The immediate reaction after generating the chart: I expected more. I expected a higher bb won/100 hands win rate than 2. The final net won amount appeared to be "okay" even though it does not capture rakeback and leaderboard perks which is probably another 2k-4к. After staring at the chart for 5 minutes and calculating my hourly rate, my mind questioned the effort "was it worth it?"

Mindset during the challenge: See, as a big fan of Patrick Leonard, who praised "longevity" to be the essential key of the game, I tried to constantly remind myself that even if I lose an absurd hand to a fish player, I will be back on tomorrow grinding the game while the fish will come in a week and almost certainly lose the money he won against me. This mindset also helped me deprioritize some social and personal activities and stay on track with my poker challenge. I ended up playing 4 hours a day in September to hit the 100k hands. I was impressed by the commitment, especially last month, considering I live with a girlfriend, a border collie (lYKYK) and have a relatively rich social life while working for a big 4. Is it sustainable? We will see. Perhaps I will have to adjust and pivot once in a while.

"Lessons Learned"
1) holy guacamole, I didn't expect the variance to be so brutal. In the mid-challenge, I went from a 6k winning player to almost 0. These were 30k hands of pain, suffering and "wtf" smile on my face...

2) Poker losses can't be blamed only on variance. I made some stupid mistakes vs fish, such as 3-bettings preflop with the weak hands, calling x/r with mediocre hands post-flop, and not sizing my value bets enough.

3) GTO is required to know and study, but exploitative adjustments must be made.

4) Geofenced poker pools for the serious recreational player are probably one of the best things that could ever happen.

Why are you pushing yourself to put in this kind of volume?

See, it's a very relative question. Some people will see this as a bare minimum, while others will see it as too many. It all depends on the perspective and objectives.

My objective for the past three months was to see the game as a potential second job. I believe playing 35k/month would be a minimum if it's anyone's mindset.

Cool, I wish you the best with your goal. I was just curious on your objectives. I’ve talked to people who put in obsessive hours at micro or low stakes and miss time with family, miss out on life in a lot of ways, who really don’t even need the money, they need the action. As long as you have balance in your life and poker doesn’t get in the way of your day job, healthy relationships with family, friends, etc, I think it’s fine.

Kudos for sticking with it for so many hands - I would suspect your hourly at the end of this wasn't much. I think poker in general is just not a viable source of income anymore unless you either live in an extremely cheap country, or you're of the .001% that can make 200k+ a year from it. I played professionally from about 2009 to 2016 - did very well overall but towards the end the games got much tougher to the point where my income was either peaked or headed downward as time went on. Poker is too labor intensive - you can't leverage your time like you can in other industries so decided to jump ship.

Thanks, man! My hourly rate for these three months was around $20 bucks (again excluding rakeback).

I agree that playing mid-stakes poker and living in North America could be pretty challenging. However, even if I make it to the high-stakes, I still don't know if I would want to dedicate myself full-time to playing poker. Maybe once I make it there, I will change my opinion.

Congratulations!
I'm curious how you would describe your playing style and overall strategy.
What is your VPIP/PFR and 3 bet%?
Thanks.

Thank you!

I don't have stats in front of me but I believe my VPIP should be around 23-26, PFR 18-20, 3Bet% 7-8...

In terms of overall strategy, I stick to fundamentals and make exploitative plays if I see certain tendencies in my opponents.