84 Posts and 336 Comments
September 2009 - Posts
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By
dtools22
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Sep 29 2009, 10:50 AM
In the spirit of mixing things up I've decided to refocus my goals a little bit. Things have been going very well for me in poker over the past 6-8 weeks which has kept my spirits up. Feeling ambitious, I took a look on the horizon and ran some numbers for my future cash flow needs. After a little math I've decided that the minimum number to hit is $18,000 in the next 8 months. Here's how that money breaks down. $9000 to 6 months worth of bills: There are very few industry standards in the poker world. Part of the fun of the game is the amount of gray area and discussion surrounding it. That being said everyone agrees that if you want to turn pro you need to lock up at least 6 months worth of bills aside from your poker money. In my case I estimate that my overall bills will be $1500/month after graduation. This includes rent, food, utilities, car payments (oil change, gas, etc), student loan payments, and health insurance. This estimate can obviously increase or decrease depending upon where I live, what my insurance covers, and so on so the budget has to be kind of flexible. But I think $1500/month should be enough for most eventualities. $5000 for cash game play at $200NL: By most standards I realize this is a little under rolled. $5000 is only 25 buy ins at the $200NL level and if I hit some rough patches then I'll be very under rolled. The idea here is that if I do have trouble I can always bump back down to the $100NL level and grind back up so I'm not too worried about being able to build a proper 50 buy in roll at $200NL. Even in the worst case scenario that I don't get to cash out any money for bills for the first few months, I still have my bill money saved up seperate from my poker money already so I can handle the swings. Plus if I can earn a 1 buy in a day at $100NL and play 5 days a week, that still get's me over $1500/month so I can pay off the bills even if I can't break through to the $200NL level right away. $4000 for MTT grinding: This will be right around what I'd need to play the $26-$55 MTT range on FTP. Most of the MTTs I'd play would be the $26 level mixing in the 50/50 on a nightly basis for sure. The same logic that applied to the cash game BR also works here, if I hit a rough streak I can always scrap the $55 MTTs in favor of the $11 MTTs that are abundant on the web. I do have at least one thing missing here. I never mentioned money for live cash game and MTT action. Right now I'm treating that as a separate side project more than a goal. The main numbers that have to be hit are the online BRs and the 6 months of bills paid off. It's unlikely I will be living somewhere near either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun (by near I mean within a 2 hour ride) so it's hard to plan around those locations. I certainly plan on some day traveling the live MTT circuit a bit, but I need to build a strong foundation before I can do that. Unlike most of the challenges that you see online ($300-$10K, $50-$5K, etc) I start with a much large BR than the more diehard grinders. I currently have $850 for cash game poker and another $850 for MTTs. Trying to turn $1700 into $18K is not nearly as impressive as the smallers BR challenges, however I've already done my building. I started this year with $65 left from my poker BR and I now sit with $1700 after having cashed out just under $1900 for bills, rent, and to start my savings account back up. I paid my hard knock dues so now my BR is a little beefier to snatch my $18K goal. I'm going to start providing weekly updates on this challenge including my bottom line from the previous week. It's time to really hunker down and get to work. The sooner I reach $18K, the sooner I can shoot for $100K  .
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By
dtools22
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Sep 25 2009, 01:30 PM
Senior year is a busy time for any college student. Now’s the time where course loads start to lighten, businesses come to campus, career fairs are all the rage, resumes need to be finished and submitted. The real world is knocking at our doors and time is no longer on our side (assuming it ever was to begin with). My senior year has been no different. Add into the mix for me a fledgling movie company, getting a gig as a radio host (more on that in a later post), and a serious drive to become the next big thing in poker and you have a packed schedule. My days have been so full I haven’t even been able to enjoy the countdown to my own birthday a week from Saturday.
I turn 22 on October 3 this year. A buddy of mine put it best when he said, “It’s not that I’m turning 22 so much as I am now no longer 21.” It’s a bit of a shock to think 4 years ago I was one step removed from my glory days of high school, captain of the football team, graduating and moving out of the house I’d lived in for 18 years. Now is the time when dreams need to take shape and turn to actions if I want them to continue to grow and be a part of my future. Come May 2010 I leave WPI for the last time (knock on wood) and begin the hunt for a real job, a real place to live, and officially have the full responsibilities of an adult.
Now I’ve made no secret about my ambitions to become a poker professional. My goal for May 2010 is to save up 6 months worth of bills including rent, food, car payments, student loan payments, and so on. On top of that I need to amass a BR and a skill set that will allow me to play the $200NL level profitably as well as play in the $26-$55 MTT range. The number I have in my head combined for the two is $9000 for my overall poker BR and another $9000 saved up for 6 months of bills. That gives me 8 months left to build my BR from the $2000 it’s at right now into what I need it to be for my professional career to come.
While this is a daunting task on paper I do hold out confidence that this is very doable. Looking back at the early months this year from my spreadsheet, I started this year with a BR of $65 playing $2.25 Turbo SNGs on FTP. From there I’ve built up quite a bit more, cashed out money to pay bills, and started my savings account again. If I can turn $65 into around $4K in total for the year I feel like I at least have a shot to take this to the next level.
As my birthday approaches and my friends and family talk of celebration, I can’t help but think that the clock is ticking. Oh don’t get me wrong I will certainly have fun and have more than my fair share of drinks in celebration, but in the back of my head is the task looming in front of me. I think that’s often what separates poker players with serious professional ambitions from those who we feed on in the game. I am constantly thinking about hands I played, how to get better, and where I need to go from here. Maybe it’s what will push me over the top, maybe I’ll just go mad trying, but whatever happens I’m not going to stop until I’ve given everything I have in the tank. Glasses raised everyone, happy birthday, and a grand 8 month haul for me.
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By
dtools22
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Sep 22 2009, 11:05 AM
It's been 5 weeks of long hours since I started my push to becoming a more legitimate poker pro. While I am not yet a millionaire nor was I able to really make much noise during the MiniFTOPS or the WCOOP I have certainly made progress towards my goal. There have been quite a few ups and downs but for now anyway I'm hitting all the really important benchmarks to keep myself on pace. A few things have to develop before the end of the year for me to really make a serious push in 2010 towards becoming a full time poker pro: 1) I have to build up a cash game BR to play in the $100NL games. This isn't to say that once I make it to the $100NL level I'm set for life here. What that does is bring in about $500/week given the hours I put in (assuming I get past my learning curve and figure out my opponents). At worst then I'd be able to pay off my rent when I move into another apartment after college and lets me start saving up for the 6 months of bills I would need to have taken care of before I try to make my living playing this game. 2) Have a live cash game BR of around $2K. This is a bit more of a secondary goal but it's certainly one that if achieved can only help my cause. That type of BR lets me sit a little more comfortably in the live cash games at Foxwoods which are wildly profitable. It is not a stretch by any means to think that I could just pay off 6 months worth of bills playing live cash games. Also this BR let's me play in some of the smaller live events, like the Deep Stack series at Turning Stone, the Mega Stack Series at Foxwoods, the Meag Stack at Mohegan, and anywhere else I can find some equity. 3) Build up a MTT bankroll online that would allow me to play the $10-$26 buy in range. Given the schedule I have for school and working with broken wall films this is by far the lowest task on the totem pole. I have barely gotten any online MTT action in since returning to school in late August. Cash games are far more important to my bottom line in the long run than MTTs ever will be but that doesn't mean my MTT equity is insignificant enough to eliminate entirely. I would love to be able to get more of a session in on a nightly basis and get myself in a position to play some bigger MTTs with a bit more overall equity for me. The hours playing my nightly MTTs are very tough to keep up, but there are definitely some windows in the calendar during the school year where I should be able to get something going. So far online cash games have been my biggest cash cow by a wide margin. Cash game hours are easier to maintain, they allow me more flexibility, and are just overall better sources of long term profitability in my case. I feel like I've been making some serious progress even though I've been under the radar for the most part. The is still some damage to be done and some noise to be made before my 11 week test is up. Next major stop is the WPF at Foxwoods in about a month.
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By
dtools22
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Sep 18 2009, 09:59 PM
With only one more tournament on my
schedule for this year’s MiniFTOPS I thought now might be a good
opportunity to reflect on my successes and failures thus far during the
series. It’s been an alright series so far with the 4 MTTs I’ve played
in. That being said though I do feel like I under performed in a few
events and that it cost me a chance at a really big score.
The first event on my MiniFTOPs calendar was the first event, the
$22 NLHE event. This thing was absolutely massive. Over 17K people
found the $22 entry fee enticing enough to try and chase down a big
prize. First place offered an atsounding $50K which is amazing
considering this was a $22 buy in MTT. I had dreams of making the FT
and making 1000x my initial investment on this tournament, but the deck
had other plans. Right from the start I just simply got nothing going.
I had no momentum all tournament and found myself not even breaking
into the to 10,000 player. I was KOed in both a quick and quiet
fashion, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
I would not play another event until event 14, the $55 HORSE. This
was the event I felt would be the perfect opportunity to rebound a bit.
While my MTT grinding had subsided considerably during the school year,
I still felt like I was sharp enough to compete in a mixed game format.
The key for me in a HORSE rotation is the Stud Hi round. If that round
goes well for me and I’m able to gain ground, then in all likelihood I
will find myself making a very deep run. Unfortunately the speed bump I
ran into was the Holdem round, which is by far usually my best game. I
ran into a few bad beats running QQ into JT on a QK5 board and watching
all my flop and turn bets get shipped to a river straight on the end.
The big mistake was I put in about 18K in a pot with a gutshot and
overs and missed everything by the river. I was left with 15K at
2500/5000 and that was the end of my day. I stuck around long enough
for a few pay jumps but I just felt like I blew the chance at a bigger
score.
The next afternoon I played in event 16, $26 PLO8 KO. Just the name
alone made me laugh. This was going to be a game where chips were going
to be flying around anyway, couple that with the KO format and you’ve
got a big action game. Things were going very smoothly until I lost a
big flip BvB and was left with just 35K at the 2500/5000 level (yet
again). I made some cruicial mistakes early in the MTT but was able to
rebound very nicely. I then simply ran out of gas before I could break
the top 100 players, busting 127th from the event.
My most recent MTT was the $22 FLHE event on Thursday and I have to
say, I don’t think I could have looked any worse. This is a game I
should be crushing. I’m more experienced than most of my opponents will
be, I’ve had success in HORSE and FLHE MTTs playing the game, and
overall I feel more confident playing FLHE than almost any other game.
That was until Thursday anyway. I made a few pretty bad mistakes early,
managed to donk away 1/2 my starting stack, kept grinding my way back
up, but by the end of it I just picked a bad spot to play MP and the
NFD aggressively and wound up busting out the next hand. It was a bit
of a shock to the system to struggle with one of my better games.
Now I find myself staring down the $33 Razz event tonight. I really
think this could be my best chance, maybe aside from the $55 HORSE, to
take a MiniFTOPS down and get the silver shirt and pads as my avatar.
I’m still as focused as I’ve been in a while and I’m looking forward to
the challenge of making a big splash in these MTTs one more time.
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