This is my first attempt at a PG&C thread as this is the year I plan to really step up my poker efforts so I thought I’d use this to try and motivate myself. Hopefully it’ll go well and people will be interested and I can get some discussions going and some advice etc. which should help everyone. Also, looking back at this will hopefully remind me of the goals I had at the start and make me stick to them a bit more staunchly than I otherwise would. Big shout out to chilin_dude, M1ghtyDucks and theginger45 as their threads have been so inspiring it’s very difficult to quantify – especially chilin’s. I’ve also kinda “appropriated” my format for this one by stealing parts of all of theirs so yeah, sorry guys!
About me
I’m a 32 year young (old man ITT) 180 man grinder living in Brighton, UK. I started out about 3-4 years ago by getting addicted to Zynga Facebook poker before depositing $30 on Full Tilt and playing STT’s. I lost it, re-deposited, lost that, re-deposited, found $3.30 90 man turbos, read Harrington on Hold Em 1&2 and profited. I’m originally from Cardiff and moved to Brighton about 6 years ago to be closer to London where I was rehearsing as a session musician and taking bands out on tour in various roles. I spent my 20s as a professional musician and also working on tours, then went back to college and did a degree (Composition for Professional Media – music for film/tv basically) and ended up doing a menial job that I didn’t enjoy and getting stuck in the ways of Brighton (big night life, everyone on perpetual holiday etc.). Poker’s hopefully my way out as the music industry is kinda dying on its ass at right now. I’m without a day-job at the moment so will be relying on earning monies from poker to pay the rent (in before “in before busto”!) but I have a couple of month’s cushion, financially. I know I could fall flat on my face with this but it’s better to have tried and failed than never tried at all, right?
Hopefully this is proof that I’m not a (total) fish on a heater. My sample size is very small (all things being relative) but I’ve probably played as much poker in the last 2/3 months as in the previous 18, hence my seemingly optimistic goals. We’ll see….
Goals
Ok, so my ultimate “headline” goal is to make ~$25k this year. I suppose the most important thing though, is to study hard and get better and better all the time. If I do this, all other goals should follow. I’ve got a staking deal worked out with Demetri1979 to start at the end of this month which is great and I’ll be getting coaching from Dak9885 which starts this week and should help with the “get better” part. I’ll be starting off playing $2.50 180s but when the staking deal starts (I have ~$1k in my acct at the moment which I’ll withdraw before starting the staking agreement) I’ll be playing around 50% $2.50 and 50% $8/3r 180s. I’m undecided as yet on whether or not to mix 45 mans or not. Any thoughts? I’d like to but worry that the slightly different approaches needed may be problematic?
Ok, so……
• Volume – AT LEAST 2k games per month. Hoping for 2.5k. Currently 16-tabling and playing at least 5 days a week for around 8 hours.
• Moving Up – This will not be bankroll dependent as I’ll be backed so I’m hoping to be playing $8/3.50rs exclusively by April/May and mixing $15s by July/August. I’d also like to start including MTTs by the end of the year.
• Profit – We’re aiming for $2k per month profit. This will include Stars bonuses and deductions for money sent to my backer (30% as of the end of the month).
• Bankroll – I’d like to playing off my own roll towards the end of the year.
• Updates – I plan on updating at least every couple of days and checking in daily.
It’d also be great - if things go well - to think about Supernova, but I’m way behind pace for this year and given that it’s a good couple of months *at least* until I’ll be playing 8/15s as my main game it’s probably best to leave this for next year. I’ve been on and off the Sharkscope leaderboard this year too and it’d be of great personal satisfaction if I could end the year with one of those stars. Don’t know how likely it is though given that I’ll be moving up around the buy-in levels. Again, this is probably a goal for next year.
I’ll also keep some IRL stuff here as I really enjoy reading those sections in other people’s threads. It’s good having insight into people’s lives with these kinds of things I think. So….
• Get (semi) fit – I’d like to be running ~3 times a week by the end of the year and have completed at least one 10k run.
• Keep a good poker/life balance – I’m very guilty of obsessive compulsive behaviours so this is quite important. I’ll be playing a schedule as close to a normal 9-5 as possible (It’s taken me 15 years of not having a routine to realise how important having one is), though as I move up and the games run less regularly (even at the $8s I find it very difficult getting up to 16 tables during UK daytime hours) I’ll have to play more evenings. My schedule will be pretty flexible but I want to keep a good sleep pattern and healthy social life.
• Move – I’d like to move away from Brighton before the end of the year as I don’t feel like I’ve ever really settled here, though I’m not sure where I want to move to. It’d be a dream to have this go great and move to Mexico or Thailand for a year to grind but that’s a million miles away right now. I would like to move back to Cardiff to be closer to family & friends.
Also, if things go well and this is sustainable I’d like to think about doing some volunteering work eventually to stop the cabin fever and to contribute somehow.
Plans
All of this is open to change as all of my guidelines and goals maybe very optimistic and I could very well fall flat on my face. However, hopefully this will set up an epic/more concise G&C thread for next year with bigger volume, profit and VIP status goals. Provided poker doesn’t die.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys. Hope this isn’t toooo TL;DR. Please feel free to follow my journey on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/chaant_jc) and if you want to add me on Skype for any reason it’s chaant.jc
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These forums are full of music videos I have precisely no interest in so here’s the kind of thing I listen to when grinding.
Ha. Thanks dozza. We've been through a lot of poker times. Final tabling the Superstack on FTP out of our minds on rum at 3 in the morning. Good times!
Update 1 - 2012 So Far
Feel like I've run really cold overall although this much just be something I need to get used to. I seem to be having constant and long break-even stretches followed by a 2-3 day heater and then back to downswinging. For instance, this week so far has been horrible. Straight off the back off six winning days in a row I'm now on my fourth consecutive losing day which has resulted in a 150-200 buyin downswing. Have already had two massive break-even stretches this year too and it's only the start of February. Is this normal? Not gonna worry yet as I'm ok for cash IRL but hoping for a heater.
Thanks guys. Enforced day off today. My brother is in Afghanistan as he's in the army but he's back for a couple of weeks on R&R and has come to visit. Always amazing to see him after he's been somewhere like that. Round Dozza's house now for dinner and wine! Good times. Probably good time to have a day off too with the swinging. Back at it refreshed and ready to crush tomorrow/Thursday. First coaching session with Dak9885 tomorrow too. Upswing time! Gl all.
Ah, thanks M1ghty! Some good people ITT. I referenced the chilin/m1ghty/ginger threads in my OP for good reason. It's great being able to just get in touch and chat with people who are at the top of the crop in these games and just chat. Everyone's so happy to help. I love that about poker. Pretty unique given that you're constantly at war for each other's money!
Awful awful day today again in 180s. Proper "one day you'll run worse than you ever thought imagineable" territory. Just can't do anything right atm. Confidence pretty low and downswinging for about 150-200 buyins now. Will post the graph below for today.
Still in with a chance of saving it as I'm 13/35 in a little 500 cap $2r. About $700 for first so that'd be good for the br and the mind-set. Won a couple of buyins donking around at NL16 too so I guess it could be worse. Waiting for that upswong though. Gl all.
Soooo, a little bit of light relief from the downswong. First winning day in a while. I final tabled the 2r yesterday but bust 7th for $70 or something. Frustrating obviously but made another big losing day a break-even one and it's also good for conifdence of course.
Ran horribad to start the session today but had a little bit of heat from about half way through to make it my first significan winning day in about a week. Hopefully this is the start of a big heater and I can start my stake at the end of the month crushing and confident. We'll see.
Shortish session today as I manage a band and they're playing a show tonight which I need to be at. Planning on big volume all through this weekend though. Gl all.
Two Plus Two
We've been through a lot of poker times. Final tabling the Superstack on FTP out of our minds on rum at 3 in the morning. Good times!
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