I’m coming up on 2 years (May 24th) playing professionally. I’ve learned countless lessons, but these are probably the most important ones.

1) Risk management (ie. bankroll) is the number 1 key to success.

– Never take shots for more than 2% of my bankroll, and only do that rarely. Highest weekly buy-ins are 0.8% of bankroll, and I make sure to have a minimum of 300 ABI set aside for poker. Exceptions can be made for live tournaments, but only if I expect to have a massive edge. Never more than 4% of my bankroll and maximum 4 times per year.

– Pay attention to my expenses associated with playing. Expenses for travel, food, gas and blowing money after a win need to be tracked as rigorously as a business tracks its margins.

– At least at this stage in my journey, it is unhealthy for me to avoid blowing a little money after a big win. I’ve learned the hard way to be careful about how much I spend, but unfortunately my mind only considers something a celebration if I spend money on it. If I never celebrate victories I end up burning out much quicker.

– Moving down in stakes is not a failure. Moving down is the only thing that allows me to move up the stakes when I’m doing well.

2) Get outside of my head between games.

My natural flow if I’m not paying attention is:

– Wake up and morning routine.

– Grind for x hours.

– Think about poker and replay hands in my head while doing something relaxing.

– Hopefully spend a bit of time with my girl (often still thinking about poker in the background).

– Sleep

This works really well for short bursts but is impossible to sustain. I end up falling into patterns of not going outside for days (or weeks), barely keeping my apartment clean enough to live in, not seeing anyone other than my closest friends, sleeping less, etc. I have a history of depression, and when I don’t take care of myself it can slip into my life like a ninja.

This can be as simple as fitting in some exercise (outside if possible) and/or delaying my sessions a few hours to have non poker time in the morning. I also need to have at least 2 days off per week, although I will occasionally amp up and grind sick hours for a week or two when it feels right. Making a point of scheduling social stuff way in advance makes my life run sooooo much smoother, and keeps me much happier.

3) Always be open minded about suggestions from successful players.

It is very tempting to trust my own abilities and ignore ideas that don’t mesh with my approach. This is toxic to my development as a player. Imagine an expert at one martial art trying to compete in the UFC while refusing to work on the other disciplines. Foolish, and a recipe for getting badly hurt.

That being said, it is at least as dangerous to follow anyone’s suggestions blindly, even if they seem to make sense. The math and consensus fundamentals are very reliable but, beyond that, everything is at least a little open to interpretation. My two most recent leaps forward in knowledge (both tied to coaching sessions with Andrew Brokos) were immediately followed by downswings. I eventually improved more than I ever imagined possible (Andrew probably should have charged much more for the sessions), but rushing to incorporate new ideas into my game always leads to big mistakes.

If I haven’t heard it a hundred times, I make a point of listening very closely to every idea that is shared with me. When I’m at my best it actually makes me happy to find out I’m wrong about something but, even when it pisses me off, I can’t let emotions interfere with learning. In the end, I want to be questioning everything I know to be true on a regular basis, without abandoning the stuff that has been working for me. It was a guilty pleasure for awhile but, since turning pro, I never allow myself to fudge the details of hands when sharing them with other players. Embarrassment is a small price to pay for knowledge.

4) Always think about ranges. Always think about ranges. Always think about…

Range analysis is by far the most consistent and holistic approach to poker. Although I’ve ‘known’ that for a long time, it’s taken my thickheaded self a very long time to fully realize how important it is. Every decision, every hand, every player, always think about ranges.

5) Distractions are the enemy, but there are exceptions.

Very Bad – Browsing the internet, having my phone anywhere near me, watching videos of any kind, allowing my girlfriend or anyone else to grab my attention for more than a few seconds, checking crypto prices, thinking about arguments or anything negative, thinking about money in any way other than a points total in a game.

Very Good – Listening to music or non-poker podcasts, quickly writing down an idea that occurs to me, stretching, standing up and/or doing a few jumping jacks, focusing on my breathing while auto-piloting my play for a minute or two.

Most of the time, if I allow one bad distraction the floodgates open. Discipline is the only thing that allows me to succeed. However, I occasionally make a point of having a ‘fun’ day where I play lower stakes and fewer tables, letting myself do whatever I want between hands. This seems like the best way to remember that my job is playing a game, and that I’m an asshole if I feel anything other than lucky.

6) Never make earnings based goals. Never be without an earnings target.

Goals are the things that I shoot for in the short term and they are useless if remotely outside of my control. Targets are the things I work toward, hope for, and dream about for the longer term. Goals motivate me, targets inspire me. Goals are a way to make sure I’m improving my habits and maintaining my work ethic. Targets allow me to check-in occasionally and decide if I still want to be doing this.

Poker is wayyyyyyyyyy too stressful to be worth it as a career without an inspiring target. Poker is wayyyyyyyyyy too depressing if I make earnings more important than improving my process.

7) Don’t stress about my ability to succeed during a downswing.

Poker is hard. Variance is a bitch. I’ve reached a relatively healthy level of self-esteem, but I’ve always had somewhat fragile self-confidence. I need to be comfortable with doubts about my ability to succeed at poker. If I fight them, they always win, and I am left with a soul-crushing sense of apathy which extends beyond my poker game. If I let them bubble up, try to laugh at myself, try to look at my life as an experiment, and generally just do my best to relax, everything is much more stable. I can grind much better if my time away from poker isn’t spent grinding on my nerves.

Results 2016 – Present

I’m not doing as well as I had hoped to, but I’m doing better than I could have reasonably expected. Poker won’t be making me rich anytime soon, but my reasons for getting into it have always been more about freedom and loving the game. I have some mostly passive side income and, along with what my girlfriend brings in, I need to profit an average of $16k CAD (~$13.5k USD) annually for poker to be viable. 

https://postimg.cc/image/l6umbmvfn/      All results in USD

Pokerstars is > 90% of my online play. I’m down $742 in 197 MTTs across other sites. I was staked by Imawhale from Nov 2017- late January 2018, playing American sites exclusively, and profited a little over $5k during that time (1.8k of that went to me). Otherwise I’m up about 1.4k between rakeback, cash games and the occasional live MTTs.

I was planning to include a road map for the next 2 years but this is my day off from grinding SCOOP and I’m exhausted. I’ll get them up sometime soon.