The Prologue
Although I’ve played poker for over 6 years now, it wasn’t until the beginning of 2014 that I really became a solid winning player. It was the first time that I started making serious money from the game, and kept it. At the time I was relatively happy working in a good government job. I was working on an interesting project, working with people I liked, and growing professionally. I had never intended to be a government working, but I was very happy with how things had worked out. Unfortunately, I soon realized that my experience had been unrepresentative of what the job would be like going forward. Without getting into details, I became unhappy in my position and really dreaded going into work each day. I decided that I would really like to give poker a shot. I put everything I had into building up a roll to go pro with. This was not easy. I averaged 100 hours a month for almost two years on top of my 40 hour a week job. It was definitely exhausting, but I believe it was all worth it. My primary game has been 2/5 NL, but I put in a significant amount of hours into 5/10 NL and 2/2 PLO as well. The vast majority of my play has been at Charles Town and Maryland Live! For those interested, here are my 2/5 results for 2014-2015:



After finally saving up a significant roll, I left my 9 to 5 government job for full-time poker just a few weeks ago. I am starting this to chronicle the journey and to keep pushing myself to improve every day. I hope you enjoy following along.

The Plan
Given Rule #1, the plan is to start with primarily live 2/5 NL, with some 2/2 PLO and online NL mixed in. I am well rolled for these games and will be looking for opportunities to take shots so long as my results are solid. I will be posting my live NL cash results, but will keep the rest to myself so as not to have all of my personal finances out on the internet. I’d also like to create another income stream or two at some point so stay tuned for that.

The Thread
This is not going to be a strat heavy PG&C. There may be an occasional HH in here (probably when I butcher something), but I anticipate it being more general strategy, lifestyle, and hopefully some entertaining stories. I am big on trying different things to maximize my focus, energy, and productivity so I will post my experiences in that regard. I will be posting goals related to various areas of my life, as I want to continue improving myself across the board.

Feel free to ask questions. I will answer them the best I can. I’m sure this thread will evolve as I go, and I’m excited to see what exactly this ends up being.

The Poker Goals
1. Average 40 hours of playing per week
I will be striving to get in a ton of volume to start out with. I know this number is high for most pros, but am confident I can hit it based on the volume I have put in on top of a full time job (over 1200 hours a year for two years). Given the incoming snow storm and my preferred playing schedule these goals will begin on Tuesday.

2. Average 3 hours of studying per week
By studying, I mean sitting down and reading books, going over notes, watching videos, using equity calculators etc. I already do some things automatically like listen to podcasts, discuss poker with friends, and mull over various concepts so these are not things that I will count towards the goal.

3. Play at least 75% of Friday and Saturday nights each month
Clearly, Friday and Saturday nights are the most profitable times for poker and I need to take advantage of that. The only reasons for me to miss one of these nights would be social events, illness or weather. I plan on playing an even higher %, but want to make sure I play at least 75% regardless of what else I have going on.

4. Over $50/hour win rate at 2/5 this year
This may be a stretch given that I will be putting in a lot of my hours outside of prime times. However, I believe this is an achievable hourly, and I want something to strive towards.

5. Over 10k profit at 5/10 NL and over 10k profit at 5/5 PLO by September 1st.
I’m starting this in a $3600 hole at 5/10 for the year. I am in a comfortable place with my roll for 2/5, and am taking shots at 5/10 NL and 5/5 PLO. I will be using any profits above 6k a month as a shot taking roll. This will allow me to continue growing my roll even if the shots go poorly. 10k profit is not a ton, but I think I will feel more or less established at that point. This is my primary goal right, and the other poker goals are really in place to help me accomplish this one. Being able to take advantage of juicy, bigger games will significantly improve my hourly, and give me more time and money to follow other pursuits. I would not have left my job if I did not think I could break into the bigger games, so I would consider the inability to do so a failure as far as poker is concerned. My ultimate goal is to own my own business, and I hope to use profit from the bigger games towards that goal. Once I reach this goal, I will be reevaluating my poker goals and posting new ones.

I will post other non-poker goals over the weekend, assuming I and my power survive snowpocalypse.

Quick shout out to the Randal_Graves and cuserounder for their PGCs. I have enjoyed reading through both of them and they definitely had a large part in inspiring me to start this one.

That wraps it up for now. Thanks for reading.

subbed GL!

subbed gg gl

In gl sounds fun!

Sweet results

Which cellphone program you use to track your progress?

Thanks guys. Hope you enjoy the thread.

I use Poker Income on iOS. Can't remember how much it cost to unlock all of the features, but it has worked very well for me.

If Rule #1 is: "Don't Go Broke," then Rule #2 must be: "Don't Forget Rule #1"

Good luck.

Nice live 2/5 NL results in 2014-2015...especially considering that you were working full time at your regular job.

I think you should scrap the $50/hour 2/5 NL winrate goal.

Thanks. I'm curious, why do you think I should scrap it? That's the one goal that's most reliant on variance, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it if I only make $40 an hour and play really well. It's really just something for me to strive towards. The other goals are more important for me, since I'll have much more control over whether I hit them or not.

Subbed. Go get'em OP!

Gl,sub

Health Goals

1. Stick to slow-carb diet 6 days a week
For those unfamiliar, this is basically removing all starches and fast-burning carbs. This diet gives me more energy than anything else I have done. I find it easy to follow except for late at night when I tend to binge on sugary crap. As a result, I feel great all day, but have not had the weight loss that I want. I'm going to implement a planned binge day every week and follow the protocol from the 4-Hour Body to minimize any damage. I don't have a specific weight loss goal because my main focus in on staying healthy and maintaining high energy levels. I expect that this plan alone will lead to weight loss, but if I'm not seeing any then I will have to reevaluate.

2. Gym 2x a week
I've been seriously slacking on the gym, so the goal for me is to just get there twice a week. I'm going to start with one day of cardio and one day of lifting.

3. No hitting snooze
I've been hitting snooze way too much. It not only costs me time in the morning but really effects my energy levels throughout the day.

4. Mindfulness meditation 5x a week for at least 3 minutes.
A lot of very successful people swear by it, and I have noticed improvements in my own life. I have struggled to maintain consistency though so I'm looking to change that even it's only for short sessions.

5. Improve Posture
I don't love this goal because I don't have a way to measure it, but it is definitely something I want to do. I have had a lot of lower back pain recently, and it needs to stop. This is surely do to sitting long hours with poor posture. As you can imagine, poker doesn't exactly help. I'm using methods from Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett. It is a great book and has definitely helped me reduce muscular pain in various areas.

Personal Growth

1. Read 1 non-fiction book every 2 weeks
I always enjoy reading, and it tends to make me excited about life in general. The books will focus on personal growth and business topics that I find interesting. I will count audio books, but poker books won't count. This goal is really only about being intentional about making the time to do it. I'm going to try reading first thing in the morning as a scheduled thing. Hopefully this helps me stop hitting snooze as well. I have a very long list of books that I want to read, but feel free to give me some recommendations as well. I will get to them eventually.

2. Read 1 fiction book every 4 weeks
I rarely read fiction, but I tend to enjoy it. Again, this is just about being intentional. I suspect I will really enjoy adding written fiction into my life. Again, feel free to give any recommendations.

3. Learn 1 new Slow-Carb recipe every 4 weeks
I really enjoy cooking good food, but haven't learned anything new in quite a while. I also have quite a bit to learn. This will have the nice little side effect of making my diet more interesting and hopefully cheaper.

4. Update this thread every Tuesday
This will help keep me accountable and track my progress.

That's it for now. I have some goals specific to this week in mind. I will post those on Tuesday.

Atm I'm reading Din Quichotte by Miguel de Cervantes. I think it's a good classic of spanish litterature. If you haven't read it yet I highly suggest it.

subbed good luck with goals, how on earth have you managed to keep tips/meals at $5 over that timeframe, do you bring a packed lunch with you? my tips/meals section over 2000 used to be completely AWOL due to food and massages.

I believe I read that in school a long time ago. I remember enjoying it though. Thanks.

Lol, that's not real. I guess I tracked one session or something, but I don't track tips.

Subbed. GLGL

I believe I read that in school a long time ago. I remember enjoying it though. Thanks.

Lol, that's not real. I guess I tracked one session or something, but I don't track tips.

Subbed, GL on the goals

Gl op

Gl!

People have way too much ego related to win-rate. There are a lot of guys with high win-rates and bad volume. There aren't many guys who have high win-rates and good volume.

Win-rate isn't really that important anyway because someone can achieve high win-rate by playing low volume in only the best games (and also quitting average games/taking "out buttons" to walk around casino when whale is away from table only to start playing again when whale is back).

The key is how much money that you take home every year and how much your bankroll is at the end of the year. Good high-quality volume, hard work, efficient self-management, study off the felt, and good money management are upon which you should really focus most of your attention.

Got it, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to keep it for now with the understanding that it is far from my main goal. It's just one sub-goal as it were. I don't even track normal breaks since in my mind, I'm still at work as long as I'm in the casino. If for some reason, I feel the need to adjust how I do things just meet an artificial win rate goal then yea, I'll dump it.

Cool. Thanks all.

I need to write that bit down somewhere.