A new beginning

Ok. I’ve been thinking about doing a blog for a long time for a number of different reasons.

Firstly I suppose to give me some focus and take poker more seriously. My thinking behind this is if I have a blog and am truthful about it then I don’t want to embarrass myself so I would take things more serious.
Secondly I’ve have been playing poker for3 yrs now and for the first 2 and a half quite profitable live cash 28/30 winning months. I always seemed to have a good bankroll management and focus for live cash games, but as the economy started on a downward spiral the live cash games dried up in Waterford and I decided to try online. Also I much prefer Pot limit Omaha to Hold’em and could never seem to find a regular live Omaha game. Anyway I made a few deposits on a few different sites and was up and down like a yo-yo until I blew my online bankroll with total tilt, moving up levels that I just cant afford to play and the more I lost the higher I would go until I go BUST. I then decided to play PLO with the intention of grinding for 8hrs a day, 6 days a week to get a good income from rakeback along with any profits I made. I done this for 12 weeks sometimes playing up to 16hrs a day and never getting bored as I find the game addictive, as you get so involved in every hand you play unlike NLH. Anyway to cut a long story short I got a 2k deposit up to 50k in the 12 weeks. Again I moved up levels and tilted after a few bad beats donking off most of my profits from pure tilt. I would play 4hrs in the morning and then 4-8hrs in the evening just to get my hours in for my rakeback, my problem being I never once had any aims or goals when I sit down, I just wanted to put in the hours and make as much profit as I could without knowing where I wanted to go with this. So after dumping too much cash with tilt I have decided to take a break and set out a plan for the coming 12 months and treat it the same as I would treat any business I ever had.

I recognise that I want to play poker for a living.

I “think” that I can.

But I also understand that I need to have a life aside from poker and that It can’t take up your life, as I found myself eating, breathing and sleeping poker for too long. So I need to structure poker around my life and not my life around poker. I also need to understand what I want from poker. .......
I want to set a goal for 2009 and reach that goal while also having time to enjoy life.

So the PLAN: From February 09 (holidays and few tournaments in Jan)

-To play PLO cash online starting off at level 1 and reaching level 6 or 7 by the end of 2009
-Level 1 $.50-1 / level 2 $1-2 / level 3 $2-4 / level 4 $3-6 / level 5 $5-10 / level 6 $10-20 / level 7 $ 25-50

-Buy-in rules (which many will disagree with) Minimum of 35 to move to next level and if I drop below 30 I move back a level (so I use 5 buy-ins to take a shot at next level).

-Less is more. Less hours and more effort and focus into the time I do play.

-STOP TILTING.

-Withdraw only if ahead of my monthly goal and also use rakeback for living expenses.

-Play some golf and also get some exercise (healthy body= healthy mind etc,).

-Update blog at least once a week.