If you like my blog please click the BlogTopList vote button to the right. This will give my blog a better ranking & help increase traffic to my blog. Thanks.
To signup to play at Lock Poker:
1. Clear cookies & internet history
2. Either click the banner above or 1 of the following links:
To signup to play at Lock Poker:
1. Clear cookies & internet history
2. Either click the banner above or 1 of the following links:
http://refer.lockpoker.com/jaredhubbard
http://download.lockpoker.com/jaredhubbard
After signing up please make sure jhub3000@hotmail.com is listed as a safe sender in your email. You can also email me with any questions. Before you begin playing on Lock, or even if you already do play on there, you will probably want to read this post about optimizing the software: http://jhubpoker.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-most-out-of-lock-pokers-software.html
For daily updates & other ramblings please follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/jhubpoker
Please like my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jared-Hubbard-Poker/221586851240049
Please like my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jared-Hubbard-Poker/221586851240049
I do year end reviews on my blog at the end of every year. However, since I've been a full time pro for 5 years now I thought it would be interesting to look back on each year I have played as a pro. I will start with 2007, which was my 1st year as a full time poker pro. I will try to post 1 or 2 yearly reviews a week until New Years.
I'll start with a little background. In 2006 I played poker online part time on Pokerstars while I was in college. I played $35+3 regular speed 6 man SNGs most of the year & finished #1 on the sharkscope.com any game 5 to 6 players $16-$35 total profit leaderboard. I also played some 180 man SNGs that I did well in & I occasionally played some MTTs. Toward the end of the year I also started playing some 6 man turbo SNGs. Toward the end of 2006 the UIGEA was snuck into a port security bill at the last minute. It's pretty sad how the government works sometimes. Bill Frist snuck the UIGEA into a bill that had nothing to do with online poker and everything to do with the security of our nation. He knew people weren't going to vote against a bill that had to do with protecting our nation. Nonetheless, when it passed I was pretty pissed. I saw myself as an up and comer in the SNG world & knew if I kept working hard that I could become of the most profitable single table SNG players. When the UIGEA passed we couldn't really predict how it would all pan out. The regulations were a bit unclear at the time and most people expected us to only have online poker for about another year before the UIGEA regulations went into effect and shut everything down. I only had 1 semester of college left but felt it was in my best interest to take advantage of online poker while I still could. I planned to return to college for my final semester when the UIGEA went into effect.
I had been living in my oldest brother Jeff's basement since June and one of my best friend's was also renting a room upstairs. While my friend and I were still kind of living the college life, my brother had a full time 9-5 job and I think the house as a whole was a much better environment from learning & discipline than the previous party house I lived in with 3 of my college friends.
Going into 2007 I was planning on playing 60 hours a week since I thought I only 1 year left to play online poker. I wanted to take full advantage. I believe I started out 8-10 tabling. As far as expectations, I had a profit goal of about $300K & was kind of expecting to be #1 in sharkscope.com total profit for 5 to 6 player SNGs. However, 9 man SNGs had way more traffic & higher stakes at the time so I wasn't really sure where I could stand in terms of total profit for all single table SNGs. Needless to say, sharkscope leaderboards have always motivated me.
At the beginning of the year I was playing exclusively on Pokerstars under the screen name jhub3000 & the highest stakes 6 man SNGs they offered were $121s. I wanted them to add higher stakes so I would ask people to email support asking for higher 6 mans in every SNG of mine that opened. I had done the same thing the previous year trying to get Pokerstars to add a $70 6 man SNG level between $38s & $119s & it worked so I figured this would work as well. At the end of January they added $220 6 man turbo SNGs & $305 regular speed 6 man SNGs. The year started out really well as I made about $26,000 pre rakeback in my 1st month. I realized right away that 60 hours a week simply wasn't going to happen and 40 hours a week was a lot more likely, especially when you still have to spend time studying away from the tables.
Most of the year online was pretty much smooth sailing. Higher ROIs were more sustainable back then so there was a lot less variance. You can see that by looking at my sharkscope graph. During the year SNGicons.com introduced the 1st training site geared toward SNGs. ICM calculators also became more advanced. SNGWizard replaced SNG Power Tools as the new standard with the advantage that you could now calculate reshoves, pushing over limpers, and factor in overcalls. Huds were becoming increasingly popular & I started to use a hud with Poker Tracker. All of these things definitely helped speed up my development as a player.
In June I headed to the WSOP to play my first big live events. Kenny05 & I were splitting a hotel room at the Rio. I had never met him in person & had only talked to him online so was really hoping he didn't turn out to be a tool. He turned out to be an awesome guy and to this day is my best friend that I have met through poker. My oldest brother Jeff and his girlfriend Katie came with me to Vegas for the beginning. Kenny's friend Christian was also there most of the time and my mom & aunt also came to visit for a little bit toward the end. Looking back on it my plan was pretty silly. I had an obsession with 6 max games so I was staying in Vegas for 3 weeks and only playing 3 events, which were all of the 6 man events. I definitely should have played the shootout event as well while I was there, which likely would have been the event I had the biggest edge in, but I just wasn't feeling it at the time. I didn't end up cashing in the $1,500 event, the $2,500 event, or the $5,000 event. I had crushed the $70 6 man MTTs on Pokerstars but probably wasn't as ready for the higher buy-in live MTTs as I thought I was. I definitely still think I had an edge, but I don't think I had as big of an edge as I thought at the time. I also met Dr. Fells and thetight at the WSOP, who I have since stayed in contact with and met up with at other events. Dr. Fells went deep in the $10K HU event so we railed him for that. Overall the WSOP was a good experience and I had a fun time in Vegas despite not doing well in the events.
As my bankroll grew I wanted bigger games so I started getting people to email Pokerstars about adding $500+ 6 man SNGs. In August they added $535 6 man SNGs.
In the fall was the 1st annual US Poker Bowl. It was quite a unique format. Players had to purchase the rights to a team and pick their own players. Bigjoe2003 purchased 2 teams & asked me if I wanted to play on 1 of the teams, as the structure was one which benefited a SNG player. The buy-in was $8,000 per player and the tournament was in Vegas. My dad made the trip with me. My team consisted of Shaun Deeb, Thayer, Alex Jacob, Jordan Morgan, Nordberg, & myself. The tournament was basically only composed of live pros & online pros, as a team owner wasn't likely to just pick random players for their team. I'm thinking there were about 6-8 teams total. The team was split up into groups of 2, with 2 players from each team being at the same table. Nordberg was at my table. Cullusion was allowed so there was a lot of chip dumping, which made it interesting because other players could also attempt to pick off what they suspected might be chip dump attempts. I believe each starting table played down to 2 players, who then took their chips to the final table, which was televised. The final table would then play down until players from only 1 team were left standing. Nordberg & I thought things were going well when we both advanced from our table to the final table. Jordan & Alex ended up making the final table as well. We ended up having 4 out of the 9 or 10 players at the final table, and I believe we had 2 of the top 3 chip stacks as well. Things were looking pretty good. However, everything that could go wrong at the final table did, and we didn't end up winning it, despite having a huge advantage going into the final table. The final table was supposed to air on TV, but I never saw it and I'm not sure that it ever even aired. They were also going to have a 2nd US Poker Bowl but they never did, which is too bad because it was a fun, unique event.
By the end of the year I think I was mostly 10-12 tabling. 2007 was the first year that Pokerstars had the supernova elite VIP level. I ended up being the 4th player to reach supernova elite & I finished the year with over 1.5 million VPPs. Here's a quick interview I did after I reached supernova elite:
http://www.tourneyblog.com/category/All-News/Pokerstars-Supernova-Elite-admits-4th-member-jhub3000/
Going into December I pretty much had the sharkscope 5 to 6 players total profit leaderboard wrapped up, and I had a $30K+ lead in the any game single table total profit leaderboard, which was pretty damn close to a lock at the time. However, Pokerstars added $1,000 6 man SNGs during December & let's just say things didn't go well. I lost over $30,000 during the month & ended up finishing 3rd on the any game single table total profit leaderboard behind infamouspade and LuckboxFromHell. Infamouspade finished 1st but LuckboxFromHell actually had more profit because he was also River Prayer on Pokerstars. I remember being a huge infamouspade hater because he basically broke even at all of his $300 & less games & then ran at 20% in less than 2,000 $500s & $1Ks & made $165K that way. While I think I was absolutely correct that he was a luckbox, I think hating on him for it was pretty silly. I was clearly a mental game fish.
Please click on the images to enlarge them.
This was probably also the year that I started to teach my brother Jeff how to play SNGs.
I think I still had plenty to learn and improve upon in terms of 6 man SNGs. The hours I put in playing contributed to a lot of the success I had. The game was still evolving and at the time 6 man SNGs were almost certainly softer than 9 man SNGs, although traffic in 9 man SNGs was a lot better at the time.
Toward the end up the year I was starting to get a lot more attention. I saw players getting pro deals & had started up a blog the year before in order ro promote myself. My blog was becoming pretty popular. I didn't reach my $300,000 profit goal, but that goal was based on 60 hours a week, and I didn't play nearly that many hours. Overall, my hourly was much better than expected, mainly because Pokerstars added higher stakes 6 man SNGs. I probably didn't have the most balanced life in 2007. My mind was so set on becoming the best SNG player and I spent countless hours playing and studying the game. While I don't think continuing to spend that many hours on poker would have been very sustainable, I think it's good that I did it for that one year. Things turned out alright.
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
2007 5-10 Seated Sharkcope Total Profit combining multiple screen names:
1. Gramps:
Global Alias
2. infamouspade: $169,101
Pokerstars
3. Jared Hubbard: $147,405
Global Alias
4. Hassan: $127,538
Pokerstars
5. Nordberg: $112,443
Year 2007 Online:
Total Online Poker Profit: $251,388.84 (no staking in 2007)
No comments:
Post a Comment