New York City Underground Poker

Those of you who have quit your job to play poker for a living know that your friends have one of two reactions. Half the friends think it is the coolest idea ever and want to tell everyone they know that you have become a “professional poker player.” The other half, probably like your parents, tell you that you should probably just “quit while you’re ahead.”

If you quit to play in underground poker games in New York City, you can add in another group though, those who are worried you are going to get arrested, robbed, or shot. I guess some of those concerns are not that unfounded…

I began feeling out my friends to see if they would want to buy a piece of my action for the World Series of Poker, and found limited success. Some friends wanted to but did not feel comfortable with it, others just did not have the money or were worried about losing their jobs so wanted to save everything they had. I did find some success though and sold off $3000 of the $7000 I was looking for.

Next I approached people I used to work with, particularly those I knew loved poker and had introduced me to the New York poker scene. There I hit pay dirt. Everyone wanted a piece of someone playing in the WSOP just on the off chance that I hit. Within a week of blasting out a couple emails I was oversubscribed and had to start turning down investors. I wished I’d sold my shares for a higher price, but once I brought on investors at $1.40 per buy-in dollar I felt I had to honor it. It’s been said over and over again, all you have in poker or any gambling industry is your word. Once that is bad you have nothing else.

$10,000 in hand I did what any good player would do, I used part of my bankroll to jump on to the online poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and tried to win a seat to the main event so I could get free lodging, spending cash, and essentially freeroll the WSOP.