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

I took the beating with me online. Playing poker online all day was a very interesting affair. I'd swing up huge when my cards held up and then take huge suckouts.

After getting Aces cracked one time too many on the cash tables I moved to tournaments. I was a solid chip leader on track to take down a thousand-dollar prize when a string of ridiculous suckouts takes place. On the first I flop the nut flush and get a guy with one pair to go all in with me. He turns trips and then rivers his kicker for a boat. Ridiculous runner-runner but I was still in first place after doubling him up. But the beats continued and I got 2-outed on the river 3 times in a row to bust (with Kings).

I had entered a huge (2000 players) $1 tournament just for shits and giggles but hit a hand early for an early lead. I decided I was going to win it (a tall task, 2000 is a DEEP field). I don't think I've ever played a $1 tournament for more than 10 hands before (can't bring myself to care about a buck for the amount of effort) but this time I was on a mission. I claw my way to the top of the board early and ride it out. The beats continue (e.g. Kings cracked by pocket 7s with a 2-outer on the river) as my overpairs never hold up against the dominated underpairs but I'm playing solid poker and getting good starting hands. I manage to keep on top of the tournament.

When the very end game is approaching I take another river beat (this time a 3-outer) and lose the lead (I fall to 3rd) but then I changed gears and they didn't adapt. I whiplashed the chip leader into an all-in when I had the nut straight and then went to work. I soon had 2.5 million chips to my 2 opponent's 500,000.

I don't let them catch up and stole every pot that was there to steal. I win the tournament and turn $1 into $350. The money seems like a joke for how long I played (about 6 hours) but beating a field of 2000 (actually 1964) players is just the ticket when you are in a poker funk. It's a hell of a rush and the money seems completely secondary to besting such a huge field.

I left the house to go eat and met some friends at a casino (a tournament had started while I was winning mine online) and told a buddy of mine about it who makes a living exclusively from tournament poker (mostly online) and he told me he's never taken down a 2000-player field.

Some days I feel I don't know **** about poker, other days I feel like a genius and that's poker for you.

The best example is the bluff, if you bluff someone out of Aces you look like a genius, if they call you look like a jackass.

At the bar I'm downing red-bull (haven't slept yet, probably slept twice this week) and reflecting on some wild swings of the day. It all came to me. It just happens. A lot of times I busted people with hands I'd have played their way too. It just all happens and I got to ride the swings as best I can.

But I tell ya, this year the poker gods have been having fun with me (both ways). I've had ridiculously good runs and ridiculously bad runs and my fellow poker players have titled me the player with the biggest swings in low-stakes poker on earth.

Anyway, I'm finding my own again. Everyone I know has been pushing me away from the low-stakes cash games onto the larger tables and the tournaments as they are more suited for my play (I get too bored and 1,2 poker is low enough that I don't play disciplined poker). I'm, phasing my game onto online tournaments and big games and will see how the adaption goes. I still haven't lost on the 5/10 table against the pros but then again sometimes there's $100,000 on the table and I don't have the bankroll for that kind of beat (e.g. once on the 5/10 table someone sucked out on me for $5,000, turning a huge night for me into a $500 night. It could have been $5,000 into the red for the night).

I hate poker so much sometimes, but then it goes and gets interesting when I'm challenged. I had better sleep. I'm going to destroy the game tomorrow...

<here listening>

Rock on, Craven. (And while you're dicking around online; check out Omaha... if you'd like to treat some fisherman like bait. :wink:)

<Standing next to Osso, listening>

Wishing you good fortune--and nobody like me at your table. I don't play anymore, but when I did, I was the suck-er. Not a good player, but amazing streaks of luck.

My favorite suckouts: Woman next to be had a full house, kings over aces. I had quad aces. Person across from me had an ace high heart flush. I had a straight flush, seven high.

Oy, that sounds like you're becoming an addicted gambler.

How on earth do you manage to do anything sleeping only twice in a week?

Addicted to adrenaline?

Does anyone know an online poker player called pokebok?

Your pseudonym is safe with us.

With a pname like pokebok he'd have to be SAfrican

I never get why people who hear I play poker for a living tend to assume it's due to a gambling addiction. I don't like gambling. After leaving Vegas in June I played poker about 6 times in the next 2 months because I found it extremely boring (except for tournaments).

In the last week I've been playing online as an experiment to see if I could make a living there because it would open up additional countries for me to live in where there are no casinos (e.g. Brazil) but I avoid poker as much as possible and see it as a lot of boring work. In face I've been approaching some venture capital companies to see if I can start a business that I've long been interested in to replace my poker income.

And the no sleeping thing is something I've always done. So I don't get it at all. I suppose it would just be easier to just nod along and pretend I'm addicted to gambling.

Gambling addicts NEVER play poker. Poker is a game of calculating odds, and playing your opponents. It lacks the random chance elements that problem gamblers get addicted to.

I disagree, I think a lot of gambling addicts dabble in poker, but due to the factors you mention (and the addition of the competitive and aggressive elements of the game) you're right in that they tend to prefer other games like craps, blackjack, roulette and slots.

But I do know poker players I believe to be addicts. Before doing this for work I thought I could get addicted to poker but it ultimately became too boring.

But are they addicted to the gambling, or to the game of poker?

Can you distinguish? I thought if you're addicted to gambling, it doesn't
matter if poker, blackjack, slots etc. - gambling is gambling.

That's a good point, poker can be addicting in a whole different way. But while I agree with your general points I disagree with the absolutism, most addicted gamblers get their kicks elsewhere, but some certainly play poker as well.

A lot of them talked about playing poker to win the money to gamble on the other house games though, it's an odd subculture and I don't think we can speak with much certainty about the reasons for it.

I can, however, say I'm not addicted to gambling. Don't even like it.

very interested by your story.amazing to see how you have began to find the poker life rather boring and repetitive.i'm from the uk and am a student in scotland,started playing poker a few years back just for a laugh with the football (soccer) team and i have to admit i was pretty damn awful,but i got immediately hooked and over time started to play more and more regularly,incurring quite substantial losses at the same time,i always liked a bit of a flutter so i was always a loose player,not in a good way,just not playing odds.i decided to completely change my ways and become a grinder and ever since around february time ive been running in substantial profits.i was before a nearly exclusively internet player but now refuse to play this a concentrate on live tournaments at high stakes (relatively high from £100-£100) tournaments.can't stand cash games,just boredom!

my bankroll each week begins at £150, meaing i basically must get paid in my first game,which i invariably do and it finally culminates on a saturday afternoon with a £500 game at the casino.i find it so important to choose my games carefully,at the casino ive played a few major pros on the british poker scene and came out with gains.from doing this ive been able to generate an income varying between 600-1000 profit per week,although flutters at roulette can hit this at times.

however,i find that this can be a very far cry from a glamorous and exciting lifestyle one might expect,i spend around 60hours a week playing poker,and although it is very sociable you inevitably must break these social links to achieve success.i think that if you allow yourself to play within limits you can achieve alot but one thing you'll never achieve from legitimate poker is immense excitement from work!

I think that what Wilso was trying to say is that some gambling involves more "gamble" than others.

Poker is all about how you pick your spots to gamble, so those who like to gamble disproportionately do very poorly and usually don't stay long (preferring pure gambling games instead).

But as I've said, I disagree that there aren't gambling addicts in poker, I think there are many.

You do enough of anything and it becomes boring. I've been sating my every whim for months now (ever since I decided to be free), and am bored with it all. Even complete freedom is boring.



You would be better off keeping it separate completely. Fund it, grow it and don't withdraw from it. Reseting it every week denies you experience at bankroll management, which is just as important to a poker career as on-table decisions.

It also gives you the opportunity to move up in stakes as it grows.



Indeed, I find myself doing a lot of other work I enjoy (e.g. web development) as it's much more fulfilling.

Hey, Craven, you make your first mill yet?