping to at least double that playing part-time over the next several weeks before I left my job. For those of you who may have missed the original post, I had plans in place for several months to retire from my glorious position of Niteclub General Manager at South Central Louisiana's largest venue. The job paid pretty well for this area (mid 40s with an eventual ceiling of low 50s) but required me to work 70 hrs per week on average. The brutal schedule, along with a general burnout on the nightlife scene both led to my decision. I hatched the scheme to play online for a living based upon my past success playing part-time at these limits. I require only $400 a week to get by, and if things don't work out as planned, I do have a college degree to fall back on. I am not opposed to, nor in any way unable to seek out and obtain gainful employment in a real-world setting if I have to. However there certainly is an undeniable allure to the idea of being able to do this for a living - at first just to get by, but then to continue building a bankroll and moving up in limits till I hit my own level of incompetence. David Ross's story is highly motivating to many people on this board besides myself, I'm sure. Most (over 90%) on this board say that it's impossible to do at these limits, that any success so far has been just short-term luck. That may be true - I haven't been playing this game all that long and they certainly know much more about this than I do. But there's only one way to find out for sure. There are some truly terrible players at these levels (6 or 7 at a table if you search them out) and they will pay you off when you make your hands. I wonder if the reason that everyone says that it can't be done is because no one has tried (or documented it if they did). There's also the argument that those good enough to do this don't waste their time at .5/1, they're playing 2/4 and 3/6 instead. Well... we'll get to that eventually - baby steps first.
Week 2 started off as more of the same. I was up about $200 over the first couple of days, but then something truly new happened. You guys must have jinxed me, because this was a first. I went on an extended losing streak. Not a downward spiral that destroyed my bankroll (I caught that after only 50 or 60BB), but just a slow steady drain. Hour after hour of nothing to play just to get sucked in with marginal cards and wonder why - after the river - I even entered that hand in the first place. Made hand after made hand cracked on the river (these are the really expensive ones). Day after day of getting eaten-away by the blinds. The losing streak lasted 9 days. By the end it had relieved me of about 120 or 130BB if I remember correctly. But I survived and was (and still am) rather proud of the way I controlled my losses. My first winning session of week 3 caught everything back up and we were off and running again.
Then another very strange thing happened. I went on sort of a reverse tilt. I had made it through the dreaded "losing streak" rather unscathed and I knew it. I was feeling pretty invincible and so week 4 was spent playing too many hands to the river just knowing I was going to catch my card. I won A LOT of money that week, a whole lot. Problem was I gave it all back chasing down draws. They were OK draws, but not longterm +EV draws. Net result before I realized it = pretty much break even week.
Valuable lesson learned (hopefully) and Week 5 saw the most impresive run of my poker career. +503BB in 13 hours. Yeah, do the math on that one. Probably the best week of poker I've ever played. Not just getting lucky and getting smacked with the deck, but also cutting my losses and knowing when to bail on a pot (see invincibility lesson, paragraph 3). Oh, if they could all be like this.
Week 6 spent prepping for NYE, not much playing time - mostly uneventful.
On December 31st my bankroll sat at $1900. I had hoped to make 2K, but it just wasn't in the cards!!! Hehe, sometimes I just kill myself. On January 01, 2004 at 12:15a, I handed over my keys to my regional manager and called it a career. Eight years - time to start over. Cashed out $700 and nest-egged it away. This along with what I had saved gets me through January without having to worry about winning a dime. If February comes a blank, I'll need to find a job! I left $1200 in for a reason. That's a 300BB b/r for $2/4 if it comes to it. If I see that I truly can't make enough to survive on at .5/1, I'll make the move to 2/4. From what I've gathered from this board, Party 1/2 is not the place I want to be. I really hope that I don't have to make that jump soon, though. I don't think that I can emotionally handle a $300-400 short loosing streak right now. I'm on very uncertain ground at the moment and I'd like to find something stable to start from.
Let's see... there may be more on my mind that I'm forgetting right now, but my hands are tired and I'm hungry. May add to this later tonight.
Which book should I start with: Jones, HPFAP, or TOP? Got all three handy, will begin my formal education this weekend.
Until next time
Will