Hey Everyone,

Where do I start.. I had this all written once but it was in notepad... save your work kids.

I decided to make this post because I've spent years playing mediocre poker. Winning a bit here, losing a lot there and not trying to improve enough. I think finding a community where I can talk hands would be very beneficial. I don't have "poker" friends to talk hands and challenge my thoughts. I've been a long time lurker of poker forums but never chimed in. I think part of that is me not wanting to be vulnerable but for me to improve I need to put myself out there and listen to the constructive criticism. I also tend to play better when I'm accountable to myself. Less spewy. With that, if anyone has a study group I could join hit me up.

A little about me, I'm a 30 year old Canadian working in the IT industry fulltime. With more responsibility in life as the years go on the dream of one day playing poker for a living dies, PS I just got a dog. I started playing poker in high school around 2004 at various home games. Since then I've played on and off, never taking things too serious then moving onto different passion projects. Always coming back to poker in the end.

I've played pretty much every format. Started with cash on Party, running a deposit of $20 up to 2k during summer before university, thought I was god being able to just set mine and rake it in. After that I was hooked. I've played 180mans, HUSNG, Hyper turbos too, dabbled in PLO (first attempt was on stars when they did those daily freerolls, had the ace of spades and 4 spades on the board.. why didn't I win?). Most recently I dabbled in hyper turbos and tournaments. My best score is 4th in a WCOOP for around 20k after bounties. Couple weeks later I split first for 3k. After that I slowly stopped playing, I think the rush of winning a big tournament had worn off and now playing a $3 tourney right after sitting down all day during work wasn't worth it.

Ultimately my goal here is to become a winning player. I want to beat 50NL in 2021 for at least 3BB/100 over a 20k sample. Its not lavish by any means but I think its SMART (que the NLHE in 2021 jokes). I mean SMART as in a SMART goal. Its specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound. Hopefully I don't peak at 50NL and it doesn't take all of 2021 but I'm not going to come out of the gates with a goal for nosebleeds, that's for my next thread.

Goals for January:

1) Study!
-learn how to study. I struggle with how to study, or maybe I'm just lazy. Let me know if anyone has recommended videos on studying and the process. Sure I could load PIO up and run sims to figure out freq. yada yada but how should a microstake player study? is it all about fundamentals?
-review opening ranges and make them second nature. need to develop those fundamentals and increase stamina for sessions. unconscious competence.
-review spots that confused me from marked hands and notes
-watch recommended RIO essential videos, any suggestions?
-complete from the ground up course. got the course awhile back but haven't taken the time to complete it.

2) BE PRESENT!
-no phone/youtube/reddit/whatsapp/discord/netflix during sessions
-think about what hands you would/wouldn't play in situations that arise.

3) Play 10k hands at 10NL
-playing up to 2 tables to prevent "auto pilot". think.
-mark hands for review during play. take notes.
-review sessions immediately after play

Personal goals for January:
-run 30 miles (easy)
-meditate 28/31 days (medium)
-no soda (hard)

I'll post updates and hands along the way. Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
Travis