(Warning long Background)

I don’t know where to start, think it’s best to start with a little introduction about myself.
Couple of times I have started a thread like this (a motivation thread like I wanted it too call it but have given up updating it after going through a rough stretch or missed focus playing), now my head is up against the wall and I need to clear my mind.

Im a 26 years old guy from Iceland, Scandinavia. I started playing professionally online/abroad sometimes when I hit 18 after hitting 15k in the Nightly Hundred Grand, I lost heads up back then vs a great player Christian “Charder30” Harder so I didn’t feel bad at all losing the heads up. The Wheels started spinning from there and I quit my 1600$ p/m gardening job soon after. This was 2008 and back then poker was a lot easier then it’s nowadays but who that follow the game know this all so this is no surprise for you.
I have been fortunate enough too call this game my profession for a long time now and though Im only 26 years old I have a pretty good expierence from the game. I have seen players come and go, people go broke people go rich go broke again and so on, I have always been very criticized in myself that if I wasn’t making steady income from Poker I wouldn’t kid myself and go out on the working market to provide it hasn’t happen’t yet.

2008-2011 were huge years for me online as I was just printing money playing MTT’s multitabling like crazy 25-30 tables with no table ninja no hud and just basicly clicking buttons taking fast decisions and making heaps , this just feels absurd nowadays and few can do it except so sickos. I have never rated me though as some kind of sicko but I know I have done pretty good at the game and Im still a pretty good player. I hit my biggest score back in 2009 for 120K in the FTP Major and soon after went to Costa Rica with my buddies to play the Lapt and enjoy ourselves. I’m very grateful for that and things I have done in poker, I have spent a lot of my winnings travelling seeing the world and spending part of my winnings (maybe too much) in whatever guys on that age spend them on.
2012 I started noticing the game was getting harder after I saw I ended the year with 75k+ profit which was not the half I was used to making each year before. That is still a very nice profit if you play professionally. I wasn’t playing as hardcore now as I had a gf which I met back in 2010 so not as much volume from my part so I couldn’t be too angry about, at least I was making some dough!

2013 my son was born so that of course took a lot of time from the tables and I had to balance my life if I still wanted to play poker professionally, I think people doesn’t realize how extremely hard it is to keep everything in perspective with family, health, living your life, visiting your relatives, meeting friends, grind poker hardcore make money pay bills etc… it’s super hard to being “top of your game in all areas”. I have never been the most organized person and Im still struggling now while Im writing this late in 2015!?? In 2013 at the tables I made 25k$ with rakeback but I couldn’t put in nearly as much volume as I was used too so I wasn’t too sad about it but now I had a family I had too take care of (as my gf is studying for a master in pharmacy and can only work part time) thankfully I had enough savings so I still could pay bills go on a vacation with my family and enjoy life without having too think too much of money. I have always been a Money person and I think that can be good and bad, I really enjoy racking up profits and saving up sums on my accounts then enjoy the fruits of my labour and go on a fun vacation abroad with friends/family stuff like that so that is obviously a good thing but the bad thing is I’m never happy, if I have 50K bankroll I’m thinking when do I have a 100k and if I have 25k I’m thinking when I had 50k and want to get there as fast as possible (I think a lot more like this in sportsbetting which Im going to talk about a little bit next).
I found out early in 2014 that you could make a lot of money betting on sports or let’s say betting on the right games. People having information about line ups such things and a pal of mine I knew was making a killing at this thing. Back then Eurovision song contest was coming up and I remember I didn’t have too much money online and was just grinding it out on Pokerstars. He pressed me with putting a big sum on Armenia in ESC and finally I decide to do it and put on 2,000$ which on EVS 2 months before the contest, back then it was a big sum for me out of my current online bankroll and I thought it would be a easy double up, I was wrong Armenia ended in 3rd or 4th place and I lost. First bet and I lost it but that got me started.
I had background from poker of BRM, tilt control, fearless with money played football for 14 years and had started playing for a team in lowest division in Iceland (those divisions were traded on the betting markets during the summer) so I said why not and got started, also I realized I had to have a bigger income if I were to buy an apartment for my family soon and live life the easy way.
I deposited 200$ on bet365 and started from there, I was inducted into a private betting group (guys betting for a living) cause I was tipping good Iceland football bets. My bankroll grew and I started playing poker less and less cause sports betting was much easier made money. Not having too grind for long hours and most of the time end in negative from mtts just steadily racking up profit in sportsbetting then I got burnt it was actually exactly the same time of the year then now I lost all of my 15K Betting bankroll in span of 2-3 months I felt very bad but quickly realized that my bread and butter the Icelandic football games the season was over and I was mainly betting on hard divisions even in December when almost no games were in play except Arabic games which I didn’t know much about.

With not much money online I got myself a job or let’s say a poker project job at a computer-software company. I knew the manager and was really a no-brainer for me (I also owned a share in this company from back in the days so it was a glad moment to see it grow). Also I wanted something fresh and knew. Have you as a grinder ever wondered if you can jump back on the working market successfully? Well I couldn’t! I went to work 9 am too 5pm and my job was stream at twitch while I was playing poker and I also had a staking deal to begin with and I also got salary on top of that each month (pretty sweat del eh?). Well I soon realized the salary wasn’t enough to provide for my family and soon I hated streaming every day or have people saying that I should stream now and stuff it also took focus from the tables multi-tabling streaming and talking english for 6-7 hours a day. I only stayed at this job for three months and I ran horribly at the tables but I made some profit there, I also bet at work on another screen and started from sctratch and I was making a killing at that at the same time!
I met up with my manager and told him I couldn’t do this anymore, it wasn’t +EV for me as you would say in the poker world. I had a little more money now online from the staking deal and also betting on the side so I was ready to go back to my old habits. What a decision that turned out too be

I was very excited for the upcoming summer as I knew know how much you can make each summer betting on the Icelandic games along with other good divisions. I was now only betting and very lazy playing poker and just played very rarely but still wanted to go abroad and play some more live poker I now labelled myself as a sports bettor that played poker occasionally. I played the High Roller Iceland Event that was 1K buy-in and at the time I didn’t want to spend so much on one tournament after going through rough stretch so I decided to sell action in my for 50% which I could do easily. I ended up chopping the tournament three handed for 1,8M ISK (14k$+) but had to give 7k to my backers but still it felt very nice! 7k Came in handy at the time. I enjoyed playing these live tournaments so I decided to go to UK, Nottingham with some top Icelandic MTT players. I played the 1100p main and busted late on day 1 (made a bad fold bvb) and was overall unhappy how I played. Next I decided to play the 330p Notts Cup and already blown through two bullets of buy-ins I had given up and was unhappy how I had been playing so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play more, then I thought okey Im in the UK what the hell am I going to do if Im not going to play poker during the day so I registered the last day for the 3rd bullet and that proven to be a good decision as I stormed through the 330 player field and won the tournament for 18,900P (28K$). I admit I ran insanely well during the late stages winning a 80bb pot on the FT bubble with AQss vs QQ and winning most of the coin tosses on the FT but still I was happy with my play during the final stages. I was enjoying this series so I decided to try to go for the summer to their next stops I played in Marbella and finished 40th for a 2,700€ so that paid most of the trip it was also a family trip with my parents, gf and my son so that was delightful. I was having a super good year I went on a big heater in sportsbetting racking up 50k profits in 7 weeks span over the summer, I felt invincible in all areas and that is always dangerous cause soon after I was hit hard.
I had already booked a flight to my next stop in Barcelona August and was looking forward to play there, I could allow myself to spend a lot on this trip and don’t think too much about the money as I had done so good over the year. I went on losing almost 10k in a week prior my trip and felt pretty bad about it for a little time but it was only a scratch. I went to Barcelona and then my gf joined me two days later, we went out for a dinner every night and treated ourselves. I played the main of course (1100€) sold action in the hi roller 2200€ played the Barcelona Cup €330 and some cash games as well. Needless to say I bricked everything and when I came home I saw this trip had cost me 13k and I was there for two weeks!
Now still sitting on a fine bankroll I had too make things work in the sports betting but of course now the games were a lot harder to profit steady on and I it was just up and down. One week I made a nice profit then next week I lost it all it was just 2 steps ahead then 2 or 3 steps backwards.
Fast forward to recent days/weeks I have hit a bottom low that I haven’t been for a long time.
I knew these months were super hard for betting so I decided to play more poker recently and I have done ok I made 4k last month (low-mid stakes mtts) then lost it all last 2 days of the month in cash games (yes I have a degen agenda). This month I have won a little over 2k overall but haven’t played as much as last month but I have been betting hard. I thought betting was picking up for me recently as I racked up 4k in a week then last three days I have basicly lost all of my current betting bankroll, I have done all the things that you shouldn’t do when it comes too betting. I have staked too high, I have got tilted when a big stake loses then chase it on something silly and lost even more. Last three days I have lost over 11K$ and it’s time to re-evaluate and take probably take a break for a while.

If you managed to read through this all you are a true hero, I’ve put my soul out there and included numbers as well. I want to come clean and use this thread as a motivator for my future plans as a pro gambler. I have made a list with a couple of things that I want too remind myself not to do and also short and long term goals.


General: Always put a % of my winnings each week for savings
If week is in profit take % of my winnings and do something for myself/family/gf
(this is calculated how much the profit is)
Be happier and more optimistic
Enjoy playing with my son and be more active scheduling things to do with my family
Meet friends more often + relatives
Organize my sleeping pattern better and decide what hours I want to play on
Be more hard working and set myself boundaries
Try to write down each day my schedule to find out what’s the best way to organize the whole family/friends/poker/betting thing

Health:
Gym 3x per week (4 if possible) + play football 2x week – Recently I had a personal trainer make a program for me but I have been lazy as my mental state is not good at the moment for obvious reasons and I have been staying up all night waking up late during the day
Eat healthier, write it down for the personal trainer


Betting:
Start from the very beginning. Deposit small amounts and let it sit there while and don’t force any bet
Don’t bet during the night on silly stuff
Don’t chase if Im down overall during the day
Look at betting money as units not money
Stake accordingly to bankroll (BRM)
Decrease volume in betting as hard months are ahead
Add money to my betting bankroll if there is profit during the week (poker/betting wise)
Don’t bet on things I don’t know nothing about
Profit goal for November: Undecided

Poker:
Fewer tables, always see all tables (10-15) at a time
Play according to bankroll (this hasn’t been a trouble for me)
Don’t play cash games during normal days (only play on weekends)
Study my game watching training videos/reading forums every week
Get Platinum Star each month till the rest of the year
Be on Supernova pace from beginning of next year
Profit goal for November: 5000$

Expenses each month: Rougly 2-2,5k$ I would presume

• Every Sunday I rack up the week both for poker and betting and see how I have done

Long term Poker goals: Move up high stakes mtt’s summer 2016
Long term Bankroll goals: have 100k bankroll to bet/play poker with at the end of 2016 (have the possibility of making SNE in 2017)
Long term life goals: Move to Malta 2016, Invest portion of my winnings


Im dead tired at the moment and I realize this thread looks a bit dry without no pictures and stuff so I will add them tomorrow

Enjoyed the read op. I remember you from back in the day.

Also two short term goals of mine is too hit 1m lifetime VPPS next month



hit 2m in prizes before next summer



I have been saving up my fpps for awhile now I decided some time ago that I would use those to buy the planned moving trip to Malta with them

Nice read. You seem like a decent enough poker player you just need to stop deigning off $$$

nice read, good luck sir

1st update (Sunday 25th)
Didn't play much since thursday but took a 6-7 hrs session during the thursday night/friday morning, picked out some low buy in tourneys with some gtd and mixed in sit & gos as well. It went pretty good overall



Was away from the tables and betting for most of the weekend which was really refreshing, had some good family time and took the gf too dinner on the friday night (cheated a bit here cause profit wasn't locked up ofc yet) but I decided to make an exception as I was coming off a big downswing and needed to do something for both of us.



Later that night I played in some 2/5$ live game which was really juicy bought in for 500$ and then decided to add-on on 500$ as it was playing much higher basicly than this. Game was pretty wild and crazy and I wasn't hitting many hands so I just played pretty tag. I left losing -100$ after having 1500$ at the peak. Lost 700$ pot with QQ vs K6 in a straddled pot after raising too 120$ preflop so guess I have too be happy not too lose more overall.

22-25 October Recap:
Online Poker: 764$+
Live Poker: -100$
Sports Betting: -115$

Overall since challenge started (22 Oct): +549$


short term goals next days/weeks:
- Finishing the month with 7,500 vpps (Platinum) Currently 1200 needed
- 10,000 VPPS next month and stay Platinum
- 5000$ Profit at the tables

Next weekend is Icelandic Championship tournament (600$bi~) Will play that and some side events as well + cash
then going to Scotland Edinburgh on the 19th for the Ukipt 770£ tournament

Update #2 (26 oct - 1 nov)

Online Poker: +1029$
Had a 3rd place finish in the 13.5$ KO for 500$~
Got 3rd in the hot 100€ on Pokerstars.fr for 1500$~
Managed to win a seat to the UKIPT Edinburgh 770gbp main event (not counting that in profit)

Betting -1163$
Another bad week of betting and I decided to go on a break there, haven't bet for almost a week now, need to re-organize and clear my head there as I have not been betting with confidence and spewing away money

Live Poker: +780$
ME -570$ Cash +1350
Went too the Icelandic Championship I talked about in my earlier update. I busted the main event on the last hand on day 2 for a 28th place finish (18 paid). Managed too built a pretty nice stack but had a pretty bad table draws along the way which was annoying in such a dire overall field with a lot of money scared people. Played two cash game sessions and managed too bag a nice profit after being down quiet a lot in the first session.

Overall challenge (22 Oct - 1 jan 2016)
+492$

Since the weekend I haven't played a hand of poker yet. My goals I have fulfilled most of them so far but have been really slacking at the gym. This week Im going to improve that and will going at least 3x-4x, also eating healthier resulting in staying more focused at the tables.

I have been trying to be more optimistic about things in general and happier overall in life I think Im heading in the right direction, also taking time out to play with my son and "put in volume" on social aspects. Im afraid I won't be playing much next days as my days are full with plans (which are unusual for me) but I think it's a good thing. Im not desperate that Im not putting in a lot of time at the tables at the moment as it's all about quality not quantity and just playing when Im really focused and fresh and ready to grind.

You probably heard about the vip changes from Pokerstars so I guess SNE 2017 is out of the question, Im going to spend the fpps at the end of the year before they drop in value and change to stars coins. Will probably plan too make 200k VPP+ next year to get Supernova (30%rb) with the new system


Not much too say more but it's a slow start profit wise of the final target but it's a marathon not sprint so Im not too worried. Heading to Edinburgh on the 19th for the UKIPT with couple of friends hope I will do some good things at the table there.

im not sure but it seems like you are a gambling action junky at heart. i could be wrong here. but you are moving too fast on a slow train and heading for the big wreck.

Im definetly a little degen and a action junky but I have been betting for a living for 2 years now and Im now Im +ev at it (38k+ this year since march) but just running bad atm and spewing/tilting away on bad bets.

Going to be wise now took a week off betting then started again a bit and got hit by a wall immediately so will just be steady poker grind for awhile now

Subbed! GL, you can do it

I owe a update. Haven't update in awhile , had one written in here then had to reload page and was too lazy to write it up again.

So I went to Edinburgh, Scotland from 19-24th august.
I already won a seat online so was basicly "freerolling the main"

I busted the main with maybe 120-130 people left opening JJ utg to 2.3x
getting 3b to 5,200 and shoved my 30bbs to lose against KK.
Was new at the table and didn't have any read on the 3b, I had been very card dead so decided to get it in, think it's pretty std bustout tbh

Played the 300+30 Edinburgh Cup and busted the first bullet in a spot I should fold easily. Basicly villain turns a gutshot and tanks reraises me and I end up giving him my stack. Well took another bullet was very card dead and short all the way but managed to get a little rush the last day. Made a hero call against an older guy for my stack on a 8s-4x-2x-10s he shoves into me on turn I made the call with 66 he has KJss and rivers a Kd. Finished 35th

Regged the 165 turbo which had 94 runners. We were 6 Icelanders who played that event and 4 of us final tabled! I finished 6th for 820 so basicly I was breakeven pokerwise this trip (not counting the seat I won)

I haven't bet since 8th of November just giving it a rest. I feel that is a very good decision and just been grinding at the tables much more.

Last month was pretty good overall online, a little slump at the end of the month but managed to win +6,283$ w/rb

Biggest runs/scores
Managed to win the 1+R 3x which is a tournament I always fire up when grinding have won it in the past twice prior this. think it's got a nice value


December This month has started slow. Im breakeven at the online tables. I've played one 500$ live tourney which had 27 runners. Played pretty bad and busted 22nd. Also lost around 750$ in live cash so far.

Stats:
Online November: +6283$
Live November: -2300$
Betting November: -3134

Online December so far: +128$
Live December: -1200$
Betting December: 0

Overall (since challenge):
Online: +8285$
Live: -3877$
Betting: -5196$
= -788$

So basicly more online less live and no betting should do it!
Will try to get some nice volume in at the tables in December up until the holidays. Want to make Platinum Star at least (7,500 vpps) and hopefully bag a nice profit along