Started with a $1/$2nl challenge, now we're here.
đŽWARNING!! IMA 2+2 VIRGIN!! FIRST DAY AT THIS!! FIRST THREAD!!
The Goal is Simple - $40k in One Year (starting Jan.1st 2013) playing only $1-$2NLHE, and $1-$3 NLHE cash games. Most of my play will be @HSIPoker (90% of play), @HollywoodPoker (5% of play) in southern Indiana, and other (5% of play). I will make the occasional trips Vegas, Chicago, etc. My buy-ins will be least $300 and no more than $800 in all daily sessions. If I lose a $800 bullet in the first hour of play, then I leave. Therefore a losing session will never exceed $800. I am committed to play an average of 30-35 hours a week. All statistics (running total $, $/hr., #of hrs. win/loss ratio, etc.) will be tracked through my Poker Journal App. The max buy-ins on both of these games @HSIPoker is $300 up to half the big stack at the table (i.e. big stack has $1400, then new player can buy-in for $700, or other players at table can add up to $700 to their chips). Also @HSIPoker players can straddle from any position, so $1-$2 plays like a $1-$3 or even $2-$5 w/deep stacks. Side note: Just yesterday a maniac player at $1-$2 nlhe straddled for $350!! I will also play no more than $5k worth of tournaments for the year ranging from $300-$1700 buy-ins. The tournaments will be recorded separately, and will be added or deducted from cash game total profits at the end of the year (ending Dec. 31st 2013). I will stay committed to this all year and I will not stray from my rules. I can guarantee I will post at least twice a week, and would even like to link a monthly video segments throughout the year. If you stay with me on this journey, I can promise you I will stay with you throughout the whole year. You can count on total transparency in my poker grind. I will share honestly the ups and downs, the brutal swings, and sprinkle in some spice and substance. All while trying to spare you the bad beat stories. I rather do naked snow angels in freezing temps than listening to someoneâs bad beat story. For future reference if you share one with me, I will act like I care, but I will really be thinking of when will this bad beat story end!! You can also follow - http://twitter.com/RayzRayl
Background â Starting playing seriously at age 25 during the Chris Moneymaker boom. Duh! It was around the same time I was teaching middle school math. I left teaching to create my own destiny. I started out playing low limits and have played as high as $25-$50 NLHE online. I am like most of you that have $ tied up on Full-Tilt. I am mostly a cash game player, and have played very few tournaments with very little success. I bricked the WSOP Main Event twice (I bought in once, and the other seat was a won through PokerStars). I seem to come up short on the big buy-in tourneys. My biggest score in tournaments are a couple of $20k cashes, and biggest score in cash games are a few $10k sessions. Sometimes poker was my full-time job, and sometimes it was supplement income. Right now it is my full-time job. I own a few rental properties, so that helps take the pressure off the grind. My girlfriend (15yr. relationship) and I have 2 girls (2yrs and 9yrs) that are joys of my life. My biggest challenge is explaining to them along with everyone else that I play poker for a living. I struggle with the fact that I am basically chasing money, and not doing anything productive. On the flip side, I do like the higher levels of thinking, the competition, and the pressure that poker offers me. Furthermore, I am not a gambler! I go straight to the poker room and straight out, nothing in between (no dice, no colors, no slots, no blackjack, etc.). Donât get me wrong though I will bet anything I have an edge on. Most of all, I am a man devoted to my faith. Side note: I donât see playing poker as sinful behavior, or gambling. I define gambling as anything where Iâm not a favorite to win long term. More about me . . . thrive on competition, unique, introvert, outside the box thinker, gym fitness member, a bit anti-social, well mannered, authored my memoir at age 30, every other weekend drinker, love my church, entrepreneurial thinker, tennis junkie, green thumb, and I think cats are skittish.
Reason for Goal â The challenge itself is the ultimate reason for this goal. I was recently in a conversation with a friend of mine, and he was stating that $30k/yr. was a realistic earning for a $1-2, $1-3 nlhe grinder. I discussed that an âAâ player putting in 40hrs/wk. can possibly make $40k/yr. He said, âno wayâ, and I said âIâm going to do it.â And thatâs how this goal started. Reason 2) Simple â the goal will keep me staying determined to play flawlessly, and it will keep me focused at the task at hand. This goal allows me to stay âhungryâ the whole year. I enjoy the pressure of striving to achieve something that is challenging. This challenge will keep me waking up each day and grinding. The satisfaction of achieving this goal will be half the fun, and the journey getting there is the other half. My subscribers, followers, and my post will keep accountable; and keeps me determined to play my âAâ game. Thank you in advance for subscribing/following! Reason 3) it keeps the pressure off me playing the bigger games. I always told people the âpoker lowsâ hurt more than the âhighsâ feel good. If that makes any sense to you! There were times when I was playing bigger limits where I would lose $5k in a sesh. Trust me those days sting! When I lost that amount of cheddar I would always think of what I could have done with that money; i.e. remodel the kitchen, go on shopping spree, buy a used car, get a golf membership at the country club, etc. When I win itâs like âcoolâ, but when I lose big it affects my whole psyche! With this goal I am managing my losses where worst case scenario is an $800 losing day. Reason 4) the $1-$2 NLHE is the most popular poker game around. There are more $1-$2 players than any other game. This will give a good idea of whatâs a realistic earning from a solid $1-$2nlhe player. I want to do this for all the grinders. There is not a truer grinder than a $1-$2 grinder. Big Ups to all the 1-2ers!
Cliff Notes â Can I? Or canât I? Make $40k in 2013 playing only $1-$2 and $1-$3 NLHE. Playing at least 30hrs/wk. and buying in for no more than $800 a session! I will also invest no more than $5k in tournaments in 2013 that will be factored into the $40k/year goal. I will post often with full transparency. I thrive on competition. My motto is look good, feel good, play good. I like puzzles. I have a degree in Mathematics. This is my very first post on 2 + 2 forum. 
All feedback welcome.
Thanks,
Rayz
how much time are we talking about? I have doubts this will ever come into play
Whatcha doubting @Alphafish?
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February off to a slow start. Lost 2 out of 3 sessions. Down small. Few hundred.
Leaving now w a small loss and gonna hit some tennis. Iâm out.
Whatcha doubting @Alphafish?
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February off to a slow start. Lost 2 out of 3 sessions. Down small. Few hundred.
Leaving now w a small loss and gonna hit some tennis. Iâm out.
are you suffering from a lack of reading comprehension?
I think I made myself pretty clear that I doubt that this hybrid bball/pickleball court will be in use long enough that any kind of a drainage issue is going to matter
@AlphaFish itĂâs gonna get used as much as people want the smoke.
Got the concrete guy finally lined up. Ended up w 5 estimates and went w the 5th one. Prices ranged from $6800-$12,000.
What color shd we paint it?
Ran QQ into AA.
That hand cost me $310 today.
Prob shd hv found the fold to omc, but IĂâm looking at the 3rd best hand and just cdnt. Aipf
-$279
Cliff Notes for Late Comers to Thread
In 2013 my 2+2 thread started w a $40k 1/2nl challenge. This challenge came up about $6k short.
2013 Poker Totals
Cash: $35,031 @ 26.66/hr on 1313.5 total hours. 70.5% winning %
Tourney: -$1,027
Overall: $34,004.
2014 Goal was to play bigger
2014 POKER TOTALS
Overall for 2014:
Cash: +$45,314. $52.22/hr.
Tournaments: -$4,115
Overall: +$41,199
2015 compiled of 10 goals. In parenthesis next to each goal is how I ended up.
MY 10 POKER GOALS FOR 2015.
1). -Be up 6 stacks of high society by the end of 2015 playing 1/2nl up to 10/20nl. $60,000.($42,582)
2). -No Losing Months. (*April lost -$2,528).
3). -Log an average of 25/hrs a week.. (23.3hrs)
4). -Come in top 3 in the WSOP League Finale. Getting top 3 will win me a Las Vegas tourney package. (WSOP Packages are: $11k, $4k, $1,500. Finale is April 11, 2015). (*ended up getting 5th in Finale)
5). -Log 1,000+ hours at Horseshoe Southern Indiana's poker room. This feat will take me from platinum to diamond card. (*Diamond card achieved in July).
6). -Log 200 hrs in Jan and get the $400 promotional bonus HSI is offering. (HSI rake back promotion for Jan rewards a player $2 x hrs logged. 200+hrs requirement). (*Logged 202 hrs in Jan)
7). -Have a $10k winning month. (*January +$10,151 Overall)
8). -Have a $5k winning session playing 2/5nl or higher. (Nope)
9). -Have a $2k winning session playing 1/2nl.(*+$2,236 on June 26th at HSI. +$2,709 on July 10 at HSI
10). -Play a 24hr session (*May 18/19th at HCO+$1,059)
2015 POKER TOTALS
Cash: $44,412. $38.95/HR @1,140hrs
63% win. *Crushed 1/2nl @ $45.52/hr on 667 hrs. *Only $15.96/hr at 2/5/10nl on 185hrs.
Tournaments: -$1,830 74hrs
Overall: $42,582 on 1,214 total hours
2016
Attempted to go the whole month of March without talking. Lasted 8 days when I slipped and said, "Oh ****" while playing rummy with my daughter. No Talk March, #NTM, oddly led me into trading stocks where I started w $40k and ran it down to $20k and then back up. We toyed around trading on the daily, and learning the stock game.
*Didn't put in a lot of hours on the poker table and ended the year $21,759.
2017
$40K Challenge: Attempt 2.
Try to make $40k playing 1/2nl only.
The challenge got cut short on August 22nd when I received a lifetime ban from all Harrahâs properties for vlogging on premises. At that time, I was on pace to achieve this challenge.
Sold my Melody 5 plex. Put that money, and poker money on a penny stock that made me some serious cash. Used that to pay off my home mortgage.
Ban was eventually uplifted. Thanks to some poker player support.
2018.
No debt. No mortgage.
Monthly expenses have been lowered, and trying to live a semi retired life. But w little money leftover it feels Iâm still trying to survive.
Money has been strapped ever since paying Uncle Sam 5 figs for profits on ENPH stock and capital gains of Melody, but we hv kept our head above water.
Didnât track any poker this year.
2019
Got a heloc loan $70k (10k Sara and 60k me).
From that, we put $58k into the market and used $2k for poker/life roll. We added $4,000 to RH and was in the stock game for $62,000 total. Risked all-n on a couple high volatile stocks (NIO mostly) w margin capped to the brim.
We lost it all. Went broke and had to get a job driving for Lyft/Uber to build the roll back.
#semiretired life hasnât worked out too great. We restructured our deal w Sara who owes me for when I paid off our house in 2017.
2019 Poker Stats: $6,313 on 427 hours $14.8/hr.
2020
After playing some catch up from last couple years, we finally got back on track. Going forward, everything earned will go towards the next shot take.
The 2020 goal is simple. $50,000 in liquid money by the end of the year. We started the year at $0.
What we gonna do once we accomplish the $50kl challenge? Super high roller? Buy a flip house? Another all-in on a penny stock? Who knows...
2021 GOAL:
We crushed the 2020 goal and sold the house during a booming real estate market 2021
â˘took all monies and loaded up w MANA coin. Nearly 200,000 coins of MANA.
â˘Rest of monies downsized to a 130k flip home
⢠will the flip be a flop? FLIP!!!
*sold flip (9/10/21) Made $21k in a 3 month flip.
Goal after the flipâŚpile more MANA, get back on the poker grind, and buy the rest of these sports cards rookies we need.
*Our MANA investment paid off handsomely. Made a MILLION DOLLARS!
*2021 Pokers started early in the year playing a over-raked, 5 handed Covid regulated game. Mid summer restrictions loosened up and the games started to look really gd.
Busted Main Event. Played poker horrible when it mattered the most.
The rookies cards for 2021 buys:
Tiger Woods ✔️
Messi ✔️
Roger Fed ✔️
Djokovic ✔️
Serena Williams ✔️
Tom Brady ✔️
Lebron James ✔️
Usain Bolt ✔️
Michael Phelps
Pete Rose✔️
Rafa Nadal ✔️
Jack Nicklaus ✔️
Michael Jordan ✔️
*Unopened pack of 1986 Fleer Basketball ✔️
*unopened pack of 2000 Bowman Chrome Football ✔️
Accomplished getting all these psa rookie cards, EXCEPT Michael Phelps. <-never found a decent deal.
2022
â˘Let our 1 million $ mana profits ride on xlm the whole year (on Voyager app). Cdnt make it through. Quit in April. Got drilled and lost half million
â˘Can we beat Sports Betting?
We got carried away and started chasing some bets. 3 figure bets turned to 4. 4 figure bets turned to 5. Im not the man I once was.
IN APRIL WE HAD A BREAKDOWN AND QUIT EVERYTHING. WAS LOSING BIG IN EVERYTHING WE DID. MANA MILLIONS WAS SHRINKING. TOOK A LONG BREAK. Mental struggles. Therapy. THE THREAD WAS ON A HIATUS UNTILâŚlate 2023.
2023:
It was time to update the thread on our big downfall. Came back to 2+2 in July. Felt it was right to update the followers of the thread. Gotta talk bout the bad just like we hype up the good.
We got low n life and got therapy. For over a year been trying to shake it out and get the mojo back. The motivation was lost when we were taking on 100k downswings. Work in progress.
The 2024
â˘Attempt #3 $40k playing 1/3nl
â˘Lose 24lbs in 2024 (we ended up completing this goal in the first month!)
â˘Construct best backyard pickle court in USA.
standing water on concrete in winter will destroy it. concrete is porous so the water will seep into it, freeze and crack the concrete from the inside. in the non-freezing months it will just promote vegitative growth, like mold.
Hero has built more outdoor basketball courts than everyone else on 2+2 combined. Before he retired he was a professional outdoor basketball court builder. Don't you haterz think he knows all this stuff?
+510 today. 9a - 1p.
We made it into the black in February. Now build.
We meet w concrete guy to go over everything tomo. He is taking it over from here.
Cost is gonna be $7,830 plus he will install the Gorilla goal.
We up to $10,500 for court expenses. Not including bball goal ($2500). Haven’t purchased pickle net yet. Haven’t purchased paint and supplies.
standing water on concrete in winter will destroy it. concrete is porous so the water will seep into it, freeze and crack the concrete from the inside. in the non-freezing months it will just promote vegitative growth, like mold.
Many balconies/terraces are built with concrete and have snow on them that will melt during spring. And they last many years!
Hero has built more outdoor basketball courts than everyone else on 2+2 combined. Before he retired he was a professional outdoor basketball court builder. Don't you haterz think he knows all this stuff?
he was literally asking about drainage for this before he started, so no, i don't think he knew everything about this.
****, i wasn't even hating, i was asking if he figured out what he was going to do
Many balconies/terraces are built with concrete and have snow on them that will melt during spring. And they last many years!
guarentee they are built with a slight slope for drainage
I was thinking he did everything to build the bball courts, but now you have me second guessing myself into thinking he just painted them. Either way hero can learn to do just about anything he sets his mind to as long as one of the haterz says he can't do it.
Look me in the eyes and tell me that if you need open heart surgery and one of the haterz told hero he couldn't do it that you wouldn't choose hero over some random open heart surgery specialist to do the surgery.
I chuckled at the table when I read open heart surgery. I’ll do it!!
Just painted courts. Did some airjordan logos (that someone in her wanted to sure me for it) and college stencils.
Drain pitch is towards garden boxes in back corner.
In for $389 and currently…
1/3. 4 limps and tight lady button makes it $10. Call sb, bb 3! to $30. 4 way.
Couple gd days after starting February slow.
Behind the pace, but also avg just 12 hrs of grind a week in 2024 lmao. We’ll pick it up more. 24 hours a week sounds lot like work for semi retired folk. Maybe we can accomplish this on 20hrs of grind each week.
Most proud of these 2 sessions. Both sessions got down around $400-$500 at the most. Both were great games and cdnt hit any jumperz. Decent form pre, but hitting back of rims on flops. Sometimes wd just airball completely. I was in there tho still w fight and still doing same old me. Didnât force any shots, but kept shooting in clear spots. Took the L, but anyone else I just feel they lose a lot more. Actually,
told my wife that when she asked how I did that day lol.
Feels gd to stay the course! Ur gonna times of card dead in gd games, bad spots, QQ runs AA, whiffing flops, etc.
Cd hv been worse. Making the best of my losses is something been working on last couple of years. Itâs more than just managing the losses. Itâs bout playing great every hand. Winning or losing. Not letting loss emotion effect playability.
Do you not enjoy poker? I play more than you (completely for recreation) and also work a full time job.
Do you not enjoy poker? I play more than you (completely for recreation) and also work a full time job.
Ty @katoKrazy. Much rather b somewhere else. Used to enjoy it a lot more. Now I just show up to pay my bills. 20 years takes its toll. I hv seen it all in poker. Much rather b outside playing tennis, messing around in a garden, or fun time w fam.
I still like the competition and the levels of thinking. But, if game is crap, and line up is blah, I’m usually in no mood to stay. Over it. Don’t love it enough to play in boring games.
Yea I refuse to play in boring games too.
Meeting concrete guy between 10-11a today to go over the job. Throw a shoe on the power lines for me. A big chunk will leave the roll today. We under $20k.
Gotta get the kids off the bus at 3p, so doesn’t gv me a lot of time for pokerz. instead, gonna get a 3miler in. Never thought I’d hv a running race next month. Wtf. #iamnotarunner Can’t quit the running until we finish the Triple Crown 10k in March I somehow signed up for. Another wtf. Thought I wd need this race for the 24lbs in 2024 goal. I believe that’s the only reason I signed up for it. Thought surely we wd still b doing that challenge. Thats crazy. Can’t wait to be allowed to stop running after this race lol.
Only play a handful of tournaments a year and this is gonna b one of them.
A visit to Dad in NC and ship event 2 next week.
We back at it today. Let’s build on Feb. log these hours and get out.
playing $400 tournaments seems a bit stupid with less than a 20k to your name... so business as usual! carry on.
playing $400 tournaments seems a bit stupid with less than a 20k to your name... so business as usual! carry on.
Does everything Ray does have to be criticized? Playing a $400 tournament is not a big deal. If he had $400 to his name it wouldn't be a big deal. Also the way your sentence is framed saying the man has less than 20k to his name is demeaning. And only counting his liquid cash in that context is silly. He has 20k and a house. Everyone dies some day no matter how much money you accumulate.
17.5% rake fee seems very good.
Yeah.
I remember the daily Ts here used to b like 30%. May still b, not sure. Havenât looked into it in a while.
Wsop has always had decent rake.
Heading out Thursday
They just called the opening game. Gonna take out seat and try to get this $200 we lost yesterday. Made a move against the tightest player in the room yesterday. Why am I trying him w Aces lol.???
Up $614 in Feb.
Hand of day. $500 I barely cover.
Raise $8 utg 1 w Aces. Get 3bet to $40 from winning pro (w a $10k hu wsop bracelet). I 4 to $108. He tanks shoves $460.
Flop I thought was horrible KQJ!!! Luckily he has AK and not those sets.
+270 on the day. +884 in Feb. all 1/3nl
Concrete!!!
