The Challenge

As some of you know, I have Crohns disease. I suffered with for nearly 20 years now and so am pretty used to the side effects, and have had 3 bowel resections to help the problem over the years. Over the last couple of years it’s been getting progressively worse and I’m now taking immu-suppressants along with anti-TNF treatment to help. These treatments present other problems, namely my immune system is tremendously weakened and I’m prone to catching anything that’s going around. Since last September I’ve been off work nearly 3 months in total, and work now only pay me SSP contributions as I only started with this company in June which don’t amount to much. To supplement my income and provide money for everything else i’ve been making money from poker.

Whilst i’m still a loser playing online cash i now win money playing MTT’s and STT’s. I did alot of work on my game during the first half of 2009 registering and watching training videos on sites like PokerVT, SNGgrinders and our very own Gutshots Gzone. Once i started playing again regularly last summer i noticed a massive difference in both my live and online games. From August to December i played 16 live MTT’s and final tabled 8 of them for a £5,790 profit. Online i regularly won MTT’s and made final tables on the Gutshot skin of Cake Poker and made a decent amount of cash from $16 turbos on Pokerstars. Whist this is all positive i still lost money playing online cash, something i’ve now cut to a minimum. I’ve also been doing a lot of work to improve my cash game, and am seeing early promising signs playing ‘Rush poker’ on Full Tilt. I started playing MTT’s on FTP 2 weeks ago and have made a $6,277 profit over that period. All in all it’s been a goodish start to 2010.

Now with my Crohns showing no signs of improvement i’ve made a decision that i would like to give playing poker a try for 6-12 months. If it works out, then i’ll continue. If it doesn’t then i can go back to working in online media. I’m currently Head of International Client Sales for Orange and have a good track record in the industry, therefore shouldn’t be too hard to find a job after this should things not work out.

The upsides will be that i can live a very flexible life; I’ve always been a night owl and often have trouble sleeping. This will mean i can sleep when i need rather than worrying about having to get to sleep when i’m in pain and worrying how I’ll feel the next day. I will be free to spend more time with my daughter picking her up from school when I want, which when I’m working is impossible. I will be able to ‘work’ from home which is something i can’t do normally. Therefore even when i feel unwell i’ll be able to put in hours at home to generate income.

The downsides are pretty obvious too. If I fail to make money i will have not be able to pay the rent for food etc. I will start with enough money to pay for things during the first few months, but once that goes poker will be the only income. I guess if this doesn’t work then i’ll have to start looking for a new job sooner. The monotony of playing 1000’s of STT’s a month could be the next problem. Personally I’ve never found this a problem, and in a strange way quite enjoy those grinding days. The lack of human contact is probably the final downside. I enjoy working around people. I guess i’ll play more live poker at the international which will help. Then it’ll be up to me to ensure i get off my arse and go out to meet people regularly, and don’t live like a hermit!

Before i make a final decision that this is what i want to do i’ve set myself a challenge. Originally this was to earn $10,000 during January, February and March, but with us just into Feb i’m already on $6,900 profit. Whilst this is a good start i’ve not been playing anywhere as much as i should do, and to make it more of a challenge considering the start I’ve had I’ve changed the end date to first week in March. 4 weeks, $3,100 to hit the target. I would love to say i’m running red hot, but playing the STT’s i’m losing so many flips and running in AA v KK cold decks so often that i’m surprised the my profit is that good.

Anyway before i drivel on any longer i will end there. I’m off work all week, and will try and update the blog 3-4 times a week with my progress towards the $3,100 target. In the meantime it would be great to get people thoughts either posting here, or on the thread i’ve started on the Gutshot forum...