29th Week challenge (Friday) - DAY 203
- 1032/1500 tournaments played
- 66/90 hours of studying
- 2/4 sessions with coach
Usual grinding day, feel i have more control in all phases of the game, HU mostly, which is a good news, lots of money have been burned in that area so far, getting better at it.
29th Week challenge (Saturday) - DAY 204
- 1092/1500 tournaments played
- 68/90 hours of studying
- 2/4 sessions with coach
Today i woke up little later then usual (usual is 8am) today was around 10am. Went to grocery store before it gets too hot, and planned my work day to star little later then usual too. Got home, started making lunch with my gf (pizza!) and watched movie LA Confidential, great one too.
Regarding studying, i do ICM ranges memorizing with HH review and posting them on forum. Have tons of work to do in ICM area before i move on to detailed bubble leak fixing.
Just finished with grinding, went ok, but it could end up much better as i had 50$ more 2nd then 1st places today, so i need to review HU HH with usual ICM spots.
Going to mark hands now before i go to bed and do HH review first day tomorrow before grind session.
Going to write detailed time management for each day here as i used to:
Sunday
9-10 Wake up, breakfast
10-11 HH review
11-12 Posting hands on forum
12-12:30 Break
12:30-14:30 1st grind session
14:30-16h Rest, lunch
16-17 ICM Area study
17-19 2nd grind session
19-20 Break
20-21:30 3rd grind session
Must follow this 100% in order to increase my functionality and quality time spending, i feel that the way i did last 7 days is not going to cut it.
29/30th Week challenge (Sunday/Monday) - DAY 205/206
- 1212/1500 tournaments played
- 72/90 hours of studying
- 2/4 sessions with coach
Again missed my Sunday update, i decided that i need to do updates at the end of the day because if i leave it for tomorrow then it doesnt happen 
Played 60 games steady, gonna post some graphs at the end of the month.
So, news are that my gf finished working one year intern work at the kinder garden or whatever you call it, now she is preparing for some final exam so she can start working.
That means that now i wont be alone home from 8-15h every day Monday to Friday, and that mean that we will figure out some common time management for us to increase our productivity.
Will talk with her about that tomorrow and post the news here.
Gonna wake up tomorrow around 9am and make a new time management and start my usual working day 
Awesome stuff going on Darko. Very soon you will own them all on 3.5$ and 7$ limits. Super happy and proud of you!
29/30th Week challenge (Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday) - DAY 207/208/209/210
- 1353/1500 tournaments played
- 82/90 hours of studying
- 3/4 sessions with coach
So, today im updating for past few days and with some more info about how this month went.
Tournaments played - Played 1353 tournaments on 1,5$ and 3,5$ limits.
This month was a little bit in mess since i started to mix 3,50$ limit and then got back to 1,50$ after downswing, and my time management was shaken too so i ended up a little unorganized.
Started the month with 1,50$ limit and had good run, then i moved up to 3,50$ and ofc i had a downswing that, to be honest my self-confidence was shaken a bit regarding my survival on the poker field. Things like downswing can affect your mind in really negative way to the point you think that you can no longer take that pressure even if you do the work and study daily and keep improving as a player. Since the pressure that you feel is on financial side, people with low mental game skill cant use common sense and see the difference between them and the fishes that are burning money long term, and use the fact that they work 10x harder and will crush the game long term to help themselves to endure in hard times when variance is not on your side. In those times things that can help you are coaches, strong mental game and/or will to go on.
So, use this info in your advantage and if you find yourself in situation like this remember and think about what you did to get this far and how far you can get, there is no limit!
Study - Did make a great progress but i didnt completed goal of 90 hours studying, as i said for grinding, my time management was disturbed and as soon as you dont follow your time management you get a much less productive!
I want to point out how much time management is important for us poker players, since we are not told what to do each day if we do not organize our day we are not going to get productivity needed to sustain high pace and achieve high goals, at least that is the fact in my case. So i made new time management for next month that im going to share later on.
Sessions with coach - Very important part of my poker carrier, if there was no coach like Predrag (IvicaIliev77) i would never be here now heading to my goal of becoming poker pro in very near future! So i owe this man a lot.
My advice in this field is that if you want to find a coach and you are a beginner, look for some one like him, the one that wont just teach you to play poker and the $ will be all he cares about but try to find some one who can give you advices in all fields in life, like my coach help me.
After all that said, now i can share few info about my situation regarding progress.
In studying, i did good this month, did good job on ICM and improved in that field, next month i plan to work on bubble and HU.
Regarding grind, i mentioned that i went up and down from 1,50$ to 3,50$ stakes and now when i rebuilt BR i am on 3,50$ to stay because there is no reason for me to go down ever again if i keep working and improving. There are so many fishes (regs are terrible too) just giving away $ that it would be insane to miss all that value if you work hard enough. I dint mean to insult anyone, by those bad regs i include my self because i still need to improve in all the areas of game along with my autopilot and multitabling skill.
Here are graphs for last month.
This is graph from all games played in July:
The only reason i ended up BE is the fact that i got on 3,50$ and immediately got on downswing, bad variance and tilting lead me straight to bad results.
To show you how much difference and how big factor mental game is, ill show you my 1,50$ stake only graph for last month:
First 10 days in played 1,50$ then moved up to 3,50$ and then moved back to 1,50$.
So constant good play before and after downswing on higher limit.
As you can see, as soon as i felt a little relief mentally (fact that even if downswing continues i will loose less money) i was able to get my game on higher level.
And remember, i didnt have better results on lower limit because field is softer, no, field is completely the same, believe me i played both of the limits and same insane plays are made on both 1,50$ and 3,50$ limtis.
Fact is that this is very small sample of games to make any good conclusions but i can get idea where im heading and i know that my direction is forward, up and high! 
So tomorrow i will share time management and more thought regarding that field, and goals for August.
Have a good night and enjoy summer time! :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink::f_cool:
Darko I am extremely happy and proud with our work together. You proved in July that you have what it takes to become professional poker player. You had downswing but also realized what is the best way to tackle such high pressure situation. Your studying was exemplary, you increased your daily grinding and you have shown all the elements that make a great poker player.
I am very proud to have you as my student and to build friendship with you and look forward working with you for long time!
So August month will be the one where my game should improve more, now that i put work in ICM 4-6 man and in this month going to work on bubble and HU as well as post flop play, i think that by the end of the month my skill should increase significantly! And if some great 
results happen, that will be great too!
Now after some time i have experience with making my own time management, i have found that it takes much testing and adjusting to find the one that suits you the best, you just need to evolve and change to find what is that what it really is best for you. I changed so much different managements and tested all of them, now i will merge two models and see how will it work, i think that this one will be best solution.
So, i will use the one where i have set things to do in time frames and i will make minor adjustments when needed to extract as much value as possible!
My goals for August are:
Play 1900 tournaments
Study 75 hours
Have 4 sessions with coach
I have around 9h of poker activities each day, but one day in week i have "off" with only 3-4 hours of poker activities.
That will be my guideline for this month and this is going to be a good one!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and work hard!
30th Week challenge (Sunday) - DAY 212
- 68/1900 tournaments played
- 1/75 hours of studying
- 0/4 sessions with coach
Started month with 68 tournaments, BE first day.
I have divided 70 tournaments in three sessions of 30, 25 and 15.
Still not using new time management since i have slept little longer today but from Wednesday and on im starting with it.
31st Week challenge (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday) - DAY 213/214/215/216/217
- 381/1900 tournaments played
- 10/75 hours of studying
- 1/4 sessions with coach
Updating for missing days, should start with new time management on Wednesday but as it turned out, starting it from tomorrow on.
I really dislike this situation that i find myself in and i need to change it in next period or it wont end up good for me in future regarding poker.
So i wont talk much about it but will let results to speak at the end of the month.
31st Week challenge (Saturday) - DAY 218
- 461/1900 tournaments played
- 12/75 hours of studying
- 1/4 sessions with coach
Did a nice job today, i am satisfied how day went.
Sticked to my time management and did good, played 80 tournaments (10 more then needed because im falling behind around 50 tournaments more and need to catch up).
Reviewed hands in bubble and have some spots that i need to work on with my coach to see what is the most profitable play in certain situations.
Also unlocked some stellar reward so it is a nice add to my BR 
31st Week challenge (Sunday) - DAY 219
- 531/1900 tournaments played
- 14/75 hours of studying
- 1/4 sessions with coach
Oh today was a fun day grinding ♦
First session was unreal good, ran above EV and in 2nd session ofc that all got even, and more, finished 2nd session under EV as usual. I hate when that happens, when i run above EV i know that i near future (usually in next session) i run below EV to make it even.
Going to do one more hour of studying now and going to bed to get up by 8am.
32nd Week challenge (Monday) - DAY 220
- 611/1900 tournaments played
- 16/75 hours of studying
- 1/4 sessions with coach
Result wise, had identical day as yesterday, had good upswing 1st session and in following two session i finished the day BE.
I really annoy me and i get upset on my self when i cant keep good play and focus on the same level trough whole day.
I am reviewing hands daily and finding that i do really good in HU preflop with ranges but post flop game need some work and in bubble i do lots of mistakes when i start to loose focus and energy so i need to work on that area really really hard to make my auto pilot game good enough to make money long term.
Next sessions with coach are going to be for bubble for sure.
Originally posted by DarkoK3
Next sessions with coach are going to be for bubble for sure.
Very much look forward to it!
This says it all though
Originally posted by DarkoK3
I am reviewing hands daily and finding that i do really good in HU preflop with ranges but post flop game need some work and in bubble i do lots of mistakes when i start to loose focus and energy so i need to work on that area really really hard to make my auto pilot game good enough to make money long term.
32nd Week challenge (Tuesday) - DAY 221
- 657/1900 tournaments played
- 20/75 hours of studying
- 1/4 sessions with coach
Missed one update, i did little more study and few tournaments less then usual.
Did HH review with good analyzing and quick leak fixing.
seems like a cool blog from (the little) i have read so far. added to the favourites and promise ill read it fully 
keep up the good work
kacekov
Originally posted by kacekov
seems like a cool blog from (the little) i have read so far. added to the favourites and promise ill read it fully
keep up the good workkacekov
Glad to hear that!
Yea, probably its not the best blog in the world but i try to keep it honest, show and tell all the troubles and good sides of situation when you play poker when have ft job like i used to and when you switch to full time poker.
This blog is here mostly for all the people who can find something useful, learn from my mistakes and avoid them in future
32nd Week challenge (Wednesday) - DAY 222
- 679/1900 tournaments played
- 20/75 hours of studying
- 2/4 sessions with coach
Had session with coach, was really great and we did a really good stuff on bubble play and now i have lots of material to work with to improve that part of my game.
After that i played few tournaments and had pretty much a day off, went to movies with my gf, we watched "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" its a great one and worth of watching
32nd Week challenge (Thursday) - DAY 223
- 759/1900 tournaments played
- 22/75 hours of studying
- 2/4 sessions with coach
Another crazy day of HU play where i had really bad results. This HU is such a pain in the ass 
I have good game plan preflop and i can adjust to opponents but post flop i suck, have really lots of work to do just like in bubble play.
This is going to be month full of new concepts for me
Originally posted by DarkoK3
Originally posted by kacekov
seems like a cool blog from (the little) i have read so far. added to the favourites and promise ill read it fully
keep up the good workkacekov
Glad to hear that!
Yea, probably its not the best blog in the world but i try to keep it honest, show and tell all the troubles and good sides of situation when you play poker when have ft job like i used to and when you switch to full time poker.
This blog is here mostly for all the people who can find something useful, learn from my mistakes and avoid them in future
ok just took the last few hours to fully read your blog (didnt expected it would take so much time) but was time well worth it and i think u underestimate urself and your blog too much.
its has been very enjoyable to read it all. your relation with your coach and ur study buddies and the (positive) effects of it is almost tangible and everyone who takes a couple of hours to read this blog can look at you and see the evolution even without seeing you on the table.
this is the first blog i took some time to read it fully and not just from the post i found it and was well worth it.
was also following your coach blog but then i saw he switched to cash game and i stopped Reading (sorry Predrag, my next pokerstrategy goal is to go back to your blog and read it fully at least from 01.01.2015 and im sure i will like it, also to see both sidesyou sir are a true inspiration for anyone that wants to take poker as a career in the future (as i do) and even if u dont win as much on the tables as u should be (damn you variance) you are a champion on hard work and you deserve the golden bracelet just for that.
i understand its hard for you as a poster to post daily updates and not get a reply, that doesnt mean ppl are not Reading so keep it up. i'll try to post here more just to let you know that im Reading it and im liking it
i hope u like this post as much as i enjoy Reading ur blog. best luck at the tables and crush dem
kacekov
