hi guys,
my poker history:
i am a former poker pro coming back to the game after abt 3years. I was a mid-high stakes nlhe cash pro from 2009-2014 and did earn a bit over 1M playmoney in that span. Then my wife and I started a family, I started a rather succesful business, there was no real passion and time left for poker in my life. I still played here and there as a hobby (abt 10-20h/month) but never rly felt like it should change. until recently..
mental state then and now:
lot of my values changed over time, esp being in a family and having to set rules/values in my business. i became a LOT more productive compared to the old days. prolly all of you having kids will know what i am talking abt. u just kinda have to.. i think being a good dad is my biggest role in life right now and in order to do that, i just cannot slack around, i have to plan a lot of things for not only myself, but whole family and i think this helped me personally a lot w productivity. It just destroyed almost all of my former bad habits by itself
when i was a pro before, i had ntg else than poker to do, all day, every day, for several years, and still, already after the 1st year, putting more than 200hr/month of concentrated work (even 150h some months) was becoming rly rly hard. Looking back, i think i know where the problem was: a more balanced lifestyle. I think i burned out too much coz of my attitude towards the game. Now this would prolly get too lengthy to write abt in detail, but i ll write this much for now: what i think hurt me the most before was, i was too timid with bankroll management. I missed a lot of juicy spots highstakes cgs where i easily could have played in, skillwise and bankrollwise, but decided against coz of basically fear of losing. then this lead into a lot of regret, lack of motivation, and some other issues i could never rly get my hand on..
am i ready for a new game?:
i think i fixed my mindset over the last 3years a lot and became a lot more process orientated, where a lot of my former fears and blocks should be gone now. in short i ll mention couple of factors, so i can review if it turns out to be true later 
(or if it comes to haunt me)
1, improved selfvalue awareness: before i was just a poker player, i know now i can be succesful in areas other than poker and that my value doest rly lie in how good i am at poker
2, lot of emotional security; joybringers (family/friends/RL activities) , before i had a lot less of it
3, lot of financial security; before i didnt do anything w my money and thought the only way to be truly financially secure was to win big @ nosebleeds
why PLO?
I hardly played this game rly. My online exp from back in time (~4yrs ago) accounts for abt 20k hands on mainly PLO100. i remember i ran quite bad and lost abt 15BI. My live exp w PLO is good tho: in my couple of sessions i was up over 20BI (most of it 2/5€), most of these are also 3-4years old.
Back in the days, i didnt rly 'feel it' for PLO. i rly thought this game was merely about pf selection till 100bb and there werent any superinteresting spots postflop with big edges to be made. I also disliked the variance.
Now I remember, that my study for PLO back in the time was quite bad tho: I did watch abt 15-20videos on bluefire (w notes) but it was basically mostly watching someone play and comment PLO100. back then, it was rly very simplistic game at that stake i feel, everybody was learning a lot only, and superstationy in many spots. I also read 1 book, that didnt catch enough of my attention either. Combined w the bad results online, I think i never rly got the train of thoughs for PLO like i did for NLHE, where i would start generating a lot of questions and ideas for myself abt possible strategies. Another bad thing was, i knew solid PF was essential, but there was rly no videos back then on solid PF gameplan and ranges, and i remember ended up playing abt 30/22/11 style where i would find myself in way too many marginal spots postflop, where i would just always refuse to fold i had bad understanding of dominating draws/equities in general. i prolly overplayed AAxx and also lot of marginal good looking draws often.
This year, i gradually began following PLO more and more (tbh mainly thanks to having watched a few vids of joeyingram and jnandez on youtube). For the first time, i started rly posing a lot of questions for myself in PLO and began answering some of them (with help of propokertools mainly). I realized, this is sth i quite missed in my life over last few years - a solid intellectual challenge and a competition. I began to feel more and more desire in me to play and mainly to improve. I played a few sessions live, but none online sofar, had been following a bit of the action last week on stars zoom. (through the replayer) and did do abt 5hours of equity calculations for the ranges i ve seen in big hands. My total effort for last week is prolly close to 30hr tho, since i watched abt 5hr footage of live games w notes and abt 10hr of phil galfonds older videos for bluefire i found on youtube (the series he did w whitelime i find particularly good), all w good note taking and some more basic eq calcs.
goals
my monetary goal is to make 500k playmoney mainly (prolly all) from live plo games in Europe till the end of the 2020. (sorry for the title of the blog being a bit misleading) i find many plo live games in Europe being played at very casual level (up to nosebleeds) where there is a lot more edge to be had than in nlhe, and also (and mainly): the atmosphere on the tables is usually a lot better (less stressful/serious) than on nlhe tables (plo is way more of a gamble game afterall and the character of ppl who play the game itself usually creates a more fun ambience.
there is a catch tho: i ll rarely be able to devote more than 20hr to the game/week. There will be months i think i could go allin, for up to 300hr/m, if i have the drive still, but devoting to poker will hardly ever become a priority no1 in my life. I just genuinely think, with good tableselection (we have a great selection of games i feel around where i live) and good mindset i can do this, even without becoming 'professional poker player'. Fedor also isnt a poker pro, right?
lets see what i can do. i need a challenge. i think the biggest asset of all this for me is: personal growth/intellectual stimulation/passion spreader/meet ppl/travel. if i fail and give up after a month, at least i hope some will have a good laugh my ultimate stoploss for this project is 50k, but i set 1 rule: i cannot give up until i lose at minimum 10k unless sth rly drastic happens in our family/business. (i need to feel i actually tried hardest i could given everything around), this means i will actually force myself prolly at some times, at least so i put around 80hr/month of concentrated effort, even when i not exactly feel like it. So i set my 'challenge bankroll for 10k', (with 'rebuys' up to 40k more if it comes to that)
microgoal is: play 20k hands on at least NL100 online with at least -5bb ev adjusted or better (i will not play 10/20 and higher live until i get this). i will be playing main sites, no random african/asian bs, so i can battle it out against some presumably good regs also, which i ll hope to learn from. i know given variance in PLO its a rather insignificant goal, and i ll try to have my game judged somehow from different source also (tinking abt a coach/ investing at least to some video review of my game, when i am 'ready')
i am positive, if i could become close to BE @online PLO100, i could beat almost any 10/20 plo live game around for substantial wr (my exp w live games in general is hundreds of hours and i definitely think many of the live exp from my former days will come in handy even tho it been a different game mostly) and then it becomes a problem of volume (and luck )
I will update every weekend, of about what i did for my game in terms of study, and play and actually, if it doesnt become too lengthty, i ll try to post some interesting ideas i am thinking abt / hands i ve played. (esp if those are big hands)
challenge bankroll week 0: 10.0k
tho as said, most of my Ks i d raise OTF - i also think its good coz some might need that Ks to bluff 3streets with, so i d rather have Js or 9s vs some i guess and dont need it to get to R spot with
in months that i wont travel too much, i ll spend abt 80hr/month on poker, just my free time in nights, mostly. pretty bad for online wr i guess also, coz not many weaker plrs play then i feel, but yea.. i just rly need to improve first a lot before thinking abt any income from this at all.
