Making a living with STT SNGs

May Challenge

Day 6

Studied CG 5.5 hours
Grinded online CG 3 hours 2730 hands
Had coffee with best friend and another friend
Watched Barcelona vs Bayern game with best friend

Total 8.5 hours of Poker activity.

Really awesome and productive day today.
Working on the game was just amazing. Worked with brutal reg 3 hours and 2.5 hours on my own. During 3 hours brutal reg assigned me what to do in order to fix my leaks ASAP. I didn't waste any time and it took me about 3 hours total to do it all. I have to mention that I am just amazed how much this helped me understand CG and where I was leaking money + how to increase my win rate on any single stake. With work like today I see myself playing midstakes and highstakes in future, this kind of work is a must there for sure.
So it was one of those "wow" type of studying days with so many things making sense and revealing. In future days I will invest additional 2-3 hours to cover another area where I want to have absolute knowledge and literally ZERO doubt what to do. Once that is done, win rate will start to skyrocket.
Grinding was very solid today considering everything I accomplished today. Results wise it didn't go as well about 2 buy ins in 2730 hands. I checked hands and my feeling was right. Today I got butchered so hard both pre and post flop. Lost BVB 100bb AK vs JJ (standard), AA vs TT 54bb, KK vs AK 55bb, AKo cold 4 bet hitting TPTK+NUTFD pot over 350bb where I lost 100bb. Besides it all there were tons of times where I had really bad run outs for nuts and strong value hands especially in 3 bet pots.
SO overall I am super pleased with how my day went and it will keep getting better from this point on.
Super grateful that I put so many studying hours today, it truly helped and unlocked doubts in my mind regarding very specific things.

Tomorrow plan is to complete CrossFit training, study 1 hour minimum , grind 4 hours minimum and coach SNGs 1 hour. Healthy eating is a must just like I resumed it past couple of days (maybe for like a week already?).

May Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 13/60 hours
Coaching SNGs 4.5/20 hours
CG Grinding 12833/90k hands (14.58/100 hours)
CrossFit 1/12 trainings (2/24 hours)
*Coaching with w34z3l*

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
212.1/300 Study hours
102.75/300 Coaching sessions
473.73/1500 Grinding hours
31/150 Work out
146/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today 7th of May:
Wake up 8am, eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
Pack things and leave for CrossFit by 9:30
CrossFit 10-11
Get back home, shower and snack 11-12
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind online CG 1 hour 12-1:30pm
Longer Break 1:30-2pm
Grind 2nd session online CG 2-3pm
Lunch Break 3-4pm
Grind 3rd session 4-5pm
Short break
Grind 4th session 5-6pm
Study 1 hour CG (hh review from the whole day) 6-7pm
Dinner break 7-8pm
Coaching SNGs 8-9pm
House chores 9-10pm
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

May Challenge

Day 7

Studied CG 1 hour
Grinded online CG 4.25 hours 3562 hands
Coached SNGs 3 hours
CrossFit 1 hour
Meet with best friend for coffee
Watched my favorite TV Show "The Arrow"

Total 8.25 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day overall.
Happy how things went. Will try to keep update as short as possible since the whole weekend will be very busy with family things and a mess.
Grind was solid today. I made mistakes which shouldn't happen but they do due to auto pilot taking over with rushing and lack of focus. Those mistakes cost me a lot regardless of the fact that I made profit today close to 2 buy ins.
Studying was focusing on reviewing strategy things I did yesterday and doing analysis of hands that I felt were misplayed.
SNG coaching was brutal since it was 3 hours long, 2 different types of webinar, SNG and CG. I am really happy that Darko and Jernej enjoyed it and look forward to the feedback from other guys as well.

Plan for today is to pick up my sister from Herceg Novi and spend whole day with her. In between try to squeeze in some grinding (2-3 hours?) and meet with a girl that I want to hire as personal cook.

May Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 14/60 hours
Coaching SNGs 7.5/20 hours
CG Grinding 16395/90k hands (18/100 hours)
CrossFit 2/12 trainings (4/24 hours)
*Coaching with w34z3l*

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
213.1/300 Study hours
106.75/300 Coaching sessions
477.98/1500 Grinding hours
32/150 Work out
150/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Not much poker but more family related things past 2 days.
I will do update on Sunday night for past 3 days in terms of hours for all the areas so kindly be patient for another 24 hours for update

May Challenge

Days 8 9 and 10

Family things
Very little poker
Some football games
Trying to regenerate and rest
2 CrossFit trainings
1 SNG coaching session

Total 5 or 6 hours of poker activity.

The least productive days for poker.
Family things were and still are too overwhelming. I have spent these past 3 days with family mostly. My resting has increased due to high levels of stressful situations. In a way, I am trying to regenerate while at the same time procrastinating with my poker career.
Spoke to brutal reg last night, didn't have focus nor energy to do even 0.5 hour live sweat. Sign that my focus, concentration, energy levels and motivation are definitely not with poker past 3 days. So, how do I plan to deal with it? I will get back to grinding gradually but priority will be a process of improvement as it has been this whole year. So study to grind ratio might even be 1:1 or 2:1. There are very specific goals regarding CG and poker that I want to accomplish. It will take probably this whole year to get there but I am fine by that as I already accepted this year as a sacrifice for permanent CG switch and making a great living from it.
Some immediate plans are to continue advanced studying as well as HH reviews while occasionally working with fellow reg and brutal reg. When it comes to sessions with w34z3l, I will put them on a hold for now.
So for next week hopefully I can get to minimum 14 hours of study and about 14 hours of grinding + coaching SNGs 7 hours. Goes without mentioning that I will go for 3 CrossFit trainings and keep on eating healthy.

May Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 16/60 hours
Coaching SNGs 8.5/20 hours
CG Grinding 18552/90k hands (20.25/100 hours)
CrossFit 4/12 trainings (8/24 hours)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
215.1/300 Study hours
107.75/300 Coaching sessions
480/1500 Grinding hours
34/150 Work out
150/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today 11th of May:
Healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching SNGs 11-1pm
Meet for coffee with best friend and grind 1 hour 1-3pm
Lunch break 3-4pm
Study CG (advanced concepts) 4-5pm
Grind 2nd session 1 hour 5-6pm
Short break 6-6:15pm
Study CG (hh review and in depth analysis) 6:15-7:15pm
Dinner break 7:15-8pm
Grind 3rd session 1 hour 8-9pm
Longer break 9-9:30pm
Study CG (Advanced concepts) 9:30-10:30pm
Watch GOT and other TV Shows that got out today
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Past week and May overall has been really hard.

I can say that I am only pleased with return to CrossFit and SNG coaching. My grinding and studying has dropped down severely. I will do update when I have more time to reflect on all the things. Perhaps for poker key thing to mention is that I dropped yesterday to NL25 to rebuild confidence and some bankroll as well although it is not jeopardized yet.

Got CrossFit in the morning so need to get a long rest. Will do update when I get more time and focus. The way things have been going past week, that might take a while.

Enjoy your May and times both on and off the tables!

More detailed update when I reflect more in depth and figure out way to get back into things strong - hopefully in the near future.

Yesterday finally day with amazing work rate again. 5.5 hours of working on the game and all with brutal reg, discovering major leaks in my game. w34z3l did db analysis before but he did not find what we did yesterday. 3 major areas that I need to work on correcting. I am sure other regs and players leak money in those also but we discovered yesterday that I can have minimum 6bb more win rate once I improve those areas to he point of brutal reg. They are all fragile areas and require hours of practice but I know I will fix them in near future. How soon depends purely on me, time that I put in + how I will apply all the knowledge at the tables with focus and tilt triggers.
Overall very happy how yesterday went. Despite finding those 3 areas for leak fixing, brutal reg went over hands with me and repeated that my post flop is strong to beat NL100 also but agreed with me that those 3 "fundamental" areas is where I am leaking most money.

Just wanted to let you know how things are going. In future days I will reintroduce grinding heavier but I definitely don't want to drop down any studying and analysis as it is key to win rate increasing and improvement.

In near future I will do update with all the hours and activities. I am putting all the hours in note pad as days pass. Will pick a day when I have the most time to update it all.

Thanks for following and enjoy your weekend both on and off the tables!

May Challenge

Days 11 12 13 14 15 16

Coaching SNGs 11 hours (2 hours webinar)
Working on the game with brutal reg 6 hours
Studying CG 3.5 hours
Grinding online CG 6.75 hours (5693 hands)
CrossFit 1 workout
Watching sports 16 hours

Total 27.25 hours of Poker activity

Somewhat productive days for poker.
I was most productive with coaching my students.11+ hours which consisted of private instruction the most, webinars and then hand evaluations along with Skype discussions.
Very happy how it all went and students have a lot of material in these past 6 days to work from and like with all the sessions those were recorded and available for them to return to and recap the concepts/theory along with examples.
When it comes to studying CG, this was another solid area. Close to 10 hours in 6 days, 1.5-2 hours per day but mostly thanks to that 1 day where I did 5.5 hours with brutal reg. Some very important things discovered as I wrote in the previous update. I have been focusing my study time to review hands with those 3 areas where I am leaking most money + to keep improving with advanced concepts for post flop.
I also created a working on the game daily guide which consists of 3 key areas for long term improvement. Simplyfing things, creating games, making studying always fun and interesting. That is the key to keep going at it!
Grinding was the least productive for those 6 days. It was due to many things, most of them were/are life related. As I mentioned, May has been really hard and all the life things just punched me in the face in this month. It was difficult to keep pushing and going. On top of that, my game was not good, I was rushing and tilting, making mistakes and in the process loosing money which is absolutely fine when things go this way and variance also takes things. So what I decided to do is take a brake from heavy grinding but rather spend time on studying leak fixing and coaching. This really helped in past 6 days as I have rebuilded confidence and now I feel much better about my game especially after focusing on those 3 areas that I am loosing the most in.
I am still very far from grind heavy mode like 5-6+ hours of grinding or so but the most important thing is to keep the studying going minimum 1 hour per day , 2 hours would be ideal and go from 2 to 4-5+ hours gradually. Key is to always study and keep reviewing sessions for leak finding in fixing. I found that if I leave that out my win rate will drop and uncertainty in game plan will start to kick in.
When it comes to NL50 , I went to it yesterday just for a bit, but in this stretch of 5693 hands I played mostly NL25. People are playing differently on NL25, more exploitable limit for sure but I also marked 3 or 4 "regs" that made some calls which were worth noting and adjusting to.
Plan for the rest of May poker wise is to try and get 30 hours of grinding in next 14 days about 2 hours or so per day with emphasis on studying and leak fixing.
CrossFit was going really well and then I took a brake this week where I only completed 1 training. Great thin about CrossFit is that now I am getting up at 8 8:30am latest without feeling tired and my day lasts up until 1:30am or so but I have much more energy and will power to do things. Following week will be difficult for trainings because I plan to go to Belgrade and watch Partizan vs Cukaricki game, cup finals game for our 2nd trophy fight this season. Speaking of which, Partizan Belgrade won a league trophy this season and I am very happy about that since we fully deserve it. Watched pretty much every single Partizan game this season and despite all the problems we had, will power and dedication from team was great and we managed to overcome all the obstacles to win the title. Yesterday was celebration on our stadium, I was considering to go but stayed in Nis because 5-6 days in Belgrade would be too much for me right now - it would take me away from poker and the habit for studying could possibly suffer which is the last thing I want.
As you started reading this update you saw the part about watching sports. I spent 16 hours or even more watching football and basketball games. It was a way to regenerate and in a way go into some vacuum relaxing from poker even. I am not unhappy about watching those games because I love sports in general and I could spend all day watching analyzing games finding +EV things in them for betting. But it is not great because my grinding in poker also suffered and I will readjust my schedule if I decide to keep up this pace with sport games watching and analyzing.

Plan for the rest of the May will be following:
- Study 20 hours CG
- Grind 30 hours online CG
- Coach SNGs 7 hours
- Go to Belgrade for 2 days for Partizan vs Cukaricki game and hang with family
- CrossFit 5 trainings in 15 remaining days (at least 1 training outside with running + 3 exercises with 3 different repetition numbers)
- *Special 27th of May Poker Strategy date*
- Anything extra for studying with brutal reg and fellow friend and reg
- Watch sports as leagues are finishing up in most countries now anyways

May Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 25.5/60 hours
Coaching SNGs 19.5/20 hours
CG Grinding 24245/90k hands (27/100 hours)
CrossFit 5/12 trainings (10/24 hours)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
224.6/300 Study hours
118.75/300 Coaching sessions
486.75/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
162/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Hi, I saw you writed early in this thread that you made 200$ pr day by rake. How is this possibly and which site?

Originally posted by NiklasGroenvik
Hi, I saw you writed early in this thread that you made 200$ pr day by rake. How is this possibly and which site?

Hi NiklasGroenvik,
You probably read this a while back when I was playing on Ongame network or such. Those sites and traffic for SNGs is gone, you don't have place where you can play 1 SNG format 100 games a day or 15+ games per hour minimum. This can be achieved if you mix multiple networks and play different formats. If that works for you, go for it. I prefer Stars and everything it has to offer + the most important thing for me is to constantly keep improving and playing vs better players.

Quick update.

I was in Belgrade past 2 days. Went to see Partizan Belgrade live in Cup finals. We lost 1-0 vs Cukaricki who was better time and deserved a trophy.
I will make a update by the end of May with all the things that are going on. I can just say that grind has been super low but studying habit is back and growing stronger every day. Also very happy with how all the coaching and working with students has been going lately. On the personal side, I am considering to take a 10 day vacation, go to a sea side, somewhere in Greece most likely, but I will most likely put it off for a month since May grind was super low.

Thanks for being patient, May has been really difficult and still is for me in all areas of life.
Expect an update in future days regarding all the time management things that went on since the last update. In the meanwhile have a great weekend both on and off the tables!

Oki, thanks

Originally posted by NiklasGroenvik
Oki, thanks

You welcome Niklas

Guys if you are around tonight, I will be attending Collin Moshman's coaching!

Stop by, should be lots of fun

P.S. I will be doing larger update at the end of the month with all the time management things as promised. I am doing very well with studying and improving, grinding is coming along also and overall very happy with how past week or so has been going. Looking forward to keep this going in June also!

June is starting already!
Within 24 hours expect update for May and June challenge.
Too late to do long update now and tomorrow full day of activities ahead, need to get proper rest for it all!

Hope your May was great and if not may June be better in every way.

Update as promised, 1st regarding May Challenge

May Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 62/60 hours
Coaching SNGs 35.5/20 hours
CG Grinding 61118/90k hands (68.5/100 hours)
CrossFit 5/12 trainings (10/24 hours)

Very difficult month. Tons of problems in it, month not to wish for ever again. I prefer not to go into details, people close to me really know through what I had to go through in May.

Poker wise it was inevitable to pull the brakes. At one point I felt like packing up, leaving Serbia and just going somewhere else. Luckily I did not do that but kept my composure, regrouped and made several promises to myself that I will never brake, especially business related ones.

In terms of studying, I have improved and keep improving. At one point everything felt all over the place and unclear. Around 17th of June or so after I regrouped my brain started clicking and hand reading was again one of my biggest +EV things in my game. In the meanwhile I watched new videos, kept working with my study partners, did the extra work on my own. All these things led to a very confident post flop ability which reflected with results also.

Grind wise was not great but I am not sad about it. I prefer to keep going hard with studying and grind good volume vs grinding 5-6 hours and not having full focus with studying or feeling tired lacking energy etc. All these things are very important to me because I plan to beat NL100 and go to NL200 ZOOM. So grinding vs studying, studying is a key priority. Ration that I plan to use is somewhat around 2:1 in favor of grinding.
Currently playing NL25 ZOOM although I definitely see myself going back to NL50 ZOOM in July most likely. More on that in June goals!

SNG Coaching was just phenomenal. Tons of private sessions, webinars and helping students over Skype and our forum. Towards the end of the month was very happy to be featured (again!) in coaching with Collin Moshman. That was super fun and interesting as always. Happy that 60 people attended on the night when Europe League Finals was playing.
All the people I work with have a unique story. We have reached half year point and a lot of guys are stepping up their game. It is that made or brake type of thing. I look forward for end of the year, future 6 months to how things will develop for all of them.

Crossfit worked only for a bit in May. I totally lost my appetite due to family things as well as other life related problems. It was impossible to go train when I would eat once a day or just drink 1l of chocolate milk for the whole day.
This will change in very near future as tomorrow I am meeting with cook and hopefully will work out terms and agreament to resume steady and healthy meal intake!
I am doing much better now BTW, I eat 2-3 meals per day but still it is not proper and I definitely look forward to this changing very soon.

I hope you enjoyed this May update. It was very long one for me, felt like forever and a nightmare at times but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. With that in mind, I will keep going, pushing the envelope and seeking to become as best as I can be in this thing called NLHE 6 max CG and other things that matter the most in my life.

June update coming soon. Thank You All for reading and following.

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
250.1/300 Study hours
134.75/300 Coaching sessions
528.25/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
202/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Now June Challenge

General ideas for June after 6 months doing CG are:
- Study minimum 60 hours
- Grind 100 hours (70k hands minimum)
- Coach 30 hours

So 190 hours of activity minimum.

In terms of more detailed plans I want in June to:
- Keep developing my post flop skills and understand every single range vs range spot
- Keep leak fixing areas that are largest leaks (C or lower game)
- Keep implementing new things learned (A game improvement)
- Keep working with my study partners (elpsycho and brutal reg)
- Keep working with Janda book
- Keep playing shorter sessions, take frequent brakes, regenerate and play with full focus without distractions

Things that are not set in any way for June:
- Limit that I will grind (open for switching back to NL50 ZOOM soon)
- Win rate setting (expectations on NL25 are double digits, 10bb+ realistically from what I have shown past 2 weeks)
- Stop loss limits (more knowledge, focus and energy - less tilt; therefore no need for stop loss of any sort)

On the side note, I have accepted 2 students tonight with who I will start working this week. One guy is Spin and Go reg while the other guy is CG NL50-100 player. With CG guy I spent 4-5 hours today and he seemed very happy with theory and practical knowledge I displayed. He mentioned that he would be interested to get coaching from me so I just wrote down some prices that felt were fair and told him in advance what he can expect from me.
Very happy that I will start working with my 1st official CG student and none the less guy who plays higher limits then I do currently. Kinda funny situation if you think about it but I am happy that nl50-100 reg feels that I can bring huge value to his game and help him fix all his leaks.

Overall June should be very interesting and already started very interesting (those 2 students happened today + it was my brothers birthday today - happy birthday I love you bro you are the best!).

Here is what happened today

Studying 2.5 hours CG
Grinding 4.5 hours CG
Talking with students over Skype 1 hour

Total 7 hours of Poker activity

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 2.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 4.5/100 hours (3450/70000)
Coaching 0/30 hours

Here is the plan for today 2nd of June:

Wake up 10am (cause it is 2:33am now already), eat healthy breakfast
Study CG 11-12
Meet with best friend for coffee (if he is in) if not Study CG 1 more hour 12:30-1:30pm
Grind 1st session 1:30-2:30pm
Lunch break 2:30-3pm
Grind 2nd session 3-4pm
Short brake 4-4:15pm
Grind 3rd session 4:15-5:15pm
Relax, regenerate, rest 5:15-6:45pm
Dinner break 6:45-7:15pm
Study CG 0.5 hour 7:15-7:45pm
Meet with cook 8pm-9pm+
Before bed, depending how late it is, study 0.5 hour more and then hit the bed
Reflect on mission and vision + update blog and challenge!

What's all this "Meet with cook" malarkey? How many other servants have you got?

Just kidding, good work........

Originally posted by chilliyen
What's all this "Meet with cook" malarkey? How many other servants have you got?

Just kidding, good work........

If you only knew
He pays a gipsy kid to massage him before every grind session

Day 2

Grinding 4 hours
Studying 2 hours
Coaching 1 hour

Total 7 hours of poker activity

Very good day overall.
Studied good even tough I felt very tired (around 1-2pm) due to lack of sleep from going to bed late last night. I managed to take long enough brakes, to rest and regenerate so that I could continue with full focus.
Grinding was very fun and interesting. I played NL50 ZOOM and was up like 2-3 buy ins but then went down to 2 buy ins. Couple of coolers and of course dozen wide and bad calls from regs. I wonder if these guys will ever reach a point of having 5bb,7bb+ on NL50 ZOOM or they plan to light bluff catch and grind for RB? I guess not Regardless of the results, feel very happy about the game. Also let CG student watch me play for 1 hour NL50 ZOOM, discussed every hand with him while 3 tabling. He was in shock about 10 times with calls he saw and how we ran. Just giving him insight into what to expect soon
1 hour coaching actually happened via Skype, helping my students. I did not count this live play with CG as coaching altough it can certainly be considered as coaching

Some other things that went on today:
- Went for coffee with best friend and meet another friend
- Talked with another friend and arranging most likely Prague trip soon
- Talked with cook and arranged the deal to start from following Monday
- Scheduled coaching for the remaining of the week

That is all for today. Today I look forward to studying 2 hours minimum, meeting with a friend for coffee 11am and also continuing this grind with full focus. Extremely pleased with my thinking and decision making process + regenerating.

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 4.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 8.5/100 hours (6093/70000)
Coaching 1/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
254.6/300 Study hours
135.75/300 Coaching sessions
536.75/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
207/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today 3rd of June:

Wake up 9am and eat healthy breakfast
Study CG 9:30-10:30am
Meet with friend for coffee and to hang 11-12pm or so
Grind CG 1st session 12-1pm
Short break 1-1:15pm
Grind CG 2nd session 1:15-2:15pm
Lunch break 2:15-3pm
Grind CG 3rd session 3-4pm
Relax, rest and regenrate 4-5:30pm
Study CG 1 hour 5:30-6:30pm
Dinner break 6:30-7:15pm
Coaching via Skype and Forums 1 hour 7:15-8:15pm
*Arrange session with elpsycho if availabe if not work on my own 1 more hour*
Rest of the evening watch some TV show (if something good comes out) and relax go to bed by 1am
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision!

Originally posted by chilliyen
What's all this "Meet with cook" malarkey? How many other servants have you got?

Just kidding, good work........

Maid for long and cook starting next Monday. Big fan of seeking help in things that I want to avoid doing to save time for more important things :like cooking cleaning house and laundry/washing/drying/ironing.

Thank You for stopping by