After giving some thought to it, I decided to start main own Poker Goals & Challenges thread. It will be a good way to practice my writing, share my journey with the community and, above anything else, have people holding me accountable when I think about procrastinating.

Cliffs:
- College student from Brazil, living in the U.S. and about to move to Switzerland.
- Journalist at CBS News in New York, freelance writer for several poker magazines
- In chase of a balanced life as a writer and poker player
- Main Poker Goal: to become a Super High Roller player in 3 years (yes, I know how hard this is)
- Life Goals: publish my first book and establish myself as a well-known novelist


ABOUT ME
In 2011, while still living in Brazil - where I was born and raised - I fell in love with the game of poker. I was only 16, but being a competitive tennis players facing a tough moment (when I realized I'd never be able to play it for a living), poker intrigued me. I began playing on PokerStars under my mom's name. She wouldn't let me deposit, so I had to play freerolls and beg for people to stake me on poker forums. It was pathetic.

In 2013, once I turned 18, I created an account under my name and began playing live poker as well. I quickly found that the poker community in my city, Porto Alegre, was extremely close and accessible. That led me to become good friends with several of Brazil's best poker players, including the likes of Bernardo "bedias" Dias and Luiz "justholdplz" Duarte.

The problem was that I had to balance playing poker with going to university and interning at a sports academy. That, combined with the fact that my bankroll was basically non-existent, led me to play way less than I wanted to and go broke literally every time I managed to put some volume.

I had a few good scores, but was too young and stupid to play under a correct bankroll management. I had several good live results, winning several regional events and becoming a fairly well-known player in my local poker community.

Amidst my biggest upswing, I got news that would completely change my life. I had been awarded a full scholarship to move to the United States and study journalism at a good school. It was too good of an opportunity for me, but it would mean not playing poker for a while. Online poker was illegal and I had to be 21 to playing in the casinos around the school. I went with the safe choice.

Now, two years after I moved to the United States and was hired to work for CBS News in New York, a new opportunity appeared: studying in Geneva, Switzerland, for 6 months. In 12 days, I will be boarding a plane and making my way to a country where I can play online and live poker again.

For the last 18 months, I have immersed myself in the industry of poker in a different way: working as a freelance writer for ALL IN Magazine and studying the game intensely. That's the funny thing about not being able to play: I had a lot more time to study. Now, I think I am more than ready to return to poker and become the player I believe I can be.

POKER GOALS
My major goal in poker is to become a Super High Roller player. I understand how hard and maybe even absurd this goal seems, but I believe I have the mindset and the tools to get there. I want to do that in three years.

In a more short-term basis, I aim to become a consistent winning regular MTT player on PokerStars and start to frequent the live circuit in Europe (EPT, ESPT, UKIPT, IPT, Eureka, etc.)

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend EPT Barcelona as I will be with my parents. I haven't seen them in over 8 months and we will be meeting up in Switzerland for a couple of weeks of traveling before I go back to Geneva and begin my routine.

I also want to play a full WCOOP schedule.

I plan on playing 4-5 days a week online and traveling every other weekend to play live events around Europe.

LIFE GOALS
Other than poker, what I really want to do in life is to become a novelist. I am already a published author and have my non-fiction, journalism work vehiculated in several well-known media outlets. However, the fiction literature industry is where I think my best writing lies.

With that said, I am currently working on my debut novel. It's a story on triplets who don't know about the existence of each other. The boys' mother, who lives in a Brazilian favela, is too poor to raise three kids, so she keeps one and gives the other two way for adoption. The novel is divided in three main narratives that follow the lives of the triplets, who live in different countries and have completely different lifestyles.

Aside from writing, I have embarked on a journey of self-awareness, mindfulness and health. I still eat the occasional ice cream or burger, but I have began to exercise daily and eat healthier than ever. I also began meditating, practicing yoga and visualization. These activities have helped me tremendously and I hope I can expand their roles in my daily routine.

PERSONAL LIFE GOALS
I need a girlfriend. It's time. I've been on the single game for too long and although one-night stands have been a lot of fun, a stable relationship will certainly help my performance in poker and life.

I also want to visit at least 10 new countries during these next few months.

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CONCLUSION
I will be sharing my experiences with the 2+2 community and updating this thread as frequently as possible. I plan on doing some sessions live on Twitch and building a channel in which I can communicate with those of you who decide my life is interesting (or ****ed up) enough to be followed.

I am more than happy to hear suggestions regarding the thread, my writing and anything else that you might want to tell me. I might disagree with you, but I'm open to listen to your thoughts and feedback.

Above anything else, I hope you enjoy following my journey and we can hopefully build real connections that transcend the forum and the online world.

Can't wait to get started.

Oh, one more thing: feel free to ask my any questions you might have. I also don't plan on turning this into a poker strategy discussion thread. I might occasionally talk about specific hands and ask your opinions about how certain parties played, but this will be focused on interesting stories, exciting events, results summaries, traveling experiences and overall progress of my journey.

Some big goals man, good luck. Novel sounds really interesting. Best of luck to you!

Yeah, I understand it sounds a little too much, but if you meet me in person you'd get why haha being average definitely does not satisfy me.

Thanks for the support, can't wait to start the journey and begin sharing my progress.

Quick Update:

Before leaving for Switzerland next Sunday, I decided to play a private game here in New York City. I was hoping to playing 5/10, but to my surprise (first time it happened since I began playing there) there were only two $1/2 tables going on.

I bought in with $200 (100bb is more than enough in this game; no one had much more than that) and after a fairly short 4-hour session I cashed $800 out. It was one of the most successful sessions I had in terms of buy-ins won. The best thing about it is that I didn't win those $600 by playing huge pots or coolering people. I found good spots, induced bluffs and managed to extract as much chips as possible in several hands.

The 5/10 table ended up never getting enough players, so I just left after that session was over. Might go back tomorrow.

sounds exciting man. i had the exact same goals as you for a while but decided to just stick with university instead due to family pressure. gl!

Thanks, man! If I'm being honest, I never want to strictly play poker. It's fun and all, but not completely fulfilling in my opinion. Therefore, writing will always be side by side with the game.

Sounds like this could be interesting. What's bankroll/ stakes you plan to play and what games? Subbed btw and good luck


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Bankroll is about $20,000. I will be playing mostly MTTs $11-109 (with some $215s in the schedule, like SM) on my own and then will play a WCOOP schedule and a few EPTs/live events selling a fair % of it.

Regarding games, I play mostly NLH, but am also an avid Omaha Hi/Lo player (and occasionally PLO - three or four a week).

Thanks for the suport!

Hadn't posted in a while, but I'm back.

Starting with the bad news: I moved to an apartment complex in Geneva which promised me free, high-speed internet access. Unfortunately, as I arrived, I noticed that the wifi connection was so bad that the Stars' client wouldn't even connect. With that said, I've been trying to figure out if it's worth it for me to get internet access separately. In the mean time, I've been playing online at the university I'm doing research in this semester. My schedule there is pretty flexible and after I'm done with work and working out, I set up in a quiet room in the library to grind. It hasn't been that great results wise, but I will be playing the initial day of WCOOP #1 today or tomorrow and will let you guys know how it goes.

Good news: I went to Barcelona last week for the EPT and had a pretty successful week. Because of moving, I didn't manage to arrive until Wednesday, which meant I missed the Main Event. The first few days I played three or four events and cashed in a couple, but due to the new Stars 20% payout system it was only for $500 or so of profit. The last day there I was bored by the beach and had a couple of hundred euros with me, so I decided to put some decent clothes in and go to the casino play the $120 Hyper-Turbo event. There were about 300 entries and I finished in 6th, which was really cool because it was my first EPT final table. Cashed for about $1,500, which is not a bad ROI.

Now I'm back in Geneva and ready to do some damage online. I won't play much this week as I'm mentally and physically getting ready for the WCOOP. Will also try to satellite EPT Malta.

Thanks!