I started blogging on Leggo in February of 2009. At the time, I was dead broke. living at my parents home in Jupiter, Florida. There I was... A broke degen with no college degree, tons of debt, no job prospects, and very little hope for the future. I had come off a terrible experience in France, where I busto'ed my roll and essentially ruined my rep in the online community. Life couldn't get worse. I was depressed and really had no idea what the fuck I was going to do...

Desperate for money, I scrambled for work. I went door to door at every business within 10 miles of my house (since I didn't have a car), to try and get a job. I remember it being humid as shit outside, dressed in long pants, tie, and dress shirt. I went everywhere, from Blockbuster, to Publix (grocery store), to Sprint, where I finally got an interview and then eventually landed a position. I remember how happy I was when I landed a job working in sales at Sprint. I didn't care what kind of a job I had. All that mattered was I had a job and I could start making money. For two months, I sold phones, kissed soccer mom's asses, and grinded out the 9 to 5. That feeling of happiness was short lived. Within no time, I started hating going to work every day. I felt like such an underachiever. A kid who had gotten a 1450 on his SAT, working at Sprint...WTF... I worked my ass off in that Sprint job, but eventually was laid off when corporate was forced to make cuts. Upon hearing the news, I couldn't fucking believe that I had gotten fired. I remember going into my bosses office and cursing him out, explaining how I was the hardest worker in the entire store and how I couldn't believe he had the balls to fire me.

Once again, I was back to square one. I had shit to show for money. All the money I had made at Sprint went towards paying down my debt. So to the newspapers I went, once again desperate for anyone that would hire me. I made tons of phone calls and eventually got an interview with a local oil and gas company. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world when I walked into that office the next day. Everything about the company was professional and the staff represented itself extremely well. The staff had a few questions about me not having a college degree but decided to hire me anyways due to my hustler's spirit (their exact words). I told them about poker, all about my experience at Sprint, I told them everything, and they hired me on the spot.

I worked at that place for one month. The people at the job were great. Hard working, determined, ambitious. In theory, it should have been a great place for me to work. But once again, it took no time before I started hating going into work every day. Telemarketing just wasn't for me. I was on the phone all day, trying to tell stock to business owners who hated pieces of shit like me who tried to sell them product they had no interest in. 99 percent of the people I called didn't give me the time of day. I fucking hated that job with a passion..

It was about this time that I decided to give poker a second chance. I had owed money to a friend of mine, many of you probably have played with: S U F F E R on UB. He had staked me for 50nl HU, money which I eventually degened off, prior to me leaving for France. I had maintained contact with him over AIM and he decided to give me a second chance, staking me for 10nl on FTP with a starting bankroll of $200.

So all the while working at this oil and gas company, I started grinded 10nl on FTP. Now mind you, my parents were pretty much banning me from poker and wouldn't let me play inside their house, so I had to play late at night when they were asleep. At the time, I questioned my parents' decision to not let me play poker, but looking back, I think it was more than reasonable considering poker had caused nothing but problems in my life.

So late at night, I started putting in hands. During my time at the oil and gas company, all I could think about was poker. I would print off threads from 2p2 and bring them to work and read them during lunch and any downtime I had. I was determined to succeed in poker. I remember getting off to a rocky start. I dropped I think 7 buyins of my 20 buyin roll my first night playing. I immediately started 12 tabling, since I knew 10nl was soft and that I could kill the games. I stayed disciplined and eventually ran my roll up to 1k playing 10 and eventually 25nl.

I continued grinding out micros until one night at 3am my father walked in on me playing. He had made a rule that if he caught me playing poker, I would be kicked out of the house. I didn't think he really would do so but sure enough he followed through on his promise. He also called me a scumbag for playing and eventually threatened legal action if he ever saw me playing again in the house. Now, at the time, I didn't know anyone in the area, so once again I was in panic mode. I needed to get the fuck out. I had approx 1k in my checking account and 1k online... The very next day I quit my job and decided to move to Michigan and live with a friend of mine and try to make poker work.

So up to East Lansing I went, where I stayed with my friend Brian. Once again, without a job. But this time was different. I had some confidence. I had just started playing nl50 hu again. I knew how bad players were at that level. And furthermore, I had found something I loved doing. I was determined to grind it out. I didn't care that I was a staked pro playing 50nl. I knew I was going to make it.

The first week I was in East Lansing, I made 2k at 50nl. Pretty crazy timing to run good, but damn I fucking needed it. Over the next couple of months, I continued to crush 50nl. I finally managed to muster up enough balls to start taking shots at 100nl. I experienced immediate success there. I started crushing 100nl. Meanwhile, I was working on my game like crazy. Doing everything I could to improve. After everything I had been through, I wanted it so fucking bad.

200nl was a bit of an adjustment for me. I lost 10 buyins or so when I first started playing and was scared to play 200 for a while. I eventually grinded that money back at 100. I should mention that my entire run at 50 and 100nl I was still being staked by S U F F E R. While this was cool in that I didn't have to worry about going broke, I was passing up a TON of money by not playing on my own roll. During this time, it was extremely hard for me to make money. I was playing micros, giving away half my winnings, while still having to cash out for rent + expenses every month.

Eventually, I started playing on my own roll, starting with 1k online. Once again, I ran good when I really needed it. Before long, I started crushing 200nl. It was about this time, that I was presented with the opportunity to go to Mexico.

Mexico took my game to the next level. Being around other good players inspired me to work on my game and just gave me the confidence to start playing higher. I lived in Mexico for roughly 4 months. With the help of Toocrispy, Lostnthesaus, Jaymesbond, Reefypoopoo, Robin Ripper, Jnuey, Slow Habit, and others, I started to crush poker. I started having 10k months, something I never dreamed of when I was grinded 10nl in the wee hours of the morning in my parents house.

For the last four months, I have been playing mainly 1/2-3/6 both heads up and 6 max, with shots at 5/10. My sn on AP is http://www.pokertableratings.com/abs...h/latenight239. For a while, I was mainly bumhunting heads up, but now have integrated 6 max and have advanced to starting tables at 2/4 6max, where only a few players will sit me. It's so awesome to look just how far I've come and see such progression in such short time.

Anyways, I hope you guys have enjoyed my story and use it as inspiration to accomplish whatever it is that u want to do.

Best of Luck
-Imthagrandmaster