1 Year as Pro(Long)

[Matt24]

Today marks my one-year anniversary of officially turning pro. I had been playing for a summer job ever since graduating from Indiana University in May 04 with a degree in Business with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. I looked for a job in the summer but all I have ever wanted to do was start my own business, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to work for anyone. My parents own a successful business and I wanted to stay local, so that was one option I had. The average starting salary out of IU for my degree was in the mid 30s and my parents offered me a whopping 28k, of which I naturally turned down, as I just don’t have that much interest in the business.

So meanwhile I put in a whopping $50 in my party poker account, I had been playing for a couple years while in college, just putting in a few hundred now and then and playing some 3/6 and 5/10, I lost most of it thanks to playing in the $20 and $30 multis of which I could never cash. I take this $50 and decide to play $10 SNGs(this is late May) I run alright and get up to $300 and start playing $20 SNGs, then I am 4 tabling these and quickly get built up to around $1000. I move to multi-tabling 2/4 and stay there until mid September. I think I got in around 35k hands at a 2.8 bb/100 and thought I was a damn good player. Then ran good at 3/6 for about the same # of hands when that all came crashing, my bb/100 just kept dropping and dropping and dropping to where I was a 1 bb/100 winner after about 100k. My vpip was low at 13.1 or so and I didn’t like my game whatsoever. But through my new rake deals and playing 8 tables, I was building a hefty bankroll.

3/6 was my main game from mid Sept through Feb or so, but I started to get into multi-tables a bit more. Had back-to-back final tables in the Empire Sunday Night 50k(4th/7th).

Nothing of interest up through March/April, when I moved to 5/10 full and some 15/30, I beat 5/10 for a whole .5 bb through 40k hands or so. I dabbled in 15/30 and ran good for about 12k hands near 2bb, I was up around 7k and running super hot then I got drilled a couple nights in a row and stopped playing that game, as I wasn’t ready for the swings. I had my biggest winning month in April thanks to the 15/30 and didn’t even need the 4th place finish in a World Poker Classic $1500 event to get there. I was on top of the world then, figuring I’d keep rolling it in.

May and June were decent months in total earnings, but just because of the rake, earned over 7k in rake in June, rakeback gives me a load of security. In July I started playing $100 SNGs after putting in a decent amount at the $50s. I got up 3k fast then got drilled, losing over 4k in one day on those things. In a 2-day span I lost 5500 and could not win an all in. In those 2 days I lost AA to AK/AQ 3x all in preflop, totally unreal. I still feel I can beat those, but July was a $3600 loser for me in actual online winnings. Luckily I made some decent rake to help me through it. That month also I played 4 Ultimate Poker Challenge events. I took 2nd in the last one and that will be on TV in November.

Currently I am trying to revamp my game through six max; I put in 40k hands at 3/6 winning 1.6 bb and now am playing 5-10 where I have been winning since changing my game around. I started out at 5-10 but was too tight and moved down to relearn.

Most pros have had to deal with burnout, which is one thing I still really haven’t gone through and I log a load of hours. From October through March of last year I was easily putting in a minimum of 45 hours a week (besides December) and hit 60 a few weeks. From May through right now, I’ve been getting in at least 35 a week as I’m playing golf every day and doing all sorts of other stuff during the summer. I’m hoping I completely avoid burnout but I’m sure it’s coming soon.

This last year has been great; I’m having tons of fun doing this and enjoy getting to play in some of the bigger tourneys too. I have the WSOP Circuit at Indiana coming up in a couple months and that is going to be a huge event for me as I plan to play in every no limit event. I’m not sure where I plan to be in the future, I still want to own my own business and am still thinking of ideas and stuff. I’m in the process of buying a house and will be putting down a hefty down payment, so I don’t plan on playing any 10k events anytime soon. (Unless I make over 25k at the Indiana tourneys leading up to the main event/ I do plan to play in the March WPT Reno 5k event) I’ll probably hang out at 5-10 for a while, and play some 15-30/30-60 while doing some of the bigger multi-tables.

I have a friend who does web design so he put a page together for me at IndianaMatt.com . I had it built so I can provide live updates while I’m at tourneys and also because the local paper is doing a story on me and I figured I’d give the locals something to see as there has been too much talk around town about me being this degenerate gambler who loses all his money. (I live in a small south central Indiana town where everyone knows everyone) So if anyone is interested in tourney reports and the such, hopefully I'll be able to provide some decent stuff.

I’m heading out to Vegas next week with friends and will be playing in one of the circuit events. I’ll be in the $500 event on the 6th, if anyone is playing, let me know.

[ds914]

Nice job, Matt.

(Just shot you a private message.)

[lozen]

Thanks good read ad not long at all. Though I did find it hard to read your white on black on your webpage May i suggest a better font.

[Matt24]

do you mean within the actual site or on the blog?

[Klepton]

good post

[djack]

[ QUOTE ]
From October through March of last year I was easily putting in a minimum of 45 hours a week (besides December) and hit 60 a few weeks. From May through right now, I’ve been getting in at least 35 a week as I’m playing golf every day and doing all sorts of other stuff during the summer. I’m hoping I completely avoid burnout but I’m sure it’s coming soon.

[/ QUOTE ]

You must be nuts.

Congrats.

[ThaHero]

Great post man. It isn't as long as some of the stories posted here. Nice realistic post too. Not everyone loses everything and not everyone crushes the high limits for 5bb/100. Nice to see someone post that has been break even or not as spectacular, but is still winning through rakeback and small profits.

[lozen]

The Blog was very hard to read

[MicroBob]

congrats indeed.

I remember when you hit the final-table in those back to back empire guaranteeds and I was pretty happy for you.


I believe you neglected the most important part of your report though:
did I not see that you won an I-Pod in the quarterly RF club raffle?
I would have to think that would rank near the very top in career highlights.

[Matt24]

I changed the blog colors.

Yeah I did win an Ipod in that raffle, should be here in a few weeks, pretty good deal, $200 value.