The Baseline Grind

  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...

  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 I had luckily withdrawn my balance to deposit elsewhere later, but before I could, the US market locked down).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...

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, ...