♠ A Show of Force ♠ Mid-Highstakes Action

Welcome to blogs M1rCrea, nice start, it seems you were right, you do like to talk a little!

Your first graph reminds me too much of mine I'm afraid, so it's nice to see you've moved on from there.
I have been a magnificent underachiever all my life, right up until I met mrsgadget when I had to change things round and quickly, for various reasons.

I will of course be subscribed tot his and will be rooting for you at nl200 by Christmas! Sadly, I fear joining you will be a little beyond me, but I'll cheer anyway!

Run good and make sure it stays fun,

Mal.

wow, seems great... following!

good luck in your journey and become an Overachiever!!

Originally posted by gadget51
Welcome to blogs M1rCrea, nice start, it seems you were right, you do like to talk a little!

Your first graph reminds me too much of mine I'm afraid, so it's nice to see you've moved on from there.
I have been a magnificent underachiever all my life, right up until I met mrsgadget when I had to change things round and quickly, for various reasons.

I will of course be subscribed tot his and will be rooting for you at nl200 by Christmas! Sadly, I fear joining you will be a little beyond me, but I'll cheer anyway!

Run good and make sure it stays fun,

Mal.

+1

M1rcea,

great take off, continue good work and give usupdates,

gl sir.

Fran

Really nice read! GL & I Will follow

gl from a fellow underachiever who also tries to turn things around

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the support, I really appreciate it. Hopefully you will find things in this blog that will also help you on your journey.

Update
Gonna keep today's post somewhat short since it is late for me (5AM) and I want to get up early-ish to hit up a new gym - the old one isn't open in the morning and I want to experiment with going to the gym as a morning ritual, to have evenings free for poker / going out.

Yesterday I took a break from playing poker - I am also experimenting with this, playing max 6 days/week, to avoid getting burned out and to focus on other areas. It was weird, I felt the urge to play - which to me is unusual, I used to have to force myself to play.

Today was a good day, I played a 7h session lol (I am usually aiming for 2x2,5h sessions / day). Started quite badly, I got in some ugly spots, felt tired. But after pushing on for some time, I got into the flow of it and eventually didn't want to stop playing. Some factors may be
1. Posting an interesting hand on the study group and discussing it a little - got me thinking about the game properly.
2. Being at the tables with some of the guys from the study group - one of them was trying to outplay me (flatting my 3B ip w/ A2o ; stealing from SB w/ Q8o and 3 barreling my top pair w/ a flopped GS - called him down like a boss), then I 3barreled him lol. This was quite fun

Playing vs Regs
This is a very important topic I feel, our relationship with other regulars. I noticed myself finding pleasure in outplaying other regulars. But this can get a bit out of hand, when you end up focusing primarily on other regulars, it becomes very unprofitable. Our game should be focused on playing vs fish.

Some of my insights on this topic, in my experience
Table selection
> I will always sit on the best tables I can find (regarding fish)
> I will never play on a full reg table (only exception when starting a table)

Spots to play vs regs - I will only try to outplay another reg when the situation arises
> eg I am trying to play a pot with a fish and a regular is involved (I iso a fish reg flats also / I flat with a fish behind)
> I am very reluctant to flat vs a reg without a clear reason! I don't want to get involved in pots unnecessarily

When do I want to begin a multiple street bluff
> I have equity in the hand + Some hands I can credibly represent - this will usually be my main deciding factor on whether to begin a multistreet bluff or not
> I usually make my plan on the flop and will not hesitate if I feel a big river bluff is profitable (I had this problem where I was getting to the river and was afraid to pull the trigger just because I was risking a big portion / all of my stack; I also see this problem in many regs, they are afraid to go all the way - raise flop, bet, shove vs raise flop, bet turn, give up)
> I need a very specific reason to barrel without equity (eg his range is capped / weak, mine is strong)

I think the key is not chasing spots to outplay other regulars, but exploit good situations when they arise.

This was it for today, longer than expected as usual lol. I am curious to hear some feedback on the playing vs other regs bit.

Peace,
Daniel

Hey guys, so today I joined a new gym so I can go in the morning. Wow this one is much better than the old one, I have all the equipment I need. Time to get back to my true form and beyond lol.

My biggest leak here is not eating enough, since I put on weight very hard.

PoKeR
Today I played 4h, ran quite badly, but mostly I am disappointed that I fell into the trap of letting myself be distracted by getting in our poker group's voice conference on skype(I am in a romanian study group with ppl who play both lower and higher than me - NL200-NL1k). I know I stop playing optimally when I do this.

Even though my focus dropped by only 10% and still made ok decisions, I didn't give 100% anymore so I am still unhappy about it.

Here's a fun hand from today, played vs a member of my study group. My image of him is that he is quite solid, so I never expect him to take this line as a bluff.

Party, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $52.31 (104.6 bb)
SB: $50 (100 bb)
BTN: $45.60 (91.2 bb)
Hero (CO): $51.25 (102.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6 9
Hero raises to $1.50, BTN folds, SB calls $1.25, BB folds

Flop: ($3.50) 5 A K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.35, SB calls $2.35

Turn: ($8.20) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5, SB calls $5

River: ($18.20) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12, SB raises to $41.15 and is all-in, Hero folds

So yeah, I figure I am never good on the riv - he reps nutflushes and JdTd, which he has in his range - so I fold.
I tell him I folded a flush and he doesn't believe me lol.
He says he turned his hand into a bluff (KQ) because he doesn't think he is good OTR. He thinks I also vBet 2pair there and he doesn't expect to fold out flushes.
In fact I check back 2p on that board - I am not getting called by anything worse, and as you can see, I fold some flushes. Basically I am betting mostly straights and flushes OTR (hmm.. Maybe not even sets?)

I thought it was an interesting hand and after discussing it on the group w/ people that play higher, we agreed that my fold is ok and his bluff isn't necessarily profitable, since I have an uncapped range, having quite some nutflushes in my range (CO open) that I play the same way. Plus, he did it for the wrong reasons.

So even though I felt owned, my ego finds consolation that I played it correctly and he didn't

Peace!

My graph looks so much like your first one. Was it just persistence that led to your results changing to an upwards trend? Any tips on how to break out of break even?

Originally posted by metza
My graph looks so much like your first one. Was it just persistence that led to your results changing to an upwards trend? Any tips on how to break out of break even?

Hey metza, glad you brought that up. I feel I've really improved my game (not only based on results) in the last few months, by changing my overall approach to poker.

I think this post will help a lot of struggling players, who really want to start improving, or just want to step up their game. It will be one of the most important posts on this blog and quite detailed, it goes out to all fellow underachievers, so grab some popcorn and let's go go go!

First off, I know what some of you might be thinking – ‘yo, chill dude, you’re only playing NL50, not NL1k’! This is true, I am not saying I am an exceptional player. Rather these are some principles I realized lately, that I feel are good for setting a foundation to get there and I want to write them down for later reference.

So how did I go about taking my game to the next level?

1. Immersion vs Scattered

As humans, we are quite limited in the activities we can focus on at one time in our life. My previous approach was trying to hit the gym really hard, get good with girls, get good at poker, start a financial project, all at the same time. As a result, I didn’t improve significantly in any area. I think this is a mistake many people do.
Basically, the better approach is to immerse yourself in just ONE area at a time until you are satisfied, while keeping other areas on a lower priority. Here is a short vid that explains this very well

This has been the case with Poker for me. I started focusing mainly on it, sacrificing from some of my other areas of interest, since this is most important for me right now. I started listening to my fav players while eating, while traveling, when going to sleep, just flood my brain with poker.

2. Money vs The Game

Ok, you’ve heard this a lot probably. You have to love the game first, the money comes 2nd. I know I heard it many times but I was like yeah, whatever, I want the cash, yo! Make it rain!
I spoke to TwiceT about this on skype 1,5 years ago and I think he puts it very well

TwiceT: its all intrinsic
TwiceT: you wont be motivated enough by external forces
TwiceT: you rly need to like it
TwiceT: and like the challenge involved

Even though understanding the concept, I kept my flawed approach to poker until recently. I played it for the money –no motivation to improve, very affected by short term results, focus on making $ (out of your control), not on making the correct play (within your control) etc.
Only when you choose to think about the game frequently (comes with immersion), start to love the game, to get inspired by it, only then will you be ready to improve.

For me this was quite hard, I didn’t have a burning passion for the game, so I tried to bring it into my life. One idea is to expose yourself to things that make you excited about the game. For me lately, it’s been listening on repeat to interview podcasts of a player that inspires me a lot, 0human0, his passion for the game is really contagious. Expose yourself to players that you like, that are really passionate about the game and it will rub off. Now I really enjoy thinking about the best possible line in most spots and the challenge it brings.

A good criteria for being passionate about poker was comparing it to a period of my life where I was really passionate about something else - Lineage2 (a MMORPG) – and trying to bring that into Poker. Basically, every morning I woke up very excited to play, even though I could sleep some more. The game was all that was on my mind most of the time. I played incessantly, hours flew by so fast and when it was time to go to sleep, I couldn’t wait to wake up the next day so I could do it all over!
How can you not get VERY good at something when this is the attitude you bring to the table?

3. Grinding (mindlessly) vs Improvement

This is a practical part on improving, thanks to which I feel I made most of my gains.
If you are grinding many tables constantly and you are not satisfied with your results, stop.

I was guilty of just playing on auto-pilot, too many tables, just putting in time, but not quality time. This is a consequence of not being passionate about the game. Playing many tables meant not having time (or motivation) to think through decisions, especially on iPoker where there were no timebanks at the time.
Now I play max 6 tables – this is highly player dependent - just play as many tables as you feel comfortable to really think through each decision and always ask yourself why why why, what do I want to accomplish with this play?
You will start to notice spots where you can make a much profitable play than you normally would. This kind of open minded attitude will bring a lot of gradual improvement.

4. Volume vs Study

This is another very important aspect. I am the type of person that first has to know everything about an area before diving in. So I applied this to poker, I ‘studied’ much more than I played. Actually I was just exposing myself to a lot of information and getting nowhere.
The main source of developing your game is through playing and putting in quality time at the tables. This intertwines with my previous point. Mark hands, look for spots where you are uncomfortable and look for solutions on those specific topics. This is how you truly learn, based on experience, not on abstract knowledge.
For this, you have to put in serious volume. As you can see from previous graphs, this was one of my biggest problems and I still struggle with it. In 2012 I had 160k hands and 2013 300k. This came from focusing on too many areas. You have to play at the very least 30k hands / month, preferably 50k+ (without sacrificing quality too much)

5. Mastermind Group

This was a big one for me also. Until recently, I wasn’t part of any ‘study group’ I didn’t consider it that important. However, when a friend brought me into this group and I saw there were a couple of players playing NL200+ I thought ‘wow, they will make my game much better!’. This is quite false, don’t expect this. You still have to put in the work by yourself, other players that play higher will rarely be interested into helping you that much, it’s normal.

It is important that you form friendships, or at least a sociable atmosphere. We have a poker group and an off-topic group for this.
Aside from discussing hands, the main benefit of a good study group is that you have peers with the same passion – this tells your brain that playing poker is normal and acceptable. Also, having a couple of players that play higher can be very inspiring, you feel that you can do it too. A member gave us teamviewer while playing some NL400 Rush and at the end of the session he says casually ‘yeh, I’m up 3k today’. I’m like omgwtflolisthisreallife?

Other important stuff
It is important that you focus on improving things that are within your control – decisions, volume, schedule, mental freshness, focus. Also, you should set yourself goals based on this variables which you can control.

Phew, that was pretty long winded, but this pretty much sums up all the important realisations I had lately while really trying to succeed in this cool game. Let me know if this helps you.

Daniel

After taking a break yesterday, today I hit the tables again, quite excited to do so.
Played a 5h session in one sitting. I really enjoy playing on party where I meet 2 other regs from my study group, the leveling wars are so fun.
Here is a 90bb pot I took down today vs one of them w/ K high lol quite lucky

Party, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $124.47 (248.9 bb)
Hero (SB): $139.36 (278.7 bb)
BB: $20 (40 bb)
CO: $118.14 (236.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9 K
CO folds, BTN raises to $1.25, Hero raises to $4.25, BB folds, BTN calls $3

Flop: ($9) 2 T J (2 players)
Hero bets $5, BTN calls $5

Turn: ($19) A (2 players)
Hero bets $14, BTN raises to $34, Hero calls $20

River: ($87) J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Results:

So today I ran well, also lately I've been nice an steady.
If I am up another BI tomorrow, I will reach my target to start taking a 7BI shot at NL100. I want to move up in stakes asap.

Have some hands to review from 11feb onwards (~90hands lol) which I keep procrastinating since there are so damn many lol.

Lessons from today:
could start defending Kx more from the blinds since it is often bluffed 2 streets
when deep, 3betting JJ/TT from blinds vs competent regs is not a good idea

Goals
Reach platinum on PS (party tracked) this month to enjoy some sweet pleno and lnternet vids --- on track, only need $33 more in rake to achieve this
Take a 50 euro place in the private rakerace on BetSafe so I can buy a gainer for the gym and get bigger --- I missed a few days of volume so I'm most likely behind, will need to put in substantial work these 4days

Great post about taking the game to the next level. And awesome blog in general, I'm following! Keep up the good work

ty for the detailed response. gl with your nl100 shot.

Looking forward to following your blog! It's a good read so far.

Hey man,

we live in the same city and play the same game.

I'm sending you a friend request, maybe we can talk more, if you want.

Also, I like your blog, will follow.

Cheers!

I've been an underachiever for all my life too, but now im in the progress of getting my shit together.

Will follow this blog, though i dont play holdem. GL

Originally posted by OoT4NKoO
Looking forward to following your blog! It's a good read so far.

Spoiler

lol I love this gif, it's from one of the earlier parkour vids I used to watch. Thanks for your feedback guys, I appreciate it.

@Suhepxm - Thanks, I will post a lot of mindset and life content so it could be useful even though you don't play holdem.
@esowes - I haven't received any req, are you sure you sent?
@metza - hehe ty man

OK, so now it's time for ...

~REVIEW~
(gayest pic I could find of kid 50cent)

Pace Review (based on the plan to reach NL200 by the end of the year -- 2bb/100 in 500k hands)

Expected // Actual
BR: €1,170 // €3,383
Volume: 46k // 42.2k hands
Hours: 115 // 98
Days Played: 23 // 22
WR: 6.68bb/100

Very satisfied with this month! Way ahead with BR. I almost reached my volume goals for the month, a little bit more behind with yearly goals. I am willing to sacrifice some volume for quality – eg many times I have been playing 4-5 tables when no better ones were available, preferring to focus on quality, increasing skill and winrate. Especially now, that I am playing NL100, will play max 5 tables at once, until I get used to it.

Mental review: 8,4 average (14 sessions)

I have a mental sheet I try to fill after each session, where I put in Date / Time Played / Mental Freshness (Play Schedule) / % of time Focused / Discipline / Motivation and Overall Grade.
I am satisfied with this month mentally also. Possible improvements – fill it in more often, aim for above 9 monthly average (which I feel is quite hard)

Underachiever status

I think I started doing what I felt was impossible. Convincing my mind that I really CAN succeed in what I want to do. This is most important btw. Everything else falls into place. But you have to prove it to your mind, over an extended period of time.
Proof - over the last few months:
:diamond:Keeping a consistent pace (previously I maintained a good pace for only 1-2 weeks)
:diamond:Started becoming a winning player, won a lot of $ (compared to my previous years)
:diamond:Improved my game radically (I didn’t have much interest in this previously)

I am still not completely over my self-doubts, but in this pace I am getting there.

Poker and Passion as a Skill

The main factor for my overall rapid improvement – bringing passion into the game. As the elite say, you gotta be thinking about the game all the time. Lately I have been devoting 90% of my mental energy to Poker, since I have no other obligations.
I used to think this is impossible to me. My view was the following:
1. To succeed in Poker (as in everything) you need passion
2. Passion for an area – you either have it, or you don’t
3. I don’t have passion for this

Lately I discovered something that can change my whole life. I can bring passion into an area. Maybe I should write a whole post on this. The main things are immersion and exposing yourself to the things you like in that area. So after I’m done with poker, I can bring passion to all my other ventures and basically crush life. I think creating passion is a skill.

Life

I want to really push it hard over the next 1-3 months, since after that I think I will start devoting some of my time to getting good with girls, and that will take up quite some mental space.

Anyway, this lifestyle meant some sacrifices in this last period – mainly my social life. Discussed this fugitively with other players also and online poker makes you want human interactions less and less. My only constant interactions lately were with my gf, room mate and family. I will work towards bringing my life back in balance regarding this social aspect.

On the plus side, having the gf come over frequently was very helpful for my emotional stability. Also I started being constant in the new (&awesome) gym, going 4x/week, my gf started coming with me too, it’s cool being mentoring her in the gym.

Pokers

Yeah so I started playing NL100 these last few days, a 8BI shot.

Biggest challenge is the everlasting money challenge. Will take some time to adjust to the amounts thrown around. Since it is still a shot, I tend to play a bit scared money. I am constantly thinking about how much I am down/up.
I get a little bit conservative postflop in some big pots. Preflop I have no trouble picking my spots for aggression.

I should forget about results completely for a while and focus on the game, judging my sessions by the mental sheet I have. Another cool mental trick would be to count the $ as big blinds (as they coincide!).

As for my game in general, I feel I started making considerable progress towards playing power poker. Especially, my understanding of table dynamics and working with my image have been considerably heightened - I used to not understand these very well.

A recent example

Peace out!
Daniel

LoL forgot to post graph for the month

All NL50

Yeah, I wasn't sure the first time, so I sent twice. Sent again.

If it doesn't work, can you send one to me?

I watched that gif with the hi fives 10 times before I noticed the reporter slapping the eye out of that dude. Laughed really hard when realized it.

Congrats for the profitable february.

Originally posted by esowes
Yeah, I wasn't sure the first time, so I sent twice. Sent again.

If it doesn't work, can you send one to me?

I watched that gif with the hi fives 10 times before I noticed the reporter slapping the eye out of that dude. Laughed really hard when realized it.

Congrats for the profitable february.

sent. yeah lolled so hard at the gif, thx

Hm so it's Tuesday Morning, will hit the gym in a bit, but thought I should set some goals for the month.
Last month goal update
- I most likely didn't hit the rake race ITM since I didn't get to play a few days - schedule is a mess again + took a day off to do something else. GF being around the last 4 days had a great impact, I’m addicted to sex and she keeps wanting me to just lay around with her = gg
- Hit the platinum (as you can see)

~Spring is my fav time of the year~

March goals
:diamond:Play 23/31 days
:diamond:Play 100hrs (~5h/day)
:diamond:Hands – no hands goal this month – full quality

Week 1 goals:
:club:Play min 25hrs
:club:Play min 5/7 days

Massive BetSafe Volume - Challenge to see what is possible to make in a month for myself. Benefits:
:heart:RB
:heart:Clear BetSafe Bonus 500E
:heart:Get Place in RR

Pokers
I started being way too curious, I started lacking the discipline of folding. Anyway I’m not playing so solid anymore, I am getting involved with regs maybe more than I should. I started marking competent regs in order to avoid them, wasn’t the case at NL50.

I feel NL100 is starting to be a tough stake to beat. Here ppl start playing professionally and many have a deep understanding of the game. This is an incentive for me to start working on my game hardcore since I want to be a Powerhouse and own this shit.

Today I have to hit the gym, skype meeting (poker) and soccer with friends in the evening, so putting in the 5hrs will be very difficult, I will try my best and see.