Turning Pro? A ride with a Spin&Go player

Very nice blog

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Good luck

Lol, in the point 3 i REALLY feel you: is so difficult think logically and rationally everytime...

Congrats for your result, good luck!

Originally posted by ThisGuido
Lol, in the point 3 i REALLY feel you: is so difficult think logically and rationally everytime...

Congrats for your result, good luck!

Indeed it's very hard to do so, but we must make our best attemp at it. Otherwise, it'd be wasting whatever things we've learned while studying.
Thanks for the good vibe! Cheers, mate!

Hello everyone, thanks again for reading me ♦

It's been a fun week, very active on every level, both in my life and in the poker tables.
Like promised, I started my workout routine, though I strained a muscle on my arm, but nothing too serious. Definitely continuing, because I already started to see the results of exercise. I felt very good about myself, kind of proud actually, and it transfers to my confidence while playing. Also, I felt very relaxed, It has to be positive, right? Nonetheless, I need to be more careful about how hard I push myself; so, this week I'm going to take it slow with the weights

In terms of poker results, it's been the +EV week I've had since I joined Spin Legends
Here's the graph from May 8th - May 14th:

As you can see, I played 315 spins, 45 spins a day, for a good 93 evChips per tourney. Yayyyy!!!
I played with a lot of confidence, like I said, taking my time, thinking things fully through, and it payed off. Though I cut down volume, it wasn't because I decided it, but of SCOOP I had to take a try on a few MTTs, though with no avail.

So, my graph and numbers from this month look like this

A nice 66 evChips per tourney, although what I like the most is that the golden line continues to go up on a steady pace ♠_cool:
Of course, there is room for improvement. I need to review my game against very aggro players. I'm sure my numbers against them are horrible, because they pissed me off so bad, I tilt and make mistakes. At least, I'm wise enough to recognize I have a problem. I'm sure I'm going to solve it soon

If things continue as they are, I expect to move up to $30 spins in a fortnight, tops. I believe I'm ready, but time will tell.
As for this week, I'm planning to play about 550-600 games, depending on how I feel. If things take a bad turn, I'll slow down a bit. Otherwise, it'll be easy to reach.

One thing that's troubling me is solitude. I really miss my students, and teaching. I didn't realize how hard is to work by yourself, spending your whole day in front of a computer for a living. Also, it's kind of hard not to transfer your negative emotions after a bad session to your family, but they are very understanding, and they already know when I'm mad My whole life circles around poker right now, and I know it's not healthy, but I can't go anywhere to have fun, like a disco, or even a cinema, since Caracas is not a very safe place at the moment.

How is one of my days? Here's my routine:

5.30am Wake up call
6.30am Breakfast
7.30-9.30am Gym
10.00am Shower and nap
10.45am Hands review session
11.30am Poker session
12.30pm Lunch
1.00pm Coaching (If my internet speed is good enough; otherwise, continue playing)
2.00-2.45pm Break
2.45-7.00pm Poker Session
7.30pm Dinner
8.00pm Video review
9.30pm Go to bed

It's kind of intense, right?
Anyways, thanks again for reading me. Appreciate all your comments, opinions and suggestions.

Hey, you are doing very well, keep pushing like that! You are spending a lot of time and energy and of course all the effort you are putting in will pay off. :f_thumbsup::f_thumbsup:
I'm following by news the situation in Venezuela and I guess is kinda hard living there nowadays... I hope everything will be ok..

Good luck!

Congratulations!

Originally posted by ThisGuido
Hey, you are doing very well, keep pushing like that! You are spending a lot of time and energy and of course all the effort you are putting in will pay off. :f_thumbsup::f_thumbsup:
I'm following by news the situation in Venezuela and I guess is kinda hard living there nowadays... I hope everything will be ok..

Good luck!

It better pay off
Thanks for your good wishes!

Originally posted by tobaent
Congratulations!

Thanks mate!

Results 05/15 - 05/21

Hi everybody! Thanks again for reading me.

This past week was not very fortunate, as the previous one. Varience hit a little, and it led me to play some river spots in a poorly manner. Nevertheless, I managed to recover during the weekend, after carefully reviewing my game. Here's the graph:

405 spins, played at 58 evChips, for an evROI of 4.84%. Not the results I expected, but it could've been worse.
I wanted to play 550-600 games, but I had to review a lot of spots I was not playing correctly, specificly from BB during HU play. I was literally bleeding chips. So, some studying had to be done. I think what screwed me over is that on monday I lost a x25, and a x10, back to back, and it tilted me until wednesday. What can you do, right?

This week I'm planning to play just 400 spins, two-tabling, but focusing on maximizing EV, avoiding unnecessary all-in situations, if possible. Also, no more hero-calling, it's hurting me so bad... My goal is to play these games at 100evChips. If done, I'll move up to 30s.

Anyway, I hope next post will be about moving up stakes, and not whining about my game
Good luck y'all!

Wow, it's been almost a month and a half since the last post. Lots of stuff went down.

First off, I went up to 30s.

It was hard to finally find myself comfortable playing 15s, but once I had the groove on, it was a piece of cake, although II had to spend many hours reviewing, studying and even second-guessing my own game.
My final graph for 15s looks like this:
15s Graph
On june 1st I went up to 30s, finally. It's been a roller coaster. I started not good, but not bad, then I had an epyphany and played the best I've ever played in my life, just to cool down and play my worst. Nothing to worry about, though, since I have Spin Legends having my back. It's not that villains are super hard, but because I've been focused on some personal situations that have kept me aside from the tables. On June, I played less than 900 games, which is pretty low. Anyhow, I hope this month everything will be better, and I know it will. Cheers!
30s Graph

Hi, nice blog, nice graphs. Im Venezuelan too, i was an english teacher for 3 years but now i play poker oc but cash games 6max, it's nice to see ppl from my country that dedicate time for this game...i quit my job because my salary was awful to dedicate 100% to poker (i think :f_rolleyes:) as i dont have any different option! Well paisano, hope you keep the hard work and continue to improve!

Hi Squad77, very nice blog, i send you an friend invitation. I am from Venezuela too, and playing spins. I wish to do some questions to you, and prefer to do it by private messages. Congratulations about your hard work, a keep going.

How is everything going the last 1,5 months?
Further is wish you all the best with playing Spin & Go’s and improving your game

Cheers,
SDK1987

Hi everyone, Squad77 here again.

I kind of abandoned my blog, which is embarrasing. However, let's pick it up again. I've missed writing here, since it helped me realize things which were not visible at first glance, like how much I've improved as a poker player, or even get a boost of self-steem from time to time.

I'm still grinding 30s. I don't think it's good or bad, but I didn't expect to be in this stake such a long time, and it has been mainly my fault. On July, I didn't grind a nearly acceptable volume, for I took almost two weeks to travel, get my mind off poker for a while. I felt I was burning out, since I had been playing almost everyday non-stop for the previous five months, four of them playing for Spin Legends.

However, it did help me to realize I still have much left to achieve, and that there's a lot whole more to learn. Therefore, I set out this month to play at least 2k spins, and try to move up to 60s.

I've had lots of ups an downs while playing poker, but I've never experienced such a high variance, and I'm not talking about cards or results variance, but the differences in my game. Let me show first my graph for 30s since July 1st:

The graph itself is not great, but it's not also bad. But there's so much to it. I explain: My A-game is quite tough, I consider myself quite a good player, whenever I'm in the zone. The thing is that it doesn't last very long. So, I go to my B-game, which is not that bad either, I can beat most opponents while making some good EVchips. The problems come when I go to my C-game. IT IS TERRIBLE! August has been such a terrible month, regarding tilt, like one I've never thought I'd had again in my life as a poker player. Every bad beat, every cooler, every mistake I had on the tables would set me off like a spark on a bin of gas. Such issues had costed me tons of money, and, more important, quite a good amount of EVchips.

As a consequence, I decided to take action. First off, a friend of mine lend me Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker", which, so far, has been an amazing exploration into things I've never considered to be important. In order to mantain a high level of quality in your game, the mind takes a front seat, and if my mind is not set correctly, my game hurts... a lot. Secondly, in order to set things straight, I'm back at 15s, at least until friday 24th, trying to ease off the pressure, and get comfortable again. If my game improves, which it has since friday, I'm back up to 30s. But, in general, my short-term goal is to increase the quality of my C-game.

Anyway, no one said that this would be easy, and if it was, everybody would be a winner and playing poker for a living. I'll be back next monday with good news, I'm sure of it. Cheers!

Hi everyone!

I waited until today to give a summary about my play during August. As I told you last week, I was having problems with tilt, I'm sure everybody can relate with that, right? Well, I've been pushing myself very hard to grow my mental muscle, to learn how to cope with the various stressful situations we, poker players, come across, both on and off the tables. I cannot say that I successfully have achieved that, but I know I'm onto the right path.
These past ten days I have never, ever, not even once screamed, yelled at, throw something or even curse (well, maybe once or twice, but they were like whispers ) Of course sometimes I feel angry when getting coolered, or after a bad beat, but that does not neccessarily mean that I have to go nuts over it, and affect my game afterwards. Seems logical, right? But it was so hard to learn, and very expensive too.
Also, I didn't properly manage my sessions, sometimes playing too long, sometimes too little, not warming-up before start playing, etc. So, this month has been very positive, if I look at the glass half-full, and look back at the things I've learned, and how I've grown up. It makes me proud of myself.

I told that I was going back to 15s, to regain confidence, which I did, since I crushed it, so I went back up to 30s, and I haven't been doing that bad. So, my graph for this month looks like this:

1744 games, both on 30s and 15s, played at 49.5EvChips. Not great, but not bad, especially considering all the problems I encountered.

And my historical graph for 30s:

2844 games played at 44EvChips.

Now, for this month, I need to, again, establish a set of goals that lead me towards a bigger, long-term goal, which it's not something I've done in the last couple of months. I recognize it was a bit of laziness, procrastination, and overconfidence. But, since I'm on track again, let's go for it.

Goals for September

Volume: Over 1.5k games, but not more than 2k. Why? If I play over 2k games, I will not dedicate enough time to study, reviewing, etc. If I play less than 1.5k, I'm not putting my finest effort.

Stakes: There still room for improvement at 30s, so I'll be playing for a bit in that stake. However, I'm planning on, at the end of the month, finally playing at 60s. Of course, if the latter becomes a reality, my volume needs to decrease substantially, because of the new, tougher player pool.

Study: I'm guilty of not studying nearly enough. As a consequence, I'll impose a minimum of 3-hours-of-studying-by-day regulation on myself, even if that prevents me from doing other fun stuff, like watching TV
Population is getting tougher everyday, villains are studying, improving, and if I don't study away from the tables, I will be on the back end. Period.

Mindset: As I mentioned, I've improved, but I want to keep on doing it, so I'll be researching for ways to relax while playing, and choose whichever suits me the best. So far, taking deep breaths and stretching have done the job, but there's gotta be more effective, long-term techniques.

Also, I must update my blog on a weekly basis, like I promised at first, even if I don't feel like it.
Anyway, wish me good luck, and thanks for reading this looooong post.
Cheers!

PS: Jesus Christ, what the hell happened with the big multipliers? I'm not getting enough x6, x10 and x25. I think Stars may have changed the distribution. It'll be nice to compare notes on this with other players.

That could be variance as well.
How’s September treating you so far on the Spin & Go tables?

Cheers,
SDK1987

Welcome 2018!!!

It's been awhile since I posted anything in my blog; I've been having a full schedule for the past three months and I sincerely didn't feel like posting anything.
Nonetheless, my poker career has been moving forward steadily. As of now, I'm a winner player at the $60 stake, which, in retrospect, it's hard to believe. One year ago, I even didn't have a poker career at all.

This is my graph at the $60 stake. Last 400ish games have been hard, even though variance has been on my side. Despite that, I'm feeling quite comfortable in this level, though regulars are tough to beat.

Since we're starting a new year, I wanted to establish some general goals for 2018. Let's bring 'em on:

1) Beat $60 stake and move up to $100. I think this is going to be the most attainable goal of them all. Like I said, I feel comfortable playing 60s, so it's just a matter of time and volume to be able to move up, which leads me to my second goal,
2) Put in the volume. I've been struggling for the past three months in this matter. I honestly haven't played enough. I even switched my old laptop for a brand new desktop, in order to increase volume, but it has been the other way around. I believe it's because I'm lacking planning and organization, which leads to my third goal,
3) Organization is a must. I think this is the most important leak I have, I'm not organizing my day, I dismissed my previous routine, and even though it hasn't hurt my game, it has affected the hours I put into working on and off the table. I need to come up with a routine and stick to it.
4) Establish myself in the $100 stake and be a steady winner. This is a long term goal, which might take me all of 2018, but I'm not in a hurry

I also have some personal goals, but I don't think you are interested in them. At least, I'm going to tell you that I'm not moving out of Venezuela, despite how gross our situation is. Anyway, I hope you all have established goals for 2018, and you attain them with flying colors. I'll let you know how I'm doing. Cheers!:f_drink:

very nice hearing from you again
great sucess and great goals. keep up the good work

Congrats on getting to the 60s! Get that volume/study in and you'll be at the 100s in no time!