[Ballerholic]

The day has finally come! I am going to be playing poker full time!

Background
I’ve only been playing poker serious for 1 year. I started at 4NL last May and today I have made 25NL my main game. At the moment I am a 24 year old student and I’ve got the summer for full-time poker. I’ve done a lot over the past year with many coaching sessions from top players with only decent results. Nothing to brag about at all. I also have a part time job that takes up 12 hours a week. This is obviously a safety net, but this job is not enough to pay the bills.


Poker Goal
Ideally I’ll need to make around $1,000 a month playing. Anything else will go to my BR to move up stakes. My bankroll is around $500 at the moment. I've basically got all of May left to contribute to my bankroll from playing poker, then from June onwards I'll need to hit the $1,000 mark to cover expenses.

• $1,000 Monthly Profit
• Play 40 hours a week
• Study 10 hours a week

Summer Goals

• Workout(Lift 3x, Run 5x a week)
• Read one book a month (Rich dad, Poor dad. The Intelligent Investor. Think and Grow Rich.)
• Meditate 1x a day
• Study Chinese
• Start Online Business

So far...


Monthly Profit: $9.12


Any tips, help, advice from any of you guys would be greatly appreciated!

[Auto Donk]

Good luck, Baller!

[Ballerholic]

haha thanks donk, great song!

[blankoblanco]

Good luck man, make it happen

[Slanina]

Good luck, sir.

[BigOrange]

$1,000/Month divided by 176 hours/Month is $5.68/hr. That's about half of McMinimum wage in most states.

GL though and I hope you do well.

BigO

[Triple_D_Bet]

$1,000/Month divided by 176 hours/Month is $5.68/hr. That's about half of McMinimum wage in most states.

GL though and I hope you do well.

BigO

At the risk of shitting on your parade bholic, that $5.68 is also 14.2 BB/hr...you need to take a look at your current hourly hand rate and BB/100 earnings to see how far off this assumption is. If it's close, it's a realistic goal. But for example, if you're only seeing like 350 hands an hour (~5-6 tabling?) that's a hefty winrate to expect even at NL20.

Sounds like you're in about as good a position to take a shot as you can ask for with low expenses, just make sure your assumptions and goals are realistic...otherwise you risk doing OK but feeling disappointed from not reaching unrealistic goals. Good luck!

[stevebets90]

Yeah I would't recommend relying on poker as your sole source of income unless you can eat least be bankrolled to play .50/1 stakes and up. Anything lower is going to be so difficult to generate any decent hourly to live off of. Best of luck to you though

[reigle9]

2/5 the lowest you can realistically make a modest living doing

dude is just trying to pay some bills over the summer, it's good to have hope at a young age

[BeerDog99]

Good luck Baller.

Make sure to have some fun for balance, friends and family mean everything!

Also if you are serious about all of those goals/tasks, i suggest make a big chart posted in an active area in your house/appt. where you can check off your tasks for good visual affirmation and self pressure to complete.

[Ballerholic]

blanko- thanks man! I haven't seen you on the poker forums before!

Slanina- Thanks, it's going to be tough!

Orange- Thanks man! Yea I could easily make way more money working a minimum wage job. But at what cost? Last summer when I was playing 4NL, I worked my part time job I currently have and then worked at a bar at night. I was tired throughout the entire day and always dreaded going into work. It also limited me from socializing with people because of the hours of two part time jobs.

Triple- No appreciate it! List everything that I might be overlooking, I don't want to be naive going into this. But yea I have considered that.
Unfortunately, I could easily have a losing month and be busto. According to the variance calculator there definitely is a chance I have a losing month. But I will probably write out my plan on here and see what you guys think, and we can see which sites/options might be better for this.

steve- I agree I really should be playing higher stakes to do this, but I know a few 25NL grinders who make 1-2k a month playing. The goal is to do what I love, try to get better at poker and just maintain living standards, while also giving me time to do other stuff.

reigle- hey man you ever watch Trooper97? He makes a living playing 1/2. I agree though, for live 2/5 is probably minimum for a very good life.

beerdog- Thanks man. Yea that's a very good idea. I think I will do that!

[Optional]

Your goal sounds like an achievable number and you sound like you have the discipline. I predict success

[slikec]

Well depends where you are living and how many tables are you playing but you guys are forgetting rake is 10bb+/100 NL25 and 40%+ rakeback is kinda everywhere(or you should move unless really nice site and you making sick profit). So that makes 1$/100 hands rake back so if you make 500hands hourly thats already 5$ per hour.

[Auto Donk]

steve- I agree I really should be playing higher stakes to do this, but I know a few 25NL grinders who make 1-2k a month playing. The goal is to do what I love, try to get better at poker and just maintain living standards, while also giving me time to do other stuff.

my two cents worth on typical casino play is I'd always rather play their 1-3/1-2 games over their 2-5 games, for two simple reasons:

first, I can buy in for $2-300 and not the $5-600 a 2-5 game generally requires to not get blown off the table by bigger stacks, and

second, the 1-3 games typically have shittier players than the 2-5 games, which increases my prospects of walking out of that game with a $750-$1,000 profit for 3-4 hours work..... perhaps less reward, but a helluva lot less risk at the 1-3 tables

[reigle9]

"reigle- hey man you ever watch Trooper97? He makes a living playing 1/2. I agree though, for live 2/5 is probably minimum for a very good life."

1/2 was probably the most profitable game 15 years ago

i remember some jagoff from another country telling me i couldnt do it

i made 40 bucks an hour then in ac, but that was just for visits

[Crusherrr]

You're 24 years old. Time to grow up and make something of yourself. If you're not playing at the very least 200NL(1/2) what's the point. You probably won't play all that much more than if you were working and also playing poker. You have a goal of making $1,000 a month. How are you going to build your bankroll and live on almost nothing. I'm guessing mom/dad pay all your bills?

Focus on school and get a job. Play poker for fun. You've been stuck at 25NL for what seems like forever. Doing what you love sounds great but your barely even a winning poker player and you are constantly jumping from site to site for promotions just to squeak out 1bb/100.

[Ballerholic]

optional- thanks man, let's hope so!

slik- yea rake is insane at the micros. As for the 40% RB plus, I'm working on a few deals to try and get that. But if it goes well then yea rakeback will be a huge factor in profit.

auto- yea that's a pretty good strategy. A 400NL online pro I spoke with told me sometimes he'll just play 200NL because the games are that much softer. I even jump into some 10NL games myself if they are that good.

reigl- it still is insanely profitable from what I hear. Apparently $40 an hour is still definitely achievable.

crush- as far as moving up I'll cover that in my next update, but I've spoken with a backer in which I'll be able to play some higher stakes at a good split. Yea I have been stuck at 25NL for a while now, but I've never really put that much effort into my game which is what it takes to move to 50nl and what I'll be doing this summer. The goal is to obviously hit higher stakes, no way would I want to be a 25NL grinder for life.

[stevebets90]

Second hand I would have definitely put in a 3b preflop. As played I would have just flatted his flop cbet. I think your hand which is highly underepped plays better as a call on a monotone flop such as that one. I might be more willing to reraise small if it was more like Q73hhh. When it comes Q109hhh, most hands that call you are going to have decent equity (AhAx, KhKx, AK AJ with a heart, we block AQ so id remove that from his range, and he could potentially have flopped a straight or flush easily as we have no blockers to those hands combos. Even though its more likely you have the best hand on the flop, there are too many bad turns for you which is why I wouldn't inflate the pot. Also with the big blind involved, if you just flat you may get him to make a mistake such as overcalling incorrectly.

[Ballerholic]

Some plays for the night...

Spurs +4 1H
Most assists Simmons -130 vs Gasol
Aldridge O22.5 pts -140
Most points Simmons -160 vs Mills
Most rebounds Dr. Green -1.5 vs Gasol
Most points Dr. Green -175 vs D. Green
Most rebounds of the night Dr. Green +210

[Enkhbat]

I think you should just play 50NL, you will most likely beat it

[Ballerholic]

Enkhbat- yea I agree I think I could beat it as well. However, I don't have the bankroll for it and I could easily go on a downswing that would ruin me.

[GaryDN]

Hey Baller ! That name stands for something for a man of your age. Where the hell is the calculation for the ladies !!!

[blankoblanco]

Hey baller, those hands just look like standard coolers. I know you know that. But keep at it, it can turn around quick

[frankzig]

Good Luck, I am guessing this is all online? how many tables?

[Ballerholic]

Anyway guys, just updating the thread real quick. I'm out in Switzerland at the moment on vacation. Damn I didn't realise how expensive this city is! Good thing I'm not really paying for anything though as it's a family trip. Beautiful place though and it's one of the coolest countries ever! I've played a little bit of poker here and things are going really well! On a slight upswing! I'm still not 100% sure which site I want yet. I currently have accounts at over 10 poker sites. At the moment it's looking for like splitting between 2-3 sites overall, but I am strongly considering depositing and playing at pokerstars. Anyway, off to Italy today!

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, have to rpt another sick hand from tournament today:

* I'm in pretty good shape. Top5 stack. Mid-pos, I hold 66, open w/ a raise. 660 into 125/250 blinds.

BB also good-sized stack, top5. He calls.

Flop comes 622, w/ 2 hearts. Nice, I flop a boat. 2nd-nuts. I thought about checking it back. If it was multi-tone board, I might. Where am I getting action here? I decide to make small bet, 500 into 1600.

So often, I'll get folds here. What is giving me action? Overpair, 2x hand (which is rare), Flush draw, and gutshot might call small bet. Ace-hi on paired board?

Guy comes over top on me! He raises to 3000! I'm certainly not gonna blow him off his hand. I call. What does he have? In my mind, the only hand that merits that raise is a 2x hand. Does he possibly do that w/ a Straight Flush gutshot hand? 34 (hearts), 45 (h), or 35 (h)?

Turn is a...Deuce! Opponent continues. Over half his stack is in. $ is going in. All-in, we're both in.

He has...25 (offsuit). MFer hits a 1-outer. And he was going to stack off.

River is a...5. My boat is no good. Lose w/ top-set on 6-hi board, to Quads.

He vaults into 1st place. Could have been mine. Ugh.

[Ballerholic]

haha wow chuck that is so sick! What was the final payout? You played the hand exactly how I would have played it as well, that's just so so sick. I've had the same situation happen to me online about a month ago, at least that was a cash game and top 6 of an MTT.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

1st place was at least $500. I wound up out of $$.

The only thing on that hand...see my read above. He HAD to have 2x on the flop. No way I'm giving him credit for Quads on the flop. In any universe, do I fold that hand?

The way it played out, I felt like it was just a matter of him showing the Quads. But how do I fold?

The other thing, the river 5 would have given him a boat. In which case, he would have stacked off for sure.

Basically, nuts vs 2nd-nuts. Crazy.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

A couple more sick Poker hands:

* Colman vs Vogelsong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-DQyD1Cpys

* Merson vs Quang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EfJIjpybI8

[qwertvt]

No matter what happens, get your degree.

[Ballerholic]

chuck- yea I mean it does look like he has a 2, but you can't lay that hand down. He could also have an overpair or be going crazy. If he called with 25o then he's definitely capable of having way worse hands. Just so sick haha I can't believe it.

qwert- yea man thanks for the advice. I will 100% get my degree, no reason not to have it now that I've gone this long in school.

[Ballerholic]

Update

Monthly Profit: $96.50

Hours Played: 23.50

So as you can see things have gone very well since beginning vacation haha. It might just be the new site I'm playing on though or maybe some run good. The bad thing is I can't track hands on this site so I can't post any cool hands there. But I play on several sites so there should always be hands. I've decided to include bonuses and rakeback into my monthly profit that I've been promised into my account in the next few days. I'm still running pretty bad overall on ipoker, but I'm only 10 buyins down there. Bankroll right now sits at: $720. By the way, I am also staked as well at the moment. So worst case I could always just do that and use my current bankroll for living expenses. Anyway, the goal is to maximise profit, but not be too risky so I'm doing both right now.

Only one hand as I was on vacation and mainly played on an untracked site...what do you guys think of this? Villain is 40vpip whale, 9pfr.



I think it's standard, even if I'm against a reg I think it is too, but against a whale even moreso. He can call my squeeze with QJ, QT, Q9 even, flush draws. Obviously when he jams over me I'm pretty sure I'm not happy, but again he could do that with draws or worse Qx and I can't fold there.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, I thought about it. You're right, can't fold there. No regrets.

Low-boards can get crazy. Those cards don't connect much to the "playing zone." There are a lot of hands where 2 on turn makes opponent think he has best hand. 88, 77, 55, 44, 33...he just filled up on those hands. Why shouldn't he think he has best hand?

[slikec]

Poker is dead. I watched this HH for 3min. lol couldnt believe my eyes that he got not 1 not 2 but 3 that decided to donate some cash in same hand. Ofc all left after this

$0.25 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players[/b]
Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB, UTG posts penalty blind 1 BB, MP posts penalty blind 1.4 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 3.8 BB) Hero has 9 3
UTG checks, MP checks, fold, BTN calls 1 BB, Hero calls 0.6 BB, BB checks

Flop: (5.4 BB, 5 players) 7 4 6 Hero checks, BB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, BTN bets 3.84 BB, fold, BB calls 3.84 BB, UTG calls 3.84 BB, MP calls 3.84 BB

Turn: (20.76 BB, 4 players) Q BB checks, UTG checks, MP bets 9.88 BB, BTN raises to 31 BB, BB calls 31 BB, UTG calls 31 BB, MP calls 21.12 BB

River: (144.76 BB, 4 players) J BB checks, UTG bets 16.8 BB, MP raises to 36.88 BB and is all-in, BTN raises to 149.76 BB and is all-in, BB calls 78.08 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 47.36 BB and is all-in

UTG shows 5 2 (High Card, Queen)
MP shows 3 T (High Card, Queen)
BTN shows 5 8 (Straight, Eight High)
BB mucks T T (One Pair, Tens)
BTN wins 71.68 BBBTN wins 27.84 BBBTN wins 81.84 BBBTN wins 280.28 BB

[Ballerholic]

chuck- no regrets my friend. Yea low boards get insanely crazy, opponents think you are bluffing and doing weird stuff and opponents also think an overpair of 7s are usually the best hand even after multiple barrels.

Slik- haha what the hell? What site is this on? I can't remember if you are an American or European player, but if I had to guess based on this hand I would say you are playing ignition?