In interview after interview, notable professional poker players are often asked what their advice is to the recreational poker player about going professional. In interview after interview, those poker players recommend against it.
Chris Ferguson wrote a blog entry on his Full Tilt Poker page stating that, “If you want to explore being a professional poker player, you have to start out doing it part time. Spend your off hours thinking about poker and studying the virtual game. Read and play and learn.”
So, my question is: What if your day job quits you?
Due to the state of the economy, thanks in large part to Mr. W., people are being laid-off at an alarming rate. Even though many law firms are downsizing, most of them were real property and transactional firms affected by the mortgage/real estate crash. Typically, litigation doesn’t take much of a hit. If anything, when money gets tight – - people sue for more. But I was wrong. I was laid off yesterday, October 30, 2009.
As a mid-stakes rounder, I usually play No Limit Hold’em at stakes between 3/5 and 5/10 blinds. A year ago, I gave up the anonymous poker grind to try to be a more notable professional. Following the advice of many blogs and poker professional players, I didn’t quit my day job. Instead I tried to squeeze poker tournaments in to my life on a part-time basis. It was very, very difficult and the distraction of playing poker, marketing myself, networking and writing was very taxing on my primary career. In the long run, both jobs suffered.
Over the past few weeks, I was coming to the realization that I couldn’t do both anymore. By dedicating all of my free time to tournaments that last for hours and hours, I had no time left over to play ring virtual games and thus, my bankroll was steadily depleted over time. Before playing tournaments, I was able to match my regular salary 1 to 1 just playing 5 or 6 poker sessions a month. That practically doubled my income and, as I’ve written in prior blog entries, I have been missing the instant gratification of playing for cash.
With 2009 coming to an end, I needed to make a decision. I had to pick the direction I wanted to move forward in: my day job or playing full-time poker. It was a hard decision because my salary was a steady income that I could depend on week after week, month after month. However, just as I was considering taking a week off to make a run at the Commerce Free Online Casin’s L.A. Open tournament series before making my final decision, the firm I was employed at downsized. I was cut from the team. I no longer had any decision to make. The decision made itself.
One is considered a professional poker player when one’s entire income is dependant upon poker. Well, I’m no longer a wannabe. If I don’t make money playing poker – then I’m not making any money at all.
Yesterday, I took the last of my bankroll and hit Commerce Free Online Casin. Due to the size of my current bankroll, I have to be careful and avoid getting in over my head, so I hit the $200 (3/5) NLH tables. It’s not the best blind structure of the local Los Angele casinos, but if managed correctly — it is pretty easy for me to buy-in for $200 (with $800 behind) and pick my spots, drag some big pots and get out after tripling my money. (Regardless of how good or bad I am running, I have to set limits and right now those limits are set at 4 hours or triple up, which ever comes first.) In addition, the Commerce Free Online Casin runs a Friday tournament that offers a $50K guarantee for a $210 buy-in.
I played the $200 NLH tables and made $300. I took my profits and played the $50K Guarantee (not the best way to spend profits – but a big cash would be good for my bankroll – I also bought a lottery ticket). I played the tournament but only made it to the last 88 players (out of the 300 that bought-in). I then went back down to the galleria and put my name up on the board for another $200 table. It was 11:00 p.m. before I was seated but I got a good table. Nobody had a commanding chip stack and the average was $300. I played my typical style and one lady to my right made a snide remark about my pre-flop raise on position, when I took down a pot with A/3 of diamonds. I had to put her in her place by reminding her I took $75 off her the hand before when I outplayed her for a third of her chips. But her comment worked to my advantage and when I picked up Aces, I got action – I tripled up to $600 and by midnight I racked up my chips and I was out of there, “seat open dealer.”
This is my strategy for the next few months, until I build my bankroll to play higher stakes and play higher level tournaments for a big cash in a major tournament event.
I didn’t quit my day job, my day job quit me . . . Serendipity.
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After a few rocky months for my mate on Ft luck as 
I’m really frustrated with my results over here to the point where it’s heavily affecting my daily mood. All I feel like I want to do each day is grind to get out of this piece of shit downswing and whenever I seem to get going I get screwed.
