Originally posted by Ramble
My favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye...
I love it too. Although I have to admit I have read it quite a while ago. I am not sure how I would feel about it now, a little bit older (not wiser though ♦ ), but I think it is a perfect book to read as a teen/college student...
Originally posted by CekamBoju
Originally posted by Ramble
My favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye...I love it too. Although I have to admit I have read it quite a while ago. I am not sure how I would feel about it now, a little bit older (not wiser though ♦ ), but I think it is a perfect book to read as a teen/college student...
I'm almost 40... It is the only book I have ever re-read and I do so every 4-5 years... ![:]](https://www.pokerstrategy.com/_forum-runtime/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/emoticons/pokerstrategy-legacy/basics/pleased.gif ":]")
OK the first week of March is up and it's time for the update. I don't want the blog to go without updates for almost a month like last time, so no excuses. Here we go.
- After the February update I have posted I had another session with Coach/Bro and tried to identify spots where we are leaking and loosing money. In general the session showed that I lacked aggression in the bubble and was missing a lot of spots to steal chips, I over adjusted in HU and started calling too wide (in contrast to previous tendency that I was a bit tight) along with some mistakes in ranges in specific setups. Anyway I ended up with large, large, large homework doing a very detailed BUBBLE study in all kinds of stack setups, opponent types and etc. Basically I will be doing it for a while. My plan is to do a part of the homework everyday, before doing the hand review of the previous session and start of the grind. Anyway on to the results.
So here are the comments regarding the graph and results:
- Volume is a little behind (expected about 350 games in a week) due to several factors such as disappearing traffic on MG, playing few half-session since we had a friend from Belgrade we spent some time with etc. Anyway I will try to rework the grind schedule a bit since the regular peak hours are not there any more. I have noticed that there is more traffic in early afternoon than later. So I will try to start playing earlier to fit in two sessions before the evening where traffic is an issue. Basically I will try to make up volume but might not be possible (since I won't play 10 hours for 50 games that's just stupid) and long term I might have to look for a better place to grind if MG doesn't improve
- Results are quite good since I am showing a nice profit (even though it's a small sample) which is continuing a good trend from the last week of February and I think both sessions with coach helped in that area. Basically I am not running terribly as in February so far and I have a 10% RoI which is slightly bellow 12.2% EV RoI that I am showing but that's totally irrelevant on such a small sample. I am looking forward for the trend to continue in the future.
- There is still a lot of room to improve though, and I am not being greedy here. In general you can see that I have almost 40% ITM which is quite a lot but the balance of 1st and 2nd places is almost even which leaves a lot of room to increase RoI. If I can get the ratio to 60-40 in HU (which is quite doable on these limits and against these opponents) that would very positively affect the RoI. As I have mentioned the sessions and hand review showed that I have called a bit lighter in HU so some money was lost there but I will work on fixing that now.
In general it's a good start in March which just gets you more motivated to crush. Also feels good not to feel sick when you are grinding ♦ ♦
- Non Poker Stuff
All recommends for the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance it's a great read sometimes, even though 40+ years old still amazingly relevant to many things today and offers a good food for thought and how to look at some things from another angle. I am about 20% through it and I am having fun, will hit up on it once I am through for sure.
Time for the update.
I have been quite busy with poker since last update since I have decided to focus even more and spend time with the game in order to improve quicker. Microgaming has been giving all of us trouble with volume who are playing there so we tried to find a way to make up for that traffic (playing a mix of 2.75 and 5.5 euro games, playing other formats beside 6max like DoN and etc.) and in the end we have decided to switch to back to Stars once the bonus is cleared.
In general volume is quite a large issue since I ended up having to play 5-6 hours a day for 50 games and this is such a waste of time and money even with a good RB deal. Stars would not provide such a good RB deal and stuff but I would've played at least 30% more games in the same timeframe, if not even 50%. So it's back to Stars at the end of the month, since I have 4-5 days to clear the bonus.
In the previous period I have spent time every day on:
- Reviewing hand histories from the previous session, before every new session. I spend an hour every day at least on checking the hands from yesterday's session, running different situations such as bubble, 4-6 man, heads-up, raise/calls, 3bet/shoves, missed minraise/3bet/shove spots and etc. I have to say that I am really happy with this part since I am showing less and less mistakes every session, and I think that I have brushed up my ranges and ICM quite well.
- Doing a post-flop leak finding every day. I filter all the hands that have seen the flop and went to showdown and select the hands that were played badly/lost and then run an analysis of the hand and write down thinking process for each hand PF/F/T/R and send that to my coach to run through.
- Playing 2 sessions of 2.5-3 hours every day. It's a solid time put into the grind everyday, but the volume has suffered because of declining Microgaming traffic. Anyway looking forward to switching back to Stars and playing way more games in the same timeframe.
Anyway here is the results from the last session.
I have played a decent volume in this period and have done quite OK, especially in the first part of the period, started getting some bad card distribution and running not so good in the later part and the end result is not as good but still not a huge sample to make any assumptions on. EV RoI is above 4% which is just slight bellow my target of 5% for this month. So regarding this I am satisfied, but still confident that will improve even more by the end of the month.
The other side of the story is that I have been forced to mix limits and I have played some 5.5 SnGs and in this quite small volume this happened.
Basically I have been bitch slapped in less than 200 tournaments. Terrible card distribution and setups are mostly to blame for this and I am quite confident that I am right now capable of beating this limit as well since 95% of the players on 2.75 and 5.5 are same people (since there is no traffic and everyone is mixing limits). It's a tiny sample but still nice to show how I was raped ♦
Anyway, I will focus on maintaining my daily routine in the following week and clearing out the bonuses and preparing myself for switch to good all stars. I am excited that I will not have to lose so much time and energy in finding games, and I can use that to improve my game and play more games.
Non-Poker Stuff
- Finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and came away quite happy with the book. It made me think quite a lot and try to reevaluate some of the principles I was guiding myself by. That's what a good book is supposed to do. The added value is that the book is quite reread friendly and can be revisited any time to follow up on some things. I give a high recommendation for anyone who wants to try something new.
- I am still looking for a recommend for the second book to read this month. I am leaning more to something which is a bit more easy reading so I can relax with a book.
- Got IvicaIliev77 hooked on Game of Thrones, and for those who know him you know how big of a deal this is. Basically he only watches TV shows with fart jokes and retarded humor (like 2 and a half men and etc.) and bypasses anything that is a challenging watch. I am sure that Gerovit now will say this is bullshit ♦ ♦
See you at the end of the month with another update.
Hey time for March wrap up.
I have been quite a busy bee in March and played a decent amount of games, and more important I have worked much more on my game. So I will just reflect back on the goals set at the beginning of the month.
Poker Goals
- Play 1500 games on Microgaming 6max SNG 2.5+0.25EUR - I have played 1,300 games on MG and I would've played the full 1,500, but I cleared my bonus earlier than expected and since I am switching to PokerStars I decided there is no need to play anymore. Anyway I count this as completed.
- 5% EV RoI on this limit - I had 3.9% EV RoI on 2.5+0.25EUR, also the sample might not be large enough, combined with the downswing I was on, affected this low EV RoI. So this is a minor fail, I expected more but it's not a disaster by any mean.
- Put in at least 40 hours in studying and analyzing my game (something I failed on in February) - major success! I have actually worked more than 50 hours on my game, since I spent on average 2 hrs per day on hand review, homework and etc.
- Create a study schedule to include a good mix of theory, hand review, watching videos etc. - I don't even have an idea how to grade this. I spent a lot of time doing all these things, even had a set time (2 hours before each grind session) so from that perspective it was a total success. Still I am not happy that I don't have a schedule which would outline things like 20 hours of hand review, 3 hours watching videos, 10 hours of homework and working in HRC and ICMizer etc. So lets make it neutral.
- Do at least 3 more sessions with my brother during the month. - This was a success completely. We actually did 6 sessions in March. We are now on a schedule to do two sessions a week and that's awesome.
Non-Poker Goals
- Resist the urge to start GTA V on PS3 - Complete success. Didn't even try to put the the disc into PS3. Super proud!
- Cook more and avoid buying ready food from fast food, pizza places etc etc. (only good thing during my sick period in February is I did a lot of cooking, so our grind group ended up eating quite well). - FAIL. First part of the month I cooked almost everyday, brought food to our poker office etc, second part of the month complete fail. Not happy!
- Read 2 books. Open to suggestions from other members. Basically I read a wide variety of genres (although take it easy on the elfs and etc. I love SF, fantasy and many other things but am particularly pissed of by Tolkien style fantasy). - Success! I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was a cool (but a bit of a heavy) read and also I read Memoirs of a Gas Station Attendant by Sam Neumann ( http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Gas-Station-Delightfully-Awkward-ebook/dp/B007W68SDG ) which is actually a quite charming little book in the style of Bill Bryson. It's kind a like a travelogue, summer dairy of a dude who took a year off after college to spend it as a seasonal worker in Alaska. Looking forward to more book choices for April.
- Spend a lot of time with our grind group (we are already a tight knit group growing up together and all, but you can never have enough of that, especially the older you get.) - Success! We had a lot of fun throughout the whole month, lots of laughs, all culminating in a nice weekend trip to Timisoara. Everything else is easier when you have nice guys like that around you.
All in all it was a productive month with a lot of positives. Sorry for no graphs this time, since I took PokerTracker 4 off my computer so my bro can use the license on his computer for HUSNG (he has a special hud which is PT4 exclusive). Graphs will be back at the end of this week. Anyway in the next post about plans for April and new goals.
OK, new month is ahead so I few comments about plans and what's coming in April.
I am switching back to PokerStars to play 3.5$ SNG 6max Turbos - Basically with the death of MG traffic there was no more reasons to postpone the permanent move to PokerStars because of a good RB deal. The focus will be on PreRB EV RoI, and crushing and moving up limits. Also coming back to HM2 that I am more comfortable using to PT4.
I will try to up the volume of grinding again since my grind stamina is back and I can easily grind 6 or more hours per day. I will keep playing 6 tables (regardless of being capable of playing more) in order to maximize the time on making correct decisions and fixing the leaks and etc. It will be quite easy to switch to more tables in the future but it's not necessary now, since we are in learning mode not moneymaking ♦ I would rather spend some extra time grinding at this point, then increasing volume by number of tables.
Also looking forward to a better non-poker life with more time spend outside in this ridiculously nice weather (it's been 22+ celsius for days now here). Laugh and have fun every day and improve yourself.
Here are the goals for April 2014.
Poker Goals
- Play at least 2000 games of $3.5 6max Turbo SNGs on PokerStars this month
- Have at least 5% EV RoI over that sample
- Spend at least 30 hours working on my game through hand review, homework, videos etc.
- Do at least 8 sessions with bro/coach
Non-Poker Goals
- Cook more! - I was super proud of the first half of March and all the cooking I did, but then I got lazy and failed completely in the second part of the month. So basically, cook more every day if possible.
- Read 2 books - Open to all suggestions from PS community, don't be shy. I love to read and watch based on recommendations and then talk about it later. I think it's a sure fire way to improve one self and also avoid wasting time on some piece of garbage.
- Start learning a new language. - I have always been told that I am super talented for languages and I pick them up easily by ear. I did that with English and Greek and I would like to add something more to the repertoire. I am still debating whether to go with Spanish or Portuguese. Spanish I have so many options to learn from including a lot of language schools with lessons and is also an added value since it is quite spread around the globe. On the other hand Portuguese I am really intrigued, since I have been long term contemplating a move there and getting away from Serbia. Anyway it will be either Spain or Portugal as places where I might see myself moving. I will think about it in the next few days and then make a decision to start one now and take the other one at a later date. I am looking for any good online courses, books, software that you might now/recommend. I guess that there is a lot of PS community which moved to Gibraltar and might have some idea on best way to learn Spanish etc.
- Treat myself and finish one video game this month on PS3 - I've been good and not gone crazy once I hacked my PS3 and got like 100+ games so I will treat myself with one game this month. I will see whether to go with GTA V, Assassins Creed - Black Flag or something else.
- Spend time with family and the grind buddies/roomates.
That's all for now. See you at the end of the week with a follow up on the first week on PokerStars.
Nice goals both poker related and not- poker related. Looking forward to read how are you doing with all these. Keep us updated 
Fran
Just a quick update on the first book I will read this month. I wanted to go with a non-fiction book first and try something different. Downloaded a bunch of books last night and I have decided on this one:
It's a book about Detroit which has intrigued me a lot in the last 10-15 years. I have been to Detroit twice (albeit for a day both times) since it was the cheapest connection to Denver. The place seemed quite strange, deluded and fucked up, also full of people with anger, despair and etc. Always wandered why is it like that. Quite aware of how fucked up it is due to the economic crisis and the fall of the Big Three in auto industry, but there has to be more to that story.
I will give you an update on the how's the book going in the weekly blog updates.
Interesting blog and nice nick..I always waited for flush when I started playing...and now its my soft spot ;-)...you sure do have same genes like Ivica...you two write like journalists...will be following
cheers
Originally posted by CekamBoju
Would love to hear what you think of this book - I've heard some staggeringly sad statistics about Detroit after 2008... depending on your recommendation I might have to pick this up as well.
Originally posted by Ramble
Originally posted by CekamBoju
Would love to hear what you think of this book - I've heard some staggeringly sad statistics about Detroit after 2008... depending on your recommendation I might have to pick this up as well.
Hey I am almost through the whole book and I cannot recommend it enough. Sometimes it hurts me to read it, since it is so full of anger, disappointment and misery but the writing is fantastic that you cannot put it away.
The story is told from a first person POV and it reads like a journalistic rant, very captivating and graphic, vivid. In general it's the story about Detroit and it's riches to ruin story but at the same time it's more about the people and the direction in which modern society is taking them. At times it feels like a Mad Max movie, or a Cormack McCarthy's The Road.
The author takes on everything from politicians and their broken promises, corrupt police, union bosses, Big Three and corporate thieves, crime, drugs and murder etc. etc. While I am reading it so many times I find myself nodding in agreement over so many things that are said. Even though I have no real connection with Detroit the book makes me feel for the plight of that city and it's people and also makes you thinks about other places where you have lived/seen. In general there are so many things that have ruined Detroit that can be identified in many cities that we live in or visit, it's just a matter of the tipping point and when it will happen in so many other places we know.
It's a great great book.
Going through my "Favorites" list and noticed you haven't updated in a while...
Fill us in - what have you been up to in poker and life, any good book recommendations, etc...?
