An introduction
Another poker blog... just what the world needs, right? Despite the major saturation of poker blogs out there, it was the only logical choice for me. Poker is probably my favorite hobby and a game I enjoy talking about and improving at. My goal for this blog is to discuss particular hands or situations I find myself in, create and keep tabs on particular poker goals, and throw in a few random comments about life, news, and stuff related to my school/research work.
I'm not sure I like my blog title, but I couldn't come up with anything too creative at the moment. If you don't play much poker, you may be wondering what this "robusto" is. Robusto is simply the antithesis of busto. Busto is the poker player's worst nightmare, the state in which some combination of tilt, unluckiness, or poor play mixes in with poor bankroll management to such a severe degree that you are wiped out. Depending on the level you are playing at and the risk factors you take, poker busto can even lead to life busto. For a hobbyist such as myself that usually isn't the case, but it is always a slight risk there. Smart players can push this risk down to near zero by keeping their head straight, separating life bankroll from poker bankroll, and being willing to move down in stakes as needed.
Enough about busto and back to robusto. I've reached a point in my life now where I'm starting to get a little itchy. I don't regret my decision to go to grad school, but I don't like the fact that I'm 25, don't have a career, don't have any savings, and in general still feel lost on where my life is going to lead. In the next couple of months I have a big decision to make on whether I want to get a PhD or stop at my MS and start making some money. I've interviewed with one major company so far, and will probably try to feel out the opportunities with a few other companies as well before committing myself to this big decision. Shameless plug: MSEE focused on semiconductor materials and device engineering and characterization. Interested in any kind of R&D, processing, or yield testing type jobs. I would also consider circuit design or software/hardware design for EDA or ATE products.
On to poker.. I voluntarily went poker busto at the end of 2006 as I needed my ~$1k bankroll to keep from going life busto. Took a break for a few months and decided to start working for small money amounts online again. Some friends were having an $11 private tournament on PokerStars. Problem was that I only had $7 left online. I got a $4 transfer from a friend, won the tournament, and paid him back an appropriate portion of the profits. I built my bankroll further from $4 180-person sit-n-goes (SNGs) and other small multi-table tournaments (MTTs) over the next few weeks and reached an apex of about $1200. At this point, I had enough to start grinding cash games. I had a very rough run readjusting to 6-max no-limit cash games, and lost several buy-ins at $.25/$.50NL. I dropped as low as around $350, got my game in order, and finished up March with a $50 profit in cash games and a $1150 total bankroll (lost a little for the month on tournaments).
At one point in my life I would have considered playing poker professionally as a serious option. Since then I've learned that a) I'm at high risk for gambling degeneracy (I'll post the story some other time, but the short version is that I learned the hard way on when to recognize a problem) b) I don't think I could deal with the stresses of the swings that will no doubt happen, and c) I'm just not very good at it. However, I consider myself a smart enough guy and good enough student of the game that at some point I might be able to make a small amount of side income on my hobby. Over the next few months I'll see if I can grow a self-sustaining (no redeposits) up to a point where I can start periodically cashing out some regular profits without impacting the level of stakes I'm playing at. If so, great. Ultimately I'd love to be able to pay for a nice vacation or something based on poker profits. If not, I'll allow myself to continue to fart around at microlimits as long as I'm not playing on money that I can't afford to play with.
That's about it for now. Kudos to anyone who made it through this entire post. I look forward to having an avenue to talk to about poker and life and can hopefully pick up a few readers and generate some discussion along the way.
I'm not sure I like my blog title, but I couldn't come up with anything too creative at the moment. If you don't play much poker, you may be wondering what this "robusto" is. Robusto is simply the antithesis of busto. Busto is the poker player's worst nightmare, the state in which some combination of tilt, unluckiness, or poor play mixes in with poor bankroll management to such a severe degree that you are wiped out. Depending on the level you are playing at and the risk factors you take, poker busto can even lead to life busto. For a hobbyist such as myself that usually isn't the case, but it is always a slight risk there. Smart players can push this risk down to near zero by keeping their head straight, separating life bankroll from poker bankroll, and being willing to move down in stakes as needed.
Enough about busto and back to robusto. I've reached a point in my life now where I'm starting to get a little itchy. I don't regret my decision to go to grad school, but I don't like the fact that I'm 25, don't have a career, don't have any savings, and in general still feel lost on where my life is going to lead. In the next couple of months I have a big decision to make on whether I want to get a PhD or stop at my MS and start making some money. I've interviewed with one major company so far, and will probably try to feel out the opportunities with a few other companies as well before committing myself to this big decision. Shameless plug: MSEE focused on semiconductor materials and device engineering and characterization. Interested in any kind of R&D, processing, or yield testing type jobs. I would also consider circuit design or software/hardware design for EDA or ATE products.
On to poker.. I voluntarily went poker busto at the end of 2006 as I needed my ~$1k bankroll to keep from going life busto. Took a break for a few months and decided to start working for small money amounts online again. Some friends were having an $11 private tournament on PokerStars. Problem was that I only had $7 left online. I got a $4 transfer from a friend, won the tournament, and paid him back an appropriate portion of the profits. I built my bankroll further from $4 180-person sit-n-goes (SNGs) and other small multi-table tournaments (MTTs) over the next few weeks and reached an apex of about $1200. At this point, I had enough to start grinding cash games. I had a very rough run readjusting to 6-max no-limit cash games, and lost several buy-ins at $.25/$.50NL. I dropped as low as around $350, got my game in order, and finished up March with a $50 profit in cash games and a $1150 total bankroll (lost a little for the month on tournaments).
At one point in my life I would have considered playing poker professionally as a serious option. Since then I've learned that a) I'm at high risk for gambling degeneracy (I'll post the story some other time, but the short version is that I learned the hard way on when to recognize a problem) b) I don't think I could deal with the stresses of the swings that will no doubt happen, and c) I'm just not very good at it. However, I consider myself a smart enough guy and good enough student of the game that at some point I might be able to make a small amount of side income on my hobby. Over the next few months I'll see if I can grow a self-sustaining (no redeposits) up to a point where I can start periodically cashing out some regular profits without impacting the level of stakes I'm playing at. If so, great. Ultimately I'd love to be able to pay for a nice vacation or something based on poker profits. If not, I'll allow myself to continue to fart around at microlimits as long as I'm not playing on money that I can't afford to play with.
That's about it for now. Kudos to anyone who made it through this entire post. I look forward to having an avenue to talk to about poker and life and can hopefully pick up a few readers and generate some discussion along the way.
posted by corndog at 6:42 PM
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