Sorry about the busto dude. Feel for you, but at this point I think the last thing on your mind should be building up some money for another BI. How about just building up some money PERIOD? Not BIs, just money. The fact that you are already thinking about your financial predicament in BI terms would indicate to me that you may really have a serious degen problem. Similar to a drug addict who can only think about where their next "hit" is going to come from. I don't mean to be judgmental nor critical. In the end, its not as if I really know you and have a true insight into your life. But I've been following your thread and I think there are others here that may feel the same as I do. I know as well as anyone that facing your own demons can be a terrifying proposition at best.

Good luck to you. I hope you can find a way to build up your finances and then enjoy the game without having it be a make or break situation. If you can, please turn to family/friends for support. I really don't think poker should be in any way be part of your plans for a while.

Keep us updated. Good luck and hoping the best for you.

Ya, I subbed around the time you binked the diamond on the river.

Dude, don't be that generic face in tent city with a talent for cards. Build up your life BR before you try to get card money. The weight and value of cashing out can overwhelm key aspects of your game.

Good luck man, I don't pray for people but I gotta send you some positive vibes.

As someone who has been busto several times and built back up from scratch my advice is the following...

In order to make it as a poker pro, you can't just be "better" than the typical rec-fish. No. You have to be a SUPERIOR player. Everytime you sit at a 1/2nl, 1/3nl, or 2/5nl table you have to be the best player at that table. And not just the best player by a little bit, the best player by a lot!!!!

That is part of how you minimize the variance.

The other part is having the mental, psychological, and emotional maturity and that can be the most challenging part. Entitlement tilt and other forms of tilt is very hard to deal with. There is no easy silver bullet fix for this. Yes, books help (i.e. like the Mental Game of Poker and Elements of Poker...) but ultimately we have to find our own paths.

The last piece of advice I would give you (or anyone else attempting this) is that you need to sit down with pen and paper and write down everything you've done right and wrong with regards to this poker run. Also make a big long list of all the things you "should" have done.

Every bad thing on your list you need to come up with a corrective plan of action. Simply saying, "I'm not going to do that anymore" is not enough.

Lastly, your bankroll management is atrocious. Playing a $150 tournament when your roll is $650 is beyond crazy. You realize that at most 2% of your roll should be used for MTTs tournaments??? So if you were going to play a $150 tournament your roll needed to be at least $7250

Overall, truth is you just aren't/weren't ready to turn pro. I'm not sure you respected or appreciated the amount of work it takes to make it in poker. Its more than just wishing and wanting... it takes real work.

I mean, how many EV calculations have you done? How diligent have you been in tracking your play? How hard have you been looking at your game for leaks?

and speaking along those lines, if you (or anyone else reading this thread) wants to make it as a pro, my advice is you become a serious contributing 2+2 member and live in the LLSNL forum posting daily.

In any event, sorry you busted out. Trust me, I know how hard and soul crushing that is. I've had many midnight walks while being a hair away from homelessness so I wish that on no one.

My advice is to get another job while your resume gap isn't so severe. Poker will always be there. If you are serious about becoming a pro, then do whatever you need to do to grind up another roll while SIMULTANEOUSLY learning and improving your game (to include getting an online account on Lock or Carbon (any site that you can track your results))

work, study (to include RoR and BRM), grind online, and come back to the game when you have a $10k roll....

good luck...

Thanks for all the advises. During this past month of no posts, I've composed myself a little bit, actually not playing at all. I applied to be a cab driver for this small company, got the job (yay) and although it doesn't pay as much as I'd like for it to, it helps me make enough money for me to eat and stay warm. I didn't want to impose on my friend any longer (sensed that he was getting a bit impatient, sorry bro) so for this past week I've been sleeping in my car and washing up in a Mcdonald's in the morning. It's not too bad. I meet some pretty cool people cabbing this week, and one guy I met might actually be able to hook me up with a full time warehouse job.

I've looked at renting some places, but they're all so out of my price range. I don't understand how people can live here without making 100k a year...

Besides this, i've met a couple cool poker player friends that I've been meeting with for lunch a couple times a week. We discuss some poker theory and strat, but the main point of our convo's as of late has gone along the tune of what dgiharris said. And I will follow through with the majority of the advice, such as training mental capacity and writing down notes. One thing I must deviate from is building up a 10k roll.. I know brm is an important part of it, but I just have this ambition to roll it up, and waiting around for half a year to build up 10K is not the way to do it. Ivey busted his 2 week $310 dollar paycheck a few hundred times before rolling it up. Just by having some sort of income, I feel a lot more stable to be able to take shots.

I don't play live poker, so I can't give any advice on what to do (esp any better than dgi)... but when you've got a little extra income, you could look to see if you've got a Planet Fitness anywhere in your area. They've got pretty cheap memberships (I think something like $10/mo + $29 annual fee).

Doing this will help in a few ways... 1) You can get some exercise, which is always good for general health. Plus, if you are going to be in a car (your car+taxi), you need to make sure your body is moving to combat when you are just sitting/laying in the car. 2) These places usually have full shower facilities that you could use each day (after a workout ).

Cool gym lifehack, will look into it today!

I played a session of 3/5 last night from 11:30 pm to about 5:30 am instead of working. Folded for about 3.5 hrs straight, and ended cashing up 120. Minor win, but happy with the way I played as I found very little spots.

Update: Sorry that updates are so infrequent nowadays, I'll try to make it about twice a month. So I've discovered that a lot of places require proof of income to rent a home for a few months and they won't take poker as an acceptable for of income. I've got this good rhythm down where I couchsurf for a few days and sleep in my car for the off days I can't get a couch. This way it cuts cost of paying for a motel. I have a gym membership now, so I personally feel healthy and in shape.

As for poker, I've jumped down to the 1/2 game at the commerce. It's a lot less I can make per night, but I can also afford the swings of this game. I play 6 nights a week, and average $65-$90 dollars a night. My BR/LR (life roll) after costs is at a healthy 3.8K, and I'm still doing Taxi cab driving as a side gig.

I've made some good poker acquaintances, and was invited to a medium size home poker tournament 25 players, $50 buy in w/rebuys. I got first for a prize of $535, which is one of my bigger wins as of lately. A lot of the guys were rec players/newbies, so the field was super easy. I still miss the days, even a few months back where a 1K win was the norm.

Good to hear OP. You got this

Dude you need to get out of the mindset where "1k win was the norm", it wasn't. I like your story and im pulling for you but you need to be realistic about your situation. It seems to be much more stables now (good for you man) but with this mindset im afraid that if you ever get a hold of some decent money you're going to spew it higher off because you think you belong there.

Tbh some of the hands you've posted indicate you really need to work on your game, great to hear about the taxi gig man but I still don't feel like you're respecting the game and what it takes

Go to Vegas. Better comps, u can get rooms 5 nights a week. They got taxis there and cheap rent. You're crazy for staying in LA with a $3500 br. You can make $15 an hour playing at treasure island when they do their per hour promo. (I have to double check, may be $12 an hour)
If you're sleeping in a car, things are bad. Don't fool yourself

Ah man, sorry to hear OP. Variance can be brutal sometimes. Don't give up and keep trying to improve everyday. Things will turn around! Glgl

Cant beleive you losing every cent you moved to LA with at poker wasnt enough verification for landlords to rent to you.

Good luck OP. Your experience make me think harder about possible realities.

I’ve done a few things since I’ve started my journey to become the ultimate Poker Master. I’ve actually read through the “Mental Game of Poker,” and absorbed as much as I possibly could. It’s the second Poker book I’ve ever finished, despite my years of play. The first book was “Let There Be Range,” which was a book that cost over a grand, but I didn’t pay for it, so yea. Anyone have any thoughts on either book?

Mental Game really helped me, when you sift through the generic self help seminar bs theres some very important info/tips in it

One of the more interesting hands I’ve played in a while at the $3/$5 NL: So for the first night in a while, I’m running Okay, playing great. Made some great lay downs, which I’m pretty proud of so far. Profiles:

V1 ($500): is UTG and limps

2 middle limper,

V2 ($1400): American woman, mid 30’s, attractive average build, real quiet (except the occasional humor you laugh), and has a Giant stack in front of her. She makes it $45 straight.

Hero ($520) KK in SB. I tank for a little bit, then flat the $45. V2 glares the **** at me.

V1: ALSO flats. lol wut

Rest fold. Pot is $145. Flop comes TTA rainbow

I cautiously check.

V1: Checks

V2: Cautiously checks.

Turn comes (TTA)8 still rainbow.

I check

V1: checks

V2: checks

River comes (TTA8)4

I check

V1: Bets $55

V2: Folds.

Hero?

Why would you not 3bet that hand?

So interesting. 55 to win 200 pot, i think its a call. It doesnt seem you can make him fold ace or ten with your line. Id put him on 88 or 44, but it's too cheap to call as there is nearly 25% of hands you beat.

Also why not 3bet kk pre?

Thought about it pretty hard during those 10 seconds, then listened to my gut. Someone told me once to never cold 3-bet KK or AA, but the LARGE 2 bet to $45 from a woman who almost never did the entirety of the night made me quick range her on QQ+ only. Maybe I was wrong. But, I felt 3 betting there would make my range largely face up, all else would fold, and only AA would raise me.

My dilemma was that if I make it 120, what do I do when Villain2 raises me? Safely fold thinking it's AA i'm up against, or get it in, hoping it's QQ or less? Is it likely she will just call? I for one wouldn't call $80 dollars so with AK or anything less.

Like the thought process. What's your plan if k comes or 744 comes on the flop? Results of river?

seriously go to vegas you might be able to live at the quad for free.

vegas is cheap cheap cheap compared to LA if you do it right.

LA is only good if you want to play big. Vegas is the place in the world for small games (rake is so much lower - and tons of rec players just having fun for a weekend.)

I can see the reasoning for flatcalling if V2 is really that tight, but you really shouldn't be surprised the limper flats.
Call the river because lolpotodds or fold based on reads. It's probably a crying fold.

I was mostly surprised that V1 flatted. I did end up calling the $55, guy shows me A2 Honestly could not believe I called off so much with that hand. Is this a normal thing to do? The impression I got from him previously was that he wasn't spew.

So as far as opinions go from people I know and respect IRL, it's been a split, whether I should 3bet pre or not.

I ended up calling and losing the hand, but I feel like I lost the minimum, ~$100, vs. the $120 I would have 3bet to and have to play that bad flop oop. It's bad result oriented thinking.

That night I ended up profiting +$170 vs. my peak of +$300, but I'll take as many wins as I can get.

I've gotten this advice a few times now, and honestly I just might. I'll try Commerce for a few months more and see where it leads me.