Hello, my name is Christian - and I live in Tallahassee, Florida. I am 22 and I am currently working as a server in the downtown/midtown area. I finished my time at FSU recently, and now it's time for me to start making career decisions. I've known how to play poker for a long time, but never really started putting energy into it until about 6 months ago. After 6 months...I've decided that this is something I am willing to dedicate my life to.
I want to provide a lot of background about myself, because I think it's all pretty relevant to why I've set such a huge goal for myself, and why I think I'm capable of achieving it.
First and foremost, I'm somebody who's always been considered highly intelligent. I have an IQ of 145, I scored a 2280 on my SATs without even having particularly strong grades, or even preparing for the test in the slightest. I've always been pretty half-hearted with academics because I never had any real motivation to succeed in any legitimate career format. I knew that I was just naturally smart and arrogantly assumed that would mean I could just THINK my way to achieving goals when I decided to set them. In hindsight that is a very immature way of thinking, and I've concluded that if I want to be the best at ANYTHING, not just poker - I'll need to work harder than everyone else. My biggest challenge is going to be learning how to do this.
I've always been highly adept at strategy games; I'm a very advanced chess player, and can beat most people at games like Monopoly and Risk as well. What truly captivates me about poker is how unsolved it is compared to a game like chess. Even high-stakes regs are capable of making huge mistakes. I think ultimately this makes poker even more difficult to 'solve' simply because you aren't ruthlessly punished for the slightest mistakes like you would be in a game like chess. In poker, your mistakes are obfuscated by variance which makes them much more difficult to understand. This is a challenge I feel is worth dedicating my life to.
I am literally starting from nothing. I currently have no bankroll and no computer. My computer gave out about one month ago and I've been unable to replace it so far, but hopefully I'll be able to begin financing a new one within about 3 weeks. I saved my hard drive from my laptop so I should still be able to recover my PokerTracker4 client once I have a new one. I'm a winning player at micro-stakes online, as well as a pretty solid winner at 1/2 NL Live at the local poker room. Once I get a computer again I'll also be depositing money onto ACR, where I'll be grinding up the stakes indefinitely.
Here's a general outline of my immediate and long term goals, followed by how I'll be evaluating my progress.

Immediate/Short Term Goals (Within the month):
- Acquire a laptop
- Deposit $50 onto ACR
- Develop an advanced study plan for the next year
- Begin saving $1000 to make the jump to the top of the micros
- Begin saving $4000 for my eventual live bankroll
- Begin mastering the absolute fundamentals of poker (which I'm already very familiar with
- Play 15k hands by the end of July
- Dedicate 275(ish) hours to poker by the end of July

End of the year goals:
- Have a 1k online bankroll
- Establish the beginnings of my live BR (taking shots at 1/2 Live and Live MTTs to get my Bankroll started )
- Average 9-12 hours per day dedicated to poker
- Average roughly 600-700 hands per day

This is where my goals become a little more vague and TBD..

Next two years:
- Move up to Med Stakes (Both live & online)
- Have poker become my primary source of income

By June, 2020:
- Play poker full time

Beyond:
- Become a high stakes player
- Play the high roller circuit with consistency
- Become the GPI player of the year
- Dominate!

I do not intend on attempting this alone. First and foremost if there's anybody in the Tallahassee/FSU/North Florida area who is dedicated to improving at poker and would like somebody to discuss hands/strategy and play with - I'm looking to start a network now.

I won't be paying for coaching for at least the first two years of this journey, as I don't think it's viable financially or even the best use of my money at this juncture. I will however be subscribing to Upswing and using that as one of my primary resources for improvement. If you have used another training site like RunItOnce or Ivey, I would love to hear your feedback about those sites as well.

So basically I'll be playing at the bottom of the micros while I save money to start my bankroll. This way, I'll have a way of constantly improving and getting in hands every day even though I'm not able to grind at the level I would like. Once I have $1000 saved (shouldn't take very long) I will make the jump from .2/.5 (maybe .5/.10) up to .25/.50.
That is where I will officially beginning trying to run up a nice bankroll.
During this time and beyond is when I'll be posting hands for review on this thread and posting updates about my bankroll, my mindset, where I'm at in my studies, and how I'm evolving as a player. I want to keep the content on here as interesting as possible, because that will allow for more feedback (and also makes it more interesting for me).

I want to be able to look back at the beginning of this thread 5 years from now and see the work that I've put in - and feel nothing but satisfaction for how far I've come, and how much I trusted myself to become something great. A better man. A better person. Stay tuned.




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Had this song going through my head while reading the title.

Good luck with the challenge! I have never used any coaching or paid for any subscriptions so I can't provide any feedback on that matter. Poker Tracker 4 is worth every penny though.

Hell yes this got me pumped


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Day #1:
Looked into some financing options for a new MacBook today. Waiting to get approved by their credit system. Also laid out some of my plans on bankroll management. Starting with $50 on ACR. This is determined to be the best way to keep practicing while having very narrow financial options. The management style moving forward is going to be as follows:

We're not going to be making withdrawals on ACR until the $1000 Bankroll on ACR has been established. The following parameters will be set to make sure that A) I'm profiting from poker in some way. B) I'm managing my BR with %100 accuracy. C) I'm giving myself an opportunity to begin playing live tournaments and cash games as quickly as possible.

Fundamentals:
* $1000 Bankroll, playing .10/.25 NLH on ACR (40 Buyins)
* IF Bankroll falls to $800, we move down to .5/.10 until back at $1000 (80 Buyins)
* At $1000, $10 Max Buyin for Tournaments
* At $800, $5 Max Buyin for Tournaments
* PLO is only acceptable at .1/.2
* At $1500, Take a $100 shot (2 Buyins) at .25/.50 NLH
* At $1600, Take a $50 tourney shot
* If Bankroll reaches $2000, reassess management strategy, stakes

Resource Allocation:
* First of every month will be the day to withdrawal
* Minimum of $100 BR increase required to withdrawal
* Withdrawal percentage is based on profit


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Wow had no idea the pokemon theme song was so epic...

Gl op, this thread should be a great resource for you. Im also looking to invest in an online coaching program so I'll update with anything I find out.

Much appreciated


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Day #2:
While we aren't able to play poker hands and begin studying our own game in order to improve, we want to still continue to improve our understanding of the game. My goal is to use the fact that I'm unable to play as a strength rather than a weakness. I want to develop a very great FOUNDATION for thinking about the game and have a natural approach to my strategy where I'm making decisions a precise way every time. My first edge over other players is that I operate within a realm of certainty and understanding. This is based in a few fairly simple principles:
* Our preparation allows us to make fewer 'spontaneous' decisions. This essentially means that we handle basic-intermediate decisions with a very high rate of consistency, and we are able to spend our critical thinking abilities on more advanced decisions.
* We have more time for our most important decisions
* We make the correct decision far more consistently than our opponent
* We develop our discipline


CORE PRINCIPLES
* Why we bet
* Why we check
* Bluffing
* Check-raising
* Bet sizing
* Position
* Squeezing
* Stealing
* ICM
* Critical HUD Stats
* Critical Database Analytics

If anybody has feedback on this approach so far, I'm all ears.

Additional notes:
Got approved for credit to begin financing a laptop today
Have to work out the details but will most likely be getting one of the 2016 MacBook Pros. Super excited about that.
Watched 3-4 hours of the WSOP 10k HORSE event on PokerGo today, it was fun to get a better understanding of some of the variants. Razz seems like a super solved game. Tomorrow I'll be doing some really elementary off the table work, mostly focusing on the fundamental reasons for betting and how to apply that super basic/fundamental way of thinking into a variety of spots and situations. I want to make sure that my fundamentals are rock solid in the most complicated of scenarios.




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GL! I'm 21 and inbetween my 3rd and final year of college and want to get into playing poker but will need start from scratch as ive only been watching for 5-10 years but not been playing with any sense of strategy.

I am starting basically from scratch and with a much lower IQ ( ) but with how you've been struturing your posts, I think i'll be able to learn a lot about the thinking process behind decisions which I havent found great info on. Theres a lot of info out there but nothing too well structured.

I'll certainly by following your progress! Good luck bro.

Thanks for the encouragement, a big portion of my studying will be available here in my thread, I hope it's +EV for you


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good luck OP, majority of the "zero to hero" threads are trash but it appears you have a good mindset and the thread looks promising. My IQ is 135 so im a bit jealous Ill be looking forward to the progression of this thread however!

Yeah that was actually part of what influenced me to start a thread, I felt like I had a better chance than other people starting from a similar place - I'm starting from nothing but I've already played maybe 125k hands in my life. Thanks for showing interest


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I definitely think his thread is unique in the fact that you don't even own a computer..

I wouldn;t go too mental financing a macbook pro when you can just get a fairly cheap secondhand laptop which would work fine for multitabling with tracking software

Subbed.

I evaluated that option as well, I decided on getting a brand new one because I wanted it to last me for the duration of my immediate goals. Completely reasonable to go the route of getting a cheap used one though. Thanks for the sub.


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Promising start, will be following. GL

Day #3:
The new MacBook has officially been shipped! Hopefully we'll be up and running on ACR within the next few days. My only big problem right now is that I'm having to walk 2.2 miles to and from work almost every day, which is taking up a ton of my time. Lost my car in an accident last month, so transportation has been rough. Uber rides are cutting into the amount of $ I can dedicate to my bankroll; so **** it, I'll just get some exercise. I've also been actively trying to lose some of the weight I've put on in college - I'm at 165 lbs. now and I want to get back down to 140 lbs. I've been doing cardio 3 times a day (walking to and from work) and a run around the neighborhood at 7 AM every day. Been getting in workouts at the gym about 3-4 days a week. I may look to bump that up to 4-5 days if I feel like I have the time and energy.

Today my focus was on my fundamental strategy for C-Betting, here's a look at the majority of my notes for the day:

Continuation betting is intended to:
- Get worse hands to call
- Get better hands to fold

This page is designed to state how often (generally) we want to C-Bet the various types of holdings we will have.
Default C-Betting Strategy:
(Heads up, in position)
- made hands (flopped flushes, flopped straights, full houses) SOMEWHAT OFTEN
- very strong holdings (sets, trips, TTP, TPMP, TPBP, BTP) OFTEN
- very strong draws (flush draws w a pair, nuttish flush draws, open ended draws w a pair, open ended draws with over cards) VERY OFTEN
- over pairs to the board VERY OFTEN
- strong pairs (TPTK, top pair, middle pair w draws) VERY OFTEN
- naked draws (normal flush draws, open ended straight draws, double gutters, gutshots) SOMEWHAT OFTEN
- weak pairs (middle pair, bottom pair w draw, bottom pair w overcard) OCCASIONALLY
- Ace high combos (AK, AQ, AJ, AT, A5) OCCASIONALLY
- No pair Broadway cards w draws (KQ, KJ, QJ w OESD, FD, DGS, GS) OCCASIONALLY
- garbage pairs (naked bottom pair, under pocket pairs) RARELY
- backdoor draws w ace high OCCASIONALLY
- junk (<Queen high) RARELY

* We want to bet the top of this range more often, and the bottom less frequently
* That being said, we want 95% of this range to also be included in our checking range as well
* When we get raised after C-Betting, we want to continue relative to how often we would C-Bet the same hand
MULTIWAY POTS
(Multiway, in position)
- made hands (flopped flushes, flopped straights, full houses) OFTEN
- very strong holdings (sets, trips, TTP, TPMP, TPBP, BTP) VERY OFTEN
- very strong draws (flush draws w a pair, nuttish flush draws, open ended draws w a pair, open ended draws with over cards) VERY OFTEN
- over pairs to the board VERY OFTEN
- strong pairs (TPTK, top pair, middle pair w draws) VERY OFTEN
- naked draws (normal flush draws, open ended straight draws, double gutters, gutshots) SOMEWHAT OFTEN
- weak pairs (middle pair, bottom pair w draw, bottom pair w overcard) OCCASIONALLY
- Ace high combos (AK, AQ, AJ, AT, A5) RARELY
- No pair Broadway cards w draws (KQ, KJ, QJ w OESD, FD, DGS, GS) RARELY
- garbage pairs (naked bottom pair, under pocket pairs) NEVER
- backdoor draws w ace high RARELY
- junk (<Queen high) NEVER


VS NITTY/SNUG OPPENENTS:
* If we have great reason to believe that our opponent is only continuing with medium/very strong holdings, we should be betting much more of our weaker combos, almost all of our medium/strong combos, and less of our nuttish, very strong combos

VS LOOSE/FISHY OPPONENTS:
* If we have great reason to believe that our opponent is continuing with a very wide range of holdings, we want to be betting with much more of our very strong holdings, all of our strong/medium strong/medium holdings
* Conversely, we want to stop betting with much of the medium/weak, weak, and junk holdings, as our fold equity will be severely marginalized.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
* For players that fall somewhere in between these two polar archetypes, we want to stick with our default range
* When we analyze a flop, we want to consider several things before betting:
- Our opponents range when they called us
- Our own range when we raised
- How the flop impacted/relates to those ranges
- How loose/tight is our opponent continuing
- Our image
- If we're C-Betting, what size bet should we choose?

Note to self: REVIEW AND TWEAK THIS REGULARLY

Cheers.


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This has the potential to be a truly epic thread. Before a hand has even been played! You might be a household name in the community one day, dude. Your thought process is sublime. Can't wait to see where this goes, GL!

Thank you so much dude. That's honestly really kind, and positive reinforcement like that can go a long way. I'm still keeping up with your thread as well.


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Tbh I like this approach to learning the game. Thread may have potential, although the majority of threads that start off like this crash and burn pretty quick. Gl!

Watch me

Lol awesome. You're like the dude that people go to during study week when they need notes to cram for an exam. Please continue this sort of posting for as long as possible! It's great for beginners like me.

WHAT UP YALL.
This is the first official post from my new laptop, we are now officially IN BUSINESS.
We've got ACR downloaded, we registered PokerTracker4 to the new laptop. I've transferred all of my study notes to the new laptop as well. I'm ready to get some serious serious work in - I've the itch to play some hands for so long. Anyways - most of the the stuff I was able to accomplish tonight was either administrative or study related, but we did get to play some poker. I logged on to a massive bankroll of $6.67 so we're gonna see if we can't grind that up to about $50 over the next few weeks before I make my first deposit. I hopped into a $100 GTD that ended up paying like 80 spots, we ended up taking .76 cents for 28th. Then I played two 55 cent Sit n Go's, both of which I busted. Played roughly a 200 hand session at .1/.2 NL Heads Up - one which we definitely crushed, ended up finishing the session up $3.10.
So our first night of this challenge is a winning one

-Bankroll Post- ($6.67) 6/23/17

Tournaments: -$.40
Heads up: +$3.10
6-Max: None
Full Ring: None
PLO: None

End Total: $9.37



Goals for tomorrow:
- Play 5 tournaments
- Play 500 hands of 6-max
- Study for 3 hours (Edit HUD, Review hands from today, choose one to post on 2+2, and work on our profitability with AK.)
- Watch the JaimeStaples VLOG (#ultimatesweat)

some solid 2010 poker going down heere

Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 2500/5000 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 15.32 BB (VPIP: 31.58, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 19)
Hero (BB): 30.05 BB
UTG: 9.05 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
UTG+1: 55.13 BB (VPIP: 27.59, PFR: 6.90, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 29)
MP: 26.33 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
CO: 20.54 BB (VPIP: 19.05, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 21)
BTN: 15.77 BB (VPIP: 11.76, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)

7 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.2 BB) Hero has A A

fold, fold, fold, CO calls 1 BB, fold, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero raises to 3.73 BB, CO calls 2.73 BB, fold

Flop: (9.16 BB, 2 players) 9 5 8
Hero bets 4.68 BB, CO calls 4.68 BB

Turn: (18.52 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 13.89 BB, fold

Hero wins 18.52 BB


Wonder if shoving the turn is best, or maybe something around 2/5 pot is a bit more +EV.? Are there any arguments for checking the turn? In retrospect, it seems like we're kind of hoping he calls with like one pair hands like 9's and J's, but this board is actually better for his range than mine. I would imagine he has lots of hands like 98, J9, and QT defending from the BB that he can call two streets with? The bottom line here being that I think he calls our shove too infrequently with worse hands, and like....80% of the hands he calls with have us crushed? My thinking during the hand was based on a timing read, when I lead out on the flop - he snapped called. How often does somebody just snap call when they flop a set? It's basically just screaming that he has some type of one pair hand.

Thoughts?
Are you shoving, betting for thin value, or checking this?

On 9/11 I was in 6th grade and I was _super_ into pokemon, and around 6am I aalways woke up early to watch pokermon on Tv. That dreadfull morning of 9/11 my pokemon was not playing, every channel I flipped through was 9/11. Then I saw the 2nd plane hit in real time.

Update:
Alright so we've had a good bit of success playing tournaments on ACR over the past few days, I've been playing tournaments with a Buyin of .55 or less and we've final tabled 3, cashed 7, and busted 11 for a total net income of $27.10. This is a result I'm very very satisfied with - and I'm looking forward to moving up to larger Buyin tournaments as soon as I'm able to deposit. As of right now the bankroll sits at $38.88. I'm not playing quite as well in the cash games, I've had a few losing sessions but overall I'm still up $3.75 at $2 NL.
I regret not being able to post more content over the past few days - I've just been so excited to be playing, but I'm going to make a deliberate effort to posting on this thread every day moving forward.


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