Originally Posted by Cameron8000
I was a victim of the Chris Moneymaker poker boom. “Victim” makes it seem like I somehow got scammed or conned by the shadowy world of online poker, but this was not this case. Instead, it might be worse.
I became infatuated with the game of poker when I was around 16 or 17. I deposited online with my mom’s credit card and ran 50 bucks up to ~350 within a week. Variance caught up to me and I was broke a few days later. But I was hooked. I loved the game. I was going to be a professional poker player.
I picked up some poker books at our local, used bookstore, pirated Harrington on Hold’em (volumes 1 & 2), and devoured Doyle’s Super System.
Black Friday hit a few months after my 21st birthday, but realistically, I was a break-even player online. No biggie, I thought. The live games were softer anyway. I spent 2 weeks of the next winter break in Las Vegas, playing live 1-2 and 2-5 (mostly 1-2, but shot took some VERY juicy 2-5 games) 10-14 hrs a day. I was living my dream. Wake up in Vegas, find a poker game, grind for 12 hours, rinse and repeat. As winning. And I was alive.
Working around a challenging university schedule, the next year I spent the entire winter break in Vegas. I was grinding harder than ever and enjoyed much of the same success that I had experienced my first extended stay. Then NYE happened. I met up with another aspiring pro from the 2+2 poker forums, and we went out to drink and bring in the new year. He had a bit more degenerate in him than I did, but I ended up taking half of his action in a Pai Gao game he was in, betting 500 a hand. Within 30 minutes I had lost all of my profit from the previous 2-3 weeks.
Vegas had beat me that winter, but it wasn’t poker that beat me, it was the pits. I vowed to forever stay away, and I have, with the exception of a tradition I have where every time I travel back to Vegas, the first wager I make is a 100 dollar bill on a roulette color to satisfy my inner degen. That’s it though.
My main problem with grinding the live games in Vegas, is that I have to be there alone to do it. If I’m there with a group of friends, the last thing I want to do is sit sober at a poker table for 8 hours while they’re out at a pool party drinking and talking to beautiful women who are out of our league, but pretend to be interested in us for the booze. Most of the following trips to Vegas were spent doing just that.
As I got older and consumed more poker content, I started to notice the general disenchantment among a lot of professional players. Everywhere I looked, poker players – winning poker players - were nearly all encouraging aspiring pros to find a career elsewhere. “I was you. I was excited about the game. I loved poker. But ten years later, man I wish I had chosen to do something else”. Stories from pros who didn’t like playing, but had no choice due to their lack of ‘real’ work experience were rampant. Is it possible that a decade down the road, I could feel the same?
I can still remember the moment I decided to pursue a career in Software Engineering. I was scrolling twitter and Phil Galfond had replied to someone’s tweet saying they should find a different career to chase. If Phil was saying it, man, there had to be something real there. So, I did just that. I stopped spending time studying the game and started spending time learning how to program. I graduated college and got hired into an entry level programming position in Austin, TX and made the move.
My first winter in Austin, our company basically shutdown for the week between Christmas and New Years so I made the 4 hour drive up to the Winstar in Oklahoma for a 9 day stay. I played ~80 hours of 1-3 and 2-5 and came out up about 4500 dollars. That was more than a months pay at my entry level position. Boy did I consider not coming back.
I managed to convince myself that there was no way the games were always this good, and frankly, I’m certain they weren’t. Also, in that part of Texas/Oklahoma, there really isn’t much around besides the casino and a small town built around a Wal-Mart. I talked myself into believing that I’d be miserable soon enough., so I took my profits and returned to my 9-5.
Three years later, I’ve doubled my salary as a Software Engineer, I work at an exciting, young company with new technology, and I STILL question that decision to make the drive back to Austin.
For those paying attention to the poker world, there is an incredible tournament happening at the moment: The Super High Roller Bowl, a 300k entry at the Aria. I’ve been keeping up with the action the past two days, and the sickness is back. With the WSOP starting tomorrow, I can’t help but dream of Vegas and the months I spent there grinding and chasing my dream. I sincerely recall those times as some of the absolute best of my life.
I’ve resigned to saving up a roll and spending 7 weeks my city of dreams next summer, but I can’t help and think this desire will fade.
Not sure what my goals were with this post, but I felt like I needed to get it out. Thanks for reading.