I'm 37, happily married, and a relentless introvert.

I started playing poker back when everyone else did. I definitely got sucked in at the poker boom. I played LHE off and on until about a month or two before Black Friday. At that time I was working pretty hard at the game and had established myself as a small winner, mostly playing the 3/6 and 5/10 games on Full Tilt. I decided to quit the game because my kids were young and I felt I should really be spending more time with them. I have no interest in dabbling in poker. I either want to be working hard to be the best and pushing through the ranks, or not playing at all.

It's been a few years now, and my kids have gotten to point where they have a lot more going on for themselves, and I'm finding myself with enough time to put some real effort into a pursuit of my own.

I've resisted NL my whole poker career. I stuck with LHE long after the game became largely unpopular. I've spent a decent about of time in all the Stud variants as well as LO8. Two months ago I decided that I was sick and tired of looking for action and it was time to learn NL. I really hated it for the first month, but this last month it has really started to grow on me.

Back when I was playing LHE I got a lot of coaching (most of which was not very good). My very best experience was when I got coached by Xerok. He was an incredible player and coach, but really the best part about working with him was he got me in touch with some of his other students. Having access to other serious players at all times really pushed my game to a new level.

Having had that experience, I really wanted to get good coaching and have access to a small community of dedicated players, so I joined CFP and I'm really looking forward to working with these guys. My plan is to start at 10NL and grind my way to the high stakes. I'm naturally very conservative and somewhat risk adverse. I've let it hold me back way too much in the past. I've been at the "kids table" my whole poker career and I've had it. I'm ready to get to work and grind my way to the "Big Table"!

I'm still in the process of setting concrete goals. I've always just made goals like "I want to be the best" or "I want work as hard as I can". But there really isn't a concrete finish line to these goals, so every time I make progress I just move the carrot, and I never really close in on my goal. I'll be adding concrete goals to this blog, as well as some youtube content very soon.

Let's get it on.

Mat

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp0...FH10CZnKul6I5Q

I dont post much but were both kind of in the same situation

Im 41 happily married 2 kids w a great job and i just started grinding again after quitting on black fri

I guess my first question is r u in the u.s.

And why r u playing online?? I would imagine the games r insanely tuff

Consider just playing live?? Do u have casinos near you??

Hey tnb,

It does sound like we are in a very similar spot. Married, two kids, great job, and getting back into the action. It's nice to see other guys like myself still all fired up for the game.

I live in San Diego CA and there are several choices around here for live action.

As far as the games being really tough, I haven't experienced that too much yet. I've only been playing 10NL and lower so there are always table to find where guys are playing really poorly.

Playing live (at least a portion of the time) has always been part of my long term game plan. My thought process about this is that if I can beat the higher games online, there's a much easier transition going from online to live than the other way around. Also, I want to play everyday. Even though I am finding more time than I've had in the past. I don't have quite enough time on my hands to where I could be at the card room every night.

Lastly, and this is probably the biggest reason. Even though the games have gotten tougher, someone is beating them so why not me. Too many times in my life I've looked at something I want and immediately decided "well, that would be really cool but it's not available to me" and changed around my goals. I'm not doing that anymore. I want to beat the bigger games online, I want to push myself to do my very best, and I'm not changing my plan around because it's going to be tough.

Are you online or playing live these days?

Here's my starting point. This is my entire NL career, 5k hands.

san diego?? jeez, lol.

I wouldn't ever even play poker because id be surfing old mans in san onofre everyday!!!!

at the minimum tourmaline

but really, if grinding online and working your way up is really what you want to do, then don't let me or anyone else try to stop you.

I will admit after black fri, I completely walked away from online poker and poker in general up until a couple months ago. therefore I have no idea about the state of the online games aside from what ive heard from a few players, which is by all indications, its no joke, total sharkfest.

I assume that graph is from bovada??

I don't know about your particular situation, but I just feel like the window for online poker is closed. I missed the boat, that ship has sailed and it aint coming back. but maybe your one of the few that can do it. but It will be tough to get to a point where ur making any significant money, specially with the cost of living in diego

however I have learned recently that there is still money to be made in live games.

my goals seem less lofty than yours however, I just want to be able to average 25 bux an hour or more and treat poker as a side job so me and the fam can make it over to san clemente more often. pay some bills, buy some stuff for the kids.

im just playing devils advocate, but I think actually making money is going to be easier at live cash games than online.

prove me wrong though, that would be cool.

also you asked if im playing live or online. actually I have a thread that I will update and that way I wont have to hijack your thread

my thread is also here in the poker goals and challenges, its titled...........

"am I goona go broke"

ill update it now, if u care to take a look