High hopes

[QUOTE=MasterLJ;3644296]I went over the basics a few posts above, if there's anything I didn't answer feel free to ask.

When I started on FTP I'd always start off with like 50-100 bucks and play $5 SNGs. If I ran bad I'd sometimes Martingale (NOT recommended). It was just such a boring grind. I played the 10s once I got passed $120, then 20s once I got passed 250. Then I'd go as high as the 50s after 500 with random shots at 100s. You probably notice how that's a pretty bad plan.

Then I started playing 6max. 25NL, then 50nl. I did really well in both. 100nl 6m killed me. After getting owned I started back with full ring, did 25nl, then 50nl, then 100nl. I had a lot of success there just before the IronMan and ended up playing 100nl 6max, where I had some success as well.

As for learning I mostly frequented the forums. I learned a lot of the basics here, if there was something I didn't understand I'd try to make sure I understood it. Pretty soon I learned that I was my own worst enemy when it came to learning. I'd learn the lessons, but not apply them to my game. I kept making the same mistakes over and over. HU was my game naturally, so I was a winner right off the bat when I moved to HU NL cash. I started at the 100 level and was a 7PTBB winner over a pretty decent sample. Then I noticed there was a few spots I was lost and that I was autopiloting a lot. I forced myself to 1 table and think about EVERY decision. I did this for thousands and thousands of hands trying to reinforce discipline. I did stupid stuff around my house like forcing myself to make my bed just to build the discipline I was lacking. All of this lead to some monumental gains in my game.

In November of 2006 I had taken a job with an IT company doing IT staffing. I was promised a lot and was #2 guy in the division. I have a lot of business experience so it was exciting to build a new division for my company. I ended up doing grunt work and making a lot of money for an owner who was a complete ass. I'd never been so needlessly belittled in a work environment. The only reason I stayed was due to the #1 guy in my division (my boss) who was just awesome and very supportive of my poker. In May we made 100k+ in profit for the company. Very early June the owner rewarded his company's best month by cutting commissions. Not to mention I had started to learn that there was a bunch of fraudulent/illegal activity going on. Now my dreams of a 6-figure salary and really getting in there and making a ton of money were pretty much crushed. We had to do a lot more volume to make less money and the owner was putting up barriers for us everywhere. He took away quite a few opportunities for us to make money due to the fact that he paid himself out of a certain team's commissions, so he'd naturally move the juiciest accounts over to that team (which was not our team to be clear). Such a stupid way to pay yourself as a boss but meh.

To relate that to poker, in July of 2007 I had hit my goals I had set for myself. I had a 10k bankroll and was playing very well, so I decided to put in my notice. In hindsight, 10k is nowhere near ideal for a bankroll for a professional poker player. I've been blessed with pretty quick success in that respect, but I really think 30k + money in the bank + proven track record of winning at 400nl (6m or HU) is bare minimum for going pro.

I quickly moved up to 200nl and took some shots at up to 5/10. I ran worse than I ever thought possible and my 22k bankroll was reduced to 9.5k. I was shattered. I learned a lot of good lessons in that run and I learned a lot about myself. I picked up the pieces and quickly came back. I knew I was a solid winner at 1/2 so I said I'd play there unless my bankroll dipped below 8. It got very very close. I rebounded and went on to be a 12.79 PTBB winner over 43k hands and moved up to 2/4 where I've done well, but it's actually my worst stake performance-wise at 8.27 PTBB. From there I went up to 3/6. That has been the softest level by far. I started taking shots at 5/10 when my bankroll was about 70k or so and have been crushing there since. My BR was up to 110k and I started taking shots at 10/20. I've played very very well there and was winning for like 20 PTBB over a smallish sample until last week. A donk just couldn't miss and when he was behind, he outdrew me. Nothing too bad. On the same day I lost 12k at 10/20 I decided to take a shot at 25/50 since I figured I had nothing to lose (this was last week). I got the perfect candidate, but I still lost 2 BIs. I'm happy with how I played and I'm OK with my decisions. I was definitely being more aggressive with my BR and I accepted the risks. In response to that swing I withdrew some cash to build my bank accounts and I am now back to grinding 5/10 and 3/6 for the time being.[/QUOTE]