From Plankton to Poseidon –My NL journey startin…

SiKWiThIt · 2016-06-30T12:20:16Z

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. :happy: 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!!

4s4s4s

Joined: 12.09.2014

Posts: 225

24.08.2016, 14:08 0

gl. subbed.

Reply

Quote

Hesticus

Joined: 24.06.2008

Posts: 2,612

24.08.2016, 14:59 0

Aaand subbed :f_drink:

Follow my way to get the best version out of myself

Reply

Quote

SiKWiThIt

Joined: 21.06.2009

Posts: 232

31.08.2016, 00:33 0

Originally posted by Hesticus
Aaand subbed

Originally posted by 4s4s4s
gl. subbed.

Cheers Guys

Week 9:

First week playing at NL5 is complete. I managed to play my target of 5,000 hands however I am not too happy with how I played as I felt I was lacking concentration during most of my sessions during the week as my mind was preoccupied with other stuff (Moving House and getting ready to travel)

The last 3 days I spent packing up and cleaning the whole house and on Monday my parents came to pick me up and I left my student house in Brighton for good! Was quiet emotional as University was a fantastic experience filled with amazing memories.

For anyone thats interested in gym and fitness, as this week just gone was my last gym week for a while I decided to test my 1 rep maxes in some of the main lifts and was really happy with the results breaking my personal bests in Bench press and Squat. Here are my maxes I hit this week which will serve as motivation for when I start gyming again in 2-3 months after travelling:

Squat-140kg
Bench Press-120kg
Deadlift-170kg
Overheadpress- 65kg

While travelling to try and maintain a healthy regime I will try and begin incorporating bodyweight and calisthenic exercises into morning routines. I might even begin doing some form of cardiovascular work.... a word that is missing in my current dictionary

I now have 5 days at my parents house before I fly to Tokyo this coming Sunday. The excitement within me is rising everyday but there is still a lot of planning and preparation required. The friend I was supposed to be going to Japan cancelled a few weeks ago so for the first 8 days I am travelling all across Japan solo. This is both exciting and scary at the same time as I will feel like an alien alone in such a differently cultured country. After those 8 days I am meeting a friend from University in Tokyo and will be spending 7 days in Tokyo with him before we fly out to Bangkok together.

During my trip my playtime with online poker will be pretty much 0, however I have prepared a big library of books on my kindle consisting of about 10 poker books, 5 trading and investing books and a few mindfulness and personal development books to keep me entertained and developing while I am away.

My poker goals for this final week are relatively small as I am dedicating a lot of time to friends, family and preparation before leaving:

Poker

[*] 3,000 Hands
[*] Post 3 hands in Forums

Personal

[*] Pack everything and Fly away
[*] Hour of Power upon waking at least 5 times this week

I hope everyone has a productive week and best of luck at the tables!

Dream Bigger - My Personal Blog

Reply

Quote

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