[LesJ]

This is absolutely a bittersweet day. I accepted a job offer early this week and I will again enter the work force starting Monday, May 7th. I have been a “pro” since July of last year, although I was never truly set up for success in the venture. Instead, I was pretty much thrust into it. I will give the cliff notes versions, as best I can.

I was a marginally winning low stakes sng player. I employed an INCREDIBLE coach from this forum who molded me into a solid low/mid stakes sng player. I owned a restaurant (along with 4 other people) from mid 2003 - mid 2005, but it went busto. I went back to my former job as a restaurant manager for a major casual dining company. In mid 2006, the government decided they REALLLLLY wanted the taxes owed from the restaurant I co-owned and started a garnishment on my wages which reduced my bring home earnings to under 30% of what they were before. The earnings left over after the garnishment were not enough to pay the bills (I am married with 2 children). I was making way more per hour playing sngs than I possibly could make as a manager now, given the circumstances, so I quit my now less than minimum wage job.

On a side note, there were admittedly many a day as a restaurant manager that I “dreamed” of quitting my job and playing poker as my main source of income. None of these dreams/plans, however, included me having a low bankroll, no savings, and coming into the situation with my final two checks from “work” being less than 30% of their normal amounts.

Overall, things started off pretty solid. August and September were consistent, winning months. Thanks to great coaching, I was beating the Party 22s consistently enough to pay the bills. October started off tremendously. I had moved up to mixing in some 33s, and by the time Party kicked us Americans off their site, I was on the TLB Top Ten, and had already secured my best profit month ever.

Like ever other multi-tabling US regular (for the most part), when PP kicked me off, I went to Full Tilt and Pokerstars. I immediately went from a solid, winning player to essentially break-even overnight. My ROI over the 2,056 SNGs I have recorded from Pokerstars between late October and the end of November is 3.7%. Because I had no savings going into this Endeavour, my bankroll became depleted. Along the way, my coach (who has always believed in me ever more than I believe in myself) offered to back me. I had my worse SNG day ever on November 10th, losing $777 in 149 games (-32,6% roi). In mid/late November I lowered the number of tables I played from 6 to 3 or 4 at a time. I intensely studied SNGPT, taking breaks after EVERY set and analyzing my late game play. I really focused in and dedicated myself to becoming as good on PS as I felt I was on PP. Despite those efforts, I got crushed in the last few days of the month, and although the results were most likely just a cruel case of variance, I rationalized that my studies and work were for naught. I essentially stopped playing sngs on November 30th, 2006.

In my infinite wisdom, I decided that I would try to learn an entirely new game in the month of December. I switched to low-stakes NL cash that month, and I played 60,106 hands for a incredible win-rate of 1.09bb/100. Finances were beyond tight, and the pressure of Christmas looming made things even worse. I handled beats ridiculously bad, and I legit cried myself to sleep at least a couple of nights. (sorry if this makes me less “balla”). I have a very cool 13 year old son and a beautiful 7 yr old daughter who very much were looking forward to Santa arriving, with his usual overstuffed bag of goodies. I felt alone, helpless, inept, and pretty much worthless during much of this time. I will forever owe a debt of gratitude to my backer/coach, who allowed me great latitude with regards to the bankroll, as well as one of my best (IRL) friends (who also plays poker) who sent me a bunch of Wal-Mart gift cards to help with the Christmas shopping.

I continued playing cash, and I continued to struggle, amassing a 1.94/100 winrate during the months of January thru March. Bills piled up and pressure was quickly becoming insurmountable. Things quickly started coming to a head in relation to our mortgage, which was now several months past due. Foreclosure action was started by our bank, and I sought the advice of a lawyer in early April. He led us to file chapter 13 bankruptcy, which will save the house for us. We will incorporate the tax issues from the closed restaurant in with the other debts, which will effectively KILL the garnishment that drove me from the ranks of the working in the first place. I start work again on Monday the 7th, and the bankruptcy becomes final on May 16th. Although there is a stigma of sorts associated with the word “bankruptcy,” I am very excited about the future and I know that these steps are a necessity for us to move forward financially.

As for poker. . . Well. . . I still love it. Although I had some crap days, especially in December, I never got into the “I hate poker” train of thought. I have no intentions of quitting. In fact, since my talk with the lawyer in early April my winrate is a solid and decent 4.95/100 over 45,000 hands. I am looking forward to paying the bills with my salary and using some poker winnings for “spending” money for me and the family. I also have my backer’s bankroll to rebuild, which will become much easier now that I don’t have to withdraw every penny of profit. I believe I am constantly improving and I hope to be playing this game for many many years to come.

Over the last two and a half years, there are several folks on this forum that have helped me both in poker and in life. The people who have helped the most are also fairly humble and wouldn’t really want me running around telling everyone else how great they are. In that vein, I will list here all those that I owe some portion of gratitude, whether it be for a simple HH review or for coaching/backing me for the last few months. There are a couple of people in the list that I can truly NEVER thank enough. I can’t imagine where my family and I would be right now if not for your help. You know who you are, and my family and I will love you forever!

Thank you Blackize, Bones, Cleinen, FutureDoc, Ilya, Irieguy, Jlo, Lacky, NewtBuggs, Pasterbator, SuitedSixes, and TruFloridaGator.