I've done a few challenges in the past on here with very little success. This time around I'm gonna be committed to it. The reason being is I'm moving from my hometown in Illinois too Florida to see if I have what it takes too reach the high stakes on Ignition with no distractions.

I am currently playing 100nl and my plan is too get up too 200nl asap and prove I can beat it at a decent clip. I will be moving down there in 2 weeks. I am excited to get down there and see what I can do. I will be out of my comfort zone at first but I will be around a super positive and solid poker player that I'm sure I will benefit from a lot.(I was listening to motivational speeches and one of the phrases was. "Become comfortable with being uncomfortable") I'm excited about getting away from my hometown and being in a place where I don't know anybody except the fellow poker player I mentioned above that lives down there.

Life goals 2017

1) become a more positive person. Don't sweat the small stuff and find the good in things that come my way this year.

2) lose 100 pounds by eating healthy and completing the insanity workout. I tried insanity for a month last year and lost 40 pounds by eating right and working out the 6 out of 7 days. But before I started month 2 I was back to my old eating habits of junk food and soda and quit working out

3) Travel to 10 new places ive never been. Travel to at least one place outside of the U.S.

Poker goals 2017

1) Most important goal for me poker wise this year is volume. I started off last year playing 80-100 hours for a few months while working full time and that went way down too 40 to 60 hours a month with most of it being closer to 40. Since ill be be in Florida and wont be working my normal full time job anymore. I will be shooting for 100-150 hours a month

2)move up too 200nl and beat it within the first 3 months in Florida

3) Playing up too 600nl before the end of the year

4) go to a few circuit stops and grind cash and a few mtts

5) Go to the WSOP and play cash games and some mtts

gl, florida is great

how long have you been playing online for?

Subscribed. Good luck and post here often.

been playing on and off since 2009 but started playing online cash in December of 2015

tyty will be updating weekly for sure.

100 lbs is a lot of weight to lose.

Insanity is a great workout. I still do it on and off when I don't go to the gym.

GL with all your goals.

I have done a month worth of insanity in the past with good results but then my shin splints from college came back and I ended up quitting which lead me to start eating bad again.

100 lbs is def a lot and although its gonna be tough it can def become a reality with hard work and especially good nutrition. It will be a tough but fun battle this year for me as far as poker and my health goals.

Thanks for following along

update for the first week of the new year

Health wise I am eating a little better then normal as I prepare for my move to florida. I lost 3 pounds on the week from pretty much eating less calories and doing a bunch of physical labor work at the job for the majority of the week.

Poker wise I was up almost 7 bi in 8 hours but lost 4 buyins back tonight in 3 hours. Started the session off playing good and running well but then got coolered 3 or 4 times pre for stacks as well as some post flop pots where I was a big favorite and couldn't hold after the money went in.

I'm excited to get down to Florida and start grinding a lot of hours and working on becoming fit. Currently I try to play 2 hours a night after work but most nights I'm pretty tired after about 30 min into the session due to relaxing in a chair instead of constantly moving. I usually stand up and stretch or do a quick 5 or 10 pushups but it only helps for a few minutes it seems.

This week hasn't been going well at all. I hit stop loss 2x and almost again yesterday.

I have been running pretty bad but also being honest with myself I have made a few bad plays as well, especially when being down a few buyins in the session. It use to not bother me when I would lose big flips or get coolered/suckedout on but for some reason its been getting under my skin.

I personally think it has to to do with the daily grind at my normal job and then trying to grind a few solid hours at night when my mental game isn't on point.

I decided to take the night off and look over some of my hands and come back fresh tomorrow night for an hour or 2.

The journey to Florida was one I will never forget. In my hometown there was freezing rain on the radar for Fri-Mon so I decided to just wait and leave Saturday morning. I woke up at 6am and it was raining and the roads were slick but I have drove on worse. I was on the road at 7am since I did not want to be driving through Atlanta after the Falcons home game playoff. The first 4 hours it was raining and the highways were well salted so it was a pretty smooth drive.

The smooth drive ended when I was passing through Nashville. I was going around a semi and when I had clearance I turned the wheel to the right to go into the right lane. At that moment I blew out my right rear tire, my truck just hit pretty hard to the right so I grabbed the wheel and held on, I looked in the mirrors and the cars behind me slammed on their breaks and were letting me know I could go to the left shoulder of the highway. I have never had a tire blowout like that before and the bad news is it was raining, so I had to change it which wasn't too pleasant. I am super thankful I didn't crash and cause a pileup as it was either 4 or 5 lanes wide with lots of traffic.

Since that happened in Nashville, it put me behind my initial driving schedule and I passed through ATL after the playoff game was over and was stuck in traffic for a solid hour or more. Ended up getting to the Florida house ~3:30AM

Finally got all settled in this afternoon and played for a total of 5 hours and finished up a few buyins. I can already feel a weight lifted off my shoulders being in this new environment. I think I will be able to put in a lot of volume as well as achieve my poker goals being here

Glad you made it safe and sound, what a journey!

This whole transition will be trying mentally, and create a lot of external pressures on you, so it will be more important than ever for you to not play focused on results or watching the cashier or thinking about winning or losing, but for each hand that is front of you to focus on doing what is best for that individual hand in that moment regardless of the big picture.

Thanks for this. I have came back a few times just to read this quote when things don't go as planned.

I have been in Florida for 12 days now and have put in 70 hours on the tables resulting in being down a few buy ins. Things haven't gone as planned but still happy with the volume I'm being able to put In and plan on keeping it up with the same amount or more. The other player down here has been very helpul by looking over hh's with me. He has also helped with positivity, I sometimes get down on myself when a session ends bad by me hitting stop loss.

Other then poker I have not done much exploring down here since the plan is to put in volume and make money. I still believe I will win and when I have a few solid weeks/months I will be able to go and check out a few cities within a few hours drive.

I will be in Florida for the next 6 days before flying out to go on my annual guys trip to Las Vegas which I am looking forward too since my dad and 2 brothers go. Will be fun to spend sometime with them and play some live poker out there. I think this will be a nice little break from the online grind for me. I'm sure once I'm out there for a few days I will be ready to get back to the online grind and get this thing going back in the right direction.

Haven't played much in February due to me going to Las Vegas for my all guys gambling trip. It was a nice fun and relaxing trip from the online grind. I got to see a few things out there that I wasn't able to get around too the last few times I was there. We went to the air force base which was pretty cool being I've never been to one. Also got to check out the Shelby museum, (def gotta become wealthy so I can get one of those super snakes)

I ended up playing quite a bit of video poker and penny slots with the fam to catch up as well as gamble. Luckily I only lost a few hundred for the weekend playing these games. Poker wise I ended up playing 8 hours while out there. 6 of them was at the Orleans which the action was amazing due to the superbowl I'm sure. ended up +1k at the Orleans and the other 2 hours were at redrock and the games were meh with breaking even while there.

overall it was a good trip and glad I got to go and hang out with my old man 2 brothers and uncle. didn't take any pics this year of the gambling or food so no pics this time around.

Back in Florida now and I come back being in a good amount of makeup. It has been frustrating since the plan is to never give this thing a go fulltime and run bad and get going in the wrong direction. I have a coaching session tomorrow with my coach which I am excited about. Everytime I have a 1 on 1 meeting I come out learning at least 1 thing new if not more. We cannot control variance but we can play each hand the best we can. I will continue to pump in the volume and turn this thing around.

im in

In, good luck.

Where in Illinois are you from?

tyty sir

tyty I am orig from the soybean capital of the world

I've been putting in an alright amount of volume since I've been back from Vegas.(~50 hours) I'm gonna pump out the hours the rest of this month with goal playing at least 120 hours this month. I had a good coaching session as well as been talking about a bunch of spots with the roommate and it has def helped with making some adjustments to my technical game. Since the coaching session and hh reviews with the roomie I'm on a 18 bi upswing (playing 50nl) which has def lifted some of the tension I was feeling from running bad at100nl the previous month.

Life wise things have been going good. I have cut out fast food, soda, and fried foods from diet. I haven't craved soda or the fast food but fried chicken and pretty much most delicious things fried I get the occasional temptation. (good thing I left the deep fryer back in IL) I also started the insanity workout back up on Monday and just completed the first week. The first 3 days were pretty rough especially the next day waking up super sore. The last 3 days I have felt pretty good during the workouts even though I cant go as fast as the people on the screen, but pleased with me sticking to it and giving it my best. Waking up I am no longer sore that it sucks getting out of bed and I am more excited to do the next workout rather then dread it like the first few days. I am gonna keep this momentum and continue to eat right and stick to this workout.

Here is the graph from my first day in Florida to the day before I left for my Las Vegas trip

[IMG][/IMG]

and here is the graph since being back minus some buyins from today and yesterday

[IMG][/IMG]

I just finished up day 15 of insanity with the fit test. I am happy with my effort and results so far. There were def a few days I didn't feel like working out but turned it on and pushed through the intense workout. The fit test is 8 different exercises you do every 15 days and some of them are pretty tough. I seen improvement on each one with a few really blowing away my numbers from the first fit test.

I am keeping a progress sheet of my starting weight (302 lbs) as well as some measurements of my body. I haven't really made much progress in my measurements other then like a 1/2 " but my current weight is 293 so I am pretty happy about that.

Poker wise I am back to playing 2 tables of 100nl thanks to putting in the volume as well as making the ft of a $22 mtt to help get me over the hump to get me back 2 100nl tables. I am still in a decent chunk of makeup but I am going to be grinding hard in March.

My goals for March are

1) Play 200 hours (if I can win at 4bb/100 ill get out of makeup and have a decent chunk when its time to chop profits

2) Get back up too 4 100nl tables and win so I can add in 1 200nl table

3) Post at least 10 hands to my skype group or coaches

4) Continue to not miss an insanity workout and lose 15 pounds for the month as well as shave off some inches from my body.

Just finished day 28 of the insanity workout. This is the point last time I did the workout where I got my shin splints back. Today and the last few my legs have been giving me some trouble, so I'm breaking the workout up a bit throughout the day so I can get plenty of stretching in and not go all out for the 40 minutes and risk getting injured and having to stop. I also just signed up for a gym membership which I will use for primarily cardio right now. (treadmill, elliptical, bike etc.) I don't feel I need to hit the weights yet as I am not trying to gain any muscle atm just trying to shred fat.

Current weight is 289 so still going in the right direction there and I think adding the gym will help move this number along more steady then what I'm doing now

poker wise I am almost out of makeup and am playing 100nl again with the hope of playing 200nl at some point this month as long as I keep playing well and on the good side of variance.

I am also doing insanity a few times a week. It's pretty damn hard on the knees.

How often do you find yourself having to take a break?

What do you think is a realistic hourly at Ignition 100/200 games for you? I'm assuming you're 4 tabling these. I currently play 200 PLO on Ignition just with very minor volume so hard for me to gauge any realistic winrate myself. GL

IMO, if you can stay healthy Insanity is going to be better cardio then going to the gym.

If you are doing cardio at the gym I suggest some type of interval work on the treadmill, elliptical, bike, etc.

Great work man. Inspiring stuff.

Maybe include some interesting hand histories.

I haven't missed a day yet. It was going good until these past few workouts. Id say mostly I get through the warm up (sometimes I pause the vid if the legs are in to much pain) and stretching then I kinda go hard for half of the time for the rest of the video. (so if its a 30 sec power jacks ill go hard for 15 sec and rest the last 15 same with the minute ones) Obv sometimes I take some breaks to walk around catch a bit of air then jump right back in but not for longer then 10 - 15 secs in between.

its been challenging but I feel if I didn't have these shin splints Id be cruising along so far with good results. I did watch the max interval circuit while grinding earlier and I wanted to throw up just watching it.



hmm I'm prob not the best person to answer this, but I would guess anywhere between 3bb and 7bb/100 factoring in 4 tabling and getting ~250 hands/hr. Can obv be worse and can obv be better so like I said not the best person to ask since I don't have a big enough sample yet at those stakes

Ya since these past few days just doing the insanity warmup (jogging, jumping jacks, high knees, butt kicks, etc) after the 3rd round of the warmup my legs are like shot with pain. So I sometimes pause the video and stretch for 15 minutes till the pain is gone and proceed to finish the rest with some discomfort but not as bad as the beginning. I did go to the gym a few hours ago and rode the bike for 30 minutes and walked for an hour at decent paces and the legs were on fire on the treadmill and held up pretty good on the bike.

tyty,

I may be able to dig up some hh's from my journey down here thus far we will see. If I have any in the future that I think fir the script I will post in here.

thanks for following along