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Advice would be appreciated

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  1. leedsrounder leedsrounder is offline

    Leeds
    United Kingdom

    Posts: 28
    Joined: Aug 06

    Oct 3rd, 2008 (10/3/2008 9:02am)

    Hi, im 34yrs old and i live in the UK, I have been playing poker online for 3-4 years and really enjoy playing cash games, MTT's and sit n go's. I am also a member of Pokerxfactor and cardrunners but to be honest i dont really get the most out of either site due to time restrictions etc. I have most of the popular poker books and have read the PLO and NLH sections in SuperSystem 1+2 and Harringtons books. but again due to time restrictions i havent got the most out of my books or the poker forums online etc. In two weeks time i will be getting made redundant at my place of work, yesterday i found out how much they will be paying me, the total amount is 13500. I am seriously thinking about trying to earn a living playing poker, i rent a flat with my partner, i dont have any credit cards or loans to pay, i wanted to put aside money for 6-12 months of outgoings and leave me and my partner with a monthly allowance for living expenses and groceries etc and put the remainder online to pad my bankroll. Last year i was diagnosed with neck cancer and had chemo,radiotherapy and surgery to help cure the cancer which i am pleased to say was successful, so now i am thinking i will never get another oppurtunity like this again so i would like to chase a dream of mine, i have some kind of a plan in place regarding playing time and study time etc, i also own Pokertracker3 and the rest of the most popular poker software to help track my bankroll and stats. In the short time i have played online i have made all of the usual mistakes like playing above your roll and tilting off money, bluffing too much etc but i feel a better player for it now, and i am constantly trying to improve my game and plug any leaks and follow a strict bankroll management guide. So i would appreciate any advice or tips from an anyone who plays for a living. Thanks
  2. optika11329 optika11329 is offline

    Leeds
    United Kingdom

    Posts: 543
    Joined: Mar 07

    Oct 3rd, 2008 (10/3/2008 9:10am) in reply to leedsrounder

    Hiya fella - i live in leeds.

    With your redundancy money - i would not put any more than 2k on line. If you cant works with a circa $4k bankroll - you shouldnt be playing.

    If your gonna do it - grind SNG's is probably your best bet - or .50/1 cash games.

    GL with everything!

    Guy
     
  3. lordxixor101 lordxixor101 is offline

    Westland, MI
    United States

    Posts: 6,364
    Joined: Mar 06

    Oct 3rd, 2008 (10/3/2008 10:44am) in reply to leedsrounder

    Well, good luck to you, your right that you rarely get a chance to chace a dream once your in your 30's, so if this is something you are serious about, take your shot.

    If you have your living expenses set aside, maybe the only other thing I would consider doing is to start putting your resume out there (not sure how unemployment, etc works in your country), but get yourself into a position where, if poker doesn't work out, you can hit the ground running for a new job.

    Outside of that, just remember that it isn't one big vacation. I don't play poker for a living (just a rec player) but thinking it through logically, if it was an easy life, everyone would do it. Those that go in thinking it is easy are the ones that crawl out 6 months later defeated. Go in there with the right mindset, and if you have the skills, you'll have a chance.
  4. Voland Voland is offline

    United Kingdom

    Posts: 163
    Joined: Oct 07

    Oct 3rd, 2008 (10/3/2008 12:01pm) in reply to leedsrounder

    First of all - congratulations to the succesful cancer treatment! I've gone through that myself, and it's really not a "walk in the park".

    I have been playing full time or half time poker for the last four years, and hope I can give you some advices.

    * First of all - be sure to only play at stakes that you feel confortable with. If you're not beating the lowest levels, don't move up and think you can beat the higher ones.

    * Make sure you have a good "distribution" between regular savings and your poker bankroll. If I started today with 13 500, I would put at least 10 000 into a savings account, and try to build from the 3 500 bankroll. (Also, if you start at the lower levels - which you probably should - you will not even need that kind of money).

    * Use really strict bankroll management and be sure to never risk going broke. I'll try to never lose more than 5% of my bankroll on a single day. Which means I'll usually sit down with around 1-2% of my bankroll at a single ring game table, or play tourneys that cost between 0.1 to 1% of my online bankroll.

    * Don't play when you're not in the mood to play. Usually you're better off taking a walk than playing tired, annoyed etc. Also be sure to always have other things going on in your life (the good Daniel Negreannu has clever things to say about this!).

    * Be sure to get rakeback.

    * Practice in multi tabling. If you can play 4-6 tables (or more) as good (or almost as good) as you can play one or two, this will have a huge effect on your winnings. Increase the number of tables one by one.

    * To make it easier to multi table, be sure to get a really good monitor. I use a 24" widescreen, which makes it very easy to play a lot of tables at once. It was a matter of days before it had payed for itself, since I could add a couple of more tables with it.

    * I think it's a great idea to focus at the game your best at, but at the same time work on all the other games. This (beeing able to play more than one game) is really useful when you're going on a bad streak. When changing game you get sort of a new start. If I'm running cold on HENL MTT's, I might change and play some PLO8 cash games or HORSE SNG's, or whatever I feel works best for me.

    * It's not always optimal to play as much as possible. I greatly increased my winnings when I took a half time job, after two years of full time poker playing. I think it made me appriciate poker more, and also took away a lot of the pressure of the game.

    * Always remember that poker is not the main objective in life!

    Glad to hear you're cured, and I really wish you the best luck with both poker and life!
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