i use to be +EV so much playing MTTs... then i switched to PLO and it destroyed my life. that's my story. ****in lucky ******* game.. im back in the MTT grind after 2 years of tryin to get a break in a game with variance that rivals russian roulette.

Playing mtt's if u dont like variance is prob not the smartest choice

in my case, I definitely need at least 30 minutes to get my brain started (probably 40 minutes is optimal for me)...first thing is browsing on the interent and in that time i drink a cup of tee and relax (dont think about poker in that time, only after you finished your things)

that beeing said most of my sessions start 1 hour or 1,5 hour after I wake up, because there is not such a good traffic in the morning...

thanks for the tips!

reading/writing+yoga might be a good thing to do in the morning, at least that's what i'm gonna try...since the best games will be in the morning my time and need to get a couple of hours in

I'm no pro but surely getting out of the house for a walk/exercise would be a good start to the day, if your grinding for the whole day behind a PC?

I guess it depends on if getting out of the house/away from PC is actually +EV for your mental state or not..... ie where you live:- calm peaceful outdoors environment or manic busy tilt fuel city, etc..

Also, does anyone take things to the point where they move their sleep around primetime traffic, so say wake up 4hrs prior to when the most traffic is on?

i think it depends from person to person, I don't like exersing in the morning (I like it mor in the afternoon or evening)...I'm also not the type of player who take on day off and then grind the **** out on the next day

I don't think poker should dictate your sleeping habits and your life habits, if you are a cashgame player...tournament players are another story and I'm every day glad I'm not a tournament player who is a slave of starting tournaments and whe they end

the fantastic thing on cash games is (this include especially omaha), that you can play nearly all day if you have enough quality in your game, so that you don't have to wait on exact times were all the fishes are playing

you can have as a omaha player a daily schedule, were you are not exhausted from playing poker even you do it nearly every day in the month

playing poker isnt a 0815 work were you have times you can relax during your work, so I would say 5-6 hours poker a day is like 8-9 hours doing a normal job

playing succesfull poker isn't hard work, playing poker where you don't know if you are that succesfull is very hard work...so getting to the point very you know you can play that succesfull level that you want is the goal you have to reach

and the diffcult thing is to stay on that level if you have reached it...the downswing isnt the problem, the problem is then if you dont know if you can still beat the game enough for making your life with poker

Nice post man,

Bumped thread in case any 2013 bawssmans want to rejuvenate thread

Its been a few years since I posted in here so here is an update after I truly feel like a poker pro.

do you separate poker bankroll and liferoll? how strict is your brm?

I separate both definitely. My BRM is a bit loose compared to most but I am learning to increase this from about 50 BIs to 100 BIs with the added variance that I have experienced as my game has progressed. As I move up in stakes I will probably increase this to 200 as the variance can be incredibly high at mid stakes.

do you see yourself as a poker pro still 5 years from now?

This answer hasn't changed much, if poker is still profitable and if I enjoy it as much as I do atm, then yes. If not, I will find something else that I enjoy that is profitable.

what is your daily schedule like? grind all night, sleep all day?

Atm, its basically grind whenever I feel like it which is turning out to be very strange hours anywhere from all day to all night, just really depends on how I feel. Once I get into a more stable environment, I will adjust to this grind most of the day like a 9-5.

how much time do you spend studying the game vs grinding?

Used to be way more studying, now its somewhat reversed but ideally I would say 2 times as much as play as study is optimal.

do you regret dropping out of university for poker (in case you did drop out)?

If I did drop out for poker, probably not.

do you think working a normal job would be more rewarding overall?

Definitely not, less stressful work wise but my life would be more stressful if I didn't enjoy what I do for my living.

if you are going for sne, how do you organize yourself so that you make sure you won't fail?

Not going for SNE but I could see myself in the future in which case I would probably have an idea of a schedule.

did you have a "aha!" moment when you realized you wanna play poker for living?

A good friend told me I was pretty much ******ed for not being a pro, especially because that was 2 years ago and I was beyond terrible.


what is the minimum requirement to start as a pro? certain hourly rate over xxxk hands? how did you define it for yourself?

Didn't really think about this but yeah probably something like 5bb/100 over a good sample would be a good starting criteria.

-how many hours per month do you play and how do you divide it daily/weekly?

Ideally I play around 140-160 hours a month, not including other activity off the tables.

-what would you do with your life if online poker was right now made illegal?

No idea what so ever, I need to figure this out.

-do you save money or spend all the "extra" (w/e that means to you) income from poker? (keeping in mind that are no pension etc benefits and this is a huge issue in the later part of your life)

Save as much as I can but my current lifestyle makes this hard, skiing in different places.

-do you keep a poker diary and if so, what kind of stuff do you write there? do you set goals and follow through with them to see if you achieved them or not? what kind of goals do you set for yourself?

I am currently keeping a diary or a PGC, I write about anything I really want to regarding my game, mostly its mental leaks, leaks in general and things I want to change in my game as well as analysis of hands I have played.

-do you plan to crush plo5k someday or are happy gringing a "steady" income at low or mid stakes?

Used to think the later, but now I can definitely see the former if I ever become good enough to play high stakes.

Not sure If I'm a "pro". Played NLH for 2 years, switched to PLO < year ago. I think I'm making something like $12/hr online which hardly makes me feel like a pro.

do you separate poker bankroll and liferoll? how strict is your brm?

I use to but with so much travel It's been difficult to manage accounts/cash. Now I have savings and poker/life money in various accounts/countries.

do you see yourself as a poker pro still 5 years from now?

Nope. I dont see it 3 years from now.

what is your daily schedule like? grind all night, sleep all day?

Very random.

how much time do you spend studying the game vs grinding?

1:4 normally. 1:1 If confidence is low.

do you regret dropping out of university for poker (in case you did drop out)?

I played part-time and finished up uni

do you think working a normal job would be more rewarding overall?

Depends on the person. It's not for me.

if you are going for sne, how do you organize yourself so that you make sure you won't fail?

Psht, not even close. Play live poker a bunch, would be surprised if I got SNx2

did you have a "aha!" moment when you realized you wanna play poker for living?

No. Took a shot, went on a heater, rinse and repeat. I believe most pros had a heater early on.

what is the minimum requirement to start as a pro? certain hourly rate over xxxk hands? how did you define it for yourself?

Again, depends on the person. For a Colombian who has an opportunity cost of fishing at $4/hr, I think $3/hr at poker would be reasonable. For westerners, double minimum wage and a decent starting bankroll seems about right.

-how many hours per month do you play and how do you divide it daily/weekly?

Not many.. I go for monthly volume goals that are in the 120-140hour range.

-what would you do with your life if online poker was right now made illegal?

If roll <30k I would Work at a bank part-time and do real estate investing. If roll >30k, I'd do real estate investing.

-do you save money or spend all the "extra" (w/e that means to you) income from poker? (keeping in mind that are no pension etc benefits and this is a huge issue in the later part of your life)

I can't save much. I've hardly moved up stakes since I started and my BR has always been <50k. I spend lots of money on travel.

-do you keep a poker diary and if so, what kind of stuff do you write there? do you set goals and follow through with them to see if you achieved them or not? what kind of goals do you set for yourself?

Yes. I enjoy writing and talking about myself so I have a pretty active PG+C thread thats been going since I switched to PLO.

I set monthly goals. I think goal setting is one of my strong suits.

-do you plan to crush plo5k someday or are happy gringing a "steady" income at low or mid stakes?

Certainly not going to crush plo5k someday. Plans are to exit the poker world gradually.

I'm still in denial that I'm a pro and I tell people I'm a self-employed web developer, but poker has been my main source of income for 6 years so I guess I should do this...

do you separate poker bankroll and liferoll? how strict is your brm?
Yes, now I have responsibilities (long-term gf + kid on the way), but it didn't used to be the case, used to be really undisciplined and have been broke a couple of times taking shots.

do you see yourself as a poker pro still 5 years from now?
Hope I'll still be playing poker but I really want to spend more time on my programming work, if that takes off properly I doubt I will still be full-time.

what is your daily schedule like? grind all night, sleep all day?
No schedule, sometimes I'm up all night playing, other times just as a normal 9-5.

how much time do you spend studying the game vs grinding?
95% playing, the other 5% is watching Galfond videos. I should really learn to use PPT properly though, even though I'm pretty good at equities and can tell you the %s immediately to within 5% almost every time I'm all in and the cards are flipped up.

do you regret dropping out of university for poker (in case you did drop out)?
I'm older than you lot (38) Got into poker quite late, turned 'pro' at 32 after a long-term relationship failed and I decided to quit my job and go travelling for a year. When I returned, I really didn't want to get another job, so kept playing poker and made SNE (at NLH) while doing a Masters degree on the side to keep me off the streets.

do you think working a normal job would be more rewarding overall?
Depends on the job.

if you are going for sne, how do you organize yourself so that you make sure you won't fail?
I always try and get ahead of pace early in the year. And you have to just play. If you have a spare half an hour, play some Zoom. Be detached from results and make sure you're properly bankrolled (200 BI imo).

did you have a "aha!" moment when you realized you wanna play poker for living?
The only 'aha' moment was realising that I didn't have to work for the man for the rest of my life.

what is the minimum requirement to start as a pro? certain hourly rate over xxxk hands? how did you define it for yourself?
The only requirements should be that you're a winning player, can make enough to support yourself and won't go mad doing it imo.

-how many hours per month do you play and how do you divide it daily/weekly?
prob average ~200 hrs / month, but it varies dramatically.

-what would you do with your life if online poker was right now made illegal?
Concentrate on my programming/web development work.

-do you save money or spend all the "extra" (w/e that means to you) income from poker? (keeping in mind that are no pension etc benefits and this is a huge issue in the later part of your life)
I try.

-do you keep a poker diary and if so, what kind of stuff do you write there? do you set goals and follow through with them to see if you achieved them or not? what kind of goals do you set for yourself?
No. I've never set goals. Just go with the flow and react to your current circumstances.This recent BBC article quotes a study that "found a slight negative correlation between the number of times people spontaneously mentioned "goals" and their happiness".

-do you plan to crush plo5k someday or are happy gringing a "steady" income at low or mid stakes?
I don't plan anything w.r.t. poker but I wouldn't completely rule it out

Congrats on the kid man, i got my 2nd on the way soon! Your in for a treat i tell ya!!

TY, congrats also

I am a student using the GI bill which pays for my housing so I don't really have any expenses but have been playing to pay for vacations and whatever else I want to buy since I got out of the Marine Corps 2 and a half years ago. I made a little over 60k this year playing part time mixed between plo cash games and nl mtts. I have seriously considered leaving school to play poker professionally but the GI bill pays for my school and I get my grants back and pocket some of the housing money so I will just keep taking the money while they are throwing it at me.

do you separate poker bankroll and liferoll? how strict is your brm?

No, but once my only income was poker I definitely would. My brm is not very strict but I am also not playing for a living. At the same time it is strict enough that I am not going to get to the point where I can't play 1/2 plo with a 5 dollar bring in(pretty much the lowest live plo game you can find).

do you see yourself as a poker pro still 5 years from now?

I plan to play poker professionally after I get out of school but I also want to own my own business.

what is your daily schedule like? grind all night, sleep all day?

I have class on Tuesday/Thursday, I play poker usually Thursday, Friday, Sunday for about 5 hours each day, more if the game is good.

how much time do you spend studying the game vs grinding?

I study a few hours a week, probably 4 or 5:1.

do you regret dropping out of university for poker (in case you did drop out)?

I don't plan to drop out unless my roll gets to 200k+ after this summer in Vegas.

do you think working a normal job would be more rewarding overall?

Owning my own business should be very rewarding but becoming a top PLO professional could be just as rewarding. Working for someone else would not be rewarding to me at all.

if you are going for sne, how do you organize yourself so that you make sure you won't fail?

I'm a live fish.

did you have a "aha!" moment when you realized you wanna play poker for living?

I have had a few of those "aha!" moments but with the GI bill money and running a few risk of ruin calculations I have decided to stay in school.

what is the minimum requirement to start as a pro? certain hourly rate over xxxk hands? how did you define it for yourself?

I mean I am going pro when I get out of school unless my roll is less than 50k but I wouldn't be able to drop down below a 1/2/5 plo game because I play live. I wouldn't play for a living without 100 buy-ins.

-how many hours per month do you play and how do you divide it daily/weekly?

It depends I stay in Vegas for the majority of the wsop and play about 200 hours. Weekly while I am in school I play about 15 hours a week, more if there is a tournament series within driving distance.

-what would you do with your life if online poker was right now made illegal?

Same thing.

-do you save money or spend all the "extra" (w/e that means to you) income from poker? (keeping in mind that are no pension etc benefits and this is a huge issue in the later part of your life)

I save some money in an IRA account.

-do you keep a poker diary and if so, what kind of stuff do you write there? do you set goals and follow through with them to see if you achieved them or not? what kind of goals do you set for yourself?

Nope, I set goals but I don't write them down. They are mostly year to year and they are major goals that I would not forget. My goals are mainly involving building a roll big enough to take shots at local games I have seen that are absurdly profitable.

-do you plan to crush plo5k someday or are happy gringing a "steady" income at low or mid stakes?

I have taken a couple shots at 10/25 plo when lineups have been the fishiest I have ever seen where they were just throwing away money and it just feels like where I should be. I never take shots unless the lineups are amazing but being rolled and playing these stakes and higher normally for a living would be very satisfying for me.

Great thread guys. Thanks for the inspiration

Well im subbed. Gunna be taking my shot in the coming newyear

Nice thread. After how long time of playing poker as only incone would youb e considered a pro?

Don't forget that those who don't consider themselves pros can post their stories in the sister thread 'ssplo player profiles - tell your story'

kabump.

If people want, I can start a 'getting to know ****' / AMA thread like ones in the O8 forum as my post 5K, to tell one more time about how not to build a pro career

< wants.

+1

bump