Hi all. As this is my first post, I wanted to start off by saying that Ive been reading this forum (and the old boards before it) since I began playing poker circa 2004 - There are some great posters and some excellent content that has been highly entertaining, and also helped me out in poker and otherwise over the years, without contributing much back to the community myself, but im hoping to change that starting with this log.
Introduction
My name is Derek, im from Limerick and im 25 years old.
I have been playing poker for 8 years, mostly live until 2008, and almost exclusively online since then. My main accounts have been :-
With other accounts, my overall ROI is somewhere around the 25% region, with my average level being low-mid stakes.
More recently
I took a lot of time off last year to pursue other things outside of poker that turned into a waste of time and money. I decided around christmas that I needed to get back to the grind, was fairly broke and the thoughts of building up via microstakes was very unapplealing, so I decided to try to go down the sponsorship route.
It made me take a long hard look at my game, took me outside of my comfort zone and presented unique challanges that were interesting and rewarding to overcome, and I feel a lot a more confident about myself and my game having gone through the process.
I got sponsorship at the end of last month, and im hoping this experience will not only help me to put in the volume that I should be putting in, but also encourage me to move up limits and take more shots where I had never really had the bankroll/balls to do it before.
Story so far?
I got off to a great start, shipping a package to EMOP Lisbon in the first few days. I ran awfully after that to get my roll down -5k from starting without even so much as a sweat, but ive managed to regroup and a few respectable scores later, I have gotten into modest profit. Ive been getting deep a lot, just not much been going my way when down to the last 2 tables since I started. Hopefully im just getting the bad juju out of the way before the EMOP.
Sponsored accounts so far :-
Why the log?
Setting goals for myself so that I keep my eyes on the prize is the main reason im doing this. Having short, medium and long term, realistic goals is important in any career, so putting them down on here in black and white seems a pretty good way of motivating me to strive towards them.
One of the big challanges I faced when applying for sponsorship was that I was a complete unknown, never really posting on forums and not even having a pocketfives profile. This made it difficult when approaching people/companies about staking and hopefully this log will make it easier should I need to do it again in the future.
Another reason that I touched on at the start is, I have often found inspiration on these boards, so If theres anyone who can take anything from my experience (wether I succeed or fail) then im glad to be able to help.
Goals
My main goal for the year is to put in at least 5k games at mid-high stakes (My year beginning Feb 24th), while maintaining at least a good ROI% for the year.
17-22% = Good
22-27% = Very good
27%+ = Excellent
If I can maintain this then it should see me at 50k+ profit for the year.
This months grind has seen me move into #43 in Ireland and #1 in Limerick (albeit briefly) on pocketfives.
It doesnt mean anything really, but it is nice to be rubbing shoulders with (and leapfrogging) some well respected members of the community.
It would be nice to cement myself as #1 in Limerick and be knocking on the door of top 15 by the end of the year. While I see this as more of a side effect than an actual goal, its always nice to see yourself flying up a leaderboard, and you cant put a price on bragging rights
Pocketfives profile:-
Finally
I will put up more goals as I set them, along with my first months HEM graph at the beginning of April, and post new graph every month.
I may do a trip report of Portugal if I dont bust early and feel theres anything interesting to write about. Its my first time travelling outside of Ireland on my own for a game, its just another tournament really, but hopefully ill have a few stories to share by the end of it.
If something doesnt make sense, you feel I left something out, or there are any questions, please dont hesitate to reply as all input is welcome. Thanks.
Derek Cosgrove
Introduction
My name is Derek, im from Limerick and im 25 years old.
I have been playing poker for 8 years, mostly live until 2008, and almost exclusively online since then. My main accounts have been :-
With other accounts, my overall ROI is somewhere around the 25% region, with my average level being low-mid stakes.
More recently
I took a lot of time off last year to pursue other things outside of poker that turned into a waste of time and money. I decided around christmas that I needed to get back to the grind, was fairly broke and the thoughts of building up via microstakes was very unapplealing, so I decided to try to go down the sponsorship route.
It made me take a long hard look at my game, took me outside of my comfort zone and presented unique challanges that were interesting and rewarding to overcome, and I feel a lot a more confident about myself and my game having gone through the process.
I got sponsorship at the end of last month, and im hoping this experience will not only help me to put in the volume that I should be putting in, but also encourage me to move up limits and take more shots where I had never really had the bankroll/balls to do it before.
Story so far?
I got off to a great start, shipping a package to EMOP Lisbon in the first few days. I ran awfully after that to get my roll down -5k from starting without even so much as a sweat, but ive managed to regroup and a few respectable scores later, I have gotten into modest profit. Ive been getting deep a lot, just not much been going my way when down to the last 2 tables since I started. Hopefully im just getting the bad juju out of the way before the EMOP.
Sponsored accounts so far :-
Why the log?
Setting goals for myself so that I keep my eyes on the prize is the main reason im doing this. Having short, medium and long term, realistic goals is important in any career, so putting them down on here in black and white seems a pretty good way of motivating me to strive towards them.
One of the big challanges I faced when applying for sponsorship was that I was a complete unknown, never really posting on forums and not even having a pocketfives profile. This made it difficult when approaching people/companies about staking and hopefully this log will make it easier should I need to do it again in the future.
Another reason that I touched on at the start is, I have often found inspiration on these boards, so If theres anyone who can take anything from my experience (wether I succeed or fail) then im glad to be able to help.
Goals
My main goal for the year is to put in at least 5k games at mid-high stakes (My year beginning Feb 24th), while maintaining at least a good ROI% for the year.
17-22% = Good
22-27% = Very good
27%+ = Excellent
If I can maintain this then it should see me at 50k+ profit for the year.
This months grind has seen me move into #43 in Ireland and #1 in Limerick (albeit briefly) on pocketfives.
It doesnt mean anything really, but it is nice to be rubbing shoulders with (and leapfrogging) some well respected members of the community.
It would be nice to cement myself as #1 in Limerick and be knocking on the door of top 15 by the end of the year. While I see this as more of a side effect than an actual goal, its always nice to see yourself flying up a leaderboard, and you cant put a price on bragging rights
Pocketfives profile:-
Finally
I will put up more goals as I set them, along with my first months HEM graph at the beginning of April, and post new graph every month.
I may do a trip report of Portugal if I dont bust early and feel theres anything interesting to write about. Its my first time travelling outside of Ireland on my own for a game, its just another tournament really, but hopefully ill have a few stories to share by the end of it.
If something doesnt make sense, you feel I left something out, or there are any questions, please dont hesitate to reply as all input is welcome. Thanks.
Derek Cosgrove
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