so, ive been lurking at this site for a while now. ive had a kick reading all the member journals. i especially like the cat in that guys fridge. i want that as the wallpaper on my computer.

i live in northern california, and play almost exclusively online. i have been playing at the 25nl tables for, oh, forever. i played as a broke college student for a year or two, then as a broke guy with a college degree. ive progressed from never having a clue whats going on to getting a glimpse every now and then, thanks to BTP, PT and PAHUD and cardrunners. i 4 table 6max at ultimate bet, and play pretty standard TAG like 20/13/3. i'm around 5ptbb/100 for the ~20k hands ive played there. i'm not killing it, but the bankroll is growing.

my long term goal is to try having poker as my primary source of income in 2008. my questions for anyone bored enough to read this far, especially the pros here, are what limits do i have to play to make this a reasonable goal? i guess i would like to make at least 50k per year, of course the more the better. i'm curious about people yearly earnings on this site. do you think this is a reasonable goal for a year from now?

my current bankroll is $645. this came from a 250 dollar buyin 3 weeks ago at UB. i withdrew 300 after clearing some bonuses, and because i read about it being a good idea to take some cash out, some evidence of winning.

im most excited about playing poker professionally becase i could sleep as late as i felt like pretty much every day. i really really like sleeping, and waking up before i want to is like the lowest form of torture that i can imagine. and i have to get up eeearly for my job. so thats my big motivation.

I think it's reasonable to go from a $645 bankroll to making $50k a year in a year. It won't be easy and it takes a lot of dedication, study, hours, and hands put in. You have to really want it. You have to review your hands, conference with others, discuss and read a lot of strategy.

so, i had a short session today 4 tabling at UB 25nl, snuck it in between the demands of work and the demands of my friends. about 45 minutes. won with flopped quads, which i bet out after a preflop raise, and somebody made top pair and then a flush to actually pay me off a little, and won when i got a runner runner flush. this hand had the perfect river card, giving some other guy the nut straight. i was UTG and bet right into it, he raised and i reraised him all in. he says "flush, eh?" and calls. sucker.

anyway, i made 40ish dollars in 45min. bankroll is up to $686.

i wish i could play more, but my friend flew in a couple days ago from illinois, and i would feel like a real dick if i didnt hang out with her because i was playing online poker.

oh yeah, i went to the big game yesterday, Cal vs. Stanford. it was closer than i liked, but any victory over those yuppies is well appreciated. made a sign that said "beat the cardinals", and had a big picture of a cardinal like the st. louis mascot, and a circle with a line through it. this drove all the stanford yuppies crazy, because their mascot is a color...i dont know why they thought that was a good idea. they just stole it from harvard i guess. anyway, it was a fun day. but what day isnt fun when the beer starts flowing at 10:30am?

so, a pretty interesting session tonight. not very profitable, but im still proud of it. 794 hands, 1 dollar in profit, because i am clearing a bonus. i lost about 6 dollars if you dont count the bonus. but i went down about 3 buyins within half an hour. i had a set over set, there goes a stack. then i had AK vs. AA, made TPTK on the flop, and the guy with AA was like 70vpip/40pfr, so im stacking this off pretty much every time. i guess thats when maniacs get paid right? also lost KK to KQ when the flop came Q77 and the turn made another Q. luckily it was a short stack. still lame.

but i came back, hit trips vs. QQ, had AA vs. QQ, made a straight with an overpair (i had the guy the whole time, as he was drawing for the donkey end of the same straight, which he hit and stacked off). the best was this one though. KK in middle position, i raise it up to 5bb, get like 3 callers behind me, then the big blind reraises to like 20bb. hes pretty tight, so i just call, what with all the nasty beats i had so far. so flop comes K55. sweet. he checks, i check. turn is a blank. i bet for like a quarter of the pot, and the guy CRAI. sweeet. he turns over JJ. nice.

i have a question about the hand converter. is there a hand converter that will convert ultimate bet hand histories from the poker tracker database? does this question even make sense?

anyway, i still want to know if youall think it is possible to go from a $686 bankroll to making 50k in poker in 2008. what limit (what bankroll) do i have to get to by January '08 to have a chance? should i have intermediate bankroll goals that would lead me there?

oh one other question. my buddy played some 3/6 limit hold em at this indian casino by where he lives (cache creek). he said the people there were retarded, and he made 250 dollars in like an hour and a half. i want to go take these peoples money, but i dont want to f*$# up my bankroll with some stupid limit variance. so my buddy says he will bankroll me, for a percentage of my winnings, and take all the risk of the losses. there is no doubt in my mind that i can win at this game long term, the way he described it. so what percentage does he get? we were thinking something like 100 percent of the first hundred, 90 of the second hundred, 80 of the third and so on and so on. and he gets all the winnings if he has to cover losses until im +100. what would youall do?

alright im gonna go cook up some spaghetti. my fingers are tired from so much typing

Man. That rug really tied the room together.

GL SON. I mean that. SOcal rules though. (just so ya know)

STAY OUTTA MALIBU DEADBEAT....

Nah just kiddin come down anythine you want. Fuck the eagles though. shit im drunk. What day is it? Whiskey rivers a girlie whiskey but its good.

put in another session. it was a decent, winning session running at about 10ptbb/100. it of course started off with some nice suckouts, going down about a buyin. this seems to be common for my playing. maybe i should start out with less than 4 tables.

guy slowplays trips on the flop, i turn the nut flush, he bets, i reraise a substantial amount, and he rivers the boat. he bets about half the pot, and i couldnt help but call.

oh well. next, i get it all in on the flop with KK against a half stack, who calls me with no pairs, a gutshot draw and a backdoor flush draw. i dont know how many outs he had, but he made the best of them as he made his runner runner flush. sick.

also ran into quad aces when i had the K high boat. at least he didnt ream me too bad.

but i made some sets and stuff, played ok. the best was accidentally calling a 4xbb raise in the small blind with 87 offsuit - misclick, and then raking in about 10 dollars when the flop comes 1077. guy turned over QQ or something.

for 547 hands in a little over an hour, i won 25.05 and cleared 5 bucks in deposit bonus, putting the roll at $716

i guess that makes december $71 up. gotta do better than that if i want to make 50k in 13 months. until then, i have to get my ass up at 6 in the morning to go to my job.

two sessions

585 hands running at 13ptbb/100 in about 1.5 hours, +$40

best hands were AA vs QQ and K high flush vs 6 high flush. both hands off same calling station donk.

total roll including cleared bonus is up to $760

so december is $115 up so far

might try to get one more session in later. gonna try and learn some songs on the guitar tonight, too. what songs have your favorite guitar riffs? i want to learn stuff that people may recognize if i play it right.

finished with one last session for the night. another winner, 275 hands in 45min at 34ptbb/100. got AA 4 times and KK 3 times in less than 300 hands...standard. (knock on wood over and over).

anyway, this session i won $47

bankroll is up to $810

december is plus $165 so far, running well. hope it keeps up.

man i really hope this poker pro thing works out for 2008. im way over getting up for work. played some hoops at the berkeley gym tonight, so i only got in a couple hundred hands. might try for one more session tonight, since im gonna be pissed when i have to wake up anyway.

tonights session 384 hands 45min 4 tabling at 12ptbb/100 for a win of a big $23.

lost about 10 dollars on one bad call, board was 52AA7, i had A10 and some rock bet 3/4 of the pot on the river. oh, and the river showed a flush. he had bet every street, and his play just reeked of a boat. but i really didnt want to fold my three aces and mediocre kicker. my friend was watching, so i called, and he had pocket 2's for the boat, of course. i always play like crap when my friends are watching, always lose money. i think its because i always drink when my friends are around. whatever. came back to win a buyin, so its all good.

including cleared bonus, bankroll is at $838

i guess im gonna go to nl50 when my roll is at 1250. 25 buyins should be ok to see if i can hang. i datamined some 1-2nl games today. vpip and pfr numbers were identical to the .10-.25 cent tables. more aggressive players were there, but there were donks too.

dang. first losing session. 347 hands at a whopping -25ptbb/100 for a loss of $43. its hard to win money that fast, but its easy to lose it quick.

awesome losers include AQ vs AK and a hand where i turned the K high flush and then another suited card rivered some jackass the A high flush. no real good hands, so i get stacked a couple times, and the bankroll is now $796

i dont like losing sessions, but im glad i can get up when im not playing my best. my stop loss is 4 buyins, and then no more poker for that day. that puts december at +151 so far.

i appreciate the advice BK6. i play probably around 25 hours per week, and read quite a bit on here, watch cardrunners videos etc. it would be fun to watch some BTPers play cash games, guess i should try and get on that IRC channel.

i figure i need to have a six thousand dollar bankroll by the end of 2007 to have a chance at 50k. i could play 1-2 with that roll, hopefully. seems doable. im going to give it my best anyway. although i cant say i gave it my best tonight. oh well cant win em all.