Hey there,

I just signed up with TPE this month – so far I'm liking it a lot. I was previously a member of Deuces Cracked, but being as I'm predominantly an MTT player I figured I would get more out of this site.

I would classify myself as an obsessive recreational player. I have a full-time job and I also devote a lot of time to the band I play in. That being said, I still probably spend 20+ hrs a week playing/thinking about poker. I read poker books, I watch tutorial videos, I watch full hand-by-hand highstakes tournaments on youtube (when I can find them), and I play whenever I have time.

I started learning the game around 3rd or 4th year University, so I guess I've been playing for about 4 years now. 2013 has been far and away my best year for poker so far – not even half way through the year and already I've made more than double what I made last year. So although I've still got tons to learn, it would appear as though some concepts are finally starting to sink in!

I've always had a very driven, competitive personality. When I find something I like I obsess about it and work at it until I excel. I've read about and tried to apply everything from basic ABCs, ICM theory, short stacked NASH shove-fold ranges, deep stacked hand reading, poker psychology, poker software (Pokerstove, SnG Wizard, Holdem Manager), to complex bayesian decision analysis/hand range problems. I feel like the biggest thing I am missing right now is a community of like-minded people to discuss all this stuff with. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I feel as though I've surpassed all of my poker playing friends and I don't really have anyone I can go to to get a reliable, objective opinion on my play (and I dont particularly want to spend $200/hr on a coach). So I look forward to talking about poker with all of you!

A few of the weaknesses I've found in my game thus far are as follows:

Controlling tilt (specifically entitlement tilt) – I think I've been a lot better recently, but it used to drive me nuts when I would take a bad beat from a player I perceived to be weak. If I went deep in a tourney, felt like I was playing my A-game, and then got knocked out before I hit the big money because some fish rivered a one outer, I would start a bunch of new tournaments while pissed off and basically just be throwing away buy-ins.

Unecessarily overcomplicating situations – A lot of the time I'll try to play tricky/fancy when it isn't warranted. I'll be thinking on level 2 or 3 when in hindsight it was obvious that my opponent was on level 1 and I just confused myself for no reason.

Losing focus – Basically going on auto-pilot and getting lazy. I'll start the session in a good mindset, but slowly my mind will wander and I'll forget to pay attention to what my opponents are doing and stop taking good notes. Especially when playing a lot of tables.

I'm sure there are many more… hopefully you guys can help me find some! Anyways, this introduction has sort of spiralled out of control into something much more longwinded than I intended. If you've actually read this whole post, thanks for taking the time. See you around the forums!