It's not a blog really, more of a story to introduce myself and possibly so that when I lose my mind I can remind myself who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing.
I wanted to do an introduction because there seems to be quite a few nice people on here (in my short time observation) that go out of their way to help people. Quite a few of those have introduced themselves and so I thought I would at least give a bit of background of the person bugging them for answers. Something that has always fascinated me is peoples willingness to help others become better at something that could ultimately end up costing themselves. Poker being one of the perfect examples. Why would you write a book telling people how to beat you or discuss strategy with someone you don't even know? You wouldn't go up to your enemy and tell them the best way to blow your head off, yet for some reason we do it in poker and I do it too, why! It's madness!
I first started playing poker in 2009 when i got roped into a pub game (I was brought up playing cards as a kid and the only game I had never played was Texas Holdem) and had a great time, made some friends and was hooked straight away. I couldn't wait for next week to play again and so joined an online poker site and 8hrs later I was $1500 better off after finishing 2nd in a poker tournament. By the time next week came I had lost most of it because I thought I was the greatest player in the world and could win every game!Sound familiar?
Next week came and fun was had again. By the end of the season I had qualified to play in a live tournament in a casino, along with 2 others. I had never even been in a casino before and found it all very exciting but overwhelming and I was very nervous. After managing to settle down I qualified for the finals and received a nice little trophy although I didn't do fantastically well in the final. After several more casino visits and several good results later I was addicted and decided it was the life for me and so it was. For the next 10 years I lived a large part of my life in casino's making a living from something I loved. It became a love/hate relationship.
When I started in 2009, the fields were huge and we often had to join a waiting list, the prize money was great too and I made a good living just playing local tournaments. I tried my hand online too but I just couldn't get away with it and never did well, really a losing player online. My main strength was reading people at the tables and online I was getting very little that I could rely on, plus I got bored easily without the interaction and conversation. I would play way too many tables just to try and occupy myself and therefore get even less information, so I stuck to live play.
After a while the game changed very noticeably in lots of ways. Not only was the style of play changing but the casinos were getting greedy, putting the fees up and the food prices up. But the biggest killer to the game was the introduction of rebuys, which then became unlimited with add-ons. Not only did I have to adapt my game (as did everyone) but the fields and the prize money were shrinking. Most of the recreational players couldn't afford to keep re-entering to keep up with the crazy deep pocketed players and stopped playing and so in the end the casino's shot themselves in the foot and I had to travel further afield.
My opinion of poker has changed many times over the years, just like most people I have spoken to and I personally have gone from thinking it is 80/20 skill/luck to 20/80 and everything in-between. There is certainly more luck than skill involved in the modern game in tournaments (cash is different). It's a fine line between making your fortune from tournament poker or just getting by. One lucky break and you can be set for life. I can still recall every single hand in every major tournament I entered that took me out( I have a condition which means my memory is failing so I won't have to suffer them forever). I won't bore you with them, especially as I have probably done that already, writing way more than I intended.
The Covid saga pretty much sealed my decision to give up live poker as my health already meant it was on the cards (so to speak). It's a hard life for most, glamorous to begin with but very hard. It's a different world all together and surreal. Money loses its value and time has no meaning and the outside world doesn't exist. And when you go deep in a tournament or bring a few £100 away from a cash game you feel on top of the world and it's a great drive home. But then travelling, sometimes hundreds of miles when you can't really be bothered. Sometimes being stuck in a tournament for 3 or 4 days. Grinding all night to bust on the bubble or play cash for 12 hours to drive home £200 down is the flip side. Are there any other jobs where you can go to work to come home with less than you started! Not to mention looking like a milk bottle because you never see daylight!
I expect I will return on a "just for fun" basis at some point, just as it used to be.
Anyway...my goal is to start at the bottom, try not to take it too seriously and learn to be disciplined playing online, which has always been my biggest problem with it(other than not knowing whether someone is thinking about a decision or just scratching their arse).I only deposited £50 so that I had no choice but to start at the lowest stakes(already overstepped my boundaries doing the July challenge and messing around a bit but managed to survive). So I have mainly been playing 4NL and almost trebled my BR and have 3500XP and on Level 3. I'm happy with that but i'm going to struggle to get to Level 5 before it resets on October 1st. I think level 5 is where I need to get to avoid dropping back to Level 1? I'm still trying to navigate my way around here and i'm not even sure how the multipliers work yet (i assume it's the rate you earn XP that is multiplied) but it looks like you need to achieve level 7 to earn a living purely on rewards?
It would be interesting to know what others think is a sustainable and worthwhile level and how they achieve it. I don't want to be living poker 24/7 anymore, just putting in as many hours as I can without burning out and making a few £ at the same time. Also, how do people keep track of win rate, P&L etc on here because I don't think they allow any tracking software? Live was easy using poker journal on my phone but that was just 1 table at a time obviously (although there were occasions where I played more than 1 table at a time).
Ok well if you're still awake,,,,(was only going to be a 2 min intro sry) thanks for reading.
