This Is What It's Supposed to Look Like

Things are getting crazy when I play poker.  The swings are getting bigger, both in single tournaments and in general.  I had two recent tournaments where it wasn't long before I didn't have enough chips to play one more orbit around the table and I would be in something like 49th place out of 50.  I somehow turned both tournaments around and just missed cashing.

My bankroll has been moving around a lot as well.  I was up $25 last month.  In the first week of August I was -$25.  After a few small cashes in the last week and a good result today (4th of 70 players) I'm almost even for the month at -$5.82.

That's what poker is supposed to look like.  If I'm taking the risk to win a tournament instead of just trying to get in the top 18 and get a cash, there are going to be a lot of highs and lows.  When Jonathan Little says that it doesn't bother him when he plays 50 straight tournaments without cashing, he means it, because he knows that a 6- or 7-figure cash will come sooner or later if he's making good decisions at the table.

I'm finally starting to believe that it takes big risks in poker to have good results.  I always knew that intellectually, but I never internalized it.  Playing for three hours, then going all-in, when waiting for one player to get knocked out would put me in the money, was a very difficult adjustment.  I can do that with confidence now, because when I really understand the math, I can let math overrule caution.

Things are really starting to turn around, for a lot of reasons.  First, the family situation of being cash-poor might be ending very soon.  That has a lot of implications that I might explain in the near future.

Second, I'm putting in a lot of study time and it's really paying off.  I always aim for at least 25% of my poker time studying.  The last three weeks it's been 32%, 33%, and so far this week 29%.  Very few players study that much, in fact, most pros would say that I should spend more time playing instead. In my case, I'm sure that's not the right strategy and I'm very happy with all the things that I'm learning and all the areas in which I'm improving.

Third, a lot of that studying is a book that I've wanted to get for a long time, because I wanted to improve my play in one of my weakest areas.  The title is Bluffs: How to Intelligently Apply Aggression to Increase Your Profits from Poker by Jonathan Little and Albert Hart. 

Bluffs is helping me open up my game quite a bit. I've known for a long time that I should be bluffing a lot more often, but knowing that isn't the same thing as knowing what spots to look for when I do it.  I have read the book through once and I'm on my second reading..  I'm taking notes on things that I will need to go back and study more deeply when I read it for the third time.  I'm also making notes on things to do differently at the table right now.

I'm more optimistic about making an income playing poker than I have been in a long time.  In 2016 I didn't have my own office.  I didn't live in a quiet neighborhood.  There are still a lot of pieces to put together, but a change in our financial situation would take of a lot of that.  I'm running a business and that requires software, hardware, office supplies and a lot of other things.  When I don't have to worry about having enough money to buy for toner for my printer, things are going to get a lot easier.

July Poker Results

I'll start with the numbers:


Juicy Stakes Poker, July 2017
37 tournaments played
14 net win tournaments,   +$64.29
23 net loss tournaments,   -$38.35
                                                ---------
                                              +$25.94

Americas Cardroom, July 2017
4 tournaments played
1 net win tournament,    +$0.19
3 net loss tournaments,   -$0.55
                                              ---------
                                           -$0.36

Combined results for July 2017: +$25.58


The current situation:

As poker is a game of winning and losing streaks, I suppose that any winning month is a good month, but I have to do better.  I need to start putting some $50+ months together.  I need to have more than $500 on Juicy Stakes Poker by the end of the year, so that I am eligible to make a withdrawal if needed.

Money right now is just too tight, in both the poker and household budgets.  We got behind the 8-ball when we moved out of our old house later than planned and didn't get our security deposit back. Our landlord said OK when we asked for more time to move.  We had no idea that the security deposit was at risk.  That wasn't the only surprise when we moved, but it was a big one.

We actually have a decent net worth but almost all of our money is in retirement accounts.  We're cash poor right now and it's taking a lot more time to dig out than we thought it would.  My wife is putting in a lot of overtime right now and I need to do the same.  I guess the couple that grinds together stays together.

Juicy Stakes Poker:

I know that the small numbers must look strange to most of you. The explanation follows:

I am on the horns of a dilemma, a classic short-term vs. long term problem. Things on Juicy Stakes Poker, which by all accounts is the far inferior site, are going reasonably well.  Americas Cardroom is a different story.  I'm -$35.45 for the year.

That's not exactly shocking.  Variance happens and losing $35 isn't the end of the world--but it puts me in a bind because:

1. My Americas Cardroom bankroll (money on the site) is $0.98.  It's hard to do much with that.

2. There is only one tournament that I can afford to play. The buy-in is $0.11.

3. I need to have as many options as possible, which means two online sites and adding live poker next year.

3. The best tournament on Juicy Stakes poker starts at 1829. The 11-cent tournament on Americas Cardroom starts at 1915.  They overlap and I can't play both.  I would have to play the 11-cent tournament a lot of times to build any kind of bankroll.  I miss out on a lot of equity when I'm not playing at 1829.

When I started playing poker I knew that it wasn't going to be an easy way to make money.  That doesn't make facing the reality any easier.