Been a while...

Looks like I'll be getting back in business here in a while, as I've been working for the past couple of months and slowly building up a bankroll to make a deposit online and start grinding out the micros for a good couple months before moving up and eventually staring down the 1/2 - 5/10NL games on Full Tilt, and branching out eventually to other sites. But for now, I'll start messing around with .10/.25 and .25/.50NL 6max games at FTP.
For a couple days prior, I had some sizable wins, looking at some quick sessions making $40 - $100 within a quick 1 or two hours, only to have my game trampled on, sabotaged by my own bad play, tilt, and thinking. Seems that this game never lets you get any leeway.
So anyhow... gotta plug up some major leaks in my game. I think I can harness a fairly aggressive style and make a consistent profit at the game. The trouble is when I get overconfident and use my amassed stack to bully a villain who obviously has my number and calls down with second pair. The question is: How much of a time frame am I willing to give myself to make this thing happen? Well, let's look at the options.

First of all, I'm working at a telemarketing company humping a $12.50/hr job (probably $9/hr after taxes), and am looking to be going nowhere soon unless I either get a degree (which is an option), or get it on with poker.
With a degree, most likely in fitness, I can look to be a personal trainer and probably still hump a menial salaried job that would get me to nowhere close to where I want to get to.
Or... I can get serious with poker. Now, to be completely frank, poker as a full-time career is NOT sexy. At ALL. But, there are enough players I hear of who make enough money a year that it affords them time to travel and pursue other hobbies and adventures. Now THAT's what I want.

Which leads me to asking the next question: How MUCH would it take to live the dream life that I want?

I don't know. I keep on saying that $200K/year is a great salary. So... we'll start with that number. For mathematic's sake, let's figure $200k/365 days a year = $547/day needs to be made playing poker. If I could play 4 tables and make an average $136 per table, I could pull that off. But that's assuming I want to play 4 tables every single day and pull off that sort of play. So I'll adjust.

Let's say that at the 1/2NL tables I can safely pull in $20/hr there... 4 tables... $80/hr... 4 hours a day... $320/day. 4 days a week... $1,280/week. $5,120/month. Expenses? Less than $2,000. So I can pull in and save $3100 to my bankroll a month, and would have $10K (my required BR to go pro, not including 6 months of expenses - an extra $12K) within 4 months. I can save up and be a bonafide pro within 1 year, if I can commit to making $320/day for a year. 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. How does this happen?

They say that in order to play a Limit, you want to have at least 50 buy-ins (a buy-in is 50x the BB). So... to play .25/.50NL I need $1,250. To play .50/1.00NL I need $2500.

This is all possible to get me jumpstarted and I could work my way up from there. Question is, how do I want to make this happen? I'm going to do this... every paycheck I get, I'm putting away $200 to put toward my BR. If I'm getting a paycheck every two weeks, I can expect $1,200 within 3 months. Boom. Get started. Grind out .25/50NL making $100/day, 4 days a week... $400/week x 4 weeks = $1,600 in 1 month. Add that to my $1,250 starting BR, and I have $2,850. I'll be at .50/1NL 4 months from now.

Let's say I make $200/day from .50/1NL, 4 days a week... $800/week x 4 weeks = $3,200/month. Now, at $3,200/month working 16 hours a week, I can safely say that I'll be swiftly on my way to quitting. Let's see, by the end of month 5, I'll have $3,200 + $2,850 = $6,050 in my BR.

Month 6 = $9,250
Month 7 = $12,450
Month 8 = $15,650
Month 9 = $18,850
Month 10 = $22,050
Month 11 = $23,250
Month 12 = $25,450

So this is where it gets fun. After a year of preliminary poker, I'll be able to tuck away $12,000 for 6 months of expenses. From there, I can quit work, and with a ton of experience under my sleeves (poker), I can put in 16 hours a week with a starting BR of $13,450. That's a roll good enough to grind away at .50/1NL, or to move up to 1/2, where I would expect at least $400/day from there = $1,600/wk. Or $6,400/month.

Sounds like a hell of a plan.

So from here on out I'll start posting about how I plan to get the initial $1,250BR in order to hit the .25/.50NL tables. Wish me luck. Or whatever craziness you may also want to mutter.

Peace.