| DREAM BIGGER | My Poker Journey (featuring a side quest Tankroll Challenge $150-$1000)

Hi Jordan,

Nice blog and I look forward to reading future posts
Subbed

Matt

Nice man! Can’t wait to read updates

Nicely written! Can you tell us more about your goals within SpinLegends? Hope you and your gf make the dream come true and earn $ online to live a "free life" rather than the 9 to 5!

Vamos,
Collins

My Poker Story to Date

My poker story to get to this stage has been long and random to say the least!

2008

I was first introduced to Poker by a friend while gaming online. He explained the glory of freerolls (as a 16year old winning money from nothing was very enticing). So I signed up underage to my first poker site (a nordic one) just to play their daily freerolls. At this time I had 0 poker knowledge whatsoever.
Eventually I would cash in for a few bucks and proceed to try and grow my roll in whatever game format I felt like trying. Which ended 9/10 times in failure. At some point I fell upon SnGs and had some success playing like the ultimate rock. (If I had a HUD back then, my VPIP/PFR would have looked something like 5/2). Being tight seemed to work and I remember I managed to get my freeroll winnings to about $40, strictly following the wait for good hands fold bad hands strategy.

2009

At some point in 2009 a random SnG player (most likely out of pity) told me to check out this site called Pokerstrategy as it would really help me get better and they offered free bankroll. So I Joined Pokerstrategy to claim $50 and also finally got introduced to strategies! I decided to focus on studying Sit n Go strategy. I ended up having a decent ROI at Micros but somehow never recognised a simple rule ---> more volume = more profit and playing just a few hours a month for fun never got me far.

2010

I heard about that guy called Boku and his challenge of getting from $100-$100k in a year through multi-tabling. As the most tables I had ever played was about 4, seeing Boku load up 30+ games at once was revolutionary. It inspired me to switch to MTT SnGs and start playing multiple tables with nothing but a basic Push/fold chart. As you can tell this didn’t go to well. I was around break even at the $1 limit, but a personal highlight was having 62 Tables running simultaneously and only finishing 3 buy ins down hahaha.

2011-2015

Went to university. I would play Poker on and off during vacations. Always had the idea of playing and making some income from it, but never had much direction or planning on how to reach this kind of goal, and therefore motivation would quickly fizzle out and I would go through periods of not playing for many months

2016

Final year of University, started to realise that I did indeed want to travel and find ways of generating income in any location of my choosing. From having played poker for fun but seeing that many people were having success from it, it became more and more of a realistic goal.
It was during that time that I finally found out about staking and split profit coaching, I think through various blogs on Pokerstrategy.

During the graduation summer of 2016 I decided to give Cash Games and studying poker a proper shot. Starting at NL2 with a small roll in June 2016, I spent the summer grinding and developing my game. By mid-July I moved up to NL5 and was also having success building my roll higher. By the end of August, I was getting close to moving up to NL10.
Start of September however is when I went on my first 3 month block of travelling and that pretty much ended all poker progress.

2017

Upon returning from my amazing trip, I tried to pick up cash games again, but with full time work, I found it hard to stay motivated as my volume and progression compared to the previous summer was almost non-existent. I essentially pretty much stayed breakeven at NL5 the whole year with less hands played than the total hands played in 2 months of 2017

2018

After quitting my job, I picked up cash game more seriously and that is what I was playing up to end of March when I was in Malaysia. After my month grinding in Malaysia, I was taking a 3 week break as friends from the UK were flying out to join me and we would be exploring Hong Kong, Macau and a few places in Thailand together.

April

It was during this 3 week break that I fell upon SpinLegends and it instantly made sense to me that this is what I needed. An environment where I would be learning with like-minded people, getting regular coaching and following proven strategies. During my time off the grind while travelling with friends I took the time to apply for SpinLegends and I got accepted just as my 3 week break came to an end and I was ready to move to Phuket and get back to grinding and developing.

As you can see in 10 years of Poker,apart from never having had to use my own funds,it is safe to say that my journey has been nothing short of Unspectacular!

But what is important is that the journey has led me to this specific point and from this point forward, It is all down to me to move forward and up!

Good luck everybody and Smash it!

Nice interesting post! Go crush it

First Monthly Recap in Spinlegends

A little late but this is the recap of my first month and a bit in Spinlegends dating April 22nd – May 31st.

Overall I’m satisfied with the total hours I put in for this period. Although the period was for 39 days, I did take a 6 day break in May as I was switching locations in Thailand and took a mini Holiday on the island of Koh Phi Phi. So the actual work was in fact closer to an actual month. I would like to up the hours, so for the coming months I will make it my goal to hit a minimum of 200+ hours of poker.

Above is my Spin & Go results graph for that time period. The first 500 tournaments were at $0.25 and from 500 onwards the tournaments were all played at $1. My thoughts on the results, to be honest overall I was a bit frustrated. I wasn’t expecting there to be such a large jump between 25cents and $1 games. Originally my plan was to reach $3 by the end of May. Now however I realise I still need a lot of learning and improving to do before I can move up to the next level. So for June I am switching my focus to more studying and less grinding in order to try and plug some of my biggest leaks.

Away from the tables

20th April - 18th May

I stayed in Phuket renting a condominium for a month. It was my first time in Phuket and I loved it. At first it wasn’t so great, I was in a central location not near any of the beach towns with only one bus line that went past approximately every 30minutes. When I say approximately I mean it! There was literally no schedule to these things. Also they stopped running at 6pm which was pretty early and sucked big time. For the first week it wasn’t too bad as I was so focused on grinding, I didn’t really need to go anywhere.

Two weeks in though and my partner and I were dying to leave this central area and actually explore Phuket, so we rented a motorcycle. I am so glad we did, as soon as we had the bike you just got such a sense of freedom we could literally go everywhere, and that’s what we did. On days off we just spent our time exploring new beaches, in total we must have seen around 9 different beaches. It did not get tiring.

Another factor that made Phuket a great experience. I met up with a Slovenian poker player who also has his own blog on Pokerstrategy, and it was through finding his blog that we managed to meet up. He’s a HU NL crusher who also flew to Asia for a few months to grind and enjoy Thailand. Check out his blog here. Looking back it was the first time I have actually met someone from the poker community in actual life, and it was a great experience. We spent a few of our days off just chilling and going to new areas. It was also really good to get an insight from someone who has been there and done and knows what it takes to reach the higher levels of Poker. I’m also glad to say I made a really good friend. We are already planning on meeting up again in Thailand.

18th – 31st May

As my rent ran out I left Phuket to start another monthly rental in a seaside town/ district called Krabi. Rather than going by bus, we decided to take a boat, opting to spend a few days on Phi Phi island. This was more of a holiday and I spent no time on Poker and all of my time on chilling. Phi Phi was really nice. A really small island but with a lot of variety ranging from quieter peaceful resort areas with pristine beaches on the north of the island to the little party town by the port. We spent time in both places and loved it. It was a good refresher after having spent 4 weeks of grinding and soaking up new material.

After our stay in Phi Phi, we took a boat to Krabi and that is where I currently am, and back in grind mode ready for a great June. Best of luck everyone!

Mid June – Important Update

Early in June some negative news came out within the Spinlegends team regarding one of its Co-founders. The news has had quite a large impact within our community and left quite a few members including myself upset. I won’t go into any further details on here as the information is out there for people to find.

But in light of what has happened I have to announce that I am no longer a part of Spinlegends and from here onwards I will be going back to playing poker alone.

I do have to say a big thank you to Spinlegends for the manner in which they have conducted themselves under the circumstances in this difficult period and I am certain that they will be able to move forward positively when it is all behind them.

On reflection of my short time in this stable, I am happy to say that I did manage to take a lot of positives from it. I developed personally with increased discipline and self-drive. Although it did not end too well, I still feel highly motivated and positive about the future.

Where will I go from here?

I am taking a little bit of time out to make a decision. Although I dedicated the last 7 weeks to playing Spin & Go’s and I learnt a lot, I feel that I am at a significantly higher level in Cash Games. Therefore I am feeling more inclined to switching back to Cash. From my time in Spinlegends, I did really enjoy the coaching layouts and especially the community that the students created, where everyone was so willing to help one another. I might start looking for a similar opportunity in Cash Games.

Best of luck everyone and keep following, I am only just getting started!

gl gl ♠_love:♠_love:

June Update:

So June ended up being an absolute rollercoaster of a month. The month began pretty negatively. As written in my previous post I left the Spinlegends team at the start of the month in light of the recent events that had occurred within the team.

Upon no longer being under a Spins contract I made the decision to return to cash games and whether it be by shear chance or what some call LOA, within a few weeks I was given a huge opportunity to progress by being accepted into the final stages of applicant selection for a very exciting Team. I am not sure if I am allowed to mention their name under Pokerstrategy forum rules so for the time being. I will leave it nameless.

The final applicant stage consists of going through a training camp that last 6weeks at the end of which, 3 applicants will be chosen to join the Team.
Week 1 of the program started around Tuesday 19th June, and since then I have been going hard on the studying. So far it has been a really good experience and I am not exaggerating when I say I feel that I have learnt more in the first 2 weeks, than the last 2 years of playing cash games! At the same time I have been dedicating a ton of time to learning the material and developing the thinking process so it is like the saying “you get what you put in”

Here are my logged hours for the first two weeks of the program:

Also just to show where my game was at in cash before Joining here are my most recent hands played this year on regular tables, before joining the program:

And here are my last 100k hands played at NL5 Zoom tables in 2017:

As seen on the time log chart the main focus has been on studying and drilling the material so my hours on the tables have been really limited. Here are the hands I have played so far since joining the program picking back up on NL5 Zoom:

For such a small sample I have been heavily on the side of good variance, but it has been nice just to see the application of all the new concepts in game. Plans for the coming weeks are to continue dedicating a ton of time to studying the material and really integrating the concepts learnt into my game, while also gradually increasing the playing hours.
My main target for July is to reach a balance of 2:1 Study to Play with over 150 hours of total work put in.

Mini personal life update

Last week my Thai Visa expired so I relocated to Bali, Indonesia.
I am super excited to be in Bali as I have never been but always wanted to go. I got here 3 days ago so I am still getting used to the area, but already I am really pleased with everything here. This week my sisters are flying from the UK to visit me for a short holiday, so I'm planning on booking us all some surf lessons which should be a lot of fun!

I absolutely loved the 3 months in Thailand. The weather was great, the people were friendly and the food was delicious. I am already considering on doing another stint there possibly at the start of 2019.

Nice update man! Hope you will get accepted! Keep it up!

GL mate. Interesting read. Keep em coming!

great great blog !!

July Update:

What’s up guys it’s been a while.

Firstly let’s begin with the most important event in July…..

July has been a really busy month for me both on and off the tables.

Location wise, I relocated to Bali on the 9th July. On the 12th July my younger sisters flew from England to visit me on a 2 week holiday. Trying to balance putting in study hours and planning activities was not easy but I just about managed. During their 2 week visit we managed to pack quite a lot of activities.

We all had our first ever surf lessons which was a load of fun. We also went and spent a few days around the rural parts of Bali. In that time we went on a bike tour of the countryside visiting temples, waterfalls, coffee plantations, some hand carving museums and also spent a day hunting down all the waterfalls in the area.

So far Bali has to be one of my favourite places that I have visited, the scenery is absolutely stunning. One of my favourite moments of last month was when we went to Ubud to stay in a traditional guesthouse with my sisters for 3 days. Ubud is one of the main rural towns that attracts all the tourists. It is easy to see why as you find yourself surrounded by nature and rice fields.

It was a lot of fun and really nice to catch up with my sisters especially as it’s been over 5 months since I had left my family in the UK. I have to say time has flown by on this trip.

On the Tables

While my sisters visited for 2 weeks, my time studying and playing took a bit of a hit. When they flew home on the 25th July I did put in some heavy hours to hit a decent average overall. Below are all my tracked poker hours for the five weeks commencing on the 2nd July.

The game time to study ratio has increased a lot since June with around 40% of my poker time spent on the tables. One of my goals for August is to bring my total playing volume to within 60%-70% of my total Poker time. In the next 4-weeks my goal is to also put in a minimum of 180 hours of Poker related work.

Below are my results so far at Zoom NL5 since starting this new chapter in my cash game career.

I am extremely happy with the results and still in so much shock and disbelief at just how quickly my whole outlook and way of playing poker has changed. I truly feel humbled and grateful for this opportunity I have had the last couple of months to apply and commit myself to improving. My total hands played are pretty low as I have only been single tabling. While I am still adapting to a new strategy and way of thinking. I have found that by single tabling I am able to focus so much more on applying the material and playing to my current A-game potential for 90%+ of the sessions. When grinding becomes more of a priority and the material becomes more ingrained into my system, I will start to increase the number of tables played and start setting myself some minimum hands per week + monthly targets.

While waiting for results from the assessments and the final decision as to whether I get accepted into the Pokerdetox team, I am setting a personal goal for August to start taking my first ever shots at NL10. After being breakeven/slightly losing on NL5 for around 2 years this is a much bigger deal for me than it should be. I’m super excited and feeling really confident that all will go smoothly.

Thanks for reading guys and feel free to ask any questions regarding poker or travelling. I’ll do my best to answer!

Single tabling does that for wr

Epic results!

Sweet baby Jesus. What a nice blog! :f_cool::sfishy:
Definitely one of the big goals of mine. To work/travel/live in SEA.
Keep it up.

Thanks Netgames999,

Set the goal, stay focused and motivated and I have no doubt you'll be there!

it's true that a good coach really changes the whole way you look at poker. that was really important for me, even though i'm just a "recreational" player now.
i'm sure that you will catch me soon enough, but i'll put in some effort to stay ahead

MID AUGUST - 2 WEEK UPDATE

So the last 2 weeks have been a little frustrating. My account on stars got suspended for the 2nd time in a month. I thought the issue was resolved first time round but obviously not.

Basically this time round I was told that because I am registered to a .UK account and for the last 4 months I have been logging in from Thailand and now Bali, it is against the terms of service and I was told that I need to be switched to a .COM account. However to do so I would need to submit proof of my permanent residency. To which I replied that I am still a permanent resident of my address in the UK and travelling is only temporary. I was then told that I would need to wait till I return to the UK to play again.

Venting my frustrations I let them know my thoughts in one last email and around 10 days later as I write this post I receive an email out the blue from stars telling me my playing privileges have been reinstated.

Long story short after being away banned from stars for almost 2 weeks I’m unchained and ready to wreak havoc once again on the tables.

During that time I did not stop playing poker but there were a few stumbling blocks. Firstly my next 2 choices of poker rooms were both restricted in Bali (888 + Party) which meant I had to create fresh accounts on MPN and ipoker. Ipoker was my first choice but needed 5 days to receive a validation code by mail, so it had to be MPN to begin with.
I got mixed feelings with MPN, it’s changed a lot since I first ever played it back in 09 and in a bad way. My 2 biggest dislikes with it are, first they have made it impossible to choose what table to sit on your only option is to click on the stake and boom that is it you can be placed anywhere from a full to an empty table. Most importantly though they have stopped taking full hand histories for cash games meaning no HUD and no recording of results. For me this is a must have and therefor I was only using MPN until I got full access to ipoker.

The 1 positive about MPN is that I finished 1st in a new player freeroll winning 100 euros woohoo.

Ipoker I am enjoying a lot more however fast table traffic is almost non-existent. When you come from Stars to these networks, you realise just how much of a powerhouse stars is with its traffic.
The plan now that I’m unshackled is to return to stars, but I also plan on releasing the first deposit Bonus I have pending on ipoker for the extra $$$ gains.

Although the last 2 weeks have been annoying poker wise. I am still happy with the work I have managed to put in. Here are my numbers for last week.

Yes I do count things like surfing and yoga on my total hours. Basically I count anything that I feel is positively productive. For anyone Interested, the app I’ve been using to track everything is called toggle. It’s free and easy to use and they send you a weekly report via email which allows you to easily see where you’re at!

Life in Bali is still good, apart from the constant earthquakes that have been occurring the last 2 weeks. Waking up at 4am in the morning to your whole room on the 3rd floor rocking back and forth violently is never fun! Hopefully they are coming to an end now. I’ve also had a few poker sessions interrupted where I have had to leg it out of the building leaving my laptop on and being sat out. Also not enjoyable, when you are as tight as I am with every last big blind.

Hope everyone is doing well this month. Time to go back to the tables to continue taking shots at NL10 and finish August strong!

Hey Jordan, awesome blog and great progress with studying and results!!!

Was really great to meet and hang out with both of you. See you soon bro

GLL!