Background

May 3rd, approximately 12:30am, Lucky Chances Casino.

Aaron was in town and we decided to hang out and have a little dinner with his brother, cousin, and Justin. A bunch of poker talk finally got down to motivation bets. I first offered Justin a bet so that we could race to 10k. Now, we had already done this in the past and it was fairly successful for both of us. Back then we were both playing on Party during school and summer was about to begin. We recently got rakeback and both of us were playing fairly well. I ended the bet at about 11.7k and Justin ended with a respectable 8k. So it would only make sense for us to motivate each other with another race to 10k.

However, this time Justin would be starting off with 4.5k and myself 1k. He would have a huge edge in being basically already half-way there, but he has a 9-5 so I would be able to put in more hours to hone my game and catch up. It went back and forth, but in the end I decided against that bet. I offered Aaron's brother a race to 6k, but it wasn't as interesting.

We then got to the subject of me deciding to work instead of play poker, but still REALLY wanting to have my bankroll increase. (I basically want to get out of debt through poker and save money through work.) My argument was that I would rather dedicate myself to getting a job and earn about 1k/week steady. I told them in four months I would have earned 16k working, while playing poker I estimated I'd earn 10k. "I would need 6k to make up for the 'loss'." That's when I said, jokingly, that if I could be compensated somehow I'd consider taking poker more seriously.

Well, Aaron's eyes lit up, and he said he would consider giving me that action. And even more surprisingly, Justin said he'd like to buy some of that action! So now I have two of my closest poker friends talking about betting against me making 10k in four months. That was a slight jab to my ego, but when they both jumped at the thought of putting up 6k to back it up, I couldn't believe it. I have already accomplished this in less time; however, the poker world has DEFINITELY changed since then.

Now what was going on in MY mind at this point was, if I made 10k in four months, I'd be making an additional 60% bonus. This sounded too good to be true. I added a small stipulation that took them a while to agree to. I asked for a varied extension if I got a permanent job within those four months. If I got a job in that time, I would get an extension equal to HALF the time remaining. So if I got a job at exactly the two month mark, I would have two months left, giving me an extension of half that--one extra month. (If I got a job two days before the end of the four months, I get one extra day, etc.)

As of now, the bet is on. I am in the process of loading the 1k on Full Tilt Poker (FTP). I will be receiving FTP's $600 bonus. The account I will be playing on will have 27% rakeback. I will probably be starting on the $50NL tables, possibly playing anywhere from 6-9 tables at a time, full ring. When the time is right, and if I can find better tables on PokerStars (PS), I may transfer total balance to PS and give up rakeback if the tables are that much better. I may switch over to 6max tables if I deem ready/appropriate. There is no stipulation on what games I play. I can build this bankroll only by playing poker, receiving poker-related bonuses, and rakeback. I will be updating with PokerEV graphs and screenshots of total bankroll.

The game begins May 5 and ends September 5, 2008.