Mailbag: Following Up on Success

Some of you may remember this e-mail that I received last year seeking staking advice:

I am 24 years old and I live in Henderson, NV. Following the shut down of service to US players on Pokerstars I decided to play a few live tournaments.  I instantly final tabled two Bellagio WPT $540′s back to back.  During one of those deep runs I was offered, by another player in the tournament, to join his team of players that are backed.  I had made out plans and set out a schedule of tournaments over the course of the summer only to find out that the backer of their team just went on $400k downswing and they are not adding any new players.

Now I am stuck in a bad spot, I am scrambling to find any sort of staking/coaching deal for the summer and I do not know anyone in the poker world….  Any help you could offer, even if just some words of advice, would be greatly appreciated.

My suggestion to this player was for him to focus on the games he could afford on his own bankroll rather than entering into a staking relationship that would have constrained his options. After hearing that he final tabled the first Venetian event and had a few other good cashes as well, I concluded that, “it looks like he’s going to be alright.”

How right I was. He recently got back to me with a pretty extraordinary success story:

I’m not sure if you remember me, but… I had originally emailed you asking for staking/coaching or just any advice that you could give me. I wound up having a very solid series without needing any kind of backing. After the series I moved up to Canada to maintain Supernova Elite status on Pokerstars….

I recently came home to Chicago to play live tournaments, for the first time since the series, at the Chicago Poker Classic. I won ‘Player of the Turbo Series’ (winning a car that I took $30k cash option for) and ‘Overall Player of the Series’ (for $50k in cash).

The combination of skills that I have obtained from grinding online, and my many years of dealing poker and playing live have made for a great mixture of skills that make me a beast in live tournaments. I’m absolutely giddy about the WSOP being just around the corner, and I want to take my game to the next level and maximize my chances of success and making a run at a bracelet.

I’ve been watching your training vids since I was a broke noob, and reading your articles and blogs as well. I really like the way that you go into such depth explaining even just a single hand of poker…. Again I ask for just any bit of advice you’d have for someone in my situation. Last year when I asked the same thing I was a good player playing with a limited bankroll. This year I am fresh off of 10 months of very hard work online, with a nice bankroll, and my confidence has me believing that I can win every tournament that I play.

I’ve already written back to him, but I want to post a bit of advice here. Obviously this player has had a ton of success recently, more than could be attributed to luck alone. In other words, he’s clearly a talented tournament player.

It’s important, however, not to get overconfident. He’s surely had more than his share of luck as well. There’s always room for improvement no matter how good you are, and even the best must work hard to stay on top of the game.

It seems like this player is taking the right message from his recent success: he has skill and talent that is well worth investing in. He’s taking the right approach by being inspired to play more and study harder rather than resting on his laurels.

As a blogger, I love hearing from people who have found my writing or my advice helpful. Hell, just knowing people read at all is nice. If you’re a reader, I’d love to hear your story: how you got into poker, how you’re improving, what you like most about the blog, constructive criticism, and by all means your proudest poker accomplishments!

You can leave comments here or contact me directly. Please let me know if you don’t want me to share your story, because I’m looking for a few more good ones like this to post.