May Recap (May #1)
I'm starting to sound like a broken record here in these recaps, but here it goes again.
May went very well, and ended up being my most profitable month to date. So yes, that means for the fifth month in the last seven, I've set a new personal best record for winnings.
May started out slowly, as I posted a series of modest wins. I then went off to Vegas for a weekend and posted my best casino trip to date. I returned to have my monthly 130BB downswing (which always seems to come around the 17th-20th of each month--maybe I should just plan on taking those days off) before absolutely skyrocketing through the last third of the month.
Helped somewhat by 1) moving up to 15/30 and 2) running exceedingly well, the week after my Vegas trip ended up being my most profitable week ever. I then finished the month with a Memorial Day weekend which was only slightly profitable until Memorial Day itself which ended up being (broken record, I know) my single best day ever.
So despite having my worst dollar-wise day ever on the 19th, this month was buoyed by my posting my top three single-day takes ever, and my best casino trip ever. These led to May in fact being both my best month ever for online play (surpassing April by $427) and my best month ever for live play (surpassing July '04 by a whopping $27). Needless to say May surpassed my previous overall best month by over 30%.
That's a lot of "best ______ ever"'s, I know.
I definitely can't afford to get complacent, though. I've run extremely well at the 15/30, but in reviewing my play, I've found that I still have some absolutely glaring holes. I'm paying off too much in situations where I know I'm beat, and I'm being overaggressive in times when I'm likely well behind. It's nice to win big even while making huge mistakes, but results tend to even out in the end and I need to try my best to plug these leaks before they come back to bite me in the ass.
If there's one thing I've found, it's that getting complacent in poker--thinking, "hey, I'm doing good enough"--is a guaranteed way to slip into mediocrity. Just look what happened to me when I got complacent at the 5/10 6-max games. I ended up averaging $13/hr for an entire month--definitely not an income someone would want to live on for very long. Not taking the game seriously leads to paying off slightly too much, being aggressive slightly too much and basically flushing one's profits down the toilet--a 2.5BB/100 winner only has to throw away 2.5 BB's every hundred hands to end up a break-even player. That's not too hard to do--a few hopeless calls here, an ill-advised raise there. That's all it takes.
Anyways, the end of May also happens to bring to an end my first year of playing poker for profit.
Year One Review (including: May #2)
In June, 2004, I was a lowly graduate student in applied math, not enjoying it at all. I was also a nearly-broke poker player, having nearly hit rock bottom in May. In May, 2004, I had in my account what I promised myself would be the last money I would ever devote to online poker. I'd been up and down for most of my online career--at this point, six months old--but attempting a few limits well beyond my bankroll (and doing poorly) decimated my bankroll, so I was trying 3/6 to see what would happen.
Looking back, it was definitely higher than I should have been playing, both skill-wise and bankroll-wise since my forays into online 10/20 and 15/30 had absolutely killed my solid four-figure bankroll.
3/6 was also killing me.
I couldn't win. Anything. Suckouts, bad play, the whole bit. I slowly watched as my last few hundred dollars dwindled down to double figures. Once playing three tables, I was finally reduced to one table, and eventually to only $10 at that.
$10 is not an adequate 3/6 bankroll.
But, as anyone who knows me can attest, I'm a stubborn chap, and damnit I was going to sit there until either I had a lot of money or I was broke. That $10 was the last money I would ever put into online poker, and this would be it. The showdown. Either I would win, or the online poker world would win, but we were going to find out right here, right now.
I can't even remember what I hand I had now, but I'm thinking it was probably something along the lines of A8o. Whatever hand it was, I got it, and, about to be blinded out, it looked like gold to me and so I raised and, as usual, got a few callers. I ended up going all-in on the flop and watched to await my fate.
Something then happened that hadn't happened in a long time. I don't remember the hand, but I remember distinctly feeling that--surprise!-- I got lucky. It would be a better story perhaps if I could remember the hand, so let's pretend I had A8o, someone else had AK, an A flopped and I hit an 8 on the river. Whatever happened, I got lucky and won my share of the pot. Minus the rake, I had almost quadrupled up--my $10 was now $38.
I then won the next hand. And the next. Okay, finally I lost one, but then I won a couple more. My $38 was suddenly $162 and I was back in business. Playing one table sucked, so I took my winnings and went to two 2/4 tables. My $162 soon enough was over $400. I learned two very important lessons with that episode: 1) Play within your bankroll and 2) stop playing stupidly! I literally couldn't afford it; I was living paycheck to paycheck as it was.
With those two novel ideas in hand, I began June, strictly limiting myself to 2/4. I still only had a little over $400, which is too small for comfort, but I was going to make do. To make things interesting, I dropped out of school in early June, and with about $3000 to my name and no job, I had to make a living. Much of this I've already chronicled.
Anyways, that June I made about $2000 playing poker, half live and half online. I was ecstatic. Instead of playing above my bankroll, or trying to force profits, I was simply sitting there and playing correctly--making good folds, good raises and overall good decisions. And it was working!
So by the end of June I had over $1500 online and a decent amount for live play, and so that was it--I was going to try to make a go as a poker player.
I won't rehash everything here, but I did consistently better, with my online limits moving from 2/4 to 3/6 in August, and then to 5/10 in December. In December I would also get my current job, which wasn't something I really wanted or needed to do, but felt like I had to do. It was a steady income, a future and health insurance.
I would stay at 5/10 for a long time, all the way through March. In April I would begin 10/20, and I've just in the last week or so started trying 15/30, which I view as much a lateral change as an upward shift.
I've had my ups and my downs, but the trend has been clear and consistent so far--I keep doing better and better.
So once down to my last $10 online, I've managed to build that up to a bankroll that's much more than adequate for 15/30 (heck, for 30/60 if I were to play that). And I didn't lie--that $10 is still the last money I ever devoted to online poker. I haven't deposited since.
And, of course, in July, I move out to Vegas to become a dedicated professional.
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