A change of pace

My life has gotten very busy this year with my real life job suddenly being more than part time. I won't bore you with the details of that but with another baby girl due to arrrive in a few months I have to accept that I am not going to have the time to juggle a real life job, poker playing/coaching and a young familty.

I am already struggling to fit everything in to be honest, and it will only get tougher when the baby comes, so clearly something has to give.

Having discussed this in great detail with the wife, the 'something' that gives simply has to be poker. I no longer have the time to be a grinder, fact.

So I have been looking for a compromise and have decided to do a bankroll challenge where I reset my bankroll to $1,500, design a bankroll plan, and aim to move up through the levels during the next year or two without any pressure to grind.

Apart from the need to reduce my playing schedule significantly, the reasons behind my decision to do this are:

1. Learn how to move up better
I have played 200nl for almost 3 years and do badly whenever trying to move up to 400nl. I think it's more of a mental thing (inferiority complex) than anything else and wanted to create a bankroll plan that is more dynamic and helps me get used to moving up gradually. In short I need to get in some moving up experience and the bankroll plan above will help me do that. Whenever I play I will be 4 tabling and each 'Phase' is simply to mix in a table at the next level. So for example I start at the highlighted area with 4 tables of 25nl and the next phase will be 3 tables at 25nl + 1 at 50nl. If anyone has any questions about this then just give me a shout on skype.

2. Try out some new ideas
The more I open my mind to considering all the options available on each street, the more I realise there are no 'standard' plays. I want to experiment with some new lines, move and bet sizes where the money doesn't matter to me.

3. See how tough poker has become
I hear people saying the games have got much tougher at the micros/low stakes and want to see for myself.

4. Set a good example
I coach a lot of micro stakes players and the private forum for my students is very active these days. The content could improve a lot though as people still tend to focus on the big pot coolers and ignore all of the small subtle spots that make the difference. I want to show my students that everyone has to work incredibly hard and learn from their mistakes every day in order to succeeed. I want to see what mistakes are being made at these levels (by me as well as my opponents) and use these spots to help me and my students porggress through the levels together.

5. Make poker fun again.
I had my biggest downswing ever last month (in buyins, not $$) and whilst it didn't hit my bankroll very hard, it did make me grind way too much and burnt me out a bit. I think it is clear from my post that my decision is not a knee jerk reaction to a downswing but it did make me realise there is more to life than poker. I still have the poker bug am am never likely to give poker up completely, but I want my poker to be fun rather than a grind.

So this is not the end and my dream is to be back ready to grind mid stakes in a few years. My girls will be at school then and hopefully games will still be running!

Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables everyone :)