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 Operation 2nd time around
This might be a little long for some of you. The coded section is how I got here, skip it if you want to get to the meat.
Code:
I started playing poker about 2 and a half years ago. I learned NLHE with a bunch of drinking buddies, and we played a weekly $10 tourney where the winnings were mostly split between the guy who taught us and myself. I played a few bar tourneys and did great right off the bat. I was super-aggressive, but I'm a bit of a math geek and I started to figure out odds. I got into some really weak games with some shady old friends, and all of the sudden I was making a few grand in a weekend. I was working for myself, so it was easy to ease out of my job and into more poker. I live 20 minutes from a casino, so off I was. My results were mind-boggling to me now. I jumped into the deep end not really knowing how to swim and somehow I stayed afloat for quite a while.
During all that time I played online a bit, with spotty results. Before long I had read a bunch of books (ToP, H 1 and 2, SS 1 and 2, Ace on the River, Essays 1 2 and 3, HEfAP, Caro's, and a few torrented videos. I'm sure I'm missing a few). I also have been posting on FTR on and off for almost the entire time that I've played the game.
I supported myself on poker for over a year and a half until I finally got sick of going broke over and over again. The positive thing about the deep end is that you learn to swim very quickly. I Know this game very well. My problem wasn't that I wasn't good enough, it was that my bankroll management was downright atrocious. It wasn't that I didn't know about it, or that I didn't understand it. I knew, and I still played outside of my roll when I played live. Most of the time I spent playing online I was playing within my online roll (which was significantly smaller than my live roll), but I didn't take it very seriously. There were a few people that staked me or loaned me money. It helped me back on my feet, but maybe that didn't really help me long-term.
The other issue is that I wasn't always in playing-shape when I did play, and sometimes I just didn't play enough. Occasionally I still played while I was drinking, and I still spent too much of my profits on alcohol while I was doing well. I also had issues with give-up AIs on draws while I was running bad. The stress of playing on a short roll for so long got to me pretty bad. I wasn't taking care of myself, and it showed through in my game. When I started to lose confidence, it was basically over.
Earlier this year, I broke down and got a job waiting tables. I'm planning to get back into poker as a profession. All I need is 15 grand or so :P.
So now I'm following strict BR management. Rather than trust myself to set up something I've failed so miserably at in the past, I'm going with Chris Ferguson's BR management guideline that he posted a couple of months back on FTP's "Tips from the Pros".
Max BI for SNGs and ring games is 5% of total BR, leave a ring game when the blinds come after you hit 10% of total BR. MTT BIs must be 2% or less of total BR.
This is pretty similar to other guides I have seen, but I picked this one, and I plan to stick with it for the early levels. I plan to change it, but until I do there will be ZERO deviation. As much as I hate rules, after what I've been through recently, I'm kind of on a rule-following kick.
I'm playing a mix of SNGs, ring games, and MTTs. I've played all three extensively, and I'm thinking that at different BR levels different types of games will be more profitable.
Now that I have a job I'm pretty broke. I started with the $75.02 that I had sitting on stars. After 3 days I'm at 139.66 and moving pretty steady. Here's a pick of the spreadsheet I'm using:
I do have a few things I'd like some input on:
1) At higher buy-ins, should I limit my bankroll usage a bit more? How should I go about building guidelines for when I get a bit deeper?
2) Should I move up as fast as I can? If I win a $2 or $3 BI MTT, I could double my BR. Right now I'm buying in fairly short in ring games in order to maximize winnings. At higher buy-ins this might not work as well, especially if I start getting used to a specific level of play. Should I add a rule such as "Don't move up more than one level a day", or are the levels so similar that I can move from .05/.1 to .25/.5 without any issues?
3) Over my career, I've been slightly better than break-even online, while I've made tens of thousands playing B+M games. Are there other experienced B+M players here, has there been an informed discussion about the real pros and cons between the two?
4) Since I believe health and well-being has been an issue related to my current job situation, those of you who play for a living, do you work out? Do you make sure you eat 3-5 meals a day? Do you limit your drinking/smoking/etc.? How do you handle stress? When do you play?
5) My record-keeping has been pretty spotty as well. For those of you that play a good mix of games, how do you keep records? Do you just use PT or do you supplement it with spreadsheets or something else?
6) How should I do re-buy tourneys? BI < .66% of BR? That is 1/3 of the normal buy-in. I don't know a whole lot about re-buy tourneys, so I'm not really qualified to calculate risk in them.
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