Jonathan Little asked an interesting question from his audience on Twitter: would they rather start their poker careers 15 years ago with $500 or today with $10,000? The soft games of the Moneymaker Boom era or a huge bankroll – which one would you choose?
Would you rather begin with $500 15 years ago or $10,000 today? #Poker #Career pic.twitter.com/qbk24g9FUk
— Jonathan Little (@JonathanLittle) 17 March 2019
Back in 2004, right at the beginning of the Moneymaker Boom, was the time to play poker. Many in the online poker community feel this way. They feel a longing with nostalgia for the time of super soft games and pre-Black Friday easy accessibility of online poker across America.
Back then, college kids could find fame and fortune overnight after opening an account on a poker site of their choice with just a couple hundred dollars. This is the reason why most responders to Little’s question went with the former option and chose “time travel” over a large bankroll.
Joe Ingram Picks a Side
Even Joe Ingram chimed in and picked the $500 in 2004 rather than $10K today. Little agreed, writing “Same!” in response.
Would you rather begin with $500 15 years ago or $10,000 today? #Poker #Career pic.twitter.com/qbk24g9FUk
— Jonathan Little (@JonathanLittle) 17 March 2019
Little Disagreeing with Himself
Even though the man who posed the question, seasoned veteran poker pro Jonathan Little seems to agree with Ingram now, he expressed very different sentiments earlier. He posted a video on his YouTube channel back in October where he’s ruminating about the same question.
In the video, Little does concede that poker was very soft 15 years ago. But points out that due to the variance in the game, $500 could still be lost quickly even on reasonable stakes. Meanwhile, nothing in the proposal suggests you have to start at high stakes with your hypothetical $10K, so that gives one plenty of opportunity to grow.
Jonathan Little also addresses some other points.
“So, for most people, I think they’d actually be better off starting their poker career today. So why do I think that? Well, with 10 thousand dollars you can go out and hire a good coach. You can subscribe to a training site. (…) From there, you know, you can start small, you don’t have to put your whole 10 thousand dollars at risk. (…) If you’re disciplined with your 10 thousand dollars, it will be essentially impossible for you to go broke. However, if you’re disciplined with your 500 dollars, you could go broke even if the games are soft.”
Another point that many overlooked when they picked the $500 alternative is that all the knowledge about the poker strategy, which is easily accessible now to anyone, wasn’t around over a decade ago.
A lot of the accessory software haven’t been developed yet either at the time. Just think of PokerTracker, for example, coming out in 2009. The free equity calculator Equilab was released in 2010.
So maybe, Little was right the first time and the most sensible thing would be to choose the 20 times bigger bankroll after all, giving you access to the best high tech software and best coaching. Or maybe Joe Ingram is right and those soft games 15 years ago were more profitable and more fun to play in.
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