Hey everyone, just another poker lover looking to change his life. I am not looking to go pro by any means, but rather looking to make poker a successful side hustle.

Some background on myself: I am a 31 year old family man, happily married with four kids at home. They are active with sports (basketball and soccer), music (drums and the violin) and my oldest is in school plays, and I am very active with them. How do I plan on having time for poker? Well, as of now, I work full time in banking, and look to continue advancing my career there. I like the stability, the health insurance, the retirement savings, etc. However, it isn't enough money to fully support the family right now. I bartend 20 or 25 hours a week as well... and I'm tired of it. I want poker to step in and be that second form of income, and potentially to even change our lives significantly for the better.

My poker background: I was once a college student addicted to Full Tilt... and I was a terrible losing player. I was insanely nitty when I was sober and would donk off all my chips when I was drunk. Then, I didn't play for a couple years. I came back to it, read about a dozen or so poker books and embraced my style. I played around 700 hours of live 1/2 and 1/3 and made about 12 BB an hour over the course of a couple years. However, my finances were still in shambles and then my youngest son was born and I didn't play poker for money at all, other than a .25/.50 home game, for about a year and a half. This year I've played twice... a 1/3 session where I won about $460 and a MTT where I chopped the top two and made about $3000. A small sample size, but I truly feel like I have what it takes to at least be a consistent winning player. I've got on track financially, improved my credit, paid off a lot of debt and trimmed the monthly bills to a manageable amount. Regardless, I am still tired of having to work such lengthy hours and want to turn poker into a real source of income so I can quit the bar gig and have more flexibility to enjoy my time with my family.

My poker plan: Two-pronged: 1. to take pot shots at MTT's, which are historically my strongest area, and hopefully achieve the big score and 2. to slowly play more and more live cash games over time so eventually it replaces my bartending job

My goals before 2019 is over:

Pay off all 6 of my credit cards with a balance (small balances at least)
cash in one of the WPT tournaments I plan on playing in late Sept./early Oct.
reach 10k in poker winnings by the end of the year
read 5 poker related books
get a promotion during my day job

Goals for 2020:

Quit my second job!
consistently play poker 10-20 hours a week
Turn a 25k profit for the year playing poker
play in the WSOP Millionaire Maker in Vegas

Most important goal: Achieve a new level of work-life balance previously unattainable.

Always looking for input and advice, especially on the educational aspect of the game. I am looking for some good poker books, because as of now I have a lot more time to study than I do to play.

Seems reasonable. Maybe when you can, or as a reward for paying off a credit card, join Upswing.

Where are you located? In my experience, the lower two tiers of poker 1/3 and 2/5 anywhere other than Vegas are super beatable by playing very value heavy, and c-betting range appropriately + when flopping where you could turn and river runouts to barrel on.

5/10 is when you'd need to worry more about balance and cut back on the c-bets imo, but even then only if the lineups are tough. Outside of Vegas a lot of times you can get the 2/5 fun players to play 5/10 and be in a great game.

One thing that's really improved my game from when i used to play full-time is remember that poker is customer service just like bartending. Not with other regs/pros though. Make those guys who don't mind dusting off a few buyins feel comfortable and find things to talk with them about. Have a couple drinks with them. Find some jokes and if a reg/pro makes them uncomfortable, go at the reg/pro.

Good luck.

I'm the dad to 4 kids as well. I'm looking forward to reading about your poker adventures. I've heard really good things about The Grinder's Manual. It's geared towards 6max online cash, but a lot of people have said it's helped their game.

Thanks! I'm located in Maryland, so online isn't an option for me and I prefer live games anyway. Most of my play with be at Maryland Live!, But I'll occasionally venture out to MGM or Horseshoe Baltimore.

I checked out Upswing and the free content was a nice teaser... I may make that investment in the future. It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I hit the felt, but I'll continue studying in the meantime.

GL on your ventures brother. As a fellow side-hustle cash game grinder in my 30s, the book I'd recommend that made a big difference in my game is The Course by Ed Miller. Really helped me polish my game and make the transition to 2/5 and be successful.

At first reading the title, I was a bit sceptical. Hmm, a family guy who wants to improve his life through poker?
But after you explained everything so well, I'd find it hard for anybody not to root for you.
Gl!