In poker, a "grinder" is one who puts in 50-60 hours a week on the felt to make a living. I've made most my money in the auto industry up to this point. So I decided to go with "Lotgrinder" when creating my online persona as I've been putting in 50-60 hour work weeks on "the lot" for years. A year ago I decided to pursue my poker career and have been averaging a modest $25 a hour at the poker table. So, I decided to start blogging/posting on a poker forum and I eventually end up getting a paid blog opportunity for a poker website and numerous requests for me to start e-booking my short stories as a lot of people who play poker, gamble, experiment with drugs, or have had checkered/abusive/depressing pasts find them interesting. Over the years I have compiled over 1000 pages of stories that are my own and I hope to share those with you so you can all rip my writing to shreds and ultimately make me a better writer. I have no background, education, or training as a writer but I've been told the nuts/bolts/dialogue of my stories are great. So, I am humbly here to improve and I'm going to start reading your stories right away. Thank you for reading this post and thank you in advance for checking out my stories. I hope to God I can at least entertain some of you.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Lotgrinder! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirements. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. The requirements of the Writing Workshop don't apply to the contests, so new members are allowed (nay, encouraged!) to get stuck in and enter! If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
I log most of my hours at $1/$2 blinds, but have started to take more shots at the $2/$5 blind level recently. (I only play live since I am in America.) I am looking forward to a Vegas trip in June to play in those juicy WSOP cash games. What games/limits are you playing at? (Not that that's important, a poker player is a poker player, and should be able to play all limits down to the lowest levels. I've seen so many go busto because they think a $1-$2 or $2/$5 game is beneath them. But, knowing the blind level you're playing at will definitely help us have beneficial poker strategy conversations.) The levels I am playing at really require no skills other than to be patient, not call raises OOP, and then just extract mass value from the fish. I am looking forward to playing 2/5 more and ultimately 5/10 where we'll see for sure if I have any real talent.
It's nice to see you're doing well! I used to play 0.50$/1$ NL Hold'em, however I had to stop grinding since it was taking too much time away from my studies. Since then I've mostly been playing all sorts of sit and gos and tournaments while improving my game by watching Deuces Cracked videos. I wish the best to you in your poker and writing ambitions!
The Dueces Cracked Bart Hanson poker podcasts are GOLD. Definitely make sure to check those out. Also, study up on Two Plus Two poker forums as much as you can as well. When www.pokervip.com relaunches I'll be a paid blogger for them. Looking forward to putting in as much time on this site as I do poker websites so I can learn how to be a more polished writer.
Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely check out the podcasts. Also, I have been a member on 2+2 for a few years, and while I seldom post, I do lurk on a regular basis. If you're looking for something +EV for your writing career, you should definitely check out Writing The Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. The author is an literary agent and former writer, so he know what he's talking about.
