Modesty aside, (easy for me)
During my first few months of online poker in early 2004 I couldnt seem to show a profit, I was doing ok in live games but I was a failure in cyberspace, so I decided to try to pinpoint what exactly the difference was.
First of all, I was only playing multis live, so I did the same online, no more cash, and no more stt's. Next I thought about which multis would suit my game best, I like a long clock, 15 min or better, (by the way in 15 min online you see about the same no of hands as you do in 45 min live) plenty of starting chips, in most multis you get 1500 but you can get 2000 or even 3000, and I like freeze outs or a buy in big enough to make players think a little before calling my raise (this last only in the later stages and only because of the potential prize money, not the cost of a rebuy)
My results started to improve but I still wasnt doing as well as I thought I should be and I started to wonder if I would have to play differently online, so I spent a few nights watching instead of playing and the thing I noticed most was online players
will call, in live play if you have a monster hand you tend to try to disguise it, and by playing it cagey you often dont get full value from it, online, especially in the early stages, players tend to call with top pair even if you bet 1500 all in to a pot of 75, but by the same token you cant push someone off a pot early on. Toward the latter end of the comp I find it best to play as if I were in a live game again.
So I started the second half of 2004 by playing only the games described, I didnt try anything fancy early on unless I knew the player was good enough to put a hand down (I keep extensive player notes) and if I had a monster I just moved in
Unbelievably, by the end of the year I was making more money playing online poker than I was from my small business, by no means a fortune, (my business was a small, one man jobbie) but very exciting, I had never earned a penny before without hard graft being involved, but I just couldnt do both, I was playing poker until 3am and then trying to get up and go to work every day, so at the beginning of 2005 I decided to mothball my little business and give poker a proper go, It wasnt an easy step to take, I've worked hard all my life and it seemed like I was shirking my responsibilities. But, I reasoned, if I dont try it I will always be thinking, "what if?"
Perhaps the poker gods smiled upon me, because in the first three months of this year I won enough to allow me to continue until 2006 and I have been making a steady living since, Its not always easy, there are dry spells, and I have periods when the outdraws make me want to cry with frustration, you have to be dedicated and disciplined, but I'm loving it, I have to pinch myself every morning, I look out of the window when its raining and think how nice it is not to be out there working in it, and I have made some of the best friends a man could wish for within the poker community, ordinary working class blokes like myself, world class poker players, and the odd lawyer or TV star
I have no Idea if or when the bubble will burst, but our needs are modest, and whatever happens, my life has been immensely enriched, I will have no regrets.
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