Poker in 2009(long)

At that time I had The Poker Pro Mentality
This concept pinned out by Tommy Angelo says that you would play your best if you'd have to win at poker, OR DIE.

Well, I was a completely broke student back then, I had to borrow money from my girlfriend so I could buy food and paying each month's electricity bill was a huge hustle.
I abandoned Starcraft completely, and played poker furiously.

Just look at my one day's session at NL2:



I played like a machine, and this is the graph for MY TWO FIRST MONTHS. EVER.


Then I hit a large downswing, losing some 40BI, but that was nothing really as I had...

VOLUME



By this time I have switched to 6max and was playing sick hours and taking poker super seriously.
And then there was the 7,500VPP promo for UK (if you get 7,500 VPP you get 80,000 more for free)


I was a fucking maniac back then, my university finished and I was just playing poker.
The 11h session is not even the longest I played, the longest was 12.42 hours break even session
See here:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/blog/viewblog.php?id=732015


I made 7,500 VPP IN 20 DAYS AT NL25
BOOOM.... soon after this... Supernova.

I finally started cutting on tables and moved to NL50.
As I had all the time in the world I was CRUSHING



Note that this was the last session before I STARTED MY FULL TIME JOB
My first really fulltime job in the office (I was a part time baker for two years prior to this to pay my way through college)

It was all over the internet that...

Yup, the poker pro is dead.
I cashed some $1,5 out of poker and it saved my life back then (I would not have survived without that money), but ever since then I was working 40hrs/week and had energy for what was my love and income.

The grinder mentality and the necessity to be good at poker was gone. I had no spare energy and no real need for money.
The skill is still there, don't get me wrong and its so easy to rebuild for me (which I was forced to do twice), I had too many sessions where I simply bled out 10BI in 4Hours because I had a mental breakdown.


Turning the corner
Playing poker while working when you are not used to work, and your regime/fitness/eating are very bad and on the top of the all you have a very bad, results oriented poker mindset where any suck out can set you off is damn hard.

And when I went went to $420 borderline busto at the end of October, I knew I had to change something or otherwise I am wasting my time.

I went on rebuilding from NL10 again, got a DC subscription, read some psychology articles and watched a life changing series from Tommy Angelo. As a result of this I proudly am the follower of no whine train, which many of you find annoying

I have also LUCKBOXED $1400 in a 100 FPP Freerol and things were looking better for once.


Summary
I started with $50 from Pokerstrategy on February 2nd and right now I am here:


+cashed out some $3k including Amazon vouchers.
I also posted more than 4k times at this wretched site in that period (-ev, SUPER -EV I SAY)

And also, poker HAS BEEN FUN for me and still is

Although I have lost my grind and I doubt I will find it until my Work Placement finishes, I declare 2009 Poker year as a success.


Thanks for reading

#at=31

Submitted by : LemOn[5thF]

PokerStars Game #26720211289: Holdem No Limit ($0.02/$0.05) - 2009/04/04 14:51:24 ET
Table Tilia IV 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: rubbol ($11.03 in chips)
Seat 2: ZionLee ($0.88 in chips)
Seat 3: nxtn8br ($7.43 in chips)
Seat 4: kiddy007 ($4.22 in chips)
Seat 5: flockmeister ($9.63 in chips)
Seat 6: DoC.LemOn ($9.95 in chips)
DoC.LemOn: posts small blind $0.02
rubbol: posts big blind $0.05

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to DoC.LemOn
ZionLee: folds
nxtn8br: calls $0.05
kiddy007: folds
flockmeister: calls $0.05
DoC.LemOn: raises $0.25 to $0.30
rubbol: folds
nxtn8br: calls $0.25
flockmeister: folds

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $0.70)

   
DoC.LemOn: bets $0.46
nxtn8br: raises $0.46 to $0.92
DoC.LemOn: raises $8.73 to $9.65 and is all-in
nxtn8br: calls $6.21 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($2.52) returned to DoC.LemOn

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $14.96)

   

River (Pot : $14.96)

   

Showdown
DoC.LemOn: shows (a Royal Flush)
nxtn8br: mucks hand
DoC.LemOn collected $14.26 from pot

Summary
Total pot $14.96 | Rake $0.70
Board  
Seat 1: rubbol (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: ZionLee folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 3: nxtn8br mucked
Seat 4: kiddy007 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 5: flockmeister (button) folded before Flop
Seat 6: DoC.LemOn (small blind) showed and won ($14.26) with a Royal Flush

0 votes

interesting read, didnt know u only started in feb!

good luck stop spewing and looks like ull do nicely!

good work cool stuff

i started the year with 54$ br too
hi5!

wow , your story sounds really amazing :o keep going forward!

pretty sure Dan Osmund died.....

damn didn't know you've made over 6k, thought u were just a breakeven monkey always with like 1k in your roll.

"I cashed some $1,5 out of poker and it saved my life back then (I would not have survived without that money)"
?

On December 22 2009 00:50 EzPzLmnSqz wrote: "I cashed some $1,5 out of poker and it saved my life back then (I would not have survived without that money)" ?

Yup, it was two months between my work and university where I had no income but had to pay rent/everything else and just got a new flat (old one was shared with students...who left) so all cash that I got from parents (about $500/month - you can't survive on that in the UK when you have to pay rent)went for the deposit.
I got also rejected for a part-time bakery job when I was a bloody baker for 2years already, so much the economy sucked that I couldn't even get a shit job that I am good at.

I wouldn't die literally, but I would have to beg my girlfriend to borrow me even more money on the top of the $500 I already owed, and you can imagine how soul crushing that would feel for someone with my ego.

inspirements, nice read sir

u could have made this a great year $$$ wise if you spend time getting better.

this game can be very profitable for a student : - )

On December 22 2009 11:07 gororokgororok wrote: u could have made this a great year $$$ wise if you spend time getting better. this game can be very profitable for a student : - )

Totally agree.
I think that I could have hit $10k easily this year if I knew how to cope with pressure, set my mind straight and used the time I had available for poker wisely.
Instead I was just fucking around for 4 months when I started my job, with bullshit excuses like poker is a relaxation or thats impossible to focus when you have a job.

It is possible indeed, with the right mindset and dedication.

I like the trend I set last 20 days or so (watching a ton of vids, getting coaching, changing my mindset), but its still the beginning of my learning curve in terms of things not related to betting patterns.

very good progress! solid first year. Best of luck in 2010

you could have earned $10.000 in rakeback first year. let alone profit.

and for a student in UK 10k is shit anyway for a year. thats less than 1k a month. aim higher, nl50 is not profitable enough to be grinding.