Hi everyone,

My name is Sammy and I play under the sn WhirlingDervish on FTP. I play 9-handed single-table sngs at the $100 level and above, and I began playing professionally in September after playing as a serious amateur for several years. Since then, I've learned a lot about myself and what it takes to be a professional. I've always had the talent, capable of putting up ROI's that most consider unsustainable at the upper stakes. And I've always been short on drive, consistently selling myself short by not putting in the time or effort. I almost feel like one of those high-round draft picks in football who never works hard and squanders their talent. And I hate those guys! My favorite players are the ones like Wes Welker and Brent Grimes who have marginal talent, but out-work and out-hustle and eventually out-perform the others. I want to be more like that.

To help push myself, I've decided that I will dedicate this year to pursuing the #1 spot on the sharkscope total profit leaderboard for 9-handed turbo games $101-$300. Not only that, but I'm also going to get my name somewhere on the 9-handed regular-speed total profit leaderboard. I have other goals, such as getting the FT Black Card (I'm pretty close already), and making at least one 5-figure MTT cash. My long-term goal is to become a FullTilt pro, but first things first.

In this thread, I'll post graphs and updates on the sharkscope chase. I'll also post interesting hands; the discussion and analysis of poker is something I love, and I encourage everyone to share their opinions. I will also be posting occasional essays on STT strategy and the mental side of poker that I hope some people will find helpful (or at least interesting), and will promote discussion of the subjects. I am looking to receive constructive critiques of anything I post here, and I am more than happy to answer any questions you guys might have. I would love for this thread to be a place where good interactive poker discussion happens - I don't want it to be me just posting about me. Hell, I'm not that interesting

My current sharkscope graphs/numbers:







Wish me luck - I'll need it, as well the push I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.

Thanks,

Sammy

Good Luck! It would be cool to see you on the leader board.

Best of luck

Good luck, I hope you don't lose your motivation and end up robbing liqour stores for crack money.

Just like so many of those first round draft busts.

good luck

Cool graph, good luck!

Nice graph. GL in 2011 !

Best of luck, WD. I enjoyed following your last goals thread and I'll be watching this one with interest too.

Nice graph dude. Good luck at the tables in 2011

17% ROI sick,you must tableselect like crazy(or prolly lol samplesize).


GL!

Gl, awesome graph

Dude, you are easily one of the sickest, I used to play vs you in September, I just skipped your tables at the end... 109 turbos

Gl sir, enjoyed your last PG&C thread, and I'm sure I'll enjoy this one as well.

sick stats man. best of luck

Good Luck... I'll see you at the tables... and obviously earmark you with Red now...lol

Thanks for the gl wishes, everyone. It's very much appreciated. I'll try my best to make this thread more awesome than suck

Thanks Trend - I'm glad to see you in the new thread


Eh, probably not too much on the table selection. I generally try not to play if there's 4 or more good regs at the table, but that's about it. At the $100s and above you're not going to find many waters that are shark-free. I actually find it nice to have good players at the table; you can logically think along with their play, and they will understand the subtle messages you're giving off, and you can play off that. It's more of a chess game, and I really enjoy that and think that's an area where I do well.

It could be a little lol samplesize for sure; 1,800+ games is a *decent* number of games to extrapolate meaning from, but we'll know a lot more after the several thousand games I play this year.


Haha thanks brotha - What's your sn? (Don't feel obligated to say if you don't want to). I have a pretty good memory when it comes to poker so I'd probably remember you ...


Hell yeah J - following yours as well!


GL at the tables, kids ... I'll post a real update soon.

WD, nice graph. I'm curious to see if you think that ROI is attainable going forward. If not, what do you think you can hit?

I placed #12 on the 2010 Sharkscope leaderboard for $2 or less turbo 9 man and just moved up to the $6.50s. Of course, nothing compared to what level you're playing. I hope to learn alot from your thread. GL.

Thanks Joe. In the regular speeds, I feel pretty confident that I can maintain a ~15% ROI. I think that will always be my bread-and-butter game, and being self-taught in them helped me come up with some out-of-the-box strategies that I think have contributed to my success.

I also think I have plenty of improving to do. I have leaks just like anyone else and don't play perfectly by any stretch. So if I'm able to continue to learn and make improvements to my game I think that should help mitigate some of the run-bad that we all inevitably run into.

As far as the turbos, I have like a 6% or 7% ROI there which think is about right. I'm not as good at them because some of my strengths at regular speeds (like patience) are not virtues in a turbo. But if I can maintain an ROI over 5% there, I'll be happy.

Regardless, this year is all about total profit and not ROI, so if it dips or raises, I'm not going to be too concerned about it. Just gonna try to play a lot and play well, and let the numbers fall where they may.


Nice Mike! Good for you ... that's a sure sign that you're getting it done and that you're ready to move up. And if you crush at the $6.50s and your bankroll allows it, don't hesitate to move up again. I'd dig it if you this thread helped you out any too!





I've had a girlfriend staying with me the past couple days (leaving today) and I'm going snowboarding at Big Bear tomorrow, so I really haven't been able to put in any volume so far this year, and won't be able to do so in earnest until Wednesday. I've only played 12 tourneys in 2 days, but I'm up $812 so it's a least a decent start. Can't wait to get back to the grind though.

Best of luck to everyone at the tables and I'll try to put in a good update soon.

I like the new thread, very bold goal, I hope you reach it & will be following here to watch it happen!!

Nice thread, good luck on your goal!

This would be sick if you got #1. How much do you expect to need to profit to achieve that?

I'll be following. Best of luck.

Looking at the past three years, the leader has been between $60k and $70k. I believe I can do that. I think getting there will be more about dedication and staying the course than anything else.

812/12 = $67.6666667 per game profit

$70,000/$67.66666667 = just over 1000 games to be played.

Sounds easy enough =P