Low-Mid Stakes MTTs - Professional Journey
Hello 2+2,
aficity here. I'm starting this thread to document my journey as I attempt to play MTTs professionally.
By way of some background, I've been working in corporate america for the last 10ish years after graduating college in 2015. I've been unfulfilled with that career path for several years but am thankful for what I've learned, and the financial stability its given me. After working for a large bank for the last 6 years, I've decided to leave my job and give this poker thing a real chance. That said who knows how this will work out but I think it was time to make a change and this time will give me the freedom to reflect and figure out what is next for me even if poker is not that. I currently live in the DC/Northern Virginia area. I'm 32 years old and single.
Despite working full time, I have played MTTs online pretty regularly for the past 2 years, mainly putting in volume on global, ACR, ignition, chico and recently on club wpt gold. Rarely do I miss a sunday.
I don't have a full accurate graph to post because I switched databases at the beginning of this year and some of my sites are untracked on sharkscope (mainly ignition where I've had the most success) but here's a partial graph as well as some of my biggest scores :
I've had some pretty remarkable success given the difficulty of studying seriously while maintaining a full time job. I'm not sure how much of this is running hot in some big spots but I do think I've improved considerably over the last year. I've managed to build a nice bankroll am comfortably playing up to $109s and do sprinkle in some shot takes on sundays of some higher buy ins $200-300 buy in.
Results from October 2023 - Present (June 2025): +$194K
More to come here but wanted to post an initial background/summary and hope to use this thread to document my journey along the way. Will make another post soon where I address my plans in terms of studying and approach as well as other aspects of life (fitness goals).
Thanks for reading and hope to interact with some of you on here. Cheers 😀
4 Replies
Great results! How many total tournaments since October 2023? When did you first start playing?
Looking forward to reading your study plans and seeing some more big scores.
Best of luck to you on your journey. If you're looking for advice from somebody whose been there, I'd say: plan ahead, and grind nonstop.
Plan ahead? The fact of the matter is, in a self-employed field, you'll need to earn 1.5-2x what your peers do to live the same life as them. Between self employment tax, insurance, no paid days off, no pension or retirement, you have to think ahead to set your life up the way you'd like it, or else you'll be looking at being a 60 year old trying to grind numerous 10+ hour 2k+ buyin sessions every week. You said you live in NoVa, I feel like that's probably a fairly high cost of living area? Can you/do you want to move to a lower cost of living area? Do you have a serious relationship or partner who needs to stay in the area? Do you own your own home? Are you looking to buy in the next 5 years? Because let me tell you who banks don't love lending hundreds of thousands of dollars to...
The more thought you can put into now what you want your life to look like 10-30 years down the road, the easier it is to work backwards and figure out what steps you should be taking to get there.
Grind nonstop? This is your prime money making time. You'll never love playing poker more than right now, and will never be more motivated to grind as you are right now. Use that. Clear your calendar until 2027. The more money you can make (and save) now, the more freedom you'll buy later in your life. And let me tell you, I know it doesn't feel like it now but I promise you the day will come when you'll just be over playing poker. It happens to everyone. When you get to the point where you want to live life, it's so much better to have the funds behind you to finance a much more calm, relaxed grind schedule then to be driven crazy because you have a large monthly/yearly nut.
Good luck. Don't lend anyone money. Try not to borrow from anyone. Block table chat. Try to find online communities of like minded people but understand that the internet isn't real. Watches aren't investments. Maintain friendships with people who aren't gamblers. Don't lend anyone money.
Great results! How many total tournaments since October 2023? When did you first start playing?
Looking forward to reading your study plans and seeing some more big scores.
Thanks brother! I'm actually not sure how many total tournaments but guessing around 5k if you include re-entries. I first started playing poker in highschool around 2009-2010. At the time I was way too emotionally immature to handle the swings nor did I have the discipline to really learn/study. I was just playing cash games and losing for the most part not really knowing what I was doing despite how soft games were in those days I was a whale. Then I went away to college and didn't play much poker throughout my 20s but still followed the scene a little here and there. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I dove back in with MTTs and have found my stride. I have also grown a lot as a person since those high school days and have found the game at a point where I'm more positioned to succeed.
[QUOTE=Rolled High, Bro]Best of luck to you on your journey. If you're looking for advice from somebody whose been there, I'd say: plan ahead, and grind nonstop.
Plan ahead? The fact of the matter is, in a self-employed field, you'll need to earn 1.5-2x what your peers do to live the same life as them. Between self employment tax, insurance, no paid days off, no pension or retirement, you have to think ahead to set your life up the way you'd like it, or else you'll be looking at being a 60 year old trying to grind numerous 10+ hour 2k+ buyin sessions every week. You said you live in NoVa, I feel like that's probably a fairly high cost of living area? Can you/do you want to move to a lower cost of living area? Do you have a serious relationship or partner who needs to stay in the area? Do you own your own home? Are you looking to buy in the next 5 years? Because let me tell you who banks don't love lending hundreds of thousands of dollars to...
The more thought you can put into now what you want your life to look like 10-30 years down the road, the easier it is to work backwards and figure out what steps you should be taking to get there.
Grind nonstop? This is your prime money making time. You'll never love playing poker more than right now, and will never be more motivated to grind as you are right now. Use that. Clear your calendar until 2027. The more money you can make (and save) now, the more freedom you'll buy later in your life. And let me tell you, I know it doesn't feel like it now but I promise you the day will come when you'll just be over playing poker. It happens to everyone. When you get to the point where you want to live life, it's so much better to have the funds behind you to finance a much more calm, relaxed grind schedule then to be driven crazy because you have a large monthly/yearly nut.
Good luck. Don't lend anyone money. Try not to borrow from anyone. Block table chat. Try to find online communities of like minded people but understand that the internet isn't real. Watches aren't investments. Maintain friendships with people who aren't gamblers. Don't lend anyone money.[/QUOTE]
Appreciate the advice dude. I'm definitely going to be grinding/putting in volume. Still trying to figure out my life in the next 10+ years but for the immediate future going to see how this plays out. You're right that I do live in a fairly expensive area. After my lease is up in about 11 months I will re-evaluate and may end up moving back to Florida where I'm originally from and where I have family. That said even Florida isn't so cheap but it does have a decent live poker scene.
Figured I'd update this post with a recent score from last night--not my usual buy in level but felt like a good spot to fire a bullet. Pretty sick amount of run good this year and I know it's not sustainable but I'll take it for now...I'm definitely playing more confident, value betting thinly, not avoiding tough spots and really attacking the weaker players. The next step it deepening my understanding of theory so I can feel more confident in more situations/lines.
I'm also working on limiting my table count to 8-10 and not letting it get to 12 ever to focus more on each spot.
My current plan is to play 3-4 days / week. I'm also getting into a good grove with lifting and running and find on days where I don't exercise I usually have a bad session so trying to make sure I make time for it before every session. Anyways thanks for reading/following along.
