Making a living with STT SNGs

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by Zemnieks11

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
One of the best videos I have watched in a really long time. Already watched it twice, plan on watching it more - so much great stuff in it.

Please take time to watch and learn from this fantastic video!

P.S. Once you watch it , you will relate to a lot of things I do already ♦

Thx for sharing this, really good video.
Also like your thoughts on cashgame vs sng. But since you play zoom now it would be cool to post some hands, lets say one intresting hand in week for start. Not forcing you to do this but i am interested in seeing some of NL50 magic.

Welcome Zemnieks11!
I am very glad you enjoyed the video. It is definitely an eye opener and should be played to kids in primary school in my opinion. Some very powerful messages in it!
Regarding your suggestions to post the hands, I will think about it. There is several reasons why I stopped posting hands. Regs come and start abusing the blog for personal tilt which leads to negative energy which I don't want nor need in my life. Primary reason for not posting is not to give away strategy advice I have spent and keep spending time investing in finding the edges, getting better and moving the bar higher. Imagine what it would look like if I posted a hand that took me to analyze for 1 hour and give away "the secret" for specific spot (position vs position, on specific texture) and just lay out best possible play discovered? This is the whole beauty of CG I believe. It takes tons of studying pre flop and then when you get to post flop you realize how little people know and are far away from perfect game or game that exploits any other opponent type.
Might post some no brainer type of hands just for the fun like AKs 5 bet shove and getting called by 76o 100bb deep for laughs

Thanks for stopping by and look forward seeing you more in the blog!

totally agree, if you are not fully open to this just dont. Btw when reading your answer i realized i had some sort of same feeling for myself even when i posted hands to hand judges.

Originally posted by DarkoK3

- Evening arrange a hook up with a girl or stay in and grind 4-5 hours online CG (yea right) ♦

So, how was on date?

Very sick day and night overall Will write about it in update soon.
Set up a date today at 4pm

Originally posted by Zemnieks11

totally agree, if you are not fully open to this just dont. Btw when reading your answer i realized i had some sort of same feeling for myself even when i posted hands to hand judges.

I think it is fine to post hands in evaluation boards when you are at beginner level, moving up. I don't believe enough people take full advantage of how much those can help them.
As you move up the limits it makes less sense to post hands and more to hire private coaching. The reasoning is, say that I get to ZOOM NL100 and start posting hands here on PS. I am sure there is like 10 regs minimum who play this limit longer than me, it would take them less to adjust and would make my life even more difficult. Why help them with such a thing??? By not posting in those spots you actually make them work a lot harder vs you (filter you out in tracking software and need to do all the analysis on their own!). It is sick how much work there is to be done to improve and exploit other opponents, which is why even to today's date, year 2015, people/poker players revert to some auto pilot sort of game plan and play and omit studying and analyzing.
This is why you should always look to hire a coach because within that 60 minutes of sessions he/she will explain all the questions, concepts and doubts you might have. So far I have had 3 coaching sessions for CG and am very satisfied with level of coaching I am getting. Feel that current teacher can really teach me to beat ZOOM NL100 which is my 1st big milestone for online CG.
Please don't ask me who the coach is - for the same reasons I mentioned earlier (all the regs going to him making my life more difficult) ♦

2015 Challenge

Update for 5th of January (yesterday)

Had a healthy breakfast
Worked out (went to gym + swimming)
Had coffee with best friend
Left to Serbia around 12 - got home around 1:30am!
Chilled with best friend in coffee place, feeling grateful that we got back home in one piece!
Grinded 3 hours total in a coffee place (over 2 hours CG, close to 1 hour 3.50$ SNGs showing my best friend how to mass multi table)

Things completed so far in the challenge:
1.5/300 Study hours
1/300 Coaching sessions
11.5/1500 Grinding hours
4/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

P.S. On the way back to Serbia, our tire busted on some crazy bridge. Was driving 70km/h in column behind other cars, it was 2 sided traffic and snowing like crazy! There was a whole in our lane that was half covered with snow and half visible. There was no way to avoid it, if I went to left would have crashed with car(s) from the other direction!!! Did awesome to control the car with 4 of us in it and to pull it on the side (very calmed reaction, was in focus 100%!).
We were very fortunate that guy who works those car repairs ran into us as he was passing through to bring tire for some guy from Switzerland who busted his tire 30km from us! The guy happened to know a lot about our town Nis, he was happy to help and tease us make fun of situation. It was snowing like crazy, sick wind and temperature + we didn't have all the appropriate tools. In the end he didn't want to take any money but we ended up giving him anyways cause he is a true hero in 2015!
PPS. We were told by locals that we were not the 1st ones to bust a tire on that road. Just yesterday they estimated that over 20 cars had the same accident! Then it makes you wonder why they are charging road toll for such bad roads!

Here is the plan for today:
Go to Niska Banja with family
After coming back, hit the coffee place with best friend and work on the game 1 hour + grind if possible
Around 4pm meet with girl for some date of a sort (restaurant plan on eating nice and drinking beer - she suggested it :f_drink:)
Depending on how that goes spend the rest of the day either with her or return home and continue with CG grind!

Hey, nice blog.

I'm thinking about moving to Belgrade in the foreseeable future, I understand serbia is regulated and taxfree for players, is that correct?

Thank you and gl with your quest in 2015.

Originally posted by kabotajoe
Hey, nice blog.

I'm thinking about moving to Belgrade in the foreseeable future, I understand serbia is regulated and taxfree for players, is that correct?

Thank you and gl with your quest in 2015.

Welcome and appreciate it man!

I am probably wrong person to ask about regulations of any sort. As far as I know nothing is regulated here in Serbia. It is gray area/zone, similar to living in Thailand or Montenegro. You are expected to report your winnings and pay on your own. No system is yet implemented to track your winnings like in Greece for example. So treat Serbia as tax free as long as you do your transactions via Skrill and surpass any bank wires etc.

Thanks once again and GL with your move!
May I suggest you move to Nis instead of Belgrade? If you will grind online it doesn't make much difference. Belgrade is way more expensive, instead of 400-500 euro in Nis you would spend minimum 700 per month minimum there + it would take you forever to get to places in Belgrade vs Nis where you are anywhere within 15 minutes tops.

2015 Challenge

Update for 6th of January (yesterday)

Went with family to Niska Banja
Meet with best friend for coffee
Grinded CG 5 hours total
Hanged out at my place with best friend and Stanko
Watched excellent movie Lucy with my brother

Things completed so far in the challenge:
1.5/300 Study hours
1/300 Coaching sessions
16.5/1500 Grinding hours
4/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow:
Wake up 9 am and work out
Coach 2 sessions 10-12
Work on my game 1 hour + grind additional 1 hour
Lunch with family 2pm-3pm
Grind 2 more hours with brakes (finish by 6pm)
Meet with girl after 6pm and play it by the ear rest of the day!

Just a quick update with some graphs

NL50 ZOOM January so far:

NL50 ZOOM all time graph (started around 19th of December or so!):

Really excited about coaching session on Thursday/tomorrow. Will get to review marked hands with coach as in the previous 2 sessions we went through whole game plan.
If things go as planed by the 15th of February or 75k hands mark, I might be switching to CG after all and going for NL100 ZOOM. So far feeling very confident on NL50 ZOOM with game plan and post flop knowledge. Still am aware that this is not enough to beat higher stakes with great hourly, so will continue working hard on my game plan memorizing and quizzing myself + putting myself in difficult spots to learn and improve faster.

Enjoy your week , challenge update happening later tonight (already done with 2 coaching sessions!)!

Awesome stuff man - glad things are going well for you. No doubt because of the solid effort you put into everything you do.

Originally posted by Ramble
Awesome stuff man - glad things are going well for you. No doubt because of the solid effort you put into everything you do.

Appreciate it man
I did work towards the end hard on CG and things are paying back since. I am however not happy that in 1st week of January I spent only 1.5 hours on working on my game! There is several resons for this, main ones are related to new years celebrations other holidays + my friend Stanko arriving here from London. Tons of hours spent hanging, going out, partying and drinking
In exactly 1 week from now, I will be moving from Nis so once that happens I can turn on crazy fanatic mindset back on and do 12 hours per day in poker minimum (1 hour coaching, 1 hour studying, 5 hours of live + 5 hours of online grind!). Really look forward to this period as it will be make or brake for me and my CG ambitions!

2015 Challenge

Update for 7th of January (yesterday)

Coached 2 sessions
Worked out
Had lovely family lunch for Christmas
Went for drinks with my female friend for like 4 hours or so
Ended up spending rest of the night with my best friend and Stanko drinking and partying until 4am!

Things completed so far in the challenge:
1.5/300 Study hours
3/300 Coaching sessions
16.5/1500 Grinding hours
5/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for today:
2 Coaching sessions (1 completed already!)
Session with CG coach (completed)
Have coffee with best friend and work on the game/grind (happening now)
Meet with female friend for drinks in 2 hours (6pm)
Depending on how rest of the day goes with her either end the whole day with her or coach my brother 1 hour + grind 2-3 hours ZOOM

2015 Challenge

Update for 8th of January (yesterday)

Coached 2 sessions
Had coaching session for CG
Meet with best friend for coffee
Talked with potential student over skype
Helped friend in need
Meet with female friend for drinks
Grinded 2 hours

Things completed so far in the challenge:
1.5/300 Study hours
5/300 Coaching sessions
18.5/1500 Grinding hours
5/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow:
Wake up by 9am
Work out 1st thing in the morning
3 coaching sessions (11-12,1-2pm, 4-5pm)
Work on the game 1 hour (2-3pm)
Have coffee with best friend
Meet later with another female friend for drinks
Grind minimum 2 hours

2015 Challenge

Update for 9th of January (yesterday)

Worked out
Meet with best friend for coffee
Coached 3 sessions
Grinded 5 hours CG
Watched Whiplash with my brother (best movie ever - identified myself with it super strongly - must watch!!!)

Things completed so far in the challenge:
1.5/300 Study hours
8/300 Coaching sessions
23.5/1500 Grinding hours
6/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow:
Wake up by 9am, work out and coach 1 session (all by 11am done)
Meet with best friend for coffee
Work on the game 1 hour
Grind minimum 3 hours CG
Meet with girl in the evening as promised

2015 Challenge

Update for 10th of January (yesterday)

Worked out
Coached 1 session
Went for coffee with best friend
Worked on the game 1 hour
Sent 25 questions to my CG coach to prepare for our next session
Grinded 2 hours CG
Bought some jeans for the trip
Went out with girl
Went later with best friend for some beers

Things completed so far in the challenge:
2.5/300 Study hours
9/300 Coaching sessions
25.5/1500 Grinding hours
7/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow:
Wake up by 9am and work out 1st thing
Coach 2 sessions
Meet with best friend for coffee + work on the game 1 hour
Grind CG 3-4 hours minimum
Meet with girl for drinks
Reflect on mission,vision, goals and challenge + update blog

2015 Challenge

Update for 11th of January (yesterday)

Worked out
Coached 1 session
Meet with best friend for coffee
Grinded 6 hours CG
Meet with more friends for drinks

Things completed so far in the challenge:
2.5/300 Study hours
10/300 Coaching sessions
31.5/1500 Grinding hours
8/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Today I tried 4 tabling zoom. It didn't go so well but I am happy I gave it a shot. Ended up with 1 buy in loss pre RB which is great considering how unhappy I am today about a lot of post flop plays I had.
I will refrain from 4 tabling and stick to 2 tabling with adding 3rd table within couple of weeks.
My preflop game is solid, I can recall 95%+ things from memory. I had troubles post flop 4 tabling today but with 2 tables I have way more time to think it through. I will work in future days/weeks/months on post flop spots to improve my thinking process even further - getting to level of unconscious competence!
My next coaching session for CG should be within couple of days which I very much look forward to (it will be my 4th session so far).

On Thursday 15th of January I will be moving from Nis to Gevgelija, Macedonia. Place I will be staying in is actually hotel with huge casino in it that offers CG NL200 and up.
The most important thing worth noting is that I will be doing poker 12 hours a day. 1 hour coaching, 1 hour studying and 5 hours each online + live grinding.
Very much look forward to this experience and what it will do for my CG improving.
I expect by 15th of February to make a decision if I will stick with CG or go back to 20 tabling 15$ 6 max SNGs.

You can check out the actual hotel highlights in the video bellow:

This will be very unique experience for me as I never lived in any hotel for more than a week or so.
I will be staying there for 1 month minimum and if things work out I will consider extending my stay. If they don't I shall return to Nis, it is as simple as that.
Primarily I am moving there to push myself into fanatic mode with grinding and studying primarily. 2nd great thing that fits perfectly is CG that I will get to play both live and tons of it online (to see how I will do in next 150 hours of grind online + 150 hours of live grind and 30 hours of studying minimum). 3rd and final thing is that I will get the chance to eat super healthy and steady + work out and swim on daily basis (this alone will be very energizing, needed and huge +EV for 12 hour a day of poker).

Hope you enjoyed your week on and off the tables and I wish you all very productive next week!

2015 Challenge

Update for 12th of January (today)

Worked out
Meet with best friend for coffee
Worked on the game 30 minutes (marked hands)
Had a CG session with my coach (4th session so far)
Bought some important things needed for trip
Grinded 4 hours CG

Things completed so far in the challenge:
3/300 Study hours
10/300 Coaching sessions
35.5/1500 Grinding hours
9/150 Work outs
12 hours Live Poker

Here is the plan for tomorrow:
Wake up 9am and work out
Coach 1 session
Work on the game 1 hour (review bad plays from past 2 days)
Meet for coffee with best friend
Grind CG minimum 3 hours
Meet with female friend/hook up for drinks
Mentally start preparing for the trip on Thursday and fanaticism that awaits me there !!!

2 graphs for graph hunters

January so far (35.5 hours of grinding)

All time graph for NL50 ZOOM (since December 19th, 59 hours and 20 minutes)

Past 2 days not happy with my play as I wrote in the yesterdays update. Today's session with coach resolved some doubts that I had regarding certain things.
In future hours I will be dedicating most of my time to reviewing my marked hands and fixing all my leaks (already know what they are just need to put hours in it!!!). It is important to note that leak fixing I am doing now is not for NL50 but rather preparing myself for higher buy ins and better hourly long term. That is after all the main reason why I considered switching to CG from SNGs!
Overall results are good and feel like NL50 is not that challenging me. Will however wait for 75k hands sample or 15th of February to make a final decision how to proceed further with CG overall.

Just wanted to share my time management sample for Gevgelija, Macedonia.
This is something that I have set and expect myself to follow fanatically for 30 days minimum. I have 2 more time management samples for SNGs only and mixture of SNGs and CG but I will stick with just CG grind one!

#1 CG grind only

9-10 wake up, workout and breakfast
10-11 coaching session
11-12 working on the game
12-1 relaxing/sauna/swimming/spa/gym
1-3 1st session grind
3-3:30 lunch
3:45-5:45 2nd session grind
6-7 3rd session grind
7-7:30 dinner
7:30 - 1 live grind
1-2:30 update blog/challenge-a, mission/vision/habits/goals reflection

12 hours of poker total (5 + 5 hours grinding live and online + 1 hour each of working on the game and coaching daily!)
Things that can vary:
Coaching sessions - I am allowed not to grind CG live 1 day per week so I can choose to do more coaching sessions on that day and make up my online grind + studying!
Relaxing/swimming/sauna/spa/gym - I don't need to do this on daily basis but I will aim to do it cause I gained 3kgs in past 2 weeks from all the partying and drinking beer!
Live grind - Depending on when games start/end , I may end up starting my grind later than 7pm but I definitely plan to grind 5 hours maximum live 6 days per week!

I am hoping that this time management will get me 150 hours of both online and live grind which should give me complete picture if I am ready to do CG full time. By then I will also have couple of more coaching sessions for CG, will do 30 hours of studying minimum and improve my CG even further. Secretly hoping to move to NL100 ZOOM by 15th of February

Hopefully this sort of time management can help any of you guys out there looking to commit to something 100% and become best you can be in that area!

Enjoy the rest of your week on and off the tables!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
This will be very unique experience for me as I never lived in any hotel for more than a week or so.
I will be staying there for 1 month minimum and if things work out I will consider extending my stay.

Hey bud, I'm not sure if I missed it in earlier post or not... It looks like a beautiful hotel - but do they have cheap monthly rates? A month in a hotel like that here would basically wipe out any poker winnings... Are you sharing room with someone? Is this a grinding pad with others???

Originally posted by Ramble

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
This will be very unique experience for me as I never lived in any hotel for more than a week or so.
I will be staying there for 1 month minimum and if things work out I will consider extending my stay.

Hey bud, I'm not sure if I missed it in earlier post or not... It looks like a beautiful hotel - but do they have cheap monthly rates? A month in a hotel like that here would basically wipe out any poker winnings... Are you sharing room with someone? Is this a grinding pad with others???

It's a deal with the guy running the poker room. He gets free room and food, he just has to play there all the time. Basically they are promoting their relatively new casino and the poker room is a bit lagging (they have 8 cash game tables, which are not always full especially during the work week).