Ok, so I initially had planned to do a more detailed blog update on my February results. That was just before I ran super bad and was down 3k after that ridiculous -2k friday, in less than 2hrs! But, as I've been told many times, its not worth bothering dwelling on the past. Therefore, I won't be posting Part 2 of my Feb review :)
I realise through talking to my friends, that its March already, and I haven't even stated what my goals are for this year, or why I've started blogging again. Well, the plan last year was to achieve Supernova Elite (which I did), and from my winnings, buy a house/flat in Manchester. That plan went straight out of the window last December - Yin and I realised we wouldn't be happy up there so we made a decision to buy in London...
2011 Goals
1. Achieve SuperNova Elite x1.5 (1.5million vpps)
2. Be in a position to buy a house/flat in London by the end of the year
Being a professional poker player, besides having its obvious downsides, means that I cannot get a mortgage here in the UK. This means I'll have to save up enough to be able to buy outright. However, the good news is that from gaining SNE last year, we're over halfway to being able to achieve goal number 2. Hard work does pay off.
Goal number 1, I'm very far behind pace currently sitting on just over 140k vpps for the year so far...not even on pace for just SNE x1! So I really need to set a goal to obtain 100k vpps for this month. That should put me just about on pace for SNE, and then in April I can try and get ahead of pace and go for the 1.5 million mark.
Goals aside, I want to explain why I chose to focus on playing poker for a living. There are many reasons, but the main one has to be that it puts me back in the driving seat. I treat poker seriously, like a business. I'm the boss, and how well I do financially depends on me. If I waste a few hours of my time surfing the net, I don't earn anything for those hours. Simple.
I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur in some kind of way, and being a poker pro is probably as close as I can get to running my own business, without the major startup costs and risks. Perhaps in a few years time, I'll save enough up from poker and start my own business, idk what yet.
Freedom - unlike working for an employer, or having other people (i.e. customers) rely on me for opening hours, I can chose when I work, and when I can take time off. I don't have to get up at 7am to catch the packed bus, train or tube to work. I work at home.
I find that I'm more motivated when I can see the direct results of my hard work. At the most basic level, poker is simply a card game based on math, with the random element of the dealing of the cards defining the luck aspect of the game. This is what seperates poker from chess - in chess, all the information is available to both players - hence theres no luck involved. With poker, the lack of complete information makes the game much more exciting, and attracts gamblers in bigger numbers than pure luck games like roulette or fruit machines. Poker has the correct balance of skill and luck, such that a skilled player will overcome the short term luck element over a sufficient enough sample - this is what professional poker players rely on. Luck is still confined within the mathematics of probability, so the better you can estimate your chances of winning and make decisions accordingly the higher your long-term winrate will be.
Funny as this might sound, I'm not really a gambling person. If you'd known me over 6 years ago, you'd probably know that I didn't play the lottery, and I had an overall negative view on gambling as a whole. That all changed though, when I stumbled upon a way to make profits from wagers that seemed in the bookie's/house's favour. From casino bonuses, sportsbook bonuses and arbitrage, the natural progression was onto poker. But poker was a different beast, it required me to study the game, from the wealth of information ranging from books and magazines, internet forums and coaching sites, to poker coaching. Almost 3 years ago I quit my job, and here I am still in the game. Whilst I'm certainly no expert (yet), I'm more than competent at what I do, and certainly better than I was last year!. You could say I'm lucky that I found poker, but it takes more than luck to survive purely on poker as an income for almost 3 years :)
So where am I right now? Well, this year I made a decision to focus more on improving my game, whilst still putting in a tonne of forum so I can put my Elite badge to the most effective use! Last year I was grinding small stakes no-limit, but this year I made a permanent move to the mid-stakes CAP games, occasionally dropping back down to small stakes when the mid-stakes games aren't so good, or when I'm running bad.
Two months in and overall its going well so far. I'm in a much stronger position both in terms of my poker skill and financially, than I was 12 months ago. Last year certainly was a grind, but this year I'm determined to keep a balanced life between poker and everything else, like going out and holidays!
Speaking of holidays, its been almost 18 months since I came back from Macau, and I've not left the country in the time since! Whilst last Christmas, new years and Chinese New Year all turned out, to put it bluntly, CRAP, I'm determined to make up for it. Already booked are a short mini break to Bath, but the big one will be in July, when I fly out to Las Vegas for the first time, and play in the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker. One time please!
As a Supernova Elite, PokerStars will be providing accommodation for my stay - I'll be representing them, so hoping to do them proud by trying to finish in the cash! I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to tourneys, so I'll need to practice and study in the next 3 months if I'm to have any chance of navigating the live circuit. But even if I don't make it past day 1a/b/c/d, at least I'll have the rest of the stay as a well deserved vacation.
Last year, Elites got to stay at the Palms in the 1-bedroom suites, check it out:
http://www.palms.com/rooms/palmsplace/1-Bedroom-Suite
I know PokerStars won't disappoint their VIPs this year ;) I just got round to booking my flights today, and am happy that I can cross that item off my to-do list.
On a final note in this epic long mega blog post, I want to share with you a video of the legendary PokerStars Team Online Pro, Randy 'Nanonoko' Lew. This inspirational video pretty much sums up the reasons why I play poker, and my hopes of emulating some of his success.
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