How much did you lose before you became profitable?

insafehands

So far I've lost €500+ gambling (€225 was on drunken online blackjack)... Aside form that it's been all online and live poker.

As a Leaving Cert student with no job I'm wondering whether I should have been doing what I did, and now I'm broke with no real form of income until the summer. I wouldn't say I have an addiction - at all - just I'm very fond of poker and it's something that I want to get good at..

So out of interest, how much did you lose (if any) before you became profitable? And how long did it take for you to take that step?

Reg's,
ish.

EDIT: Ty.

shoutman

Well first of all dont play online blackjack.......

I lost about two hundred dollars before I became profitable, this was playing 5 dolllar sngs and had put 50 bucks into pokerstars each time, i got my break when winning a $4+40 180 person sng netting my roughly 200 and have progressed from there.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

shoutman wrote:

Well first of all dont play online blackjack.......

I lost about two hundred dollars before I became profitable, this was playing 5 dolllar sngs and had put 50 bucks into pokerstars each time, i got my break when winning a $4+40 180 person sng netting my roughly 200 and have progressed from there.

and secondly gambling and drink dont mix so do one or the other and not both...i started of good for a year and half then recently over the last 2 months dropped about 3K but pulled back about 8k over the last month. sometimes you need to know when to take a break and look at your game (which i did) as you can easily loose the value of money if you constantly win.

ianmc38

I never lost anything when I first started with €20 on PPP. After i'd built up decent bankrolls on different sites, I went broke playing bigger games well outside my bankroll mainly as an ego thing (the worst being a -8k loss on a Sunday morning at 5/10 on Full Tilt).

I think the main things I've improved recently are patience, bankroll management and tilt control. All of them are definitely hugely +EV inthe longrun. Also, avoid online blackjack like the plague!

Tar.Aldarion

I've not lost anything. Only started playing properly about two years ago and the worst I've come in a home game since then is second, so that cancels out any losses during the week, buys me food or whatever.
Say this week, would have won over a hundred in home games and lost maybe 30 in casino. Some friends constantly lose and some learn faster. It's down to how fast you can improve, patience, tilting etc
If you lose you will want to learn faster. Try starting with micro limits on the net, if you can take them seriously.
Unfortunately I can't.

Don't play blackjack for much money!
If at all...

eoghan104

ill let you know when i become profitable...........

TacT

circa €500. Don't play with your money when starting out, sign up for a free $10 here, $50 there and don't use your money until you can turn a profit playing .5/.10c blinds with a $5 or $10 buyin if you want to play cash games and turn a profit. I'll hazard a guess and say it takes anyone between 3-6 months before they start getting into the money.

www.yourpokercash.com should get you started

hoooooooot

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I've not lost anything. Only started playing properly about two years ago and the worst I've come in a home game since then is second, so that cancels out any losses during the week, buys me food or whatever.
Say this week, would have won over a hundred in home games and lost maybe 30 in casino. Some friends constantly lose and some learn faster. It's down to how fast you can improve, patience, tilting etc
If you lose you will want to learn faster. Try starting with micro limits on the net, if you can take them seriously.
Unfortunately I can't.

Don't play blackjack for much money!
If at all...

are they headsup home games??

Doc Farrell

I lose all the time
and
I win all the time.

If you lose so much that you are completely fcuked then you're in trouble.
If you're making enough for a few beers at the weekend and a new pair of pants on a two hundred dollar bankroll then consider yourself in the tiny minority who win overall.

in other words, if you are worrying about your losses then you've lost too much already. Get a job that pays 400 a week and play with a hundred.

its just a game, trying to turn it into a 30,000 a year job will be very very difficult.
if I was 18 again I'd be shagging everything that moved and drinking myself stupid every night! not playing cards with bunch of B.O. whiners or going crosseyed on bad beats on the interweb!
believe me man, concentrate on having some fun and play within your limits.

ianmc38

Doc Farrell wrote:

its just a game, trying to turn it into a 30,000 a year job will be very very difficult.
if I was 18 again I'd be shagging everything that moved and drinking myself stupid every night! not playing cards with bunch of B.O. whiners or going crosseyed on bad beats on the interweb!
believe me man, concentrate on having some fun and play within your limits.

lol. have you lost the mojo Des?

Doc Farrell

There's a lot more money to be made in business than in playing cards (for me!). When poker stops being fun its a pain in the ass. And it hasn't been fun for quite a while. Only playing once a forthnight now or when i feel like it. Looking forward to the Vegas Nights game on Feb 18th.
my internet connection is fcuked at the moment, i can't get it fixed, it goes weird every twenty minutes so it's put a blocker on playing online and i don't mind at all i've found.

when i started winning about 4 years ago it was like manna from heaven and it gave me enough to scrape together a deposit for a business but if i had to sit every night and watch the same people lose (and also lose myself 30% of the time) I would put a bullet in my wonderous brain.

enough of my whinging.
where's that Vegas filth report Ian?

phantom_lord

I lost about 100dollars online.


I started off with 400 in the fitz and ran it up to about 7k+ before going on a horrible run and losing it, although I did spend a good bit so it wasn't all bad

ianmc38

I wasnt talking about the poker! Report shall appear soon. I get days when Im in the mood for writing. Tomorrow I'm on my own in the office so I might do something then

Doc Farrell

Actually the opposite is true Ian! I've relocated my long dormant Mojo! It was buried under huge levels of stress and financial commitments!
But I think I'm finally free so lock up your sisters! 35th birthday next weekend and I think I fancy a little Polish or perhaps a touch of Czech!
in fact i forgot tomorrow is friday, i've been working so hard. i think i'll take saturday morning off and get fooked up!

the friday scalps game is my favourite poker tourney but i just can't see myself sitting at a table concentrating after working 9am to 9pm.
today i worked 9 to 5 then 6 to 11pm and its been like that since December but as of next weekend I'll be a lot freer.
and thats my life story. now, please buy a car, you can have one cheap!

JustMac

insafehands wrote:

So far I've lost €500+ gambling (€225 was on drunken online blackjack)... Aside form that it's been all online and live poker.

IMO I think a lot can be learnt from how you lost the €500+ (excluding the drunken blackjack). If you are learning the game and want to improve then you should be getting value for your money by playing the micro limit cash cames (.05/.1) or the small STTs $1-$5. Though the competition isn't great you can learn a lot and not lose a lot. I think the most important requirement is patience and it would be great if you can develop that early on. Reading a poker book such as Harrington on Holdem wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I'm playing about 2 years. I lost about €400 online before I started winning, though only small money. The reason I lost the €400 is because I didn't follow my own advice above. I played $10-$30 MTTs and STTs and played quite a few turbo and speed games (Avoid these at all costs as they aren't proper poker at all, only crapshoots.) These days I play $10-$50 STTs and MTTs which is fine now as I have the necessary bankroll. I had one drunken blip last week which cost me $300 but overall I have been very patient. I'm up about $2000 in the last year online. As mentioned above poker is most likely to provide you with a bit of pocket money at best unless you are extremely good.

BTW. There is no guarantee that you will ever win. Its certainly not as simple as expecting to lose €x before you start winning. Its about learning and getting better.

Marq

people lose?

spectre

I was a natural from day one.

I was under the impression that only winners were allowed to post?

robinlacey

i never lost anything,i started off playing the free 10c giveaways on tribeca and never had to deposit...

if you are a student and are already down 500 you need to be careful,you don't want to be throwing good money after bad,and you certainly don't want to be playing blackjack!

if you are determined to keep playing,then you should put in one last 40 euro,and use that as 50 buyins for $1 stts...

don't move up till you have $120,then start playing 2c/4c nl cash games and learn the games from there...

this may sound boring but if you don't have the discipline to do it you will probably never do well in poker anyway,and since you don't have a regular income you need to be careful.

nicnicnic

yeah I was a natural from day one to. I had no credit card(to many years backing horses) so got my uncle's and blew the remaining €900 of his limit the first day i played. He wouldn't give it to me again:mad: so had to spend the next 6 months chasing freerolls, which was a very good thing as I learned the game cheaply,

I dread to think the damage I could have done with ready access to credit cards in that period

robinlacey

yeah i've never had a credit card (getting one next week though,enough is enough!),it could have been disasterous if i'd had one a few years ago.

cooker3

As of now I have yet to lose. I deposited $50 through credit card in 2005 and managed to work it up to about 2k currently. Live I am roughly even, I have exact records but can't be bothered to check now how accurate they are but I will not be too much ahead or behind I imagine. Online, I managed to win a few cheap mtt's and went from there and generally kept withing bankroll for the most part.
So far so good.

StraddleFor6

$8k. Expensive lessons.

Tar.Aldarion

hoooooooot wrote:

are they headsup home games??

Nah, 5-12 people usually.
I sam always torn between teaching somebody why they shouldn't do something and shutting up, so I can keep taking their money.

Goodluck2me

cooker3 wrote:

I have exact records....
how accurate they are

?

Ste05

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Nah, 5-12 people usually.
I sam always torn between teaching somebody why they shouldn't do something and shutting up, so I can keep taking their money.

LOL, and in 2 years you've either won it or come second every single time?? Are you sure?? How many times have you played 3 times, 4, more?

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Only started playing properly about two years ago and the worst I've come in a home game since then is second,

Tar.Aldarion

I'm sure. Last two weeks I've won 3-4. Biggest pot 120.
Sometimes up to three times a week. Usually once a week. Around exams not much at all. It's only a fiver in, and usually about 6 people on average. Pays for my food.
Neoslicerz, senritsu and danniemcq on boards play my home games and can confirm that they donate to me regularly these days.
I'm sure I'm not great, though they are less great.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

Killme00

insafehands wrote:

As a Leaving Cert student with no job

You need a slap

Quit gambling until after your leaving cert and even then until you have a few quid you can comfortably lose(not just mammy and daddys money, whether they can afford it or not). Then when you pass the Leaving and get into college or uni, you can start playing the cheap student games

FutureGuy

Study first, pass exams, get to college, then play in spare time!

When I started, had a credit card, and a bit of disposable income, but before I knew it, I was losing quite a bit. When I got my credit card statement, I nearly collapsed! I'd frequently deposited 50 and playied $5STTs, which were too high for my bankroll. So I lost about 300 euro in total before I knew I needed to cop on.

After sitting down and taking the advice of the good people here, I got a proper bankroll in place and started at the $1 STT on PPP, working $50 up to about $550, and then reinvested about 300 of that back into my game (bought alot of books and PokerTracker).

Anyway since then, I've been doing quite well and i'm up about 600 atm on Full Tilt Poker.

So listen to what these people say, start small and stick to your bankroll religiously. Especially the drinking and gambling combo, a definate no-no. And find somewhere with an easy to clear bonus, as this will help cushion against any losses.

jbravado

Lol.

I remember when I first started playing in first year college,got my first credit and maxed it out that very day courtesy of the fitz.Tremendous.

Ste05

I've no reason to disbelieve Robin here, and he might be the exception to the rule, but most people who say they've never lost anything playing Poker when they started out are usually either lying to you or to themselves.

EDITED: To fix an extra words used.

Killme00

FutureGuy wrote:

Study first, pass exams, get to college, then play in spare time!

.
Priorities baby, you gotta have them

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

ianmc38

I remember I lost close to 2k one night in the SE. That night I made a new discovery - transcendental depression. It was unbelievably depressing.

Linford

I lost about $5k at the start (2003) over about 6 months-

Then I won a big MTT in October 2003, lost a good lump of that but held on to some.

Next 2 1/2 years evenish then won a very big online MTT last summer.

If it wasn't for a couple of big MTT wins I would probably still be a losing player overall.

Tar.Aldarion

Why do some people seem to bet so much just starting out and not work your way up?

Lafortezza

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Why do some people seem to bet so much just starting out and not work your way up?

Because the concept of bankroll management is unknown to 99% of new players. When I started playing in the Fitz first I was using by boozing money.

valor

I started out winning and have never been in the red from poker

Linford

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Why do some people seem to bet so much just starting out and not work your way up?

For a lot of people, myself included, there is no satisfaction in playing for insignificant amounts of money. For example nobody here plays for pretend money, in that same light I couldn't play when all I could win was $50 and all I was risking was the about the same.

I now play for slightly lower stakes than I did at the start. There are two reasons for this: I have a greater appreciation for the game and gain some satisfaction, above the monetary one, when I win; and secondly I have a lot more responsibilities now than I did when I started.

ocallagh

I have no idea how much I lost... I played live poker for about a year before I even knew about online poker. My bankroll was my drinking money so If I blew 30 a week it didn't bother me. My advice is to play with drinking money until you start winning! Playing for insignificant amounts is boring.

Hitman Actual

The guys who are saying they've never lost, are they trying to say that they started playing with zero knowledge, and were automatically winning players?

handsfree

about €250 but then didn't lose for a year. then i didn't play for a couple of months and now i'm losing again ~50 euro or so down but this is because i register for MTT rebuys and use all my bankroll then start again.

ArmaniJeanss

lenny_leonard wrote:

The guys who are saying they've never lost, are they trying to say that they started playing with zero knowledge, and were automatically winning players?

Zero knowledge other than a few sessions of (losing) draw poker back when I were a kid, and whatever info had been gleamed from Late Night Poker.

I put £20Stg into Betfair, played £1+.1 STTs and never looked back.

If you start at a low enough level and have a decent grasp of maths then its entirely possible to have never been a losing player.

smurph

nicnicnic wrote:

yeah I was a natural from day one to. I had no credit card(to many years backing horses) so got my uncle's and blew the remaining €900 of his limit the first day i played. He wouldn't give it to me again:mad: so had to spend the next 6 months chasing freerolls, which was a very good thing as I learned the game cheaply,

I dread to think the damage I could have done with ready access to credit cards in that period

God I can so relate to your post Nic, got my 2 visa cards when I went to America for the Soccer world cup in 1994, spent the next three years paying them off (The banks thought I had a Car and a Motorbike cause I had a loan for both and the Credit Union thought i lived in a palace cause I Borrowed for cough cough "Home Improvement":p best Holiday ever, but last holiday for 4 years. Glad I never got into using the Card much for gambling because I would have been a disaster.

2 other things im glad of
A. I didn't discover Vegas til last year instead of in my 20's because I would have moved there and be dead now from alcohol poisening, heat stroke or homeless.
B. It's so far away!!!!

Bank roll management is everything, and be honest with yourself......... not everyone's a winner Baby, That's for sure.......

patmac

A long time ago in a galaxy far away I spent 6 months of college playing cards and losing money before having to emigrate and work on building sites in London etc, now as a sensible 40something I only play with what I can afford. I started playing off line MTT in Athlone €90 a time but was never in the money, but now I play mainly on-line and am quite successful at $10STT and low level Mtt's, I'm also a bonus whore moving from site to site and that's probably where a lot of the profit comes from.

empirix

About €3k online, but now i have switched to betfair i am nearly there to reclaiming that sum back in the space of a month and people tell me not to be paranoid about tribeca network!

Live i have walked away 4 times empty handed(remember them all) after losing about €200 - 350 each session,up about 9k live for the year(about 34 sessions in total),quite happy for my first year, have learned a lot, most of which i blew on gadgets, laptop, clothes and beer. Haven't played live in 6 weeks now, concentrating on online cash play and tournament play, hoping to qualify for the irish open. Fingers crossed.

empirix

About €3k online, but now i have switched to betfair i am nearly there to reclaiming that sum back in the space of a month and people tell me not to be paranoid about tribeca network!

Live i have walked away 4 times empty handed(remember them all) after losing about €200 - 350 each session,up about 9k live for the year(about 34 sessions in total),quite happy for my first year, have learned a lot, most of which i blew on gadgets, laptop, clothes and beer. Haven't played live in 6 weeks now, concentrating on online cash play and tournament play, hoping to qualify for the irish open. Fingers crossed.

Marq

lenny_leonard wrote:

The guys who are saying they've never lost, are they trying to say that they started playing with zero knowledge, and were automatically winning players?

Not having played for money before doesn't mean that you start with no knowledge. About three years ago I started playing seven stud with friends in college, we played that for a few weeks before learning hold'em, which we also played for no money. We would play with matchsticks, cashgame style, then we invested in some very cheap chips and would have little single-table-tournaments, again for no money, just for the enjoyment of playing.

While this was going on I also discovered pokerroom.com, and I played on the playmoney tables for months before eventually depositing 50 dollars and playing $5.50 STTs. I'll never forget busting out of the first one and winning the second. I was up 19 dollars! Our game in college started playing for small money too, and I continued to win in it.

I played a couple of freerolls in the fitz and the merrion and managed to win some tickets to bigger games, some of which I played, but most of which I sold the tickets for and made a small profit over time. I cashed out 200 dollars from Pokerroom and continued to play with the profit.

I started working in the fitz, and started playing cash games infrequently in October of 2004. My first two sessions I won 850, and went to russia for two weeks on the money.

I think I got really lucky when I started out playing for money, winning small amounts pretty consistently, but it wasn't all luck, as I had played poker for months quite intensively without ever investing a penny. I had also read boards and talked to a lot of pokerplayers because I worked in the fitz for months before I invested money in cashgames.

I've gone broke twice since then, but I've never been in the red, just kept spending everything I won so that I never had a proper bankroll. It's very easy to go broke when you don't keep your poker winnings to just play poker with.

ditpoker

im a break even player (i think) and proud of it! online is bad for me. although max ive lost over 2 yrs online cant be more than 200 euro.

phantom_lord

I stated off on ppp twice with 50 notes, the first time was to play the boards hu game.

I went broke both times cause I played WAY outside my bankroll, I won a mtt but lost it all after bubbling a sick amount of stts.

Threw in 500 last month and have run up to 10k when u include the irish open package, poker is ez...

niborm

I'd say I was down about 1.5K - 2K, over about 6-8 months, before I started being profitable. I had no idea of bankroll management (or folding Ax!!) and would lose regularly before it struck home that coming 4th in the Fitz 20 rebuys didn't cover all my losing experiences. How and ever it was money well spent even if it felt expensive at the time.

I used to keep track of exact spend, profit and loss in an Excel sheet but somebody decided I had one laptop too many and removed mine from my house via the back window...at least that's what I told the insurance company in order to regain my bankroll.