I lost almost $5000 within the first week of this month.

I figured this would be an appropriate introduction to Part 2 of my Hyper Poker Roller Coaster journey; since roller coasters, just like poker, always involve inevitable highs and lows. That is the life of a pro poker player.

Fortunately though, since writing Part 1 of this series in the beginning of May, I’m still significantly in the green. In other words, May was by far my best month in poker yet. It also marked the first time I have ever reached Supernova status on PokerStars.

Below is a screenshot of my earnings in dollars over the past few months as a pro poker player. Note that the figure for June just applies to the first 10 days of this month. Still another 20 days to go before June’s results are final.

Many people would be very disappointed with their results in June if they were me, but it barely bothers me at all. The big swings I’ve had on a daily basis over the past couple months numbed my senses when it comes to winning and losing large sums of money within short periods. Unlike many players, I actually sleep longer when on downswings. Upswings on the other hand can be so exciting that they sometimes cause me to sleep a little less. Also, reaching Supernova Status in May has increased my hourly and my motivation to play more.

During the past two months I realized that although my skill level did improve dramatically, I was still on a huge heater. I understood that it was just a matter of time before I went on a big downswing and every day I was emotionally prepared to take a big hit. And the big hits certainly did come. Although this month’s losses are the largest, last month I experienced the largest down and upswings ever.

Huge swings and reaching Supernova – Life of a Pro Poker Player

The most intense of those swings occurred when I had four big winning days followed by two massive losing days. The first three days I made about $1k each day, then the fourth I somehow managed to grind out another $2k. Making $5k within 4 days was simply mind-blowing for me. It was also during that time that I achieved Supernova. I kept on saying to myself, especially on that last day,

“This just doesn’t make any sense.”

Here’s my graph from that 5 day heater. Note that I actually made a few hundred more than this simply from the loyalty money I earned from being a Supernova (I still need to get my HM2 set up to account for rakeback).

That all changed when the losing streak struck me: the fifth day I lost a whopping $2.6k and the sixth day I lost another $1k. If you want to be a pro poker player, you have to be able to deal with the swings. That calmed me down a fair amount and I moved down in stakes, still happy that I hadn’t sacrificed all the winnings of my crazy four day heater. Also I ended up making the money back which I had lost and more to boot before the end of the month, resulting in $9494 in total poker earnings (not including my poker coaching income) for the month. In poker as in life, it’s always important to look at the bigger picture, which is looking pretty good for me right now.

So now that I’ve shared my results and rollercoaster rides, I’d like to divulge a bit about my daily routine when it comes to poker. Currently my day looks something like this:

1. Get up between 8am and 10am.
2. Make breakfast.
3. Either start with a study session or start playing lower stakes to get my brain warmed up.
4. Play two to three sessions, rarely longer than one hour per session, with 5 to 15 minute breaks between each session. Usually spend 5-10 minutes after each session reviewing relevant hands.
5. Make lunch.
6. Play two to four more sessions.
7. Chill ??

I usually have one coffee per day, sometimes two or three. Also I make sure to not stay sitting down for long periods of time because it’s really bad for long-term health.

I also go to the gym or jog or do fitness classes three to four times a week, usually in the late afternoon when I’ve finished my grinding for the day. I almost never play after 8pm since I feel my concentration diminishes after that time. I’ve always viewed evenings as being a time to relax so I just do what I want then.

I average around 5 hours a day of playing and 1 hour a day of studying, 7 days a week. I thoroughly enjoy playing and studying poker so I have only gone about 3 or 4 days of not playing at all during the past 4 months. I used to play closer to 6 hours a day and study less, but my ambition is to reach the highest stakes and without studying poker it’s simply not possible. Even if studying just involves reviewing and thinking about different lines you could have taken with certain hands.

For all you graph junkies, here’s a graph of my best ever session:

Finally, here is the one I’m actually most proud of, since it represents my best day in terms of EV profit.

That’s it for this month’s Poker Stud and my Pro Poker blog, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to follow me and my progress on my wall on Tiltbook.