Background: I’m currently a 26 year-old college grad with a Bachelor’s in Radiography and a Master’s in Degeneracy, currently residing in Columbus, OH. I grew up in a small town on the Ohio River called Steubenville, OH. Steubenville is mainly known for high school football, crime, and ofc gambling. I remember being a toddler learning about the point spread before I ever attended my first day of kindergarten. My father was explaining to me that not only did the Magic have to win the game; they had to win by 6. That's an actual memory I have, even though I can’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday. It’s funny how that works. From this point on, gambling was always a part of my life. As early as 2nd grade, my buddy who went by “Peaches” started running weekly pick ‘em sheets, March Madness brackets, and other miscellaneous gambling games that my friends and I would gamble our lunch money on. Which was a pretty sick sweat every weekend for an 8 year-old. By the time I got to high school and could drive/find a ride to the bookie joint, I made my first actual sports bet with my own money and was instantly hooked. For years, during football season, there was no point in the day on Saturday or Sunday where I didn’t have action on something. Honestly, I don’t even wanna think about how much I’ve lost in sports bets over the years. Given our nature, we also played a lot of hold ‘em tournaments with horrible structures that were total crap shoots. We didn’t know any better (we were all total fish), but I doubt we would’ve cared anyway as long as we could get action. Once people started busting out of the tournaments, a lot of other card games, like Euchre, Spades, Acey Ducey, Tonk, and even some random chance games like LCR would get fired up. Needless to say, we would gamble on anything.

When I got to Ohio State in 2009, I learned about this club called The Gemini that would spread 1/3 NL games that typically played way bigger than your average 1/3. This is where I played live, up until Ohio passed the gambling bill and opened Hollywood Casino in I believe 2012. Some combination of the games being way too big for my bankroll, my lack of skill/mental game, and 0 concerns of BRM caused me to go broke more times than I can count. This cycle of build up a roll from scratch, go on tilt or play higher than I should, go broke, rinse and repeat just became normal life for me in college. Which I’m actually thankful for, because I got to learn firsthand what happens when your mental game isn’t solid, you don’t practice proper BRM, and you’re not honest with yourself about your skill level. I also think, because of those experiences, I’m capable of shot taking better than people who haven’t been colossal failures at some point, because I can channel that kid that had his whole bankroll on the table, and I still have a whole lot of gambollll in me. When most other people would be nervous, I feel locked in. I’m still a degen at heart, so the idea of gambling an amount of $$ that I consider significant really gets my blood pumping. The only difference is that this time it will be a good game that I’m a favorite in, and I can afford to lose a buy-in without it crushing me. Gotta learn from your mistakes

In June 2014, I graduated school with a degree in Radiography and probably $50 to my name. I scored a job right out of school working 3-4 days a week, and I actually enjoy working as an X-ray tech. I didn’t agree with the way the workplace was run or the way any big business is run, for that matter. This is when I decided that I wanted to get serious about poker and started lurking 2p2. My paychecks from work covered my expenses, so luckily I could build a roll without having to worry about spending my profits from poker. In November 2014, I took $300 out of one of my paychecks and went to Hollywood Columbus with 1 buy-in for 1/2. With a little determination, hard work, and a lot of luck, I haven’t looked back. I met NeneHilario and we started discussing HH’s. Then, we got ArchCityPoker to join the group, and these two guys have had a huge impact on my success as a poker player. In ~1.5 years of playing 10-15 hr/wk, I went from having 1 buy-in for 1/2 to being rolled for 2/5 with a savings account on the side. My girlfriend and I are getting ready to relocate in September, and I’ll be taking the leap into playing full-time. I don’t know how long I want to do this for or what I’ll do next, but I’m a strong believer that if you put forth the time and effort, the universe will show you success in one way or another. From a young age, I’ve always valued my time and happiness more than money, and generally had a f*** the man attitude. For now, poker is a way that I can live my life the way I want to live it, and be myself.

I’m coming off the biggest downswing I’ve experienced since becoming serious about poker, and I wrote down some goals for the upcoming weeks to keep me focused. So I figured why not make one of these? I’ll make a post with some long-term and short-term goals here shortly. In the words of Teddy KGB, “Let’s play some cards!”

Long Term Goals
I won’t officially be playing full-time until September, so my 2016 goals will be for the last 4 months of the year. I won’t have many long term goals for the end of 2016 since my main objective will be getting myself to a point where I feel I’m established. In 2017 I’ll set some more lofty goals.

September- December 2016:
1. 500 hours.
2. 65% winning sessions. This one might seem silly, but my win% is lower than I feel it should be right now, and it’s something I’m working to fix.
3. Read 2 PLO books. I’m a PLO fish right now, but I think its important to diversify and learn especially the games that seem to be picking up steam in popularity.


Short Term Goals
For now, my short term goals will be weekly. I will make a post at the end of every week updating you guys on my goals, and anything interesting that may have happened during the week. My goals for the next couple of weeks might be weirdly specific due to how much and which days I’m working.

Week of 6/20: I actually work every day this week except Friday, and then I leave to go to Florida on vacation with my family on Saturday, so my volume will be low. But this is the last week I’m working more than 3 days.

1. 4 hours on Wednesday.
2. 8 hours on Friday.
3. 6 HH reviews.
4. Workout twice. This could mean going to the gym or going for a run. I’ve been slacking lately so I’m trying to start small and build back up.

Looking very forward to following this thread Water. I've seen first hand your growth as a player and believe the content you share will be very valuable and entertaining.

Pumped dude!! So glad you're going to be posting on here. Get this party started.

Cool that you are taking the plunge. GL, play well!

Thanks for the support guys. Hopefully I'll be able to make this thread pretty entertaining. Just wanted to do a quick update before I start on my goals for next week.

I played ~4 hours last night in a 2/5 game that felt like the lineup was picked by Yours Truly. The game consisted of 1 nit, 1 ABC Loose-Passive, 2 call stations, 1 decent TAG, 2 bad LAGs, 1 bad SLAG (dude was literally opening 75% and 3barreling most of the time) with whom I have history, and Me. I think one thing that the best players are really good at is adjusting to the most profitable style of play based off of table dynamics, the players they're playing each pot against, and ofc their image. I think live poker especially is a game of constant adjustment. Some people think I'm a TAG, some people think I'm a LAG, and some people prob think I'm a spewtard maniac. They're all wrong; I'm just Water. For most of the night I had my TAG hat on. The two significant pots I played were when I turned top trips vs a bad LAG and got it in for 120 bbs OTT vs the flopped straight. And then later got paid off by TPNK with my turned straight. Other than that it was some card dead mixed with a little running into the top of ranges until the game got bad and I left stuck $120. Which is fine considering that's the type of table that you could get crushed at when you don't run good.

Other than that I've got some pretty cool stuff coming up. I'm ready to crush my goals this week, then headed to Florida on Saturday where I'll get to gambol it up for the first time in the sunshine state. Then, we're taking a road trip in August, before we move, that I'll go into more detail about later. I'm also pretty pumped for this game tonight. Lfg Cavs!! One time!!!

Why do you think your session win % needs to be higher than 65%?

GL on the felt

I don't think it really matters what your win % is, I'm just trying to cut down on some of the higher variance spots. I think a higher win % will be a result of this and just playing better in general.

Quick update from Florida:

Week of 6/20 Goals:
4 hours Wednesday [2.5]
8 hours Friday [7]
6 HH reviews [11]
Workout twice [2]

I'm not too concerned with bricking my hours goals for this week since I worked 4 days. I feel optimistic about putting in good volume when I'm working less/not at all. I cut my session short on Wednesday after getting stuck 1 buy in, and just feeling too tired from work to rebuy. Came back Friday morning feeling fresh and had a very nice day. I haven't done well historically in my after work sessions and I'm done downplaying the importance of atleast starting your sessions alert and with a clear mind. Me and my buddy were just talking about how it seems like we always get pounded when we play cards instead of attending some other obligation we have and he said something like, "it's hard to keep balance/priorities, but I'm pretty sure the universe delivers lessons on this topic constantly." Maybe I'm just a dumb hippy but I feel like the run bad I've been experiencing in my after work sessions is the universe telling me "stop playing when you're too tired sh*thead."

I got a good run in, and one lift so I'm just scraping by on my fitness goals, but I crushed my HH reviews and overall I felt it was a pretty productive week. I'm going to eventually post some HH's in here, but I didn't really find any of the ones I recorded this week very interesting so I'll spare you guys for now.

For this week, I'll be in Daytona until Wednesday on vacation with my family, but I'm going to get 1 session in while on vaca, and then a couple sessions once I get home.


Goals for the week of 6/27
20 hours
15 HH reviews
3 workouts
Drink many beers on the beach

Don't be a D*** 101

I just wanted to talk about something I saw recently for anyone who's following. In one of my recent sessions, one of the biggest donators in the player pool walks in the room when there's several seats open. And then begins this verbal battle between players at all the tables: "Seat open over here!" "No! Seat here too, come play with us!" etc to the point where it was like vultures fighting over a piece of meat. It was seriously painful to watch. Do us all a favor. DON'T DO THAT. Luckily he's a good sport, but how long until he says "F these guys, I'll just go play blackjack."?Sometimes it blows my mind how such smart people do such dumb things. All the biggest fish in the game love me, and I don't really have to make much of an effort. I just say hi when I see them in the room, ask them how they've been, tell them nice hand when they suck out on me, pretend like I got lucky sometimes, and just don't be a d*** in general. All this will make them more likely to give you action and if your friendly with these guys, it will make it easier to table change to their table without it being obvious why you're doing it. It also helps that I'm not a nit. I'll mix it up with these guys and they like me for it. Just give them what they want (usually a fun/enjoyable time); It's just plain old customer service. IMO we all owe some courtesy to the guys that Keep the game profitable. The least we can do is make the game fun and a good social experience for them, because that's why most of them are there anyway. If poker isn't fun for the rec players, there's plenty of other games that are.

A lot of other people have touched on this, but I really think a lot of young poker players who've watched too much poker on TV are just killing poker with all the tanking every street, headphones, hoodies covering their faces, talking strat at the table, etc. Just please stop guys. IMO, poker players have a responsibility to keep the game fun for the rec players, and it's really not that hard. Just don't be a d***, and try not to make it obv that the only reason you're there is to make money.


Make Poker Fun Again '16