From Plankton to Poseidon –My NL journey starting from the bottom of the ocean (poker/personal blog)

Originally posted by SiKWiThIt
Hi everyone!

My name is Jordan and this blog is going to cover my journey in the world of No Limit cash games. As the title of this blog states, right now in my NL poker journey I see myself as nothing more than plankton... Something which all of the fishes in Poker (let alone the sharks) can happily feast upon the second I take a seat on the tables! I am starting this blog with absolutely zero knowledge and experience of No limit cash games.

My previous but very limited experience in online poker was specifically in SNGs and MTTs, and in that I was a very mediocre player at best, recording an ROI of about 8% in microstakes over a sample of roughly 9K games over the span of about 5 years.

A little background info about myself --- I am a French national who has been brought up in the UK most of his life, and who has spent the last 5 years studying a Masters degree in Civil Engineering. The last couple of years I have played next to nearly 0 hours of poker due to having been in full time education and wanting to focus most of my time in studying and having a fun and wild social life (as is standard for university students in the UK :f_drink:). Just 3 weeks ago I completed my last ever exam and just yesterday I discovered that my time spent partying like a maniac at University was not so unavailing as I managed to secure myself a First-class Honours in my degree.

However unlike the rest of my fellow peers I have not been looking at trying to secure myself a graduate job just yet as one of my personal goals right now is to travel around the globe to see new places and have new experiences while I am still young and not burdened with responsibilities.

As I have a little bit of time on my hands this summer, I have decided to start playing poker again and as a personal challenge, see just how far I can go starting from a format with no experience. I have always known the importance of cash games as the post flop skills developed in these games transfer very effectively into SNGs and MTTs. This is why I have decided to start playing them.

The format that I will be playing is NL 6-Max and I will be starting at 2NL with whatever cash is remaining in my Stars account (roughly $127 at the time of writing this).

I understand the importance of having goals for both the long term and the short term. With long term it is important to dream big and have something that keeps you motivated and gets you out of bed in the mornings. Therefore my Long term goal is a big one !

LONG TERM:

• TAKE MY POKER TO A LEVEL WHERE I CAN CONSISTENTLY MAKE ENOUGH MONTHLY WINNINGS ($1500-$2000) TO TRAVEL AND LIVE IN DIFFERENT PLACES FOR 2-3 MONTHS AT A TIME

With my current poker ability this is a monstrous goal! (Right now it feels equivalent to climbing Mt Everest with one leg) but I strongly believe that through hard work and dedication it is attainable by anyone!! A realistic timeframe for this goal can be anywhere from 12months–NEVER depending on just how much I am willing to invest and strive for it!

My short term goals will be a lot more realistic and poker specific and are as follows.

SHORT TERM GOALS: (WEEKS 1-4)

• BE A SPONGE!! - I need to soak up all the information, lessons and coaching’s that I can and take my NL knowledge from zero to fish. In order to not be devoured by the fish !!
• Begin playing my first NL2 games while adhering to strict beginner strategies
• Making sure that I develop a strong Study/Play. Playing is fun, everybody wants to play. But it is imperative that right at the start I develop a strong study/play ratio of at least 50/50 especially as I have 0 knowledge right now. As I progress the ratio will lean more towards playing

My aims with this blog is to update roughly once a week and these updates will consist of how I have performed towards my goals, progress charts/ tables , any thoughts and also any updates with personal life such as planned trips , photos etc.

P.S If anyone is interested in seeing some of the places I visit or random photos. Feel free to follow me on Instagram. You’ll find me under the username “LeFrenchstick”

P.P.S Apologies for the length of this first post, I was just setting the table. From now on my posts should be a lot shorter!!

Hows it going Jordan
My names Paul I'm in a similar position to you recently ventured into online poker from being a winning live player..i start with a poker coach tomorrow to help me with what ever it is ill need help with..im also from the uk I have sent you a friend request drop me a message maybe we can help each other along the way

Hi Jordan,

i really liked everything you wrote there and i wish you the very best, especially the right amount of endurance for your goals.

It's a very interesting blog for me personally because i have the same longterm goals as you, altough i don't play NL Cash only (i play various forms of poker). I'm really looking forward reading your blog and discussing with you and hope you keep up the nice writing.

Maybe we both reach our goal and meet at some table in some time far from here

greetings from Germany,
Kevin

GL!! I'll def follow your journey!

Hi Jordan.

Having been in the "poker business" for quite a while now, I have seen many guys who started like you and managed to achieve their goal - which was generating regular income from poker, starting off at microstakes, often with the PokerStrategy.com free money. One thing they all had in common was perseverance and determination. You can apply it virtually to any dream, but in case of a poker dream, you need to keep going. Things will not always be easy, you'll have swings, you'll tilt and maybe even lose money at some point, but if you make mastering the game your priority, you will succeed.

Fingers crossed. I'll be watching your progress

Originally posted by paulpkrward
Hows it going Jordan
My names Paul I'm in a similar position to you recently ventured into online poker from being a winning live player..i start with a poker coach tomorrow to help me with what ever it is ill need help with..im also from the uk I have sent you a friend request drop me a message maybe we can help each other along the way

Hey Paul, I accepted your friend request and sent you a personal message. Coming from live poker, that is really cool. In total I think I have less than 4 hours of casino live poker under my belt, zero of which I spent playing in a sober state... I am most likely going to be spending a couple of days in Macau in September and will obviously have to play a bit of Poker in their grande casinos. So I might try and get cheeky tips from you at some point ;).

Originally posted by PostflopWizard
Hi Jordan,

i really liked everything you wrote there and i wish you the very best, especially the right amount of endurance for your goals.

It's a very interesting blog for me personally because i have the same longterm goals as you, altough i don't play NL Cash only (i play various forms of poker). I'm really looking forward reading your blog and discussing with you and hope you keep up the nice writing.

Maybe we both reach our goal and meet at some table in some time far from here

greetings from Germany,
Kevin

Hi Kevin, Thank you very much for your kind words and thanks for following this blog. I too hope that one day I can escape the pits of NL2 and meet you on some big cash game or MTT table! For now keep grinding and good luck on your journey

Originally posted by vonki
GL!! I'll def follow your journey!

Thanks Vonki

Originally posted by Marta
Hi Jordan.

Having been in the "poker business" for quite a while now, I have seen many guys who started like you and managed to achieve their goal - which was generating regular income from poker, starting off at microstakes, often with the PokerStrategy.com free money. One thing they all had in common was perseverance and determination. You can apply it virtually to any dream, but in case of a poker dream, you need to keep going. Things will not always be easy, you'll have swings, you'll tilt and maybe even lose money at some point, but if you make mastering the game your priority, you will succeed.

Fingers crossed. I'll be watching your progress

Hi Marta, Thank you very much for the excellent info! I agree 100% with your statement regarding Poker and its swings. I believe it is very similar to Investment and stock trading where no matter how good somebody is, due to the small edges, one cannot succeed without a rock solid mindset . This in the past has been my biggest weakness. I am slowly going through the great Psychology videos Pokerstrategy has to offer making lots of notes that will come in useful in times of need later on!

So last week I begun playing my first ever cash game tables and thankfully beginners variance was on my side. I played on 2 days and only managed a total of 555 Hands. My graph for last weeks results is as follows:

This is the first graph I have ever posted so, if I have done something wrong or certain info is missing, please let me know =). I am currently strictly sticking to a starter strategy and I am not yet concentrating on making adjustments for my opponents. In regards to my performance pre-flop has been ok, However post-flop I feel that I am often making mistakes and I need to keep familiarising myself in various situations! I will soon begin posting hands on Pokerstrategy as I feel this will greatly help my game, not to mention with Vonki’s summer challenge I have even more incentive!
This week so far my play has been very limited as I am in Malta on a pre-graduation family vacation. However I am trying to complete 4 days of 500 hands for the summer challenge and am currently on 2/4.

graph is fine! Some people post in bb's instead of $, some people include EV-line but trying to not focus on running above/below ev too much will definitely be a good thing.

Hello Jordan,

Really good start to your blog and first results.
Something I thought you might be interested in reading is The Quick Guide to Skyrocketing Your Poker and Life Productivity. Schnitzelfisch also did a few videos on mindset and self-development worth looking at. I have filtered them for you =en&submit=Search"]here
I am looking forward to reading how you get on in the coming months and wish you the best of luck at the tables

My regards

Matt

Originally posted by metalmonkey80
Hello Jordan,

Really good start to your blog and first results.
Something I thought you might be interested in reading is The Quick Guide to Skyrocketing Your Poker and Life Productivity. Schnitzelfisch also did a few videos on mindset and self-development worth looking at. I have filtered them for you =en&submit=Search"]here
I am looking forward to reading how you get on in the coming months and wish you the best of luck at the tables

My regards

Matt

Hey Matt,

Thank you very much for sharing this article. I gave it a quick read through before bookmarking and it is extremely useful. I will definitely be going back through it multiple times.

Hi everyone my 2nd week since starting this blog is finished. I wasn’t able to play or study anywhere near as much as I would have liked to although I am on vacation so that is expected. On the plus side I did manage to complete the first part of the Summer Challenge. Here are my results from last week.

Week 2:

I made a few mistakes that I later reviewed and I can now focus on not repeating these errors. I am still on vacation this whole coming week, so I will not be setting any large goals as I am unsure as to how much time I will have available to play and study.

My small goals for this week include:

-Posting my first hands to be reviewed on the hand analysis forums (Achieved)
-Watching and note taking on at least 2 hours worth of videos, focusing on beginner topics (Achieved)

Keep it up, Jordan!

Will you post the hands here as well or just in the hand discussion forums? or maybe you can share a link here?

greetings and have a nice vacation

Originally posted by PostflopWizard
Keep it up, Jordan!

Will you post the hands here as well or just in the hand discussion forums? or maybe you can share a link here?

greetings and have a nice vacation

Hi, Currently I have started posting hands in the Hand discussion section of the forum. I don't plan to post any hands in here just yet, but as I progress and find some really bizarre/interesting spots worth showing I think I will start sharing a hand or two.
Atm the hands that I've been posting in the hand discussions have been quiet standard and basic, so not really worth posting in the blog :).

Nice to meet you too and the vacation was great thank you!

Good morning everyone!

Last week was a decent week of poker even though I was still on holiday :f_drink:. I achieved both of the small goals that I set myself, completing the second part of the Summer challenge as well as playing just over 2500 hands. Here are my results from last week.

Week 3:

Overall I am happy with the way I played although after reviewing my tagged hands I see that I am still making a ton of mistakes. I also managed to win ~$6.14 in a $1million freeroll that I was unable to play in as I was in London that day. Every little helps! This week I am back from holiday so I will be setting a few more goals both poker related and personal.

Poker Goals: Week 4

- Play 10,000 hands
- Watch 5 hours of Videos - with effective note taking and reviewing those notes
- Pot Odds - Memorising Percentage win required as caller and better for various common bet sizings. (Atm I take too long calculating them. So if i remember some standard sizes I will be able to quickly calculate what percentage I need.

Personal Goals: Week 4

- Hit the Gym 5 times this week - (after 2 weeks off this might be tough!)
- Spend 2 hours studying Japanese

Week 4 Goal review:

Poker Goals
- Play 10,000 hands (13,080/10,000)
- Watch 5 hours of Videos
- Pot Odds (memorised caller only)
Personal Goals
- Hit the Gym 5 times this week (3/5)
- Spend 2 hours studying Japanese (1.5/2)

Overall I am happy with how my poker goals were achieved, however I could have put a little more effort on my personal goals. Below are my results from last week:

Week 4:

This week I have a friends Graduation Ceremony as well as my Graduation Ceremony to attend and therefore I will not be as productive on the tables. I will still be aiming as a minimum for 10,000 hands.

Week 5 Goals:

Poker

-10,000 hands
-3 hours of videos
-Memorising Percentage win required as better for various bet sizes
-Attend 1 coaching/twitch session

Personal

- Watch Hour of Power video and start implementing it into my daily life
- 3 Gym sessions
- 2 Hours of Japanese

Hi everyone, below are my results from last week.

Week 5:

I am happy with how last week went as I managed to achieve all but one of my goals. I also saw that I was running well off the tables finishing second in the Summer challenge raffle and winning $50 :f_thumbsup:. This money will definitely be going towards poker either as bankroll or funding for software or learning material, So many thanks to all the Pokerstrategy team who organised this!!

As August is my last month in England before I go travelling for 1-3months. I would like to make it a big one and therefore I will be setting a big goal!

August Goals

[*] Reach NL5 or Play a minimum of 80,000 hands on NL2

My roll currently sits on approximately $180 and my bankroll management is a minimum of 50 Buyins. Therefore to reach NL5 I need to have a minimum of $250. So August is looking to be quite a grind right now! My goals for the first week of August are as follows.

Week 6 Goals:

Poker

[*] Minimum of 25,000 hands (23,000/25,000)
[*] 3 Hours of Coaching videos (1.5/3)
[*] Tagging all trouble hands during a session and reviewing the plays before the next session

Personal

[*] Hour of Power at least 5/7 days this week
[*] 5 Gym sessions (5/5)
[*] Make a to buy list for my travels
[*] Book an appointment to get all the injections I need to stay safe!
[*] 5 Hours of Japanese (3.5/5)

Have a good week everyone, and best of luck at the tables!

Week 6:

I didn't quite reach my target of 25,000 hands for the week but I got pretty close with 23,000 (partly because on the very first day I hit my first ever stop loss within 2 hours and following strict rules stopped playing for the day). It was quite a tough grind especially when you realise that after all the hours you put in that you still can't afford a happy meal at Mcdonalds ;). But hey I understand this is the kind of grind that is required when starting from the very bottom of NL2!! I was unable to watch 3 hours of strategy videos/ coachings as I had hoped to due to the amount of volume I put in.

My personal goals however went a lot more smoothly. I completed all of them bar 5 hours of Japanese study, where I only managed 3. My goals for this coming week are as follows:

Week 7 Goals:

Poker

[*] Minimum of 20,000 hands
[*] 2 hours of coachings or Videos (1/2)
[*] Analysis of all my trouble hands

Personal

[*] Hour of Power at least 5/7 days this week
[*] 5 Gym sessions (3/5)
[*] 4 Hours of Japanese (2.5/4)
[*] Start Planning route through Japan

Hopefully this week produces slightly better results and my goal of reaching NL5 this month can be achieved. At the moment I am $85 away from moving up. However I do have $30 worth of rakeback to claim from Stars so the amount required to grind is around $55.

Good luck at the tables everyone!

Week 7:

Extremely happy with how last week went. Grind wise I managed to hit my minimum of 20,000 hands for another week running. Results wise I had my best week at NL2 yet. In the past 2 weeks I have seen both the dark side and the good side of variance and I must admit the good side is definitely more fun to be on !! (no s*** sherlock) I also finished 4th/19,000 in one of those daily cash giveaway shootouts winning an extra $7 for my bankroll. I actually managed to witness it too, I felt godlike winning about 12 HU shootout all ins in a row!!

In terms of my goals this month of either reaching NL5 or a minimum of 80,000 hands on NL2 my bankroll currently stands at around $248 so just a couple of bucks shy of my 50 Buy in minimum. I therefore expect to be starting NL5 this coming week hopefully. What this means is that I will no longer be aiming for 80,000 hands this month due to lowering the amount of tables played so that I can concentrate more on my game (which is a shame as i am currently on about 47,000/80,000 on the 15th August). I know I am making lots of mistakes on NL2 which will be further punished if I keep it up on NL5 and therefore I want to really focus on each table as I start this new limit.

My goals for this coming week are as follows:

Poker

[*] 20,000 hands or begin playing NL5
[*] Review all my trouble hands and post hands if unsure whether played correctly
[*] 1 hour of coaching videos or strategy videos

Personal

[*] Gym 5 times
[*] Buy everything that I need to go travelling (2 weeks to go till I move out and I am sooooo unprepared!!!)
[*] Book accommodation for Japan (because right now I am alone and homeless for 8 days !!!)
[*] Japanese study (3 hours minimum)
[*] Daily Hour of Power (5 times minimum)

Good luck at the tables everyone

Week 7:

Extremely happy with how last week went. Grind wise I managed to hit my minimum of 20,000 hands for another week running. Results wise I had my best week at NL2 yet. In the past 2 weeks I have seen both the dark side and the good side of variance and I must admit the good side is definitely more fun to be on !! (no s*** sherlock) I also finished 4th/19,000 in one of those daily cash giveaway shootouts winning an extra $7 for my bankroll. I actually managed to witness it too, I felt godlike winning about 12 HU shootout all ins in a row!!

In terms of my goals this month of either reaching NL5 or a minimum of 80,000 hands on NL2 my bankroll currently stands at around $248 so just a couple of bucks shy of my 50 Buy in minimum. I therefore expect to be starting NL5 this coming week hopefully. What this means is that I will no longer be aiming for 80,000 hands this month due to lowering the amount of tables played so that I can concentrate more on my game (which is a shame as i am currently on about 47,000/80,000 on the 15th August). I know I am making lots of mistakes on NL2 which will be further punished if I keep it up on NL5 and therefore I want to really focus on each table as I start this new limit.

My goals for this coming week are as follows:

Poker

[*] 20,000 hands or begin playing NL5 --- REACHED NL5!!!!!
[*] Review all my trouble hands and post hands if unsure whether played correctly
[*] 1 hour of coaching videos or strategy videos

Personal

[*] Gym 5 times
[*] Buy everything that I need to go travelling (2 weeks to go till I move out and I am sooooo unprepared!!!)
[*] Book accommodation for Japan (because right now I am alone and homeless for 8 days !!!) 2 PLACES LEFT TO BOOK
[*] Japanese study (3 hours minimum)----- 2.5/3
[*] Daily Hour of Power (5 times minimum)

Good luck at the tables everyone

Week 8:

This past week I achieved my monthly goal of reaching NL5! It took about 7,000 hands which I played on Monday and Tuesday. After which I took a few days off to focus on Booking accommodation for my trip to Japan as it is only 2 weeks away and I had booked nothing! I ended the week playing just 400ish hands on NL5.

Complete NL2 Graph

The volume in the next two weeks is going to drop significantly as at the end of this coming week I need to move out of my student accommodation forever while still sorting out my plans for travels. Recently the friend that I was going to be going to Japan with pulled out meaning that the first 8 days I will be completely alone in a country where I can barely speak or read any of the language. This has also added a lot of extra stress but I am also very excited !!

Poker Goals

[*] Minimum of 5,000 hands @NL5
[*] Watch/ Attend 1 Video or coaching

Personal

[*] Gym (5 times)
[*] Finish booking accommodation for Japan and planning the solo route for the first 8 days
[*] Hour of Power (5 times minimum)