Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Wow, it's been a year...
I didn't even realize it until I sat down to knock out a post this morning and saw the date, but it's been a little over a year that I've been making my living as a poker player. Looking back with the knowledge I have now, the success that I have had was realized in spite of making this just about as hard as possible on myself.
I was never properly bankrolled to start with, the only thing I had going for me in the beginning was an innate aggressiveness at the tables and I live about 250 miles from the nearest casino. How could I not succeed? (Please note the sarcasm here.) I had a few goals that I had set last year, some I accomplished, most I did not. But I don't consider not acheiving them to be a failure so much as realizing that they were unrealistic goals for my situation. They just need to be set for a time period a little further down the road. In one year I went from playing $10 and $20 tournaments and sit n' go's to a number of $250-$650 tournaments, and playing $.25-.50 PL hold 'em cash games to $2-5 NL Hold 'em, $5-10 limit Hold'em and Omaha. All in all, not bad for about nine and a half months of work, due to that little hiatus I had to take from August to October.
Long nights every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in a smoky room at the Warehouse where I started cutting my teeth will definitely be missed, but in all of it so much was gained. The experience, the friends made and the poker discussions that really accelerated my understanding of this game are priceless assets earned. When you first start seeing poker on TV you think how easy it all must be and then you dip your toe in the water and see how much there is to learn. Now after hundreds and hundreds of hours and thousands upon thousands of hands, the expanse of things left to learn seems even bigger but a challenge so worth undertaking.
Which is not to say that poker isn't extraordinarily boring most of the time. Who knows how long before the hours in front of a computer no longer seem worth it? But I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a chance to explore that possibility.
Now I only hope that I can make as much progress with writing in this blog as I have in playing poker.
I was never properly bankrolled to start with, the only thing I had going for me in the beginning was an innate aggressiveness at the tables and I live about 250 miles from the nearest casino. How could I not succeed? (Please note the sarcasm here.) I had a few goals that I had set last year, some I accomplished, most I did not. But I don't consider not acheiving them to be a failure so much as realizing that they were unrealistic goals for my situation. They just need to be set for a time period a little further down the road. In one year I went from playing $10 and $20 tournaments and sit n' go's to a number of $250-$650 tournaments, and playing $.25-.50 PL hold 'em cash games to $2-5 NL Hold 'em, $5-10 limit Hold'em and Omaha. All in all, not bad for about nine and a half months of work, due to that little hiatus I had to take from August to October.
Long nights every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in a smoky room at the Warehouse where I started cutting my teeth will definitely be missed, but in all of it so much was gained. The experience, the friends made and the poker discussions that really accelerated my understanding of this game are priceless assets earned. When you first start seeing poker on TV you think how easy it all must be and then you dip your toe in the water and see how much there is to learn. Now after hundreds and hundreds of hours and thousands upon thousands of hands, the expanse of things left to learn seems even bigger but a challenge so worth undertaking.
Which is not to say that poker isn't extraordinarily boring most of the time. Who knows how long before the hours in front of a computer no longer seem worth it? But I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a chance to explore that possibility.
Now I only hope that I can make as much progress with writing in this blog as I have in playing poker.
