Welcome

I do not have too much time on my hands for a really detailed first post, (I mainly want to list my goals and just give some background on poker) but will expand on it as the thread progresses and there's demand from the readers. By the way I just turned 24.

First I want to say that in September 2014 I quit my job and decided to take poker seriously being a complete beginner (barely beating 5nl). Started with a £500 bankroll, but have only deposited around £200 on a soft euro site where I quickly moved up to 25NL and took a failed shot at 50nl. I was breaking even there for a while and was persuaded by a midstakes cash player to try MTTs as they are really soft in comparison. I have done decent in them and although second month went completely downwards I made around $1400 a month over 5 months. Due to not running well in the higher buyins and losing motivation to keep studying I could not sustain a living in London and decided to move back to my home country Lithuania where I never picked up poker until end of december 2015.

December 2015 - My views and goals have drastically changed to the point where I decided to try again, however my Dad completely disagreed with it (even smashed my laptop's screen, luckily I have a seperate 27" for grinding). So in my own eyes my only choice was to chase my dreams and to do so I had to leave with $40 in my ps account and a couple euros in my pocket. Thanks to all my friends who have not left me hanging, I found a nice place to stay and my expenses a month are around $500. Started with playing cash 5NL zoom for more stable income instead of MTTs (not like I could anyway with $40 ). And plan on focusing on cash to eventually achieve the freedom that I want and reduce the hours by at least half when I reach higher limits. Now my goal for this year is 100NL but by no means this is where I want to stop, I will continue learning and improving to the point where it still doesn't take up most of my day to make a comfortable living. It's understandable that 100NL will be tough for a beginner but 50NL should be beatable by the end of December this year.

Now getting to the current situation - it's not all bright and beautiful after pretty much 2 months of playing. I ran well in the beginning, managed to move to 10nl and even shot 16nl zoom but failed and due to having to withdraw had to move down rather quickly. My bankroll now is $150 and I still have to withdraw $350 in the next two weeks time. This means that unless I get a lot better at putting in volume and beating the games, 10NL is not reachable until April. Pretty sure that my skillset is enough to beat 10NL and Goldstar is within reach too by the end of this month - so either way I will get there soon.

By the end of 2016:
[ ]Winning player at 50NL
[ ]Shot taking at 100NL
[ ]Playing no more than 8 regular or 3 zoom tables
[ ]99% in control of my poker mindset and excellent discipline
[ ]Exercise - daily walks + jogging, full body work out and stretch at least 3 times a week
[ ]Diet - as much vegan as possible with no more than 1 cheat day a week (dairy, meat)
[ ]Meditating and working with myself everyday for at least half an hour
[ ]Out of UK - living/travelling to South America/Europe maybe Asia (going back to UK next month), possibly living in a poker house.

By the end of april 2016:
[ ]Move up to 10NL
[ ]Do not delete a perfectly normal database just because the graph does not look good or I made a big mistake that cost me a buyin (Big issue for me, hence there will be no graph in my first post and guess what, I'm starting with a fresh database for this challenge )
[ ]Stop looking at the meaningless EV line which doesn't pay my bills
[ ]Not lose at non showdowns with the same rate as I win at showdowns, so better than 1:1 ratio, maybe (nSD)1:2(SD)+? (Autopiloting too much, hope this keeps me focused untill I get used to thinking about all decisions)
[ ]Improve my discipline and have a schedule that I follow for daily tasks
[ ]Normal sleeping pattern (waking up before 6 am) instead of playing until 5am like I do now
[ ]Exercise - daily walks + jogging, full body work out and stretch at least 3 times a week
[ ]Diet - as much vegan as possible with no more than 1 cheat day a week (dairy, meat)
[ ]Meditating and working with myself everyday for at least half an hour

Since it's Sunday, next week's goals are as follows:
[ ]1-2 hours of study before sessions
[ ]48+ hours of play, 8h+ x6 days a week
[ ]Get back into the habit of marking hands during play and posting on the forum ones I cannot workout on my own
[ ]No autopiloting, continue thinking about both ranges even when holding the nuts, we'll see how the redline is doing. (I should be playing 2 or 3 max zoom tables (or even better - 4 regular) but would not be able to move up)
[ ]No more than 30mins of time wasting before I complete my routine - catching up with news/talking to friends
[ ]Definitely no searching for music on youtube during play or any other stuff for that matter, everything can wait
[ ]Play one MTT max at a time within bankroll limits
[ ]Stop looking at the graph every time I've gone up or down a couple buyins
[ ]Stop playing right away if something is bothering my emotional state and do whatever it takes to get back to normal, wasting time is not an option (including being tired)
[ ]Attempt to find a study group/poker buddy or a forum where I could share my input and find help myself
[ ]Continue adding weekly goals during the week that I am still able to complete before the end.
[ ]Skim read all my goals daily in the morning.

Other:

Will be editing the main and short term goals except weekly in this first post.

Plan to come back with an update every 2-4 days but will likely post trouble and fun hands daily. (dont think it's good to clutter the thread with everyday graphs although I will play a lot of hands so I'm happy to consider your suggestions)

I guess I will not be sharing my screen name before I stop sharing hands and strategy here but stay tuned. Wish my self and all of you a run good (now that I can )

Any questions, suggestions or comments not just poker related are welcome, no offence will be taken, I am here to improve, experience something new and confront my ego when needed.

Good luck with your goals and i think you are really driven into this and i wish you the best! Getting really motivated by reading this with the song you posted

What do you study before every session?

I have a discipline problem wasting time on facebook each session and i have to work on that like your problem searching on youtube while sessions

Liking the structure of your goals! Keep disciplined with the little things and i'm sure the bigger targets will follow.
Mark and review hands as much as possible - all the questionable spots win/lose.
Maybe avoid the high living costs of London!

Good luck... Will look out for your progress!

Thanks man, I play with flopzilla a bit and usually carefully watch pro videos. By that I mean pause/play before every action to compare it to mine and then try to understand why they do it differently.

Same as me! I think most of us do but since not many work on a computer they can get away with it. Just have to not take the action that your mind wants you to.. You can listen to it asking you to waste time and make different excuses but just dont take action, maybe instead watch a motivational video or take your thoughts somewhere else that you actually care about.

Thanks bro, I actually think you could be a good manager, defo wont let me slack

Happy I made this thread, followed all that I set out, 8 hours+rungood

Also I've got mixed feelings about the redline although I lose less than usual, I may have missed some obvious spots to bluff but other than that there were many multiway pots. My won when saw flop is 46 and I have been 3betting much less due to not having hands on people.

Kind of have to update everyday with such results.. Please continue so I dont have to wait over a month for 10nl! Although I have to be making some 10zoom regs jealous with such day



And my redline has defo stopped diving now, really happy.

Key hand

GL you will probably see me playing at the tables too!

Nice progress OP gl!

why not just work a small regular job and grind up on the side? Seems like soo much unnecessary stress to be grinding out a living at NL5. Or get a good staking deal.
Like the song and wish you the best of success!

You too! See you around

Thanks!

Makes sense. I have tried playing poker when I had a job and found it rather hard to play well with decent volume. Also it' kind of good to get the experience built up even at the micros.

Never really thought about staking.. I guess it sounds good just not sure of the value I would get. 50/50 split which is most common I think is quite a bit. Maybe someone with experience can comment on this

Just to mention, I play 1 mtt or 180 sng on the side so hopefully that will give me a boost soon.. (only 1$ onces so do need to take the 1st or 2nd ) Once at 10nl I am pretty sure I can put enough money aside to move to 16nl and up without having to wait 2 months

Thanks!

gl man!

for a healthier and solid mind: take psychedelics. you will boost your spiritual and creative side too.

Thank you! I only recently seriously started thinking of this option.. starting to meditate is really hard in the beginning and you can quickly lose motivation. But then again, its more beneficial to boost it yourself.

I think I might try it nevertheless when I go back to UK, just have to convince someone who's done it before to do it with me

No beautiful and huge graph for yesterday, my mood was a little destroyed but I recovered and put in this session until I had to do some catching up with one of my best friends.



I did however play some of the usual micro MTTs and managed 6th for $40, disappointing as at least last 2 tables were only filled with weaker players and I couldn't win a coinflip when I was 3/6



Also some obvious collusion going on in the morning hours ET

Good luck OP

5 to shots at .50/1.00.. playing 8 tables per session? good luck. you'll never do it, but good luck.

Appreciate all the good wishes!

This attitude will get you nowhere and that's as solid of a statement as it gets.

Imagine what it must of looked like to people with your attitude when "idiots" tried to make several ton birds fly in the air.


Today I only played 6 hours.. Went to bed at 7am due to that MTT and it's not a good excuse but I will try to make it up as the week comes to an end or into the next week to make this a 48hour week as planned.

Swingy as hell this was! I am real happy that it didn't affect my emotions at all. I was a tilt monkey 2 years back so its quite an achievement for me.



Tomorrow (today) I will have to play at least 8 or 9 hours to finally make it to the goldstar. Just in time before the goldstar vip tourney on saturday.


I've had 2 fun hands with QQ and same style regs if you can call them that.

First one really nailed the sizing on the flop against me, 4.20.. Could not resist and thought he was full of smoke.



Then to make matters worse I get into the same spot, but this time deeper