I've never been one for sharing my poker journey, but as I sit at my computer I've decided to put some accountability into my poker career as I try to get it back on track after a year away following the birth of my first daughter. I now sit here with two girls sleeping up stairs (19 months and 3 months) an active account on GGPoker and just a little over 1K for a bankroll.

I vaulted back into the poker world in mid June for what I call stress related reasons Being up at all hours of the night to tend to my kids can be stressful during the best of times so I needed an outlet to blow off some steam....enter poker. My wife doesn't really understand the desire to play the game and is worried I'll get addicted but I've always felt that as long as I put my family and real priorities first I'm doing alright.

Since I play on GG, hand histories are not likely going to happen as much so I'll approach this more from a blog perspective and just share things that come to mind as I run through this challenge.

Challenge Details
- playing PLO baby
- no fast fold variants, just standard 6 max tables
- rebuild roll to a level suitable for sustainability somewhere at or above $200 tables
- I understand my own mental well being, so will be attempting to implement a 2 buyin stop loss
- playing 6 tables
- 40 buyins is our target roll for each level although that doesn't necessarily mean we will be sitting at 6 tables for that level.
- Shot take once we hit 30 buyins for the next level
- we will run this to the end of 2020 and see where we are at

2020 Results so far
- took a lot of WD40 to get the rust off, June was about breakeven
- started at $10 PLO, currently at $25 PLO
- July was a move in the right direction, but 2 tilting sessions at the end of the month cut our profit in half
- up a couple buyins so far in August
June - BR start at $325 USD, end at $700ish USD but we deposited the additional amount
July - BR start at $700ish and ended at $970
August- BR start at $970, currently at $1050

Expectations
- I've always been capable of massive downswings but have never had massive upswings due to the tight selectively passive style I generally play so this is likely going to be a slow burn challenge

My History
- dinosaur in the world of online poker, starting on Paradise Poker way back in 2003
- have held accounts at Paradise Poker, Party Poker, 888 Poker, Carbon Poker, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Pacific Poker, CD Poker, Noble Poker, William Hill, Winning Poker, Bodog / Bovada, Full Tilt, Pokerstars, Carbon Poker, Crazy Vegas Poker, Hollywood Poker, now GGPoker and some others I'm sure
- had rakeback on Full Tilt via rakebackpros during the pre black friday good times and when it was based on hands played, not contributed value
- favourite game is omaha hi lo but it barely runs anywhere and the game isn't as loose as it use to be (Full Tilt around 2004 when 15+ tables were running at the 25s, the good old days)
- am definitely not as good as I should be and not as good as I think I am

Non Poker info
- proud father of two daughters
- avid slo pitch player and base my gym workouts around being able to crush homeruns
- have a solid career as an IT Project Manager so this is all fun money to make life a bit easier

Ask me anything, just looking to share some life stories, poker stories and get some encouragement along the way.

My wife is always worried that I will get addicted to poker. I play most nights but its because I enjoy the game not because I have to. The concept of addiction to poker is something that I’ve thought about often in my own life. I have always felt that as long as I was able to put people and other things first, then I was maintaining a healthy balance. That idea is never more true than now when I have two little people who rely on me for everything including comfort at night, right in the middle of a session. I was probably 20 minutes into my night, already up a buyin across my 6 tables when I came into double suited KK98 in the CO. One limper and I raise to pot intent on maximizing my position and happy to grab some dead money. Two callers and the flop came QJ2 with two spades which I didn’t have. As I’m contemplating my next move my oldest daughter starts to cry and my move is now pretty clear…………click the Fold to any bet button. I quickly check the box, sit out all my tables and head upstairs to take care of one of the things that really matters in my life. No hesitation, no frustration just the realization that she needed me and I had to be there. I came back downstairs about 15 minutes later to all my tables closed out and a bit over a buyin profit sitting in my account. I believe everything happens for a reason so I opt not to sit back at any tables and just bank the win for the night.

I said I was all about small wins and limiting losses, so I’m putting it into play tonight. Small win nights like this take me back to bar room chats I had with one of my best friends about how we just couldn't seem to grasp the concept of small victories (ie. a buyin a day) and who wouldn't want to be up 30 buyins at the end of each month. A bit of a idealistic mentality that variance wouldn't rear its ugly head and mess up the plan but a fun thought to ponder.

Even if I wanted to sit back at my tables, the little one made sure I didn't have a chance as she decided it was her turn for some attention. I'm back in front of the computer after 15 minutes with her and games are getting juicy with a few fish sitting but its after midnight and I'm going to be up at least a couple times so I decided to write this and head to bed to get what sleep I can before the midnight shift begins.

Its a good thing they are cute, life would be a lot more challenging if they didn't make my wife and I smile and laugh on a daily basis lol.

What are your short term goals? Like ones for today rather than 1-12 month goals?

You will notice a lot of professional sports people ain't focused on winning the finals half way through the season or even earlier. They are focused on the next game and getting that win.

Perhaps some of your goals could be

play for 6 hours (unless go over the 2 buy-in stop loss then quit)

Study for 3 hours today watching training videos or reading.

table select today and find the whales.

Focus on playing each hand and turn off the tv to focus solely on poker.

Stating your end goal at the beginning of a challenge would not be considered focusing on the end halfway through the season, simply setting the bar for what success would be measured against.

That being said the short term goals should be identified and are fairly straight forward
- adhere to our stop loss to avoid mental game issues
- play each night if time allows
- game select if whales are swimming in the waters, otherwise just use the auto seat feature
- identify and leave unprofitable tables
- avoid digital distractions while at the table and be present in the moment

Studying will always be on the go, but I can't commit to specific hours as my life isn't focused around poker. Same goes for playing for X hours as the girls determine whether or not I get to play lol.

Wife was using the computer for a bit tonight, so had a chance to catch up on another episode of Last Chance U. I've been out of the football scene for almost 2 decades, but every time I watch I get the itch to strap the pads back on. Fortunately my age and 2 ACL reconstructions because of said game bring me back to my senses.

Pretty slow start to the evening session. Felt card dead and according to my graph ran under EV for around 250 hands. Was still up around a buyin when this hand came along.

Hero is in BB with KJK8

Folds to CO who raises to .75
Hero reraises to 2.35
CO calls 1.60
Two players to the flop

Flop 643 (pot is 4.80)
Hero bets 2.40
CO calls 2.40

I'm not too happy about the connected flop, but I opt to lead out and see how my opponent reacts. This likely isn't the best line of thinking as pot control and keeping it small might be the way to go.

Turn J (pot is 9.60)
Hero checks
CO bets pot for 9.60
Hero raises to 19.20
CO calls 5.96 and is allin

When he hits the pot button it seems as though he wants to avoid the flush draws so unless he is holding 52 or 57 with diamonds a straight still seems unlikely as I would have expected a flop reraise.
I decide to check raise him allin under the assumption that his hand hasn't gotten there yet and my over pair + FD may very well be good.

River Q
Hero wins

Obviously this is one of the cards that I want to see regardless of how well I interpreted the hand. It turns out I needed that card as I failed to grasp the significance of the turn pot bet as my opponent was firmly in control of the hand. I have seen this type of move before and it makes me wonder what my opponent thinks I could call with if I'm not already sitting with a straight or set.



We bank a couple buyins for the day and consider ourselves lucky.

will follow. thanks for stepping by at my thread ^^ I'm a IT project manager as well, many accordance

Leafs lose, we lose.

Pretty uninspiring session tonight. Got up a buyin early but then couldn't hold a lead to or catch a card to save our life.

Nothing exciting, just the usual bad beat stories
AAKTss beaten by AKQQss when he turns a two out Q
AAJ8ss beaten by the 90VPIP guy who out flops us in a low SPR situation
Guy with pair + gut shot decides to get creative and call it off after we raise him and then put him allin with a semi bluff hand of nut flush draw, gut shot and top pair possibility.

Unable to initiate the 2 buyin stop loss in time as the AAKT vs AKQQ hand hit right while we were hovering just below 2 down.

Down 3 buyins tonight, but thats how it goes.

Crazy how similar things are lol.

Good luck in your journey!

Good luck man.Will follow you.

Thanks Martin.

We'll see how it goes, usually the mental game and not tilting off buyins is the hardest part so hopefully I can avoid that and rebuild the roll.

Leafs win, we win.... a bit.

Leafs have an epic comeback and I missed the entire 5 minute span of goals because I was so frustrated with their play that I just shut the TV off. At least I caught the OT winner. On to sunday!!!!

GGpoker went down for maintenace at midnight, so was only able to get a few hands in after the game. Still managed to grab another buyin.

I'm adjusting the outline of the challenge and likely reducing the overall number of tables from 6 to 3 or 4. I don't need to play 6 and I don't feel that it was benefiting me and was probably more because I don't like sitting and waiting.

We'll see if I can adhere to it but there is already the benefit of not having to find 6 juicy tables but instead be able to pick out 3 good ones. I sometimes find that with 6 I'm getting stuck with the same players which if they are not action players makes it a bit of a challenge to extract any value.

On to the weekend and hopefully a bit more burn at the tables.

Leafs didn't come to play and don't seem to be a playoff ready team. Hopefully a short offseason will bring about some change and much needed grit. Muzzin getting hurt was a huge hit to the D.

Oh well, there's always next year.

Saturday was a fun day sitting with a 100 VPIP player and dumping a stack with AAJ3ds but then doubling through the same player a few hands later and then again to cap off a roller coaster session. Ended up 3 buyins and ran over EV with most of that EV coming from my second double up off the 100 VPIP player. 3 flush board on SPR of 1 and I put it in with 1 pair and he calls off with 2 pair. I end up turning a straight. A bit of a gamble to bet the flop but he plays so much garbage that it was worth the risk and he has folded low SPR spots previously.

Sunday we managed to hold back our emotion over the leafs loss and grind out a half buyin after being down most of the session. Played a lot looser than usual but was able to avoid being spewy.

Daughter fell off a chair and whacked her head the other day. She has had a rough go the last few days , black eye, goose egg, random finger bleed. The joys of having children lol. Fortunately she bounces back more energetic than ever lol.

Up around 8 buyins through the first week. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going.

Roller coaster ride tonight but we ended up on top.

Made one big mistake against a tight player assuming he was trying to iso a shortie with a strong high holding on his 3bet and just flatted my AAJ6ss hand from the BB. Flop came 357 with 2 clubs. I checked in EP with the intention of calling and betting any non club turn card as I didn't have clubs.

Turn is a 9 of spades so I lead out for pot as the SPR is near one, shortie has 45 cents left and get snap called by the tight player on the button. He flips over 8764ds with clubs, I'm dead.

Not really sure what I thought he was going to call with that my AA beat so I'm pretty much just burning money there I think.

The girls determine my session length again tonight lol.

One woke up screaming within the first 10 minutes of me starting and then the other one is making a ton of noise which usually means she's on the verge of a midnight meltdown. Ah the joys of children

Still managed to make it out up a buyin through only about 100 hands. We are definitely taking the slow and steady approach to BR building

Seems like we're on repeat from the previous night. Both of the babies are up within 15 minutes of each other making a solid session before fatigue sets in a bit difficult. Had my tables closed out where I was sitting with a couple massive fishies, then had to fold a couple hands mid play once the second one went off. Still somehow managed to find a way to add another buyin to the roll. Hopefully the girls are just adjusting to new sleeping arrangements and we can find some hour blocks to get some volume in.

No complaints though, we're just rolling along with positive sessions, bankroll growth and over EV lol.

Here we are at 445am and both of the girls have been up various times through the night, this can change as soon as they are ready lol.

We're two weeks into the challenge and things are still heading in the right direction. We've adjusted the details of the challenge a bit
- 3 to 4 tables but mostly 3
- only 1 session per day, win or lose

Results so far in August all part of the challenge, all $25 PLO


$10 PLO prior to the challenge


$25 PLO since returning to PLO in June


All results since returning to PLO in June


We're riding a bit of a heater in August right now, but our win / loss vs EV is not entirely indicative of our quality of play. Yes there are some bad beats in there, but for the most part it seems as though we've been making standard plays that only appear as bad beats in a vacuum.

Hopefully the positive gains continue for the second half of the month and we don't repeat the mistakes of July where we dumped half our profit and 14 buyins over the last 3 days of the month.

Following, well done so far.

How are you still able to play this much with a full time job and two young children? Do you just not go to bed some nights? Seems like an almost impossible feat.

The girls go to bed around 8 - 830pm and my wife sometime around 10pm. So i usually do some video review on youtube to get in a poker mindset (lots of jnandez stuff) and then I try to play for about an hour from 1030pm to 1130pm and in bed shortly after midnight. Doesn't always work out and I have had a lot of sessions interrupted or cut short but that is the general game plan. I do this every night if I can and then up at 7-715am to get breakfast for the oldest.

It can be a grind, but I love playing and I love the odd night time moments with the girls, most of the time lol.

Last nights early morning post was because the youngest was fussy so around 4am I just came downstairs to the office with her and was up until around 545 until she was sound asleep. Good times

Update to the bankroll:

We started the challenge with a bankroll of around $970 and 2 weeks in we are sitting with about $1325.

We will call it up about $350 and according to our graph our pre-rake winnings are in the realm of $425. So $75 or about 18% of our winnings are going to rake and I'm going to guess we got about $10 from Fish Buffet so we are paying around a 15% tax on our winnings. Seeing as how i paid 30% tax on my income last year, this seems acceptable, even if the rake is still too high.

To quote Super Troopers:
"Yeah, well, you don't weigh in, you don't wrestle."

Rake is an necessary evil to make the money we do. I will always be for less rake but if I am playing at a site and continue playing there all the while complaining about how high the rake is I'm pretty much just a hypocrite. I come from the pre-rakeback days when you won what you won and the site took what they took. End of story.

If you can't win enough post rake or pre-rakeback then I guess you need a new hobby or a different site

The heater continues. Up a couple buyins tonight thanks to a nice suckout.

5 handed
Hero is UTG with 8764

Hero raises to .85
- loose open but in a 5 handed game and with 2 tight players behind me I'd rather not waste the hand

Folds to BB who 3 bets to 2.65, hero calls

Flop J73 (pot 5.40)
BB bets 1.69

Odd sizing but at this point I'm putting him on AAxx or he simply has us dominated with JJxx with hearts. JJ seems to be highly unlikely so we opt for a call.

Turn is 6 (pot 8.78)
BB bets 8.78

This is a very odd sizing and seems to make me think that he doesn't like the flush draws or is trying to convince me that he has the straight. Straight doesn't make a lot of sense and is once again a super specific 45xx combo that isn't often going to 3bet from the BB unless he happens to have AA with it.

A call is doing me no good so I ship it in as I feel my 2 pair is good here more often than not and I don't like a lot of rivers.

BB flips over AA54

Whoops, but we still have 18%

River 5

Boom


In hindsight I should be taking the line that people at this limit just don't bluff enough for pot size bets, but I have a hard time feeling like a board of that nature when I get 3 bet out of position is going to have me behind enough of the time to warrant a fold.

Full stacks in the above hand, BB has to call around $14 on T when I raise.

Ugly session tonight and we had to engage the stop loss.

Got off to a rough start dropping a buyin within 5 minutes of opening my tables. From there on out it was pretty much a card dead session until I managed to hit trips on a guy on the river and have him check call me with two pair. That had me feeling pretty good, that is until my nut flush ran into a straight flush lol. Stop loss engaged and thats all she wrote.

Pretty happy I was able to action on the stop loss, as I've had trouble in the past. Considering it took me two weeks to make back the buyins I punted off at the end of July I feel like this is a bit of a win in itself. The mental aspect and tilt have been my biggest enemies. One session isn't exactly a pattern but hopefully this is a step in the right direction of a long term sustainable bankroll.

Two losing days in a row, we're in a downswing! lol

Was completely card for 2/3 of the session and even the marginal hands I could raise from position I kept getting UTG or UTG+1. Had another multiway allin early in the session that I should try to avoid with marginal holdings. We got saucy with a 6534ds hand that went allin PF with us sitting on about 70% of a full stack. We didn't win.

Not that we should be looking for this type of action during a bankroll build though. We can certainly get some nice payouts but if we keep missing the downside may not be worth the upside. Curious on thoughts regarding that topic. Yolo it in a few times, or take the safer, less volatile approach and actually play poker. The safer approach is generally inline with my overall strategy so unless I'm going to start swinging for the fences more often I'm not sure it makes sense.

We even let our 2 buyin stop loss relax a bit as we were at a couple tables with guys straddling like crazy, throwing some blind PF allins and we just couldn't catch a hand to go at them. Was down 4 buyins at one point and got it back to just under 3. I don't think I will relax the stop loss again as I could feel my level of control creeping away as I got deeper into the session.

Will post my hand of the night later. Hopefully these don't start becoming nightly occurrences lol.

Last nights fav hand

UTG min raise to .50
BTN call
SB call
BB (Hero) calls with AQJJ

Flop KJT (pot 2)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, BTN bets 1.00, SB folds, Hero raises to 5, UTG folds, BTN calls

Turn T (pot 12)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River 7
Hero bets 12, BTN raises allin to 35, Hero calls 15

BTN shows QTT9
Hero mucks

Pretty much just a cooler as I don't think I should ever be folding on the river. I had played for 2 hours against villain on multiple tables and had yet to see him flat call a KKxx type of hand on the button so I was fairly certain he didn't have Kings full. When he goes allin I put him on KTxx or JTxx that maybe had a side card to a gut shot. Unfortunately he did not have that lol.

We got off the losing train today adding a buyin back to our stack. I went away from the 3 table mentality for a bit as I could feel myself wanting to play more hands, with less than optimal holdings. I had 7 going at one point and had little time to think about playing crap hands. We started the session down but made a couple night hands and got back to the winners circle. Hopefully we can finish out the month that way.