1 year as a pro

[bicyclekick]

I graduated with a computer science degree 1 year ago. I’ve been playing poker exclusively since and it was by far the right decision for me, not that everything has been perfect nor is it right for everyone. I’ve probably averaged about 25 hours per week of ‘work’ not including live play which would probably push it closer to 40 (because I often play lots of hours when I go to Vegas or LA and play at Canterbury from time to time).

Do I get sick of poker? Sort of but not really. I get sick of the swings and prolonged downswings are decently frustrating (I’m currently trying to pull out of a 3 month one). I surely don’t get as sick of it as much as I’d get sick of a ‘normal’ job. If I don’t feel like playing, I don’t. That simple. If I’m frustrated, I don’t play either. I often have a big enough drive to get hands in that I have no problem cranking them out and feel great when I get lots of hands in. I’ve averaged somewhere around 35-40k per month. Skiing is my main passion (off and on I spent probably 6 weeks out west this winter) and I did some other traveling and started a relationship this winter so I got less hands in for a few months, but others I’ve got much more in. Basically I live first and fill ‘empty time’ in with poker.

If I’m home (which this winter I was home less than I was away), I often wake up around noon and play a session. I play until I’m either hungry, bored, frustrated, have some other details to take care of, or something else to do. It usually amounts to about an hour and a half. Then I do my stuff for the day and fit another session or two in the evening or when I get home at night. One thing that has surprised me is really how busy you can keep yourself without a 9 to 5 job. It’s busy with fun stuff yes, so it’s not bad, but a lot of people, especially older ones wonder what I do with all the time I have on my hands. My parents understand though. My dad got laid off one time for about 6 months and agreed so that’s nice.

One frustrating thing is people seem to really look down on me for my sleep schedule/hours I do things. Like as if I’m being unhealthy and not getting enough sleep. Heh, I hardly ever wake up to an alarm clock and just wake up when I feel like it and I’ve been getting better at getting work outs in so really, they’re probably worse off than I am with their ‘normal’ 11pm-6am sleep schedule than I am and some of them who get far less sleep and are more tired give me a hard time as well. Just cause it’s not normal and it’s random doesn’t mean it’s bad.

It seems like quite a few of my peers I graduated with a year ago are just not that happy with their places in life. A few of them are very content/happy, but the general consensus was ‘work sucks’ and ‘getting into the real world is far less exciting and crappier than I thought it would be’ and that was coming from a girl who was super excited and ready to be done with college. Another one of our poker playing friends graduated this past December and got a job at the beginning of april and already is probably going to quit. His culture is a little different so his family doesn’t know about his poker playing and is why he got a job, but from the sounds of it he’s just going to say screw it and go forth. One of my peers who got a good job out of college says all the success us young poker players have makes him feel like he didn’t do that great, which is totally wrong.

I’ve played lots of different limits. I’d say most of the hands were in the 30/60-100/200 range although I played as low as 10/20 and as high as 400/800. I played a few days of 10/20 when I was running really bad and I’ve played a good chunk of high limit games (probably about 10k hands of 300/600) and don’t currently think I have what it takes to play that big online. Live - I’ll play the biggest limit hold-em game going and am often the best player in the game. Live just plays so much slower and the players are worse at that limit so it works out well. I don’t know how to play mixed games yet so my action is decently limited. I’m sure I’ll learn sometime, but now isn’t the time. I’ve been putting in some time learning NL and it’s been going alright. I’m not overly proficient at it yet, but am feeling more and more comfortable by the day and can beat the small stakes games.

I probably average about 5 tables when I play. Sometimes I play 3, sometimes 8 if they're full tables which I play everyonce in awhile. If I'm playing big short-handed I often just play 2-3.

Regarding the swings, I had one 70k breakeven stretch in the fall and am on another 70k stretch right now. The one in the fall was partly because I tried playing too many tables and was talking on AIM and the like. I bet if you took that stuff away it would have been closer to 40k hands but who knows. 30k breakeven stretches are pretty common too…3 per year? Most months have a 10k breakeven stretch in them I would guess, but I could be wrong. Basically what it comes down to is the long term is really long and lots of weird stuff can happen in the short term and it doesn’t matter. I gotta admit right now (because of the streak I’m in) it’s sometimes hard to remind myself it doesn’t matter, but then I just remember I more or less do what I want when I want so I can’t really feel too badly about it, even if it was a sick amount of money lost. It’ll all come back and those ‘morons’ that cap the turn cause they picked up a flush draw vs my set will eventually put my kids through college and because of that I just need to move on.

One negative about the lifestyle is the alcohol. Given that most days are pretty much ‘weekends’ you go out to eat a lot and go to friends places a lot as well as go out from time to time it’s often easy to have a few beers or get drunk. ‘it doesn’t matter because it’s not like you have to get up for work or anything’ Just one of those things you gotta keep in check more so with this lifestyle than a traditional one, not that you don’t have to keep it in check there too. I’ve also been trying to get on a more consistent workout pattern. It’s something I’ve always struggled with but I’m getting better. (I’m on the skinnier side of average but still have a stomach that could lose a few pounds). I would just like to be in shape especially for next years ski season as well as just feeling good when being in shape and being healthy.

I started dating a girl at the beginning of February and what’s funny about that is my roommate was trying to set us up around thanksgiving time but he told her “he’s a poker player and a nice guy” so she said “what do you think of when one of your friends says “he’s nice” or “she’s nice”…that they’re probably not the best looking lol. And the poker thing turned her off so it never happened. She lives in a city 2 hours north of me where my roommate’s gf lives. We went up there one weekend to get a group together to party at a hotel with a big water park and he invited her (he lived there for a year so knew some people). We hit it off and she had no idea I was the guy who Mike had tried to set her up with before cause I was cute and she didn’t put it together until a few hours later when we all walked to Perkins that it came up that I played poker for a living. We split a tremendous 12 and she stole the check before I could get to it and insisted on paying. I tried a couple times but let it go. It was definitely a nice gesture and she recently said was really glad I let her pay and not be one of those can’t let a girl pay guys and I gave the appropriate amount of resistance. One of her big things for a while was that she was ok with what I did for now as long as I didn’t bring work home with me. She would often ask how it went and I’d just say good and that was about the end of it. One time it came up that it always went ‘good’ and don’t you ever lose? I was like yeah I’ve actually lost quite a bit lately but it’s still ‘good’ and you said don’t bring it home with me so I don’t. She’s been opening up to it more and more now, and even has played some as I made the post here. She’s not a big fan of my sleep schedule cause it kind of affects hers but meh, that’s pretty standard for people not in the lifestyle.

I’ve been looking at buying a house for the last month or so. I was going to get a nicer house but changed my mind because I don’t exactly know what I’ll be doing and where I’ll be in a few years and it would be nice to get the house I want with my significant other when I settle down. For now I’m just looking at decent houses that I’ll probably live in for 2-5 years.

One of the best happenings in the last year was the party poker million cruise. What a fun time that was. Watching Schneider take down the tournament and cheering him on was super fun. Also just being on the cruise with friends was awesome. I’d never taken a trip like that with so many friends before but now there will be plenty. Winning the money from having a stake in him was a sweet bonus.

I’ll probably go back to school at some point and either get some sort of business degree or a masters in computer science. For the near future (the next year) I’ll be doing the poker thing again. I’m sure it’ll be another great year.

[Mossberg]

awesome to hear man. a real inspiration.

Best of luck with everything.

[mscags]

I'm glad you've had a great year BK, keep up the good work

[Ryan11]

[ QUOTE ]

One frustrating thing is people seem to really look down on me for my sleep schedule/hours I do things. Like as if I’m being unhealthy and not getting enough sleep. Heh, I hardly ever wake up to an alarm clock and just wake up when I feel like it and I’ve been getting better at getting work outs in so really, they’re probably worse off than I am with their ‘normal’ 11pm-6am sleep schedule than I am and some of them who get far less sleep and are more tired give me a hard time as well. Just cause it’s not normal and it’s random doesn’t mean it’s bad.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is really the only complaint I get from both my parents and my GF. No one understands that you can still get a good nights rest if you stay up past 4am every day.

[orange]

a good read, glad to see everything worked out for you.

[Seabass1974]

Congrats BK, glad to hear you're happy about your decision and doing well. It's important that you maintain a positive outlook even during the downswings and it sounds like you have.

I PM'd you last fall asking for help, I'm glad to report that I have everything setup now and am running goot. I'm climbing the limit ladder and hope to be where you are in a year or two.

[MicroBob]

"We split a tremendous 12"



What does this mean?

[themandude]

man 40k a month? thats almost half a million a year... wow man wow...

[La Brujita]

Very nice report. Maybe one day we will play live and you can teach me how to play well.

[bdk3clash]

[ QUOTE ]
man 40k a month? thats almost half a million a year... wow man wow...

[/ QUOTE ]
Not that I doubt BK could have earned this amount (or more) (or less), but I believe the 35-40k he referred to was the number of hands he's averaged per month.