Leak Ashamed and time to come clean (my story)

[arod15]

So here's my story. After working real hard on my game I have finnaly become a consistent winner (been winning for over a year now but got especially good in March) . Since March this year I am up over 8K(net) playing 1-2NL both live and online (about 15BB and hour).

The sad thing is I have little to show for it. I still play 1-2 (because my roll is gone). You see over the same period of time (5 months) I have blown close to same if not more (probably more, havent kept close tabs) on table games such as bacarrat and BJ.

Luckily for me I have a great job and pay no rent, but I feel really disgusted with myself for not having more to show. I should be investing more, buying a house, giving to charity, sh%t give to my family back home in Chile who needs it. Anything could have been better than how I pissed my money away.

I post this as a promise that BJ will never be played by me again (at least not for a few years when I become more responisble). So I tell all of you don't fall into the same trap. Poker players are known to have gamble. This is part of what makes a lot of us good. When i play, I am feerless with my money and will take some chances others wouldnt (cause money is like water to me) and that is probably why I have won at a very high rate.

So what now? For me I guess my next challenge is to re-build and protect my bankroll. Also, I hope to be playing 10-25 NL by next years world series. Perhaps ill do it perhaps i wont, but one thing is for sure if I fail it wont be because of a leak.

It sounds like you may have combined two problems into one.

One: You are not playing poker with a poker bankroll. Your money from poker is mixed in with your money that you use for other purposes. If you go on a bad run, it can cut into your non-poker earnings. You should generally keep about 300BB in your bankroll, and skim off the top every month or so, although it appears that you don't really need that money anyway considering you have a great job and pay no rent.

Two: Your spending habits are likely poor in general. As a gambler, consider BJ and baccarat to be "entertainment" expenses, not a source for earnings. Set up an expense plan and budget for yourself. If you really feel like you want to regularly donate to charity and send money home to your family, then you need to manage your expenses.

[glen]

If you play 1-2nl, have a good job and pay no rent, and make 15bbs an hour, dipping into your non-poker money is not an issue.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
If you play 1-2nl, have a good job and pay no rent, and make 15bbs an hour, dipping into your non-poker money is not an issue

[/ QUOTE ]
and even if it were he's with eva longoria so what does it matter? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Maulik]

If I remember correctly, I remember telling you this when we were playing 2/4 & 3/6 limit poker and you'd bet $10 on a number when we played blackjack. Perhaps there will be a reason for some posters to comment on this; but this has been brought up constantly for one year.

[SoCalRugger]

[ QUOTE ]
As a gambler, consider BJ and baccarat to be "entertainment" expenses, not a source for earnings. Set up an expense plan and budget for yourself.

[/ QUOTE ]
Another way to approach this would be to create a 2nd bankroll for casino whoring. As long as it's done properly and with discipline, you could play blackjack under +EV conditions and show a nice profit.

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
You should generally keep about 300BB in your bankroll, and skim off the top every month or so

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't understand bankroll theory then don't advice people.

1) OP plays no limit, and should probably have a starting roll of 3000 big blinds or so.

2) The bankroll, either actually calculated or from rules of thumb such as '300BB for limit', is for a proven significant winner who never withdraws a cent. Your bankroll has to grow to be healthy. The risk of ruin is that chance that you have a downswing of X before your bankroll has passed X. Not that you'll never have a downswing of X.

I often hear nonsense such as 'the chance that a winning player will have a 300BB downswing is nearly zero'. Which is false. It happens atleast once every couple of hundred thousand hands.

If you for some bizarre reason feel like you have to have a static roll (ie withdrawing all winnings the last every month) I'd recommend no less than 1000BB for limit, or 10,000big blinds for no limit. (Obviously significantly more for no limit if your game doesn't have a capped buy-in.)

[mindflayer]

so your here.. and you know non self weighting games can not be beaten in the long run..
Tell me why you play BJ or Baccarat.
are you addicted to the excitement? do you think you can beat BJ or baccarat??
do you play BJ online or in BM?
if its BM , do you card count?
does the casino employ a continuous shuffler??

do yourself a fav, stop playing BJ and Baccarat.

[arod15]

[ QUOTE ]
so your here.. and you know non self weighting games can not be beaten in the long run..
Tell me why you play BJ or Baccarat.
are you addicted to the excitement? do you think you can beat BJ or baccarat??
do you play BJ online or in BM?
if its BM , do you card count?
does the casino employ a continuous shuffler??

do yourself a fav, stop playing BJ and Baccarat.

[/ QUOTE ]
no i dont play on the internet and i love the action its real exciting. At one point i counted but the continous shuffler has almost elminated that advantage. I agree i given up BJ for at least a few more years..

[cero_z]

Hi arod,

Congrats on working your way to the point where you can make $30/hour at poker. Be proud of this.

[ QUOTE ]
At one point i counted but the continous shuffler has almost elminated that advantage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, the continuous shuffler has completely eliminated that advantage. If you don't know that, I think your "advantage" from counting was probably nonexistent. There is way more to winning at BJ than learning the Hi-lo or whatever; you need to be perfect at a number of skills (basic strategy, eyeing the discard pile, index numbers, count conversions) and you need to carefully choose beatable games and always play your best. All of this will net you about a 1% overall advantage. If you're making $30+/hour playing 1/2 NL, the choice to play BJ seems absurd to me from a profit vs. risk perspective. You'd need a way bigger BJ bankroll to win at the same rate you're winning at NL (5-6 times the size).

Anyway, it sounds like you've already decided on quitting BJ, which sounds like the best choice you can make.