Hey 2+2,

I'll start off with a quick personal and poker biography before I get into my goals.

Personal:
I'm currently 28 years old and live somewhere in the New England area of the United States. I went to college and got my Bachelor's in Business Administration (like the rest of the general population my age). While I was in school I was paying my way by working in restaurants and then when I graduated I took over a General Manager position at the restaurant I was currently working at. After doing that for a couple years and realizing the pay was bad, the hours were long and I wasn't passionate for that business; I decided it was time for a change.

I joined the Army in 2011 as a Forward Observer. I didn't know much of anything about my chosen job, but the Army agreed to pay off my student loan debt to enlist with that Military Occupation Specialty. After training I realized my job was amazing. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, performed my job well and was promoted to Sergeant before I transferred from Active Duty to the National Guard in 2014. Now I'm working on commissioning as an Officer to further my military career.

Poker:
I started playing small $5-$20 tournaments with my friends back in 2002 after we all saw NLHE on T.V. I seemed to have a more advanced analytical talent compared to the group I was playing with which meant I was winning a high percentage of these tournaments. That encouraged me to eventually put some of my money on Pokerstars. I knew nothing about the depth of complication that Poker actually harnesses and proceeded to lose everyone of my deposits quickly.

Around 2007 I discovered a poker training website which helped me start to realize how much I DIDN'T know about the game I was so intent on winning. It was a humbling experience. Since then I have watched some videos, read some books and at short stints of time taken it very seriously. I have never put any real volume which will be one of my goals. The other side to my Poker experience is that I play in a lot of 1/2 NL home games in my area and I believe it is beneficial to become skilled in all forms and limits of poker in order to be profitable.


Goals:
Short Term:
Put 3k-5k hands in per week at 10NL
Find which site is the best site for me to play on. (Player pool, rake, Pro-US, Allows HUD)
Watch 1-3 Videos per week
Do one 1-hour sweat session per week
Post 1-3 10NL hands per week on 2+2
Post 1 Live hand per week on 2+2

Long Term:
Move up from 10NL to 25NL by 2015
Read two poker books by 2015
Learn a Poker form besides NLHE by 2015

Very Long Term:
Be able to play poker as my single source of income by 2020


So these are my goals. I put a lot of thought into making sure that they are reachable and will challenge me. I play poker part-time so I think these goals will be very challenging but necessary if I want to continue to improve at a rate that is still interesting this is what I believe I must do.

Thanks in advance for anybody following my updates!

Good luck man, let's hope poker is still around in 2020

Poker has been around for SOOOO long but it just evolves a lot. I'm confident it will still be here

Update:

I've chosen to play at America's Card Room. I did some research here on 2+2 and found that a lot of players liked the software, the transactions are done well and I'll be able to use PT4 in order to analyze my hand histories.

I made a deposit of 100 (because it was the max for Visa) and am currently playing 5NL instead of 10NL. I was taking a beating on a different network at 10NL before I made the move and I think that trying to put some volume in at a lower stake will help build my confidence. I also signed up for rakeback so hopefully that will help my bottom line.

Was able to put in just over 2k hands in the last 24 hours. Playing a mix of 5NL and 10NL to get the volume Im looking for.

I noticed that 4-6 tabling I stay focused and stick to my opening ranges and dont get fancy. I believe this will be acceptable at micro stakes in order to grind past the rake. Looking to move up to 25NL ASAP and will be taking shots when I have 15 BIs at that level and feel confident.

27÷ Rakeback is in effect. PT4 hasn't identified any leaks in my game yet (for whatever that is worth).

Played 1/2 NL live last night and stayed rather tight and managed a 250BB cash. Just taking advantages of weak players mistakes and not pushing the envelope. Being patient.

Quick shout out to all of the 'micro stakes is too tough' people. I see PLENTY of ridiculous play at 10NL for stacks. I dont forsee an issue.

Graph at 10k hands.

Subbed, care to post graphs?

Im going to post my first graph at 10k hands so that its 'somewhat' meaningful.
Thanks for reading!

Just finished a 6 hour session down 15bb at Live 1/2 NL. I'm pretty happy about it because most of my play was solid.

I find it difficult to stay interested in the hands Im not in. Im trying to pay attention to the action but sometimes it is so passive that I find it hard to pull out any useful tidbits of information. Anyone have a remedy for this?

Tomorrow I will be putting in a lot of volume. I expect to get anywhere from 1k-3k hands of 10NL in.

I owe myself a sweat session, a video and a posted hand by the end of the week. This certainly is a challenge.

I put in a fair amount of volume today and am disappointed to say that nothing exciting has come of it. I was able to have a fellow 2+2er do a 45 minute sweat session with me and pointed out quite a few areas of improvement.

Some notes I took:
-Re-evaluate my range when stealing from the button. Looks like I might be playing the BTN too tight.
-Formulate a strategy for playing the SB and BB
-Slow down and focus on Hand Analysis during the hand in order to better process information and make the right decision when it counts instead of after the hand when it is too late
-Are opening our value hands to a larger size on the BTN and CO exploitable at the micros?
-Work on using my HUD properly and to my advantage

[x] Put 3k-5k hands in per week at 10NL
[x] Find which site is the best site for me to play on. (Player pool, rake, Pro-US, Allows HUD)
[ ] Watch 1-3 Videos per week
[x] Do one 1-hour sweat session per week
[ ] Post 1-3 10NL hands per week on 2+2
[ ] Post 1 Live hand per week on 2+2

I'm doing okay on my weekly goals. I need to review and post some hands which I will try and do tomorrow and watch some videos. I'm going to stay away from videos geared towards the micros and instead focus on watching videos that will help my overall poker like math videos and some tiltless stuff maybe.

Here is a graph of all of my hands since I began again.

What a session!

I can aknowledge when Im on a heater and tonight I was blessed by the poker Gods! Only thing I had to do was figure out how to extract max value.

Total profit for the session was 6 Buy Ins! I cashed for exactly $1400 USD after an 8 hour session. (1407 but I tipped the dealer the remaining 7).

Ill be posting a chip picture tomorrow.

A lot of 3 bet pots and flopping or turning the nuts against fishy villains who were 150bb deep and willing to stack off pretty weak.

I know this didn't have much to do with playing well but I have some renewed confidence going into a new week of struggling with the micros. Hoping I can develop my game and maybe have a little goodluck at the tables as well.

The wife and I are also planning to go to Foxwoods for our three year anniversary next week so hotel and restaurant suggestions are mandatory!

As promised, here is a picture of my chip stack from yesterday's session.



Brag.

I'm going to have some time to study and play this evening and I'm looking for video suggestions.

I am a member of Deuces Cracked so all of those videos will be available for me.

I have watched some poker math videos but may revisit an entire series and try to take extensive notes and apply what I learn.

Had a meeting with a COL in the National Guard today and looks like Ill be attending Officer Commmisioning School in January in Alabama. Anyone know any good games in 'Bama?

I'll post a 5 and 10NL graph after I put some hands in tonight!

So heres what I got...



This is my overall USD winnings graph from stakes ranging from 5NL - 25NL. I've been playing a little of everything mostly trying to game select and look for fishier opponents. Here is the thing though, I think I'm the fish!

I have a major issue calling down lightly. I know it is an issue and I need help trying to fix it. I've gone so far as to make an index card an tape it to my monitor that just says 'FOLD - Stop Calling 'Bluffs''. This is creating a major profit loss for my learning of poker. Because of this I have made the decision to only 2 table from now on until I am back in the profit again.

On the positive side I finished a live session of 1/2NL last night and finished +$260. My path to beat the micros has definitely increased my skill in the live games, specifically my ability to hand read and use range analysis.

Here are some videos that I've watched recently:
[x]Hand Reading: A Lost Art Introduction
[x]Hand Reading: A Lost Art Part One
[x]Hand Reading: A Lost Art Part Two
[x]Mathematics of NLHE: Season Premiere

These videos have all been very helpful. I stopped watching the hand reading videos because I felt like it was making me focus too much on things that weren't as important in the micros. This, I believe, was part of the reason that I had been calling down lightly. I'm temporarily off of that series and onto the Mathematics of NLHE. A lot of the concepts are already familiar with me but I am going to watch the whole series and take notes and really try to learn the concepts so I can apply them at the table.

Amazingly, using some random USD I had deposited on Bovada months ago, I entered into a $20 Super Turbo SS $1000 Guaranteed and came in second place and cashed for $260 profit. I'm going to use this new bankroll on Bovada to give me a better advantage when I am trying to table select. I have Holdem Indicator so I will be able to use a HUD. I need to buy the Hand Converter though so that I can track my hands using PT4.

I'm off to take a break from the online scene and play a 3 hour live session!

Alright, figured I would give a quick update since Im going to be dark for a few days. Spending my three year wedding anniversary in North Conway, NH at a cozy lottle inn with a jacuzzi. Go us.

Last night I was able to play a 10 hour live session and leave +$258 or 129bbs at 1/2 NL. Alot of great spots against weak players that didnt pan out but I definitely made some sklansky bucks!

Still calling to many thin river bets. Need help with that.

Ill be attacking the micros again as soon as Im off this trip. Looking forward to posting some graphs and hands soon.