hey 2+2, my name is Shane and I'm a 27 year old living in Illinois. I have been playing poker on and off recreationally since 2009. I was mainly a mtt player online with a few live mtts as well as live cash.

I've been working for my fathers residential construction company for most of my adult life. It's fun some days and other days blow but that's many jobs in my experience. The good thing is I have a lot of freedom as far as if I need/want to take a day off or take a weekend trip. So even though I work 40 hours a week most weeks, I should be able to get in at least 80 hours a month online.

I am currently backed by Imawhale (I'm thankful they gave me a shot) to play 25nl. Coming from a mtt background with no proper training and just creating my own style for the most part, the transition to cash online was a pretty big but fun challenge.

here is my up to date graph of 10nl and 25nl since joining Imawhale in mid December 2015

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I'll add some poker goals as well as life goals I would like to achieve in 2016 in a few days.

thanks for reading

-Shane

The transition from mixing 10nl and 25nl to just playing 25nl has been going pretty well so far. I am def comfortable at this stake and feel there are plenty of good games to choose from.

I'm still filling out my list of goals I would like to achieve this year.

My main poker goal is to put in 1k hours this year. Not sure if ill be able to reach this while working full time but ill def give it my all.

My main life goal is to get back in shape. Since I work construction for my Dad, we usually go out for lunch Mon-Fri. I don't think this is too bad, the bad thing is my food selection. Being that I do a lot of manual labor I'm usually super hungry at lunch and often overeat.

here is my 25nl graph since starting the stake

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Hopefully anyone reading this is in much warmer weather than me. I've been working outside the last few days and it has been 2 and 4 degrees the last 2 days. I will be leaving for Las Vegas in ~2 weeks for my yearly all guy/family trip. Super excited for the trip and I hope to play lots of poker while there

-Shane

played yesterday and made a few buyins. Tonight played a 2 hour session which I should have cut it down to a 1 hour session. I could have been up 2 buyins but I wasn't paying as close attention to the games as I should have been. I had a long physical day at work and when I got home I felt like I could grind out a 2 hour session but after the first 30 minutes I caught my self slouching in my chair and just zoning out.

I got up and walked around for a bit which helped but the same thing happened after another half hour. I def don't need to play if I'm that tired or just cut the session time down and use the alarm on my phone to set a a 30 minute timer and regroup by either sitting out and stretch or just walk around for a bit and set the timer again and see how it goes.

Gl man!

What's the highest stakes that run on bovada?

Thanks!

as far as nlh goes the highest stake is $10/$20

games were good both Saturday and especially today with the championship football games. However, It did distract me somewhat from my cash tables and not focusing on certain spots and just clicking the call button rather than to think the hand through first before deciding.

finished up a buyin on Saturday and almost 4 buyins today but should have been much more on both days. Like I said above def gotta focus more and if I feel myself zoning out then just sitout for a bit or don't play until I feel 100% in the zone.

I have 10 days before I take my yearly all guy trip to Las Vegas. I'm excited, but It also means I have to bust my ass at the regular job to get **** done before I leave for 4 days. Hopefully I'll have a Las Vegas TR with some pics but depends on what I decide to this year out there. (either play lots of poker or play some poker and drink a lot and watch a show or 2).

I hope Manning and the Broncos win the SB so he can retire on top but if I were a betting man (Ill be betting in Vegas) I would take Carolina depending on the spread.

hope everyone crushed today and thanks for reading.

-Shane

Life goals

*Work harder at the construction job and save money so I can move to Las Vegas before the end of the year.

*Eat healthier. I work in different houses almost everyday so I never take my lunch and usually just go to a fast food joint or a sit down place and overeat.

*Join a gym and start working out again. Use to be in great shape during college and ever since the pro baseball thing fell through I just quit going to the gym and didn't care about my appearance and health.

*Lose 50 lbs before the end of the year

*Meet at least 5 2+2ers irl this year. I'm hoping to meet a few when I'm in Vegas in 10 days


Poker goals

*Play at least 80hrs/month online

*Study more when I'm not playing and ask my coaches more questions so I can become better at each level.

*Play more live cash

*Play at least 5 good valued live mtts

*Finish reading The Mental Game Of Poker

*To be playing 200nl or higher before the end of the year

you gotta good job so i cant fathom why you would wanna be staked to play 25 nl online unless if theres some coaching included that you feel you need to beat that level, otherwise its just pointless to be splitting your profits especially at that low of stakes. your goals all seem attainable on and off the felt, BOL in achieving them this year! what part of ILL are you from?

hey man, gl glad to hear you're doing well.

See that you're from Illinois...Chicagoland area? Do you play at the Shoe or somewhere else? I'm in a similar boat to yourself, full time job, playing live when I can and then otherwise I mostly play $10 or $25 nl/plo.

keep up the good work!

Hey OP, I'm a fellow IL live/bovada grinder. I play at the Shoe regularly, also play most 100NL zone poker on bovada and some 200NL 6max. Good luck here for the run good!

Hey thanks, I have played at the shoe a few times. HAve been there for wsopc and cpc. glgl to you as well and ill be following your pgc

If I play live I usually make the 2hr trip to STL and play at one of the downtown casinos or at Hollywood since I get free rooms for the weekend there. I plan on playing more at the shoe this year but its just a pain since there is no hotel connected. Last time I was a the shoe for I think the wsopc. I booked a room at a motel 6 at like 2am since I ended up making day 2 of ring event. When I arrived at the motel 6 at like 2:30am there was prob 50 guys in the parking lot and right next door was a strip club that had over 50 people in that parking lot. I went inside the lobby and there was prob 10 more guys in there and I whipped out cash to pay for the room. Of course my room is on the 2nd level and there are ~10 guys sitting on the stairs drinking 40s and smoking weed. I maneuver through them and when I reach the top step I hear "Hey white boy you want a hit?" I politely decline and tell them all to have a good night.

In the past I only played mtts online and some mtts and live cash. When I dabbled into cash online on my own I was a total fish and would just blow money (which was no big deal since I have a job). I decided to go after this particular stake because it comes with coaching from long term crushers at high stakes. Eventually I would like to be playing high stakes online and to reach this level I think this is the best route for me to take.

I am ~3 hours south of Chicago and 45 min west of Champaign, if you know what ADM is than you will easily know where I'm located

Well I haven't put in a lot of volume lately due to being super busy at work. When I get home from long days (7 or 8pm cst) like the past few have been, I try to play a 2 hour session of solid focused poker. Well, I have played a 1.5hr and tonight a 1hr session before feeling completely drained and just ready to pass out so I can have more fun at the job tomorrow morning.

I have 3 jobs going right now which is hard to balance, as well as please the customers because they expect you to be there 8 hours a day until the job is finished. We aren't able to do this because it is just my father and I who work for the company (older brother worked with us his whole life until he moved 2 hrs away and started his own company). Its been pretty hectic trying to balance the jobs as well as the timeline since we are leaving a week from tomorrow to go to Vegas for 4 days.

The 3rd and newest job was today which I was planning on tearing out like a sheet of drywall and replacing 3 or 4 studs that were pretty much doing nothing after termites did some serious work on them. When I tore the section of drywall out I noticed a trail running along a piece of the baseboard I left on, so I took that off and needless to say a 1 1/2 day job is gonna turn into a pretty long one being there is termite damage in every wall in this house.

here are some pics I snapped to show the bug guy who just sprayed ~4 months ago that we have lots of damage as well as plenty of live termites

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I know nothing about construction but that right there looks like an absolute nightmare...whats the cost like on trying to fix something that embedded in a house?

It is def a nightmare and the damage that needs to be replaced will be ~$6,500 to be fixed

4 days until I'm in Las Vegas!!

It feels like the last month is just dragging and Thursday is never gonna get here.

I am super excited for this trip even though it is gonna be pretty busy with all the plans I have. Ordered tickets to see the UFC fights on Saturday night with a few of the guys on the trip. Never been to a UFC event so figured I would get the experience.

I'm also gonna go see Absinthe with both of my brothers and am hoping its as good as its hyped up to be.

Going to the Orleans steakhouse with all the guys on the trip and everyone is pitching in to pay for my grandpas meal being this is his last trip with us. After dinner were all gonna play in the Friday night Orleans tourney.

I recommended that Thrusday night when we get in town that everyone in the group (9 of us) puts up $25 and we take that money and put it in a $5 VP machine and let my grandpa run it through. Its the only thing he plays when at the casino besides a mtt here and there and normally just plays 25 cent VP. So I think he will be thrilled when this happens and will be hoping he hits 4 Aces with the kicker or a Royal


Then Wynn Buffet is rated the best buffet in the state of Nevada according to yahoo. The group I'm coming with all like to eat so we will be hitting that up while out there.

I'm hoping to get in a decent amount of $1/$2 while in town as well as degening it up some in the pits as well as at VP.

Ill snap some pics while out there as well as do a review on my trip and how good the buffet, tourney, steakhouse was etc.

Have fun in Vegas bud. Another Illinois guy, Bovada part time grinder with a real job here. Same stakes as you basically (25-50NL). Just came back to the game after a 2.5 year break from when I played full time.

Hit me up if your in the Chicago area! (West burbs myself)

Edit: Just read where you live...I don't get down there a ton anymore but if I do I'll hit you up =).

What type of construction do you guys too? Guessing remodel/reno of some kind and not new build? Residential only or commercial too?

I can vouch for the Wynn buffet being incredible, it's me and the wife's go-to when we're there.

Wishing you some run good for the grandpa!

SB weekend, I'll be in Vegas as well. GL

Hey GL with your goals. I also work full time and when grinding try to put the same amount of hours a month.

What structure/hours a month do the coaches give you for your CFP program? How do you like it so far?

Have been following your pgc. congrats on the January progress. Do you feel the game has gotten a lot harder since that 2.5 year break?

I'm def coming up to Chicago this year to grind some at the Shoe and hopefully for the CPC. Ya def shoot me a pm or post in my thread if your ever down this way.

We do residential remodel and renovation. We do quite a bit of termite repair jobs a year mostly being in a crawl space and a few re-roofs a year. other then than most of it just the basic remod/reno.

Did you go during the week or weekend? I saw for like a few bucks more on Friday and Sat night they offer a bigger seafood and steak selection, so was wondering if its a must to go then or a weekday or lunch will be just as good.

Thanks for the rungood I hope he binks something big!

Thanks Stuntman, Where will you be staying? Ill be at ballys but watching the game at a house off the strip. Are you gonna be grinding a lot while out there?

Hey spacechippie thanks! Its kinda tough working full time while trying to get in a decent amount of volume but def doable. Just got to remember to take breaks or days off when not there fully mentally.

As far as the coaching goes I do a 1 on 1 session once a month and a weekly study group. I also can ask a coach anytime about certain spots or how I should have played a certain hand so it has def helped me improve my game by getting solid feedback from these guys.

January recap

Volume
I played 121.5 hours in January while taking only 1 day off. I probably should have took off at least 2 or 3 but still happy with that number being I work at least 40 hrs/week at the irl job.

Hands

Got in a little over 27k hands for the month with the majority being 25nl and a 1/3 being 10nl and about 1.5k hands of 50nl

Studying/Coaching

I've been looking over quite a few hands in my DB and the ones I've had questions on I ask in my group chat. A few I will save for my group session coming up on Wed. I am halfway through the Mental Game Of Poker and am really enjoying it. I don't seem to tilt when I take a bad beat or lose a big pot, I just continue to focus and make good decisions. I try to play every hand the best I can and don't worry about the short term results as I cannot control the cards.

Here is my MTD graph

[IMG][/IMG]

Pretty happy with the results for the month even though there were some iffy calls on my end and ran into a few coolers on the last day of the month to lose close to 4 bis.

Ready to have a solid February and will be shooting to play at least 80 hours even though ill miss 4 days while being in Vegas.

glgl and thanks for reading

-Shane

That's awesome bud. GLGLGL I think you'll do just fine man. You definitely have a good mindset. Im subbed for sure.

Crush~

Wow, great month man, did you play any zone for those hands? To answer your question, I'll be staying at the Venetain and I will be playing as much poker as I can, I'm aiming for about 20 hours or so over the weekend. Tables are gonna be crazy good. I'll be watching the game at a party that's being hosted by Palazzo/Venetain.

sub'd

tyty for the sub. glgl to you as well will be following your pgc as well.

ty, no zone all 6 max reg tables. I'm not sure where ill be grinding just yet but will prob make it over to the V. The tables should be good everywhere I would think so ill be walking through different ones on the strip and checking out the games.

glgl to you out there and hopefully you crush the games.

Thanks for the sub sir