Hi everyone sorry in advance for tl;dr and all that, il put cliffs at the end. My goal is to move up the limits starting at the HU $2 turbo's on FT eventually playing and making a living at the $100+ level. I have been playing online for around a year and have done well-ish playing recreationally. My main problem has been the fact that I bore easilly therefor end up moving games every couple of months, never testing myself to see if im beating that level or not. Im guessing most of my games are DON's im not subscribed to SS so can't say for sure but thats my assumption.

So why am I deciding to do this and why am i posting it here? Here's the facts, I was Living with my GF, her dad moved out and f****d us over leaving us in like £2k debt due to unpaid council tax and all that. Sooooo I worked hard, as did she to get some of this paid off along with withdrawing most of my br. One thing leads to another, she turns out to be a cheating b***h same old story, I move out, 2 years wasted, goodbuy br, goodbuy nice apartment, hello mum. I was also in personal debt at this time totaling around £4k. The debt collectors were writing letters and phoning everyday but due to stupidly concentrating on the other debt, I had ignored my own. After braking up with my ex and moving back to my mums I was obv pissed off and very unhappy. At that time what was left in my br was like $200-$300. At this point i needed to turn things around, I needed money. I decided that I was going to play every MTT I could over that weekend with the possibility of shipping one, thus changing my life in effect.

So I did, 8hrs after packing my bags and leaving my GF I was on my mums sofa resigistering to every small stakes tourney with a guarantee over $30k and trying to satalite into the $50+. I played for prob around 16-20hrs and had cashed in a few but not gone deep in many apart from like 12th in something for a a few hundred $. I was down to just the $3r $40k guarantee with around 60-80 players remaining, about break even for the night and tired. Eventually tho at around 8.30am GMT I shipped it for 1st place and about 6.5k. After the win I withdrew enough to pay off all my debt, spend one night being a baller buying champagne and to buy HEM. I then had like 1k br and decided to try my hand at the hypers and after meeting jorj had little success.

I was unsure as to where I was going to go with poker now, it had kinda served its purpose, through poker I have paid off all my debt. Its a game I love tho so making a career out of it would be amazing and the great thing about it is, is that I belive with hard work and determination anybody and succeed at this game. I am the first to admit that I have many leaks, but mainly I admit that HU is the weakest area of my game, by a country mile. It may seem strange that I have chosen to pursue forging a career for myself playing my weakest game. I must stress that my goal is not short term. I have taken my time and looked into all avenues that I could follow from being a rb pro to playing hypers or mtt's or cash. I did settle on the idea of playing mtt's as the prospect of a big win is always alluring but recently my opnion changed. This has nothing to do with playing them and tilting and saying f**k it im moving to husng's, I took the mesure of not playing a single hand while im deciding on what i want to do. My decision is based on the prospect of earing a relativity stable income along with improving my game. I belive that I can achive this playing husng's. As i said this is a long term goal, I have a job, my job pays well and im in no rush. If in 1 year I have achived my goal great, if it takes 3,4 or 5 years then ok its a bit anoying but im working towards something I enjoy and that I am passionate about. I estiamte that it will take me around 2-3 years. My requiremts for turning pro are having at least 1 years worth of bills in savings, like a 200-300 bi and most importantly feel that im ready and am beating my level.

There are a few reason's I am posting about this here. First is for my personal motavation, like I said i have a job and have a steep hill to climb ahead of me thus will need all the help I can get, on that point, if for instance you loved golf and somebody offered you a direct link to Tiger Wood's to talk about your game you would be stupid not to use it, this is another huge reason why I am posting here and attempting husng's. After reading the strat post's I have massive respect for a lot of the guy's there plus the HUSNG Reg thead is pure gold I am starting at the $2 level because at this point i feel my HU game is very weak and need to test it. Money's not an issue I can redopisit if need be. What I have done is to deposit some money on FT and tested my self at every turbo level up to the $22s just to see if there is any noticable difference. There isnt much imo. So I have 30bi for the $2 atm. Due to the rake im not expecting to make much of a profit this is purely to gain a idea of where I am at. When im comfortable il just deposit a roll for the $6 or $11 turbos if need be. It is a aim of mine to update this thread every few days but im nearly always logged in in the backround so it shouldnt be hard. Hopefully this will lead to an intersting journey tracking someones serious long-term goal attempting to make a career playing poker. I will post my graphs as of now below. If anyone has any advice or questions along the way that will be great. Thanks for reading. Lets Gogogogogogo

Incase you want to rail or whatever -

PS - FTSITTTD
FT - FTSITTTD

My all game PS Graph



My SNG only Graph



My FT Graph



Cliffs:

- Goal to move from $2 - $100 HUSNG's
- Ex GF's dad left us in debt, I paid, she cheated, I moved out
- 20hrs later ship tourney and pay off all my personal debt
- Drop some $$ at the hyper's
- Decided to step back for a few months to contemplate what i want to achive through poker
- Reached my conclusion and have started this thread

good luck man im rooting for you to make it!

Great story and goodluck. I look forward to hearing updates

gl but take out the 6.5 k and you arent anywhere in poker. Quit while youre ahead

take about 6K and put it in the bank.

If you decided to read the story or the cliffs you would know that I did withdraw the $$ to pay off personal debt.

Thanks for the luck everyone, im off to work now and will be doing my first session when I get home so will post graphs and update after.

Good luck, sounds like you have thought it through, if you havent read it already, colin moshmans book on heads up is worth a read.

Good luck.

pls carry on. it was a boost reading this

Good luck! Ever considering getting a poker training site membership?

gl
good story
hope u make it

I haven't read Collin's book yet but it has been ordered! As with regards to training sites I haven't signed up yet, I will, prob with HUSNG.com. ATM im just reading through spamz0r's HH reviews that he did, which are brilliant and really helpful.

Thanks again for the encouragement, Im starting my first "official" session tomorrow as i have no work for the rest of the week! wooohooo!

wow, GL man

Update: Games played 168. Total Profit: -$18.45.

Here is my graph so far, this is mostly $2 but with some $6, one $11 and one $20.



Im having a really hard time adjusting to playing a much larger amount of hands and sometimes just feel like every play I make is just see-through. Im levelling myself thinking that every opponent is a fellow 2+2er or the like so when I make a play I feel much more unsure about the outcome as I think the villian is going to know exactly what im doing. I am doing pretty well with assinging villians ranges, have made a couple of nice hero calls, but other than that im not to upset with the progress. I am folding nearly all hands oop atm as my post-folp play isn't as strong as it should be so, am relying on position to help with this, which isn't great.

On problem I am having is giving my opponents credit. I seem to be constantly on the look out for bluffs to expolit, im not really sure why as its got me in trouble a few times. Anyway im slowly becoming more comfortable with the format and no that it's just a matter of patience and grinding!

not a bad start, keep plugging away, the results will come!

I'd be willing to help you out. I can get you started on the right foot and sweat you / play against you on stars play money. If you're interested give me a PM or post an aim/msn sn in here if you can't pm me yet.

edit: Also, just a tip. If you can, try to avoid the $1 and $2 HU at ALLLLLL costs. The rake is a huge killer. Start at the $5's if you can. They are just as soft and you can make more money.

Update Games played: 206 Total profit: + $5.55.

After getting a bit of advice im not even going to bother with the $2's. I've deposited a roll for the $6 turbo's, it could end up costing me more money but I don't think the skill difference seems that much, and at least its possbile to make some form of profit.

Heres my full graph after today playing all $6 and one $23.



Am off to see my dad the other side of the country this weekend, I was planning on not having plans so I could put a ton of hours on here but oh well, il take my laptop and just do a few hours in the evening's. Im staring to really love the FT Turbo format being 3 mins blind increase, it's better than the 5min at stars imo as its possible for most games to be over in like 10-15mins and its like usually 20-25 on stars. Plus I had a go on the Rush Poker today for the first time which was fun, kinda crazy. What is it like up to 4 rush tables? I was able to multi-table up to 20 on stars (sng's) but I still don't think I could keep up with 4 tables of rush

I feel pretty good, having a hard time keeping myself in line tho. Im trying to stop my self from deviating but some times can't help it. Like todays just decided for some reason to sit someone on a nl50 HU cash table who was sat there with like $18.33 or something and I was just like, Oh, I want it. Not that the only HU cash or cash experience I have ever had i was owned, that did'nt stop me I just sat him. I need to stop doing stuff like that. Still, it's only day 2, a long way to go yet

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20.00/t40.00 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BTN/SB): t1585.00 M = 26.42
BB: t1415.00 M = 23.58

Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is BTN/SB with 6 6

Hero raises to t80, BB raises to t220, Hero raises to t1585, BB calls t1195 all in

BB shows K A

Hero No A or K No A or K No A or K

Pleeeaaassseee



Flop: (t2830)



This guy had been 3-bet folding ssooooo much so and I just thought this was funny.

lol at the spoiler!

GL with your goal OP - nice little back story. (And don't deviate!)

Based on my experience, low level heads up is pretty much all about finding your opponent's weakness and exploiting the hell out of it. Usually you'll have a big edge so you don't have to worry about levelling or whatever.

What times do you play on pokerstars?

yeah dude, do the math. The rake at the $2's are insane (9.09%), you will have to win over 60% to gain any profit.
While at the 6.25s rake is the lowest at only 4%.
If you need to do the 2's then do the 2+.14 euro sngs, these are about 6.5% rake. Just do not do the $2.20s... Good luck.

At my dads atm which is cool, can't play much tho Am off to a vegietarian resturant tonight even tho I HATE veg and all salad, so its gunna be a plain cheeze pizza I think Im not playing on stars atm just FT as I prefere the structure but am just going to play on stars for the MTT's.

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20.00/t40.00 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t1275.00 M = 21.25
Hero (BTN/SB): t1725.00 M = 28.75

Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is BTN/SB with K Q
Hero raises to t80, BB calls t40

Flop: (t160) 2 6 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t80.00, BB raises to t160, Hero calls t80

Turn: (t480) 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t480) J (2 players)
BB bets t320.00, Hero raises to t1485, BB folds

Finding villians weekness and betting patterns HU is much more important than I thought. In the hand above I would have never taken this line unless villian had taken his exact line many times before. Im slowly becomming more and more comfortable and feel that after every game I play and every session I go over in HEM, im finding new things to use or work on. Im not looking for any advice on the hand above btw, I know the line looks awful but it is all villian dependent!

Good luck with this goal. When I'm tilting I usually head to HU SNG (or cash if I'm really tilting), so hopefully someday I end up helping you haha.

Update: Games played 210 Total profit: $16.55.

Here is my graph, like I said I haven't been able to play much.



Im noticing that im running above EV atm. Im new to HEM so am a bit unsure. Does this mean that im luckboxing win's? Should I even be worrying about this due to the small sample size?

gl

Am sat at work atm and am bored so thought i'd enlighten you all with another couple of pointless degen story's. About 2 years ago before I started playing poker I stumbled across this "unbeatable" roulette system. The Martingale technique. I was amazed, wow I thought, so all i need to do is double my original bet when I loose, easy. I played around at home on free roulette games to see if this technique is actually profitable. After around 2 hours playing I was convinced. I took about £300 down to my local casino and started to place the min £5 bet on Red, the wheel spin's and it'ssssss Red! yay. Another £5 Red, another Red hits. Wow this is easy I thought. Another £5 Red, wheel hits black, ok then, £10 Red, wheel hits black, ok £20 Red, wheel hits Red, ship me the £5 profit! So thats what i did, about 3 times a week i'd go down to the casino and martingale myself some monies then return home and feel rich.

This went on for around 3 months, 3 months and I never left the casino with less than I went in with, not once. The martingale techinque is obv ridic and I would'nt suggest anybody to learn it as its soooooo stupid. Sometimes you maybe betting like £200 to win £5 profit on a like 48% chance. LOL. It went well for me tho as i quit while I was ahead.

Two other roulette experiences I remember, The first is after a day martingaleing I wondered past the live dealer, (I'd usually play the machine, its a real wheel that you can see but you place bets electronically) and decided to take a punt and put £10 down on green 0. Dealer spins the wheel, I wait, 0 hit's, good for 36/1.

Another time I had £500 on me. Me and my ex gf needed money and £500 wasn't enough. The gf didn't know about the £500 I managed to get together, and was fretting about the upcomming bill. So in my degan thinking I decide that as £500 isn't enough il take to monies to the casino and put it on red to double up. So I walk in to the casino, the lady ask's for my Member card, I hand it over then inform her that I won't be long anyway. I walked through first floor to the stairs and started walking up to the main gaming floor.

When I get there its quite busy but I manage to find a roulette dealer who has just started his shift and his table is clear. I walk up and ask what the max and min bet is, I already knew the answer I was just stalling time to decided if I really wanted to do this. The dealer informes me that the max is £1k and the min on a colour to be £5. So I take out my £500 wack it on the table and inform the dealer to give me the largest demoniation chips he can. He hands me 5 £100 chips then said the iconic words "place your bets please" while starting to spin the wheel. I reach forward and place the £500 on Red. The dealer looks at me, looks at the bet, and get's it spot on, "A hit and run yer?", I agree, and I wait. After what seemed like forever the ball finally reached slow motion to me, it was bouncing into a red, then out, in a black, now red, then black and finally after an eternity it settles on Red The dealer congratulated me, handed me my winnings and I proceded to cash out with a big smile on my face. I then walked home, opened the front door and started up to my bedroom. As I enter I notice my gf half naked on the bed, it turns out that she had a "special night" planned as we had both been so stressed about the bill's. I proceed to take out the £1k in £50 notes and handed it to her. She was so excited she ripped the bag open and all the notes flew all over the bed. We ended up having the best night on top of the notes and I procced to pay the bill the next day.

Being a degan can be fun sometimes