Making a living with STT SNGs

What's up guys IvicaIliev77 here!

Past 2 days I played 0 games of Spins. On the other hand I slept combined probably over 20 hours and I feel NOW 11:41pm more regenerated.
Yesterday watched football games, today movie Kong in cinema with my brother.
So it seems like I took 2 days off from grind which I never intended for March anyways. Things that I did do in past 2 days are:
- Sessions with my friend
- Coaching my best friend
- Doing range break down for 14bb or less in limp pots
- Going through stats and finding my leaks in this sample of 2017

So what I noticed is very interesting. Things that improved since December when I was 5 tabling:
- SB 3 way both vs BB and vs BTN
- BB 3 way, especially vs BTN
- BB in HU

Things that stayed the same or that didn't drop:
- BTN 3 way win rate

Things that changed for worse:
- My SB win rate in HU!!!

Things that I will focus on the most in future days, weeks, months to improve my win rate and hourly further:
- SB HU (must get it back to what it was and then push it higher)
- BB HU (keep improving it)
- SB vs BB 3way (to keep improving)
- BB vs SB 3way (it is very high now but I know I can make it even higher)

SB strategy in HU in 2016 was very stable and winning solid with over 14bb/100 ev. Now I have it on 7.4k hands down by double to 7.24evbb/100!
What changed? I started experimenting with different game plan for SB obviously vs one that I used in 2016 and that lost me ton of EV obviously.

So the main focus will be to regain that over 14bb/100ev win rate on SB in HU. Once that is taken care of, huge cEV jump will happen. So I will do tons of hand history reviews and mark hands in SB that I could have played differently or better.

My guess right now is that the main reason my win rate decreased is because:
- I got called super thin or light when I had bluff shoves
- My MR strategy and barelling frequency affected win rate
- I miss played hands IP having either bad hand reading (miss reading the hand) or having wrong expectation for opponents (expecting them to fold something that they never fold)
- Making balanced plays in spots where opponents are over calling vs folding enough. In those spots should have more value vs bluffs despite pot odds I am giving opponent and regardless of what optimal combos should be there.

So while 7.24evbb/100 is now on 15s from January on for SB in HU, I am positive that my win rate in next 2 months will surpass that number and be again close to if not higher then 14bb. My focus will be again to revert back to my default MR strategy, to play game plan that was printing me money on 15s in 2016 and in the meanwhile do tons of range vs range and hand reading to improve my barreling lines (bet bet bet , bet x bet, x bet bet, x x bet, x bet x, x x x etc with proper sizings).

By the way, I compared my MR vs Limp pots win rates and I found leaks in limped pots. I can definitely have much higher win rate in limp pots IP so that is something that is must do and focus in future study sessions. I will also mention to my friend this leak so that despite doing textures we can focus on some marked hands from such spots as well. I will filter of course biggest lost pots in limp pots and go from there. See if its variance (opponent on top of the range, slow playing 2 pairs or so) or its luck adjusted (opponent calling 2 streets with weak pair then hitting 2 pairs on the river etc).

Tomorrow, no lessons of any sort. I will aim to grind as much as possible. Learn from trial and error. Mark dozen mistakes on focus on that SB in HU on 15s to maximize win rate for it.

Not giving up on my March 150 hours grind goal. There will be days like today where I will try and put a lot of hours. 7+ at least.

Lets go guys - I will see you tomorrow at the tables through out the whole day - break time is over!

Crush it!

Hi Ivi, hope you are well. I've had a break from reading your blog but I've started again, as I've said before it is a fascinating insight. Anyway, just off-topic from poker, but you are a jazz guitar player (I play also, though I am not trained to your level) so on-topic for us.

I don't normally listen to music while playing, but today I listened to Jean Luc Ponty's Mystical Adventure's album, while playing. This lead me to revisit Inner Mounting Flame, Wired, Offramp and some Zappa. I'm sure these are albums you know and have also enjoyed. Damn, fusion is the best!

And the reason I dont like listening to music when playing is .....exactly the above. I get distracted by Wiki discographies and checking out other albums and artists. Its -ev for sure, but good for the soul probably.

Originally posted by Innercityboy
Crush it!

Print that cash

Originally posted by mostlyfolding
Hi Ivi, hope you are well. I've had a break from reading your blog but I've started again, as I've said before it is a fascinating insight. Anyway, just off-topic from poker, but you are a jazz guitar player (I play also, though I am not trained to your level) so on-topic for us.

I don't normally listen to music while playing, but today I listened to Jean Luc Ponty's Mystical Adventure's album, while playing. This lead me to revisit Inner Mounting Flame, Wired, Offramp and some Zappa. I'm sure these are albums you know and have also enjoyed. Damn, fusion is the best!

And the reason I dont like listening to music when playing is .....exactly the above. I get distracted by Wiki discographies and checking out other albums and artists. Its -ev for sure, but good for the soul probably.

Hi Mostlyfoldying!

Very cool to have another guitarist and jazz fan
Zappa has amazing work behind him and I am also fan of fusion music. My favorite jazz music is related to Michael Brecker works. Steps Ahead albums, if you haven't already check them out.

Before I used to have jazz in the background as I was grinding. Mixed feelings. My brain, ears and emotions get attached to it a lot and then I am guessing that kills focus for away the tables. I don't do it as much anymore but I listen to jazz during the day especially when preparing for my guitar lessons (assigning specific transcriptions).

GL with your goals and feel free to share your favorite albums here!

In regards to today

Positive sides :
- Played 7 hours or more
- Payed attention a lot in limp pots in HU and had on such low sample positive win rate for most blind depths

Negative sides:
- SB 18bb+ in SRP negative win rate (bluffs that didn't go through or miss played hands!)
- Tons of marked hands that I am either unhappy or unsure how I played.

Besides these things, there were hands in 3way when I was missing spots as well, those are marked also.

Important part is that right now for HH review I am already 100% sure what causes me problem with my range for betting for example. I need to spend time in PIO Solver with my friend, do different run outs and see what to do with those hands that I get stuck with.

Before bed will check if there are guitar and music lessons scheduled for tomorrow. Depending on number of lessons, I will go for 5 or more hours tomorrow.
Sunday I have coaching sessions with my best friend. I will also use that day to review my marked hands and write range vs range.

Work that I did for limp pots range vs range analysis helps me already while 3 tabling 15s. I feel more power and control in those spots but I am far from where I see myself in my mind. More, a lot more work needs to be done and studying should not be omitted.

On the side note, I took financial goals for BR , life roll , Thailand, helping my family etc, and put them all in notepad on my desktop computer where I do 90%+ of my grind now. I will check this notepad document frequently, daily that is, to keep my eye on the prize and what awaits me by the end of the year. I also created mini targets within those large ones. For example, by 15th of May I will aim to make another 3.5k$ to complete deal with my friend and continue playing on my own and then in next month to earn additional money for BR for my best friend (another 1.7k).
Since there is about 3 months to get to 5.2k$ profit from poker, that makes it more then reachable goal. In fact, I will push myself to do it in less then 2 months (depending on variance and my ev). Key thing of course is working on the game and removing those doubts and leaks that keep popping often on certain textures with certain holdings.

That is all for this update.
I will see you tomorrow in another update with number of hours and news about studying.

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Before I used to have jazz in the background as I was grinding. Mixed feelings. My brain, ears and emotions get attached to it a lot and then I am guessing that kills focus for away the tables.

Yes that is exactly what happens to me. Perhaps the 'finite' brain power we are have is not able to maintain long periods of focus on the complex task of multi-tabling while the soul and synapses dance and fire to Micheal Brecker or Pat Metheny.

Like you, I also teach guitar . One phenomenon I have noticed, and this happens every single time, is when I give students their first tab to work through. The tab is of the Happy Birthday melody. The tab page has no heading, so they do not know the song they are about to play.

We play through the first two phrases, very simple for most players, and most can quickly play at tempo which allows the melody to be recognised. Then we move onto the 3rd and 4th phrases, more difficult but, even played slowly, this adds another easily recognisable melodic section to the piece.

Then we will play the whole thing. I ask “Do you know what you are playing?”. They don’t. We play again, and again, and still they cannot recognise it. I turn to their parent (parents normally attend the first few lessons) and of course the parent recognises the melody. Often the parent has recognised it after the first two phrases.

Exactly the same ‘melody blindness’ occurs in my adult students, but adult students rarely bring a ‘control group’ who I can ask.

Its an interesting example, to me anyway, of how the brain can be so overloaded with tasks A,B and C - coordinating fingers, finding frets etc - that not enough ’processing power’ remains to perform the otherwise easy task D - recognising a simple and commonplace melody.

As you say, listening to music while grinding seems to do this in reverse. And I definitely feel the emotional and physical responses to music impact adversely on my ability to apply maximum focus during a poker session .

Bummer!

Hey, which games you currently play? How many tables, how many hours per day?

Originally posted by mostlyfolding

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Before I used to have jazz in the background as I was grinding. Mixed feelings. My brain, ears and emotions get attached to it a lot and then I am guessing that kills focus for away the tables.

Yes that is exactly what happens to me. Perhaps the 'finite' brain power we are have is not able to maintain long periods of focus on the complex task of multi-tabling while the soul and synapses dance and fire to Micheal Brecker or Pat Metheny.

Like you, I also teach guitar . One phenomenon I have noticed, and this happens every single time, is when I give students their first tab to work through. The tab is of the Happy Birthday melody. The tab page has no heading, so they do not know the song they are about to play.

We play through the first two phrases, very simple for most players, and most can quickly play at tempo which allows the melody to be recognised. Then we move onto the 3rd and 4th phrases, more difficult but, even played slowly, this adds another easily recognisable melodic section to the piece.

Then we will play the whole thing. I ask “Do you know what you are playing?”. They don’t. We play again, and again, and still they cannot recognise it. I turn to their parent (parents normally attend the first few lessons) and of course the parent recognises the melody. Often the parent has recognised it after the first two phrases.

Exactly the same ‘melody blindness’ occurs in my adult students, but adult students rarely bring a ‘control group’ who I can ask.

Its an interesting example, to me anyway, of how the brain can be so overloaded with tasks A,B and C - coordinating fingers, finding frets etc - that not enough ’processing power’ remains to perform the otherwise easy task D - recognising a simple and commonplace melody.

As you say, listening to music while grinding seems to do this in reverse. And I definitely feel the emotional and physical responses to music impact adversely on my ability to apply maximum focus during a poker session .

Bummer!

Spot on analysis!
Poker has so many complex decisions. Deciding whether to check, ubet, bet 1/2, 2/3, pot , overbet - all these decisions can have very close EV expectation. Then you have to account of course opponent type and tendency and predict on which textures he/she plays passive or aggressive, call down frequency etc
So add to that lack of knowledge for a lot of post flop spots and add distraction of any sort (talking to people, music in the background, FB/Skype/Cell phone) you get burning EV spots.

Originally posted by Jaunais
Hey, which games you currently play? How many tables, how many hours per day?

Hey welcome,

I play right now 15s just like I did in 2016. I am 3 tabling and this year I am going for 1500 hours of grind. This month I am aiming 150 hours of grind or 5 hours daily grind.
In 2016 I was 4 tabling 15s for most of the year having hourly of 25$ post RB until December when I went to 5 tabling and burned a lot of EV

In regards to today

Found a huge leak in general game plan that was burning me money always. I adjusted my game plan now and expect to crush in such spots in the future. Need to do DB analysis to check general tendency for such spots from opponents but I was overall making some -EV plays in such spot.

Today no lessons so I will go for 5+ hours of grind.
Tomorrow have 1 guitar and music lesson, coaching my best friend and going over my marked hands + grind. Sunday will be very busy one I can tell. So today I will try to make most of it. Its 1:26pm and I don't even have 1 hour of grind down. Will go home now from coffee place, 3 table on my desktop and focus on limp pots in HU as well as my IP HU game plan to execute it as smooth as possible to increase that win rate. I checked last night before bed for whole year 2017 on 15s SB win rate in HU and its less than 11 but more then 10bbev/100 . Still, I know I can get to 12bb+ or 14bb, definitely space to improve IP game plan in HU.
Like I said last night, there are certain types of hands which I am unsure how to maximize EV from on later streets because I haven't done enough run out calculations to see when they should keep betting 3 streets, checking turn betting river, or calling turn probe jamming river or checking turn betting river (bet x bet). So very specific hands on very specific textures and run outs. It will take a lot of hours to load this in PIO solver and get solutions but once I see whats up and with which frequency I should do what, I can then study this, memorize and add it to my default game plan. Until then a lot of burned EV IP in HU in such spots.
Also BB game plan will keep updating. I am aware that even though I improved my hand reading, value betting, bluff catching, I am nowhere near my full potential. What I mean here is seeing any texture and knowing right away bluffing vs value frequency of opponent; exploiting their range vs range ; playing optimal in such spots read less (defending enough); adding extra edges.

So HU like I said many times is where edge in Spins happens. This is the difference of solid and crusher win rates. The more post flop and range vs range + tendencies one understands, the more edge he/she gains on any limit.
What people on 15s do is different vs 30s and what people on 60s do is a bit different vs 30s.
In a nutshell, people on 15s are light, people on 30s are aggro, people on 60s are more mathematically balanced and correct.
So there is money for grabs on all 3 limits. I haven't been excited about future of poker in general this much like now. Thanks to shot taking on 30s and 60s I saw that a lot of regulars still have leaks post flop and in their game plans, like I have. So my overall goal in this year after I start playing 15s on my own, is to keep improving my HU game plan and post flop textures, roll up and add 30s to 3 tabling + move to 30s full time by the end of the year. That means 9k BR for 30s minimum. I will keep pushing grind, 150 hours per month and I expect with lots of hand reading and leak fixing that I should get there before end of the year. I want to before that get 6k ready for Thailand by 1st of September.
So some basic goals financial wise by 1st of September are 3k BR for 15s, 2k BR for my best friend for 7s, 6k for Thailand. In the meanwhile of course all the rents and life expenses covered by guitar and music lessons + extra from poker.
My overall expectation is to get to 4k+ months steady in 150 hours of grind each of the following months (that is less then 30$ hourly - still learning, making mistakes, having leaks, having spews etc). Eventually as the year gets close to an end and I improve more and more, my idea is to get to that 30-35$ hourly steady and make very nice $ towards last 4-5 months of the year.

Enjoy your weekend on and off the tables and I will see you today for 6 hours of so at the tables

Quick update about results

Last night I switched off results in my reports and graphs! I strongly feel this is very +EV move. I took off bb/100 evbb/100 cEV winnings ITM. Basically just left number of hours and number of games!

What I want to accomplish with this is quite simple:
- Stop checking results
- Not be resulted oriented in any way (running good = crushing ; loosing = fish etc)
- Focus on analyzing all positions vs different positions and finding leaks in those win rates on larger samples
- Focus on things that matter (steady grind + working on the game consistently)

I will for blog sake and to keep track whats up, once a week check cashier on PS. I will do this for profit split sake, and I will aim to do this every Sunday morning. So today I checked and I had 100$ profit or so. I will not check until next Sunday morning and in the meanwhile I will have no clue how I ran! Whether I had 30% ITM and kicked ass due to multipliers or had 42% ITM and lost due to multipliers. The main graph I will check just to see how my red line is going. If its bellow zero to push working even harder, if its positive or BE to focus on other areas that are leaking.

In the meanwhile like I said, focus will be to put in 5 hours of daily grind and check marked hands + focus on areas where win rates have decreased the most which is SB in HU for starters and then improve hand reading further for OOP and keep focusing on other leaks.

As a reminder, 3.5k away from completing staking deal with my friend after which I will continue to play on my own 15s with 200ish buy ins. Will likely 3 table them at that time as well and if I drop 100 buy ins or so I will probably do 4+ tabling of 7s to rebuild BR and then go for 15s again. This is the plan right now.
In the meanwhile, studying marked hands, working in the sessions with my friend for more textures and strategy on different run outs and discussing different HU game plans and adjustments.
By May 15th I expect to complete 3.5k deal and then remaining of the year get to average 4.5k post RB winnings until the end of the year!

Will notify you of results next Sunday, until then updates will be about volume (number of hours) and what kind of mental and strategy leaks I found in my game off and on the tables!

He is awesome with the guitar next twicth session ask him to play some Michael Jackson - Billie Jean. ♠_love:

Originally posted by Kamen992
He is awesome with the guitar next twicth session ask him to play some Michael Jackson - Billie Jean. ♠_love:

Hahaha yeah that was very fun, we will do it again in the future for sure ♦
When you come to Nis with your GF we drink some Rakija and play guitar

In regards to today

Played over 6 hours. Again marked hands for analysis and tommorrow/Sunday will be brutal since I probably have in past 2 days at least 50 hands marked. Some are marked as missed spots to bluff, some as bad call, some as lack of knowledge for range vs range on later streets. I am however happy that today I made less mistakes then yesterday in comparison - at least it felt that way.
I just checked stats for today and I got this:
- BTN 3 way like it should be
- SB vs BB 3way BAD (negative in both limp and in SRP)
- HU SB rocking hard but still negative win rate in limp pots (needs work of course)
- BB vs BTN 3way excellent (studying and game plan paying off)
- BB vs SB 3way also excellent
- SB vs BTN 3way worse then it usually was (lighter plays, miss plays, setups - area to check)
- HU BB kicking ass both limped and SRP - only 1 blind depth negative - need to work game plan there

So theme for working on the game keeps popping up even after 6 hours of grind today. That is:
- HU SB limp pots
- HU BB specific effective blinds
- SB vs BB 3way and vs BTN overall review and hand reading

BB vs BTN is doing excellent after doing 6+ hours of studying. Even today I studied for it and covered 1 leak despite messing it up at least twice in the games today.

So things are looking up but still, a lot of work to be done.

I checked my graph (red blue lines etc) and saw that today on 149 games on 2844 hands my red line is negative to 1944 chips. So not terrible but definitely needs work while 3 tabling. Yesterday and today however combined (13+ hours of 3 tabling) is BE. Still small sample but I will keep an eye on all stats and check for the tendencies.

Finally, I did notice today that 15s were just significantly easier after I took shots on 30s and 60s. Those limits put pressure on me to more quickly fix leaks in my game plans and to be able to adjust my range vs range. On 15s now I feel that there is ton on EV out there for grabs despite a lot of regulars playing this limit. My subjective feeling today is that I probably did well today in those 6+ hours of grind but I will check the results tomorrow (Sunday morning). Speaking of which, when I made update about results checking, thought today was Sunday and also I like doing things on Sunday like going over my goals, checking results and doing house things. Its a great day to do recap overall. So, if tomorrow I see profit above 100$ from initial bankroll, I will do another profit split with my friends; if not, I will keep playing until next Sunday and then check again balance.
Until then work awaits me tomorrow with 2 guitar and music lessons, 1 coaching session with my best friend, going over my marked hands and writing thinking process, eating healthy and putting in as much grind as possible. I feel even 3 hours tomorrow would be spectacular. Also, 1pm there is Partizan Belgrade game which I plan to watch as I placed bet on that game for both me and a good friend of mine. I feel I found very +EV line in that game since Partizan plays away. I wagered 40ish euros (in Serbian dinars 5000) for that game to finish with no more then 2 to 3 goals. So Partizan can win or loose 2-0 2-1 3-0 or it can end in draw 1-1. The opponent they are facing are very strong at home but Partizan has 22 games unbeaten record + is still in the tittle chase vs Red Star so I expect a win but by maximum of 2 goals. Probably match will end with 2-0 for Partizan. Betting odd is 2.05 so that bet needs to work less then 50% of the time to be +EV and in my opinion (as I follow Serbian Super League and Partizan my team) this will finish with 2 to 3 goals in at least 70% of the time. It is huge +EV bet in my opinion but since I don't have huge bankroll , I only placed 40ish euro bet on it. If I had now 10k euro BR, I would place 500$ or more on this bet easily - it is that +EV mathematically speaking.
Lets see what happens tomorrow with it

Tomorrow expect update about leaks I found while doing HH review and how many hours I played along with lessons and session + Partizan Belgrade game where I expect 2 to 3 goals ♦

Quick update

Did another profit split, made a bit over 300$ over starting balance. So now 1.8k is made out of 5k set as target by 15th of May 2017.
Did coaching session with my best friend, we did range vs range on very difficult texture and he is doing very well when it comes to understanding range construction. Within several months I expect him to own those 7s easy game.

In coffee place, watching Partizan game. Half time, Partizan is leading 1-0. Need 1 more goal for bet to go through. Very tight game but I believe there will be another goal in 2nd half as I predicted.
Will check now on Bet Stars odds for no goal happening in 2nd half and consider in live betting to defend my single bets. I don't think it will be necessary but its good to check and follow how odds change and develop.
Reminder, I bet on 2.05 odd for both me and my friend for 2-3 goals to be scored in Partizan match. Half time score is 0-1, Partizan leads. So far things are going great.

Later today I have 2 guitar lessons 5:15-6:15 and 6:30-7:30pm. Before lessons I will study and review my 60+ marked hands. If there is extra time I will grind 1 session before teaching. After teaching I will grind remaining of the evening.

Now BR is about 60$ in profit after cash out of 300$ but I will not check it until next Sunday morning.
In the meanwhile saw that yesterday my stats looked quite good for most of the part but still made mistakes. Also, have to account that it is weekend and there is always more players willingly giving away stacks therefore increasing my win rate.
Need to keep going with steady grind and studying and results will follow.
So far very happy how my development is going in 2017. 8.5 months left in this year, lots of time to improve hand reading, range construction and leak fixing as well as A game.

Enjoy remaining of the weekend. I will update tonight after I finish my grind and studying - hopefully also with betting single going through as well ♦

As I predicted, Partizan won 2-0 and my ticket with my friends went through. 5250 dinars profit from 5000 invested on 2.05 betting odd. Sweet!
Hope some of you followed the game and took the money

Good luck, Prof!

Beside an advice how to win 100x, maybe you should start to give us an advice how to bet on soccer as well!

Originally posted by Innercityboy
Beside an advice how to win 100x, maybe you should start to give us an advice how to bet on soccer as well!

100x coaching is priceless but for soccer tips I will give some freebies: Whenever Partizan Belgrade wins a game, bet on Red Star right after it. Same thing if Partizan looses or draws, do the same for Red Star. For most of this season results have been coming in that way. Also, if Red Star plays at home, you can play 3 or more goals as well as half time full time 1-1. It comes often as a sign of dominance of theirs in the league (or penalties, or teams stepping aside, or something else).