And here begins the adventure...



I've been around 2p2 for awhile usually in marketplace or MTT forums, but never found time to create a PG&C thread. There have been many successful & entertaining ones before me, but I'm not here to compete with those. This will be my journey through poker and life as I continue to attempt to improve my MTT game.

Introduction:

My name is Tim Klingenberg and I consider myself a serious, part-time, recreational player that has some reasonable results.

P5s link

I began playing (dabbling) poker ages ago, Winter 2001 AD, while stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. I cut my teeth losing at 2/4 LH.... so painful to think how grandma Betty would clean my clock. But in true competitive fashion, I licked my wounds and went back out there to battle. Needless to say I'm glad I stumbled across tournament poker on TV.



I played some cheap, terrible rake, tournament at Harrahs. I held my own but ended up bubbling out. It was fun, but even funner would have been to win to make 15x my buyin!!! So I went out and bought Harrington on Holdem vol I and II, read them both from cover to cover. Now I felt I was ready to give this a shot again.



April or May 2002, I entered a $50 tournament at Planet Hollywood. Everything was so much clearer and damn these other players were terrible! After several hours I ended up shipping it for $990. BOOM! I was hooked!!! I then played about 20 other micro daily tournaments that year, final tabling 15 (?) of them and shipping 12 or 13 outright. Not shabby for working fulltime in the Air Force and having a wife.

So that's how it started and how I got hooked. Obviously the game changed and I found out about variance. I picked up online poker with similar moderate success, but also short lived during that time. I realized that I needed to continue to improve even as a part time recreational player... Training sites, coaches, books, skype groups, etc over the next several years as I still played mostly online and some live. Then I finally retired (young retirement, 42) from the Air Force in 2013. I began putting in more study time and the results were immediately showing.

Since those early days I've played all over Las Vegas up to $200, played a bit in Europe at Kings, Spa, London, etc. Have been to a few WSOP prelims as well. Still looking to crack through my first major live 6figure win!

Overall Sharkscope graph:



Most Recent Graph (over last couple years)



SS Stats:


I feel like I'm doing ok for a part-time serious rec, but I know I can achieve more. I have a lot on my plate at the moment: working on my MBA, recent change in jobs (full time, upper management), and will be geographically separated from wife due to career choices (long distance relationship). Although I have all that on my plate, I feel there will be time to put in more poker study time then ever before!

"Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail!" -Benjamin Franklin

The game is getting harder. Game selection more challenging. As I age, my mind isnt as crisp as it was. So many factors as to why NOW is the right time for me to do work in the lab.

My poker related goals beginning 1 June (which is when I will begin the accountability part of this):

- Watch 3 videos (minimum) and write about 1 topic or concept in my poker journal

- Study (not including videos) at least 8 hours per week. This can included 1on1 or group coaching, SIMs, equity calculations, focused efforts on certain points of the game, going over HHs of others, etc.

- Review ~1hr prior to playing online or live sessions; review play at least 1hr after playing (not longer than 24hrs after playing)

- Make minimum 5 useful journal entries into poker journal.



I will try to keep this updated a few times a month, post interesting hands (possibly vent), or whatever else seems relevant.

Join me on the ride through the jungle where daChimp graduates and become The Champ!

For those that made it past the first page. Here is a poker tool that will help understand variance.

http://www.pokerdope.com/tournament-...ce-calculator/

I will try to share somethings, when I can, without giving too much of my edge away for free.

First , glgl - epic downswing then bink on the graph lol

As a part time player, will define part time later, nearly 1k game downswing at the top of your lifetime ABI is not fun. LOL I probably should have stepped stakes back, but I felt like I was still competitive in the games I played... often having top 10 stack early but would fall apart (leak that needed improvement).

So rather than going down in stakes I just bink a Party 109 for like 7k.

Then since I was going to be strapped with time constraints and uncertainties (and with the 109 ship I forgot about the downswing) I YOLO'd the following Sunday adding in most 215s and a 550 to my normal 22-109 schedule. I tried to sell to the higher end items, but cancelled it due to lack of interest.

**side note: I believe all these factors listed above caused me to really focus and bring my A++ game. When that couples with a bit of run good, magic happens.

Anyways, I chop the Party 550 200k gtd HU for 36k. Downswing over (for now).

My definition of part time... I play online most Sundays and occasionally once or twice during the week. Currently play live events (up to 1k) a few times a year, usually make a mini poker vacation for myself, not including local games or tournaments. These mini vacations do not include the past 3 WSOP summers (usually 1-2 weeks). I hire a coach about once a year for around 10 sessions to make sure most of my game is not terrible. My average table count between 4 and 8, occationally up to 12 at peak times on Sunday.

So if you do the math, a 1k downswing as parttime serious rec is brutal. (This is while still holding a P5s top 40 ranking for Germany) But 500 to 1k downswing can be normal for some regs too. Whatevs. Cannot dwell on the past and just take some notes to carry forward into the future.

This PG&C is about the current and future of my game, sprinkled with some past stories (I have a few) for entertainment. Some of these stories (not in order or related) include: Doug Lee meeting, degen adventures, passing my first coach, various poker destinations, etc.

Feel free to chime in and comment.