A few years ago (2010), I started a PGC thread that you can find here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...-1k-10k-864623.

Cliffs of that thread:

• Recreational player who's starting to take poker more seriously struggles with tilt issues and resolves to improve all facets of his game after a swingy online history that's ultimately proven breakeven. Player is fascinated by the headsup sit n go format and directs his focus on improving at that discipline, striving to grow his balance on Full Tilt Poker from $1k to $10k.
• Player is an associate at a large law firm with a crushing debt load ($180k) incurred from attending a top law school. Player is very unhappy at work, has almost no free time between all the demands of his job, and spends a very large percentage of the little free time he does have playing and studying poker.
• Player begins making significant strides in early 2011, becoming one of the highest winning regs at the $55 and $115 husng tables in March and April of that year. Player attributes much of that progress to a greatly improved mental game.
• Meanwhile, away from the thread, player has been doing extremely well in live nl cash games and can perceive himself improving every day.
• Player hits his $10k goal on April 14, 2011, a couple of days after having earned a Black Card. Player is ecstatic and really feels like he is starting to "get it" when it comes to poker.
• April 15, 2011, arrives. The thread dies abruptly, and so too does player's rapid progress online. Player begins to focus exclusively on live, deep-stacked cash games away from 2p2.

That all feels like an eternity ago now. When I revisit that thread, it almost feels as if a completely different person was its author, which isn't far from the truth, as I have been fortunate to experience a lot of personal growth over the last few years and on top of that am a much better poker player. The following final post from the thread sums up much of what has happened in my life since Black Friday:

So what is this new thread's purpose? Well, with a new year having just arrived, I find myself feeling more self-imposed pressure to figure out what's next in life, and I want this thread to assist towards that end. In short, I want to crush life and start moving beyond relying solely on poker for income. To some extent I've been inspired by the threads that have been created by cushlash, Aesah, Running Uphill and RobFarha (and possibly others I'm forgetting to mention). Each of these guys created threads that, beyond being fun rides, also facilitated some great back-and-forths that have been beneficial for all involved and in the end contributed some of my personal favorite 2p2 content. On a related note, probably my favorite thread on the site is DGAF's 2k thread, which is absolute gold for any professional live poker player.

I'm a strong believer in the PGC process because 1) I've already had a good experience authoring a PGC thread, having personally experienced growth in my poker game in no small part thanks to everyone who contributed to my last thread, and 2) I've found that exploring my thoughts through writing often leads me to be more productive. There's something about the process of capturing thoughts on the written page that makes it easier for the mind to process everything and move forward. It's time I push myself even harder to do more and be more in life and I am confident sharing that process some with 2p2 can help; I have a lot of respect for the posters on here and am looking forward to getting some valuable feedback.

As of today, poker-wise, things are great. I've been doing phenomenally after a disappointing WSOP, having earned roughly $60k since arriving back home on July 6 after spending the whole summer in Vegas. Lately, I've re-embraced PLO as local PLO games have gotten very juicy at my primary local room with 5-10 PLO getting off very frequently over the last few weeks. So far, so good on that end: my hourly in 5-10 PLO is currently $97/hr over 138 hours (lol sample obviously). Meanwhile, I've been working on sharpening my PLO game by two-tabling $.50/$1 PLO on bovada; so far I've been beating that game at a decent clip over something like 10k hands. I've also been playing a lot of stud8 on bovada and have been doing very well at the 5-10 tables over 5kish hands.

Life-wise, things are decent, but they could be better. I'm not sure if I discussed it in my other thread or not, but I used to be overweight (250 lbs as of early 2011). I started working out and eating better right around Black Friday, and over the year and a half post-BF I lost 80 lbs and have since kept all of it off (I currently weigh 169 lbs). However, while I've kept my weight steady, I've had periods lasting several months where I haven't exercised at all. This isn't acceptable to me; I'm happier and more productive when I'm in great physical condition and I can only be in that condition if I exercise on a daily or every other day basis. I want to make major strides this year on the exercise and nutrition front.

Debt-wise, I've reduced my student loan debt to $45k from the original $180k and am hoping to pay off everything by the end of 2016. So, financially, things are good, certainly a lot better than they were when I was facing a mountain of debt.

On a daily basis, I could be more efficient with my time. While the bovada grind has been helpful, too much of my time playing on there has been out of boredom and not because I'm playing making conscious efforts to improve my game. I'd rather fill that time doing something that will help me move to the future, like doing research that could support an entrepeneurial venture (something I've become very interested in as of late). I also want to cut down my Internet loop, as I'm probably spending an average of 2.5 hours browsing 2p2, messing around with my fantasy NBA team, checking twitter constantly, etc; I can keep doing all of these things but cut down on the repetition drastically.

Other things I'm seeking to do with my time off the felt: get back on the dating grind, keep learning about how to start and support an entrepeneurial venture, keep getting better educated about personal finance and how to maximize my resources, keep contemplating how to put my law degree to its best use, keep working on mindfulness and doing meditation, keep writing, etc.

So that's where things are at right now. I'm pleased with the progress that I've made so far, but there's a lot more work to do.

Some giraffes:

Cash game data since arriving back from 2013 WSOP (the start of my professional career) (vast majority of data 2-5 NL, also includes 5-10 NL, 1-2 to 5-10 PLO, and 1-2 NL; ignore hours towards top as that isn't accurate, the hours listed on the capture immediately below are accurate):





(big bet games only)




Ohio nl 3/13/13 onwards (around the time I felt my nl game took another significant leap)





Last 1350 hu sngs before Black Friday:

First in what I'm sure will be an epic thread!!!

Good luck and definitely subbed
Dgi...

Just want to say I do not blame you. I work in a major corporate law firm, as a marketer not a lawyer. These guys are here 24/7. Seems so life draining especially for an associate who has Partners constantly on them. Congrats on actually being successful in your transition. Keep on winning!

Such a crusher, any advice for a online grinder to play live 2/5-5/10?

Thanks, DGI! A friend of mine at my local room who I didn't even know had any familiarity with 2p2 told me to check out your thread the other day; seems like your thread has positively impacted many people and I give you major kudos for that.

"Draining" is one of the first words I use to describe it. Low decision latitude intersected with high pressure to perform=a very rough work experience, for me at least. This article describes the situation well: http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com...rs-so-unhappy/

Thanks, Stuntman! I've visited your thread every now and then and am rooting for you to crush bovada. IMO, coming from an online background, you'd want to make a strong effort to pay very close attention to the table despite your patience being tested getting dealt only ~20-25 raked hands/hour. Most players I know who come from an online background get bored too easily and miss out on spots to optimize their expectation, focusing on their phones while a universe of exploitable information is available right in front of them. You can increase your edge paying attention to small variables that other people are missing; most live players have massive bet sizing tells in addition to a litany of physical tells that, with some experience, can be quite informative based on player type. Zach Elwood's Reading Poker Tells is, in my opinion, dead-on in assessing the universe of live physical tells and is a book I would recommend to any serious live player.

My other piece of advice is to perceive live poker as a more value-oriented game. Compared to online poker, a larger % of your profit will come from getting the most $ in the middle as possible with your monster hands. You should also get comfortable with the prospect of playing in very multiway pots with passive preflop action. Between the deep-stacked nature of live cash and the much greater # of players heading to the flop, hands like suited connectors and low pocket pairs go way up in value when many players at the table are unable to fold hands that good online players would snap fold under identical conditions.

Wow pretty crazy I found this right now. Seems like I'm close to where you were when you started your original PGC. I'm looking to get out of the firm grind in the next 2-3 years and life after that will hopefully include playing poker at least part time "professional."

I am planning on starting my own PGC thread soon. I will be flowing this, good luck!

Excellent op, sir. Will be following with attention.

Ha, always feel free to ask me any questions you might have about the law firm grind or poker. Best of luck on your journey and look forward to spotting your thread here soon.


Thanks, palinca! I remember you from the hu sng coaching tree way back, wish I had participated.

Excellent points, I do a very good job of making it look like I don't pay attention by talking a lot to my fellow players and watching the ball game. But since the action so slow, I'm able to keep good mental notes while doing other things like that.

I usually play pretty tight when a flop is seen by 3+ players and I don't see that changing live. Though I wonder if you get tricked unintentionally, Ie. You have an over pair and flop is 44T. You cbet and villain raises with something like JT. Obviously, you don't know villain has a T here but if you came into a situation like that without much reads it would be very tough and tricky to play, but you can say that about online too lol.

So, this week has sucked hard. Last Sunday, I arrived back home after spending a week with my family for Christmas and not playing a hand of live poker. My time with my family was great, but I came back with a nasty cold whose effects still haven't totally gone away. Being sick held me back from working out much and so far I've only gotten one workout in for the week (though I'm about to get another in after finishing this post).

Yesterday morning, I woke up after just four hours of sleep to someone pounding very loudly on my door. I jolted out of bed and discovered half a foot of water flooding my kitchen and soaking my living room carpet. Fortunately, my neighbor had spotted the water flowing out of my front door and called maintenance for our apartment complex to check in on me. Turns out the hot water tank in my laundry room (adjacent to the kitchen) had blown up. None of my personal items were damaged. Maintenance did a great job removing the water as quickly as possible and bringing in a carpet team to work on mold prevention, but as a consequence I have to let a gigantic, loud fan and dehumidifier run in my apartment all weekend, which makes living there a little more difficult.

And, then, there's poker. I've lost almost every day this week, and it's been especially frustrating because the games, which have mostly been 5-10 PLO, have been incredibly good. I'm currently stuck $4600 for the week and can feel a negative "I can't win" mindset festering; I made a couple of bad river calls (and attempted one bad river bluff) this week that I think were influenced by a sense of desperation after not making many hands and having many of the good hands I have made being second best. I need to play better and not be influenced by such things. Bleh.

To be honest, I was reluctant to post this update because 1) I don't like to engage negative thoughts, 2) I found myself resisting the idea of starting this thread off "on the wrong foot." I ultimately decided to go ahead and post about my lousy week because I think it's important to engage reality and not run from it. I've been reading a lot of Buddhist literature lately, and one of the most valuable takeaways for me has been that one shouldn't seek to avoid suffering but rather accept it, embrace it, study it. That doesn't mean you should wallow in misery and that fighting it is pointless. It means you should recognize "I am upset," observe that thought and how your mind and body react to it, acknowledge that such feelings are natural/unavoidable in life, and work on accepting the suffering for the time being until it eventually ceases.

Anyways, I have no right to complain. Things have generally been going amazing, I've probably been running above expectation post-WSOP, and bad weeks are simply going to happen in poker; in early 2014, I had an "abyss" type downswing that went 6 weeks and cost me $16k, my biggest downswing ever by far. 2014 in fact started terribly, but I kept fighting and ultimately finished the year a big winner. Reciprocality tells me that everyone experiences these kinds of downswings and that I can realize an even greater edge by responding to these downswings better than everyone else.

Some more giraffes for a confidence booster :
Last 970 hours of local play:







Game by game breakdown (doesn't include round by round, where I'm up $6600 over 14 hours, or 10-20 HORSE, where I'm up $1100 over 33 hours):





And, to embrace the reality that sometimes poker sucks, here's the beginning of the year 2014 (over ~550 hours of suckiness), fortunately feels like a long time ago:

Live downswings suck 10000x more than online downswings. Battle through it man and know you're a long term winner.

Thanks for posting, these rough patches are a part of your adventure after all...

Do you have any recommended reading for live poker? I transitioned from HUSNGs to live NLHE after moving to a country with absolute horse**** internet, and have been doing really well at it (big fish in small pond kind of thing), but I want to move to the next level in 2015...

Also, more details on how you got back in shape (nutrition/exercise tips?). I've always been fairly skinny and unworried about health aspects in general, but that's one area of my life I really want to improve this year...

Well, things got better quickly. Booked a $3400 win at 5-10 PLO in a 5.5 hour session tonight; ran great and played great.

Re: the first question, as I mentioned before, I thought Elwood's Reading Poker Tells was quite good in its exploration of live physical tells. I found myself nodding dozens of times while reading it; it helped reinforce a lot of what I already thought while also helping bring to light the meaning regarding certain behaviors I've observed from certain player types. Bart Hanson produces a lot of valuable content regarding live poker via magazine articles and tweets (although he appears to have cut down significantly on strategy tweets). A lot of these magazines are often available for free consumption in casino poker rooms.

Some other good books that aren't related to poker but have helped in some way improve my poker game include:
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (one of the best books I've ever read)
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
8 Minute Meditation by Victor Davich
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Choose Yourself by James Altucher (helped me feel better about my decision to take an unconventional path and deviate from a traditional career model)

More than any reading I've done, though, I think watching televised poker helped my game tremendously. From 2008 to 2011, I watched every episode of HSP, every episode of The Poker Stars.Net Big Game, most of the Million Dollar Cash Game, the entire Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge, the Aussie Millions cash game, many Poker After Dark cash games, most WSOP ME coverage, etc. I learned so much through observing hands played on these shows very closely as well as through sheer osmosis. On a related note, my favorite televised cash action ever is the Dwan/Antonius Aussie Millions headsup battle (now probably 5-6 years old) because it's an amazing showcase of mental game resiliency by Dwan in the face of a brutally cold deck.

Re: exercise and nutrition, I started with a bunch of small changes that became habits, many of those positively compounding into other good habits. Some examples: getting a burrito bowl instead of a burrito at Chipotle (300 calories saved), making time to go on 10-15 min. walks while at the firm (also helped clear my head), keeping track mentally of how many calories I consumed in a day, stop eating as soon as I felt full and no longer adhering to the practice of eating every last bite of something just because, eating less for my primary meals while eating more snacks (mostly apples and granola bars) in between meals, drinking more water, eating a lot more salads and trying to abstain from dressing, eating something for breakfast (I didn't eat breakfast for many years), trying to balance a heavy lunch with a light dinner, eating skinny cow desert instead of more fattening desert, etc.

I still indulge myself plenty, which seems to keep cravings to a minimum. One of my favorite things to do with my free time during the day (I play almost exclusively at night) is to try out new restaurants and a lot of these meals ain't light. I just make sure to balance them out through the course of the week with lighter meals and more physical activity.

Most importantly, losing weight is a mindset. Every day when I woke up (and to this day), the first thing I did is step on the scale. This helped reinforce to me that losing weight was something important to me and more generally that my health is a priority. While I was losing all the weight, this practice gave me a very good idea of how what I had eaten the previous day had affected my weight, and I now know to a very high degree of precision how what I eat on any given day will affect my weight.

Re: exercise, I wish I had more help to offer. Whereas many years ago I was really into weight lifting, I now mainly focus on improving how fast and how far I can go on the treadmill; one of my goals this year is to expand my repertoire of exercises again.

EDIT: Whoops, just realized the title "last 970 hours" attached to the graph/data I posted earlier today isn't accurate; it's actually the 970 hours previous to the mini-$4600 downswing of Sunday-Friday of this week.

Thanks for reminding me of the Art of learning, I come from chess so I'm quite familiar with the author but have actually never thoroughly read the book.

Enjoying the thread thus far. Keep up the good work.

The afore-mentioned (and afore-posted) dgiharris' thread is a must-read if you haven't yet, and also ecgrinder and tmckendry are great as well. (I saw you'd already mentioned aesah's thread, which is in the same category.)

By the way, where are you playing live?

Another aspiring ex-lawyer here checking in. I think it must be something about the grinding, soul-destroying nature of practicing law that makes the freedom associated with being a pro poker player that much more appealing.

I'll definitely be subscribing to this thread and rooting for OP bigtime. Also, I just started my own PG&C thread here if anyone wants to follow along.

Subscribed!

I'm an accountant myself, and dreaming of freedom too. Lawyers and accountants are kindred spirits lol.

Ended up not playing live yesterday after having grinded close to 40 hours for the week. I did play a little on bovada, probably 2.5 hours worth, and won roughly $150 over several $55 hu sngs, some PLO, and some stud8.

Saw Foxcatcher during my time off. Extremely good acting and an interesting story that I had no prior familiarity with.

Also started reading The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, advocating a stoic way of life. Pretty good so far.

This book is so good that I'm going to throw in another plug for it. Waitzkin espouses an approach to life that resonated very strongly with me and that I strive to follow.

Coming from a chess background, you in particular should enjoy it; I'm not too knowledgeable about the chess world but even I found the parts of the book discussing that world fascinating. I remember admiring the style of Karpov as described in the book.

Thanks, and thank you for the thread recs. I play for the most part in Ohio, while taking trips every now and then (including one to LA coming up, where I will be playing on LATB for anyone who wants to sweat). I don't want to identify where I live by name because I'm not too eager for other players here to find this thread, but a little bit of detective work should make it obvious if you're curious.

There are more and more of us coming out of the woodwork, a testament to the legal profession being a complete and utter mess right now. In my case, the contrast of my life now to how it was previously is very stark. I would always choose this freedom over my prior situation, but with it comes some different challenges that I am hoping this thread helps me overcome. I'll check out your thread; gl!

Thanks, sir. Hope to see you on the live felt again some time soon.

Kindred professions indeed; I think I could have found myself as an accountant just as easily.

Played short-handed 5-10 PLO for 2.5 hours tonight before the game broke. Made a very stress-free $700 and change and was fortunate to run well again.

I've had a few people in the local poker community volunteer w/o my even asking to take action if I play any 10-20 nl or plo or 100-200 o8/stud8 during my upcoming LA trip, so that's quite flattering. My plans could change, but for now I'm planning on sticking to 5-10 nl and 20-40 OE on my own dime. I don't know what the PLO landscape there is, but I won't play any bigger than 5-10; from what I've heard there's not even such an in-between stake game in LA, though. I still generally feel a little weird about selling action for a cash game; so far I've done it 4 times (the last time being about a year ago for a scheduled live headsup match) and booked a winner each time.

If you're in LA PM me, I'll come out to hang out and can direct you to some good all you can eat korean BBQ.

Ok, cool, thanks Stuntman! I do love some Korean BBQ.

When do you think you'll be coming and where do you think you'll be staying? PM me the info if you don't want to answer here. Also, if you have questions regarding LA cash games, LMK.

PM'd you; thanks again.