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KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro

KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
edited June 2016 in Poker Chat
Hi,

A little about myself, I'm 21, a student in his final year at the University of York studying Economics, and I want to play poker full time for at least a year after I finish my degree. 
I've been passionate about poker since I was quite young, but can only recently call myself a 'winning player'. Over the past few years I have dabbled in everything, from hyper turbos to cash to five figure MTT fields on Stars. I can only really say I've been a winning player for the past 18 months, due to the fact I made some good poker friends and really began studying the game. Over the first half of 2014 I made around $3000 playing heads up hyper turbos, before switching sites and playing cash. I made around £2800 in the second half of the year playing 30-100NL, but hit a nasty 1.5K downswing that resulted in me making the decision to start playing under a backer/coach for 2015.

I am currently playing £100-£500NL (backed) on sky, and intend to play a few of the main nightly MTTs per week, with the aim of making around £5000 by summer. I decided to start this blog to keep me motivated and to get more involved with the sky community, and will update frequently with my results.

Good luck at the tables everyone, and thanks for reading! :)




(My adventures with hyper turbos)



(Results in second half of 2014)




(Results so far under my backer)

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Comments

  • BorinLonerBorinLoner Member Posts: 3,863
    edited February 2015
    First, I want to wish you luck. Nothing wrong with trying to play full-time if there are no negative consequences to failure. You don't mention any kids or anything, so fair enough.

    Second, if you've only won £5.5k from poker in the last year, a significant amount of that from HU sng's, I'd worry about you playing as high as 500NL. I don't know what your roll is like thanks to your staking, but those are some pretty high levels. You'll know better than me whether you can handle the potential losses of a bad run, of course.

    I'm sure you'll get plenty of posters with more to offer than me. I don't generally read diaries but the title of yours caught my eye... might want to think about changing that, btw. There are some folks around that like to see others fail. 

    Once again; Good luck young chap.
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  • RyanC7RyanC7 Member Posts: 355
    edited February 2015


    I'm also in my final year studying Economics. I wouldn't bother playing poker for a year if I were you. I'm unsure how your playing levels up to 500nl with a small year total profit of £6k roughly lol? It appears you may have a false sense of optimism and have most likely misinterpretated your results. On this basis, I wouldn't bother. Get a job. 
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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    First, I want to wish you luck. Nothing wrong with trying to play full-time if there are no negative consequences to failure. You don't mention any kids or anything, so fair enough. Second, if you've only won £5.5k from poker in the last year, a significant amount of that from HU sng's, I'd worry about you playing as high as 500NL. I don't know what your roll is like thanks to your staking, but those are some pretty high levels. You'll know better than me whether you can handle the potential losses of a bad run, of course. I'm sure you'll get plenty of posters with more to offer than me. I don't generally read diaries but the title of yours caught my eye... might want to think about changing that, btw. There are some folks around that like to see others fail.  Once again; Good luck young chap.
    Posted by BorinLoner

    Hey, thanks a lot for the kind words. Yeah I figured I'd take one year out and go for it, if it doesn't work out I've not lost anything. With regards to my roll, I have 20+BI for £500NL thanks to my staking so shouldn't be too much of an issue, will keep my backer constantly updated with my results so it may be the case I move down a few levels if I encounter a bad downswing. Thanks a lot for the advice :)

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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    I'm also in my final year studying Economics. I wouldn't bother playing poker for a year if I were you. I'm unsure how your playing levels up to 500nl with a small year total profit of £6k roughly lol? It appears you may have a false sense of optimism and have most likely misinterpretated your results. On this basis, I wouldn't bother. Get a job. 
    Posted by RyanC7
    Hi thanks for the post. I made £6000 in 2014 playing a lot lower stakes (20-50NL mainly and $15 hypers). It is only for 2015 have I been lucky enough to find a backer and be able to move up to higher stakes :) Good luck with your degree!
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  • F_IvanovicF_Ivanovic Member Posts: 2,412
    edited February 2015
    I'll echo Ryans thoughts. I have played poker since finishing Uni but I'd already been a winning player for 5 years making £5k a year on avg part time. But I literally had no idea what else I wanted to do/could do - I only got a diploma for 2 years (flunked third year) in Maths so a graduate job wasn't really an option. 

    If you're successful at your degree and could get a decent job out of it, then definitely go down that route. Going to be easier to get a job now then after taking a year out since they're going to wonder why you took a year out.

    If you've just not found Uni was for you and have no idea what you want to do as well as not having any commitments in life then sure, go for it for a year and see how it goes. GL whatever you decide!
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  • RyanC7RyanC7 Member Posts: 355
    edited February 2015
    Are you liable for any losses? 

    This backer has to be your dad?

    No one in the right mind who slightly understands poker would even consider backing a player with this profit for 500nl
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  • RyanC7RyanC7 Member Posts: 355
    edited February 2015
    Don't mean to sound like an absolute pest by the way. These are just my thoughts lol
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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Are you liable for any losses?  This backer has to be your dad? No one in the right mind who slightly understands poker would even consider backing a player with this profit for 500nl
    Posted by RyanC7

    Lol I can understand your berwilderment. My backer is an exceptional player with over £200,000 in tournament earnings, and has been a consistent high stakes crusher for the past couple of years. He has been coaching me for a few months and believes I'm good enough to back for those games. We'll see if he is right soon enough I imagine :D 
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  • RyanC7RyanC7 Member Posts: 355
    edited February 2015
    Yeah but is he your dad though? Haha
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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Yeah but is he your dad though? Haha
    Posted by RyanC7
    Lol no he's not
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  • TimmyRaRaTimmyRaRa Member Posts: 915
    edited February 2015
    Hi ya Kingbowl im looking forward to this diary and wish you the best of luck I hope it works out.
    Ive got a diary on here my 2nd year being a Pro.
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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Hi ya Kingbowl im looking forward to this diary and wish you the best of luck I hope it works out. Ive got a diary on here my 2nd year being a Pro.
    Posted by TimmyRaRa
    Thanks buddy , you too! That's awesome, I'm checking it out now :)
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  • LARSON7LARSON7 Member Posts: 4,495
    edited February 2015

    haha quality start.

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  • jdsallstarjdsallstar Member Posts: 1,675
    edited February 2015
    Best of luck mate. If you're gonna go for this sort of thing you're at the right age with no commitments etc

    To echo what Ivan says above just make sure you have a good "excuse" for taking a year out should you decide to go for jobs in a year or so's time. Virtually every employer will want you to talk through your CV to date including any gaps in employment or learning and i wouldnt advise "I tried to make it as a poker pro for a year" lol The little white lie of travelling is probably the best option :)

    As I said good luck and i sincerely hope you make it and I will read with interest.

    Jd


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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Best of luck mate. If you're gonna go for this sort of thing you're at the right age with no commitments etc To echo what Ivan says above just make sure you have a good "excuse" for taking a year out should you decide to go for jobs in a year or so's time. Virtually every employer will want you to talk through your CV to date including any gaps in employment or learning and i wouldnt advise "I tried to make it as a poker pro for a year" lol The little white lie of travelling is probably the best option :) As I said good luck and i sincerely hope you make it and I will read with interest. Jd
    Posted by jdsallstar
    Hey thanks for the kind words and support man, yeah the employment gap is a concern of mine, guess I will have to see how things go. Like you said, making something up about taking a year out to travel / explore different options without specifically mentioning poker is probably the best bet. Good luck at the tables!
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  • shakinacesshakinaces Member Posts: 1,590
    edited February 2015
    Look forward to reading this, sure the comments about it being a naive decision may be proved right, but how bad can it be to take a shot when you are young enough to rebuild if it doesn't work out.

    We have several people on the graduate scheme at my employers who have a year-gap between leaving university and joining the scheme, either due to travelling or attempting some sort of ambitious but failed business start-up, so there will definitely still be options available to you in the corporate world if that sort of fall-back is required/wanted.

    Hope your make-up terms aren't too onerous mind... I'd imagine that during the learning phase (at least) there is a risk you could easily end up £5k-£10k down (only 20 buy-ins at 500nl)!

    Good luck with the goals!
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  • KingBowlKingBowl Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Look forward to reading this, sure the comments about it being a naive decision may be proved right, but how bad can it be to take a shot when you are young enough to rebuild if it doesn't work out. We have several people on the graduate scheme at my employers who have a year-gap between leaving university and joining the scheme, either due to travelling or attempting some sort of ambitious but failed business start-up, so there will definitely still be options available to you in the corporate world if that sort of fall-back is required/wanted. Hope your make-up terms aren't too onerous mind... I'd imagine that during the learning phase (at least) there is a risk you could easily end up £5k-£10k down (only 20 buy-ins at 500nl)! Good luck with the goals!
    Posted by shakinaces

    Thanks a lot for your post, good to hear that a year out won't affect my career prospects too significantly :) I will be using table selection of course when it comes to playing the higher stakes, it's quite rare I actually end up playing a 500NL game, but it's nice to have the option to flick in if I see a good table running. Most of my action is 100-300NL at the moment.
    Good luck!

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  • GagginKsGagginKs Member Posts: 35
    edited February 2015
    Don't post here, occasionally browse, but a couple of things really irked me. Firstly the guys offering the negative, non-constructive comments have absolutely no experience even playing these stakes, never mind beating them. Also @RyanC7.. We aren't living in the 80s mate, theres a thing called the internet. This isn't a time where you have to learn entirely based on trial and error. The amount of resources and learning materials available is incredible. Pretty short sighted post from you IMO.

    GL king!
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  • RyanC7RyanC7 Member Posts: 355
    edited February 2015
    In Response to Re: KingBowl - An attempt to become a full-time pro:
    Don't post here, occasionally browse, but a couple of things really irked me. Firstly the guys offering the negative, non-constructive comments have absolutely no experience even playing these stakes, never mind beating them. Also @RyanC7.. We aren't living in the 80s mate, theres a thing called the internet. This isn't a time where you have to learn entirely based on trial and error. The amount of resources and learning materials available is incredible. Pretty short sighted post from you IMO. GL king!
    Posted by GagginKs
    Fair points. I guess my main argument is that employment with his degree > "trying" to become a poker pro on the basis of some pretty average results. Like, how many guys on this site earn > £40k a year. Cameeeee annnnnn
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  • GagginKsGagginKs Member Posts: 35
    edited February 2015
    'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take' - Wayne Gretzky.

    So true. Personally, id rather not be a sheep.
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