My failure as a poker pro (very long)

[TimM]

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TimM... do you think if you had come across online poker before your stock experience it would have helped?

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I'm not sure. Maybe I wouldn't have been as careful when I started poker if it were not for the stock market losses. Certainly I would have had more money to risk.

I guess the big difference between poker and the stock market is that with online poker you can play super low limits until you know you can win, then move up. It's hard to do that in the stock market. Commissions kill you if you try to play too small, though now you can get a cheap per-share broker like Interactive Brokers. Even so, you still can't play for pennies.

I just really wanted to find some way to make extra income that had the potential to even replace my job. If I were able to do that by trading, I never would have gotten into poker. In fact I "discovered" online poker on a trading message board. If poker came first, and I reached the same point as now, I might never have tried stock trading.

[UATrewqaz]

Sounds to me like you wanted it all at once.

Poker is not a get rich quick scheme and being a better player does not result in oodles of money. You have to grind it out, plain and simple. You experienced a rush early on and knew you were probably pretty good but played WAY above your bankroll.

The fact you made a very expensive bankroll mistake or two is not uncommon, we all have for the most part, but you kept doing it over and over and over, a very strong sign of a problem gambler.

Although you may have some poker skills I do not think you have the emotional stability to play it for anything more than a hobby and if you can't control yourself then maybe not at all.

[MicroBob]

in the meanwhile...a guy like me can still do okay.

I'm a pretty mediocre player...but I think my money-management skills are better than most. So I can make a decent living at this.

I really think my money-management and discipline could be better....but I'm good enough that I don't put myself in a position where "I better get lucky pretty damn soon or paying the bills is going to be a problem" or anything like that.
I'm going to be unlucky at times...maybe my next unlucky streak will begin tonight and last for much longer than I've ever experienced before...but even to an extreme such as that I feel I could be relatively prepared to deal with such a situation.
If it entails stepping down to the 3/6 games again then I'll do that. After that, if I need to go down to 2/4 and do some serious hard-core bonus-whoring then I can do that too.

I enjoy doing this too much (as opposed to the alternative of working in a stuffy office from 8-to-6 for less money and less flexibility) that I don't need to stay at the higher limits out of pride 'because I know I'm good enough to beat those games.'
The higher games will always be there waiting for me...if I get in trouble then I'll go work on my game and make my money back in the low-limits.

[jman220]

This analogy is seriously flawed. Someone who has the addictive personality that OP clearly has should not atgtempt to make a living at gambling. To OP, I wish you well, but you should not listen to the people on this board who are encouraging you to try again. You are lucky that you are still young, and did not have any serious consequences as a result of your misadventure. Don't repeat your mistakes.

[Chris Daddy Cool]

i don't think i'd ever be able to go seriously go pro for a couple of reasons:

1) i, too, am an addictive gambler.
2) i, too, have horrible bankroll management

after suffering various downswings, i have gained some perspective to it all, but i continue to be a danger to myself whenever i play because i am potentially a bad beat or bad run away where i go do something really retarded like playing above my roll and losing my entire roll.

part of why i enjoy this game is because i can win or lose thousands of dollars a day, yet at the same time it is also part of my problem.

[BritNewbie]

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing your story.

I love this forum. Talking as someone who only started playing poker a few months ago and still has a LONG way to go to even master the basics, it's a privilege to be amongst a lot of good players who are willing, and able, to share their knowledge and experience. But I've always been uneasily aware that we hear way too much from the winners and not nearly enough from those for whom poker has not been quite the bed of roses that we'd all like it to be.

Thanks again, OP. Sincere best wishes in your new career.

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With my remaining $500, I entered a $215 SNG and was out in the first level. I entered another $215...


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Dear God. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[sfer]

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i don't think i'd ever be able to go seriously go pro for a couple of reasons:

1) i, too, am an addictive gambler.
2) i, too, have horrible bankroll management

after suffering various downswings, i have gained some perspective to it all, but i continue to be a danger to myself whenever i play because i am potentially a bad beat or bad run away where i go do something really retarded like playing above my roll and losing my entire roll.

part of why i enjoy this game is because i can win or lose thousands of dollars a day, yet at the same time it is also part of my problem.

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Wow. Just wow.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i don't think i'd ever be able to go seriously go pro for a couple of reasons:

1) i, too, am an addictive gambler.
2) i, too, have horrible bankroll management

after suffering various downswings, i have gained some perspective to it all, but i continue to be a danger to myself whenever i play because i am potentially a bad beat or bad run away where i go do something really retarded like playing above my roll and losing my entire roll.

part of why i enjoy this game is because i can win or lose thousands of dollars a day, yet at the same time it is also part of my problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. Just wow.

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The one thing I don't get, and I know Chris Daddy Cool didn't say he does this, but the OP did, and I hear it many times, is the syndrome where somebody loses big and then goes up to a higher level to try and recoup their losses.

I understand this must be a component of problem gambling, and even a lot of not problem gamblers do it, but vicerally I just don't get it. If I ever take a huge beating (and I'm so over bankrolled that I don't think it'll ever get to that point) there's no way I go to higher stakes, I move down and down until the losing stops hurting or I start winning.

I've only had to drop down once, fortunately, and that was when I was till at the micros. But to me it feels like, geez I'm taking a beating, why in the world would I want to go to higher stakes and take a much worse beating...


--Zetack

[velvetdog]

Thank you MicroBob for sharing this wisdom. Yours was the perfect (relevant to this thread) money management and discipline post for wanna be pros like myself. I appreciate this reminder.