Starting my poker carreer

Hi!

I will be playing my first serious real money games soon, with the intention of becoming a pro. Over the last 2-3 years I have played a few thousand hours of play money poker online. Most of it was no-limit hold'em, some was PLO high, most was on Zynga poker but some on Fulltilt, some on other facebook Apps, when Zynga was down. I also played live heads-up SnGs with a former roommate, usually for free, sometimes for a 5$ buy-in. Mostly I play from work, as I have a very quiet night job and no internet access from home right now.

I have also watched many hours of TV shows, big tournaments, advice from the fulltilt poker academy, and read about poker online.

I think I'm good. Good enough to beat most opponents, most of the time. Good enough to also beat the rake or fee? I'll be finding out soon.

Here's my plan: - go to the local casino with a few hundred dollars, no more than I can afford to comfortably lose. Buy in the 1-2$ games, fold at first unless my hand + position is very strong, to get a feel for my opponents. Then play loose or tight according to my read. Probably tight, since I'm told they call with anything. Get used to live poker and real money games.

- If that goes well, in a few weeks, enter a multi-table tournament, either at the casino or one of the local clubs. Again, for no more than I can afford to lose. After analyzing the tournaments available in my area, I decided that it was less important to choose the format that plays to my strengths than to choose the hour of day when I play at my best. I have a night job, 6 nights a week, I don't want to start the session at the time where I would normally go to bed, or wake up much earlier than I usually do.

-keep learning, if everything goes well, set money aside for low-risk investments, if the poker and the low-risk stuff both go well, quit my job eventually. As it is, I pretty much play poker full-time and get paid no matter how bad I play, so I won't leave my job unless I'm very confident that I can earn a living with cards.

Any advice or other comments you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

This sound a little off. You can't just up and go. Stuff like this takes time and practice. And you will have to invest alot of time and money into it. You will need to play a variety of different tournies and cash games. Can't just start out at 1/2 and win right away. I have friends who wanna become pro but dont yet and they play 2/5/10 nl but they dont feel comfortable yet, And they have played for years. And have won over 30k+ in larger MTT fields. But i wish you the best of luck sir

Poker is not that straight forward. You will need to play a lot of games and find your level. Your bankroll will fluctuate and you may go broke but if you learn and keep improving you will reach a reasonable level.

U R trying too fast. Takes time and patience. Not a fast forward game.

Thank you for your replies. I realize I made it sound like it would be easy. I will take your advice, play a variety of games, and see how it goes.

best of luck
keep us updated
love the zero to hero stories
my advise
LEARN BANKROLL MANAGEMENT 1st
forget casino $1/2 blinds
deposit that 200 bux you're willing to spend
and play tournies no more than $5buyin ($1-2 max better)
or nickels and dimes at the cash tbls
til you get a feel of what its like online now
move up buyins if your winning/crushing the lower limits
maybe spend some of your winnings on a poker book or two
also find your game, is it cash, sitngos,or multi tbl tournies (or rush/zoom)?
spend much time reading here,
study hand histories to see where you went wrong

bet you could find a few of us here to sit with you on a cash tbl,
see how you do

gl to you

gl. How much did you win on Zynga?

Hang on... seeing if I got this correct.
You know the basics of the game cuz you've played a bunch of play money poker & some free &/or $5 HU games with a former roomate and now you're going to play for a living?

This makes less sense than me saying:
I've watched alot of car races on TV & want to compete for a living on the track. My friends used to tell me how great of a driver I was when I ripped around the streets on Friday nights. Once we had a race & I won it. (in go-karts).

I'm sending emails out to sponsors next week. Watch for me on tv this summer!

Please keep us updated on how all this goes. You got alot of advice in here. And you can also watch videos and study up on books. Plus im sure you can find excellent plays who will also coach you. Best of luck sir!

Thanks everyone for the advice and the good luck wishes!

Mica: presently I don't have home internet access and I feel like I'm no longer learning with play money. Probably developing bad habits too. I will keep your advice in mind and open an online account soon. I mostly play SnGs but also ring games and mtts.

Dunning: I'm presently at 1.3B, all-time high 1.5B, never bought chips. I play with only a fraction of it, to get used to bankroll management.

Poker Orifice: I won't be playing "for a living" right away, in the sense that I will keep my job and not depend on poker. But yes, my goal is to play for a living eventually. If I'm successful quickly, I'll consider it the beginning of my career. If not, which I know is way more likely, I'll think of it as paying for classes. I like your sarcasm, it fits with your avatar.

David, yes I will keep you posted.

Good luck. Poker Orifice was not far off in his post. The sarcasm come from having read posts like yours more times than he can probably remember. But his point is very valid.

I recently played play money games again, as I was reading another of the thousands of threads in the poker universe about play money vs. real money, just to see. I played low to mid stakes play money. The games are not at all comparable. You can play as much play money as you want, it is like shadow boxing and entering a ring, or sparring at the Dojo and then entering a full contact tournament.

Dont even worry about going "pro". Keep your day (night) job. Just play in your spare time and see how it goes. That will tell you all you need to know about what it will be like.

There is also the aspect of variance. It can break your soul. Many people think they get it, and then when it happens again and again, they not only no longer get "it", they lose "it". Be ready for this. It aint a question of "if".

I would like to offer some advice based on my limited experience. Dont quit your job. online poker with real money is very hard to beat. Have realistic expectations. Please keep a stop loss incase it doesnt go well, if it goes well, thats great. Good luck.

Fletchdad, Nitulbhatia, thank you. I will indeed play in my spare time but I won't think of it as "spare time", more like going to school. What kind of stop loss do you recommend?

bubbletrubble said:

Fletchdad, Nitulbhatia, thank you. I will indeed play in my spare time but I won't think of it as "spare time", more like going to school. What kind of stop loss do you recommend?

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My honest suggestion would be an amount that doesnt affect you or your life in a material way. So maybe 5 months pocket money or something on those lines. Become very cautious if there is a consistent downswing, because ive been on this forum for almost 3 years and downswings can be bad. After that its upto you how you want to approach this game. Many people are happy earning a few bucks on freerolls just for the love of the game. If you still want to play cash after a downswing online, then try live poker out for sometime. If however you beat online poker, thats great, enjoy the ride, but mantain your discipline.

best of luck!
but playing from work seems unprofessional mate but give it a shot

Wow! Imho real money live poker is less about knowing the game than it is about reading the people. Maybe take a course on human psychology or at least get to know some cops and ask them about tells like...looking up and left when lying, that sort of thing and be mindful that the good live players already know all about tells. Also, don't talk when you are in a hand. Good luck.

Play money is really nothing like real money poker. Gl anyway.

Your presence at the cash tables will be appreciated and they will all be happy to play with you. Good Luck

Also best of luck to you. But really I'd spend as much smaller roll and practice online first for real money. There are some great games online and the MTT for CC are tough competition.

Your plan I think is passionate, tho probably a lil unrealistic. Just my 2c. GL and keep us informed.

Thanks again to all who replied. Some of you asked me to let them know how it went. Sorry for the delay, here's the update.

I bought in for a total of 200$, and over the course of just over 2 hours, lost 40$ including tips. I also spotted a few mistakes I was making, and I felt that what I learnt was worth it. When I left it was because I felt I was about to start playing really bad, so I decided to go home with what I had left and think about my mistakes. Also the 2 players immediately to my left were obviously soft-playing each other, and the dealers obviously new this and tolerated it.

After folding the first few hands I played a suited A 5, got one caller who had position on me (one of the guys who I later noticed had a non-opponent at the table). I had 4 to a flush on the flop, which was 7 high, no made straight. He bet his pocket 9s, I looked at him to get a read and he didn't seem too confident so I called, he didn't seem to like that. The turn was an off-suit jack, he bet again and really didn't look like he was happy I called. I hit an ace on the river, we checked and I was pretty satisfied with my first "real poker" hand in a very long time. I'm not sure I would have bet or called if the river had been a blank, because I didn't have many chips left so my bluffing power was pretty low. Then I started slowly losing money, eventually I felt I had too little to play so I cracked a 2nd 100$ bill. I made some of my money back, and continued to get used to live poker. Once I string-bet without wanting to, the dealer said my re-raise would be a call. I explained I was used to online play, apologized and everyone was satisfied. I bet the next street and took down the pot.

When I left I considered my session to be unsuccessful, but well within acceptable range. I didn't lose much and I learned quite a bit.

Unfortunately my life outside the tables did not go very well recently, in general but more specifically in the finances department. So I'm not returning for now. I'm moving to a smaller apartment, getting things in order, and saving up a bit. Then I'm going back.