Consider this my 2017 restart. In my original 2017 thread, I played a handful of sessions and had some decent early results. Unfortunately, I didn't keep my "gamble tiger" in its cage, and I ****ed around at the blackjack tables twice. I won, but this challenge is all about staying out of the pit, and figuring out whether I'm a winner at poker. So, I'm throwing the $1000 or whatever I was up so far in savings, and starting over with some slightly different parameters.

As I've said in my previous threads, if you're looking for a diary of ultra-conservative bankroll management, this isn't the thread. I'm going to embrace the reality of my situation -- I want to build a bankroll, which I'll need to learn to be more protective of over time. For right now, though, reloading wouldn't be the end of the world, and I'm choosing stakes accordingly.

A Bit About Me

Poker's been a part of my life for about a decade. When I was in college, I used to cruise to the casino with my friends, try to "squish the fish" at $2/2 LHE, and mess around in home tournaments. As my friends all moved on, I got more and more serious about the game.

Over the years, I've played cash games, big and small, binked my fair share of live and online MTTs, etc. But, discipline has always been a serious problem. When I found the cash games online were exceeding my skill level, I essentially gave up. I've thrown a couple hundred dollars online a handful of times over the past couple of years, but I've never focused on building a future in poker. I might go play live for a few hours a few times a year. No structure at all. All that is about to change.

At this stage of my life, things are going well. I have a good job. Married. Two young kids, and one more coming. My family is happy. I'm generally fulfilled. I don't need to be in any rush to find real success in poker. I do, however, need to be able to justify the time. So, some goals are in order. A little more structure. And hopefully, with some effort and patience, I can turn poker into a profitable hobby that helps me spoil my family in the present, and prepare for a great future.

The Game Plan

$3,000 starting bankroll. I travel a lot for work, so I'm hoping to put in most of my playing while away. I'll be posting updates here, and tracking results using RunGood.

$1/2 NLHE and $1/3 NLHE may be played. If bankroll falls below $2,000 at any point, $1/3 NLHE must be discontinued until bankroll recovers to $3,000.

When bankroll reaches $5,000, $2/5 NLHE may be played. If bankroll falls below $4,000 at any point, $2/5 NLHE must be discontinued until bankroll recovers to $5,000.

When bankroll reaches $15,000 $5/10 NLHE may be played. If bankroll falls below $10,000 at any point, $5/10 NLHE must be discontinued until bankroll recovers to $15,000.

Allowable tournament stakes:

Bankroll <$5,000 - Single Buy-In Maximum of 10% of Bankroll
Bankroll $5,000 - $10,000 - Single Buy-In Maximum of 7.5% of Bankroll
Bankroll $10,000 - $25,000 - Single Buy-In Maximum of 5% of Bankroll
Bankroll >$25,000 - Single Buy-In Maximum of 3% of Bankroll

Some General Rules

[ ] Absolutely no casino/pit games. Ever.
[ ] Stop-loss for live cash games - 3 buy-ins

I'm hoping to end 2017 having achieved the following:

[ ] Played 500 hours live cash games
[ ] Played 10 live MTTs
[ ] Total bankroll $20,000

January 6, 2016 - Starting Over

After breaking my "no pit games" rule again (+$, fortunately), I decided that I wanted to restart. Just like anything else, when you've done something stupid before, it's easier to do it again, and I didn't want this year tainted by that kind of acceptance.

Last time, I got off to a pretty epic start. Was hoping for the same, and ended up putting in a very long session at the JACK Casino in Cleveland yesterday while in town for work. I posted the most interesting hand of the session in LLSNL, which is something I'm going to make an effort to do each time I play.

Next update will be from sunny Tampa, Florida. My meeting schedule should allow me to put in some decent hours, and the National College Football Championship is in town, so I'm expecting some juicy games.

Current Bankroll: $3,633.00
Since Last Update: +$633.00
Pit-Free Days: 2 (Since January 4, 2016)

Just boarded. It's 5 degrees here at home. Flying down to Tampa. I have to make sure that some hardware was delivered, installed, and is working correctly, and then I should be able to check out the new poker room at the Hard Rock Tampa. Lots of staggered meetings this trip, but I expect to be able to put some hours in.

Good luck, OP. Good to see you getting active in LLSNL. Now GTF away from the negative EV games! You should probably come up with some sort of "fine" if you play the pit. Like all money wagered (chips put in play) come out of your poker bankroll, even if you cash some/more out and any money retrieved from the pits must be spent on socks, or some such.

Thank you very much. I'm I'm on a mission to stay away. I think it comes down to this: If I can't stay out of the pit, there's just no point in continuing with poker. I'm normally not a total degen, but there's no point in grinding for months if I'm going to put myself in a position to lose all of my well-earned profit to the casino.

I enjoy playing poker to some extent, but I don't consider it to be a recreational activity or something that I do for fun. It only makes sense in my life if it produces, so I'm focused on doing what it takes to be (and stay) successful. To that end...

Pit-Free Days: 4 (Since January 4, 2016)

I'm now on my connecting flight. As I mentioned, I'm going to have at least a few hours of work before I can head over to play, but I wanted to set up some general goals for this week's Tampa sessions.

[ ] Stay out of the pit!
[ ] Play tighter in the blinds. Playing bloated pots out of position with marginal hands is a recipe for disaster.
[ ] Play 15+ hours of tilt-free poker
[ ] Post at least five hands in LLSNL

1) Why abandon your first thread after some failure? I think you shouldn't have ditched it just because something went bad. That's not really how to hold yourself accountable imo.

2) Obv move is to donate pit wins to a solid charity that supports a good cause. If you really want to be serious about it, then donate pit losses to charity, too.

3) Good luck.

Thanks for checking out the thread. As for your first question, I did a lot of thinking about it, and decided that have a previous "whoops" would make it easier to have another. Wanted a clean slate, so I had a clean slate to protect. Obviously, the pit play still happened, but I'm putting it behind me.

I like the idea of the donation. Let me think about that.

January 8-10, 2017 - Tamed in Tampa

Combining the updates for the past few days because work was much busier than expected, and I didn't get to put in as many hours as I had hoped. When I landed Sunday, I made sure that my team was ready to go for our meetings over the next few days, and then made my way over to the new Hard Rock poker room. The new room is really, really nice!

I got on the list for $1/2 NL and was seated within about 20 minutes at a new game that was terrible. Moved 2-3 times, and just wasn't finding good games. About 6.5 hours into my session, I was moved to a table with a couple of brutally, brutally drunk Alabama fans. I didn't pick up any real opportunities, but was able to chip up a bit from my low point of roughly -$700. Ended the session at -$520, but was extremely happy with my play.

Didn't get to play Monday, but went to Derby Lane on Tuesday to play some $1/3 and their $200 MTT. Had a couple solid (quick) sessions at $1/3, but busted the multi very early.

All said and done, I lost a few hundred for the trip, but no tilting, and most importantly, no pit games. Pretty happy overall. Here's the result of the goals I posted before the trip:

[X] Stay out of the pit!
[X] Play tighter in the blinds. Playing bloated pots out of position with marginal hands is a recipe for disaster.
[ ] Play 15+ hours of tilt-free poker. (Not quite! More like 13.)
[ ] Post at least five hands in LLSNL (Just completely missed this.)

Current Bankroll: $3,371.00
Since Last Update: -$292.00
Pit-Free Days: 7 (Since January 4, 2016)

Currently sitting in Hartford waiting to board my flight to DC. I'm going to try to catch the last flight home tonight to surprise my girls, but if I don't make it in time, I'll probably snag an Uber up to Maryland Live and put in a few hours. Hoping to just get home.

Flate, January is over... how goes it so far?


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Flate we are waiting for an update. If you went to the pits again then no problem.... Just continue and pick yourself up again. hope you are doing OK anyway.

Let us know how it's going. GL

Flate, 1st quarter is over... update???


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