Poker as a Career

by David Huber

Well over one million hands… the amount I’ve seen since beginning an improbable poker career in August of 2004. Three years later, I reminisce and wonder how this clueless and often-misguided soul was eventually transformed into an extremely reasonable human being.

Through no conscious will of my own, the jolting shock of a full time poker grinder’s routine has caused me to view many of life’s events as BP/AP (Before Poker and After Poker).

Professional Poker

Was it really only 40 months ago that I made my first real money deposit onto PartyPoker and began playing $.50/$1 Limit Texas Holdem with a $50 bankroll? Has it already been three years since I made my final $50 deposit and started turning a profit?

Things have certainly changed in a very short time. Today’s game is dominated by the astute, the open-minded, the reasonable, and the most disciplined players. Egotistical personalities have their moments in poker, and a few have gained worldwide coverage… but the rise and fall of high-strung mental cases is nothing new in poker, and I wouldn’t call egocentricity a quality that increases long term expectation at the poker tables.

Poker has been known to bring out the worst in people, yet there’s no doubt in my mind that poker has helped me to become a much better person as a whole – as unlikely as that sounds. But… if I could go back in time to August 2004, and tell that 29-year old a few things, what would I say? I’d probably offer myself a few pointers on independent thinking, but I doubt I’d listen.

Poker Playing Success

I chuckle at that guy who, 40 months ago, made that initial $50 deposit onto an online poker site… with dreams of becoming the next Mike McDermott from Rounders. But the truth is, I could always relate to Joey Knish (the character played by John Tuturro) a lot more than the guys who put it “all in the middle”.

If only weak-tight play were the answer to Texas Holdem… I may have never needed those fourteen $50 deposits to become a winning player. It’s ironic how the one quality I was so proud of possessing back then (that quality being ‘talent’), is now the quality I’m convinced is my weakest link. How is it possible that I’ve seen far more ‘talented’ players crash and burn in the time it’s taken me to grind out so many sessions?

Poker is a funny game… and, per simple mathematics, must end negatively for the majority of participants because of the rake involved. The beauty of poker just happens to be the doom of 99.9% of potential winning players… even the worst poker player can defeat the best over the short term. This can happen in the course of one hand, a series of hands, a session… perhaps over months.

Poker as a "Job"

The poker world is filled with players who run good for a while, and misinterpret their short-term success as an acceptable benchmark for their future livelihood. Creativity flows from the minds of old and young players alike, common sense is much harder to come by. The true mark of a poker player is probably more related to how he/she acts while on a horrible run.

So I look back and realize how I went from playing micro limits to playing mid stakes in high volume. Bankroll management and hard work. So many new players quickly become bored with playing within their means, whether that’s a relatively high dollar amount or milking a $50 deposit for all it’s worth. Having worked in the communications and restaurant business throughout my life, I can still say without a doubt that poker is the most difficult, consuming, and demanding profession I’ve ever come across. After all, not many people can go to work one day and lose an unhealthy chunk of their net worth.

This is the trap beginning players must be smart enough to avoid. If you’re going to last at this game for more than a few months, you’ve got to swallow your ego. Even three years after becoming a winning player, I still make it a point to play the LOWEST possible stakes I can reasonably justify… which is contrary to the general money management methods of nearly every poker player out there.

Full time professional poker players cannot justify playing at stakes that are meaningless to them. Casual players are not burdened by the immediate, constant responsibility to make a dollar (or at least, they shouldn’t be). The most powerful weapons an improving player has at his/her disposal are time and money. Time is the same for everyone… money is not. It may not stroke your ego to step into a nickel and dime game and play at those same levels for weeks on end in order to improve your game off of a small deposit, but it sure beats moving up in limits before you’re ready.

When I started my poker career, I wasn’t all that different from any beginning player. I assumed I was a winning, knowledgeable, and talented player, which I was not. Most of today’s successful players can go back to a moment in their careers when something finally “clicked” for them… and that moment for me was when I discovered that (winning at) poker was actual work.

There is a near-infinite number of resources available to poker players wishing to enter the game and try their skill at making money. Is there a message that, you the reader, can take from this article and my experiences? I would say the moment you realize poker requires effort, you’re making progress. It is not impossible (or even difficult) to turn a profit playing poker casually or for a living. However, anywhere there is money to be EARNED, you can wager that some combination of determination, ability, sacrifice, and consistency will lead you to a pay raise.