So, I am an aspiring professional poker player. Or semi-professional rather. My goal is to ultimately make enough money from poker that I can use it as side income.
I’d always like to have other income sources as I don’t want to have to rely on poker for money. It would be too stressful given the variance. It’s not like a normal job where you just show up and receive a paycheck. To make money playing poker, you have to win. And that’s not easy for the vast majority of players.
Most players who play poker are not winners. Most of them lose eventually. I wondered if I had any chance of making it. I really do doubt myself a lot. I never thought of myself as good at poker.
I’ve been playing for quite a long time but I never took it seriously until recently. Now I’m playing with proper bankroll management and have managed to run up my bankroll to almost double where I started. Solid, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
I’ve had people tell me this goal is impossible, and that I shouldn’t bother for a variety of reasons. It’s too stressful. AIs will be beating poker in 2 years. Etc.
Then I started playing NL2 on PokerStars, studying the game and I ended up making a little bit of cash. My strategy seems to be working so far.
Currently my sample size is too small to determine if I’m actually a winning player. If I include my (short) history from ACR, I am not. However, since joining Stars, here are my stats from NL2/5:
Currently I’m at almost 7bb/100 out of this ~13k sample size.
Since joining Stars (came from ACR), I’ve had a lot more luck. I think this is largely attributable to the fact that ACR is an international pool with lots more skilled players at the microstakes. Meanwhile, Stars seems to be 80% fish/whales, with the other 20% being tight or nitty.
Some of these players will literally go all in pre with any two cards. It’s frustrating when they river their draws, but it’s ultimately a great way to make some quick money.
Ultimately, math cannot be beaten. If you’re consistently getting it in with 20-30% equity, you WILL lose long term. As long as I remember this fact and I stop playing when I get tilted, everything will be okay.
I am currently going through Doug Polk’s course and I will also be working on honing my strategy. My VPIP is also too high so I will work on getting that down. Ideally I’d like to get to around a 20-25 VPIP.
My bankroll currently sits at $186, I deposited $100.
This blog will be for me to document my journey, I will be covering my pivotal moments. I’ll also be doing things like hand reviews. My goal for this year is to have a large enough bankroll to play NL10. Let’s get it.