I've been a lurker/semi-poster on P5's and 2p2 for nearly a year and a half now. I'm also a low limit tournament grinder playing anywhere from 5-24 tournaments. Here's my story.

I took a year off from college after my senior year after applying too late to the college I wanted to goto (Purdue). During this time I worked. Late one night I was watching ESPN classics and saw some WSOP from 2004. Almost immediately I fell in love with poker. I downloaded party poker and started playing freerolls. Somehow I forget, I ended up getting a free 50 dollars on there or so and obviously busted that. But I had the itch. I started looking for under 21 casinos within driving distance. I started going to Casino Windsor during the summer on a every 2-3 week basis. I still didn't know anything about poker but I had money and a want to play. It almost helped that I won in nearly every sessions (lol results oriented ftw).

I had finally figured out how to put some money onto pokerstars and started playing whatever, small stakes SNG's, a tourney here and there, nothing very big. Just a guy who liked to play poker playing whatever I could that wasn't play money. I got into Purdue and school started, the first few months of school poker was on the back burner. But then I joined a poker club on campus and met with a couple people who actually made a living player poker and were younger than me. They were a grinder of 12 tabling 2/4 and 3/6 and played the majors every Sunday, bringing in 6 figures a year. I was impressed but though I could never do it. They introduced me to the idea of poker books and them actually being helpful. I was also starting to look about the idea of bankroll managment but was still really didn't know anything about it.

So 2007 starts and I have money on a couple sites (like a 200 deposit on Stars, 200 on FTP, 100 on Bodog, all via NetTeller). I get the Harrington on Holdem books and ready those front to back several times. I have my first real taste of success other than some a couple 4/180's final tables (including one second). In the same week I make two 10 dollar Bodog Final tables for around 1300. It was nice to finally have a "big" score (850 for one, and like 500 for the other, neither being first place). I took out 800 and later on took out 400 (which epassporte had locked up after a random security check for 3 months) after getting another decent score (bodog roll is now bust and I really don't care).

I end up dropping out for the rest of the semester in Feb. 07. Due to my business and living on campus it wasn't going to work out. I focused a lot on poker at this time as I believe this is around the time I found 2p2 and PocketFives. Also sometime in March I believe is when I have my first score on the one of the big sites, getting 3rd for 900ish in a Daily Double. My poker roll is now like 1400 or so and I have no fear of going bust (as if I do I can always reload, as my business gave/gives me a lot of disposable income).

So now I'm starting to play a lot of poker and running my business. I'm getting better and learning the the game. I join PXF and Cardrunners and they right away improve my game. I also join Cake Poker, Pokerroom.com and a couple other smaller sites. I busto my roll on Pokerrom and almost nearly do the same on Cake Poker. Around June of 07 I had 7 in my Cake Poker roll. I play a 5.50 sng and get 3rd to give me 12 dollars or so in my account. I then play a 10 dollar tourney on there and end up getting my first win in a poker tourney, receiving 450. It wasn't a very big tourney (180 people or so) but turning 7.50 to 450 in a day or so was quite an accomplishment for me at the time. I then a couple days later go deep in another tourney on there, for another 350 or so. So in a less than a week I had turned my 7 dollar roll into over 700 dollars. Also sometime during the summer I get another 3rd in the Daily Doubles for another 1000.

So school starts up again and my roll including Cake Poker is sitting around 1600-1700. I'm still maxing out at 5-10 dollar tournies, mainly playing the Daily Doubles. I'm busto on Stars and have around 900 on FTP, after withdrawing around 500 or so. School goes along fine, and once again I'm having trouble finding time to play poker at first. Around October I get another 3rd in a Daily Double for 1200. Now my roll on FTP is 1900. I cash out 1000 or so. Then a couple months later in January 2008 after a slight downswing, I get yet ANOTHER 3rd for 1200. I'd never been so tilted before as to receive 1200. I desperately wanted a win in a big tourney. A few days later I get 6th in the 10 dollar 10 minute levels 15 K grtd on Stars for 850. I have my first 2K poker month, but still looking for the win in a large field MTT.

A month later in Feb. 08 I get my big score, I run super hot in the 28K grtd on FTP and take it down. It was a enormous win for me as before that my biggest score was 1200 for 3rd place in the daily doubles. For winning this tourney I won 5300. My roll had just reached the point of where I felt comfortable playing 24 dollar tournies (around 130 buy-ins or so). I cash out quite a bit to pay for bills and buy stuff. My roll after cashing everything out is around 4500 or so. I of course go on the normal downswing after a big win, only going deep in a 1 tourney and getting 3th place. Also around this time, a friend of mine here at Purdue is wanting to get involved in playing Poker more seriously. I help him out and explain various things to him about online play, tell him about PXF, give him harrington on holdem and such. He goes on to win a Daily Double for 2900 a week or so after I get my big win. So now, several times a week we play the Daily Doubles and other various tournies.

Now spring break occurs and I decide to go play a live tourney at Majestic Star in Gary, IN. I decide to play the last tourney of their deep stack series, a 200 dollar buy-in. It was out of my roll but my live roll is different from my poker roll as there is a lot less volume able to be put in. So I go and play in that. Around 40 runners and I get 2nd for 2000 dollars. It was a nice score that let me buy something I had wanted for 6 months guilt free (a mac book pro).

So spring break I don't cash in 1 tourney all week long after playing quite a few after all my plan fall through. Whatever, downswings. So a week after Spring Break and I'm down 500-600 in tournies this month. I'm about to cash out some money to pay for bills and now my roll after cashing out will be just enough for me to play the 24's comfortably. This past Sunday and I'm playing, still not running well and not playing all that great either. I'm playing the 32K grtd and decide after the day is over if I'm prob. taking a break. Well I end up taking the tourney down, without running super hot and getting tons of cards, till the final two tables. I won a few flips deep (including a giant one bvb on the final table bubble with the chipleader with me a very close 2nd place with queens vs. A/K), but didn't lay any beats or get tons of hands till the final table. Now this was an epic score. 8509 for first. For the 3rd month in a row I had 2K+ month. My roll was now huge, 10 figures. It was now comparable to my business for income brought in.

Now here comes the interesting part, what next? I still haven't play anything over a 24 dollar tournes on a regular basis (and just started those a little over the month ago). I know I'm on a huge hot run (lol 540% ROI on FTP and -5% ROI on Stars). But I'm trying to decide what to do. Move up to the 50 dollar tournies? 100 dollar tournies? The 100 dollar tournies aren't likely as I know the play is quite a bit tougher in those fields and I don't think I'm ready yet. I still have several leaks I need to work on (getting too emotional playing, going on tilt fairly easily, overplaying big pairs, trying to get bad players to fold). I decided a few months ago I'm prob. not coming back next semester to Purdue even before the big scores. At least not living on the main campus. I pay for 100% of myself coming to school and just not financially reasonable for me to pay 18K a year for schooling when I'm not motivated whatsoever about school. Its just collecting debt for me right now. I am financially independent of my parents (have been since I was 18), so whatever money I earn will have to goto bills as well, not just a bank account.

I'm kinda looking for a mentor, or someone who's story might be similar to mine to help me step up my game and to fix someone of my leaks. So I can comfortably play the 50-100 dollar tournies in the future.

So yea, all this from a bunch of 5-24 dollar tournies..wow.

Joey Butler

Cliff Notes: I win two huge tournies in 2 months, small stakes grinder, looking for advice on what to do next.

yea I know, I obviously included paragraphs, but didn't realize you had to use HTML code to seperate paragraphs on here.

I agree with the last two but I've turned into a BR management nit, I had 130 or so buy-ins before moving up to the 24 dollar tournies. Well over 200+ for any other tourney I played.

Hey thanks for sharing your story. Congrats on your success. This is very helpful as I'm trying to travel the same path. I put in 100 once, wennt bust. Read HOH 1-3, deposited another 100 grinded it up to 1500, tilted it off to 300. Regrouped and practiced a strict bankroll mgmt, five dollar sngs and brought it back up to 1350 where I'm at now.

But I'm totally burnt out on grinding reg and turbo sngs. Been doing that since December and I'm just wiped. My goal was to try and get to 2k and then just grind $20mtts. So for the last week or so I've been doing the 4.40s and had some good early success, taking a 1,3, and 9. But if you don't finish in the top three, its pretty much a waste of time for me to sit there for that long to win 25bux. What games do you think I should focus on?

You said PXF was a big help to your game. Can y ou say how it helped exactly and how much time you devoted to studying the material on there? I've been thinking of joining. My plan was to do that when I got to 2k. The fee would be a pretty big hit to my roll, but it sounds lik e it might be worth it. I feel like I've taught myself a lot but I know I could benefit from that training especially since now I've identifed my weaknesses. Some of the other sites are a bit cheaper. But I've always been a believer in you get what you pay for. Is PXF that much better than the lower priced competition???

Great post. Congrats again.

Oh, fwiw, I would stay in school. Why not get ur degree just to have something to fall back on if you poker doesn't work or you get tired of the grind. My ultimate goal is to just play p/t and not rely on poker to pay my bills. So when I hit a nice score I can take a cool vacation or buy something nice. If I can learn to crush the mid levels regularly I think I'd be happy with that. Meh, fwiw.

PXF helped me not be such a nit. When I first started I'd just wait for premium's and then get desperate and lose a flip. It really helped me open up my game in the middle to late game.

I dunno about some of the smaller sites as I only have memberships to Cardrunners/PXF and Pokersavvy Plus. I know Pokersavvy did have a 7 day trail which I tried out and forgot to cancel so you can try that and see if you like their videos (some of Jurolo's videos are petty good). If your paying for PXF with your poker roll then yea I'd wait till you have at least 2K, but there is a very good chance you will see a near immediately improvement in your tourney game if you watch their videos.

PXF has the most and probably best tourney videos. Cardrunners has some good ones too, Try the PokerSavvy Plus free trial, just cancel it before the 7 days are up.

I personally enjoy their live videos. AJKHoosier video's are really good, umm I forget exactly which video's on the replayer helped my game, most of their videos are really good. I love aaaaaaaaa's videos a lot even though his voice puts me to sleep.

"My roll was now huge, 10 figures"

more post like this please......ty sir ill look for you gl!!!!! jbbutters on a rollllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!