Introduction & History

Hello! I'm Doug (36 y/o Gentleman).

I have been playing poker to varying degrees for about 18 years now. at some points, I have taken the game very seriously and put a lot of time into study and play. At other points, I have played recreationally when I felt bored. I primarily play online, and most of my lifetime volume has been in online MTTs, with a healthy dose of low-mid stakes online cash as well. I've worked with various coaches for both Cash and MTT, and am a lifetime winner in every format I've played, except for PLO :) (99% of my volume has been NLHE, and probably ~70% of that has been MTTs). I've also made a little money in live cash, but don't have access to many live games, and prefer online.

Imptetus

I recently took a long break from poker - probably 4-5 months. Prior to that, for around 8 months, I played very little. I took a step back to focus more on my software career and to dive into Crypto & DeFi, and learn about investments in that space. Around 1.5-2 years ago, I was sort of at rock bottom. Today, though, I am in the best position financially I've ever been in, and also in the best physical shape of my life. I have worked extremely hard for the past 14 months, maintaining a full-time job as a Lead engineer at a fortune 500, and also doing some consulting. I recently bought (financed) a beautiful home, and just moved in with my Wife, dog, and cat. I set up a home gym and just started working with a personal trainer.

I have been missing poker, and feel like I am in a very strong position to introduce it back into my life. Since I work remotely and work a lot of hours, I generally don't get a whole lot of social interaction throughout the week. I journal daily and take my own notes on sessions and progress, but thought it might be fun and motivating to share that more publicly. So I decided to start a journal here. I plan to update this roughly weekly, as long as I continue to find it enjoyable.

Games, Volume, & Bankroll

I recently deposited around $1400 and started playing 100NL and some 50z. Primarily focusing on 100NL full-ring online games for now. (Yeah yeah, not proper bankroll management - I don't care. I can reload if needed). I have found that 100NL is kind of the perfect level for me to start at: it is a level at which I am very confident in my edge, and I can't play 50NL. It is just too boring and the wins/losses don't really matter to me.

I will not be playing a ton of volume - probably around 12h a week 4-tabling. I hope to also spend about 6-7h per week studying. My study will mostly be node-locking in PIO to construct exploitative strategies. I do not study GTO/equilibrium, and have no interest in trying to play like the solver, but feel that node-locking is a very good way to study. Aside from that, I will probably just watch the occasional free YouTube strat video. I've been pleased to find that there's actually some excellent content out there for free (looking at you, Hungry Horse Poker :)).

I may also play some MTTs, but when I do, it will almost always be a bad idea, and due to a lack of discipline.

Goals

My primary goal is very simple: I want to make at least $20k from poker this year. I plan to put almost all of my winnings into Crypto investments, but there may be a few nice Steak dinners in there as well. I think this goal is very achievable, and will feel like a failure if I don't reach it. If I am not clearly progressing toward this goal within about 3 months, I may give up on this and focus my energy on something else, as there are many other ways for me to make money.

For fun, I'll post a secondary (less realistic) goal here too. It would be awesome to Have a large sample of beating 500NL by the end of the year. This a little more "shoot for the moon", but I do think there are several branches of the multiverse where this happens. It's a possibility, and not that outlandish, IMO.

Why Poker?

This is a question I have asked myself SO many times. I have thought about it a lot, and I think there are 2-3 key reasons why.

I mean, I am doing well with my software career and making an amount of money that 22-year-old me would be super pumped about. Even with all the hours I work, I have a reasonable work/life balance. I could just continue to go hard with that, and my income would probably continue to grow at a nice rate year-over-year. Also, doing software work isn't completely miserable, and can sometimes be very rewarding/fulfilling.

Younger me had aspirations of going pro, and put a lot of effort into that. My first engineering job had me working 60-70 hours a week, and in my early twenties it was not uncommon for me to work 10+ hours, grind MTTs at night, and go to work the next day on 3-4 hours of sleep. At one time I was obsessed with playing poker full-time and it was all I wanted to do.

That is not so much the case these days. I think the only way I could see myself playing full-time at this point is once I become financially independent and my investments are completely covering my life costs, meaning that I would be playing poker purely because I love it and not for money.

So why set aside 18-20h per week for poker, on top of a demanding career?

Well, I guess there are really 2 main reasons:

Taking poker seriously and trying hard to be the best I can has a very beneficial and powerful side effect: It makes me do healthy things that I otherwise wouldn't have the willpower and motivation to do.

For example: I have been working out, doing cold plunges, and drinking less since I started playing again. Without poker, I feel like I don't really have a strong "why" that pushes me to do these things. But when I am taking poker seriously, it feels almost effortless. I know that I can't perform at my best without physical and mental exercise and good sleep. But I can autopilot my way through my software career for the most part. I can stay up late gaming, eat whatever I want, and still collect the same paycheck every month.

And reason two is:

It's fucking fun.

Not always, sometimes poker is infuriating and even depressing. But some of the greatest times of my life have come from poker. From playing in a flow state and knowing exactly what a player is doing in a live MTT, to meeting colorful characters I would never meet otherwise, poker has given me a lot of really memorable experiences. I miss that and want more of it :)

If you've read this far - thanks for reading and I hope someone finds this interesting or eventually gets some value from one of my posts.

Updates

Will probably post weekly updates. They will probably be in the format:

Profit/Loss: X$
Hours: Y hours
1-10 Score: Z

(insert recap of week here)
(insert bad joke here).

GL y'all!