Welcome to my thread! I'll be using it as a blog, to post goals, to post trouble hands, and just mark my progression as a poker player. This will be my intro post and probably quite lenghthy, but I hope you stick it out. I invite anyone to join in the discussion, ask questions, or to just say hello.

About Me

My names Pat. I've been a member of TPE on and off for about a year and a half. Sadly enough probably more off time than on, but I really plan on that changing in 2014. For some of the US players you may recognize me as xTrickx on Merge, BigGigantic on the Winning Network, or formely trickster3261 on Merge and FireTilt on Revolution. I'm Revis Island on 2+2 and pocketfives.

I've been playing poker for about 9 years now. In the beginning I never took it seriously, just playing house games and donking off at Turning Stone now and then. I played almost exclusively micro cash all the way from 2006 on Party Poker until April 2012 when I was still playing micro cash on Juicy Stakes. I'd throw in the occasional live tourney and live 1/2 session. I did chop a live tourney for $5k at Turning Stone November 2011, but it still took me a while to get fully invested in MTT's. 

Things really changed for me in 2012. I got in a random $2.75 rebuy on Juicy in April and ended up shipping it. From then on, I was hooked on tournaments. Funny how a couple hundred dollars online could switch me to MTT's, but $5k couldn't lol. I played micro and low buyins not really knowing what I was doing, but ended up making a small profit. I got on Merge a few months later and was lucky enough to get a 2nd in the old Dollar Frenzy for a couple hundred in August 2012. I knew push/fold, and was just learning things like 3b shoves, but this was enough for me to beat the micros for a small profit. This is when things truly changed for the better.

It was September 2012 and I was surfing 2+2 just casually applying to stables and people looking for horses. I was extremely lucky in that I found aznxray and pkratitsbest. I was even luckier that they wanted to turn a micro donk like me into a profitable midstakes MTTer. They accepted me and soon I was under their wings. Since then it's been no looking back and I can say that between some coasting here and there I've seen solid progression in my game in the year plus that I've been with them. I started out being backed for $11 freezeouts and $3 rebuys. Currently, I can play up to $215s, even though I do game select things like the nightly high roller out of my schedule. 

I haven't quite gotten over the hump yet in 2013. I've been close to some 5 figure scores multiple times and I feel like I've left a lot of money on the table. I have multiple $1k-$2k scores and a few bigger, but nothing that has made me seriously think about quitting everything for poker. That's where this thread comes in. I have periods of being complacent, and not doing anything to work on my game. No vids, no hh review, nothing. I just hate to think how if I used my time wiser in those aspects how much better I would be. I'm hoping this thread will keep me on track.

I've droned on long enough. My next update will be my goals and expectations, short term and long term. Good luck at the tables.