Hey all! My name is Thom and I'm from Perth, Western Australia.

I've only been playing poker for around 2.5 years, the last 18 months semi-professionally. I've pretty much tried everything, from MTTs (unsuccessful) to MTTSNGs (semi-successful) to live 500NL (successful but brutally swingy), but my main bread and butter over the whole time has been RUSH/ZOOM games. I've booked a pretty decent profit playing shorthanded 25-100NL on both Stars and Tilt, and thus this challenge has come up to ditch all the other games and be completely focused for one month.

There are a few goals that I want to make sure I achieve this month, and this thread is here to force me to ensure the success.

- grind out 10000FTPs/week for all 4 eligible weeks in January

I have all of January free from work and other commitments, and playing 4 25NL/2 50NL RUSH tables I should be able to comfortably bust out 5 2k FTP sessions a week. I want to analyze trying to play at different times and figure out when is best to be putting in my 8-10 hr sessions and when to play shorter.

- achieve Black Card by end of January

This just fits in with the above, if I achieve the above plan I'll be done by mid-Jan.

- avoid live poker completely

I've finally come to the realisation that live games just aren't as profitable for me and my boredom tilt issues will prevent me from changing this. In addition to this, I rarely feel good after a session and often leave angry even if in profit because of how scummy the local room is. Thus, no live poker all month.

- avoid alcohol completely

I rarely drink anyway but have been coaxed into a couple of destructive sessions recently. This is just not healthy and I know I can't control myself when I do drink so I'm cutting it out.

- weigh in at 79kg or less on February 1

In May at my worst I was 96kg, since then I've changed my entire life around and gotten down to 77.2 at my lowest. My focus has been so much stronger, life is happier, I feel so much better about myself and it reflects in how successful I've been in life since. I am currently 78.2kg, so basically this is enforcing that I need to maintain this weight rather than lose any more. Healthy diet and consistent exercise should ensure this.

I'm giving myself a starting roll of $1000 for this challenge and will only be paying myself the rakeback cheque each week. All profits will remain in the roll.

Let's get it dooooooooooone

GL HF SIR

Put in a quick session this arvo to make sure I was prepared for the start of the challenge, and it worked out well.

First this happened:



Which is good, sets me up with 25% rakeback going into January then Black Card should ensue sometime soon.

Then I decided to load up an afternoon turbo with my RUSH tables, and this happened:



Which was a nice little way to round out the year.

So now time to go out and enjoy my last beer or two for a few weeks. Cheers fellas! Here's to a good year ahead for all of us

gl

First session down!



Pretty happy with the session playwise, made a few spewy errors in spots but overall played very solid. Didn't get anywhere near the volume I wanted because I was so tired from a double NYE/NYD work shift turnaround that I hibernated and started at 11pm instead of 7pm.

Total stats were:

BB won: 969
Total Winnings: $242.25
FTP earned: 1041.05
Rakeback earned: $26.22

Disappointing to not get near my volume goal for the session but situation dependent I think I did alright to get that out. Don't have much more to contribute for this one, except the final hand of the session which is worth a few lols. Considered folding but lol, sif

No Limit Hold'em $0.10/$0.25
Full Tilt Poker
6 players
Formatted by pokercopilot.com - Mac OS X hand history analysis and tracking

Stacks:
UTG - UTG ($12.26)
MP - MP ($28.10)
CO - CO ($13.57)
BTN - BTN ($6.16)
SB - SB ($48.20)
BB - Hero ($43.15)

Preflop: ($0.35, 6 players) Hero is BB with K A
4 folds, SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $2.00, SB raises to $48.20 (all-in), Hero calls $41.15 (all-in), Uncalled bet of $5.05 returned to SB

Flop: 7 T Q ($86.30, 2 players)

Turn: 9 ($86.30, 2 players)

River: 5 ($86.30, 2 players)

Total Pot: $86.30

SB shows T J (a pair of Tens)
Hero shows K A (Ace King high)

SB wins $83.30

Back at it again tomorrow, time to keep building that giraffe yo

bump