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Playing Professionally

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  1. xPeru xPeru is offline

    Posts: 104
    Joined: Aug 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:23am)

    About a year ago, I posted my intention to go professional. I was a losing player with a $200 bankroll, a wife and 2 year old to support. I read Assassinato's article, and thought it excellent, but perhaps focussed too much on the negative. 10 months later, I've learned to play the game, wife and child are fed, school fees paid, and I'm just about to start building us a new home. My only income has been from poker.

    First, I live in Peru: this means I have to win less to get a high standard of living eg my maid works from 7am to 7pm, half days saturdays, and earns less than $100 a month. I pay over the odds unbelievably and she has a short working week. New home is being half paid for from one $11r trny win.

    Secondly, I learned that Bankroll Management is as important a poker skill as anything else. You can always find a game you can beat, but you can never avoid variance. You cannot be a professional player if you can't do this right.

    Thirdly, I learned the value of forums like P5s. Many thanks to all posters, there is normally something of value every day.

    Fourthly, I learned to play different disciplines and games. MTTs, STTs, Ring, NL, Limit, Omaha etc. All develop poker skills and intuition, one skill alone is not enough, and the day gets too boring!

    Fifthly, it is as hard as Assassinato says. Standard is not making the money in 20 straight STTs, or losing money for a month in MTTs; and in ring, a bad beat doesn't hurt unless its for a full buy in and no more than a 2 outer.

    Sixthly (ugh) I know that professional poker is not gambling and no more risky than any other occupation: if you bet $5 on the toss of a coin, you're gambling: if you make the same bet 10 million times, your expected profit is zero, your expected loss is zero. Playing poker is like tossing a coin but every hundred tosses, you get to use a double headed coin! Over a million hands, you will win; if you have a skill edge, variance disappears. btw a million hands is easy.

    But ... even though I'm not very good (average income $8k per month over the last 3 months), I have done it. The boost to my confidence has been very welcome, and I get to spend as much time as I want with my 3 year old son. I'm not a millionaire, but I'm in a job I love, in a wonderful free country in a climate to die for and I get real job satisfaction. When I win I know it's because I've worked for it and earned it. As for my job prospects: the industry is booming, if one ignores small parts of the world like the US (pop = c5% of World population), and if I work hard and keep learning, then the sky is the limit. Next year WSOP ... who knows? It's a great life for a middle aged guy, not just for you youngsters.
  2. gambler2k4 gambler2k4 is offline

    Columbus, OH
    United States

    Posts: 2,315
    Joined: Feb 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:27am) in reply to xPeru

    Please explain the thought process you used last year. Did you say, "I have 200 dollars and I'm a losing poker player, but what the hell, I'll play professionally."

    glad it worked out tho, nice job.
     
  3. xPeru xPeru is offline

    Posts: 104
    Joined: Aug 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:31am) in reply to gambler2k4

    Easy one: had no money, no job, living in a foreign country where I couldn't speak the language; business went bust in the UK, BUT I had c$200 on-line in a party account, and confidence that I was intelligent enough to learn to beat the game. Took two months to cash out the first $1200. Then Frist screwed things up and I had to work v hard. Ultimately went down to 1c/2c NL before rebuilding.
    Thread Starter
  4. Schlik20 Schlik20 is offline

    Madison, WI
    United States

    Posts: 4,964
    Joined: Feb 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:34am) in reply to xPeru

    congrats sir... I might have to move to peru...
  5. gambler2k4 gambler2k4 is offline

    Columbus, OH
    United States

    Posts: 2,315
    Joined: Feb 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:35am) in reply to xPeru

    ahh that makes sense. nice inspirational post. there are a lot of valid points that can be taken from your story.
     
  6. yjbrewer yjbrewer is offline

    Rapid City, SD
    United States

    Posts: 3,928
    Joined: Jan 07

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 3:21am) in reply to Schlik20

    <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0></TABLE>
    ITS CLIFF NOTE TIME!

    1. The first step to solving your problem is admitting u have a problem. Great Job!
    2. He read an article to learn.
    3. He has maids! HE'S BALLIN! Really its a sweatshop. Check out the Dave Chapelle cribs episode on sweatshops.
    4.OBV Brag about 11r victory and buiklding a home (Peru must be dirt fuckin cheap)
    5. He has learned BR management and wants to thank P5
    6. He has studied other parts of the game and has taken up philosophy with 2 headed coins and shit!
    7. I hope this helps bc this was a decent size post but its great to hear success stories. I hope I will have my own to share one day.
  7. ChuckSty ChuckSty is offline

    Durham, NC
    United States

    Posts: 2,358
    Joined: Oct 05

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 3:43am) in reply to yjbrewer

    ookoochoochoo
     1
  8. lacky lacky is offline

    Boise, ID
    United States

    Posts: 67
    Joined: Nov 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 5:19am) in reply to xPeru

    so yeah, this has me thinking about moving to peru. How do you think a white guy with no rythem and no language skills would addapted. (I struggle with english in fact). hows the hunting and fishing?

    seriosly though xperu, I've been very pleased with your recent success. Just remember, there are bad times ahead, much worse than seems possible, so make getting 6 months or so of expenses put away a priority. It's always hard, cause you think good times will last when your in them. but, it's very easy in mtt's to go a LONG time without making much. I just now got back to being up as much as I was in febuary, and thats at a $8k per month rate. think a bit about what that really means. the better prepared you are, the happier you will be. works everytime.
     
  9. DexterCain DexterCain is offline

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 6:00am) in reply to lacky

    <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeedd"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"> </td><td>Re(1): Playing Professionally
    by Schlik20 on 7/15/2007 01:34 </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><nobr> </nobr> </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td colspan="2"><table celspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="2"><tbody><tr><td>congrats sir... I might have to move to peru...</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
  10. Enigma1157 Enigma1157 is offline

    Las Vegas, NV
    United States

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 11:57am) in reply to xPeru

    Why do you need to have a Maid for 66 hours per week ? What the hell is she doing for 12 hours per day ?
  11. pwklbc pwklbc is offline

    WI
    United States

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 12:03pm) in reply to Enigma1157

    Most likely tounging his ballz while he plays sng's, at least that's what I'd have a peruvian maid do if I had one.
  12. Kajun Kajun is offline

    United States

    Posts: 5,485
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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 12:15pm) in reply to pwklbc

    sfobv ^^^^^^
  13. bigboybunk bigboybunk is offline

    FL
    United States

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 12:22pm) in reply to Kajun

    ^^^^^ what he said.

    bbb
  14. xPeru xPeru is offline

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 12:52pm) in reply to lacky

    Seriously good advice! & yes, congrats again, I was watching you regain your feb numbers in both those 109s!

    Peru has no rythm, things just happen, normally late. Hunting is very good, and we have bigger rivers here than you do in the US, so depends on what you want to catch. And you will have the same standard of living if you earn 2k a month here as 10k a month in the US. Fantastic place to bring up kids.
    Thread Starter
  15. MJBarbato MJBarbato is offline

    Rochdale, MA
    United States

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    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 1:33pm) in reply to bigboybunk

    ^^^cosign^^^
  16. xTEDFORRESTx xTEDFORRESTx is offline

    Bucharest
    Romania

    Posts: 2,213
    Joined: May 07

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 1:38pm) in reply to MJBarbato

    I would move up in stakes and have two maids, one for each ball.
  17. RaidenRadio RaidenRadio is offline

    Millsboro, DE
    United States

    Posts: 5,023
    Joined: Apr 07

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:04pm) in reply to xPeru

    In Peru, losing players is winning players.
  18. AJKHoosier1 AJKHoosier1 is offline

    Los Angeles, CA
    United States

    Posts: 2,589
    Joined: Jul 06

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 2:23pm) in reply to RaidenRadio

    In Peru, poker plays YOU!
    131
  19. Bazuko Bazuko is offline

    Plano, TX
    United States

    Posts: 234
    Joined: Sep 05

    Jul 15th, 2007 (7/15/2007 4:13pm) in reply to AJKHoosier1

    My fellow Peruvian Brotha!

    I was born and raised in trujillo/lima. Im in the states now(Dallas) going to school and Ive always had a steady job, last year I said to myself if I made "X" in december I would play for living starting in January.

    I did so and played till late may, cause I was gonna loose my seniority at my work, so I can back to work part time.

    Although I had a couple decent cashes and ran good on cash games(my main game) I had the best time ever, I was very independent(except for my now fiance) and we traveleld and treated ourselves to good things.

    But, you just gotta remember to always think longterm, it sounds like the last 3 months you have been on a good run, but it can be very frustrating when you are not running so good. So the idea of havin 6 months expenses set aside sound GREAT! I payed all my bills for the first 3 months and was basically free rolling :)

    Well, best of luck to you, y ojala que todo te siga llendo de la P. M.

    Si un dia quieres chatear, mandame im mensaje privado y te doy mi email.

    Hugo.
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