Poker Wannabe

6/28/2005 - LA

Thursday night, I flew off to Los Angeles for the second time in my life and first time to play poker.

Three of us were making the three-day trip, with the plan of doing nothing else besides eat, sleep and play poker at the Commerce.  It was going to be great.

Commerce

I'd never been to the Commerce before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I knew it was a big name in the poker world, what with the largest poker room in the world and all, but that was about it. 

I have to admit--I was expecting a little more in general.  It was nice, but I guess I was kind of expecting something that would live up to Vegas standards, just transplanted into LA.  Rather, it was clearly a few steps below that--somewhat nicer than the casinos in Lake Charles, but still not quite as nice as, say, the Harrah's in New Orleans.  It seemed to be about on par with, say, Canterbury Park near the twin cities in MN.

But whatever, how was the poker room?

Poker Room

Well, rooms actually.  There was the low-limit room which was simply massive.  You walk in and it's just a sea of tables nearly as far as you can see, all packed full at peak times, with countless 2/4, 3/6 and 4/8 games, with limits all the way up to 15/30.  Around the corner a bit is the higher-limit area, which houses 20/40 and above games.  Even that room was big--just from eyeballing it, the higher-limit area seemed to be  at least as big and probably bigger than the Bellagio poker room. 

One really nice feature about the Commerce poker room is that in the higher-limit room all food is free for all players.  People would get feasts delivered to the table, steak and potatoes and veggies and fruit and soup and dessert, all at once.  Even in the low-limit room, food was cheap, with some pretty decent meals available for $2 or $3.

More questionable was their decision not to offer free drinks to players.  Even in the high-limit area, players had to shell out $7 or more for a drink.  I like my opponents nice and wasted, and that certainly was not the case at the Commerce.  This is certainly more of a concern for lower-limit players, as I've noticed players at 30/60 and above seem to be a lot more careful about (not) drinking while playing.

One thing I noticed about the Commerce is that at least the higher-limit area seems to be a completely player-run room.  Players were doing a lot of things that would not be tolerated at, say, the Bellagio.  On three separate occasions, I saw a player take his cards and literally crumple them up and spike them back at the dealer, and on none of those occasions was he so much as reprimanded--the dealer simply picked them up and called for a new setup.  Dealers were berated mercilessly at times, players would yell and argue with each other as loudly and for as long as they wanted.  Setups were called for and provided seemingly every eight or ten hands.  Practically anything went.

Another thing that bugged me was that the "I want to see his hand" rule was abused relentlessly.  It seemed to me that as one moved up in limits, that rule is used less and less.  At least in Vegas that seemed to be the case.  But in LA, suddenly every other hand that went to showdown was asked to be seen.  I don't know why, but I can sit there and endure bad beat after bad beat and not really get bothered at all beyond maybe a minor annoyance.  But people asking to see my hand time after time really, really irks me.  Anyone who's played with me knows I generally stay pretty quiet and calm, but at one point this trip even I jumped on this guy for asking to see my hand for what must have been the tenth time in about three hours.

Playing Pokah

Ah, but the real concern would simply be this: how were the games?

Answer: great.

Thursday, I put myself on the 20/40 and 40/80 lists and was called almost immediately for 40/80.  This isn't surprising as they had three 20/40 games going, but six 40/80 games going.  Six!  This would be my first time playing 40/80.  I didn't let the size of the bets distract me any, but it took me a little while overall to stop being so cautious--I was giving people too much respect. 

The first table I sat at was quite tight.  The only decently-sized pot I saw in my hour there was when I was dealt KK and the guy to my left got AA.  I did not improve.  Doh.

I moved to a better game, but the cards didn't get any better.  Top-two on the flop no good.  I couldn't hit anything except a couple hands that were always second best and I dropped about $3000 pretty quickly.  I went on a mini-rush over about 45 mins late in the evening to get back to even and I was able to tack on a little more to that to finish the night up about $1000. 

Friday saw me back at 40/80 trying desperately to catch a hand.  I still couldn't catch anything, but a few blind steals, a couple bluffed pots and the rare legitimate hand had me basically treading water.  10 hours I played, and I probably won one pot more than four or five BBs.  I gave back all I had won the previous night, but I consider that a victory considering how the cards ran.

The game that night was amazing, though.  There were two loose-aggressive maniacs, two loose-passive calling stations and two people who seemed as though they had no clue what they were doing.  Add to that two tough players and lil' card-dead ol' me and it was quite an interesting table for all involved, even though I was essentially a spectator with my endless parade of J3o.

Saturday would find me in second place pretty consistently again, and I would quickly be $2500 in the hole, where I would tread water for hours.  And hours.  And hours.  Nothing, no hands, no big pairs, no sets, no straights or flushes, only an occasional flopped two pair that wouldn't hold up, or a blind steal if I was lucky.

Then finally, after twenty hours of nothing (including Friday night), I would finally go on my second rush of the weekend, winning about $5000 in the span of about two or three hours.  This was aided by one complete LAG two to my right and one total calling station on my left. 

LAG raised UTG, as he was prone to do with any two cards.  I three-bet from MP with 33, calling station (CS) called, and all else folded.  Flop:   K97.  LAG checked, I bet, CS called, LAG folded (wow!!! he later told me he had 45o).  Turn: A(K97).  I bet, CS called.  River: K(AK97).  I bet, CS thought a while and finally folded.  To show the table image I had at that point, two different players called out nearly simultaneously,

"Show your big slick!"

I couldn't resist.  "Ok!" and I tabled my 33.  Ah, yes, there's nothing like seeing 100% pure shock on all eight opponents' faces at a poker table.

Two things happened after that hand--1) I started hitting a few hands and 2) I was paid off handsomely.

That hand jump-started my rush that provided all of my profit for the weekend.  At nearly 5am I finally stopped, up about $2500 for the night and therefore the trip.  I finished the trip donking around at 4/8 with my friends, winning another $100 or so to finish up almost $2600 overall.

Definitely not a bad weekend, but seeing how I was up and down constantly, having at different times a $4000 downswing and a $5000 upswing, it's hard to feel great about the results--for all I know, I'm nothing more than a break-even player at that limit.  I guess I feel good given how for the vast majority of the weekend I was hitting nothing, completely card dead, and yet I still managed to average about 1.2 BB/hr for the weekend.

Conclusion

The games in LA are great.  And by great, I mean absopositivelyfuckinglutely wonderful.  While the tables certainly got tight and tough at times, there were plenty of times when the games were loose-passive--six, seven, eight players seeing the flop for one bet--and plenty of other times when they were loose aggressive--four or five players seeing the flop for two or three bets.

I haven't played a whole lot at either limit, but it seemed in my short stints at each that the Commerce 40/80 had, on average, slightly weaker players than the Bellagio 30/60.  There were certainly some real tough spots, and a few genuinely tricky players this past weekend, but there were also more downright bad and clueless players than I remember in my short time at the Bellagio 30/60.  But, once again, small sample-size warnings apply. 

So the plusses for the Commerce are plentifiul, juicy mid-limit games, free food delivered right to the tables and that it's located in LA with its great climate and plentiful beaches.  The drawbacks are that LA is expensive, and the city overall is less exciting (in my opinion) than Vegas.

Vegas' advantages are that they have the nicest poker room I've ever been in (the Bellagio, of course), with its better dealers, better-run room, still nice mid-limit games.  And it's Vegas, baby, Vegas!

So, as tempting as it might be to cancel my apartment in Vegas and move to LA instead, I think I'm going to stick to Vegas.  Heck, LA is only a four-hour drive away...

6/23/2005 - Leaving for LA

I leave for the city of Angels (and smog) later today.  Three of us are going for the weekend and we plan on taking full advantage of all the different kinds of activities available in a huge city right off the beach in southern California by sitting around and playing poker in the Commerce round the clock. 

I mean, what else could we possible want to do?

Full trip report when I return, of course. 

6/19/2005 - From Penthouse to Outhouse, back to Penthouse, to House Being Blown to Smithereens (and definitely no more braggin')

Yesterday was certainly one of the more amazing runs of poker I've had.  I started out doing horribly, dropping a ton of money quick.  I then had a nice little run where I won all of it back and then some.  But, I finally just piledrived right into the ground, having my worst run of cards I can remember to aptly end the day after my best day of poker ever with my worst day of poker ever--and worst by a factor of about three. 

I've been stuck in Party's "Thou Shalt Not Win" mode before, but this was a new one, "For 3000 Hands, Thou Shalt Put Tons of Money Into the Pot As a 95%+ Favorite, But Still Thou Shalt Not Win." 

I won't recap them all here, but I certainly had amazing hands that literally made my jaw drop all night long.  Hands that I might see one or two a night in just the astounding way they develop ("Wait, he capped my AA on a AK8 board the whole way with his 24 to catch a 3 and a 5?") I think I can remember at least 20 hands like that just off the top of my head from last night alone--heck from those last three fateful hours.  Ugh.

Oh yeah, didn't I say I shouldn't play between the 17th and 20th of each month?  Quote:

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)

Yes, the trend continues. 

Oh well, what can I do besides go right back out there and play again tonight?

More Bad News

I recently bought Half-Life 2.  Okay, a few months ago I bought it, but between poker and work and something resembling a social life, I just got around to playing it yeseterday.  Or, I should say, trying to play it.

I was able to play it for about five minutes before getting motion sick so bad I had to turn it off. 

Me!  Motion sick!  I'm someone who literally grew up on first person shooters!  I played the original Wolfenstein 3D from its initial release, downloaded Doom the day it came out and went on to play it 8 hours a day for more than a year (and for quite a bit after that, as well), and I continued to play them all up until a year ago--Doom II, Duke Nukem, Quake, Half-life, Quake II, Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc.  But here I go and take a year or so off from playing them and boom, I can't even go five minutes without getting sick.

This is more distressing than was dropping a month's salary at my old job last night.

Yes, June 18 really was the day of bad beat after bad beat.

6/18/2005 - A Little More Braggin'

Oh geez.

Well, I continue to running embarassingly well at the Party 15/30.  I had my best day of poker ever Friday night, helped along by hands like this (which turns out to be my biggest online pot ever):

Party Poker 15/30 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kd, 9d. Hero posts a blind of $15.
2 folds, MP1 raises, MP2 calls, 1 fold, Hero (poster) calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Jd, Td, 8s (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 bets, MP2 calls, Hero raises, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 3-bets, MP2 calls, Hero caps, MP1 calls, MP2 calls.

Turn: (11 BB) Qs (3 players)
MP1 bets, MP2 calls, Hero raises, MP1 3-bets, MP2 caps, Hero calls, MP1 calls.

River: (23 BB) 3d (3 players)
MP1 bets, MP2 calls $22 (All-In), Hero raises, MP1 3-bets, Hero caps, MP1 calls.

Final Pot: 31.73 BB

Results:
MP1 has 9c 7c (straight, queen high).
MP2 has 8d 8h (three of a kind, eights).
Hero has Kd 9d (flush, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins 31.73 BB.

I can understand MP2's play, but MP1's??  Wow. 

Poker hasn't been all roses.  Thursday night I had my worst run at the 10/20 six-max games I can remember, dropping over 100 BBs almost immediately before finishing down 80 BBs.  But I more than made up for it with my 15/30 play and my first-ever attempt at the Party 20/40. 

The 20/40 seems to be a good game, although not quite as juicy as the 15/30 has been.  I was at a couple tables that would have four or five people in a raised pot on a fairly regular basis.  I almost definitely will not play 20/40 regularly, however.  I need to stay at the 15/30 for a while to make sure I'm solid there before moving up.  If I see an especially juicy 20/40 game, I'll jump in, but that's it. 

I even got crazy enough to sit at the Party 30/60 game for a round.  I managed to win one hand--my AKs held up unimproved over a cold-caller's A6s--but it was clear even after only that one round that I wasn't going to be able to play my normal game at those stakes, so I quickly left.  I need to get used to the daily swings at 15/30 before I try to get used to playing the 30/60.  Considering I won't even play the 20/40 regularly yet, it'll probably be quite a while before I again try the 30/60. 

I Don't Need No Stinkin' Job!

Besides being my best-ever day of poker (and getting to watch Roger Clemens beat the Royals), Friday was also my last day at my day job.  I am now officially a professional poker player.

I had been working as a mathematician at a gaming company, but no longer.  No more wage-slavery for me.  No more rotting in a cubicle for eight hours a day.  I am now a free man! 

Well, free to be a BB-per-hour-slave, rotting at a poker table (virtual or real) all day.  Heh.

18 days!

6/13/2005 - A Little Braggin'

So I split my time evenly between 15/30 full and 10/20 6max this weekend.  15/30 is still going amazingly well, but I wanted some variety. 

One of the things I missed about 6max is hands like this one:

Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7c, 9d.
2 folds, Hero raises, 1 fold, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) 5c, Jd, Tc (3 players)
BB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4.25 BB) 5h (3 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.

River: (8.25 BB) 2c (3 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, BB folds.

Final Pot: 15.25 BB

Results:
Hero has 7c 9d (one pair, fives).
Button doesn't show.
Outcome: Hero wins 15.25 BB.

BB was a chronic bluffer who would keep going up until the point he had to show down his cards.  There was literally no other play I could make on the river.

Or maybe I'm just a fish.  Either way, I don't thing you've lived until you've capped the river with an unimproved 97o. 

6/7/2005 - My Glaring Weakness

Well, the Party 15/30 continues to roll along marvelously for me.  I'm actually getting a little worried--I've been running so well that it's only a matter of time before I get my ass handed to me.  I don't have access to my database right now, but an example hand would be this one hand where I had QQ in the BB and the pot ended up being capped four ways preflop, four ways on the flop (at which point I decided that I should at the very least slow down and probably check-fold on the turn), but then I hit a Q on the turn to win the huge pot from a very enraged KK.

I've certainly had my share of bad river cards, but I've also gotten quite lucky on the river (or turn, as the case may be) in more than a few big pots.  I can easily see my next 10,000 hands or so being significantly less profitable than the last 10,000 (which were also the first 10,000 at that level).

Anyways, I'm really starting to want to play in the main event of the WSOP.  My only problem is actually, you know, getting a seat.  I certainly don't have the bankroll to go dropping $10K on a seat, and I just don't have the patience for online tournaments to win a seat.  I can do online cash games fine, of course, and I'm even semi-decent at SnGs, but online multi-table tournaments are just a recipe for disaster for me.  I'll sit there and do fine, but then get bored, or lose concentration or whatever and play a hand or two badly, lose a chunk of chips and then just donk the rest away.

I played a freeroll at Pokerroom where the winner would get a WSOP ME package, and I only had about 600 players to beat, half the players that had registered weren't even in the damn tournament (they were "away," posting and folding), and the top 100 players all got entries into another WSOP tournament.  All I had to do was sit there, steal the blinds from the posting-and-folding players (literally six of the ten players at my table were doing that) and wait for them to all bust out.  But no, I finished in the 300's somewhere anyways, donking off my chips with a couple of very questionable moves. 

Online MTTs are a real war of attrition, and I guess I'm just used to the more regular positive reinforcement that comes with cash games--I mean if I win a pot at 15/30, that's a few hundred bucks right there.  If I win a pot at a tournament, I have more chips, but I still have to beat some hundreds of random other players just to cash and get some piddly payout.  And finishing in the top three or so, where the real money is--fuggetaboutit.  I guess I'll just have to learn to appreciate the value of the tournament chips I accumulate.  Or something. 

Doing poorly in online tournaments is strange because I've actually done well in live tournaments.  I'm able to sit there for hours and make better decisions as a whole.  I'm not sure why that is.  I think when I first started playing cash games, I was the same way--good and disciplined live, a bit undisciplined online.  I probably just need more overall experience before I'm able to regularly perform as well as I can at online MTTs. 

So, yeah, the bottom line is that while I'll be in Vegas for the ME, I almost certainly won't be playing.  Speaking of which...

29 days!

6/2/2005 - Odds 'n' Ends

So apparently there's a poker boom going on.  I know, I know, I was shocked, as well. 

For as many poker TV shows and coverage and whatnot there is about poker, though, what really drove the point home was my recent visit to the dentist (no pun intended).

First was the awkward part--I had to tell them that I was moving and wouldn't actually be returning in six months.  Wow, I felt like I was breaking up with a girlfriend; the parallels were staggering. 

Dentist Appointment Person: "Great seeing you again!  When you come back we'll see how so-and-so trouble spot is progressing.  Want to go ahead and make an appointment now?"

(Girlfriend Equivalent: "Great seeing you again!  Next time we'll talk some more about that one issue.  Feel like hanging out this weekend?")

Me: "Er, well..."

(Me to Girlfriend: "Er, well...")

Me: "I actually won't be coming back.  I'm moving."

(Me to Girlfriend: "No.  See ya.")

Dentist Appointment Person, looking glum: "Aw, really?"

(Girlfriend: "Aw, really?")

About here is where it diverges, as the Dentist Appointment Person stayed calm and rational, and even said that if I ever returned to Austin, I should definitely swing in to have my teeth cleaned.  I think the equivalent girlfriend scenario is quite obvious, and I think we all know it doesn't usually work like that.

But anyways, I mentioned (to the dental people, not this fictional characterization of a girlfriend) that I was in fact moving to Las Vegas in an attempt to be a professional poker player.

Dental Woman #1: "Wow, really!  My cousin plays poker online all the time.  He keeps losing, and he won't stop.  He just keeps playing and playing and losing and losing."

Me, feeling like a complete ass: "Er, well..."

Dental Woman #2: "Really?  I just had a hold 'em weekend at my house.  Two straight days, and all I did was win!"

Me, thinking: "What is this world coming to when a random 50 year old woman is excited about holding two-day poker marathons?"

They then of course proceeded to ask if I would be playing in any tour events and I had to explain that no, I would be playing cash games, and they obviously had no clue what that even meant.  Jumpin' Jebus.

But, yeah, at that point I fully realized the complete poker saturation undergoing American society.

"Unrestrained Aggression"

So, when posting Tuesday's comment I glanced at the hands I posted and realized that I was either betting or raising at every opportunity.  I looked more closely at a few past hands I'd posted and, sure enough, I was betting and raising at every opportunity.  Thinking about that, I realized that people might be getting the idea that all I do is, well, bet and raise like a maniac.

Sure enough, Wednesday night I'm talking to a friend and he mentions exactly that.  I'm paraphrasing here, but he basically asked "Is there anything more to how you play than unrestrained aggression?"

Yes!  On the rare occasion when I'm not a maniac, I can actually finesse a pot a bit.  I'm sure there might be better examples out there, and perhaps how I played these hands some would call "standard," but here are two hands from the last time I played that I remembered well enough to go dig up from pokertracker.

Hand #1:

Party Poker 15/30 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Ah.
7 folds, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (6 SB) 4d, 4h, 8s (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero calls, SB raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls, SB calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) 3s (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero calls, SB calls.

River: (10.50 BB) Js (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB folds.

Final Pot: 12.50 BB

Results:
SB has Td 8c (two pair, eights and fours).
Hero has Ad Ah (two pair, aces and fours).
Outcome: Hero wins 12.50 BB.

Very, very passive.  No, I wasn't worried that one of them had a four (too much so, at least) but rather I recognized both players as intelligent enough to know when I have a real hand.  I felt that raising at any point would probably do nothing but knock them out, and I really didn't want to knock them out--let them hit two pair, there's no real flush or straight draws out there.  I figured I'd let them keep betting their 8's and then raise the river.  I unfortunately didn't get a chance to actually raise the river, but looking back I think I got about as much as I could expect out of the hand.  Despite the T8o the SB showed down, he was in fact a pretty good postflop player, and I have little reason to believe he would have held on through a call-reraise on the flop, or a turn raise. 

But who knows.  The point is that I was able to do something besides sit there and click bet/raise the entire hand, as much as the restraint pained me.

Hand #2:

Party Poker 15/30 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Kh, Ad.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, Hero 3-bets, 5 folds, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (7.66 SB) Kd, 5h, 3h (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 raises, Hero calls.

Turn: (5.83 BB) Tc (2 players)
UTG+1 bets, Hero calls.

River: (7.83 BB) 8d (2 players)
UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 11.83 BB

Results:
UTG+1 has 9h Kc (one pair, kings).
Hero has Kh Ad (one pair, kings, ace kicker).
Outcome: Hero wins 11.83 BB.

Once again, quite passive until the river.  The thinking here is that the guy doesn't have two pair or a set or else he would have waited until the turn to pop it.  So either he has something like QQ or JJ or smaller and is trying to push me off the pot, or has a K, in which case I have him outkicked, and it's very unlikely we're splitting since he didn't cap it preflop.  So I figured I'd string him along, and if the board looked nice enough, I'd pop it on the river.  And sure enough, the board was nice.  I definitely did not expect him to show down K9o, but I figured KQ was the most likely hand, perhaps KJ.  Anything but a Q on the river and I was going to pop him.

Once again, I may have cost myself some bets because he may very well have been willing to cap the flop and keep going on the turn, but in my estimation the 15/30 players in general are not as aggressive with their TPGKs and so I figured stringing him along was best.  Especially if he had something like QQ or JJ or a flush draw but hit a pair, then by raising on the river the pot is big enough that he'll probably end up calling anyways, whereas if I three-bet the flop, QQ or JJ or below is going right into the muck. 

So anyways, for what it's worth, on occasion I can do something besides be a maniac.  I don't like to but, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. 

6/1/2005 - A Tale of Two Mays: May Recap and Year One Recap

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.

35 days!