I started playing online for money at 14. I had profited roughly 6k by my 18th birthday (now 20) and immediately took that money to the casino. I live in Alberta, Canada- gambling and drinking ages are 18. As a winning online player I quickly realized how much softer the live game is than the online. My results in poker to present day are as follows.

Live Statistics: (Since April 2012)

Cash-
Up $52 395 in 907 hours playing $1/$2 (100-300 buy in). For an hourly of $57.77/hr.
At an average of 20 hands/hr on the live tables = 144.42bb /100hands

Tournament-
Buyin Ins: $9040 Cash Outs: $17020 Profit: $7980 ROI= Profit/Buy Ins = 7980/9040= 88.3% ROI

Online: Up 8-10k online lifetime over unknown hours.


My goal is to make $100k profit in my first year as a pro. The above statistics include every casino session since my 18th birthday (have recorded them all since the beginning). For the last two years I was student in college. I have decided to take the next year off. For the next year I am shifting focus to poker. I ‘officially’ turned pro today, June 23rd.

In order to help achieve my goal I am crafting a specific and broken down goal schedule that I will post on the thread in a few days. Another strategy to provide my goal with a chance is the sense of accountability I will gain from this thread. Two plus Two is a great resource and I hope you guys will help keep me hungry and on track. I look forward to updating you on my progress

June 23- Current Profit: 0/100 000

Good Luck!

Report #1- $1/2 nl (100-500 buy in).

Sat down at midnight on Wednesday night (June 24th). The game was good. 3 juicy regular players who play and raise a ton of hands big were playing and they all had 600+ on the table. Bought in for 500. I was card dead most of the night, but did get involved in a few spots.

Two hands of note:

1/2/5 (5 is straddle)- short stack ships $76 early position. One caller mid positon (loose passive player with 280 behind). Hero in SB with AKo, shove all in 330. Villain Folds. All in shows JJ, Hero AK. JJ wins.

1/2/5 (5 is straddle)- two early limps and I raise to 35 in middle position. Two callers, both in late position, both limpers fold. Villain 1- passive loose. Villain 2- Rich gentlemen I have played with multiple times, ultra loose, ultra aggressive.
Flop(110): K93r, Hero bets 50 first to act (470 behind). Villain 1 fold. Villain 2 raises to 150 (700 behind).
Hero Shoves all in for 530. Villain snap calls, shows 93s. Turn 2, River 7.


Result: Down 750 in 3 hours
Total Profit: -750/+100 000

Nothing to complain about. The game is good. Happened to run into the top of Villain 2's range, but from what I know of the villain jamming in that spot is the most profitable play. On to the next one

Ty sir!

Amazing results! Good luck and subbed!

Sent from my SM-G900V using 2+2 Forums

Damn, you are absolutely crushing! Have you considered moving up from 1/2?

Report #2- $1/2 nl (100-300)

Last session marked my fifth cash game loss in a row. New record, I believe. The losses were on the small side (Down 1630 total), but the feeling ‘you can’t win’ has crept into my mind nonetheless...

I sat down Thursday night (June 24) at 7:15. Just one table going. I was extremely card dead for the first hour, but that changed quickly. The game was decent. Much less aggressive than last night’s game, but all around loose-passive. One super tight player on the second seat to my left. Many call happy players. Some hands of note:

Hand 1-Hero: K9dd
1/2/5- 2 limpers to me in middle position I limp K9dd. 3 more limp (players to act behind seemed unlikely to raise, factors into when and what I will limp).

Flop (30): 642r (one diamond) - 2 checks to me, I check. Tight player checks. Button who steals in these spots often bets 25. One call in early postion, one fold. Hero raise to 65. Super tight villain tanks shortly, looks at me (I’m on the tight side relatively, but this villain knows I bluff) and calls-has position on me. Both players with 25 in fold. This is not good. On the one hand it’s a tight player I know I can bluff, on the other they probably have the nuts (or close to).

Turn (210): 2c- Hero Bets 90. -This is a good card to bluff. I believe they would fold a straight or anything less than a full house now that the board is paired after my check raise. I don’t lose any more after this bet if they continue. Villain mentions how I might have nothing, folds and shows 64s. Sick.


Hand 2- Hero: KK
1/2/5- 2 limpers to me I raise to 25 with kings. 3 callers.

Flop (115): J95r - First to act leads out for 50 (older gentlemen, spewy). One fold. Hero raises to 125. Other player folds, Villain jams 270. Hero calls. Villain show- AJs. Kings hold up.


Hand 3- Hero: 45ss
1/2/5- 3 limpers to me I limp 45 of spades. Two more limp and the straddle raises to 12. Everybody snap calls.

Flop (84): 1072sss – I flop the flush. First to act checks it to me. With five behind me to act I check, intending to check raise. The tight villain on my left bets 35. 3 people call. Hero raises to 120. Tight villain folds. One guy I had only played with today (loose, fish) jams 200. One caller calls 20 more and is all in, the rest fold. Hero calls.

Turn: 2c River: 10d – Hero shows 45ss and is good. Villain who jammed 200 shows Ks6c.


Hand 4- Hero: A2hh
1/2 - table is 6 handed at the moment. Hero raise to 15 in middle position. One call from fairly loose player.

Flop (33): A73r (one heart): Hero bets 20. Villain raises to 50. This doesn’t make sense to me if he has a better ace. I think he might be trying to get me to lay down an ace with 8’s+, plus with A2hh I feel like I can hit a lot of good turns with back door flush and straight draws. Hero calls 30 more.

Turn (133): 2d – That’s a nice looking card. I’m happy to get it in at this point. Villain has 220 left.
Hero checks. Villain bets 85. Hero jams. Villain calls and is all in. Villain shows 73. Woah, didn’t think this guy was that loose pre-flop. Beauty of a turn. River bricks.

Result: Up 1350 in 2.5 hours
Total Profit: +600/100 000 in 5.5 hours.

That’s a nice way to snap the loss streak.

gl man , subbed

I'm about to start university in the uk myself. how did you find the study/poker balance in your first two years? Also out of interest what online stakes were you profitable at before you started playing live?


- Oscar

Thanks. I play 5/5 whenever it runs (once every couple weeks). Other than that I have to drive 1.5 hours to play bigger. The 1/2 game plays big. I'll be making that drive a bunch these next two weeks to play some big tournies and cash (playing a $300 buy in 75k guarantee tourney tomorrow).

Report #3- Woke up Saturday morning hung over. It was my buddy’s 20th bday on Friday. I intended on driving to Calgary, Alberta to play Day 1b of Event #1 in the first event of a large tournament series. Got home, threw up. Considered skipping it, but made it. 410 total entrants, 41 make it to day 2 and cash, $330 buy in.
-I bagged up 82k. Blinds start at 2000/4000 Sunday at noon. First is $50 000 plus, I believe min cash is ~600. Fingers crossed.

Report #4- Got to Calgary on time- 12pm. 43 to start the day (429 total entrants, not 410).
Payouts- 1st $28 000, 2nd- $17 000… 43rd- $705 (screen was incorrect when I saw $50 000 on screen yesterday for first place).

Blinds started 1500/3000 -500 ante. 9 handed
9000 = m (money in pot automatically pre-flop)

I started the day with 82.2k but quickly took control of a tight table and was up to 130k (quite a nice stack) by 12:30.

Hand of note: In the BB with QKo. 1500/3000 -500 (8 handed)
Villain 1 raises in hijack to 6500.
Villain 2 calls in sb.
Hero considers the squeeze but elects to call since I think QKo plays nicely post flop in this spot.
Flop (25k): QdKd2c. Flop the dream. Villain 2 checks in sb. Hero checks to Villain 1. Villain 1 bets 15k.
Sb folds. Hero check raises to 52k. Villain shoves 135k (Hero snap calls 125k and is all in). Villain shows A8dd. Hero shows KQo.
Turn (275k): 8h
River (275k): 5d
Busted 12:35pm. 37th place for $805.
In for $330, Out $825.

The table was great. The prizes were great. That’s a rare situation I bust that early- the only person at my table who has me covered and get in a spot I assuredly cannot fold. It was an emotionally tough loss for me. Wake up, drive 1.5hrs to casino. Start amazing then bust in 30 mins total- getting it in good for a TON of chips. I think shove by the villain is pretty bad since he has no fold equity at that point (always calling it off after check raising half stack on flop).
Obviously it sucks to bust any tournament. The gross ones also provide the best learning opportunities. I may lose today, but I was given an invaluable opportunity to improve my mental game. Adversity forces improvement- unless you let wallowing in negative emotions take precedence.

Cheers! My pops is from England (Durham). I'm wearing a shirt with British flag right now..

I was steadily profitable at 6-max 25nl, $15 hu hyper sngs, 50nl heads up when I turned 18. I went to a poker room the minute clock struck midnight, won 807 in a few hours). Then had my 18th bday celebrations the next night.

As for school/poker time balance- I found my first couple years taking commerce to be fairly easy so was never forced to struggle with that time balance conundrum. What is it you're taking?

Cool story, subbed.

PS: post title says "June" but "July" would be a better fit imo.

Hand 1:

I like the play with this card on the turn but I believe thinking a straight folds here just because board paired the turn seems a bit ambitious

Just stumbled on this part of the forum(best part by far).

Love the thread and best of luck

Cool, I really want to start playing live when I'm at uni, It's in London so plenty of Casinos pretty close to the uni . I still feel like I need to move up the online stakes a bit first though just to get used to the thought of playing $1/2 blinds and the swings involved even if the play is super fishy!

Awesome 18th birthday night!

Yeah I'm doing Statistics and Finance.



Congrats on the great session, it's such a good feeling to have a winning session after a long downswing where you start to second guess your decisions etc.

gl as usual...


-Oscar

Report#5- I have played much poker since last checked in.

Monday, played a cash game session (1/2 100-300 nlh).

Hands of note:

1/2/5- Hero has 33 in early position. 8 limps preflop.
Flop (40): 369ddc, two check to me, I check. Check. Villain bets 10. Four callers to me.
Hero raises to 65. The bettor calls, all the rest fold.
Turn (210): 8h . Hero jams 230. Villain Calls.
River (670): River 2d. Hero shows 33, Villain Kd7d for a flush.

$1/2- Hero open raises 97cc UTG to 15. One villain calls hesitantly in sb. Villain is a thinking player, we talk about hands and strategy. I like the guy, entertaining hand. I have 700 to start he has 1200.
Flop (32): Qs3d2h – Villain checks to me. Hero bets 20 (nice dry board to c-bet).
Villain mentions how I always c-bet as I do it. Villain check/raises to 45. Hero calls. The villain called very hesitantly preflop. I think he called with a weak hand specifically to c/r bluff a lot of flops. That said he is a pretty good player so rather than raise and risk getting re-raise I call in-position to take it away on a later street. (Also don't think he raises a set here, not on this dry a board heads up).
Turn (122): 6h – Villain bets 70. Still think he is bluffing. Hero calls, thinking if he checks to me on the river I insta win with a bet, and some rivers I can bluff.
River (262): Kh – Very nice river for my hand. Back door hearts gets there, I have a decent amount of kings when raising utg. Villain bets 85. This is a small bet. Really small from a player who usually bets much closer to pot than this. Hero raises to 315. Villain tanks for 3-4 mins. Calls and shows 63o for two pair to scoop $890 pot. We talk about hand and laugh after.
Result: Down 545

Tuesday,
Tourney- $550 mega. Somehow one table in the tourney compiled all pros. The toughest tourney table I have even been at (one player bemoaned how he has played 20 bracelet events but never had a table this tough). Limited edge at the table, card dead and never got much going. Unlikely to ever run into that situation again. Overall the games are pretty good- 1/10 000 table draw.

PLO game: - After busting the $550 I decided to play 2/5 PLO cash game (200- No Max) for a couple hours while I waited to play a $400 satellite to the $3300 high roller at 8pm. I won’t go through hand by hand detail but basically I limp re-potted aces and got it in ahead in a couple $2000 pots. No dice.
Result: Down 750

$400 Satellite to Event#6- High-roller $3300. With a loss looking probable on this trip to Calgary I registered into the satellite. Ended up winning a seat , which I sold for $3000 cash (market price at 1:30am on a Tuesday night). Also lost $50 for bubble money. I played well and ran well late (got check/raised jammed on after flopping a set with 9 left- 99 on Q93).
In for 400, Out 2950 (3000-50). Up 2550.


Trip total- Up 1250.



Updated totals since pro:
Cash: Down 695 in 13.5 hours.

Tourney- Buy ins: 1280 Cashes: 3825 Profit- 2545
Total profit: $1850 /$100k.

Embarrassing. Not totally fluent with thread mechanics on Two Plus Two yet. Can I edit the thread title?

gl mate
i will folow u up 2 ur goal of100k
glgl

Report #6- Leaving in less than an hour to a music festival ‘Shambhala’ from Tuesday to Tuesday, quick poker update before I go.

Played the $1100 main even Day 1a on Friday, busted 13 hours in, one of the last couple before they called it a night (22nd of 130, 20 made day 2). Got it in with AJ vs 77 in bb vs a raise in sb (he raised I jammed he called). Busto. I intended on playing the main again for up to two bullets on day 1b, but losing this deep on the first day made me feel unwilling to repeat the process the next day. Instead I played a long cash session of $1/2, (100-500 buy in)- making 910 in 7 hours. Then I played an ALL In or Fold tourney for $200 and bricked.

Trip result- Down 390
Total profit since pro: $1460/$100k

GL!

Shambhala was the experience of a lifetime. Didn’t know if I was going until 24 hours before leaving, and I can’t imagine having missed it.

Report #7- Got back from weeklong trip late on Tuesday. Ready sink my teeth back into poker. After a well needed recovery rest I played a poker session Wednesday.
$1/2 (100-300)- One table going with 2 seats open when I arrived at 4:40pm.
Table was very weak passive except for two players I know well. One is super tight but aggressive and the other (directly to my right) is my buddy who is good, thinking player.
$1/2 Hero(460) in sb with AQo. 3 limp to the button (my buddy) who raises to 15. Hero(550) raises to 45 in the SB. Folds around to button who calls.

Flop (99): QJ6r – Hero bets 55, Villain calls. Villain calls 3-bets pretty light, especially in position. He thinks he can outplay people a lot of the time post flop so will call lighter. We have history as well.

Turn (209) A – Hero checks. I think he has 2 broadway cards most likely. I check here to jam over a bet from him. Villain checks.

River (209) 5 – I consider check calling here to avoid getting raised by his sets and straight, but felt with top two there is too much value to be had (I check call AK for sure). Hero bets 127, Villain jams, all in for 220 more for hero to call. I contemplate for about 10 seconds and call, showing AQ. Villain mucks, told me had QJ later- was upset with how he played it.

Result: Up 700 in 3 hours.

Total Profits since July 23rd: $2160 /$100k


Will be driving down to Calgary tomorrow afternoon to play Day 1c of their $1500buy in 200k GTD Main Event on Saturday afternoon