From Poker to Crypto

My blog is a window into the life of an aspiring poker player and it has led me to the world of cryptocurrency. I feel that I have to write about that part of my life as poker has led and allowed me to dabble in it. I know many poker players are heavy into Crypto and when the first crash happened it affected many of them. But I also know some poker players that have made millions from Crypto. 

Rewind back to 2014. I was running a poker room and there was a player who told us this miracle machine that can mine coins (Bitcoin) and make us all rich. Unfortunately at the time no one heeded his words because he did not have the best of reputations, and lacks follow through. He later sold his machines and Bitcoins too I'm guessing at a very low price. But that was my first encounter with Crypto. 

I stare at this screen at least 200 times a day

Fast forward a bit to 2016. I guess because of my good nature and network in poker, I was very lucky to get involved with a group who later became the biggest union on PPPoker. There were four groups of us each representing Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia that started the first unofficial union. If you've played on PPPoker, Upoker, Poker Bros, you have us to thank for coming up with this idea. Side story: At the time many clubs have come and gone, and PPPoker wasn't doing that great because clubs lack longevity and most did not have enough players to sustain a healthy poker community. We however had the genius idea of pooling clubs from different countries, and taking in struggling clubs to create a monster club. By our first day we had 1,000 active players and at the end of week one we had 7,000 players. Needless to say I made good money from it and thankfully I was smart enough to put some aside for long term investments. 

I have a good friend who is an amazing business person. He started off as a food stall hawker but today he is a multi-millionaire with businesses in multiple industries. Since then I have joined him and his team to invest in properties, Forex, Prawn farming, stocks and of course Cryptocurrency. One day in 2017,  I happen to reach out to him for investment ideas and he introduced me to this coin that recently launched. He got them for 3 cents but I was a bit late so I got some at 13 cents on the 26th of December. It shot up to more than $1 and before we could congratulate ourselves it all came crashing down January 2018 only just less than 3 weeks later. I kept my faith in it and this month it hit 97 cents again, 3 years later. 

My best session on Poker this month

I was fortunate in 2020 I had received some payments and loan repayments in BTC. Unfortunately I did not hang on to all of it, but the ones I kept shot up in value. This newfound bankroll allowed me to play around and hedge my bets on some other coins. In a bullish market, it is hard not to pick a bad coin! I would put $2000-3000 on a coin I liked, 15 minutes, a few hours, or sometimes 2-3 days later, sell them off for 10-40% profit. I did get lucky on one coin BitTorrent where I just bought a few days before, and on that fateful day I just happen to wake up and saw it was up 180% in the last hour. No brainer, I sold them all. 

My best session on Crypto this month

I am not a technologically savvy person, nor do I claim to know anything about blockchain technology and it's applications. But there are some poker skills that are transferrable to Crypto investing. You need to be disciplined, spend time to study the market, manage your bankroll well, know when to cut your losses, read and understand the graphs, the movements but personally I feel more so is understanding the investors, just like in poker when you are trying to read your opponents. Unlike stocks that have very tangible information like annual reports, P&L, demand and supply of their goods or service, reputation of the company, strength or weakness of Fiat currency related to the company blah blah, you can make a calculated guess of where the stock might head. But as seen in the recent Gamestop and AMC fiasco, given enough people who feel one way about something, coupled with the power of social media, a reasonable number of retail investors can also hugely influence market prices. 

Long ago I was playing an online game that was about pirates. In order to do well in most of these games you had to spend money to buy tokens. I did not, but instead I made a lot of tokens by buying old ships from players who are levelling up, and sold them for a profit to new pirates who desperately wanted their first boat. My enterprise was thriving and there I was just swapping ownership of these ships, spending a little time and effort to make the connection. I am by no means a crypto trader, nor I dare say I know what the heck I am doing. But I am just here transferring ownership from one to another, whilst making a profit in between. 

This month I am up about $4000 after playing 10 sessions of poker. But I've made more from Crypto sometimes in one trade. Then again I must warn you, it's very easy when the market is bullish. But how you survive a bearish market is what separates the men from the boys. It has taken my time away from the tables and it might become more of my focus as poker takes a back seat. I will keep you guys updated about how I do.