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My current situation:
- Full time job + Family
- Have roughly 60 hours per month for poker and diminishing
- Removed most of my BR since BF and it typically doesn't go back online
- I (like most people) think I'm a relatively smart person
What I've done:
- Read basically every mainstream book there is
- Read every strategy post on the forum
- Can probably give you at least the gist of if not a theoretical guideline of most concepts
- Don't have time to watch videos because if I get a chance to sit down at my computer, I want to play
- edit: 14 coaching sessions with 5 different coaches
- Knowledge does not translate into results
- Built a BR from $0 to playing 200NL and all the way back down to playing 25NL
- Played weak-tight 11/9 and LAG 19/17 and everything in between
- Played + and - redline postflop styles
- Mass tabled and 6 tabled
Ultimately where I want to be:
- I want to be that small stakes 200NL / 400NL guy that can just make low 5 figures per month after rakeback seem easy
- Essentially make 2-3x my salary so I can quit my job.
I just don't know how to go from my current situation to where I want to be because I'm sure those guys that make it seem easy put in a ton of hard work. And I just do not have the time to commit to a lot of hard work but surely a part time player that puts in a medium amount of work should be able to survive at 100NL.
I've been falling way behind the curve and it kind of seems like the explosion in free or near free poker information in the past couple years has brought everyone up to speed very quickly. But it must be true that everyone playing micros and small stakes is still terrible if there are people making money at mid and high stakes, so there's still a lot of value in this game even though the migration of players to lower stakes seems to be increasing.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated in the comment section or email.
In your "what I've done" section I notice the lack of "had sessions with a poker coach". Have you considered giving that a go? An extra pair of eyes on your database, your sessions and your style of play can never hurt.
ReplyDeleteI've only had two sessions so far with my coach and the things about *my* game that he pointed out and general concepts we've discussed have been very beneficial (I feel) to my improvement.
im in a very similar situation myself minus family/job. have started playing hyper aggro style recently, testing it at 25/50nl before taking it too 100nl 9 tabling. just trying to break out of the 18 tabling 15/11 style that makes me more in rakeback than $/h.
ReplyDeletetry playing a couple of live sessions a week. take a break from the 3/4bet online style of play and have fun with it.
There is still money to be made for sure at poker but like you already realized yourself you just have to put a lot more work into it.
ReplyDeleteIMO it is important that you find first a format you want to stick with so you can focus on the ins and outs of it. Maybe you have also some NLHE burn out so learning another game might help.
Hope that helps a bit.
I have to say that I'm in a very similar situation to you; I have a full time job, family, etc. I very much strive to make the most of my poker playing; I would love for it to be a replacement to my full time job. However, I am to the point where I realize that it is a very serious hobby - unique in the fact that it is a hobby where I actually make money to provide supplemental income for my family.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think that relying on poker as a sole income source to provide for a family is never a good thing, unless you're independently wealthy and not reliant on a nut every month. For me, I would estimate that nut to be about $1m banked, separate from my bankroll.
Anyway, point is that poker is great. Keep it as a hobby, a money-generating hobby.