Any Professional poker players out there.

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I have been playing poker part time for 5 - 7 yrs. I've found myself to be more successful at tournaments than cash games. While I enjoy playing live better, due to expenses and where I live I have been primarily focusing on on-line play. My hope is that I can play poker as my only living, but I may be a few years out. Just curious to talk to people that have already done it and/or are looking to do it(with a similar way of thinking). I grew up playing games and "needing to win" + no others around to be influencing me, when I play on-line, it seems like my perfect job, at least for now. Of course my inability to just push forward and not allow losses to affect me that much has slowed my progress for sure. Sometimes I think I would have accomplished my goals 3 times already if I had a more normal outlook on life, but then I wouldn't be me would I Any thoughts, tips, or even friendships that are grown out of this thread would be fantastic.

I’d be very happy to share poker as life lessons. For example, we as people with Asperger’s often approach social skills clunkily, in algorithmic fashion. When at best, it is heuristic. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, including reasons entirely out of our control, things just don’t work out. And other times, you get a gift. And with a gift, the thing to do is to just graciously accept it.

For example, in a 1-2 no-limit game, I had raised to 7 on a couple of previous hands. And then I look down and see that I have American Airlines, My Oh My. I raised to 7 again, hoping I’d get some action and a chance to narrow the field. A guy re-raised to 25. And another guy called, that’s what made it interesting. So, I was thinking I want to raise, ideally to get at least one of them out. And I think that pause very much worked to my favor. I raised to 75. The original re-raiser went all in, without even really struggling about it that much. The caller folded. I called, pushing the rest of my 300 in. And you can probably figure since I’m telling this story, yep, he had K-K, but he won! I had played a good hand, in zen fashion had allowed myself to make each move skillfully, using feel and texture, 80% chance in my favor---but still, his 20% hit.

Alright, another story, I’m playing in a tournament, my M is getting pretty low, and I love Dan Harrington saying, at a certain point, you’re no longer playing conservatively, you’re just playing poorly. Blinds and antes, relatively late position, decide any A or K, as long as there’ not action before me, I’m going to make a move. K-2, and I bet about a third to half of my stack. The flop comes mid-low garbage, but I hit a 2. My one caller is disappointed. To me, it’s really obvious. It occurs to me I can take this home. I push. He calls. He turns over, K-J, he just couldn’t let it go. so the only thing that will save him is a Jack. And yeah, this one I win.

(And that’s another social still. I’m not looking for great subtlites. Just let the obvious be obvious)

So, I play cash games tight-aggressive, tournament games loose-aggressive. I mean, is there any other way to do it? Not that I know of. I study the math, read Caro on tells, and keep an honest poker journal. I do a lot of things right. But still, I broke even.

The biggest obstacle for me is the inevitable upswings and downswings. And as a pro said, when you’re on a downswing, a proper fold won’t bring you out of the hole, but it will help you from sliding further into it and that’s just as important. And secondarily was the rake, which was a kind of friction sanding down my winnings. I was competing for a shrinking pie. Unlike day trading in the stock market where (in theory!) a person is competing for a growing pie.

I have never played on line. Just doesn’t seem fun to me. I would be interested in ways of making it fun. I’d also be interested in how to do the bank transfers legally as an American citizen.

I agree, that it's much more fun to play in person, and believe me on-line brings a whole new level to bad beat stories. I play mostly tournaments now b/c I do better. I was up 5k last year, $500 the year before that. As far as the legal bank transfers are concerned, I believe Poker Stars must use a US webservice agent b/c they are able to accept an echeck from my bank account and also deposit money straight into my account when I cash out. Over the past few years I've gotten to where I can mult-table as hi as 25 tourneys at a time, currently doing 20. So when I'm hitting it hard I'll play 80 to 100 18 player tourneys a day a few days a week, but my bankroll is low until I can build up to playing bigger buy-in tournaments. It's my newest strategy. I played $1.75 for a month then to $3.40 for a week then summer hit and I'm home with the kids much of my days off. I work 3 11 hr. shifts Sat-Mon so my poker time is usually Wed - Fri. Of course the idea between playing smaller 18 player tourneys and playing so many is to minimize the swings as much as possible. I'm only 5 weeks and 1300 tournaments into this latest strategy, but I'm hopeful. I guess my long term vision is to get good enough to replace my income w/poker, then I can play twice as much, and as I do I can be building a fund that gets me to some tournament events w/a few thousand I can afford to lose. But honestly, I would much prefer playing a game to working a job, even if it is on-line, but those swings have been a huge discouragement for me in the past as well. And if legal ramifications become serious I may have to move to Canada or something. Also, is your poker journal on-line or personal? How much poker do you play? Again thanks so much for posting, it's just nice to talk to someone w/Aspergers about poker, this is a first.

What Vegas means to me, in large part, is living at Budget Suites, and feeling uncomfortable and unsafe every time I walked from my car to my unit at night, even though I stayed very alert to my surroundings. Didn't feel so bad in the daytime. Took long walks, I think viewed as kind of odd for doing that. Well, I like taking long walks!

So, moved to Vegas Sept '06 with plan of selling furniture and playing poker. It was not a red hot growing town like I had hoped. I think I kind of missed the window. And maybe my season for selling furniture, when it worked for me personally, maybe that was in the past and it was time for new adventures.

Again, broke even on the poker, lost money if you consider incidentals and living expenses.


But, learned a lot socially, and that's what I really like about poker and what I kind of preach. For example, saw years ago two psychologists on TV talking about treating a person with a social phobia. The assignment was to walk into a restaurant, order coffee, and engage the person next to you in conversation. The person did it, but it was so stressful that they parred back the assignment for next time. Now, looking back on it, what I immediately see as a poker player: What if the person sitting next to you doesn't want to be engaged in conversation! It's like raising late position and narrowing the field to one person pre-flop, and then continuation bet (C-bet) at flop, well, sometimes that works, and sometimes for a variety of situations and circumstances, it doesn't! And amazing thing is, sometimes you can read these situations and circumstances. And sometimes you want the person to call and sometimes you don't.

(PS my poker journal is in a notebook. I have written about it some here on Wrong Planet, mainly the social analogies)

But brother, wish you all the best. Happy to discuss it as I can.

Thanks for the insights into how it went for you. Expenses add up fast that's for sure. So do you still live in Vegas? Do you still sell furniture? I worked in retail sales with cellular phones for a while.

Okay, I tell you one of the things that has helped me at live table games. I have to not talk, even if I'm lonely, even if someone is talking about a juicy intellectual topic. I have to not talk, and concentrate instead---easy and naturally---on the poker. And instead I can stop by the sports book afterwards and maybe get some conversation, one out of three chance, but that's my best bet. Slip into my seat with my poker magazine, throw off some offhand comment (keeping it simple and down the middle for now), see if the person runs with it, one out of three chance. And some of these people are extremely knowledgeable about sports.

Other thing I learned and it surprised me, like with a guy talking about being a paramedic and his recent divorce, or a East European, after about 20 minutes or so, even a really good conversation with a stranger can bog.

No, no longer live in Vegas, no longer sell furniture. What I liked about selling mattresses was that a healthy mattress allows shoulders and hips to sink evenly and thus fills in the crucial lumbar area. And thus soft can be healthy!

What did you like about cell phone sales?