I'm creating this thread with the sole purpose of committing to greatness. Greatness to me isn't measured by comparison. It's measured by the discipline, determination, integrity, and "get the f*** out of the obstacles" attitude that is maintained in the pursuit of success.

Backstory: In 2006, I played in my first poker game ever. It seemed to make sense to me immediately. I had always used math to solve problems and had a reputation for thinking logically in stressful situations.

It was by pure accident that I found a seat in this game. I was barely 18, and worked as a telecommunications technician with my girlfriends brother. He needed a designated driver one night and I volunteered to come hang out hoping that it would build some rapport.

At the table I recognized several of my bosses and decided that it might be a good idea to sit and network. We played for about 6 hours, until everyone was broke, except me. I had won $600 at a 0.25c/0.50c game and had taken $200 off of my department head. I was hooked.

After that I started researching the game and disagreed with a lot of the stuff that was being published at the time. I deposited $50 on FTP and after one of the sickest runs ever, ran it up to $1,800 playing with 50% of my bankroll the entire time. I knew at this point that the game was beatable and dedicated ALL of my free time to learning more.

Come 2008, I had met a guy at a home game that seemed just as passionate as I was about the game. We started going over hands, making trips to Altantic City (still underage), and let poker take over our lives. Over the next few years, I got better and kept winning. He seemed to be stuck when poker was growing and started losing.

By the time Black Friday hit, I had won over $700,000 grinding only 4 tables of $2/$4 - $5/$10 at a time. I won't get into the story, but it was life shattering and I let it go the best I could while trying to build to something else. During the time my friend and I lived together and he invited another friend his to move in (also a poker enthusiast). Let's call him Tim.

I didn't know Tim well, but assumed that my best friend wouldn't bring someone into my home without being sure of his character. After some time, I discovered through 2+2 and offline friends that Tim had been using my name to obtain staking and was screwing people over on several platforms. My name was ruined.

I did what I could to fix it, but even though I had proven the events to be fraudulent, my reputation was tainted. The next two years revealed several negative transactions that had my name attached to them. As you can imagine, I found this unbelievably depressing. My character was certainly diminished.

I won't lie and pretend that it was to recover from. I felt like everything I had been working for was ruined. Maybe it was a bit dramatic, but I ended up living off borrowed money and jumped from girl to girl, using them. No bueno.

Over the last year I've managed to climb out of the hole I'd let myself be trapped in. I've launched a small business, remedied things with family, and am focused on building stronger relationships. Poker has never escaped me. I managed to keep up with the game and fit in sessions when I could during my 'recovery'.

I'm sharing all of this not because I want people to feel for me, but am hoping that this adventure will help someone else in a similar situation. So many times people get torn down and end up in dark places. I'm lucky enough to be motivated by an amazing family. They're what keeps me disciplined, mentally strong, and working towards 'greatness'.

My Challenge: Take the game that I love and use the skills I've acquired playing it to crush life. I'll be rebuilding a bankroll, starting a new online business, and being the best father that I can be. Balance is important.

My Bankroll: $5,000
Online Business Income: Planning stages
Dad Stuff: Show my little girl how a man should be.

While my following posts will be heavily poker related, I will include segments of my online business venture and fatherly adjustments. Feedback is always appreciated, in any format.

Time to crush life... and include everything that's important to me.

Game selection is something that a ton of live players don't put enough value on. Last night I spent 2 hours hopping around Las Vegas looking for the best action that I could find. I get that it was Saturday and that's probably anywhere, but I want to make it a ritual.

I got to the Orleans and found a few wildly drunk NL tables with a few players who were pretty deep and an Omaha H/L game that seemed to see have at least five players to the river at every hand. So I put my name on both lists and walked around looking for small edges.

If you've been around casinos for a while you probably know that there are certain slot machines that lean in your favor once they've reached a certain point. Naturally casinos do the best they can to rid people of trolls but it can be pretty tough.

I walked around for about 10 minutes just glancing at a few machines and found the 'Mermaid' game left a HUGE edge. The max bet had been left 1 spot away from the bonus. If you know the game I'm talking about you'll definitely understand. Anyways, I put in $100 and was in free games after just a few spins. When the free games were done I had profited $46 and immediately cashed out.

I spent probably another 20 minutes walking around until I was called to the poker room. Surprisingly an 8/16 Omaha Hi Lo seat was open and I was happy to take it. I normally like to play a bit deep but with just a $5k roll I didn't want to sit with more than 4%. I bought in for $200/~12 bets.

The game was VERY loose and I decided that even though my opponents were going to make a lot of mistakes preflop, I would decrease my variance drastically by playing tight-passive and making the best decisions post flop.

Notable Hand #1 - I was in the SB with Ac3c9dJh, not an amazing starting hand, but definitely good enough to complete. The action was raised early making it $12 ($4/$8 blinds) and after 3 callers in front of me, I call and the big blind calls.

Flop ($72) - 7h 8h 2c

This is a decent flop for me. I have the nut low, the high-end of a strait draw, and backdoor clubs. I checked with the intention of raising. The big blind fires the $8 bet and everyone calls. I make the raise to $16 and all players come along.

Turn ($168) - 7h 8h 2c Kd

This card changes absolutely nothing for me and I fire $16. No one folds.

River ($264) - 7h 8h 2c Kd Jc

I'm guaranteed a piece of the pot but with this many players in I'm not entirely confident that I'll get the whole half. With 6 players in though I have to bet to get value from worse lows and losing high hands. I bet and get 3 calls, 2 folds.

Showdown ($328)

I turn my hand face up and the BB shows A 5 7 K for two pair. The other two players slowly muck their hands and I get $164 after putting in $60.

A few hands later my name was called for NL and after a quick peek at the table, I decided to take to the seat racking up $288, thinking my hourly would still probably be higher there.

I took the entire $288 to the table and the game was surprisingly loose aggressive pre flop but passive post flop. Everyone seemed to just want to make hands. Awesome. My strategy to combat this was to get the aggro players at the table to commit as much money as possible with the worst hand pre flop.

Notable Hand #2

I sat for about 3 hours before I picked up any kind of hand. One of the more active players opened the action for $20 in early position (standard at this table) and found a call from his aggro friend in middle position. It was folded around to be in the CO and I made it $75.

EP had about $700 behind and MP had about $500. I was sitting with $260 at the start of the hand.

Both players just called.

Flop ($229) - Jd 10s 6s

Both players checked and I had $185 left behind. I hesitated for a bit before jamming because I had noticed that the EP raiser was staring me down with his shirt now over his mouth desperately looking for a reason to call.

The guy in MP seemed interested in the hand, but to be honest, he could have shown me overwhelming excitement and I still would have shoved.

Both players called my shove of $185.

Turn ($784) - Jd 10s 6s 9d

Both players checked.

River ($784) - Jd 10s 6s 9d 8d

EP player checked, and the MP player shoved for another $250 or so. EP folded.

Showdown ($784)

MP quickly flipped over 7s8s for a straight, but I had caught the high end and scooped the pot.

I didn't sit for much longer after this, maybe 3 orbits. I had already been playing for roughly 7 hours and cashed out $750 after tokes.

Bankroll: +$596 = $5,596

This morning I spent several hours creating a sort of road map for my online business venture. I'll explain more in depth when I'm able to better define my audience and the service I'll be providing them. For now I'm focusing on researching the niche and outlining solutions to frequent problems.

Time to go be a dad. I'll be playing again tonight, but am going to do my best to cut off the rest of the world and give my daughter all of my attention. Back on the grind when she falls asleep.

Subbed.

You live in Vegas full time?

Do you have a job or are you trying to grind the poker and online business only?

Thanks for the sub man.

I have another online business that yields a solid income and requires little work. I don't live in Vegas, but it's a short drive.

The online business is a reality for me already, but I want to create something that can be scaled.

Poker is what I'm most passionate about though.

Awesome.

My wife and I love Vegas and she could get a job there no problem (Nurse), but it would be hard for me to find a comparable job in Tech.

Poker is a very enjoyable and profitable side thing that I am passionate about, but I don't think I could do it full time. Not sure I have the disposition for it. I would need to work on my mental game a ton.

I totally get that.

I think a lot of people that fail when they decide to go full time make the mistake of not treating it like you would a 'normal' job.

You have to put it in the hours, make decisions off of the felt that are going to benefit you on the felt, create some kind of schedule, and push through stressful days competently like you would in an office.

Just my opinion though. Being able to recognize that though is huge. When I started playing online full time yearssss back, I definitely didn't see it and it hurt my lifestyle.