OK, I'm on board with this. You had 20 BIs and knew to get out sooner, rather than too late. Not sure if you ever mentioned you had HU experience or if that is a goal. So if you enjoy, go for it. But if you haven't much experience, HU will eat up most players at the lowest levels. At 50NL...I'm pretty sure you should have a very good game (read this as no weaknesses) in order to compete.

I've got quite a bit of heads up experience, used to put in a ton of volume in the $7 hu sng's, and played quite a bit of heads up live (how I started poker) I absolutely hate the zoom format though.

Roll is up to $2,859.39 Binked a few tournaments this week putting in a ton of volume ~45 a day small fields (under 1k, under 500 if I can find them, I play pretty late at night as I prefer the small field tournies I love making FTs) Started winning at 25lz and making proper decisions. nl10z is a breeze now, 99% of my decisions take half a second to make as I know how to play my ranges what flops hit who's range and I have notes on a majority of the regs in that player pool. I've nearly gone through the entire upswing poker lab, and have done 2nd time runthroughs of a few of the modules aswell.

Unfortunately though, I've been hit with a big audit for just over 3k CAD for the 2015 year, I paid $50 to get it done by a business (not going to name it) they say it's unlikely they're going to take responsibility for it as I didn't provide accurate info (they told me they didn't need my T4s as they could pull it up on their end so I brought literally no documents) I've got an appointment to see the guy that did my taxes later this week, so I'm pretty sure he'll sort it out, they said he's been on vacation. I just want to pay it off right now, because they said there's a 50% fee for late pay.. another 1.5k so I'm withdrawing nearly my whole roll and starting with the change left in my account.

Sooo current BR: $59.39 I'll be rebuilding quite aggressively in the zoom cash games. Moving up when I have 10 buy ins of the next level, moving down when I have 5 buy ins. Not going to push my bankroll in the MTTs though, I won't play anything bigger than $1.10s for now. I've only got a month left before I head off for work anyways and won't be able to play poker for 2 months so I'm not too fussed, and I'm sure I'll be getting a refund from the tax agency that will go right back into my BR.

$59.39 ---> $1,383
Finally beating 25nlz consistently
Cashed out for ~$1,800 CAD
Been playing live for 3 weeks now
Had an incredible week last week, 53 hours just under $3,800 in profit for a $70 hourly
BR is now at $7,850 taking shots at 2/5 only very late at night the only 2/5 game gets really short (played 4 handed last night and there's always 1 mega fish that stays till 3am and I have an edge on the other 1-2 pros that stay behind it's not a big edge, but it's there and this fish is just a goldmine I don't want to pass up on. If I drop to 5k I will stop taking these aggressive shots at 2/5 and stay in the 1/3 game.

I'm having trouble now though deciding if I want to do my summer job, or just continue with poker as it's going so well now and in 3 weeks I made more than I'd make in 7 weeks going to my training. I'm also not sure how to bring up poker with my mum she's Asian and absolutely hates gambling etc, anyone got any tips? Should I wait until my BR is at a certain $ amount before telling her and just show her the graph explain that it's just something I want to pursue currently and doesn't have to be something I lock in for life.

I'm guessing your edge is higher short-handed but the volatility will be much higher playing short handed so it's not something I would advise with a short roll. You should still have an edge in full ring.

Everything else sounds good though. Nice job so far!

sounds better than taking out the loan...

oh and side note if your in US you could do it but if your not in US...not so easy...and not recommended.

At which point you would have less than 10 buy ins left.

Have you learned nothing? You have a decent bankroll for 1/3 now, so play it. Play until you have $15k and then play 2/5. If you are really winning $70/h then that takes you only two weeks.

Or do we need to read this thread in 2 weeks and have you complain about running bad at 5/10?

This seems less of a thread and more like a blog , just sayin'

So how big is your sample size of hands, both online and live?

He didn't say he would drop to 1/3 if he loses $5k. He will drop to 1/3 if his bankroll falls to $5k. Sounds fine to me. If he is a winning player he should succeed at 1/3. If he goes through all his money I'd advise going back to the micros or quit poker altogether.

Didn't know the variance was higher short handed tbh, very few people at my casino have put in any work to their games online and don't make adjustments to short handed play, 4 max was a cakewalk to me widen 3b range/4b range call down lighter value bet lighter etc. I won't move to 2/5 as my only/main game until I'm sitting at a 30k roll. (I'd like to buy in for the $1,500 max)

No need for a loan anymore, I've got a BR now made up of just winnings now!

If I drop down to 5k I'll still have 17 BIs for 1/3 which is plenty, I highly doubt $70/h is sustainable. Regardless of all the suckouts I'm sure I needed some sort of run good to hit $70/hour. 5/10 doesn't exist where I'm from, there are only 2 2/5 games within 1-2 hours drive, and 1 of them only runs rarely.

Live I've got about ~170 hours of play (my last 70 hours have been significantly better poker though, eliminated all my tilt issues, and tightened up my RFI ranges)

Not sure for online, as I've moved over to Bodog but I'd guess I was getting in around 20-25k hands/week

this 100% If I lose it all I'm just going to give it up, I've taken way too many shots at poker, this is probably my last one (Might take it up in the future when I have a career as a part time thing) only if it doesn't work out.

I understand how terrible live players are short handed. That's why I said that your edge is probably higher short handed. However, your potential swings are going to be higher for the simple fact that you are playing correctly: ie widening your 3b/4b range and calling down lighter. Sometimes you will run into the top of their range. Sometimes you will be card dead.

It's good that you are seriously thinking about bankroll, although I would argue that you could start with $500 buyins and slowly increase that over time.

This is quite unfortunate because it means that the best players in the area,if there are any, probably play 2/5. With a small player pool the 2/5 games are likely to range from amazing to terrible. In fact, the 1/3 may be more profitable at times.

I don't remember the exact rule but I have an idea how it works. Consider two cases:

1. Poker is your profession, you drive 100 miles to a casino, you play cash games for several hours and you decide to spend the night instead of going home.

2. Poker is your profession, you're playing a multi-day tournament and it's 500 miles from you home.

I don't know exactly where the line is on that, but I know that the IRS isn't going to buy #1 as a necessary business expense.

When a lot of people on here tell you to do something, listen to them.

When I started playing I took out some library books on poker. After a while I was pretty sure that I knew what I was doing. One of those books was a 2+2 book, Theory of Poker by David Sklansky. That's how I found these forums. I started posting on 2+2 and I got 50 different variations of "you're doing it wrong."

It hurt. I was upset and discouraged and sometimes I thought the advice was wrong. I eventually realized that the people on here know what they are talking about. The veterans and pros on here were doing a great service by straightening me out. If they told me that I was wrong 50 times, at least 49 times they were right.

There are two mistakes that I didn't make. I accepted the advice I was given and I carefully managed every dollar of my money.

I put $50 op a poker site. I got library books on poker. I told people that the only birthday or Christmas presents that I needed were poker books. I started playing $1 SNGs, went broke once, and that's about the time that I found 2+2. I deposited another $50 and with the help of many on here it started to come together for me .

One day I luckboxed my way onto a final table, $3.30 tournament, I think it was 4,700 players. I cashed for $384. By this time I knew that a lot of the people on TV who "won" a million dollars didn't win that much at all because some of the winnings when to backers or they sold pieces.

When I and my very happy wife saw that $384 check, I told myself right then that whenever I cashed, it would be all mine. I would never be backed, or staked, or otherwise give part of my winnings to someone else.

That's my story. I hope that some of it strikes a chord with you.

Yeah, it does suck the players that are capable of winning at 5/10 or god forbid 10/25 are stuck playing 2/5 I think the 1/3 is going to be more profitable, but I think getting some hours in and beating a very tough 2/5 game would be great moving forward if I do decide to move to play poker (thinking Montreal, or a year in England) somewhere with tax free income

E/ already off to a great week up nearly 1k this week with a $73 hourly.

Since I've studied and improved my game I've only had 1 losing session ($207 was a quick 2 hour session and ran QQ into AK on QJT)

I am only speaking from a US perspective and not a tax adviser. You should speak to a tax adviser if you want actual advice.

It isn't merely declaring yourself a "pro" that will allow you to subtract your travel expenses from your winnings. You'll have to run poker like a business, with all the record keeping and tax filing requirements that involves. I also note that you can't subtract more off your taxes than what you earned playing poker. Finally, you should note that while gambling winnings are taxed as income, gambling losses can only be deducted when you itemize. The IRS accepts daily records of wins and losses. So if on a Saturday you win $2000, but you lose $1000 on Sunday and Monday so you have nothing in your pocket. If you take the standard deduction, the IRS considers that you won $2000 and owe taxes on that amount. Your losses don't count against it.

PS. If you win a bad beat jackpot, it is considered misc. income, not gambling income. You can't subtract your losses from gambling against it, even though you paid rake to fund it.

...well,,,and the fact that to be a "pro" US tax-wise, your gambling income is your primary source of income.

Well, if we are going to play that game, you need to mention that they have to derive a profit for 3 of the last 5 years including the current year or it is classified as a hobby.

one step at a time, grasshopper.

Would've been a great goals and challenge thread, from zero to Hero to zero to jail time, the turtol story.

On a side note, you can get some additional money by calculating in certain living expenses like rent, food budget, new computer (for school) in which case they will give you additional funding on top of the tuition (not sure if someone said this already) which is a "relatively safe" way to go about it. You just have to request a reasonable amount for each (depending on the area you live requesting additional help for housing is different from area to area), you can then live out of your car, a friend's couch, a park bench and be eating free saltines and bar peanuts...but you'd have your poker BR that you're looking for and it's not that bad....all things considered, I got extra money and used it for beer money and skimped on food, which some would say is a worse investment....and it's essentially the same thing your doing except substitute drinking for poker BR.

Figured I'd update this. In 3 months I've moved up to 100z and am currently crushing that pool for ~$115/hour with rakeback 4 tabling, and am the 2nd best player in that pool. Unfortunately 1/2 rarely runs on the site I play on. My roll is now 55k ($600-$55k in 3 months) 5nl to 100nl let's go lads!! Also binked a few tournaments online including 1st in the $82 bounty builder for $8,600 I'm just wondering what you guys would do as the next step. I'm not even sure if 500z on stars is more profitable than 100z with the ridiculous rakeback I'm getting. I heard hellmuth mention if he could start over right now with a 20k roll he would follow the WSOP circuit and play the tournies and cash, then move to AC once he's got 200k to make his first million. Unfortunately the states would tax my winnings 30% and I can't declare any losses. Which is a huge - on my ROI pay full buy in, if I bust I get no rebate, if I cash they take 30% right away.

I was thinking about moving somewhere to play 5/10 live or maybe go to Europe and travel around there for tournies/cash games although PLO is pretty big there and I'm not great at that. These 80-100 hour weeks of poker have been really paying off, and I'm so ready to make my first million

48BB/100 with rake back is impressive. I suggest either Las Vegas or CA where you can get in a game big enough for your talent.

What state has 30% tax on poker winnings?

Mmmmhmmm.....

Can we see a graph, I mean, I believe you, I really really do, especially this part:
but some may not....lets squash the doubters together!

Forget Boku87's $5 - $100k in 1 year

Turtol's $600- $1mil in 6 months

What an inspiring story. Did you build up that roll from online or live also? How did you study your game? Also what did you tell your parents (mine are asian also ) How long have you been playing poker?