Transition to Live Poker

So it's been a fairly long while since my last post.  In that time, a number of things have happened:

- I started playing on FTP in mid-March of 2011.  I wanted to take advantage of RUSH poker since my time available for poker is typically limited.  RUSH allowed me to play ~700 hands/hour playing just two tables, and I did not have to table select.  Instead of setting up a session of 5-6 tables on Stars, which typically took 10-20 minutes depending on the time of day, I just fire up 2 tables of RUSH and go to town.  My winrate was a bit lower but the volume made up for it, I was on pace to clear 40k hands/month, which would have been my record by almost 2x (previous record was 23k hands in Jan of 2010).  I was hoping to use RUSH as a signifcant motivator in my poker development.  I had never had an avenue through which I could reliably get good volume in, and this seemed like a great way to do that.  It would have been great for me to get in so many hands, but unfortunately:

- Online sites shut down in US by DOJ in mid-April 2011.  Known as Black Friday in the online community, this obviously sucked for me.  Even though poker is not a main income source for me, I enjoyed having something that was intellectually challenging as a hobby that I could do in the comfort of my own home.  Unfortunately, the government does not agree that I should have that ability (before this gets any more political or I get comments from anyone saying "F big government", etc.; you should know that the banning of online poker is largerly to entirely due to the conservatives in congress in their desire to legislate morality and "protect families").  Sorry about the rant there, I'm still a little bitter.

- I started playing live $1/$2 NL at my local casino.  I ended up playing 2-3 times/month over the summer for 3-5 hours per session.  I felt myself getting much more comfortable at the tables throughout my time.  The casino was actually fairly nice, with a non-smoking poker room, and by all accounts the best room in the state.  I gave myself a starting bankroll of $1,100, which was roughly the amount I was able to withdraw from Stars after Black Friday (still no money from FTP).  Through a combination of 2 tournaments and 8 cash game sessions, I increased my bankroll to $1,718.  I ran above expectation in my opinion, though I don't think I played poorly.  I just think that for my current skill level (was a big winner at $10NL and small winner at $25NL online) a $21/hr winrate at $1/$2 live is probably unsustainable.  That type of winrate is reserved for pretty good players in fairly weak games.  If I'm being honest with myself, I'd like to think I could sustain a $10-$12/hr winrate at those games.

- I moved to the SF Bay area in August 2011.  I haven't played a live session yet, but I plan on playing mainly at the Bay101 casino in San Jose.  This is because it has the most tables and is the most renowned/well regarded in the area from what I have read (though regs at other places tend to like their place more, typically Bay101 is high on everyone's list).  Plus, Matt Savage works there, and it is widely known that he is one of the best tournament directors in the industry.  I'll keep my bankroll at $1,718, which will be a little tight because the smallest game spread at Bay 101 for no limit is $1/$2/$2 with $4 min bring in (no limping for $2).  So my risk of ruin is actually higher than I'd like, but I also would like to think that my potential upside is substantial.

In the coming months, I will be updating this blog after every live session with session length, winnings (losses), monthly totals, and current bankroll.  I haven't yet decided if I should deduct travel expenses out of my bankroll or out of my other life-roll accounts under the premise that they would be the same if I drove to any other hobby I might have (hockey, golf, etc).