Happy Days

There's nothing like a few days work to make you appreciate how good it is to play poker for a living. For the past 5 years myself, my dad and brother have spent the close season painting Dens Park (home of Dundee FC). It started out as a voluntary thing as the club were up shit creek financially but we get paid for it now. Well they pay us and we buy hospitality and sponsorship etc. so all the money goes back to the club. We're all big Dundee supporters so it's good to meet all the guys and get to see behind the scenes. My only complaint is that it's ruined the mystique about the football club. When I was young I used to worship the players and could only dream of meeting them. Now they're just in the way when we're trying to get stuff done.

Anyway the point is I had to work for the past 3 days and it really puts things into perspective. I have a pretty easy life. I wake up when I want, work when I want and finish any fucking time I feel like it. After 2 days of 8 o'clock starts I was fucked by dinner time.

This just adds to the general love I have for poker right now. I'm really happy at the moment. The last couple of months have been great and I feel that things are really working out for me.

When I decided to give playing for a living another shot I was a bit apprehensive. The first time around I was totally miserable and absolutely hated poker. I had absolutely no confidence in my game. I was constantly working on trying to improve, so much so I became somewhat obsessed with it. I didn't realise at the time that the problems I faced were not entirely related to my ability to play poker.

First of all and by far the most important was the fact my only game was full ring limit hold em. I got totally bored of that within a month. Being bored does not help your game at all and I was playing well below my A game. Obviously I didn't realise this at the time and thought I was playing fabulously but running into donkey luckboxes all the time.

Secondly I was playing on Stars and basically keeping American time, playing through the night and sleeping all day. This led me to feel pretty isolated - if I wanted to do anything (like going to the football for example) I had to totally change my sleeping patterns and socialising was a fucking nightmare.

I was also playing in the house and was frequently disturbed by my kids waking up, the dog wanting to take a piss etc. Not good for my mindset. The most productive change I've made was getting myself a little office away from any distractions.

Volume was a big problem for me too. I thought it was lazyness but it was more to do with the fact I was just pissed off playing poker. Tilt was pretty much ever present for me just bubbling below the surface. I expected to win any hand I showed down because it was my divine right to win. I was so much better than the opposition.

I could go on. There was a lot of stuff that prevented me from succeeding the last time and around this time last year I went back to work. To be honest it was the best thing I have ever done. After a while I really missed the freedom that poker gives you. I went over and over all my failings and took time to seriously analyse the issues I had. I thought about how I could make improvements if I ever decided to get back into poker. I spent a few months putting things into place but at the time had no intention of playing for a living any time soon. I fucked it up one time and had to be sure that the second time it would work.

Business started to slow down around Xmas and I was struggling a little bit. I played to make some extra cash and started playing SNG's. When I started crunching the numbers it was dawning on me that there was some money to be made if I did it full time.

I managed to convince my wife who vividly remembers what a miserable bastard I was.

So here I sit, 3 days shy of my 30th birthday feeling pretty fucking happy with myself. I'm currently playing 3 or 4 sessions a day - all SNG's now. I've found a structure that works well for me. I'm not exactly doing 9 -5 but have plenty of time with the wife and kids and dont have to change my sleep patterns if I want to go out. I'm playing a minimum of 100 tournaments a day and find it easy to put that volume in. I generally take Saturday off and play drunken mtt's on Sundays.

I'm taking a more relaxed approach to improving my game and concentrate more on playing the game to the best of my abilities. If I make a mistake I don't beat myself up over it and I'm generally more relaxed when I'm playing. I don't tilt any more and feel strangely detatched when I take a bad beat. Before I would be breaking stuff. I think that with SNG's there are a lot more close decisions where you're either shipping it in or folding so the beats are ever present.

I don't look upon myself as the best player at the table now and don't think it's my divine right to win when I have a good hand. Truth is I don't need to be the best, I'm pretty happy with slightly above average thanks.

I'm very aware of the potential pitfalls but I think I've matured just a little bit. There's also the ever present fear that I'll fuck it up this time. There won't be a third chance.

From the moment I discovered poker I knew that this is what I want to do. Now finally, I'm doing it right.