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

@Arnolde89: check ur community messages

For everyone else, a bit of a funny hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 12 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1500)
SB (t1500)
BB (t1500)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
MP2 (t1500)
Hero (MP3) (t1500)
CO (t1500)

Hero's M: 50.00

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 7, 7
UTG calls t20, UTG+1 calls t20, 2 folds, Hero calls t20, 1 fold, Button calls t20, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: (t110) 9, 9, 7 (5 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: (t110) 7 (5 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t80, 2 folds, UTG calls t80, 1 fold

River: (t270) A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t1400 (All-In), UTG calls t1400 (All-In)

Total pot: t3070

I was hoping he'd have the 9, maybe if he's dense to call with an A high flush, but I was never prepared for his bottom flush lol. That hand alone carries 12$ in entertainment value ♦

So I played some poker today and here's how I did. 177 games in total, a mix of 12$ 45man and 180man SnGs with 27$ 45man SnGs. 155$/hr, not bad for a days worth but I was really hoping to publish my first 2k$ day. Oh well ... should happen some time soon

The next graph u'll be seeing is one of things going down. Hopefully it'll take a few more weeks till then ♦

grats Atoks, its nice when all the hard work pays off.

i drool over your ss graph every time i look at it.

Yeah, i was at your tables when you were running hot. Unfortunately i was the one running bad. But yesterday you werent playing so i made tons of money

Are you heavy multi tabling too? 177 games is a very nice volume.

Originally posted by Alverine
Yeah, i was at your tables when you were running hot. Unfortunately i was the one running bad. But yesterday you werent playing so i made tons of money

Are you heavy multi tabling too? 177 games is a very nice volume.

LOL, yeah I had a decent amount of suckouts that day ♦ Not as many as when really running hot but still. I saw u and yeah u were really unlucky in one of the 180s. Was rather shocked to realize at one point on final two tables that I had more chips than u.

Yeah I play 20tables. It's not a stupid amount but I can play through ~50games in 2hrs. The biggest problem of MTT SnGs toward STT ones is that they last longer. Sure ur ROI can be bigger but that's canceled out by the duration. So I 20table for a better hourly. Good luck if ur playing over the weekend, kick some butt while I'm away

Weeellll.... it's been an on again off again week for me so far. I've been playing very sporadicly and not all that great. There are at least two sessions that I wish I'd never have started. Poker has been leaving me a bit empty lately and I kinda wish these days that I'd have something more meaningful to do in life. Poker has pretty much been a dream for me (specially in the last year or so) but it just doesn't give that feeling of doing something significant or remotely important. Yeah I entertain fish and teach regs how to play but ... meh ... there's more to life and I hope to find it soon.

I've finally decided to buy that car that I was aiming to have earlier this year. After some downswing issues I was putting it off and trying to convince myself it would just be unplugging another big leak if I actually did buy it. Well screw that, I'm not a beast of burden and therefore I can't be arsed to walk to the bus station and ride the bus whenever I want to visit my GF. So I've been visiting car dealers and I'll reluctantly spend those 4k-5k€ on a car and expenses. I'm not going to go crazy over it, nor do I need to compensate for anything by buying a vastly expensive and lavish car so priorities are good mileage and low maintenance.

Apart from that not much is new. It's been an average week, I've earned about 1.5k$ during it and the nice weather and warmer temperatures are making it harder for me to focus on the grind. Hopefully I'll put in another 4-5weeks of solid grind in and then just unplug for a month or more. Have a good weekend folks, I'll cya around

Hey,

well I've realized another of my goals. I bought a car. Nothing fancy, a nice diesel FIAT that gets 100km/4.5l of gas. Managed to get a create vehicle that was well taken care off and even if the price was a few 100€ extra, I got a bit of guarantee with it and it generally is a very fine car. Managed to go a few 100€ over the budget as well, but no more than 10% so I'm (and hopefully will continue to be) very satisfied with the buy ♦ After my chair, 24" screen, PC, investing considerable money into the family home (4k€+), this is another awesome poker buy for me ♦ Hope there are many many more and bigger following (shortly).

Played some poker recently, but not the kinds of sessions I put in last week. I'm doing 120ish sessions since the full moon and the warmer temperatures made it harder for me to keep my focus. I've played some more horrible appalling poker that made me wanna kick myself but I've managed to recover from the losses and am on the up again. The downer was but a short 300games one or so. I said I'd put the graph of a downswing in here but atm I can't be bothered, maybe tomorrow

Good times are rolling ... next I need to figure out a vacations plan and then on to moving away from home in the autumn. Plan A is well on track. Let it roll ... ....... ........... ..................

And here it is. The first anniversary of this blog. I can't help but think of the day I deposited 200€ on stars and began playing the 6.50$ STTs. I went on a rampage, finished 2nd in one of the battle of the planets and by the end of june I had over 1k$ without yet finishing the first deposit bonus. The 16$s continued my good run of form but then the regs figured my ranges and I got my head smashed and so my 1k games on the 16s ended completely breakeven. Seeking something more fun and less rigid I began playing the 45man micro games. Realizing their potential I soon began to build a sample of the 12$ games and by the end of october I had decided to make MTT SnGs my game. The decision payed off massive dividends as my hourly winrate average rose from a feeble 5$/hr average to a not so crappy 12.5$/hr by the end of the year. The new year started off ok but shortly thereafter the variance gave me a spanking again and I was forced to wonder what will happen from mid january to mid march. I managed to invest more and more time in educating and improving my game and my approach to poker (which in a way was going all the whole year, but those two months were really full of learning and improvement). Adding the 27$ 45mans meant my winnings went from last years 12.5$/hr to this years 30$/hr on average.

I'm not yet making amazing money from poker. I am however earning way more than the majority of the work force in Slovenia does. The one thing that really strikes me though, that even after 4 years playing poker for real money online, I'm still amazed at how much learning and effort it takes in order to even make it to this level. Dear reader, poker is not an easy way to earn a living. At least not when u start out and until u are prepared to give what it takes to achieve a sufficient winrate. I see myself as a grinder. Not a super crazy grinder that would play stupid hours every day but non the less. I play 20 tables and make decisions in short amounts of time. I can't be anything else but a grinder ... for now.

I've made many plans and put a lot of ideas in this blog. I really regret not giving Omaha more of a chance. Hopefully I'll do that sometime in the near future. The summer is coming and maybe it's time to get a couple more books from the PokerStars store. Always easier to read by the beach then from the computer screen. I believe the future is bright for me in poker. I never planed to be the next Phil Ivey or Patrik Antonius but I do have aims and motivations that could make me a visible person in the poker world. For that to happen I have to change some things, most notably grind less and work on quality poker more. This is something I will address during the summer.

In general the past 12months have been OK. Only in the past couple of months have things really started to come together and that can't be a coincidence. Studying and the ways I've managed to improve myself are starting to yield results. This motivates me for the future and knowing how much more effort I'm willing to put into improving myself I feel happy and excited about the future. This is a beginning and an end. An end of an era of bad/mediocre poker play and the beginning of the transition into better, more accomplished poker performances. This blog ends here. There may be a new one, there may not be another. I'm not really sure when or where another blog will begin.

Thank you for reading. Thanks to Flows, NickParkes and lennonac for playing such prominent roles in my development and immensely helping me to reach this (new) high. Thanks to PokerStrategy.com and it's team for being a fun place, with new ideas and critiques, revelations and disappointments, a place where I first began forging quality ideas about poker. I wish u all luck and good fortune

nice year in review. will u continue your blog though?

No. This blog will not continue.

congratulations on making it to 1year Atoks! hope 2010 continues to be a great year for you

Congrats for the nice year, I'm really happy for your results in the last months since your mindset and dedication are great motivations for me.

I believe that your next projects will be as rewarding as this one. I hope you will continue to blog and many others surely do.

Cya around and don't forget to stop by on skype sometimes.

Hey Atoks

I have to thank you. You helped me a lot to get where am I right. Also congrats for your sucess and your car. I also have the money to buy a car, my first car, and with poker moniezzzz

Also our graphs looks like the same. Seems like we are on the same pace

Im giving this month a break from poker, but i would love to talk some strategy with you later. I dont know if you remember the hand tha we played togheter at a $12 45's. You were in the utg very short and pushed. I assumed your range would be almost any2 and iso very wide against you. This type of play is so weird and so wrong in one way of thinking but maybe its the right line if you were playing for the win. Anyway, if you dont remember, look for hands played against me, i had QTo i think.

if you interested in anything just leave me a message ♠_grin:

Just picked up on this as I have been far away from ll the pokerzzzzz... but congrats and looking forward to seeing how you progress bud... gl ♦