I’ve been playing online poker for a little of a year seriously. By seriously, I mean I actually review hand sessions, discuss strategy with friends, read books, watch training videos ect. I’m doing things to become as educated as I can and become a better poker player. Part of which is running your playing like a business which I found great insight on reading “Treat your Poker Like a Business” by Dusty Schmidt. This was the first book I read that gave me one of those “a ha” moments.
Now a few of my poker buddies didn’t like the book but I think they missed the message of the book. Poker is a grind, just like most business. You invest money and time in things that should give you the best return on your investment in the future. Depending on what your business is some of the strategies you pursue might not pay off till many years down the road. So what I’m trying to say like in business, poker isn’t a get rich quick scheme. It takes a lot of time and work to generate a profitable poker business over the long term
I know you’ve heard the term “It takes money to make money” and that couldn’t be truer for poker, obviously. However, many players online like me are not poker professionals we all have jobs, bills, and other things outside of poker. With that said to be successful and consistently turn a profit you need to think of poker like a second job or your own business where you are the only employee. You are responsible for research and development, scheduling and finally generating an income for your business. You need to set yourself an organized structure that you stick to. One that allows you to have free time other than doing things poker related. You need to let the people you care about know about your poker business. Let them know it’s your own business. Something you can’t just stop doing while you’re in the middle of it because your significant other wants to go to the mall or your buddy wants to go out for a few beers.
I know what you are thinking, I play $2 tourneys or 10nl. It’s not that big of deal. Well if you want to keep playing $2 tourneys and 10nl for the rest of your life, then that’s fine. Don’t change anything. Think of your time in the micros like a start up business ran out of your garage. The most expensive piece of equipment you have is a coffee maker and a computer. You have no clients and no one knows who you are. People close to you will say, well he doesn’t have much, but he’s just getting started. I wish the best for him. Others might say you’ll never make it. Don’t let them get to you!!
I’ve made posts in the past that state you need at least $200 to start your bank roll, plus another $200 for poker related expenses. So I suggest starting with $400 total. If you don’t have the full $400 to start, SAVE up until you do. If you are going to take this seriously you need to buy tracking software such as Poker Tracker 3 or Hold’em Manager. I would buy that first before you even buy a poker book. There are other means of free poker learning material via the internet, which I’ll touch on in a second.
Where to play? Well, you need to pick a site and stick to it for the most part. The reason for that is there are VIP programs associated with the major sites such as Full Tilt and PokerStars. If you are jumping between sites, you’ll never be able to do enough volume to take advantage of the VIP programs. So which site is the best? Like everything in poker it depends. However, if you are just starting your poker business and have limited amount of capital, I suggest Full Tilt. Due to the fact that they have the Full Tilt poker Academy which offers free poker training. To make consistent money over the long haul playing poker and to take full advantage of the VIP programs you’ll need to learn how to play ring. I know some are going to say you can do it with SNG’s ect, but trust me playing ring is the way to go.
The Grind
At times, poker can seem like the easiest game in the world and two seconds latter it can make you want to punch a hole though your monitor. I have struggled with tilt issues and not knowing when to quit my whole online career, however I’ve slowly figured out ways to manage this and each blow up gets a little smaller. I’ve found its very self defeating and disheartening. The side effects of this cycle can make you want to quit or even go broke. It’s a vicious, vicious cycle and will prohibit you from becoming a winning player if you don’t manage it.
When you are playing the micros your money won per hour is going to be tiny. When starting out and only playing a few tables, your dollar per hour figure might be less than $1 an hour. Which seems terrible and it is, if that’s how you are looking at it. You should have tracking software which will show you your win rate. And you need to focus on that win rate. If you are beating the micros for 5BB/100 then you are doing great, just keep grinding. If you are losing you need to spend more time in your research and development lab and find out what’s going on. Thinking of the money as points rather than dollars and cents helps as well. Never try and push yourself to make some quick money. That will always work out terrible and put a dent in your bankroll, trust me.
Always stay humble. I’ve gone on good runs where I think, wow, I’m so awesome I can push everyone off their hands and run over the whole table. Well at times the situation may dictate that you can, but don’t get cocky and think you can always do it. To be successful in poker isn’t glamorous, it’s a slow and steady grind which will have many high points and many low points.
Setting goals is a must! The grind can get boring at times, setting goals can give you a chance to see the light at the end of the tunnel and give you something to focus on. But set goals that make sense and are actually attainable. I’m so sick of seeing the “I’m going to turn $50 into $100k in a year” BS. No, you’re not. You’re not because you don’t have any structure and the expected win rates at the limits you’ll have to start at to hit that goal makes hitting that goal and using proper bank roll management impossible. For me, I like hand goals. Playing a certain number of hands in a month gives you something to shoot for and creates structure. It makes you play volume, which is great for building your role, rake back, truly free poker training and Iron man on Full Tilt. It will force you to play through your downswings and also play longer while on a heater. Maybe you want to set a points goal to buy something in the points store? Whatever you do set goals that are challenging, but are also attainable.
It’s time to take poker seriously and start generating some income. To do that you need to run your poker playing like you would a business.
