I finished yesterday with over $1500 in profit after 3 hours of play. It was a great day, but after this past month it didn’t even register in my brain as anything particularly out of the ordinary. If you told me this three months ago, I would not have believed you for a second.

For the past 10 years I have been playing poker on and off, but never dedicated myself fully to it for an extended period of time. I had some success playing cash games at the 50c/$1 level, but I came to the conclusion that the poker lifestyle wasn’t for me. I got very demotivated and stopped playing after a big losing streak at the $1/$2 cash games which I was not emotionally prepared for. Long losing streaks and the idea of burning so much money just because of tilting (playing badly when in a negative emotional state) wasn’t something I felt I could deal with. It seemed that poker would forever remain a hobby for me.

But then earlier this year, something unexpected occurred.  The company I worked for shut down their operations, and I found myself without a job on the 1st of February 2014. I spent most of my time perusing online job websites, updating my CV and online profiles, and sending out job applications.

In my spare time I started playing 6man Hyper Turbo Sit and Go’s at the $3.5 stake level, playing mostly for fun since I had never really studied the hyper format which uses up to 25 big blind stacks instead of the 100 big blinds I was used to playing with. After about 200 tournaments and almost 10 hours of play, I was frustrated by my results – about a $10 loss. But then something interesting happened.

My frustration led me to moving down to the $1.5 Hyper Turbo SNG stake, except this time playing the 9man format which I had more experience with than the 6 man format because of my 9man cash game background. A few dozen hours of play and several thousand tournaments later, I came to an exciting conclusion. I estimated that continuing at that stake level I would likely make $1000 per month playing an average of 40 hours a week. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to get by on.

After one great, then terrible, then phenomenal month of poker results, numerous hours of study and a dedicated daily grinding routine, I am currently playing the  6man and 9man $60 and $100 stake level with a bankroll of $8250. My bankroll management strategy is ambitious and goes against what most people would likely recommend, but it has led me to improving my game a lot faster than I would have otherwise.

In Part 2 which is coming soon I’ll talk about how I multiplied my monthly income by more than 10 from one month to the next, the justification for my aggressive bankroll management strategy, the methods I used to learn, what my playing routine involved and more.