Monday December 8

Welcome to my blog!! Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to pursue becoming a "pro" poker player. Honestly, I have yet to figure out what actually determines when
you have become a "pro" poker player other than just declaring oneself to be one. So, given the nebulous nature of this subject, I am hereby declaring myself to be a professional poker player.

The reason I believe this is justified is because:

A) I'm making money at it...albeit a small amount relative to the time invested
B) I'm better at it than most people who play.

I think my poker career is analagous to that of a minor league baseball player.

Financially speaking, a minor leaguer is making a paltry sum compared to his major league counterparts, but he is being paid to play.
Just as a minor league baseball player at Single A level has become very proficient at baseball, he still has a long way to go before he reaches the pinnacle of his profession, I too have a long way to go in developing my poker game.

The first time I ever played poker was in November of 2005, but I didn't start playing hardcore until about 1 year ago. I started at the absolute bottom in the .01/.02 ring games. I was horrible at the beginning. Now, I play mostly SNG's. I play anywhere from $6 to about $35 buy ins. I'm trying to ween myself away from the comfortable womb-like confines of the <$10 SNG arena. It's hard to pull yourself away from a level once you start beating it because it feels good to win $$. But, for me to achieve my goals, I must continue to move up once I'm beating the game at a given level. I've been down this road before with the <$5 SNG's and I can honestly say I never play those anymore, so I know that soon I will be eschewing the <$10 games entirely and for good. I've been having good success at the $15-$35 9-mans and the $10-$20 double or nothings, but occasionally play the $6's if I get tilted or lose confidence. I also play the $6 HU's quite a bit because I can win and because HU satisifes my urge to "gamble" more than any other form of poker. However, the competition gets really stiff really quick as you move up the HU foodchain, so the $6-$11 with the occasional $22-$33 suit me fine for now.
Also, I have been playing alot of "Steps" lately. I play the Step 1's, then 2's then 3's. I haven't played many of my Step 3's, so I've only gotten 2 Step 4 tickets. Once I get a Step 4 Ticket, my plan is to play a $215 buy in MTT on Sunday. I've done this twice and cashed both times!! The very first time was 3 weeks ago I played the Sunday warmup and got 70th out of 3897 players good for $1246. The following week I played the Sunday Million and got the lowest cash amount of $310. I was very excited to have accomplished this!! I currently have 5 Step 3's in the bank, so I will be playing those this week probably.

Just to give everyone an idea of where I'm at right now, my bankroll is $3365 in cash and $464 in Step Equity. From now on, I'm going to only report the total of the two combined which is currently $3829. Every penny of this is money I've won. I do not plan on ever depositing my own money again unless I can get some kind of bonus in which case I will remove my deposit as soon as the bonus rules allow.