Potato Chips Vs Poker Chips

I can't control my variance in a week, but I can control the amount of volume I put into the week.  Between actually playing poker and working my RL job, I worked ~31 hours last week, with an additional 3-4 hours spent studying my game.  That is ten hours short of how much time I wanted to get in.  What happened?  I left for vacation early monday morning meaning I had to sleep earlier on sunday night than normal.  However, I didnt play any on sunday night.  I did not work after going to the kitchen ANY night that I thought I would, which was my biggest stumbling block, considering I wanted to work the most hours on those days.  Thursday and sunday are the best days for playing poker, but if I continue having trouble working after days I work early I will have to come up with something.  The easy thing would be working more poker hours on different days, but I dont think I should give up on playing during prime time so easily.  Rest of the week from last report went like this:

200 minutes played +17 dollars averaging $9-11/hr.  Lets see how much volume I can get in today through sunday night.

The beginning session of my foray into taking poker seriously have gone well.  I still have a problem with wanting to quit early and book a win, and today I had a couple tough spots/coolers to bring my session into the negative.  Surprising few fish playing during the early and mid afternoon today.  When I sweated lynchmob there were more fish playing at NL50.  I've decided to take shots at NL25 once I get 500 into my bankroll, and as soon as I drop down to 400, I'll grind NL25 again.  Here are how the sessions went:

Saturday

NL10 -- 214 hands +2.73 57 mins played

Monday -- 675 hands +47.29 177mins played

Wednesday 1016 hands -7.87 261mins played

The metric I measure my game by is $/hr, meaning I am averaging....

496.6 mins played and 42.15 total won = 5.09 an hour. 2.21bb/100.  I believe that is close to my true winrate, but I'd like for it to be closer to 4-5bb/100.

     If I am not to exhausted tonight after training I'm gonna get another session in.  If I AM too tired, I'm going to take some notes while watching a video and post them here in my blog.  I may end up doing both, and hopefully not neither, but if we spar tonight I'm not gonna try to grind with a headache.  I've only got 8 hours of poker in so far this week out of my combined goal of 45 (including my IRL job) but I work friday and I plan on grinding as much as possible the next three days.  I'm gonna need more than 10 hours th, F, and Sat to get to the goal, so hopefully I can get in a good 3-4 hours tonight.  Wish me luck in training.  Left hooks to the ear = bad.

I am in the middle of reading "Treat your Poker Like a Business" and one chapter of his really has hit home for me.  Many of my problems in poker stem from the fact that I plan on playing a lot more than I do -- not surprisingly, I don't practice enough and I don't get better.  I have a very difficult time putting in solid long sessions.  3 hours is rare, 5 hours has probably only happened once or twice.  I've never seen a 30 hour week in poker, no matter how open my schedule is.  Commitment issues, standard.

 What is a realistic expectation?

    I can handle working 60 hours a week standing doing labor, but I don't think that is sustainable.  Likewise, I would be playing far from my A game in my 55th hour of the week.  I am going to commit to 45 hours a week, with at least 10 of those hours being poker hours.  The idea is, since I am working on and off without a solid set schedule, I should take the $12 an hour as much as I can get it working in the kitchen until my game brings me to a point where I am consistently making 12$/hr playing poker.  I'm not sure yet how to define consistently, but I would imagine 100k-200k hands at the rate I want would be enough.

     When school starts, I will work 50 hours a week, and keep that time divided up between my M-F, classes and studying, and poker.  I have 8 credits to take this semester before I graduate.  The beginning of the semester will of course take a little less of my time and the end will take more, but hopefully I can front end the beginning of the semester.  I have not worked 50hrs/wk for longer than 1 week in my life.  But I always considered myself someone with strong work ethic.  Go figure.

Detailed Business Plan

The time that I spend on poker activities would be best allotted by splitting playing and studying in a 70/30 ratio, respectively.  I have a solid theoretical base which I believe gives me an edge at NL10, often when I make bad decisions I am telling myself they are not good, but in the moment I do not have the "muscle memory" that assures me its ok to put down 2pair against a passive loose fish when he shoves the river.  I often study for school in the morning, and I think that is a good low stress way to warm my brain up before I hit the tables, and I can multi task while studying better (ie. read an ebook while I eat ceral or watch a video while I fold laundry) than I can playing.  After breakfast and an 45min-1hr studying session, I will play a short session -- saving my longer session for after I walk my dog for the second time and after lunch, when the happy hour is running.  This session may be split up into 2 different sessions as well, to get me more hours in prime time.  Conversely, I may make a lunch time study session if I know I will play an extended session over the evening hours.

Calling a forum

I joined the 2Qs1Flop secret HQ group and I have had a good experience with them.  Also, I have 2 irl friends named Andy that are very passionate about poker who I can talk about hands with.  Between these two, I think these will be good for poker friends.  My IRL friends all know I am obsessed with poker are none of them are unsupportive, and some even ask me to teach them how to play sometimes.

Knowing Whats Best

    I will often cancel a planned session of poker because a friend calls up and wants to play a game over the internet or if Brian invites someone over.  I'm too willing to stop what I am doing to entertain people.  Also, I will sometimes drink one or two beers too many on a night where I know I want to play in the morning.  Its ok to turn down a smoke with my roommate sometimes.  it is to my friends advantage that I become prosperous.  And I want to give my girlfriend the life she deserves

Forgoing Temptation

I suck at this.  It is so easy for me to take breaks in the middle of a session, take naps, get distracted by Lars ( my dog) and just not do my Job.  I want poker to be my Job.  I can't just sneak off and hide behind the cart rack because I'm not 14 years old anymore and I am my own boss.

Being Proud of what I do

I am definitaly proud of what I do, and I love explaining how playing poker does not make me a degenerate.  I've only felt bad about taking someones money once, and it was at a live game where a woman started crying after she lost an AI with BP -- I think she had a problem.  I don't find any need to legitimize the ethics of what I do.  Next

Being the toughest boss you ever had

There is a reason why the owners of buisness are often dicks to the employees, and the less senior managers are often easier than the most senior ones.  Its because they actually have something at risk.  This is my buisness, and I am in complete control of the sole employee, I should ride him as hard as I can to make sure he puts in the quality hours he agreed to when he took this job.  I am trying to use poker to create a lifestyle for myself that I want.  It is as much a chore as any other job can be at times, but ultimately this is much better than working 9-5 to make someone else rich.

IM IN

I am filled with intentions, most good, some bad, and a few ugly ones.  The good ones, however, become bad ones when they are not executed.  I have intentions of really supplementing my income with poker, and I always intend to play more hands than I do, but, it doesn't happen because of a variety of reasons.  I am a computer gamer by hobby, and I love to scan sites like Reddit and Digg for little internet jewels, and this has kept me from being successful with online poker.  I tilt a little bit and its so easy for me to quit a session only 1.5 hours in to take a "quick break" often meaning a 2-3 day break.

So I need to make a volume goal, but, I dont know how much to aim for.  I 4-table NL10, so Ill will  get some good sessions in over the next couple days and see how many hours = how many hands roughly.  I'd also like to post links here to upload player made videos I have done so that you all can check them out.  Thanks for tuning in, and Ill see you on the felt.