Hello,

I'm 25, from the UK, living with my gf for 3 years in rented accommodation, near London, currently unemployed.

I've been playing poker on and off since I was 18, but I've never really taken it seriously and given it a good go.

This thread is to hold myself accountable and for motivation when things get tough.

I have enough saved to cover Jan + febs rent and living expenses, after that it will have to come from my bankroll every month.

This is by no means me 'going pro', I see this is a fantastic chance to take my shot and see what happens.

So far this month i've played 2k games at the $3.50's for a profit of $550.

I plan to move up to 7s once I hit 1.5k BR, currently at 1k. Will move back down if I drop to $700.

Long term goals for year:
Make Supernova
Earn a consistent income from poker to pay monthly expenses
Be able to play min 10k games/month
Potentially be in a position to make a run for SNE in 2016 by the end of 2015.

Jan goals:
Make Platinum
Move up to $7s

Im also trying to learn 6max cash games as a side project, to have a plan B and another skill set. I've started at 2nl and currently up 1 buy in.

I intend to update weekly as a minimum, and monthly post graph etc.

A tough day for my first update, 270 games played -$118.30. Tried to stick to my game regardless of the results. Hope to come back fresh and motivated tomorrow.

222 games of 6max hyper, $-45
125 games of $3.75 sats, $16.50

I understand variance, but im struggling to accept it.

Played 4.2k hands of 2nl 6max zoom today, +$18. Might try to playing only cash tomorrow and move up to 5nl when i win $40 total from 2nl.

It would be interesting if you post some hands/graphs for us to see. Best of luck, keep your head up and fight that variance.

So take this from where it comes - because I am crap at poker and dont follow my own advice - but if you listen to all the really successful players the one thing they have in common is they dont game hop a whole lot. Especially not early in their careers. Many have successfully converted or become multi skilled after learning to absolutely crush one game type but this usually comes later. I am pretty sure most of the gurus would say pick a genre, stick to it, get good at it and crush. If you have a bad stretch maybe rather than jumping into a cash game it might be a good idea to spend a few extra hours/days studying. Either to confirm you are playing well and raise your confidence or to find some leaks and potential edges.

(I'm writing this down a few times in the hope that I can embed the same thinking into my own consciesness! :-))

Thank you both for your feed back. I think the issue im having with the hyper grind is whilst ingame i make decision that are not results orientated, after the session I see how much im up/down and that session results affects me.

I normally play 4-5 sessions per day, and I check the $ result after every single session. I've decided I will play until the end of this month without looking at any result regardless of how I feel the sessions went.

Here is a graph for the $3.50 6 max hypers so far this month, and I will post it again at the end of the month, which will be the first time I also see the result from this point til then.



I dont really understand how the graph doesn't appear to show im on a 50 buy in downswing currently. Also if anyone knows how to stop displaying winnings in chip$ and in real $ instead in HM2 that would be great, seems to be no option for it.

Yesterday I grinded 4k hands of 2nl and ended up +$5 after some spew and tilt during the day earlier. So far im up $30, so will move to 5nl when I get to $40, but need to stop the preflop spew.

I do tend to game switch alot after a bad day, and that needs to stop. I'll continue to try learn cash games as a side project, but my main focus will be the hypers for now.

I also need to grind out 2.7k vpp for plat star, so i have my work cut out and really need to get my head down and just grind it out and stop worrying over short terms results. We'll see what happens when I post the next graph in 9 days.

GL
I have same issue with results but just focus on red line...but not over couple of hundred games.
Think long term

Good luck at the table.
I don't wanne discourage you but losing 50 buy-ins / run 50 buy-ins under EV is nothing at the hypers. It will happen very often and even bigger. Just keep focused, no matter how you run

And for the graph for real $ in HM2 go to:
"Reports" - "Tournaments"
and choose there:
"More Reports" -> "Graphs" -> "Tournament Winning Graph"
in the bottom left you now can add "Luck adjusted winnings" imo the most interesting graph

Thanks for the reply, yeah im aware that 50 buy ins is very standard and can be 100-150 for winnings players even, Im just struggling to deal with it mentally atm.

Btw, does this graph consider non-showdown winnings? My net won is above my all in ev, so i dont know if that means im running well, or if it doesn't consider the $ won when everyone folds, which makes up alot of the play in hypers.

As for not checking progress, I was unable to resist looking.

Basically after 3 days im up $150 right now, with around 1k games played. I have 1.8k vpps left til plat star, so Im just about on pace to hit that this month if I continue as I am.

I will try my best to not check results until the 27th. I did go 2 days without checking, but for someone who is use to checking after every single session, its torture not knowing where you're at.

Also, I find myself starting to tilt towards the end of sessions recently after the badbeats etc start stacking up so thats something I need to resolve. I do end the session as soon as I recognize im not playing 100% a-game, but it means im cutting sessions shorter than i'd like.

Thanks for replys and interest guys, and lets hope I can go 4 days without checking results, play well, and earn $!

It can be 300+ without breaking a sweat.

Gl, saw you at the tables. you def should crush the 3,5s easily.

Thanks man. Do you know what a respectable roi for the 7s is?

I have 5% over 7k on 3.5s but dont know if thats average or good. Small sample though either way

I still need 1.3k vpps for plat star this month, and I only have 3 days of the month left to do it.

I will not be able to meet the games/day playing $3.50s to hit plat star. Therefore, I have calculated my expected RB from this month, and with my current BR it totals $1400. I originally planned to move to 7s at $1,500, but given the circumstances im willing to take a slightly higher risk and play 7s from now.

So im done with 3.5s for this month, here is the graph.



4.1k games played, total profit $690 not including rb for an roi of 4.78%.

Volume - fairly happy with this as im trying to adapt to playing more games per day and getting use to it all. Next month I intend to step it up a notch.

I feel my game has come on a lot over this past week where i've focused on 6 max hypers only. I hope now I can have a good start in the 7's and create some goals at the start of feb for them.

Since last update I played 900 games of 7's for $41.

I had 17k worth of fpps to turn into RB today, which i've just done so got back $264. That is pretty much exactly 33% itm, which is dead average. Im pretty disappointed in this result, however, I did run quite massively under chip ev.

So around 1k profit total from jan.

I've decided that my Br isnt large enough to play just 7s yet, and it is infact a high risk move considering at the end of feb $1k of my bankroll has to come out for life expenses. If I have a standard 100 buying downswing towards the end of the month, and then have to pay expenses, my BR is gone and so its my poker shot.

Therefore I've decided I will play with 350 buyin average from now. Meaning right now i'll play 3.50s only until I have a br of around $1850, then I will mix in 7s to bring the average buyin to $5.25.

My br currently stands at 1.3k. I hope to make 1.5k next month, so after expenses, ideally i will be left with a roll that will allow me to mix 3.5s and 7s for the month of May.

I did make plat star, and grinded up the roll to play 7s during jan, so I made my goals for jan, as I said im changing my br strategy now though to ensure survival.

My feb goals are:

Play 7k games
Maintain plat star
Be in a position at the start of may where I can grind 3.50s and 7s for the month.

Im slowly trying to work up my endurance and stamina, currently if I play more than 350 games in a day I get a terrible headache and cannot play the next day. Its the same feeling as a hangover.

So from now til feb 8th, I intend to play every day for 300 games a day. If that goes well and i didnt need to take a day off at somepoint, i'll increase the games to 315 per day for the following week.

So this week has tested my mental game to the max. Currently running 102 buyins under EV so far this month. Im glad to say I feel very positive and happy with my game, I've stuck to my game despite the results.

This month i've played 1750 games of 3.50s for -$8.55

Here is graph:



My ev roi seems to be around 5.5% which im very happy with, unfortunately results wise its not happening.

I averaged 292 games per day, and I took an extra day off yesterday because my brain felt exhausted, so im happy with my volume, as I continue to build stamina and endurance.

Next week I aim to play 315 games per day from the 9th til 14th.

I've read a few horror stories with 6max hypers, and I know the downswings can be 300+ buyins. Im not sure if running under ev and an actual downswing are the same thing, I think not. Running 100 buyins under EV in 1 week with a 5% roi really sucks, but it should make me stronger, and prepare me better for the future.

I hope next time I post graph in around 1 week results will start to turn around, ofcourse I cannot control variance but I will stick to my game and make correct decisions regardless of the outcome.

I've just finished for this week. 1652 games played for -$25. Unfortunately I've continued to run not so great this week. My mental game is getting stronger because of this though and Im still positive and sticking to my game.

I hit my volume targets no problemo this week, so I will attempt for 350 games/day next week.

Here is graph for the week:



Could be of been a worst week i guess, but now 130 buy ins under EV for the month.

Going to have a nice day off tomorrow, Valentines day with the gf so that'll have me fresh for next week starting on Sunday.

In general im still being results orientated because I need to completely let go of the idea of controlling how much $ I can make. There is only EV of games played in relation to your ROI.

I try to focus only on volume of games and quality of my play. Things I can control.