Goal... Circuit ring. Enough cashes to build a $100K bankroll. Three to five year goal is to play circuit events every month or two weeks and qualify for Global Championship.

Personal... Mid 50's with a dream. Married for 20 years with a cat. Wife loves to travel and allows my indulgences. Nearly debt free and no real degen tendencies.

Poker... online fish back in the day. Just started playing again in some home games a couple years ago. Slowly improving poker skills thru study and local play of 5 to 20 hours a week. Have always enjoyed tournaments.

WSOPc experience... One min cash, one ME sat win and a good bubble run in a 1000 person field, one humbling BR meltdown in a third event a year ago.

Study... an hour or two every evening, trying to break out of the nitty by nature image and style.

Bankroll... modest $4000 geared towards $1/$3 local home games and cash games at circuit stops. Another $1000 set aside for buyins (sat's, senior, etc...).
All found money get deposited in a can for Targeted Tourney buyin's.

Events...Will not let snobbery rule the day. Small buy in Senior and daily at WSOPc, Card Player, Heartland, WPT events are all on the table.

Year 1 Targets...
WSOPc Cherokee in August 2019 Senior events, Satellite for ME
WSOPc Atlantic City in March 2020 Senior events, Satellite for ME

Possible/Probable
Heartland-Daytona in October 2019 (family visit)
WSOPc Cherokee in November 2019 Senior events, Satellite for ME
WSOPc Cherokee in April 2020 Senior Events, Satellite for ME

Gl, following.

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Edited for clarity

Played 5 hours last night $1/$2 PLO/NLH mix game that plays pretty big.

Felt extremely fortunate to come out only down $70.

Started buying in short for $120 because every session sessions has been having swings of +500 and -500. Bring $500 to the game.

Essentially down $70 in last three sessions and 21 hours which has been better than recent results.

Buying in short means Going busto more slowly and waiting for the enevitable rush of cards and chips.

Effective opponent stacks $300 to $500 buy in with a few stacks climbing up to $1000 or more by the end of the night.

Probably will skip playing this week. Swings have been pretty streaky and don't want to head into Cherokee with any losses and a reduced BR.

Starting from scratch on the learning curve and breaking down the game into segments.

Got me a black book stuffed with information on about every topic.

Going thru my old library of books and have just about wrapped up Harrington Cash Games Vol 1

Also, a Caro book and the new Raymer book.

There is something useful in each book.

Working on many things... Reading, math, looking at HH's.

Weighing a purchase of one of the following... PokerSnowie vs Jonathan Little vs Polk

Leaning PokerSnowie because I am such a nitty player and need help expanding my raising hands, calling hands, and bluffing hands.

Decided F'it, and reached one of my life's goals.
Cashed out of everything and will pay off mortgage this week.

Should have done it in 2016. Ran good in the stock market averaging 33% annually from the depths of the financial crisis.

Easy money has been made. Gave some back last year thanks to GE collapse.

Set aside money to pay estimated taxes, and should be debt free going forward or owe less than $20k which is close enough.

Karma is a witch... and got it's cut…. Gonna need $10K for my wife and an upcoming operation.

Put half my bankroll towards the operation so reduced to $2000 for cash and what's in the "can"

The "can" is a paint can with a superglued top set with found money set aside for upcoming events.

I don't consider $2K a bankroll... haha... and I could cheat myself (and my wife) and hold money back for gambling, but betting on sports and poker have taught me only to gamble with what you can afford to lose and levels that won't blow up confidence.

Good conscience and good poker is the goal and if I do my part, it will grow within the goal time table set. Balance between no shortcuts and peace of mind is the strategy.

Seen too many challenges blow up into daytrading, cars, and other desperate BR crushing pursuits.

Got plans for 2nd Cherokee weekend with my wife.

Will try to slip away for a quick shot at the 1st Seniors Event on Sunday Aug 4th.

Busted the can and came up with a measley $530. That will get me a Senior buyin for both weekends. If I skip the first weekend, might throw half at a MESat on Friday night.

Hopefully I can run up the $2K in the SNG's and cash games. Did so last year...

If not reload...

Good luck with this man.

Good luck! Will be in Cherokee the first weekend, which is this coming weekend. Playing Event #2 and cash while I am there.

Work and life got in the way of my first weekend plans.

I really was hoping to get up and play the last flight of event #2

Coulda made it, but was physically and mentally beat.

Just no way to justify a 12-14 hour round trip to play the Seniors event.

Gonna look forward to Thursday and the weekend.

Pease share an update on how your fare!

No glory to report.

Day 1...
Down $475 in combined SNG and side bets
Lost $135 in nightly tourney
Lost $250 first hand all in ME sat
Won $135 in four hours cash game $1/2

Day 2...
Chilled by pool
Played event #11 $400 buy in. Seat 87 seat 9.
Played pretty good thru first two breaks. Lost an all in race vs short stack. Choked on river when I didn't fire third bullet in a desperate bluff. Crippled to $10k and died a quick death vs AK when my KJ suited let me down.
A bit tilted stayed in and watch Shaft

Day 3...
Headed to Asheville and Chimney Rock then to Grove Park Inn for lunch with my wife. Will play the next $400 later today.

More derailed trip report to follow with pics and HH etc...

Day three...
Threw away $120 on an Elvis slot machine my wife had a hot tip on.
Blew $120 at the craps table
Sunk $375 into SNG's
Another $135 in the nightly.

Probably will lick my wounds and head home early tommorrow.

Reached my limit...

In November will just pony up the $1700 for the Main Event and quit dinking around with SNG's

Been a fun time with wife celbrating anniversary.

Packing up... counted BR... just under $1200 remaining

Had tapped some savings to help with funds.

Was going to play the Seniors #2 but decided I gave up enough to the poker gods for one weekend. Mind is not there. Last night just played stupid

Trip report with pics to come when I get settled back in the bunker.

Humbled short term but confident long term I will reach goal.

Recap and Final Talley... Down $-1875 for the weekend.

SNG... -$850 Wasn't competitive in any of them except one. Tables were tough but my mindset was sheet for some reason. Recipe for bleeding cash.

Nightly $135... -$270 Played okay and got aggressive trying to double up and went busto

Main Event Satellite... -$250 Got my ticket, went to assigned table, got my chips and direction to new table. Gone in sixty seconds though the confusion lasted twice as long haha. Sit down, folds around to HiJack who bets around $1500. I look at T/T in SB and go all in first hand. Didn't have time to count, then realized then I was short chips (just figured you get blinded off some how as I have never registered late). He thinks, calls, and I lose race to AQ. Then some guys question me and realize the WSOPc director only gave me 3500 to 4000 chips. Caused a bit of a stir and I hung around to make sure opponent got his extra chips. Always something file... see below

Event #11... -$400 Played pretty well on Table 87 Seat #9. Nearly crippled my neighbor when I flopped a 6 for a set. Bluffed and raised and played pretty well leading up to second break near 30K. As my table mates busted or were moved, pro players moved in and it became progressively tougher. Can't remember their names but recognize their face types from Hendon Mob. Lost an all in AK vs QJ for about 8K. Then got KJ suited. Bet 2500 call, call. Lots of paint and get a draw. Bet 5K call, call blank. Now my 2.5K and 5K raises brought calls and I am effectively down to about 10K. Instead of shoving all in bluff I check. That will haunt me because pro in seat #1 turns over 55 and wins pot. Other opponent apparently missed his draw. Busted out a while later... ARGHH Hand will haunt me for a long time cause I think I was now crippled to 10BB and might as well go out on my shield.

As one player said, there will be one hand that defines the tourney. Same story last year. It wont happen again as it was seared into my pain sensors.

Slots/craps... -250

Cash game +135

Always something file... learn something new every time out! Typically stupid stuff like betting with a 5K chip instead of 500 or not paying attention to size of raise. This trip it was being shorted chips in the ME Sat which again was my fault. (See above). Then thirty minutes into the $400 the dealer shoves pot I won to other guy. My half the table was like WTF... Seat one played dumb. Dealer listened to our half hearted protest, paused, and then kept dealing. LOL! It was only a 300 chip pot so I let it go.

Famous faces... never in my 53 years had I felt so star struck LOL...had to pull out the phone and a pic with Lon McEachern in Brio after another fan did the same. He was very gracious and his wife was patient and understanding. Saw Norm earlier in a dark corner on his phone but chickened out.

SNG failure was a shock to me because I love playing them and have generally fared well. Just tilted away needlessly trying to play catchup.

All in all a wonderful trip with quality time spent with my wife. Can't emphasize enough this part of the trip. She is my biggest supporter, believer, and best friend. We like to retrace my old college days from Brevard and hit the sites around Asheville and WNC.

Felt good about the cash game and tourney. Just need to refine a few things. Did not feel overwhelmed by the competition like I have in past events or cash games.

Need to rethink priorities when selecting games. The first weekend smaller buy in multi day events or the second weekend Main Event weekend will be the target.

In hindsight, I would have rather played the ME for the same amount of money. By product would be a larger and softer field to hide, seek, and steal chips. I think that structure is better for my nitty style (though I am working on that part).

Regroup, rebuild, and recoup looking towards November Cherokee.

Played one frustrating session this week.

Up $400 and down $400 all evening... two big bonehead mistakes.

6 hours -$480

On the brighter side... won $300 sports betting.