Hello all, I'm a university student who's played poker for around 2.5 years at this point, starting at the micros and moving my way up slowly. Currently I'm staked to play 500nl-2knl games on clubGG, and I've made about 20k profit with my staker in the past year or so. I also play a 2/5 homegame for extra cash.

My goal is to drop out of University next summer, move to a cheap country like Thailand/Costa Rica/Panama etc., and make 200k+/yr playing online cash games.

Why did I make this thread?

I want to keep myself accountable with my poker goals and discuss the feasibility of my plan with people more experienced than me.

My bankroll currently is around $13,000, once I reach $50,000 I will be comfortable playing 500nl/1knl on my own roll and will have enough for living expenses (I estimate ~1k/mo)

What will I post?

I will track my results both live and online and try to post them weekly, as well as my thoughts on poker and potentially some hands. I also am investing my roll on the side and will post some stuff related to that. ($COIN and $META )

Good luck. I hope your journey ends up being the one you hope for!

I have subbed and look forward to following your progress.

As someone who dropped out of Uni twice (when the games were 10x better) ... stick it out UNLESS you're doing a liberal-arts major.
I like the META play but instead of COIN ... put 60/40 into BTC && ETH as I believe if EITHER of those coins fail then COIN as a company will flutter out (I actually like Robinhood as a buy way more than Coinbase ... especially considering Robinhood is adding more and more crypto trading every month).

Best of luck with your goals.

If you want to say, how did you get into playing 500NL+ on apps and get staked?

Thanks, I hope so too


What I am going to do is take a gap year in the middle of my studies and play for a year, if it doesn't work out I can return to my studies.

I understand where you are going with just going for crypto but I think coinbase as a company is somewhat undervalued for what it is. It's been doing well the past week too.

Thanks, I was staked at ~100nl and moved my way up, my staker got me into the games.

Update

The week started with some rough sessions, including losing over 3k on the 27th. This was tough mentally but I continued putting volume in and ended up at a profit.

I played ~7000 hands and made $1825, however, I also lost 1k playing live so the week overall was mediocre (besides $META pumping)

Current Goals

Play 15hr/wk, or Six 2.5 hour sessions

Bulking (hitting the gym 6x/wk and eating at a large surplus)

Continue with daily meditations/journaling/reading/gratitude

Thanks for reading

Been a while, but happy new year to anyone reading the thread! I hope 2022 went well for you. December was about average for me, I made about $2k after the split from playing app games.

However, I've decided to make a pretty big switch from playing app games and started grinding 500nl on Bovada. The games are tougher for sure, with a bunch of competent, aggressive, regs but the volume is worth it for me to make it my primary site (I will still mix in app games).

Here are the results from about a week of grinding -



My goal is to play about 5k hands / week, which is about 15 hours of grinding. If I end the 25k hands with a winrate of 4+BB/100, I will take a big shot at 2knl and hope it goes well. I'll post some hands and some graphs in the future, but for now here are my goals for 2023.

2023 Goals

- Become established regular at 2knl on ignition

- Make 200k from poker and build up a bankroll of at least 100k (Sufficient for 2knl ignition, midstakes ACR)

- Move to South American Country and learn kickboxing

- Improve my coaching skills (planning, reviewing, explaining sims) and start charging for coaching

Thanks for reading

Played very low volume this week due to being on vacation but the results are as follows -

ClubGG Profits +2349
Ignition Profits -817

Updated Ignition Graph



This week I aim to put in a lot more volume, at least 1k hands/day on ignition plus volume on clubGG, and if all goes well shot 2knl on ignition by Friday (when the games are often juiciest)

Here's a fun hand where I ship my stack in with a bluff and get looked up

How are the games on GG and how do I play? and I’m assuming there’s a way you can play multiple tables? I switched from online to live just cuz live is softer and more fun but I do miss when the online games were good. If I can find some soft games I’d be down to give it a shot again.

You need to find an agent, and can play up to 4 tables at a time. It's soft for sure, but not as soft as live. I play there because it's probably the best place to play 500-2k games in the states besides ignition

Hey man.

It seems like you are in a pretty decent spot with a good head on your shoulders.

Contrast that to me who dropped out of university three years ago and plays lower stakes than you.

So what’s your grind? Four tabling Iggy and perhaps a table or two extra on ClubGG when games are good or what?

Anyway, best of luck with the poker and workout grind.

GL with the grind. My advice is move to Mexico or Costa Rica sooner than u think. Cost of living is very cheap and u might be able to grind more as well. Argentina super cheap ATM, can get Ur own apartment there don't need to organise with roommates.

Thank you, I'm currently playing 4 tables on ignition on my main grind, as well as 1-3 extra clubGG. I try to stay away from 500zone but if it's a big pool (30+) I'll hop in.

Interesting. I'm preferring Thailand actually atm because it's quite cheap (a nice condo <200/month) and I can learn Muay Thai. All the apartments in the bigger cities in SA seem to be a bit more expensive. Would you say you can live decently on ~1k/month in Buenos Aires/Cordoba/San Jose?

I started training rings too

I see. So around 400 hands/hr. Yeah, as primarily a 200zone player who is looking to move up, it kind of sucks that 500z seldom has above 20 players whereas 200z has 20+ most of the day so two tabling zone is actually viable.

And good luck with the fitness grind. It seems like you have a lot of similar interests to me. I’m into lifting and mma (though I’ve never trained any form of mma as of yet). So what’s the overall goal with respect to all your fitness endeavors?

Yeah I wouldn't recommend 500 zone for the first time playing. The regs are better, potentially 1k/2k regs who are playing lower for volume or better games.

As for fitness, I'm big into lifting and starting calisthenics. As for MMA, I'm the same, never trained apart from a couple BJJ sessions but very interested in starting. My main goal is aesthetics in the short term, but ideally want to start doing some serious fights (2-3 year time frame)

Best of luck to you with your fitness/poker goals, I would say definitely take the jump as soon as possible, 500nl can't be much harder than 200z.

I really appreciate the advice. I like zone for volume reasons and because it is easier to get in the zone playing 400 zone hands per hour vs. 400 reg table hands per hour.

The plan for me is start playing 500nl at the end of the week once I’ve surpassed my 40k hand goal at 200. Then, based on your advice, rather than using 500z to increase volume, I may just add 1-2 tables on an alternative site. Though, I am a bit hesitant since 500nl on Iggy is likely softer than 500nl on the alternative sites I would play on.

I've fantasized of starting MMA and getting fights in, but it is a huge undertaking from a financial, physical, and mental perspective so for the foreseeable future I’ll just be lifting and running for aesthetics and general health. Yeah, BJJ is so intriguing to me. Such a cerebral sport with so much innovation to come.

Once again, I appreciate your response and perhaps I will keep you updated on how 500 goes

I think when you play just 4 tables you get the added EV of optimal game selection, good notetaking, and table dynamics that it might be worth just playing ~5k hands first if you are somewhat shottaking (depends on bankroll ofc). I personally play more cause I already know a lot of the same guys on the clubs I play on so throwing on a couple xtra tables there isn't a big mental load.

And with MMA, I heard lots of gyms in Thailand are quite cheap (<50-100/month) and with a fair amount of foreigners/expats that you can meet guys and be motivated to keep coming. So that's a plus for me

You are definitely correct with that sentiment in regards to playing four tables. My plan is to probably have a stop loss of sorts in which I will move back down to 200nl if I lose 10 buy-ins at 500. That way I can endure some run bad without decimating my bankroll in the process. Initially, I will likely play four reg tables, but I think increasing that after establishing myself at 500 would be a +EV decision over the long term.

Yeah, 50-100/mo is quite reasonable. And it is always easier to transition into a new sport/activity if you are in a great environment while doing so, for sure.

Sounds like a good plan, best of luck

Really funny video from Bencb that I imagine will be quite controversial but I think it has a lot of important points I enjoyed it



Also a video of me doing dips, I'm going to post more fitness stuff in the future

If selfhelp was a person it would be BenCB

Good luck to you.

Hey man, hearing your story and it resonates with mine.

Pls be cautious with your bankroll. If you’re dropping out to do this you can’t afford to risk going broke 10-25% of the time. Play around with variance calculators more to see how much risk your taking.

Either grind up a bigger roll or seek more staking. Anything else is irresponsible. I get that your young and can afford to take on more risk, I really do. But please be careful. A 40 buyin downswing is inevitable. Don’t let something inevitable ruin your chance at achieving your dreams.

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not sure what you mean by "seek more staking", I'm staked, standard deal. If I go into makeup I can always drop down and grind out of it, and I have enough money saved up for over a year of grinding in a cheaper country.

I don't plan on dropping out immediately, instead I will live as a professional poker player over summer break (~4 months) and if all goes well will drop out fully

Following, good luck!

Nice, when I’m grinding if I make a mistake through lack of attention to detail or not thinking as much as I should I make myself do 15 push ups. It helps with fitness and poker, because there comes a point where you really want to avoid doing any more

Played decent volume but have been running very poorly as of late. Will post a graph in 24 hours once ignition allows me to download my hands

ClubGG Profits -4231
Ignition Profits -350

This is just this week, and the 60% of the action I have of myself. In total I have lost what I would guess is 15-20 buy ins ($11k total) at 500nl and 1knl in the past two weeks (was losing the tail end of last week as well). It's rough, but I have been profitable for a while on the apps and am still up overall on ignition (~2-3bb/100). Also I am about 5k under EV. But losing almost 5k in a week is really tough for me. Since September 14 of this year, I am still up around 17k total with my staker, which is more than I would have imagined then, and I'm not in makeup thankfully.

Currently my life roll sits at around 15k, and I am still motivated to move this summer and try living as a pro. However, I realize I also need to put in more volume in studying my own game and reviewing the play of others. I go back to school this week but am motivated to put in the hours studying and grinding more than ever and this has only strengthened my desire for personal/financial freedom. It's a good starting point regardless and I want to be grateful for going through this as it's an important part of my personal journey.

As always, thanks for reading

Srsly high risk BRM blog at risk of bustage? Christ, my roll is 20k and my abi is $12. Mind you I am talking the SNG world where 349564569569856876 bi downswings are common despite 10bb/100.