Remember what you first imagined when you wanted to be a professional poker player? I 'member... I'm not talking about popping bottles in Vegas or having a dope Instagram (not judging it either). I'm talking about ascending the stakes, pursuing mastery, competing at the highest levels, and yes winning lots of money. I'm affectionately referring to these aspirations as "The American Pipe Dream" and my objective is to discover through experience whether this dream is still alive and attainable on American soil.

The purpose of this journal is to provide an authentic account of the pursuit of professional poker in America, while investigating the current reality of poker opportunity in the United States. While I have experience as a professional, I have come to suspect that my beliefs about poker in the United States have shaped my experience as much as my experience has formed my beliefs. Therefore, I am making a conscious effort to drop (or at least temporarily forego) any previously held beliefs in order to experience whatever is currently true of poker opportunity in the United States from a perspective of grounded openness.

I played full time from 2013-2015, almost exclusively at online cash, and then was mostly away from poker in 2016. I am now re-entering the grind-force with a bankroll of about $18,000 and rejuvenated career aspirations. To capture the spirit of a pipe-dream, we can set the financial goal of this journal as growing this bankroll to $1,000,000. While I understand and acknowledge the laughable absurdity of this goal, the absolute truth of the matter is that it does happen, and should also serve as a more entertaining journal parameter. I will set some annual deliverables as well, but for now I am approaching this financial goal as if I had all the time in the world.

To attempt to maximize the available opportunities and fully experience the current reality of poker in the United States, I plan to incorporate a significant volume of live tournaments into my pursuit, in addition to resuming a reasonable volume of on online cash games. My initial strategy is essentially to play online cash as a primary source of (hopefully) consistent income, while taking as many relatively responsible live tournament shots as possible, and my annual goals are designed to reflect and fuel this strategy.

Ideally this journal will be able to provide some value to the community, especially those currently pursuing or considering the pursuit of professional poker in the United States, and I am happy to consider any suggestions for US poker related content. For the sake of brevity I will lay out the goals and then just let it roll from here and see what happens.

Journal Goal:
Provide value to the community through an authentic account of professional poker in America, including an exploration of the current reality of poker opportunity in the United States and the discussion of US poker related content.

American Pipe Dream 2017 Poker Goals:
1. Average 20,000 hands/month online cash
2. Win 1 live tournament
3. Final table 3 live tournaments

American Pipe Dream eternal financial goal:
$1,000,000 in poker profit

Best of luck to everyone in 2017,
-I'm Garrett Utt?