Opening Blog Post...the history
Posted 02-27-09 at 08:59 PM by Zybomb
Since turning pro at the end of 2007 and playing seriously since 2004 my poker career has had it's share of ups and downs. Since I've never blogged before, I figure I'll open this blog with a brief history of my play before I go on to ranting.
I've played poker in some form or another since I was a little kid, but mostly bullshit "dealer's choice" rotation games, like follow the queen, baseball, crisscross etc, along with the regular's of 7 stud 5 card draw, holdem etc. In 2002-2003 I began taking poker slightly more serious but it wasn't really until 2004 that I started playing serious serious. I was in the last two years of college and made $20k on Pokerstars over the course of 6 months playing full ring 1-2NL- 3-6NL which was a ton of money for me at the time, since it basically covered my rent and utilities for the entire year while putting a few bucks in my pocket as well. I cashed out frequently and kept my account well under rolled for the stakes I was playing (I started with a 200 deposit and playing 1-2 NL, which is exactly 1 buy in lol). My first two deposits went busto and then my third one I got started. I made $500 and cashed down to $500 (cashed out the original $200), and basically would continue to cash out giving myself new levels each time. I ran well and played solid so I moved up to 2/4 and just was killing it (running good) and moved up to 3/6 and generally played between 2/4 and 3/6. I cashed out very frequently, and generally kept only 3000-4000 in my account (obv not smart) so I eventually ran bad and dumped the rest.
I moved back home and started playing live in the underground clubs in and around NYC and the surrounding areas. I started playing 1/2 which felt really big for me, since the standard opens were 12-17, much bigger than online 1/2, the game felt like a 2/4-3/6...I eventually moved up to the 2/5 and 5/5 games and also got involved in the bigger 5/10 and occasionally 10/25 games
In 2006 most of my poker money was gone to bills expenses and random other things, and I hadn't really been playing all that often, maybe once a week or so. I went to Vegas with a friend of mine who won a seat to the main event. Between the two of us and his girlfriend (who came down to Vegas with exactly $80) we had under $5000 for a 10 Day 9 night trip in Vegas....yea combined. I played exclusively 2/5 NL and cleaned up just under $7000 in the 10 days. My bankroll was build from there
I never intended on becoming a pro player, I had been running an Italian restaurant 50 hours 6 days a week. The money was good (would walk with 800-1200 a week cash....$600 base plus party tips and sometimes I'd handle bartending duties during slower nights and make extra $ that way also) but the days were grueling. I couldn't ever get a day off, I worked every weekend and although the work wasn't hard or strenuous, I still had to be there, which meant I couldn't do a lot of other things.
Things ended up not working out for me there and me and the restaurant parted ways in November of 2007. 2007 was my strongest poker year, so I figured I'd play a little more often until I decided what I was going to do. I had a useless psychology BA and I didn't want to go to grad school (which is necessary to use it) so I didn't have that many options available.
2008 started good for me with 3 back to back to back 5 figure months. I hadn't worked for a while, I was making more money than I had ever before and my desire to find "real" work was gone.
In April I had my first losing month since March of 2007 and my second since July of 2006. It was tiny -$535 but it kind of put me in check that it wasn't going to be 5 figures months every month forever.
I rebounded in May and June to have the two biggest months of my career and finished the halfway mark of 2008 well on my way to a 6 figure + year and thinking life was set.
Then the dark side crept in. The economy shattered and a lot of the loose fish and donkeys weren't around as much or at all anymore. I ran like utter shit in July (ironically my birthday month) and had the biggest losing month of my career... 5 figures. My previous worst month was $-1900. I wanted to rebound big in August, but wound up having roughly a breakeven month and ended up logging a small win for the month. September came and my skid was still not over and I dropped $7k. My awesome year was not finishing like it started. I did rebounded in Oct for a 5 figure win and closed out Nov and Dec with small wins.
Problems started arising the the card rooms though. Clientèle wasn't what it used to be and rooms began getting greedier and greedier thus the chop and rake increased. When I first started playing it was a simple $4 per half time charge. That eventually went up to $5 and then it eventually went up to $5 for 1/2, $6 for 2/5, $7 for 5/5 and $8 for 5/10. Then pots started getting chopped in addition to the time. It started as $5 per pot over $50, then went to $5 and then another $5 if the pot was over $200.... in some of the bigger games 5/10 and 10/25 there were outrageous chops of up to $50 per pot!!!!! I refused to play in any of these games, despite the fact that it was filled with several loose awful millionaires who were throwing $$$ away.
I live a little over 2 hrs from Atlantic City, and the chop there is obviously a billion times more reasonable ($5 for 2/5, $6 for 5/10 $7 for 10/20 per half, no chop out of the pots). I began playing there more often, but unfortunately due to legal troubles stemming from an incident at the end of 2007, I am not legally allowed to leaved the five boroughs, making AC trips difficult.
I've played poker in some form or another since I was a little kid, but mostly bullshit "dealer's choice" rotation games, like follow the queen, baseball, crisscross etc, along with the regular's of 7 stud 5 card draw, holdem etc. In 2002-2003 I began taking poker slightly more serious but it wasn't really until 2004 that I started playing serious serious. I was in the last two years of college and made $20k on Pokerstars over the course of 6 months playing full ring 1-2NL- 3-6NL which was a ton of money for me at the time, since it basically covered my rent and utilities for the entire year while putting a few bucks in my pocket as well. I cashed out frequently and kept my account well under rolled for the stakes I was playing (I started with a 200 deposit and playing 1-2 NL, which is exactly 1 buy in lol). My first two deposits went busto and then my third one I got started. I made $500 and cashed down to $500 (cashed out the original $200), and basically would continue to cash out giving myself new levels each time. I ran well and played solid so I moved up to 2/4 and just was killing it (running good) and moved up to 3/6 and generally played between 2/4 and 3/6. I cashed out very frequently, and generally kept only 3000-4000 in my account (obv not smart) so I eventually ran bad and dumped the rest.
I moved back home and started playing live in the underground clubs in and around NYC and the surrounding areas. I started playing 1/2 which felt really big for me, since the standard opens were 12-17, much bigger than online 1/2, the game felt like a 2/4-3/6...I eventually moved up to the 2/5 and 5/5 games and also got involved in the bigger 5/10 and occasionally 10/25 games
In 2006 most of my poker money was gone to bills expenses and random other things, and I hadn't really been playing all that often, maybe once a week or so. I went to Vegas with a friend of mine who won a seat to the main event. Between the two of us and his girlfriend (who came down to Vegas with exactly $80) we had under $5000 for a 10 Day 9 night trip in Vegas....yea combined. I played exclusively 2/5 NL and cleaned up just under $7000 in the 10 days. My bankroll was build from there
I never intended on becoming a pro player, I had been running an Italian restaurant 50 hours 6 days a week. The money was good (would walk with 800-1200 a week cash....$600 base plus party tips and sometimes I'd handle bartending duties during slower nights and make extra $ that way also) but the days were grueling. I couldn't ever get a day off, I worked every weekend and although the work wasn't hard or strenuous, I still had to be there, which meant I couldn't do a lot of other things.
Things ended up not working out for me there and me and the restaurant parted ways in November of 2007. 2007 was my strongest poker year, so I figured I'd play a little more often until I decided what I was going to do. I had a useless psychology BA and I didn't want to go to grad school (which is necessary to use it) so I didn't have that many options available.
2008 started good for me with 3 back to back to back 5 figure months. I hadn't worked for a while, I was making more money than I had ever before and my desire to find "real" work was gone.
In April I had my first losing month since March of 2007 and my second since July of 2006. It was tiny -$535 but it kind of put me in check that it wasn't going to be 5 figures months every month forever.
I rebounded in May and June to have the two biggest months of my career and finished the halfway mark of 2008 well on my way to a 6 figure + year and thinking life was set.
Then the dark side crept in. The economy shattered and a lot of the loose fish and donkeys weren't around as much or at all anymore. I ran like utter shit in July (ironically my birthday month) and had the biggest losing month of my career... 5 figures. My previous worst month was $-1900. I wanted to rebound big in August, but wound up having roughly a breakeven month and ended up logging a small win for the month. September came and my skid was still not over and I dropped $7k. My awesome year was not finishing like it started. I did rebounded in Oct for a 5 figure win and closed out Nov and Dec with small wins.
Problems started arising the the card rooms though. Clientèle wasn't what it used to be and rooms began getting greedier and greedier thus the chop and rake increased. When I first started playing it was a simple $4 per half time charge. That eventually went up to $5 and then it eventually went up to $5 for 1/2, $6 for 2/5, $7 for 5/5 and $8 for 5/10. Then pots started getting chopped in addition to the time. It started as $5 per pot over $50, then went to $5 and then another $5 if the pot was over $200.... in some of the bigger games 5/10 and 10/25 there were outrageous chops of up to $50 per pot!!!!! I refused to play in any of these games, despite the fact that it was filled with several loose awful millionaires who were throwing $$$ away.
I live a little over 2 hrs from Atlantic City, and the chop there is obviously a billion times more reasonable ($5 for 2/5, $6 for 5/10 $7 for 10/20 per half, no chop out of the pots). I began playing there more often, but unfortunately due to legal troubles stemming from an incident at the end of 2007, I am not legally allowed to leaved the five boroughs, making AC trips difficult.
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