Operation I Am Not a Grinder

I guess I am now part of the “Old Guard” on FTR,so hi there to any new bloggers that I haven’t gotten to know yet.

My bread and butter site (Interpoker) was recently closed down to Canadian players. Having to change sites and re-examine my overall poker game plan has brought about the urge to state some simple things very clearly.


I am not cut out to be a lonely grinder. I’ve been that person in the context of different activities throughout my life and I no longer find it interesting or fulfilling. It feels like the right time to call a spade a spade and admit something: for me, poker is a profitable hobby. It will never be a satisfying “real job”.


That doesn’t mean I’m looking to stop playing (although I wouldn’t mind) or to stop making money at the tables. I still have a huge poker ego - got a big kick out of this: (outdated, link to interpoker player of the month brag) - but I won’t be evaluating the success or failure of my time at the poker tables in the same way that I have before. Whereas I once aspired to be a recognized and feared top player – playing tough opponents for the sake of the challenge and amassing a huge BR as a result of my awesomeness– now I simply hope to put away a decent chunk of change this year through good play and open the door to some other life opportunities I’d like to take advantage of over the next few years.


My starting point in this operation is a daunting one, with a staggeringly low online BR and, for the first time in my life, a sizeable debt to pay off. Here’s how I imagine things playing out:

Phase 1

-pay off 15k of interest-sucking debt without moving up at all in stakes
-NL100 and NL200, PLO 100 and the occasional 200 table when table conditions leave me no choice
-goal: February 1st 2011

Phase 2

-pay off 10k of interest-free debt while moving up in stakes
-goal: May 1st 2011

Phase 3

-NL 200-1K and PLO 100-400 games
-set aside 100k
-goal: September 1st 2011



My starting BR is 6k for cashgames and 2k for tourneys. I am giving myself 2 months before my next withdrawal (my liferoll can survive) and I have a couple bonus/RB payments on the way so my cushion is a bit larger than the initial 8k. My go-to setup will be 6 tables of cash with a couple donkaments fired up on the sie. I feel like I play best on a thin roll but if I drop 10 buyins at NL200 and dust off a bunch at PLO100 then I’ll be down almost exclusively at nl100, avoiding PLO.


But I don’t expect that to happen. I’ll be playing mostly donks and that, more than anything else, is insurance against the dreaded runbad. My updates will be very results-oriented, coupled with some strategy (although there usually isn’t all that much interesting shit going on playing donks at nl100 and 200 on fishy sites) and hopefully lots of celebrating.

Cheers.

(edited since "player of the month" link was no longer up to date)