Q
quads
Rock Star
Silver Level
I think my personal long term experiences playing online poker, might be able to help in giving someone a direction, one way or the other. This is where I stand after investing over five years into online poker. I rounded off the dollar numbers to make the read a little easier.
I was already playing live poker at casinos, but around “2002”, with the growth and talk of online poker, I decided to give online poker a serious go of it. After six months of reviewing what was available playing at three or four of the top rated sites I decided to go heavy with party poker.
After two years of predominantly playing cash games at Party Poker, my online bankroll was negative just over $16,000.00 dollars. My live game was showing a modest profit but not enough to cover online losses. My game was improving big time with the amount of time I was spending playing online but, I was having trouble over coming the negative variance. Considering I entered several big live buy-in tournaments at casinos and never hitting a money seat, my modest live play profit would have been much more.
Somewhere in “2004” the online tournaments were starting to get huge, so I then concentrated on tournaments shying away from cash games online. At the end of “2004” even after hitting several good pay seats in tournaments I was a negative $4,000.00 dollars for that year. (Total -20k) Yet, once again my live play covered a couple of big, live buy-in tournaments and still showed a small profit for the year.
Then in “2005” after finishing top five in three big purse tournaments online, and having a great year at sng’s, I won over $200,000.00 dollars. I got lazy after my first big cash out and started to buy directly into the big tournaments, instead of playing satellites, getting in for cheap. So for this year my online expenses were $9,000.00 dollars, with a net profit of over $190,000.00. Overall my online net was over $170,000.00 dollars. I played no live, big buy-in tournaments this year and my live play had a profit of over $7,000.00 dollars. This is a year I am still trying to at least duplicate.
“2006” I slowed down my live play spending most of my poker time online. I won online $32,000.00 dollars playing sng’s and tournaments, but my expenses were $18,000.00 dollars. My live play was a negative $6,000.00 dollars, but included one big buy-in tournament.
Then came October 13, and the UIGEA. Bye-bye Party Poker, and welcome all sorts of problems moving money around to other sites. After being on the verge of pulling the plug with the problems moving money, I found poker stars and the Paytru card headache free and just stuck with them even up to right now. Even though I could only deposit $1,000.00 dollars max per day.
If anything my game has improved even more over the years, and consider myself a dedicated and good poker player. I read everything, including forums, plus I have and use the latest online support programs, but just can’t seem to break through at Poker Stars. Don’t want to start with the rigged crap, but I seriously started to wonder. I jumped into poker stars pretty heavy but after one month completely backed off and just play the big purse tournaments, and mix up some sng’s. It’s now October 2007, and on Poker Stars have a negative ROI at -34%. I’m presently losing on Poker Stars over $20,000.00 dollars. My live play for this year had a profit of over $5,000.00 and once again no big buy-in tournaments.
I know it’s only a year at Poker Stars, but the negative variance seems impossible to overcome. I also started relying more on my PT, which could be one of the problems. Still I’m going to give it one more year, see what happens with both the site and the U.S. stance on the UIGEA. Maybe things will change or maybe they won’t. But one things for sure, it will have to be a cold day in hell before I give all my winnings back.
I was already playing live poker at casinos, but around “2002”, with the growth and talk of online poker, I decided to give online poker a serious go of it. After six months of reviewing what was available playing at three or four of the top rated sites I decided to go heavy with party poker.
After two years of predominantly playing cash games at Party Poker, my online bankroll was negative just over $16,000.00 dollars. My live game was showing a modest profit but not enough to cover online losses. My game was improving big time with the amount of time I was spending playing online but, I was having trouble over coming the negative variance. Considering I entered several big live buy-in tournaments at casinos and never hitting a money seat, my modest live play profit would have been much more.
Somewhere in “2004” the online tournaments were starting to get huge, so I then concentrated on tournaments shying away from cash games online. At the end of “2004” even after hitting several good pay seats in tournaments I was a negative $4,000.00 dollars for that year. (Total -20k) Yet, once again my live play covered a couple of big, live buy-in tournaments and still showed a small profit for the year.
Then in “2005” after finishing top five in three big purse tournaments online, and having a great year at sng’s, I won over $200,000.00 dollars. I got lazy after my first big cash out and started to buy directly into the big tournaments, instead of playing satellites, getting in for cheap. So for this year my online expenses were $9,000.00 dollars, with a net profit of over $190,000.00. Overall my online net was over $170,000.00 dollars. I played no live, big buy-in tournaments this year and my live play had a profit of over $7,000.00 dollars. This is a year I am still trying to at least duplicate.
“2006” I slowed down my live play spending most of my poker time online. I won online $32,000.00 dollars playing sng’s and tournaments, but my expenses were $18,000.00 dollars. My live play was a negative $6,000.00 dollars, but included one big buy-in tournament.
Then came October 13, and the UIGEA. Bye-bye Party Poker, and welcome all sorts of problems moving money around to other sites. After being on the verge of pulling the plug with the problems moving money, I found poker stars and the Paytru card headache free and just stuck with them even up to right now. Even though I could only deposit $1,000.00 dollars max per day.
If anything my game has improved even more over the years, and consider myself a dedicated and good poker player. I read everything, including forums, plus I have and use the latest online support programs, but just can’t seem to break through at Poker Stars. Don’t want to start with the rigged crap, but I seriously started to wonder. I jumped into poker stars pretty heavy but after one month completely backed off and just play the big purse tournaments, and mix up some sng’s. It’s now October 2007, and on Poker Stars have a negative ROI at -34%. I’m presently losing on Poker Stars over $20,000.00 dollars. My live play for this year had a profit of over $5,000.00 and once again no big buy-in tournaments.
I know it’s only a year at Poker Stars, but the negative variance seems impossible to overcome. I also started relying more on my PT, which could be one of the problems. Still I’m going to give it one more year, see what happens with both the site and the U.S. stance on the UIGEA. Maybe things will change or maybe they won’t. But one things for sure, it will have to be a cold day in hell before I give all my winnings back.
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