First a little back of background:

have only played online poker. Sites played century poker, full tilt and titan poker when it was accepting american players. Mostly played low stakes tournaments under the with the buy-ins no larger than $14. Would stumble onto a cash table once in a while primarily .50/1.00 NL full ring. Some .25/.50 NL full ring as well.

Not really into the tournaments so much anymore maybe once in awhile but the time invested and considering really how deep you have to make it just seems a bit well, not really worth it.

I would make meager (very meager) bonus money playing poker that I just never really gave any consideration. Trust me it wasn't enough to really even be noticed.

now for the past 2 years I've been working in DC for the Federal Communication Commission(fcc) hence the tag "fccman" however our contract was lost to another company and thus the new contract took over on august 8th and we are all forced into looking for another job now.

my goal is not to become a professional poker player. my goal is to become a great poker player that can supplement his income to some degree during part time play during the week and the weekends. I'm not too worried about finding another position and being back to work within a month or two but with the money I have saved and the fact that finding another position could involve a few months this seems like an opportune moment to make an investment in my future ability to become a great poker and that can meet this goal.

I'm not sure if any of these are meaningful statistics but I'll throw them out there from 4500 hands at full tilt playing .25/.50 NL full ring.

up $725 (was up about 972 until the latest downswing)
overall 19.1/10

I understand full ring involves a bit more patience.

I'd like to be better at 6max and I'd like to be better at full ring so a coach comfortable in both would be optimal.

I'd like to progess upward to 1/2 NL level and be able to thrive at that level consistently.

things I know are wrong:

1) still not confident at .25/.50 NL - get confused easily in hands, the players I try to target those 60/40's seem to get the better of me. .50 cent bets often confuse me and obviously with good cards that I wait for I'm able to obviously win some med/large pots but the real problem is playing anything other than premium cards.

2) Putting people on hands - I'm just cluess, I'll get involved in a pot and I'm honestly only playing my cards to the board. When I attempt to determine their hand it's so broad in nature and I'm more inclined just to put them on the nuts instead of being able to effectively evaluate based on the player, flop and betting patterns. it really is difficult to play poker in this manner and I'm sure now the only reason I'm up anything is pretty much good cards catching somebody with a decent hand(not a bad philosphy I guess) but it really feels like luck more than me playing good.

3) I particularly struggle when I have a straight draw when there is any two of a suit flop. I just automatically give up the hand because I don't wanna make a straight in that situation if the 3rd flush card comes at any point.

4) if I attempt to play > 1 (yes 1 table) I completely lose the ability to look at player tendencies and then solely rely on the hud stats and I know thats completely awful but I'm trying to be as honest as possible.

5) I let myself get isolated OOP with medium strength hands preflop.

6) I'm probably the donk at the table except I'm entering pots with better hands but maybe the correct term would be "postflop donk".

7) obviously, I feel my postflop play is horrible (especially the flop, and the river), I think my turn play is OK but I suspect I'm wrong because it makes sense if my flop and river play is bad then pretty sure the turn plays are bad too but some reason I seem to think I'm ok on the turn.

8) my response to aggression is a total guess which i'm sure is related to the above noted problems.

9) my whole game feels ad-hoc. no plan for hands, etc. I know when I raise with 9-10 suited on the button I want the blinds out but if they call I'm looking for a straight really, not top pair.

Now, all this being said the following is true:

I do understand position (but not always following when I know I should fold OOP).
I understand POT odds and I understand outs (basic understanding) can't say I'm fluent.
I have a general idea of what I'm attempting to do.
I think my mental wear and tear is suitable for playing tiltless poker a $50 buyin or $100 buyin doesn't set on tilt (getting stacked even if it's a sukout or someone just trapped me). so I think at the level I'll be starting at I can mentally handle the beats and not be upset. I'm more concerned with did I play this well or not.

I know its a long post. I'm still watching videos here and trying to apply the concepts, I'm even re-watching some of them and I have huge note pad full of notes and I'm really trying hard to this on my own but as it is right now I'm struggling a bit.

before anyone asks, my poker bankroll is all on full tilt right now and it is seperate from other finances. Sometimes I'll transfer some of the winnings but I've never deposited any money into full tilt since last year and don't plan on it. I'm sitting on about a thousand right now and if I can't win at .25/.50 well I guess i won't be progressing much at all.

so, in essence I throw this out there for the coaches to read and see if it fits any of them. I'm going to continue to try to work on absorbing the content in the videos because at this point I seem to not be getting it. so, I can continue to work on that and if a coach REALLY thinks that they can help with my goals then I'm ready to listen and make a commitment towards doing what needs to be done no matter how difficult. I say this with all sincerity, I'm at a point where I could really focus on being a much better player, once I get assigned another project that becomes a bit more difficult and I fear I may never take that next step once I get involved in another contract.

Peace out....