"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

The week off...
June 17, 2007 - 7:04 pm

I'm taking next week off. All five days. My original plan was to visit the family and be a good son. I've nixed that.

To be honest, a deep dark secret part of my mind - in an isolated far off corner of my mind... deep down in the crypt (bonus points for getting my slightly paraphrased reference) I've toyed with the notion that I'd look at this week as a trial run on making a living off poker.

Yeah. How fucked up is that?

Here's the skinny.. a week ago.. as a sort of bday present for myself, I decided to dabble in something I'd never have considered before. In fact, it was a lark to even look at the sit-n-go tables (one table 'tournaments'). I spied one needing two people.. and, giving in to my all too prominent impulse issue.. I looked to see the payout was and I joined.

To be sure, there was a moment of hesitation and the voice inside my head, the one that more of than not I shouldn't listen too said, "Just play tight."

The game was a $100 one table no limit game.. with the top three seats getting paid.

I learned two things:

1) Such a tourny, in fact nearly all 1 table ones, take about an hour to play. I like this time length a lot. It's like watching a tv show.. and it allows for an easy translation of winnings/losings into a per hour rate.

2) Playing tight, with a dash of luck, is indeed the ticket.

I took second. I made, after the buy-in and rake, $161 for an hours worth of play.

Flush with the win, I played another. I took second again. Feeling I'd taxed my luck enough for one night I stopped and reveled in my newly found $322.

The next day, I played another.. and won. Winning nets one $341. I'd now doubled my winnings.

All to aware that this couldn't be 'normal' and that I'm really not this good poker, I left the sit-n-gos and tooled around around on normal cash games.

At work, my real job, I created a spreadsheet to calculate all sorts of nice numbers.. like given a certain winning/losing percentage, just how many hands would a person need to play to make a set amount of money over a year.

It also calculates my actual results.. how much I'm winning per hand..

Er, never mind (why isn't nevermind the right way to spell that?) all that.. if you really curious, I'll send you the sheet.

You can totally see by now that the notion of making a living off cards is festering in my mind. It grows... it squirms. Never mind the fact I lost (made nothing) on the next three $100 sit n gos, I was still up money.

In fact, a week after playing one, two or three such tourny's I'm still up money. I've started mixing in other lower value ones.. I find those are "easier", but they pay less.. so if I need to win 4 $25 ones to make the same off one $100 win -- this makes a lot of sense.. but well, who wants to win 4 to win the same off 1?

The problem is my bankroll isn't big enough to really support playing $100. At least, not yet.

Soon.. perhaps soon.

I've bounced around a lot in terms

There's one person.. who was in several tourny's, so I looked for him one day to see if he'd be playing (he's better than I am and I use 'he' in the generic sense). I stared at the screen. He was in, I kid you not, 10 tournys at once.

Now, I knew people did this.. but to see just made my head spin. Some were $100, some less... some more than $300. He had a bankroll. Easily had over $1,000 in play. Easily. I looked him up a time or two on other days and pretty much the same story.. when he plays, he's got over $1,000 in different games.

My thought was.. I need a bigger monitor.

Christ, I'd go crazy with all the games and time limits.. and beepings to play.

I'm sure you get used to it. But still.

I've tired four at time and that's distracting enough. The amount of concentration to do like 3x that is pretty impressive. And.. well, I'm sure it's this person's full time job. In fact, I'm pretty sure, if not outright positive (thanks to my nifty difty spreadsheet), he'd make over $100,000 a year.

Think about that.

Sure, he'd have no health insurance, there's the sticky issue of taxes... but you can buy your own person insurance, he makes enough!

Could I do this? Perhaps.. Am I brave enough? Perhaps..

Do I see me keeping my real job and playing at night and on weekends? Sure. We'll see how long I keep the money going.

I've done well for a week (not this well) before.. and lost it all before.

Er, did I ever say what your chance to pounce on was? I don't think I did. I got sidetracked...

I'm up for some traveling.. I'm wicked poor company, but I'll consider taking a road trip or two over the next week.

Really. Stop laughing. I will.