Hello, my poker journey started about two years ago. It has always been second in line next to skateboarding, and still is. However I dont do anything half ass and would like to start taking poker more seriously. So far it has been me and my computer. Haven't spoken a lick of poker to anyone. I would describe my skill level as in between beginner and intermediate. I feel I have studied enough to be better than that, however I feel that my lack of poker friends has held me back. I know a lot of random things about the game, but I dont really feel that I fully understand what im suppose to be doing when it really comes down to it. (Still using upswings category system mixed with some other things i've learned.) My main focus is tournaments/sit & go's but im open to learning cash strategy as well, I dont feel you can really be good at tournaments without a solid feel for cash. I would like to get really good at this. If anyone is in the same situation lets link virtually and start talking some poker. Financially I am starting at zero. I have $37.00 in my poker account right now and around the same amount to my name in general. I have just started an ebay business and am hoping to use some of the money to play cards. I want to get really good and play the big events but im starting at the bottom. Anyone out there hit me up on here. We can exchange numbers or discord/skype/instagram or whatever from there. Thanks good luck out there.

Do you realize how hard it is to read what you're saying when you type like this. It's just one huge wall of text that takes insane effort and focus to try to decipher. Try using some paragraphs and whitespace next time? Anyway some very good beginner courses are Run It Once From The Ground Up and Red Chip Poker CORE. Good luck!

Nah didnt notice really, looks like a book lol i've been reading books since I was a kid. Thanks for the tip though i'll check em out!!

Personally I’d focus on the business and getting your financial situation in order before being too concerned about poker. Your poker bankroll should be extra money (ie money you can afford to lose). It should never be your only asset. It doesn’t really matter how much you study or how good you get. You won’t make good decisions at the table if you are afraid to lose the money you’re risking. Your play will suffer.

I don’t mean that you have to wait years until you’re completely secure and your business is booming. This is especially true if you plan on playing very low stakes games. I would wait though until you can set aside a hundred or two specifically for poker. If you can lose that hundred or two and still pay rent, buy food, etc., then go for it.

Hello friend, I would like to partner with you in your quest for interaction. We can just post right here, so other players who might be interested in the subject could benefit from our discussion and hopefully participate.

A little about me: I have played only freerolls for years and made a bankroll out of them. A year ago, I stopped playing freerolls, and started playing 2NL microstakes tables. I don't know much about cash MTT's or SNG's, but I can tell you that 2NL strategy is very different from freeroll strategy.

My bankroll went down to a maximum of $96 and change during the first half of the year, then I had a month of good variance in which I exceeded my initial bankroll, followed by downs and ups. Right now I am at $9 and change below where I initially started last year.

So even though your $37 could be stretched to a little over 46 buy-ins if using short stack strategy in 2NL, it would not have been enough in my case. And I did not just started playing 2NL blindly, I had studied cash games strategy before entering my fist game, just to be clear.

Speaking of beginner/intermediate: I am not technically a beginner anymore, but there is no doubt in my mind that I am still a novice player, and the reason has nothing to do with my bankroll. The reason is simple: When I review the hands I've recently played, I identify rookie mistakes that made me either lose too much or not win enough based on the way the hand unfolded itself.

An intermediate player does not make rookie mistakes at the table. It's not enough to have an understanding of poker fundamentals in theory, you have to be able to consistently apply them at the poker table, in the heat of the battle, in order to become an intermediate player.

Actually, my long term goal is to become an intermediate player, since advanced level is not even a feasible endeavor for a recreational player like me. I would like to become an intermediate player so I could have the satisfaction of beating the game online at microstakes or go to a casino and play 200NL, have fun and even make a few bucks over time.

I hope that's enough for a starter, especially if you want to try 2NL tables. Let me know, we could discuss about books, specific problems and ideas, I'm available. Cheers!

I agree 100% with this. I have been playing live poker 1000+ hrs/yr now for > 10 yrs. I have seen many young guys come and go with the dreams of playing poker for a living. Almost none of those guys have become pros or play for a living now & it is tougher now than it ever has been in the past. I know you don't want to hear this but you really should stop spending time on poker until you have some other source of income. It is basically impossible to start from $0 and think you are going to pay yourself any sort of living wage. Maybe you are living at your parents place and they provide you with a roof over your head, food and gas money. If so, maybe you could do it, but otherwise it isn't going to happen.

Go get yourself a real job & it doesn't have to be your dream job. Just get a job. Even if it is working at McDonalds or Home Depot or whatever, just something that you can live on for now. That way when you do start winning you can actually use the money to move up in stakes rather than using the money to live off of.

Those of us that are giving you this advice have all shared your dreams at one time. I/we are not trying to discourage you from your dreams, we are actually trying to help you achieve them by encouraging you to travel a more realistic path....

Playing poker for a living is very difficult for a lot of reasons most of which you have no idea or no experience with. No matter how smart you are or how gifted at poker you are it will take hundreds of thousands if not millions of hands to become an expert. Lets say for arguments sake it takes a million hands to become an expert & you are multi-tabling online playing 250 hands/hr. that is 4000 hrs. A full time job is 2000 hrs/yr. Just think about it for a little bit.... How do you plan to pay for things for the next 2+ yrs while playing all those hands?

There is an old saying about poker and there is a lot of truth to it and that is that "Poker is the hardest way to make an easy living."

Make the smart move and go get a job. Once you have a few hundred dollars play money, take that & try and win and move up with the money that you make playing poker.