I have been playing online poker for about 2 years on and off. I decided I really want to make a run at it and see what I can do. My final goal is to be pro, by that I mean I want to pay my bills by playing poker.


Why?
-I feel like I have a great opportunity to take a chance. I am 20, single have money saved up. I have no kids, no bills (except the basics, phone, insurance ect.) I am in a situation were i am living rent free for hopefully till the end of the summer. I want to use this time to get a good roll started for NL200.

How?
-I have no job (quit to make a run at poker ), I basically have 16 hours a day to play. I plan to log at least 60hours a week. I have choose PokerStars to play on, for the VIP program and I an currently 1400 VPP's from platinum star.

My plan..
-I wrote up a lose 37 week plan to make 40k (I did this before I read about the guy on the prop bet to make 40k in 365 days lol, very cool though) This plan is my dream plan. It has limits, and a weekly goal. I have also wrote up 8 week plans that are more reasonable to achieve.

Progress so far...
-I started with $200 and 16-20 tabled NL10. I had also started to clear the $285 bonus for GoldStars. Below is my graph after the first week. My 37 week goal for week 1 was $300, and i made that. My 8 week goal was $225 and i obviously made that.

I am having issues getting use to NL25 as people are playing back against my 3bets, and floating my c-bets. (ya ya i know welcome to poker right? lol) I got beat up cause i didn't adjust then made a come back as you can see the variance at the end of the graph.

Ask me any questions and wish me luck 2p2.





Currently I have $750 and want to get to $1500-2000 before I start NL50.

Any tips for NL25?

wtf is this ****

It helped me to write it out. Maybe I put this in the wrong section.

"further ..... further"

lol. seems kind of self-explanatory.

Nice blog entry.

If you think dudes are playing back at you at 25NL, you should not get your hopes up too high.

Hold more hands.

I don't intend for this to be a personal blog. I think It would be cool after 37 weeks for people to seem the progression of a micro stakes player.

It is a good point about the NL25. I guess it is my perception. I'm sure its close to NL10 I am just giving them too much credit and give them action when I should just fold.

if your only making $200-$300 then get yourself a job man.. and do yourself a favor save up your money .. say you just made $1k off your job , save up $300 of that go play a live $1/2 game and grind that money up see where you go.. saying you want to go pro playing 25NL online odds are against you , too many people share that dream nowadays .. online poker has gotten very hard.

Would you think 2k a month is unrealistic?

lol @ 200nl by the summer and lol @ 60 hours a week grinding

not gonna happen

Cliffs:
Uh...

I do. You'll need it.

When it comes to poker, it's best not to project. Show us a 250K hand sample of you killing it, then we'll talk.

Alright, brb in a couple months.

He had a good start for week 1. Give the kid a break / He has a shot at as long as he can stay motivated to play as much as he says he is. 16-20 that many hours a day can be rough - but doable I guess if you enjoy it. Good luck OP

yeah first thing is to understand sample sizes. Weekly goals are useless unless we're talking hours or hands played. Also 50k hand graphs are useless. 250k is better but still not conclusive. By that i mean you can kill it for 250k hands and then lose money for a month or two very easily and should expect to. It's the nature of grinding big-bet poker.

GL. It's possible but take it slow. Especially with the legislation in place. Put eggs in many baskets.

No it's probably not your perception - they probably do play better than you. It's just in the grand scheme of things, NL25 players are terrible. Which is why if you're having trouble there, you're going to need a lot of work on your game if you expect to be playing 200NL.

Seriously, I'm not trying to be a dick. It's just a reality check, is all. If you have tons of time to play, then play and work on your game and move up. That should be your only concern. If you take care of that, the rest will fall in place naturally. Good Luck.

Appreciate the motivation.

I understand 100% that a 50k hand sample size is small. I just posted what I have played last week, (mon-sun). I have not hit much variance yet and understand I can go on a downswing.

I am not playing ignorance, however I am just trying to "overlook" everything that can go wrong and hope for the best.

This isnt like a life or death situation. If i dont take a shot I will always wonder. If i go busto, its not like I quit a 45k/year job. I can go get a job rebuild and make another stab.

As long as you don't get married poker is an ez game. GL to you and take it slow as mentioned above... stay at 10 nl for at least until June and move up stakes one month at a time if things are still going well. GL.

Get a job and grind poker as a 2nd job. Trust me, it's way less stressful that way

I would suggest the following:

1. BR requirements: 50 buyins for NL50 (2500), and then +10 for each level following, i.e., 60 buyins for NL100 (6k) until you get to 100 buyins. This will keep you comfortable and allow you plenty of time to prove to yourself that you're beating each level before moving up.

2. You're in it for the long haul so trying to play 16 hours a day seems insane, very few people if anyone can keep that up for the long term. Set a more reasonable goal that can be maintained. Maybe 8-10 hours of play + 1-3 hours of study each day and maybe workout/relax/eat in the remaining time.

3. Think about your longterm goals in poker, do you just want to grind out the cash at holdem or do you want to get good at poker? What you do with your time will be very different depending on the answer to this question.

That being said, I think you can do it, but you have to grind this out so don't go overboard and burn yourself out. GL dude!

I wish you luck. I am in a similar situation: About to turn 22, graduating from college in ~3 weeks and do not want to get a "real" job. I have been tinkering with the idea of trying to play full time.

I started to build a bankroll at the beginning of march in anticipation for this summer. With a little bit of an aggressive BR management scheme (10-12 bi's to move up >8 move down) I am currently playing 25nl under-rolled but profitability with a VERY small sample size ( I won't post it for the sake of being ridiculed).

I think that if you approach it as if it were a real job, that is truly devote time to it, more than simply playing but learning and studying then you could be successful, I'm hoping I will be.

Good luck OP


Edit: Disclaimer, I clearly have no experience in being a professional card player and thus my advice/comments such be regarded in such a context

I would look into becoming a professional soccer player instead.

Be a world star for 10 years, then play in the UAE or Japan for another 3 or 4 years, and you will never have to work again in your life.

It is much less stressful and more comfortable than being a professional poker player.

I say go for it OP! Whether your dream it to be a pro player, a busker, or an actor, your only young once and nows a time to take chances! When I turned 20 it only seems like a few years ago, when truth is was 19 years ago, time flys faster than you know it, and if you dont do it you will regret it at some point in your life,,when its too late. Go for it, enjoy from the experience and if you fail at least you can say you attempted it!