So a little background about myself: I am a 24 year old semi-professional player living in Cleveland, Ohio. I started playing poker two years ago beginning with mostly tournaments and sngs. Last October I moved over to 10nl cash and took some lessons from Baluga Whale (who I highly recommend) and moved somewhat quickly through the stakes. I was playing regularly at 400nl, but recently moved back down to 200nl after taking quite a beating from variance and my own strategic transgressions.

I currently split my time between playing poker online on Bovada, teaching chess and finishing up a degree in psychology. I started playing chess around 15 or 16 and became a national master a few years later. After that I focused on learning PUA and writing until mid 2012 when I thought I would give poker a try. My plan for the next few years is to become a full time pro and eventually leave the US in search of foreign shores and places where I will be forced to adapt and learn new languages.

I decided to start this poker blog/journal for several reasons. Poker can be a real bitch sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I love solving problems. I love the moment when you walk into a diminutive, black room with a flickering candle just to realize you are truly standing on the periphery of an expansive and endless cavern. But its a struggle sometimes. I've mostly taken this journey alone and have almost no poker friends to speak of. Part of my motivation for writing this is to build relationships and connections with other smart, highly motivated people. I also plan to whine, commiserate and just generally learn about variance, myself and how I deal with it by articulating my thoughts and feelings on my mental game issues and strengths. I also plan to discuss some of the new strategic ideas I've been studying lately and post some hands with my thoughts as well as some graphs regarding my progress. Any and all feed back is welcome and encouraged. I really look forward to not only writing this journal myself, but also participating in some of the other excellent interactive journals on this site. I will post updates at least weekly, but hopefully more often when possible. Thanks for your attention.

Sincerely,
A Poker Player