Making a living with STT SNGs

Leaving Nis in 2 hours!

First to Belgrade where I shall be from 2 to 5pm. From 5pm I will be heading to Prague where I will arrive by 5am

It is going to be quite a long trip but I armed myself with full MP3 player, laptop and HTC phone.

Plan is to listen to some music or play football manager first 3 hours in the bus Then in Belgrade during the brake 2-5pm go to some cafe chill relax and recharge all the batteries. Hopefully traveling to Prague will bring couple of stops every 4-5 hours so that I can recharge batteries again for the things

Was thinking to copy my database into laptop and do more reviews of regs on 30s but decided to let that go cause I am going to relax chill no poker related things until Tuesday. Once I come back I will get back into fanatic mode.

Really excited that I will see my friend Stanko again and get to spend 4+ days with him. We have also talked about me visiting London in near future so we might do the online application from Prague for my tourist visa.

Anyways, my baggage is ready, I had a great night rest and now I am feeling fresh and strong for the trip!

Another news is that moving out from poker office went smoothly and I also installed yesterday AC in my room. Now room looks really cool I might do some video or pics when I get back from Prague.

I haven't forgotten update about students. Will probably do one from Prague some early morning as I get up a bit earlier then 9 am. Tons of exciting things happening in that area so hold on for the update

Oh and yes, I have been thinking about alcohol drinking in Prague. I think I will have few beers as it is a sin not to drink beer in Prague (just like going to Vegas and not giving a shot at the tables ) ♦ So I might brake my no alcohol rule in Prague - shall see

Finally regarding the goals for June I would say anywhere between 2k (minimum 100 games a day from 10th) or 3k+(150 a day) games would be acceptable and satisfying. Coaching 28 hours minimum (1 hour per week with each of students). Preparing recording editing scripting video another 5 hours minimum...

That is all for this update - enjoy your day on and off the tables!

Plan is to listen to some music or play football manager first 3 hours in the bus

I am fan of FM since his first edition. Very good game, which I put on hold for some time.
But I will buy it again when it came out this winter.

Have a nice day!

Originally posted by mylove190207

Plan is to listen to some music or play football manager first 3 hours in the bus

I am fan of FM since his first edition. Very good game, which I put on hold for some time.
But I will buy it again when it came out this winter.

Have a nice day!

The best game in the world with PES NBA DOTA and Counter Strike
You can waste your whole life playing those games and procrastinate like a boss.

I manage to get Partizan Belgrade into champions league group phase. Beat BATE Borislov in 2nd leg 5-4 , 1st leg away drew 3-3. Very intense both games, Aleksandar Hleb was giving us a lot of trouble.
Of course I signed Ivica Iliev back to Partizan, gave him 77 <3 Also Nuno Gomes is in the team; got Ivan Obradovic back who played briefly in Saragosa after living Partizan Belgrade.
Got trashed by Rad 3-0 away in between champion league matches (tight schedule + bad mental game of players)...

You can see how much I am into this ♦

Belgrade nice and sunny, drinking amazing coffee at place called Superfood - very famous for their coffee choices and healthy food

good read

good luck

Ok so I will start by quoting what I wrote earlier about future plans (1 million $ in following 7 years).

Lots of plans for coaching and staking in near future also.Step one is having 5 to 10 low stake grinders who are minimum BE now. Within one year to establish them as top regs on 7s and among top 10-20 players on 15s.Within 2 years from now, plan is to have combination of 7s and 15s grinders who will be all profitable and I will be the one coaching them, assistant coach will take care of micro guys until they are ready to hit 7s.

Currently in my program there are 12 students.
I coach 7 of them while assistant coach coaches 5 of them.

The people that I coach and their current limits are:
1)My brother 3.5$
2)My best friend 3.5$
3) Curly 7$ currently , mixing/moving to 15s soon
4) Shile 7$ currently , mixing/moving to 15s soon
5) Bjorne 7$ currently , mixing/moving to 15s soon
6) Mylove from PS 3.5$ with idea of moving to 7s+ soon
7) Denis 3.5$ with idea of moving to 7s soon

Other students:
1) Rosie 1.5$
2) Diogo 1.5$
3) Milos 1.5$ (very soon moving to 3.5$ and serious candidate for me to coach him)
4) Ryan 1.5$
5) Ernestas 3.5$ (soon moving to 7s and me taking over the coaching as anticipated!)

I have also received a lot of interest for coaching all over the places and I will make a selection and accept to coach player(s) that are minimum BE on 7s that grind minimum 1500 games per month(or solid winners on 3.5$) with idea of making them crushers within 2-6 months on low stakes (depending on their work habits and volume they put).
This being said, once I get back from Prague, I will have talks with one of the players who is interested to join my program from 15s directly

In the past month there have been 6 people that have entered the program other then the ones mentioned. I cut all of them from program within 5 weeks because of following reasons:

- Slacking/putting off/not completing assignments within 4-8 sessions (1-2 sessions per week)
- Not putting enough volume
- Huge ego problems (people come to program to teach assistant coach how to play and try to teach me also - funny stuff like that
- It would take forever to make them crushers with such lazy approach to poker and SNGs

I want to note that I put ridiculously low grind target, 1000 games a month and even that people did not match. So overall I feel absolutely no regret for cutting those 6 people.

Now in the program I feel there are people who will last very long.

Milos is super hard working and I expect him to move up very soon limits.
Diogo started recently and is very hungry to grind and move up.
Ryan hasn't started yet so won't make any predictions about him until he does.
Rosie is person I kept as a huge project to make her success story as her graphs are super loosing so that is personal challenge for me and assistant coach to help her make a living with SNGs.

The rest of the gang has been in a program for a while now and I will not write too much about them now.

My brother is BE on 3.5$ (running below EV severely), puts good volume but needs to study a lot to crush like crazy and move to 7s in near future.
My best friend studies like crazy but lacks grinding (played 4 tables until recently!) but he has great potential and feel he will explode in next couple of months crushing 3.5$ like a boss.
Bjorne is still the best on 7s (with ROI 10% and such) but doesn't put enough volume to reach SN.
Shile is really working hard and fixing his leaks, his volume has been exemplary until past month but I am sure he will get back on track and increase his ROI in future 5k games to 5%+.
Curly has improved the most since his work situation changed a bit and he applied himself to study game plan and finish all the assignments, now he is around 7% on 7s pre rb.
Ernestas was doing reg speed SNGs and crushing, from this month he switched to turbos 3.5$ - hoping that he will crush those soon and get to study with my.
Mylove from PS started recently but following his blog and challenges I have no doubt that he will crush any limit he will play.
Denis is new but has tons of experience in various SNG formats so feel he will readjust quickly to 6 max SNGs.

Volume plans for new players, beginners mostly 1.5$ is to grind 1000 games a month minimum. For guys at 3.5$ 1500 games minimum. From 7s+ 1800-2000 games as bare minimum. Without those targets it is useless to do any calculations and plans for profit splits.
Regarding studying and sessions, everybody gets minimum one session a week and is required to do all the homework from them before next session. Posting hands, asking questions and showing additional interest is great indicator how much somebody has gotten into whole SNG thingy.
I also encourage all the students to record themselves grinding and I do video reviews of their live play sessions picking on their leaks but not in real time (which is great way to do it since in live play they can get distracted nervous etc - this way they just record while they grind and I review it all later).

I am happy to say that there is no loosing player from people I personally coach now. They all have great perspective to crush easily 7s (3 out of 7 guys already do it!) and 15s, it all depends how much they will work and grind in the future period.

I will like I said accept guys that are profitable on 3.5$ or minimum BE on 7s and teach them to make a solid living within 1 year (to earn 1.5k - 2k$ a month on 7s).

Overall very satisfied with how everything is going with coaching and staking.

I quoted at the beginning of this post plans with coaching and staking.
Already this year I will achieve more than I was anticipating which is always good.
Also options are opening to extend even more in terms of hiring another assistant coach to teach micro guys prepare them for 7s - all depending on how fast current group will develop and move up for me to coach them.

Finally I want to say that I do not intend to use this post in any way as advertisement of any sort. I already have a lot on my plate so not looking to extend nor advertise!
You guys who follow my blog know that I write about everything in my life including students that I coach and stake. This long post is that and related to future plans that I have with 1 million $ in next 7 years.
Everybody also knows that my plan in near future is to become SNG coach on PS. Hopefully that will happen soon as I very much look forward giving back to PS community from micros up.

This was super long post , but that's what happens when I wait for bus to Prague (in 85 minutes leaving) drinking coffee and chilling in this great coffee place !

Originally posted by demetri1978
good read

good luck

good to hear

thank you

This!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Everybody also knows that my plan in near future is to become SNG coach on PS. Hopefully that will happen soon as I very much look forward giving back to PS community from micros up.

Are there any materials for 6max sngs turbo/regular? I am really curious, because for people with bronze status (beginners/not tracked on PS - my case) is quite tough to "see" the moves, action, etc. It's expected there will always be more 9man HHs etc. but would be nice if you can direct me in some way? I'm also sad, I can't watch the Collin Moshman + you video because of lack of the required status. Any chance to get hands on some of your leakfinders?

Thanks!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by mylove190207

Plan is to listen to some music or play football manager first 3 hours in the bus

I am fan of FM since his first edition. Very good game, which I put on hold for some time.
But I will buy it again when it came out this winter.

Have a nice day!

The best game in the world with PES NBA DOTA and Counter Strike
You can waste your whole life playing those games and procrastinate like a boss.

I manage to get Partizan Belgrade into champions league group phase. Beat BATE Borislov in 2nd leg 5-4 , 1st leg away drew 3-3. Very intense both games, Aleksandar Hleb was giving us a lot of trouble.
Of course I signed Ivica Iliev back to Partizan, gave him 77 <3 Also Nuno Gomes is in the team; got Ivan Obradovic back who played briefly in Saragosa after living Partizan Belgrade.
Got trashed by Rad 3-0 away in between champion league matches (tight schedule + bad mental game of players)...

You can see how much I am into this ♦

Belgrade nice and sunny, drinking amazing coffee at place called Superfood - very famous for their coffee choices and healthy food
I also create Balkan Champions League for FM 2014.

Originally posted by heelia
This!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Everybody also knows that my plan in near future is to become SNG coach on PS. Hopefully that will happen soon as I very much look forward giving back to PS community from micros up.

Are there any materials for 6max sngs turbo/regular? I am really curious, because for people with bronze status (beginners/not tracked on PS - my case) is quite tough to "see" the moves, action, etc. It's expected there will always be more 9man HHs etc. but would be nice if you can direct me in some way? I'm also sad, I can't watch the Collin Moshman + you video because of lack of the required status. Any chance to get hands on some of your leakfinders?

In video with Mosh we touch that subject. There is basically very little to no 6 max SNG material. If there is some, it is outdated. Which is my main reason for applying for coaching position - showing things in today's games.

Regarding status, I bought Silver status myself to use hand evaluation forums. I suggest you do the same cause if I do become coach I don't think you will be able to watch things with Bronze

Thanks!

- In the beginning phase, study much more then you grind would say 60/40 or even 70/30 ratio in favor of studying vs grinding
- Study every day, review things from previous days always and make things fun for studying (create fun games and challenges when learning/memorizing things)
- Study smart vs just to say to somebody you spent 5 hours studying and then you have no idea what you actually studied those 5 hours!!! (organizing and creating plan is very important - key thing is working on the game plan, pre and post flop, learning what to do 4-6 players ICM , bubble play and HU - you can take each of those areas and study individually to get most out of your progress)
-

How would you recommend to study bubble play? I have created a few charts but there are so many variables i'm finding it a bit overwhelming to learn

Originally posted by sngplayer90

- In the beginning phase, study much more then you grind would say 60/40 or even 70/30 ratio in favor of studying vs grinding
- Study every day, review things from previous days always and make things fun for studying (create fun games and challenges when learning/memorizing things)
- Study smart vs just to say to somebody you spent 5 hours studying and then you have no idea what you actually studied those 5 hours!!! (organizing and creating plan is very important - key thing is working on the game plan, pre and post flop, learning what to do 4-6 players ICM , bubble play and HU - you can take each of those areas and study individually to get most out of your progress)
-

How would you recommend to study bubble play? I have created a few charts but there are so many variables i'm finding it a bit overwhelming to learn

Bubble is the most difficult because it has so many stack setups and requires in game experience (knowledge how to adjust and readjust to opponents vs nash ranges).

What I do for myself and with all my students is have stack setups for CL, SS, MID and EQUAL, then for each of those stack setups I have notes that are very specific.

Stuff like , BTN as CL don't shove NASH if you got on BB MID opponent who calls wider than nash or is a aggro fish, spewy lag/reg etc; BVB keep shoving nash ; BVB call tighter than nash vs gen pop (list range), vs aggro regs call nash. This is just one example and I also write what I would r/call from BTN and BVB and also 3 bet vs BTN or BVB.

HRC is your best friend here along with excel and studying/reviewing those charts daily.
Some people it takes them months to learn it all, some it takes couple of weeks at most.
The point is there is no shortcut besides setting pivot points for shove/call/rcall/3bet (this you can learn literally in 1 day) but the whole point is to know how to adjust based on what nash is and to do that step 1 is memorizing nash things

Originally posted by mylove190207

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by mylove190207

Plan is to listen to some music or play football manager first 3 hours in the bus

I am fan of FM since his first edition. Very good game, which I put on hold for some time.
But I will buy it again when it came out this winter.

Have a nice day!

The best game in the world with PES NBA DOTA and Counter Strike
You can waste your whole life playing those games and procrastinate like a boss.

I manage to get Partizan Belgrade into champions league group phase. Beat BATE Borislov in 2nd leg 5-4 , 1st leg away drew 3-3. Very intense both games, Aleksandar Hleb was giving us a lot of trouble.
Of course I signed Ivica Iliev back to Partizan, gave him 77 <3 Also Nuno Gomes is in the team; got Ivan Obradovic back who played briefly in Saragosa after living Partizan Belgrade.
Got trashed by Rad 3-0 away in between champion league matches (tight schedule + bad mental game of players)...

You can see how much I am into this ♦

Belgrade nice and sunny, drinking amazing coffee at place called Superfood - very famous for their coffee choices and healthy food
I also create Balkan Champions League for FM 2014.

They have announced that for football 10 years ago and nothing has happened yet

Arrived in Prague, at the hotel finally!

I will share anecdote from the trip.

There were only 20 of us traveling with the bus from Belgrade/Novi Sad to Brno/Prague. Just before crossing Hungarian boarder, driver used PA system to recommend all passengers to gather 2 euro per person as a bribe for Hungarian boarder officials to let bus pass smoothly. He said that this is not mandatory but that Hungarian boarder officials do it for years and it is considered as standard thing (talk about tax free cash).
Whole bus didn't agree on it so money was not given. I had nothing to hide so I really wasn't worried at all even if they checked my stuff.
1-2 hours later, in the middle of the road about 50kms from Budapest, Hungarian boarder/customs patrol interpreted our bus and we followed them to 1st gas station where they inspected all our bags We lost minimum half an hour on this adventure so trip for further delayed.
End result was one woman had to pay 80 euro fine half an hour later for carrying 150 instead of 50 grams of tobacco...

Also when we were crossing boarder, they asked us all to step out of the bus and do the passport handling manually.
From 20 people I was the only one they hassled at the boarder. They saw different visas in my passport so I guess that meant to them that I must be criminal cause I go places from Serbia? So they were asking where I am heading, how long do I plan to stay, why, how much money did I bring to show them etc. The rest of the passengers just got their passport stamped and passed.

When it rains it pours!

Weather at least seems good here in Prague, streets are all empty as it is still super early. I will hit the bed really soon to relax from the very long bus ride. My friend Stanko is arriving tonight around 9pm so until then I will go to center of the city and go for some souvenir stores + sight seeing

Some pics!

what happend to your game since december, cause i can see from ss graphs that you improved alot, from a break even player(at least on stars) to a top shark? You found out some leaks to your game, or you changed your strategy?

Give me some tips, cause i am facing a long period of break even-ish? GL

Originally posted by VaskataBuci
Some pics!

Not sure if they are appropriate for PS ♦

Originally posted by georgelboss
what happend to your game since december, cause i can see from ss graphs that you improved alot, from a break even player(at least on stars) to a top shark? You found out some leaks to your game, or you changed your strategy?

Give me some tips, cause i am facing a long period of break even-ish? GL

I lost faith in coaching I was getting, decided to do the things my way, organize areas of study and leak finding and fix it all on my own.
Also when I switched to Stars I had 4-5 leaks that kept going until mid or late October which is why I was BE for that whole stretch (which is very bad to begin with). Also, unrealistic expectations were set in June when I switched to Stars and it was big part my fault as at time I couldn't grade/rate my game appropriately so expectations were naturally off! Now I am way more realistic and down to earth when it comes to it and can easily spot in my and my students immediate leaks and see what influences what % of ROI in games we play.

If I didn't put that extra/work time in late October and December on I would be still involved in coaching and staking (not having roll to continue playing on my own) and would have been (most likely) very unhappy to do more then year and a half and not crush 15s on Stars knowing how much I put/invested myself (both emotionally and mentally) into whole coaching and staking deal I was involved.

Luckily for me, I turned things around and now depend entirely of my own ability, don't rely on anybody anymore to tell me anything (or to wait for something to happen) , more than capable to find and fix my own leaks without help of any coach - all thanks to those 50 or so days of very intense studying.

Only reason I would hire a coach in future is if that person a) has very impressive win rate on midstakes + b) has strong work ethic c) follows up on his promises for steady sessions and his personal grind/study/improvement targets. With out these 3 factors I wouldn't even consider anybody to coach me ever again I can say that now with 100% certainty - and I give this out as advice to all the people out there looking for coach in poker, these are super important things if something is off here get out as soon as possible because people are creature of habits and they are very unlikely to change their habits for you no matter what you do for them!

To answer your question,TLDR - I fixed my leaks and my strategy naturally changed and adjusted in some parts - all related one with other.

I still have lots of space to improve as I am hoping to get 5%+ on 30s and 3% on 60s - those are my next goals as far as ROI goes, as far as working on the game goes I already know what needs to be done to gain additional edge for 60s.
I can't put time frame how long it will take me to get to there, it can be 2 months or it can be 1+ year but I am positive I can do it only if I keep this level of dedication and determination + it depends on life things and expenses that I have.
Without it, it is useless to make any assumptions or predictions.

Suggestions for you or any BE player out there I have are:

- If you are taking coaching already, make sure that you get minimum once a week sessions to check on your leaks
- Make sure that your coach is realistic and can actually identify the leaks in your game - because sooner he identifies them, the faster you can increase your win rate if not you will be stuck at BE for a long time!
- Do a complete leak finding by areas (pre flop, post flop, ICM 4-6 players, Bubble, HU)
- Figure out how to target each area where leaks are one by one
- Implement leaks you fixed in future games
- Fix your mental game (stop putting things off, take whole responsibility on yourself and work towards getting to the level where you will not need a coach to help you with anything cause eventually you will want to play and make money on your own?)
- Have realistic expectations (realize where you were, where you are now, what you need to do to get to where you want to be)
- Learn from better players (what/who you consider to be better then your current play style study that person and implement that play in your game)
- Watch your ROI grow (by fixing all the areas where you had leaks, your ROI will grow without a doubt)

Hope that helped you and some other BE guys following the blog - all the best.

Hi guys,

I am back from Prague.
Really enjoyed it there with my friend Stanko. Literally cried from laughing every day from Thursday until today. Every minute or so one of us was making some jokes and improvising developing on those ideas extending - very much movie comedy like stuff
The only time we didn't speak was when we were super tired or sleeping the rest was non stop laughing.

Went to some interesting places, meet some interesting people.

Really needed this short vacation to put my mind of poker.

There are 2 things that I will underline as bad things from the whole trip :

1) Back and forth with buses took 34 hours so definitely next time I am taking plane from Belgrade or Sofia if I go alone. Only way to consider drive is if I go with 3+ more people and we stop in other cities like Vienna , Bratislava etc
2) I got sick 2 days ago so I am now home not feeling so good. This basically means that my grinding is going to get put off for next day or two.

Things that I look for in very near future:

- Spending time with my family
- Setting up June grind target (most likely 2k games)
- Finishing video reviews of student plays
- Recording scripting editing one particular video
- Following up on my session promises with all my students
- Cutting/adding new people in my program

Hey guys,

This is getting out of hand and the offending posts have been removed. Please cease now as any further trouble may result in sanctions being placed on your accounts.

Regards

Laz

For the record, I did not request for the posts to be erased it was purely admins decision.

In the future I will refrain from getting involved with this kind of personal discussions that may lead to possible sanctions.