Puppy crushing it standard stuff. Next graph NL50?
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Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Puppy crushing it standard stuff. Next graph NL50?
Nope 
Some more NL25
Week 28
Hands: 6.944
Won: -$119.73
Bankroll: $2075.50
Had a lot of real-life stuff getting in the way of the grind this week and overall I’m not very pleased with my performance. I didn’t play enough hands and also didn’t put enough hours into studying, which I will try to address in the future.
As a part of my study this week I am planning to re-run all the filters from w34z3l’s Red-Line rampage series and make a thorough DB analysis of the past couple of weeks. Given that my game deviated somewhat from the default strategy he suggests in his videos, I think that some post-flop leaks poped out as a result and I will try to weed them out. Poker is such a complicated game and it is fascinating how minor tweaks in strategy can cause a huge chain reaction and expose holes in your game that you don’t even think of during the sessions. These things can impact your bottom line in a huge way and many players, especially at micros, underestimate the power of post-session analysis and theory study. One might think that he got his game figured out, and can just grind away and make some easy money, but that’s a very dangerous way of thinking about poker. A poker player should constantly review his play, even concepts that seem like a second nature. Our mind can play tricks on our perception of the game, and a close-up analysis can reveal things that we aren’t aware of.
I will repeat myself and say that poker is very complicated, but if the passion for the game drives you forward to improve with every step, then what can go wrong, right?
but if the passion for the game drives you forward to improve with every step, then what can go wrong, right?
YES!
You got this Puppy. NL200 ZOOM by the end of this year!
Week 29
Hands: 18,443
Won: +$37.25
Bankroll: $2112.75
This was a rather swingy week in Hold’em, mistakes were made, money was burnt, but overall I feel good about this week, and all thanks to Stud and Draw promotion on PokerStars. This was a much needed push for me to start grinding mixed games again, which helped me climb out of the red this week. I didn’t grind a lot of those, because I felt that I still need to grind a lot of Hold’em, but overall I put in about 5+ hours of different mixed games formats. I was pleasantly surprised that things started to click in my weakest games such as Stud8 and Stud Hi, and in the end I even started noticing people’s leaks and understand how to exploit them. I will continue grinding and improving every mixed games format, but my main focus will still be on Hold’em, where I feel most comfortable. Nevertheless Hold’em starts to feel like a grind, while mixed games are fun and exciting, and probably more profitable. This was a very important week for achieving my goal of becoming a well-rounded poker player, and I’m excited as ever to continue improving my weak areas of the game.
Week 30
Hands: 12,181
Won: +$253.53
Rakeback: +$50
Total: +$303.53
Bankroll: $2416.28
This was a very productive week studying-wise as I spent a lot of time reviewing and dissecting some theory concepts, which opened my eyes in regard to how a lot of thing work in poker. Also it made me understand even more how technical poker skills and mental game are tied together and how the strong bond between the two is crucial for long-term success. For many mental game means controlling your emotions during the game, being tilt-resistant, having a zen attitude towards results and so on, which, of course, is indeed a major part of mental game, but that’s just scratching the surface of this matter. In fact one might compare the above-mentioned things to something like calculating pot-odds. It is undoubtedly a major part of poker, but is it its defining thing? Of course, poker wouldn’t be poker without pot-odds, but those are only a tiny drop in a vast ocean of concepts presented by poker. And we should look at the mental game the same way. Controlling tilt and emotions is a must for a successful poker player, but mental game doesn’t stop there.
If we think about it, our brain governs every decision we make, and our personalities reflect heavily on our strategies and play styles. Humans are emotional beings and our brain didn’t evolve to play this game, yet very often we fail to take this into account as poker players. We can easily distinguish a –EV spot from a +EV spot, but do we ever consider we have a leak in a spot where we routinely take a line which yields us for example 14bb EV while there is a superior line that can yield us 17bb? This is not that uncommon as one might think, especially with nutted hands. We make a lot of money with those, and therefore we wouldn’t stop and think that we actually have a leak and are constantly making a mistake.
Another common mental leak I found out about, which I think a lot of people can refer to, is that we tend to lean towards decisions that “feel good” or don’t lead to tough decisions on later streets. We hate feeling bad and in poker this can be problematic. For example, if we hate to see a raise from an opponent, we tend not to value bet thinly enough. Our mind can make up a lot of excuses and tell us that we are pot-controlling, or that it is a close decision, but at times like this what is really speaking to us? Hours of precise calculations and theory study or our frightened mind that begs us to take a passive low variance line that has a lower EV just for the sake of avoiding that awful feeling “uggh… I knew he would re-raise me here, I hate it, I should have checked back”. But is this fear of getting re-raised really an excuse to play poorly? Another example might be a situation where we don't 3-bet TT in a good spot and instead call saying to ourselves that we can set mine here or hit a good flop, and when flop comes AQ7, we comfortably check-fold with a feeling that we did everything we could in that hand. Yeah? Now did we really?
There are countless examples like that in poker. There are a lot of situations where the correct decision makes us feel bad, uncomfortable, and puts us in a tough spot, and we constantly make up a lot of excuses and arguments for an inferior line because it makes us avoid this nasty feeling. In many cases people aren’t aware of what really drives their decisions, and at the end of the day you can justify pretty much everything in poker. Even the most stupid line can seem correct and reasonable if you tweak your assumptions enough. But we must never forget that to be really successful in poker all that matter is we take the most +EV line in every situation and sometimes this line will make us feel miserable.
Puppy you know I am all about making it more difficult ♦
I am happy to see this graph and that you are building your mental game like a boss. As a aspiring poker pro you need to get that under your belt. Something that has been my major problem in CG in comparison to SNGs. When I look back past 6 months I can definitely say that I improved more as a poker player in CG then in 2 years as a SNG player. I guess that is why tilt triggers happen not for me but for anyone. There tons of things to learn and implement and then when you grind you reach a lot of spots where you might feel unsure (or you simply play wrong) which can lead into spewing and that triggers tilt. So the best solution is building strong study habits, studying daily and working on fixing all the leaks + moving the top of the game. Constantly evaluating your progress and being realistic about where you were and where you are. Knowing your story, you have really come a long way and I really don't see anything stopping you to crush any limit in the future - you have the willpower and all the tools to do it + support, so you are bound to make it sooner or later!
GL with mental game things and lets see next graph with NLshitty 10bb/100 ♦
Week 31
Hands: 13,156
Won: +$10.45
Bankroll: $2426.73
This week I had some days off from poker, but surprisingly still managed to put in some volume. So the grind is coming along nicely, although I wish I spent some more time reviewing my game and fixing leaks. I will try to make that a priority in the future, which brings me back to my never-ending struggle of balancing live play and study. The study itself can be broken down to multiple aspects, such as theory study, reviewing sessions, analyzing database and so on, and I seem to be only focusing heavily on theory.
To fix that I will try to record my sessions and mix in some in-depth review into my study routine. I feel like this way of reviewing my play suits me the most. There are a lot of error that creep into my game because of auto-pilot and some other issues. But I’m certain that constant analysis will help me weed them out one by one.
Week 32
Hands: 8,390
Won: -$206.94
Bankroll: $2219.79
Had a shitty run this week, but overall I feel good about my grind and future prospects. I started making some changes in my grinding routine last week and I will continue experimenting and see where it goes. As always I’ve spent a great deal of time studying theory and despite being lost in a lot of new concepts I feel like things are starting to click more and more. To bring those concepts to practice I will try to do a lot of hand analysis in CREV. Regarding the grind I’m not sure I will be able to do a lot of grind this week since a small stretch of holidays is coming, but I will try to do my best.
Wow.. Amazing blog! Read it completely from the beginning to the end. Very valuable info in here.
I have read how to be a poker player and it was for me also an inspiration to get back at poker and give it another shot because of the beauty of the game. Currently re-reading it. I'm playing NL10 and trying to get my study habits set.
Added you as friend, maybe I can get your skype?
Keep crushing! Greetz 
Hi Elpsycho!
I was looking for Poker downswings videos and articles and I felt on your blog!
I read it from the begining and man... we have a similar story! :f_biggrin::f_biggrin::f_biggrin:
My name is Maxime, I'm from Québec and I'm 20 years old.
Started to play seriously last year, putting some hours between school and my side job.
Grinded my bankroll from 100$ to 1900$, I took a shot at 50NL this week on Pokerstars when I was over 2000$.
I'm now trying to get back there, I'm mainly playing zoom though!
I would love to contact you either on facebook, skype or e-mail whatever!
I created an account on Pokerstrategy just to join you sir!
Tell me if you're interested in sharing poker hands or strategies with me, I think it could be very beneficial for both of us!
Email: [Edited by SDK1987: posting contact information is against https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=755570#post755570 ]
Pokerstars ID: monaie plz
See ya man!
(Sorry for my english if I made some mistakes!)
Originally posted by livethelife7
...
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the book and my blog. Sent you a skype info in PM. 
Originally posted by maxsuperhot
...
Hey man. I'm really flattered you joined PS just to write on my blog Sent you a friend request, so we can exchange skype info.
Week 33
Hands: 2,749
Won: -$133.41
Bankroll: $2086.38
It was a pretty bad week for poker. A lot of real life stuff piled up and kept me from grinding and studying as much as I would like. But I still managed to play some hands and donate some money. I’m not greedy you know. All jokes aside though, I feel like my game is slipping somewhat and there are a lot of spots where I feel lost, which doesn’t make for successful grinding. It seems like I make mistakes in obvious spots but can’t put a finger on it even during post-session analysis. It might be a result of too many experiments and changes in my game at once, so in all likelihood I need to take my game a couple of steps back and try to objectively assess my game. Return to the basics if I must.
But the main problem I have right now is my recent “free-flowing” work ethic. It doesn’t work. You should always have a plan and follow it. You set a goal and press forward. As simple as that. Having short-term goals and means to assess them helps you avoid being lost when variance is tossing you about. It is crucial for the long-term success and shouldn’t be underestimated as I have recently. To get to a destination you need a map and I seem to have lost mine somewhere. That’s why this week I will spend some time making outlines for my poker journey and setting some goals. I need to return to a stricter working regime to avoid this feeling of being lost which I have right now.
Week 34
Hands: 2,446
Won: -$110.47
Bankroll: $1975.91
Haven’t played a lot this week and to be honest I wasn’t quite eager to start the tables because of a bad run I’ve had lately. I feel a bit burnt out but I guess this should be expected at some point during a poker career. Along with that I had a large amount of work fall down on me and I didn’t quite have time to mourn my poor poker results. Anyway, I’m quite positive that the tide will turn and I will be back grinding a decent volume.
I will like the post when I see like 14k hands next week and results going up like minimum 10 buy ins!!!
Week 35
Hands: 634
Won: +$54.08
Rakeback: +$46.60
Total: +$100.68
Bankroll: $2076.59
This week I managed to play embarrassing 634 hands of poker, since the main focus was on trying to better organize my life and juggle poker/work/sports/relationships so they would fall into some nice maintainable schedule which won’t lead to burnout and won’t leave some things behind. I had a massive amount of work to do this week and it severely pushed poker to the background, but I’m getting closer to establishing a nice schedule, which should work nicely and keep everything flowing. Despite pretty much non-existent volume this week I managed to squeeze in a couple of study sessions and review such crucial poker concept as betsizing. This is one of the hardest poker concepts in No-Limit, which explains why a lot of people, even regs on higher stakes, have massive leaks in this area and are constantly making mistakes. And if your best friend in a lot of spots on a lot of boards is 2/3 pot-sized bet, or ½ for that matter, there are definitely a lot of things you can improve. So I decided to focus on this area of my game, but for now I’m barely scraping the surface.
One of the highlight of the past week was sweating one of my poker friends while he played a daily 8-game MTT where he managed to get 2nd place and win a decent prize. It was quite surprising to see how bad people are still playing in mixed-games tournaments. While the NLH scene skyrocketed in difficulty in the past couple of years, the mixed-games tournaments seem to have been left somewhere in 2003. Long story short there pretty much wasn’t a single decent player on the final table.
So overall, this week I plan to dedicate much more time to poker than I did in the last couple of weeks. I feels wrong not to have it in my life as much as I would like. I want to get back on track towards achieving my poker goals and making it my primary profession, and I have a decent plan how to do it.
Week 36
Hands: 1,684
Won: +$17.20
Bankroll: $2093.79
I have been playing regular tables for some time now and will continue playing them for the time being. I found very surprising how much adjusting it takes to switch from zoom to other formats. My last losing month or so was caused by my failure to adjust to different player pool and this week I realized some crucial mistakes I made in the last 10k hands which cost me a lot of money. Poker is all about adjusting and I paid a hefty amount to learn this lesson. When everything goes well it’s easy to forget that we should always be focused and flow with the game, otherwise when the game changes it’s easy to become felt behind. Hopefully I won’t do the same mistake again and my future results will reflect it.
Week 37
Hands: 282
Won: +$51.09
Bankroll: $2144.88
A lot has happened in the last couple of week, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to grind. Mainly I was working non-stop in order to get all the things done before leaving to a long capoeira event which lasted for 3 days and has ended only yesterday. In between all that I bought a new PC and spend a lot of time setting up all the necessary things to continue grinding.
Regarding my poker routine there will also be some changes. I’m going to be moving away from Stars in order to play regular tables with a huge accent on exploitable play. In the last couple of months I have spent a great deal of time studying GTO concepts and poker theory and it does help to maintain a somewhat nice winrate on zoom-like games, but still I think that on limits NL200 and lower an exploitable approach is still much more profitable. So I’m going to cut down my volume and start learning all I can about exploitable play, which is as important as any other skill in poker.