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GoldenDomer9

I know a fella, lets call him DoldenGomer8 (DG8), who possesses a zest for life, a love of family and friends, a vast amount of pride in his career and lastly, a desire to compete in a variety of arenas; however, these traits would not always have appeared in said order.

Long gone are the days where the most important item of DG8's life was the upcoming basketball game or golf tournament. Gone too is the sense of entitlement to the latest shoes, lob wedge or putter, as was expected from good ol' Mom and Dad. No longer is the desire to have to be the best. Nowadays, at the age of twenty-six, DG8 is content to be positively mediocre, at least in the poker world, and that is quite alright.

The path of many a poker superstar reads like a broken record, although to slightly varying degrees. Ranked Pocketfives.com tournament player's name here deposited a few times with differing success, studied the game, got better, ran their bankroll up a bit, a bit more, and now they're a hundred-thousandaire or more. Or how about this one? Ranked Pocketfives.com tournament player's name here began playing freerolls, built a small bankroll and wham, starts to win $200 buy-ins with what seems like great ease. Maybe Online nosebleed cash game superstar's name here was playing .25/.50 LHE one year ago and now plays $100/$200 NLHE and is up $2.1M in a six-month period. These stories are encouraging, they represent the everyman and surely that could be us. Undoubtedly we've studied hard enough, we are every bit the player Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold or Jerry Yang are. These individuals represent the beauty of the game of poker. If an individual is born with the genetics to be 5'4" and 160 pounds, it is a fair assessment that a career as an NFL offensive lineman or NBA power forward is not in the cards, no pun intended. A select few have the mind to be admitted to a prestigious University such as Harvard or Yale, and move on to the numerous options that await such bright minds. Unlike the aforementioned examples, poker brings life to everyone. Poker brings opportunity to anyone. If only we can build up our roll just a tad more, if only we could take a few less beats, if only we could make that one breakthrough, that could be us. Under the right circumstances, we can make that run and be set for life. But really, what about the other 99.2% of us that don't hit it big? Therein lies the view of the (rare?) Micro Grinder.

DG8 does not aspire to go toe to toe with Poker heavyweights Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth or Phil Laak. DG8 does not aspire to pay his dues and begin his ascent on the online poker world a la Phil Galfond. Furthermore, DG8 realizes he isn't even in the class of Phil Paulasso, the teacher from New Jersey with a beautiful wife and two incredible children who will never be heard from in the "poker scene", yet makes more than his annual salary by beating up on the $2/$4 games online during the evenings (after the kids are asleep, of course) and weekends. Nope, DG8 plays quarter cash games, withdraws a few hundred bucks every month, or two, or three, and will never move up in stakes.

The rare Micro Grinder does not follow the pipe dream of hitting it big, nor is he particularly concerned with building a bankroll to move up in stakes. He knows who he is. He's a relatively intellectual fellow with the smarts and know-how to out-fox the stalwarts who frequent the micro stakes. He has the guile, the craftiness and the moves to take down pots that could buy 4-piece chicken mcnuggets for a family of five. Want to rent a movie from Blockbuster? The micro-stakes grinder has that sort of cash. Semi-bluff with an Open ended straight flush draw you say? Ha ha! It's in his repertoire. Check-call on the river to induce a bluff from a missed chased flush you say next? Got that too. The arsenal is full of other no-brainer plays, but it ends there. There are plays that the Writer cannot put in this example, because he is not advanced enough to know of them. But what does this attitude say of one DG8? Is it sad that he doesn't want to move up in stakes to challenge himself? Maybe. Will he ever wonder how far he could have made it? Probably. Will he end up ok, however, if he simply enjoys playing the game and never does find out? Most definitely.

The feeling of contentment can be scrutinized and analyzed in a myriad of ways. In a game that promotes the fact that anyone can beat anyone, anywhere or anytime, there are the (rare?) cases that are just content being average at a certain thing. While the desire to be the best is viewed with the utmost respect by a fella like DG8, it just isn't for him in this particular facet of his life. That being said, he does without a doubt give a sincere, heartfelt tip of the cap for those who strive to reach the other .08%.

Honest_Rob · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject:

leading the pack imo.

Riddim · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:26 am Post subject:

Ozzy52 · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:07 am Post subject:

Thanks DoldenGomer9 (DAMMIT sry dude didnt mean to let it slip)
I am moving onto cash this weekend and was a bit concerned that i didnt want the sexy house and big wife Wink

I just want to get better at a game that I enjoy and as u say if I can afford a nice fish and chip supper for me and mine each week I will be happy.

Poker, to me is just a way to de-stressify after work(after a bit, work goes away and all that is left is numbers) I just happen to want to play cash as this seems to be true poker (no risk=non realistic play).

Was begining to think i didnt have the neccassary drive.

After all the life of a pro must be fraught, every play scrutinised and picked to pieces. Every opposition player just there to take you out. This seems more hassle than i need (get plenty of that at home).

I question my own play enough without the whole poker world flaming me for what, for most people, would be an honest lapse in judgement but for the pros can be a career altering decision(sponsors, peers etc.)

Just my two penneth worth

BOYNAMEDSUE · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:36 am Post subject:

GD8 is very similar to a guy I know, BNS8. BNS8 has been playing for a few years, but has not attempted to make it big. Mostly due to financial reasons (if BNS8 loses his bankroll he can't just redeposit). Also, BNS8 doesn't have the large blocks of time to devote to tourneys, which he feels are his strength. His bankroll hovers around the same place as it was 2 years ago, but that's okay. One day, though, BNS8 is gonna make it big. If only he can get focused, and motivated.

DrAndrian · Four of a Kind Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 331

This is exactly how I started off, with the same mentality. I really enjoyed my 5/10c microlimit experience, as I actually learned a lot during that time. Although I'm no longer a true microlimit grinder, keep an open mind in terms of moving up when you're ready for a challenge Smile

GoldenDomer9 · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject:

Riddim · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject:

About time. Thanks for elaborating and congrats on the hot run at 25NL cap. If you want me to elaborate on my perspective on the whole thing, just let me know and I will. I didn't now because it'd probably turn into some long, random, rambling post that nobody would be very interested in anyway.

GoldenDomer9 · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

Starvingwriter · Full House Joined: 03 May 2008 Posts: 173

In sharing our different aspirations when it comes to poker, I thought I'd share mine, despite being a definite "no name" in the community.

Currently, I am an out of work college graduate (with a degree in secondary education). That is, I have a job, but it's not an intellectual job. It's mind numbing, blue collar, working-for-the-weekend type work.

If I don't do something to keep my mind going, I go nuts. So, in the past, I've gravitated to board and card games to keep my mind going. I've had modest successes with Diplomacy, Chess, Backgammon, and Cribbage, and significant success with Setters of Catan and Magic: the Gathering.

The problem with these games, of course, is that they don't pay, other than the rare strategy article I've been lucky enough to write for online sites. Magic: the Gathering can pay, but only if you live in a large area. Well, I now live in Smalltown, NY, where your "hourly rate" is going to be something like $1 per hour, one night a week.

So, a friend of mine about a year ago invites me to play a casual home game of Texas hold'em. Looking back on it, my play was terrible, but by watching carefully and doing the math (I didn't know terms like "pot odds" at that point, but probability/statistics has always been my best route to success at many games), I came away from the night with even money.

Then I saw WSOP on ESPN2, and was hooked. I devoured books on poker theory and watched every WSOP coverage event I could get my hands on. (I'm a huge sucker for any strategy based card or board game.)

Finally a few months ago, I got up the courage to deposit $100 on FTP (kicking myself now, if I had known I'd like it so much, I would have made the full $600 deposit, no doubt). Now my bankroll is up to $250 ($50 of that from rakeback), and poker is my game of choice. I figure, if I'm just looking for something strategy based to keep my mind occupied, I may as well choose the game that pays.

As a final note, it finally feels good to be up out of the $2 games and onto the $10 ones. Made $65 today alone, and that feels good. Smile

Riddim · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:02 pm Post subject:

Ok, as I said in my first reply, my motivations for playing are basically getting better at the game and making money, in that order. Improving is what makes poker fun and interesting, and I tend to play too far from my A-game to even bother if I don't really feel like playing. Unfortunately I don't feel like playing as often as I want, which really gets in the way of my 2nd motivation for playing. I can still get better while not playing by reading/posting in forums, watching videos and just thinking about the game, but I can't make money doing that.

Unlike you I don't withdraw very regularly, and my one experience with a major withdrawal wasn't pleasant. When I needed to get a new computer I decided to use poker money to buy myself a really good one. Unfortunately this meant moving down to 50NL just after I started getting really comfortable at 100NL. Before moving back down I had played around 24k hands of 50NL 6max and apparently that was enough, because it only took 8k hands of rebuilding torture before I decided to switch to HU until I was rolled for 100NL again.

Now I'm back at 100NL and planning to not make another major withdrawal until I've moved up to 200NL and built up enough of a roll to stay there after the withdrawal. I've also started looking around for a good, soft euro-only site with RB and PT support. If I find one of those there's a decent chance that I'll decide to move up an additional level before withdrawing as long as I play a reasonable amount of hands. If 400NL plays like 100NL on FTP, which seems to be the case on the one site I've looked at so far, it just feels like I'm giving away too big of an earning opportunity by making a significant withdrawal before reaching those stakes.

When I sit down to play though, I generally don't do it because I want to win money. While I don't play unless I think I'll have a significant edge, what tends to make me actually start a session is curiosity and the desire to play better than I have before. More than anything I play because it's fun, and those are the things that make it fun. I just like constantly finding ways to win more money, along with new ways to lose less.

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