I've been playing poker on a shoestring for a long time, and it's getting old. When I started I couldn't afford to buy poker books for my studies, so I got books from the library. Many years later, I find myself in a similar position.
When I played live tournaments last year I took $50 out of the family budget from time to time and played in a local or area poker room. I had several cashes between about $100 and $300, but I never hit any cashes of over 10 buy-ins or more that I could use to start building a real bankroll of 100+ buy-ins. As happens with almost every tournament player that doesn't have a decent bankroll, I eventually went broke.
I'm not gong to let anything like that happen again. This year the focus in on bankroll management. In a sense I'm not trying to win any money this year, though I have done that every month in 2017. I've been playing only online and spending almost nothing to do it.
I started building a online bankroll with $34 that had been sitting on Juicy Stakes Poker for a couple years. That amount is now $188.89 and I will get it up to $500 sometime this year. I have played mostly tournaments with buy-ins of $1.10 and $2.20 and as the bankroll has growns I started mixing in a $3.30 once a week.
When I have $500 on Juicy Stakes I will probably take out the minimum $250 withdrawal. I will use some of that money for office supplies and use some to put on Americas Cardroom to give me more playing options. After I withdraw I will of course keep grinding up my bankroll on both sites. I expect to have total online bankrolls on the two sites of more than $1,000 sometime in 2018.
The problem is that I don't have any free cash now. As is true with any business, I need working capital. I don't have any. Family finances are very tight. Moving and other things have cost us much more than expected. We can pay our bills and eat, and we know that it will get better down the road--but that doesn't help me now.
I started building a online bankroll with $34 that had been sitting on Juicy Stakes Poker for a couple years. That amount is now $188.89 and I will get it up to $500 sometime this year. I have played mostly tournaments with buy-ins of $1.10 and $2.20 and as the bankroll has growns I started mixing in a $3.30 once a week.
When I have $500 on Juicy Stakes I will probably take out the minimum $250 withdrawal. I will use some of that money for office supplies and use some to put on Americas Cardroom to give me more playing options. After I withdraw I will of course keep grinding up my bankroll on both sites. I expect to have total online bankrolls on the two sites of more than $1,000 sometime in 2018.
The problem is that I don't have any free cash now. As is true with any business, I need working capital. I don't have any. Family finances are very tight. Moving and other things have cost us much more than expected. We can pay our bills and eat, and we know that it will get better down the road--but that doesn't help me now.
It's been like that for most of this year, but in the last week it affected my play.. A few weeks ago I played two tournaments and my concentration was very poor. I folded AK three times. Each Time I clicked the Fold Button instead of All In. I let the pressure get to me.
I'm a patient player and I don't mind grinding up a bankroll. I understand that poker is a long-term game--but I'm 61 and my wife will be retiring in a few years. Poker is going to be part of our retirement income. I don't have time to be patient any more.
There is also a short-term problem. I need money now. Bluffing is a very weak area for me, and there is a book with the title Bluffing that I badly want to get. The author is one of my favorite sources for poker knowledge, as well as a two-time World Poker Tour Player of the Year.. I subscribe to his coaching site. (only $10 a month) and I certainly don't want to have to give that up.
I have an old book that I'm going to sell. I'm pretty sure that I can get at least $100 for it. I'm hoping that it's a lot more. Even $100 would help a lot. I would have some cash to get that poker book and money for some office supplies.
If my book turns out not to be as valuable as I thought, I could get some kind of temporary or part-time job outside of poker to scrounge up a little money, but that's really tricky because of the income tax ramifications.
As a full-time poker player I am considered to be the self-employed owner of a Schedule C business. However (and here's where it gets tricky) to keep my status as a Schedule C business, poker has to be my main source of income and/or take up the majority of my work hours.. There is no exact rule about hours or income and if I am audited, the IRS will decide if I meet the Schedule C standard for poker players.
To be safe I have to make sure that the majority of my work hours are spent on poker AND that the majority of my income comes from poker. If I fail either test I could lose my Schedule C status, and with it all of my business deductions. If I buy things that I need for poker, for example, a poker book, the cost of that book would be disallowed, as would the cost of subscribing to a poker coaching site. If I upgrade my poker software or buy a new computer, same thing.
I really hope that selling my book gives me enough wiggle room to do some things that need to be done.
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