I quit my job today to be a professional poker player...

I gather you'd have told us if you were still in?

Still in, I was writing this update for ya:



My cell phone died on me so I couldn't post during the breaks. I use it to listen to music so it didn't make it, which sucked because music helps me pass the dull spots.

Here's a (long) recap:

I'd come to Vegas to play low stakes cash games all month, without even considering playing any of the World Series, which isn't the best choice for a poker player making a living off low stakes poker. Once here, and still bored of poker I decided that if I was up above my financial goals I'd play a holdem tournament for the experience.

I wasn't even following the tournaments and only planned to even check the tournament schedule towards the end of the month if I was up enough. But today I woke up and my buddy, who's a very solid conservative player by nature, said that I should play the 6-handed tournament. He's the kind of guy who preaches avoiding them because he's not caught up in the ego and competitive spirit of poker at all, he's just doing it to not have to work in a cube and I was shocked that he was serious, but he had a point. It was a cheap (for the World Series) tournament with no rebuy and a 6-handed structure that favors my strengths. It's short-handed so I can make more plays and move off my cards with less risk than a 10-handed structure, where with more players there'd be more chances of hands strong enough to call my steals. He said "it's made for you" and I impulsively agreed.

I'd woken up at 11AM and the tournament was starting at 12PM so I took a quick shower and he dropped me off at the entrance of the casino after spotting me a thousand so I wouldn't have to go to the bank (I wouldn't have made the tournament). I never like carrying my rolls and he "feels naked" without his so he often does this, knowing I always pay him back within 24 hours.

Anywho, I don't make the start of the tournament and actually end up the very first "alternate", which means I have to wait till players bust before I can start. This sucked because I watched a lot of people already getting to work and I just missed being able to start with the rest of them. Since I'm paying $1,500 to play I want every hand I can get to work with.

When I get started it's on a very very solid table (at least a few of them cashed or are still in) with one seat for a donkey. Other players bust the donkey and the next donkey to sit down in that seat within 20 minutes and I get none of the action. After that it was a rock convention at my table which meant no easy big money but a more predictable game that I can work at with little risk for huge swings.

Since I only have 3000 chips to start, which felt puny at that point, I locked down and played ultra-tight. I showed on a couple of really good lay-downs and established an ultra-tight table image with a knack for reading (I called out hands a few times and got them right to scare a few players). When I had to show my cards they were stronger than expected (playing very conservatively without trying to maximize my pots) and then I went to work.

When I hit dry spells in my starting hands I stole at about the rate I should have a hand. I picked my spots well and never had to show a bluff, even if I had to do it on multiple streets. I kept it at just the right amount and never got caught, even if I called pre-flop to steal on the flop with position.

When a couple of people got short stacked at the table I made good calls when they started to make moves and busted two players on pre-flop all-ins at a stage when nobody at the table was ever going to the felt (not even with kings and aces did it ever get to an all in) with marginal hands when I had good reads. Both times I had them dominated with the same top card and a better kicker and by the time they broke my first table I was comfortably staying ahead of the blinds with plenty of room to grind.

Moving to the new table sucked hard, I had no table image to work with and my hands were horrible. I had a donkey to my right who had a knack for moving all in when I finally have a playable hand. I never had a hand I could call an all-in with so I got little play and was starting to blind down. I also ran into a few cooler hands, and while I was able to get away very cheaply by laying down early it still didn't help my stack.

I was shocked that late in the day we were already down to a little over 200 players, the money started at 126 and I realized I could grind to cash in the tournament pretty easily. So I locked down the chips and waited out the field while stealing cheaply to stay even with the blinds. We went from 200 to 127 much more quickly than I expected but we spent almost 2 hours waiting for the last guy to bust on the bubble while playing hand-for-hand. It was excruciating because it was taking almost 10 minutes per hand and I was not going to risk anything till I was already in the money.

I had a little over 20,000 chips, which was comfortable at the 1200-600 blinds with my steals but it didn't seem like I had much chance of getting much further. I decided to play like a maniac after the bubble because I didn't want to put in a lot of hours to grind up a lot of positions for very little difference in the payout. I'd been playing all day without eating and after the dinner break I was in a food-coma and with the hand-for-hand play it was too boring to keep me interested in grinding (already having given up on trying to win the whole thing).

Both tables so far were very friendly, I was very nice to a player who had suffered a very bad beat and was almost being eliminated by not taking down her chips (I always had the button to her big blind) because I was feeling very safe to cash with only one player to go and I didn't want to play past that much. I cold called her blinds and checked down with pocket pairs, she caught her cards and stayed alive.

When we finally made the money we stopped playing hand-for-hand and real poker started again around the room. Players who had barely made it dropped like flies. I'd told my table mates that I'd be looking to triple up that night or go home, I didn't want to grind till 2 AM and come back the next day for what I thought would be little movement in position.

I was moved to a new table, I advised the players of my strategy (just in case I suck-out on anyone I wanted them to know I intended to coin-flip when I felt like it) and picked good spots and made some really good calls (e.g. calling an all-in on the flop when I had 6-3 and I knew my pair of 3s were good) and quadripled up. One player was mad at me after I called him in a three-way all-in and won with a hand that had no business being in an all-in. But the thing is I knew the other two hands were of the same variety and was right, I caught they didn't and I won.

So now he's asking me again why I was giving up on winning. I told him I play for a living and thought I could average more money per hour on a cash table than by grinding there and before the flurry of double-ups I was a long-shot to go much further. Thing is after he and another player tripled me up I had some chips to work with.

I called my buddy to see how the cash games were running and he said they were dry, when I told him my stack and how I planned to run the table and see where it ends up he told me to take it seriously and grind. I had enough chips now so I decided to protect it a bit and move up. I took a 20-minute break to smoke out in my car and let my stack blind down by about an 8th.

I got back relaxed and willing to play it out for the night. I got some of my chips back, ran into one huge cooler and am about where I was when I decided to play. Other players have dropped so I'm moving up. Out of the starting 1427 there are now 62 players left. I can easily grind out a few more payout spots for an extra grand or so and if I win a showdown or two I'll be able to go further.

I think I'm around 40th right now, and my goal is really to finish around there since that would be pretty easy to do and offers the easiest way for me to make more money than I'm already guaranteed. If I feel like gambling I'll either double or bust and don't really care since I'm already in the money, and if I get cards or grind well and get a better stack I may try to shoot for a higher position. Either way, real sweet money is looking like a long shot but I'm more than satisfied with cashing in the tournament and will treat tomorrow like a usual grind for my salary since I think I can coast to a $1000 improvement in my payout.

Here's some coverage of the tournament, focusing on the TV pros and how they've been doing:

http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/7233

Standing O Craven. <bows>

I was more than a little surprised to see how many of the big shots were sitting in with you... though they appear to have mostly vanished pretty quick. At the pace yesterday went; I wouldn't be surprised if you have a short day today... and continue. Best of luck, my friend.

There's more live updates here if you want to see how some of the hands are going.

Awesome! I'm more than impressed (and more than slightly jealous).

Ommmmming for a great day 2.

Hmm, turns out I'm 28th and not as far from chip leader than I thought.

I just woke up, and the tourney starts again in 50 minutes so I gotta jam.

<shaking head>

Craven's gonna win this, isn't he?

Break a leg.

Trying not to jinx him by yelling Go, Craven, at the top of my lungs. (Thus, not all caps.)

Craven, you have nerves of steel. Good luck today.

I swear I had the identical thought.

Knock em dead Craven!

Hey Craven :-D

Kick some ass, bud ;-)

I'm out. I got here late and was being blinded down. In my first hand and took a huge hit to my stack (about 70 percent) and then I decide to run the table short stacked. I bully my way back to where I was in about 40 minutes while dodging bullets from a guy who got aces and kings once a round on average. I was comfortable agan and ready to grind when I wake up with a monster. I have KK and raise to 10,000. Ace 10 pushes me all in pre-flop and I insta-call of course and turn over my cards. The other player acts deflated and holds his cards over the muck when other players tell him some aces are already dead. The case Ace rivers and I'm out in 41st spot. Kinda sucks to go out on a hand where a guy catches a one outer (about 10 percent chance) but such is poker and at least I can go rest.

Nicely done anyway, dude! I would consider cashing at all in my first major event ... well... major! Well done!

I see you picked up the $G you were looking for too. Not a bad hour's work, that.

Craven; I'm curious if you're satisfied with your play on that final hand and wonder if you had happened to notice the second paragraph of this post. I also remain interested your response to the question at the bottom of that post.

Also; I wonder if you'd like to weigh in on Omaha Hold'em. I've been studying that as of late; and I wonder if it isn't the easier way to go. Granted the games are fewer and further between; but there seems to be considerably less gambling involved and I've read the games that do exist are populated by a healthy percentage of donkeys who barely know the difference between Omaha and Texas Hold'em (which is HUGE).

I'm becoming increasing certain it is the better way to go for online play; at the very least. Since Omaha is a game of showdowns, where bluffing and pushing people out play a much smaller roll; unlike Texas Hold'em, spotting the donkey online shouldn't be much tougher than spotting him in person. Just dicking around; I've noticed that many players don't even seem to have the patience (or discipline or even knowledge of) to wait for a playable starting Omaha hand. It almost seems that the only requirement for success would be a good working knowledge of the fundamentals and the discipline to fold virtually every risky non-nut hand… regardless of one's ability to read his opponents. What say you?

It all depends on what your goals are. If you want to move up in the tournament significantly you have to make that call every time. If you've given up on the tournament and want to fold to a few thousand more dollars you can get away from it but in the long run passing up on chips when you are a 90% favorite is a really bad play.

I'd do that in a cash game and you just got to be willing to go broke on Kings pre-flop.




I thought I answered it but if not I'd say the majority are pretty solid compared to home games but are loosing in the casino. Of course no matter how good the players are, when they get together in a group most have to lose.



I've never played Omaha (except by accident when buying into a tourney online without noticing it's not holdem) and don't know anything about it.

I also have no interest at all in any other poker variants so I'm not the guy to ask. I've heard that other games are softer, but on the other hand I think most people start with holdem so I'm not sure if that's true.



That's pretty much true of any low-stakes poker game I know of, so I'm sure it's true there.

In low stakes poker, discipline outweighs skill all the time.

Yup, that's the way I see it too. The $400,000 was closer than I've ever been but cashing at all in a field this deep is a lot better than loosing $1,500 for the day. Now I'm ahead of my financial goals for the trip and can play even less.

Well done! Enjoy the rest of your trip.

I hope you don't mind a little constructive criticism stemming from a friendly desire to see you be as successful as possible...

Interesting. In a cash game; I couldn't agree more... but you weren't in a cash game... and your odds of winning were nowhere near 90% in the first place. How did you arrive at that conclusion. Considering he went over the top of you; you had to have put him on lower pockets, Big slick, or at the very least Ace something, right? Look at the real pre-flop odds:
Lower pockets; you're about 4 to 1 favorite
Ace anything from rags to big slick are only a little better than 3 to 1. Even low suited connectors put you under 5 to 1.
Only if dude's playing totally disconnected garbage or he's holding a K without an Ace do your odds ever approach 90% preflop (and those are very long odds considering he just pushed all in).

In a cash game; an opportunity to go to the felt a 3 to 1 favorite for all your chips is a no-brainer, for sure. But in the middle of a tourney; even though it offers the opportunity to double or triple up; I maintain it is a fundamental error to ever risk all of your chips pre-flop. Now I'm not saying I would have had the discipline to lay the Cowboys down myself (let alone rockets; that should also be mucked in that situation, IMO... because only if you dominate an ace do your pre-flop odds significantly increase over cowboys); but pre-flop there can be little question that was the appropriate move for the reasons I noted the other day. A triple up in the middle of a tourney doesn't guarantee you much of anything, while getting knocked out most certainly does. I would encourage you to consider toning down your aggression a bit in Tourney play. You may blind out or you may ride between the big and small blinds all the way to the final table, who knows? A chip and a chair is obviously an exaggeration; but fundamentally; until you reach a desperate chip count; I think it is a mistake to risk forfeiting all future opportunities to double up on a pre-flop gamble. Of course; that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Please don't consider any of the above to mean I am anything but supremely impressed with your accomplishment. I thought it over and decided I'd be a better friend to post than not to.

Not at all, but as you may imagine I disagree.



My odds were very close to 90%. I put him on an ace, and I put two other players in the hand who hesitated before folding on an ace each.

That would leave a single Ace for him to catch without needing runner runner. His hand wasn't suited and my reads all ended up correct.

He had Ace 10, two other players folded an ace each and there was one ace left for him to catch. He did so on the river and he had about a 10% chance of doing so.



Nope, he put in a raise before I re-raised and he pushed. Based on his initial bet I put him on an Ace with a Jack kicker, but to be honest it doesn't matter what his kicker was. Ace 2 and Ace King have nearly identical odds in that situation. He had Ace 10.



This is only true if you don't know the value of any cards except your own two.

If 2 Aces were burn cards from dealer errors your odds (as you can see them) would change right? And my read was nearly as good (at least in that it was right) and he essentially had 1 out.

But all of that is moot, I disagree with the fundamental notion that you shouldn't risk your whole stack pre-flop. Without a solid read putting the opponent on Aces it's just about always right to be willing to put your entire stack in pre-flop with Kings. This is probably one of the more widely agreed upon notions in poker strategy so don't take my word for it, take just about every good player's word for it.



Actually, it makes less sense to risk in a cash game than a tournament, but ultimately yes it's a no-brainer. Just like it is in a tournament.



First of all, it's not in any way the "middle" of the tournament. There were 42 players left out of 1,427. I had about 60,000 in chips and put in a 10,000 raise. The blinds were 2,000-1,000 with 400 antes. At six-handed that's $5,400 a round giving me less than 10 rounds left of tournament life if I avoided all action. It's not the middle it's not even just the end-game. It's deep into the end game.

But this too is moot, the notion that one should only go all-in pre-flop with kings late in a tournament is really absurd to me (and like I said, just about any decent poker player). I would do it on the first hand just as readily unless I had a read putting the other guy on aces.

And if you can't do that, you can't win at poker without situational help (e.g. bad players, good starting hands, good flops..).



Folding Aces pre-flop is even sillier than kings. There are very few situations where folding aces ever makes sense and most of them start with "a man is holding a gun telling you that if you call he will shoot you, you have Aces and...".



Don't play poker for the hand, don't play poker for the tournament, play poker for life.

In the long run (and the long run isn't just the tournament but all tournament play) passing up on even a 70% chance of doubling up is absolutely suicidal in poker.



It was not possible to ride all the way. I had 10 rounds worth of chips and hundreds of rounds more were to come unless all the players busted at once or died, and relying on that is a risk in and of itself.

Your advise is really just patently absurd Bill. It's not in the grey areas where reasonable poker players disagree (e.g. limping occasionally with aces vs raising) but rather in the realm of, well, let's put it this way. I've never heard anyone anywhere even consider what you are advocating.

You play poker for the long run. If you have a 70% chance of winning you can certainly fold to ensure that you don't bust that hand, but if you run that situation 100 times you see that the best move is to put your money in while it's ahead.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen a flop for less than my whole stack but if someone puts me to that decision in that situation it's a no-brainer. Even more so when I already have 1/6 of my stack in the pot. And even more so when I have a tad over 9 rounds left of play.



It's preferable to get the money in later in the hand but if you aren't willing to go broke on a 70% (much less 90%) edge you just can't win in poker.

I would do it for much much less than that.