Monday, July 2, 2012
Friday, September 18, 2009
Playing at Work
You have got to love it when the boss is away on holidays and you are about to finish up in the job yourself. I used this opportunity yesterday to put in some time at Poker Stars and played about 8 or so 18 player $3.40 sit and goes. Ended up in front by about $20 or so.
I was actually playing whilst I was working, and to be honest, I probably worked more efficiently that I have done over the past month, while playing a much more solid game as I was only interested in playing the upper end of my range of hands.
One tourni I took out was played whilst I was on the phone to a new prospective employer. Classic stuff too as I was as interested in the conversation as I was in the game. I think I made a couple of gutsy calls as well and donked a guy who was slow playing aces, and the end result was a good one.
I was on the wines last night though and have a massive hangover today, so am staying away from any online play and just soldiering on.
Am looking forward to my bed tonight, that is for sure!!
I was actually playing whilst I was working, and to be honest, I probably worked more efficiently that I have done over the past month, while playing a much more solid game as I was only interested in playing the upper end of my range of hands.
One tourni I took out was played whilst I was on the phone to a new prospective employer. Classic stuff too as I was as interested in the conversation as I was in the game. I think I made a couple of gutsy calls as well and donked a guy who was slow playing aces, and the end result was a good one.
I was on the wines last night though and have a massive hangover today, so am staying away from any online play and just soldiering on.
Am looking forward to my bed tonight, that is for sure!!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Counting Down the Days
My official end date is 29 September. God I cannot wait. This place is really going downhill fast from a morale perspective, and with more layoffs likely on the horizon, my payout and leaving the sinking ship cannot come soon enough.
I will really need a bit of a break from everything to unwind, so am beginning to warm toward playing a bit more online than I had originally anticipated. I guess my schedule will sort itself over time, however, by following the blogs of a few online players I figure I would be doing myself a large injustice by not allocating some of my bankroll toward online play.
Am considering a holiday up North, most likely the Gold Coast, to take the family for some fun in the sun. Will take the laptop up there with me and play online during the evenings. May also check out Jupiters Casino while I am there, though I do not anticipate any major outlays however. I have also penciled in a trip to Vegas in the new year, most likely in the lead up to the WSOP, with an aim of playing some satellites to the main event, and perhaps a direct buyin into one of the earlier events. We will see.
When asked by my friends what I am going to do when I leave my current role, I have tested the waters as to their attitude and told them that I am considering playing poker for a little income in between jobs. Most of them consider my poker skills to be ordinary at best, however, this assessment is made through our monthly drunken home game. That is the way I like it because, as my bankroll will attest, I have farmed about $1,800 (net of my other drunken losses) from them in small cash games on the side over the past two years. I don't feel guilty though as I am sure I have provided more than that back to them in hospitality costs over the years.
Anyway, best get back to work as I have soooo much to do before the 29th, and I want to leave on a good note.
I will really need a bit of a break from everything to unwind, so am beginning to warm toward playing a bit more online than I had originally anticipated. I guess my schedule will sort itself over time, however, by following the blogs of a few online players I figure I would be doing myself a large injustice by not allocating some of my bankroll toward online play.
Am considering a holiday up North, most likely the Gold Coast, to take the family for some fun in the sun. Will take the laptop up there with me and play online during the evenings. May also check out Jupiters Casino while I am there, though I do not anticipate any major outlays however. I have also penciled in a trip to Vegas in the new year, most likely in the lead up to the WSOP, with an aim of playing some satellites to the main event, and perhaps a direct buyin into one of the earlier events. We will see.
When asked by my friends what I am going to do when I leave my current role, I have tested the waters as to their attitude and told them that I am considering playing poker for a little income in between jobs. Most of them consider my poker skills to be ordinary at best, however, this assessment is made through our monthly drunken home game. That is the way I like it because, as my bankroll will attest, I have farmed about $1,800 (net of my other drunken losses) from them in small cash games on the side over the past two years. I don't feel guilty though as I am sure I have provided more than that back to them in hospitality costs over the years.
Anyway, best get back to work as I have soooo much to do before the 29th, and I want to leave on a good note.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Bankroll Size and Management
Being an accountant, this is an area of poker that I would do better than most. I have a keen eye for detail in monitoring my progress, while understand that I can use my bankroll as a tool to play only at a level of which I am capable.
I have granted myself an exception in the past, namely during the Aussie Millions where I have entered a Phase 2 satellite to the main event a couple of times at $250 a pop. I played well enough last year to win through to the Phase 3 and almost got through to the Main Event, falling 8 places short of the placings (from a field of 220).
I started keeping track of my "live" bankroll two years ago, while my "online" bankroll management has pretty much taken the form of one line in my spreadsheet. If you have read my early postings, you will have noted that up until now, I have always considered online play a bit of a joke and only really play when drunk. However, now I am playing both forms of the game properly and am maintaining a spreadsheet on my online progress as well.
However, I will focus this entry on my "live" bankroll, which I have managed to work up from $1,000 start point to a balance of approximately $2,700 today. Not too bad considering I have not played a cash game at the casino and most of my winnings have been through the various home games I have played with friends, or at cash games at the local cricket club. This also includes the buy-ins into a number of non-cashes in tournaments at the casino, so realistically I am doing quite well.
However, if I am to pursue poker in a semi-serious form over the next few months of my "break from the business world", while sticking to my bankroll management rules, I am going to have to invest a little more than the $2.7k I currently have.
Now borrowing the very tight specifications from Chris Ferguson's recent online $10k challenge to assist me, I will not want to enter a single table sit and go for anything more than 5% of my total bankroll, a multi-table for anything more than 2% of the bankroll, or any cash game where 10% of my bankroll is on the table in chips.
So reverse engineering these figures, I would estimate that the multi tables I will be taking part in at Crown will typically be around the $75-150 price. If I take the top price and divide by the 2%, I get a bankroll of $7,500. For a single table I don't think I would ever play anything other than a Phase 1 satellite, which are normally about $75 a pop. At 5% this is is only $1,500. Finally the cash game scenario would see me starting at the lowest $1/$2 levels. With 10 or so at a table and say maybe on average about $100 in front of each player, that is $1,000 in circulation at the table. So at 10% of the bankroll, that is about $10,000.
So with all that in mind, I figure to have a proper go at it I am going to need to add about $7,500 into my bankroll. Given I will get a net payout upwards of $30,000 from my current job, this is not too much of a stretch and if all goes badly I can afford to lose it all.
So I am pretty content with the finances of my shot at the big time. However, I will have to avoid the temptation of buying straight into some of the $1k+ buy in tournaments on the Crown horizon.
I have granted myself an exception in the past, namely during the Aussie Millions where I have entered a Phase 2 satellite to the main event a couple of times at $250 a pop. I played well enough last year to win through to the Phase 3 and almost got through to the Main Event, falling 8 places short of the placings (from a field of 220).
I started keeping track of my "live" bankroll two years ago, while my "online" bankroll management has pretty much taken the form of one line in my spreadsheet. If you have read my early postings, you will have noted that up until now, I have always considered online play a bit of a joke and only really play when drunk. However, now I am playing both forms of the game properly and am maintaining a spreadsheet on my online progress as well.
However, I will focus this entry on my "live" bankroll, which I have managed to work up from $1,000 start point to a balance of approximately $2,700 today. Not too bad considering I have not played a cash game at the casino and most of my winnings have been through the various home games I have played with friends, or at cash games at the local cricket club. This also includes the buy-ins into a number of non-cashes in tournaments at the casino, so realistically I am doing quite well.
However, if I am to pursue poker in a semi-serious form over the next few months of my "break from the business world", while sticking to my bankroll management rules, I am going to have to invest a little more than the $2.7k I currently have.
Now borrowing the very tight specifications from Chris Ferguson's recent online $10k challenge to assist me, I will not want to enter a single table sit and go for anything more than 5% of my total bankroll, a multi-table for anything more than 2% of the bankroll, or any cash game where 10% of my bankroll is on the table in chips.
So reverse engineering these figures, I would estimate that the multi tables I will be taking part in at Crown will typically be around the $75-150 price. If I take the top price and divide by the 2%, I get a bankroll of $7,500. For a single table I don't think I would ever play anything other than a Phase 1 satellite, which are normally about $75 a pop. At 5% this is is only $1,500. Finally the cash game scenario would see me starting at the lowest $1/$2 levels. With 10 or so at a table and say maybe on average about $100 in front of each player, that is $1,000 in circulation at the table. So at 10% of the bankroll, that is about $10,000.
So with all that in mind, I figure to have a proper go at it I am going to need to add about $7,500 into my bankroll. Given I will get a net payout upwards of $30,000 from my current job, this is not too much of a stretch and if all goes badly I can afford to lose it all.
So I am pretty content with the finances of my shot at the big time. However, I will have to avoid the temptation of buying straight into some of the $1k+ buy in tournaments on the Crown horizon.
Friday, September 4, 2009
D-Day, 30 September
It is amazing how well poker players can read the play. While I would not consider myself a "poker player" just yet, I think I can read the play better than most.
And herein lies my blog entry for today.
Yesterday I start a poker blog, and in it I mention that it is fast approaching decision time in life, and here I am today, being told that as of the end of this month, I will no longer have a job.
Wow, sometimes it is scary how my predictions turn out... however, sometimes I ponder that it may be better to walk around in ignorant bliss. At least it will give my ever-overworking brain a rest!!
I guess this is a skill that I can turn to my own advantage at the poker tables on a more regular basis sometime soon.
When the end of the month arrives and I am shown the door, I am resolved to the fact that there is no way that I will have landed a job, so the decision is kind of being made for me to try out my hand at the poker tables.
For others, this would be seen as an act of desperation. An attempt to make ends meet through the high-risk pursuit of gambling.
However, I don't see myself as one of these people.
I am financially comfortable (for the moment), have a very good sense of myself and what I can and cannot do, and as such see this as a great opportunity to find out if I have what it takes.
My plan at this stage is to casually play a few tournaments through October and November at Crown Casino and perhaps have a go at some cash games on the weekends when I have the time.
I will also see if I can work up my online bankroll, which currently stands at a "massive" $220. Hahaha, I laugh at myself and my online poker approach. It is not a model of success!!
For one, I do not think I am that good at it. I usually only play in $3 MTT's and am usually very drunk. I reckon I have maybe dropped $300-400 over the past 4 years of playing online, with my biggest collect being $260 or so in a Poker Stars MTT.
However, I deposited $40 about two weeks ago and thought I would adopt some of Chris Ferguson's rules in online bankroll management. Remarkably, it has been working and now with a balance of $220 I will be able to step it up a level. Anyway, more on my online exploits later.
It is at the real life tables where I feel I am at my best. The skills I have acquired in the business world are very adaptable to the poker tables (and vice-versa), and this is where I think I will try to forge a nice little bankroll to have a tilt at playing in some of the larger tournaments during the Aussie Millions.
Anyway, enough musings on my miserable business life for today. I have a home game tonight with about 15 or so of my closest friends... hopefully I can take some of their hard earned to add to my bankroll!!
And herein lies my blog entry for today.
Yesterday I start a poker blog, and in it I mention that it is fast approaching decision time in life, and here I am today, being told that as of the end of this month, I will no longer have a job.
Wow, sometimes it is scary how my predictions turn out... however, sometimes I ponder that it may be better to walk around in ignorant bliss. At least it will give my ever-overworking brain a rest!!
I guess this is a skill that I can turn to my own advantage at the poker tables on a more regular basis sometime soon.
When the end of the month arrives and I am shown the door, I am resolved to the fact that there is no way that I will have landed a job, so the decision is kind of being made for me to try out my hand at the poker tables.
For others, this would be seen as an act of desperation. An attempt to make ends meet through the high-risk pursuit of gambling.
However, I don't see myself as one of these people.
I am financially comfortable (for the moment), have a very good sense of myself and what I can and cannot do, and as such see this as a great opportunity to find out if I have what it takes.
My plan at this stage is to casually play a few tournaments through October and November at Crown Casino and perhaps have a go at some cash games on the weekends when I have the time.
I will also see if I can work up my online bankroll, which currently stands at a "massive" $220. Hahaha, I laugh at myself and my online poker approach. It is not a model of success!!
For one, I do not think I am that good at it. I usually only play in $3 MTT's and am usually very drunk. I reckon I have maybe dropped $300-400 over the past 4 years of playing online, with my biggest collect being $260 or so in a Poker Stars MTT.
However, I deposited $40 about two weeks ago and thought I would adopt some of Chris Ferguson's rules in online bankroll management. Remarkably, it has been working and now with a balance of $220 I will be able to step it up a level. Anyway, more on my online exploits later.
It is at the real life tables where I feel I am at my best. The skills I have acquired in the business world are very adaptable to the poker tables (and vice-versa), and this is where I think I will try to forge a nice little bankroll to have a tilt at playing in some of the larger tournaments during the Aussie Millions.
Anyway, enough musings on my miserable business life for today. I have a home game tonight with about 15 or so of my closest friends... hopefully I can take some of their hard earned to add to my bankroll!!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
My First Entry - Crossroads of Poker Life
Hello and welcome to my blog. I am not too sure whether anyone will read this other than me, but I have promised myself to update it at least weekly, and most likely more often than that.
What am I hoping to acheive? Well it should allow me to get some perspective on my life at present and can also be a tool for me to revisit as time progresses toward a possible big change in my life. I also suppose that should the unlikely event arise and I hit the jackpot, well it could prove to provide some form of inspiration to others to follow in my footsteps?
Currently I am in a very well paying accounting job, which makes life quite comfortable. With a young family and no mortgage, life could not get much better one would think... but perceptions does not reflect reality unfortunately.
I have been laid off from senior roles too many times to mention, and unfortunately the way things are heading for my current company with a merger on the cards, it is likely to pan out the same way again.
As such, I have been hitting the hustings looking for a new role. Senior accounting appointments in Melbourne are few-and-far between at the moment, and realistically I may have to sit on the sidelines for a little while for me to find the right role.
In my personal life we bought an old house in an up-and-coming suburb in inner Melbourne, Australia, which is currently tenanted... providing a nice tax deduction as I borrowed the entire purchase price against it. One day soon we hope to knock it down and build something a lot more substantial, with a view to move the family into it for the next 15 to 20 years. This is going to cost a lot more than I currently have in the bank and an inevitable hefty mortgage will be required to build.
On my wife and I's current wages, servicing such a loan will not be an issue, even with two kids that we want to send to private schools. Of course it are my wages that contribute over 75% to the wage pool, and now you can see where my dilemma lies in reference to poker.
I will describe my poker background more in a future entry, however, for the purposes of this musing, it is safe to assume I get by on my skillset making a small profit and could realistically grind out a modest income if I was so-inclined, however, this would never be sufficient to service the dream house and lifestyle we live, or so I believe.
Therein lies where I am in my current thinking.
As such, believing that I am;
a) likely to be laid off in the near future,
b) unable to find the right job for the next six months and
c) likely to get a payout
That perhaps I should use this summer and the upcoming 2010 Aussie Millions, to find out if my skillset are good enough to perhaps consider a change in my life?
What am I hoping to acheive? Well it should allow me to get some perspective on my life at present and can also be a tool for me to revisit as time progresses toward a possible big change in my life. I also suppose that should the unlikely event arise and I hit the jackpot, well it could prove to provide some form of inspiration to others to follow in my footsteps?
Currently I am in a very well paying accounting job, which makes life quite comfortable. With a young family and no mortgage, life could not get much better one would think... but perceptions does not reflect reality unfortunately.
I have been laid off from senior roles too many times to mention, and unfortunately the way things are heading for my current company with a merger on the cards, it is likely to pan out the same way again.
As such, I have been hitting the hustings looking for a new role. Senior accounting appointments in Melbourne are few-and-far between at the moment, and realistically I may have to sit on the sidelines for a little while for me to find the right role.
In my personal life we bought an old house in an up-and-coming suburb in inner Melbourne, Australia, which is currently tenanted... providing a nice tax deduction as I borrowed the entire purchase price against it. One day soon we hope to knock it down and build something a lot more substantial, with a view to move the family into it for the next 15 to 20 years. This is going to cost a lot more than I currently have in the bank and an inevitable hefty mortgage will be required to build.
On my wife and I's current wages, servicing such a loan will not be an issue, even with two kids that we want to send to private schools. Of course it are my wages that contribute over 75% to the wage pool, and now you can see where my dilemma lies in reference to poker.
I will describe my poker background more in a future entry, however, for the purposes of this musing, it is safe to assume I get by on my skillset making a small profit and could realistically grind out a modest income if I was so-inclined, however, this would never be sufficient to service the dream house and lifestyle we live, or so I believe.
Therein lies where I am in my current thinking.
As such, believing that I am;
a) likely to be laid off in the near future,
b) unable to find the right job for the next six months and
c) likely to get a payout
That perhaps I should use this summer and the upcoming 2010 Aussie Millions, to find out if my skillset are good enough to perhaps consider a change in my life?
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