Making a living with STT SNGs

Hey Bro!

Still going strong I see, even to me your thread is still inspiring with the work you are putting in. For better or worse, like mentioned by yourself and others, it won't hurt your performance in SNG's to try other formats, so imo you have not lost anything by partially switching back. I do hope you make it with Zoom though!

hey man! - sorry for not responding to your earlier posts btw, I didn't mean to be ignorant, but I have been out of action for a coupla weeks with some noxious bug that has had me pretty much floored (yeah, I know, I'm a pussy! :f_biggrin:) #man-flu, sigh!

- back to the SnG grind eh? it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the new antes structures etc and how it effects your bottom line etc.

- really great to see you 'chipping-in' in the mtt hand-discussions section btw - I thought it was gonna 'go the journey' (end/fail) as few peeps posting/responding, but looks like some decent discussions starting up now, which is excellent!

- don't wish to sound creepy/stalkerish or anything, but I truly enjoy and gain inspiration from your (and others') success-stories, blog-posts and general views on here, so thank you, man!

Originally posted by Demonic226
Hey Bro!

Still going strong I see, even to me your thread is still inspiring with the work you are putting in. For better or worse, like mentioned by yourself and others, it won't hurt your performance in SNG's to try other formats, so imo you have not lost anything by partially switching back. I do hope you make it with Zoom though!

Hey Bro!

Glad to see you around always.
As you see I am fighting daily to become best I can at this thing called poker. SNGs are super safe zone and they don't trigger my interest anymore (will grind them just for pure hourly and profit). I am hooked to CG and its infinite concepts pre and post flop with different tendencies stack sizes opponent types barreling and call down frequencies.
When you get the chance stop by as I will be posting both SNG and CG graphs in future.

Hope You and Your family are doing great!
Wish you all the best from Serbia!

Originally posted by sherriffatman
hey man! - sorry for not responding to your earlier posts btw, I didn't mean to be ignorant, but I have been out of action for a coupla weeks with some noxious bug that has had me pretty much floored (yeah, I know, I'm a pussy! :f_biggrin:) #man-flu, sigh!

- back to the SnG grind eh? it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the new antes structures etc and how it effects your bottom line etc.

- really great to see you 'chipping-in' in the mtt hand-discussions section btw - I thought it was gonna 'go the journey' (end/fail) as few peeps posting/responding, but looks like some decent discussions starting up now, which is excellent!

- don't wish to sound creepy/stalkerish or anything, but I truly enjoy and gain inspiration from your (and others') success-stories, blog-posts and general views on here, so thank you, man!

Hey Sherriff!
I am glad to see you are back here Don't worry about responding right away, this blog is here to stay so you can come back at any time and say what was/is on your mind. Hope you are feeling better now, being sick is not pleasant for anyone.

Back for the sake of grinding 50+ games daily only until I reach high enough hourly to switch to CG full time. Will definitely write about blind change and player pool so stay close

Responding to MTT threads was purely by accident to be honest. I know SNG hand evaluations are not active and the way I use my brakes is checking HHs and writing out thinking process. Yesterday I saw on the PS main page latest page some hands, checked it out and responded. Original thread starters seem to find the responses useful which makes me happy that I could help out. Very cool that you follow those also - doesn't hurt to stay sharp with HHs!

You welcome Sherriff and I am more than happy to help you out if you need anything. Glad that blog is inspiring and motivating You and other people frequently. It feels good to know that my life story and approach is helping people around the world that have never meet me in person.
At least through this blog you get to live some of my daily experiences with me. One day when I become crusher, we can all look back and say "Yes but this guy was doing 10+ hours per day minimum of poker with structure and clear cut goals" . At least that is where I see eventually happening here as revelation at some point ♦

Glad to see you again and hope to see you around even more often in the future!

Update for 25th of February

Had CG coaching session 1.5 hours
Went for coffee with my best friend
Responded to all daily task threads
Talk over skype with one student to schedule future sessions + let him know what is expected of him
Worked with fellow reg on the game 2 hours (covered part of my homework from CG session!)
Grinded online CG 3 hours (crushed it)
Went for grocery shopping with my brother
Kept doing laundry 2 more batches (have 2 more to go)
Recorded 2.5 hour SNG video on 15s (50 games) for my students that got lost due to Camtasia error (it was a brutal one with tons of useful info, pre and post flop plays + bubble and HU plays from which they can learn a lot)

Another very productive day.
Feel that my CG is getting better and better by each day. Tilt wise I am doing great for a while, like I mentioned before the only thing that tilts me is family situation money related which results into me playing under pressure to provide steady cash flow. My river tendency is improving, about 10+ days ago (while in Gevgelija) was brutal for NL50 even NL100, was way more appropriate for NL200+, while now I am learning and adjusting to make some very exploitable folds. You know those spots where you would say "Where If I am folding xx here then what am I calling with?". It is crazy, I am surprising and surprised myself with kind of folds I am doing.
Besides the fact that playing is better, I also noticed that work with fellow reg and HH reviews have showed me just how much I have improved. I would say in past 3 months I improved more than in past year or so easily. This type of progress can relate to me working my ass off when I needed to escape BE on 15s and make money in order to play with my own (future) roll. Now this system set in place seem like perfect one and I would not change a thing about it. My progress is phenomenal and I am super positive that reaching and beating NL100 ZOOM with 4bb/100 will be accomplished by the end of this year. Not just that, I see myself along with my fellow reg friend going for NL200+ in 2017 so some really intense and brutal hard work ahead of us both. Without him, my improvement would not skyrocket as much and I am super grateful to be working with reg that is great guy, is knowledgeable (would like to think we are on similar thinking levels) + we make all the learning fun and interesting - never boring session - because we both enjoy and love poker + have insane drive to work hard and make it. Win Win baby!

SNG grind was brutal. I was grinding 15 tabling 50 games and recording whole thing talking out every single spot for 2.5 hours. Even at the end when I had 3 tables left I took out some ZOOM NL25 tables to show the guys differences in tendencies and quality of play vs SNGs. After I finished it all, clicked stop in Camtasia,it was rendering to give that preview window and after it reached 100% it gave me an error message saying how it couldn't be saved etc. Checked solutions online, tons of people have some crush problem with Camtasia, to some temp folder worked , for me it didn't. So super sad that I lost 2.5 hours worth of brutal instruction for my students thanks to some retarded bug in the software. Thanks Camtasia, I will really recommend your software to all!!!

For those graph hunters, here is how SNG session went tonight

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
65.5/300 Study hours
42.5/300 Coaching sessions
205/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (26th of February):
Wake up and eat healthy breakfast 10-11am
Work on the game 1 hour (assignment from CG session)
Coach 1 hour my brother
Meet with best friend for coffee and 1 hour CG grind
Eat healthy lunch
Grind CG 1 more hour
Meet with fellow reg for coffee + some video and $ exchange
Work on the game 1 more hour (again CG homework!!! - hopefully with fellow reg)
Grind 50 SNGs (2.5 hours)
Respond to all daily tracking threads on our private forum
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Update for 26th of February

Worked on the game 2 hours with fellow reg (1 hour HH review + 1 hour of shot taking NL100 ZOOM)
Grinded Online CG 4 hours (3 hours NL25 1 hour Nl100)
Meet with fellow reg for money exchange + coached him 1 hour (HM2 filters, lost hands, tendencies)
Responded to all Daily Tracking threads in our private forum for all my students
Went for coffee with best friend (where I also grinded NL25 ZOOM 1 hour)
Watched Suits and The Americans during lunch and dinner brakes
Talked with Darko and Kornel over Skype (combined over 1 hour)
Talked briefly with my ex gf from Macedonia
Had a 1 hour nap after dinner to regain energy and focus

Another productive day.
I feel I could have grinded 1 more hour but I am very happy how it went regardless of it.
CG grind was quite interesting. I feel I could have saved 2 buy ins with river decisions on NL25 but those same decisions would have been snap calls on NL200. Again some projection bias re-appearing and forcing myself to start making some folds on river.
Value betting and bluffing was great as well as range brake down. I definitely feel way more in control then for example 2 months ago. I can just imagine how it will be in say 6 months after doing daily post flop assignments, using FlopZilla and CREV + coaching sessions and working with fellow reg = brutal improvement guaranteed!
Took a shoot on NL100 ZOOM 1 tabling after already finishing 1 hour of work with fellow reg. Felt that I was ready to loose 2 buy ins tonight but for the sake of not being money scared and just taking most +EV plays that I feel are appropriate. Needless to say it went all very well. Ended up in profit but what is most important is that post flop I was in control 100%. Happy that fellow reg was sweating that 1 hour also and that our thinking process matched for all the hands. We saw surprisingly big number of recreational players (in 1 hour I marked 10+ of them) + regs that I played with on NL50 that apparently 4 table NL100
So yeah, the limit looked very beatable from tonight stand point but I will keep doing NL25 and moving up when my coach suggests + my BR is sufficient enough (would do NL100 with 30 buy ins minimum just for it). Before all that happens, I need to improve through sessions with my coach (getting answers on more advanced spots to feel 100% secure about all the spots) + working with fellow reg daily (both improving like bosses, crushers in making with same goals!) and finally through assignments to push myself and improve. Grinding will then just bring profit long term and I can do full time switch to CG in 2015 which would work fantastic for my other real life plans which I will write about more when time comes.

For fun, here is tonight's CG graph for NL100 and all time NL100 graph

EV line down due to running into sets or over pairs with blocker with super strong combo draws (OESD + FD or 2 overs + FD, pair + gutter + over + FD etc). Sample is low, just taking shots and not worried about it really. 1st I want to beat NL50 with strong hourly + continue to improve and mentally prepare for swings on NL100 in future.

BTW, this all time NL100 graph is 3.5bb/100 which is close to my long term goal for this year on a larger sample (200k hands 3-4bb/100)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
67.5/300 Study hours
43.5/300 Coaching sessions
209/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (27th of February)
Wake up and eat healthy + drink tons of water (10-11)
CG Coaching Session 11-12:30
Working on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum (HH review, regs DB) 1-2pm or so
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind NL25 ZOOM 1 hour (2:20-3:20 or so)
Eat healthy lunch and short brake (3:30-4pm)
Grind 2nd CG session 1 more hour (4-5pm)
Check forums and respond to my students daily tracking threads (5-5:15pm)
Grind 3rd CG session 1 more hour (5:15-6:15pm)
Dinner and brake time (6:15-6:45pm)
Grind 4th CG session 1 more hour (7-8pm)
Grind SNGs 50 games (2.5 hours - 8:30-11pm)
Work on the game 1 more hour (CG assignment 11:15-12:15)
Check students daily threads and respond to them all (12:15-01:45)
Update blog and challenge, reflect on mission and vision statement
P.S. Might watch some TV show between brakes or take a nap. Plan to do 1 coaching session with my brother also + book all the rest of coaching sessions for weekend.

Update for 27th of February

Had CG coaching session 1.5 hours
Worked on the game with fellow reg 2 hours
Went for coffee with best friend
Grinded online CG 3 hours
Grinded 30 SNGs (1.5 hours) + recorded video for my students 15 tabling 15s
Watched Allegiance tv show during lunch brake
Responded in all the daily tracking threads of my students
Uploaded another video for my students related to pre and post flop play/game plan/adjusting and readjusting

Very productive day.
Happy that I got to work 2 hours on the game with fellow reg. We went over his HH and was surprised that we found leaks to be honest. I expect to see only bad beats but I guess us working together 23 sessions or so this far rubbed on him and he took some of my leaks LOL. So I guess he will move to NL100+ soon with those leaks cause on low limits they are so hard to change but on higher limits they are super standard river plays. Look forward to our session tomorrow also as we will continue digging into his DB for more leaks.

Coaching session was just phenomenal. Went over assignment with my coach, discussed specific hands with alternative lines that I could be taking. Coach then went on to choose specific filter and look into hands which lead into even more discussion. I choose a specific hand that I will study with fellow reg in CREV to figure out specific bluffing range on the river with exact combos and hands - really look forward to it! End of the session was focusing on the fact that our deal officially starts on 1st which is Sunday! I have 1st session under the new deal on Monday 2nd and I am just super psyched about it all. Very happy that coach understands my current living situation and what I am going through; we talked about BR management and I really appreciate him asking about it and offering advice for what is to follow!

Grinding CG was good although I felt I could have made at least 2-3 buy ins today. There were just brutal light bluff catches on river on NL25 + I had a spot or two where I tried folding something that people on this limit would never fold but that any reg should be snap folding after certain board run out and action. My red line was great and I only regret for not doing 1 more hour of grind today in CG as I was really in the zone with my decision making process.

SNGs instead of 50 ended up being 30 tournaments. Decided to record 15 tabling video again but this time 1 hour long just so it doesn't crash and give error like previous attempt over 1 hour. Ended up playing 30 tournaments, but video is not as interesting as previous one was so will decide if I will share it or not. I was commenting every single decision + had fellow CG reg sweat me so felt additional pressure in this spot ♦ Overall made money and still running bellow EV this month on LOL sample of 230 games.

From 1st of March I will go for 1.2k+ SNGs each month, most likely focusing on grinding them on weekends when there is most traffic (Friday - Sunday, 300 games combined or 100 per day x 4 weekends 1.2k games easy game). This way I can focus 4 days on grinding CG minimum 4 hours per day + studying like a boss (2 hours per day) and then use weekend time to continue my CG study and coach through the day and afternoon to evening times just grind SNGs.
This should enable me (with regular variance expectation) to make monthly in SNGs minimum 1.2k$ post RB and then with all the work and grind in CG move in March to NL50 again and this time not stick for too long but rather just build roll for NL100 shots and switches. I honestly feel that once I have comfortable roll for NL100 that winrate will not be a problem on larger sample as am becoming very aware how far I have improved with CG studying with fellow reg in past 3 weeks (just brutal) + coach is always around to answer questions and clear anything out. Don't really see the way how I can fail with such a great support, all I need to do is to put in heavy hours and continue pushing myself, results will follow of course.

Expect March Challenge on Sunday 1st with all the CG and SNG grind as well as study targets!

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
69.5/300 Study hours
43.5/300 Coaching sessions
213.5/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (28th of February):
Wake up and eat healthy breakfast (10-11)
Work on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum (11-12)
Help my brother out with computer power supply (12-1)
Meet with best friend for coffee and grinding ZOOM 1 hour (1-2:30)
Eat healthy lunch and watch a tv show (2:30-3:30)
Grind online CG 2 hours more
Eat healthy dinner and respond in daily tracking threads to my students
Grind 50 SNGs
If all is finished around 12, study additional 1 hour by going through filters assigned in HM2 + write out thinking process for close spots.
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Update for 28th of February

Worked with fellow reg 2 hours + 1 hour doing by myself HH review
Grinded online CG 2 hours
Watched Banshee
Watched Partizan game (0-0 vs team from my town)
Meet with best friend for coffee
Scheduled coaching session with Darko tomorrow

Not very productive day.
Reason for it is simple. Through out the whole day and even as I write this I have huge headache. I am not sure why that is but basically whole day I am not in my A game and mindset. Woke up more tired and with less energy then in really long time.
I hope I am not getting sick!!!

Work with fellow reg was very productive. Glad he enjoyed it a lot as did I !
1 additional hour I went through assignment that my coach gave me. Found some interesting spots + wrote out tons of combos for flop turn rivers which helps me for future games/hands.

Grinding was a bit brutal but mostly due to the fact that people are calling down river shove with 1010 on J5675dddsc run out CO vs SB and things like that. Not to mention that QQ+ to them is like a wholly grail and are never folding it on super wet boards on river.
Really can't wait to move up from NL25, this is really torturing me mentally - pulling on right plays and getting called off with things better players are always folding. With that said, I will push myself with SNG grind so that I can gather that roll for NL50+ ASAP. I see myself staying on NL25 for 2 months more maximum, after that I feel I will go insane. NL50 was way more fun and challenging even tough I saw bad river call downs there (via HH review lately) but still opponents are better on average more aggressive bluff more so bluff catching wider pays off.

Tomorrow I shall start a March challenge for studying, grinding and coaching sessions.
Speaking of coaching sessions, I have found the best model so far to help my students. Via our private forum they have hand evaluation part + daily tracking threads. They are encouraged to post hands, discuss, ask questions and speak out their mind about anything really in them (I suggest poker related observations, questions, doubts, concepts of course in the 1st place!).
Instead of doing 1 hour of daily coaching, I have focused more on doing videos for all of them(automated coaching from late 2014 remember?) and responding to them daily in their threads. I will still do some 1 on 1 coaching but main emphasis will be on helping them through forum and encouraging them to become 100% independent by providing videos that cover all areas of SNG play from which they need to fill in the gaps with all the knowledge in their heads (using HRC, evaluation forums, building strong thinking process, improving hand reading, playing in focus, learning how to adjust and readjust to any opponent etc) . I am there always to help out but if they intend to become poker pros they need to treat poker like a career or job if you will and go extra mile compared to all the others in the field to stay ahead of the curve. It is and will be very long road for most of the guys but if they maintain their focus, work hard and smart + grind regularly, great things can come out of it. With all this in mind, looking at things now, I will most likely not coach 300 hours this year 1 on 1 but will rather spend even more hours creating videos and responding in their threads on forum.
Also, the way things are looking, I might not be coaching in 2016 SNGs any new people just like I won't be accepting any people in 2015. There is couple of reasons for such decision but I will just list 2 of them 1) It is very time consuming + emotionally draining (as I sincerely care for all my students to make it and due to that I over invest myself going extra mile for them while omitting work on my game and my own improvement!) 2) My expectations with specific timeline in other people have many more times failed then been meet (they all claim that they are doing the work, wanting to do the work and whatever it takes but in reality they have either wasted too much time already or will need a ton more time to make it as poker pros). I hope that remaining 7 guys (including my best friend who is on his own since January and my brother who has now over 5% EV ROI on 7s) will bring back in me will and hope to continue coaching with long term deals but I seriously doubt it. I can maybe see myself in future coaching only for specific hourly per session basis but any sort of long term deal will not consider. With all this being said, I am still open to do 1 on 1 sessions when any of my students requests it in 2015.

The time has come (this year vs last year where I did it more towards the end with challenge!) for me to turn to myself more, work on my own game, improve even more and increase hourly in future games. As I will be doing both formats in 2015, it is essential that I maximize my time management and work maximally on improving in new format + making steady $ in SNGs. I have given it a lot of thought and considering what my life mission and vision is overall + related to poker, I don't see myself continuing to coach under those circumstances in 2016 (this year I want to respect all the current deals I have made with my students). I will be focusing on crushing ZOOM NL100+ in 2016 + coaching others will have to focus with 1) proven winners/grinders/people with super strong study and grind habits 2) people who can pay for sessions.

A bit of coaching rant but I want you all to know that I will be counting towards coaching hours my video recording + responses on private forum to all my students as there won't be 256.5 hours of 1 on 1 coaching in next 300 days for sure!

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
72.5/300 Study hours
43.5/300 Coaching sessions
215.5/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (1st of March):
Wake up, eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
Coach Darko 11-12
Work with fellow reg on the game 1 hour minimum
Have coffee with best friend + grind 1 hour ZOOM
Lunch brake
Grind 1 more hour of ZOOM
Respond to daily tracking threads
Grind 50 SNGs 1st session
Eat dinner
Grind 50 more SNGs 2nd session
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision
Eat healthy

March Challenge

Here is the plan for March

- Studying CG minimum 45 hours
- Grinding online CG 60 hours
- Grinding SNGs 2000 games (100+ hours)
- 12 hours of CG coaching
- Coaching 30 hours minimum (1 on 1 sessions, video recording + daily tracking threads)

Total of 160+ hours of grinding, 45 hours of studying, 12 hours getting coaching for CG + 30 hours coaching SNGs. That brings total activities of 252 hours. Considering that I will be in Belgrade 2 days around 14th of March (friends birthday) and do way less things on those days + perform Jazz gig around 13th of March, it is safe to say that all of this brings about 9 hours of daily activities on average.
GL to me and thanks for following!

Day 1

Coached Darko 1 hour
Worked on the game with fellow reg 1.5 hour
Grinded online CG 2 hours
Grinded 100 SNGs (5.6 hours!)

Total 10.1 hours

Excellent start to the March Challenge.
CG grind went not so great as I am not happy with 1 call in particular that I made for whole stack.
SNGs easy game just take way too long to play while 15 tabling. It will take me some days to get back into rhythm but definitely feel very superior vs rest of competition on 15s. Pretty much crushed it tonight.

Here is the SNG graph for the day

Distribution : 24% 18% (HU) 18% (bubble) 16% 19% and 5%

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 1.5/45 hours
Coaching 1/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 0/12 hours
CG grind 2/60 hours
SNG grind 5.6/100 hours (100/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
74/300 Study hours
44.5/300 Coaching sessions
223.1/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (2nd of March):
Wake up eat healthy and drink tons of water
Coaching session with Jernej 10-11
CG coaching session 11-12:30
Working on the game with fellow reg 1-2:30
Lunch brake
Coffee with best friend and 1 hour of CG grind
CG grind 2nd session 1 more hour
Dinner brake
SNG grind 1st session 50 games
Short brake
SNG grind 2nd session 50 games
Check daily tracking threads and respond
Blog and challenge update

March Challenge

Day 2

Worked with fellow reg on the game 2 hours
Had CG coaching session 1.5 hours
Meet with best friend for coffee
Scheduled lots of life activities
Went for haircut and shave!
Grinded Online CG 2 hours
Grinded 50 SNGs (2.67 hours)
*About to respond to all daily threads of students for 1 hour before bed* (Coaching 1 hour) DONE 4:17am now hitting the bed

Total 9.17 hours of Poker related activities.

Quite busy and productive day.
Will list some interesting things and observations!

Working on the game with fellow reg was awesome as we did 1.5 hour 1 single hand in CREV. Hand was assigned by my coach in our coaching session today. We figured out so many great information based on different expectation in that hand. Also the fact that we did that today helped me with actual grinding today as I had spots like that one but this time I was 100% sure what line would be most +EV vs what type of expectation. Remaining 0.5 of working on the game happened when I sent my reg friend hands over skype from today's grind (late afternoon) and we discussed couple of great bluff catches, 1 debatable call I made and situations like the one analyzed today. Overall super productive studying and tomorrow we will have to study in the afternoon/evening, have no idea how that will fit with my SNGs but I am definitely prioritizing studying CG!

Grinding CG went great as I decided to take a shot at NL50 after coaching session 1.5 hours + working with the fellow reg 1.5 hours. 2 hours of grinding, made 2 buy ins pre RB. Really good result, could have been better if I didn't loose BTN vs SB AKo vs JJ for full stack but that is super standard spot of course. Post flop I feel was much better, definitely more controlled. I feel I did great with adjusting and making bluff catches in couple of hands that resulted in this whole profit. My red line was in -2 buy ins which is weird but my showdown winnings were through the roof with my value betting and bluff catching today. Super satisfied and happy about it. Will continue taking shot on NL50 with stop loss combined for my SNG roll of 5 buy ins for NL50. If I manage to swing those 5 buy ins I will go back to NL25. If I continue crushing SNGs (variance follows) then I will have no problem staying on NL50 and grinding it full time.

Coaching session, excellent as always. We took some time to talk about concepts that we can and will focus through out the whole year. Coach cleared some very important spot for me for which I am super grateful to him. This kind of spot is a leak that I am sure appears all the way into higher stakes like even NL200+ guys. So I will work to apply it daily in my grinding and try not to repeat that tactical mistake. Overall super useful session in next one we will focus on something i have been waiting for a long time - favorite area of mine! Can't say what it is as other regs might exploit me with it but yes it is something that really gets me going in poker and CG overall!

Grinded only 50 SNGs today as I started my grind at 11! I am still on track for 2k games this month but I will definitely continue with 100 games on days when life activities don't overlap with my time management. Happy how I played, session started brutal variance wise, after that my stronger hands held up vs bad and weak ranges mostly and profit was inevitable. Crushed HU, now doing it even more so thanks to my CG studying past 2.5 months!

Here is the SNG graph for March (150 games - 8.27 hours)

Here is distribution graph (25% vs 16% HU, 18% Bubble, 17% , 16% and 6%)

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 3.5/45 hours
Coaching 2/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 1.5/12 hours
CG grind 4/60 hours
SNG grind 8.27/100 hours (150/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
76/300 Study hours
45.5/300 Coaching sessions
227.77/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (3rd of March):
Wake up, eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching session with Kornel 11-12
Work on the game by myself 1 hour minimum 12:15-1:15pm (filters from assignment)
Meet with female friend for a coffee 2-3pm or so
Lunch brake
Online CG grind 2 hours with brake in between sessions
*Working on the game with fellow reg for 1 hour more before SNG grind*
Grind 100 SNGs (2 sessions with brake in between)
Check daily tracking threads and respond to all of them
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 3

Studied with fellow reg 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 2.41 hours
Meet with best friend for coffee
Coached Kornel and my brother + made a coaching video for my students - 3 hours
Responded in daily tracking threads 0.2 hours
Meet with female friend for drinks (2 hours!)

Total 7.11 hours of Poker related activities.

Quite busy day today, tons of activities.
Theme of the day today was coaching! Session with Kornel was 1.5 hours, 1 hour with my brother and video recording 0.5 hour, 3 hours total. Video I recorded is brutal, I have never seen such content for SNGs and the idea of it is to get all my students to realize where most edges lie in today's and future games in SNGs and work on it fanatically. Great stuff!

CG grinding didn't go as well. Took a shot at NL50 again today with stop loss. After 1st session (1 hour) was up close to 2 buy ins pre RB and then in next 2 sessions I lost 8 buy ins! There were setups but also plays on my part that will rarely work on NL25-50 or even NL200. Again projection bias leak, expecting regs to fold hands that I would snap fold in those spots but they never do or simply doing great play but running into top sets or top of the range. In future days will go back to NL25 keep grinding it and once I improve my winnings in SNGs by 300$+ , I will take a shot at NL50 with stop loss of 5-6 buy ins again.
Swings and mental grind that is what this doing to me.

Had drinks with female friend, was surprised that it lasted that long. We talked a lot and had fun. Didn't ever thin that she would be able to hold my attention in conversation but her conversation skills are excellent and the way she was building up stories and connecting them was just great. Fun times definitely but that put me away from SNG grind for sure today.

NO SNGs. No problem, lots of time to do 2k games for the whole month!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 5/45 hours
Coaching 5.2/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 1.5/12 hours
CG grind 6.41/60 hours
SNG grind 8.27/100 hours (150/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
77.5/300 Study hours
48.7/300 Coaching sessions
230.18/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (4th of March):
Wake up early, eat healthy and drink tons of water
Coach Jernej 10:30-11:30
Work on the game 1.5 hour with fellow reg
Meet with best friend for coffee and 1 hour of ZOOM grind
Lunch brake
Grind 2nd session ZOOM another 1 hour
Respond to daily tracking threads
Teach guitar lesson 7-8pm
Dinner brake
Grind 100 SNGs in 2 sessions of 50 with short brake in between
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 4

Studied with fellow reg 3 hours + additional study on my own 1 hour (4 total)
Coached 2 hours
Grinded online CG 4 hours
Went for coffee with best friend
Taught Guitar
Responded in daily tracking threads + uploaded 1 more video for my students

Total 10 hours of Poker related activity

Very productive day despite internet problems in the evening.
My SNG grind could not happen but this time it was all about internet problem. For 2 hours straight there was a problem with signal that kept breaking up constantly. This is one huge draw back to living here in this part of my town and in this apartment. I swear that I haven't meet a person who has such bad luck with internet or electronic devices like I do here. Times like these make me miss Gevgelija where I didn't have a single problem with internet or even Herceg Novi (even better) where I definitely see myself in the future.

CG grind was interesting to say the least. I took a shot at NL100 towards the end of the night and lost KK to AA vs spewy reg from NL50 but managed to decrease losses to half buy in there only (on low sample). NL50 was brutal I feel with tons of setups (including KK on AA of course but I also had some (maybe 2-3-4, will check tomorrow) river bets that could have gone better (either sizing issue or not narrowing opponents range enough where I could have saved money). Overall there were tons of setups in March and I have very strong faith about my game improving and being ready to grind NL50 full time very soon.
I will continue doing NL50 with 3 more buy ins stop loss that is if with SNGs my roll doesn't decrease. If I turn some losses on SNGs I will drop down NL50 immediately and settle with NL25 while rebuilding (as initially planed). On the other hand if SNG winnings keep going up I will continue with NL50. Tomorrow I have 2nd coaching session since start of the deal with my coach and I look forward to the session and his advices.

Working on the game with fellow reg was great. We worked in the morning 1.5 hours and evening 1.5 hours. Lots of hands reviewed, combo counting, discussing different lines and where and how those would or wouldn't work. As usual super useful and already look forward to tomorrows sesion!
I studied on my own by watching video and taking notes + reviewing portion of hands with specific filter before fellow reg joined me.

Coaching was with Jernej and my brother. With Jernej I went over specific filter and session went really well. With my brother we covered new game plan due to ante introduction, how to adjust and readjust in future games. Felt that both sessions went well and that they both will have a lot to learn from them and apply the knowledge in future games.

I could write about guitar teaching but I know you are mostly interested in poker part of activities so will stop with the days update there

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 9/45 hours
Coaching 7.2/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 1.5/12 hours
CG grind 10.41/60 hours
SNG grind 8.27/100 hours (150/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
82/300 Study hours
50.7/300 Coaching sessions
234.18/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (5th of March):
Wake up early, eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
CG session with my coach 11-12:30
Working on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum (12:45-1:45+)
Coach my brother, complete the things we worked on today (0.5 to 1 hour)
Meet with best friend for coffee and to grind ZOOM 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind ZOOM 1 more hour
Grind 100 SNGs in the evening or minimum go for 75 in 1 single session (depending on all the activities before it!)
Respond to Daily Tracking threads on forum
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 5

CG coaching session 1.5 hours
Working with fellow reg 1.5 hours + working on my own 1 hour
Online CG grind 2.5 hours
SNG grind 75 games - 3.5 hours
Went for coffee with best friend
Connected with fellow CG reg and talked over Skype for 3.5 hours

10 hours of Poker related activities

Productive day as expected
Coaching session was fantastic. Started and covered lots of my my favorite area in poker. Also went through some hands and discussed them. Next session is on Monday!
Working on the game with fellow reg was brutal as always. We did HH analysis using FlopZilla + practicing on some random turns and rivers our decision. Very useful and look forward continuing/developing on this in future sessions. On my own I did review of my biggest leak in past 2 months and noticed that I am % wise making way less mistakes now so I have improved and keep improving which is great news.
CG grind went well, made 3 buy ins and played B game on average. There were 2 hands that I will check tomorrow if I made correct calls on river but besides that I feel very good about the game.
SNG grind decided to go for 75 instead of 50 games. It took forever + was talking 3.5 hours while 15 tabling with fellow CG reg. My focus was like for C game at best + card distribution and setups along with missing spots, EV was BE (-20$ or 1 buy in) but ended bellow EV 160$ (10 buy ins). Not worried about it really, days like this do happen but on a large scale this kind of lack of focus should not happen!
Enjoyed a lot talking to fellow reg, tomorrow/today I will get to watch him grind NL100 ZOOM in the afternoon/evening. Should be very useful to see his style of play, hear thinking process and his gut feel in decision making process while 4 tabling NL100 ZOOM!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 11.5/45 hours
Coaching 7.2/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 3/12 hours
CG grind 12.91/60 hours
SNG grind 11.77/100 hours (225/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
84.5/300 Study hours
50.7/300 Coaching sessions
236.68/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (6th of March):
Wake up at 10am, eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water
Working on the game with fellow reg 1,5 hours minimum
Respond to Daily Tracking threads + upload new videos
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind ZOOM 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind ZOOM 1 more hour
Watch fellow reg grind NL100 ZOOM for 1 hour+
Dinner brake
Grind minimum 50 SNGs
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision
*Consider taking a day off soon as I canceled 2 day Belgrade trip today*

Also watched today 6 TEDx Talks videos

Would like to share with all of you this one as I feel it relates a lot to becoming a successful poker player
As you can guess already, I can strongly relate to this video - hope you find yourself in it also!

CG graph for today - 4 tabling NL50 ZOOM 2 hours and then 1 followed by 2 tabling NL100 ZOOM for 1 hour (total 3 hours)

Happy! Better days ahead in CG, results starting to show with my work rate and potential.

Enjoy your weekend on and off the tables!

Remaining 1.5 hour CG session for the day

BRUTAL!!!

Going over big lost hands before bed (already for 0.5 hour) and just sick things going on really, especially on NL100. NL50 was no better either with AA getting cracked twice, top two loosing to bdfd etc
Look forward to review tomorrow with fellow reg where we shall go through the hands and pick ones that had close spots for analysis.

And for the end graph for the day of CG grind mixing NL50 and NL100 ZOOM (5.47 hours of grind)

For the 1st time on my blog, I will share thinking process on 3 hands in CG.
Those hands all happened tonight on NL100 ZOOM. I feel that my plays were spot on but that I ran into top of the range.
Hopefully you will find thinking process interesting but not perfect. I am sure that there are better players than me who would perhaps play those hands differently. What is important to me is that at current stage of development I am very happy with how I played those 3 hands despite loosing. BTW it took me 1.5 to analyze my lost hands and write out thinking process for most important ones. I am sharing here 3 of those thinking processes which should hopefully help some players considering to go for CG in the future (highest recommendation!).

Hand 1:
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2668614
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $122.92
SB: $182.25
Hero (BB): $268.80
UTG: $63.23
MP: $121.66
CO: $100.59

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A♠ K♠
1 fold, MP raises to $2.56, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.56

Flop: ($5.62) K♦ T♦ 7♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $4.02, Hero calls $4.02

Turn: ($13.66) 6♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $9.23, Hero calls $9.23

River: ($32.12) 7♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $25, Hero calls $25

Final Pot: $82.12

Thinking process:

AKss BB vs HJ
FLOP: Kd10d7s
Decided to x/c as I am on top of my Kx x/c range and want to let opponent bet his whole range which will have tons of BDFDs and Gutters which he will as a REG barell 3 streets to fold out weak TP and 2nd+middle pairs
TURN: 7s
Decide to x/c as the only hands beating me at this point are: K10s (2) KK (1) AA (3) 1010 (3) 77 (3) 66 (3) 98s(4) 76s (2) total 21 combos. Just taking AJ and AQ with 12 combos each makes this easy x/c on turn with 29% equity needed to make it. Improtant to note that he might be turning mid pps into bluff here trying to fold out 10x type of hands in my range such as 88 99 55 (18 more combos) which makes bluff catching even more profitable.
RIVER: 7h
Now even less combos of 77 from 3 to 1 and 76s 1 less combo from 2 to 1, so he has 18 combos of value vs minimum 12 combos of bluffs (expecting only missed gutters with A high to bluff for example) with as I don't expect him to 3 barrel KQ in this spot ever but rather always check it after 2 barelling. The price needed to call off this river bet is 25$ to win total 72.12$ which means I need 30% equity vs his whole 3 barelling range.
VS this range KK+,TT,77-66,AQs-AJs,98s,76s,AQo-AJo I have exactly 60% of equity on river which makes this super easy bluff catch and again bad beat running into value range here (98hh straight).
Important to note that opponent will also have SPLIT with AK in this spot after 3 barreling with 6 additional combos

HAND 2

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2668620
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $169.13
SB: $96.00
BB: $150.05
Hero (UTG): $145.12
MP: $541.72
CO: $52.45

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with Q♣ J♣
Hero raises to $2.20, 2 folds, BTN calls $2.20, 2 folds

Flop: ($5.90) 7♠ 4♣ 9♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $3.15, BTN calls $3.15

Turn: ($12.20) T♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $7.68, BTN calls $7.68

River: ($27.56) A♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $20, BTN raises to $40, Hero calls $20

Final Pot: $107.56

Thinking Process:(quick one)

QJcc UTG vs BTN
Flop: 7s4c9s
C betting because of playability and future EV (BDFD+BDSD)
Turn: 10c
Easy C bet for the same reasons
River: Ac
Top of bet/calling range, value bet 20 into 27.56$, get 2x raised and snap called expecting sets, weaker flush like 98cc 87cc or even 2 pair combos like A10cc but instead ran into nut flush K7cc
Odds needed to make river call were 20$ for 107.56$ to win so 19% equity needed which was snap call with QJcc (considering it as a 2nd nuts type of hand).

HAND 3

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2668623
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $297.63
SB: $444.55
BB: $79.78
UTG: $151.56
MP: $88.70
Hero (CO): $107.33

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 7♥ J♥
2 folds, Hero raises to $2.20, 1 fold, SB calls $1.70, BB calls $1.20

Flop: ($6.60) 7♦ 6♠ 6♥ (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $3.52, SB calls $3.52, BB folds

Turn: ($13.64) A♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $8.59, SB calls $8.59

River: ($30.82) 2♦ (2 players)
SB bets $44, Hero calls $44

Final Pot: $118.82

Thinking Process:

J7hh CO vs SB and BB multiway
Flop: 7d6s6h
C-bet for value from all the random over cards and SDs
Also with posibillity to turn hand into bluf on later streets on high cards to

fold medium pps
SB only called , BB folded
Turn: Ah
Now bet for both value and with future EV for flush on river vs stronger hands
Opponent just calls again. At this point I expect any Kxhh in his range from

K9hh K10hh KQhh (3 combos) as well as Q10hh 109hh 108hh (3 combos)
River: 2d (blank)

Opponent leads out 44 into 30.82$ , I need 37% equity to call off vs his whole

betting range.
I believe he will bet all missed flushes with overbet there (6 combos). He

will also bet Poker and FH 77 (1) and 66 (1) 76s (1) = 3 combos. Any Ax type

of hand makes no sense to bet that way as he will more often run into 7x from

my range after 2 barreling so he will likely x/c Ax as well as all mid pps

with strong showdown value (88-1010). Other range he can bet this way is 33-55

as they don't have enough of a showdown value and he will want to turn them

into bluff (if he is not balanced which we doubt that he is!) so another 18

combos. Final thing he might do here is turn his 7 with weak kicker into bluff

such as 75s (2 combos) or 78s(2 combos) 79s (2) 710s(2) 7Qs even and 7Ks (4).

So aditional 12 combos from which we can discount most likely 3 (107s Q7s and K7s since they are not standard flatting range in this spot)
Therefore on the river he has 3 combos for value, 6 combos of missed flushes,

12 combos of 7x turned into bluff and 18 combos of low pps that have no

showdown value.

39 combos total that he may bet and only we loose to 3 combos and split with

12 combos + beat 18 combos out of 39!

This is clear bluff catch that ran into value range of opponent!

March Challenge

Day 6

Worked on the game with fellow reg 2.5 hours + 1.5 hour on my own (4 total)
Grinded online CG 5.75 hours
Responded to Daily Tracking threads + helped my brother and best friend with their questions 1.5 hours
Watched fellow reg grind NL100 ZOOM 0.5 hour
Went for coffee with best friend
Watched Blacklist during dinner brake

Total 11.25 hours of Poker related activities.

Another fantastic and productive day.
Working with the fellow reg happened 1st thing in the morning and in the late night. We went over hands in the morning and talked about my favorite concept that I covered with my coach in our session yesterday. We found some very interesting things while analyzing certain hands, definitely eye opener type of experience. Evening session was when he joined me in my last 1 out of 1.5 hours of grinding 3 tables of NL50 ZOOM and 1 table of NL100 ZOOM. Unfortunately that didn't go so well, dropped down 600$ in that time but hopefully it was useful for my friend to see that our thinking process and level of play is ready for this limit. Additional 1.5 hour of working on the game happened after my grinding. I went ahead and checked my lost hands and started writting in depth thinking process for each hand that I wanted to double check and see where my thinking process was at in that spot. I will continue to do this until next session with my coach which is on Monday when I plan to submit him notepad document with all the BAD PLAYS and BAD BEATS from todays grind, especially with focus on river plays (as that always seems to hunt me down in my game plan - expecting and giving opponent respect like they are with thinking process on NL500+ when in fact they are not balanced and have usually way less bluffs vs value combos in certain spots that I need to STILL adjust to!).

Grinding was excellent. Despite that in the end of the day results were -94.36$, I am very happy that I took a shot again at NL100 and did very well there. Also I feel that I have proved to myself that I can definitely play beat NL50 despite the different tendencies on river. I will definitely in the future look to stay on NL50 and not move back to NL25 - only if I have to due to roll limitations. Speaking of which, I have 6 more buy ins stop loss set before I will move down to NL25 or if things with

SNGs variance wise kick in bad I will go down again (if I drop 20 buy ins). So this is the way things are currently. I am happy about the fact that I have to be moving up and down constantly due to current family financial sitaution? Absolutely not but I am perfectly happy with how my improvement as poker player is going this year and how much I have already improved. I am 100% positive that I will be beating NL100 ZOOM with 3bb/100 by 3 tabling and making that 36$+ hourly in the process. Also feel that my current knowledge is already ready to play this limit with minimum BE expectations but due to limited BR I just have to settle and tell myself to be patient rebuild roll and then go for it full time. If I could choose 1 wish for by the end of the years to come true it would be to move up to NL100 and crush it ASAP and in the process make great $ for life roll and my family.

Coaching wise, gave some long and useful responses to my students in forum + helped my brother with game plan change (with ante introduction) and explained to my best friend certain thinking process for hands he asked. Very productive stuff.

Watched fellow reg grind NL100 ZOOM for 0.5 hour. Manage in that time to see 4-5 interesting spots from which I would have played 3 of them differently. So glad that reg is open for discussion and cooperation, he took my lines with good heart and he doesn't have ego problems obviously when he can take things that way. He also agreed that he would play 2 out of 3 lines the way I wrote to him so that shoved me that I was right there with guy who beats NL100 ZOOM with my thinking process. It means a lot to me getting support and praise from people who are actually in 2015 doing the things I want to be doing and are successful at it! Fellow reg expressed that he would like us to work together on some HH reviews or sweats even. I am open always for cooperation and I feel that at my current stage the more studying that I do the better it will be for me to synch all the spots that I might be unsure in + unconcious competence to kick in much sooner than later for me to print $ in CG.

Look forward to this new friendship and mutual improvement also!

SNG grind didn't happen tonight. I was planing after 4+ hours of CG to go for SNGs but I just felt like doing CG more. It is quite simple really. I enjoy now CG way more than SNGs. SNGs for me are no challenge anymore, they are solved in terms of my expectations in them and level of play I see from players. There is no room for me to improve there anymore as a overall player and financially speaking hourly vs CG will be impossible to improve. Already at NL50 3 tabling with decent win rate I will make up the hourly for 15s 6 max, so of course that I plan and want to really hard switch to CGs ASAP. I will of course try to go for around 1.5k SNGs minimum this month but CG is and definitely will be priority as I see myself in it long term.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 15.5/45 hours
Coaching 8.7/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 3/12 hours
CG grind 18.66/60 hours
SNG grind 11.77/100 hours (225/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
88.5/300 Study hours
52.3/300 Coaching sessions
242.43/1500 Grinding hours
24/150 Work out
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (7th of March):
Wake up eat healthy breakfast and drink tons of water (11-12)
Work on the game with fellow reg 1.5 hour (go over lost hands from tonight)
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind online CG 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind online CG 1 more hour
Watch Partizan vs Donji Srem game 5-7pm
Dinner brake
Respond to Daily Tracking threads
Go for 100 SNGs 2x50 games with brake in between
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision