06-27-2010
, 07:46 PM
Today I hit a pretty exciting milestone: $100K profits since I started playing online poker seriously about 2 and a half years ago. I know $100K in 2.5 years isn't that sweet of a brag to many of you, but it's something I've worked hard for and am very proud of. Figured I'd go ahead and post my graph with a little background on my story and some general thoughts on poker that hopefully some of you may find helpful or interesting. Wouldn't be surprised if this turns into a fairly long post, so I'm sure I'll get lots of tl;dr type responses, but it's all good, read if you're bored or have some free time and feel free to ask any questions.
My story:
I'm 24 years old, graduated from college in 2007 after which I took a full time ~50 hours/week job. I had played a bunch of live poker in high school, usual $10 friendly games, etc. Also had the good fortune of having a few good friends in college who excelled at online poker and showed me a thing or two. I screwed around while I was in college, trying SNGs, limit, and no-limit holdem for various stretches. Made a little money just because of how silly soft the games were back then, but never really applied myself hard enough to it.
After college when I started work, I realized that despite the somewhat busy job, I had a fair bit of free time and decided to get back into poker and see if I could try to pay my rent each month with poker earnings. I started out at $.10/.25 NL Holdem 6 max and slowly began working my way up. (note: I think the graph may actually not include some of the 25NL hands now that I look at it, think I may have lost some hands when I switched laptops... oh well)
I was reading 2+2 a bunch, posting hands, watching some videos on Deuces Cracked and Cardrunners, talking poker a ton with friends who were better than me, and got a bit of coaching here and there when I would hit roadblocks as I moved up. Through a bunch of hard work and a fair bit of luck as well, I was able to make my way up through the ranks, moving to where I am today where I play 2/4-5/10 depending on how the games look and what's running. I believe this graph starts sometime around the beginning of 2008, which means it took my 2.5 years to play 550K hands. I dunno, I usually try to get in like 20K hands per month so I guess that's about right. Probably average like 40 hours per month playing 4-6 tables.
I still work at the same job, which I really do enjoy, and in the fall I will be starting at business school for the next 2 years. Some might think I'm insane for working a 50 hr/week job when my hourly from poker is easily 3X what it is at work, but I think for me it has been the right move. I like the stability of a steady paycheck, really enjoy the day to day interaction with the people I work with, and it put me in the position to go to a top business school next year which I'm extremely excited about. I've enjoyed keeping poker as a hobby/supplemental source of income, and will continue to keep it that way for the forseeable future (though it will be my only source of income during bschool).
General thoughts on poker:
People grossly underestimate how much variance there is in poker. You'll notice from my graph that it took me like 300K hands to hit $88K, and another 250K hands to reach $100K. I'll admit, during that first stretch I ran wayyy hot, though I definitely didnt realize it at the time. Once I hit $88K though, I went through a stretch where I ran worse than I ever thought it was possible to run. One of those sick stretches where every single time you think things are finally turning around, you get hit with some crippling, soul-destroying cooler or bad beat that destroys your will to keep on fighting. This happened over and over. At times I definitely tilted and would turn a -5 buyin day into a -8 buyin day when I should have quit the minute I felt myself losing control. Poker is really a sick game, and I think that tilt control and following stop-losses are SO KEY for anyone trying to play the game seriously. You really need to totally ignore what has happened on every other poker hand you've ever played, and keep yourself in the moment, playing each hand in a way that maximizes your EV. That's it. Doesn't matter if you've been sucked out on before, doesn't matter if you're up 20K today or down 50K. Every hand, go in with the mindset of "how can I play this hand as well as possible?" If you do that, you are setting yourself up for success. If you can't do that, you're screwed before you even start.
Variance takes a lot of forms. I think some people put a ton of stock into all-in EV, which I think is one useful indicator of luck/variance but wayyyy overrated. What's way bigger is just running into the tops of people ranges in sick spots, people spiking things on the flop that lead to you getting it in behind and you wouldn't play it any different, etc. I've been through stretches where I ran really hot in terms of all-in EV but was getting crushed in terms of other variance, as well as stretches where I ran really bad once all-in but was coolering people a ton. Guess the moral here is that there's more to luck than all-in EV, and more importantly you shouldn't be worrying about things out of your control anyway.
Play where the fish are. This is simple, but I think a lot of people do a crappy job with it (me included at times). The NL Holdem games on Full Tilt and Pokerstars are tougher than they've ever been... so go play something else! I used to play a fair amount on sites like Cake and Bodog where the games are so much softer than on Full Tilt and Stars. Yes the software sucks, yes there aren't as many games running, but if you mix them in it makes a big difference for your hourly. I also wish I had learned to play games other than NL Holdem early on... I feel like I may have missed the PLO craze but for a while people were CRUSHING the Midstakes PLO games because the fish:regs ratio was so much higher. I had a friend back in the day who made a small fortune playing HEADS UP 5 CARD DRAW on pokerroom.com lol. He studied his ass off, learned a game than no one else knew how to play, and totally crushed it. If you're struggling to beat NLHE games, go learn omaha hi-lo! or razz! watch videos, buy books, get a coach... what do u have to lose?
If you play 50NL or higher, get a coach (but do your research on coaches first). I've gotten official coaching from a number of players, as well as informal coaching from friends, and it's such a great way to improve your game. Sinking money into a good coach is going to almost always pay off in the long run, as they can spot your leaks much faster than you could figure them out on your own. I've seen a fair amount of threads about coaches who aren't actually good, or are scammers, so definitely do research and make sure to get at least a few good references before you go ahead with it. With that said, I've spent probably a $4-5K over this span on coaching, and would have made no where near what I did without the help I received. Also, don't expect a coach to magically fix everything for you... come prepared knowing what you want to get out of it, take notes during the session, work hard before, during and after to improve on your own.
Red-line is overrated imo. I dunno when the whole "I need my redline to be positive" craze started, but this seems so ridiculous and humorous to me. Maximize your EV in each hand against what you perceive your opponents range to be. That's it. Sometimes that means barreling a ton and winning pots without showdown, sometimes that means check calling 3 streets or flatting a raise and check folding the flop. Worry about maximizing your green line, always.
Drop down a few levels and experiment! This was actually huge for me... every once in a while, drop down a few levels and try new things! 3 barrel in new spots, bluff raise rivers where you know your opponent is strong but you'd have to be insane to raise without the goods, value bet insanely thin just to see what happens, bet 1/5 pot on the flop and overbet the turn. It's hard/expensive to do these things at your normal stakes, but its a great way to get some new, creative lines/ideas that can really help you out. I feel like these days there are a ton of 22/18 robotic tag regs who know exactly how to play in the standard 3-bet/4-bet battles, what to do when you c/r a super dry board, etc. Start going outside of your usual bag of tricks against these guys.... throw something at them they haven't seen before. This is super fun too, and while sometimes I definitely spew off a few buyins at the lower stakes, other times I crush like never before.
Spend less time playing poker, more time studying poker. Goes with a few of the others, but most of the learning in poker comes when you aren't playing... it's when your studying, talking about the game with other good players, doing a hand history review with a coach, watching a video. Got to put in the time away from the tables if you want to be successful.
Find a way to keep poker in balance with the rest of your life. This can definitely be tough, but it's so critical. I work 50-55 hours per week, play 20K hands of poker a month, have a serious girlfriend and a bunch of friends I hang with all the time, play guitar, read books, and get to the gym 3-4 times a week. It's the only way I stay sane. Make sure to make time for the important things, and don't be afraid to take a few days, a week, a month off from poker if you feel yourself getting burnt out. Don't play, don't read 2+2, try not to think about poker for a set period of time, and then come back recharged and ready to crush.
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Ok, this has gotten pretty long so I'm going to wrap it up for now. Going to take the rest of the month off from poker, but I'm 100% aware that by making this post, come July I will instantly suffer a $15K downswing and not get back to $100K again until 2011. Oh well, a price I'm willing to pay. Decided not to divulge my screen name for a few reasons, hence the new identity, but feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer as best I can... Good luck to everyone.
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