A decade of being a poker professional and it's only in the last few months where I’ve come to terms with what's prevented my progress and caused an unfulfilling lifestyle. Over the years I've struggled with a poker obsession/addiction, an ego problem, stress, and an unhealthy work/life balance. It must change!

My poker career has not always been my priority as I've often focused on other hobbies/interests as well as running a staking business. This, combined with possessing a 'mental game' weaker than Rory Mcilroy at the 2011 US Masters, and an ego bigger than Cristiano Ronaldo explains why I've struggled to consistently beat games above 200NL.

Inability to control 'tilt' has crippled my bankroll on countless occasions (shown by my volatile 2016 graph), and an attitude of 'I know best' has resulted in poker study being basically non-existent!



Pre-2015 poker was easy, the games were soft and the loyalty rewards were massive. I was content with my 'income' from poker and never strived to improve. During 2014-2016, when staking became my sole focus, I lost touch with the game at precisely the wrong point. As the game evolved with new theory, software and 'whizz-kids', my playing hours decreased. I closed my staking business in 2016 due to financial pressure after buying my first house. I no longer had that bankroll cushion and downswings caused me high levels of stress, impacting my lifestyle and own poker career drastically. I returned to the 'daily grind' where the games were now tougher and loyalty rewards a lot less. A higher likelihood of a downswing affected my 'mental game' and general well-being to the point where I realised I must make changes or quit poker!

This brings me to 2017.… what do I want to achieve?

In a nutshell I want to continue living a healthy lifestyle and get my poker career back on track. I believe incorporating a more professional approach and developing a solid 'mental game' will be the difference between my 2016 winrate of 1.3bb/100 and my 2017 winrate goal of 3bb+/100! So I've started this blog for motivation, monitoring progress, method of study, and to become more involved in the poker community.



Poker Goals:
- winrate 3bb+/100
- 50k hands per month
- transition into 6-max games
- progress from 200NL to 600NL

Study Goals:
- develop a solid 'mental game'
- daily hand reviews
- 3+ hours study per week (database/HUD analysis, training sites, forums etc)
- 2+ blog updates per month
- 2+ videos/streams per month (hand reviews/training/twitch)

Lifestyle Goals:
- 3+ gym sessions per week
- maintain healthy diet/hydration/sleep cycle
- session preparation consistency
- 10 hours max. of work in 1 day
- sessions 3 hours max.
- 1-2 days off per week

I will start 2017 with a foundation of full-ring 200NL games, transitioning into 6-max and higher stakes when I determine it's right. Dictating factors include motivation, confidence, skills, traffic, and table selection. I will be focusing a lot on my 'mental game' throughout 2017 seeing as 6-max is prone to bigger swings, so many of my blog articles will be geared towards these aspects.
I hope you find my blog insightful and interesting.

I will update my progress/blog here but pm me if you want to know my website. Don't think I am allowed to promote here?!

I wish you all the best for 2017, thanks for reading!

Wow, I haven't been on PG&C in probably about a year. Came to post my 2017 goals thread and saw this as the first thread, which is crazy similar to my situation/goals. Weird! Best of luck man, I like your style, will be following along!

thanks man, you too. will follow yours when its up so let me know!

Glgl man, we played a quite a bit of fr hands back in the day

gl chappers

gl chaps, I'm sure we'll punt/tilt off many stacks back and forth to each other this year