The Shortdeck Diary: Chapter 2 - Becoming a semi pro

September update

Dear diary, last months have been extremely difficult. I went from taking shots at NL50 to being BE on NL10. In the meantime I have no negative feelings about poker. I kept reading, studying and playing. I became aware of the fact that no mather what I love the game. So it resulted in evaluating schedule, adjusting as needed and re-implement it.
Basically it comes down to 3 session a week where I play as long as I can keep focus. Have 3 studying days and 1 day off for from poker. Unfortanalty the bad run continues:

The graph might be a bit misleading as this results in a 1BI negativ for the month and running 12BI under EV.
Still having great support from study colleges and coach so again a shout out and a recomendation that this is the way to if you want to grow in poker (and maybe as a person).

On the health departement I can proudly say I lost over 20kg and am beneeth the 90kg. To be 'healthy' for BMI I should drop another 18kg but we will see. I no longer need the numbers on the scale as a goal to eat healthy. This combined with working out in the mornings (5 x week) followed by ice cold showers are just a part of my life now.

Another thing I've been doing almost daily for the last 2 months is meditation. Some guys are doing a last longer challenge and they recommended a certain app for doing that. Some stuff def feels stupid but some stuff triggers things I wasn't aware of. I will say I was a guy in the past who would 1000% made fun of this (shame on me). Not saying it is a crucial thing for poker but it def helps to see things in perspective sometimes.

So goals next month:
Play 10k hands
Keep the structure set out as it is
Crush souls

As a side note I've been thinking about the staking.

+ I think it will give me more focus on my state of mind before a session (being more focussed)
+ As I still get coached I think playing higher will get me into more learning spots
+ If I was a nitwit why would they offer coaching? I must be doing 'enough' stuff right I guess.
+ Had career opportunity on the new job wich I turned down to have more time for family/hobby at least the same as past 1.5 year. So mindset feels strong.
- Will I feel pressure playing for more money, yes but how long in session will i feel it and will it affect me/my play.
-

If anyone has good or bad experiences with any kind of staking feel welcome to post it here (or PM).

Hi Fredjen,

sorry for coming back so late on that.

I am not sure if staking is for you. (pure) staking is for people that have the skill and need but not the money to play higher - and want to move up faster.
Do I sense from your post that it sounds like you want this additional need to share your revenue, to commit to volume? Nope...

No I wasn't looking for a staking deal whatsoever. But it came across my road.
The deal offered to me does not seem to have a negative side. When I lose it will be the same as the losses playing NL10, if I win I keep some % extra. Obv my staker, who plays the highest stakes, has comfort in my playing skills. For me the pure win is the experience of playing that stake and being able to review those in my coaching program. So we will try it for a month and see how it goes.

Oktober update

So finally we had a good month on the tables. Played NL10 most of the time:

Last 3 session went to NL25 as BR allowed it:

Net profit for the month is $268.

I think most who are following and having some knowledge about variance can look through the EV lines. Def feels good to have a winning periode after 3 losing months :).
Did work a lot on my game and on my mindset specially in what state I start a session. Picked up again on the warm up and cool down stuff from the past and apply it every session.
Also getting good and constructive feedback from coach and other memebers from the study group.

For the coming month pretty exited because I'm getting staked to play NL50 for 1 month. Thx to everyone who sent me info about this really appreciate it!

Without going into details If I lose I will lose the same amount as I was playing NL10. If I win I will have a bit more than I would on NL10. As stated before the biggest win for me is to play better opponents and get better by analysing tougher spots. Spoiler alert first session in the books and down 5.5BI running 4.5BI under EV.

So goals next month:
Play 10k hands
Planning to put in good time on the solver Keep working on the structure (work-outs, food, meditation, family & poker)
Crush souls and mostly focus on my mindset approach when starting a session.

Great summary, thanks for sharing.
Never did staking before as it feels like giving up the independence, but very keen to see how it will work out for you!
P.S. I like the format of the graphs (small height, full width), it's better fits the screen when reading - will borrow it from you.

November update

So first month of staking is in the books. Have to say it did not went great resultwise but also not butchered.
Mentally not that easy because yeah graphs show breakeven, net it's a loss of over 14BI.

For this month I will play drop down in tables (from 4 to 2) and activly work on all my options during play. I feel I get into some robotic mode and not always think about all my options.

So goals November:
Play 10k hands Planning to put in good time on the solver By far not enough
Keep working on the structure (work-outs, food, meditation, family & poker) This will be a life goal I realize now.
Crush souls and mostly focus on my mindset approach when starting a session. Sometimes I def was the crushee...

Goals December:
Play 10k hands, think this will be tough only playing 2 tables but we'll see.
GTO6+, aiming for 5 days out of 7 every week.
Reading Purposeful Practice for poker p84/250
Chose more family and poker over daily work. This is very hard as I am still used to be work stand by 24/7 and helping everyone. Def need to boarder my tasks at work. This will also be something I need to be aware of for my entire career. But I do notive it gets a bit better week by week.

y is -14BI in ev graph b4 rake not butchered? i saw ur stakes but why play 50 when u have trouble to go break even 25 in october

soorry if rude

Have you played 6+ tournaments?

I see in WPTG there are daily short deck tournaments with nice prizepools filled with chinese gamblers.

Originally posted by Heraier298
y is -14BI in ev graph b4 rake not butchered? i saw ur stakes but why play 50 when u have trouble to go break even 25 in october

soorry if rude

No problem, sometimes I do feel like that, sometimes I feel like crap. It's not fun losing on your own roll but I can tell you it's the same when you are staked. It's not like you think after a losing session oh well it's not my money. It's also not extra pressure. Pbb because it's my coach who's staking I feel confident he has a good view on my play and I happily follow his knowledge and do my best to put it in play. If the staking stops tomorrow I will take the knowledge and grind just the same on the lower stakes.

Atm I am totally seperated from the money I just want the lines to go up and win (like I want in any game I've taken serious).

I do try my best to be as sincere as I can in my thinking progress when posting hands.
It's also obv one can always do more to study on work on everything. In times like this I have to hold on to the hands that are reaching out. But yh not gonna lie it's hard atm.

Also when you are losing you are doubting about everything. Not only the plays you make but stuff like: "Am I playing to much, too much tables, not focussed enough, meditation good or bad, food schedule, family balance, work balance.

As a full time employee with a household and trying to fix poker into life having this combined with working on a healthy lifestyle and everything yh sometimes it's hard and makes you wonder why am I even doing this... But for some reason I get up in the morning doing the household stuff and thinking about what actions to do on what boards. Even now with loss after loss I do the study in the morning, try to find ways to study better and play better. If I'm honest sometimes it feels weird to fill in the BR challenge when yh nothing happens BR wise but the road to where I am now pokerwise and lifewise is so drastic different then a year back it is mindblowing.

Originally posted by leveleleven47
Have you played 6+ tournaments?

I see in WPTG there are daily short deck tournaments with nice prizepools filled with chinese gamblers.

I used to play NLH tournaments but yh not possible to play those as into where I am in life atm.
Not saying I won't play an event sometimes but def not on a regular schedule.

One guy in the study group is playing mostly MTT and yh on WPT the gamlers are present but the variance is even higher on the MTT and the mindset needed to grasp that all and continue to play well (as a hobby) is not to be underestimated.

December update

Second month of staking has gone buy and it has not started pretty. At some point I was down over 22BI and yh did not feel good.
Def felt the results of my time put into meditation and study to keep focussed and play as good as I could.

Happy to say it turned around in the last 2 weeks and could settle for a profit.

I started the month with playing 2 tables but felt I was attracted to other stuff because I had too much time. Scaled up to 3 and than 4 tables in the last week.

Goals December:

Play 10k hands.

Check

GTO6+, aiming for 5 days out of 7 every week.

Def was learning 5/7 days but not specifically on GTO6+. It was a lot on PC reviewing hands and taking notes on villain. Putting stuff in oRanges and discussing in the study group. Also some coachings and stuff so yh def on the right track here.

Reading Purposeful Practice for poker p84/250

Still reading as it is not a book you should read in one time but really try the stuff out they put in there.

Chose more family and poker over daily work. This is very hard as I am still used to be work stand by 24/7 and helping everyone. Def need to boarder my tasks at work. This will also be something I need to be aware of for my entire career. But I do notive it gets a bit better week by week.

Made some good progress here and becoming a better family man day by day (even if I say so myself)

Goals for January will be the same as for the whole coming year. It will contain 1 task: keep to the schedule. The schedule itself can and has to vary as life itself will vary but will contain a vast sleeping patern. A 5 day work out and study time moments. It also containes play moments but I will pbb make those less when I have reached the 10k hands mark and fill it in with extra study time.
The study will be about flops in Iso'd and limped spots for the coming 6 weeks. Atm we had Ahi (SRP and LP) and Khi LP in the books. Obv reviewing hands and taking notes will also be a part of it as the coachings.

Wish you all a happy 2024 and a lot of winnings!

Howdy, I saw from your report that you had a nice upswing lately - how has that been coming? 6+ attracting a couple of fish more?

Originally posted by SvenBe
Howdy, I saw from your report that you had a nice upswing lately - how has that been coming? 6+ attracting a couple of fish more?

Yes I'm still playing
It's going so so but on the good side:

January update

As you can see first 2 weeks started not so well with at the deepest a session -10 BI followed by a -14BI session...
The positive thing about it is that mentally I can take the swings. Anyways BR is again good enough for NL25 wich means I keep playing NL50 but with less stake.

Goals 2024 update:

- Working out:
- Play 10k+ hands a month:
- Study/play at least 50/50
-- LP + RP (6weeks will not be enough - will keep this till end of march to know it by heart)
- Choose poker + family:

February update

So this month felt like a lot of things came into place.

In one of the articles from Barry he was talking about the study/playing time and I noticed I did not keep track of that. Again a motivation to put in more hours. Last 4 weeks it was around 30/70 (study/play). So truelly working to reach the 50/50 here but yh not as easy as it seems.

Second point was that I fell in the rakeback trap (again) had 2 big losing sessions where I added an extra table and lengthened my playing session. Fyi it was a -17BI session followed by a -14BI session. The big downhill from hand 14500 till 17500. Fortunataly I was able to get my shit toghether and clocked a profit over 30BI - which was actually a goal (more a dream) I made in the beginning of this blog almost 2 years ago.

March will bring a lot of non poker events for me (yes there will be drinking) so planning and structure will even more important to keep all the balls in the air.

So spring is around the corner and that's the time of the year the poker schedule gets disrupted by outside activities. Yes you can read bbq and drinks.

To counter this I will update the blog weekly with the performed schedule of past week. It will contain my study hours and my playing hours. Also it will hopefully motivate me even more to get to the 50/50 ratio and maybe beyond. Have to be honest the ratio Barry sujested in one of his articles (90/10) is not doable for me as I would get no volume in with time I can spend on poker. For the last weeks the time I spend on poker is between 15h-20h a week.

So here is summary from last week. Any tips are more than welcome:

So as promissed last week performances:

So eventhought the month is not going good moneywise the structure is paying off. Feeling more and more comfortable at the stake so yh keep the grind going.

So this week I started of slow. Good to felt the "pressure" of the blog to put in the study hours.

This week GG changed the format for sixplus rathr drastic. Decided not to go in with the "short deck is dead spew" but went back to the drawing board and studying what is available to gain an edge asap.

Will update monthly results next week but I can say I'm glad I'm close to BE afther being down over 1k. Still feels sick to take swings this big but yh it's the path I chose

During last study session decided to put up 1 tournament to prepare a bit for scoop in the hope to get some good spots. Also nice to say I'm on FT atm 1/6 - $104 for first. let's go!!!

Will save my "one time" for scoop though

March update

After 2 good months this one put me back into reality (net is loss of about $85). At the deepest I was down over 1.2k (24BI). Kept the schedule, coachings and everything I could do during session to be as focussed as could be and try not to be results orientated.

Sessions overview:

Main takeaways are:

My game is not perfect (do'h)
These streaks will happen in this heavy variance game
Keep attention for mental aspect

March will bring a lot of non poker events for me (yes there will be drinking) so planning and structure will even more important to keep all the balls in the air.

Yes the parties did follow up but as planned it did not effect me (negative on poker). Def negative on the wife but yh it happens (all good now).
Also seems ok to switch from party lifestyle to healthy lifestyle for other days of the week as the weight stays around 85kg.

As a small side note I decided at the start of februari to not eat chocolate spread for a month. Nothing special but just figured out if I could do a small 'challenge' each month it wold improve my habbits and lifestyle. Intention is not to never do/eat stuff again but keep my mind sharp about dealing consciously with foods or other stuff.

:spade:March: Not eating chocolate spread
:spade:April: Not eating mayonnaise (not on events or anything like that)
:spade:May: No more snacking after dinner
:spade:June:
:spade:July:
...
December:

So the list is not completed and I need some suggestions (health, poker, sports,...)!

Happy grinding everyone!