Howdy Reader!

I picked up online poker at the start of the pandemic.

I had played (free) Zynga Poker on Facebook, and thought that I was good enough at that to profit in online cash games.

What I didn’t know at the time was that people play a lot differently if there’s real money on the line.

It doesn’t matter that the “real money” was only a $0.25 buy-in to a six-person knockout tournament.

So I learned on weekly freeroll tournaments and micro-stakes.

Five years I played, sometimes several hours a night.

Over 3,100 games. I will say it was fun. This was always play money. If I lost it, I wouldn’t be in trouble.

For the playing I did, I usually could withdraw $50 a month, maybe $100 or more if it was a good month (or if I played a lot).

There’s a reason it’s called a grind, though.

People who make a living playing poker call it “grinding at the tables.”

They're playing much higher stakes than I ever did.

It’s a job. You show up and play cards.

You might be up for the day, or the week, or you might be down.

But nothing good happens if you don’t show up at the tables.

You don’t lose any money, but you don’t gain any money, either.

You’re trading time for (the possibility of earning) money.

Well … maybe you don’t.

But I did.

And that’s exactly why this kind of side hustle isn’t scalable.

There are only so many hours in the day.

The stakes only go so high, and it gets harder to be profitable each time you go up in stakes.

Fifty bucks a month worked out to less than a buck an hour.

I had moved up to slightly higher stakes games ($5 range) and was about breakeven.

Playing more, studying more, I could probably become profitable.

But then I’m looking at $300/month income. Still really small.

And I have to keep playing to make that.

The math wasn’t really mathing.

I finally saw it for what it was.

It wasn’t a side hustle.

It was a distraction.

So … I cashed out my chips.

Last night I cashed out my accounts.

Fifty bucks from one site, and around $170 from another.

There’s nothing left.

I’d either have to pay in again or slowly build up things with free chips each day.

Either way, I don’t have the funds in the accounts to play much.

I’ll probably miss it.

But I’ll be getting an hour a day back.

I’ll have an extra hour to work on things that are scalable.

Things that have the potential to earn even when I’m not present.

​

Let's grow and scale together!

~ John

​

When you're up for it, here are some other ways I can help you:

• ​Follow me on Threads and tag me there with a question about building your online presence
• Check out my other writing on my blog or on Medium​
• Learn from my current side hustle challenges on Substack

Note: Some links in this email may be affiliate links, and I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Just so you know ;)