May 12 2010

The Real Life of a Professional Poker Player

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 11:54 am

The following interview is hypothetical. I never actually did an interview but I want to give the answers I believe a candid interviewee would give. This article is designed to open your eyes to the reality of life as a professional poker player. The questions I have answered for my hypothetical pro concerns playing poker online and whether poker as a career is sustainable in the long term. Perhaps these answers are similar to the ones you would give.

Question 1: “How have you made your Living from playing poker?”

There is always a pressure to win and I have always managed to come out ahead each month. I play cash games with some sit and go tournaments thrown in for variety. My position in life is that I need to make a certain amount to survive and everything else is a bonus. Sometimes it looks like I might lose but I always pull it out of the bag. I love playing poker and have even tried mobile poker to play while I am on the move. As a career it is fun, but playing for hours on end everyday does take the shine from it a little.

Question 2: “What is the best thing about being a Pro?”

The best thing about a professional poker player’s life is the freedom to get up when you want and not have a time restraint of having to work for someone else everyday. You still need a good work ethic to put in the hours playing your hands and it is easy to get lazy. The money is good but it is not guaranteed in the way normal jobs money is to a point. In many ways I work harder than a lot of guys I know that do a 9-5 normal job.

Question 3: “What is the Worst part of a pro poker player’s life?”

Losing sessions hurt more when it’s your livelihood on the line. You can get desperate quicker if you feel like the universe is trying to prove your decision to go pro wrong. I would not recommend it for everyone but if you are strong mentally then if you are good enough it is not a bad life.

Question 4: “Is there a stigma attached to being a professional gambler?”

Most people really want to talk to me about it when they find out I am a pro poker player. Some people look down on me as they think I am taking the easy way out but it is not easy earning money from poker especially these days. The games are a lot harder than they used to be and there are not that many weak players in the game now. Table selection, game selection and self-control are important factors in poker. But to many people I’m simply a gambler who is lucky enough not to have busted yet.

Question 5: “When should someone turn Pro?”

There are no steadfast rules on this. Turn pro when you have enough money to survive. Think carefully about it and always have a back-up plan. Poker is a hard way to make an easy living.

That is my hypothetical poker friend giving lots of good advice there. I would recommend you to visit the bwin poker school and read the bwin poker blog at www.bwinpokerblog.com and put in lots of practise. Keep working hard at the online poker tables and you just might be able to make the grade and become a professional poker player, if you want to.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

Tags: , , ,

Mar 19 2010

The Professional Poker Player Debate in 2010

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 7:56 am

Playing Texas Hold’em poker for a living sounds great to me as I sit at my desk. In fact, it has sounded great to me ever since I realised that playing a lot of hands at modest stakes can yield excellent profits from playing poker from home via internet poker. But as we are prone to assess things with rose tinted spectacles there are both positive and negative aspects of the debates. This article will update these debates to issues relevant to us in 2010.

Standard of Games

I read many contradictions on the standard of poker now and in the past. Most poker articles in 2007 discussed a massive change happening in the games where they went from super-soft (apparently) to games where a solid grasp of Poker strategy was necessary. Even at the micro stakes you were urged to get poker training and learn the fundamentals. But surely you needed to do this anyway otherwise you are simply one of the many fish. I am unconvinced that the games are much more difficult now than they were at the micro-limits and I am equally unconvinced they were ever as soft as everyone says. If you are a great player you will win and if you are a weak player you will lose. There were just more weak players in the past that’s all.

To be a professional you must show a good win rate at levels where this win rate equates to over around £15,000 per year or $25,000. Any less and I think you will struggle to maintain even a reasonable standard of living including when downswings occur and money is tighter.

Life Considerations for a Pro

Getting a mortgage in the UK is going to be very difficult for a single professional poker player. In the current economic climate I would suggest that right now (March 2010) unless you can buy a property outright then you will not get borrowing on the back of insecure income streams like Poker. Whilst we know a good win rate is possible and you may well have the graphs to support your skill projections, we all know that in any gambling enterprise “current success is not a guarantee of future performance”. Even if you are fairly sure you will continue to win, other people and in particular money lenders, will not be.

Solutions for 2010 Onwards

Income you make from Poker is currently tax free in the UK and there are no Political plans to have that reviewed in the near future as far as we know. This means that you only need to earn what you want in your hand rather than account for a loss of 10% – 20% in taxes. This makes life a little easier and also increases the monetary value in real terms of anything you win at the poker table. Developing a share fund or other investments is easier to build without the burden of losing income to tax and due to the insecurity of poker as a main income stream this is highly recommended.

Other Opportunities

I advocate players consider other ways than poker to secure their income. Property investment, although not a massive opportunity right now, is a great way to potentially earn money in a buoyant market and Poker players often have spare cash lying around that usually just gets gambled and played with. Why not use that money to generate a business of some sort whether shares, investments like property or buying a small business already trading to manage.

Playing poker professionally is tough but if managed correctly could give you a much better quality of life due to its fundamental freedom. I would take whatever measures I could if I was a pro to secure my income as far as I can to allow me to keep that freedom that Poker affords its professionals.

Having a secure financial future can be achieved through poker but also a combination of all the financial things at a person disposal with cash to invest. If you earn it, invest it. But keep some of it to play poker at great rooms like bwin.com who are constantly improving their delivery of online poker to players from all around the world.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , , ,

Feb 24 2010

Why I Love Bankroll Challenges

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 9:03 pm

Bankroll challenges are the best thing you can do to play poker. Why? They teach you about far more than playing your hands and equip you with skills that you can use in every poker session for the rest of the time you play the game. First though, a newsflash…

It is true that when you play Texas Hold’em poker online you can lose a lot of money. Alert the sceptics! But is that a reason to run away if you enjoy playing? Certainly not! Bankroll challenges keep you playing the right way, controlling the risk and that (along with great skills) is part of playing winning poker and if you are prone to playing too high for your bankroll, then learning bankroll management is more important than squeezing out an extra 1 BB/100 right now for you.

My own bankroll challenge saw me start with $20 and using good bankroll management, I had to slowly build from the lowest cash games and tournaments to a more substantial bankroll. This has many benefits for my poker game.

Starting with a small bankroll makes you very aware of your chances of going bust and gives you a heightened perception of the value of that small bankroll. I do not like to lose, so busting hurts as much (in terms of the challenge) as if I busted a larger bankroll. Also, if my playing skills need work I would rather discover that nursing a $20 hole in my bankroll than a $2000 hole. If you are a new player I see playing from a small bankroll as an Apprenticeship you should serve to prove to yourself that you are able to beat online poker.

Some would argue, and on the whole I agree, that because you can win money from playing freerolls then working up through the micro stakes to larger games you should play from a small bankroll and learn patience. Even if Poker rooms prevented players from making any deposits some players (very skilled players admittedly) would still rise from the bottom and become a fantastic player with a large bankroll. I see it as a personal challenge to become good enough at Poker to do that.

There is also the personal satisfaction of completing a bankroll challenge. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson turned $0 into $10,000 as a challenge. Imagine the feeling knowing you have successfully turned nothing into $10,000! In what other area of enterprise can you do that, where nothing really means absolutely no money! From an achievement point of view being good at poker can have personal success benefits as well as earning you money. Money is not everything in poker; success is felt and enjoyed beyond the financial benefits of a poker challenge.

Perhaps you would like to do a bankroll challenge. You should start with a small bankroll and set yourself specific bankroll targets before you move up. You should always have one hundred buy-ins for the level of tournament and around twenty buy-ins for cash games. I like to take shots at higher levels of cash game if I reach fifteen buy-ins for that level but I move down if things do not work out. Moving down when things are not going well and moving up when things are going well is how losses are minimised and profits maximised. Do not be afraid to stop moving up if you feel you are getting uncomfortable with the amount of money at risk in pots. Everyone has their comfort zone; I have a friend who makes over $40,000 each year playing at levels under $1/$2. The profits are always there if you are good enough!

Enjoy your poker challenge and let me know how you get on! I’’ll be working hard on my challenge in the meantime!

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.9.6_1107]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , , ,