First 6 months and measuring success

I’ve be playing to pay the bills now for about 6 months. There’s no doubt it does have an impact on your game, especially when you first start.

I record a daily profit and loss account and operate on a 'month end' basis. At the end of each month the online account is cleared down to a set level (or increased!), the living expenses are deducted from the bankroll, any excess is creamed off and the bankroll and reserve figure for the month ahead are calculated.

So far it’s been pretty good. Of course success is relative, some people win or blow my annual income in a single session! Having said that the sums we are talking about are significant.... but not obscene.

A basic measure of success is paying the bills, as I've already stated, the agreement with the Mrs was to stump up a poker subsidy of £1k per month to the house current account. If this dries up then I have to go back full time. If I can pay this out without touching the bankroll then its a neutral month. In reality my rakeback (more on rakeback in a later post) should more than cover this, so all I'd have to do is keep out of the red at the tables to meet the basic objective. Easy huh?....

So hows it gone so far....?

I'm not sure its a great idea to plaster the £ figures all over the blog, I certainly won't be doing it on a daily basis as a lot of people do. However, if people are going to read this and continue to read it then its only right that you have an idea of what a good/bad month could entail. Poker, afterall, is all about the "money" and as such I'm happy to list a quick summary of what it's been like for the first few months with some figures to back it up....

August: This was a good month, we were thumping the Aussies at the cricket and confidence was high for the new venture, with a full bankroll to start off. A hospitality invite to day 2 at Trent bridge from Betfair did nothing to dampen the mood! I'd also just received an annual bonus from work that took the pressure off the finances for the 1st month. Things went well at the tables and month end saw me looking at a positive of around £8k. This was a great start, the bank roll was maxed out and this enabled me to boost the reserve fund, pay the bills and squirrel away a nice lump sum away from the poker funds.

Sept: Things went a little quiet in Sept. I had a bad start and then spent the rest of the month struggling to get it back in the black. I've found that i'll often have a dip after a good month and it's something I need to work at sorting out. The 2nd half of the month was better and once the rakeback was paid in I was able to pay the bills and cream a little off as well.

Oct: Hmmmm here where it all went wrong! The first 20 days were very good. Heading for a month somewhere similar to August, then for some reason a few bad days put me on tilt and before you know it I'm a few £K in the red for the month... this is not good and a big swing considering my bank roll. I've had a few swings like this in the past and fortunately they are becoming less frequent. I think the key is spotting it early and walking away for a few days.... this time I didn't!! After I'd 'paid the bills' the bank roll was about £3k down and would need to be topped up from profit over the next few months. It's worth noting that if I'd not had such a good start to the month then the roll would be in dire straights! Maybe the roll level I maintain needs to be upped? Having said that I feel that if I've not had such a good start to the month then I would not have tilted so badly and reality would have kicked in a little sooner than it did.

Nov and Dec: These were carbon copy months, the bank roll was down and needed a top up, so solid, low risk poker was the order of the day. I started off playing more $2/5 as opposed to £s to make it easier, a good start saw confidence return and I was soon on the £ tables with the odd dabble in $5/10. I managed to deliver and both months showed a healthy £5-6K positive. This was helped in December by a 17th place in the Crypto Christmas Cracker Tournie (I tend only to play in the odd big prize tournie) for about £1.7K. The roll was topped up, the bills paid and nice sum creamed off the top again.

So all in all, not a bad 2005. Room for improvement? For sure... but I'd consider it a success. I've definitely been playing a little better since I went part time. I'm slightly more thoughtful in the games now and have cut down on the 'bad months' that can damage your average performance so much.

Targets are being set for 2006 and a modest £40k pa should be very achievable playing £2/5NL with a level head. We shall see!

PS... I've enabled anonymous comments on the blog so feel free to say hi, it's good to know people are reading. Also if anyone wants to swap links to their blog, then drop me a mail.

Cheers,

Jim