Getting back on my feet and climbing the stakes
Hello grinders!
I'm a 24 year old PhD student who also spends a lot of time playing poker. Last year, I took a shot at climbing up the stakes, with some motivation from a breakup with a long term partner. I had some good success, and went from 25nl to 200nl over the span of 6 months or so. However, from some bankroll mismanagement, dealing with relationships outside of poker and solely thinking about money instead of improving my game, I lost discipline and burnt out. From here, I went on a downswing and I'm now only rolled to play around 50nl. I also attribute this to not adapting and improving my game as I climbed to 200nl.
In terms of my background, I come from a working-class upbringing, with my parents working low-paid jobs which are manually tiring, so I grew up with little money in the house. I had to work hard to get myself to university and even to get onto my PhD, so I know for sure I can gear up a good work ethic. I didn't really pick up sports until my early teens, where I had a knack for running. Right now I just gym mostly, going 3-4 times a week. Have a decent social life atm as well. Gotten into some situationships of course but who doesn't in their 20's!
I know I'm better then this. I take full responsibility for not being focused enough during this time. I thought if I created a blog I would be able to document my thoughts and issues, as well as get some feedback from the community. I know I have a lot to work on, of course with technical aspects, but also dealing with the mental game, which I know needs some improvement.
Happy for people to chime in and give their own thoughts ofc. I just thought it seemed like a decent idea to keep myself in check. Right now, I'm grinding 25 zoom on stars to plug some technical and mental game leaks. Might look to move to GG but always struggle getting money onto the site due to deposit restrictions in the UK.
If you've made it this far, good luck on the grind!
1 Reply
I bet you thought I had given up... fear not, I am back!
Jokes aside, I have been grinding a lot lately, I just haven't taken the time to post.
I set myself a challenge to play 300k hands in a year. It requires me to play at least 15 hours per week. It's going okay so far. Can be tough with doing work and all.
Right now, I'm grinding 25nl reg tables. I haven't really made much progress over the past few months. I'm not sure what to do in terms of setting goals. I can either try to play on soft sites and grind up a roll, or I can start out duking it in tough pools to learn... Either way not so sure, and I've had these conflicting thoughts over the past couple of years.
