Pertinent information:
21 and a third years old. Super math geek. Hobbies include writing the first half of short stories, and listening to audiobooks.
What do I want from my poker career?
I currently live in Estonia after growing up in the US. This was not my idea, moving to a country you can't speak the language of when you're 16 sucks, and ground educational prospects to a halt. I've lived more than five years limited to communication with a few dozen people offline, and none of them my age and smart enough to be enjoyable. On the plus side, I live rent free, have a computer and get free food to boot. Poker is literally my ticket to freedom.
How has poker been for me in the past?
At first, I got the $50 starting amount on Party Poker. Short stack NL, slowly dwindled down to nothing. never got a shot at the bonus $100. Looking back, I attribute this to a few major flaws. Not selecting profitable tables, never managing to get Elephant HUD to work (Thanks a lot Vista!), and of course, playing SSS in the first place!
Broke, I pretty much played freerolls for a while before giving up altogether.
When I got offered a second bankroll at Everest, I jumped at the chance, as I had occasionally been playing on Triplejack, a purely play money flash room, and wasn't going broke there.
SSS and poor table selection brought me down to $30, then a minimum deposit for the bonus kept me afloat only barely, the only reason I was not going broke was the bonus coming in just fast enough. When half of the bonus was gone, and I was down to only $20 from a few bad beats, I decided that if I didn't change something that instant, I was going to be broke again.
So I went through and read through some of the SnG articles, which kept directing me to the BSS articles. I felt the late stage dynamics of SnGs were too variable to play with, I didn't feel like seeing a lot of hour+ long games ending after a push close to the bubble. That left BSS. I read everything up to the silver section, besides the SH stuff. it said up front it had higher variance, something I really didn't want. I reread the pre and postflop articles a second time. I brewed an especially strong cup of tea, and began two carefully selected NL2 tables.
When that session ended several hours after midnight, I had not only rebuilt my bankroll to nearly my starting capital again, I had gained new vision into this was how poker was meant to be played! It wasn't just raising pocket pairs and high aces, it was so much more! contibets and blockbets and 3bets and position position position. Playing adaptively was something clear to me instantly, and with enough points to actually get a license of elephant going, I hooked it up, managed to get the hud working, and began grinding in earnest.
It's been a month since my deposit bonus on Everest expired, and I've recovered nearly all of the losses SSS caused. I withdrew all my money from Everest, got $100 out of my meager bank account (Which would have been spent on chips and soda otherwise), and now I wait.
Come April first, I tackle Full Tilt's FRNL10.
What have I done to prepare?
I've read everything in the gold BSS section at least once, many articles twice.
I've read and will continue to read opinion pieces of experts from 2p2.
I have planned out a schedule to match Titan's peak times. (the best 8 hours look to be from 4pm to midnight GMT.) I am currently forcing myself out of a nocturnal cycle as I type.
I am planning to grind a fixed amount each day, I have seen +12BI sessions become breakeven days due to overstretching endurance. I do not wish to repeat that.
I have low stakes HEM and table scan turbo ready to roll, the former convinced me on the trial to be vastly superior to Elephant, and the latter is free, so why not?
I have mooched off my dad a 1920x1200 monitor (he upgraded to an even bigger monitor, the geek). No more cascading tables! 
Also mooched is an ancient copy of Harrington on holdem 1-3 that he got years ago to win in his poker games, which was just a monthly live low stakes tourney with his friends. I'm hesitant to read it, I'd rather have one good strategy in my head, however reliant on fish it is, rather than having conflicting information jumbling me up. Opinions?
I have made sure there is plenty of tea.
That's all for now, probably until April. In the meantime, I read, I think, I watch the fish and wait.
