The start of my true poker Journey, my personal progress and goal thread.
Hi everyone, some of you may know me already but if you don't, what going on? I'm my name is Roy but most of my friends just call me Outlaw. I'm a 27 year old living in Indiana. I have a dream, and my dream is to one day win the WSOP Main Event, and make as much money playing this game as I can, so i can stop working shitty warehouse jobs, once and for all. I got in a bit of trouble when i was younger, dropped out in 9th grade so my job options as an adult are very limited, and limited to hard labor that doesn't pay too well at that. I know its a long shot, but something tells me with hard work I can make it. I'm a pretty smart dude when I want to be, pick things up extremely fast and retain it, I can apply concepts i just learned, but I've never applied myself to anything for some reason, just kind of spewed anger at how my life worked out in no particular direction. Just kind of hated the world I guess, just for existing; I wandered aimlesslessly for most my early 20s looking for somewhere i could fit in, without ever really finding it, or anyone. This game is the only thing I've found In life I actually enjoy doing so far.
I have been playing for a little over 2 years now, and basically taught myself how to play by watching videos online and playing in NLOP freerolls and 5nl online with my winnings. I lost my first few $25 dollar deposits when i first started playing cash games on real sites, but quickly started to break even. Once I was pretty sure I was winning a little bit I bought poker tracker 4 with the last dollars i had at the time and decided to track my results. My plan was originally to grind up a roll from basically nothing like I heard of people doing in the golden days of poker, but that quickly turned into 6 months of making very little progress, and me becoming frustrated with the game and my lack of results, I felt like i deserved more with the time I was putting in. I took a short break and took the time to study for the first time, came back, and built up a small 200 dollar bankroll at 5nl over a few months at Bovada. Even though the amount was small, I felt proud of my self for the first time in my life, seeing something through and actually becoming a small winning player. My biggest issue was tilt control when running bad, and i found that out when i hit my first downswing. I eventually broke even again and was devastated, but over time grinded everything back up at 5nl with a plan to get it to 500 and move up to 10 until i had 1000, 25s to 2500 and so on. I made 300 and decided to take a shot at 10nl against better players recently, did even better than i did at 5nl, realized i didn't need to be intimidated by higher stakes, I was good enough to move up. That's where the current story begins.
Recently, over the last 3 months I've been studying extremely hard and absorbing a ton of content for NLHE. I am improving very quickly and have developed a good exploitative mind for the game I feel. I have about 600 dollars I've got playing with buddy's in cash, and I've made almost a 500 dollar roll since moving up online. On advice of a couple friends who play and a couple of people on here, I plan on moving up as soon as I've made another 250 at 10NL, to 25NL. If i can beat 25NL over 50,000 hands for a good win rate (aiming for above 6.5BB/100), i will deposit my entire roll and start grinding 50NL to see how it works out. If its too much i will move down, and try again after another 50k. After that, I am planning on using a 25 buy in roll for the stake im at and practicing aggressive bankroll management after hitting 30 buy ins, to see just how far up the stakes i can go. I will be 2 and 3 tabling, and thinking through every spot and trying to play my A+ game at all times, I will use a 3 buy in stop loss and 8 hours a day maximum of play, along with 2 hours of study and hand reviews.
I will be posting updates on my progress every week or two. Full graphs, wins, losses, punts, all of it, full transparency. My main goals right now is to start making as close to 20 dollars an hour playing as soon as i can so i can quit my shitty job, get a decent bankroll built up, and help my mother pay off her home so she can retire. She's worked hard her whole life helping others as a nurse never missing a day of work, and hasn't got much to show for it, and she's never once complained. Just a simple woman who sees the good in everyone, but nobody has ever seen the good in her. I want to pay her back for everything she helped me with over the years, and all the selfless things she's done for the people under her care. Before anything else, that's coming first.
I don't have much to fall back on if this doesn't work out, if it doesn't ill probably end up just another statistic on some graph somewhere, or a wandering drifter alone int he world. The stakes are truly high for me, this is my one shot to greatness ill ever have in this lifetime, i don't intend to squander it or take it lightly. For once in my life, I'm going to give my entire heart and mind to something. I'm going to direct my soul into one thing. By hard work, along with blood, sweat and tears---I truly intend to become one of the most feared players to ever play NLHE. There is no other choice, this is it.
I'm all in.
BEGINNING GRAPH OVER ALL STAKES
Graph at our current stake 10nl, overall 12,730 hands
FIRST UPDATE
Ran pretty bad over the weekend before this was posted up, Got myself in some bad spots and didn't hold up in a few big all ins, kinda punted one and a half buy ins too, for honesty's sake. Went down to 206 up at 10nl but I kept my head on my shoulders, played a little bit today on two tables and got up about even to our highest point. We happy.
Start: 206ish
End: 258
Total Play Time: Around 6 hours
BB/100 All in Adj.= 10.31
My focus of study for at least the next month will be general poker math, its the weakest area of my game, and what I feel I need to really work on most to truly become a crusher, winging it just isn't going to cut it anymore. I will hand review 1 hour a day, and work on this area 1 hour a day before sessions.
Hopefully by our next check in, in a week or two, I will have reached our goal of 500 dollars at 10nl, and start trying our luck at 25nl, The one shot I've took, last time went very well with a triple up, so I'm optimistic!
Nice intro and backstory mate. Got me pumped to see you succeed!
Subbed.
This 10NL sunrunner thinks he can win the WSOP? LOL JK Bro. GL
UPDATE 2: 10/11/2024
Things have gone very well, since my last update. I was hoping to make $500 at 10nl in the week or two between updates; I'm happy to report, we have succeeded in our goals. I will now be moving up to 25nl to begin the next leg of my journey. I ran very well, played decently and kept tilt to a minimum. Happy with the results so far and I'm hoping we can keep it going!
Our current stats:
VPIP: 25.87
PFR: 20.8
3B: 9.75
BB/100: 28.5
BB/100 All-In ADJ: 17
Hours Played at 10nl: 130
$$$ Across all stakes to date[online only]: 722$
Below, is our graph at 10nl. We made our $500 dollar goal in 17,600 hands.
Here are some of my favorite hands played at 10nl.
Punts, Losses, Hero Calls, and Big Pots!
Our biggest pot played.
A nice pot we picked up with eff. nuts.
A massive punt we made. I knew that min-raise was it and punted it off anyway lol.
One more massive punt.....
An absolute hero call with K high in a 4 bet pot!
An unfortunate loss.....
Finally, the hand that put us over 500!
We will continue to study poker math until the next update, in two weeks time. Hope to have another solid update for everyone.
Until then, Good Luck at the tables!
Awesome job mate. Meet you at NL200!
I'm already there with half a buy in.. :O
After recent events with bovada-
Regardless of outcome- I'm done. This online poker **** is more shady than dudes in the **** could ever be, I've seen more honor from a stripper. Honestly, I miss it more than anything, only time I was ever happy. So, **** it, you are what you are in life, no point running from it. Ill just play live for fun on occasion, because I still like the game, but there are much better way to make a living- this isn't one of them. Make your bed in the morning, you lay in it at night. At least at the end of the day I can say I truly tried to change, I'm just not a good person at heart anymore, and its impossible to be that guy again.
Cant say its been a pleasure. See most of you in hell.
After recent events with bovada-
Regardless of outcome- I'm done. This online poker **** is more shady than dudes in the **** could ever be, I've seen more honor from a stripper. Honestly, I miss it more than anything, only time I was ever happy. So, **** it, you are what you are in life, no point running from it. Ill just play live for fun on occasion, because I still like the game, but there are much better way to make a living- this isn't one of them. Make your bed in the morning, you lay in i
Situation was sorted after a big headache, if you want to see outcome, and what went on. just check out official Bovada thread. I'm taking a few days off before I start to play again, just to calm down and make sure I'm in the right headspace again. Stuff like that has never worked out in my favor before, in the track record of my life, a lot of it due to bad decisions I've made, and alot of it due to bad luck and being profiled for my mental illness and my appearance, and the aforementioned bad decisions I've made ( i dress like a tough guy, cant deny it), as well to keep it 100%. So I always imagine worst case scenario, and that I'm going to get ****ed every time, because that's how life tends to go for me. So I'm super grateful with the couple employees who heard me out and really came through for me solid. Shoutout to Bovada agent "M" and supervisor "S". Good, solid dudes, who did their best to help me out and take care of me after he reviewed and seen i wasn't cheating or trying to work around the rules, just made an honest to god mistake, based on bad information i received from another employee. "S' You a G my guy!
Really cant catch a break right now, and i thought it was going to be another time where I get ****ed with no recourse, so that's why I acted like that. I'm really a good dude trying to do the right thing and i feel like my past keeps holding me back despite paying my debt to society for the decision i made, i feel life other people take that as an opprtuninty to ****ed you over and sometimes it feels like you cant get away from a dew bad decisions you made when you was young. I'm super stoked they heard me out and gave me an honest to god fair shake, and cut me a break on this one. More than i can say for any other time I've been in those situations. Major respect to both those dudes, i hope there is something i can do to show appreciation to those solid dudes one day.
I certainly hope so brother. Honestly the best advice i can give you brother, (please dont take this the wrong way either)-- i believe you a good ass guy and i care about your wellbeing bro... you just pushing yor roll to far trying to hit it big over night. So, just take however much as you need to get your mind in the right ( no shame or judgment in it man, i go through the **** too sometimes like you ) and come up a little deposable income. Try to work on discipline at the same time, and come back in 6 months or so with a roll ready to crush, if you feel you want to. You can make it despite what people tell you. Im happy to 'coach' you free if you are interested in low stakes micros, if you decide to every come back. best of luk in life and i hope you kill it no matter what you end up doing. It takes balls to do what you are doing my friend, and ill still support you in the future no matter what you are doing, Stay same man, remember gods got your back!
Also, ive been having difficulty with some of the more intermediate/advance poker (algebra????) equations with the x and y and parenthesis and that kind of stuff, so I'm happy to say i went out of my comfort zone and I've enrolled myself in a free state sponsored GED level math class at Ben Davis starting next week to get caught up with that sort of math and really improve my game. Its a 1..5 month course.
It really sounds as though you are willing to make a change to your life, but so much more important than that: you are actually putting in the work. Getting into that class, studying and grinding poker shows that to us, the readers of this thread, and if you can keep that you will also be able to prove to yourself that you are capable.
With that I dont mean to say that you might be insecure or whatever, but yohr reaction to that bovada situation shows that you are willing to put your own life in the hands of the actions of others. This might no be a conscious decision, but if you can keep it up, you will not react by giving up the next time a setback hits.
Because those will hit! And harder than the one above!
I’m rooting for you.
It really sounds as though you are willing to make a change to your life, but so much more important than that: you are actually putting in the work. Getting into that class, studying and grinding poker shows that to us, the readers of this thread, and if you can keep that you will also be able to prove to yourself that you are capable.
With that I dont mean to say that you might be insecure or whatever, but yohr reaction to that bovada situation shows that you are willing to put your own life in
Thanks man it really means a lot. I'm not exactly" insecure" per so, I'm happy with how I'm turning out in life recently and improving. I just get upset when people take my kindness for weakness if that makes sense( or that's how my current thought processes perceive it as). That demon in me still comes out in those situation really bad, and I I certainly do overreact to stuff like that (and i know i do.) so i can easily see how it can come off like that for sure, its because i feel like people are taking advantage of me when I'm down knowing i don't have money for lawyers and the cops are going to take their side no matter what because of my background. so feel like I cant do it the "right" way- so i fall back into the "ima show this guy internet guy how we would handle this on the street and how he's ****ing up, you aren't hiding behind your affidavits and lawyers with me bud" type of mentality. ( I know I shouldn't be like that in general life with people- but its all i knew for most my life and its hard to get away from sometimes- even though i TRULY hate being that type of guy, that's just how i had to be act most my life and it seeps into the soul after so long, i guess). I'm working on it with a cool therapist I've been talking to for awhile, who always looks out for me, and its getting a lot better day to day, so with some more work I'm sure i can get there, all the time instead of like 80% of the time.
Thanks alot for the words of encouragement man- It really means alot to know im not alone and people want to see and help me succeed! Knowing ive got people rooting for me makes me happy. Ive always felt it was me against the world.
With your explanation on your background your reaction definitely makes sense, and is not unreasonable. You will probably still react to setbacks in a similar fashion for some time to come, but if you can keep up the habits you have developed for yourself you’ll find that the actions of others cannot rattle you like they used to do.
This is still a struggle for me as well but I have been improving and would like to be able to read that you are doing better as well.
GL!
With your explanation on your background your reaction definitely makes sense, and is not unreasonable. You will probably still react to setbacks in a similar fashion for some time to come, but if you can keep up the habits you have developed for yourself you’ll find that the actions of others cannot rattle you like they used to do.
This is still a struggle for me as well but I have been improving and would like to be able to read that you are doing better as well.
GL!
One day at a time man! In the words of a roll model of mine, Mike Tyson- "true change comes with time".
Take care on your journey as well man, hope to see you around, for sure. Best of luck in the game and in life!
Thanks man it really means a lot. I'm not exactly" insecure" per so, I'm happy with how I'm turning out in life recently and improving. I just get upset when people take my kindness for weakness if that makes sense( or that's how my current thought processes perceive it as). That demon in me still comes out in those situation really bad, and I I certainly do overreact to stuff like that (and i know i do.) so i can easily see how it can come off like that for sure, its because i feel like peopl
I too have had serious mental strife in my life, like serious serious hell that made it hard to keep living and there were times I was really angry, with everything, real contemplation of murder, so I know where you're comming from. One piece of advice that i'd like to give if I may, something i've only truly learnt quite recently is that life and people generally reflect back at you what you give out. If you believe most people are POS most people will seem that way, and they may even act that way because of your demeanor towards them, even if you don't realize you have one. People can sense it.. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. Yeah there are some **** people in the world, but even most **** people have some good in them, it just depends how you choose to see them. And none of us our saints ourselves, we all make mistakes and have imperfections in our personality or whatever. But if you try to see the good in things, the good in people, silly imperfect people who are by enlarge just an amalgamation of their experiences and biology and put out positivity yourself you're a 1000% more likely to receive it back. Wish you success mate, keep pushing forward, when things get hard take a breather and then go back at it. You can and will do this. gl
I too have had serious mental strife in my life, like serious serious hell that made it hard to keep living and there were times I was really angry, with everything, real contemplation of murder, so I know where you're coming from. One piece of advice that i'd like to give if I may, something i've only truly learnt quite recently is that life and people generally reflect back at you what you give out. If you believe most people are POS most people will seem that way, and they may even act that w
You always welcome to give me advice, you are big bro haha. I know exactly what you mean too, i have people say why are are being an ass when im not even trying to be, must be be the energy i give off or something, so i can relate to what you are saying! Thanks for the help and all the support G!
QUICK UPDATE: 25nl has been going well, but im Taking a couple weeks off before hopping back on the grind. Been feeling down and pretty depressed here lately, and i know my play will likely suffer because of it! Will continue as planned when im feeling a little better
Im still going to be playing but i wont be posting on this site anymore. You'll either see me on TV playing cards one day, or on TV for a very different reason one day.
Peace to all the cool people on here that tried to help me out, i appreciate you guys.
Sad to see u leaving. Keep working on ur game ! Seems like results were good
no hard feelings - take it easy there!
