Hi TPE Team,

I am a member since 2014, but I didn’t had the opportunity to introduce myself. I’ve been playing poker for a few time by now, but never passed the mid-stakes. Since 2014 to 2016 I’ve been playing poker full-time from what I can recall, only online, live only for fun(some home games with friends and a few low stakes tournaments in Bucharest). My biggest scores were on 2015 when I rolled as a MF. I played mostly on Pokerstars and 888poker.

I don’t know how to upload a printscreen on this post, but you can look me up on sharkscope by username “rustyrst” and “rustyrst01”

Because of some issues in my personal life I had to cash out most of my bankroll a few times and now I’m running low on bankroll, which is somewhere around 150$ on Pokerstars for the moment.

In 2016 I had to get a job as an SQA Engineer and I quit playing poker full-time. I was still playing for some extra-income though.

At the moment the passion for the game has been “revived” and I want to come back to the poker world. I wasn’t a big fan of posting on forums, but since the love for poker has started again, I kinda feel like reading more, studying more and even begin posting on forum.

Since this thought has passed my mind again (since 2 or 3 months), I struggle with 2 big issues:

1. I don’t have time to play as much as I want. Before I quit playing poker full-time, I was playing mostly 5 days a week for 6 to 12 hours a day. (6 hours for a not so good day or if I hit something big in a short time, like a turbo tourney). Now I barely play 2 days a week for a maximum of 5 hours, that in the best case scenario. I can still multi-table, as I never quitted poker for good. I can still play from 8 to 12 tables at the same time. Do you have any advices for increasing volume as I still have a 9 to 5 job? I simply don’t know how to manage my job time and poker time… and don’t forget about personal life time, too. I was always a bad time manager, also in the past. Any books, articles or videos you can suggest in that directions could be useful(besides Ian Taylor, Matthew Hilger – The poker mindset – I already read it… 3 times lifetime 😛 )

2. My volume is weak, as said in point 1., but I can’t even grow playing those 1$ 180-men, 1.50$ 90-men knockout and 1$ 45-man on Pokerstars. I am trying to avoid Turbo’s for now for as long as I can, like 45-man turbo or 18-man turbo, but I open a few during the session though. The 9-man SNG for 1.5$ is simply not worth it in my opinion as the rake is too high and the payment too low. I tried for a period playing 3.5$ HU turbo, but I get bored after a few games. Cash is simply something that I don’t really enjoy playing, but I could take a chance if that is a way to grow faster my bankroll. The only thing is that I’m afraid I will get bored after playing 1 hour of 8 tables of cash games. What is your advice regarding this issue? Should I continue playing those 180, 90 KO and 45 man? Should I play the 9-man reg speed SNG’s instead, even though the rake is high for micro’s? Can you suggest some videos for those kind of SNGMT’s(preferably with the new blind structure on Pokerstars)?

Moving on other platforms is simply not an option. Because of the difference between currency ($ to RON – I live in Romania), the bank will charge me for transferring from $ to RON and after that, when depositing on other sites, from RON to $. In Romania, only Pokerstars, 888poker and Unibet has received the license.

I will look forward for your answers and any advise will be gladly received!

Good luck to you all and see you at the tables(microstakes players for the moment )!

See ya!