What a rollercoaster year it's been. As you may or may not know, I took this year off after graduating to try my hand at poker full-time for one year. Playing professionally permanently was never an option but, having made 25/50+ NLHE my regular game in the last few months of 2010 and having amassed a bankroll large enough to take on the live circuit with all of my own action, I really wanted to spend one year experiencing the poker lifestyle, just to see what it was like.

First Half of the Year

I got home from my Sweden exchange in mid-February and immediately hit the online tables hard. I ran ridiculously hot and by the end of February I was already up 100K, albeit pretty burnt out from having done nothing but play poker for 2 weeks straight. I decided that I needed some balance, and signed up for some French and German courses and got myself a personal trainer. I figured that if somehow I had a bad year in poker, at least this way I would still have something to show for my year off. Of course, I never really thought I'd have a bad year in poker; and this was reinforced when I rattled off another 170K in March.

Then Black Friday hit and the rug was really swept from under me. The 25/50+ games that I had taken a year off to grind virtually disappeared overnight. Players that I had spent hours studying were gone. On the day of Black Friday, I had three-quarters of my life-roll online and one quarter on Full Tilt. It was a real shock to the system. If these sites went down, years of work would be wiped away. Actually, the scariest thing was probably not the fact that I would lose money, but the fact that all that time I spent making that money would have been entirely wasted. It was time that I could have better spent elsewhere.

Oddly, Black Friday also killed my ambition in poker. When I was moving up in stakes, I was driven by the desire to get better and better so that I could play higher and higher. After Black Friday, it was clear that not only would I be going no higher, but I would in fact have to go lower and play more 10/20 again. This really was the ultimate mood killer, and from then on I basically stopped studying poker altogether.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, after Black Friday I went on a long and protracted downswing. Some of it was due to run-bad, some to my shaken mental state, and some probably to me not knowing whether I was playing with play money or not. I had 1 losing month, then 2, then 3. I began to regret the time that I was sinking into gym, German and French because it meant less time available for winning my money back (I was only able to play about 25K hands per month at this point). By the time I left for the States in July, I was in the midst of a 160K downswing, my largest ever (although in terms of buy-ins I'd estimate it was less than 30 so not TOO bad). With over 100K in live tournament buy-ins planned for the rest of the year, the unthinkable thought of going 0 for and having a losing year began to run around my head.

Hitting the Live Circuit

Vegas

After two weeks in Washington DC and New York, I arrived in Vegas for the first poker stop of my five-month trip. I played only the Main Event and busted late on Day 2 in the most horrendous fashion, tilting my way from above-average to out-the-door in under an orbit. In an effort to redeem myself, I hit up the Bellagio cash game tables and promptly lost another 30K in the 25/50 games - 10K with QQ v AK, 10K with KK v AA, and 10K on a failed river bluff.

Edinburgh

Now on a 200K downswing, I was forced to take a month break by the DOJ as I hit up San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. By the time I arrived in Europe in mid-August, I was itching to play again. My first European stop was Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival and though this was not a poker stop I had a few days to play online since I had arrived a little earlier than my Australian friends. On the first night, I was pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of 50/100 games running and duly jumped in. One hour later, I was 38K poorer and 32K below-EV.

Barcelona

A week later I arrived in Barcelona for my first EPT. I played the Main, HU and Turbo 6-Max Events and busted all without cashing for a total loss of about 20K USD. At this point my online roll was getting really low - about 110K - so instead of booking a hostel at my next destination (Madrid) I decided to book a hotel instead and do some grinding. That turned out to be another disastrous decision as I relieved myself of another 57K, 45K of it coming from 850 hands at 50/100. In one ridiculous hand I lost 15K v Sauce1234 where I had AA on A42r in a 3-bet pot and he managed to backdoor a royal flush (!) with his floated QJs. My downswing had now hit 300K and I was in the negative for the year.

After Madrid I did some general travelling, going to Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Salzburg and Munich for sightseeing or to catch up with friends from my exchange. By the time October rolled around I was once again focused and ready for a month of pure poker, with three consecutive poker stops next on the agenda: EPT London, WSOPE Cannes and EPT San Remo.

London

In London I played the Main, the HU and a 1K Turbo and once again busted all three without cash. In the Main I busted in an odd hand where literally all 9 players went to the flop and I held 64h on the button. The flop came T82hh, UTG1 bet out and the HJ called. I decided to squeeze rather than flat since I can fold out higher flush draws and top pairs in the blinds and it puts a ton of pressure on the two already involved in the pot. Only the HJ called and I pot-jammed the 9o turn. Unfortunately he had floated with QJo and I didn't get there on the river.

In the HU Event I busted in Round 2 to the most ludicrous player I've ever seen. In the first game with stacks of 10K v 14K, I called a 3-bet with A9h and bet 200 into 800 on 875hh when he checked to me. He instantly jammed his 10K effective, I made an annoyed call and lost when his 56o held. In the second game I min-raised to 200 with KK and he jammed his 12K effective. I called and held versus his 96s. In the third game I tried to play super low variance, limping a ton and the like. Unfortunately this just resulted in a slow stalemate and eventually with large blinds and even stacks I jammed J7o into his QQ on the first hand of a new blind level. He went on to win the event.

Cannes

In Cannes I played a LOT, mostly because there was so little to do in the city (there was literally no one there except poker players and no real nightlife to speak of). I played three bracelet events - the 3K Shootout, the 10K Split, and the 10K Main - as well as a 5K Turbo 6-Max, a 2K, a 1K, and a bunch of 1K satellites. Once again I didn't cash any.

On the whole the tournaments in Cannes were very well run but they did have a horrendous seating system whereby they only opened 4 tables at a time and filled them before opening new ones. This led to 3 of the Australians being placed on the same table for the Main Event as they all registered together. After much arguing the TD eventually allowed one of them to redraw. I registered first thing the next day and sure enough I was also on one of their tables (Daniel Neilson's), along with the manic HU player from London. I joked with Dan that I would hate life when I faced a ridiculously oversized shove for my stack on the first level of the day.

Somehow this came to fruition, but to Dan rather than me. On the third hand of the day Dan opened to 300 from the HJ. The CO called and the HU maniac 3-bet to 1200 on the button. Dan 4-bet to 2800 and the maniac instantly called. On the K75ss flop Dan c-bet 2500 and before you could blink all of the maniac's 30K chips were in the middle. After a few seconds, so too were Dan's. Dan had AA with the As and the maniac held J9s. The turn was a spade, the river wasn't, and Dan was out the door in less than 10 minutes.

On one of the nights that we did go out clubbing, I somehow ended up in a booth with an oddball assortment of people including Hellmuth, Negreanu, Timex and the PokerNews crew. I was standing near the booth's entrance when I saw Jonathan Duhamel approach and get rejected by the bouncer. I thought I'd do the good thing and intervene with an "it's cool, he's with us" despite it not being my booth and despite not ever having spoken to Duhamel in my life. When he got let in and thanked me profusely I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation was. Another fond memory I have of Cannes is my 10K Split starting table. I had Alex Kostritsyn and Timex to my left, and Negreanu and Bonomo opposite. Obviously not a great table draw, but to sit down at the same table as all these guys was a pretty cool feeling.

San Remo

I don't know how Stars convinced people to come to San Remo before the WSOPE moved next-door because the place is a bitch to get to and somehow managed to be emptier and duller than Cannes. In fairness it used to be in a different timeslot so maybe it was better back then. Here I played the Main, the HU, the 2K and the 1K and once again didn't manage a cash.

All told I lost 80K in October between London, Cannes and San Remo.

Macau

After San Remo I did some more general travelling, catching up with friends in Monaco, Brussels, Amsterdam, Budapest and Bratislava. There was actually a tournament series on in Amsterdam while I was there, but I only had time to play the 1K Turbo.

In the last week of November I arrived in Macau for the APPT, the last stop of my trip. It was my first time in Asia for more than a decade and I was really looking forward to playing and partying in "the Vegas of the East".

In the Main I got off to a great start and was up to 76K by the first break (30K starting stacks). I thought to myself "geez Joey, you might actually cash this one". Then I got set under set and busted with KK v TT.

In the 13K High Roller I decided to sell action for basically the first time in my life (I'd previously sold 1% and 10% to friends who wanted sweats, but never for bankroll purposes). The field was amazingly soft and once again I got off to a great start, turning my 100K starting stack into 310K without an all-in.

Then this hand came up with the blinds at 1200/2400. UTG1, a competent middle-aged Asian who had me covered, opened to 5500. I held 97h in MP and considered 3-betting but decided to keep it low variance in this soft field and just called. Two players called behind and one in the blinds and the flop came down 9s 7s 4h. UTG1 c-bet 12K into 30K and I decided to just call, a play that in hindsight was a mistake. The player immediately behind me who had 280K to start the hand then rammed it up to 50K and it folded back to me. This was pretty much what I had hoped for when I just flatted, so I went ahead and jammed the rest in (looks more like a draw and with stack sizes I can't 3-bet without obviously committing myself anyway). After some thought he called with A4s and we were flipping for the chip-lead and a 3x average pot. Obviously I didn't hold and although I managed a double a little later I eventually busted with AKs v TT.

Home Sweet Home

I arrived home in December just in time for the 5K Main of the Star Summer Series. In a rare occurrence there was an overlay as the casino guaranteed $1 Million and only 167 players showed up. Moreover, of these, about 10 were media and sports personalities whom the casino had given free seats to in an effort to drum up publicity. Combined with the fact that you could buy a seat early for $4500, this tournament must have been one of the juiciest ever. I entered Day 2 with an average stack but alas busted within a level, losing 20bb's with AQ v KK and then the remaining 20bb's with AA v TT.

My downswing was now at 430K and I was down 160K for the year. My online roll was barely five figures so I had no choice but to break my rule of not touching my "real life" money. I deposited 20K and resolved to grind out some spending money for my upcoming east coast trip. It's really tough to grind knowing that nothing you do is going to dig you out of the hole that you're in so my grinding was pretty half-hearted, but I did manage a confidence-boosting 11th in the Second Chance and a nice 20K score for coming 5th in the Sunday 500. I had some Euro friends arriving on the 21st December and with plans to travel and party with them until the Main Event week of Aussie Millions in January, it seemed that PokerStars' 10th Anniversary Sunday on the 19th would be my second last fully-fledged online session ever (the last being the final day of TCOOP) and it would certainly be my last for the year. Would be a nice time to bink something, wouldn't it?

On the 19th I registered my usual Sunday schedule with the obvious exception/addition of the 10K High Roller. I was a bit apprehensive to play a 10K whilst playing 10 other tables but decided "what the heck, let's go for gold". As you probably know now, that turned out to be a VERY good decision. I wish I could claim that I outplayed a small, elite field of the world's best tournament players, but in all honesty all I did was sit and watch as Stars' RNG shipped me 400K. I didn't lose a single all-in, won 4 consecutive races with AK in the final 3 tables, flopped a bunch of flushes and sets in 3-bet and 4-bet pots, and got AA a ton. The only adjustment I made was to tighten up considerably, both in the middle and late stages of the tournament. In the midgame, I started folding stuff like KTo and A3s in MP despite having deep stacks because 3-bets and cold 4-bets were coming from all directions and also I didn't have the reads or dynamic that the MTT regulars had with each other. With 5 or 6 remaining, I also decided not to get unnecessarily involved because everyone else seemed intent on playing for stacks every hand. Literally every second pot was 4-bet or 5-bet and so I just watched as I was given 30K, 50K and 70K pay-jumps for doing nothing. Ironically, the one spot where I came really close to 5-bet bluffing (over a cold 4-bet 3-handed) the 3-bettor had QQ so I was lucky even in small ways like this.

The feeling when I won was absolutely surreal. I had dreamt of undoing my huge eight-month downswing on the last possible day by winning the only remaining tournament capable of giving me a large enough score.

And suddenly, I had done it.

Is this really real? PINCH.

Aftermath

Before my win, I didn't regret taking a year off for poker, but I was definitely disappointed that I was going to have a losing year and that I was going to leave poker on a low. After the win, it was like everything was instantly made right again; my decision to take a year off was once again justified. It's kind of stupid I know, because in all honesty the 400K won't change my lifestyle one bit. I still don't have enough money to buy a house (at least in the area I want), and I already had enough money for everything else. But still, it feels goooooooooood. Now I can say that the year I took off for poker was a success; I made some good money, I travelled the world, I had many priceless and memorable experiences, I got in shape, and I can now engage in drunken banter in four different languages...

Upcoming

I've currently got 2 Euro friends staying with me over Christmas and New Year's Eve. Afterwards my plan is to travel with them for one week up the east coast of Australia and then I'll head down to Melbourne for the entirety of Aussie Millions. I have two goals remaining in poker - to win a live trophy and to play on TV - so hopefully I can complete one or both of those in Melbourne. I start my graduate job one week after the end of Aussie Millions.

Anyway, that's all from me, many thanks to those of you who have managed to read this far. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2012.