I guess I should give some information about me, so at least people can know where my posts are coming from 
Name: David
Profession: Poker Player
Age: 29 - Hmm, I hit the big “three-oh” this month
Marital Status: Happily Married, One 3 year old son (almost 4)
Hobbies: Reading, M:TG, R/C Cars (real ones, not the toys-r-us style junk, but the 60mph [not scaled speed, but real speed] nitro and electric cars.
Current Goal: Currently, my goal is to be making $52,000/year ($1k a week). When I reach that goal I’ll up it to $78,000/ year ($1.5k a week).
My Poker History:
In January 2005 a friend at work told me about playing poker online. Before that I had never played poker for money, and only once or twice had I even played for chips. He gave me an article to read that talked about how you should play, I read it, and made an account at Prima for the free $10, and lost it. I then deposited another $20 and lost that, and then another $20 and lost that. At this point I was down $40 of my money, but had spent weeks playing poker and having fun. I deposited another $20 and discovered FTR. This time I was actually able to make a little money (though it was a VERY small profit), and even reached the final table in a Freeroll netting me ~$100.
Then, this happened…
I withdrew about 2/3 of my bankroll, and then made my critical mistake. I moved to Party Poker, and played to high for my bankroll. I lost everything. I learned the truth about how important bankroll management is, and for the record, I believe that’s the most important skill you need to be a successful poker player.
After losing everything I had, I received an email from Prima saying that they were crediting a $5.50 token from the WSOP steps back to my account!!!
So, I was looking at a bankroll of $5.50 I sat down at the lowest limit they had, and started working on rebuilding my bankroll. I would play until I had about 15 buy-in’s for the next level and then move up.
About a month later, I was sitting on a $1,000 bankroll, and starting to wonder if I should try going pro… I’ve been self employed for years as a web app programmer, but that had slowly changed to working for one company. Because my wife was sick, I sold some land, and quit working in the office for that company so that I could take care of her. My plan was to work from home again until she was doing better.
But I was in the prefect situation to make an attempt at going pro. (and IMO you should never even think about trying to go pro unless you can all of this is true about your situation)
I had ~5 months if income in my bank account…
I wasn’t burning bridges in my programming career, and I could go back if I failed.
I had a proven track record covering ~25k hands (knowing what I know now, I’d want at least 100k hands btw…)
I had health insurance for me and my family (on a side note: NEVER go without insurance. In our lives my wife and I didn’t have insurance for a total of one month. Guess what month birth control failed to work? …)
I talked if over with my wife, pointing out that we had the money to live on, and that we had a backup plan. If I made it, wonderful! If I didn’t, then it’s back to programming for me. She thought it sounded good (she didn’t think I would make that much, but she was more than willing to cheer me on as I tried to make a dream come true.)
Well, on 8/8/2005 I decided to make the attempt. (http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=139263)
After at the end of August (3 weeks later) I was only up about $1000, and while I was disappointed in my play, I had also found and plugged a couple big leaks. Then September gave me a much nicer profit of $3,300! In October I only made $2,100, but I also had to take a LOT of time off, so much time, that on an hourly scale I actually made more in October than September!
Now November has started… and so far, so good!
Thanks
Laeelin
Name: David
Profession: Poker Player
Age: 29 - Hmm, I hit the big “three-oh” this month
Marital Status: Happily Married, One 3 year old son (almost 4)Hobbies: Reading, M:TG, R/C Cars (real ones, not the toys-r-us style junk, but the 60mph [not scaled speed, but real speed] nitro and electric cars.
Current Goal: Currently, my goal is to be making $52,000/year ($1k a week). When I reach that goal I’ll up it to $78,000/ year ($1.5k a week).
My Poker History:
In January 2005 a friend at work told me about playing poker online. Before that I had never played poker for money, and only once or twice had I even played for chips. He gave me an article to read that talked about how you should play, I read it, and made an account at Prima for the free $10, and lost it. I then deposited another $20 and lost that, and then another $20 and lost that. At this point I was down $40 of my money, but had spent weeks playing poker and having fun. I deposited another $20 and discovered FTR. This time I was actually able to make a little money (though it was a VERY small profit), and even reached the final table in a Freeroll netting me ~$100.
Then, this happened…
I withdrew about 2/3 of my bankroll, and then made my critical mistake. I moved to Party Poker, and played to high for my bankroll. I lost everything. I learned the truth about how important bankroll management is, and for the record, I believe that’s the most important skill you need to be a successful poker player.
After losing everything I had, I received an email from Prima saying that they were crediting a $5.50 token from the WSOP steps back to my account!!!
So, I was looking at a bankroll of $5.50 I sat down at the lowest limit they had, and started working on rebuilding my bankroll. I would play until I had about 15 buy-in’s for the next level and then move up.
About a month later, I was sitting on a $1,000 bankroll, and starting to wonder if I should try going pro… I’ve been self employed for years as a web app programmer, but that had slowly changed to working for one company. Because my wife was sick, I sold some land, and quit working in the office for that company so that I could take care of her. My plan was to work from home again until she was doing better.
But I was in the prefect situation to make an attempt at going pro. (and IMO you should never even think about trying to go pro unless you can all of this is true about your situation)
I had ~5 months if income in my bank account…
I wasn’t burning bridges in my programming career, and I could go back if I failed.
I had a proven track record covering ~25k hands (knowing what I know now, I’d want at least 100k hands btw…)
I had health insurance for me and my family (on a side note: NEVER go without insurance. In our lives my wife and I didn’t have insurance for a total of one month. Guess what month birth control failed to work? …)
I talked if over with my wife, pointing out that we had the money to live on, and that we had a backup plan. If I made it, wonderful! If I didn’t, then it’s back to programming for me. She thought it sounded good (she didn’t think I would make that much, but she was more than willing to cheer me on as I tried to make a dream come true.)
Well, on 8/8/2005 I decided to make the attempt. (http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=139263)
After at the end of August (3 weeks later) I was only up about $1000, and while I was disappointed in my play, I had also found and plugged a couple big leaks. Then September gave me a much nicer profit of $3,300! In October I only made $2,100, but I also had to take a LOT of time off, so much time, that on an hourly scale I actually made more in October than September!
Now November has started… and so far, so good!
Thanks
Laeelin
