Hey All,

So I'm back to try this one more time. I have 2015 (with intros), 2016 and 2017 threads to check out if you want some context.

I intend to get more serious this year, as I do every January. But this year, I have a good, stable base to work from and a good schedule both in my home life and in poker that I think give me a better shot at making poker, if not a full time job, more than a part time income/hobby.

So the goal is first and foremost to get the volume up. I can beat the limits I am starting at, I know this after so many years playing them. I just need some consistency in my sessions. So I want to get in 5000 tourneys this year. That's 2.5x my typical year. But I will basically split the year in half as our lease conveniently ends after month six exactly. If I'm still not getting in the right volume and being lazy with updates and changing schedules all the time, then I will close this thread and accept poker will only be a hobby for me. If it's going well, then I evaluate what I think the right amount of volume is for the second half based on my observations of the first.

There are 26 weeks between now and our lease ending and I intend to play 25 of them at 100 games/week. I haven't yet decided if I prefer 25 games/4 days per week or 20 games/5 days per week, but I think it will be the former as I prefer to have more than 3-4 tables only and to get the tourneys I like, I am buying in for 5-6 hours typically.

During Winter Series next week and SCOOP in May (and any other Series that may crop up) I will play the day session from 10 AM to 4 PM to ensure I get the best value out of those events. The rest of my grind will be the lower variance afternoon session from 3 PM to 9 PM (possibly backing up a bit on Sundays for extra value shots).

To start I will likely be in an $8 ABI or so, but I hope to be fairly quickly up to $15, where I'd be happy to stay until end of June barring a large score along the way. But next week, with Winter Series, I do expect my ABI to be closer to $12 as I will add some $55s on my own dime.

Yah, so anyway. Looking forward to the grind in 2018. Next week, I will be going Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (house to myself too with the GF in NYC from Thursday to Sunday). Then I'll take Monday the 8th off and reset for my regular grind on 9th onward.

Hopefully there will be some fun runs and scores to post about.

GL heroes!

Cool challenge mate, subbed and GL


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Thanks bud! Welcome aboard.

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So, my GF and I both got pretty horribly sick the past week since catching whatever her sister had at Christmas and decided to skip the NYE party, but I have been a little bit ahead of her in terms of getting back healthy, so I feel OK to put in a session today seeing as we didn't go out last night.

I intend to simply lower my table count all week and still aim for 100 tourneys at $12 ABI or so, just over 6 days now instead of 5. So I will do likely 16 tourneys a day for today, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday plus 20 on Sunday. Got my schedule picked out already and pumped to get started with 4 good looking Winter Series events! Will post up results and anything interesting from the session when it's over.

GL Heroes! Happy New Year!

Going to attempt to sell a few small packs for the higher buy-in stuff the rest of the week.

First package is HERE if anyone is interested.

Hey Guys,

Played my 16 tourneys today including a few Winter Series events. Nothing got going really after a decent first hour and I busted everything early including the $55 unfortunately. Mostly standard spots. Ended up with 4 small cashes to get back some of the loss and only end up down $140. Decided to basically skip the Winter Series the rest of the way except for events that naturally fall into my usual buy-ins and time ranges.

So tomorrow I will be back on the grind in the afternoon/evening. Doing my usual mix of mostly reg speed/freeze out tourneys from $2.20 to $16.50 with some turbos thrown in towards the end and reg speed SNGs sprinkled as they fire throughout the session (average buy-in should be around $6.25). I will end up getting another 6 Winter Series events and may stretch to include the $22 Main just because it is such good value obviously.

Anyway, I feel good about my decision to avoid moving up too much until I've had another decent run like December and my bankroll feels more solid to start including the $22s, $27s and $33s that I miss so much. So I will be getting in more volume than initially planned daily, closer to 35ish games per day and 4 days a week starting next Sunday (this week I plan to play every day except Friday).

Peace!

Will be following this! GL!

What roll are you starting with for an ~$8 ABI?

I guess Fri-Sat-Sun back to back gets pretty intense, but unless you have plans surely it's better to take off Thurs than Fri?

Well, I slightly altered things after yesterday, I am going back to my usual grind. I don't really like playing through the day as the fields are all too big and I prefer the evening session where the first two hours has some nice end of peak stuff, but then the fields get smaller and the variance lower. And the Winter Series events aren't that exciting if I am not playing 55s and 109s, which I can't afford yet. So I'll be playing more like $6.65 ABI to start, and I have let's say $1000 to get started, I could dip into some other Savings for more, but if I busted that amount, I'd probably just quit the grind and play live occasionally for fun only.

As for Friday, it was a day off cause it was a poor Winter Series day when I thought I was still caring about that, but it's also the worst day of the week as there is nothing interesting to me that day (like no Mini Majors I care about and smallest prize pools, which does mean small fields, but I still like to play for something worthwhile). So yah, I'll be playing everyday except Friday this week and then next week my regular grind will be Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday until I am able to get my bankroll to $2000 and move up to a $10 ABI, then it will be Sunday to Thursday, where I plan t stay as I move up limits.

Thanks for following!

Enjoying the thread so far, GL with your future grind sir, see you on the tables

Thanks man, glad to have you on board and see you at the table too!

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After thinking about the bankroll question I was asked above, I decided there is no reason not to add a bankroll component to this thread. So here is my plan...

After last month's successful finish, I cashed out some funds to ensure that the first six months of the New Year would be covered without any poker profits if necessary. My GF's job and my side business do well enough to cover our monthly bills and the profits I took in December covered Christmas and some other small debts I wanted gone.

So I am starting with $1200 US and no need to withdraw until at least 6 months from now and an average buy-in of $6.65 (or so) for the evening session (Eastern Time). I have two levels above ($12 ABI and then $18 ABI) that I want to get to and think I should (barring horrible variance) by the end of that six months. So basically, I will do no cash-outs (beyond small, unforeseen needs, which I will document) until I get to the second level, which I will start grinding at $2000 and I will drop back down if I hit $1000 again. Once at Level 2, I will begin doing 25% cash-outs until I hit $3500 which is when I will begin trying to grind Level 3 (again dropping down at $2000 and again at $1000). Once at Level 3, I intend to start cashing out 50% of profits monthly until my bankroll reaches $10,000 online at which point I am happy to simply stay there and grind out profit monthly and take 100% above $10K until poker either dries up completely or I get bored or I find something else better to do.

In that final tier, I'd be playing the Sunday Million weekly, the Major $109 daily, Big $55 and Bounty Builder $55, as well as anything from $5 to $44 in my session hours. It would be a nice, easy grind 4-5 days per week.

Bankroll Management
Tier 1 ($6-$7 ABI): $0 - $2000
Tier 2 ($12 ABI): $2000 - $3500
Tier 3 ($18 ABI): $3500+

Bankroll Start: $1200
Average Games: 35 (4-5 days per week)

So yah, I'll keep a running tab of my bankroll management in here too until I reach the $10K number (or go bust or give up I suppose) at which point, I'll just post randomly about my general grind and hands and so on.

Anyway, session today at 2:45 PM, excited to get back to the usual grind from last month and ready to print some money hopefully!

GL Heroes!

gl man, that's quite aggresive BRM

subbed, gl!

Thanks. Well it's aggressive, but it's not insane. I did say that those move up numbers were shot takes that I would move back down again if I essentially hit the 200 BI limit for the Tier below. But mostly I want to manage it aggressively until I get back to the low end of Midstakes as I don't want to be toiling away at these limits anymore.

I am playing an evening session of mostly off-peak smaller field stuff, I'm adding SNGs at the lowest tier, I expect it to be quite doable even though there is some risk of ruin. But like I said I do have some extra money I could add if I wanted or more likely, I'll just pack poker in as anything other a once a week hobby and work my regular job if I feel that I'm not making strides to get up to Tier 3 in a reasonable time frame. And once at Tier 3 ($18 ABI) I would build the roll to ensure I had at least 500-600 buy-ins of completely untouched poker money and then begin replenishing my offline Savings account too eventually. So when it was over I'd end up with quite conservative management.

But should be an interesting next 6 months with hopefully a little run good, so I will take your luck!

Thanks. Welcome aboard!

Something came up yesterday with our small business, so my first evening grind will be tonight (second session technically as I played on the 1st). Will post in the morning about how it went. Looking forward to binking the Evening Big $7.50 and getting this started right!

Decent first "official" grind day that should have been much better. I had The Open in my grasp and I misplayed a hand while 1 of 5 with a big chip lead and then let it effect my next hand where I did get outflopped by 1010 with my QQ and it's not even terrible I got it in necessarily, but I was on autopilot and not even really giving the hand any thought anymore, still rehashing the A10o hand I had butchered before to give up half my stack. Then busted 8 spots from money in the Hot $16.50 with KK v A8o to add to the profit... sigh

Anyway, got in 35 games, played $6.08 ABI and made the final table of The Open for like the 3rd time in 3 weeks or something to secure a decent $125ish in profit to get things rolling in the right direction.

I am probably going to force myself to stay at these limits with the $1200 roll until the end of January unless I have a real bink like last month and just take the "grinded" profits and make sure we start next month on solid footing financially as December was expensive. Then next month, I will begin focusing on moving up more rapidly. I'd like to prove to myself I can get proper volume in a month too even if it gets boring on a lower limit. But if I did grab a $2000 score or something then I would move to Tier 2.

Anyway, plan is to play again tomorrow, then binge watch Suits on Friday and chill. Then big grinds Saturday and Sunday while the GF is in NYC with her mom and sister.

Should be a quiet, chill, fun weekend.

Lobby (Softcore) Porn

I would suggest grinding hard 3+R and 8$ 180man , 90 man ko and mix some micro mtts untill roll is 4-5k and then move up. even for 3+R 1,5k doesn't sound safe.

Anyways my 2cent im no expert and rather conservative in br/managment but may
the force be with U mate !

Thanks. But I'm fine with my plan. Again, I own a business on the side and even if I didn't, I can go work with my buddy any time I want full time for a nice paycheque. And I have savings, I'm just tired of playing part time and playing the same boring limits. I'm ready to move up or quit pretending I'm going to play poker anything other than as a fun hobby.

So I am playing the evening session, which is clearly lower variance and I'm already playing on a 200 BI bankroll with like 80% reg speed MTTs, deep stack or reg speed SNGs and very few KOs. I really think if I bust through a 200 BI bankroll at these limits, it's a sign after 15 years in poker to simply quit and move on and enjoy the game occasionally at the local casinos on a Friday at 2/5 with several beers.

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On an unrelated note, NYC trip got cancelled due to the extreme weather, so GF is back home with 4 days off, so not too sure what the plan will be for the weekend yet. But might end up not playing today and doing something her as this trip was supposed to be her B-Day/Xmas present and she is likely pretty disappointed.

Anyway... GL grinders!

Haha, sounds very familiar to me (probably to anyone who has a gf / wife) lol ))



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Been getting in nightly sessions with lots of deep runs and a few small final tables for a mostly break even month (maybe small profit?) so far. Really enjoying the evening session, the play is so much weaker than the day time. Made a deep run in the Monday 6 Max last night, unfortunately lost a 60bb flip with 19 to go 1010<AQs. Oh well. Feel like another nice bink is coming this month though, which would be good for the bankroll stability.

Anyway, will do a more consistent update once I fully figure out my schedule going forward. Hopefully it's sorted by next week.

Haha. Yep. Her family ended up spending Friday with us and we played beer pong and got drunk. Then we did some shopping and chilled Saturday to recover before heading to her work's Xmas party since she wasn't in New York anymore. Sunday we just relaxed and watched TV and ate Pizza. So it wasn't a terrible weekend, but obviously not the grind I expected or the fun weekend in New York she expected. But winter will always win... so you just roll with it.

Subbed, gl mate!

Thanks bruv! You doing one this year? I didn't see last time I checked.

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Had this yesterday... lost Q10cc on 1096ss board v. A7ss for a big chip lead basically HU if I won it. Oh well, good run anyway. Playing well and running decent overall lately.



Will be doing a small, higher buy-in sesh tonight around the Mini-Thrill (Late) and then likely off until Monday with some friends coming up to party and watch football for the weekend. And then it's time to lock down and grind out the rest of January pretty aggressively.

Hello Satellite,

Will you be putting any packages together? Not had one in a while.

Hey!

Good to see you over here. I posted one or two, but not much interest during Winter Series for what I had up, so I've just been own diming everything up to $16.50. I'm definitely interested in selling some action to some $22s-$33s, but I was hoping to have it been a fairly consistent thing (4-5 evenings a week) and not sure if I can comfortably sell that much action yet. If you want to work something out, send me a PM.

Thanks for posting! Hope you're well.

Hey,

OK, ready to get back on the proper grind, finally!

Here is my Sunday Session to kick things off:



Let's get'em!

GL Heroes!

Ugh, I lied. Not going to be starting today. Will be tomorrow. And probably slightly smaller limits. Blah.

Oh well. I'll have to bink the Big $5.50 again.