Backers? little content, but for me!
 

I am cross-posting this in Poker Theory, High Stakes Limit hold em, and in general Texas Hold em.

My name is David Shotwell, I am a college student, and I don't have much of a bankroll. I am in my last semester of college and have decided to become a professional poker player. I have been playing for only 6 months, yet I have won 2 MTT's (each $50 buy-ins), countless SnG's, and am a winning player in cash games. Unfortunately, I don't have the stats to back up my talk because I don't use Pokertracker. I own a Mac, but I play on my roommates PC usually. While I don't find Pokertracker necessarily unethical, between my mixed feelings about it and the fact that I own a Mac, it's just not for me.

That's the easy stuff, the hard part is telling you why I deserve a backer. I deserve to have a backer for the only reason someone should be backed, I'm a winning player. I simply have had to use almost all of my winnings to pay for rent, student loans, tuition, etc. Because of these high costs I have been unable to retain a high enough bankroll to play in large enough games. I have only a couple of hundred dollars to play poker with after spending money on Christmas, books, and tuition for the semester. So, I don't even know what kind of money I am asking for. I am not even asking you, the two plus two community. I was just wondering where I would go to find a backer. This site has helped me so much in my time as a poker player, I figure that it can probably help me now.

While I am very new to the poker world, I have some characteristics of a winning poker player. I have an IQ of just over 140, I am good with money, I don't gamble at any other casino games, I have always been good at reading people, and my memory has been tested as well above what is considered a perfect score, (whatever that means).

I have become proficient at 7 stud, Omaha, Hold em, and Hi/Lo split games. I have read Mike Caro's book on poker tells, HPFAP, Theory of Poker, Pot Limit and No Limit Poker, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, Petriv's Hold em Odds book, Super System, Championship Practice hands, and others. Those are all the books I can think of off the top of my head, and I have read most of them 2 or 3 times. I've read HPFAP 5 times.

I usually play Hold em in the range of 2/4 - 5/10, Stud in 1/2 - 3/6, and Omaha 2/4 - 3/6. I have played Hold em, and won, as high as 30/60. I played it 3 times and won twice, the third time losing relatively a little. I like to play 10/20 games in B&M's the most, but my bankroll is too small to even successfully play in a .50/1 game. I would love some advice, or help on where to go to find backers. You can reply, PM me, or e-mail me. My e-mail should be posted in my bio. Thanks for the help, and I would be more than willing to meet with any of you, talk on the phone, or answer any questions that you may have.

I hope that this did not come across as too over the top or with too much ego stroking, among other things, but remember I am trying to sell myself without any stats, and I stand by everything I have said here. Thank you and God bless.

-Daver

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

I was kinda negative the first three times I read your posts, but upon reading it for a fourth time it just kinda hit me how good you are. Please PM me details and count me in for $5,000.

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

buy virtual pc, you can play at all sites on a mac. go to graduate school.

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

Stop cross posting, its annoying and wont help your cause.

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

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I was kinda negative the first three times I read your posts, but upon reading it for a fourth time it just kinda hit me how good you are. Please PM me details and count me in for $5,000.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is hilarious.

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

The best place to find a backer is right here. The qualifications include at least a year of high-quality poker theory posts and hand-history responses that are considered to be both accurate and insightful; and also the ability to show a sustained period of at least a year of winning play in whatever game you are planning on continuing to play.

The second best place to find a backer is at your local casino where there are regular players who have seen you make a reasonable (at least $25 per hour) living for at least the past 6 months, know you to be almost completely tilt-free and also drug and alcohol free, and know that you are an agreeable, friendly fellow who will make a fair deal with them regarding your play.

Unless you can provide evidence for either of these two choices, I would assume your desire to get bankrolled will not be realized. For the most part, a player such as yourself who is looking for a bankroll is not considered any of the following:

A good money manager
A serious player
A winning player
A good risk

My advice is to suck it up, play .50/$1 for a month to build $1000 and then move to $2/$4 where you can multi-table and make $25 an hour.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

You can build up quickly
 

illguitar,

i was in almost the same situation as you not too long ago. i had been a winning player up to $5/10 and then had to spend my bankroll on personal expenses. i wanted to go pro so bad but had no money to start with.

i suggest you do the following:

Get a job. Any old stupid job that will pay your living expenses will do. Then once you save up $1,000 start playing part-time $2/4 multitable (2 or 3 tables) and hitting bonuses and getting rake rebates if possible. There are many bonuses out there. These are discussed in these forums and in the ads on this forums. With some bonuses you can be making $40 an hour multitabling $2/4 with the bonus. Now this is a good earn rate comparable to single tabling $10/20 or $15/30. Don't cash anything out. Use your money from job to pay bills. When you hit $2,000, keep doing same thing at $3/6. When you hit $3,000 go to $5/10. Then when you get to $6,000, move to $10/20. I think you can get to this point in 6 months or less. Next I would keep playing $10/20 until you reach $12,000. At this point you can quit your job if you want. I would still just play $10/20 though even though you have double the amount that you need to survive. The reason is living expenses. This way if you have a bad month you can still dip into the extra bankroll and pay your bills without having to move down. By this time you'll be well on your way to building up to play the limit you want.
Also, if you're able to save money from the job, you can choose to add that to your bankroll as well.

Also, doing it this way you will become a better player and be better prepared for higher limits when you get there. I also suggest you read GTOT and get StatKing to help you with bankroll management decisions.

I hope this helps. Be patient, you can get there this way. I did.

Re: You can build up quickly
 

If you are multitabling you need more then 300BB for whatever limit you are playing, $6000 isnt enough to multitable 10-20.

Re: You can build up quickly
 

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If you are multitabling you need more then 300BB for whatever limit you are playing, $6000 isnt enough to multitable 10-20.

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I don't see how the fact that you are multi-tabling changes anything. The 300BB rule is to account for the swings due to variance at a particular limit if you are a winning player. The fact that you are multi-tabling should not affect this. The effect multi-tabling has is that you play more hands in a given period of time, but the swings should be essentially the same. Right?

Re: You can build up quickly
 

[ QUOTE ]
Right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Right.

Re: You can build up quickly
 

Wrong. This is wrong because when playing 4 tables. you can easily drop 100BB in a day. Almost no one can lose 1/3 of their bankroll and play their best game the next day. Also, the variance of many of the online games would dictate that a 300BB bankroll is conservative. Ask very good poker players if they have every had a 300 BB downswing. I would guess that a lot of them have. How do you think they kept playing? It's because 300 BB is not enough, epecially when you take pyschology into account with multi-tabling online.

Re: You can build up quickly
 

[ QUOTE ]
Wrong. This is wrong because when playing 4 tables. you can easily drop 100BB in a day. Almost no one can lose 1/3 of their bankroll and play their best game the next day. Also, the variance of many of the online games would dictate that a 300BB bankroll is conservative. Ask very good poker players if they have every had a 300 BB downswing. I would guess that a lot of them have. How do you think they kept playing? It's because 300 BB is not enough, epecially when you take pyschology into account with multi-tabling online.

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Wrong. This is wrong because when playing 1 table. you can easily drop 100BB in a 4 days. Almost no one can lose 1/3 of their bankroll and play their best game on the 5th day. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The rest of you statement may, however, be correct in certain situations (SH'ed play in aggressive games for example).

Re: You can build up quickly
 

It does change slightly actually, if you actually calculate your necessary bankroll instead of going by rule of thumb.

Your win rate will drop some and your variance will go up some, making a bigger bankroll necessary. (300BB is for a 3BB/100 winner with a well controlled variance.)

Sorry
 

Yeah, so I've taken a lot of heat for these posts, which, were by my own admition more than a bit overkilled. I should've chosen one area and stuck to it. The sarcastic responses were hilarious, most of them anyway. The flames were well-desrved, and the advice was both helpful and insightful. Re-reading my post, it is so over-the-top and emotion driven I laughed out loud. I'm sorry I subjected all of you to this, but I really have learned some things about backers, etc. Since I don't have any stats on myself, I will get a crappy job and continue to play low-limits and increase my bankroll.

I am cross-posting this to help you all understand that I understand how annoying this was. I'm sorry, won't happen again.

Re: Sorry
 

Glad you feel you benefitted from the experience, and best of luck to you! Also on a side note, regarding the 300BB debate. If you lose 100 BB over any time period, be it a day or a week, you no longer have a sefficient role to play at your stake level. This is why 300 BB is nogt quite enough in my opinion.

Re: You can build up quickly
 

[ QUOTE ]
It does change slightly actually, if you actually calculate your necessary bankroll instead of going by rule of thumb.

Your win rate will drop some and your variance will go up some, making a bigger bankroll necessary. (300BB is for a 3BB/100 winner with a well controlled variance.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you saying this is because you think you will play differently playing 2 tables as opposed to one table? If so, yeah i agree you're win rate per table probably does drop a little. I'm not sure the SD per table will really increase though.

Now, if we make the assumption that we can play each of the 2 tables equally as well as we could play one table alone, then there is absolutely no change in the bankroll requirement.

Let s = hourly standard deviation for one table, let u = win rate for one table. Then Bankroll

b = (3*s)^2/4u.

Now, let S = hourly standard deviation for playing 2 tables then S = sqrt(2)*s. And let U = hourly win rate for playing 2 tables, then U = 2u. So bankroll for playing 2 tables is

B = (3*S)^2/4U = (3*sqrt(2)*s)^2/4*2u = (3*s)^2/4u.

So, you can see the bankroll requirement is the same so long as we assume that we can play each of the 2 tables equally as well as we can play one table.

Re: Sorry
 

I don't think you'll have much luck getting a backer based upon all this (unless you can find some rich older chick hehe).

A few comments though: How much you need to start out with trying to earn a living at this is going to depend a lot on what the "opportunity cost" of the decision is. If you've got a 6 figure job, for instance, I wouldn't leave it unless you are both making significantly more at this and have the bankroll size to ensure it continues. If you're flipping burgers somewhere though, and can get another job easily, the equation is going to be a lot different of course, although you're still going to have to earn more than you're getting now.

From what you've said, the first thing you need to do is protect your bankroll a lot more. Buying Xmas gifts with it for instance is a bad idea when it's this small [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Nice I.Q. and memory there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Mine's over 160 but I can't remember a damn thing so you got me there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The most important thing at this point is that you've got to be patient. Continue developing your poker skills, and one day, not too far off, perhaps you'll have a legitimate shot at doing this for a living, and without anyone with their hand in your pocket, which you do not want.

Best of luck
KC
http://kingcobrapoker.com

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

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I have played Hold em, and won, as high as 30/60. I played it 3 times and won twice, the third time losing relatively a little.

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i know lots of people who have won two out of three sessions playing mid-limit hold 'em. yet, i would not stake any of them unless it was using a wooden stake to nail them to the table so that they could not leave and would give all of the money back.

surely someone with a 140 IQ understands why your post is ludicrous.

get a job and play poker as a hobby. allow me to quote paul phillips on this one since he is more articulare than i am:

"My advice to aspiring pros is to change aspirations. Poker seems much more glamorous than it actually is, and for every player who is living the dream, there are dozens who aren't. If you're smart enough to succeed at this game, you're smart enough to succeed in the real world, with much greater satisfaction. If you don't want to work for “the man”, then start your own company and put your efforts into that.

I think poker is a great hobby but a very poor choice of profession. I'm concerned that the current poker craze is going to leave us with legions who eventually discover that poker isn't all it's cracked up to be, but who have also rendered themselves largely unemployable."

good luck,
tpir

Re: Backers? little content, but for me!
 

Legions of people who are unemployable ? Guys walking around who haven't showered in 3 days. Belching and farting freely in public, scratching armpits, etc....is this what you mean ?