Hi everyone,

I'm an Asian poker player living in New Zealand. I am working full time currently but I don't really like my job. However, I do love poker and has been playing since I was 20 y/o.

I started off in Zynga poker and thought I was a good player and went to casino once I was 20 y/o. Won my first session in a 1/3 game with beginners luck and got hooked ever since. I mainly play live and sometimes online in a PP Poker club. Not a crusher, just a slight winner.

Long story short - I'm trying to do really well in poker this year and win 20k so that I can buy into the Aussie Millions in 2020 and win the Main Event and quit my job and then retire and move to Australia and play poker all the time.

My gf hates it that I play so much poker as I don't spend much time with her so I can only play like 10 to 15 hours a week to avoid drama with the gf.

I have a separate life roll and poker roll. My current job can support my lifestyle and put aside some savings for a house deposit so I won't be withdrawing from my poker roll at all.

I will be posting each sessions and some interesting hands and hopefully the Poker Gods will shine on my this year

Shout out to Meale and JDawg (two of my big inspiration to post here )

Target: 0/20,000

Best of luck on your journey.

Thanks man

So I played my first session of the year yesterday. Played 5/5 PLO in a pretty terrible table. Quite tight, not much action. Just 1 notable hand which I butchered and ended up getting stacked (see below for carnage)....

Around 1700 effective stacks. 7 handed. 3 limpers, I had Q1095. I raised to 30 on the button. Everyone called. Pot was 125.

Flop came Q106. MP (old chinese guy who is one of the better players, play fairly standard) pots to 125. CO flat calls. I re-raised to 550, thinking that I block top two sets and I've seen MP donking pot before with a strong draw and wrap. Looking back, re-raising was a terrible play when all I had was a backdoor flush and backdoor straight. MP snap re-potted and CO folded. I thought about it for 1 minute and then called, praying he didn't have a set. MP showed Q1058 which dominates my backdoor flush and has a flush re-draw. I cry a bit inside.

We ran it twice and he runner runner a straight for the first time and hit the flush the second time. Lost the 3.6k pot both times FML.

Looking back, I should have flat called the flop and folded the turn if he pots again. I was very tired during the hand which led to the bad decision I guess. Very dissapointed with myself

I re-bought and played in another juicier PLO table and got dealt aces for like 4 times in an hour and managed to run it up and ended the session up +665 which I am happy about.

Good luck everyone for the rest of the year

Target: 665/20,000

Good luck! Why does it matter that you're asian?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Thanks man! I dunno... It shouldn't matter at all I guess?

Back in casino for the second session now. PLO game is full at the moment and I'm 3rd on the list at the moment so playing 5/5 holdem now. Pretty tough table but I've been getting a good run of cards so I am up about 300 at the moment now. Let's hope it stays that way.

Ok got smashed in the second session. Nothing was going my way at all. Was down -$2765 for the night after losing $2.7k pot after jamming set of kings against set of 10s and a nut flush draw on the flop. Ran it once and the 10 came in river.

Hopefully it gets better next week!

Target: -2,100/20,000

Played after work while waiting for the GF for dinner in a 1/3 game at casino and ran insanely hot. Was up $1090.

Then had dinner and got invited to a 5/5 PLO home game which started at 9.30pm. It was a really good game but the rake was quite high (capped at 25). Though we got free food and drinks. Problem is that most people smoked and I felt that I was getting lung cancer lol. Played till 2am which was way later than I initially planned. I had to get up for work at 7am so had less than 4.5 hours sleep. I'm so tired today

Anyway, was up 900 in the home game so it's not too bad.

Target: -110/20,000

This is a horrible goal jesus ****ing christ why is nobody speaking up about this. You're going to spend all that time/effort in order to purchase a one-time lottery ticket?

That's a pretty bad goal tbh and will significantly hinder your goal of making poker your full time job.

You likely won't be able to make that relationship work if you are playing poker full time. Poker isn't a 40 hour a week 9-5 shift with lunch breaks job. The main times you'll be playing poker are the times that she's off work. It's hard for significant others who are cool with gambling for a living to handle the schedule and the demands of the job, if you're starting off with her having a negative attitude towards poker, it's basically already doomed.

Why is your plan to move to Australia to play poker? What value does Australia have over where you currently live, or other places where you could move to?

Hmm... Why is that a horrible goal? I mean if I am good enough to make 20k, then I should be good enough to have a chance at winning a tournament right? Dare to dream....

I will try my best to make it work. I think if I show her that I can win $1 million dollars in the Aussie Millions, she will change her mindset, which is why I set that goal. $1 million is a lot of money and that will set us both up for life nicely.

I plan to move to Australia because it has 24 hour poker in casinos in Melbourne and Sydney. But in Auckland, they only have 1 casino where the poker don't start until 5pm on weekdays and the player pool is small with a quite a few solid regs. I prefer to play in Melbourne or Sydney where there is a much larger player pool to choose from.


UPDATE: Did a small 2 hour session on 1/3, made $123. So I'm officially back in the green again!


TARGET: +13/20,000

Because tournaments have extremely high variance, and on average you're not going to get anything back. Thus, you're gambling your entire bankroll on getting lucky, it doesn't matter how good you are.

Pretty sure OP is joking... I hope anyway.

I like OP's goal, don't we all wanna win the lottery?

You don't need to win the aussie millions to live from poker..

But would be nice.. GL man.. hope I see you on youtube at the final table!

That was my only take away from his initial post. Actually when I read that line I expected the next sentence to be something like, "Lol, just kidding, here's my actual goal..." Guess he wasn't kidding.


Nobody spends a year grinding up 20k to sink it all into one tournament when their honest chances of even a min cash are like 15%. In your opening remarks you say you're a slightly winning player but somehow you're going to enter a five figure buyin MTT against a field full of legit poker players and take it down?

Do they have satellite tournaments? That would be the route I'd look in to.

Well I currently have a full time job which pays for all my life expenses and also allow me to save a little as well so it's not like I'm dumping my entire life savings in one tournament.

Yeah I'll try to win some satellites. But overall I think I need to take big risks while I'm young before it's too late.

...why? What's going to happen 5 years from now that will prevent you from taking a "risk"? You'll have more money and more knowledge? OH NO!

Also, if you REALLY thought that way, you'd take out loans and go play the Aussie Millions this year. But you don't actually feel that way about risk, you're just using that as an excuse to justify punting off a majority of your profits because you view them as "house money" that you can gamble with instead of the more reasonable view which is that it's your money which can grow into more.

^ Why do you care so much? Let the man do what he wants. GL OP

Nothing wrong with taking risks. This isn't a calculated risk though and the idea that you have to do something while you're young before it's too late is, well inexperienced thinking. I imagine while trying to build your bankroll you're following some sort of bankroll management to get there. Does it make much sense to follow a bankroll plan only to reach your short term goal and then all out abandon sensible money management in the end? If playing professionally is the ultimate goal then you should be treating the entire endeavor as a business.

I don't value being critical without offering up an alternate solution. Obviously it would be fantastic if your plan worked out and you had something to show for it in the end. One thought I had is if your are able to build your bankroll to 20k in 12-18 months while playing 10-15 hours per week just think of what you could earn by playing full time. Not sure what your expenses look like but if you proved over a years time that you were a winning player (sample size) then theoretically you could play 40-50 hours per week and have a legit shot at earning more than double your current goal per year.

Setting a goal to grind out a roll large enough to fire one bullet in a major tournament with very little expectation of even cashing is not a wise investment in time or money. Best of luck either way.

Nah I don't view them as house money, not at all. Money is just money to me regardless of where they came from. I treat them all the same and I am quite a frugal person. It's just a dream of mine to play in Aussie Millions that's all. And I'm not punting it all off in 1 event. The main event is 10.6k so that leaves me with just under 10k to play cash games and other side events if I brick the main.

To many people my goals might be a bit ridiculous, but hey you only live once so I'm gonna take my shot.

I won't be play today or tomorrow but hoping to put in a big session on Friday.

Plus travel, plus hotel room, plus food, plus your chick is going to want to come with because she probably views it as a vacation for you. The costs to playing tournament poker are way higher than just the buy in.

Also you haven't answered my question. If money is money, and it's a dream of yours to play the Aussie Millions, and you think (I'm assuming) that you are good enough to be +ev in it, why not play it this year? Waiting a full year, and grinding lower games, doesn't really fit into your YOLO/risky shot taking strategy.

Nah I already told her if I go I'll be going by myself as I would spend all of my time in casino and won't have time with her. The travel expenses can be covered from my savings from my job so no worries there.

I wanted to play this year, but I only just moved to a new job to a new city to be with my gf 2 months ago so I can't take 2 weeks off work right after I start. Plus it is going to be a big hit to my savings and roll if I brick it this year. If next year I have 20k spare then it wouldn't be so bad if I brick

Good for you man, I'm in a somewhat similar position but will be using my profits to get a home deposit. I'll be following this thread