Evolution of a grinder

I had a big post typed up and it was going in 30 different directions. I was losing focus as I typed the post. Then as I started going back through it, I noticed the clusterfuck it had become and I just deleted it. The post was about me wanting to become a grinder. Not just at poker, but in life in general. I'll try to stick with the poker side of things in this 2nd draft.

I really envy the people that can sit down at a computer and just grind out poker for hours upon hours. These people seem to be the ones with the larger bankrolls. How do I become this person? Is it something you are born with? Or do you have to work at becoming a "worker"? I don't know. I sure as hell ain't born with it, so I'm going to pursue the "working at it" approach.

Summertime is dead for me as far as poker is concerned. I hardly ever play because I'm mostl likely burnt out from the prior winter. I do play most of my poker over the winter when the weather is bad outside. This summer, I want it to be different. This summer will be my "training camp" for a winter grind. Hopefully I can train myself to become one of those grinders that can sit for hours upon hours and grind out larger profits.

The only time I ever put in marathon sessions is when I'm down. When I'm winning, I don't feel the need. "I've made my nut for the day. Time to quit" is what my brain keeps telling me when I have a winning session. If I'm in the midst of a downswing and finally have a winning day, the brain switches it over to "Quit while you're ahead. Don't risk losing your profit". Either way, it's not a healthy way to play poker.

Here's the gameplan. I'm going to work my way into a "grinding mode". I'm going to start out slow and then gradually work my way up. Starting today, I'll sit down at the tables for 1 hour and play poker for that hour. No IMs, no phones, no web browsing. Nothing but poker grinding.

Next week, I bump it up to 2 hours a night. I'll probably continue this regimen for a few weeks because the ultimate goal is to get 3 hours a night, but I want to work my way up to that.

I get to take 2 days off a week, but one of them cannot be the weekend. My reason for this is that I want to take 1 of my weekend days and double my normal time. For example, this week I'm doing 1 hour/night, but on the weekend (Friday night, Saturday, Sunday), I'll play a 2 hour session. When I'm up to 2 hours/night, I'll play a 4 hour session on the weekend day. 3-6, etc etc etc.

Since this week is a shortened week, Monday counts as my off day. I'll probably also take off Friday or Saturday as well. But if I put in my 1 hour for the next few days and 2 hours on the weekend, that will be 5 hours this week. Nothing major, but an improvement over the past 2 months or so.

Next week, however, will be when I jump up to 2 hours. 4 regular days x 2 hours = 8 hours + 1 day @ 4 hours = 12 hours total. That gets me to my winter level. Then when I bump up to 3 hours a week in the next few weeks, we are at 18 hours/week and starting to seriously grind then.

During this whole process of working my way into grinding shape, I'll need to do whatever I can to stay focused. This will include eating healthier, getting more sleep, using an app such as Tiltblocker to prevent results oriented thoughts, and probably some other stuff I can't think of right now.

I hope to accomplish a few things here. The most important thing is to establish a work ethic. I want to be able to set some goals and actually accomplish them. I also want to be rewarded financially for my new found work ethic. But most of all, I want to be able to sit down at the tables when winter time rolls around and just crank out an in-human amount of hands. I want to be that guy that grinds out 100K hands/month.

This will also be a test of my will and love for the game of poker. If I work my way up to playing way more hands than before, will I get burnt out quicker? Is this something I could do on a full time basis (35-40 hours /week)?

There just seems to be so many positive aspects to being a grinder. Hit a 30-50K hand dowswing or breakeven stretch? You'll be out of it in way less days whereas before that stretch could last 3-4 months.

I'm excited to see how it all goes and how I do with it. Let's just got those first 5 hours in and see how things go.