I'll look into blogging next year. One thing I wont do again, is consistently post results. I didnt enjoy that aspect of this adventure, but I do love writing and telling funny stories. You know I like free right? I never thought about reviewing books. Good idea.

The challenge thing just seems like too big of an undertaking for me right now. Way too much detail. And honestly I am not even sure if I am going to make it in poker in such a linear fashion. I expect to go busto once or twice and have to work a job for a while to rebuild. I can see myself not playing and focusing 100% on studying for weeks at a time. This is not the stuff that challenges are of made of.

I am not sure when this will all click for me, but even if it takes 5 years I will not quit as long as I have a passion for the game. This is part of the reason I am so cheap and dont have people directly depending on me financially. I want to win, but I dont need to win. If I lost everything today, I would move back to Griffin, work and save for half a year and get right back at it. The most important thing for me is to have my freedom. Poker saved me from having to work a soul crushing 9 to 5 for 30 years so that I could retire with lots of money and no life experiences. Screw that. I'd rather eat beans from a can and sleep in a truck.

Killingbird said:

whatever form you decide to write in in 2014 I will follow as i really enjoy keeping up with your story. A blog would be a great idea.

thanks man. that means a lot coming from you since my story kinda started with you. i was so confused when i met you like “this guy doesnt seem like a degenerate at all. how could he be a poker player?” that 5 minute conversation in NC made me feel welcome enough to come out to Vegas and the rest is history.

Im lazy and that guy puts in way too much work for me to compete with him. It would be like more like this…

December Week 4 ending 12/29/13 MTD

WPN Balance $975

Live Cash Profit   $160

Volume

About 5 online MTT. 1 cash game.

Study

Poker Plays You Can Use, Bart Hanson material

Online

I cashed out $425 to my ACR debit card. Sweet!

I bubbled 2 tournies this week trying to defend my BB for pot odds and then playing aggressively post flop which seems like breaking some ICM rules.

1. I defend with T8o BVB with 30bbs. I flop an OESD and shove over the big stack SB's cbet. He has 96s for a pair and a flush draw.

2. I defend with A6s with 15bbs. I flop top pair and shove over the big stack SB's cbet. He has TT for a set.

Still dont know how to properly play these spots.

I will be playing 25-50nl regularly in 2014.

Live

I bought in for 200 and cashed out 360.

I bet 15 with AA on the button. SB makes it 45 and the BB calls. I shove and take it down. SB flashes QQ. MY range is QQ+, AK there. I might add JJ now if he's folding QQ. Pretty sweet to add 50% to my stack with no risk. I couldnt do this back when I was buying in for 300.

Guy has $150. He opens his button for $20 after a $5 straddle. I raise to $70 with AKo. He calls. The flop is 9 high, all rags. I ask how much he has left and bet exactly that amount. He folds.

These are pretty much the only 2 hands I played besides some raise and take its. I was looking forward to playing some suited connectors aggressively in position, but never got any.

Unfortunately, I took that money and bought into a live donkament yesterday. Played tight early waiting for my chance to get some ammo for the later stages. Finally picked up KK with 40bb utg.

I raise to 2.5bb and get 5 callers. Flop is 87x with 2 clubs. I c-bet 12.5bb into a pot of 16bb. Big stack Utg+1 and the short stack BB call and is all in.

Turn is an A. Figured that she had 99-QQ so I bet 9bb into a pot of 53bb thinking she may call with these or raise if she had better. She shoved and I snap folded. She shows AKo with the A of clubs. The short stack shows J6s and rivers the flush on her.

I am down to 10bb when the blinds go up and lose a flip KQo vs 88 a few hands later.

I try to avoid playing these due to my bankroll but how can I when they are so willing to pay me off? I should be able to print money in these. How long is the long run anyway?

Life

Eating bad and getting fat, but enjoying the process. This shall continue for at least another 3 days. Maybe more since Breyer and I are going on a week long trip to Biloxi in 4 days. When I get back, I have some punitive discipline planned for myself during the remainder of January. No junk food Sun-Fri for 3 weeks. Probably salads or nothing during that time. It might suck, but I am earning it now. Kinda looking forward to it actually.

365 days ago, I committed to updating this thread weekly and I did a damn good job of it. Kinda oi now so I wont do a detailed profit report but I will say that I am up roughly 5-7K on the year. That's poker. I'm living the dream.

That's like 1/5 of my teaching salary and like 10 times the happiness. I am infinitely richer from having learned to live better on less and from having made friends with some extraordinary people. That's poker. I'm, indeed, living the dream.

I will no longer be updating this thread, but I will be doing something in poker over the next 365 days besides just playing and studying it. Possibilities include a blog, a podcast, articles, etc. Gotta generate some part time, variance-free income in 2014. Looking forward to getting my math tutoring fix in over the next 6 months as these kids start getting ready for exams.

If you enjoyed following this thread, dont worry. You can still find me on TPE, Thinking Poker, 2+2, and hopefully a ton of other places cracking jokes and nitting it up.

Your friendly neighborhood poker player next door,

The Anti-Balla

I'll be there fa sho.

…..astrophes/

https://twitter.com/HipHop101Trivia

Carlos said
Poker History:
I have been a member for over a year, but I am just now starting to use the forum.

I started playing in 2003 and moved to online in 2005. I began at 9 man SNGs, moved to MT SNGs (which is when I signed up for TPE), and now I am playing MTTs on Merge. I have played a little live cash and even less online cash.

Overall I have been profitable, but I was an 8th grade math teacher in Atlanta, Ga for the last 5 years and have come back around to trying to do mtts to eek out a small living (2-3K monthly) to supplement my other streams of income. I am single with no kids and I live very cheaply so I am very comfortable with this.

 

Safety net:

I have about 3 months of expenses saved in liquid accounts and another 3 months that I can get within 30 days. I also work part time as a math tutor and dj. If that is slow, I can take a few days as a substitute teacher. Worst case scenario, I still have my teaching certificate so I could get a contract very quickly because math teachers are always in high demand.

 

Goals:

– A yearly profit of at least $30 000.

– Average 5 days a week and between 10-15 tournaments each of those days

– Im rolled for games up to $11. I will mostly play $5 games and lower to start out though. I will play sattys in order to take shots at bigger games.

– I may also play some small stakes and live cash to improve my post flop game.

– Actively improve my game by watching videos, discusssing and posting hands, reviewing my own game

– Spend the summer in Vegas to grind the small sattys and play at least one real $1000-$1500 WSOP event.

– Possibly play some smaller events at casinos in the south.

 

Progress Reports:

 
1. Weekly Reviews

2. Monthly Reviews
I’ve seen things like this done in the past for a few months, but I am serious about keeping up with this for the entire year. I will be back Monday 1/7/13 for the first weekly report.  

We did it guys!

https://www.pokernews.com/tours/wsop/2021-wsop-com-online-bracelet-events/event-8/chips.421162.htm

Killingbird said
So amazing…congrats my friend!!  It’s times like this I wish i could find the swim floaties picture.  

Like this life preserver, I’ll never let you down when it comes to finding my old silly ass pictures.