Backers, please?

[illguitar]

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

[Ulysses]

If what you say is true, you can easily turn $500 into a few thousand in a month by multi-tabling low limits online.

[KdoubleK]

Seriously, seriously reconsider this decision. When you've built your bankroll past 40K you might consider taking a shot but you should really get a real job first and play poker on the side. Nobody needs backers if they have the patience and guts to use their own bankroll.

[BK_]

i was unconvinced until i read this part:

"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. "

where can i sign up?

[sfer]

You are a clever little monkey. PM me if you visit New York City and I'll take you to Wendy's.

I like your location.

[DemonDeac Holding Rockets]

[ QUOTE ]
If what you say is true, you can easily turn $500 into a few thousand in a month by multi-tabling low limits online.

[/ QUOTE ]

ditto

[JaBlue]

I hear Zaxx19 is looking for some premium young talent (which you seem to possess) to nurture. PM him.

[PokerGoblin]

I assume you play at Soaring Eagle? Those games are so beatable you can probably turn your $500 into a couple thousand over the course of a month or two playing 3-6 and 6-12 up there.

As far as a backer goes, I doubt you'll find a ton of help here, but your best bet seriously is to build it up yourself and move up in limits as your bankroll increases. Probably not the answer you're looking for, but that's pretty much the reality of it.

Good Luck

PG

[bobman0330]

I built a bankroll of $200 into about $3.5k in a couple months taking advantage of bonus opportunities and beating small games, and I'm not even very good at poker. Also, you really shouldn't become a professional player at this stage in your life. Unless you play at an extremely high level, you'd probably do better with a legitimate career and a poker sideline.

[MMMMMM]

1. Finish your last semester at college just like you've been doing, playing poker on the side

2. After you graduate, really focus hard on poker with your small bankroll. Use the time you won't have to devote to your studies anymore to play many more hours of poker and thus build your winnings and bankroll by multitabling low-limits

3. Continue living frugally as you build your bankroll and gain experience, and see how you handle putting in lots of BORING multitabling poker hours for a few months. See if you can do it without burnout yet still make serious progress. Try to lead a life that is frugal, intense poker-wise, yet somewhat balanced with regard to some other activities so that you don't totally flat out burn out and crash

4. Come back and report on it

5. You will be better off this way than owing a large portion of your winnings to a backer. You will also have more of a taste of the true grind that is a big part of professional poker, year-in and year-out. You will come to know yourself better, and will have a better perspective on whether you REALLY want to do this for a living full-time. Even when you have a decent bankroll, poker is a grind in the long haul. That's the truth of it. So getting a taste of it for a few months at long hours with no studies to split your time should give you a better feel for it.

6. I'm not the winningest player on here nor the very smartest, but I've played mostly full-time since the late 80's. Part of the deal of being a true poker player is being able to grind it out on a very short bankroll and use that very short bankroll to build a real bankroll. I've done that several times over the years...playing LIVE, where you don't even have the advantage of multitabling, and you get FAR fewer hands per week--all the while paying rent, etc.

Now, I'm not saying that to toot my own horn, but rather to say that being able to do that is a big part of what being able to make it in poker in the long haul is really all about. You need to have the grit to be able to do that, because inevitably in poker, if you play enough years, you will run into a VERY protracted bad streak. You not only need to be able to weather it, you need to be able to rebuild at a lower level/lower limit by putting your nose to the grindstone, playing long hours, and spending as little money as possible. That is what saves a true poker player when they run really, really bad. The sooner you know you can do it, it the better. And the way to know is to actually do it.

Now's your chance to see if you can build a real bankroll out of little. Heck I did it on a $100 bankroll a couple of times playing live years ago. Sure maybe I was a little lucky playing $1-3 spread limit stud at the outset with that $100, but I also used strong game selection and played long hours. Both times within 4 months I had it up to over 7K and was playing $15-30 limit. You certainly ought to be able to do it with a $200 bankroll multitabling low-limit on the internet.

Believe me, at this point you're way better off just doing it and forgetting about backers. Even financially you'll be better off.