Are you a successful Poker Player? Please check in and tell your story.

[Extra Innings]

I have played on all the major sites. One aspect of the grind that bothers me is what I perceive as "wasted" time. I have ability to be a good play but lack the patience.

How do you guys do it?
How much time do you put into a session?
What tables do you play and how much is your average take?

[downsouth]

When i used to do it alot it was
stars, $25 and up(most 25's and 37's) two table turbo SNG's and I would play 15-20 at a time. Session will last generally two hours or so and then take a break. Will occasionally mix in a multi tourney as well and if get into of course can take a lot longer.

Also would have sessions where all I would play was 7 and 11 180 man turbo tourneys.

I averaged profit of approx $2 per game and sometimes it would get boring as hell and playing 15-20 when your running bad can drive you insane.

I honestly do not play much any more just because I kinda burnt myself out on it.

[lolguy999]

some free $ poker website gave me 50$ sign up bonus for UB. was grinding at a cash table at 0.25/0.50... a guy lost a huge pot 5 hands ago and was still steaming raised it to 2.25 from the cutoff. i called with AKs (diamonds). Flop comes K 7 3 two diamonds. He bets almost pot and i call. Turn comes a 10. He bets 80% again, i raise all in, he calls and shows KTs (hearts). Ofcourse i didnt catch anything so there goes like 73$

[lolguy999]

At stars its like this: its all fun and games before 0.25/0.50 stakes. There ppl badbeat u. I turned freeroll round 2 1.80$ tourny winnings into around 40$ in 2 days ( approx 10hours) sat at a 0.25/0.50 table and was raped with 3 consec bad beats 5 hands after i sat down ( AQ vs A9, JJ vs 99, AK vs A7s). Hardly touched stars since...

[LLXC]

Was about 5 years ago but decided to give it up for sports betting. Regretting the decision? A little bit.

Concentrated on SNGs and Tournaments. I play tight-aggressive and relatively ABC until late in the tourny or with a decent stack.

Had about 8 tables at any given time.

Played mostly at Stars.

[RANDAZZO]

I run better on full tilt than I do on poker stars.

[El Sol]

Other than proper bankroll management. Boredom and lack of patience is are the major reasons most people cant grind successfully. Headphones and Prozac is what works for me.

[Extra Innings]

[AmpleGamble]

its easy to win.

[sinmiedo]

I play regulary , probably 7 hours a day, i leep very little, and my wife is ok with it( see is a sweety)
I have 2 business ( 1 manufacturing an 1 realstate)
I never deposit money on online poker , i always play frerolls and promotions, I visit the local casino here and there
so far i have 2 accounts wiht 2500 en cash plus anoter 3000 for my live poker.

[sinmiedo]

I play regulary , probably 7 hours a day, i leep very little, and my wife is ok with it( see is a sweety)
I have 2 business ( 1 manufacturing an 1 realstate)
I never deposit money on online poker , i always play frerolls and promotions, I visit the local casino here and there
so far i have 2 accounts wiht 2500 en cash plus anoter 3000 for my live poker.

ALL THANKS TO THIS SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mighty maron]

congrats sin...your style in NLH toruneys here have warranted your success. Great job and good luck

[YorkHunt]

Funny Video EI..is that JJ?

[Extra Innings]

I play regulary , probably 7 hours a day, i leep very little, and my wife is ok with it( see is a sweety)
I have 2 business ( 1 manufacturing an 1 realstate)
I never deposit money on online poker , i always play frerolls and promotions, I visit the local casino here and there
so far i have 2 accounts wiht 2500 en cash plus anoter 3000 for my live poker.

I have been reading some of your "back and forths" with no1here, etc. You are a pretty courteous and humble poster. Thanks for the contribution.

[Ian]

I started playing in January of 2003 on Paradise poker. I had $400 to my name and I put half my life roll online. Less than 4 months later I quit my minimum wage job and haven't had a source of income other than poker or other forms of gambling since. I moved to Vegas in '04, and by '06 I was clearing over $100/hr playing between 2 and 4 tables of limit hold 'em between 10/20 5max. and 30/60 full ring online. Things came crashing down in late '06 early '07. The UIGEA was passed, limit hold 'em games died, and most of my bankroll was stuck frozen in Neteller. I wasn't liquid enough to play bigger games, and my winnings from the smaller games weren't large enough to cover my somewhat lavish expenses. By late summer of '07 my savings were almost all gone. I pared my expenses way down, and made the switch to live NL, learning the game and supporting myself at 1/2. Now I play 2/5NL in Vegas. The money in poker isn't close to what it used to be, but you can still make a decent (and fun) living from poker if you're good enough.

I'm thinking of starting a blog on SBR of the daily life of a live B&M poker player... don't know if I'll get the motivation up for it, though.

[Extra Innings]

I started playing in January of 2003 on Paradise poker. I had $400 to my name and I put half my life roll online. Less than 4 months later I quit my minimum wage job and haven't had a source of income other than poker or other forms of gambling since. I moved to Vegas in '04, and by '06 I was clearing over $100/hr playing between 2 and 4 tables of limit hold 'em between 10/20 5max. and 30/60 full ring online. Things came crashing down in late '06 early '07. The UIGEA was passed, limit hold 'em games died, and most of my bankroll was stuck frozen in Neteller. I wasn't liquid enough to play bigger games, and my winnings from the smaller games weren't large enough to cover my somewhat lavish expenses. By late summer of '07 my savings were almost all gone. I pared my expenses way down, and made the switch to live NL, learning the game and supporting myself at 1/2. Now I play 2/5NL in Vegas. The money in poker isn't close to what it used to be, but you can still make a decent (and fun) living from poker if you're good enough.

I'm thinking of starting a blog on SBR of the daily life of a live B&M poker player... don't know if I'll get the motivation up for it, though.

Great Post. What do you attribute to Poker not being as lucrative as when you first started?

[Ian]

Great Post. What do you attribute to Poker not being as lucrative as when you first started?

Software like Poker Tracker and HUDs did a lot of damage to the online games. Before software almost nobody played more than 3 tables, and even that was rare. Once the software became popular winning players were taking money from as many as 20 tables at a time. This killed the fish too fast and the games became much tougher to beat. The other big thing is the UIGEA, which has discouraged a lot of novices from depositing online.

Live poker games are still very soft, and will probably get softer with the economy bouncing back, but the $/hour that can be made from a very soft human dealt game is a lot less than can be made from playing multiple tables of moderately soft online games that feature: far more hands/hour, lower rake, rakeback, and bonuses.

[sinmiedo]

Software like Poker Tracker and HUDs did a lot of damage to the online games. Before software almost nobody played more than 3 tables, and even that was rare. Once the software became popular winning players were taking money from as many as 20 tables at a time. This killed the fish too fast and the games became much tougher to beat. The other big thing is the UIGEA, which has discouraged a lot of novices from depositing online.

Live poker games are still very soft, and will probably get softer with the economy bouncing back, but the $/hour that can be made from a very soft human dealt game is a lot less than can be made from playing multiple tables of moderately soft online games that feature: far more hands/hour, lower rake, rakeback, and bonuses.

i must agree with you. in line is very different than a live scenario where i get may bred . places like ft ps and even bodog ( where many player complain about the other hubs and other elementes) it very dificult for me to get into the final tables of any tournament, however, i did well at one time on sng, but something is deffenetly wrong on the cash tables wher is nearly impossible to make a decent hourly rate, no matter how hard i try.
on theother hand, i m playing here with real people and good players and the end result is different, and that prooves a point in itself.
i said it before , the game is to be play live, where you have the total enviroment and you can apply all the tricks to the job.
however even with the obstacules of hubs and other stuff in a players life, the player mind ovecome the programs because the player can make changes in the play any time,and a program is a program.
cheers for the human brain

[mighty maron]

Evolution of the game continues....without the poker tracker software and assembly of massive hand histories the scandal at UB might not have been ferreted out. It has some uses to detect fraud by means other than just relying on the sites to police themselves.

HUD's I see no potential benefit for the game as an industry. Individual users yes..it does help with the game...but Hud's combined with 12 table nits grind the game down to a halt. Stars is notorious for this...plo8 games with people 12 tabling timing out all over the area. Casual players generally want fast action not tick tock library time.

Casual players dont want to play against bots either. Limit games they are pretty airtight. NLH they can still be exploited by good players but casual players driven by emotion get chewed up by them.

The biggest reason why online poker is drying up is USA players can not get their money quickly and hassle free. Pre-UIGEA you could have it beamed to your checking account worry free. Checks from legit sites came fast. Now check processor problems cause delays of weeks sometimes. The exclusion of a large portion of the market makes bonus whoring extinct for the USA. Casual players can not get their money on the site easily unless they want to give out their ss# and bank info..why do that if you live close to a casino.

Other than for the fact that tracking software allows other groups to investigate cheaters, I see little advantage this new technology wave has brought to online poker

[no1here]

I am by far the most successful player here on track for 100K yearly besides much more. It takes morning till late night daily. Today I started at 7:00 am after ending last night around midnight. I do cash daily and play for free. I am expert in satellites for large paydays using Bodog and UB. I play alot of badbeat with dreams there. I started playing early 2004 for play money for one full year. I then deposit $40. and won back-back tourneys. early on I hit first in 20K freeroll having 12K players. I have won trip to South Africa through freeroll and played on tv feature table there. I belong to about 45 poker sites and active in many forums. I will be going to Vegas in late June for OFC live event 2. I am an old man and poker has killed my back and prostate but I love it. Between the poker and weed growing life is quite pleasant.

[nyjets15]

does this guy have anymore videos....that shits hilarious

i'd love to get in a game with him

can u say TILT?

[Ian]

Funny Video EI..is that JJ?

That's the legendary Tuff Fish. He stopped playing years ago, but people still talk about his videos all the time. There has been at least one Tuff Fish thread on SBR before. This is my favorite video of his... sort of a greatest hits.

[sinmiedo]

I am by far the most successful player here on track for 100K yearly besides much more. It takes morning till late night daily. Today I started at 7:00 am after ending last night around midnight. I do cash daily and play for free. I am expert in satellites for large paydays using Bodog and UB. I play alot of badbeat with dreams there. I started playing early 2004 for play money for one full year. I then deposit $40. and won back-back tourneys. early on I hit first in 20K freeroll having 12K players. I have won trip to South Africa through freeroll and played on tv feature table there. I belong to about 45 poker sites and active in many forums. I will be going to Vegas in late June for OFC live event 2. I am an old man and poker has killed my back and prostate but I love it. Between the poker and weed growing life is quite pleasant.

And also a great human been.
I hope many people here read this post, and realize that poker is not aboaut gambing, it is so much more.
I m following the same steps, as old as I m, but i rather do it at time in my life rather my younger years, i already had acoplished a business succes carrear, and most important, a wonderfull familly, that is why i can dedicate some time to the game.
I do not dream about millons, i just want to play the game to the best of my abilities and have fun.