Making a living with STT SNGs

Poker

Poker goals are very clear. I aim to play steady in order to cover current make up in the deal with my friend as well as complete the deal. Ideally I would like this to happen within next 11 weeks but in Spins its very hard to estimate the variance as it affects so many things such as traffic, how reg infested games are, card distribution, how good you run vs opponents that you meet constantly etc.
So that is my bottom line goal - play, make enough money and finish deal before Thailand trip. I am however ready to play while in Thailand since I will take my laptop, get a monitor and working internet (4g via phone sim card) since I stay there for over 11 weeks!!!

Other poker related goals are to continue working with GTO ranges, work in PIO Solver for both GTO and exploitable plays and experiment/test out new strategy adjustments in real games (in game study).

That is all I can control right now and that is all my mind is focused on really.

I wrote in October several posts about how Spins as game are getting less profitable and my opinion hasn't changed nor it will change. Especially if you play 3+ tables, your hourly suffered greatly due to Stars dropping RB from 28% to 4-5%. Now most people I know that are really good players are either playing 1-2 tables to decrease variance and have higher cEV but they make way less hourly now or are aiming to make that hourly back by playing 2 or 4 times higher stakes (example : 15s player trying to play 2 tables of 30s or even 60s to make up 3-4 tabling 15s win rate). In my opinion, this all sucks and it sucks bad - but it is what it is. Stars holds monopoly and most people choose to accept that situation to stay and play on Stars hoping to bink some chest on the way. Another thing that makes games way more difficult vs 6 months ago is stables. There is a lot of them around and they are producing human bots who are diminishing/decreasing cEV of all Regs in the game. Final thing that will take out recreational players from Spins is Power Up and other formats that Stars is pushing now that offer even more gaming like "fun" way to make instant large prizes. So to sum it up, things in Spins are not looking great now vs 6 months and it will keep being more difficult because stables are constantly getting new people and they are all reg infesting limits one way or the other. There is still money to be made in Spins but not like before - that is the point. So as professional player you can accept to play for lower hourly or choose to make hourly elsewhere.

My goal is to in next 6 months (by April) to reach automated income (through various investing opportunities) so that I continue to play poker only part time (not depend on it anymore) and to coach (do videos, accept students - at my own terms like now) but I am very much leaning towards not playing poker full time online in near future. I can see myself playing live poker which has much higher EV now (possibly highest) and once I get rolled to play 2-5 5-10 I can see myself traveling Europe, USA and Asia and hitting those casinos both for fun and making money from poker. Online however I don't like the idea of playing for half of the hourly that I worked for super hard whole this year and part of last year just for someone to take it away.
Finally, I want to take my future investments and focus on opening music club where I will be performing regularly and adding more students that I will be helping all over the world. Poker hourly was and still is worth it vs teaching music but at some point in the near future that will not be the case and I will definitely want to do less stressful thing which will bring me more money anyways and more satisfaction (because I help people directly that way!).

Long post, lots of thoughts shared here but I wanted to keep you all in the loop.

I will definitely keep playing poker in 2018. I will aim to Twitch and do coaching videos as well as accept students to work with. My living however will not depend on poker income in 2018 - that is my ultimate goal right now and I am working towards achieving it. I will travel, play live poker for both fun and $$$ but I will mainly focus on automating my income and spending time on things I truly love like helping people that need and want my help (teaching students music, performing, teaching guys to play poker make such and such hourly etc).

Enjoy remaining of October and I wish you all crushing November both on and off the tables!

P.S. 10 weeks and 6 days left to Thailand trip!!! <3

Hello Predrag,

Glad to see you are progressing with your training and enjoys it! I do think to quit the gym and start working out on the bars to see how it goes. Still I think that 4 training days in a week are optimal if you are not doing bodybuilding for a living. I work out 2 days, rest 1, work out 2 days and rest 2 days. Not sure if this will be good for bars training though... will see! I need to find some good training cycle and exercises for beginners

When it comes to the Spins ... I am damn close quitting!!! I run so bad that one day I can lose like 30-50 buy-ins and I restore it in 2-3 days. Then again a losing run and a winning one, however I am not progressing which is really demotivating. While I was playing Cash I was getting better results. Currently I play $3-$7 Spins, although I shoot $15s and $30s which keep me alive as I run so bad at $3 ones. I know this is wrong though! Also I am noticing then whenever I play 2-3 tables I tend to lose more due to bad luck then playing just 1 table. I streamed today like 2 hours and will stream regularly from now on. For fun and perhaps streaming will help me keep the tilt level as low as possible.

I have PT4 but it does not help me much at Spins. Most of the people I play with are new to me and the stats seem to be useless. Any advise on this topic?

Greetings!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
I will definitely keep playing poker in 2018. I will aim to Twitch and do coaching videos as well as accept students to work with. My living however will not depend on poker income in 2018 - that is my ultimate goal right now and I am working towards achieving it. I will travel, play live poker for both fun and $$$ but I will mainly focus on automating my income and spending time on things I truly love like helping people that need and want my help (teaching students music, performing, teaching guys to play poker make such and such hourly etc).

You've simply fallen out of love with poker, haven't you?

The reason why it's so easy for Stars to make the changes is that there will still be enough poker nerds to have the games running and deposits converted into rake. Those who're good at doing something else will focus on doing that and being more helpful to the mankind. Those whose best life skill is playing cards will continue doing so... which reminds me about a classical 2+2 song:

So don't be upset if you remain 'just' a musician in the future. You'll be more valuable than the full-time poker pros of the future.

Obviously, I'm currently worse at playing cards than you and most of the readers (and much worse at life as well), but I'm cheered up by recalling that edges were considered too thin 7 years ago just like nowadays.

Hi Pedja

Thanks for your replies in the forum, veré helpful for me. I was thinking about investig in some videos Packages about spins, and i see this:

https://www.bestpokercoaching.com/spin-and-go-bootcamp

According to the web, the coach was a regular of the 15$ spins. Did you play against him? Do you think it would be a good investment?

Otherwise, what resources would you recommend to learning/get better at spins?

Best regards

Your thread is very inspiring to me, (I think) I added you on Skype to ask you some questions about coaching.

Thanks and keep it up!

Hi guys/ Predrag,

The past 3 days were positive for my Spins game play! I did NOT quit but started thinking a lot more over each situation, reduced all-in situations and focussed more on post-flop play, possible ranges and opponent's playing style, which was a game changer for me so far. I do stream every day for couple of hours and this has played it's role too.

I play only one table and always start with couple of $3 Spins, when I hit a 4x, 6x multiplier and win it, I move to $7 Spins. Today I even moved to $15 ones for 2 tourneys - 1 won and 1 lost. I still do a lot of mistakes but variance is a bit more favorable towards me. I play about 30 Spins on daily average with 55%-60% ROI - not sure if it is good or decent though. Spins number is Ok for me as I play for about 3 hours daily at 1 table.

Question: How important are the Nash-tables and should I focus on learning them by hard?

Keep it up and steady guys

Originally posted by Jakks
Hello Predrag,

Glad to see you are progressing with your training and enjoys it! I do think to quit the gym and start working out on the bars to see how it goes. Still I think that 4 training days in a week are optimal if you are not doing bodybuilding for a living. I work out 2 days, rest 1, work out 2 days and rest 2 days. Not sure if this will be good for bars training though... will see! I need to find some good training cycle and exercises for beginners

When it comes to the Spins ... I am damn close quitting!!! I run so bad that one day I can lose like 30-50 buy-ins and I restore it in 2-3 days. Then again a losing run and a winning one, however I am not progressing which is really demotivating. While I was playing Cash I was getting better results. Currently I play $3-$7 Spins, although I shoot $15s and $30s which keep me alive as I run so bad at $3 ones. I know this is wrong though! Also I am noticing then whenever I play 2-3 tables I tend to lose more due to bad luck then playing just 1 table. I streamed today like 2 hours and will stream regularly from now on. For fun and perhaps streaming will help me keep the tilt level as low as possible.

I have PT4 but it does not help me much at Spins. Most of the people I play with are new to me and the stats seem to be useless. Any advise on this topic?

Greetings!

Hello Jakks,

For training:
I would stick to 3 times per week, Mon Wed Fri and change it up if it feels to easy. Ways to consider making work outs more difficult and proper for your fitness level: 1) decrease rest time between both exercises and sets 2) add reps to exercises that seem easier 3) add overall extra sets if you feel you are not getting the value from full work outs 4) add additional work out from ones listed on the site.

I am in range where Let's go paired with Full Body work out feels challenging - especially for chin ups and pull ups. Full Body, 15 of them are no problem. Starting Let's go after I already start to have trouble completing full set uninterupted. So I would do like 4 then 2 chin ups instead of 6, pull ups would be broken down at best 2 - 2 - 2 and 3rd set is mostly by 1 1 1 1 1 1. So I am using journal and writing each work out, writing how it felt, where I felt I improved, where I feel I am lacking most strength. To be honest, for me those 2 workouts paired are pretty awesome because it takes me 50 minutes to complete them both with all the rests in between (20 mins of resting, 30 mins of constant work out). My goal with those work outs is to reach the point where I can bang out correct form and all sets of pull ups and chin ups 6 each without loosing strength to lift myself. So that is direction I am going for and what I want to accomplish with these. Month 4 is super hard because you get to do over 100 pull ups in a single training and you do clapping pull ups as well as typewritter pull ups. I definitely don't feel ready for those but I don't mind repeating 3rd month for 1 more month just to keep pushing my improvement for pull ups and push ups to keep decreasing rest time between them and bang out sets easier.

For Spins:
HUD can be both useful and very misleading. It took me a bit when I started with Spins to understand dynamics of both specific players and player pool overall. Taking notes helps a ton. For example if you see SB showing something very wide vs BTN mr in 3 way play, you can expect that in HU that opponent will be even more aggro with his 3 bets. If post flop opponent 3 barrels and turns pairs into bluff, he is likely overly bluffing and you can increase your call down frequency with hands that you would have folded otherwise. Those kind of notes and adjustments are crucial and yes there is an edge using HUD but it depends which one you use and what sample you are using to read the stats. The more hands that you have, the better it will be for you to understand your opponents game plan and adjust to it. Hope that helps.

Originally posted by tonypmm

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
I will definitely keep playing poker in 2018. I will aim to Twitch and do coaching videos as well as accept students to work with. My living however will not depend on poker income in 2018 - that is my ultimate goal right now and I am working towards achieving it. I will travel, play live poker for both fun and $$$ but I will mainly focus on automating my income and spending time on things I truly love like helping people that need and want my help (teaching students music, performing, teaching guys to play poker make such and such hourly etc).

You've simply fallen out of love with poker, haven't you?

The reason why it's so easy for Stars to make the changes is that there will still be enough poker nerds to have the games running and deposits converted into rake. Those who're good at doing something else will focus on doing that and being more helpful to the mankind. Those whose best life skill is playing cards will continue doing so... which reminds me about a classical 2+2 song:

Spoiler

So don't be upset if you remain 'just' a musician in the future. You'll be more valuable than the full-time poker pros of the future.

Obviously, I'm currently worse at playing cards than you and most of the readers (and much worse at life as well), but I'm cheered up by recalling that edges were considered too thin 7 years ago just like nowadays.

No falling out of love with Poker Tony I just want to automate income and let money work for me. I think this is the smartest thing anyone can and should be doing anyways. I wonder many times and look ahead 10 years from now when I am 44-45, what will I be doing? Will I play 100+ hours of poker per month making such and such hourly and having very nice living? Or will I invest my money wisely, automate income and dedicate all the time in my life to build a family, spend time with friends, eat healthy and work out, help people all over the world via music and poker teaching. Yeah, its about that, I don't want to postpone what is inevitable for me and that is that in future I don't see myself as full time poker player but rather as investor, entrepreneur, teacher, business owner, happily married father of 2 kids

BTW, video/song is amazing, the guy nailed it so hard ♦

Originally posted by pokeng
Hi Pedja

Thanks for your replies in the forum, veré helpful for me. I was thinking about investig in some videos Packages about spins, and i see this:

https://www.bestpokercoaching.com/spin-and-go-bootcamp

According to the web, the coach was a regular of the 15$ spins. Did you play against him? Do you think it would be a good investment?

Otherwise, what resources would you recommend to learning/get better at spins?

Best regards

Hi Pokeng,

Glad you find blog of value to you!

About specific package you ask for, I don't have insight what it contains nor how valuable it is. I can't recommend nor refer you product that I never tried.
What I can tell you is that I used to work with guy who made that package briefly, a month or so doing HH reviews and talking general strategy. He has a very solid HU CG knowledge and understands range vs range well. From what I heard in those videos and last time I spoke to him is that he plays 30-60s spins, I remember that he always played shorter sessions to avoid tilt and always did 2 tables to maximize EV. He is a good player and he can certainly teach you something.
Does he teach that something in that video package? I don't know, probably does for total beginners.

It depends what are you looking for? There is no hidden charts that will boost your ROI in Spins unless you are total beginner and your pre flop strategy is full of leaks. For post flop things I doubt that this video package is the answer. What you should seek instead is study partner and/or coach to discuss hand histories daily and seek the way to improve your post flop and range vs range. This stuff can't be taught so easily in some video package from BPC.

SO my suggestion is to get study partner and coach. Figure out which positions you are leaking on the most, fix your pre flop strategy and understand why you are fixing and why it works that way. Learn to play every hand from your range, visualize how you would play it post flop IP and OOP. Then do the post flop work. Equity calculations to understand when you are ahead or behind range vs range. Learn to assign opponent pre and post flop range for flop turn and river whether he calls or bets or raises. Learn about sizings you should use on different textures. Learn what textures are good for you as initial aggressor and what are good for you as defender (cold caller). Understand pot to stack ratio and pot odds you are getting to make a call. Learn to read HUD really well because it will tell you leaks that your opponent has and how to attack them. Develop default game plans for both pre and post flop and then develop adjusted game plans vs very passive or very aggressive opponents - it will mean a world to you if you plan to play a lot of games and maximize your EV.
All this should get you to beat 15s on Stars easily which will bring you 20+$ hourly on Stars. It just takes work, a lot of it - depending on what stop you are on and how willing you are to dedicate to the cause of becoming winning Spins reg.

Good luck!

Originally posted by pokerarnooo
Your thread is very inspiring to me, (I think) I added you on Skype to ask you some questions about coaching.

Thanks and keep it up!

Hi Pokerrnooo,

Glad you find the blog inspiring. I have received recently some friend request on Skype which I accepted. Is that you? (humonster123)? If so, get in touch and let me know what you want to know about coaching.

Originally posted by Jakks
Hi guys/ Predrag,

The past 3 days were positive for my Spins game play! I did NOT quit but started thinking a lot more over each situation, reduced all-in situations and focussed more on post-flop play, possible ranges and opponent's playing style, which was a game changer for me so far. I do stream every day for couple of hours and this has played it's role too.

I play only one table and always start with couple of $3 Spins, when I hit a 4x, 6x multiplier and win it, I move to $7 Spins. Today I even moved to $15 ones for 2 tourneys - 1 won and 1 lost. I still do a lot of mistakes but variance is a bit more favorable towards me. I play about 30 Spins on daily average with 55%-60% ROI - not sure if it is good or decent though. Spins number is Ok for me as I play for about 3 hours daily at 1 table.

Question: How important are the Nash-tables and should I focus on learning them by hard?

Keep it up and steady guys

I love this update! It reminds me when I want to just play for fun and not pay attention to BR, just to progressively risk money to play highest stakes. Loving it man <3

For Nash tables:
Yes you should know them and they are important. You should use them if you feel your post flop sucks and that opponent you play HU gives you a ton of trouble to realize your equity or to see showdown cheap. Of course, aim to learn to play better post flop but in the meanwhile, especially lower stakes, even nash ranges will make you money.

Time for update

Work out and nutrition/weight loss

Bar brothers going awesome. I worked out this week 4 times, past week 5. Despite doing 3 bar brothers work outs on Mon Wed Fri, I added cardio on Tuesday and Saturday just rope jumping. I have noticed that I am gaining more muscle and strength thanks to Bar Brothers work outs.
Nutrition on the other hand was not well. I ended up going for over 2k calories per day average. However, I still dropped weight vs last week where my avg daily intake was 3k +. So now I am at 86.3kgs (weighted this morning, always same conditions to weight of course).

What lies ahead is very interesting. 10 weeks left exactly before I go to Thailand. I strongly believe that even with 80kgs I will have 10% body fat or less. Last time with 80kgs I had 12.6% body fat or so. Now I increased strength and muscle so with same weight I will have fever % of body fat therefore abs will show even more.
So my 1st goal is to get from 86.3 to 80kgs. If there is time left before Thailand trip, I will go for 77kgs as well which should definitely give me extra edge and cut off that body fat %.

The way I plan to achieve it all is sticking to minimum 4 work outs per week (Mon Tue Wed Fri) where Mon Wed Fri will be Bar Brothers but also finishing it with cardio (rope jumping mostly but adding also sit ups or brupees). Tuesday will just be cardio day as well as Saturday (if I train 5 times). Definitely going for lower carb intake to flush out water of the system and drop weight faster. Plan is also to keep pushing in training of course, I don't want my results to diminish in work outs but rather improve. Finally, side goal is to increase 1 set max reps for Pull ups/Chin Ups, to get to 10+ before Thailand!

Thailand trip

I bought ticket for 11 weeks long Thailand trip, and celebrated it like crazy 2 days ago I also payed up front 3 rents in 2018 until April since I will be in Thailand there. All my bills are also played until that period as well so only remaining expenses for me is coffee, working out (gym membership), visiting friend in Germany soon (19th of Nov), and food/water. So not many expenses but also have to think about 7 weeks worth of accommodation in Thailand as well since I purchased so far 4 weeks worth of accommodation only as my initial goal was to be there 4 weeks only

So now that Thailand is paid for (ticket) and have 4 weeks accommodation set, only visa and 7 weeks more accommodation is left to make it complete. I feel I will take accommdation there because I may decide to join some grind house or simply change cities from Phuket. So keeping the options open for 2/3 of the trip works for me

I can finally regain my focus and just work on things that are important which is : studying, grinding, working out, proper nutrition and teaching. Those are top 5 priorities in my time management, everything else is not major importance now.

Enjoy your November on and off the tables!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by pokerarnooo
Your thread is very inspiring to me, (I think) I added you on Skype to ask you some questions about coaching.

Thanks and keep it up!

Hi Pokerrnooo,

Glad you find the blog inspiring. I have received recently some friend request on Skype which I accepted. Is that you? (humonster123)? If so, get in touch and let me know what you want to know about coaching.

Looks like I added the wrong guy. Where can I find your Skype details?

Originally posted by pokerarnooo

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by pokerarnooo
Your thread is very inspiring to me, (I think) I added you on Skype to ask you some questions about coaching.

Thanks and keep it up!

Hi Pokerrnooo,

Glad you find the blog inspiring. I have received recently some friend request on Skype which I accepted. Is that you? (humonster123)? If so, get in touch and let me know what you want to know about coaching.

Looks like I added the wrong guy. Where can I find your Skype details?

Add me via community tool and send me private message, I will ship you my skype there.

Quick but very important end of year Poker update!

End of the year goal is to grind 300 hours starting today 8th of November. Realistically I have until 19th of November to grind for this months since I will be in Germany until end of month then and play likely 0 poker there. So 11 days in November and 31 in December , 42 total to get to 300 hours of grind, a bit over 7 hours of daily grind with 11 days "off" in Germany.

Decided to challenge and push myself this way because I want to enter new year with less make up and if possible even clear the whole make up and finish deal. I am happy with the setup I have now for poker as well as the fact that Charlie Sheen and Two and a half men is almost ready for grinding.

Besides grinding I will focus on only several more things: 1) sleeping (7 hours average) 2) teaching (3-5 lessons per week) 3) working out (4-5 times per week) 4) nutrition and calorie deficit (in those 8 weeks to shred kgs and drop body fat to 10% 5) personal hygiene + maid for cleaning and ironing once per week.

There will be no going out. The only thing that can change this if my hourly skyrockets and I manage to accomplish my monetary target before those 300 hours. Other then that I am down and ready to sit down day in and day out to push myself to do this. I may or may not update from time to time how I am doing with profit target but I will update hours count for sure from 300 target starting today.

Wish me luck!

Grind today : 7 hours
Total 7/300 hours

Very happy with volume as well as way I play. Standard variance type of day, from being up to finishing in profit but far less. Not worried at all, just need to be consistent with volume and things will turn around.
Despite grind today, I worked out and did really well in that area. Nutrition, today went over deficit but still this week I am right there for average I set, so while today I added some more carbs (Due to training) I am still doing great with deficit this week.
I also had coffee with my best friend and then also in the afternoon saw 2 more friends. Was supposed to teach guitar lesson but some trouble with software for student and we rescheduled it for Sunday.

Overall very productive day and I finish it at 11:15pm after waking up at 8am.

Tomorrow no work out nor lessons but I will hang out with my dad and again go for 7 hours. Likely 3 hours before 1pm and remaining 4 by 11pm with breaks in between.

BTW, Two and a half men really helps with grinding. Its my favorite TV show and time flies with it in the background.

P.S. I will once in a while update about profit but main focus is volume. If I do hit profit target I will of course take a foot down from grind and relax, regenerate, spend time with family and friends and prepare for Thailand.

Hi,

glad you are active in the blog and you maintain focus Unfortunately I lost mine yesterday. After I lost like 20 spins on 3s and 7s, I became so mad that I jumped to 100s - people there shove K5o for 17bb still lost like 65% of my bankroll due to variance or maybe I am that bad and should not shove AK for 10bb, so I am not called by A5 and losing to 33Q55 It was a 6x Spin

Back to 3s ones! Hopefully I will get my luck back!

P.S. Please let me know If it is not appropriate to share my mostly negative progress on Spins in your blog mate. I do apologize!

Grind today : 7 hours
Total 14/300 hours

Completed 7 hours again but made more mistakes then yesterday + swings.

Tomorrow training day and going for 7 hours again!

Grind today: 7 hours
Total 21/300 hours

8:24pm and grind is finished for the day. I am happy with how I played today vs yesterday which is very important to me (to improve in grind through long hours and minimize mistakes along the way). I also had very good training and tomorrow will go for 4th one this week focusing on jump rope and abs only. Nutrition was excellent, sticking to calorie deficit and right macros.

Tomorrow plan is 7 more hours of grind and cardio workout with calorie deficit. This morning my weight was 84.7kgs which is nice but it will be very hard to keep loosing weight in Germany 11 days and I need to do some in home workouts there. Very likely will do abs, push ups, dips and squats with low reps high set numbers or the other way around. Definitely want to work out at least 6 times in Germany to keep body in shape for Bar Brothers when I return home.

Grind today: 7 hours
Total: 28/300 hours

Finished grind 9:27pm despite training and meeting with female friend for 1.5 hour.
Work out was excellent, despite doing Annie training (50-40-30-20-10 single jump ropes and sit ups) I did 50 double unders after it. Took me less then 15 minutes to complete the whole training but I pushed myself and HIIT really kicked my ass.
Nutrition wise, I went over calorie deficit set for the day but still doing great for the whole week. Tomorrow is rest day from training so my plan is to still take 2 protein shakes to maximize protein intake + 1 large healthy meal, 3 coffees and lots of water. With this kind of intake, my protein intake will be great , carbs and fat low and average for the whole week will be several calories bellow actual 500 calories deficit I set vs my BMR. Another thing I noticed is that now with weight going from 84ish to 86kgs, my arms are more defined and stronger, shoulders and back also (thanks to pull ups and chin ups mostly) and then upper 2 abs are showing when I flex a bit which is really cool considering that I am going for 80kgs and then will see how I feel about going for 77 kgs. So I am pretty confident that I will need to loose less kgs to loose body fat % for abs to show simply because I gained more muscle since January 2017 when I was in Thailand. I will schedule body fat measuring before leaving for Thailand, day before or so. That is the plan!

Tomorrow 7 hours of grind, 1 guitar and music lesson and sticking to proper nutrition.