On the road to midstakes!

Hey guys,

I'm gonna post my october recap already. I wanted to play 50k hands this month, currently at 44k but I 'm gonna keep it at that. Most important reason is for that is that my game has deteriorated throughout the month since I did not put any effort in studying (poker). Just played another session and felt really bad about my game and mindset. So I just decided to not play anymore and it's a relief really. Instead, I'm gonna put in some study time next few days.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I decided to go for supernova (which is why I wanted to get in nice volume). Managed to get a little over 18k vpp's this month and I'm currently at 70k vpp's for the year. So 2 more months of 15k vpp's to go!

Results graph:

Month started with awesome upswing and went somewhat break-even from there. EV winrate is at 2.3 bb/100. I'm actually quite happy with that for now. But I'm definitely aiming to get it to 4bb/100+.

Poker goals for next month:
16k vpp's (about 40k hands)
help farma out with his preflop gameplan articles
watch some poker video's and work out some hands in CREV

2 hands for your enjoyment, one I also enjoyed, the other a bit less. Guess which one that was.

Poker Stars, $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $167.49 (83.7 bb)
SB: $706.08 (353 bb)
BB: $677.37 (338.7 bb)
UTG: $267.16 (133.6 bb)
Hero (MP): $200 (100 bb)
CO: $200 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with T J
UTG folds, Hero raises to $6, 3 folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($13) T 3 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $9, BB raises to $48, Hero calls $39

Turn: ($109) Q (2 players)
BB bets $106, Hero raises to $146 and is all-in, BB calls $40

River: ($401) 6 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Poker Stars, $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $212.97 (106.5 bb)
SB: $1,317.44 (658.7 bb)
BB: $100 (50 bb)
UTG: $204 (102 bb)
MP: $169.10 (84.6 bb)
Hero (CO): $951.51 (475.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 4 5
2 folds, Hero raises to $5, BTN folds, SB raises to $16, BB folds, Hero calls $11

Flop: ($34) T A 3 (2 players)
SB bets $17, Hero raises to $60, SB calls $43

Turn: ($154) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $189, SB calls $189

River: ($532) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $397, SB raises to $1,052.44 and is all-in, Hero calls $289.51 and is all-in

Results:

Hey guys,

Here I am again with my monthly blog post.

I continued along the road I set out in October and played like utter shit. I was down 345$ at the end of the month but EV-wise I was down 3.5k$.

Again, I did not put any effort into studying. I did not check my results/stats till the end of the month. When I saw my stats, I was really surprised to see how passive I had become. I 've been trying to play a balanced game which apparently resulted in me checking/calling way too often. Now, I'm checking my stats more often to make sure I'm aggressive enough. What I really should be doing is construct ranges postflop.

One positive note though is that I'm still on course for supernova. Currently at 88k points so 12k more to go. I 'm looking forward to the moment I make SN soooooo hard. Man, it's really going to be a burden falling off of my shoulders. When I do make it, I'm gonna make a nice blog post here with a year review and goals for 2014. Hopefully I can make it before christmas. Fingers crossed!!!!

Reached the 90k VPP point today. 10k more to go!

Last post lacked some non-poker stuff imo. So I'm gonna make up for that now.

About a week ago, I decided to make a bucket list. It's something I was thinking about for a while but never really put it on paper (or on a laptop screen). So here it is:

1. Go dog sledding
2. Drive a race track (in a fast car obv)
3. Go scuba diving
4. Go skydiving
5. Bungee jump
6. See the northern light
7. Visit each continent
8. Go to a restaurant with a Michelin star
9. Play poker in Vegas (again)
10. Travel to Canada
11. Oktoberfest
12. Celebrate St Patricksday in Dublin
13. Visit Iceland
14. Climb a mountain (thinking about Kilimanjaro atm)
15. Do a Safari in South-Africa
16. Cape Epic in South-Africa
17. Have a big party
18. See an NFL game in London
19. See the Super Bowl
20. Do 100 consecutive push-ups and sit-ups
21. Visit Patagonia

Thel ist definitely isn't final. Some goals are pretty easy, others really hard. My wife thinks it's not feasible mostly because a lot of goals are expensive. I actually think finding time to achieve some goals will be even more of a problem. But hey, aim high right!?

If you have comments or think I should add something, please let me know. I will post some more info on each of the goals in the following posts.

Later guys!

Hey guys,

I can already taste SN atm, just 3k VPP's more to go.

I have also been running pretty good this month. I hope it will hold until I reach SN. The nl500 tables look quite soft lately so I've been playing most of my volume there last week. It's just so much more exciting and if I run good, I can actually wine some moniez!

Some new on the bucket list: these are the items which I plan to next year:

2. Drive a race track (in a fast car obv)
I received a 'bongo bon' from my wife for my last birthday. I don't know if bongo bon is known internationally but basically it 's a gift coupon you can use to do a variety of activities. So I plan to go for a Formula 3 initation. Really looking forward to that since it's something I 've always wanted to do. I love everything that's fast and has wheels

8. Go to a restaurant with a Michelin star
No idea where to go yet but plenty of fine restaurants in Belgium.

11. Oktoberfest
We will do this with my football team. Hope I remember some of it afterwards :

18. See an NFL game in London
An American friend, my brother and I will go watch the Lions-Falcons game on Oct 28th. American Football

That should do it for one year I guess. If anyone has any suggestions about any of this, feel free to share!

nice hold sir

Thanks man. That was such an adrenaline rush, I can't even remember it!

Congrats on SN. It should only take 1month for it though.

Hope to see you at the tables (I'll just pretend I know who you are... Just gonna look for someone with Lau in their name). You might see me a lot unless you've moved up to 500nl specifically...

Talk to you soon!
BrokeSoBroke

BTW, are you one of those guys who always run above EV????

I really don't like those guys... hahaha....

J/K

Omg BsB, you spoiled my supernova post

Just kidding, thanks for posting in my blog.

So yeah, I just made it to Supernova. Another milestone in my poker career. ♠_cool:

I do hope to get to SN faster next year but that shouldn't be a problem. But making 100k vpp's a month is probably never gonna happen. No going pro for me (yet).

Originally posted by BrokesoBroke
BTW, are you one of those guys who always run above EV????

I do run above EV, but that's quite obvious as we play the same games right!?

Btw, I told you my Stars SN in skype once

gratz mate :) Awesomeeeee

but how much did you lose?

Grats my friend!

Originally posted by Varune
but how much did you lose?

Grats my friend!

I managed to book a positive month, how about that huh!?

And thanks guys

What is up yall!?!?!?

First of all:

It's that time of the year again where I feel pumped/motivated to be good at poker. Before looking forward, let's look back quicly. This blog is going for a little more than 2 years now. I started it playing at nl25 on everest. In about 1 year, I moved up to nl100. After my honeymoon (october 2013), I decided that I had to learn how to beat midstakes within the next year. We're about a year later now so it's time to evaluate my progress.

First off, I have to make the objective constation that I'm not currently beating midstakes. Despite that obvious failure, I don't feel that bad about not making the goal for a couple of reasons:
As you can see, I moved from everest to pokerstars (had a passage through party network on the way). The opposition at pokerstars is definitely miles ahead of that at the former everest network, which means that I have made progress even if I had stayed at the same stakes.
I'm currently playing nl200 zoom (breaking even though). I think most people consider zoom a little tougher than regular games so this is probably the closest one can get to midstakes.
I made some big steps in my understanding of poker (even though I'm still a dumbass with tons to learn). I feel like I had no idea about how much I still had to learn back when I set my goal. Basically, I started thinking about how to play my range instead of how to play my hand in a lot of spots. I definitely had some very motivating learning moments.

So yeah, all in all I 'm happy about my progress even though I didn't exactly make my goal.

Some other reflections on the past year (pokerwise):
I did play nl500 a bit (pbb like 30k hands altogether) and I loved it. I'm probably BE or slightly loosing in that game but man, what a thrilling experience to play with well known highstakes sickos.
One of my (few) goals was to play a Unibet Open event. I didn't follow through on that one because my main goal in poker is to grow my BR and a big live donkament would have diminished it too much. Too big of a nit I guess
My bankroll increase was not that huge, I guess I'm somewhat happy about the increase but nut too much.
Coaching. I had coaching for the first time ever. I learned tons but scheduling it was a real pain in the ass. I definitely want to have coaching again next year and will make sure to make better arrangements.

Besides poker, 2013 was another spectacular year for me as I became a father. My baby daughter Sue is about 4 months old atm and she's just the greatest little bundle of happiness and love in the world. Besides that, my contract at my shit job ended (currently still unemployed) and we recently bought a house! That's a spectacular year in my book.

That was to short (more like tl;dr) look back. As I stated in the beginning of this post, the motivation is strong once more. I'm just happy that the SN grind is finished and look forward to a poker schedule which is more geared towards study than grinding. I'm gonna end this tl;dr post with both some specific and general goals for the next year:
Watch at least one vid a week
Memorize my preflop gameplan
Get coaching again, preferably from a highstakes sicko.
Finally finish Applications of NLHE and the 'what the flop' article series.
:club: Take my poker understanding another one or two levels higher
:club: Grind nl1K (not just donate at nl1k because I 've done that already )

Thanks for reading.

Nice update bro, have a nice festive season.

Originally posted by pleno1
Nice update bro, have a nice festive season.

ty

Below is a piece of writing from Zaza's 2+2 blog. I quote it here because I love it and his vids/results/blogposts really inspire me to keep trying to master this game.

Anyway, I think that most people in here have the wrong role models. If u would focus a bit more on how to improve ur game, work with crev flopzilla or watever useful program, instead of always looking for the most plus ev game out there than u might have a better game as a result. I remember starting out at 1knl in january last year. I didnt even plan to move up before having a few solid months . But on the 3rd i remember thinking * it , lets go. I was minus ev in alot of hu lineups. I remember battling jinmay, the guy is a * beast. I also played clawviper up to 6,7,8 tables hu at 1k at the time he was still considered to be good. My point being, i mite have increased my variance a lot, but i improved a lot , by thinking about some of those matches. thinkin about how some of them played certain hands on different textures, I suppose trying to make sense of it. I dont work with any programs so thats the way i go about it when i try to improve my game. Can u go the scripter , hardcore bumhunter route, sure u can and u can have success, theres enough examples on 2p2 about that, i dont need to name any names. But u will never learn how to handle real pressure, u wont get into sick dynamics, u wont really ever have the time, to notice a difference in strategy a better opponent might use, cos ur just worried about ur next jesus seat. i think this is the biggest issue most guys have, its more important to not give away the slightest edge away, than actually getting better at this game. trust me noone is born a freakin 20 tabler. I mean some ppl have different cognitive abilities than others, but i dont think its a skill that is impossible to learn. I think the difference lies in the depth of ur knowledge. If u look at ur preflop decisions, they are made in the blink of an eye, and if it were about preflop , anyone could do it. I think u can achieve a similar level about flop turn and river textures. I mean i see a lot of guys who play 6-8 table who just snap around so much , that its mindboggling how they couldnt play more tables. I kinda derailed this, im not trying to make an argument in favour of masstabling, but about the lack of insight and inability to recognize what matters. my former roomate vegasmidas is probably one of the toughest regs I could encounter at the tables, and this includes any so called 2p2 sicko I have played against, and its not even close. I remember him analyzing textures for hours and hours in malta and writing down pages and pages. He might not have won as much money as he could have, but I believe his day will come. The future belongs to people that recognize that being a student of the game is far more important than the shortterm ev a lot here seem to be looking at. At the end of the day everybody has got to do what they gotta do , and thats fine. It is what it is, I just hope the current situation and economy will either improve or stay as it is. anyway I dont even know where this was heading but im outta gas. ^^

Hey guys,

quick update incoming.

First things first: I found a new job! I had just started to get a little desperate and was starting to look for jobs which I didn't really want to do when to good news came to me. I will start 3d of February as a sales representative for Northern Europe for a company that produces food ingredients. Really looking forward to the job, it's totally different from what I did before.
We also recently bought a house. Having a job means that we'll get better terms for our loan. Wiiii

Let's switch to poker. I haven't really been very motivated to grind the nl200 zoom games the first 2 weeks of the year. I did spend some time working on my game, mostly by watching vids. I also bought pokersnowie and I really like it.

A couple of days ago, I was bored and played some nl400 tables. Playing regular tables again was a lot of fun really. Some regs there have really obvious leaks. I just finished a session at nl500 zoom as well. As opposed to nl200, nl400/nl500 really gets my blood pumping so I plan on continuing to play those games. I also ran into tadcka and we played some fun hands.

As for poker study, here are my top priorities:
1. Finish preflop gameplan
2. Finish Applications of NLHE
3. Read the WTFlop articles

Yesterday evening, I had to play a football game at 10 pm. I came home at 2 am after the obligatory couple of beers afterwards and couldn't resist starting another session even though I was dead tired. I played 4 tables nl500 and it was a pretty epic session. I was down 4BI at a moment and obv chased losses and luckily got to break-even. It really felt like an epic session where I had quite a few interesting hands and had quite a few spots where I spotted leaks from regs. This is something I usually don't pay enough attention to.

I just wanted to post this in my blog because it was just so much fun. I really enjoyed playing. When I finally went to bed, all I could think was 'damn, I love poker'.

Couple of hands versus a (former?) Leggo coach. Guess who.

Poker Stars, $2.50/$5 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $1,382.38 (276.5 bb)
Hero (SB): $791.15 (158.2 bb)
BB: $948.93 (189.8 bb)
UTG: $743.69 (148.7 bb)
MP: $998.62 (199.7 bb)
CO: $1,077.86 (215.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A A
2 folds, CO raises to $10, BTN folds, Hero raises to $40, BB folds, CO calls $30

Flop: ($85) J 6 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $55, CO calls $55

Turn: ($195) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $142.50, CO calls $142.50

River: ($480) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $553.65 and is all-in, CO calls $553.65

Results:

Poker Stars, $2.50/$5 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BTN): $1,297.12 (259.4 bb)
SB: $612.99 (122.6 bb)
BB: $2,438.59 (487.7 bb)
UTG: $564.22 (112.8 bb)
MP: $65 (13 bb)
CO: $519.50 (103.9 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with A A
3 folds, Hero raises to $10, SB raises to $40, BB folds, Hero raises to $105, SB raises to $612.99 and is all-in, Hero calls $507.99

Flop: ($1,230.98) 6 9 A (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: ($1,230.98) 3 (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: ($1,230.98) Q (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

My name is Delau, and i only play AA.

Welcome to jackass!

Do not try to re-enact any of the above hands shown. Delau is a trained professional and he insists no one should try to recreate villains lines or actions shown in this blog.

Another English blog from the Dutch/Belgian community to read! Will follow!!

Originally posted by Varune
My name is Delau, and i only play AA.

Welcome to jackass!

Do not try to re-enact any of the above hands shown. Delau is a trained professional and he insists no one should try to recreate villains lines or actions shown in this blog.

Confirmed true, I only play AA so stop 3betting me guys!

Originally posted by olram6
Another English blog from the Dutch/Belgian community to read! Will follow!!

Ty ty

In for a small update on the bucket list. I've been working on it a little bit. I removed 'Do 100 consecutive push-ups and sit-ups' and Cape Epic and added two: Go Heli snowboarding and compete in the Transcontinental (ultracycling).
I booked tickets to the Lions vs Falcons game on Oct 26th in London. I also booked a ride on a circuit in a F3 car for May 24th and went indoor snowboarding for the first time in my life. Really enjoyed it but obv still have to improve a lot. I recently watched The Art of Flight and got really pumped to go start snowboarding myself. So yeah, let's do this! ♠_cool:

Just had a really good day pokerwise as I won 8BI. I'm in the green for the first time this month so huray!