Making a living with STT SNGs

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
I am about to go home, make some diner and relax, before bed work on this system for gym/cardio/meals. Will post some of it tomorrow in the blog.
Enjoy your night!

I know all the talk about Thailand etc is usually about women and weather ( and why not! ♦ ) , but for me, this real life stuff is a big draw. I live alone, and have to do all the "drudgery" of laundry, meals , shopping, cleaning , cooking etc. A maid in the UK is too expensive., as would be eating out 24/7, amazing qualityand healthy freshly prepared food. Maybe also in Serbia. Thailand is such easy living. You get all the boring stuff taken care of for small money, leaving you more time for earning/ partying/ jamming etc.

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
I got bunch of backing tracks and music on my hard drive. If you need any help with that stuff let me know I can send you some for jamming

Thanks bud.
Have you heard of " Licklibrary"? I have most of their output lol. It's pretty much every guitar favourite. It has everyone from Gary Moore, to Satriani ( where I learned Satriani licks) Blackmore, Schenker ,Setzer, Slash, to acoustic guys. I have 198 GB of it if you want it. I have 3 SRV dvds I just downloaded. It was watching them that made me think his stuff wasn't exactly a stretch! ♦ It has jazz and fusion guys as well, but they are way ahead of me.

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Can you share some websites with pictures, hotels/hostels and useful info to places you've been in Thailand? Prices would also be useful!
I would be interested next winter (Dec - March or something) to go there cause I really don't like winter and snow, definitely more of a summer type of person. It would be perfect life , living in Serbia 6-9 months , the rest living somewhere else while its cold here or just traveling having good time relaxing!

December is mega busy and the peak in cost.
I can tell you pretty much anything about Pattaya, which is a bit sleazy, but excellent learning place about Thailand and is a 24 hour city with western food and people who speak English. Once you are a bit confident and have some Thai language and order Thai food, you can meet the " real friendly thais", by leaving the tourist pit. Or you might like it, as an easy 24 hour poker life with your earnings.
Basically, I've done just over a 3 week, then 4 week trips , then 4 month, 3 months and two month.
3 week was all Pattaya.
4 week was 2 week Bkk, two week pattaya.( BKK owns Pattaya)
4 month - Bkk, Chiang Mai and Pattaya. CM was to visit to a bird I'd met online. Although it was a gamble, it was amazing. She was a star. I still kick myself for leaving her to go back to my hotel in Pattaya, where I'd left my laptop etc.
Done a 7 day visa trip to Cambodia. Loved it, except for dysentry lol.
3 month - All Pattaya to visit mates and party. Done a scary visa run to Cambo on a mini bus. never again!
2 month - All Pattaya ( cheap) - done a 7 day trip to Cambo, hated every minute!!! ( that's the place I might teach!).
Ask anything about Thaialand bud. But price wise, if it was soon, I could front it, if I broke even on rent / costs. My profit would be the coaching. The Thai assimilation would be free.

awesome blog.
From your point of view, who are the toughest villains on 15$ 6max?

Originally posted by TheLandlordUK

I know all the talk about Thailand etc is usually about women and weather ( and why not! ♦ ) , but for me, this real life stuff is a big draw. I live alone, and have to do all the "drudgery" of laundry, meals , shopping, cleaning , cooking etc. A maid in the UK is too expensive., as would be eating out 24/7, amazing qualityand healthy freshly prepared food. Maybe also in Serbia. Thailand is such easy living. You get all the boring stuff taken care of for small money, leaving you more time for earning/ partying/ jamming etc.

Totally agree with you, that is big deal for me also. While living abroad I used to do all those things on my own. We have a cleaning lady here, she charges 8-9 euros for one day of cleaning/ironing. I would like in future to hire some good cook to prepare me healthy meals every day. I would assume that wouldn't cost more then 100-150 euro a month.
Whats the price like for that in Thailand from your experience?

Originally posted by TheLandlordUK
Thanks bud.
Have you heard of " Licklibrary"? I have most of their output lol. It's pretty much every guitar favourite. It has everyone from Gary Moore, to Satriani ( where I learned Satriani licks) Blackmore, Schenker ,Setzer, Slash, to acoustic guys. I have 198 GB of it if you want it. I have 3 SRV dvds I just downloaded. It was watching them that made me think his stuff wasn't exactly a stretch! ♦ It has jazz and fusion guys as well, but they are way ahead of me.

Licklibrary is great! I would love to exchange with you some backing tracks.
What do you think of Guthrie Govan? Shaun Baxter? They are both from UK and in my opinion among top guitar players in the world. Shaun Baxter was my guitar teacher while in London, check his album Jazz Metal its nuts !

You will be happy to hear, yesterday had another double guitar lesson with new/old student of mine!
We are working on guitar chord melody style playing, improvising and arranging + composition. I prepared material from Berklee books, we had lots of fun yesterday working on that material. It actually brought me back in time when I was fanatic for music. I am getting that feeling again in me , more and more I want to do music and less poker Poker is a job , music is love and passion!

Perhaps towards the end of February I will add another student, webcam lesson one. Also planing on this new laptop to instal music software + VSTs (virtual instruments) so that I can in the classes use it for arranging orchestrating composing. Should be lots of fun!

Originally posted by TheLandlordUK
December is mega busy and the peak in cost.
I can tell you pretty much anything about Pattaya, which is a bit sleazy, but excellent learning place about Thailand and is a 24 hour city with western food and people who speak English. Once you are a bit confident and have some Thai language and order Thai food, you can meet the " real friendly thais", by leaving the tourist pit. Or you might like it, as an easy 24 hour poker life with your earnings.
Basically, I've done just over a 3 week, then 4 week trips , then 4 month, 3 months and two month.
3 week was all Pattaya.
4 week was 2 week Bkk, two week pattaya.( BKK owns Pattaya)
4 month - Bkk, Chiang Mai and Pattaya. CM was to visit to a bird I'd met online. Although it was a gamble, it was amazing. She was a star. I still kick myself for leaving her to go back to my hotel in Pattaya, where I'd left my laptop etc.
Done a 7 day visa trip to Cambodia. Loved it, except for dysentry lol.
3 month - All Pattaya to visit mates and party. Done a scary visa run to Cambo on a mini bus. never again!
2 month - All Pattaya ( cheap) - done a 7 day trip to Cambo, hated every minute!!! ( that's the place I might teach!).
Ask anything about Thaialand bud. But price wise, if it was soon, I could front it, if I broke even on rent / costs. My profit would be the coaching. The Thai assimilation would be free.

Sounds like you became local in Pattaya by now
When you say its peak in December, how much of a difference are we talking December vs going there mid January or early January?
Does it pay off to you to go for those 3-4 week trips? How much is plane ticket ? Did you need visa from UK for Thailand?
Regarding girls everything sounds awesome I envy so far especially that special trip you had for girl you meet online. Asian girls are super grateful <3

So lets see some extra questions
Why choose Pattaya , why not some other place?
How are beaches there?
What kind of activities does that city offer besides some bars and girls for sex? ♦
How is internet connection there? What speeds are we talking about and is it stable? (do I need backup internet even there?)
How is the whole legal matter on online poker playing there? For example, can you grind with your laptop from beach , what would happen if somebody saw you

Silly questions I know but I want to be prepared for it , will ask you more once you respond to those.

Appreciate it buddy !

Originally posted by zygna
awesome blog.
From your point of view, who are the toughest villains on 15$ 6max?

Appreciate it zygna

It really depends. For me toughest are the ones that are very aggressive, that always keep you guessing if they are on top of their range or they are bluffing.
All of the regs have leaks (including myself of course) so I aim to find their leaks and exploit them.

Toughest reg is probably Elio Oneiro. It used to be Ponchua and Kanabal18 but those guys are going for SNE this year (Ponchua grinding turbos and reg speed 30$+, Kanabal18 playing hypers 30s+). Elio on the other hand is just not human. In February he went crazy and played 2k games after 4-5 days !!! Playing 400-500 games a day is just sick and requires some huge respect from my side.
So Elio Oneiro is now reg at 15s that I respect the most in terms of his volume, ability to be top earner for this limit for 2-3 years now and tactically speaking he knows what he is doing cause he adapts vs regs. So vs him I have to always be on my toes in terms of should I 4 bet jam vs his nai 3 bet range cause you are never sure if he decided to have extended value there or is doing it for bluff this time. He is also capable to 3 bet call 4 bets super wide which makes 4 bet shoving very difficult vs him cause then we both burn money. He does this in bubble also and slows down 3 bets this way (other day he raised called me BTN vs BB A2s in bubble, had KK he got the flush ♦ )

Besides Elio there are guys that are adapting one way or the other.
I have big respect for FishOnPatrol. He used to be NASH reg all over the place but he started adapting , he improved his 3 bets, his HU is one of the best from regs on 15s I encountered, he understands ranges well post flop (is capable of bluff catching when needed), also he is aggressive enough (can double barrel for bluff often) etc

After him there is this Czech new guy, Kamenice. I respect his game a lot in HU cause he is good at adapting. In other phases he is basic ABC reg waiting for hand to shove/call/3 bet with.

I think this guy rrrroth (with dog avatar) from Romania is also interesting reg. He mixes up his plays, sometime he can shove ATC for 10bb bvb sometimes he is on top of his range sometimes nash. He does this from other positions too and plays bubble ok...

I don't have a list of 10-20 -50 regs if that's what you are looking for.

Lets just say that I have difficult time realizing my true ROI in the games where I have Elio and FishOnPatrol then with other guys.

There is tons of wider than nash regs who shove wider call wider stack off light post flop have bad starting hand selection (opening and defending) etc
Vs those regs I don't have hard time playing cause they don't balance things very well and are easily exploitable.

Hope that helps.

What are you playing? Thinking of switching to 15s 6 max?

Just a quick update for yesterday!

Taught 2 guitar lessons. It went absolutely amazing. Was very happy to work on chord melody arrangement, improvising and arranging/orchestrating techniques. Very full filling 2 hours!

After that went to local coffee place to watch with best friend and Curly Liverpool - Arsenal.
Arsenal got trashed 5-1 , it was demonstration of dominance by LFC. Too bad cause I would have liked Arsenal to win it!

After that we went to my favorite restaurant "Dva Jarana" (two buddies) to eat some amazing food. We also watched there Chelsea - Newcastle where Hazard scored 3 goals and Chelsea won 3-0 GG

After all this , went with Curly to the office, we connected his laptop to one of the monitors and he was 6 tabling 5.5 6 max microgaming. It was 2 hour long sweat session, we ran really bad, had tons of setups in bubble (Ax vs stronger Ax bvb) but Curly style of play is improving a lot! I am positive with 6 tabling he will increase his ROI and be pre RB with minimum 3% on there.
On the side note, Microgaming traffic sucks bad. There is only 1 table in the lobby for registering and to fill in 6 tables it takes time really. Sometimes we were there with 2-3 tables open waiting forever for another table.
On the other hand, opponents are super weak passive there in all phases. I saw on every single table 3 fishes and 2 regs from which both regs are not that good in my opinion (bad bubble ranges, super exploitable HU, early mid game defend too wide from blinds etc).
We finished our session after 24 games and then went home to relax and sleep.

Here I am today, about to cycle bike again eat some breakfast and go to office before 12 for another double guitar lesson!

Since yesterday I didn't play a single game of poker on my own, today I will go for more games cause I don't have any poker coaching scheduled for the day!

Enjoy your Sunday all on and off the tables!

Hey,

already switched in the middle of January to the 15$'s. My main game are MTT's, but i was looking for a format reaching Supernova status in 2014 - with MTT'' imo impossible.

I have still a lot of leaks, especially 3 and 4 handed abusing the bubble. Also my calling ranges and pushing ranges aren't optimal. Maybe i should stop mr/c short my nuts vs. regs.

Elio is sick, huge volume and always running hot vs me...
Also I respect the game of Kamenice, FishonPatrol, Lsaik and you. Fun to play against you and learning from the best 15$'s regs.

I play under the name of Ravelandbaby. See you at the tables

Originally posted by zygna
Hey,

already switched in the middle of January to the 15$'s. My main game are MTT's, but i was looking for a format reaching Supernova status in 2014 - with MTT'' imo impossible.

I have still a lot of leaks, especially 3 and 4 handed abusing the bubble. Also my calling ranges and pushing ranges aren't optimal. Maybe i should stop mr/c short my nuts vs. regs.

Elio is sick, huge volume and always running hot vs me...
Also I respect the game of Kamenice, FishonPatrol, Lsaik and you. Fun to play against you and learning from the best 15$'s regs.

I play under the name of Ravelandbaby. See you at the tables

Wise decision switching for SN chase!
You have whole year ahead of you, it takes less than 18k games to get it so you will do fine I am sure.
As far as leaks good, great that you already spotted what they are, it makes it tons easier to improve and fix them soon.
I think I have seen your nick along with 2 new regs from new years, you guys are in every game I play pretty much.

Just one tip and advice - if you want over 5% roi long term , table select otherwise 3-5% is maximum roi you can expect long term without table selection (playing 3-4 regs per game 1 fish and 1 unknown).

See you at the tables

2 guitar lessons, great lunch with my brother + some chilling and 100 games (2 sessions).
Now doing some account registration for Microgaming and will head home.

Here is the graph for the day

February 9th
100 games (3.7 hours)
ITM 41%
EV ROI 7.6% (114.64$)
ROI 8.3% (124.45$)
1st 17% 2nd 24% 3rd 14% 4th 22% 5th 17% 6th 6%

Monthly catching up now, only 700$ bellow ev now

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
We have a cleaning lady here, she charges 8-9 euros for one day of cleaning/ironing. I would like in future to hire some good cook to prepare me healthy meals every day.
Whats the price like for that in Thailand from your experience?

Eating out is so cheap, you don't need a cook. Small street stalls and restaurants are everywhere. If you stayed in a condo, you can arrange a cleaner through the office. That's 300 baht a visit ( $9). You get ironing done at the laundry, and they charge by the kg. I don't know how much, as I used to use tourist street places that charged per item. I was terrible at trying to get out of " holiday mode" ♦, and spent way to much on things like that, western food and partying. Next trip I'm going to be a rice eating nit!
I remember Daleroxxu writing that he buys massive salad boxes from the local supermarket and eats them in his condo, and there's no dishes to do. In fact, a lot of Thai condos don't have any kitchen area.

----------
January is the same as December, re costs. But flights can be expensive for us Brits , if they are too near school holidays.

The flights for me are around $1100 , with 1 stopover in Dubai. It's not a cheap hobby! ♦ But if you move there, then it's cheap.

Internet is no problem.

Legally, you would be breaking the law by gambling, and by working. I have seen them jail teachers for working without a visa. You could probably get away with poker if you gave them your bankroll !!! Cambodia is ok to work and gamble, and PI is ok to work, bit I'm not sure about online gambling.

Thailand has a 30 day visa on arrival for UK folks. Maybe for Serbia as well. You have to apply and pay for longer ones from Thai consulates in your home country.

Why Pattaya?
I preferred Bangkok, but it is about double the price for a hotel , monthly. If you stayed for 6 months + though, you can get cheap condos. Maybe even cheaper than Pattaya. Chiang Mai wasn't 24 hour, and I found it difficult to get around without a motorbike, although some guys argue against that.

Pros for Pattaya
Very cheap transport ( baht buses @ 10 cents).
There are rubbish beaches , but good for a walk. Then 5 mins on the baht bus is Naklua with better beaches. And then there's Jomtien ( 10 mins on the baht bus) , which has good beaches and even a floodlit beach at night. You might have to pay 20 cents to get to Jomtien
You can get by without knowing any Thai language.
All types of western food, from Hungarian to McDs, BKing etc , until you suss out what Thai food you like and how to order.
It's a 24 hour city, which could fit in with any skype lessons back home etc.

Cons
Not as good as Bkk or CM for meeting non sex workers. Bkk is chock full of lonely females. ♠_biggrin:
Parts of Pattaya are noisy until 5 am.
Usual crime and scams that are at every tourist centre around the world.
Busy.
A bit sleazy.
A bit too westernized ( but that can also be an advantage for a noob)
Live bands are sooo bad lol.
-------
Guthrie Govan is an amazing guitarist. I saw a great blues jam of his on LL.
I'm just off to look up Shaun Baxter.

Brilliant. I'm envious, he was your teacher. He is world class. The solos are just how I like them with the trem bar, harmonics, off the page stuff etc. I had always thought jazz guitar lacked feeling without so many bends etc.

Originally posted by TheLandlordUK
Brilliant. I'm envious, he was your teacher. He is world class. The solos are just how I like them with the trem bar, harmonics, off the page stuff etc. I had always thought jazz guitar lacked feeling without so many bends etc.

1st of all thank you for all the super useful info for Thailand!

I really appreciate it man!

Shawn is amazing , it was great to study and hang with him, he is one funny guy too.
I remember when Frank Gambale came to London (he was roommate with Iain Scott another Guitar Institute teacher) and they played some gigs together, Shawn was cutting Frank's head on all the tunes - it was amazing to experience that and enjoy it

Played 100 games today and had 2 coaching sessions.
Things are definitely turning around past 300 games or so. I was also supposed to play round 2 in HU championship but opponent stood me up which sucks. Was very much looking forward to that duel

Life wise, things are going really well lately. I am also very happy with progress my students have been showing in past 2 weeks or so. We are working 2-3 sessions per week and it is paying off a lot. Already wrote about Microgaming being super soft compared to Stars 15s so no need to write about that anymore

As far as my volume goes for this month, I am behind like in January but I am not stressed about it like before at all. I am putting way more effort into coaching others and helping them then playing 500 games more or something for myself. It makes me feel great to see those guys progress so fast. Look forward to end of the year with all of them and I hope they will reach all the goals they set for themselves !

Also very important development in my life is the fact that I am increasing my guitar teaching and music in general! I now have 2 students who study double lessons with me weekly. I will in the near future reactivate some students for webcam guitar lessons from past and perhaps couple more live ones. I manage my teaching on weekends while I do my poker coaching 90% during the weekdays so it works out great that way.
I will soon pimp out my laptop with some DAW (digital audio workstation) and VST (virtual instruments) for arranging/composition in classes and outside of them.
My best friend from Boston is definitely coming this summer and I will definitely do that month long tour with him and couple other Berklee musicians. Super psyched about that, it will put a huge smile on my face playing music I love with people I care about a lot!
He already booked some gigs, one of them is Nisville festival in my home tome (very famous jazz festival in past 5+ years). More on all this when time comes (this summer)

For the end of the update daily and monthly graph

February 11th
100 games (4 hours)
ITM 41%
EV ROI 6.3% (95.18$)
ROI 13.3% (199.63$)
1st 20% 2nd 21% 3rd 18% 4th 16% 5th 14% 6th 11%

February so far
812 games (29.6 hours)
ITM 35.2%
EV ROI 1.4% (167.47$)
ROI -3.6% (-437.12$)
1st 16.6% 2nd 18.6% 3rd 18.6% 4th 18.8% 5th 16.9% 6th 10.5%

P.S. I am cycling every day, not doing really well with healthy meals yet (some days I eat great some I skip like 2 meals and stuff) and I am planing to re-adjust my gym plan go for cardio workout mostly or freelantics type of stuff.

Off to 3rd round in HU Championship!
Check the thread with screens HERE

1st match was really hard one, 2nd and 3rd I won much easier as opponent started to spew a bit and be overly aggressive in spots. Really enjoyed playing him and just love this whole competition that PokerStrategy organized!

Saying it was interesting, maybe post instructive HHs if you have time... in case there was meaty postflop play

I'm gonna have a hard time in the first levels of my match, as it will start 100 bb deep, and I've hardly ever played HUNL deeper than 37 bb (I mean, in the last 19 months aka my 'pro career' ).

Originally posted by tonypmm
Saying it was interesting, maybe post instructive HHs if you have time... in case there was meaty postflop play

I'm gonna have a hard time in the first levels of my match, as it will start 100 bb deep, and I've hardly ever played HUNL deeper than 37 bb (I mean, in the last 19 months aka my 'pro career' ).

How about this one ?

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $80(BB) Replayer
Hero ($2,100)
($900)

Dealt to Hero J♦ 7♠

calls $40, Hero checks

FLOP ($160) 9♦ 5♥ 8♥

Hero checks, checks

TURN ($160) 9♦ 5♥ 8♥ 7♦

Hero checks, checks

RIVER ($160) 9♦ 5♥ 8♥ 7♦ 5♦

Hero checks, bets $120, Hero calls $120

As far as your HU goes, best of luck with it I am sure you will crush it
I love hypers, do you play them on ipoker? How are opponents there in HU?

And this one , debatable if its ok to bet river there or not with SD value
He was 3 betting NAI from very beginning rarely folding his blind.
I bet the river to get him to fold 10x and 5x which he 3 bets nai trashes with

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $30(BB) Replayer
($1,845)
Hero ($1,155)

Dealt to Hero 8♦ K♠

Hero raises to $60, raises to $120, Hero calls $60

FLOP ($240) J♥ A♦ A♠

bets $120, Hero calls $120

TURN ($480) J♥ A♦ A♠ T♥

checks, Hero checks

RIVER ($480) J♥ A♦ A♠ T♥ 5♥

No grinding today just HU games and one hot 8.8$ MTT
Lost half stack by r/calling BTN vs SB AJo vs A8o
Opponent hit 8 on 677 turn 8 Standard MTT stuff which is why I don't like playing them overall - it takes too long for variance to catch up and you get more negative emotion going when you play it for hours and somebody sucks out on you!

Spent whole day with my family, it was fantastic. Grandmas birthday, she turn 85 today! We bought her gifts and went for surprise visit.
I was and still am amazed to see person at age 85 to have so much energy emotions and be alive more then a lot of lazy people I know around me here in Nis. Just makes you wonder how people are not taking advantage of their potential slacking a lot etc.

Today also bought toaster cause I want to make great sandwiches lol

That's about it for today besides 2 coaching sessions , HU and this mtt...

More and more I am leaning towards 2k a month volume instead of 3k but we shall see how money flow goes

Wp both. (I'd maybe 3x pre in the 1st one is the opp was tight-passive, which is not the case.)

I don't grind HUs as such, but as a 3-6-max SnG player, I have quite a lot of shallow HU play. Surely 6-max players are worse at HU, many of them play too many tables to get concentrated. My favourite reg villain in the HU phase is a Russian Pokerstrategist xvladislavx. (JP SnGs are a predominantly Russian game for some reason, there are at least 6 Russian (+1 Ukrainian) PStrat regs at Rios-Forts )