Hey everyone!
35 year old from Turkey.

Been playing poker for a long while and was not actually a bad player playing micro-stakes. Also had some good time playing and winning live cash games.

However, the time it requires to grind online cash games is something that I don't have with a corporate job, a wife and a son. Also, after a point, grinding takes out my enjoyment from poker even if I win.

So that's why I decided to do tourneys instead. Getting creative is part of my being and it helps more at tourneys than it does on cash games. Also the feeling of beating all of the field satisfies my greed to win.

Today's corporate life in developing countries won't give you enough $$$ to retire. Even if I wanted to retire, it would be after the age of 65 according to current legislations. Even if you keep climbing the corporate ladder, this will mean less time for yourself and your family. And you will always have bosses and clients to answer to.

IMHO, poker is the only business that wins you money even if -especially if- your clients are not happy with your services. Plus, you do not have to answer to anyone but yourself.

On the other hand, the corporate life gives you some cushion for life's surprises, a regular salary, bonuses, health insurance, corporate car, etc etc.

To sum it all, I decided to take poker seriously as a secondary occupation. I will devote all of my "hobby" time to playing poker and improving my game.

My aim is to have enough $$$ to retire at the age of 45 (which is in 10 years). I probably won't retire even if everything goes well, but still will have my poker retirement fund under my pillow to sleep better.

I'm planning to play online for the next 2 years (and some live tourneys if I can spare the time). Then will add more live tournaments as my game improves in the upcoming years. At least I'm hoping to play at side events at the WSOP in 2 years.

An optimistic plan for me for the next 10 years of annual profits is as follows:
12k + 24k + 36k + 48k + 60k + 72k + 84k + 96k + 108k + 120k = 660k €uros (~=725.000 USD).

A more realistic and more easily achievable one could be:
15k + 24k + 36k + 36k + 45k + 45k + 45k + 50k + 50k + 60k = 406k €uros (~= 446.000 USD).

I'm currently playing low stakes MTTs (5, 10 €uros, sometimes 20). And after my first 100 tourneys (since I started this challenge) I have shown a profit of over €1.000. So I have a head start to my challenge.

I have many leaks and I'm aware of the most important of them. I can stand a tourney for about 2-3 hours, then I get bored and/or distracted. So I try to play turbo tournaments only. Thus, "tournament stamina" is something I have to develop on my way.

Currently, when I bust out of a tournament, I either got a bad beat, or made a mistake because I'm rushing things -and I am usually aware of making a mistake when I am making one .

I'll update this thread with my monthly goals, accomplishments and challenges I face trying to play poker and make a retirement fund out of it.

Feel free to tag along!

Great read, mind going into a bit more detail as to why you think grinding online cash games takes more time then tournaments?

Wow, you read it before I finished reading it the second time, thanx for the reply

Honestly it is more of an issue of the relativity of time rather than the actual time spent playing poker. Let me try to explain:

1. If I grind for 3,5 hours on 4-8 tables, it is a robotic job, and I don't have fun.

2. Plus at micro stakes you can't turn €10 into €500 in 3,5 hours, but you can at €10 MTTs.

3. Why not improve and move to higher stakes cash games? Well, I could do that given time, however it will be the same story all over again. But if I improve in tournaments and maybe get lucky I can make history at WSOP

4. Each tournament is a new challenge for me. On the other hand each session grinding cash games is more like the previous one and gets into a routine.

All in all, I not only want to make money, but I also want to have fun making it. And at the end, I might have a secondary profession that I can carry with me all around the world

And here comes October 2016's Goals:

[ ] Play only at €5-10 tourneys
[ ] Take a stab at 1-2 €20 tourneys if in profit during the week
[ ] Show a monthly net profit of €1.000 or more
[ ] Read Phil Gordon's Little Green Book
[ ] Take notes from the book and re-read them
[ ] Quit smoking
[ ] Walk 45 minutes a day

Well, after declaring my master challenge, here comes the first kill!
375€

interesting thread

Thank you! Hopefully it'll get more interesting and profitable in the long run.

Currently my biggest challenge is to convince my wife that poker is more of a game of skill then luck in the long run. She supports me in her own way, by letting me play in my own time. However she doesn't agree that this is a game of skill rather than luck.

I think I'll have to try and prove it to her that this is actually a game of skill with luck involved up to a point by constantly winning in the mid to long run...

Any ideas here would be deeply appreciated

Bad beats are part of the game.
I think accepting this and smiling and moving on when you receive at bad beat is one of the most important things to make you a successful tournament player in the long run.
Such as:

how much $ do you think you need to retire at 45 ?

I don't know what life will bring till 45 so the answer is "it depends" as in poker.
$2-5 million would be a definite yes.
$1-2 million and I'd consider it.
Anything between $500k to $1 million would give me a considerable amount of peace of mind in terms of economic safety.

But I'm strictly speaking for poker income not my current day job's.

Looks nice, gl gl OP and yeah, don't sweat the bad beats!

Subbing. GL. Your thought process of poker as a side income/possible retirement vehicle is similar to mine.

Thanx pokerodox & Anyway.

@pokerodox: How are your plans going so far?

Not so well re poker.

Ran up a 10k roll to 20k, then cashed out 7k. Then lost half the remainder (like $6k on poker staking. (I still think staking is +EV if done well, but it's high variance.) Then I busted whole remaining roll (like $7k) on playing too big. Still think I'm +EV, but who knows. That was all live play.

Plus I have a $150 OL roll. Hope to learn to balance ranges, etc. in my OL play.

Life roll continues to build from my day job

Currently I prefer not to stake, since I want to have more control on my "luck".

IMHO, playing bigger than your bankroll allows is a sure way to lose in the long run, not because you would lose due to better opponents, but because of the stress it creates on you and makes you play suboptimally.

Good luck!

After a downstreak of about 20 tournaments, came the glory
I lost with AQs to pocket tens, which coupled with 2 more tens on the flop

I love it when after bad beats and bad play, one tournament win makes up for all of the losses and then some more...

Well, back to back 3rd place wins.
This one had a smaller prize pool, but better win small than lose any, right?

This time I had the pocket tens on the final table, but the chip leader had the American Airlines

Agreed re playing too high. I also think many people fail to take shots when they should. Take a shot at bigger stakes if you're willing to drop back down if the shot doesn't work. Plus, it makes a big difference if you can replenish poker roll easily or not.

This is for cash games. Not sure how to estimate best stakes when playing tournaments.

Edit: Oh, and congrats on the score.

Timing is the most important thing in life -and so in poker.

I think it is easier to have a more solid bankroll requirement for the cash games, but this changes with tournaments due to the higher variance. So I'm gauging it with my "comfort zone" (ie: I won't feel the stress to reload my active bank roll on the site). Which is currently having €500 or more on the poker account of the networks I am playing.

I play at bigger tournaments if I am in profit for that weeks' games I had already played.

OK, this month's stats are in. Let me know what you think, and if I should track more stats:

Total # of Tournaments: 156
# of ITM (% of ITM): 26 (16,67%)
# of Top 3 Finishes (%): 14 (8,97%)
Total Stake (Average): €3.466,83 (€22,22)
Total Cashes (Average): €5.141,65 (€32,96)
Rakeback: 42,08 €
Net Profit (Average): €1.716,90 (11,01 €)
# of Good Plays (%): 35 (22%)
# of Bad Beats (%): 43 (28%)
# of Bad Plays (%): 78 (50%)
Total Time Invested: 73hrs 08 mins (some games were played at the same time so the overall time is actually lower).

I'll update the goals' results tomorrow.

I am Turkish too live in Florida. Had the same problem with long hours, especially playing live.

Hey!

I think it's easier to get distracted online since you have the internet under your fingers, in addition to the people in the household.
For live tournaments, you do have your tablets and phones but can't get involved with them for long periods of times.

I'm planning to attend to a live tourney next month, and will see if I can keep concentrated longer offline.

There is a good one starting in mid November in south Florida. Seminole hard rock rock n roll

Yeah I've heard about that but US is too far away for a weekend run. But I got my eye on a WSOP tourney in Paris this month, so I will have that WSOP side side side event experience under my belt

All in all, it has been a great month. A good start to my retirement journey. Let's see if I can keep it up!