Summary of 2008

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Alexdb's Blog

December 31 2008

Summary of 2008

All of my material results are from online cash games, so I've added a summary table and graph below. Here's what happened during 2008:

· For the first two months I played 1.5/3 to 2.5/5 for about 30 hours a month, in addition to having a regular job. I resigned at the end of January based on results from the whole of 2007. I had about a $10k bankroll and about two months' wages as savings, including the final payment from work which would cover living costs through March. That's not enough money to reliably turn professional with, but I figured that I didn't like the job anyway and if the first month was disastrous I'd figure out the career change that I ought to have made anyway.

· My old job paid about £2250/month net, so my plan was to make at least $5000/month playing $2/$4 over 20k-30k hands. (The dollar was about 50p then, and my winrate suggested an EV of $8k-$10k over that many hands)

· My job finished at the end of Feb, and luckily I had a good month part-time - a $7k win added about a month's savings and brought my bankroll up to $10k. 25 buy-ins and 3 months behind feels MUCH better than 20buy-ins and 2 months.

· On the 3rd March, my first day playing poker full time, I realised how depressed and bored I'd been in normal jobs when I bounced out of bed at 8am, happy. For the previous 3 years I'd dragged myself into work and counted down the minutes from 10am to 5pm feeling overpoweringly tired from the boredom however early I had gone to bed the night before.

· First week was worrying - started with a 10-buyin downswing. I'm sure I ran badly, but there must have been something to the change in the psychology of having to win something by month-end. I took a few days off then (fairly-) calmly kept playing and turned it around for a $10k month. Approximately 20 hours/week worked at almost £100/hour was looking good. Also started running in the mornings and gradually increased from being unable to jog 500m to completing 5k (slowly). That health-benefit never would have happened alongside a normal job.

· April was much the same as March - another $10k means my roll was nearing $20k after taking out the $10k expenses so far. I should also mention that my routine is to play about 4 or 5 1 hour sessions between 10am and 6pm. I had no intention of doing MORE hours than a normal job, or even as many (what would be the point in that?). Making sure I was done by 6pm meant socialising was absolutely no different than in the traditional job, so that took care of a few often-mentioned potential downsides.

· May started well and my bankroll became sufficient for 5/10. Took the shot with a few buy-ins and ran badly, finished the month having earned only the $5k I needed to withdraw.

· June was a horrible grind. Ran well-below expectation and couldn't get myself in any situations in which I could win at showdown for the first 3 weeks. Still, kept playing and managed $5k. £35ph was still much better than real work.

· July started well and I got back up to the roll for 5/10. Took the shot and ran well this time. Managed a $26,500 month in about 22 hours/week. £160ph is a lot more satisfying than £20ph!

· Hardly played in August and was on holiday in France for 2 weeks. Resumed grinding 2/4-5/10 in September and October, and with my bankroll over $40k I took some shots at 10/20. Ran terrible during those shots, something like 7-buyins below expectation over 1000 hands, still haven't played too much at those levels.

· Hannah and I put down the deposit on the flat we bought at the end of October - it's a 2 double-bedroom new-build in Zone 1 near Bank. I didn't use my bankroll but did use nearly all other savings, so shots at 10/20 until year-end were only taken with very conservative table-selection.

· After not playing many hands in October and November I decided to try to reinstate some work-ethic and played 30k hands in December. Even won a little at 10/20 and finished with an $18k month including almost exactly $100k for the last 6 months. An overall average of about £100ph for 62.5 hours/month equalling £100,000 for the year...

I've also discovered the additional benefits of this job that are rare or non-existent in normal work. Firstly, of course, there's about $13k of rakeback. Then there's the benefit of being perceived to be a high-value paying customer at the poker sites. As a VIP at Ladbrokes they have sent Hannah and I to; the poker at Killarney; a box on the finish line at Royal Ascot; a box at a North-London football match; a poker-weekend at a local Hilton hotel; and to their Poker Million live-final Party. And that's without mentioning the increased happiness, time to work on fitness, reduction in stress caused by dead-end careers, etc, etc!

So in conclusion, 2008 has been a great year and I'm very happy to have taken the decision to quit real-work and play full time, and I'd recommend the same to anyone else. I'll do another summary at the end of February because that will be the end of 12 months playing full time. I expect that I will be looking at that a bit more technically - sort of management-accounting for my own plans/targets for the next year.

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