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Transitioning from WSOP Fanatic to the Felt: My Poker Challenge Begins

  I spent the last three weeks of July completely glued to my screen, soaking in every second of World Series of Poker coverage. Between the stream on ESPN+ and the WSOP YouTube Poker Channel it’s been an absolute blast to watch the drama unfold. I definitely have some opinions about what I saw a that I might write about later. Now that we're at the final table: It’s time for me to stop watching and start playing. My personal poker challenge officially begins tomorrow. Setting the Starting Line: ClubWPT Gold Here is where the bankroll sits as we launch: Starting Balance: $49.03  Target Stakes: $2.00 NL ($0.01/$0.02)  Bankroll Depth: ~24.5 Buy-Ins  Sitting at $49.03 on ClubWPT Gold gives me roughly 24 buy-ins for the lowest micro-stakes level. That is a plenty comfortable cushion to handle the inevitable statistical variance of micro-stakes online poker, as long as I stick to a disciplined strategy. The Rule Set: Stop-Loss, Stop-Gain, and Time Management To make su...
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Why I Never Went Bust (But Had to Start Over 7 Times)

  Why I Never Went Bust (But Had to Start Over 7 Times) As I shared in my last post, I’m proud to say I have never actually gone bust playing poker. However, that doesn't mean it’s been a straight line to the top. The truth is, I’ve had to completely "start over" multiple times throughout my playing career. I never lost my bankroll at the tables, but life has a funny way of requiring liquid cash. Over the years, I’ve completely cleaned out my poker accounts to fund real-life priorities: To transition from online poker to live cash games. To build out a home gym. To cover unexpected daily life expenses. To navigate Black Friday (Admittedly, I didn't see the 2011 shutdown coming. I had luckily withdrawn my balance to deposit elsewhere later, but before I could, the US market locked down). To wipe out personal debt. To cover out-of-pocket medical surgery expenses. So, while my accounts hit zero multiple times, it was always by choice. In that sense, I guess you could sa...
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The Golden Era of Online Poker: How a $50 Deposit Changed Everything

When I first started playing online poker for real money, the virtual felt looked a lot different than it does today. For me, it all started on PartyPoker . Why PartyPoker? Simple. I was watching a televised poker tournament on the Travel Channel, and I caught a limit poker final table where a young, charismatic Daniel Negreanu completely crushed the competition. I watched Kid Poker take it down and immediately thought, "Okay, that’s where I need to play." But there was a massive hurdle to clear first: How do I actually get money onto an online poker site? The Wild West of Online Poker Banking: Enter Neteller Back in the early 2000s, before the landscape changed completely, a Canadian company called Neteller was the undisputed king of poker banking. (They’re actually still around today, though they no longer service US accounts). The process was seamless. I would transfer cash to Neteller, log into PartyPoker, and fund my account. The deposits were instant, and incredibly, ...
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The Moneymaker Effect

 I am a product of the Moneymaker boom. Back in 2003, an unknown accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event and changed the poker ecosystem forever. Like thousands of others watching ESPN that year, I was instantly hooked. Since then, I’ve played poker on and off for more than twenty years—live rooms, online client software, casual home games, and tournaments. I’ve stayed around long enough to experience the exact variance the game promises: the euphoric highs, the crushing lows, and everything in between. So, why am I not a millionaire? Why am I not a professional poker player? Because poker has always been part of my life—not my entire life. I built a career. I bought a home. I raised a family. And while I love the strategic depth of this game, I never had the luxury to dedicate 60 hours a week to it the way some pros do. That reality hasn't changed. I still don't have a professional's schedule. What has changed is how I'm willing to p...
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