What am I doing?

Hi, I'm Stephen. I'm a 23-year-old college dropout. I studied Classics and grew up in New Zealand, and have lived in Rome, Lyon, Auckland, and Seattle over the last two years since dropping out. This year I'm bunkered down in Los Angeles though, living with my girlfriend and a fellow poker player and grinding out an income.

Matt and I both play poker online on Pokerstars. We play mainly No Limit Texas Hold'em cash games, with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $1,000. Usually when we're working we are playing 16-24 tables at once.

Pokerstars makes money by taking rake out of each pot played (generally 5% of the pot up to $3), and rewards players for playing a lot of pots with a VPP program. Essentially, the more you play, the more of the money they're taking out of your pots gets given back to you.

My goal for the year is to play a ton. I'm going to try to stay on pace to hit the current world record for most VPPs in a year, until I cease being able to function as a human being (or, very unlikely, I succeed in matching it). This will net me over $300,000, assuming I can break even at the tables. If I actually am able to win money at the tables as well that's wonderful.

I'm recording what is likely to be my gradual mental and physical decay with video blogs, which I'll be posting here every week. I'd love it if you followed my blog, asked any questions you have, and gave as much encouragement as possible. I could use encouragement!

Hope you enjoy the videos,
Stephen