Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Best wishes for a very Merry Christmas,
VS
Thanks Vorpal! Merry Christmas to You as well 
And good luck with all the formats of poker You play 
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Weekly review, part 53
2020 Challenge
Weekly loses -24€
Previous profit 18 144€
Current profit 18 120€
Another losing week but the difference is that I didn't play a hand 
I've started to convert my PokerStars currencies from USD to Euros, so the balance didn't change that much. If it stayed in USD, it might have been around 100€ loss, so finally lessons learned I still intend to rest until the end of the year and probably my first session will be on January 2nd, Saturday. I need to sort out Unibet issues as it closed activity for Lithuanian players and Lithuanian banks don't accept cashouts from Unibet 
Also my last monthly review will come in the last day of the Year, so still have to finish my last book for a halfway point 
For those who are still grinding, all the best
Happy New Year my friends
Jumping into 2021 with lots of motivation and expectations. We had a very strange 2020, with online poker booming but not much fun with Live poker. Personally it was Ok year for me, profiting from poker just as much as I put effort in it. But I do hope 2021 will be much better and hopefully all the Corona stuff will be left behind And no new crazy things appear of course
So let's kick with my usual weekly review 
2020 Challenge
A fresh empty sheet, so for now I will only post my weekly plans:
*200 Spins at 100$ Level
*Sunday Tournament session
*6 hours Spins analyze
*Yearly 2020 review
*BenCb videos
*PokerCode Videos
*Setup PokerTracker4 and CoffeHud
*1x1 coaching session
I will try to update daily with highlighting in green the tasks completed so hopefully by the end of the week everything will be in colours
So it's the time for 2020 year review Not everything went as planned - some things I did well, some not so, in some tasks I had very little chance of the current virus situation But let's start from the beginning
1. Make 12 trips
I had 4 packages for the first 3 months, but we all know the history 
February - MPN Madrid 895€
February - Kings of Tallinn 1880€
March - Unibet UK Tour London 95€
3 trips were successful although not by much. I had big hopes for my biggest ever buyin tournament in EPT Sochi, but 2 days before the tournament start, it was cancelled, leaving me with 25% of the task completed. However, because it's not really my fault and because all those 3 trips were in profits, I can give 0,5 point for this goal All those 3 cities were already visited before, so that means I can't scratch any new countries on my map 
2. Get some profit over 10k games at 100$ Spin&Go's
Another goal failed but I was happy with how it went in general. Made 2/3 of the games and was way above "get some profit". So I think 0,75 point is a fair evaluation 39 ChipsEV might not be the best score, but without too much studying and constantly battling with strong Regs, I guess it's fine. And I'm still waiting for my Jackpot as this year multipliers were not so generous
3. Everlasting study of poker - 360 hours
January - 35 hours
February - 30 hours
March - 37 hours
April - 34 hours
May - 20 hours
June July August - 0
September - 9 hours
October - 38 hours
November - 45 hours
December - 27 hours
Total of 275 hours which is 76% of the task. Another 0,75 point goes into basket I would need 30 hours a week on average and I did that on 6 months. 3 more months were with less studying while 3 months were pokerless at all. Maybe it is not the worst idea to spend summer with other activities, but it is very tough to comeback to the scene, especially to the high limits. Probably only one month off is a way to go
4. Update trophy room or win Online Major
Finally a task that is fully completed, 1 point What gives me more joy is that it is a team prize, not personal. Lithuania got 3rd in World Cup, so it is a big achievement for a small country like ours 
The finals should have been held live in Peru, but political situation was very intense in that region and the tournament was postponed for some time. Having bought the tickets already, we decided to travel to Peru anyway and for sure that was the most fabulous journey in my life Back to poker, the WorldCup final was intended then to play in April, but this time a virus made a statement With not many options left, it was decided to make an online event which I am very familiar with 
In the end, I had a very strong personal performance in that event, and I'm very happy it helped to get an award for my nation
5. Practice French language
Task complete, + 1point. The target was 12k points in Duolingo and I managed to do that just in time Before learning I greatly enjoyed listening to French language although I didn't understand a single world. Now it is even more exciting to listen to some kind of movie or simple song and have at least a clue what's it all about. I'm still far away from a natural speaker or even a simple speaker, but maybe I could understand now French dealers in a tournament
6. Buy some land outside the city
Unfortunately we are still empty landed Despite seeing couple of objects and constantly looking through the advertisings, we couldn't move anywhere closer to this goal, so 0 points here to add. However, I believe this is going to be a priority task in 2021
7. Hold a healthy body through proper nutrition and active exercises
I am happy with my nutrition and exercises in general so I give myself the maximum - 1 point I managed to keep myself fit all throughout the year with only December a little calmer than usual. I think it is important to have those rest periods so your body can recover and rebuild after some time. I've already started running routines and hopefully reach my performance peak once the football season starts Photo below from todays interval running, only 2nd time after a longer break so don't expect good pace here
As for nutrition, I was already satisfied with my own food, especially my wife's meals 
But in order to save some time, we tried a whole-day food delivery for couple of months. At this time we are taking a short break from it and all the magic in the kitchen is made with my wife's hands again 
The reason - we got bored with the same food as the company only had 5 dishes, so every Monday the same salads, every Tuesday same salmon and so on.. Now we are back to preparing food ourselves until we find a new provider. Or as it was suggested, find a nanny who wants to cook as well
8. To maintain strong relationship with others
I was debating to give a whole 1 point or 0,75, but eventually I think taking maximum is still fair. Not much we could do more in those times, but to be honest, I think I've kept strong relationships with my closest people even if we could not meet each other. Of course it was sad not to have a Live meeting with parents, grandmother and cousins on Christmas Evening, but nowadays technologies help a lot to make a virtual one at least. And then you can't meet others, you can spend more time with your closest family - my lovely wife and adorable daughter She just turned 6 months and got a little (big) present from her daddy 
9. Get promoted with Top Kickers to League III
We didn't get promoted but at least we kept our place in the league, so 0,5 point here.
Just before the season started, half of our starting11 players got offers from Higher leagues and I decided not to make any obstacles and let them leave. In fact, I am very happy that some players have a chance to try professional football after shining in our club. We are still away from professional status so every year we are risking to lose our best players. So once last season started I knew that we are not going to fight for promotion, but it was already April and it was too late to change this goal. As you can see from the table, we were at the bottom and we risked to drop down to lower league. But the 2nd part of the season was much better, couple of new players arrived, the old-timers also improved greatly, and we even won that "relegation battle league". If we can keep those players for next season, then getting a promotion is much more likely In case anyone wants to invest in my club, you are very welcome
10. Read 15 books
1. "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling
2. "Think like a cat" by Pam Johnson Bennett
3. "Unlimited memory" by Kevin Horsley
4. The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
5. 2nd World War by Robertas Petrauskas
6. "Kiss me" by Carlos Gonzalec
7. "The gentle sleep book" by Sarah Ockwell Smith
8. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
9. "Ants and uncles" by Juozas Tumas Vaižgantas
Not a complete task, but I can give 0,5 point. Can't be any excuses for not finding 15 minute a day for a book Recently PokerStrategy shared an article stating that reading a book might be a very good cooldown routine after evening poker session. Although I like reading in the morning while it is still bright, but who said you can't read twice a day
So, after calculations the total score is 7 points Still above average but by 1 point below of 2019 review when I got 8. Taking the corona into consideration, I think 7 could be described as a good number 2021 can only get better for sure, right?
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 1
Weekly loses -1940€
Previous profit 0€
Current profit -1940€
So many hopes to start New Year in a positive way, and so many stacks rolling to my opponents I look at my Spins graph and wonder, how could it go so badly?
My ChipEV wasn't so bad but not too good either, 33 Chips per game which should have made me some profits based by calculations. I've also won most of my tournaments, 210/204/195. So what went wrong? Firstly, I haven't got any multiplier higher than 5x. Even 5x was a rare guest, mostly playing in 2x and 3x. Secondly, I've run under EV a lot, 18 buy-ins to be precise. Variance is a bitch, right?
On the brighter side, PokerStars again offered me a Challenge bonus, so that's why I played a high volume of games. The bad thing is that I only have 8 days to clear it and I need another 560 Spins for it. Could get me out of the red line this year already
And last good thing, I've made Day2 in PokerStars Sunday biggest event. At the moment of writing, I'm in very good positions, but we are still some time away from the money
Any chance to get into day 3?
good news: rank 40 right now
bad news:
Spoiler
,,,only 14 players left - no rail night for me :-(
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 2
Weekly profit 4878€
Previous profit -1940€
Current profit 2938€
So as SvenBe mentioned above, it was very close to day3 of the big event Finished 40th for a nice payday of 10k$, but you always wonder how it could ended if one more flip turned into my side. Anyway, I was very happy with my play and everything else is out of control
Why the profits are only 5k and not 10k, you would ask? Firstly, prize was in USD while I keep track in Euros, so actaully I won about 8k euros instead of 10k. Secondly, and more important role, I really run bad in Spins
My ChipEV was just above breakeven point, around 32chips per game, but it still had to make some profit. However, winning a flip was a very tough task and in the end I was down 77 buyins Poker can be cruel sometimes, however I always like the quote "Champions stand one more time". And hopefully I can do that this week
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 3
Weekly profit 815€
Previous profit 2938€
Current profit 3753€
Very calm week, only had 1 session on Spins. Good thing is that it was profitable so I have my 2nd week in a row with positive numbers
A profit of 1k in 50 games is nice, finally I run above expected EV
This week I plan to play at least 4 sessions and targeting about 300 games. PokerStars gave me another bonus of 2400$ - Have to play 1200 games in 3 weeks. Possible, but I will evaluate it after this week grind, as I would have to sacrifise some studying hours, which I'm not a big fan of
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 4
Weekly profit 841€
Previous profit 3753€
Current profit 4594€
Another good week, and not its 3rd week in a row with positive numbers Also I'm 1/3rd closer to completing PokerStars challenge.
I still need around 800 games, so the plan this week is to play 400 Spins and some tournaments on Sunday. Yesterday I played in Sunday Million but busted all my 4 bullets in 50$ event Luckily I run much above EV in Spins again
Only 19 ChipEV so its a big surprise how I still managed to get some profits with no big multipliers hit
Nice spin results for sure.
Nice rakeback reward -- best of luck getting there!
I never thought of playing spins to grind out the challenge.
I would need to play a lot of 'em.
I think I'd better stick to cash games!
Best of luck !
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 5
Weekly profit 3265€
Previous profit 4594€
Current profit 7859€
Another good week on the tables, but it was not going too good until Sunday session. However, it was a big improvement on last day and graph skyrocket immediately. Got 10x twice last week and took them both down. No bigger multipliers so far this year, so there is still room for improvement
Also that last session was so good, that I got 2k$ more in daily leaderboards as I have topped the table
Last but not least, I only need another 400 games to complete the challenge for extra award. 8 days left so 50 games daily should do the trick. Until then my friends
I hope you will fulfill your goals, I really enjoyed reading your blog!
Good luck at the tables, I'll be following your progress in poker and family life!
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 6
Weekly profit 982€
Previous profit 7859€
Current profit 8841€
Another decent week on the tables Played a high amount of the Spin games and now I'm only 1 session away from clearing the PokerStars Challenge bonus. Less than 2 days left, but I only need about 40 games at 100$ level.
The spins itself went well, although no big multipliers appeared. Happy with 54 ChipEv, also with finished positions ratio of 133/126/98, but also I'm a bit surprised that my ChipEV is always higher on bigger prizepools. Probably I am too complacent in those 2x games - will have to increase my attention here as well.
And the last bonus comes from another Promotion at PokerStars. Not far away from the top chests, curious what it will bring So far I received Spin tickets of around 200$ value, but the Top looks promising!
Just out of curiosity, what level of chests do you get?
I've recently started Silver ones, but they're about the limit of what I can get playing NL 25 and PLO8 25
Cheers,
VS
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Just out of curiosity, what level of chests do you get?
I usually collect the highest Black chests, but for this promotion I downgraded manually to Gold ones. Even doing so I've only got 20 hours to complete the challenge
2021 Challenge
Weekly review, part 7
Weekly profit 4929€
Previous profit 8841€
Current profit 13 770€
Goal profit 50 000€
That was definitely the best week so far! I was hunting PokerStars Challenge bonuses, and on the very last game of the week, they decided to gift me a 25x multiplier After a long battle I managed to turn deficit from 1:3 and take a win On the last hand my opponent overbet jammed his pocket Jacks on a K high board but was in bad shape against my K♠:6♠:
Other games also went well, although I was down in the middle of the week. However, the variance changed around and that 25x was like a cherry on the cake 
Once again I see that my ChipEV is very bad at 2x multiplier, and as you get lots of 2x, I should do much better in those.
As for extra bonuses, I didn't get much from the Ladder Promotion. The possible prize was 5000$, but what I got on the final chest was a 25$ Spin&Go ticket. Some 10-30$ prizes on the way, so in the end it added up for couple of buyins. But that Tetris daily leaderboards were more successful and one day I've received this for my efforts - as I remember I finished 6th that day.
For the final note, you can see that I added my Goal profit of 50k€ to my yearly challenge. Of course money can buy you happiness but there is a point where the added money don't give you more joy. In fact, one research shows that earning more than 105,000$ a year can decrease your happiness. According to them, in USA people should earn 60k-75k$ a year for maximum happiness (around 45k-60k in euros), but that sum is country related. Lithuania is not such a wealthy country so I expect the figure to be around 50k€ a year. Couple of years ago it stood at around 40k€ a year, but Lithuania is a fast developing country Or at least it was before Covid In case some of you know the updated numbers by country, I will stick to 50k€ a year
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/26/how-your-salary-and-the-way-you-spend-money-affect-your-happiness.html
So that was my week, more playing and less studying than expected. But this week I plan to spend more time in "Lab" as the Ladded promotion has ended and other challenges should be fulfilled without rushing. Good luck all at the tables
