The goal:
- Become a professional pot-limit omaha player in 8 months, by the end of 2011
- Criteria for going pro is that I make 15k euros tax-free in addition to my full time job.

PLO history:
I have less than 200 hands of PLO played in my lifetime so it's definitely a challenge. In fact, I barely know the rules. I do believe the goal is achievable if I put my heart and sould into it.

Some bio:
- Male, 27 years old, born and living in Scandinavia
- Currently working 40 hours a week on a doctorate thesis in engineering. I don't love my job and I've dreamed of the freedom of being a poker pro for quite a while.

Poker history:
- Deposited 500 $ around 4 years ago. Played NL 6-max for a long time, started from NL10, moved up and played mostly NL50, NL100 at highest. Made around 5k in dollars during maybe 3 years.
- Moved to heads-up sng's. Played them for about 5 months. Made around 3k from HUSNG's until the Black Friday happened. I was playing at FTP, so it's over now.
- I'd say I've made around 8k total in career earnings. Poker bankroll is 5k atm.

Last month I made 1k in one weekend, played a 1000 husng's which took me 26 hours. It gave me the confidence that everything is possible if I work hard enough. I believe I am capable of going pro. It's just a matter of focusing all my energies into it, not procrastinating and wasting time.

After years of borderline winning I know it's not easy to play poker at a high level. It's a ****load of work.

The why:
I'm getting married this year and thinking of starting a family. This is my last shot at becoming a poker pro. With a baby and a full-time job there's no way I'll have time for poker. If I don't make it know I'll have to settle for a job I don't really enjoy.

This is it. This is my last shot.

Good luck

Today:
- Cashed out from FTP
- Used my FTP points to purchase 6 months worth of Cardrunners
- Bought 4 books on omaha (slowhabit's 1st omaha book, Ciaffone, Farha, and Cloutier & McEvoy). I should be set learning material wise.

Also went through info of casinos to choose from. Going to start playing at 24hPoker. It's an EEA-site, so tax-free for me. It should have some PLO action, 30 % constant rakeback + bonuses. Client is the question mark, but we'll see. Gonna start playing once the transfers go through. I might give another site a try as well.

Time to start reading...

It's been 5 days has past since I cashed out from FTP, the money has not arrived so it worries a bit. I've heard that people have got theirs after a week of waiting so I'm confident it will happen soon.

Doing mostly studying so far, also taking baby steps with playing. My goal is to roughly keep a 75-25 studying-playing ratio early on and maintain a 50-50 ratio when I have more knowledge.

Played some 5 $ PLO, which doesn't motivate monetary wise, but just to get familiar with the game. I have no intention to stay and grind the micros. The goal is to move up as fast as possible to PL50 since I've already got a 5k roll. I also think I'll learn faster at higher levels than in the micros.

Been reading PLO-wells, quite a bit of hand threads, both SSPLO and HSPLO. Slowhabit's book on moving from NLH to PLO seems really good so far compared to some of the other PLO books I've read. I'm about halfway through. It'll take a multiple reads for me to grasp and be able to apply everything though.

What else... Bought professional PLO HEM. Getting a Cardrunners membership seems to be taking a while after buying it with FTP points, so I don't have access to any PLO-videos yet, which is annoying. It's already past the 72 hours that CR promised to contact me. I guess the FTP shop is crowded from everyone panicking and trying to spend their points.

Feel extremely motived, having a lot of fun learning so far so things are going as planned. Got lots of time tomorrow and gonna spend it on learning more PLO.

For anyone in a similar position as me, slowhabit's interview at Pokerstatic was really interesting and it has lots of good free advice for PLO players like:
- playing heads up is a great way to learn playing marginal hands
- playing fewer tables helps to learn faster
- playing higher stakes quickens development
- maintaining a 50-50 studying-playing ratio is a nice way to keep getting better instead of being stagnant skillwise

All these things are pretty basic stuff which I already knew before from NLH, but it's good to have them reminded. If you haven't go check out the interview.
http://www.pokerstatic.com/hot-seat/...aka-slowhabit/

Subscribed - Goodluck OP

Meh. Finding it really tough to stay out of the tables. I'm enjoying PLO so much because of the action.
Note to self: put more effort in studying!

Been playing pretty aggressive so far, 2-tabling PL5 and PL10, winning a few bucks here and there, no major swings either way. I've made a couple of big mistakes getting it in too light, which isn't too surprising coming from a NLH backround. I'm quickly getting the hang of it though. Doing very thorough session reviews to make sure I learn from my mistakes and don't blame them on coolers.

Still no sign of Cardrunners membership or my FTP money.

It's been an exciting time lately. I love the game of omaha and I've enjoyed the learning process a lot too, which is nice. Feel supermotivated about my goal.

80 % of my bankroll is still stuck somewhere, which hampers my playing efforts quite a bit. I got around 700 euros at 24hPoker and 35 $ at FTP, so I'm playing PLO10 at 24h and PLO5 at FTP depending on the which time of the day I'm playing. Still learning the ropes.

Got sick and tired of waiting for FTP to ship my CR-membership. I registered for Bluefirepoker.com over the weekend and started watching some Phil Galfond omaha-videos. He does some really good and advanced stuff, but I believe I'd benefit more from a beginner/fundamentals series at this point.

This coming month will be crucial on how I get things started. I want to set some goals that will motivate me and help me get better as quickly as possible. I've also decided to start learning HUPLO, since I believe it will bring my skills up quicker. Afterall, I'm fighting time.

Preliminary goals for the month (I reserve the right to change some later on based on better information):
- minimum of 10 hours of 6-max PLO, with thorough session reviews
- minimum of 10 hours of HUPLO, with thorough session reviews
- 8 videos of 6-max PLO
- 8 videos of HUPLO
- minimum of 15 hours going through PLO hands at 2+2
- reviewing slowhabit's PLO book
- going through 2 more PLO books this month

I wonder if I should focus on just either 6-max or HU this month, however this is what I'll go with for now. The playing part should be easy. I'm loving the game and expect to get more hours in than I have scheduled. Studying will be challenging time and energywise as I'm going to have a hectic month at work as well this month.

Hi,
wanted to remind ( or tell ) you that you can choose between 30% flat rakeback which is payed every 1st and 15th an the vip loyality programm.

If youre raking 2500€++ a month the vip program is > than the flat rakeback offer. Also there are very nice promos for PLO-players upto PLO50.
But just check their website.

GL with your process

Status of montly goals:
Date 5/5

Been really busy with work this past few weeks. Then there was the ice hockey world championships where my country took gold and I was glued to the TV set. Also I was found to have a major health problem, which has disturbed my focus. Sounds like I'm making excuses but I don't think thats true at all. It's been a extraordinaly busy month and I'll have more time coming soon.

I'm on schedule with some of my goals and behind in others.

On the positive note:
- I quit being an NFL fan
- I quit reading a bunch of online newspapers
= Dedicated my computer freetime/breaks at work fully to reading 2+2 PLO threads. This has been a big one this month with not enough time for playing and watching videos.

All in all, allthough I'm behind in some goals, I've come a long way this month considering circumstances. Pretty happy with the way this is going so far.

Being playing Entraction PL10 and the level of play is just horrendous. PL5 at FTP was way more rocky. People seem to play 60+ % hands at Entraction and get it in way too light constantly. It's annoying that I haven't been able to get HEM to work on Entraction since the update. Makes multitabling less profitable.

Following this , doing the same , as much as videos can help playing hands will only help you .

The experience you get from being put in situations over and over again is great , espically if you have a good base.

goodluck

Thanks! Good luck to you as well!

Montly goals May final:

- minimum of 10 hours of 6-max PLO, with thorough session reviews 15/10
- minimum of 10 hours of HUPLO, with thorough session reviews 2/10
- 8 videos of 6-max PLO 4/8
- 8 videos of HUPLO 2/8
- minimum of 15 hours going through PLO hands at 2+2 20/15
- reviewing slowhabit's PLO book 1/1
- going through 2 more PLO books this month 0/2

All in all I'm satisfied, but not thrilled. I spent a lot more time playing 6-max and reading 2+2, but failed with some other goals. I decided to skip HUPLO for later since I played mostly on Party and the smallest level for HU was 0.25/0.50, which is too steep for me atm.

The circumstances really changed during the month. The final 5 days of the month I was hospitalized. I was diagnosed with cancer and had to go through surgery. It was a huge shock, considering my age (27) and the fact that I live really healthy in my own opinion.

After getting out of hospital I've been playing some and managed to bink 9 buy-inns at 25PLO (around 6-7 bins EV adjusted). I'm making a comeback. Will set new goals for the month soon.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Hi - Good Luck

For what it is worth i found Slotboom;s PLO books very good. Im not saying to play his style or take everything he says as gospel but i definetely got a lot out of some of his reasoning.

Good luck with your illness - stay positive & beat the ****er

Regards 5cent

Thanks for the support!

Yes so I hear. I'll definitely order some of his work in the near future.

June goals:

- 10k hands
- 10 vids
- 15 hours studying 2+2 hands
- 1 PLO book

It'll take work to reach 10k hands this month, since I only play 2 tables atm. But I should have plenty of time since I'm on sick leave from work.

OK here it goes. My monthly why I missed on my goals post. It seems every post I make is to make excuses on why I've failed. I guess I have some reasoning due to my health, but still I could have done better.

I'm not writing this for anyone else but myself, to clear my thought and act as a diary of sorts, to try and motivate myself to mount a comeback. If you think I'm a loser, then you are entitled to your opinion, I don't care. This is for me.

In my defense, my cancer test results came back positive after the first surgery. The melanoma that I was found had spread into one lymph node and I was scheduled another surgery due in 3 weeks. I went online to look at my odds and found that I had statisticly less than 50 % chance to survive the disease over a long haul. Even though I don't put much belief in those odds due to me being young, strong and fairly healthy, the thought that I might die this young put me what I guess was a slight state of depression. I procrastinated, playing mostly computer games, watching TV, did not feel like playing poker at all, and I haven't. Just trying to spent my time waiting for my surgery

To sum up the month, I made around 200 $ very early on playing PLO20 mainly.

June goals:

- 10k hands fail
- 10 vids fail
- 15 hours studying 2+2 hands fail
- 1 PLO book fail

Here I am again. Lying in the same hospital bed I was when I began writing this "blog". It seems lying in the hospital with nothing to do gets you motivated to play poker.

I have another 3 weeks of waiting for the test results of my latest lymph node surgery. If it comes back positive again, I can't promise I'll keep playing my A game. But the goal right now is to make good use of the next 3 weeks and not waste any more time. I believe being goal oriented and doing something useful will be good for my health as well.

Goals of the month in July:
- write a post for each day on this blog, not post every single day but average 1 post/day. I want to keep myself in check on what I'm doing each day to improve and what results I'm getting.

This is until my test results come back.

What comes after is in the hands of God, amen.

Day 1:

Finally I'm out of the hospital. I'm on sick leave for close to 4 weeks. It will be crucial to take full advantage of this time and not procrastinate. It will be a 27-day challenge for me.

I will be tracking my playing & studying time to measure my progress. Going with around 50/50 split timewise.

The key will be building self-discipline, not wasting time and getting myself around poker even if I don't feel like it. My self-discipline has never been the greatest. I feel like it's absolutely crucial for a poker player though. For a poker player there's no outside authority (aka boss) to ensure you work. Therefore you need self-discipline to get results.

I read some posts about self-discipline at www.stevespavlina.com
Some very interesting quotes:

1. "Self-discipline is like a muscle. The more you train it, the stronger you become. The less you train it, the weaker you become. It takes self-discipline to build self-discipline."

2. "The way to build self-discipline is analogous to using progressive weight training to build muscle. This means lifting weights that are close to your limit. Note that when you weight train, you lift weights that are within your ability to lift. You push your muscles until they fail, and then you rest."

3. "The most basic mistake people make with respect to self-discipline is a failure to accurately perceive and accept their present situation. Until you figure out where you stand right now, you cannot adopt a sensible training program."
This is where I've failed a lot in the past. I would set goals which are out of reach for my current level of discipline, which leads to failure and leaves me feeling bad about myself. Acceptance is the first pillar of self-discipline. I need to accept that my self-discipline is far from where it needs to be in order to be successfull and build from where I'm at, not try to start too high.

4. "Just as there are different muscle groups which you train with different exercises, there are different areas of self-discipline: disciplined sleep, disciplined diet, disciplined work habits, disciplined communication, etc. It takes different exercises to build discipline in each area."
I never realized it before, but this makes so much sense. I'm very disciplined about diet and exercise, but lack discipline when it comes to working and studying.

5. "Use Willpower to Create Self-Sustaining Momentum. Don’t try to tackle your problems and challenges in such a way that a high level of willpower is required every day. Willpower is unsustainable. If you attempt to use it for too long, you’ll burn out. It requires a level of energy that you can maintain only for a short period of time… in most cases the fuel is spent within a matter of days."

6. "By the end of the day, you’ve used your willpower to establish the conditions that will make your goal easier to follow. When you wake up the next morning, you’ll find your environment dramatically changed in accordance with your plan"

7. "When you work on any big goal, your motivation will wax and wane like waves hitting the shore. Sometimes you’ll feel motivated; sometimes you won’t. But it’s not your motivation that will produce results — it’s your action. Persistence allows you to keep taking action even when you don’t feel motivated to do so, and therefore you keep accumulating results."

8. "Passion is nonessential for success.
- Results come from actions (no action, no results)
- Passion can lead to action and therefore generate results
- Self-discipline can also lead to action and therefore generate results
- So passion is NOT required for results"
I always seem to have passion when approaching new goals at first, but when passion begins to fade, I don't have the self-discipline to go on. Steve believes you don't need permanent passion to get results, which is encouraging


Todays goals:
1. Remove all games from computer [X]
2. A minimum of 3 hours of poker, 4 hours max with at least 1,5 hours of studuying. [ ]

4 sessions today. 2 x playing 45 minutes, 2 x studying 45 minutes (one video and one 2+2 session)

Satisfied to make through the first day. 3 hours seems like a really short amount of time but it took a while to get everything done with breaks in between. That's 3 hours effective work, no breaks or sitting in lobby included.

Gonna go for 3hr 45 min tomorrow. That's 5 x 45 min session and try to maintain that through the week.

Things are going as planned so far, allthough I took an off day yesterday to spend it with a friend.

Going to a lot of playing today because it's saturday and the games are soft. I'm still not confortable with multitabling, which hurts hourly. When I play just 1 table I make very good decisions but when I add tables I tend to make mistakes.

sick brag!!!!

This thread is not getting enough love!
My first post on 2+2..

Subbed and inspired.

GL OP, hope everything is fine when u get results.
Since u r scandinavian earning more than 15k€ in 8months is probably way less than your monthly salary atm? Then u must really dislike your current job or just love poker too much

Yeah it's less, but my goal is to make a decent income at the end of the year. Not rigth now.

GL with it...omaha rox...