♠SariyskiS♠ NL100 Part-time NL Grinder ツ

Hope you had good / winning weekend at Golden Sands.

Originally posted by VaskataBuci
Hope you had good / winning weekend at Golden Sands.

It was indeed a great week-end. Not so much a winning one though

Played only one session and the table was actually pretty good. Only 2 tables were running around 4PM when I got there but both looked pretty good - many people from Israel, Lebanon and Turkey.

When I first sat we were playing 6handed which is great. I'm not much of a live games expect, trying to learn the games right now and I feel like I have a much bigger edge if we're 5 or 6 playing.

Sat just to the left of the weakest player on the table (who was actually pretty cool, everything seemed fun to him) and the ambiance was very nice. Funniest thing about him was seeing him snap calldown 100bb with 8 high on 733Q2 and getting all confused and convinced he had trips

Anyways, the game was soft except for the total aggro poker superstar wannabe who sat to my left 500bb deep. Every time I was in the SB he was UTG, straddling, reraising etc. Well, the joy of having someone like that to your direct left. Couldn't do much since I didn't run hot on cards either besides the last one.

Some shortstacked nits decided to left the table and were replaced by a deepstacked nit and another deepstacked herocall happy pseudo-reg.

Anyways, the games were running kinda slow at around 8, but I managed to get into some pots, squeezed 3 or 4 times the pseudo reg and the aggro guy to my left and had built a pretty good dynamic.

The A/C literally killed my back and shoulders and was getting ready to go home. I was UTG and told myself that I'll play a last orbit and call it a session. Was up about 50bb at 1/2 in 3-4 hours of play so was a good payday for me.

Funny thing happened when I got dealt A♠A♣ in the BB and the pseudo reg opened the HJ to 4bb and got two calls from Israeli weak passive players, and I squeezed them to 18bb (used the same sizing I used past times when I got folds from everybody). Was expecting the pseudo-reg to pull-out a move on me, I felt he's getting a bit frustrated with me. So yeah, no wonder he called and the other two decided to fold saying "meh, too expensive".

Flop came down: 7♠4♠5♣ (~55bb)

We were 150bb deep so I bet about halfpot there expecting to get called by every pocket pair, maybe even highcards and flushdraws. Thought this sizing might even induce him to get fancy.

Turn came out: the 4♣ - pretty much the nutcard for me. I was blocking both the flushdraws now, less sets for him, more pairs so life was good.

Bet another halfpot and he called without putting in a lot of thought. I put him on mostly pocket pairs and flushdraws even though I was blocking a big part of these.

The river was the 3♦
Not sure whether I should be happy or sad about this card. It bricked both flushdraws and I thought I can get herocalled by 88+, which my opponent was very capable of doing. I shoved and he snapcalled me. He chuckled and showed A6o and I showed my aces. Told him "well played man, good hand!" and left the table.

Apparently my read that he likes to call wasn't too wrong, but I guess I didn't expect him to call that wide preflop. Considering my image and his tendencies I think it's better to bet bigger on the flop and shove the turn. The end result wouldn't be different as he would have called anyways, but I still think it's the better play in that spot.

In live games people don't really care about your sizings, so when you have it just make it big and don't worry about balancing since you won't be bluffing that often anyways.

I'm really exhausted since I couldn't get a good sleep for the past 4 days. On top of that drove a total of over 1000km during the week-end and wrapping-up the day at work in exactly 20 minutes.

Will try to put in some nice volume after work tomorrow and post some hands if I'm not too burned out.

Good luck!
S

Too much grind, no time for update:)

Well, well...
Who do we have here
Great to see you started a blog, will be following.

Hey guys,

It's been a while since my last post indeed. I haven't been hardcore online grinding though. Spent some quality time with the people I love instead, but also worked quite a lot on my overall game plan.

Me and my girlfriend went to France to visit my parents in a very cozy town near Bordeaux. The weather was simply perfect. Every single day was sunny, not a single cloud in the sky. We went biking, had some long walks and went sightseeing. Got to see the ocean once again and was lucky to get it into an agitated mood:] Won't dig too deep into the whole vacation story, but there's a part of it that goes along with the blog

The day after we arrived me and my dad were talking about going to play some live poker. The local casino was less than 5 minutes away from the house, so went to check out on the games. Luckily, the clientele was ready to play some cards and not scared of losing money

I wanted to start off with the 1/2 EUR table since I'm not really into live games yet, but trying to make my beginnings. Got added to the waiting list, then the table host said they're going to open a "100" table. I was quite happy about it since I took 400EUR and thought I'd play NL100 with 4 buy-ins. The happy feeling lasted until my dad explained to me that a 100 table is actually a table with a minimum of 100EUR buy-in which makes it a 2/4.

Anyways, the table seemed pretty weak and I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I can say that I ran really hot that night. I've tried to play live before, but would always run like total scumbag if you know what I mean. At some point I was telling myself oh well, perhaps it's not for me. Well this night it more than compensated for it. I won the biggest pot of my life (1790 EUR) and finished the evening at +1300EUR. Obviously went a few more times, got to know the people and it only became easier to play them.

Overall speaking the holidays ended pretty well pokerwise just like everything else. I worked a lot on my game in the meantime since I couldn't play online. Speaking of online, the past few months have been pretty tough for my bankroll. I can say that I'm experiencing the biggest swing I've ever had in my life, although it's not that impressive.

All my lines are going down for the past 60k hands. Losing about 40 buy ins and running over 20 buy ins under EV. At some point I remembered the Grindcore series and thought I'd do some series myself called "The Thin Orange Line" considering that it's the only one I can get to go up ♦

Other than that I am really really proud of myself as I'm actually playing the best poker I've ever played in my life. I feel confident with my knowledge and have removed so many C game mistakes out of it during the past three months. I guess that if I had to compare with the downswing I had around the end of last year, I'd give this one a 7/10 while only 4/10 for the previous one.

Started to analyze a lot of hands lately as well, I'm thinking about starting some coaching hours tomorrow. I was considering to start coaching some NL25-NL50 players myself, but I'm way too busy for that right now.

Anyways, I'm back to work now and a lot of things are going on. Feeling sick this week and hard to focus as I have constant headaches but have to keep grinding and being positive.

Good luck to you all!

Signing off,
S

Dropped another 6bi under EV during last night's session

Amazing blog. Following.

I have a full time job and grind part time.

Hey guys,

It's been a while since my last post and as you may guess a lot of things happened in the meantime

A few things happened pokerwise and the first of them is that I became a hand judge for the Bulgarian community. I like spending time to analyze hands and am always happy when I am able to help somebody improve their game. So far it's been going pretty good even though the traffic is a bit low at the moment. Hopefully it will increase with the upcoming mighty months of grind

Besides that my bad run continued through the month of September and at some point I was at -6000$ with EV at -1000$ for the past 80K hands. Poker was very very tough. Besides running below EV I was constantly running into people's top ranges and so on and so forth... Well you get the picture

I have been thinking about "talking to somebody" and review my overall game plan for months already since I started at NL2 and went up to NL100 on my own and there is definitely stuff to work on. The bad run just helped me motivate myself to do it and I am very pleased that I actually did. I booked 10 hours of coaching and am very very happy with the results. So far I've had three of them and planning to do another one this week.

I'm also starting to coach people playing between NL10 and NL50. I have a lot of things to teach them and to correct not only mistakes but a lot of leaks as well. I know that people who have never taken coachings don't realize the value of a personal coach and that tracking guided progress is priceless, but I will do my best to help them do that

Best,
S ♠_love:

Was wondering why there wernt any updates. Running bad doesnt help I guess. Congratulations on becoming a HE judge! And good luck with your coaching Endeavor Sir.

Welcome back blogging! I just started to think - OK, one less to follow

Haha, no way I'm obviously around but was just too busy lately. How have things been turning out for you? Where do you play and what limits?

Last night MicroGaming seemed really slow, played a total of 900~ hands for a 2 hour session averaging at 7 tables.

Opened some NL200 tables last night along with the regular 6-8 NL100 tables I usually play but as it happens most of the time when I play NL200 luck was not really on my side. On top of that I lost connection when I had flopped a Q high flush in a NL200 pot against two fishes. My QQ that got 4bet in SB vs BU on the NL100 table also got folded out. I must admit that I kinda tilted and started venting out, then as soon as my connection got back I just closed the tables and went to bed

Ended up -300$, which is about 1.5 buy-ins. Not really happy with my game though. I didn't play for the past 4-5 days, I was really calm but lacked a bit of "determination" and focus.

Perhaps the next shot will be more successful... or maybe not :]?

Best,
S ♠_love:

I used to play at microgaming, but when 24hpoker closed for BG players I moved to pokerstars. I started at NL25 zoom but with a tiny bankroll and didn't feel comfortable at all. And now I'm at NL10 zoom. I tried regular tables also but I find the action at the regulars very slow. With 40BI for the limit I'll move again to NL25 and probably will benefit from coaching, depends on the offer (I 've sent you friend request)

GL

Yeah, the situation is definitely disastrous. Hopefully the government will come back to reason sooner than later.

I must say that I'm not a big fan of learning poker with zoom, but we can certainly figure something out in the future. Thanks for the add, I've done the same

Best,
S ♠_love:

Nice blog, subscribed!

nice graph !
I will follow

Originally posted by vonki
Nice blog, subscribed!

Glad you enjoy it

Originally posted by ransoft500
nice gaph !
I will follow

Haha! The one I'm almost 4K under EV?

Damn son, you so good with words I am in love with your e-persona now. Hope you're looking better recently and you're winning it like Mr Sheen

Hey man, thanks for the kind words ^_^ I'm looking good but I doubt I'd ever be winning it like uncle Charlie

The month of October wasn't that mean to me. Still was about 1K under EV, but ended up to the North. The volume was quite bad but was up around 2.5K before the last session for the month that went really really bad. The session was mostly NL200 and some NL100 tables, I felt like I played a very good poker and was extremely pleased with my mindset and self-control. Anyways ended up losing 1.2K with 1.1K under EV. So far I've played around 7k hands on NL200 and running close to 3K under EV - Gross.

My mate that also plays NL100 was sweating me and we came up to a conclusion that both of us are sick donks for agreeing on pretty much all spots but still getting owned hardcore ♦

I started doing mindset sessions of 10-15 minutes in www.calm.com before hitting the tables. The results are simply amazing

I also started coaching people and am very very happy so far. Been getting some good feedback also that boosts my motivation even more.

I'll post some graphs later on and maybe some interesting hands.

Cheers,
S ♠_love:

Hey guys,

Been home sick during the past week and managed to put in some volume.

Everything started out last Sunday when I almost feinted at work but I guess it's quite normal for this time of the year. I am still on antibiotics but feeling a hell of a lot better ♦

As I already mentioned I started giving coachings to microstakes players and I can say that I'm definitely "into it Getting more requests lately which I find quite promising and in a way gives me an additional boost of confidence.

I played about 9k hands for the past 3 days which for my standards is "a ton" but I'm feeling pretty good about it since I've only played for 4 hours/day which is more than twice less than what I'm doing at work every day.

Either way my job is alright. It gives me stability and allows me to focus on improving my game even if it's extremely time-consuming and I believe that I can beat NL100 with at least 3bb/100. Lately I've been making a lot more from poker than from my job, but the overall bankroll is still unsufficient for me to consider going pro.

Anyways here is the graph for the past three days:

Had quite a few shoves river into initially worse hands that got improved by the river card, so I can say that it was a bit of a roller-coaster between 5k and 7k hands.

I haven't posted any hands in the blog yet, so I that would be a first:

MP is a reg, liked to play pots with me and viewed me as very aggressive. He min4bet me BU vs BB earlier with KQo:f_eek:

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €2.00 BB (4 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.com

UTG (€520.20)
Hero (Button) (€278.10)
SB (€230.45)
BB (€408.95)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, K
UTG raises €5, Hero raises €16, 2 folds, UTG raises €23, Hero calls €12

Flop: (€59) A, 2, 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: (€59) 3 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets €36, UTG calls €36

River: (€131) 3 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets €92, 1 fold

Total pot: €131

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €1.00 BB (3 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://poker-tools.flopturnriver.com/Hand-Converter.php

BB (€57.57)
Hero (Button) (€100)
SB (€94.51)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8♣, 9♣
Hero raises €2, SB raises €5.50, 1 fold, Hero calls €4

Flop: (€13) 9♦, 7♥, 10:diamond: (2 players)
SB bets €8, Hero calls €8

Turn: (€29) J♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets €20, SB calls €20

River: (€69) 6♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets €66 (All-In), SB calls €60.49

Total pot: €189.98

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aggro fish:

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €2.00 BB (6 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com

CO (€189.71)
Button (€228.65)
Hero (SB) (€251.35)
BB (€200)
UTG (€262.75)
MP (€212.70)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A♥, Q♦
2 folds, CO calls €2, 1 fold, Hero raises €7, 1 fold, CO calls €6

Flop: (€18) 9♣, A♦, 9♦ (2 players)
Hero bets €12, CO raises €36, Hero calls €24

Turn: (€90) 4♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (€90) 5♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets €48, Hero calls €48

Total pot: €186

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guy was not betting SDV, so no reason to think that he has a K in his flop betting range. I could have one so the plan is to make him fold better aces by check/shoving the river.

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €1.00 BB (5 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com

BB (€110.03)
UTG (€100)
MP (€126.96)
Button (€201.70)
Hero (SB) (€100)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♥, A♥
2 folds, Button raises €2, Hero raises €7.50, 1 fold, Button calls €6

Flop: (€17) A♠, K♣, 7♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets €10.50, Hero calls €10.50

Turn: (€38) 2♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (€38) K♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets €22, Hero raises €81.50 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: €82

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some aggro reg, he was 3betting me quite a lot BU vs CO so easy call. I could have all 2 pairs, sets and 9x but I don't think he does. Plan is to make him fold Qx, Kx and Ax hands on the river.

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €2.00 BB (6 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com

Button (€84)
SB (€148.80)
BB (€215.60)
UTG (€268.90)
Hero (MP) (€224.75)
CO (€242.70)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K♦, J♦
1 fold, Hero raises €4, CO raises €12, 3 folds, Hero calls €8

Flop: (€27) 10:club:, 6♠, 8♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (€27) Q♦ (2 players)
Hero bets €18, CO calls €18

River: (€63) 7♣ (2 players)
Hero bets €76, 1 fold

Total pot: €63

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't think I had any info about this one. Shoving river as I don't expect him to ever fold a value hand that's good enough to check/raise flop with and flushdraws are folding the river anyways.

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €1.00 BB (6 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.com

Button (€100)
SB (€153.73)
BB (€101.66)
UTG (€52.44)
MP (€207.71)
Hero (CO) (€158.39)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 10:club:, Q♠
2 folds, Hero raises €2, 2 folds, BB calls €1

Flop: (€4.50) 8♠, J♠, A♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets €3, BB raises €9, Hero calls €6

Turn: (€22.50) 4♣ (2 players)
BB bets €14, Hero calls €14

River: (€50.50) K♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets €133.39 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: €50.50

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess nothing too thrilling about this hand. Villain checks back Ax and SDV on the flop. Even if he does have an Ax hand he's likely not calling a small river overbet when he's capped to top pair and hero can have all the nutted hands.

Prima No-Limit Hold'em, €2.00 BB (6 handed) - Prima Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com

UTG (€200.55)
MP (€203)
CO (€234.87)
Button (€435.80)
SB (€418.20)
Hero (BB) (€202.50)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J♦, 10:diamond:
3 folds, Button raises €4, 1 fold, Hero calls €2

Flop: (€9) Q♣, 6♣, Q♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: (€9) 7♣ (2 players)
Hero bets €6, Button calls €6

River: (€21) A♦ (2 players)
Hero bets €26, 1 fold

Total pot: €21

Let me know if you're interested in me posting more hands and feel free to share your thoughts about these ones!

Best,
S ♠_love:

up?