“I’m still a risk taker let me put it in words: ‘Can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.’” – Joe Budden

September 26th, 2013 – Newark, NJ

“Well Randal, this is it. “ Day 14 of my two-week notice at this crappy $12/hr security job in the lovely city of Newark. Two weeks ago I decided to finally nut up and tell my manager that I would be leaving this job to “pursue a better career opportunity.” Of course I didn’t tell him that that career opportunity was to go and play poker as my only means of income. No, I didn’t tell everyone at that job that that’s what I was doing because I didn’t want to have to deal with all the questions and comments about it. Instead I lied and told them I would be selling home security systems. As I left at 2:30 PM on that last day I knew that I would miss some of the people I had worked there with for a little over a year, but I wouldn’t miss that place at all.

Prelude

A couple of weeks prior to this KyddDynamite had made a post here on 2+2 looking to take on more horses for his stable. Before I ever met Kydd in person I always was a fan of his PG&C thread “Live Poker, Hopefully Not Live Blackjack.” I submitted all of the requested information from his post and he eventually got back to me and let me know that he would stake me if I was able to move down to Maryland and live in a house with him and a couple of other players. After talking it over with both of my parents, some close friends, and my girl I decided that I couldn’t pass this opportunity up. My poker experience is pretty limited (probably 400ish hours live) and as of this writing I consider myself a pretty bad player. The chance to be coached by Kydd was something I couldn’t pass up and on that last day of work, driving out onto the highway outside the complex I suddenly was overtaken with fear and doubts. What if I got down there and did so bad that Kydd made me leave and I was forced back into my Grandpa’s house and had to go job hunting again for 10 bucks an hour?

After arriving in Maryland a couple of weeks after quitting my job and sitting down for my first couple of coaching sessions it was like fireworks going off in my head. The amount of eye opening information that I was learning was pretty overwhelming considering my only learning experiences were 1 or 2 poker books I had read. I knew that I was going to succeed if I could learn to properly absorb all the information and apply it, which I struggled with at first big time. My first week of playing had me down into a sizeable hole money wise. I thought I was in huge danger of being dropped but Kydd had faith that I would turn it around and I eventually climbed out of the hole.

At the time of this writing I haven’t had the most promising start to this staking deal due to my inability to correct simple mistakes. This thread will serve as a sort of “fresh start” for myself and hopefully be the turning point of my poker career where I start ascending Crush Mountain.

Background:

I’m a 24 year old Rutgers University graduate with my Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. As of now my career plans are to enter law enforcement in some capacity. During this poker journey I will be taking various law enforcement tests around the area in hopes of getting my foot in the door somewhere but until then…let us poker.

Pictures get clicks so here's my first one:

Biggest stack of my poker career ($2,740, in for $500):


I plan to make that look like chump change in the next couple of weeks.



Poker Goals:

1) Winrate of 4bb/hr at 2/5 (going to start this goal small and increase the bb/hr as I meet each level)

2) Write down HH’s at a much higher frequency.
Right now I’m averaging probably 2.5 HH’s per session which I feel is not taking full advantage of the coaching opportunity that I have. I want to write down every HH where I put in more than 20 BB’s into the pot.

3) Greatly reduce the number of AIDS hands I play.
By AIDS hands I mean hands where I just completely make the wrong decision on almost every street. From now on whenever I completely just butcher a hand I will force myself to post it in here. I think this will help reduce the amount of AIDS hands I play as I will now be exposing them to a wide audience.

4) Take a longer time with crucial decisions at the table.
One of the biggest issues that leads to AIDS hands is me just making quick decisions without thinking thoroughly about the hand up until that point. I think by just taking an extra 5-10 seconds with key decisions will shoot my winrate up through the roof.

5) Play 30 hours a week and study 5 hours a week minimum.
One of the issues I had to start this deal was putting a much higher priority on playing hours over study hours. The study hours are much more important for me right now being an inexperienced player than the playing hours are.

Life goals:

1) Lose 40 lbs by May (have a sizable prop bet to do this)

2) Start paying off big chunks of my student loans.

3) Read one non-poker book per month.

gl subbed, i live 15 min away from rutgers man

tl;dr

subbed

Best of luck to you my man, hope it all works out

will be keeping a close eye on this. Do you have any expenses during your stay? What is your life roll?
I'm guessing you're pretty much commitment less apart from this staking deal yes?


Really hope it's successful mate! have all the good run in the world !!

Platypus.

(subbed)

Thanks for the interest. I have enough living expenses for at least three more months even if I don't make a dollar more on this deal so I'm in for the long haul (if long haul means three more months).

Good luck buddy

4bb/hr at 2/5 seems like super conservative goal

For sure. Like I said I will be raising the goal as I reach them. So once I hit 4bb/hr I will be raising it to 5bb/hr and so on.

Right now I'm barely break even but I've been playing bad plus running horribly so this new thread will be a huge help to me I think in terms of "starting fresh."

Can you post one story a week about Paul?

Goodlucked and subbed!!!!


take a look at this, here is my poker notation for copying down hands during play

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=691

once you get it down, it only takes you a minute to record 95% of all the relevant info. I highly recommend it

anyways, gl and see you in Vegas at the WSOP

GLGL. Remember- more shuffling and wiggle dance.

*Platypunt

The world isn't ready for Paul. It very well never will be either.

Thanks man I always thoroughly enjoy your posts like these. Glad to see you'll be reading this and I'll see you out in Sin City.


Playing a session later. Time to make 2014 my bi**h.

subbed

More deets on weight loss prop bet plz...Will you post a selfie with titttays if you win?

Thanks. That can be arranged.

See your around the room.

Don't have WR goal.

Focus on the process and the result will be there.

gl gl

Subbed, GL!

... hope this goes better for you than FF

The win rate is probably the least important goal to me. I fully agree that if I play optimally the money will take care of itself.

Thanks for the input Dickie.

Subbed for aids and inside jokes.

Jealous

Wish I had this opportunity before wife and kids.

Good luck

Subbed for head rubs

Very much this.

But uh ah ughhhh. +5555


Seriously though, this year is going to be awesome. Good luck!

Thank you. My father actually said something similar to this to me. He said do this now while I still can before I have any commitments. I've since stopped seeing the girlfriend I had back at home which is disappointing but it hasn't affected me much.

Another reason I did this is because one of my best friends died in August and I just got hit with the sudden realization of how short and fragile life can be. I didn't want to have a huge regret later on in life by passing on this opportunity.

Thanks all my chat thread bros for the sub too.

bip and coasterbrad ITT. Rungood activated.

Coaster if I just have months equal to some of your weeks I will be happy.

Sorry forgot to answer the specifics. It's pretty straightforward. 40 lbs by May 1st.