Hello everybody,after seeing so many interesting and impressive blogs,I decided to create one myself. INTRO
So let's just start with few words about me-my name is Ivan,I was born in late spring of 1987 in Bulgaria.I've been abroad several times,mostly in US for what we call "student exchange program".I was introduced to Pokerstrategy from a long-time friend of mine a little less than an year ago.As a person who literally played cards no longer than few hours his whole life-it was a big adventure.I didn't know what to beginn with but I was obsessed with the game.First I started by watching poker tv shows,I guess everybody have watched the movie "Rounders"etc.Actually this created a wrong impression of what poker is,but it was very inspiring.I remember myself playing endless hours a day,a mix of sng,cash games and some tournaments.
After two months,2011 was knocking on the door and I was close to a break-even player so I decided to take a step and choose a format.Pokerstrategy was a big help-videos,articles,hand evaluation forum-all that in one place.That's when I started playing Sit N Goes for a living.I had a huge heater in January turning 10 bucks into almost a thousand playing 1,2 and later 3$ SnG's.I was so inspired and for the next 4-5 months things were going above my expectations.I had hard time moving up the limits though.Psychological factor.By the time I was crushing 5$s-7$s I had enough BR to move up to mid stakes,but I was tilting very badly every time I lose 10 or more buy-in on higher limits like 10$+.
So where am I now?For the last 2-3 months variance is not on my side,I was also playing on several platforms which distracted me and I wasn't able to bring my A game every time I sit on the comp.I worked a lot on my skills lately and still there are so many new things to get better at.
I hope this blog will help me develop as a poker player and as a person in general,I hope I'll meet new and interesting people as well so we can comment and share thoughts on this great sport.
Short-term Goals-1 month
Grind about 40-50 SnG's a day(1200-1500 a month)-as for now-15$'s on Stars
Play between 30-35 hours a week
Post hands in the evaluation forum every day
Sign up for a driver license
Visit the gym 3-4 times a week,as usual
Watch videos and visit trainings few times a week
Mid-term Goals-3-6 month
Improve my postflop game to a new level
Beat the 15$'s with a decent ROI-5%+ and take shots or move to mid stakes
Start learning MTT's or other poker format
I don't want to get ahead of myself so that will do it for now.Once I hopefully achieve my Short-term and Mid-term goals I'll place some new ones.
P.S.I'll update My blog almost if not everyday with details about how my poker day went.Cheers.
I would advice to move up in limits only after it really feels good. Moving up only because brm allow it might not be good idea. I think quite many players have these feelings especially when moving e.g. from 10$ to 20$ games. At least I had
Moving up from 20$ games has been much easier.
Anyway you have good looking goals so good luck for your sng journey!
: ) Thank you guys for your opinions and support.Let's hope we'll keep in touch as the blog develops.Btw,VarianceKiller,I checked your blog along with your croatian fellows-very interesting one indeed.I'm also very curious about 180man on stars and plan to study them a bit better in the following months.
Anyway,for the last few weeks,maybe months too many things were going on in my head.Last night I couldn't get a proper night sleep,there was some kind of a thoughts rush in my head.So I woke up very early in the morning and started grinding.One thing is for sure,early morning fish:reg ratio is much higher,which is always a nice thing.I forgot to mention yesterday-I mostly play 9-10man STT,although I occasionally mix it with 18man and KO STT to table select easier and put some extra volume.For the last few hundred games I'm running under EV(although HEM doesn't calculate 18man adjusted EV correctly plus it doesn't count the bounties I collect in KO STT),so I'm not quite sure how much I can rely on that.So anyway,I'm gonna post my graph for today,my laptop's OS needs to be reinstalled but thats about to be done tomorrow.Night everyone!
Yo,yo,another day's gone,second update coming.Today wasn't much of a day anyway.Played like 40 something sngs,ran really,really bad and under ev,but thats normal from time to time anyway.Went to the movies with some friends from high school to watch "Colombiana",I didn't even know what movie I was going to
It sucked,btw,but we had nice time afterwards,had couple of drinks.Ok,so I'm gonna do another effort to post my graph,hope this time it works better.2morrow I plan on doing some things beside poker,but I'll still try to stay on track and play 40 sngs at least.
I've tried several times,but its not working on my comps,I'll post the link again Graph
12:41 a.m. here.Just got finished with posting the hands I was unsure about.After running really poorly the last 2 days I decided to reduce the number of tables I play at a time but keep the same volume.Took me 6 hours to finish 41 SnGs..lol
I'm almost happy with the way I played.For like 30something sngs I was running a huge percentage under EV,got sucked out few times on the bubble,few times 3-handed as well.I think I have to work on my game ITM.My top 3 percentage numbers are equal for the last 800 games,which worries me a lil bit.Anyway,I loaded up some non-turbo 15$'s for my last set since at night time its really hard to table select the turbos.Surprisngly,I hit a nice streak and finished the day with 50 bucks more than the morning.Red and Green line finally met and so I called it off till 2morrow.I post the graph for today underneath.Cheers!
Hey, I recently switched from CG to SNG.
Needed little change. So I'll keep an eye on your blog also.
As for pictures, I had the same problem. All my pictures appeared broken. In my case solution was to just copy the "forum link" on Imageshack and paste it directly into post reply, without clicking the "insert image" button.
Day 4. Today I started in Godlike mode.20 sngs 13BI profit,I didn't want to leave the tables.Until early afternoon they were very,very juicy-you can tell weekend was here.I had to take a break though and on my come back I scored 11 sngs-zero finishes ITM
I played another set of about 10 sngs later and moved my way up.I was ready for some more action,but unfortunately felt asleep watching Stoke-Manchester during my last break.Damn!So here I am now.Time to post some hands in the evaluation forum,but first-today's graph.
Thanks to TiciBoy now I have a problem less to solve : ) Cheers,mate!I'll keep an eye on your blog too.
So far pretty nice profit. As for the 180's and the 9 mans aswell if you got any questions just leave them at our blog. Will be easier to read them there, since I check it more often
Something's wrong with my sleep at night.After 4-5 hours of moving from side to side in my bed I decided to make a coffee and start my home poker after dark
Lol,it's been a while since I last met New Zealand,Australia,Canada,China under the same roof and me being the only european at the table.Felt good though.I made a session of about 20 sngs,ate my breakfast and went to bed...Woke up at about 3-4 p.m.Lovely afternoon in here.After eating some tuna sandwiches(all I had left),I sat again to finish what's left,I wanted to play at least 50s today,so I rounded the number and wrapped it up.I think of start posting some interesting hands,maybe it's gonna kick off some extra action and improve my thinking process.Anyway.Graph time is here.
P.S.@VarianceKiller,maybe we can think of something like a sweat session via join.me some time next month.Don't feel obligated though.Gl to you and Tici.
Goog evening,fellow sharks.So far I like updating my blog everyday.Or at least everyday that I play.It helps me staying focused.
Day 6 evaluation on it's way.I've managed to get some sleep at last,so I woke up pretty fresh and ready for some action.Started grinding at about 11 a.m. local time-but there was barely any traffic for the 15$s.No turbos,not even t. KO's which I lately play the most.I had to switch to 18man.These are getting some crazy traffic nowadays.Played like 20 of them,then I moved back to STT.I ran extremely good today.Way above expected.I'm still very concerned with my 3-handed and HU play.I don't think I'm getting the best out of it.Most of the time we are not in a push/fold mode right away,so I have a hard time adjusting to different type of opponents,3bet ranges/call ranges etc.I had few hours in between so I went out with some buddies for a night walk.Got back on time for the 5k G. on PokerHeaven but after two hours busted out in 1xx place.I have no success at those.
I'll post my graph for today underneath as usual and wish u all good night!Stay tuned for new updates.
One interesting hand for today.Maybe not even much of a hand.But it felt really funny what situation we the short stacks put ourselves in.I tried to analyze it later on SNG wiz,but it was not possible.I think it still a call.CO is a reg,BU-tight casual player,SB-loose casual.
Started this blog mainly to track my game,stay sharp,improve and meet other SNG grinders so we can share and learn from eachother.
After adding VarianceKiller to my buddy list,variance went on my side.Fact.
Posted Hands in the Forum every day.
This week(21.09-27.09) I played-307 SnGs, 43.8/day
Hours/week-39.6, 5,65 hours/daily average
Average Buy In-12$(Bounties not counted in the KO's)
Profit: 799$,without VIP bonuses
From now on,I'll be doing monthly evaluations-next one coming at the end of October.
Played like 50 SnG,started out great(probably just took whats left from the heater)but finished 20 bucks behind at the end of the day.Im not worried though,I think I played my A game for the most part,which is what counts.Adjusted EV line moved up so thats always a plus.I feel really tired though.6 hours of gaming is something I should get used to.Hopefully I will in the near future.I won't post a graph for today,I decided to put one at the end of each week or month.Some exceptons are accepted so if there is anything interesting,I'll share.Some funny hands from today's sessions:
SB shows A
A
Hero shows J
7
Hero wins t7450.00
(Rake: t-100)
So,this one had a history.SB is really fishy{46/12/18(steal)/14.3(3bet),2.9 agg. f.}.He limped twice or trice and I shoved over him so I guessed next time I better pick up a hand before I do it again.Here with a top pair and a FD(very weak,but I like it mostly because it blocks some of his outs) I decided to ship it it direcly to get as much FE as possible.I was wrong though
This one really hurt my feelings...
but I had to accept the facts!
So today morning traffic was not as great as I expected,so for the most part I played 18man 15$s.Very reg invested nowadays.I like them a lot.In the afternoon I continued with the turbo 9man.Total played games-55.I'm still on a very nice streak and made a lil less than a couple of hundred.I hope when the downswing comes,it wont be breath-taking one
.I'll post some interesting hands underneath.
Ok.So here I am facing 58/11/0/16.7(3bet)-1,3 agg.f-19 hands,1 tabler oppo.I'm pretty sure he is a big time casual.I think I should have made a slightly bigger bet on the flop and the turn.On the river I check to get value from missed Fdraws and he is betting any ace anyway.While if I put in on the river,he might even fold Ax type of hands...Nice hand,sir!
Villian is 45/31/43(steal from SB-54%),4.8(3bet),4.3 agg.f -88
This one has a history.I was 3betting him all in a few times before on his BU steals.And still-he keeps on stealing,so here I decide to flat vs his wide opening range and get him postflop if possible.I think my hand is doing well against his range.He will bet any Ace on the flop to protect and get value.Same thing with a FD and maybe Qx.On the turn I check again,letting him trying to bluff me off the hand(at this moment I put him on a bluff or semibluff with a hearts draw,Qx at the most).On the river he makes it big,which makes no sense what so ever in my eyes.Qx is less likely in his range now that it paired.Ax is out of the question with his agg.f.And why would he bet so much with a Flush anyway?I opted for a call.I think it's a nice hand overall.
Originally posted by Gerovit
Nice call with a K9 Sir!
Thanks,my serbian friend! I remember now 3 years ago when I was in Alaska I met 3 very funny guys from Serbia.We used to listen to this song a lot.
I like it!Greetings.
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Hello everybody,after seeing so many interesting and impressive blogs,I decided to create one myself.
So let's just start with few words about me-my name is Ivan,I was born in late spring of 1987 in Bulgaria.I've been abroad several times,mostly in US for what we call "student exchange program".I was introduced to Pokerstrategy from a long-time friend of mine a little less than an year ago.As a person who literally played cards no longer than few hours his whole life-it was a big adventure.I didn't know what to beginn with but I was obsessed with the game.First I started by watching poker tv shows,I guess everybody have watched the movie "Rounders"etc.Actually this created a wrong impression of what poker is,but it was very inspiring.I remember myself playing endless hours a day,a mix of sng,cash games and some tournaments.
After two months,2011 was knocking on the door and I was close to a break-even player so I decided to take a step and choose a format.Pokerstrategy was a big help-videos,articles,hand evaluation forum-all that in one place.That's when I started playing Sit N Goes for a living.I had a huge heater in January turning 10 bucks into almost a thousand playing 1,2 and later 3$ SnG's.I was so inspired and for the next 4-5 months things were going above my expectations.I had hard time moving up the limits though.Psychological factor.By the time I was crushing 5$s-7$s I had enough BR to move up to mid stakes,but I was tilting very badly every time I lose 10 or more buy-in on higher limits like 10$+.
So where am I now?For the last 2-3 months variance is not on my side,I was also playing on several platforms which distracted me and I wasn't able to bring my A game every time I sit on the comp.I worked a lot on my skills lately and still there are so many new things to get better at.
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It sucked,btw,but we had nice time afterwards,had couple of drinks.Ok,so I'm gonna do another effort to post my graph,hope this time it works better.2morrow I plan on doing some things beside poker,but I'll still try to stay on track and play 40 sngs at least.
I played another set of about 10 sngs later and moved my way up.I was ready for some more action,but unfortunately felt asleep watching Stoke-Manchester during my last break.Damn!So here I am now.Time to post some hands in the evaluation forum,but first-today's graph.
but I had to accept the facts!
.I'll post some interesting hands underneath.