Turning 0$ into WSOP trip

It is almost October, one of the most beautiful times in Lithuania (if not the rain :f_biggrin:) And hence it is a good time for a delayed monthly update

1. Visit 6 countries, at least 1 of them new to me
March EPT Prague National
April UKIPT London
May Match Poker North Macedonia
July - Formula 1 Hungary GP
October - Battle of Malta + UKIPT London

It is very possible that this task will be completed just before November. I have two packages to Malta and London, and if no late cancelations will be made, I am planning to attend both. As Malta is my favorite destination of the year, big hopes are set exactly for this event

2. Play 10k games of Spins at 100$ level and be profitable prerakeback
After my computer crashed in the middle of the year, all my statistics were gone. I don't stress too much as those results were not good anyway Plus, it kinda forced me to dive more into tournaments and I really enjoy those much more.

3. Update Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event
No trophies so far, but I had some nice scores online. This stands as the best, but hopefully it will be overtaken by the end of the year

4. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million or GG Masters
The closest I got was around 100th place which happened last week in Sunday Million. As for Global Millions on GG, it was closer by half

5. Buy 5 art paintings
Two scores above 5k and two paintings already at our home. Today I will only post one, so I would have new material for next month update

6. Study poker 360 hours
January - 32 hours
February - 24 hours
March - 20 hours
April - 26 hours
May - 40 hours
June - 29 hours
July - 29 hours
August - 8 hours
September - 33 hours

After 39 weeks, the figure stands at 241 hours. I plan to finish the year strongly by studying and 40 hours a month is a reasonable pace.

7. Buy land, equip solar system and build sauna
And finally, some news here! I'm officially not empty-landed anymore
Area of 1,86 hectares, a 15 minute drive from our capital home. Plenty of space for our creativity, and for this moment we are imagining in our heads how this place should look like. As it is already the cold season of the year, there is no need to rush for solar system, but sauna is still on the plans. Also the road as currently one is in a very bad shape. Plenty of work ahead but probably you already know how much I like challenges starting from zero

8. Reach 30k XPoints on French Duolingo

We have a completed task here Total points reached with three months left, and obviously a 306 day streak helped a lot! It's a pity I couldn't travel to France this year, but who knows what might happen until the end of the year

9. Get promoted with Top Kickers into League III

With 3 games left, we are still in competition for a Top3 place. Unfortunately we have lost our last match, and that hurt our promotion hopes a lot. This Sunday we have a match against current leaders and in case of a win, we could be back for contention. Fingers crossed for a thrilling end of the season

10. Read 12 books
Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta Graziano Breuning
Rozmarinas by Kristijonas Kaikaris
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Man Who Wanted to be Happy by Laurent Gounelle
PKO Poker Strategy by Dara O'Kearney, Barry Carter
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo
The Name Of The Rose bu Umberto Eco

Just finished my last book by Umberto Eco, a novel about Italian monks and murders in a monastery. That counts as my 8th book this year, but I can't pick any more 600 pages book if I want to complete this task

So with 3 months left, I feel pretty good with how this year has progressed so far. Usually this time of year is very busy and hopefully my motivation levels won't drop down. Until next times!

Dude you are crushing life and pokerz, if you lived where we live you would be thinking about solar daily (and I mean daily, like everyday for years). Rolling blackouts for years now, sometime for 4 hours at a time (everyday this month, multiple times during the day and night, we go off at 4 this afternoon again)and its getting worse and our politicians have their heads far far up their own asses. Going off the grid is very expensive and for the people that can afford it, our gov are thinking about charging you to do it, like a bill you pay to the electricity company every month, so going off the grid doesn't mean going off the grid for us. And the big kick in the ballz, the price of electricity is going up again, from next year. And for some people, its water and electricity that is a problem. Let me not get started on what the fuel costs. The only silver lining is online gambling (how sick am I, that I cheer this 8-o) is now regulated by different gambling boards in different provinces, so casino games are creeping back in and advertising is back on the radio(yes dude, we listening to the radio, like the pilgrims did, its the original wifi and is working when the batteries at the cell towers die and we can no longer watch netflix or pornhub). Look forward to seeing what kinda solar setup you going to have in a few years? Or months if you bink something big. GL HF

Congratz on the land part,buuuut - are you sure you won't be affected by spring rain & floods?
Do you have any well there or option to drill for one?
How much are you allowed to build there, so close to the power line?

Also, I see some symbiosis incoming - Nazgos teaches you gardening, you can teach him MTTs: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?goto=firstnew_thread&threadid=531427

In which country those things happen, jiffybag?

Hi Sven The red circles you outlined are exactly reserved for some water ponds.
For Power lines, it barely touches our land in air, so we couldn't construct 25 meters from it. Not planning any buildings in that zone anyway

Nice to see You are doing really well Nazgos! Hopefully one day I can share something similar Greenhouses and a fountain are also on my wishlist, btw

2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 40
Weekly loses -4895 €
Previous profit 23 512€
Current profit 18 617 €
Goal profit 50 000€

I was hoping for a good week before Malta festival but it all went into other direction. The funniest thing is that I was quite happy with my game but racing in Allin situations was not 50/50 at all To make matters worse, I had big internet connection problems on Sunday grind and my back-up connections didn't want to work properly either. Not the nicest feeling to wait for internet to come back, as all you can imagine is blinding out in 12 expensive tournaments
The only positive thing is a ticket won for a Live Pokerstars event of PSPC. My only available dates are Paris or Namur, and at the moment I'm leaning more towards France
PS

This week I only plan to play online once as on Thursday my journey to Battle of Malta begins And as this is my favorite festival of the year, the expectations are high as well

2022 Challenge
Review, week 42
Weekly loses -2754 €
Previous profit 18 617€
Current profit 15 863 €
Goal profit 50 000€

Good day grinders

Probably you can already guess that my Battle of Malta trip wasn't very successful I fired three bullets in the Main event, but only managed to climb to a mincash. First bullet A♥:J♣:<A♦:9♦: preflop, 2nd bullet A♣:K♦:<A♠:J♥: preflop and finally my busto hand into day 2 with a picture below.

I opened a nice looking A♦:J♦: from MP and both blinds defended. A flop of T♦:3♦:2♠: was checked to me and my response was a small cbet. SB called while BB decided for a 3x raise. I can't fold my hand so my only options are calling or raising and with some fold equity remaining, I decided to go Allin. BB reluctantly called and was in a bad mood flipping his 9♦:5♦:. Dream scenario for me as I only had to fade his numbers, a 82% equity of a win. Not this time as runner runner gifted my opponent trips

I've also played 3 more side events, got two small cashes and all that made my trip a breakeven one. That was a long grind of 5 days for me, usually 10-12 hours per day and I can't say that I particularly enjoyed that For future events I will have to reserve days just for rest and exploring the city as this time I haven't seen anything in Malta. No difference from playing online

Speaking about online, had two sessions meanwhile and bricked everything. It looks like the more time I spend by studying the game, the less results I get But with this game in mind, the luck might just be waiting on the corner. Tomorrow I am going to London for Pokerstars UKIPT event, so it would be a good time for that luck to show up

Have a good week all of You!

2022 Challenge
Review, week 43
Weekly profit 1055 €
Previous profit 15 863€
Current profit 16 918 €
Goal profit 50 000€

Hello grinders, greetings from London, Fulham stadium

My festival of UKIPT in London didn't take much time. In the middle of Day1 I've lost a standard coinflip, A♣:Q♥: < T♦:T♠: in a 60BB pot and decided not to enter any more tournaments. There is plenty of things to do in London and PokerStars also did a great job to occupy their players outside the card room. They even organized a football tournament, 5 against 5 with 6 teams, but unfortunately my team didn't win it either On the good note, for the first time I finally managed to watch a Premier League game live from the stadium, Fulham vs Aston Villa, so this trip will stay in my mind for sure

After London I flew straight to Poland, Warsaw where Match Poker of Polish-Lithuanian league took place. After two days of play, the winning team was announced which happened to be mine Also a little boost of confidence as I was named MVP of the competition, scoring the most points overall Worth mentioning the area of the tournament, VIP lounge in Warsaw Legia stadium!

And finally I'm back in Lithuania, testing online poker again. Maybe my downswing is officially over? Yesterday's little win might suggest that, while getting almost 50% of the Bounty prizepool obviously can be only a positive thing

2022 Challenge
Review, week 44
Weekly profit 2980 €
Previous profit 16 918€
Current profit 19 898 €
Goal profit 50 000€

A good week thanks to a high finish in the most expensive schedule tournament

1 million guaranteed tournament attracted over 2000 entrants and I was very very close to reaching Final Table. Busto hand - one of the best online players Thomas Mühlöcker opened the Button and I reshoved my 16 BB stack holding A♣:9♦:. He tanked for a minute but eventually found a call with K♦:Q♠: and binked a queen on the flop. At that time I was in 8th place so I could potentially fold myself into Final Table, but usually it is not the best strategy in bounty tournaments. A winner walked away with more than 100k prize, enough to make my bankroll challenge complete Although it didn't happen for me, it still gave me a big confidence boost, just what I needed before WCOOP final series this Sunday. Hopefully my next blog update will feature similar positive results

♠_thumbsup:

2022 Challenge
Review, week 45
Weekly profit 3049 €
Previous profit 19 898€
Current profit 22 947 €
Goal profit 50 000€

Good week overall, but once again I was close to a big score

I've reached a Final Table in one of the WCOOP events, but was 1st to be eliminated here. Started Day2 3rd in chips and was constantly in Top5 stacks. During a late 2table stage, I think I misplayed a hand that cost me an opportunity for a crown.

PokerStars - 250000/500000 Ante 62500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (CO): 35.26 BB
BTN: 36.63 BB
SB: 33.88 BB
BB: 17.05 BB
UTG: 54.88 BB

5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.12 BB) Hero has J♦ K♦

fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, BTN calls 2 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (6.12 BB, 2 players) A♥ K♣ J♥
Hero checks, BTN bets 1.84 BB, Hero calls 1.84 BB

Turn: (9.8 BB, 2 players) 9♣
Hero checks, BTN bets 7.5 BB, Hero calls 7.5 BB

River: (24.8 BB, 2 players) Q♥
Hero checks, BTN checks

Hero shows J♦ K♦ (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 62%, Flop 83%, Turn 86%)
BTN shows T♠ 9♠ (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 38%, Flop 17%, Turn 14%)
BTN wins 24.8 BB

I don't mind my passive line on the flop, as I want to keep my range protected here, but once facing a big bet on the Turn, I just have to ship it and pray for no insta call. Didn't have balls for that and was punished by the River

Interestingly, that was not my biggest score of the week. Couple days ago I took down a Bounty tournament, with the vast majority of the prize coming from the Heads

So if you think that I can maintain a good form, you have a chance to have a piece of me After winning a satellite to a 525$ event on GG with 1 million grtd, I am selling 33% with a 1,1 markup. Just saying, I had a deep run here last Sunday..

two options:
- won it all and now in Hawaii for extended holidays
- grinding it back

What is it?

More like this option

2022 Challenge
Review, week 46-49
Weekly loses -756 €
Previous profit 22 947€
Current profit 22 191 €
Goal profit 50 000€

Good day Grinders
Unfortunately I can't confirm the rumors about Hawaii holidays Football World Cup is still taking place and hence my volume of play reduced a lot. At first I tried to keep the pace of grinding, but my focus was "somewhere" else, combined with fatigue of watching a lot of games on TV, it was no surprise that I couldn't record a profitable session in a while. Also I've noticed that the playing pool was very Reg infested as recreational players switched to watching football games more than playing poker themselves. Probably poker operators noticed that as well, as they reduced some guarantees of the big tournaments So it was a natural decision for me to take a rest from poker myself and only run a Sunday session. Usually there is a drop of action in early December anyway (people focus more on saving money for Christmas) so I don't think that I missed much

Talking about last Sunday Grind, it was a very good one
First I gained a PokerStars FPS Paris event package, that starts next year in February

And cherry on the cake appeared in a 20$ GG tournament, making this month length period not a completely bad one

Now I'm back in action and hopefully there won't be a 4 week delay anymore

2022 Challenge
Review, week 50
Weekly loses -1368 €
Previous profit 22 191€
Current profit 20 823 €
Goal profit 50 000€

Hello grinders
A negative week in numbers, and interestingly, a win in the Dragon Highroller event was not a savor

This was probably the tournament, that I wanted to win the most this year. Although not many runners, but the field was very tough, all the best Regs that want the Dragon as their Avatar

I'm not even sure if it is +EV for me to play this tournament, so I'm happy I will not be forced to register in it anymore. I'd rather add a random 25$-50$ tournament, that according to sharscope is much softer than this one. With the monkey off the shoulder now, I still have 10 days this year to complete my bankroll challenge

WP

Hello my poker friends With couple of days left in 2022, it is a good time to reflect my overall year. Before looking at my goals, it feels like it was a year full of challenges, personally for me and for all world as well, especially for those living close to the war zone in Ukraine. As I am living in Lithuania, which has a direct border with Russia, it affected my daily actions and mood a lot. But the world coped this year with Covid pretty well, I hope another evil will be eliminated soon as well.
Now let's look at those yearly goals and put overall score for it

1. Visit 6 countries, at least 1 of them new to me - 1 point
March EPT Prague National
April UKIPT London
May Match Poker North Macedonia
July - Formula 1 Hungary GP
October - Battle of Malta
October - UKIPT London
October - Match Poker in Warsaw, Poland

I'm very happy the Live Poker returned and we can hear the shuffling chips again From my 7 trips this year, 6 were poker related while Formula-1 experience in Hungary standing as exceptional one. The latter with North Macedonia were my new countries on the map, so I can mark this goal as completed

2. Play 10k games of Spins at 100$ level and be profitable prerakeback - 0 points

My computer got crashed in the middle of the year so all my statistics were gone. I was at breakeven line so my profits only came from rakeback and bonuses anyway. Looking at my tournament results, now I am happy that this accident kinda suggested me to abandon Spins Unfortunately, in my 3 year experience with Spins, I didn't hit any Jackpot, so I will have to hunt my Million on tournament fields

3. Update Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event - 0,75 points

Haven't got any physical trophies, so will have to settle with couple of GG Avatars for winning special tournaments On the other hand, my win in Friday Night Fight stands as the biggest of the year and probably I can count this as a Major online event. Hence, 0,75 point for overall efforts.

4. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million or GG Masters - 0,5 point

It was a long shot, and the closest I got was 52nd place on GG Millions. With more time dedicating to studying tournaments and having more sessions in general, I believe I can improve this result next year. Also, with increased average buy in, I will have more shots in 1 million guaranteed events

5. Buy 5 art paintings - 0,4 point
Had two scores above 5k and 2 paintings arrived in our house.


I like them both and there is definitely enough space on the walls for future additions

6. Study poker 360 hours - 1 point
January - 32 hours
February - 24 hours
March - 20 hours
April - 26 hours
May - 40 hours
June - 29 hours
July - 29 hours
August - 8 hours
September - 33 hours
October - 11 hours
November - 36 hours
December - 41 hours

Total 329 hours, so less than 10% to original goal. However, I for sure forgot to mark my studying sessions in notebook once in a while so I wouldn't be surprised that I got enough hours actually. I'm very happy with the way I am structuring my playing and studying time nowadays, especially my last two months were great. If I can stick to the routine, most of my months next year should be marked as green.

7. Buy land, equip solar system and build sauna - 0,75 point

Although I only completed the first part of this goal, it was a huge step in general. I was even considering to mark as a whole pointer We purchased it late in the Autumn and when we finally finalised the documentation, it was already winter. Not much we can do when the snow is all over the fields, so we are now again at the planning mode. So much ideas and so little spare time to implement it But I'm sure once the sunny period comes, we will be much more frequent visitors here as this place is only 15 minutes drive from our living home.

8. Reach 30k XPoints on French Duolingo - 1 point

A fulfilled goal with a 386 day streak and still counting I will have the opportunity to test my knowledge very soon as my first trip next year will be PokerStars event in Paris. Cela devrait être amusant

9. Get promoted with Top Kickers into League III - 0,5 point

We didn't win our promotion but once again we were close to it. With two games left, we lost our most important match of the season to our rivals and had to settle in the middle of the table. Personally for me, it was OK season - 7 goals and 6 assists for a defensive midfielder never bad. But at the age of 35, you start questioning how much fuel left in the tank

10. Read 12 books - 1 point
Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta Graziano Breuning
Rozmarinas by Kristijonas Kaikaris
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Man Who Wanted to be Happy by Laurent Gounelle
PKO Poker Strategy by Dara O'Kearney, Barry Carter
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo
The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
No More Mr. Nice Guy | Dr. Robert A Glover
Fateful decisions by Robertas Petrauskas
100 educational trails in Lithuania by Ramūnas Šukauskas

I am 50 pages short of finishing my last book but I have time until the fireworks of New Year. Many people, myself included, are so happy when travelling to other countries, but often forget how many beautiful places there are so close in your own nation. By reading this last book it suggested me to include "visiting 10 educational trails in Lithuania" for the next year, which should be fun and educational. Also if I can "sell" this idea to my friends, gathering a company and improve social life would be only a plus

So, that sums up 6,9 points out of 10. I think it is a fair mark, suggesting it was a good year but not great. There is room for improvement and for sure I will try to fill that room

Quite an impressive year!

...wishing you the very best for a peaceful, prosperous 2023,

Thanks Vorpal! All the best for You in 2023