Poker for a Living - 6 Months in!
31 January 2008, 08:29 PM
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Poker for a Living - 6 Months in!
Time flies does it not? Just 6 months ago I announced in this thread that I was going to quit my job and play poker for a living.
Since some of you showed some interest I thought I’d bring you up to speed with how I’m doing and what my thoughts on it are now. This post is massive btw
Firstly, this is a tale of two halves comprising August to October and November to January. Following my two weeks holiday I returned to Edinburgh and hit the tables for the first time on the 7th August making $359 in around 4 hours with probably $20-30 more in rakeback, an incentive bonus. Things then started to turn sour as I dropped $500 the next day and $200 the day after that. By the end of August I had lost $448 and was deeply frustrated as I seemed to be embarking on my worst ever downswing. Worst was to follow, as I then proceeded to drop a further $1881 in the month of September and by now I was so fed up I could hardly muster the drive to sit down and play. I quickly fell out of routine and started sleeping on until all hours of the afternoon and then only booking an hour or two a day. By the end of September it was official; from the very day I started playing for a living I went on the most brutal downswing of my entire poker career in terms of the number of hands played, the amount of hours played and also the amount of money lost. I hadn’t made a single withdrawal from poker and the funds I had put in place to cover such eventualities was taking a hit.
At this point it had been predetermined (prior to going pro) that I’d sell my Subaru and so following a two day machine polish, an MOT, a lot of expenditure and effort it was put on Pistonheads in absolutely mint condition. One weekend I decided to take it for a run as it had been sitting in the car port for well over a week and I was hit by an uninsured eastern European driver (I’m not being specific mods
). With the car off the road for the foreseeable future to be repaired it seemed that we’d not realize any value from it any time soon and furthermore would continue to pay £100 a month in insurance costs. I hit rock bottom when I found myself going days doing nothing other than posting on here, reading other sites, looking at **** and playing xbox.
In October I took the decision to drop to a lower level to recover and I quickly made some money and turned things around. I then made a completely random decision and decided to move away from playing the 6-seater cash games to 9-seater full ring cash games. I enjoyed good initial success making $6000 (not including rakeback) in the last week of October and most of November but a horrible set back in late November struck around $3k off that figure and took the wind out my sails. In December I dicked around so much that I only played 25 hours for the whole month. That said I did make around $2000 for my meagre efforts.
Things were not going well. My reserve funds of money were starting to run dry and the car only came back from the repair shop in late December, with a flat battery no less and a broken door handle. Thing were grim, we were literally down to a few grand and after that we could not make basic month-to-month payments. I of course still had a $9-10,000 bankroll (around £4500-5000) but as anyone that deals with investment will know if I start to eat into that for daily expenses then it’s a one way ticket to being broke. This was ‘sink or swim’ time and so I made the decision that I’d absolutely stick to full ring play and that I’d put in better hours no matter how badly I ran. In other words I wouldn’t allow myself to be disheartened by a bad day or week (or longer) and stop playing.
Following a few weeks off at Christmas and New Year I got stuck into playing 9 tables of full ring poker….and ran horribly. However, I kept playing and sucked it up to work through the bad period and finish the month around $5500 up and that was still a bad month in terms of the ‘luck’ element of the game (I use programs that can measure the $$$ cost of good/bad luck).
So where does that put me now? To answer your first question: as it stands no I have not made as much money at poker as I would have in the last 6 months as a planner. However, I have only played around 350 hours in that time period and I would have worked in the region of 850 at my job!! My average hourly rate since August has been $40 and my average hourly rate at full ring since late October is $70 per hour. Furthermore, I now have a dual monitor set up allowing me to play 12 tables or more at a time and this yields an hourly rakeback figure of in the region of $18-20. This means that whether I win or lose during a given month I’ll get a rakeback cheque at the end of it for in the region of £900-1000 as long as I play around 100 hours. That might not sound like much at around 25h a week but for me, personally, it’s about as much as I can muster. Unlike any other job, when you play 12 tables of poker you don’t get even 10 seconds to talk to someone, to make a cup of tea or even just switch off. It is constant decision making for the whole time you are playing and every decision is critical! If I need to pee I have to run to the bathroom and run back and in that 20s my tables are all on the timers! It is intensive and put simply, after 5h of intensive poker I’m far more brain dead that I ever was after Uni exams or a long day in the office. Theoretically though, 100h should be more than enough given that 100x$70 is $7000 or £3500 being exactly double my previous wage.
So to shorten the above novel a little: it has gone bad, then very bad, then ok, then good and at the moment the future is looking a lot brighter. I am now in a much better routine and taking my ‘job’ far more seriously. Previously I just expected to fall into the poker pro life of ‘a few hours here, a few hours there’ and make more than enough money to get by. Life just isn’t like that! To go places in life you have to work hard and poker is no different and so, each morning I get up at 715am and following a 5 second commute to the office (spare bedroom) I start playing poker. I enjoy a flexible working environment and often have big chunks of the afternoon and all of the evenings and weekends to relax and spend time with my lass. I am also a lot happier and more content than when I was working as a planner and I certainly don’t miss that ‘worker drone’ feeling. That said, I know a lot of you view sitting for 5h in front of a computer clicking buttons as the most monotonous existence possible – and it some ways it is – but it’s all for me. Even the tax man can’t take a bean and so I rise and fall by my own sword in life. This really has been the most crucial lesson I have learned since August; that I must work hard at poker to succeed. Perhaps the day will come when my hourly rate is well into the $100’s and I can play the odd hour here and there and enjoy the ‘poker’ life but until then it’s a job and I get up and play it come rain or shine just like everyone else in the country.
In other news I got the car back in December and it was keyed in January. It was only at lunchtime today that I finally got it back in the same condition it was in when I put it up for sale in September <sigh>. The next 6-months are crucial as I simply couldn’t afford to only achieve the winnings I have made in the first 6-months of playing poker for a living. I do not believe I will struggle though and I expect by August 2008 I will have made much more in the year than I would have in my previous job. Even if I don’t I’ve been happier, had more free time and have at least tried something few people ever do.
P.S. If you read this far and complain about the length or weren’t at all interested then who is the moron. Me for typing it or you for reading it all
Since some of you showed some interest I thought I’d bring you up to speed with how I’m doing and what my thoughts on it are now. This post is massive btw
Firstly, this is a tale of two halves comprising August to October and November to January. Following my two weeks holiday I returned to Edinburgh and hit the tables for the first time on the 7th August making $359 in around 4 hours with probably $20-30 more in rakeback, an incentive bonus. Things then started to turn sour as I dropped $500 the next day and $200 the day after that. By the end of August I had lost $448 and was deeply frustrated as I seemed to be embarking on my worst ever downswing. Worst was to follow, as I then proceeded to drop a further $1881 in the month of September and by now I was so fed up I could hardly muster the drive to sit down and play. I quickly fell out of routine and started sleeping on until all hours of the afternoon and then only booking an hour or two a day. By the end of September it was official; from the very day I started playing for a living I went on the most brutal downswing of my entire poker career in terms of the number of hands played, the amount of hours played and also the amount of money lost. I hadn’t made a single withdrawal from poker and the funds I had put in place to cover such eventualities was taking a hit.
At this point it had been predetermined (prior to going pro) that I’d sell my Subaru and so following a two day machine polish, an MOT, a lot of expenditure and effort it was put on Pistonheads in absolutely mint condition. One weekend I decided to take it for a run as it had been sitting in the car port for well over a week and I was hit by an uninsured eastern European driver (I’m not being specific mods
). With the car off the road for the foreseeable future to be repaired it seemed that we’d not realize any value from it any time soon and furthermore would continue to pay £100 a month in insurance costs. I hit rock bottom when I found myself going days doing nothing other than posting on here, reading other sites, looking at **** and playing xbox.In October I took the decision to drop to a lower level to recover and I quickly made some money and turned things around. I then made a completely random decision and decided to move away from playing the 6-seater cash games to 9-seater full ring cash games. I enjoyed good initial success making $6000 (not including rakeback) in the last week of October and most of November but a horrible set back in late November struck around $3k off that figure and took the wind out my sails. In December I dicked around so much that I only played 25 hours for the whole month. That said I did make around $2000 for my meagre efforts.
Things were not going well. My reserve funds of money were starting to run dry and the car only came back from the repair shop in late December, with a flat battery no less and a broken door handle. Thing were grim, we were literally down to a few grand and after that we could not make basic month-to-month payments. I of course still had a $9-10,000 bankroll (around £4500-5000) but as anyone that deals with investment will know if I start to eat into that for daily expenses then it’s a one way ticket to being broke. This was ‘sink or swim’ time and so I made the decision that I’d absolutely stick to full ring play and that I’d put in better hours no matter how badly I ran. In other words I wouldn’t allow myself to be disheartened by a bad day or week (or longer) and stop playing.
Following a few weeks off at Christmas and New Year I got stuck into playing 9 tables of full ring poker….and ran horribly. However, I kept playing and sucked it up to work through the bad period and finish the month around $5500 up and that was still a bad month in terms of the ‘luck’ element of the game (I use programs that can measure the $$$ cost of good/bad luck).
So where does that put me now? To answer your first question: as it stands no I have not made as much money at poker as I would have in the last 6 months as a planner. However, I have only played around 350 hours in that time period and I would have worked in the region of 850 at my job!! My average hourly rate since August has been $40 and my average hourly rate at full ring since late October is $70 per hour. Furthermore, I now have a dual monitor set up allowing me to play 12 tables or more at a time and this yields an hourly rakeback figure of in the region of $18-20. This means that whether I win or lose during a given month I’ll get a rakeback cheque at the end of it for in the region of £900-1000 as long as I play around 100 hours. That might not sound like much at around 25h a week but for me, personally, it’s about as much as I can muster. Unlike any other job, when you play 12 tables of poker you don’t get even 10 seconds to talk to someone, to make a cup of tea or even just switch off. It is constant decision making for the whole time you are playing and every decision is critical! If I need to pee I have to run to the bathroom and run back and in that 20s my tables are all on the timers! It is intensive and put simply, after 5h of intensive poker I’m far more brain dead that I ever was after Uni exams or a long day in the office. Theoretically though, 100h should be more than enough given that 100x$70 is $7000 or £3500 being exactly double my previous wage.
So to shorten the above novel a little: it has gone bad, then very bad, then ok, then good and at the moment the future is looking a lot brighter. I am now in a much better routine and taking my ‘job’ far more seriously. Previously I just expected to fall into the poker pro life of ‘a few hours here, a few hours there’ and make more than enough money to get by. Life just isn’t like that! To go places in life you have to work hard and poker is no different and so, each morning I get up at 715am and following a 5 second commute to the office (spare bedroom) I start playing poker. I enjoy a flexible working environment and often have big chunks of the afternoon and all of the evenings and weekends to relax and spend time with my lass. I am also a lot happier and more content than when I was working as a planner and I certainly don’t miss that ‘worker drone’ feeling. That said, I know a lot of you view sitting for 5h in front of a computer clicking buttons as the most monotonous existence possible – and it some ways it is – but it’s all for me. Even the tax man can’t take a bean and so I rise and fall by my own sword in life. This really has been the most crucial lesson I have learned since August; that I must work hard at poker to succeed. Perhaps the day will come when my hourly rate is well into the $100’s and I can play the odd hour here and there and enjoy the ‘poker’ life but until then it’s a job and I get up and play it come rain or shine just like everyone else in the country.
In other news I got the car back in December and it was keyed in January. It was only at lunchtime today that I finally got it back in the same condition it was in when I put it up for sale in September <sigh>. The next 6-months are crucial as I simply couldn’t afford to only achieve the winnings I have made in the first 6-months of playing poker for a living. I do not believe I will struggle though and I expect by August 2008 I will have made much more in the year than I would have in my previous job. Even if I don’t I’ve been happier, had more free time and have at least tried something few people ever do.
P.S. If you read this far and complain about the length or weren’t at all interested then who is the moron. Me for typing it or you for reading it all
31 January 2008, 08:42 PM
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Will your old employer take you back
Brave to come on here and say how crap you've done with so many willing to say I told you so....but.....I told you so!
Brave to come on here and say how crap you've done with so many willing to say I told you so....but.....I told you so!
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31 January 2008, 08:54 PM
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31 January 2008, 08:55 PM
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Translates as, SB isnt as broke as we thought he would be but has six months beard growth, translucent skin (even by Scottish standards) and has put two stone on !
Only joking, well done, glad to see you are doing ok, dont want to here you are doing badly, or too well for that matter
Only joking, well done, glad to see you are doing ok, dont want to here you are doing badly, or too well for that matter
31 January 2008, 09:04 PM
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Not bad going. Bit like playing the stock market. But not as lavish, on the otherhand, one does have to keep it sensible not to lose out to much.
Whilst this is the end of January. How does this work on your tax returns
Bit like playing the stock market. But not as lavish, on the otherhand, one does have to keep it sensible not to lose out to much.Whilst this is the end of January. How does this work on your tax returns
31 January 2008, 09:04 PM
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I just did the exact maths from my bank + poker site records and since I went pro I have made $11,395 so I actually lost more money in that initial period than I remembered. It works out at £930 a month so about the same as an office junior on £14k pa.
However, by the hour it is £15.95 including my terrible run and that is more than I made when I was on £28k pa.
So you see the problem here is clear. I'm a lazy cvnt
However, by the hour it is £15.95 including my terrible run and that is more than I made when I was on £28k pa.
So you see the problem here is clear. I'm a lazy cvnt
31 January 2008, 09:11 PM
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Yes, I'm starting to gain real momentum in terms of hours played and money made. Feb will also be the month where I'll be 12 tabling right from the start and I hope/believe I can average over $80 an hour playing that many tables.
Just for interest this is my graph since 19/11/2007 (remember this is just table winnings - there has been bonuses + rakeback on top of that). A total of 111,419 hands:
Oh, I also got a free Ipod Nano (8GB) and a free LG 22" monitor from the points reward store
Just for interest this is my graph since 19/11/2007 (remember this is just table winnings - there has been bonuses + rakeback on top of that). A total of 111,419 hands:
Oh, I also got a free Ipod Nano (8GB) and a free LG 22" monitor from the points reward store
31 January 2008, 09:14 PM
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Didnt you just know there would be a graph, we dont need to see the ones about turd size, erection frequency and Cheese Consumption by the way.
I love you really Kenny !
I love you really Kenny !
31 January 2008, 09:16 PM
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Translates as, SB isnt as broke as we thought he would be but has six months beard growth, translucent skin (even by Scottish standards) and has put two stone on!
Shark Man, I do not have to pay any tax on anything I earn playing poker. Not a bean. This is the real advantage as my hourly rate after tax when I was on £28k a year was about £13 IIRC and I'm pretty sure I can gub that now.
31 January 2008, 09:22 PM
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Seriously man, you do not want to see my masturbation graph! Remember, in my job I don't need to worry about getting caught by the IT boys
On a serious note this really was the case and was a big problem. You can't imagine how much most people need their 'job' to frame their days and put them in some sort of routine. Even people working shifts at least know roughly when they will be working and for how long, etc. I think the most crucial decision I have taken is to get up every morning (starting 01/01/08) when Laura goes to work and start playing poker. I never have a lie in during the week now no matter how cold it is outside the bed, how tired I am or how much I can't be bothered.
Though I bet you're a ratty cvnt and not sleeping in any pattern!!
31 January 2008, 10:00 PM
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Which site(s) do you play?
I take it you play mainly cash games?
The sad thing (for me) is that I've probably played as many hours as you over that period, and done a day job
I take it you play mainly cash games?
The sad thing (for me) is that I've probably played as many hours as you over that period, and done a day job
31 January 2008, 10:05 PM
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31 January 2008, 10:13 PM
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that said though, i'm no gambler and never will be. casinos, online gaming and even fruit machines (which somehow had the ability to empty my friends' pockets when we were all a lot younger) never really appealled to me.
...so now you're into the routine and you probably still have a route to the head of planning in your area; when do you plan to start work on a regional super-casino?
PS - let me know if you need a good buiilding contractor
31 January 2008, 10:13 PM
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31 January 2008, 10:14 PM
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