November!!!

happy 23rd to me which was on the 4th but whatever. I had the biggest profit and played the most hands i've played in 30 days. As you'll see in the graph some of it was running good at 1/2, but it doesn't matter b/c my overall win rate for 3 months or 111k hands is at 3.54 ptbb/100 = $7400. Add in bonus and I've made 2x what I've made at the day job in that span.

As of now im about 60% on going to part time and 30% on quiting all together. December will be a huge factor in that decision and if I can make at least $2k then it'll be pretty certain.

A friend and I went up to Oklahoma City last weekend to see the Reverend Horton Heat which was awesome despite horrible opening bands. It was definately a little trip I needed to take even though we went straight there and back that night. It's the type of thing I want to be able to do more of to keep some spontaneity in my life.

poker's effect on my life

Currently going through a downswing. I'm running bad and playing absolutely horribly. I deviate from the plans I late out for hands b/c I'm playing them differently than I should and end up in tricky spots where I end up calling and losing. Last night I caught myself not even planning a hand out or trying to put the villian on a hand.

My life with or without poker-
ideal situation:
I'd be going to school with a part time job grinding life. I'd graduate with a degree in journalism or business or something this coming spring and get a real job. I never actually found a decent job in Denton aside from the telemarketing hell. I'd have zero monies saved up, my car would be broken down, with any other regular $6-8/hr job I'd need assistance from my parents which would be cutoff once they split. Never get into poker seriously ldo.

More likely situation:
Stop going to school, get the job I have now, no car once my old one breaks down b/c I have zero money saved up, no goals, no motivation, have no idea what I'm doing. never get into poker seriously

What's actually happened:
Stopped going to school, started playing and building online last march, bought car, have made more money the past 3 months playing about 10 hours a week than at my job, credit card paid off, 30 buyins for nl100. Helping mom and sister pay the bills for the past few months as well.

nl200

I started playing nl200 over the weekend and have had some nice success. I'm up about 4.5 buyins over 6k hands or so. It's the same with a little more restealing and squeezing and a few more regs. Also, if I want to get on a table with a decent % of players to the flop I have to join waiting lists.

I could pull off about 1800 and pay off the 1300 on my credit card and almost have enough to buy a new computer or laptop and have 30 buyins for nl100, but I'm just going to keep pushing forward because nl200 is where a significant ammount of money can be made and it was my goal to play this level. If I break even or lose over the next 10k hands then I'll definately consider moving down and retooling.

best day yet

1500 hands. w$wsf 43%. went to sd 25% won $ at sd 70%. makes poker seem pretty easy

figures

Some basic figures according to my winrate and the stars bonus program if I were playing full time...

Over 95k hands in 12.5 weeks at stars my winrate for all levels is 2.82ptbb/100 but is 3.1 adjusted for equity. I'd be playing a minimum of 100k up to 120k hands per month. Under the stars bonus program you can get a $4000 bonus every 100k vpp's with a milestone bonus every 100k vpp's starting at 200k vpp's. Currently I've gotten about 15% rakeback on stars, but this volume of play equates to around 62%.

100k hands/mo * 12 = 1.2million
1.2 million hands/year * 3ptbb = $72,000
1.2 million hands * .35 vpp/hand = 420,000 vpps
$2k + 3k + 4k milestone bonuses + 5 * $4k = $29,000
$72,000 + $29,000 = $101,000/yr

Now I could average more than 100k hands/mo and I definately could improve my winrate and move up in limits. The converse could also happen as I would surely feel burned out. Currently I make $19,000/yr. Even if I didnt come close to the figures I posted I would make somewhere in the range of 3x what I do at work. Other than needing to get some money saved up I dont see any reason not to go full time.

I could continue playing 8-10 hours a week and making the same $1500/mo I do while going back to school. I hate the feeling of being trapped in a dead end job and unable to travel or go back to school or do anything else but wake up and go to work. I don't really have any passion to do anything with a degree but I still have the drive to get one.

I'ts been quite a while since i've even looked at this thing, but I find it pretty funny that my bankroll is just about where I left off at about $2400. The reason for my time off is that I've had a few really crappy things happen in my life. I got up to almost $4000, took a small shot at nl200 and played a little scared for 3-4k hands, then I withdrew 700 once I lost 2 buyins so I could finally get a taste of the work I've done.

Not more than a few days later I found out my parents are getting divorced meaning I have to help support the family for a little while. So I then decided to pay my friend/staker back $600 which at that point left me with about $2000. A few weeks later I was back up to $3500 w/ about $450 worth of fpps and my car died. It leaked oil and water and I wasn't doing a very good job of checking on the levels consistantly. A seal cracked or something that would cost $1500 - 2000 to fix on the 1988 crown vic that I paid $950 for. On the following tuesday I bought an 04 ford ranger for $10k, pulling out $3k from stars for the down payment.

I was left with $500 w/ the $450 in bonus so over the course of 2.5 weeks I played 10k hands of nl25 and 4k hands of nl50.Onto the reason I'm coming back to this blog, I'm getting the full time pro bug again. It always seems to come when going on a long run of playing well and the cards cooperating. Over the last 35k hands I've been winning at 7ptbb's/100, which was helped by playing nl25 and nl50. My overall winrate at pokerstars over 90k hands since early august is 3ptbbs/100. I don't dream of being Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey, I just want to get to a place where poker allows me to do anything I want, most importantly finish college.

Several things need to change to help me progress to this goal faster. Simply, I need to play more hands/week. I've been averaging 9-10 hrs/week at 800 hands/hour since I left my apartment where I would grind all day saturday and sunday. On weekdays I need to set a very strict schedule for myself, which includes a nap after work and excercise 3-4 times a week, so that I will play 2k - 2.5k hands/night. Also in my way is WoW which I will stop playing completely. Like everyone I need breaks and WoW filled this time nicely, but was taking too much.
My posts should not ever be this long again