Odd Job: How a poker expert made his fortune — one cent at a time

 Odd Job - How a poker specialist made his fortune -- one penny at a time

Nathan "BlackRain79," Williams is famous for creating a bar chart. His online poker winnings were neatly organized according to the stakes. The table, which was viralized in 2009 by the poker community, shows that he made $53 from playing at a $3/$6 table (a term used as the starting bets for each poker hand). He also won $40 on $0.50/$1. He'd also lost some money: He was losing $250 at the $0.25/$0.50 tables, but not as much as in $2/$4, when he was down almost $3,000.

It is at the bottom that the legends begin. Williams had made an unbelievable $13,000 profit from games in which the blinds were only one cent or two cents. This is the lowest stakes that anyone can play in North America. Williams had earned an additional $13,000 from $0.02/$0.05 poker games. You know from experience that these stakes poker games rarely exceed one dollar. This didn't matter. Williams had built a small business empire, one penny at the time.

The card shark is the archetypical one who accepts the fact that they may lose a lot of money. These are the inevitable facts of the industry. A $50,000 pot can disappear in an instant. But the guy across the felt will have a slightly higher full house. This is why the game has been a huge spectator sport and a brutal way for people to make a living.

Williams broke the rules. One-cent games were created for casual players who aren't concerned about their mortgages, but want to make money playing. It created a culture that was looser, more wild, and generally less skillful than players at higher stakes games. Williams was naturally able to take advantage of that. Williams was not required to play with high-rollers. As long as he played enough hand, he could do that. Williams was playing 24 games at once and 10,000 hands per day. That's the scale that makes $13,000 more affordable. Williams calculates that he is No. The No. 1 winner at these stakes in history. Williams, who is 40 years old, is now a part time poker pro. He devotes most his time to his website and books. His YouTube channel also offers guides to anyone wanting to follow his path and conquer the microstakes. He lives today in Thailand, having moved from Vancouver in 2012. He spoke to me via Skype about his struggle to sustain a life on microstakes and how he became famous in the poker community. We also discussed the mistakes that players make when competing for small profits.

What was the first time you took poker seriously? Did you ever say, "Okay, this is what I want to do for a living?"

It was a chance. I had just graduated from university and was already working odd jobs. I found online poker and started to win with a very tight style. I worked my day job and slowly increased my stakes so that I could make more playing poker at nights than I did at work.

Why did you choose to specialize in the one-cent/two percent games? Why did you decide to specialize in these stakes?

You don't need a boss when you are a pro. You don’t have anyone to tell what to do. I was just being silly. It was easy to play millions and millions of hands at low stakes. After becoming an expert, I moved into teaching. In 2011, I published a book called "Crushing The Microstakes". It was extremely popular and just kept going.

What is the secret to your success as a microstakes player? How did that become your fame?

Pokertableratings used to be a website. They began to track all the poker sites and publish everyone's wins or losses without their consent. It was absurd. Many people threatened to sue them. I was quite pissed, I don’t want my income publicized to the world. But people saw that I was making large sums of cash at very low stakes. Ironically, this website made me a bit famous in the poker world. My profile became a mess of comments and I responded by saying, "Hey guys, now I have my website. I'm just answering questions there."

Pokertableratings helped me get a lot of visitors to my site. I began to write articles about the best ways to win lower-stakes games. Then I researched online marketing techniques and discovered that it was possible to create an ebook. I tried it and it worked really well.

How was the feeling of the lowest stakes different to the one at the highest? Did you find it more enjoyable to farm the stakes than to play with more money?

It's only full of pure amateurs. American aren't interested in the amount of money involved. It's not a serious hobby for many Americans. You will meet more professionals when you play at higher stakes. They can take notes, they can study your game and use tracking software. They want to win. It's an entirely different environment.

Are there lower stakes people that will be more inclined to call a 25-cent bet because the amount is so small? Do these stakes make people more likely to part with their money? how to make money at online poker