Hello TPE community, my name is Brian and obv am a new member here. Some of you know me, but I have been playing seriously for about 3 years now and have primarily gotten my “training” per se from the online forums, 2p2 and moreso a smaller online community several of us started after becoming sick of the BS at 2p2. I started out like most, watching poker on TV and playing in the local homegame without a clue about anything except AA is better than KK. In Feb of 2006 I deposited $50 (my only deposit ever except one on UB to get a bonus) on Pokerstars and started playing STTs and the $1 18 man sngs and won right away, the same for $3 45s and then on to the 180s where I built my roll. Not long after that I shipped the 3r and since that I have been fairly exclusively playing MTTs with an ABI around $20. My SN is bcartervol98 on FTP and PS, I am sure I have played with many of you and know several of the guys already. I knew if Derek and Diego were going to put up a site it would be awesome and not sure why I waited till now to join. I run a fairly large Automotive group in Tennessee and what little time I have I have preferred to play rather than watch videos and have done so profitably, but I know I can get a LOT better thus here I am.

I seem to be in the same cruel pattern so many people are with regard to MTTs. I grind, marginally win for a while, bink something and double-triple my roll. Obviously I am ready to move up now since i am rolled for it and I drop half my roll, then move down and repeat this pattern over and over. A couple months ago I won the $55 10k on PS and final tabled 5 other tournies with 1k+ runners in the same two week time period and then bam, downswing. My graph since then liiks like a landing ramp for a motorcycle jump, a straight downward angle. It happens every time and I think I finally understand what the problem and maybe my biggest leak is. I put everything in terms of $$$ won. I make great money at work and as bad as it is to say, it is hard for me to get excited about playing a $5-$10 buy in tournament with a $500-$1k for 1st because I am judging my success based on how much $$ I have in my account and not based on my ROI. And I used to be so good at BR management too, but when youre winning it seems like you will never lose and when you are losing it seems like you might never win again. I love tournament poker tho!

Thats why I am here, to learn what the other players a lot better than myself are doing to adjust to the ever changing landscape of MTT poker. I have never watched a video anywere and rarely if ever post hands. I hope to change that and get more proactive in my success and given the crew here, I have no doubt if I was ever going to join a training site this is it!  Hopefully I can learn from you guys and if you ever need anything feel free to shoot me a PM or hit me up on AIM. It is getting cold, time to put up the boat and get back on the grind!