You Say Goodbye (MTT) I Say Hello (CG) [pepsico's blog]

Hi!

Nice to see you started blogging
You deffinatly have a fallower in me, will be checking up on your progress here, and during our hopefully more routine study sessions,
it is nice to see you improve your game and reach your new limit (you tell about it yourself in this blog).
I will be there to support you as i can with all my RL stuff piling on my back these days

Great too see you're blogging, and good luck on and off the tables

Regards

mongomob

So, as I said in my previous post, this month i have played NL2 on Stars (where I play under the name bukem's bro), and decided to play 10k hands to get some idea of my play. I will just let the graph and stats speak for themselves:

I was pretty happy with the way I played, but was concerned with my red line going down, which I managed to stop in the last 3-4k hands. From 15 dollars my BR went to 40 and decided it was time to try NL5. I was a bit worried if the level of play was going to change or if I was going to loose a few stacks. Fortunately, my first three sessions over 600 hands went well and it seems to me my concerns are unjustified:

I am really happy to see all my lines going up. I have to say much of it has to do with my adjusting my HUD stats and having more reads than I used to before. That makes it easier for me to identify bad players and punish their weaknesses.

Even if the current success continues, I have decided to get at least a 20k sample on NL5 before moving up. There are still lots of things to learn and videos to watch. Also, I would like to thank pokerstrategists vbzg and mongomob for being a support to me in the last month. vbzg is from Croatia and I have met him in person. It is a true inspiration to meet someone who is actually earning a months wage just from poker and is something I would like to do one day, too. mongomob is my study partner from iceland, we met through pokerstrategy forum and have frequent conversations on skype, talking about our hands and different lines we could take. I wish him and vbzg all the best and to be even more successful than now.

This is my first update with graphs and stats, hope to do at least a month's update every 30 days.

Great too see you're blogging, and good luck on and off the tables

Thank you so much, mate!

Hey pepsico,

Glad you joined us in the blog section and looking forward to see your progress! Wishing you best of luck at the tables!

Ingrid

Thanks, Ingrid!

So, I have played my first 10k hands on NL5 so it is time for an update. The results are below what I expected. However, I must say that I was more oriented on taking advantage of pokerstars VIP month and I managed to achieve goldstar. There is even a possibility of playing 10k more hands to get to platinum, but the advantages are not as big as getting to goldstar, so I think I will just concentrate on improving my game from now on, especially by watching videos, which I have neglected.

So, these are the results:

My plans are to play 10k hands more on NL5, hopefully with much better results. Also, to clear the 10$ silverstar reward. Also, being goldstar, I am now getting a decent amount of FPPs, which I will use on online tournament tickets. So today I will take part in The Big $11 tourney, then the $30k 100 fpp VIP tourney, and the $100k monthly freeroll for goldstar and above (this tourney is already full, which isn't surprising, considering the amount of players that achieved goldstar this month). I am certain that I will cash in at least one of them, if not today, then in the months to follow.

New pokerstars software update caused my HUD to stop working. While I was trying to fix it, I managed to loose 2 buy-ins. Anyway, my roll dropped to just about one BI more than I switched to NL5, so I decided to go back to NL2 to restore my confidence. Not just that, I went from 6 tables to 12, with the aim to play tight, solid poker. In my case, playing more tables=playing less marginal hands (and relying less on hud). I had a nice 28bb/100 over 3k hands:

My immediate goal is to carry this playing style to NL5, as soon as I get enough BIs to play 12 tables comfortably.

Today I got a second starting capital for Party Poker. This is a great opportunity to start playing with an account that is tracked to Pokerstrategy and get a higher status and access to advanced materials.

I played three tourneys last Saturday, didn't cash, the closest I came was in The Big 11, when my AA was cracked near the bubble.

Hey Ozren,

Liking the blog mate ♠_thumbsup:

Will be following intensely

Keep up the good work

Kind regards,
Gary

hi ozren,

nice to see you blogging. wow you're a vegan growing your own vegetables? sounds like you have a lot of discipline and commitment in life. some vital things needed for poker it must have been a hard decision to quit when you had only 1 year of law left

good luck in life and in poker!

smiles,
wendy

It's been a long while since I started this blog and since my last update. And there have also been many changes. When I started the blog, I found a fellow pokerstrategist to be my NL5 sweat buddy. It kinda lasted quite short, because his girlfriend had a baby and we lost touch. After some bad beats and not being able to beat NL5 as I was beating NL2, I decided to have a little break again.

However, at the beginning of year some real life circumstances forced me to reconsider my decision. Because of the bad economic crisis in my country I had a 33% salary cut, with the possibility of even getting laid off sometime later in the year. Fortunately, I had a friend pokerstrategist from Croatia who offered to help me. He and his friend decided to stake me to play 2.5$ 180-mans on Stars. This is how it went:

I made most of the volume in February and March. February was break even, and in March I had 30% ROI. In April I didn't play much because I spent first week of the month at my new girlfriend's in another city, and after I arrived home, I had internet connection problems for another week. So, real life issues again affected my poker development, and there was more to come. I was told at work that I had only two books to translate, and then the company would publish no more foreign books. They are going into e-publishing. However, I was also told that I would have a secure job, though my salary would remain reduced and I wouldn't translate books. My job would consist of putting content on web pages and e-book store. So, I was faced with a decision to continue working, but only to keep getting paid, not doing the job I liked or wanted. Therefore I made the decision to quit my job in July and make a living from poker. With that came the decision that I will move 300 km to the city where my girlfriend lives.

For the last three weeks I have been busier at work than before, and also have to do a lot of work in and around the house before I move, which will happen ten days from now. Because of that I didn't have time for 180-man grinding, for which I need at least 3 hours a day to get some decent volume. However, still hungry for poker, I started playing some zoom NL10 FR. I was surprised by the bad nits playing there, and also by my playing style which could exploit them. So, being true to the name of the blog, I decided to stop the stake and turn to cash games. Here are my results so far:

The big 100$ downswing was me losing 4 BI while taking a shot at NL25 and then winning them back in the same session. However, I am not staked for NL25 so I will grind NL10 for a while. Currently I am beating the game at 15bb/100. If my current job was a game of zoom NL10, I would have a winrate of just 3,5bb/100. So, as long as I keep my current winrate above that number, I will be able to say that I am better at playing zoom NL10 than working

I liked playing 180-mans, but playing zoom currently suits me so much better. I can quit a session whenever I like, and there are also no massive 100 BI downswings, which used to mess with my mind and make me doubt in my own abilities. My goal for now should be to improve as much as I can (by posting hands and watching videos) and try to make it to NL100 by the end of the year. Hope to keep this blog updated regularly.

Good to see you back, Pepsico!

Originally posted by HollyMichelle
Good to see you back, Pepsico!

Thank you, man!

Originally posted by purplefizz
hi ozren,

nice to see you blogging. wow you're a vegan growing your own vegetables? sounds like you have a lot of discipline and commitment in life. some vital things needed for poker it must have been a hard decision to quit when you had only 1 year of law left

good luck in life and in poker!

smiles,
wendy

Sorry for not replying sooner. Yes, I am a vegan. For 8 years now. I am just about to go to the garden and get some fresh spinach to blend it with a couple of bananas for a fresh smoothie
The decision to quit law was hard, but looking at it now, it was right and I don't regret it.

After not getting a break yesterday over 1k hands and finishing break even, today I had a sweet little afternoon session, and hope to have saved some of that magic for the evening session, too.