a little bit of zFs

Hey zOFsky,

Thanks for joining the bootcamp <3 I have played vs lots of Ukrainian players before, and generally they play pretty good and aggressive, I was actually going to buy a Ukrainian jacket as whenever I am at an EPT all of the guys are wearing them!

I'm playing poker for 5 years, and the problem is I'm stuck on NL100 like forever. As long as I remember I always could play profitably only this limit.

This is a common problem for a lot of players, they get stuck in a limit and really struggle to move up through the limits.

My closest goal is simple: $10K income per month investing not more than 4 hours per day on playing. It's like $100/hour, yep. I really understand this is not so romantic like reaching NL100K and beating all the crap out of Isildur or Hansen but welcome to my pragmatic world.

$10k/month is an ambitious goal, is this pre or post rakeback? $100/hour for anybody is going to be a good salary, so if we can help you get to this goal then I think it will be a very good result.

About problems in my game. I hate facing 3bets. Its driving me on tilt so often, why do people do it with unimaginable garbage, meh

It seems like you potentially have a problem either with your mind-set or with your overall game plan. Lets try to initially JUST speak about 3bets, when you 3bet and when people 3bet you. I will set a couple of tasks and you do them and I give feedback and then we can continue the discussions from then.

Could you start by telling me your general game plan right now, whats your overall stats? Maybe you have a positions screen shot, include f3b in each position.

Thanks and good luck with this challenge.

Yay, pleno1, thanks for nice references about our players and for our beautiful flag

Originally posted by pleno1
$10k/month is an ambitious goal, is this pre or post rakeback? $100/hour for anybody is going to be a good salary, so if we can help you get to this goal then I think it will be a very good result.

Including rakeback, yeah. It is ambitious but I'm pretty sure it is achievable.

It seems like you potentially have a problem either with your mind-set or with your overall game plan. Lets try to initially JUST speak about 3bets, when you 3bet and when people 3bet you. I will set a couple of tasks and you do them and I give feedback and then we can continue the discussions from then.

Could you start by telling me your general game plan right now, whats your overall stats? Maybe you have a positions screen shot, include f3b in each position.

Here are my stats by position:

Fold to 3bet is after 3Bet stat (Bet PF & Fold to 3bet). Let me know if smth important is missing, I will configure reports accordingly.
About 3bet pots. I'm feeling quite comfortable when I am 3betting, especially in position. Sometimes I can overplay my hand with initiative, but I don't think its the number one problem to focus on.
And when I'm facing 3bets here comes the trouble. I got strong feeling that I am calling too much, especially when facing resteal. It's really hard for me to decide what to do with 2nd pair after 2nd barrel, when to check and when to bet. So far it is the weakest part of my game, making that call preflop but having no idea what to do with my hand later.

Hi zOF. It's so nice to see that there are other people like me who can't move up. (Well it's not a good thing...) But at least I can have some people who can relate to myself...

I had similar problems in 3b pots and one thing I tried was studying what winning players were doing in 3b pots.

OFC, asking here is probably going to help you and all of us other ppl in this camp. Anyway, hope to work with you and some of the others as well in this camp!

hi zOFsky,

Playing against 3bets is definitely one of areas where I need to improve a lot.

Im lately trying out just 4bet bluffing more against certain villains who fold a lot to 4bets and against supper aggro villains who like to barrel a lot just calling more with nutty AA, AK, which then I can easily call down.

I guess at Nl100+ people will notice it fast and start 5bet blufing a lot more, but that should be easy noticable and you could re-adjust.

I play only Nl50, only some people adjust but still very slowly.

I am lazy. I like playing but I don't like studying. Moreover, when I am winning during the day I often don't wanna continue my sessions. It's a strange mix of lazyness and fear to lose what you already gained. No problems with motivation to play when you are losing though.

Hey bro,

Born in the USSR

Andrey, I suppose, that's in our blood

Freebie, where are you in 2013?

Hello there Andriy!

I see that you have some problems with getting yourself to study, and I want to help you out with them ;).

First of all, i like that you know exactly what you want from poker. It is definitely a step in the right direction, and hopefully we will be able to help you get there :).

However, does knowing that you want to someday make $100/h with poker motivate you to study and improve your game?

If it doesn't, let's find some things that will motivate you. The best motivation possible is the one that comes from within. If you manage to find some other reasons why you play poker (for example enjoying the challenge, competition, solving tough problems, etc.), and then figure out what exactly you need to do to fulfil those reasons (you need to work on your game constantly to be better than others), it will be way easier for you to motivate yourself to actually do these things.

What you can do is take a look at this post and write down your vision and mission in this blog. Can you do that? Then, we can work together on finding some goals for you which would help you establish solid studying habits :).

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

Originally posted by Schnitzelfisch

However, does knowing that you want to someday make $100/h with poker motivate you to study and improve your game?

If it doesn't, let's find some things that will motivate you.

Huh, it impress me how you already know the answer for the question you asked. Yep, knowing this fact doesn't motivate me enough.

In other words, what are the answers to these questions:

1. Why do you play poker?
2. What do you wish to achieve in poker?
3. What motivates you to play poker?

1. I play poker strictly for money. There were times when I played poker as a game and felt excited with the process, but now its long gone. Poker is now my only source of income, my only job. It is not like afwul routine, I'm pretty satisfied with the poker as a way to earn money. The problem is I cannot start treating it like a job, can't find enough time to improve my game. I'm totally lazy.
2. As I said before - 10K per month.
3. Right now I have a goal to buy new apartment. This goal really helps me to put myself together, I noticed real progress since january. Now I'm trying to play at least 4 hours per day (and I rarely exceed 4 hour per day, which is not very industrious too). I hope I will done with that goal by this year's fall (in summer I guess).
But I'm afraid about what will come after I achieve my goal. I'm not sure I want to be a poker player my whole life. In my country standard of living is not very high. If you got $1000 month salary you are quite succesfull and you are living much better than majority. But I already have more by doing basically nothing, clicking buttons. And because I can afford more than others I'm not working hard enough to achieve next level.
Right now I'm thinking it would be nice to stay in poker for a few years longer, make a nice amount of money (like 500K) and start living carefree and joyfully.

Hey again!

How come that you've stopped being excited about poker as a game? What changed? What went wrong?

I do understand that once you reach a certain level where you're earning enough money for yourself, it's hard to think of reasons why you should play more. And that's ok, if you only play a couple of hours a day and really enjoy your life for the rest of the day, why not?

But it still makes me wonder - have you ever had any aspirations to become really, really good? It seems to me that you are limiting yourself to the other people - since you're earning more than they are already, you needn't try harder, and are therefore not fulfilling your full potential.

What were the reasons which you played poker for when you were still excited about it? Would you like to change your mindset (become excited about it again), or are you satisfied with the way things are at the moment (purely monetary gains)?

-Primož

Hi, i can relate to certain parts of your OP.

About problems in my game. I hate facing 3bets. Its driving me on tilt so often, why do people do it with unimaginable garbage, meh
I am lazy.

Instead of getting tilted whenever you see the monkey reg 3bet J5s and hit runner runner flush try and just see it as another part of that players game that you can exploit and can adjust to, for example flatting his 3bets wider including some QQ+ and increasing your 4bet bluffing range.

This is just once example but as other said we can work on the area as a whole.

I like playing but I don't like studying. Moreover,

When it comes to studying as soon as i finish my session or very shortly after even if i find it a bit boring i will go over all +/- pots over 10bb and just makes notes on players and try and think what i could of done better. From there i might save a hand or two to put on skpe to review with others. It really doesnt take long and you will definitely notice improvement in your game over time from this.

when I am winning during the day I often don't wanna continue my sessions. It's a strange mix of lazyness and fear to lose what you already gained. No problems with motivation to play when you are losing though.

I can relate to this too, i find not checking my holdem manager until the end of the day helps a huge amount and lets me just put the hours in without getting a little bit frustated and losing concentration about how that last 60bb i lost took away from the X amount i was up for the day.

I tend to just try and focus on making goals for how many hours i want to play that month, i find profit goals just add more pressure and frustration when i dont meet them or i am running bad while at least i can still get some satisfaction for when i hit my 100th hour for the month etc

I hate facing 3bets. Its driving me on tilt so often, why do people do it with unimaginable garbage, meh

Hey!