Hihi!

I've done a couple of PG&C threads before that have never got past the first few months or so for one reason or another, but I feel like making a successful one for 2015 is something that's going to benefit me over the course of the year, so here we are.

My name is Simon and I play as sifiasco on Stars. I'm a 6m cash player and I'm currently battling it out at 50NL. I've played 50 for a pretty long time now but it's only in the last couple of months where I've had several realizations about the past and how wrong I've been doing things previously. In short, during the majority of 2014 and the years before that, I don't think I've worked anywhere near hard enough in order for me to be successful.

Around roughly October/November, I set about making a number of changes in my life and I'm now both more happy and positive about the future than I've ever been. I intend for 2015 to be a kind of 'breakout' year for myself and one in which I work harder than I've ever done before.

On Tuesday I'm moving to Malta to live in a poker house with a couple of guys and I'm super excited. With everything I want to accomplish, I think that putting myself into this environment is completely perfect.

I don't have any profit goals for the year, as I don't really think that's the best way to do things. And I'm not going to make a list of other goals to achieve in 2015 either, as everything is subject to change as and when I move up i.e. VPP goals. My only real goal, as I say, is to work extremely hard and to improve as a poker player. I want to move up as high as I possibly can this year, but I'm not going to rush it. I've got to get much, much better before I start saying things like 'I'm going to play 500z before the end of the year' or whatever else.

So this may not be your traditional PG&C in that regard, but I fully intend to be active itt and I will be posting all of the fun stuff, like hands, savers, graphs, any trip reports, stories etc.

December 2014 Graph



Got a good amount of volume done in December, as I needed to make a big push to hit Supernova, which I managed on New Years Eve after a rather hellish last few days of grinding.

And that's about it. I'm looking to get about 100k hands done in January, so you can call that the first actual 'goal' of the thread.

first gl bro!

GL hope it goes well

In, gl

Good luck Simon.

inb4busto

glglgl

innn, gl man!

in gl sifiasco

GL

glgl

Subbed, gl mate.

Emily in calvins is good enough for me, gl

Gl

GL MATE

In, GL.

GL mate.

$50 thread dies by April 1st?

Glgl!

Gonna follow

Glglgl

Much love, everyone.

She's the best.

Ty, mates!

Hahaha, we have a bet.



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Today is my last day at home before flying off and I have sooooo much to do. It's not likely I'll be at the tables much over the next couple of days until I get settled in, but I'll post some pics of where I'm living and all that!

Actually feel kinda weird today. Everything is sinking in and becoming very real. I've never been outside of the UK for longer than 2 weeks, so it's definitely going to be an adjustment. But what's life if you don't ever step outside your comfort zone, eh?

Nice thread.

Can you post something about how much you expect your expenses to be monthly in Malta? I'm from the UK and would love to do something like this this year.

I play 100nl and am wondering how feasible it is.

Obviously don't sweat it if you want to keep these things private.

Good luck.

The rent is cheap. I'm living with two others and I'm looking at roughly €250 p/m, which covers most things wrt to living. For stuff like food and everything else, it's a case of waiting until I'm there to figure out exactly how much I'm gonna be spending every month. But after speaking to people and googling stuff, the average prices for everyday items like (bread, water, a bottle of beer etc.) is much cheaper than the UK.

So, if you're playing 100 and are living in the UK fine, then I'd imagine then Malta would easily be feasible.

Gl good sir!

Ty, sir!

----

I'm currently sat in East Midlands Airport a full four and a half hours before my flight. So much time to kill, but unfortunately this was the only time that I could get dropped off here.

Really looking forward to this now. Just want to get settled in and start grinding. Thanks to everyone for the wishes of good luck, it is massively appreciated and enforces my belief that making this PG&C is a positive thing to do. Even the smallest of messages from people helps my mindset and ensures I stay positive. I'm going to be massively out of my comfort zone for the first real time of my life and whilst I know this is something that I want/need to do, hearing everyone wish me well is really nice, you know?

I can honestly say that the last month or two are the happiest I've been for a long time. I've always been the guy that overthinks things to the point of insanity and I've never been what you might call a 'do-er'. Hence I'm still slugging it out at 50NL. I truly believe that if I had taken the correct steps in my life a year/18 months ago, I'd be a lot higher in poker than I am now and would have been in this happy state for a lot longer than I have been. But I'm a stubborn soul and it's taken me a long while to realise my mistakes in the past and to know that I've never really given everything that true 100%. Doing 'just enough' (what I've always done since I was a kid) isn't going to see me reach high stakes and earn a very handsome living from playing poker. And whilst I may have convinced myself that I've been giving everything my 100% before, it's only recently that I've come to the conclusion that I can do better. I can work harder.

This is very much a rambling right now, but I've got time to kill, so why not!? I really had to push hard to get Supernova in December. I ended the month having made about 26k VPPs playing no higher than 50NL which I see as a massive achievement. I've never even come close to earning that much in RB before and whilst my primary goal in poker isn't to focus on RB, having Supernova and hitting those $1600 bonuses regularly is going to help supplement my income really nicely. Volume is massively important, but I believe that it's imperative not to get bogged down with playing long hours without actually learning anything. It's about finding the right balance I guess. Mindless volume sees you become a slave to Stars and their VPP system (which won't be around in it's current format for long, it looks like) but too much of a focus on watching videos and going over hands or basically doing anything instead of playing, sees you only get ~30k hands in in a month and means it's hard to make the variance even itself out. I see both ends of the spectrum in a lot of other poker players and I want to be neither.

I want to be the guy that consistently puts in solid volume, but also takes time to learn the theory side, discuss hands, watch vids etc. And going to Malta to live in a poker house with a couple of like-minded people seems like the perfect thing to do in order to give myself the best chance of becoming 'that guy'.

So yeah, rambling over. Will post up some pictures and stuff tomorrow/Thursday providing the internet is sorted out by then. Gl everyone!

glgl