[rothko]

hi jay,

i got into online poker a couple of years ago, but only for play money, at first. i didn't want to make a deposit, because i was afraid that i would just lose it all. one day, my roommate was playing and had to go out to dinner. he offered to buy me into a sng. i was nervous about losing his money, but he didn’t care and entered me into a $5.50 nl sng before leaving. i was determined to focus and not lose. i managed to get first place and was ecstatic. i was also hooked.

the next day i opened my own account and deposited $50. i was intimidated by nl, so i started with limit. i wanted to prepare myself, so i read through the strategy section on pokerstars that chris moneymaker had written (lol, thanks chris). it wasn't very long, but it taught me the basics. i began playing limit cash and was immediately successful. i was a winner from day one and have never had to redeposit. at some point i switched to limit sngs and really enjoyed them. i had great success there, as well. i felt pretty much indestructible. i was just crushing my competition (lol $5 sngs). however, i never really moved up much through the stakes--i was a nervous wreck if i entered a $20 sng.

eventually, i got interested in nl sngs. it was more exciting and there was more action. i entered a nl sng and it was like pure zen. i knew exactly what to do and cruised to a first place finish. i realized that i was quite capable of beating the nl games and switched full time to nl sngs (i had no idea about sample sizes, etc. and winning one was enough for me to think i was capable). i ran sick good. my roi was somewhere near 40% over my first 1500 sngs (including limit). i was playing 16s and 27s and doing well, when i just hit some kind of wall and starting losing. i was misapplying some concepts that i had "learned" from reading stt and it just destroyed my game.

i added mtts into the mix and did well. ever the nit, i built a bankroll on a new site that allowed players to enter real money freerolls even without depositing. i won enough money in the freerolls to enter real tourneys and parlayed that into a nice return. this maintained my interest in poker.

i was determined to get my sng winnings back to where they had been and i was able to figure out some of what i was doing wrong and earned back the money i had lost, but it was still quite a grind and i wasn't really getting anywhere.

though a 2p2er, i didn't make much use of the strat forums. i would occasionally post a hand or make a comment about someone else's hand, but this represented <5% of my posts (this is the only area where i miss on your list). i was just wasting my time on the boards and with poker. when i played i wasn't concentrating and it was just pointless.

a couple of months ago i had had enough. i was frustrated that my game hadn’t progressed much at all, especially in comparison to someone like aba who was at the same level i was a couple of years ago and now, well, you know. i wasn't making enough money to justify the amount of time i was spending on poker. i decided that i was going to learn 6max cash, as that is where everyone said the money was. no more messing around with sngs or mtts. i didn't do very well, at first. then i found out about a small stakes coach and decided to make the investment. it helped me open up my game and kill some of that nit in me. i'm working with two coaches now and feeling pretty solid, though i'm still at the baby stakes, having not played higher than 100nl. i've started to ween myself off of wasting so much time joking around on 2p2, though i still do too much. i've also started posting more in strat, though i still need to do more of that.

i have a very strong willingness to help others. just yesterday someone posted a downswing graph in bbv and he seemed pretty down on life, as he had some other lousy things happening. i felt bad for him and pmed a suggestion to get a uNL coach. i was going to recommend one of the guys that i am working with, but he said that he couldn’t afford it, so i offered to give him some free coaching. i sweated him last night and talked him through his leaks and spent a few hours writing up my advice. between last night and tonight he has basically recovered from his downswing. he told me that i have revolutionized his game and he can’t even explain how much better he is doing and feeling. he was just about to quit poker once he cleared a bonus, but now he’s moving forward with confidence. i can pm you his name if you’d like to talk to him and i can pm you all of the stuff that i wrote up for him in lieu of links to some good strat posts, as i don’t have much in that regard.

when i was doing very well at poker, i started a free instructional website (thepoker10.com--it's offline now). i wanted to help all of the people that were wasting money at poker. it never really got off the ground, but i do have experience with working on websites and would be happy to run that side of things for you and our group of players/mentors.

your timeline is perfect for me. in september, i will be going to grad school to get my phd in marital and family therapy. i am devoting the next eight or so months to personal improvement, rather than employment. i will be studying piano with canada’s godfather of the 88 keys, working weekly with my tennis coach, learning a new language and studying poker--i want to really get a solid grasp, so that when i am in school i can play part-time and have a good earn, as i will not have much time for studying poker then.

your vision for this five months is also perfect for me. i really just want/need a group of players to work with in this way, helping each other to focus, think, and be accountable. this will be about as close to ideal a situation as i could ask for. i feel that i have a good grasp of the basics, but i have a strong desire to take it to the next level. i feel like i can only beat average players and not good ones. i am hesitant about moving up, as i feel that i won't be able to compete against stronger opponents. i would like to overcome that line of thinking and gain confidence to beat better villains. i am eager to work on the intricacies of the game with other players. i am not satisfied with knowing enough to beat the games. i enjoy analyzing things from different angles and really want the chance to develop a deeper understanding. abc bores me: i seek the rest of the alphabet.

jay, i admire you for doing this and hope that someday i will be in a position where i can do the same. thank you for the opportunity to be considered and i look forward to hearing from you soon.