I just started a new bankroll challenge to raise capital for an album I've been working on writing for the past two years. I'm guessing it will probably cost around thirty grand to get the album recorded, mixed, and mastered.

The album is called "The DMV LP" and is a concept album where each song is about a different city in the Washington, D.C. area, colloquially known as the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia).

The added bonus for this challenge is that the majority of the cardplaying will take place in the DMV's only casino (MGM National Harbor), so I would be financing an album about the DMV by playing poker in the DMV.

I'll be posting updates here as the fundraising journey continues

It's time to begin. With the Potomac Poker Open and the Maryland State Poker Championship right around the corner, I've been studying tournament strategy and getting ready for the summer grind.

Goals for the summer:

Workout every day
Study at least eleven hours per week
Meditate every day

I've been looking at potential places to record the album and took a tour of Omega Studios in Rockville last week.

The studio manager said they bought one of their recording consoles from Lucasfilm back in the 90s, and it had been used to record the soundtrack for "Jurassic Park" -- the JP theme song was one of the first songs I wanted to learn on piano when I was a kid, so it was cool to see that after all these years the console had ended up in the DMV.

I downloaded GTO Wizard and started training today. It's gonna be a wild weekend in the DMV -- in addition to this being 4th of July weekend, Maryland is going to start allowing recreational cannabis sales on Saturday.

Should be a good weekend for playing poker 😎

After work today I decided to swing by MGM National Harbor to play some 4/8 LHE. Unfortunately, the wait list was too long and I didn't get a chance to play.

I went to my bandmate's home studio and recorded vocals for one of the songs we're working on. We ended up getting a good amount of work done and our current plan is to release it as the first single from the album sometime this summer.

I did a shoulder/leg day at the gym after work, then headed over to MGM.

I got a seat at a 4/8 table right away and played for about an hour, then took a break and went downstairs to get a snack.

A storm had rolled into the area while I was playing and it was pouring outside. I realized I didn't have any extra cash on me to buy food and I had left my wallet in my car outside, so I racked up and cashed out, booking a win of $17.

I usually work on Saturdays but had a rare Saturday off today, so I headed over to MGM to check out the 4/8 action.

I played for about 20 minutes, then realized I needed a snack and went downstairs to find one.

When I got back to my game, my chips were gone -- turns out I had gone over the chip pick-up time limit by five minutes. I had bought into the game for $40 and when my chips were picked up and bagged, there was $24 remaining. I cashed out and called it a day.

Even though I lost $16 today, I won $17 yesterday for a total weekend profit of one dollar. It's not quite $30k yet, but at least we're on the right track.

I did chest & triceps at the gym this morning, then went to Guitar Center and worked on music for a while.

I got the classic book Super System 2 and started reading Jennifer Harman's chapter on Limit Hold 'em. Looking forward to diving back into studying the game on a deeper level and preparing for the Potomac Poker Open in August.

I went to the gym after work and did leg day, then did the elliptical for eleven minutes.

I've been avoiding cardio over the past few months to just focus on building strength lifting weights, but for the summer I'll start adding some cardio to the end of each gym session. Also have been taking a cold shower every morning, which I highly recommend.

I read more of the LHE chapter and learned I have a bunch of leaks in my game, will work on repairing them this week.

Took a day off from caffeine to clear out the mind, worked out biceps at the gym then did the stationary bike and the StairMaster.

Did some training on GTO Wizard, kind of surprised by some of the plays that the software recommends. I wouldn't have thought a 3x river overbet with Queen-high would be the best move here -- need to study a lot more.

A common approach is to form a value range and then add as many of the best bluffs as you need.

So, to deal with this, you need to look at the part of the value range of this 3x bet.

^^^ Thanks for the feedback, I picked up a copy of "Modern Poker Theory" by Michael Acevedo and it's been really helpful in gaining a better grasp of how ranges work.

I played 4/8 Limit for a little over an hour today and won five dollars. Recently, each time I play live I've been working on improving different aspects of my game -- last time I just focused on being aware of how much money is in the pot at all times, and for this session I tried to identify different player tendencies and look for good bluffing opportunities.

I've found that bluffing in low-stakes LHE games can often be tough because it doesn't cost much for a skeptical opponent to look you up, but I'm gaining confidence in my reads and was able to get a couple well-timed bluffs through.

Though I only won five dollars today, my game is slowly improving and I look forward to spending more time studying.

Gl on your journey! My best suggestion for you now would be to move up as fast as possible to avoid the massive rake trap at the lowest stakes.

Thanks Dumbo -- after taking a few months off from live poker, I'm ready to get back to working on completing this bankroll challenge.

I popped over to MGM after work on Monday and hopped right in to a 4/8 game. I bought in for the minimum and won two nice pots but unfortunately the table broke in less than an hour. I decided to call it a day and headed over to the gym, booking a $70 profit.


Starting Bankroll -- $40

Current Bankroll -- $110

Target Bankroll -- $30k





MGM decided to start the Potomac Winter Poker Open on Valentine's Day this year, which is one week from today. Time for me to hit the books and start preparing for the return of this annual festival.

I took Dumbo's advice and jumped into a 1/3 game on Sunday -- it had been ages since I last played live No-Limit, and it was great to get back in the NL streets. I played for a couple hours and ended up making $40.

It was the first time I'd been in a casino on Super Bowl Sunday and the vibes were cool -- the sportsbook lounge was overflowing with hopeful bettors, and every time a team scored one lucky person playing poker was randomly selected to win a cash prize.

Near the end of the game, a player transferred to my table and said at his previous table everyone had agreed to tip the dealer every time Taylor Swift was shown on screen. The dealers thought this was a truly wonderful idea and hoped it would continue throughout the next NFL season.

The Potomac Winter Poker Open is underway and I've been slowly working my way through the book "Beyond GTO" by Dara O'Kearney with Barry Carter. The authors do a great job of breaking down advanced concepts and distilling them into an easily digestible format. Looking forward to learning more and getting ready for the PWPO.