Hi there and welcome to my blog.
About Me:
My name is Michael (mike), I am 22 years if age living in Auckland, New Zealand. Currently I work full time at a bank, but my dream is to become a professional poker player. I decided to start this blog to hopefully inspire and motivate me to achieve my goals in poker (and maybe other goals in life).
My Poker Life So Far:
Even from my early teenage years I've had a fascination with poker, knowing that it was possible to make a living from it My start in poker came when I was watching the 2010 ME, which is still IMO the greatest televised ME to date. They were advertising their game on Facebook which I started to play whenever I got the chance. Feeling more confident with my game I then went along to my university poker club which hosted a $20 rebuy event each week which usually got around 20 runners. It was there that i met one of my friends I knew outside of university (Josh) who had been having some success online. He referred me to a little strategy site online which a few of you may know about. I quickly soaked up the beginners strategy articles and passed the quiz to get my $50 start on FTP. Using the first week of my mid semester break I started playing sit 'n' go's ranging from $5 to $50, and found that I was doing better at mid stakes rather than micros. In my first week of poker i ran my $50 into $500.
My start in poker came to a fairly abrupt end, for the at the end of my first week black Friday hit. When FTP did re open for the rest of the world for the short two months I managed to continue my run up, cashing for around $6k in tournaments. I managed to get most of the money i had off before FTP closed for good.
Since then i have played live poker, i have tried other sites and other games but I have been a break even or losing player. This is generally because I like to go on desperation tilt, I've played as high as 25/50 cap games and 5/10 online at times. I know that i have the skills necessary to be good enough to play poker full time but there needs to be serious change to the way i approach my poker career and my bankroll management.
The Challenge:
And so my challenge is to start from the micros playing 6max NLH or PLO and ladder my way up the stakes until I reach a level where I can quit my job and play professionally. My main goal is to achieve this whilst sticking to my bankroll management plan. I had originally intended to do a 40 50 BRM plan where I would need 50 BI at the next level before I moved up and if I was to fall to 40 BI I would move down stakes. After some consideration and having a chat with a few friends I have decided to change this to a 20 30 BRM plan. As of today I am going to deposit $150 on PokerStars, which is 30 BI at NL5. If i fall to 20 BI then I will drop down o NL2 and I will have to get to $300 before I start playing Nl10. I will probably play anywhere between 4 to 12 tables at a time.
Goals:
Short Term: For the Month Of May
Play at least 10,000 hands
Play/study poker 15 hours a week
Post 3 times per week
Stick to BRM plan
Long Term:
I want to increase my hands per month, the amount of hours i play ad study to the stage that I can play professionally.
Your Part:
First of all thanks for reading through and for any support you give me while I attempt my challenge. I would love input in the form of comments about my goals and methods, comments on the hands that I will post, suggestions for good strategy articles to read or strategy sites/ coaches to sign up to (my PokerStars account isn't tracked by PS) and any other encouragement you can give me.
I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I will
Mike ♦
