Making a living with STT SNGs

Day 3
Studied CG 2 hours
Grinding CG 3 hours
Coaching 0.5 hour

Total 5.5 hours of poker activity

Not a very productive day for poker.
I went to bed 4 am last night which totally messed up my whole day. Woke up in the middle of night/morning, then ate healthy breakfast and went for coffee with friends at 11am. I was super tired and managed to put in 2 hours of studying with chunks of 0.5 hour blocks through out the day. My focus was just not there and you can imagine how badly this reflected at the tables - mistakes that should be happening at all! Coaching was completed via forum, responded in depth to 2 hands Darko posted.
Tried to regenerate but didn't work as great. Fell asleep around 8-9pm and woke up close to 10:30pm. Have no idea how long I will be awake tonight. I can feel focus coming back and rested somewhat but definitely will hit the bed again as there are tons of things planed for tomorrow.

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 6.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 11.5/100 hours (8607/70000)
Coaching 1.5/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
256.6/300 Study hours
136.25/300 Coaching sessions
539.75/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
212/1000 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 4th of June:
Wake up 9am, eat healthy breakfast
Study CG 1 hour 10-11
Coaching 11-12
Break to regenerate and snack 12-12:30
Grind CG 1st session 12:30-1:30pm
Short break
Grind CG 2nd session 1:45-2:45pm
Lunch break 2:45-3:30pm
Meet with girl for drinks 4pm on (have no clue how long this will last, if I get bored probably like 15 minutes or something
In the evening grind 1 more hour and study 1 hour
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Day 4
Studying 2.5 hours
Coaching 1.5 hours
Grinding 2.5 hour

Total 6.5 hours of poker activity

Very productive day for poker.
Woke up early and ate healthy breakfast as planed. Studying went amazing before coaching session. It was one of those types of studies that reveled so much insight and "wow" type moments. I am very happy that I tackled that particular area and things are becoming much more clear now for it. On the other side, it means that I pretty much will need to spend dozen hours redoing all the things I already did in the past. That is what it takes to become really great in CG NLHE and to fully understand why certain things work which way. For past 6 months I was using things I did with w34z3l heavily, now I am drifting apart from that and doing something that guys like Internet and Sauce123 did in their game before moving up limits. I already feel more confident from 2.5 hours of studying in depth those things today. Very little studying was done with any actual hand review. It was all about theory, ranges, concepts that are super important to increase win rate from each of the positions and understand how heavily it affects it all. Very happy and pleased how it all went today, look forward building on it in future days/weeks/months!
As far as grinding goes I didn't do as much of it because I meet for drinks as planed and had a rest in afternoon with 1 hour nap to regenerate. Grinding went well, I had good card distribution but also misplayed some hands. Despite 9bb EV in past 20k hands I am not happy with my play yet. There is a lot of work and fixing to be done but I am happy however with way I am approaching studying and leak fixing. Eventually all will fall into place, my tilt triggers will go away with more knowledge sinking in and being calmed and in absolute control both pre and post flop. This is what will take for me to absolutely crush it and then those NL100-200 ZOOM guys will have to watch out for another fanatic coming over to their limit, a guy that they will not have an easy time fighting against
Coaching went excellent! We shared the video from coaching and I look forward to feedback of other students as well. Also spent time responding to couple hands via Skype and scheduled some coachings.

Tomorrow lots of things planed with highlight on coaching early morning (10am), meeting with friend for coffee, going for some hair cutting and shaving (very calming experience and then some standard grinding 3 hours or so with focus on studying in between 2 hours!
As week is getting close to the end, I very much look forward to grocery shopping as from Monday I will have cook join us here every other day and prepare 5 meals for 2 days in advance (10 meals total). If 1st week goes well I will then resume CrossFit with such healthy eating (which will regenerate me even more!) and move around some things in time management (do coaching on days when I don't have training or on days that I do in the afternoons!). Anyways, super psyched about it obviously as well as some other things that I will write about in future updates.

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 9/60 hours
Grinding CG 14/100 hours (10830/70000)
Coaching 3/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
259.1/300 Study hours
137.75/300 Coaching sessions
542.25/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
215/1000 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 5th of June:
Wake up 9am and eat healthy breakfast
Coaching 10-11am
Meet with friend for coffee 11:30-1pm (perhaps 1st grind session as well at least 0.5 hour)
Snack break 1-1:15pm
Grind 2nd session 1:15-2:15pm
Haircut and shave 2:15-2:45pm
Lunch break + regenerate 3-4pm
Study 1 hour 4-5pm
Grind 3rd session 5-6pm
Dinner break + regenerate 6-7pm
Study 1 hour 7-8pm
Snack break 8-8:15pm
*Watch tv show(s) to relax if some favorite ones come out 1.5 hours*
Study 1 hour more with hand evaluations
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Day 5

Grinding 2 hours
Coaching 1 hour
Studying 3 hours

Total 6 hours of poker activity

Very productive day for poker.

Some incredible things going on. Studying was just great. I focused on different scenarios for particular hand with brutal reg (1 hour). I also worked on theory (1 hour) and in the evening after finishing grinding, hand history review (1 hour). During the day had some very important talks which I am hoping will turn into something really big! If these talks work out, my mission and vision for poker will be much sooner within reach.

Managed to grind only 2 hours. About 1.5 hours of grind I was up 6 buy ins, in the end finished with 3 buy ins profit. From 3 buy ins lost in that 0.5 hour 2 were setups(KK into AA and such), 1 was misplayed hand(expecting too aggressive 4 bet range). I went through all the hands and marked them for evaluations. When I am playing my best I am absolutely dominating opponents and limits I play. However there are still things that need more theory and practice for me to be absolutely 100% sure and confident in plays. This might take months and in fact I am in no rush because I want to become best I can be and this is an ongoing process that doesn't have a time frame. If you decide to be poker professional and make a living from such game, either go all in with your efforts or don't do it at all. My time management has changed lately as I am making time to meet with friends and return to some activities such as CrossFit. I also value good sleep now more than ever before because 5 hours vs 7 or 8 hours of sleep greatly affects results at the tables. I am also feeling more and more confident about my skill and knowledge at the tables, so very soon my grinding will go up without affecting studying habit!

Coaching went great. 1st session with Spin and go player. I am glad that he enjoyed it and look forward to his assignments.

Health wise, I strained my neck yesterday which made it very difficult to move around a lot. I woke up this morning also with some neck pain. Considering to schedule some treatment soon so that I can get back 100% to all activities (including CrossFit resuming at some point next week).

Today plan is to study+post all the hands marked, grind 3 hours and watch with friends Champions League Finals (Barcelona winning most likely). Since it is weekend, it is very +EV to grind as there is tons of recreational players stacking off light willingly. Reality of cash game although I want to be the type of guy who plays NL2k+ and is not in any doubt vs all the regs at the table - meaning that the level of regs on nl25-100 doesn't worry me at all (I do frequent reviews, take notes and readjust), all I am focused on is my game and constant improvement!

On the side note, if certain things go through, I was thinking to start a new blog or simply open a challenge thread. I can still keep this one going with the updates but I feel this change will be so huge that a new thread would be worth it. This blog is reaching close to 200k views which is just mind blowing accomplishment, something I never dreamed was possible when I started blogging here. Trust me when I say, if this change happens it will be my poker life changing experience!

Enjoy your weekend on and off the tables!

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 12/60 hours
Grinding CG 16/100 hours (12554/70000)
Coaching 4/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
262.1/300 Study hours
138.75/300 Coaching sessions
544.25/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
222/1000 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 6th of June:
Woke up 10am, ate breakfast and relaxed with some comedy movie
1-2pm Posting marked hands with thinking process and questions
2-3pm Grinding 1st session
3-3:45pm Lunch break and to regenerate
3:45-4:45 Grinding 2nd session
4:45-5pm Short break
5-6pm Grinding 3rd session
6-7pm Studying (focus on theory)
7-7:30pm Dinner break
7:30-8:30pm HH review, marking hands and doing in depth analysis
8:45pm-10:45pm CL Final game
*Rest of the evening arrange coachings, talk to friends and collegues over skype and regenerate*
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Day 6

Studying 2.5 hours
Grinding 2 hours

Total 4.5 hours of poker activity

Productive day for poker.
Health wise, still problems with neck pain. Tomorrow I am going with friends to nature, to be more active, hopefully that will do something good for the neck. I used ice and massaged the neck but I felt it didn't help that much. Worst case scenario, Monday I will visit doctor for it!

Poker wise awesome things happening. Scheduled coaching with students, talked to my students, did hh review and posted 6 hands for analysis (with in depth analysis) and then grinded 2 hours. Studying was excellent because hand evaluations took about 1.5 hours (and some more) while the rest of studying time was through video and theory things I am already working on. Grinding was successful, a bit over 1 buy in (played NL50 ZOOM) but lots of interesting spots came up that I analyzed in working on the game part.
When you add to all this that in the morning I relaxed (because of neck pain) with movie, in afternoon had a 1 hour nap (to regenerate) and in the evening watched CL finals with friends (8:30-11:30 when I got back home), I am very satisfied that I managed on such day to keep activity going with studying heavy and grinding a bit lower then expected (expectations for month 3-4 hours per day).

Tomorrow some awesome things happening among which I will mention going to field trip with friends then doing some coaching and in the evening some poker career changing event (hopefully)

Enjoy the remaining of your weekend !

P.S. I will update challenges with numbers tomorrow as it is already late and I will get up 9am tomorrow!

Such an awesome day packed with activities!

I have to keep you on your toes still with full update. I will do my best to update tomorrow evening before bed for days 7 and 8.

Will just mentioned that I talked with one of my poker idols today for 1 hour and 40 minutes! Amazing. I encourage you to imagine how awesome experience this was for me - I truly feel blessed to have experienced such a thing. Things like that make life so special and worth living. I felt like football player talking to his idol Messi. Will stop there for now...

Enjoy your new week on and off the tables!

Days 7&8

Talking with one of the poker idols 1.66 hours
Grinding 1.66 hours
Studying 4 hours
Coaching 1.20 hours

Total 8.52 hours of poker activity

Somewhat productive 2 days for poker.
I was a bit held back on grinding as there were life things I had to take care of. On Sunday I spent from 10am to 5pm with friends in the nature, with some BBQ and having fun overall. This affected productivity for poker of course but I am not worried about it, felt right to do it so I went with it. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours of the day shoping and easing the cook with all the meals for 2 days for CrossFit. Was basically answering every 5 minutes some question about certain dosage or what spices to use and where is what in the kitchen. So that took time but the great news is that it was well worth it because 5 meals yesterday were awesome and I already ate breakfast for today which was awesome as well. Later today, I will go for some more shopping since tomorrow cook is coming over to make food for Wednesday and Thursday. Anyways, all the life things + still with neck pain affected my grinding past 2 days. Results wise I made 7 buy ins or so but I am focused more on improvement then results. I am however happy with how studying went. Watched 2 videos, took notes, analyzed my HH, responded to some hands and prepared some new hands for posting. In the meanwhile talked with brutal reg both days and we discussed some important matters.

Yesterday mentioned that on Sunday I had a meeting over Skype with one of my poker idols! It lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes and it was absolutely awesome experience. I did not know what to expect and was very nervous in the beginning (like 1st 5 minutes or so) but very soon I felt very easy going with him and I felt we connected very well.
In previous update (longer one) I mentioned the possibility of opening a new blog or a challenge. I have not made a final decision on this yet as it depends on couple of factors (not just my will to open a thread - that is easiest part of all!). So next 7-8 weeks will be crucial when it comes to making such decision. If things work out (which I hope they will) I will announce the details of what's to follow in future for my poker career. Super excited about it all but I don't want to rush with any announcement when the decisions are not final yet!

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 18.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 19.66/100 hours (15809/70000)
Coaching 5.2/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
268.6/300 Study hours
139.95/300 Coaching sessions
547.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
226/1000 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 June 9th:
Woke up 7:30am, ate healthy breakfast, talked with Darko over Skype and watched tv show to relax my neck + updated blog now
About to study 1 hour 9:45-10:45 (post hands with in depth thinking process)
Short break 10:45-11am
Grind 1st session 1 hour 11-12
Snack break 12-12:15pm
Grind 2nd session 12:15-1:15pm
Short break 1:15-1:30pm
Grind 3rd session 1:30-2:30pm
Lunch break 2:30-3:15pm
Relax and regenerate, potentially meet with best friend for coffee 3:15-5pm
Study 1 hour (analyze HH from the day, mark hands for posting and in depth analysis) 5-6pm
Snack break 6-6:15pm
Study 1 hour 6:15-7:15pm
Dinner break 7:15-8pm
Grind 4th session 8-9pm
Study 1 hour 9-10pm
Relax, rest , regenerate and hit the bed before 1am (before that update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision)

hey

first i have to say nice blog and very nice work ethic.. i saw you wrote on a blog that when you learn something is good to divide the problem in some small problems and than try to learn.i liked that thinking and i end up reading your blog(not all since is very long) but most of it and i saw where you begun and where are you now..i admire your dedication in succeeding on you goals.i saw that 7 habits of highly effective peoples was something very useful for you and i read it too(2 times actually).

i started to play spin&go form the 3$ and i read through the forums that is not to believe all that we see in the videos and that we should work on the game ourselves.you said something playing with equilab like develop our BU ranges ,or SB open or BB defence.can you explain a bit more about that?i don't know much about equilab and his options so i am looking for a place to start.

i know you are a busy person and that probably i could post the question in the forum but i like to get advices(if possible) from people that i aspire and considering what i saw so far about you i you very much appreciate your answer and all you can give me about equilab and maybe other advices.

thanks a lot and keep going with the good work!

btw i doing crossfit but on my own in a gym because i don't have a crossfit gym nearby.tomorrow i compete with my brother to see who makes Fran workout faster ♦..have you done those workouts with girl name?

Day 9

Studying 2 hours
Grinding 4 hours

Total 6 hours of poker activities.

Very productive day for poker.
Analyzed in depth and posted 6 hands. Very useful as always breaking down things and finding most profitable line and play.
Grinding was strong in terms of time but not as strong in terms of my play. At some point I was up 4 buy ins, ended session with 1 buy in profit.
Lots of very interesting spots from which I marked 13 for in depth analysis, 6 done already (in 2 hours) and 7 left (tomorrow morning after I return from grocery shopping).
Overall there were spots where I was running into top of ranges from opponents (KK vs AA, 2-3 times into FHs etc) but there were also misplays which don't happen that frequently anymore at all but somehow happened once or twice today (have to go through whole HH from those 4 hours to check tomorrow!).
So despite not playing nowhere near my best, I still made money but that is not the point in this game, at least not for me. I am grading my mental game, focus and correct plays constantnly. Today it was nowhere near my full potential and because of it I potentially lost chance to win 2 more buy ins or so.
On the positive side, I am now 6 months later fully aware of all my strengths and weaknesses and I will keep working hard to fix leaks and to keep improving my strengths. Great news is that with this game play my hourly for CG is already 30$+ which is really nice considering how I was clueless with ranges 6 months ago for CG!!! Very proud of how far I have come 6 months later and really look forward to the end of the year reflection. I would really like at that point to dominate nl100 and play 200 without being BE but actually having positive win rate. Plenty of time left and about 300+ hours of studying minimum ahead of me.

Besides poker, today meet with best friend for coffee and also spent time with my family. Decided to take my father and brother to seaside soon so by the end of June I will go for 10 days with them to spend some quality family time together. Very much look forward to it all.

Tomorrow have to do grocery shopping for cook early (8am) and then study and post 7 hands from today + get to grinding another 3-4 hours minimum and study later during the day. By the end of the June I want to steady grind 4 hours per day without it affecting my quality of game play and studying time.

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 20.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 23.66/100 hours (19310/70000)
Coaching 5.2/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
270.6/300 Study hours
139.95/300 Coaching sessions
551.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
232/1000 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 10th of June:

Wake up 7:30am, meet with cook at 8am and go for grocery shopping
After returning home, eat healthy breakfast 9-10am
Study 1 hour 10-11am
Short break 11-11:15am
Study 1 hour 11:15-12:15pm
Snack break 12:15-12:45
Grind 1 hour 12:45-1:45pm
Short break 1:45-2pm
Grind 1 hour 2-3pm
Lunch break 3-4pm
Grind 1 hour 4-5pm
Longer break 5-5:45pm
Grind 1 hour 5:45-6:45pm
Dinner break 6:45-7:30pm
Relax and regenerate 7:30-9pm
Study 1 hour (HH review, mark hands, in depth thinking process and post them) 9-10p
Schedule coaching and webinar with students
Hit the bed by 1am, before that update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Day 10

Studying 4 hours
Grinding 4 hours

Total 8 hours of poker activity

Very productive day for poker
Studying went great. 3 hours spent doing in depth hand analysis. 1 hour was reviewing hands from today marked and using other filters as well.
Super happy how studying went and when writing down thinking process things are more clear and at the tables it reflects.
Grinding was very solid today. I spread it out through out the whole day into shorter sessions. I also had afternoon nap and regenerated and that certainly gave me extra energy to do more work. My energy levels thanks to healthy eating 5 meals per day since Monday has had a great impact on my productivity as well.
When it comes to actual results, I made close to 3 buy ins pre rb. There was mixture of everything going on. Setups that didn't work in my favor, post flop spots for analyzing, running into top of the range post flop, opponents calling way too light. Unlike yesterday, I am very happy with my play today and I would grade it 7.5/10 as a minimum overall mark.
Other activities - scheduled coaching, talked with my best friend, went for grocery shopping early morning for healthy meals, watched a movie and had a nap. Very full day and productive for poker!

Tomorrow I have couple of important things going on which you can check in the time management below!

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 24.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 27.66/100 hours (23005/70000)
Coaching 5.2/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
274.6/300 Study hours
139.95/300 Coaching sessions
555.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
241/1000 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 June:
Wake up 7:30am, go for grocery shopping, eat healthy breakfast all by 9am
Studying 1 hour 9-10am
Grinding 1 hour 10-11am
Break to regenerate and prepare for coaching
Coaching 12-1pm
Snack break 1-1:20pm
Grinding 1 hour 1:20-2:20pm
Lunch break 2:20-3pm
Grinding 1 hour 3-4pm
Longer break 4-4:30pm
Grinding 1 hour 4:30-5:30pm
Snack break 5:30-6pm
Studying 1 hour 6-7pm
Dinner break 7-7:30pm
Rest of the evening relax, regenerate with some favorite TV shows, update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision!

Originally posted by epok522
hey

first i have to say nice blog and very nice work ethic.. i saw you wrote on a blog that when you learn something is good to divide the problem in some small problems and than try to learn.i liked that thinking and i end up reading your blog(not all since is very long) but most of it and i saw where you begun and where are you now..i admire your dedication in succeeding on you goals.i saw that 7 habits of highly effective peoples was something very useful for you and i read it too(2 times actually).

i started to play spin&go form the 3$ and i read through the forums that is not to believe all that we see in the videos and that we should work on the game ourselves.you said something playing with equilab like develop our BU ranges ,or SB open or BB defence.can you explain a bit more about that?i don't know much about equilab and his options so i am looking for a place to start.

i know you are a busy person and that probably i could post the question in the forum but i like to get advices(if possible) from people that i aspire and considering what i saw so far about you i you very much appreciate your answer and all you can give me about equilab and maybe other advices.

thanks a lot and keep going with the good work!

btw i doing crossfit but on my own in a gym because i don't have a crossfit gym nearby.tomorrow i compete with my brother to see who makes Fran workout faster ♦..have you done those workouts with girl name?

Hey epok522,

Thanks for stopping by and finding something of use to you here. Appreciate your kind words and support and hope that my work ethic can motivate you (and others) to keep pushing beyond your best. 7 habits of successful people is a great book. I hope you did the assignments from it also - it was really important and revealed a lot of things about my life path once I did it.

Regarding your questions and observations that you should not trust all the video makers. This is absolutely 100% true and I wrote it on Elpsycho's blog. The reasons for why you shouldn't blindly trust some coach(es) are several but here are 2 most important ones: 1) Large % of coaches just re-teach the stuff somebody showed them, they them self are not 100% sure why certain things are done or why (this is especially true for theory and range construction for pre and post flop - very few of them did super in depth work to know what they are talking about) 2) You want to always question every information that you get whether its from coach directly video article or some other source. By constantly questioning things you actually start to understand why certain things work and how they work. If you don't ask questions you become a machine who just blindly follows advice that somebody gave them. So you always want to aim and learn every single strategy spot and be able to do things from scratch from your head, understanding how things apply in both theory and practice!
As far as practical part of your question goes (range construction), the best info I can give you is to get Equilab and HRC (holdemresourcescalculator) and those programs will help you with both shoving/calling/3bet/minraise/4bet ranges as well as equity calculations and range construction pre and post flop. To get you started, ask yourself always why and how you would play certain hand in your range? Constantly ask yourself this questions and answers will start to reveal soon

I would love to help you but I really don't use blog to provide strategy advice. If you need help with traffic and general questions about formats and future in poker, I can provide some info there, but for strategy it takes way too long to write things out here + that knowledge is something that coaches charge anywhere from 50$+ per session.

For CrossFit I am now totally out of shape. My weight is between 84-87kgs but my endurance is lower and it all started when I got sick in Gevgelija 3 weeks when I had brake in training. As you know, it is difficult to come back into something when you take brake from it ,takes way more to get back into it then to loose a habit. My CrossFit trainer is at seaside right now and I plan to go with my family soon, so CrossFit will resume it in July or so. In the meanwhile I am working really hard on poker things and expecting some development in next 5-6 weeks when it comes to my future in poker.
I am happy to hear that you do CrossFit in gym even and do Fran. Very difficult to do, I think I completed it with slightly adjusted repetitions and of course could complete it all with assisted band for pull ups!

Thanks for stopping by once again and finding inspiration here. I wish you to work hard, never give up, frequently evaluate your progress and track your time (it will help you get rid of things that affect your productivity - like energy vampires and activities that are procrastinating and stopping from doing things that matter.)
I see that you also have a blog, I will follow it to check your progress. Enjoy remaining of the week!

Day 11

Studying 1 hour
Grinding 4 hours
Coaching 3 hours

Total 8 hours of poker activity

Very productive day for poker.
Unlike previous days, today my time management was very off and read further to find out things to avoid!

I went to bed late night (2am) and woke up 7:30am. Spent 1st 1.5 hours doing grocery shoping eating breakfast and working on the game 15 minutes. Then went to meet best friend for coffee where I grinded a bit less than 1 hour. This was 1st mistake of the day as I didn't warm up properly with my studying and dug right into it. I then spent 0.5 hour reviewing hands from that session and marked all the ones where I feel I made a mistake or could have taken different line which could bring more profit. Then I meet with my CG student. We did 3 hours of coaching for CG. Very intense stuff, look forward to his assignments from our 1st session This was 2nd mistake of the day because it was around 3pm and I haven't eaten a snack between breakfast and lunch.
Got back home, ate healthy lunch and it was time to grind 2nd session. When I started to grind it I had distractions (getting some questions from my brother in the living room) and then 1 hand started tilt triger (BB vs BTN 3 bet then defend to 4 bet and on T74 x/c with 77 hand that should not be in 3 bet yet alone in defend to 4 bet range OOP). Within 1 hour I took a short brake again but I wanted to grind 4 hours so I kept going. 3rd session not so great either, some misplays but mostly running bad. Took a break for dinner and to regenerate but it was only 15-20 mins not more. Then did 4th session which was again not good and focus was not nowhere near my best + tons of setups and bad spots for me (it seemed like opponents were either always on top of the range and miraculously catching up by turn or river with some bad call downs). I then took a break for snack and did 5th session...

End of the day update, 4 hours of grinding, 9 buy ins lost and running bellow EV a tons. Spent 0.5 hour going through the filters and found that I could have saved 3 stacks today despite running super bad or opponents catching up stacking off light and getting there + coolers.

So finally, evaluation of my grinding today is 3.5/10. There were sessions where I was playing better but main reasons for my bad results today I will blame on myself. I want to share with you now what I feel are the major reasons why this happened and how you can avoid it yourself!

1) I slept 5.5 hours and didn't have a nap to regenerate during the day! This was in my opinion key thing that didn't keep my focus at 100% when it was most important. If I did coaching 1 instead of 3 hours, came back home ate snack and went to nap for example, focus would have been far more superior (like in previous days in this week despite going to bed between 1-2am, taking nap really regenerates me and clears my head + boosts my focus) . Or if I forced myself to sleep somehow between some sessions it would have been better as well.
2) I drank 3 coffees today all in short time span (3-4 hours). I am not a huge coffee guy, I drink it on social occassions, can drink it home but you won't see me drinking coffee alone at home often if at all! I drink it as part of whole meeting with best friend talking and enjoying spending time together like that. For all that drink coffee, you alredy know that 1st coffee will boost your motivation and jump start your brain to shift into higher gear. However huge downside (just like with any addictive substance, and coffee like alcohol or drugs creates addiction) is that it will drop and when it drops you can feel huge difference. This is especially true when you drink several coffees in a day and in such a short time span. Those coffees kept me awake but what I should have done is had 1, do 1 hour coaching, go home and have a nap. That would have been more healthier and smarter way to do it. I suggest you all to do this if you encounter such spots in future!
3) I coached 3 instead of 1 hour. I really as always give my best to help my students. Today unfortunately this affected my time management a lot as I could have used those additional 2 hours to snack + nap and be more regenerated. I talked in the evening with my CG student and told him about it all, we arranged in future to do our sessions in the evening when I finish my grinding for the day. It was win for student today, some sort of loss for me, but I learned a lot from this already.
4) I didn't have proper studying today. This was also crucial element for me. Without studying, reviewing, doing DB analysis, in depth thinking process, range construction, theory and exploitative approaches, my game can have tendency to leak (as does everyone's I am positive about it). Since I am fairly new to BSS, it is crucial to keep going with studying and to aim to be the best and constantly improve. Today due to bad time management and lack of rest, I did only 1 hour of studying. Something I will aim to never repeat it!
5) Distractions when grinding. Grinded at coffee place which was not ideal and at home as my brother was interacting with me. Both scenarios work awesome for me when I play SNGs, in fact with SNGs I can have people screaming and it wont affect my game plan. CG however is different. I need full focus, I play ZOOM games where edges are smaller compared to bum hunting reg tables, so my focus energy and thinking process needs to constantly be from B game up. If its not, results will suffer, pretty obvious. So what I will aim to do is to do grinding home exclusively and isolate myself totally from distractions. My phone is always on silent when I grind but if my brother comes to living room I will move to my room and that is that.

So from all these points, let me tell you know what really works for me instead!
- Sleeping 5-8 hours is great. Even with 5 hours I can still function but then during the day usually between 2 and 4pm my body is sending me signals to rest (from all the studying and grinding) and then I take a nap which is anywhere from 45 mins to 1.5 hours!
- Sticking to 5 healthy meals, eating every 2-3 hours is perfect. Today I ate at 8:30am then 3:30pm 5pm 7pm and 9:30pm - the brake from 8:30am to 3:30pm was too long without energy intake!!!
- Studying 1st thing in the morning. Right after breakfast, very 1st thing is to study as it is most crucial thing to improve future win rate at the tables. It serves as a great warm up, up lifter, makes me focus on very specific areas of my game and be super contious about things that I will absolutely tackle in sessions. Also studying in general decreases tilt long term because more you know the less stressed you became and more in control you are!
- Grinding 4 to 5 sessions spread out through the day with breaks in between. 4 hours grinding is something I am going for at ZOOM tables as in July I will consider raising the bar to 120 hours of grinding. To do this efficiently I need to keep with 4 hour routine in June and then resume it in July and on. Today I could have avoided to play after 2nd session or so and force myself to sleep but 3 coffees didn't really give me the reason to sleep.
- After grinding is done for the day, do some more studying. Review hands, check the spots, mark the hands where different line could have been taken etc. Essential to evaluating variance vs good/bad plays and being realistic about specific day.
- Update blog and challenge and reflect. Very important things for me as I constantly remind myself what my life mission and vision is and where does poker fit into it all. Many can probably notice that I have set very high standards for my CG improvement and road and I refuse to give up or to become lazy like most poker players are or do. I am going all in with my poker career and in some future I guarantee you I will be making 10k+ per month (with tons more experience and knowledge, crushing higher stakes of course) - I give you promise right now for it, mark my words

Hope this update was useful to those struggling with time management and seeking help in such area. Final advice is know your body, track your energy levels, eat healthy, avoid caffeine and other substances (drink water instead, its great - try it lol) and create schedule(s) that you will fanatically stick to cause without scheduling things don't get done efficiently period!

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 25.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 31.66/100 hours (26784/70000)
Coaching 8.2/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
275.6/300 Study hours
142.95/300 Coaching sessions
559.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
245/1000 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 12th of June:
Wake up 9am, eat healthy breakfast
Studying 1 hour 10-11am
Grinding 1st session 11-12pm
Short break 12-12:15pm
Grinding 2nd session 12:15-1:15pm
Snack break 1:15pm-1:30pm
Grinding 3rd session 1:30-2:30pm
Lunch break 2:30-3:15pm
*If tired, nap 45-90 minutes and return to activities*
If naping happened, then grind 4th session 4:30-5:30pm
Snack break 5:30-6pm
Studying 6-7pm
Break to regenerate 7-7:30pm
Dinner break 7:30-8:15pm
Remaining of the evening study some more, relax and regenerate by communicating with family and close friends as well as my students via Skype/Viber
Update blog and challenge before bed and reflect on mission and vision!

Day 12

Studying 2 hours
Grinding 3 hours
Coaching 3 hours

Total 8 hours of poker activity

Very productive day for poker again.
Time management was excellent and I managed to accomplish almost 100% of things I set for today.

Studied 1 hour in the morning and 11-12 now. Covered theory and math in the morning while now I went over hands and posted some for evaluations with in depth thinking process (3) and went through DB for today with different filters.
Grinding 3 instead of 4 hours. If I went for 1 more hour I would hit the bed late and tomorrow I am getting up at 7:30am so I need to sleep for it. Results wise I made 2 buy ins or so but not happy with my play so much today. There were spots where I misplayed, as well as set ups but overall I could have played better. I would evaluate the grind with 6.5/10 for today.
Coaching 3 hours total. 2.5 hours webinar with my students and 0.5 hour doing Skype consultations and answering to questions + daily tracking threads. I am very happy with how everything went in this area and that students got very involved and hope they learned a lot from it.

Besides poker activities, watched a movie with Jason Statham my brother (Wild Card) and went for grocery shopping with my actual brother Ate healthy 5 meals through out the day, evenly distributed. Very cool day overall.

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 27.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 34.66/100 hours (29598/70000)
Coaching 11.2/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
277.6/300 Study hours
145.95/300 Coaching sessions
562.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
248/1000 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 13th of June:
Wake up 7:30am, eat healthy breakfast and prepare for coaching
Coaching 9-10am
Studying 10-11
Snack break 11-11:15am
Grinding 11:15-12:15pm
Short break 12:15-12:30
Grinding 12:30-1:30pm
Longer brake to eat lunch and regenerate, possibly nap 1:30-3pm
Grinding 3pm-4pm
Short break 4-4:15pm
Grinding 4:15-5:15pm
Snack break 5:15-5:30pm
Studying 5:30-6:30pm
Dinner break 6:30-7:15pm
Relax and regenerate, figure out schedule for Serbia vs USA football game at 6:30am (to sleep or not before it etc)
Studying 0.5 hour more minimum before the end of the day
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision!

Day 13

Coaching 1.5 hours
Studying 2 hours
Grinding 4 hours

Total 7.5 hours of poker activity

Another very productive day for poker
As it is very late and in 4.5 hours Serbia plays USA in football U20, I will try to keep this one very short in order to get some 2-3 hours rest if possible

Coaching session with Darko went great. We covered theory for certain aspects of game plan + went over 1 filter in his DB to spot leaks (which we did). Darko has been doing great with his progress and he has bright future ahead of him in poker. Keep it up Darko!
Remaining 0.5 hour was responding to questions from my CG student + responding to daily tracking threads.

Studying 2 hours total and the day is not over for me yet (might not sleep and continue working on the game until 6:30am with breaks. 0.5 study in the morning (posted 2 hands with in depth thinking process). Remaining 1.5 hour happened after I finished grinding (hh review, marking hands and posted 3 more in depth hand evaluations 5 total for the day).

Grinding 4 hours in 4 sessions total. Very profitable day at the tables (9 buy ins profit pre RB) but I still had mistakes which I am not happy about obviously. Could have made more money obviously, people were donating me money literally - that's what happens on weekends!

Remaining of the day I watched Serbia vs Denmark football game with my brother (we lost 2-0); went for some more grocery shopping (twice), did 2 batches of laundry, ate healthy 5 meals spread out correctly, talked with brutal reg and helped some more people overall.

So very fulfilling day. I would grade my grinding for the day 7.5/10 today. There was definitely plays that I did not like and ring in my head.
When I reach the phase where I only remember 1 or 2 hands per day that I made a mistake which didn't cost me much long run, I will be playing NL1k at that time Until then I will keep leak fixing, focusing to play my best but also to train my auto focus (just like today, grinding 4 ZOOM tables with TV show in the background whole day on laptop on purpose of course).
Definitely happy overall with how much I improved past 6 months and how daily my A and C game are improving a lot - less and less doubts, way more clear spots and auto pilot becoming more then basic but rather strong to print money which is always nice.

Plan for tomorrow is to sleep after Serbia vs USA game and then eat healthy 5 meals, coaching for Spins 5:30pm and through out the day fit all the grinding (4 hours) and studying (2 hours). Hope to return from Sunday to regular sleeping pattern!

Enjoy remaining of your week!

June Challenge
Things accomplished so far:
Studying CG 29.5/60 hours
Grinding CG 38.66/100 hours (33319/70000)
Coaching 12.7/30 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
279.6/300 Study hours
147.45/300 Coaching sessions
566.91/1500 Grinding hours
35/150 Work out
253/1000 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!)

Will sub but probably not have time to read every last word of it

Originally posted by vonki
Will sub but probably not have time to read every last word of it

Haha I am not sure you should follow then
I tend to go on and on, describe tons of things in details. Some people like that and respect it, some prefer quick fix type of updates. If you are into diary type of update you came to the right place

Quick update

SERBIA BEAT USA AND WE ARE NOW HEADING TO SEMI FINALS OF FOOTBALL WORLD CUP FOR U20!!!

We will face Mali, team that we know well and played them in the group (won 2-0!). It will be hard game, they busted Germany who was the favorite but we have great team that can very well go all the way!

Rearranged coaching, ate healthy, slept last night 3 hours so I will definitely need to squeeze in another sleeping session during the day

Enjoy remaining of your weekend!

P.S. If you want to check out groups, results and brackets for semi finals, check out this link HERE

SERBIA IS IN FINALS OF WORLD CUP U20 FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!
We will play Brasil on 20th of June 7am. After awesome game vs Mali where we had minimum 6 100% chances to score and scored only twice, I expect that our players will give their best and crush Brasil also.

Update regarding all poker activities I will leave for end of this week or on Monday.
Lots of life things going on, also preparing for seaside leaving soon but I will take laptop and do updates (study only no grinding on seaside!!!)

Enjoy remaining of your week!

Thank You All for being patient!

I ask you to be patient a little more. I will briefly list what has been going on lately:
- Studying solid
- Grinding not so great (some brakes in past days)
- Coaching excellent
- Awaiting certain decision for my poker career
- Eating healthy past 2 weeks very solid (5 meals per day)
- Preparing for seaside with my dad and brother

My future path in NLHE depends a lot on what will happen within next 4 weeks or so. If things work out as I hope they will, I will be part of something big that will help me reach my full potential in NLHE. This means becoming best I can become and going for NL100-200 1st then nl400 and even nl1k and beyond. In the process becoming best I can become of course and reaching financial targets that I set in poker sooner then expected.

If on the other hand this doesn't work out, I will continue working like I am working now (on my own, working with elpsycho and brutal reg, on occasions getting coaching) and moving up slower.
I vote for 1st option and hope it will all work out.

You can imagine how this uncertainty whether or not this will happen actually affects my mindset. I want to learn so much and develop as player, to move up and crush and prove that I can be the best but I my mindset is now in place of uncertainty where if this thing doesn't go through I am back to where I am currently - depending on myself + help from 2 friends and getting coaching occasionally. In a way, my mind is now in the future and not present which is causing me not to be as focused as I can be. I still achieve things with studying but I would achieve 5x more if I knew what to expect and just prioritize things differently.

In this update as promised, I will keep it a brief one.

In some future update I will write how coaching is going (some excellent things developing and going on) + my plans in NLHE.

Thanks for following and I wish you a great weekend!

P.S. Don't miss SERBIA vs BRASIL tomorrow (Saturday) 7am Serbian Time Zone - Finals of World Cup U20 for Football!

SERBIA WORLD CHAMPIONS IN FOOTBALL U20!!!

Hello mate,

Are you watching Serbia vs Czech Republic just now?

Czech come oooooooooon!! :-)