Hi guys, I am FiG (Freedom Grinder), and this is my Poker Challenge and goals. At 24 I am leaving home for I hope the last time to go on the adventure of a lifetime.

1. Live the rest of my life to the fullest extent possible and be at peace.
2. Grind a poker bankroll up through any means possible.
3. Travel the U.S. while living in my car.
4. Move to SE/Asia?? to get online with Poker Stars.

Follow along with this thread and my YouTube channel to see where this journey takes me.

CHECK OUT: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVk0t4busqOiz4pbi9_azTw

I had written a really long background at first as an introduction. I thought about it and then figured most people don’t want to read that long of a post. I also decided it would be better to gradually release my background, similar to a story teller.

Every day I am going to try to write at least a few sentences and up to a few paragraphs if it was a noteworthy day. At times I might lump some days together to catch up if I get behind. I don’t plan on making too many videos for now because I’m not the best speaker. If I get any pleasure or incentive out of them then that could change in the future.

Today was D-Day Wednesday, Feb. 15th. I have officially touched down in JAX, Florida. I left Monday, and the trip was fun for me but probably boring for 90%+ of people. I am still an OTR truck driver at heart. I drove the entire 1,000 miles while doing nothing else but watching scenery; no music, no talk radio, no book on tape, no youtube and no one else to talk to. I really have missed the open road. I stopped in Brunswick, GA the night before at a rest area. The previous night I slept poorly because I was cold; in Tennessee it was 28. Last night the opposite happened, it was too *** hot. The high was 77 and I didn’t fall asleep for 3 hours until it dropped to 64.

The Number One priority once I arrived was to get a Planet Fitness Black membership. I have not showered in almost 3 days, outside of the strategic use of baby wipes. I was first introduced to the baby wipe shower in the Army during extended training exercises. As a trucker, the B.W.S. was also utilized b/c you can’t really shower every day if you want to make any good money. For $20/month with the Black card you can use any one of the vast amount of P.F. gyms across the country. I registered my home gym at Orange Park near one of the two Best Best poker rooms. I’m not sure if all the locations have showers, so I just left without checking and possibly raising any suspicion. The kid registering me in tried to give me a tour and was dragging on and on about all of their different programs. In my mind I was thinking enough already dude, I am a hobo and just want to use your showers.

After I left I drove 5 miles closer to where I want to sleep tonight. I ran some errands and scoped out another PF club. Yes, there was one just down a few miles. In total the worker said that there are 13 in Jacksonville. This one does have showers and I am stoked. When I went in I didn’t bring any of my shower stuff because I didn’t want to look stupid if they didn’t have them. In the men’s locker room some guy dressed in full work-out swag tried to engage me in conversation. I am predominantly a loner and encounters like this remind me of why; most people annoy me. I pretended to get a phone call in the lobby to fool the attendant and walked out a few minutes after checking in. I couldn’t draw attention to myself by checking in again so now I will have to wait until tonight. I am sitting in my car behind the strip mall on the other side waiting to go in at 10:30pm so I can do my business and gtfo. They even gave me a sheet with the average number of attendance for every hour of everyday (++EV). I wanted to nap until then but I couldn't fall asleep so I wrote this instead. I think my restlessness is due to a combination of built-up anticipation to begin this journey and the anxiety of learning how to live like a Hobo.

The first entry, or this one, didn’t have much poker talk but it will be an integral part of this thread. I only know what I’m going to write the day it happens. Yesterday I called myself a hobo, and that turns out to actually be the correct definition of what I am doing. At this moment I am a homeless migratory vagabond that finds work. Out of the four types of homelessness a hobo is definitely more respectable than a bum, a tramp or a drug addict.

I went back and re-read what I wrote last night, and it hit me how much work it is, just to shower and go to sleep. I wouldn’t recommend this lifestyle to anyone. I really think unless you were deployed in the military or a trucker, you wouldn’t be able to handle the initial shock of the crudeness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m some kind of superhero. In all honesty a part of why I’m doing this is out of desperation. There have been many times this week where I have longed for the familiar comforts of home. I have to keep reminding myself of the endgame and my true purpose; the “four goals” in the first post. There is a freedom in living out of a car without an employer. You can play poker nearly anywhere to support yourself. It is beyond cheap to live wherever and whenever I choose to in the United States. I don’t have to be anywhere or do anything I don’t want to. Tomorrow I’m going to see what I can do about playing some poker in one form or another.

I haven't mentioned that yet. I was going to get to that soon, but I’ll go ahead and give my life roll. The bankroll will be coming out of the cash amount (I know, not much), and details will be released in a later post. Keep in mind I am living one of the cheapest (while still trying to be safe) lifestyle’s possible in the U.S. without putting all of your belongings in a shopping cart and sleeping under a bridge.

As of 2/18/17

Cash: $219 (I spent a lot of my money last month to get to the point where I now barely have to spend any)

Car: 2008 Pontiac 98,000 miles

Savings: $5,000 roughly in gold/silver bullion (could be more or less, I haven’t recalculated the prices in more than a year)

I do keep up to date with the markets. It is more so that I don't know the current resale value for specific coins. For a couple years I flipped a lot of coins. I sell back low premium coins to Provident Metals. Ebay is usually the best place to move numismatic (collectible) coins.

I was able to finally start playing some poker the last two days. The first day I was able to play in a McD’s parking lot on the adjacent furniture store’s WiFi. I have not yet found a fast food place with strong enough WiFi to watch videos or play poker. I’m sure inside would be fine but I could not think of many more miserable places to play. I heard Starbucks has good WiFi, so I’ll have to check that out one night.

Yesterday I tried out a public library which was really the plan all along. Jacksonville has quite a few nice libraries, in fact almost all of the buildings in southern JAX appear to be brand new. The internet was fantastic, and all of the study tables were equipped with several built-in electrical outlets. Can’t ask for much else there. As I was finishing my breakfast in the car before heading in, I kept seeing moms and grandmas arriving with their children. I felt like a pervert sitting in my car, as the only two men I saw were creepy, and old with Santa Claus beards. Inside it was all good b/c I blended in well with the room full of 20-30yo guy’s studying I presume. There was only one woman there and she must have flipped through every current-issue magazine they had, just looking at the pictures. For being obviously ******ed, she wasn’t half bad looking. My only inconveniences here were I couldn’t face the windows b/c I didn’t want librarians to see the depravity on my computer screen, and after 5 hours my butt was starting to hurt from the wooden chair.

I was multi-tabling micro stakes cash on a new site I’m trying out. The sessions had gone well until the last hour. I was up about $30, before an encounter with a big fish. It was a 3-handed 20NL table where I had originally bought in for 10bb. This tuna fish was playing every hand and had doubled me up twice already. He now had the short stack and doubled up after calling my button shove from the BB with J7 vs my A7. Immediately he tops off to a full stack, so I licking my lips follow in pursuit. In a couple hands I had K8 on an A83 flop with a K turn. A 5 comes on the river and we get it in, he has A8. On a rainbow board like this I am never folding two-pair to this idiot who has already been the aggressor in big pots with one pair type hands. Good game me; now down a few bucks after losing a little on a couple other tables as well.

Why are you playing micro stakes online when you have two awesome poker rooms in the city you are staying in. Best bets (jax poker room) had a min 40 max 200 1/2 nl game.
The last time I played there I literally saw someone sell silver to another player while the player was at a table. Get out some of that gold and silver and go play some poker man!!! You are wasting your time in these micro stakes games.
Good luck!
Also I think around orange park there are a couple of motels that rent by the week fairly cheap( 129$ weekly) I'm sure you spend half that in gas. You could save the other half buying groceries and keeping them in the room/ refrigerator.
You could also cancel your gym membership. No need to live in your car man, set up shop for a while, grind up a roll, then rinse and repeat in a different location.
TBH your ideas seem terrible but I hope it works out for you.

I can understand about you wanting/ needing to save money by living in your car. But the value in paying rent for $400 a month is more than you probably realize. Figure out how much your winrate can be, reasonably. $400 is nothing besides 1 cooler per month at live 1-2.

Add in your extra cost of gym membership, extra gas, driving. Where your real value is lost is the inconvienience factor of not getting a good night rest, a cheap and healthy home cooked meal, and general unhealthiness.

Lot's of negativity coming into the thread tonight. I was definitely expecting it sooner or later, but jeez this thread is only a few days old.

Friendly advice = negativity.

Nah bro, negativity is when that tap on your vehicle at 3am is NOT the police.


And lets be real, if people dont get their "negativity" in now they wont have too much longer as this thread will be dead in the very near future.

I hope not though, gl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just sound advice, living in your car you are not saving any money. And time = money. Your mental, eating, and physical game will suffer to the point where you are actually losing money with "saving money on rent".

I will always ask this question up-front for anyone who questions my chosen lifestyle. Have you ever voluntarily done this, or had a job that required you to live in a vehicle on the road for several months at a time? If the answer is no, then how can you bring forth an effective argument against my perspective? What we should be able to agree upon is the math. The main reason I am doing this is to save money, and the numbers should speak for themselves.

Another thing I don’t get; why would someone tell me what I’m doing is stupid and it’s going to fail, then wish me good luck. Either tell me what’s up or wish me well. When you bring negativity I don’t want anything to do with your “luck”. I understand constructive criticism, but I can detect in the wording when your intentions are not entirely pure. 2+2 is full of guys finding one million ways to say my dick is bigger than yours.

I know what mine looks like, I don’t need you to tell me. Having said that, I can still admit later on when I was wrong.

Thank you for the constructive criticism.

- I have never seen apartments for $400, everything included. The cheapest one I could find back home in a city of 1 mill, not in a bad area, was $435. No utilities included, and it was a roach motel.

- SNG ROI from when I was properly rolled on Bovada:

$5 15%
$10 6%
$26 4%

No idea on a live WR. I have played maybe 20 sessions in my life, and always ran like ****

- I am keeping track of all my costs. I am most interested in seeing my gas consumption. It seems like you think I drive around a lot??

- I have been sleeping better every night, the more familiar I get with it. Again, I slept this way for an entire year before.

- Healthy meals and me have never worked out. I love unhealthy food regardless of where I live.

- I am doing cardio nearly everyday. I have not regularly exercised in 4 years.

Im going to not go out on a limb here and say put your hours in live. Forget about online, not any money in it unless you put the time and effort in. With your experience, live is where the easy money is.

My advice is to sell the car, sell the gold and buy ticket to Thailand or something and grind from online micros. Quality of life cant be good if living on a car, your losing more than the rent by that. Making money works by investing on yourself to be able to work and improve on what your doing, not by saving money with living in circustances you dont want to live.

Is he really going to move to Thailand to grind 5nl when he is in a very good live poker state?

Thought he plays 25nl atleast online.

I dont know live games is the described 5k roll even reasonable for playing 1/2.. Imo lower risk bigger potential reward to go asia to cut living costs and have reasonable appartment, learn the game online before putting ton of live hours in without even knowing if he is +ev there or not.

I meant not what up, but like rebuke me.

I'll tell you what's up, people here are trying to give you sound advice. You're grinding for pennies online instead of playing in higher value live games right next to you. Your hourly playing 20nl buying in for 10bb (like what?!) is insanely low. I assume you are playing at global poker which is the only site I know of that allows that. Go play live at least give yourself a shot here.

This is already one of the most interesting threads I've come across so far. Wishing you the best of luck op. I'd be interested to learn more about the life of a truck driver and why you chose to leave it behind?

Stubborn trucktriver playing micros on parkinglot wifi for a living

You are just being penny wise and pound foolish.
You don't want to listen to others, you are not social but a loner.
Live poker is a social game!!!

My advice would be to go sell the gold, get a bankroll of 5000, then rather than wasting time on the micros go find yourself some roommates and you should get a good one in about 400 per month.

Get relaxed for the next week, work out. Stop gambling on 20NL online and move down stakes online and play on 9 handed table where you want to simulate your strategies.

After playing for a week, then go to the live poker room and sit with 200BB yes deep, because that is how you will play solidly and being super tight you will win, set mine, and be the tightest player on the table.

Online is to simulate your strategies and ranges, and live is where the money will come from life.

You have enough bankroll to win at live games, if you do it right.

also to be frank you thread title is leaving moms basement travel world, it should be leaving moms basement and drawing dead.

Get a part time job and put poker in the sidelines once you are profitable for 6 months leave part time job

any job will do like bartender or something, but unless you work part time you won't survive

of course if you have millions of hands poker experience then it is different

Call it a long weekend and head home. No one can play good poker when they're as highly leveraged as you are. If you want to make poker work getting a part time job, a decent place to live and a sustainable lifestlye have to come first. Don't burn yourself out by taking your shot too soon. Failing now will make it harder for you to get where you want to be down road.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

To play well online you need a 32 inch screen as a minimum or multiple monitors. That way you can study and watch vids while playing multiple tables.