One of the questions I get asked from people back in Durham (besides “how much did you win?”) is if I’ve played with any famous celebrities.
Thus far, I can’t say I haven’t besides the occasional poker player I’ve seen on TV. But in the next few months, I’d be willing to bet that at the $500 buy-in games I would see…
Bill Gates.
Yes, the richest man in the world, when he comes to Las Vegas, never plays higher than $500 buy-in games. Why would a man who could lose eight figures in a single day and not blink be unwilling to sit in a game no more expensive than a brand new laptop?
Because he’s probably scared to lose any more money at the table. And I can’t blame anyone for putting half a grand on the table and saying, “If I lose this, I’m done for the day.” For the professional player, however, that kind of attitude is pretty much death to one’s potential success.
As I said in the last post, the successful player has to be willing to put his money in the pot when he’s ahead, no matter how small the edge. It is actually possible to have a literal coin flip in a pot, but when we say, “This hand’s a coin flip,” it’s actually more likely that one hand is a 55 percent favorite. While that five percent is pretty much miniscule in one single hand, over hundreds and thousands of hands, it’s a pretty significant edge.
Whenever I sit down at a table, I always have two buy-ins in my pocket. So, if I am playing at a $300 buy-in game, I have $600, and if it’s $1,000, I carry two G’s in my pocket. Why? Because I know that in pushing those very small edges, there’s a decent chance I’ll lose my initial buy-in. It’s not likely (i.e. greater than 50 percent), but it’s large enough that it warrants carrying more than just the table buy-in in my pocket.
In other words, I can’t play with the thought process of “I really need to conserve this money tonight.” I need to do everything I can to put my money in ahead, but accept that it is possible I will lose it all from a bad beat or in the unlikely event I get outplayed.
But it’s not just at the tables—you’ve got to look at the big picture. If you know you have to make $3,000 a month to stay afloat, can you constantly maintain that focus, that drive and desire to win necessary to make money?
If you can’t, well, then you need to get a day job while you play poker. That’s not to say you’ll never become a good poker player or a completely independent one, it just means at that moment, you are more likely to literally go broke than survive.
While I have not had a problem making money out here, I realized I did have a big picture problem. I was making enough money to pay my bills or move up in stakes—but not both at the same time. Sure, it’s nice to pull in enough money to pay the bills and live relatively comfortably, but I didn’t come to Las Vegas to get by.
I came out here to prove myself as the best poker player in the world, and doing so in one of two ways—by dominating the cash games and winning multiple bracelets at the World Series of Poker. The latter won’t happen until next May, but the former will never happen if I can’t have the luxury of moving up in stakes.
It’s why I went and got a job as a timeshare sales agent, for the financial security it provides. I certainly don’t expect to be working as an agent for the rest of my life, but I also know it’s necessary in order to aid my poker ambitions. Quite frankly, I can’t be playing with scared money at the tables.
If I do that, then I’ll be losing money faster than if I never played a round of poker in this city.
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