Hi Snoopy...
I've lurked on this forum for a good while now but have only recently decided to 'take the plunge' as it were and 'sign up'. I'm a professional poker player (for 3 years now) and wish to remain anonymous but I'd like to contribute to this forum by spelling out some 'home truths' about what its really like to play professionally as I have some experience in this! Hopefully this will help 'snoopy' over the months ahead!
I quit my job as a computer consultant back in July 2002 to 'follow my dream' and, with a bankroll of £20,000, I set about trying to create a living as a poker player. Bear in mind here that this was pretty much before the big time BOOM of poker so there were very few places one could sit down and do this sort of thing.
The main games I played (and pretty much still do) were the PL Hold'Em & PL Omaha games in London, Birmingham & Luton. Tournaments have never been a favourite of mine because there were better opportunities to make money in the cash games that always followed.
I started out by attempting to only play during certain times of the day. This meant that I planned to ONLY play between the hours of 10pm - 4am (when the club shut) and my budget was set at £500 per session. I didn't attempt to play every day and whatever the score was at closing time was the result...win or lose!
For the first 6 months I stuck rigidley to the plan. Some sessios I left a big winner, some a total loser, others break even. For the first 6 months I won a total of £25! Yup...thats right...£25. That was over 100+ sessions of poker. In the meantime my rent still had to be paid and my daily / weekly needs of cash still needed to be satisfied. My bankroll which started at £20k now stood at £12k. I was an unhappy bunny!
I discovered the Internet in early 2003 and found salvation in the games on Partypoker. I stopped playing as much 'live' poker and concentrated on the web. The victory of Mr Moneymaker brought in a great load of 'beginners' and I finished 2003 with a +£18,000. It didn't last!
Throughout 2004 and to present day players have become more experienced on-line and its now very difficult to find 'easy' money. All tournaments are generally crapshoots with 700+ runners on the majority of NL events with a buy-in of $30+ and it got really tough to make progress. Remember as well that whilst I played 'live' I could only lose the £500 in my pocket...on-line I always have access to my entire bankroll on the site I'm playing on and it certainly is not easy sometimes to stay away from your resources after suffering at the hands of AA versus junk mentality!
Whilst I would play upto 18 hours a day during 2004 I'm now back to just 6-8 hours. I suffered a lot with burnout in 2004 and its easy to play too much!
Anyway my results this year are ok, if not in the stellar earnings bracket, and knowing that my bed is just a few feet away from my PC makes losing just that easier to bear as it means I don't dwell on my losses for too long as I'm asleep
Good luck to Snoopy but its no fun and plays havoc with your social life!
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