Greetings internet, suppose I'll start with the juice.

Goals

Play a minimum of 30 hours a week
Reach 5.5k Bankroll
Get Established in 2/5

Looser Sub Goals

Progress as player
hit 10k roll
break $30 hourly


Now I'll go into my story a bit and see if I can convince you to come along on this journey.
I was a fiesty video game player in my younger years. From 17 - 26 I was a very very good player in many fps games. Never made much money I loved it, and more importantly I was good at it. I picked up poker in 2005. Perfect gaming side hustle. I played off and on for years, mostly multi tabling micros. I did okay think I had something like a 20% ROI. Video games always came first though.

It had never struck me that my time as a top level pro gamer had a half life. Turns out IQ and reaction time peak at about 26 and those thing are kinda important when playing against the best in the world. From 26-29 I took a break from gaming to focus on work. In that time competitive gaming exploded giant prizes everywhere. About this time I got invited to play in the Overwatch Beta. Naturally I thought it was time to cash in on my maybe not so misspent youth.

I did the degen thing. Quit my job to play video games full time. Spoiler ahead fam, didn't work out. Bustered after about 6 moths. Got good, just not good enough. Honestly was pretty crushed by this result. Video games had been this core source of source of confidence for me up to this point. Didn't matter if I was making terrible money or having a ****ty week, I was world class at something and I had the respect of 12 and half people. That was all dust in the wind now. Gaming was huge and there was no place for me anymore... ****kkk..

Got pretty depressed after that. Ended up having to take a loan from my brother and got a square job. Like I said I was always messing with poker on and off, just not so much when I was broke. There was this giant void in my life, it was slowly being filled by introspection and poker. I spent the next year rebuilding myself mentally and financially. Read a bunch of philosophy and psychology. Rebuilt my self confidence, this time stood it up on my moral philosophy instead of pixels.

I've always been a very competitive person. I really enjoy trying to match wits with people. At this point poker seemed like a productive place to focus all that energy now that video games were a dead end. In may of 2018 I started keeping track of my sessions. From May - July I played 1/2 89 hours for 1,277 profit or 14.30 an hour. I'd say I was playing a pretty dated style, Hadn't studied since 2009 just simple TAG. Started studying the game a lot in August. Reading up on my 3 bets and polarized sun glasses. Really enjoyed this period. Bringing all these shiny new tools to the table made the game feel much more fluid and alive. From Aug to Dec I started keeping track on my phone.


https://imgur.com/QLvSvtx
https://imgur.com/oamq6ne

Been a good 6 months so far. Only played 1/2 live never played 2/5. For some reason I've never had the confidence to play 2/5. Always figured people there knew how to play well. One of my goals this year is to get out of my own way and see how far up the stakes my competence can take me. Once I hit 5,500 I'll start taking shots at 2/5. If dip below that I'll go back to 1/2.

Starting in January(now) I'll be cutting back on my hours at work to focus on poker. Was working 5 days a week, cutting back to 2. Planning to play poker 4 days a week at 30ish hours a week. Volume is going to be my biggest enemy. I find many reasons to peace out on a game. These are the numbers as they stand now.

Liferoll 8,000
Bankroll 5,200

Plan is to grind out a 1/2 session tonight. Hoping to hit 5.5k by friday so I can play in the good 2/5 game. Not sure what this is but thanks for reading it friend!

*edit Not sure why the images wont work?*

Played a short but productive session of 1/2 today.

Preflop Hero MP(6 handed) 8 8 Stack $200ish
UTG limps, Hero raises 10 folds to SB($78) who calls, UTG($200) calls.

Flop 8 4 7 Pot $32
Checks to us, for sure betting here. Plenty of bad cards in the deck so I think bigger sizing is better, don't want to blow everyone out of the pot either.
Hero raises $20 BB and UTG call wot?

TurnJ Pot $92
Checks to us, one of the better cards we can see here imo. Need to bet here, urge is to spaz out and shove think that's a mistake though. I think we make a ton of money from 2 pairs, pairs of jacks and all sorts of draws. Think I sized a bit too small here.
Hero Raises 50, SB shoves(for a bit less) UTG Calls

River5 Pot $230ish
UTG Bets 40.
Worst two cards on the river are 6 or 5 honestly would have been more comfortable if a spade comes. I considered folding with 4 to a straight out there. Then I look at how much UTG has behind, about $70. someone has a straight but if it was him why not shove for $110 into $230? At this point I think we are likely losing to SB but we are still beating lots of non straight hands vs UTG. I decided to shove, UTG insta calls.

BB - 62
UTG - ? ?

I flip over the set, UTG mucks, BB does a festive dance. Sad to lose the main pot on the river. Happy with not playing the river weak though even with the worst card hitting.