A few months ago, I decided that if I was truly going to run my poker like a business*, I needed to have a written business plan. I wrote one that was several pages long. It lasted about a week. I don't really have enough control of my time and situation to stick to any kind of plan that includes things like how many hours a week I'm going to work, or how I'm going to decide which tournaments to play. When I first decided to play full-time, my goal was to play or study at least 50 hours a week, with at least 25% of that time devoted to study. That hasn't exactly worked out.
Another part of that plan was how I was going to manage my poker accounts (income tax escrow, live bankroll, online bankroll, and expenses.) As stated in my 12/10/2014 post, that hasn't worked out well either When the two bankrolls and my other accounts were added up, in November they were a bit over $1,000. Now the toal is just over $700. The combination of my live tournament losing streak and buying a laser printer has drawn down my funds quite a bit.
The reason I bought the printer in early January is because it's a new calendar and tax year. I'm assuming that I'll have a chance to play often enough to win some serious money this year and use my expenses as business deductions against that income, but then, that's what I thought would happen last year.
I'm making two changes for the first part of 2015. First, I want to rebuild my accounts so that the total is over $1,000. No business can operate without capital, and mine is no different. $700 on hand just isn't enough. I would love to have a second 30-inch monitor and make other improvements to my office setup. I need to fatten up my bankrolls. As soon as I start winning some serious money, I need to keep some of it in escrow for quarterly estimated income tax payments.
The other change is that I'm going to divert funding that has going to my online bankroll and put it toward live poker. My 68 buy-ins for online tournaments are OK for now and I can build that bankroll from my winnings. I'm spending more time playing online tournaments after my mother-in-law falls asleep (I played two tonight and did some studying, it's about 1:30 A.M. now) so that will help. I would like my online bankroll to be at 100 buy-ins right now, but it's not exactly a crisis that I'm not there yet.
I haven't decided yet exactly what to do when I start winning some significant money, but until I have 100 buy-ins for both live and online tournaments, nothing is more important than that. I think I'll divide my winnings something like this: 60-65% for bankroll building, 30% for tax payments, and 5-10% for owner's capital.
Once both of my bankrolls are set and I have some money set aside for expenses, all options are on the table. I could keep my focus on bankroll building so that I have 100 buy-ins to play higher and make more money, for example, playing live tournaments with buy-ins between $80 and $100. Or I could start saving money to pay cash for a second car, which would make it possible for me to play whenever or wherever I want, including casinos, without have to have a family meeting about who can have the car when. I could improve my office situation and get all of my poker books switched to Kindle, which would be much more convenient, and would free up space in my office.
I have big dreams, I just have to figure out how to make them happen. The median US personal income is about $26,000. There are more players than you think who work hard and make that much or more. I'm not talking about the poker millionaires you see on TV. There are lots of players you never hear about who work hard every day and make 30, 50, or 100 thousand dollars a year. I know of a single mother who supported herself and her two children by playing poker online while her kids were in school.
There is no reason that I shouldn't be able to make at least the median personal income playing poker. When I can finally work full-time, if I can't make a decent income, what's the point?
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*Professional poker player Dusty Schmidt wrote the book, Run Your Poker Like A Business. Before turning to poker, he managed his father's toy store. In his book he says that he makes about $800,000 a year playing cash games online.
I haven't decided yet exactly what to do when I start winning some significant money, but until I have 100 buy-ins for both live and online tournaments, nothing is more important than that. I think I'll divide my winnings something like this: 60-65% for bankroll building, 30% for tax payments, and 5-10% for owner's capital.
Once both of my bankrolls are set and I have some money set aside for expenses, all options are on the table. I could keep my focus on bankroll building so that I have 100 buy-ins to play higher and make more money, for example, playing live tournaments with buy-ins between $80 and $100. Or I could start saving money to pay cash for a second car, which would make it possible for me to play whenever or wherever I want, including casinos, without have to have a family meeting about who can have the car when. I could improve my office situation and get all of my poker books switched to Kindle, which would be much more convenient, and would free up space in my office.
I have big dreams, I just have to figure out how to make them happen. The median US personal income is about $26,000. There are more players than you think who work hard and make that much or more. I'm not talking about the poker millionaires you see on TV. There are lots of players you never hear about who work hard every day and make 30, 50, or 100 thousand dollars a year. I know of a single mother who supported herself and her two children by playing poker online while her kids were in school.
There is no reason that I shouldn't be able to make at least the median personal income playing poker. When I can finally work full-time, if I can't make a decent income, what's the point?
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*Professional poker player Dusty Schmidt wrote the book, Run Your Poker Like A Business. Before turning to poker, he managed his father's toy store. In his book he says that he makes about $800,000 a year playing cash games online.
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