Playing online for a living week 33

[davidross]

Well much to my surprise, they want me to come out to Seattle for 2 days this week, so I’m starting my journey today. I have a 2:30 flight from Buffalo to Washington DC, then a 5:00 PM flight to Seattle. Hopefully I’ll get in in time to catch the Survivor Finale. I’m to work for 2 days and then we’ll see if they want me on a regular basis or not, and whether I can put up with the trip. I think between this and Christmas I will take a break from keeping the journal and we’ll see about resuming it in January. I rented a laptop again so I can play from the hotel at night. If I get a contract with them I will buy a laptop to take with me. I’m also hoping to get to a live game on Tuesday night, since I can’t get a flight home until Wednesday morning, and I wasn’t able to play live this week as I had hoped because I spent Wednesday running around making travel arrangements. I had to give them a fixed price quote for the 2 days work, which means they won’t pay my expenses, and I’m already ahead for the trip. I gave them a price of $750 US for my flight, and then discovered the quote was in CDN dollars, and the price had gone down, it was only $620 CDN. I’m up over $300 already. I’m also thinking of checking out of the hotel Tuesday morning and just playing cards through the night. My flight is 8:30 AM so I need to be at the airport by about 7:00, and if I go out to play after work I can’t imagine I’d be home much before 3 or 4 anyway. Another $155 US in my poker budget.

It was another strange week for poker. If you remember, I had a horrible finish to last week, turning a great week into a good one, and I continued to struggle on Sunday, having my first Sunday loss in 8 weeks. I lost $206. Then the usual Monday troubles and I lost another $181. That made 4 losing days in a row, and 5 out of 6. Strangely enough though, they were good results as far as I was concerned because I had a huge number of bad river losses. I can handle the KK vs AA losses, and the AQ vs AK in the blinds, those are just going to happen. It’s the times that you make the perfect read, hold your raise until the turn, make him pay the max only to get beat by a kicker matching deuce on the river that seem to set me off. But as it always seems to happen, just when I’m completely fed up, something good happens and Tuesday I ran hot. A good afternoon followed by a great evening after curling and I won $1,387. Tuesday is now officially my favorite day of the week. Not only do I get out with the boys for some curling and beer, but in the last 3 weeks I’ve won over $4,700 on Tuesday alone. Maybe I should just play 1 day a week. The frustration returned on Wednesday where I lost $306, making it 6 losses in 8 days, which is pretty unusual for me, but most of the losses were pretty small, and again a huge day on Thursday made me forget about it. I won $1,499. I have felt for a few weeks now that I was about to have a huge week. Just one week without a $900 loss and I might do something spectacular. I thought last week was going to be it until the big loss on Saturday. Well it turns out it was this week. With 2 huge days already in the week I had the greatest hour of my poker life on Friday afternoon. I took my 8 year old out for lunch and only got home at around 2:00 PM. In the one hour before I had to go get my son I won $1,200. That’s a pretty good hourly rate. I continued to run hot and while I only played about 4 hours for the entire day I won $1,876, putting me at $4,069 for the week. My best week by a mile. I decided not to play Saturday night since I have to drive to Buffalo Sunday morning. Weeks like this make me wonder why I want to go back to work at all. I need to go back and read a post from a bad week before I leave.

As I go deeper into this experience I’m handling the losing better, since I’m confident the winning will return. I’m actually quite surprised how small the weekly variance is overall. I’m starting to feel like the house must feel in the casino business. As long as I play the hours the money will come in. In 33 weeks I only have 2 losing weeks, and none of those in the last 5 ½ months. My biggest week before this week was $3,100, and I’m averaging around $1,800/wk since moving to the shorthanded 5/10 games. The full table 3/6 games brought in around $1,200 / wk. My game has improved so much in 7 months, mostly in the area of hand reading. I’ve also gotten better at leaving tables where I don’t have an edge. I think I’ve proved that you can make a living playing low-limit online games by playing multiple tables, even a comfortable living if you don’t have 4 kids and a mortgage to worry about.

Had an interesting experience on Thursday night. I had started to run real hot after struggling all day, and I sat down at a table where a known strong player was berating someone for his general play. I’ve seen this guy do this again and again, you know the schtick…”You are so bad”, “Q4o is my favorite hand too”. The kid answered back and it became clear he was a young kid, 20 he said, who was just having fun. He had run his bankroll up to around $600 winning with outrageous hands, but he seemed to be taking the abuse to heart, he was folding more pre-flop anyway. I sent a private message to the abuser, asking him to back off, saying something like “your going to drive him to buy a book”. Anyway he left the table at the same time I sent the message (coincidence I think, it was the exact same time I sent it), but I promised myself I wasn’t leaving that table until the kid did. We played 3 handed for a long time (I usually leave the tables at 4 handed or less because the hands go so quick I can’t maintain focus on 4 tables) but I made an exception for this guy. Sure enough within an hour his $600 was gone, and I had $300 of it. I just can’t believe that seemingly good and successful players continue to abuse the bad players, and then leave before letting time wear them out.

I made a royal this week, my 5th I think, and I also made a straight flush against the A high flush that was good for a huge pot. The funny thing about the Straight flush was that I didn’t realize it was a straight, and thought I had flush under flush when his hand showed. It took me a minute to figure out when the chips slid to me.

Weirdest happening of the week. 2 hands in a row, heads up with the same guy. 1st hand I have AQ and the flop is AKx. We cap the flop and bet out the turn and river. He has AQ also and we chop it up. Very next hand I get AQ again. Flop this time is AA7. We cap the flop and the turn, and bet call the river. He has AQ again too. At least on the 2nd hand we each won $6.

The big event around here this week is my wife graduating from school. She has to write a provincial board exam in January to get a license, but she is a college graduate now. I can’t describe how proud I am of her, and what a fine example she is for our kids.

When AK misses. I picked this hand because this happens so often, and there is clearly no set way to play it, although heads up this is probably my standard. UTG limps and so does utg+1. I raise from the button with Ah Ks. Both blinds fold and the limpers call the raise. Flop is Th 4s 3h. Checked to me and I bet. 3 handed I will almost always bet no matter what, and with that flop there is a good chance it missed everyone. I only get 1 call. Turn is the 5h. Checked to me and now it’s decision time. I’m never sure what the right play is here so I vary it by opponent. I believed I was behind, but I had a lot of outs. I like the maxim, bet when you have few outs, check when you have lots so I checked. River was the 2d, giving me the butt end of the straight, and he came out betting. I just called and I was good, he had turned a set of 5’s. This is one of those hands that can go either way on the turn, and my good read actually cost me $20, since I’m sure he was going to raise the turn.

Here’s what happens when you’re running well. I have Jh Th in the SB. UTG raises and 2 cold callers to me. I call too and the BB plays as well 5 of us to the flop. Flop is pretty good for me Js Jc Ts. Normally I would be tempted to slow play this, but someone else has to have a piece of this, and the pot is already pretty big. I bet out, and it is quickly raised and 3 bet. I smooth call this time and it gets capped anyway. 3 of us see the turn. Turn is the Qh. I check waiting to raise, and the flop capper checks too. Oh no! Luckily the 3rd guy bets and I raise. The guy in between us calls and the other guy 3 bets. I cap and they both call. River is the 2h. I bet and they both just call. The flop capper had Ks Qs and was pushing his HUGE draw. The other guy had AK and turned a broadway straight. That was a $260 pot.

What a chicken. At another table the same night I get 44 UTG and I limp. I haven’t been playing the baby pairs in EP as much, but I was running really wel and this table was ripe for it. I got 2 calls and the BB played too. Flop is 4c 3c 2s. SB bets and I raised. With the flush and straight draws on board I decided to play it fast. 2 cold calls and the SB 3 bets. I capped and all 3 called. 4 to the turn and $100 already in the pot. Turn is the 3d. Yessssss. SB bets, and I raise again. Finally someone folds and the 4th guy types in “Do both of you have 32?”. Then he calls 2 more and the SB 3 bets. I type in “maybe” and cap it. He calls 2 more and the SB calls. There is now $220 in the pot and I’m starting to worry about 33. He has to know there is a ful house against him doesn’t he? I mean the other guy has already mentioned it. River is Kh. Finally the SB checks. I bet and the 3rd guy calls all-in. Now the SB raises me. Uh oh. I finally chicken out and just call. SB had 65 for the flopped straight and the 3rd guy had A5 for another flopped straight. And I was ticked I left $10 more on the table. I guess I should be happy the SB gave me about $80 extra with excessive raises.

Before I close I want to thank all the guys that have replied each week to these posts. I am so glad I started doing this. For one thing it gave me an outlet for my frustrations, but it has also been so lucrative for me. It was through these posts that I was steered to the Party 3/6 games, then to the shorthanded games. And I wouldn’t have had anyone sign up under my affiliate program either without them, so it has probably been the smartest thing I did during the 7 months. My play will be interrupted over the next few weeks with the Seattle trip and Christmas, but I’ll keep posting when I can, and I’ll see about starting the journal again in the New year. I have to make up my mind about the book thing too. I’ve done around 4 chapters now, but it seems pretty lame to me. I can’ imagine anyone other than we die-hards being remotely interested in this, except then I go to a Party and everyone asks me all about it. Maybe I need to redo it and instead of using the posts, rewrite them as a story and explain more about the game to people. We’ll see.

Have a great and safe holiday everyone, and if anyone in the Seattle area can get to Muckleshoot on Tuesday night please try and say hello. I’ll be the guy speaking Canadian eh!

[GuyOnTilt]

...my good read actually cost me $20, since I’m sure he was going to raise the turn.

This is extremely poor logic. You should be thinking long-term, David, and not pot by pot. Since you've been playing for a living for a while now, I would've thought you'd be over results-oriented thinking, but this statement along with, "In the one hour before I had to go get my son I won $1,200. That’s a pretty good hourly rate," makes me wonder if your thought process is a little askew. Now that you've established your hourly rate, who cares how much you won or lost in any particular session or day or week? I'm hoping you're not living month to month depending on your poker winnings, and you have money saved up and a bankroll in excess of 600 BB's. If so, then there's no need to fret or celebrate big losses or wins. It'll all come out to what your hourly rate is in the long-run. All you need to worry about it putting in solid, quality hours at the tables. Your bottomline will follow. I've been playing for income for 2 months now, and I don't even worry about the results of a particular session or day; I just make sure I put in my 30 hours/wk and play optimally. You seem to emphasize your day-to-day and week-to-week monetary gains/losses way too much.

That's all I got.

GoT

PS. I'd like to come down and see you at the Muck, but alas, my youth screws me over yet again. (I'm still bitter over that whole statuatory rape incident...)

[bernie]

"I can’ imagine anyone other than we die-hards being remotely interested in this, except then I go to a Party and everyone asks me all about it."

i'll refer you to stu perry's blackjack diaries. kindof the same thing. someone would buy it.

another idea, if you're able, use some of the responses you got in threads. or summarize the responses since some may have been relatively the same.

that may give ya some extra text.

b

[davidross]

I hear what you're saying, but the day I start thinking of it as just putting in hours, I'll quit playing. It will lose all it's appeal to me and become another job.

For better or worse I do try to win every session, not to the extent of changing my game to do so, but when I find a table that seems easier to beat I will stay longer than my planned hours, and I do quit early if there is no edge to be found.

The comment about the $1,200 hour was of course facetious, and I didn't mean to indicate I should have played the other hand differently, just that I wish I had made an incorrect read because it would have meant another couple of bets. I want to milk every bet I can out of every session.

My resources are not so deep that I can afford too many bad weeks, so while I don't fret 1 losing session too much, I do still worry a lot about bad weeks. THat is still the time frame I concern myself about. My bankroll is around 1200 BB's right now, and as crazy as it seems i still think of myself as 10 weeks from ruin. Maybe if I get it up to a few months of reserves I'll stop worrying about it and take the losses a little better, but to be honest I think worrying about the losses keeps my level of play high.

[MrDannimal]

I don't think there's anything at all wrong with being happy after a good day of work. Doesn't matter if it's selling 10 big appliances at ABC Warehouse, or making some big breakthrough to cut 10 days of a program's development time, or making $1200 in a short poker session.

[GuyOnTilt]

I hear what you're saying, but the day I start thinking of it as just putting in hours, I'll quit playing. It will lose all it's appeal to me and become another job.

Yeah, I guess that's just a personal choice then. I don't mind thinking of it as just another job and I'm satisfied to think of it in terms of hourly wage. Honestly, I haven't put in enough to hours to say with any certainty what my hourly rate is at the level I'm currently playing, but my stats so far give me a vague idea of where it might end up being. I've put in ~200 hours playing 2 tables (400 table hours) at Party's 15/30 full-handed tables in the past 6 weeks, and have earned a little under $18k. So as of right now, I'm averaging ~$90/hr, which is 1.5 BB/hr/table. I haven't logged enough hours yet to be certain this will remain my win rate, but it gives me an idea. Since I'm relatively new to hold'em, it hasn't lost it's romance yet, so I'm still having fun playing. But even if it becomes "just another job," I'd still rather make $90/hr working a job where I have flexible hours and no boss than work some other college kid job and make $10/hr and have to answer to somebody. The fact that I enjoy it is just an added bonus to me, not the main reason I'm doing it.

For better or worse I do try to win every session, not to the extent of changing my game to do so, but when I find a table that seems easier to beat I will stay longer than my planned hours, and I do quit early if there is no edge to be found.

I'm the same, and I'm different. I don't try to win every session directly. My goal is to play my best, and sometimes that means winning and sometimes that means losing. Whatev. I will also stay at a table beyond when I had planned to stop playing if I find I have a significant edge though.

The comment about the $1,200 hour was of course facetious, and I didn't mean to indicate I should have played the other hand differently, just that I wish I had made an incorrect read because it would have meant another couple of bets.

Yeah, I know that comment was meant to be facetious. It was more the other comment that struck me as odd, and this one just kind of went along with the same mindset.

I want to milk every bet I can out of every session.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to miss bets any more than the next guy. But my primary focus isn't money when I'm at the table. It's playing optimally. Gaining extra bets when I win and not leaking extra bets when I lose is just a result of my primary focus, but it itself isn't my objective.

My resources are not so deep that I can afford too many bad weeks, so while I don't fret 1 losing session too much, I do still worry a lot about bad weeks. THat is still the time frame I concern myself about. My bankroll is around 1200 BB's right now, and as crazy as it seems i still think of myself as 10 weeks from ruin. Maybe if I get it up to a few months of reserves I'll stop worrying about it and take the losses a little better, but to be honest I think worrying about the losses keeps my level of play high.

Sound good. My bankroll isn't as big as yours; it's only 900 BB's. I do have some money saved up to last me a few months should I happen to bust though.

It might sounds like I'm nit-picking, but I honestly think there's a big difference between the way you and I approach our occupation. It may seem like we're saying the same thing and looking at our sessions the same way, but I don't think we are at all. Neither way is right or wrong, but I think there's a definite contrast between the two.

Keep playing well.

GoT

[GuyOnTilt]

I don't think there's anything at all wrong with being happy after a good day of work. Doesn't matter if it's selling 10 big appliances at ABC Warehouse, or making some big breakthrough to cut 10 days of a program's development time, or making $1200 in a short poker session.

I don't either. I'm just saying that I look at it a different way.

Last week I had a day where I won $3500 in a 6 hour session. Mentally, I thought of it as a $550 day, because that's what 6 hours of good play will net me over the long run. Then on Saturday, I hit my daily stop-loss for the very first time: I dropped 50 BB's, which is $1500, in only 4 hours. When my friend asked me why I took off from work early, I told him that I hit my stoploss. It blew his mind that I lost $1500 in a short afternoon session and it didn't bother me. I told him that I played well and therefore didn't lose at all, but that I made about $400. He didn't understand.

There's nothing wrong with being happy after a profitable session, but just remember to keep things in perspective. Winning $1200 doesn't mean you played spectacular any more than losing $1200 means you played like crap. The ups and downs even themselves out, and all your left with at the end is your hourly rate. In the meantime, all you can do is try your darndest to keep it as high as you can, and the only way you do that is to play optimally at all times. It's all about EV.

BTW, before I read TOP by Sklansky, I didn't think this way. Reading that book changed my whole outlook on poker.

GoT

[zamora]

You are not a GoT, you are a bot. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

no, i am kidding in a way. the way you can take away your feelings from the game is quite impressive. if you can do it while going trough the loosing streak from hell, i am even more impressed.

zamora

[JeffO]

David, you stated that you were averaging $1200 per week at 3/6 and $1800 at 5/10 short table. Are you still averaging the same amount of time played per week? and how many hours do you put in per week?

[squiffy]

I recently visited Chukchansi Indian Casino with my dad. They only had slots and table games, no poker. So I dialed up AOL through the laptop modem and played on Party. I don't know what I was thinking. I thought because I was dialing with my modem that I would not be charged a normal call. But I ended up playing poker for several hours and paying like a $200 phone bill.

Is there anyway to hook up to AOL without paying hotel room charges? You mentioned in your post that you plan to play from your laptop. Is there a way to get around the exorbitant hotel charges?

If so, that would be great, as I won't be so bored in the future taking my dad to that stupid NEGATIVE EV casino.