College over - To Work or To Play?

As of last Friday, I’ve officially finished college for the year having handed in my final portfolio for one of my modules. This leaves me with a very important decision to make for Summer - Shall I spend the Summer months working, or playing? I went for an interview last week in Dublin with a prominent online entertainment company and if I get the go ahead for an internship, I should be moving up to Dublin which should be a great experience, both professionally and socially!

On the flipside, if I don’t get the job in Dublin, I can either plug away a few days a week in the Tower Hotel like I’ve been doing for the past 3 years, or I can kick the job to the curb and play poker online for the Summer! How’s that going, I hear you ask! Well I was forced to drop limits and have grinded my way up to 38 buyins at $20NL and will be moving up to $50NL when I either win another two buyins, or when I receive my next rakeback payment!

Now it’s certainly not possible to make a living playing $20NL, but the possibility begins to present itself at $50NL where 200BB pots are now worth $100. Win enough of those and I’ll not only ensure a nice monthly rakeback payment but also I’ll be well on my way to $100NL which is now my revised goal for the end of Summer.

Regarding how I feel my game is, I’ve subscribed to DeucesCracked for their training videos and have been very impressed and I’ve also recorded and published videos of my play for criticism from a “Small Stakes Study Group” that I’m a member of! So you can’t accuse me of not trying to improve my game! I’ve also stepped it up in terms of tables - I now have up to 8 on the go at once. The reason for the change is that I read a respected user on Boards.ie post that at these levels it’s all about getting yourself into as many situations and face as many awkward and difficult decisions as possible. While I’m not beating the games at the same rate I was when I was playing 4tables, I’m becoming more proficient at making correct decisions and extracting value from my hands which should stand to me when I move up the levels!

While it seems that I’m doing a lot to improve my game, a skeleton remains in my closet in the form of random tilting and spewing! I find myself calling people down light and stacking off preflop with marginal holdings. Stupid moves like this are very costly and are the number one reason why it’s taken me so long to beat this level! I hope to get a handle on it by time I move up, otherwise $50NL could prove to be an expensive (mis)adventure!

So, with all that said, I think I’m constantly improving my game and am capable of beating the games I play to make a relatively modest living out of it. If I get the job in Dublin then obviously it takes priority but I’d much rather grind the tables for 5 hours a day than continue working where I am now…