Background
I am creating this thread for accountability. As the title says, my wife is going back to school and we will become a single-income home with two kids. I work in tech and make decent money (6 figures), but I am hoping to supplement her portion of the rent (1.3k) with poker in hopes of not having to make many lifestyle changes.

I'm in the US and play on ignition. I plan on playing roughly 1.5 hours a day of 4 tables cash starting at 25nl (~500 hands), also I will dedicate at least 3 hours of study every week. Unfortunately, I won't be able to track all hands in HM3 as I sometimes play on my laptop. I will make an update to this thread at a minimum every ~10k hands.

Bankroll
Initial Deposit: $250
Current Bankroll: $714
Diff = +464

Will take a shot at 50NL when I hit a BR of $1050

Personal notes:

• Known leak - playing vs small effective stacks
• Known leak - suck at zone (fast-fold)

Cash Graph (zone + reg cash)


Cash Results by Stakes



At ~5000 hands I decided to stop playing zone and only play regular cash. Below are my cash results so far (running good).

I don't know if I will be posting every session but hoping to get some feedback on some hands that I marked. I still label my self a fish so feedback is appreciated.

Session Summary

• Length = 2 hours 5 min
• Total Hands = 525
• Site = Ignition
• Stakes = 25nl 6 max cash
• Net = +$50.78
• EV bb/100 = 14.9
• Bankroll = 766.23

Going into the session I was tired, but know I need to get hands in. From a results-oriented perspective, the session started off great with a quick 100bb win, however, I don't believe I played this hand correctly.




Quickly after, there was a maniac going all in almost every hand, unfortunately, I stacked him off a few times. The rest of the session was a slow and steady grind back up. I tagged the hand below and would like to get some perspectives on it. Was this a horrible fold?

Forgot to add today's session graph.

wife going back to school, husband picking up extra hours.. this doesn't usually end well !

Yea, but his situation obv diff. OP got 6 figure tech job and doesn't need to win every month to get by. He seems like he enjoys playing the game and if that can bring in a bit of income a month then good for him. Doubt hell ever lose any reasonable amount at 50 and if he does he can always stop and just work his reg job.

'Her' portion of rent? You are married, eh? What about her portion of food, utilities, insurance, vacation and all the other household expenses? This is a lifestyle change that you have to accept without expectations of any poker results.

Granted, you may now have 'income' instead of 'expense' when you are playing poker instead of going out to eat or whatever you may have been doing otherwise that is now filled with class and study.

Also, who's paying for tuition?

We all wish you the best and you are definitely taking time to look at your result trends. But you can find numerous threads on this site which will warn against the pitfalls of playing for 'needed' profit and playing poker for fun.

I will ask if you have any live poker options since the skill level tends to be much weaker live. 25NL is actually a pretty skilled level when it comes to online poker and then maybe jumping to 50NL is probably 4x the skill if you are planning to play on the reg.

A win rate of 10-11bb/100 is hard to achieve (12k hands per month) over the long haul and would probably be considered a crusher in most circles.

I hope you get a lot more opinions posted here to review .. GL

What is she going back for?

Medical && some hard engineering fields are just about the only areas where college even begins to make sense in the dawning age of AI.

Hopefully, we can change that narrative!


Hit it on the money!



1. Portion of rent - I should have done a better job in my original post laying this out. I bucketed all of her monthly contributions to housing as "her portion of rent". I make double her income so I have been covering food, utilities, insurance, vacation, etc for the last few years. If poker ends up being a dud for me (even if it goes well) we expect to make lifestyle changes (reduce/no eating out, reduce going out to bars/clubs with friends, reduce total vacations).

2. Tuition cost - She is taking out loans to cover tuition. She is going back to school to become a Nurse Anesthesiologist and there is a local hospital that has a program where they repay your school loans if you work for them X amount of years.

3. Live poker - Yes, there is plenty of live poker in my area. However, I don't have enough time to grind live on a daily basis. I will play live poker randomly when time permits.

4. 10-11bb/100 is hard to achieve (12k hands per month) - Assuming things go well, I plan to branch out to zone (fast-fold) as my skill level increases in order to get more hands in.

She's doing Nurse Anesthesiology, as of now its safe from the upcoming AI transformation.

I was able to knock out half of my daily commitment (1 hour) during my lunch break today. Nothing really to note other than I still find myself struggling vs small stacks.

Session Summary

• Length = 1 hour
• Total Hands = 284
• Site = Ignition
• Stakes = 25nl 6 max cash
• Net = +$24.51
• Bankroll = 791.08

Below is an example of one of the poorly played hands vs a small stack. Two things I hate about my play turn size bet, I believe this should have been bigger 2/3 or 3/4 and I should of folded the river when the flush got there.




Session's Results

Session Summary

• Length = 1 hour 43 min
• Total Hands = 459
• Site = Ignition
• Stakes = 25nl 6 max cash
• Net = +$56.93
• Bankroll = 848.29

Just clocked in another session. The session started off good with winning a coin flip (QQ held vs AK) all in pre. I gave most of it back when got stacked by a smallish stack when I got in pre good AQs vs A10.

I marked one hand this session, and it was mostly because I am very proud of my read. Villian is a very aggressive 4 better and I expected him to 4 bet me after I 3 bet him from the button holding A9s. I told myself if an Ace hit on the flop I am putting the money in.

She is getting into a great field. One of our Player pool has transitioned from large medical to a 'strip mall' surgery center with just four rooms for 'minor' procedures. If they are booked, he works, if not, he plays. I don't know the pay scale but he's an empty nester now/already with both he and wife driving Tesla brand vehicles so the situation works out well. GL

Hope to flaunt my new Tesla 4 years from now 2

Had another lunch session. Started off great getting paid off with a full house vs 3 of a kind. Shortly after that I paid off a small stack (got it in good, but he hit runner runner). Only one other decent pot to note got AA vs JJ in preflop and it held. So far have been running good!!

Session Summary

• Length = 53 min
• Total Hands = 262
• Site = Ignition
• Stakes = 25nl 6 max cash
• Net = +$36.23
• Bankroll = 884.27

If you want to progress the stakes asap to earn more. I would not recommend this. Just table select harder, multi site, or increase table count.

GLGL. And big kudos to your wife for trying for a better career!

Good advice. Right now things are going good (knock on wood), no need to fix something that's not broken!

Since the last time I posted I've had two separate one hour sessions. Both sessions were played poorly, today I on my free time I will prioritize getting studying in over playing. below are the session results.



Knowing this thread was created to hold myself accountable. Below is a hand I butchered. When I got XR on the turn I told my self only call a bet on the river if a K or Q hits. One of the worst possible cards in the deck hit and like the fish I am I called a river bet.

Current Bankroll = $903