I've never posted to TPT before, but I've read a lot of posts and decided to join the community. Since this is my first post and I assume a lot of people will just skim as opposed to read a narrative, I'll try to keep it short and sweet to begin.

I moved to Las Vegas (again) in February 2014 with $5k to pursue poker as a career. I came out here with two roommates (a friend from back home in AZ and a guy I met on CL who advertised that he was looking to move to Las Vegas to play poker for a living). Unfortunately since then they've both foregone their decision and moved on to other endeavors. I've been playing poker for 17 years since I began sneaking into Indian casinos in AZ at the age of 16. The first games I was exposed to were 1-5 spread limit Stud, and I didn't play Holdem until 2000. I began playing online at Northern AZ University as early as 2000, but I didn't begin keeping stats and taking the game seriously until I moved out to Vegas for the first time in 2006. In 2008 I decided to leave Vegas (where I was working F/T as a Craps dealer and playing poker on the side) to move back to Phoenix so I could finish college (something I pursued on and off between 1999 and 2006). I graduated from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University with a BS in Finance in May 2011. Despite an abundance of opportunities in Corporate America, I always knew that the degree would more likely compliment my poker pursuits than land me in a corner office wearing a suit. After spending the two years following graduation working in cubicle farms and building a small bankroll, I decided to put that logic to the test.

After my first three months playing full time in Vegas, I evaluated my financial situation and I chose to find P/T employment to provide myself with a more stable monthly income so I could continue working on my game and build a more sufficient bankroll. I was getting crushed playing low to mid level Omaha in B&M casinos (primarily 4-8 and 8-16 @ Venetian and Orleans), but I also played a lot of mid level mix games @ Aria (9-18 and 12-24). WSOP.com went live around March, and in April I got back into online (which paid my way through my Junior and Senior years @ ASU) because my house was a 20-30 drive from the strip and it just seemed more efficient to play from home where I could multi table and grind lower buy in tournaments with less capital requirements than live poker needed. I've been doing okay online (where I play under the handle X_IATR_X). Thepokerdb lists me as having just north of $5.5k in Gross Earnings, and I booked a $1900 month in June. My schedule works out pretty well, because I work until about 4p four days/week, and I can be home to catch the heaviest action online from 5p until midnight. I still get down to the strip for B&M action when I can, and I enjoy playing the $100 HORSE tournament Sunday nights @ Orleans.

I would love to meet some other players (both live and online) to form discussion groups and build a support system. I know AfroSamaurai from back home in Phoenix, but besides him I don't have any real poker friends to discuss strategy and rely on for support during the inevitable pitfalls and difficulties of the game. I came out to Vegas with an idea in mind for how life could be, and I haven't yet given up on that dream (despite the circumstances which have come up to derail it). I know that it is necessary to have a crew in poker, albeit not a large one, and TPT just seemed like the most logical place to try and build one.

I would appreciate any feedback and opportunities to meet likeminded individuals that share a passion for the game and are interested in improving their play. Thanks for reading...

Play Well Run Good
X_IATR_X

nice read. good luck!

im gonna go ahead and sub because it seems like OP has a good head on his shoulders and isn't your typical "im moving to vegas with a 5k life roll" type guy. He may have moved there with 5k, but when he realized that situation was -EV he made the transition to online and gained part time employment. He didn't just throw that 5k on the felt and take a shot, and he didnt jsut give up after experiencing losses when he first arrived. While I still think it was reckless of him to move to Vegas in hopes of making a living playing poker with only a 5k roll, it seems like other than that he makes well though out and calculated decisions, ie. his decision to grind online rather than B&M. Who knows maybe I am completely wrong and he is just a total degen; and usually that would be my opinion but something is telling me this guy will make the proper adjustments and become a winner not sure what it is just have a feeling about this guy. Prove me right OP!

Hey guys,

I appreciate the both of you responding to my initial post. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get any hits or not with me being a first time contributor and probably starting out way down on the forum ladder. Love_the_game, I share the sentiment of your handle and appreciate the run good wishes. Nab76, your reply was unexpected but affirming (if that makes any sense). Your analysis of my shift from B&M to online was pretty much spot on, and since I’m anal retentive about money and had to do something with that Finance degree, I always map out an annual cash flow projection to keep myself on track with my goals. Before I left Phoenix and moved out to Vegas in February, I put one together with certain assumptions and forecasting for predicted income versus expenditures. After my initial downswing cannibalized my (meager) bankroll and I adjusted the revenue expectations, I found myself staring at insolvency before the end of May. This is what inspired me to re-evaluate the situation and seek out P/T employment to keep myself afloat. I’ll admit that WSOP.com coming along in April was a lucky break, because I had already begun playing on Ultimate Poker in March, which at the time was the only online site available. The software was something out of the Tetris age, and the game was nothing like I expected, so I almost became disillusioned with the return of online poker before I ever had a shot to explore its potential. I actually checked out WSOP.com for the first time almost out of spite, just to see if it would be as bad as Ultimate Poker. I’ve also got something against Caesar’s Entertainment as a company, because I spent five summers working for them as a Tournament Payout Cashier at WSOP. I generally assisted the Diamond and Seven Star members with registration for half the day, and spent the rest of my time paying out all the people who cashed in WSOP events. This lasted from 2006-2010, and my largest individual payout was Scotty Nguyen when he took down the $50k Player’s Championship (I believe in 2008). That experience was enough for me to develop a distaste for Caesar’s corporate culture, which I believe is one based on frugality that borders on cheap, coupled with a general long term disregard for the industry in which they operate in lieu of their own annual bottom line. I won’t elaborate any further than that.

But yes, my initial foray onto WSOP.com inspired me to give it another shot, so as the online lore so typically begins, “I made my initial $50 deposit and the rest is history” LOL. I suppose to put your mind at ease and convince you that your faith in me is well founded, I should expand on my decision to take the plunge with poker in Vegas. I’ve always had family that lives in Vegas, including my Grandmother, Uncle, Aunt, and younger cousin. My grandfather isn’t mentioned in that list because he passed away in 1998 about three weeks after he and my grandmother moved out here from NC. My grandmother never remarried, but relied heavily upon my Uncle for support after my grandfather’s passing. In late 2013 she began having health issues which made it impractical for her to continue living in the house alone. Family discussion revealed to me that her home (which had been passed in trust to my Uncle and Mother following my grandfather’s passing) was in general disrepair and unfit for immediate sale, although comparable homes in the area were selling for $140k+. Knowing that my friend (let’s call him Steve) had been living in Vegas for the past two years playing poker for a living, and having always promised him that following my graduation from ASU I would join him when the proper opportunity presented itself, I believed this may be the chance. His lease was ending in March 2014 and he had not yet arranged for a new living situation, so I asked my family if I could live in the Vegas home in exchange for paying HOA dues and utilities, while fixing the house up for sale by the end of 2014. I proposed the idea to Steve to be roommates and running partners, and he was more than happy to accept. After finding our third roommate online on Craig’s List, I thought the stars were aligning in our favor. We would have a crew! Hell, we even named our WiFi connection “Poker House”.

The best laid plans of mice and men, however, often go awry. Our third roommate did indeed turn out to be the kind of degenerate gambler Nab76 spoke of in his reply. He moved out here with a $50k bankroll (of how he built it I am unaware; it seemed to me a combination of grinding the 2-5 NL games in Southern California and a trust fund that wasn’t supposed to be desecrated for less than noble purposes). To make a long story short, he couldn’t stay out of the Baccarat pits and ended up going broke before his poker career ever had a chance to leave the ground. He never even got a shot to see the glory that is the poker scene in Las Vegas during the summer.

Steve, on the other hand, just turned out to be a bitter disappointment. After moving his things into the house the second week of March, he left one day for Phoenix, claiming that he had business to tend to and that he would be back in about a week. Five months later he has still yet to return from Phoenix. There are frequent conversations where he states that he’ll “finally be coming back up to Vegas”, which usually take place every other week or so, but no dice yet on his return. His things, however, remain in one of the guest bedrooms, and oddly enough he pays rent every month by depositing money in my bank account, but he hasn’t set foot in the home since the middle of March.

Since the degenerate’s departure the second week of June, I’ve been acting as my Uncle’s property manager, renting out the remainder of the home to provide him with a revenue stream of which he was earlier unaware. Although a home’s sale generally tends to be influenced by both its aesthetic and functional conditions, renters (especially those vagrants staying only briefly in our wonderful City of Sin) will generally pay a premium to crash in a full sized house for brief periods of time (one to three months), no matter what kind of disrepair exists in the home itself. I’ve been crashing in a make-shift fourth bedroom that I erected in the front hallway, composed of Japanese privacy screens (Shoji) and a mattress on the floor along with a mobile clothing rack for my things and a small bookshelf.

I suppose the old saying has some legitimacy to it though, and necessity is indeed the mother of invention. Out of my situation has come a desire for success on the felt (virtual and otherwise) that I doubt could be generated by any other circumstance. All I have to do every day is look at my paltry P/T job and less than satisfactory living conditions to persuade me to become better at the game, whether it be time spent playing, studying, or discussing strategy with other players. My drive to achieve upward mobility by utilizing the game has been sharpened to the point where it could split atoms (an offhanded quote from Devil’s Advocate that I’m sure has been inaccurately cited). I guess no burgeoning poker player could ask for anything more than to be inspired by their absolute lack of potential from anything other than the promises the game has to offer, if they will but dedicate themselves to it body, mind, and soul.

I guess I’ll provide anyone interested in reading with weekly updates 

Play Well Run Good

GL brotha

I don't recognize your SN but I'm Wolf_51 on wsop.com and play a lot of cash/tournaments. I would be down to meet up and talk/play sometime

Best of luck. Subscribed. Living in Scottsdale, with plans to be moving to Vegas in 6-18 months with the gf. Looking forward to hearing how your story develops and how the Vegas life and grind goes for you!

Throw in some live cash sessions every once in a while, you won't regret it. Best of luck out here.

Hey Guys,

Sorry I haven't replied or followed up lately. Things have been kind of busy, but I do appreciate checking back on the thread and seeing new handles joining the conversation.

My playing update is uneventful. I've been logging some hours (60 since 8/10) and I've had a couple second place finishes in the MTTs, but overall I'm down about $100. I haven't been able to put in as much volume as I would like to, but it's because of a couple things: I've been accepting more hours at work (I'm scheduled five days a week now for approximately 30 hours from 10a-4p), and I've been acting as a buyer for my parent's second home here in Las Vegas. When my parents found out how badly my living situation had regressed, they suddenly decided they needed an investment property in Las Vegas. Since a property management company would just leech fees out of any generated income and require them to pay taxes on rent received, my parents decided it would be best for me to just occupy the home and pay the mortgage payments for a few years until they can flip it (hopefully) for a profit. Gee, how coincidental LOL

Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not some spoiled kid from Scottsdale (although, funny enough, that's where my parents raised us back home in AZ). My parents are both working middle class people. They own a restaurant in Ahwatukee called Niros Gyros on 48th Street and Elliot. RockStarRossi, if you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop in. Their gyros were voted best of 2012 by the New Times! I am just INCREDIBLY fortunate to have a close, loving family who would do anything for me. I don't deny this, and I know there are people who are not so fortunate, so it humbles me to have such wonderful parents (and a little brother) that I can rely on when the chips are down (pardon the pun). I only hope that one day I can return the favors they've all done for me a thousand fold.

By the way, RockStarRossi, did you play on WSOP.com over the summer? I swear we played together, because I saw your screen name and immediately texted my friend Ernie back home in AZ to see if it was him! He said no b/c he wasn't going to be in town for WSOP this year, and I just thought it was funny to see his nickname as someone else's handle.

For any of you that live here in Las Vegas (or for those of you who plan to one day visit), I would love to meet up for a beer and to talk poker face to face. I know it may not be the wisest choice to reveal personal contact information online. but I'll take a shot to meet likeminded people. You can email me at bill.christakos on that gmail site. Just include "Two Plus Two Forum" in the subject line so I can tell you're a TPTer.

By the way, I started reading a book called "The Poker Tournament Formula" by Arnold Snyder on heavy recommendation from both friends and forums. I think it may be one of the pieces to the puzzle that I've been looking for, so I would definitely pass the word along to all of you to give it a try. If you have any recommendations of your own, I would love to hear them. Thanks for reading, everyone, we'll talk again soon.

Play Well Run Good
X_IATR_X

Ha yeah that was me. I played the first online championship series last November, then again this summer while I was there for the WSOP. Was in town for 5+ weeks, but didn't play heavy volume just on some off days when I wasn't playing live. I was fortunate enough to ship a $1500 seat, that was about the hilight of my grind on the site. (End Brag)

Nice to hear you have a solid support system. It's pretty important no matter what, but when your lifestyle includes living in Las Vegas, and/or playing poker, it's a must!

Good luck with the house situation, and with the poker goals you have set up as well!

I have appreciated your starting this thread. I report the WSOP/UP results for PF5 and your SN shows up a lot. I am an aspiring PLO8 player on a shoestring bankroll. I have gone back to NLH cash games because that is where I have had some success. I will look into your book recommendation as my SnG and MTT play is horrible.

Hey Guys,

I know I haven’t posted in about a week or two, and I’m not sure what protocol is for updates, but I have been pretty busy since my parents submitted the offer on the townhouse. We have escrow set to close around mid-September, at which point I’ll finally be back on track with a “poker house”. No more having to worry about playing landlord for a bunch of tenants, no more kids running around to distract me during sessions, no more stress or roommate drama. I’m actually really excited, and I didn’t even know it until tonight when I was packing up some of my non-existent roommate’s things in preparation for the move (he hasn’t been home for going on six months now, but still pays rent for some weird reason). I think the townhouse represents a second chance at the way I intended things to be when I first moved out here. I obviously won’t be playing F/T like I had first planned, but hey, there’s a lot of guys from the original online boom who started pretty lucrative careers as part time grinders while they were paying the bills with another job.

My friend and running partner Afro_Samaurai has been AWOL in Phoenix and Chicago for the last six weeks, laying low after the summertime grind, but he’ll be heading back into town around the same time as my family closes on the townhome. He tried three satellites for the Arizona State Championship while he was in Phoenix, but no dice. He had already offered me 10% if he qualified, so I’m a little disappointed at not having had a horse in the race, but there’s always next year, and next tournament. He should provide a much needed kick in the ass to start putting in volume again. We’re pretty competitive with each other, and we usually host a weekly Last Longer bet on a random online tournament where the loser has to treat to dinner at Twin Peaks inside Planet Hollywood. Considering the fact that even the one footing the bill gets to enjoy the eye candy walking around, it’s a much welcome break from the virtual grind and a win-win for both of us. We get to discuss hands in person, act stupid in front of the girls, and get to appreciate living in Vegas by hanging out mid-strip for a couple hours (which is always a treat because sometimes it’s easy to take for granted when you spend the majority of your playing time in the virtual realm). Along with that, I’d like to one day employ a profit tracking system for us and maybe one or two others, where similar to Two Months Two Million, the player in the crew with the worst P/L for the week (or month) has to perform a dare decided upon by the other participants. If anyone in Vegas that plays enough is interested in something like this, hit me up!

I already told Afro_Samaurai that I want our first Last Longer when he gets back to be a “No Peek” in one of the nightly freerolls or micro stakes rebuy tournaments. I’m halfway through ‘The Poker Tournament Formula’ by Arnold Snyder, and I think that should give me a leg up in exploiting positional advantage while disregarding hand strength. Snyder advocates the Rock, Paper, Scissors analogy for poker tournaments, where similar to Rochambeau, certain assets in a poker tournament beat each other in regards to Chips, Cards, and Position (position being paramount, especially in “fast” tournaments such as the ones listed above). I’m excited to read the second half of the book to find out what else I can learn for MTTs. I believe that right now the weakest part of my MTT game is the late stages when you approach the bubble. I took the last two nights off to spend time with my parents while they were in town, and tonight to pack some things up, but in the two nights prior to that I bubbled THREE tournaments where I feel my stack dictated that I should have been able to make a run at the final table. I’ve read and talked to some people who recommend employing a Sit N Go strategy near the late stages of a tournament, so I think that particular discipline will be my next point of study. Along with TPTF, I’m also reading Dusty Schmidt’s ‘How to Treat Your Poker Like a Business’, so I should have a week or two before I finish those to collect any recommendations for Sit N Go strategy from any TPTers that have one to suggest!

One last note for recent news is a promotion being hosted by WSOP.com in the month of September. I got an email this morning advertising a $25k freeroll that will be hosted for qualifying players on October 5th. All participants are guaranteed a piece of the payout just for qualifying, so it’s definitely an inspiration to spend some quality time grinding. I need to accumulate 652 APPs between 09/01 and 09/30 (which I’ve calculated to be approximately $325 in rake, split any way between cash games and tournaments), so I’ll be keeping track of my progress throughout the month to make sure I hit that goal. Conventional wisdom dictates a first place of 25-30% of the prize pool, but I’m not sure what kind of effect the guaranteed payout will have on that metric. Still, first should easily be $3k, so that would be a welcome addition to the bankroll.

For now that’s all I’ve got, but I appreciate any and all of you that actually read through my posts. I’m starting to understand the appeal of posting in the TPT community as a way to communicate with other people that really do understand the grind, and it’s great when I get updates sent to my Inbox that other people have replied to the string.

Play Well Run Good
X_IATR_X

Few points,

if you are looking for poker friends, then you need to be a much more active member of the poker community, namely 2+2. 4 posts in one month really isn't going to do it. We are a great supportive community that does a lot for each other to include meet ups, road trips, sweat sessions, couch surfing, partying, etc etc so you really need to get more involved and post DAILY on 2+2. Not just this blog, but you really want to get involved in strategy discussions of the stakes you play at.

Along those lines, skimming through your posts here I saw that you mention playing $100 tournaments...

$100 live tournaments and live MTTs in general are not a good way to build a bankroll. They are more or less an illusion. I developed a spreadsheet to calculate live tournament winrates taking into account your stats, length of tournament, etc and then the model spits out an hourly winrate that you can compare to your cash game winrate

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32.../#post43090830

if you take a quick look at that thread you will see that playing small $100 or $150 or less live tournaments for the most part is just not an efficient use of your time.

here is an example of what your winrate looks like for a typical $85 live donkament (note it's negative )



You can download the spreadsheet using the instructions in the link and play around with the numbers so you can get a feel for what is and is not a good use for your time...

in any event, wish you luck, but if you want to succeed it will really help you if you become an active member of 2+2. There is a reason why a lot of successful 2+2ers have thousands of posts to their name.

food for thought...

Hey guys,

Dgiharris, thank you for the input in your last post. I realize that I will have to put in a lot more effort on TPT before I discover any real friends or running partners, so I'll take your advice to heart and become a lot more active. I was reading through an article that I found on Yahoo! yesterday about what successful people do before bed, so I was thinking that spending an hour on TPT every night posting/responding would be a good one for me to personally adopt.

I just wanted to give a quick update (since I'm at Starbucks right now re-reading TPTF and typing up notes) about where I stand this month in regards to the freeroll qualification that I mentioned in my last post. I've only accumulated about 62 APPs thus far, but I'm a patient man, and I know that slow and steady wins the race. I've been playing a lot of 0.10-0.20 NLHE and PLO 8 to make sure I don't overextend my bankroll trying to make the APP goal. I'll also usually have one or two 0.25-0.50 NLHE tables open, as well, and so far I'm having a productive month. I've realized (and it shouldn't come as a shock) that grinding multiple cash games as opposed to just firing up ten MTTs a night provides for a much smoother grind. I feel that there is less volatility, and that I can actually predict an hourly rate (based on the particular game). I won't feel comfortable making any kind of accurate forecasting predictions until I have a data set of at least 480 hours (I assume this would constitute three months of F/T play [160*3], which may take me five or six to actually accomplish), but I actually enjoy the game much more when I can just log on for an hour or two or three between work and the gym. I've set a modest goal for myself to earn $1,000 this month grinding cash, and so far I'm already up $140. This may not seem like much, but the way I've been hemorrhaging capital for the last two months, I thought it best to slow down and rebuild.

As always, thanks for reading, and I look forward to becoming a lot more active on TPT. For now, I better get back to my note-taking.

Play Well Run Good

Hello again, everyone

Sorry about the hiatus, but I really haven't had time to breathe much less post/blog/rant in these last few weeks. Despite the most chaotic three weeks of my life, I may have still qualified for the 25k freeroll being hosted by WSOP.com, but I can't get a definite answer out of anyone in the Customer Service department. I unfortunately lost the email that I received about the promotion (and I may be one of the most anal retentive people I've ever known when it comes to an organized Inbox LOL), and I can't seem to get a consistent answer as to how many APPs I need to earn to qualify. Thus far in September I've earned 455 APPs (thanks in part to the double points promotion that was hosted from September 19-27), and I've netted an approximate profit of $400. Believe me, I don't consider that a brag or a pity attempt, I just like to provide transparency about my results so that I don't come across at trying to fool anyone or play a part that isn't really mine...
In response again to DGIHarris, I definitely intend to put more effort into becoming a contributing member of the TPT community, but it may have to wait until October. That isn't an attempt to justify procrastination, but I just haven’t been able to keep my head straight with all the landlord/tenant/new home/work dilemmas I’ve been experiencing. I say October (and I’m looking for wood on which to knock as I type that) because hopefully I’ll finally be moved in to the new townhouse by then. So far in September, I’ve only managed to log 65 hours of playing time online, which I consider to be completely and totally unacceptable. However, the renters that I put into my Uncle’s home are currently three weeks behind, so I have become a conduit for my Uncle, Mother, and Father to address the tardiness of monies owed by the couple renting out the Master BR. Ironically enough, I see them about as often as my Uncle, because anytime they are home they’re either barricaded inside the bedroom watching Netflix at full volume or hosting any number of the female’s single but child bearing girlfriends in the living room (of course with child or children in tow), in which case I tend to stay to myself in my room (where it isn’t necessarily a conducive environment to grind multiple tables on a small laptop screen balance precariously across my lap and without a mouse). The townhouse was originally scheduled for a COE on September 15th. Since then, it has been extended three times (almost on a regular weekly basis), and my most unpleasant experience occurred just this Friday. After receiving an email from Title on Friday afternoon around 2p indicating that we had finally been given the green light to proceed, as the file was Funded and Recorded before 3:30p, I sprang into action to move in that very night. Of course, Friday we received the worst storms in Vegas that I have seen since moving here in February. So I ran to Uhaul, rented a truck, packed the majority of it myself, and had my uncle join me to move the large items in anticipation of my realtor’s 5:30p appointment for a final walk through, after which I would (allegedly) be given keys to the home. We got the last of the items in just before it began to pour again (it had stopped at 2p, giving me a long enough reprieve to pack the Uhaul). Fighting to drive the 17’ trailer through HAIL and 4” of rain, we beat my realtor to the property by 10 minutes. We all then huddled together under a carport and waited for the Listing Agent for NINETY minutes. Once she got there, she showed up with her boyfriend (??) and informed us quite calmly that someone at Title had bricked, and the deal had not actually recorded before the 3:30p deadline because of some discrepancies in the loan documents and HOA disclosures. Although we asked politely and even gestured towards the Uhaul van sitting in the parking lot, the Listing Agent refused to allow us to wait out the storm to unpack the van, insisting that her client would only allow move in upon Funding AND Recording, and not just the former. So we dejectedly drove back to the house, unloaded the rental truck, returned it, and paid for it (despite accomplishing nothing more than accruing a fee for it’s use), and now I’ve been told that (hopefully) I’ll have keys on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest (argh) and I’ll have to repeat the process all over again.

Along with this, there is a mutiny occurring at my job (where I am now working approximately 4 or 5 mornings a week, depending apparently on which side the coin lands when my absentee boss makes the weekly schedule to which even she no longer adheres). She has placed her notice in to vacate the General Manager position as of October 27th, which has in turn created a cascade of apathy in the shift managers (who don’t get paid enough to care about their job and don’t want the responsibilities or excessive training required to take the place of the GM). Late at night, I’ve grown accustomed to receiving phone calls asking me to come in the next morning to cover a shift or asking me to switch my schedule for someone that needs a day off but wasn’t granted it. Considering how poor my financial situation currently is, I can’t allow myself to part ways with the only thing providing me with a “solid” monthly income, so I quietly endure the madness of a constantly fluctuating schedule and a work environment where only about 50% of the employees actually intend to still be working there by year’s end.

I apologize if this post seems like I’m complaining and/or whining, but the unfortunate truth is that venting on TPT may be my only available outlet. Besides that, I felt like I owed an explanation for my disappearance after having so many of you take interest in me and my story. But I am an optimist, and I feel deeply in my heart that this new home will be a fresh start for me and the opportunity to begin focusing on the goals that brought me here. I’ll have a calm, peaceful environment to grind, and there won’t be any distractions keeping me from putting in the volume that I’m aware is necessary to find success at the virtual felt (and on the live felt, where I plan to play one live session per week until I begin making consistent profits that will allow me to slowly wean away from the job). If anyone is even still reading my posts, I ask that you just bear with me for another week or so until I get settled and can really start to gain some momentum. Then I’ll begin replying to more posts and maintaining a more rigid update schedule for this string.

Play Well Run Good

Subscribed, but would appreciate shorter paragraphs. Good luck, OP.

That sounds like a frustrating ordeal with the moving and work situation. Hang in there and things will work out.

[IMG][/IMG]

Ready to start grinding!

Hi Everyone,

So I’m not sure if tonight is more of an update or a blog, but I guess I’m just going to run with it (hopefully this won’t turn into a novel).

First off, I would like to acknowledge another player that I met through this site. His name is JR, and he’s from Canada but living here in Vegas for the next six months grinding the 2-5 NLHE games in town. Our initial contact indicated that he goes by the handle ‘jurrr’, and I’m excited to have met him. He is a true student of the game, and we have made it a habit to meet once or twice a week to discuss hands that he’s played and talk general strategy about the game. I think that he’s got the mettle to advance himself in the poker world, and I wish him all the run good that I have to give! JR, I consider myself lucky to have had you reach out to me, and I look forward to seeing all that you can accomplish.

I’m finally settled into the new place, and I can honestly say that I’m finally happy again to be in Vegas pursuing the game, and life in general. I have more peace of mind, more organization, and I feel more focused every time I play. I was lucky enough to be staked in a couple events of the Fall Poker Festival on WSOP.com, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to return a profit to either of my investors. I yearn to hand a backer a big payout, but I suppose that will have to wait for another time. I’ve grinded about 1k of profits out for myself over the last 6-7 weeks, which is far from a sick brag, but I consider it a solid start and foundation building for what’s to come. At one point in early September, I actually only had about $231 in my online account, and I seriously though it was all over. I can’t remember being that morose and depressed for a long time. For about two days, I just went through the daily motions of life and wondered how I would ever live with myself if I had to walk away from the game. However, the poker gods apparently had something else in mind for me, and I was able to grind something workable out of the kindling that I had left in my campfire.

I would like to ask the advice of anyone kind enough to still be reading my (sporadic) posts. With the end of my younger cousin’s volleyball season approaching, I’ll have two more nights a week for playing, and with a new manager in place at work that I’ve spoken to about providing me with more stability in my work schedule, I’ll finally have the ability to develop a more rigorous agenda for myself. Here’s what I have in mind:
• I’ll be scheduled three mornings and two nights a week at work, which means I’ll have four mornings and five nights free every week (I thought it might be simpler to just split days in half until I can become more concise with planning)
o The four mornings I don’t work will be spent at the gym
o The five nights I don’t work will be spent playing
 I’ve noticed that I fade pretty quickly around 10p-11p on the nights when I worked that morning, so the two nights when I’m not working and wasn’t scheduled that morning will be spent playing live
 The other three nights a week that I have off but worked earlier in the day will be spent grinding online
• I have a plan on paper that will have me clear 1.5k worth of personal debt off my budget by April 2015, which will reduce my monthly expenses by approximately $105
o The rent that I am collecting from my absentee roommate (who has STILL yet to return to Vegas but he continues to pay) is currently keeping me afloat, but I want to relieve myself of that reliance. I intend to accomplish that by either eliminating enough necessary monthly debt expense or consistently earning enough through poker over one full quarter (hence the April deadline) to consider it a predictable income
Does anyone have any advice, additions, or modifications to any of the above information? I would appreciate any input and criticism. I won’t let this post drone on any further, and anyone who is still reading, I seriously appreciate you helping me feel like I’m not completely alone in my endeavors. This forum, brief as my visits are, seriously helps me feel like there are people out there who understand the struggles of trying to come up in the poker industry and the mentality that makes us chase this dream/lifestyle.

Play Well Run Good

Hi Everyone,

Today won’t be a novel, I just wanted to make a quick post and say that I’m still alive and kicking. Things have been going well for me since moving into the new place, and I’m happy to say that I’m $460 away from my high point way back in June. My graph has been steadily trending northeast, and I’m optimistic that by year’s end I’ll have a healthy bankroll to once again wield on both the virtual felt and in the live arena.

Following a schedule has been working out really well for me. Every week when I get my new schedule at work, I come home and map out my time on my wall calendar. I make sure to include four mornings (who am I kidding, they’re afternoons LOL) at the gym. Along with that, I note my work schedule accordingly, and then I fill in the remaining empty time slots with Online/Live grinding. I don’t have much free time, but I don’t mind. I like the life I’ve chosen for myself, and I feel satisfied with my day-to-day and week-to-week activities. I also pencil in a night a week to have dinner with my Aunt, Uncle, baby cousin, and grandmother. What’s the point of life if you can’t spend some of it with family???

Ultimate Poker closed its doors to Nevada operations about ten days ago, and the influx of refugees has been more than noticeable on WSOP.com. Average field sizes of the nightly tournaments have increased anywhere from 30 to 50%. There were actually three consecutive nights about a month ago where I noticed the nightly $1.5k GTD had an overlay, and I was worried the site may cut back, but that is no longer a concern. Also, and most importantly for me, there are now on average four to five PLO 8/B cash games running every night. I focus my cash game play more on Omaha, so this has been a very welcome addition to the virtual landscape.

Finally, I’m really excited to sign up with the Advanced Poker Training website today. I received an email advertising $50 for six months, and I knew that I couldn’t say no to that price. I’ll be adding three mornings a week to my schedule for study/training on the site.

Thanks for reading, and I wish everyone a happy Holiday Season. Play Well Run Good!