Seven years ago when I lost my business due to the "Great Recession", I thought I would give poker a try. I had been playing occasionally over the previous 5 years and I seemed to be playing more and more as more of my friends started playing. I was already ahead of most of the players I played with, as I already knew the math and most of them didn't. We played mostly tourneys and some 1/2 NL when you got knocked out of the tourney. By the time I was losing my business, I was already one of the best players in my circle. (Notice I said "one of the best". Looking back, if you are not the best in your home game how could you even think you were ready for the real world of full time casino poker? But in any event, I thought I would give it a try). The plan was to make between $300- $500 per day to start, playing 2/5NL. I mean how hard good it be? I figured I should be able to do that easily and then eventually make enough money to replace the income I lost, which was a little over $500,000 per year. So I told my wife about my plans and off I went.
Mistake#1: I started at 2/5 instead of 1/2. My reasoning was that 1/2 was never going give me any realistic hope of making $300- $500 per day in a B&M casino. So how much harder can 2/5 actually be? It will be a piece of cake and in about a year, they will be naming the card room after me.
Mistake#2: My bankroll. I started with $25,000 and added another $5,000 to make my total $30,000. At the time, all the poker books said you need 20 buy-ins to play at a certain level. Looking back now, that was a mistake especially for a beginner. What I think you need to have is 40 SESSIONS. The difference is you can lose more then one buy in a night. I would bring 3 buy-ins with me, so even if I was goods enough to play at that level and I clearly wasn't, I could run bad and lose all or most of my bankroll in 6 days!!! I should have had at least $60,000 to play at that level because of my lack of knowledge, skill and variance.
Mistake#3 Playing in underground card rooms. Most of the people were business men who were there to gamble and a few young kids who were trying to be pros. There was a WSOP bracelet winner and a future WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event winner playing there. Since they were there to gamble, I gambled with them which was the kiss of death since I lacked the skill and bankroll to gamble and not play solid poker.
Mistake#4 Ego. It was too big to let me start at the lowly 1/2NL game. They were all clueless fish who just played bingo. I didn't want to lose because someone wouldn't fold 2 4 off suit and just wanted to have fun. They lacked any skill whatsoever and I wanted to play with the Brunsons, Negreanus and the like. Funny most of the play was the same at the underground clubs, only for more money. But my ego was able to accept it because I was playing in the largest games around (They did not really have bigger games every night in northern NJ at that time.).
Mistake#5: Letting myself go broke. I should have realized I was not ready for these type of stakes and started at 1/2NL, moved down to 1/2 after it became clear I wasn't doing well at 2/5 or played on line for the smallest micro stakes possible.
So here I am 7 years later, starting over and trying to make some extra money by playing poker. Since I have always been someone who has done my "homework" and I put a lot of time in studying the game, I am always looking for new material to digest to help me improve my game. I will be updating this blog with my progress and any information that I feel can help other people who are struggling with their game as well. If any one has any great study material they have come across, books, dvd's websites, videos, etc.. please share them with me.
Thanks!
Pokermike
Mistake#1: I started at 2/5 instead of 1/2. My reasoning was that 1/2 was never going give me any realistic hope of making $300- $500 per day in a B&M casino. So how much harder can 2/5 actually be? It will be a piece of cake and in about a year, they will be naming the card room after me.
Mistake#2: My bankroll. I started with $25,000 and added another $5,000 to make my total $30,000. At the time, all the poker books said you need 20 buy-ins to play at a certain level. Looking back now, that was a mistake especially for a beginner. What I think you need to have is 40 SESSIONS. The difference is you can lose more then one buy in a night. I would bring 3 buy-ins with me, so even if I was goods enough to play at that level and I clearly wasn't, I could run bad and lose all or most of my bankroll in 6 days!!! I should have had at least $60,000 to play at that level because of my lack of knowledge, skill and variance.
Mistake#3 Playing in underground card rooms. Most of the people were business men who were there to gamble and a few young kids who were trying to be pros. There was a WSOP bracelet winner and a future WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event winner playing there. Since they were there to gamble, I gambled with them which was the kiss of death since I lacked the skill and bankroll to gamble and not play solid poker.
Mistake#4 Ego. It was too big to let me start at the lowly 1/2NL game. They were all clueless fish who just played bingo. I didn't want to lose because someone wouldn't fold 2 4 off suit and just wanted to have fun. They lacked any skill whatsoever and I wanted to play with the Brunsons, Negreanus and the like. Funny most of the play was the same at the underground clubs, only for more money. But my ego was able to accept it because I was playing in the largest games around (They did not really have bigger games every night in northern NJ at that time.).
Mistake#5: Letting myself go broke. I should have realized I was not ready for these type of stakes and started at 1/2NL, moved down to 1/2 after it became clear I wasn't doing well at 2/5 or played on line for the smallest micro stakes possible.
So here I am 7 years later, starting over and trying to make some extra money by playing poker. Since I have always been someone who has done my "homework" and I put a lot of time in studying the game, I am always looking for new material to digest to help me improve my game. I will be updating this blog with my progress and any information that I feel can help other people who are struggling with their game as well. If any one has any great study material they have come across, books, dvd's websites, videos, etc.. please share them with me.
Thanks!
Pokermike
