Saturday, October 21: The Future, Conan?
I guess the early returns are beginning to trickle in from the US poker legislation, and things -- while not calamitous -- aren't all that rosy. The Party games are pretty atrocious (don't worry, my Yankee friends, you're not missing much at all), and traffic to the poker sites is down across the board. Can you still find juicy games? Sure, but the days of dropping your lure off either side of the fishing boat and being immediately swarmed by schools of 16-pound marlin are over...or at least on indefinite hold. Fact of the matter is that things are going to be very much decentralized for the foreseeable future, meaning that -- especially for people like me who pray at the altar of the datamining / table-selection Gods -- it's going to take considerably more legwork to grind out profits. I'm even trying to look at it as an opportunity to play against somewhat tougher lineups, which I'm hoping will help me keep growing as a player. Sure, I've got one of the higher winrates around but as I've pointed out several times, I don't think there are many people on the planet more careful about table-selection than me, and my BB/100 is only a function of the juicy games in which I elect to sit. I think it'll be interesting to see how I manage in this environment of somewhat tougher games.
It's also been interesting, even (tongue firmly planted in cheek) tragic, to follow the saga of the thousands of 16-to-22 year olds who dropped out of college, thinking that all they'd ever need in life was an internet connection and PAHUD. I don't for a minute pretend that someone with a blog title like mine is in any position to get all preachy. (But frankly, a graduate degree just isn't a necessity in today's economy in the same sense as is an undergrad diploma.) I just hope that if nothing else, the legislative demantling of the online poker industry is a major reality check for a lot of these kids, as it has been for me. Not that I ever took this golden goose for granted, but it's still disconcerting to see one's entire income stream flicker before your eyes...even more so, I'm sure, for the hundreds of college kids who likely dropped out of school for poker in the weeks leading up to the day when the hammer finally fell.
While I was fortunate enough to get in a couple good rides on the online poker gravy train, I'll point out that I was hit pretty hard by this in a very different way. You see, in August and September I finished work on what had been one of my most exciting and ambitious projects to date. I even dropped a couple hints in the blog, and hoped to announce it here. You see, I've been in the affiliate game for a while now, but really just a small-timer......but I had an idea in the works: something that I thought would be a perfect synergy of the two things in this world that I knew best: law school and poker. And thus, with the help of a few friends, www.lawschoolpoker.com was born. Go ahead, check it out. No, it's not the perfect site, but it was something that was a very long time in the making, and I only just got it off the ground before this legislation dealt it a pretty debilitating blow. It feels a bit like the scene in Jurassic Park after all the dinosaurs had run amok and eaten a bunch of people, where the 2 kids make their way back to the main complex, and find the full gourmet buffet dinner laid out in anticipation of the theme park's first full house of dining guests...but after the havoc of the previous 36 hours, there's nobody there to enjoy it. Kind of like how I feel about LawSchoolPoker -- I was all set to watch this thing take off and hopefully grow, but instead it's like I'm looking at a single balloon lazily descending from the rafters, while I sit at the head table with a party hat wrapped comically tight underneath my chin. And a five-figure bill for a site that's facing an uphill climb if there ever was one, not to mention the embarassingly large amount of money forgone in poker opportunity cost over the 100+ hours it took me to put it all together. Am I throwing in the towel on the whole thing? Far from it -- I'm just bummed that a personal project into which I put so much time, and something I really cared about, not so much as a financial endeavor, but more as a productive intellectual pursuit was so critically wounded by a such a careless and disingenuous piece of legislation.
So what about me, huh? Well, here are my plans for the forseeable future. I am -- believe it or not -- graduating from law school 3 weeks from now. Hard to believe from someone with a blog entitled "The Law School Dropout's Poker Blog", I know, but here we are. I am looking at taking the bar exam in February, too, just about the last thing I ever thought I'd be saying 2 years ago when I traded in my LexisNexis password for a Neteller one.
Sure, you only really need bar accreditation if you're planning on practicing law, and while I've got no inclination whatsoever to do so at this time, I'm also open-minded enough to accept the idea that it might come in handy at some truck-stop along the highway of life. After all, if 3 years ago you'd told me that I'd be sitting in a 25/50 NL game, I would have said that you needed your head examined. And I know that if I don't study for and take the bar exam immediately after law school, chances are good that I'll never come back to it. Besides, going a little easy on the poker games for a month or so will be good for me. I think it's frightening that of the 730 days that make up the past 2 years of my life, the number in which I've played at least some poker is likely north of 650. That's a pretty scary thought...with the quagmire that is the current state of online poker, it might not be the worst time in the world to take a little breather. Analogize this to a poker situation, if you wish: sometimes you take a bad beat, but console yourself with the reassurance that you made the "right" move...well, I feel confident that this is the right life move, even if the dividends aren't immediately apparent.
After that? Wow, pretty big question mark; I've really drawn this school thing out as long as possible -- 4 years undergrad, 2 working, 3(+1/2) more of grad school. I was even toying with the idea of enrolling in an MBA program to extend the endless summer that has been my life, of late, but I don't think that's quite the right move for me at this time. Right now, priority #1 is to just ride out the remainder of my Australian adventure. Then it's back to the land of hockey pucks and maple syrup to begin a new chapter.
It's also been interesting, even (tongue firmly planted in cheek) tragic, to follow the saga of the thousands of 16-to-22 year olds who dropped out of college, thinking that all they'd ever need in life was an internet connection and PAHUD. I don't for a minute pretend that someone with a blog title like mine is in any position to get all preachy. (But frankly, a graduate degree just isn't a necessity in today's economy in the same sense as is an undergrad diploma.) I just hope that if nothing else, the legislative demantling of the online poker industry is a major reality check for a lot of these kids, as it has been for me. Not that I ever took this golden goose for granted, but it's still disconcerting to see one's entire income stream flicker before your eyes...even more so, I'm sure, for the hundreds of college kids who likely dropped out of school for poker in the weeks leading up to the day when the hammer finally fell.
While I was fortunate enough to get in a couple good rides on the online poker gravy train, I'll point out that I was hit pretty hard by this in a very different way. You see, in August and September I finished work on what had been one of my most exciting and ambitious projects to date. I even dropped a couple hints in the blog, and hoped to announce it here. You see, I've been in the affiliate game for a while now, but really just a small-timer......but I had an idea in the works: something that I thought would be a perfect synergy of the two things in this world that I knew best: law school and poker. And thus, with the help of a few friends, www.lawschoolpoker.com was born. Go ahead, check it out. No, it's not the perfect site, but it was something that was a very long time in the making, and I only just got it off the ground before this legislation dealt it a pretty debilitating blow. It feels a bit like the scene in Jurassic Park after all the dinosaurs had run amok and eaten a bunch of people, where the 2 kids make their way back to the main complex, and find the full gourmet buffet dinner laid out in anticipation of the theme park's first full house of dining guests...but after the havoc of the previous 36 hours, there's nobody there to enjoy it. Kind of like how I feel about LawSchoolPoker -- I was all set to watch this thing take off and hopefully grow, but instead it's like I'm looking at a single balloon lazily descending from the rafters, while I sit at the head table with a party hat wrapped comically tight underneath my chin. And a five-figure bill for a site that's facing an uphill climb if there ever was one, not to mention the embarassingly large amount of money forgone in poker opportunity cost over the 100+ hours it took me to put it all together. Am I throwing in the towel on the whole thing? Far from it -- I'm just bummed that a personal project into which I put so much time, and something I really cared about, not so much as a financial endeavor, but more as a productive intellectual pursuit was so critically wounded by a such a careless and disingenuous piece of legislation.
So what about me, huh? Well, here are my plans for the forseeable future. I am -- believe it or not -- graduating from law school 3 weeks from now. Hard to believe from someone with a blog entitled "The Law School Dropout's Poker Blog", I know, but here we are. I am looking at taking the bar exam in February, too, just about the last thing I ever thought I'd be saying 2 years ago when I traded in my LexisNexis password for a Neteller one.
Sure, you only really need bar accreditation if you're planning on practicing law, and while I've got no inclination whatsoever to do so at this time, I'm also open-minded enough to accept the idea that it might come in handy at some truck-stop along the highway of life. After all, if 3 years ago you'd told me that I'd be sitting in a 25/50 NL game, I would have said that you needed your head examined. And I know that if I don't study for and take the bar exam immediately after law school, chances are good that I'll never come back to it. Besides, going a little easy on the poker games for a month or so will be good for me. I think it's frightening that of the 730 days that make up the past 2 years of my life, the number in which I've played at least some poker is likely north of 650. That's a pretty scary thought...with the quagmire that is the current state of online poker, it might not be the worst time in the world to take a little breather. Analogize this to a poker situation, if you wish: sometimes you take a bad beat, but console yourself with the reassurance that you made the "right" move...well, I feel confident that this is the right life move, even if the dividends aren't immediately apparent.
After that? Wow, pretty big question mark; I've really drawn this school thing out as long as possible -- 4 years undergrad, 2 working, 3(+1/2) more of grad school. I was even toying with the idea of enrolling in an MBA program to extend the endless summer that has been my life, of late, but I don't think that's quite the right move for me at this time. Right now, priority #1 is to just ride out the remainder of my Australian adventure. Then it's back to the land of hockey pucks and maple syrup to begin a new chapter.
posted by Blog Administrator at 2:09 PM
5 Comments:
Nice site but you should use a hyperlink rather than make people type the address. Come on guy, business is tough enough without making it harder for yourself.
Nice site (LSP)! Long time reader, first time commenting, just want to say I love the blog very much, and you are easily one of the few online pros I respect most (as opposed to many other college drop-outs who have become cocky and disillusioned with the real world and their humble upbringings, etc.). I hope your site takes off despite this terrible legislation. Good luck!
I recently found your blog and have enjoyed reading it as I am struggling with many of the same issues you write about. While I am obviously smack dab in the middle of your target demographic as a Law student that has spent the past few months trying to learn how to play poker (with some success) I find it hard to believe that there is a large enough bloc there to make the site significantly profitable.
This is especially so since forgoing rakeback is such a high price to pay even at relatively low levels I play.
I've been playing casino games in our home with my friends and surf the internet to search for some tips and techniques about the this gambling games. And i found this one, Best Online Casinos provides reviews of online casinos and tips on playing the games. It is one of the good casino site ever.
Tough break on the new website. Hopefully you pursue something else in the web business.
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