[Closed] My Trip among the Stars; a 12 month chronicle through SnGs, now concluded

Hey folx,

after the depression which is the eagerly expected updated law on online gambling in our country it's really hard to think about many other things. I've gone so far as to look into some contingency plans and even made the first steps to set a few things up. So far I have the option to get an apartment in two of the neighbouring countries and another a bit further away. I've also found some useful software that should help me tackle the problem. On top of that some other solutions beckon but those need more homework. I did in fact plan to move away from home in autumn so if they can hold up this new law till then that'd be great!

I've also begun to play NL SH again. With the help of RahXephon1 I've began to restart the cash game experience and ended up devoting all of yesterdays playing time to NL50SH. The results were nice however I did end up facing some of the frustration when things didn't go my way. I check my BR way too often when I play CGs, I need to eliminate that. In total I've played about 2k hands yesterday, had a lot of fun and a very nice profit. The plan is to add 2hrs of CGs per day along with the 5hrs of SnGs per day. Due to my PokerStars rakeback plans I'm gaining a lot of experience this year and hopefully a lot more discipline and patience as well. All in all the first month of the year was OK but not great. I'll be looking for better results and more working on my game.

Gonna play MTTs today. I still enjoy them a lot more than CGs. Hope to have a lot of fun today and I wish u all the same and good luck! Cya everyone

Oh one other thing I wanted to write about: Sweat sessions. For me they are the best form of improving my game. I enjoy doing them either by reviewing a tournament, watching someone play or having someone watch me play (but the last two for CGs only, it's easier to review tournies that have already been played out). The key (for me) is the discussion, the dialogue that develops when situations come by. That helps me to see things from another perspective, helps me revisit and reanalyze situations again. That is absolutely key! Basics are far more important than forms of advanced play (until u reach medium stakes) so don't bother much with other than mastering the basics. Sweat sessions help with that abundantly!

Of course u won't always get it off with every player u arrange to do them with. I've had the good fortune of meeting some very good and very eager players during my time on pokerstrategy. The one key ingredient for the sweat sessions is enthusiasm for learning the game. U'll find many player looking to do that here so take advantage of it and build some ties! Trust me, it'll do ur game a world of good

So at this point, I'd again like to thank Flows, NickParkes and RahXephon1, for taking the time to compare our games and skills and helping me improve! I hope my input will help u guys as well and that we get to do it even more
OK now I'm really done with this update Cya!

Maybe you legislative body is super high on steroids but if the law is not yet through the whole legislative process you don't have to worry about it too much in my opinion. I would expect the law to be in effect not sooner than beginning of the next year if things work the same way in Slovenia as they do in the Czech Republic.. And I really think those things work pretty much the same everywhere.
Plus the being in effect doesn't mean there's going to be someone enforcing it right away. It usually takes up to 3 years for a law to become effective in the way it was designed to be..
And this depends on the wording but banning gambling doesn't necessarily banning poker as well.

Anyway, if you're looking for more people to do sweat sessions and such you can add me on skype - Lubor Cerny from the Czech Republic.. I'm playing NL50 SH ATM..

Yeah u'r likely right about the law Lubor. Still to fight things like these noise is the best weapon. The sooner u start to make it the better. It'll prolly be amended quite a bit and it'll take time but ... the sooner the people react the better ... that way they don't forget about it when it crops up again. It still has me worried though ... I'm bound to hear more about this criminality shit from my family ... hate the thought of it.

I am in fact looking for one more sweat session partner, but it'd be a late night/early morning EU time setup. Right now I get to open my day with a sweat session and I'd like to close it as well. We'll talk more about it on skype, but if anyone else is interested feel free to send me a message in the community section. I'll get back as soon as I read it.

NL SH has been interesting. I quit it because it was so damn aggressive. Now though I don't really mind the aggression. Yesterday I played a rather funny hand with in a BU vs. BB situation. I was protecting against BU raise with AQs 3Betting, after the BU 4Bet I shoved it. Sure enough he calls and turns over the same hand I had spades and three more popped up on the flop, so I took down a nice pot, but at least that guy won't be too eager to go after my blinds anymore Or anyone else who was watching that hand.

PokerStars NL50 is a really demanding field for an unexperienced player. Now I'm not calling myself a super-awesome-all-experienced-holy-force-of-poker but I got one thing working for me ... my bankroll! For a long time I suspected, that the really good poker players play, what look like retarded bluffs, because they don't feel the pressure of losing the hand if it doesn't work out in their favor that time. I'm starting to see proof of that. I feel WAAAAAAAY more comfortable firing 3Bets and 4Bets all over the place, firing 3 barrels as a bluff and generally taking the shots when I see a chance to win, compared to last year, when I was burdened by the bankroll and even survival issues. Now that I put all that behind me, I can see myself progressing even faster and that is always a good thing So regardless of what game u play, build up a vast vast army of chips (bankroll ) so u'll be able to feel more relaxed and less pressured when u'll be faced with a decision.

Psyche is a big part of every poker players game. Make sure u work on that aspect of ur game just as much as u do on ur leaks. Looking back I don't know if I could start building a bankroll from the starting 50$ again. I don't wish it on anyone to be completely honest. In a way I started in the same way. Blew my first 50$ which I got as a present, turned to freerolls, made a few bucks and the rest ... is history. I actually tried a second starting bankroll in a promotion last year on Cake Poker but I didn't have the patience or the willpower to build it up. Ended up losing around 200$ on the whole project. So yeah ... starting is rough, in fact it'll prolly be rough for most of new players the first year, probably two, depending on how committed and prepared to work u are. Maybe I should go into greater detail on how I made it this far (which isn't all that far yet when I think about it ...) and how I plan to go forward. If there's interest, lemme know

That's all for now, cya next time and good luck to y'all!

hey atoks, great blog and to answer ur question, there's interest here for sure.

very interesting and insightful blog. even tho i play CG, i grinded my first 50+50 on SNG's. just wanted to say here for the record that you'll be in NL1k in no time! or whatever the SNG equivalent ♦

i agree that SH is pretty aggressive. that's why i think it wouldv been a bad idea for me to start there where i left off. requires a lot of balls to play an ideal game. used to do sweat sessions with some of the PS ppl but i realize now that it would be too difficult to do with ongame software which requires too much pc power.

i also agree that it is SO tough to start back from $50. i got a 2nd bankroll but just kind of let it expire. it kinda feels like wasting time to be on the micros when our BR allows us to make more profit elsewhere, right?

anyway, sorry for hijacking ur blog with my shenanigans. good luck with that law thing. oh yeah, question, how come you think u will stop playing poker next year?

Hi folks,

I've been forced to relocate recently. No it's not the law hunting me down but a problem at home. With all the recent snow the water started to come down through the roof so I was forced to move my stuff out and we'r now waiting for favorable weather to fix it. Thankfully my GF is absolutely awesome so I'm currently at her place. I'm playing less poker since she really enjoys distracting me, but still ... I get as much grind as possible out of the day and also spend quality time with her I guess I'll be getting a partial answer to the question, can a girl tolerate a guy playing poker for hrs each day So far, so good, it's actually been lot's of fun

This again puts my moving up on hold. I really enjoy peace and quiet whenever I play poker and since I'm now in an apartment building with many things happening all around I'd rather not go nuts trying to refocus every few minutes. I'm hoping the weather clears soon so that I can take my business back to my quiet and remote room to try moving on up again. NL SH has been going well, running at just under 5BB/100 over about 9k hands. I have a few spots that I need to work on a bit more (play OOP less, raise from early a bit tighter, read a bit more about playing 3Bets, some post flop issues also) but overall, I'm bringing my game up nicely.

@purplefizz: Thanks for the awesome review, I'm glad u enjoyed the blog I already have a few ideas for the series of posts that would describe my poker journey. If I put it all in one post it'll end up being a mammoth size wall of text lol.
About the equivalent to NL1k in SnGs that's a good question ... I thought about this for a while and I'm not really sure lol. 100$ SnGs still seem a bit low compared to NL1k, but I will thank u very much for that vote of confidence! From your keyboard to gods eyes and ears eh? ♦
I used to do my first sweat sessions on my (now) 8 year old PC on the OnGame network with Flows. Those sessions were the main reason I set my mind to buy a new PC lol. It's still doable but u need to know a few tricks (I can PM u with them if u want to).
With building a bankroll it's not just about wasting time, it's hard to build up faith and remain patient to safely move up. On my personal community page I wrote that my biggest achievement is me making poker a profitable game for me because of all the traps this game brings. Most of those traps come in the very early stage of a career and I could write for a long time about all the issues that a new player has to face and deal with ... maybe for the next series of posts
Don't worry about hijacking at all, I'm happy to get the interest The law thing might work out in a solid way (knock on wood), there's still some time and there also might be a referendum about it ... I'd never really entirely give up poker, just the grind really ... I don't want to grind anymore after I'm 30 ... hell I'm not sure I'll want to do it as much next year! I want to have won all the money for a comfortable life by then and after then I would just enjoy the poker and play some nice tournaments with big prize pools ♦ Thanks for stopping by and lots of luck to you!

And the same to everyone else, enjoy the game and say confident! I'll cya

are u a professional player?

Originally posted by fun101rockets
are u a professional player?

I live solely off the money I make off poker yes ... But I dare not call me a professional yet ... I need a few nice tournament wins to back that statement (like six figures or better and live tournament results ...). So yes and no

I wondered where have you disapeared.

It all makes sense now ♠_biggrin:

Originally posted by RahXephon1
I wondered where have you disapeared.

It all makes sense now ♠_biggrin:

Yeah sorry mate, I was on skype now and then to try get word to u, but my clingy GF doesn't let me be on the computer much I'll prolly have more time next week, we got something scheduled for the repairs finally. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.

How does your girl handle your "job" (poker, i mean)?

I think it always start like this:

Oh, you play poker. Nice hobby.

Later...

You should be playing less, I think you will turn out to be a gambler, be careful.

Later...

Oh honey, thank you for this wonderful gift. Where the moniezz come from? Hmm... I like poker

Originally posted by Alverine
How does your girl handle your "job" (poker, i mean)?

I think it always start like this:

Oh, you play poker. Nice hobby.

Later...

You should be playing less, I think you will turn out to be a gambler, be careful.

Later...

Oh honey, thank you for this wonderful gift. Where the moniezz come from? Hmm... I like poker

Hehehe ♦

It's going to be three years shortly, since me and my special girl decided to start a relationship and it's been a bit longer than that that I've been playing poker. So she's got used to it quite well by now. I remember texting her how I earned 3$ in one afternoon playing poker and now I texted her a few times already, that I've earned over 1k$
Thankfully she's believed in me all this time and accepts my poker ambitions greatly. I'm truly lucky about that

Hey everyone,

it's been a few days ... a few rough days in terms of poker and money. I've been brutalized again by some really fugly suckouts (among these was one when I was just about to reach the final table bubble of a regular MTT where the win was worth 5K$ - instead the guy in the BB decided to play T6o from the BB against my SB raise and hit his 3outer on the river to send me packing in 12th with less than 200$ for my effort). NL50SH hasn't been much different ... got my cash in the middle good/with stupid amount of outs/equity, only to be foiled by the dealer. But moma said there'd be days like these ... so I'm just watching, analyzing my play, keeping my cool and doing what I can not to tilt (can't believe I'm still trying to get tilting out of my system ...). It's not that I tilt often or tilt badly but I really don't want to start spewing my cash around. It was hard to build up my discipline and I'd like to keep it.

On the plus side though, I've had lots of fun at my GFs and a few really fun sessions in the past two days. The last two NL50SH sessions have actually earned me a pretty penny and I just love abusing the other players' leaks. Most of those leaks come from blind stealing/defending and limped pots. There's a lot of money to be collected that way even on PokerStars. The main reason I've been having so much fun has to be my BR. With well over 100BI for the NL50 I feel completely relaxed and unburdened about the decisions I make. It really looks like the biggest edge in my cash games come from blind battles and my BR. Everything else is too small a sample to determine yet.

But I've actually had another bit of bad news. With the repairs that our roof needs I'll have to contribute to the expenses (handsomely I should add) which pushes my new(er) car plans back at least a month. It sucks but I'd rather be without a car than put strain on my BR or reserves fund. I don't really mind being without a car, it's the fact that my plan might get spoiled that's getting to me. Hopefully this downer will end and I'll get on some insane heater to be able to cover all the planned and unplanned expense that have popped up this month ♦

With that wish in mind I shall now retire to bed ... finally lol. Good luck all and I'll cya around

Helloes ...

I've just had one of my worst poker days. Totaling at about 600$ down, I couldn't do squat to turn my losses into winnings. Poker really isn't a nice game when u can't win. I'm considering taking a day or two off all together. Just so I don't get all frazzled and annoyed with it. I still can't get on the final table of the regular tournaments. I hope things come together, so I can get an even bigger morale boost, than a turnaround in my variance would bring.

I also cashed out the money that I need for the repairs to the home. It's looking more and more likely, that I might have to spend a week or so without a car. Still have hopes that won't happen! All I really need is three or four good days on MTT SnGs and to catch up a bit with the EV line on NL50 and I'll be there. To anyone considering going pro: make sure u have a huge bankroll and solid finances before u do. Nothing nothing nothing gives u peace of mind and the ability to sleep at night better, than knowing u don't have to risk ur life's existence or ur bankroll, so u can make it through those brief rough times.

The way I made sure of that is a bit complex, but I feel it's a great tip for how to prepare to live solely off poker. I basically have four funds:
-my poker bankroll (usually over 100BI for the highest limit I play)
-my instant spend money (usually covering normal expenses for at least 5-6 months at any given time + walk around money)
-the iron fund (this one is rather big and it's in place in case things go seriously awry and I'd need a decent chunk of money fast or over a few years ... I try not to touch this but I also try to expand it every other month or so)
-my long term savings accounts/investments (also tucked away but more for the more senior days of my life ... going to expand these as well!)

This way I have a few buffers in place in case poker would dry up for one reason or another. I've spent two years building it all up and still am. Most of it was built up by working various jobs but that has completely shifted over to poker at the beginning of last year. I now feel almost completely relaxed whenever I hit a bad patch of cards knowing, that I have the money I need to enjoy a comfortable (one day luxurious ♦ ) life. I can't stress enough, how important it is to be prepared for the rainy days. Nothing kills ur EV more than stress anxiety or downright fear and terror. If u are thinking of switching to poker for all ur financial needs, u will be seriously grateful for such preparation in the long run.

Cya folks, good luck to me and all of ya as well

i know these days .. You start playing and u first loose like 2-3 80/20 , u say " k np its just variance it was about time to catch me " so you start playing more knowing that u cant loose everytime ,after some incredible suck outs of 3-4 outs u start getting annoyed but still keeping play your a game and put more volume to catch the downswing but when u keep continue to loose u first laugh cause its like the whole universe have come against you and its like a joke but then u realize that its just not your day and even if u play 5 hours or 20 hours straight u will still loose .

Thats why i ve started playing standard sessions without seeing my results , for example play every day the same volume of mtts .So u know from the start if u re gonna loose all your mtts for example 30 then u have lost 30xbi of mtt.Find a comfortable amount that u re ok to loose in a session and try not to catch up with more sngs/mtts cause when a day is fucked its fucked u cant do anything to change that ♦

Take some days off ,regain your confidence and start making the thoughts u had in previous posts as that dont look at the results etc ,i know its hard to overlook that when u re on a downswing .The positive after the downswing is that u re more eager to play cause u know upswing is the next thing to happen ♦

Yeah, that's the one good thing about this downswing, I get to go through it while I'm at my girls ♠_cool: She knows how to make it all go away

Life's good

Hey hey,

it's been a rough few days with poker. I still sweat bullets every time I get my chips in and winning has been a rare event for my hands. As usual, the hands that are taking most of the damage are KK and QQ. Recently they haven't been much better than 72. The same could be said for AK but surprisingly, I've lost mostly with overpairs, sets and on paired boards. Neither cash games nor tourneys have been going well for me. It sucked hard but it should end sometime soon.

I've also made it back home and for the past two days I've been trying to make up the difference to last month with a few extra playing hours. It's not really working, because I'm trying to stay fresh and that was kind of hard to do when I was looking at suckout after suckout for 4-5hrs. Yesterday I ended a session of NL50SH after I got my AQs with TP and FD all in on the turn only for the other guy to turn over AA. Not a problem, until I go looking at my graph. It's rather difficult to see myself down 300$ after 22k hands with the complete EV value of about 150$. It makes me wonder quite a bit, if I should pay any attention to the EV line or is the sample too small. It sure isn't inspiring though.

I've decided to wrap up my MTT SnG tourny session after 7hrs today when I got my AA in against K7s and AKo and I ended up staring at a board with the remaining two kings. I'm very happy with the way I've played these games recently, as soon as I'll start to win the key hands again things will look incredibly awesome from the winrate point of view. All in all I am down about 2200$. It looks like quite a chunk of money but I'm not worried. I've won more than that in less than a week and it prolly won't take much longer to get back to my previous high (after I get back on winning ways ofc ).

For now though, the name of the game for me is "keeping it cool and focused." I'm happy with my attitude, I've even almost completely stopped mumbling whenever I get bad beat or coolered. That's all for now, I wish that my next update will bring better and funner news Cya!

Well, I wanted this next update to carry better news but things in fact got even worse. Beyond worse! I'm actually lucky if I win a hand! I lost countless dominating hands today and not won so many chips it's simply criminal! It is beyond me that anyone can run so bad over such a sample. Honestly, even with a bankroll of 3k$ u could go bust in 1k games! Thankfully my BR is, or rather was way bigger than that. Otherwise I'd be without a bankroll right now.

This is seriously getting retarded. I can't remember a worse run, ever. Thank god I got myself setup pretty well and that this isn't really threatening my poker career or even my existence. It's gonna be a while till I buy that next car but hey ... going through these past three weeks, getting on the worse end of so many bad beats and suckouts, it makes me want to delve into my iron fund less and less. Right now it's not fun to be me.

This better set the stage for a very very very long positive period. That's the only thing that can make up for this, winning more than three times what I lost. And that's just on MTT SnGs! Would u believe I actually had a couple of positive sessions on NL50?! I'm really angry right now, can't remember the last time I felt this disappointed. I wish things improve drastically very soon. Cya.

Cheer up Atoks!

I hope you`ll get out of that dark place. Last downswing i had, i dealt with by drastically reducing my volume, the tables i was playing and spending most of the freed up time on reading poker stuff and hanging out with friends more.

And as Tim64 said it: The upside of this is: you will eventually have an even bigger downswing and secondly, after a downswing there's always an upswing that compensates the losses + interest

Just hang in there!

Greets

Thanks for the support neelton I might actually try playing with less tables.

It's still so frustrating that u get these downswings whacking u over the bankroll in such quick succession. I've spent some more time looking back on the tournaments I've played and they all got several things in common:
-lot's of suckouts on my monster hands and made hands
-I was put into a lot of spots where I had to make thin pushes or calls
-I got punished by other players very bad play very often
-during this most recent series that put me over 3k$ down my edge remained virtually the same in every spot, compared to when I'm actually winning money

So this is ur textbook downswing. Results-wise anyway. I'm considering tweaking my ranges against certain players some more, I'll also change my own style considerably as well, which will hopefully make me less predictable. I guess I'm trying to look at this as an excuse to expand my game even more ... wish I could do this all the time. Yet, why change ur game, when ur winning right? So here's some food for thought: if the way u play poker and make decisions makes u win over a huge sample, should u still analyze ur game and try to change it?