Okay guys, this is my goal thread. It's still a dream at this point, but I feel verbalising it at this point helps me get my head around the idea.

So a bit about myself, I'm a 21 year old uni student studying film. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I've been interested in Poker for a little while now, but I've only just started it taking it seriously in recent weeks. I'm interested mostly in the tournament side of things, as I prefer the challenge of rising blinds and just the general increased amount of action.

My plan is to build up a bankroll and to be able to have at least one season of traveling to different locations around the world playing tournaments (paying for a holiday with poker). It's going to take a while, so it will probably be around 2017/2018 when I can actually make the trip (this will also be when I'm finished with uni).

To achieve this goal, I will be playing poker tournaments both online and offline. I live near a casino that has a midday tournament with a $50 buy-in every day, so I'll be heading to that tournament at a max of 3 days a week (schedule issues/bankroll permitting). I'll also be grinding tournaments on PokerStars to help build up my bankroll. As I go along, I'll be using my bankroll to provide myself with reading material and perhaps even coaching to improve my play. Occassionally I'll grind the local cash games at fish busy times for a little extra bankroll.

For now, my short term goal is to be at least a break-even player, and to improve my play style. I play this game for the sport, so I'm perfectly okay with breaking even overall. The sky is the limit though, and I want to make my mark on the poker world.

So over the last 8 days, I've been to the casino five times and played $1/2 live. First night I was with two friends and made $40 of profit (short stack bought in for $50). I was short stacked and left early to prevent my friend who can't play good poker from losing too much. I blew the $40 on blackjack like an idiot. [We'll leave this night on $0 because I didn't keep winnings]

Next night, my two pair on what appeared to be a dry board ran into a straight with Villain holding 85o. It was hard to spot/put him on the hand. I lost $100. [-100]
Next night, I ran into some bad beats, and got down to $4 from $80 (max buy-in at my $1/2 table), but managed to get a few lucky shoves and eventually cashed out a $50 profit. [-$50]

Next night I go again, and my straight ran into a higher straight. It was a bad call, as the person playing was a reg who wouldn't go all-in without the nuts. Guess I got caught in the moment. Lost $120 of buyin money (topped up for $40 at one point). This was basically my bankroll for this paycheck gone. All other money needed to be spent on ramen noodles and the communal washing machines. [-$170]

So I went to the casino with two friends again, because one of them is a VIP who gets free drinks and entry to a nice area. This place is a cool hangout. One of them makes a 3:1 bet on roulette with $50 and wins. He hasn't played poker before, but decided to bank roll me and the other friend for the night with $75. After playing some great poker, getting lucky and unlucky, eventually I cash out $240. My second best night ever, and this time it wasn't just a massive heater. The guy only wants to take back $75 but I give him $100 and keep $140 for myself. [-$30]

So I played around 12/15 hours, so I think my loss wasn't bad. I made a few bad decisions (calling all-ins without the nuts), but I also played some hands really well. On the last night, I started off playing like an absolute nit, and turned to LAG once I had over 2maxBIs, it helped the table was quite tight. I was playing with a range down to about 6/7s, and raising pretty much every hand I played. Button I almost always 3bet/C-Bet and managed to be quite successful in muscling people out of pots. I tabled a few bluffs, which meant a few of my nut hands paid off.

What I've learnt:
-Bankroll management is important, and I need to start exercising it more, otherwise I'll lose a lot of money.
-I need more fold discipline. I have to lay down hands when they're the 3rd/4th best possible hand and I think someone might have me beat.
-Overall I've gotten less emotional in live poker and it's one of my biggest strengths.

Also Online has not being going well. I deposited about $30 on PokerStars and lost it all over the past few weeks. I keep getting bad beats and losing early on in tournaments. I'm thinking of saving up a bankroll a bit more to play higher buyins where there won't be as many lucky donkeys.

I also have a really bad habit of tilting online. Typically I'll get a bad beat, lose a tournament, and then donk a whole heap of chips after that. Thankfully this only happens online, but it's a problem. I'm wondering if it's a patience thing. I hope not. But anyway, I'm thinking of just grinding 2nl for a while to teach myself online discipline. I have $5 left, so I might as well play with that.