Welcome to the table.

The following is a post I made on 2+2 on 11/2/08. This really got me going in my plan. Since then I've put in my time and am grinding out my existence. I plan on putting together weekly (at least) updates on my progress and sharing my thoughts about how I'm doing.

From 2+2:
I hesitated to write this all out since it’s LC and wouldn’t mean much to a good portion of you, but I remembered all the times I’d read peoples’ poker lives written out for me to read. Often it was inspirational and I very often learned something from it. So read it or don't, delete it or don't, but I needed to write it out for myself to kick myself in the a$$.

I'm turning 30 in three weeks. I began a serious interest in poker a long, long time ago (mid-90’s) when I saw a WSOP show on ESPN with a friend. Some things Doyle said were very intriguing. Then Rounders came out and I was hooked. The problem was I had no money, at least not enough that I wouldn't mind losing $100 at the local 2/4 game. I decided my best investment into my poker future would be a good book. For some unknown reason the local Barnes and Nobel had a copy of Hold’em Poker by Sklansky. It was the only book on poker there that didn’t promise me that I’d be a big winner, so I bought it. This was around 1998 or 1999. I read the book and very soon after bought Theory of Poker. Right around this time I worked in a public library and was authorized to make new purchases. In no time this small Midwestern library soon had a poker section to rival any within 500 miles (more Sklansky, Malmouth, Lee Jones, Feeney. No Super/System though since it was very hard to find). I was signed up for 2+2 right away. I still remember reading posts by Dynasty, Clarkmeister, Fossilman, Sklansky, and Malmouth. This was on the old yellow forum before they switched software. The funny thing was I still hadn’t played a single hand for real money. I came very close to depositing $100 on Paradise poker back in the day, but I found out that my fiance was pregnant and that sealed the deal for my priorities for the next two years.

When things settled down on the family/career path, I was ready to play. For a number of reasons I didn’t actually deposit money into online poker when first started. Around 2004 I began with two $10 free deposit bonuses on two different sites on the Prima network. I spent about four months grinding out $1.25 SNG’s. I tracked every result in Excel from hand #1. I was determined to turn that free $10 into my retirement fund. After the first month or so I’d turned one account into about $30 and the other to around $20. I got bored and took a shot with the $20 account and busto’d very quickly. After that I was again very meticulous with the $30. Pretty soon I was playing the $2.25 SNG’s (a huge savings in rake) and then ultimately 10NL. At the end of my first Prima run I’d turned the free $10 into $232.

I played the next two years switching games and switching limits, finding my niche. I played SNG’s, NLHE, LHE, PLO, FR, and 6-max. Every few months I’d switch it up and go through the cycle again. The whole time I’d read 2+2 (I’ve always been a better reader than poster, sorry guys) and the latest books (SSHE was huge, along with NLHE:T&P). I also got into a great group of poker friends and we’d play what amounted to the toughest .10/.20 home game around.

Anyway, I’ll get to the more recent developments now. I had taken about nine months off of poker due to various family obligations, most of which my wife started her own business, which meant that I was pretty much on retainer for the better part of a year. That’s hitting a point of equilibrium now, so I can stretch myself again. And as you can tell, I’ve been very conservative and meticulous about record keeping and bankroll management. At least, not playing above my head as to risk total ruin. The only problem with my game that I consistently have is that I spend too much of my bankroll. What it boils down to is that between live play and online, I’ve worked up to and spent about $1k a number of times.

I don’t know if it’s some psychological holding-back that I do to myself, or if the “needs” of the day that end up getting my money are truly worth sacrificing my roll. I know I’ve bought furniture for our house, I’ve paid for many weekend trips to Minneapolis or Chicago (we live near Madison, WI), and I’ve ended up bailing myself out of some other financial pitfall like a broken car or the one time our accountant accidentally double-deducted $1k from our tax bill (that we owed back in a hurry). Basically life kept getting in the way of me making a real run at the tables that I could start building up and working out of micro-limits into small stakes, let alone a sniff at middle or high limits.

I’ve spent countless hours studying the game, poring over 2+2, tables of PT data and win rates and hands per week and how many tables to play and rakeback rates and so on knowing all the while that I’m just on the edge of really making a run at some serious money, but I could never get over the hump.

I’m ready to do what was unthinkable before. I’ve always relied solely on poker to finance my poker. Going back to my first $50 buy-in at a live 2/4 table my live poker bankroll has never been negative. And as I described above, my online roll started for free and has provided thousands.

I’ve prided myself on never taking a risk when it came to gambling. I had to prove to myself (and more importantly my wife) that this is for real, and that I wasn’t risking any “real” money. The only thing I’ve ever spent on poker is what I’ve already won, aside from those first few books.

But now I think I’m ready to actually invest in myself. With a bankroll of zero (the afore-mentioned startup business was the last destination of my roll) I’m going to forgo the step of working $50 into $1k again. I’m going to deposit $1k of my hard earned money over the next month or so and start where I left off at 1/2 and ease into 2/4 and 3/6.. Then it’s just a matter of tuning my mind and body in to putting in the hours, and of course resisting the urge to spend all my money.

Maybe in a year’s time I’ve positioned myself to take the ultimate step of actually “going pro.” I feel like this is the first time I’m actually giving myself a real chance to do that.

I’ve got my first $300 in there now and I’ve been playing the .25/.50 and .50/1 tables while I ease myself back into the swing of things. Despite being tougher than before, there are plenty of soft games at these levels. I haven’t seen any significant differences between the two. There are enough rocks where you can steal a flop or two, and plenty of lags to take to valuetown when the opportunity presents.

So this was long and definitely LC, but I needed to write it down to move myself forward. I owe great thanks to 2+2 and especially the Micros forum. I’ve spent a good amount of time reading many of the strat forums and you guys are truly a class act. It’s a treat to see guys who for all purposes have no business slumming in the micros spending a good deal of time righting people’s wrongs and offering kind encouragement.

Off I go.