Black Friday And My Future

First let me start with the fact that I can no longer play on PokerStars or FullTilt Poker.  I am literally depressed too.  Even though poker is just a money-making hobby for me at the moment, I was seriously considering making a job out of it.  All my plans and hopes were instantly shattered when the United States DOJ handed out the indictment of 11 individuals tied in with online poker.  Specifically PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker.

I am so frustrated at the moment.  The only reason I have stayed at the job I currently have is because it was flexible enough to let me put in a considerable amount of time into my poker game.  Now that poker is basically gone for me, it is time to start looking for a new job.  I really hate my current job.  But the thing is what do I want to do? What skills do I have to offer?

The first question is much harder to answer than the second question.  I feel I have a ton to offer to a prospective employer. The only problem is….I just don’t know if I want to do it.  I just have lost the all “working for the man” lifestyle.  I want to be my own employer.  I don’t want to have to answer to a boss.  That is the problem, and I really just don’t know where to go from here.  As I have said before though, I guess I can be happy that I do still have a job in a time like this though.

So I have been thinking of learning how to program.  Maybe make some programs for Android (phones) or something.  Maybe get a job in programming.  I really don’t know.  But I feel like my personality really meshes well with programming; and if I get good enough, maybe I can start up a company.  Again, I just don’t know.

Was Gearing Up

Back on the poker debacle.  I haven’t hardly played that much at all this year.  I have been really busy working on my game.  I have basically been preparing for making the jump to play poker full-time.  I basically wanted to get all my ducks in a row.  I actually was thinking of making the jump at the turn of the year.  But since I had a pretty rough last couple months of ’10, and the fact that a possible blackout was looming if online poker was legalized and regulated, I decided to hold off for a little while longer.

I was really making great progress with my game.  I did some really in-depth analysis, and was ready to tackle what ever was thrown my way.  After all, I had to have some pretty big leaks to lose over 10k to one player at the end of 2010, right?

Cheated

Well, come to find out maybe I didn’t have as many leaks as I once thought.  Instead, I was playing against a player with an unfair competitive advantage.  If you recall, there was basically one player that was just giving me fits with 5 card draw.  In fact, I have never lost to one player the way I was to this player.  I was (and should have earlier) about to not play him due to the fact he was just better than me.  That alone is quite a lot, as I pretty much will play anyone.  I just have that much confidence in my game.  Yes, there is one or two other players I try to avoid, but if they REALLY wanted to play me, I would have.

But this one player that I was having fits with basically came out of nowhere and was sitting at all limits, and only playing heads-up.  I should have seen the red flags then, but I didn’t.  I mean how often does someone just come out of the blue and plays the better 5 card draw players and just absolutely crushes them?  In fact, this specific player was up on everyone he played except for one.  That “one” wasn’t even really a regular heads-up player either and his small profit was dwarfed by all the other players losses.

This “cheater” was eventually banned from PokerStars.  But the damage was done.  I lost well over 10k to him in a matter of a couple months, and I suspect that he easily made over 50k in that same time with all the opponents he was taking on.  I don’t want to name this “cheater” by name, though I should.  But here is the thing.  PokerStars banned him, but did not refund any of the players affected.  REALLY??? Ugh.  The thing is, once this player showed up and I was pretty skeptical; I emailed PokerStars about this player.  I basically just got a standard response email and it seemed I was just wrong about my assessment.  Remind you though, that just for me to send an email about possible cheating was totally out of character.  In fact, I have never done that before.  Though I have sent a couple “joke” emails asking that the “Doom Switch” be removed.

Anyway…about two months after my email was sent to PokerStars support, more evidence was sent to PokerStars about this player.  Some pretty damning evidence was provided too.  It was pretty obvious, that at the least this player tried to take advantage of the system.  Because of this evidence that was brought on by another player (I will not name names) PokerStars decided to ban this cheater from ever playing on PokerStars again.  But I later found out that PokerStars did not feel they had sufficient evidence to confiscate the cheaters account, thus paying back those that were affected.

What really upsets me is I was down maybe 1-2k at the time I first had suspicions and sent PokerStars an email.  I lost another ~10k over the time period until he was banned.  It was sad that a player had to find the evidence that was out there.  That should be the job of PokerStars security.  I was really let down by PokerStars.  But at least they did take some kind of action.  Full Tilt never did.

That’s right, FullTilt was still letting this player play!  Though, I wasn’t playing him anymore…he was sitting at nearly every limit.  I know they were presented with the same obvious clues to possible cheating that PokerStars was presented with.  The only thing that was ever sent in response from FullTilt, was just a standard response email.  Thanks!  Way to make me feel secure!

This type of stuff is the exact reason online poker needs to be legalized (though it’s not illegal, it just kinda like the Wild West) and regulated.  It will protect the consumer from this exact type of thing from happening.

What was this player doing?  I don’t really want to dive too much into the details.  I do know he had a program that assisted him with his play that no other player had access to.  Even if it just gave him a slight edge, that can be huge and the small edges can accumulate pretty quickly when playing heads-up.

The Aftermath

So after the whole cheating took place.  I was wondering what to do next, should I remove the PokerStars ad on my site?  Should I let everyone know what was going on?  Well I just didn’t know what to do.  But at the advice of the person who submitted the evidence-filled email to PokerStars, he asked that I keep it under wraps for a bit.  But now that time has gone by, and I am not dropping any names; I am letting the cat out of the bag.  What about still being loyal to PokerStars?  Well, I can’t play there anymore.  But really, they were the most secure site to play on.  It was just a shame that this happened and to be honest, I don’t know the whole procedure and righting the wrong over at PokerStars.

When all the smoke cleared from the cheating, lets just say my motivation for playing dropped to an all-time low.  I was having to scramble at the end of each month just to keep my supernova status on Stars.  But away from the virtual felt, I was analyzing what it was this player was doing “well”.  Now there are some things he did extremely poorly, but I think it was more as an image play.  This player, and his cheating ways, basically pointed me to some new directions as far as improving my heads-up game was concerned.  I slaved away at crunching numbers and probabilities.  I improved my game a ton over the first few months of this year.

I was all geared up to take my new-found knowledge to the tables……but then boom, I was not allowed to play anymore simply because I was an American.  Sigh, thank you Department of Justice!

This Blog and Other Websites

I am probably going to stop posting on this blog.  I am just going to let it expire when the time comes.  Sadly, I just don’t have the motivation to keep it updated.  I made a whopping 15 bucks from ads though!  Ha, I know it isn’t the most appealing thing.  Someone trying to make money from their blog, but I was simply just trying to pay for the cost of the website.  After all, I was hoping that I was providing some kind of entertainment/information to those that came to my site.

Instead, my time will now be focused more on some other sites that I have coming through the pipes.  They are strictly business-oriented.  Maybe, if I finish some of them before this blog reaches its deadline, I will provide links.

Again, I also plan to learn how to program.  I would like to make games and apps for computers/cell phones/etc.  This is my future, as I see it right now.

I will hopefully be able to play some poker a little here and there.  Whether it be on the smaller internet poker sites or a brick and mortar casino (closest casino to me is over 3 hours away).  I just don’t know.  But one thing is for sure, I will still keep myself in-tune.  I am looking forward to the day that this so-called “land of the free” allows me to have my hobby/perspective career back.

One thing I need to do is work on my holdem game.  Sadly, 5 card draw is just not that popular.  If it was as popular as holdem, I would already be a millionaire by now (assuming the same quality of opponents).  If I truly want to make the amount of money that I dream of, I don’t see 5 card draw as being a viable avenue.  However, it was a good start!

What could have been and more

One thing I never did was post my full name on this blog.  Mostly because I have bashed my current job situation so many times, I was worried someone at my workplace might come across it.  The day I was to turn pro in poker, I was going to title the post “Hello, My Name is Tommy ____”.  Well, that post is going to have to wait.  In fact, if poker is not legalized by time this blog runs its course.  I might start up another blog in the future, but it will likely just be a blog named after my name.

In fact, I have read how important it is to have a site under your name for possible networking opportunities.  I might create another website, just about me and maybe add a blog there.  It will likely have my work history and a resume for possible future employment opportunities.  Again, this is just a thought running through my head.  Right now I am still just in shock of the recent developments with online poker here in the USA.

Final words

I feel like I am leaving out a few things.  But if they deem to be important to mention, I may post again here in the near future.  But in the meantime, the best thing I can do is direct you to Poker Player’s Alliance’s website.  They are an organization that was created to fight for the right to play online poker.  So if you are from the United States, please email your local and federal representatives to protect this wonderful game of poker here in the States.

40-45k is not a bad number for 6 months of work.  Many can be pleased with this.  But not us!  No sir, we are here to reach a goal.  That goal is 60k.  Anything less than that is a failure!  We need to get our act together.  We need to call the bluffs.  We need to value bet when we are ahead.  We need to fold when we are behind.  And most importantly, we need to win!

Games will not always come to us.  That’s ok I say.  We can come to them!  If you are running bad in one game, who cares I say.  There are other games out there.  You lose to one opponent.  Don’t fret!  There are other opponents out there.

It just takes time.  Time.  Hmmm….time is money.  We can not waste our time anymore.  You have 3 months to go.  Though the last 3 months have really been exhausting at times.  We have got to keep our head up and keep trucking along.  If you have to take a day off, it is ok.  But know this, only take a day off if you feel you will comeback the next day in better shape to win.  Sometimes rest is spending our time wisely when you could have lost in your current condition.  Sometimes a penny saved is indeed a penny won.

In closing, though things look bleak right now.  I say it is worth a try.  Nay, I say it is worth a do.  It is not over.  We can do this!  No more negatives.  Keep positive.  Work hard.  Good things will come to us!  Now may the nuts be with you!

The first 3 months at a glance:

Started with: $2,004.28

Five Card draw:     July- $12,427

Aug- -$666.50

Sep- $1,530.50

NL HU 5cd SNG:  Jul- $1,252.50

Aug- $732

Sep- $105.50

Bonuses:  $4,000 + $100 x 3 +$1,000 = $5,300

Other games*: $227.02

Total: $22,912.30

* other games include MTTs, PL 5cd draw, and 2-7 TD.  I have created a new spreadsheet to start tracking my winrate at PL draw and 2-7 TD to be more accurate on this in the future.

The next 3 months:

Need to make: $37,087.70

Per month: $12,362.57

Per week: $2,852.90

Per day: $403.13

The above is if I played every day.  But with work, holidays, weddings, and more coming up; these numbers can be misleading.

I had some pretty reough beats, but I was starting to get some decent hands at times as well.

Plus, I have done some studying on my game, which is what I often do during bad times like this.  Picked up a couple small things that I have been meaning to work on for a while now, just never got around to it.  I am excited to see if I can use it to my benefit.

So oh well, a loss.  Keeping my head up tonight.  Excited for the week ahead.  I feel good.  Win or lose.

Amount to 60k: $16,101.18

Even if I drop below pace (which I haven’t yet), I can always make a comeback…..right?

I sit and look at my hourly rate in 5 card draw and think about how easy it will be to reach specific goals.  The only problem is the games are sparse.  So I can go a few days without anyone sitting down to play against me.  It is forcing me to do something, what I am not 100 percent sure of yet. 

I have mentioned that I want to add a new game to my arsenal.  The one game that might be something I get more into are these 5cd draw HU NL sit-n-gos.  I have played about 80  at this point in time and have averaged winning 2 out of every 3 that I play.  That is actually really good, but I feel I can do better.  I mean I am already winning 2 of 3, and still haven’t really perfected a strategy.  In these 80 sng’s I am not shying away from playing the better players either.  I am taking on all comers.  So it is not like I am only winning 66% of the time against a random fish who decided to try his luck in a new game.  I will admit though, I have run better than not in these sng’s thus far. 

If I am going to meet my yearly goal I need to sit back and look at the big picture.  It is really creeping up on “gotta do something now” territory.  This thought is just sitting in the back of my mind as I plug away at trying to win a seat to the WSOP.

The plan is for the next month to continue to try and win a WSOP seat or two which admittedly is taking away from my advancement in other games.  But if I win a few WSOP seats, it will all be worth it.  Then once July comes, this will be the half way point in the year.  I plan on MAKING myself play, and play a ton. 

I am thinking about creating a challenge kind of thing.  Something where I will log all my sessions here on this blog for all to see, and to show that winning a certain amount of money over a 6 month period can be done playing mostly 5 card draw.  If I hope to reach my goals on the year, I may just need that extra motivation.

Check back later to see where we go with this.

Also…..you might see a few changes to the site in the next coming days.

1. Work out for a minimum of 30 minutes EVERY day.

Well, this goal started out extremely well.  In fact I didn’t miss a day until our first child was born in April.  I had dropped about 10-15 pounds and seemed to be well on my way.  Unfortunately, other things took precedence as I pushed this goal to the side.

Final Grade:  D

Final Thoughts:  It would be and F, but I cannot forget that I did go for a quarter of the year without missing a workout.  If anything, I showed myself that I can do it.  I just need to put my mind to it.

2. Start an online business or businesses.

This goal was more of an aspiration to do something different.  I moved my blog onto this site and monetized it (check out the ads) to hopefully bring in a little bit of cash.  But overall, this goal was a miss.  I learned alot about online businesses through my experience with building this site and studied various outlets and realized it is much harder than I expected to bring in a constant revenue stream.  I am sure if I didn’t have a full plate for the majority of the year and I had more free time, this might be something I could achieve.  But it takes alot of work.  Work that I was unmotivated to do for one reason or another.

Final Grade: D-

Final Thoughts:  Again this is not an outright F because of the fact that I have this site to show for my hard work.  Though I have only brought in less than ten dollars from ad clicks on this site.  Essentially, it is an online business.

3. Surpass my goal to 10k in poker.

Finally, a goal that I achieved outright.  At the turn of last year my online poker bankroll was in the range of 1k.  In fact it was still around 1.5k around June.  That is when I had my first big win.  I won a seat to the World Series of Poker playing the step system on what was basically a freeroll.  I started from step 1, only using frequent player points.  When it was all said and done, I had a bankroll over 12k in June.

I started playing 5 card draw on a more frequent basis after my win and was doing quite well for myself from July to the end of the year.  Unfortunately, some pretty rough stints in multi-table tournaments and other cash games made my bankroll barely increase, if at all.  But then that is when a couple of big breaks came.  I won 2 seats to the PCA for 15k a piece by playing in a couple multi-table tournaments by using a few step 5 tickets I had left over from my WSOP steps attempt from back in June.

Final Grade: A+

Final Thoughts:  I made a substantial amount more than my goal from just June until the end of the year.  It was definitely a good year in poker for me.  I am leaving for the Bahamas soon for the PCA as almost like a celebration of my achievements for the year.

4. Eat healthier.

Sigh,was there ever an attempt at this?  Not really.  I didn’t do much to achieve this goal.  Though I feel I am eating less fast food today than I was this time last year, I still am not eating what I think to be a healthy diet.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is something that I would still like to do.   I just hope that I make a better effort than I did over the past year.

5. Get on a better sleep schedule.

Lol, yeah right!  My poker playing can keep me up quite late some nights, and add in the fact that we have a baby in the house now….this goal seems almost unachievable.  If poker was something I could do more on a full time basis and not have only a few hours to play at night, I could see getting on a better sleep schedule.  I have other goals that are conflicting with this one as I have a full time job that takes all the time in the day and I need to be able to play poker at sometime, that sometime is after the baby is asleep.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is not as important to me as it once was.  I do feel like I am on a pretty decent sleep schedule, just not decent as most would see it.  If some things are able to change in the future, I can assure you I will take a stab at being on a better, more healthy sleep schedule.

Overall

Well, I guess it looks like I failed more than I passed.  I only really achieved one of my goals.  But the goal I did achieve I surpassed with flying colors and am still pleased with myself overall.  I hope that I can achieve my other goals to some extent in the future.  Unfortunately, some things have changed and I need to take priority on other goals.  Come back in the next couple of days, and I will share with you my goals for 2010.