Quote:
Originally Posted by ECGrinder
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Goal: Achieve a Comfortable lifestyle playing Live $2/$5 NL. Travel a lot and see the world, work on other pursuits, etc. only after I get there. Pretty much looking to design a life of freedom with enough discretionary income to not have to worry about $$. Until I reach the goal facets below it's all about the grind, no extra expenses.
Goal Facets:
1. Build a 30 BI, $15,000 Poker Roll
Start Date: 10/9/2013
Completion Date Goal: 12/1/2013
Benchmarks: $7500, $10,000, $12,500, $15,000
Current Status: $5,700
Making $10k with 2/5nl in two months is doable
Quote:
Originally Posted by ECGrinder
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....2. Build up 6 months living expenses savings account, $6,000
Start Date: 10/9/2013
Completion Date Goal:1/12/2013
Benchmarks: ~$1,000 weekly December-Jan for 6 weeks, to be completed after Poker Roll is established
Current Status: $0
This combined with your other goal means you wish to make $21k in two months with 2/5nl. This is possible if you CRUSH the game and go on a heater. I think this goal is a touch unrealistic. I would slide the completion goal to April 2013
Your short term goal from Oct 2013 - April 2014 should be to sustain a positive poker income while improving your winrate and getting to a position where you can follow decent BRM. In the beginning you have to take a bit of a risk since you are underrolled. However, you need to "not" establish those risks as part of your permanent BRM practices.
So basically, I think your focus is a bit off. Your focus needs to be more centered on winrate, BRM, and improving your game, etc. do that and the monetary stuff will happen naturally
Quote:
Originally Posted by ECGrinder
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3. Deposit $4,000 Into a Roth IRA Retirement Account
Start Date: 10/9/2013
Completion Date Goal:4/1/2013
Benchmarks: $1,000 invested per month Jan-Apr 15. To be completed after Living Expenses Account is established
I hate this goal, or more to the point, I hate that you have this goal slated for April of 2013. Again, this kinda tells me your focus is in the wrong place.
Imo, your goals and focus for pretty much the first 6 months needs to be purely survival and improving your winrate and game and growing your bankroll.
If I were to try to construct a proper analogy. Imagine that your bankroll is an Apple Tree. If you take care of it, and grow it nice and strong then it will bear fruit for you. But if you are too aggressive with picking fruit off that tree as it is growing, then you hurt the tree's ability to grow big and strong.
Yuck, that analogy sucks... What i'm trying to say is that the beginning needs to be focused on growing that bankroll and improving your game and establishing yourself as not only a winning player, but a player that CRUSHES the game.
Once that has happened THEN you can start that IRA.
I would recommend that the IRA goal be slipped to Oct 2014, basically one year from when you started this venture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ECGrinder
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.....4. Establish a Live $2/$5NL winrate of >$30/hr over 1000 hours
Start Date: 10/9/2013
Completion Date Goal: 3/1/2013
Benchmarks: Calculate winrate for each 100 hour segment of play, and running winrate every 100 hours.
Current Status: N/A 30 Hours lifetime at 2/5
This is much better and what I've been saying above. I like this goal.
The last comment I want to make deals with downswings and BRM. In my opinion, the thing that separates pros from everyone else is how we handle downswings. Not just downswings, but devil driven descents into soul crushing negative variance hell.
When I first started out, I would here all the "stories" from pros about horrendous bouts of runbad and I would just shrug and say, "Well, that's not gonna happen to me because I'm awesome..."
And then it happened to me, then again, then again, and then again....
I was a hair away from being homeless several times but managed to bounce back (thank god for 2+2).
So my concern based on your goals is that I don't think you are properly accounting for the bad stuff and I think your focus is slightly in the wrong place for the near term. For the near term, every ounce of energy and mental focus should be on improving your skill level, growing your bankroll, and BRM. Other goals like IRA should be AFTER you've established yourself as a winning player that has a solid handle on this pro poker stuff.
hope that makes sense.
and I wish you do well. Its always fun to follow a thread from the beginning and watch it grow into something awesome.
GL