Making a living with STT SNGs

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 14 (30th January)

Ate healthy, drank tons of water and took medication
Worked on the game 1 hour
Grinded live CG 5 hours

My brother, best friend and Curly arrived! I am very happy that they are here with me now. Yesterday I had to "work" and grind some live CG as there was no game past 3 days, so I ended up grinding 5 hours. I used a lot of occasions when not in the hand to get up and talk to them. Ended up in profit 58 euro which is great considering that I was totally card dead for 5 hours and that I lost a hand vs fish where I was a favorite.

Health situation is still unchanged. I took my final batch of medication last night from prescribed therapy. I will wait for tonight and visit the doctor again as agreed. I can see 2 things happening already: 1) Same therapy for 3 more days followed by injections if I am still sick 2) Injections right away. If it goes to injections right away, I will ask the doctor to take me for some allergy test 1st. Last time I did allergy test lets say out of 26 things that I was tested on I was allergic to 20 of them! Smoke, dust, dog and cats hair, you name it ! It has been really a while since that allergy test and it is essential in my opinion to do another one as I don't want to get injections to which I will be allergic. This can be very dangerous and threatening to health as I am sure you are all aware. I will just let my doctor know about this tonight, hopefully things will work out with lighter therapy without getting to that.

Overall I am getting a bit pissed with this sickness. I am hoping every day that I will wake up without coughing but it just doesn't happen. Perhaps doctor will prescribe injections right away and get me out of this magic circle I am in with my health condition.

Side note, life event, my cell phone's screen broke last night! I was charging it on usb cable (which is short) on my laptop. As I was studying, watching video and taking notes, phone was on vibrate function. As some messages arrived from viber/fb/whatever within a second it slid down from the edge of cupboard and fell down on the ground. After I lifted it up screen top of the screen was broken and now touch doesn't even work. Talk about Nexus 3 that I got less than a month ago and my friend Stanko brought it to me from London, UK!
What can I do? Plan to take it to Gevgelija and see if they can change the screen for me and at what cost. Other option is to just wait for some other crew from Nis to get here (there is about 5+ guys that keep coming here on weekly or bi-weekly basis) and bring me another cell (have home 3-4 of them). So that will be resolved, I am not bothered by it at all really, just sharing the story with you

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 15/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 59/150 hours
Live CG grind 45.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 15/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 3 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
20/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
99.5/1500 Grinding hours
19/150 Work outs
63 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (31st of January):
Already had healthy breakfast and now updating blog
Will coach my best friend here for 1 hour (sweat session)
Rest of the day plan to spend with my brother, best friend and Curly
Evening plan is to grind live and go to club after 1-2am
Hoping to put 1 hour of studying and 2 hours(1 session) of online CG grind today SOMEHOW!

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 15 (31st January)

Ate healthy, drank tons of water + tea
Worked on the game 1 hour (instead of coaching)
Grinded online CG 4 hours
Went for excellent lunch with brother, best friend and Curly
Visited doctor for follow up visit

Health wise update 1st. Doctor visit didn't go as I hoped it would. I got the injection and doctor suggested I go back to Nis tomorrow/today (in 10 hours or so) and scan my lungs + get the therapy prescribed by some doctor in Nis.
What can happen is as soon as this happen, I can purchase medication back home also and come back to Gevgelija. Doctor in Gevgelija would continue with that treatment here whatever they prescribe.
I was advised to this for couple of reasons. One of them was obviously the cost/money factor. As a foreigner I would have to visit private clinic here and give tons of money. If I get lungs scanned + therapy, doctor told me that each shot that will end up getting might cost me 2 euro maximum that way which is excellent.
So yes obviously, I am going back home tomorrow with my brother, best friend and Curly. I did not plan for this to happen and am upset because I have 2 weeks left for the whole deal here. I am upset because I can't affect how long I will have to stay in Nis ? It again depends on doctors and I have very little faith in medical profession in Serbia (corrupted, unprofessional and poor conditions/lack of equipment etc). They will have to give me documents and schedule the lungs scan, then set up the time, then I go for the scan and then after the scan wait for results and then get time to visit doctor to prescribe the therapy. I really hate administrative super slow corrupted system in Serbia, it is one of the reasons (and mentality) why I firmly believe that Serbia will not be very successful country as a whole but rather outstanding individuals and bunch of people who wait for some politician to change their life for good. Anyways all this administrative work in hospitals and with doctors, it takes time. I will try to speed it up thanks to my dad, if he can talk to his friends and then they find some people that can speed it up etc, but in reality this could take easily a full week or more. As I said my deal here is for 2 more week and I was considering to extend it for a month but now really my only and number 1 priority is getting back 100% healthy again so that I can resume crushing my fanatic time management.
I will update in next days what happens in Nis but I will definitely bring laptop home and aim to do 5 hours CG grind + 1 hour study while home waiting for all these appointments and results.

Poker related, I feel I played close to very top of my A game in 4 hours (2 sessions x 2 hours). I made around 6 buy ins pre RB and 1st session 2 hours was very card dead. Very proud and happy how I talked through every single hand and spot and was putting opponent on the correct range on over 97% of the time or so. Just brutal play and excellent bet sizing and paying attention (deliberate practice) on exact topics and leaks that I have been dealing with in the past that cost me most money.
Look forward to sessions and days like that. Perhaps 2 days off from online poker helped me regain focus but I would say that it is more thanks to all the studying I did and that I finally found a way how to mentally not rush my decisions and still feel like I have tons of time to act in all types of spots (especially hard ones).

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 16/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 63/150 hours
Live CG grind 45.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 16/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 3 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
21/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
103.5/1500 Grinding hours
19/150 Work outs
63 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (1st of February):
Wake up by 9am and go for healthy breakfast
Check the things for last minute additional stuff for Nis
Trip around 10-10:30 hoping to arrive by 3pm latest
As soon as I arrive see my dad and talk more about tackling this health problem
Eat healthy lunch and study 1 hour (work on the game)
In the evening go for 5 hours online CG grind Might grind less CG like 2 hours but also meet with my gf later in the night depending on how I feel

Good luck with health and happy to hear you had a super-solid session in poker.

Originally posted by Ramble
Good luck with health and happy to hear you had a super-solid session in poker.

Thank you my friend, really appreciate it.
Today I feel super good, my breathing is like 200% better then past 2 weeks. I am a bit pissed because now I feel doctor in Nis will tell me it is nothing and I will just go back and forth for no reason.
Will however use time to see my dad, watch my brother grind 7s full time and bring laptop to grind my online CG.

Wish you all the best and full recovery very soon!
Health is one thing we cant buy and i if i had founds to help any one that would be people with health issues that are not result of their behaviour but something they cant influence. Like if you are poor you can do things to change that, but you can not change your health on your own in some cases.

Originally posted by DarkoK3
Wish you all the best and full recovery very soon!
Health is one thing we cant buy and i if i had founds to help any one that would be people with health issues that are not result of their behaviour but something they cant influence. Like if you are poor you can do things to change that, but you can not change your health on your own in some cases.

Appreciate it!
Very well said about health vs financial wealth.

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 16 (1st February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Traveled from Gevgelija to Nis
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Saw and hanged out with my dad

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 16/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 68/150 hours
Live CG grind 45.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 17/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 3 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
21/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
108.5/1500 Grinding hours
19/150 Work outs
63 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (2nd of February):
Woke up, went to scan my lungs + additional doctors appointment to check therapy + ate breakfast and took the medication
Plan for the rest of the day is to grind 5 hours online CG; study 1 hour; check the transportation from Nis to Gevgelija
If by early evening I finish everything I will consider going out and meeting my gf for drinks

Health situation is still the same. Good news is that lung scan didn't show anything dangerous! The doctor prescribed me identical therapy that doctor from Gevgelija did. So now that I bought the medication I am pretty much ready to go back to Gevgelija and continue with treatment there. I have hotel room booked until 15th of February so I want to use every day for live CG. There is no action until Thursday so the latest I might stay in Nis until Wednesday or Thursday.
Good news is that I have laptop here and can do coaching session for CG with my coach here in Nis tomorrow morning.
Doctor said that my coughing should be fixed in next 7 days maximum as it is finally turning into flem!

Off to grind some ZOOM NL50, have a great week all!

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 17 (2nd February)

Ate healthy, drank tons of water and tea + took medication
Visited 2 doctor offices, scanned lungs, got the therapy + bought new medication
Worked on the game 1 hour
Grinded online CG 7 hours
Booked Gevgelija trip

Excellent time management and focus yesterday. Managed to put 7 hours of online grind + study 1 hour despite all the health appointments going on. I also managed to book trip back to Gevgelija. Today they will call me between 5 and 7pm to let me know exactly when to meet them on highway.

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 17/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 75/150 hours
Live CG grind 45.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 18/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 3 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
22/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
115.5/1500 Grinding hours
19/150 Work outs
63 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (3rd of February):
Woke up, ate healthy, took medication and had a CG coaching session (live sweat 1 hour 20 minutes)
Went with my dad to finish tons of things
Just ate healthy lunch
About to resume my online CG grind (3 hours 40 minutes left)
Plan to study (review hands) 1 hour today
In the evening relax with some movie and mentally prepare for Gevgelija trip

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 18 (3rd February)

Ate healthy, drank tons of water, tea and took medication
*Had 1.5 hours CG coaching session*
Studied 1 hour (marked hands review + video notes)
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Finished tons of things during the day with my dad
Got the transportation confirmed for Gevgelija trip tomorrow

Very satisfied with whole day. My focus at the tables past 3 days is way better then it was in January. I am making way less lighter and bad calls, feel my knowledge has settled from past 2 months studying daily CG etc
Finally I feel like ZOOM NL50 is becoming no challenge. My plan in February is to keep grinding it , get 70k hands down and make a final decision regarding CG vs SNGs. I can say that past 2 months in CG I improved more then in SNGs for 6 months or a full year even. So I am very happy with my progress so far but this year is all about making 40k post RB and if I don't maintain high enough win rate in February then I will switch back to SNGs to print money until June-July then switch back to CG while studying heavily in the meanwhile.

Health situation is finally close to 100%. Took my medication today, my throat and coughing finally opening up. Feel that within 48 hours it will be gone 100% and I can resume my full fanatic time management.

I am excited to get back to Gevgelija tomorrow. Will talk to my friend and poker room manager to extend my stay until end of February. Hopefully we can arrange that to happen and I can continue to grind 5 hours online per day + 5 hours live CG on days that there will be the game. I am especially looking forward resuming my work outs! Cross fit, gym + swimming in conjunction with healthy eating and drinking tons of water should get me down by 3-4kgs within 4 weeks which I am hoping for.

Finally I am also looking forward resuming my coaching sessions. I am happy to say that from 7 students that I coach now, my best friend has become 100% independent recently; my brother has moved to 7s full time; other guys have very specific things that need to do and send me their reports daily.
After I finish this year with coaching I will deeply reconsider if I will continue coaching in 2016 and under which conditions (only coaching for hourly or just continuing with current students). This is due to the fact that all the time in the coaching I could be using on working on my game, increasing my hourly and reaching that 100k+ a year profit which I am aiming for.
Will write more about it as year approaches the end.

Quick recap about January. Super happy that despite all the celebrations, friend Stanko visiting from London, all the chaos in preparation for Gevgelija, meeting up with my girls, I managed in January to grind total 166.5 hours (103.5 online + 63 live CG grind).
In February these past 3 days I have grinded 17 hours. Idea is to grind 28x5 = 140 hours. I am hoping to achieve that number in February.

Overall I am very happy with how I am handling everything and feel that my focus on goals and challenge is fanatical. Will aim to keep it that way until the end of the year to complete all things set.

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 18/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 80/150 hours
Live CG grind 45.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 19/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
23/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
120.5/1500 Grinding hours
19/150 Work outs
63 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow (4th of February):
Wake up early, eat healthy and take up medication
Check up last minute packing and go pay for internet service on USB
Meet the agency people on highway and leave for Gevgelija
On way to Gevgelija, use USB stick and grind 1.5 or 2 hours online CG on laptop
Arrive in Gevgelija, contact all the people that I stay in touch with, say Hi to all the rest as well
Grind 3 more hours to hit 5 hours online CG for the day
Fit 1 hour studying (marked hands + proceed to another new video studying)
If there is CG live play 5 hours
Prepare mentally to work out on Thursday (day after) and resume my full fanatic time management

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 19 (4th February)

Ate healthy, drank tons of water, tea , coffee and took final batch of medication
Studied 1 hour (reviewed video notes + watched and took notes on new video)
Grinded live CG 3 hours
Grinded online CG 6 hours
Traveled to Gevgelija and connected with some interesting people

Positive things today:
Managed to put tons of hours into grinding and poker overall. Meet interesting people and opened some new opportunities. Starting to feel much better health wise.
Negative things today:
Didn't play anywhere close to my A game not even B , more like C- game. Last 2 hours grinded 3 instead of 2 tabling zoom, made tons of light bluff catches on river and not just that but opponents kept hitting 2 outers regularly on rivers when I was on top of bluff catching ranges. Regardless of all that I know that in February in 23 hours of grinding so far I had a lot of hours without A game. Also am aware that I lost around 10 buy ins this month due to my light calling. This leak is underlying theme with me as I am giving opponent much more respect in terms of thinking process and ranges then they deserve to get. Example, when I narrow down their pre flop 3 bet range I don't count any JJ or QQ as these hands appear with that position vs particular position to be in flatting vs 3 betting range. Then I see them hitting full house on river with JJ or QQ when I have AA and KK and and bluff catching river bets expecting their bluff range that got there (KQo and AJo) etc. This specific leak that keeps occurring is known as Projection Bias! Projection bias - When I assume other people are doing same thing as you!!! when they are not!
Once I resolve this leak and accept the fact that some bad regs will keep showing up with unexpected and bad hands on the river due to pour pre flop 3 betting for example, or that I get ridiculously light called down to showdown in 3 bet pots with some terrible hands that shouldn't even be in flats to 3 bets in the 1st place, then I can calmly play my best or close to my best and really own the limit.
Until that happens I feel that I will go anywhere from BE pre RB all the way to 4-6bb/100.
Month has just started, tons of days ahead of me, I will work really hard on this projection bias leak and focus on it. I will also aim to play those 3 instead of 2 zoom tables to : 1) improve my unconcious competence for all the pre and post flop spots 2) to get more hands down, rake more, reach true hourly sooner.
Finally, I have given myself until end of this month to remain on NL50 ZOOM. If I don't by any chance reach the goals that I have set for the limit, I will from 1st of March go back to 20 tabling 15s 6 max tournaments to print money for couple of months. In the meanwhile all my studying will be focused on CG purely as SNGs and opponents on 15s are really not motivating me to work on my SNG game a tiny bit. Once I feel that I have invested 50-100 hours in CG studying more, watched new videos, took notes, improved my post flop hand reading, analyzed dozen of hands, attended some coachings and analyzed my game fully, I will then return to CG and hopefully remain on it for long time (until traffic returns to 30s 6 max and it becomes significantly easier to grind 100+ games on that limit per day + to go for 100k post RB in SNGs.
Now you know the plan and next 24 days will show if I will stay on CG or go back to SNGs.

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 8/30
Studied 19/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 86/150 hours
Live CG grind 48.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 20/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

Here is the plan for today (5th of February):
Wake up early and go for early breakfast (9am-9:30am)
Check if any of the students is available for coaching session 10-11am
If there will be no coaching session, get to work out right away + visit pool and sauna after it
After work out, work on the game 1 hour minimum to review all the terrible plays from tonight
Start grinding online 1st session 1-3pm 2 to 3 tabling
Eat healthy lunch + drink tons of water and tea
Continue grinding online 2nd session 3:30-5:30pm
Short brake to regenerate
Grind 3rd online session 5:45 or 6pm to 7pm
Go for healthy dinner + drink tons of water
Regenerate, contact family, best friend , gf , all my students and arrange sessions for following days
Rest of the evening play live CG 5 hours. If my focus for live CG goes down, stop playing immediately, return to the room and watch CG videos, take notes and study more.

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 20 (5th February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Worked on the game 1 hour (new video + notes reviewed)
Worked out (finally after 10 days or so!)
Went for coffee with fellow reg and friend to Gevgelija
No grinding!

Very weird day!
Managed to work out finally and I did tons of burpees where my breathing was excellent without a single cough. So that made me very happy. After going for coffee with fellow reg I went for relaxing shower in the bath tub with all the bath salts and stuff. After that shower I feel asleep and slept like 2+ hours! After waking up I opened note pad and watched new CG video for which I took the notes. After finishing the video I analyzed the notes from it + from previous video I watched and took the notes for.
It was already 7:30pm and I decided to go for healthy dinner + grind live 5 hours. What ended up happening was after my dinner I went and waited for 1 hour and 20 minutes or so and there was no texas holdem going on. What happened instead was Omaha 5/5 game. I ended up watching and supporting a friend and fellow reg from 9pm or so until 3:30am where he was in the profit 1000+ euros. There were 2 more pots that he could have taken by the river but action before it was crazy that he just had to fold. Overall my impression on live Omaha plays is that it is probably most +EV games going on in live casinos. Just last night saw the guy loose over 2.5k euro by shoving top sets turn to river 3 times when on the board was flush and or straight. So overall very profitable game to play live but I wouldn't even consider playing it without 50 buy ins or so (25k euros roll). Strong recommendation for all considering diversifying their game from Texas Holdem to other format, Omaha live is super soft and people play it even worst then Texas Holdem (saw 3 terrible bluff tries on river in multi way pot IP when there was 400+ euro in the pot and 2 opponents had 100 euro stacks remaining - guys bluffing had no regard to pot odds and hand reading just ridiculous stuff).
Anyways yesterday we can call a day off despite the fact that I ate healthy, studied 1 hour and worked out finally.
Today will go differently as I will write out by the end of the update.

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 9/30
Studied 20/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 86/150 hours
Live CG grind 48.5/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 21/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
25/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
126.5/1500 Grinding hours
20/150 Work outs
66 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (6th of February)
Woke up, ate healthy, worked on the game 1 hour with fellow reg CG, had coffee with fellow reg
2:10pm, about to start grinding my 1st session 1 or 2 hours (will go for 3 tabling !!!)
Go for lunch after 1st session
Grind 3 or 4 more hours online CG with 2 additional sessions (3 tabling preferably)
After finishing whole online CG grind (5 hours), work out in the room hard and take a shower
Go for dinner and proceed to grind live CG with hope that there will be actual game tonight!

In future days I have arranged to work with fellow reg on CG 11-12 on daily basis. Today we went through his hh , tomorrow we might look at more his hands or simply look at my super bad light plays. Very much look forward to it as we seem to have good time communicating laughing and studying + understanding everything we are focusing on together. Overall very +EV move in my opinion despite the fact that he might join me soon and own me at my limit ♦
Coaching sessions scheduled for Saturday and Sunday 10-11 both days. Look forward to those as I want to check how my students have been doing their homeworks while I was sick!!!

Enjoy your weekend on and off the tables!

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 21 (6th February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Worked on the game 1 hour with fellow reg
Worked out
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Grinded live CG 2.5 hours

Very decent productive day. Instead of grinding 5 hours each CG I did less live and steady online as I prefer online to live.
Yesterday was 1st time I played 5 hours 3 tabling zoom. Made over 10 buy ins pre RB which felt awesome. I am also not entirely happy with my play as there were hands that I would and should have played better.
Still have a lot to learn in CG, to improve and become best I can. Honestly I can't tell how far I am from crushing NL50 and moving to NL100. It might be just the matter of projection bias and slight adjustment vs regs in 3 bet pots, which might take me anywhere from 2 weeks to months. I am hoping that it will take me less as I really enjoy playing zoom and everything that it has to offer.
Working with fellow reg yesterday was great. We continued that today and this time looked at my marked hands from yesterday - very fun and beneficial way to study and improve. Look forward to the session tomorrow!

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 10/30
Studied 21/30 hours
Coaching 10/30 sessions
Online CG grind 91/150 hours
Live CG grind 51/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 22/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
26/300 Study hours
23/300 Coaching sessions
131.5/1500 Grinding hours
21/150 Work outs
68.5 hours Live Poker

200 hours of grind in 37 days - not bad average so far considering crazy January!

Here is the plan for today (7th of February)
Woke up, ate healthy, coached 1 hour (finally!), worked on the game 1 hour with fellow reg CG, went for coffee with fellow regs and ate healthy lunch
About to start my online CG grind (go for 4 hours 2x2 hours sessions 3 tabling)
Plan to work out and take a long relaxing shower after finishing online CG grind
Play live CG after that for 4+ hours
* Might end up playing less online and more live today as there will be tables and games running *

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 22 (7th February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Worked on the game 1 hour with fellow reg
Coached 1 session
Went for coffee with fellow reg
Worked out
Grinded live CG 5 hours
Watched some favorite TV shows and had afternoon nap

Productivity wise, I am satisfied but not thrilled. I did make live 529 euros profit and day before online over 550$ profit pre RB so 1k in past 2 days - not bad. Made me feel like I am back 10 years one of those guys printing 15k+ per month. Today this is of course selected group of people who play zoom NL200+ or crush mtts. So yes, I am aware that this was good card distribution and I am staying very firm on the ground by continuing to work on my game, analyze all the spots, figure out leaks and ways to correct them etc. Each day I am more confident that CG is something where I see myself in if I am really serious about making 100k+ per year post rb. Reverting to SNGs is only option cause of financial need this year for apartment mortgage and building very solid life roll to go for permanent switch in 2016 or play all the way to 100s 6 max turbos and go for 500k vpps etc
Overall I am very happy with my improvement, working on the game habit and fanatic mindset. Besides everything that I do daily, I try to find time for extra activities like coffee with fellow reg, watching favorite tv shows , watching some new movie etc. Tonight I plan to play some guitar! It depends on activities today as I will play freeroll MTT with the idea of cashing in 500 euro ticket (don't really feel like playing 200+ player field and loosing again with AA vs KK on the final day when 36 were left for 2nd stack of the tourney - Prague experience was enough for me, no thanks!). I do plan after finishing MTT to grind live CG again as there will be 2-3 tables running 1-2 perhaps 1-3 so I want to maximize that while it is possible. From tomorrow games will decrease and that is when I can go for longer online grinds (with brakes of course) and still try to hit 120 hours this month or 100 minimum.
Anyways very good and productive day so far, expectations are super positive and I just love it when my mindset is in the A zone as great things come from it!

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 11/30
Studied 22/30 hours
Coaching 11/30 sessions
Online CG grind 91/150 hours
Live CG grind 56/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 23/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
27/300 Study hours
24/300 Coaching sessions
131.5/1500 Grinding hours
22/150 Work outs
73.5 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (8th of February):
Woke up,ate healthy, drank tons of water, coached 1 session and studied 1.5 hours with fellow reg
Went for healthy lunch and to register for freeroll MTT
MTT starts in 15-25 mins so I will try to get some quick 15 minute zoom going on
Rest of the day plan is to play MTT, if I bust early go back to the room and grind zoom minimum 5 hours then in the evening play live!
When I return back to the room I plan to play guitar and start transcribing Michael Brecker's solo on Blue Bossa

Enjoy the video - if you are into jazz at all ♠_cool:

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 23 (8th February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Worked on the game 1.5 hour with fellow reg
Coached 1 session (close to 1.5 hours)
Worked out
Grinded live CG 5 hours + 2 hours live MTT
Grinded online CG 2 hours
Played guitar and worked on Michael Brecker's version of Blue Bossa 0.5 hour

Very active day overall.
It is 3 am and I am about to hit the bed by 3:30am fall asleep latest.
Managed to have very productive coaching and session with fellow reg. Both were very beneficial and useful.
My live MTT grind was another standard bad beat story. UTG open, MP calls, I have 10bb adjusted on BTN and shove 1010, get called by MP with Q10o who hit his Q on river. Just LOL for all the people who can actually sustain insane MTT variance and make a living from it. I really think they are special type of people. I know that I would never do that but rather switch profession. That is something I would never grind for living that's for sure!
Live CG went great. Made profit 125 euros, was up close to 300 euros but it was difficult to maintain the stack as we played mix game. 1 orbit texas next orbit PLO. I never played PLO in my life before so tonight was very useful. Couple of days ago I watched fellow reg play and it helped me because I saw how light people were stacking on 5/5. Tonight was 2/2 and as you can imagine there was even more insane plays. Just let me mention pot , re-pot, shove with 5422 guy calling with KKQJ double suited and flop is A32r turn 3 river blank. Just crazy stuff. As you can imagine I made most of the profit tonight by playing PLO. Crazy swings in stack, game where you can win or loose whole stack in any given hand easily. I wouldn't play this game without super conservative bankroll especially live where you have no RB and you don't play enough hands to run with EV.
Online CG grind was terrible! Yes, terrible. I lost pre RB 150$ or 3 stacks. I went through the lost hands now and I am really sick to see the same leak over and over, projection bias. Bluff catching expecting opponents to show with realistic ranges, then I see some crazy straight flush in squeezed pot, or run with KK into AA in 4 bet pot when I have over pair and 2nd nut FD and he has nut FD where I expected QQ and AQo with A or Q of hearts etc. Stuff like that, you can see where this is going. I just can't keep my focus and calm in every session when playing zoom. This is why results obviously swing a lot. Positive things are that I improved a tons studying CG and grinding it, also I am not loosing money which is always good thing cause it would hurt even more if I was learning and not making any money. Negative thing is the fact that I am still light bluff catching due to projection bias and always telling myself "this guy must fold such and such in this spot after action went this way" and then I get called by some donk with 2nd pair weak kicker on super drawy board and I am like WTF. I also know that this is limit problem I am facing. I watched some NL100 + videos and saw that my plays are a lot more fitting for those limits, example people are not making exploitative folds, they bluff catch regs lighter, regs stack off post flop lighter etc. So tons of things like that actually go in my favor and I really can't wait to take a shoot at NL100 in some time in the near future. Before that happens I want to make absolutely sure that I will minimize BAD calls or unnecessary bluffs but still keep my calls in tact not to get exploited.
How soon will this happen? I have no idea! Just when I thought that I had it all figured out and that it wouldn't happen again, it happened in 4-5 hands which results in almost 3-4 stacks!
Will really have to sit down and analyze my energy levels, maybe stop playing late night sessions after super long days to prevent this. Maybe do coaching late nights, start with grind super early and finish that before 6pm if possible. Evenings and afternoons spend the days easier with activities that take far less energy (like live grinding or relaxing watching favorite tv show or just playing guitar !). This is something that I have to work out while here which is also another dilema for me. Should I stay or should I go ? If I go back home on 16th, I would start grinding right away both SNGs and CG. CG morning , SNGs afternoon and evenings. If I stay here until 1st of March, I would postpone this activity until then or if I manage to fix this projection bias leak and improve my win rate, I will just stick with CG.
So some doubts there that I have to and will figure out in very near future.
In the meanwhile plan to eat healthy, work out, coach, work on the game, relax with guitar playing, aim to maximize live grind and improve my decision making and projection bias on NL50.

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 12/30
Studied 23.5/30 hours
Coaching 12/30 sessions
Online CG grind 93/150 hours
Live CG grind 63/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 24/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
28.5/300 Study hours
25/300 Coaching sessions
133.5/1500 Grinding hours
23/150 Work outs
80.5 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (9th of February):
Wake up and eat healthy breakfast + drink tons of water (9-9:30am)
Work out and relax with long shower (9:45-10:45)
Study with fellow reg 1 hour minimum (11-12)
Grind 1st session 2 hours 3 tabling (12-2pm)
Short brake (15 mins)
Grind 2nd session 1 hour 2:15-3:15pm
Healthy lunch 3:15-3:35pm
Grind 3rd session 2 hours 3:45-5:45pm
Relax, play guitar, listen to music, respond to messages on Skype Viber and Facebook (5:45-6:45pm)
Healthy dinner (6:45-7:15pm)
Check if there will be live CG, if yes then play as much as possible if no, review super bad plays with projection bias and write down thinking process for them (1-2 hours of study more)
If there is no live CG at all then add 2 more CG videos to watch take notes, analyze and work on implementing the concepts in future grind sessions

Hey bud,

I've noticed in a few posts that you talk about having a leak where you are bluff-catching too light on river, and say that it is projection bias where you are projecting your range on to opponent. My question is, just because opponent happens to not be bluffing in that spot, how can you say that he wouldn't be bluffing there with ranges similar to what you were expecting at the time? I assume you haven't collected enough hands on opponents to determine river bluff tendencies yet or am I mistaken?

Good questions my friend!

It is all about the game plan. Game plan I am using I expect that other regs are using which is not the case in 95% or more.
This of course leads to big problems on river. Sometimes you are ahead sometimes behind with bluff catches.
I am ahead when they do some retarded bluffs or when I bluff catch them when they bet their missed draws, weak tp expecting it to be fore value, when they try to rep that they have something big etc. Times that I am not ahead is 99% in 3 bet squeeze pots where I narrow their 3 bet range pre flop and then analyze their line post flop and then on river you see a guy with JJ instead of KK+ KQo or KJo or AJo Axs which should be in their 3 bet.
So its a matter of cat and mouse game. I do have excellent bluff catches and my thinking process would be far more suitable for higher limit because people will have better range construction there.
On NL50 Zoom I seem to be loosing with river calls as people show on river with unexpected 2-8 combos that beat me. On NL100 and up those calls that I make would be fantastic because they would not allow better opponents to exploit me.
Also another thing where I lost money on NL50 that I am sure I wouldn't on NL100 and up is reverse hand reading.
That is basically when you play post flop and you play your hand the way that your opponent sees your range.
I have had light bluff catches there as well but also great bluff catches vs regs who understand reverse hand reading and try to rep like they have sets trying to fold me from TPTK or TP2nd kicker type of hand. Example of reverse hand reading is when I open for example AQo UTG , get called by reg who is CO or BTN, flop comes AJx, I c bet for value, turn is x, I check for pot control and to let opponent bluff me with Jx, SDs, random floats, c/c turn, and river is a blank where I check with intention to bluff catch again where opponent bets and shows up with AJ (6 combos but if we use game plan where AJo should be 3 bet he should have maximum 2 combos of AJs there) and shows up with AK (where some regs 3 bet it, some flat it but either way he has 8 combos of AK there maximum). So you see the problem with AQo bluff catching there. If you fold long term you are folding top of your bluff catching Ax range and opponents on higher limits will turn weaker Ax Qx mid pps and bet most of their non showdown value hands as well as turn showdown value hands into bluff as they will know that I have Ax when I bet flop c/c turn with intention of c/c river. So in theory this is very bad fold, in reality it really depends because vs some regs it turns out to be great call (the ones that actually understand reverse hand reading and try to exploit it or are simply aggressive enough and turn big part of their flop floating range into bluff) while other guys might always have 2 pairs there or TPTK.
Notice that I didn't mention sets because on AJx opponent when calling flop might only have 3 JJ combos and x 3 combos which is 6 total. By the time we reach river if he has all the AJ (6 combos) and AK (8 combos) then he only has 6 combos of set from flop (6/20 combos not really affecting my river decision by too much). The whole deal with call here is how much % of Ax is opponent betting turn and river after I bet flop with intention of c/c rest. Some guys bet A10 there also, Axs, some turn Jx into a bluff. The more that they bet and not control, the easier the call.
I seem to be running into guys who don't do that but are mostly on top of the range.
No hands can help you that much. I don't data mine, I play from day 1 without any hands. I want real sample and I want to see how they play vs me. Last night reg who took my stack in 4 bet pot with AA vs KK , the hand that I described last night, lost a hand by trying to bluff me river big after we both checked BVB flop and turn and on river I had lower straight on a very draw heavy run out. Snap called him and he turned 62o total garbage.
So you see that it is very variable. Some calls I make are excellent some turn to be terrible.
Usually on this limit I am fighting with projection bias leak. I know I would bet wider in those spots if I was them because it makes sense to do so from reverse hand reading part + long term it is very profitable (if you just bet river nuts and check your weaker hands opponent will heavily exploit you of course).

Hope any of this made sense, it is very early, you caught me from going to breakfast

Let me know if there are any more questions my friend and enjoy your new week!

Great explanation as always and very much appreciated. If I ever make it over your way, I owe you a nice breakfast for all the support.

Originally posted by Ramble
Great explanation as always and very much appreciated. If I ever make it over your way, I owe you a nice breakfast for all the support.

Deal my friend!
Make sure to come to Serbia soon as I am not sure how long I will stay home in 2016. Plan to be more abroad next year (Montenegro and Thailand as main locations).
Who knows , I might visit your neighborhood before you visit Serbia

Just finished final session of the day, 3-5am grinding 1st time ever on ZOOM.
Results are excellent but what I am looking forward to is checking tons of 3 bet pots that I won and lost in this session. Most losses are running into top of the range (super limited combos) but I am curious to see where I got light called and by who so that I can take notes and adjust accordingly + give different color coding.
After this post I will update the challenges, in the meanwhile enjoy the graph

Gevgelija 30 Day Challenge

Day 24 (9th February)

Ate healthy and drank tons of water
Worked on the game with fellow reg a bit over 1 hour (enjoyed it a lot as usual!)
Grinded online CG 7 hours total!
Grinded live CG 5 hours
Talked with my family and best friend over skype and viber

Very happy with how whole day went.
Working on the game part was cool since we did live sweat on NL50 zoom. There were tons of projection bias spots and reverse hand reading that it got ridiculous that we laughed hard (think 6-7 spots on river in span of 15-20 minutes). There there were tons of ugly rivers in 3 bet pots which cost a lot after going for 2 streets of value or bluff catch. Also ran into top of the range couple of times but overall satisfying sessions with useful observations with fellow reg. Recorded it as I record all of them and will review it in near future and no this video is not available for share or public
Live CG grind was brutal! There was game funnily enough even tough it was Monday. I went down with 300 euro as always with stop loss of 3 buy ins for MSS. I managed to loose all 300 euros in span of 5 hours. 1st stack was KQo with Qh on KcJh7h bet and turn 7d and I shoved opponent turned As7s and took my whole stack, just LOL play calling 12 euro pre flop and then floating OOP with A7 on that flop sick retardinjo play of course getting rewarded. 2nd stack was pre flop all in KK vs AA vs same donk who before I lost 2nd stack tried to bluff me 4 times post flop and each time I owned his soul building my stack back to 200 euros (returning to BE).Then KK hand vs AA after donk 3 bet aggro opener and squeezer I just jammed and lost. Final 100 euros or 50bbs I went up again to 200 or 210 euros with post flop, then lost with KK vs set of 66s where opponent was aggro reg who on 8 high turn would also shove with 99 1010 JJ so I had way more combos that I was beating vs combos that beat me and needed about 20% equity to profitably catch in that spot. I went down to 100 euros after that hand and then final hand was UTG+1 open, my friend calls CO, SB calls and I wake up on BB with QQ. I squeeze shove with 75 euros left (less than 40 bbs , 37.5bbs) and my friend turns on CO AA.
Just one of those brutal live sessions which people who are not used to would tilt like crazy. I took it super calm as whole day I was very energized and wanted to accomplish all my goals for the day. It didn't affect me at all as I got up went to room, checked PS forum and decided to play 2 more hours online to see what its like to grind this late. I managed to level tons of regs to light bluff catch me with excellent bet sizing so I am very proud of that tonight in particular. Again there were projection bias and reverse hand reading leaks but way less then in previous days. I very much look forward checking those out tomorrow.
As far as live CG grind goes, so far I am still in profit and running insanely below EV in 22-23 days like 10 buy ins or more. Also I am considering going back to Nis on 16th as after that there will be no one here with me to start the table. Tonight there were 2 regs from my town and thanks to us table got filled within 15-20 minutes. When I am the only one here in the hotel/casino, there is no way to start the table so in that sense it will be -EV to stay after big MTT which ends on 16th unless some other reg stays and starts texas holdem table with me.
Very happy that I talked to my dad today, messaged with my brother and in the morning talked with my best friend over skype some adventures and fun stories from Gevegelija.
Now about to hit the bed, have no idea when I will wake up but I will go for 5 hours of sleep so 11am latest!

Things accomplished so far in the challenge:

Working out 12/30
Studied 24.5/30 hours
Coaching 12/30 sessions
Online CG grind 100/150 hours
Live CG grind 68/130 hours
Ate 3 healthy meals + 2l minimum of water 25/30 days
Robin Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" 0/90 pages
Drop 5kgs
CG coaching 4.5 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
29.5/300 Study hours
25/300 Coaching sessions
140.5/1500 Grinding hours
23/150 Work outs
85.5 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today (10th of February):
Wake up by 11am, go for healthy breakfast, drink tons of water and do session with fellow reg (11-1pm)
Grind online CG 1st session 2 hours 1-3pm
Go for healthy lunch
Grind online CG 2nd session 2 hours 3:30-5:30pm
Go for workout as I skipped one today (Crossfit + hit the pool and sauna) 5:30-6:30pm
Grind online CG 3rd session 1 hour 6:30-7:30pm
Go for healthy dinner 7:30-8pm
Go for live CG grind if there will be any game, if not focus on reviewing all the bad plays from past couple of days write out thinking process for all of them and if possible squeeze 1 more hour of grind + start a new CG video study.