18 Months of Winning = Gone Nowhere

Back from Vegas- was very fun in a might-as-well-have-been-Ibiza kind of way, ie didn't do a whole lot of poker and instead blew an inordinate amount of $Ks on nothing much in particular.

I got a little down speaking to people at the Leggo party, namely the fact that a whole load of people who've earned the same or far less than me in the last 18 months are pretty financial stable because of it. What exactly have I done with ~$224k in 18 months ($12k every month during that time period)??!!

I think what I'm trying to say is that I've earned $200k+ in the last 18 months (brag) and spent every fucking penny of it and more (very very beat). Part of it was opening a shop that I'm very proud of, but that still leaves a $175k hole that has just left me with NOTHING. I should be buying a house with cash by now, or sitting at 25-50, or have a $1k giant toy elephant (oh wait, I DO, see what I'm saying!?).

In the past I've successfully linked things like tilt control and playing only when mentally fit as part of the 'skill' of poker. This has helped a great deal, and so actually retaining my winnings is going to be a new major medium and long term 'skill' goal. If I can't manage it, and the games get so tough (not that I actually think this will happen, I'll always be more determined to be ahead of the curve) in say 12 months time that I can't make the same amount of money, then I'm going to properly hate myself for having nothing to show for it.

So, the plan is fairly simple. My winning total at the end of the month will get broken down as such:

40%- Cash bankroll growth
40%- Offline savings account, untouchable for 6 months

10%- Tournament bankroll contribution

Rakeback+Bonuses (Averaging around $3k per month, so not to be sniffed at) + remaining 10%- Monthly living expenses

There's just no excuse for not following the above. ~$4.5k per month for simply living in one of the cheapest cities in England *should* be an absolute doddle, but just to make sure I'm cutting up the debit card linked to my poker withdrawls checking account, and having the monthly allowance transferred daily to my actual spending account. Example, $4.5k translates to around £3.1k = £100 per day to be transferred- which is A LOT OF MONEY.

So hopefully, by the time of the next Leggo party I'll be able to talk to people about my own house, about playing the ME no sweat, etc. At least the trip has in this sense been good in terms of being a huge wakeup call.

In other medium term stuff, I plan to make a ton more Leggo videos. JamesMa and Steel etc must be picking up about $50k per annum just for a few hours work per week and this money can just go straight towards my savings goal. In order to do this though a few things need to happen.

a) I need to get some money on Pokerstars, play 400nl for a while on there and acheive a decent PTR (sample size doesn't matter, but I need something like 10k hands/ PTBB of 4 or something). I'll make videos on this screenname on this site.

b) I need to quit AP and start playing iPoker/ Party anonomously. Party offer something closer to real rakeback, but iPoker is lots softer and I'd lean towards that. Again it would then be a toss up of choosing a reputable skin like William Hill where money will always be safe, or something like 'Tabasco Poker' (made up) where you apparently get offered 50% rakeback etc.

Both the above will take a few months, and assume that I'm going to do well for the next few months on AP. The other option of course is to make substandard videos, not actually incorporate anything that I actually think these days into them, and keep playing AP- this obviously isn't actually an option because I have at least a shred of decency.

Live cash didn't go well in Vegas- and basically because I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough to bet fold 22 deep on a Q42 K K river VS a proven passive old guy, I wasn't good enough to fold KQ deep on a QK4sss 6 VS a maniac (he was a drunk Irish guy, but at this point had been on a mental heater and no way was he tilting, and everything in the way he was so calm and relaxed in counting out his chips to shove the turn screamed to me that he had a flush, again just not good enough).

I also made a ton of elementary 'live' mistakes. 3betting KQo in the CO vs MP, gay betting K72r and betting turn and river to be shown AK is one example. I was also 0/4 on 3barrel bluffs when I'd already built myself a huge monkey image that had the table talking. I think all the extra live stuff to factor in (live tells are huge, table image matters more, you can't make as many assumptions ie oh he'd definitely raise a set on 875ss etc) probably accounts for as much as 50% of the skill involved.

But anyway, rather than sulk about it I'm going to work harder at the adjustments needed and the live tells (just to re-iterate, they really are huge! If only I'd gone with my instincts a few times I could've made some very technically bad calls or folds that would've been correct) so that by the time I come to play in Ireland and the GUKPT I'll have no such excuses not to succeed.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to re-read my 'how to win at poker' post, and get going with AP 400nl again. 10 consecutive winning days before leaving for Vegas, it would be very nice to pick up where I left off......

I'll talk about tournys next time, laters.

dan