Making a living with STT SNGs

March Challenge

Days 12 and 13

Worked on the game 4.5 hours total (1.5 yesterday, 3 today)
Grinded online CG 4 hours total (2 each day)
Had coaching session with my coach w34z3l 1.5 hour (yesterday)
Coached 1 hour total (via Daily Tracking threads)

Total 11 hours of Poker activity.

Not very productive past 2 days that is for sure.

My motivation levels dropped down a bit due to mixture of things. I had enormous tooth ache that happened 2 days ago. I thought I could fix it with some pain killers and just move on to complete all my daily habits tasks and things that I enjoy doing but I was wrong. I had to eventually go to dentist, he opened the tooth and put some medication in it. Apparently in 10 days I have to visit him again to recheck it and I guess he will continue fixing it. It is some sort of gangrene or something but not a serious part of it, just a small part of it as he says. I am not worried just not happy that it affected my productivity yesterday.

Today I woke up at 11:30 despite the fact that I went to bed at 1:30-2am the night before. For some strange reason I slept way too long and my body just felt exhausted.
I worked with fellow reg 0.5 hour then went for coffee with best friend where I regenerated a bit and grinded 1st CG session 1k hands or a bit close to 1.5 hours 3 tabling. The results were not good and I was again not happy with my river plays. Need to keep studying, putting 100s of hours in learning to properly balance between folding,betting, shoving and calling those river spots. With calling I am getting a grip of it very well (degrading my thinking process by folding things I would never fold on NL100+) but now I am feeling that I am running into top of the ranges or some spewy guys bluff catch super thin when I don't have it. Just sick stuff overall but nothing to feel sorry about as this happens in CG daily over and over - something that I am accepting as part of the format just like in SNGs you can go and loose 40 buy ins in 100+ games easily without fault of your own but due to variance and setups, same thing in CG with river setups and spots.

Most of working on the game was doing detailed hand analysis. There are 4 hands completed in those 2 days so I feel that I wasn't as productive in that area as I would have wanted to be - something that I plan to fix as well by putting very strong emphasis on that new habit to build it in next 66 days.

About SNGs, important announcement. Within next couple of days, I will start doing 100 games a day of SNGs to hit 1.5k minimum this month. I will be starting my grinding around 6pm or so in the afternoon until 1-2am with 1 brake in between. I will still try to maintain at least 1 hour of the CG grind (need 14k hands in by the end of the month) but most importantly keep up the pace of 1-2 hours per day doing in depth hand analysis especially river spots which I feel are messing me up the most.

Everything else that happened in past 2 days not really worth mentioning, unless you wanna hear stories about 2 girls from Sofia (Bulgaria) and Novi Sad (Serbia) hitting me up to hook up or something. But yeah, I said to myself for this year with all the pushing myself and proving that I can make it in CG as well - no distraction with girls and woman whatsoever. I want to keep my focus and energy levels high, girls can totally take away my time focus and before you know it, it doesn't work out and you end up regreating it while you could do something way more important for others and your life - in my case providing for our family and becoming beter poker player while increasing hourly in future hands. Time and time again in this year I realize why so many great people that made revolutionary inventions and changes to the way we live our lives today made it - they didn't let woman take away their focus from things that were important to them! Most of them didn't even have wifes when they died but still they left some pretty awesome things without which we would be paralyzed in todays world! So the lesson to be learned here I guess is, protect your focus and time cause those seem to be the most important things to accomplishing anything you set your mind to do.
In this years process I am aware that both girls and myself loose, having good time and enjoying each others company but I look at it from prospective that they are approached by dozen guys daily and I am sure that they will do fine without me for a year This of course doesn't mean that I will not see any girl at all, will still do hook ups but just saying big no to dating whatsoever.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 33/45 hours
Coaching 15.7/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 6/12 hours
CG grind 37.5/60 hours
SNG grind 17.12/100 hours (276/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
106/300 Study hours
59.2/300 Coaching sessions
266.05/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
10/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (14th of March):
Wake up, visit store, eat breakfast and drink tons of water all before 10:45am
Coaching session with Jernej 11-12
Working on the game with fellow reg 12-1 minimum
Grind 1 hour online CG
Watch Serbian Super League football 2 games Spartak - Crvena Zvezda 2:30-4:30 and Partizan Belgrade - Rad 5-7pm
In between games eat lunch and after Partizan game dinner or a snack
Grind 50 SNGs to set up rhythm for whats to follow up from 16th of March
Check and respond to Daily Threads
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

P.S. Started reading 2 days ago Sharma's book "Leader Without a Title", so far great and powerful stuff as always from him!

March Challenge

Day 14

Coached 2 hours (session with Kornel)
Grinded online CG 3 hours
Worked on the game with fellow reg 2 hours + 1 hour on my own 3 hours total
Watched 2 football games
Had coffee with best friend
Watched Banshee and Allegiance
Played guitar and read more of Robin Sharma's "Leader Without a Title"

Total 8 hours of Poker activity.

Productive day for sure.
Working on the game part was interesting as always. Covered 2 hands with fellow reg in depth. Also on my own watched new W34z3l's video and took notes for it 1 hour in the morning when I woke up.
Grinding didn't go well, about 6 buy ins lost. Tons of setups and running below EV but also 2 spots where I could have played better. Definitely need to keep working hard with fellow reg(s) and improving. It will be long road ahead of me but when I reach the finish line it will be worth it for sure.
From Monday I am going for 100 games per day on SNGs so I guess another sort of mental challenge ahead of me.
Coaching was great, worked 2 hours with Kornel, answered all his questions and went on to look into specific filter where we analyzed 4 hands in depth. Look forward to his follow up in future.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 36/45 hours
Coaching 17.7/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 6/12 hours
CG grind 40.5/60 hours
SNG grind 17.12/100 hours (276/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
109/300 Study hours
61.2/300 Coaching sessions
269.05/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
12/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (15th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching session with Jernej 11-12
Work on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum (going over marked hands, hand analysis in depth)
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind CG 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind CG 1 more hour
Evening time spend reading Sharma's book + regenerating for madness that will follow from Monday in SNGs
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 15

Coached 3.3 hours
Worked on the game with fellow reg 1 hour
Grinded online CG 1.5 hours
Grinded 50 SNGs 2.3 hours
Had coffee with best friend at my place + watched Chelsea game
Watched movie with my brother just now before bed

Total 8.1 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day.
Coached Jernej 1 hour and 10 minutes in the morning + did 24 games sweats session with my brother that lasted close to 2.5 hours more tonight. Both sessions were very productive and look forward on follow up work from them.

With fellow reg we managed to cover 2 hands in 1 hour. Both went very smoothly as we both agreed on expected tendencies and where the leak was + how to adjust in future on this limit in that spots.

Grinding CG went very well, think I made about 6 buy ins 3 tabling NL25. Perhaps because it is weekend and tons of bad spewy plays around but also due to the fact that I was conciously making some brutal folds that I taught I would never fold in my life - thanks to all the hand history analysis with fellow reg and on my own + coaching with w34z3l, starting to finally pull brakes in some spots which are simply not profitable on those stakes. When I get to NL100 I will revert back to those lines, until then I want to prove to myself that I can simplify my game plan even more in river spots which should enable me less doubts.
Tomorrow/today at 11am I have CG coaching session with w34z3l - prepared new questions and concepts that I would like us to cover in future sessions. I feel after those will get covered that my win rate will increase for sure but only if I keep the mindset focus and decision making like I did today - always aware 100% of what is going on in HU or multiway IP or OOP with or without initiative. This is why I love CG, so much to learn and apply in actual games + every mistake is very costly so all leaks show very quickly. Look forward to more work, can definitely feel that better days are ahead for sure.

SNG grind went great also. Had more 1st vs 2nd and high ITM. Think for the month that I have in 376 games now EV ROI of 10%+ or so with more 1st vs 2nd of course by 3% or more. So far SNGs have not been any problem in fact new ante addition is really awesome, I enjoy crushing HU's even more now! Will be interesting to see if I can maintain for example 5-6% pre RB win rate once I start grinding 100 a day from tomorrow/today and do this in next 15k games for example or so.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 37/45 hours
Coaching 21/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 6/12 hours
CG grind 43/60 hours
SNG grind 19.55/100 hours (376/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
110/300 Study hours
64.5/300 Coaching sessions
272.85/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
14/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (16th of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, have a breakfast and drink tons of water
CG coaching with w34z3l 11-12:30
Working on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum 1-2pm
Meet with best friend for coffee and to grind CG 1 to 1.5 hour (1k hands most likely)
Return home for lunch and brake
Dentist appointment 5pm
Grind 50 SNGs 1st session
Dinner brake
Grind 50 more SNGs 2nd session
Check Daily Tracking threads and respond to them
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mision and vision

Quick update
SNG stats were missing 50 games. I skipped adding 50 more games some day that I was updating.
As situation stands in March so far, after 15 days I have 376 SNGs and 19.55 hours grinded.
Updated this the info in tonight's update

Here is the graph for those games in March:

Distribution for those games is : HU 21% vs 16%, Bubble is 16%, 4th and 5th places 18%,6th 7%

March Challenge

Day 16

Worked on the game 1.5 hour on my own
Grinded online CG 1 hour
Grinded 100 SNGs 5.12 hour
Responded to Daily Tracking threads and hands evaluation 0.75 hour
Went for coffee with best friend
Went to dentist + hanged out with my dad a bit
Bought some things for the house
Watched "The 100" 4-5 episodes while grinding SNGs
About to relax and talk with my brother before hitting the bed

Total 8.86 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day.
Started out very weird as coaching session with w34z3l was postponed for tomorrow + my friend fellow reg had life obligations he needed to attend so it was moved!
What I ended up doing is eating breakfast and going for coffee with best friend where I grinded 700 hands or so (1 hour 3 tabling) and then stayed additional 1 hour and 45 minutes to work on the game + help my students. In 1 hour I finished 2 in depth hands analysis from which both were really useful especially for NL100+ where opponents would have different ranges in those river spots - basically learned a lot from it. 45 minutes spent responding to students Daily Tracking threads + responding to certain hands after they have already written out their thinking process.

When I got home I then worked 0.5 hour on specific video focusing on my biggest leaks in CG by going through my DB analysis and writing things (potential leaks) down in notepad which I plan to cover in depth with w34z3l. Then it was time for dentist where I spent about 45 minutes with my dad, great part of it was that we talked a lot and really enjoyed it. When getting home, shopped some things for home, ate lunch and then went onto SNG grind.
Speaking of grind, in 100 SNGs I was down 20 buy ins which is just super standard SNG experience really. One of those days where setups are going on left and right + stronger hands not holding up. Despite of it am satisfied with my focus with 3-4 questionable river bluff catches that could have been avoided. Solid for returning to 100 games a day - look forward to 100 games tomorrow, it will be much more difficult to keep this up with coaching sessions and working with the fellow reg(s) but I will push through it these remaining 2 weeks making it really count.

CG grind on the other hand was great, similar to yesterday. Even tough it was Monday and not weekend, I managed to make a bit over 3 buy ins in 700 hands which is great. What was more important is that I am more and more in control of every single spot and range consturction + brake down post flop. This is what brought me to CG and what is keeping me with high intensity to think and get energy to study it day in and day out, just fascinating stuff really.
I am sure I am still making mistakes (if I wasn't would be playing mid stakes already lol) , but far less compared to how I was playing for example 2 or 1 month ago! So improvement in CG is starting to show which I am definitely happy about and thrilled with. Look forward to April and 40k hands in it + getting additional 10.5k hands in March!
Tomorrow CG coaching with w34z3l + working with fellow reg (scrazy from Poker Strategy!) both to which I very much look forward to. Expect update about it tomorrow obviously

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 38.5/45 hours
Coaching 21.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 6/12 hours
CG grind 44/60 hours
SNG grind 24.67/100 hours (476/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
111.5/300 Study hours
65.25/300 Coaching sessions
278.97/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
16/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (17th of March):
Wake up by 9:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Work with fellow reg scrazy 11-12 reviewing hands with detailed thinking process
CG coaching with w34z3l 12-1:30pm continue with video review from my recorded session + start with biggest leak in my game plan
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind CG 1 hour 2-4pm
Lunch brake with some tv show + responding to Daily Threads
Coaching with Darko 6-7pm or more
Starting with SNG grind 1st session 50 games from 7:30 or 8
Dinner brake
Grinding 2nd SNG session of 50 games
Updating blog and challenge + reflecting on mision and vision
*Arrange time to meet with fellow reg that I always work with for additional 0.5 hour at least!*

Hello Ivice, sry for late response... A bunch of work in my job, we are running late with some tasks, so working overtime and then weekend grind and gig in Novi Sad...just didnt have the time to answer back. Maybe if i have time management like you do, i would have find the time... But im definitely trying to organize my time much better so i can achieve much more. And your experience has gave me the will. I like to say what one man can do, so can the other!

Thank you for your suggestions about learning materials, i have already find a bunch of it on my own, and it was some that you have already suggested, and some that i didnt know, so thank you on additional material. I already had 4 hours of learning on weekend, so a lot of things confirmed in my head, and new lines of thinking open. Will do my best to keep on improving.

Currently im mixing PLO with CG, cause i left Stars sngs to play on smaller rooms, where i can find a lot of fishes and terrible players, and the reason why im playing more PLO and finding materials for it is that, some times there is no traffic on CG, everyone plays PLO, and they play horible! So even with variance, i make more money in PLO than in CG sometimes. Thats why im learning new format just to get some insurance and basic strategy and to not spew, and to exploit them even more! For now its going really good. But i think it will be even better when i go trough as much material as i can. My main problem is my job. Cant focus only on poker, and dont have that much time for learning and grinding. Every day i have 9h less for poker. Poker is one thing to do, and i understand you when you say that you dont want any distractions by girls, when you have so much to do... But you cant stay alone for whole your life, you have to find someone for you, so im really hoping that you will do like you sad, to go "hunting" in a year or so. ♦

And about performing in Nis, i hope i will arrange something in near future. I wrote down all the places you mentioned, and will make a contact with them as soon as i can! And if i succeed to arrange something, i'll let you know for sure!
Sadly im not in Nis on 19th, but i hope in future there will be chance for us to meet down there, weather you or i playing! ♦
Big thank you on your response, and for such a long reply!
Keep up the good work!

Looking forward for more interesting things in your yearly challenge and your progress. And to your graphs and hand analysis like you did the other day! I dont remember what was the number of hand, but i didnt agree with your call AQs all in, or something like that, even if you have the read on that guy, cause that was flip decision, and even if you got that situation right, you dont want to fight with variance too, expecialy on stars, where set ups like good mornings ♦ not yet, cause you still have to think on your family and BR and stuffs like that, when you get that out of your way, i would agree with that call, but now, that is still a fold considering your current situation (thats only my opinion)

(one more thing, im glad that you started to reading your book! finally! i remember that you were in gevgelija and in your challenge there was that book mentioned, but you didn't read a single page! i wanted to fool around with you about that, cause you were chrushing almost everything in your challenge, but your book had that sad 0 next to its name. but now im happy you managed to find even more time, and to read the book.)

March Challenge

Day 17

Had a CG coaching session with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Worked with fellow PS reg scrazy 1 hour on the game
Meet with best friend for coffee
Grinded online CG 2.5 hours
Coached Darko 1 hour
Meet with fellow reg for coffee and to catch up
Read more of Robin Sharma's book "Leader Without a Title"
Grinded SNGs 2.61 hours (40 games)
Studied on my own additional 1 hour (video 30 minutes and going through hands from today)

Total 9.11 hours of Poker activity.

Very pleased with productivity today.
Morning started with coaching with w34z3l. We did 0.5 hour video review from session I recorded last week. Some interesting spots came up within 5-10 minutes of video. It seems like it will take us really long time to go over the whole video in depth and discuss all the possible wrong lines that I might have taken in certain spots. I very much look forward to this as I am improving daily and definitely want to improve more and faster if possible. Remaining 1 hour of the session we looked into what I consider personally to be my biggest leak. w34z3l wrote down 10+ filters for DB analysis and we just ran quickly through some hands using 3-4 filters in the actual session. We found leaks (of course!) which made me very happy because it shoved me that my doubts were correct and I do need to improve in that specific area. We wrote down what 2-3 leaks were and I have made mental note + decision to review daily filters from today to improve the plays. Overall super productive and useful coaching as always. Next one is on Thursday which we will again do the same model (0.5 video review, 1 hour of hh and leak finding/fixing). In the meanwhile as I mentioned, I will daily run 1 or 2 filters (depending on how much time I can take out for studying that day) and just go for as many hands as possible to label them. I still want to continue in depth hand analysis but it is very unlikely that I can maintain 3 hands per day since 1 can take up to 1 hour or more and my time management doesn't have 3 hours just for it (unfortunately) - with less financial pressure I can definitely see myself grinding less and dedicating even more hours to studying but not there yet to make it happen in order to move up to mid stakes faster.

Working with fellow reg was great! We took 1 hand and it took us close to 1.5 hour really to finish it. It was 3 bet pot HJ vs BTN and the board run out was so cool that we ended up with like 4 different conclusions and lines that we could be taking. Funny thing is that we analyzed the hand like it went x/c flop x/c turn and river shove, when in fact hand went like x/c flop x/x turn and under bet river ♦ Regardless of it, I learned so much from the way we did the hand but we will look into the original line on Thursday when we shall do another session together. Thanks my friend very useful stuff - guys you should follow scrazy, he has a blog here on PS and is playing NL50+ ZOOM with emphasis on NL100+ also.
I did 1 hour of studying on my own by watching 0.5 video and 0.5 hour going through today's hands. Sent some to w34z3l but overall happier day by day how my game plan especially post flop and adjusting + readjusting is happening. Expect great things to happen with CG road I am taking just have to stick with such high pace and intensity to push myself for more. I really feel I am missing like 2-3 more hours per day that I would like to use for CG for sure (not to mention for other life activities, could use 48 instead of 24h really!). Once I get to NL100 I can consider doing 8 hours of poker daily but grinding 3 hours, coaching 1 and working on the game 4 hours - that would be ideal formula to get me to NL200+ eventually which will be my next target obviously.

CG grind went very well. My focus was great, thinking process was there, I felt very much in the control of it all. I decided instead of 1 hour to grind 2.5 hours total since I had videos to render on laptop and while waiting for it decided to grind some more. Also in the evening added 3rd table to be NL50 instead of 3x NL25. Think I was doing fairly well in that 1.5 hour session until I lost a big hand in multiway vs another fellow PS reg who is in my opinion (from what I've read on forum from him) probably one of the best regs that I know around right now that is not coach or leading blog or anything like that. Added him via community tool, hopefully we can do some work together in the future, I feel that I can get a very valuable information from him as he played NL200 now is doing NL50 and NL100 on Stars ZOOM and prepping for NL200 (which I believe he is already ready for). I will not post the hand that I lost even tough I feel that over 90% of the time I have value bet when betting flop bet/calling raise turn and then betting river again after all this time he x/c x/r and x/c river to bluff catch. From GTO I like his bluff catch a lot but since he had no reads on me I am not liking it in vacuum at all especially cause it was a multiway hand to start with. Would love to talk to him more about the hand (wrote him PM earlier tonight) and then go for more strategy discussion if he is open for it of course.
Overall CG went well but I am most happy that I am marking dozen hands in session, taking very important notes in all the spots that make sense to me(and timing out yes!) + feeling that NL50 is back for grabs as soon as I build up roll with SNGs.

Coaching with Darko went great. We did sweat session and I pushed Darko to go beyond his limits, increase number of tables and try to get his unconscious competence to kick in and auto pilot. This was done on purpose to see what parts of his game are leaking as I asked him to comment on every single hand both when he was involved or when others were to think of ranges pre and post flop and how to play the hand "correctly". We did spot 3 leaks during the session. Great news is that from those 3, 1 is something that all the players make on all SNG limits the other 2 will just require him to keep reviewing his ranges. Overall very happy how it went and Darko still has tons of place for improvement but his development so far has been great. I can definitely see him becoming pro and making a living with SNGs if he sticks with current habits and pace!

Grinded only 40 SNGs. Traffic was bad and I just started to feel tired to wait for more games. Initial idea was to do 75 games instead of 100 and that's what I put in the Sharkystrator but it didn't work out due to traffic issue. Took me 2.61 hours to grind 40 games. Results wise was up then down, SNGs card distribution late game, variance, HU getting setuped vs aggressive opponents etc. Happy that I did put some games in as by the end of the month realistic target will be more like 1.5k total games especially if I go to Belgrade for 2 days for Berklee event that I got invited to today.

Tomorrow/today Partizan Belgrade plays cup game vs Jagodina at 6pm so I definitely plan to watch that which can greatly affect my grinding. In terms of other things it should be the same if not more since I will not have coaching session and those 1.5 hours can make up with watching the Partizan game but SNG grind can be affected as I will start it very late.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 40.5/45 hours
Coaching 22.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 7.5/12 hours
CG grind 46.5/60 hours
SNG grind 27.28/100 hours (516/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
113.5/300 Study hours
66.25/300 Coaching sessions
284.08/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
17/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (18th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast, go for some grocery shoping and run the laundry
Working on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum 11-12
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind CG 1 hour
Lunch brake
Study 1 more hour minimum by doing leak fixing in my biggest leak area + prepare for w34z3l's coaching on Thursday
Respond to Daily Tracking threads from students and in hand evaluation board (1 hour minimum)
Watch Partizan Belgrade vs Jagodina game 6-8pm
Dinner brake
Grind either 75 SNGs in 1 session or do 2 x 50 SNGs depending on energy levels
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

@boriz23

Man, you sure like to write in detail like I do, guess we have that in common also ♦

Thanks for responding with such in depth information really - that was awesome.
Hope that my daily updates especially with time management can guide you in the right direction. We don't all have same priorities in life but the most important things in my opinion are figuring out what matters the most to you and then finding time for it. Also realizing that maintaining balance is super difficult and almost never possible thing to do unless you have tons of money and don't need to work at all. Something always has to give basically. In my case I am putting emphasis on studying, grinding 2 formats and coaching my students giving them best possible value out there. I am of course missing tons of time for things I would love to do like playing guitar and performing, teaching guitar and music, hanging out with my family more often, attending CrossFit full time again, dating some girl in some perspective (this one I miss the least cause I can always hook up) All these things I would like to do but financial situation we are in as a family doesn't allow me to be lazy and selfish and think of my needs only.
So I guess point I am making is that even when you figure out your priorities make sure to evaluate your life situation right now and steps you need to take to make it better and constantly improve. I personally feel that once I reach NL100 with 3bb+/100 on ZOOM that my life will get even more rewards (don't get me wrong I love my life every single day and feel blessed to live it and wake up alive every morning!). Why? I will be playing game format that is never going to die on any site/network (CG) and my hourly will be higher than I could ever make in SNGs + space to improve even that hourly and keep improving as a player. That alone will be huge accomplishment considering that 6 max SNGs are slowly dying (lobby for 15s+ at least) and that hourly there is capped (still can earn 3k post RB but for ridiculous low hourly compared to CG) + switching to CG is not easy at all considering that every mistake is very costly vs SNGs where you can cruise with good card distribution and feel like you are the boss. Therefore I will be able to work less hours, still make great living but take additional hours in my day to do things I truly love and enjoy doing like guitar playing, performing and teaching, attending Cross Fit 3 times per week, going out more and traveling frequently visiting my family in Belgrade and Herceg Novi. Those things make me feel complete you know and all you need to do is find the the things that do the same for you in your life and follow up on them. In my case also, my brother needs to start crushing 7s and get to 15s by the end of this year so that financially I can have even more freedom to save money for my dream travel destinations (Japan and Thailand for starters) + investing in other businesses (Music related of course).

Glad you already knew about those materials. I am sure they will serve you greatly if you follLow up on required assignments. I feel there is so much valuable information here on PS but people are not willing to study and do whats required to learn and apply it all (at least majority). No wonder why there is very small % of winning players in poker overall, most give up sooner or later or realize how many consistent and long hours they need to be doing. Hard way to make an easy living right?

PLO is fun but variance like I said is brutal. If you found gold mine with tons of fishes, good for you, dig it I guess Overall I dislike this concept because in long run it always back fires. What happens when that particular room looses those clients or they get better? You keep moving rooms? Searching for more fishes? Isn't like the whole point of poker competing with yourself, proving to yourself daily that you can keep improving and eventually reach like highest games and play with the best? Playing with fish is just what it is, you can never improve as a player long term if you just chase fish. From money stand point I understand but long term I don't. This is why I choose to play ZOOM on Stars and not to go to some lame room or network and bum hunt weaker players. Despite the fact that I could use more money now in my life, the process of improvement is way more important in my opinion. Staying on Stars, playing better regs daily actually pushes me a lot harder to work hard and improve eventually getting to goals I set. If I went to for example 888 poker, I am sure I would have like double digit bb/100 but then where is the improvement part in that when there will be fewer opponents to challenge you. So I would say consider balancing out that gold mine room and another one with tougher field to improve as a player or simply keep digging the gold but find lots of time and motivate yourself to study and improve - that is never a bad thing and can only benefit your earning and improve you as a player overall.

FT job vs poker. Very common thing for most guys. I was doing guitar lessons still when I started with poker. Eventually I stopped because I saw how much more +EV poker is financially. Emotionally it will never be the same of course cause music is something I love doing and get emotions running with it, poker I love doing but emotions in this job are pretty limited (can simplify it to joy and happiness when I study and discover new things and sadness or upset when I make a mistake by misplaying a certain hand or spot). But anyways , back to FT job vs poker, I suggest you also pick what is most +EV in the long run. For example, poker is very tricky thing long run unless you are ready to move or be willing to super adapt to other game formats and constantly improve as game is always evolving and better opponents (new generation of players) is more and more setting new standards for the games. In regular job you have steady pay (hopefully) benefits (again hopefully) and your responsibility is limited (in terms of your mental game, tactical approach, stress levels etc). So when I lay out things like that, regular job definitely has its advantages over poker but also disadvantages. Main advantage of poker is the fact that we live in Serbia where people get in Nis for example 200 euro salary per month. In poker your hourly depends on your level of knowledge, mental game and bankroll + stakes and sites that you play. So poker for me seems like a perfect profession for making money for investments, retirement and buying yourself freedom of TIME to do things you actually love doing (for everybody this is different of course, already mentioned my things). With traditional job you can get fired without fault of your own (ex tough economic times, company downsizing etc) and then you are left on the street without alternative? Also poker as a job and as a hobby requires total different approach. Many times I have mentioned this, I will say it again, most grinders who make a living (lets call them pros cause they make a living playing poker only) even they don't treat poker as a job so to say. They might grind 100 hours a month, some way more 150 or so, but then they don't spend enough time leak fixing and figuring out additional edges in their games. While in traditional job or any job that you lead (imagine you were your own boss), you would constantly have to look for which areas of your work need improvement and how to bring more profit for your company and at the same time provide great quality and value to your customers! So that's how I approach poker and from daily updates you can kinda sense and feel that I don't fuck around with it, everything I plan in advance and do my best to follow up on my word and promises cause man without integrity is no man at all.
As far as no distractions with girls go, I do it intentionally for reasons I already mentioned. There is no certainty ever with girls and I certainly don't plan to settle just for the sake of having wife to provide me kids. If I don't fall in love and don't feel she is the one for me I will simply not get involved for life. With such things I don't plan to rush. I can see myself getting married after 35 (31 now) and before that dedicating all my time and energy to becoming best I can and maximizing profits in poker. Also keep in mind that some people date for 5+ years and then in marriage get divorced after 1 year and some meet and after 1 month have happily ever after marriage. I see it that it is all about choosing the right woman that you love and feel your relationship will last forever - even slightest doubts about things that matter to you can jeopardize this. In my case my future wife must support the fact that I will always want to do music,poker, be always there for my family and my best friend, provide absolute best value for my students and clients in whatever work that I do... If she thinks and says stuff like "But Poker is gambling you could loose it all" automatic disqualification, go read on it if you don't want me to tell you about it (we all know how impossible and pointless is to change woman mind - once they set it in their head it is set in stone and you will just waste time trying to change it).
Anyways those are my 2 cents on long term gf and marriage in future. I want you to know that I nor You have to do anything about it. It can happen or not happen. You can choose what steps you want to take if it really matters to you to have wife and kids. I can choose different path. That doesn't mean that yours is right mine is wrong or vice versa, just means that we have different outlook on those things. If it matters and counts for something, I would like to have wife and kids one day but I will not do it for the sake of doing it, I want to be in love with my wife and look forward to us living rest of our lives together every day. Don't really see myself going through wifes like people in USA do with high divorce rates (Serbia is going really high lately also btw) cause getting married and buying a car is not the same thing IMO ♦
You will be the 1st one to know when I go for some hunting for sure so no worries

Very happy that you are looking forward to more things happening with yearly challenge and progress. I feel that in this year I am progressing at very high pace and that it is very difficult to see how I will finish the whole year. My hopes are hitting my target for CG and switching to it FT or at least having another option in my poker career to choose to play between SNGs and CG very successfully with high hourly. If that doesn't happen I will not be sad as long as I keep giving my best. If I procrastinate, find excuse or play victim then that is when I will feel bad and sad towards myself (like most people do). I won't ever allow that to happen cause they only person in charge of my success and failure is me and I control my destiny in poker not somebody else. Of course I am grateful and super excited that I get to study with w34z3l + study with 2 fellow regs on daily basis and have such a great community here on PS that supports me. These things mean a lot to me and they are just a wind that can keep pushing me in positive direction to keep pushing. At the end of the day it all comes down to what I am willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals and 1 thing that you can figure out about me by now is that I embrace sacrifice and am willing to work hard like a fanatic to get what I feel I deserved fully - something that is a great quality I feel in every top class performer in whatever their field of work/career/life calling is.

If you decide to come to Nis, let me know for sure, would definitely find time to hang out for coffee and talk more about music, life , girls and stuff

Took forever to write you this response but hopefully it made some sense and hit some important points I am trying to make.

All the best and thanks for being around and making such valuable insights from following the blog!

March Challenge

Day 18

Worked on the game with fellow reg 1 hour + 1 hour on my own
Talked strategy and life stuff over Skype with brutal reg today over 1.5 hours (can count 0.5 hour at least for strategy discussion)
Grinded online CG 3.5 hours
Watched Partizan Belgrade - Jagodina game
Watched some of Barcelona vs City game
Meet with best friend for coffee
Watched with my brother 2 new tv shows
Considering to take some time off in near future

Total 6 hours of Poker related activities

Not a very productive day mostly due to things moving from my regular time management and getting messed up.

Will not write a long update today but rather mention that connecting with brutal reg was really awesome and that in the near future we will start working together a bit which I am thrilled about.
Also my CG grind today was OK up until final session of the day where I went on to swing like 6-7 stacks mostly due to my bad plays. So definitely played with lots of pressure which is really stressing me out a tons.
Talked with my brother tonight, told him that the pressure is really getting to me and that I am considering to take a brake to recharge and motivate myself to grind some SNGs as well. Truth is that I feel in love with CG and I would just like to do CG all day long with no SNGs. If there wasn't need for money for all of us I could and definitely would end up doing that simply because it is most +EV way for me to improve and reach goals I have set.
Reality however is that I should keep earning at least like 1.5k per month to maintain our family expenses. I am not there yet with CG, actually seems like a distant future with sessions like tonight's while in SNGs I can comfortably make that easily if I grind steady. Tonight I knew I should grind SNGs but I choose CG instead!
So the way I see things resolving, me getting back on path with SNGs as well is following:
- Finish up with CG goal for this month in next couple of days (2-3 days max)
- After finishing up with CG recreate new time management for the rest of the month with emphasis on SNGs only for grind
- Taking a day or two off from any grinding or poker really to just clear my mind, read more of Sharma's book and think through best possible schedule to stick to for the remaining of month.

Feel this could and should be highest EV. I will play CG 2 more days for example to hit my goal for this months volume 40k hands (34k so far). I can then use all my morning times until 6pm or so to review my CG, do DB analysis and leak fixing with in depth hand review. I can also consider instead of waiting to start grinding at 6pm or so SNGs to do like 4-6pm mixing 7s and 15s to fill in the traffic more. The whole point with SNGs will be to make money so I may end up playing more than 100 per day in last 10 days of the month. Of course this doesn't mean that I will end up in profit or loss in such small sample, the point is to keep consistent 1.5k volume in 10 months total to make at least 15k from SNGs which will be enough for family expenses steady until end of the year. The rest of the winnings should come after I improve in CG until I eventually switch to it FT.
So the way things look now is, next 2 days CG grind 3k hands in each of the days 3 tabling (4.5 hours of grind each day or so) ; after that putting even more hours into CG study but going for minimum 100 games per day on 15s + consider adding early afternoon session for mixing 7s and 15s to get those 15 tables going.

Will post time management for each day like I always do but this seems like most likely scenario in my mind.

Tomorrow/today CG with w34z3l - very much look forward to his opinion and advice on this approach. One thing is for sure - I will keep studying and working hard on CG and I expect that things will click eventually really strong. Right now I feel in some sessions that I am absolutely crushing it and in some I do some unthinkable mistakes and leaks. It is also really important to me that I see the things I am unsure of and I am now obsessed with learning and fixing all those leaks I feel I have. This type of swinging between A and D level of game is not good in CG so I need to keep working and improve both back and front end of my game + improve my auto pilot. In SNGs I don't have this problem as I 15 table and watch TV shows on the 2nd monitor in the background (listen mostly but also catch to watch some scenes :). This was unthinkable when I was starting, it took a lot of hard work on my end to get there. It will take even more for CG I can say now with 100% certainty because I want to prove myself on Stars not on some weaker site/network vs weaker opponents (in future playing on my own I might decide to play NL200 on some weaker sites and stay on Stars NL100 during the day for traffic reasons of course). Feel like I am starting to learn poker all over again which is fun - wish I had no financial pressure tough, this would be so much easier but no need to play victim here - when life gives you lemons make a lemonade you know

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 43/45 hours
Coaching 22.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 7.5/12 hours
CG grind 50/60 hours
SNG grind 27.28/100 hours (516/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
116/300 Study hours
66.25/300 Coaching sessions
287.58/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
17/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (19th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching with w34z3l 11-12:30
Working on the game with fellow reg minimum 1 hour 1-2pm
Go for coffee with best friend and grind CG 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind 2x 1.5 hour sessions CG
Dinner brake
Grind 1 more hour of CG
Rest of the night spend doing following: respond to Daily Tracking threads + hands posted in forum; look into hands/work on the game from that specific day; go through database using filters from w34z3l sessions; take time off to regenerate

weren't you making around 10k per month at some point ? what happened ?

Ivice brate ajmo do Granda na turnir ♦

Originally posted by gvcp
weren't you making around 10k per month at some point ? what happened ?

Just a smile is enough for this type of post
Read the blog sir and find me a place where I said I made 10k per month.
Whole CG switch from SNG idea is to improve as a player and get to beat NL100+ so that I can eventually have 10k+ post RB months. NL200 SNE guys have it, NL100 guys who play other softer networks with weaker player pool and higher RB have it. So it is possible to have it of course, just requires a lot of work on my part as tendencies for SNG and CG are totally different and takes a lot of time to over adjust in some spots.

Originally posted by alexhertz
Ivice brate ajmo do Granda na turnir ♦

No live tournaments for me I play them with my brother and best friend. In Gevgelija I played satelite to cash in that ticket.
When I come to Belgrade we can have some coffee talk poker and life stuff especially if you are Partizan Belgrade fan !

All the best and welcome to PS!

March Challenge

Day 19

Coaching with w34z3l 1.5+ hours
Grinded online CG 4.75 hours (3084 hands 3 tabling)
Responded to Daily Tracking threads and made 5 huge responses regarding game plan questions 1.5 hours
Studied on my own 2 hours (4 hands completed with in depth thinking process)
Had a 1.5 hour nap after lunch in the afternoon in between CG sessions to regenerate
Read some more of Sharma's book "Leader Without a Title" (really loving it - can relate to material in the book so much right now)

Total 9.75 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day - very happy about it!
I didn't meet with best friend today and I rescheduled my dentist appointment also for Tuesday next week. Whole idea was to do 3k hands today, help students and get back on track with in depth hand analysis to keep fixing my CG leaks.

Session with w34z3l like always was phenomenal. We talked about so much today and I am happy that we agreed on what I need to work on the most + what we will be focusing on and doing in future sessions.
I prefer not to go too much into detail cause if I do other regs reading might exploit me but just trust me when I say I feel I will finally get rid of my biggest leak in CG and results should follow very soon with it.
I am also very happy that w34z3l supports my suggestions/decisions and shows patience with me. Really appreciate it and I can't wait to get to CG money printing period because he deserves every single $ and some more with his approach as human being and as fantastic coach.

Coaching my students was in form of responding in our private forum. Kornel asked 5 questions that had sub questions in it about very specific spots as part of game plan.
I took over 1.5 hour to respond to them all in great detail with assignments suggestion for each area. Also decided that I will do minimum 1 video on this once I finish CG this month and dedicate to SNG grind only (from day Saturday that is!). I feel my students will gain a lot of insight into this game plan adjustment and advanced edges visually as well as I plan to cover each concept and show how to approach the assignments. Should be tons of fun, look forward making such video.

Grinding was OK. Again I had bad plays but ended in profit with lots of swinging of the stacks. Regardless of the profit which really doesn't matter to me in CG right now, I am just focusing to recognize all the mistakes in game as well as outside of tables when doing analysis to more quickly identify troubling hands and spots for in depth analysis required.
Working on the game took 4 hands and did them in 2 hours or a bit more. Posted all of them in Skype discussion group, hopefully other regs will share their opinion on them. Each hand was very interesting and discoveries I made are super useful for such spots in future. Look forward continuing to build on such knowledge.

Needed a nap in the afternoon because I went to bed around 5am last night and woke up around 10:30am, so through out the day rest was needed as I felt my focus was weaker at times also despite eating well and drinking over 2ls of water today and frequently.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 45/45 hours
Coaching 24.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 9/12 hours
CG grind 54.75/60 hours
SNG grind 27.28/100 hours (516/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
118/300 Study hours
67.75/300 Coaching sessions
292.33/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
21/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (20th of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Work on the game with fellow reg 1 hour minimum
If he is not available then do 1 hour on my own hands from yesterday continuing with indepth analysis
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind CG 1 hour
Lunch brake
Grind CG 1 hour
Short brake
Grind CG 1.5 hour
Dinner brake
Grind CG 1.5 hour more to finish up with grind target for this month
Remaining of the night spend on studying 1 more hour minimum reviewing hands from that day + check Daily Tracking threads on private forum
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mision and vision

i didn't mean to upset you, i haven't read the PS forum for a few months and last night i read your last posts and was just wondering, my bad :).

what was your biggest downswing in CGs? I also moved from STTs to CGs and I am facing a 40bi down at 10NL in 15k hands or so. Start to think was a mistake switching games.

Originally posted by gvcp
i didn't mean to upset you, i haven't read the PS forum for a few months and last night i read your last posts and was just wondering, my bad :).

No problem whatsoever Your post sounded somewhat offensive - which is the problem with internet vs live communication anyways. Sorry for misinterpreting your intentions!
To answer your question, I have 4% + ROI on 15s while 15 tabling pre RB that is. That roughly comes to 1$ per game post RB so if I grind like 3k games monthly and get to 36.7% ITM I can count on that ROI and winnings very often. Of course with poker and variance things are never monthly set in stone but on larger sample of say 5k+ games I can get to that ROI.
This year I will most likely either go for 1.5k games from March to end of the year to hit 15k games total or play 1.5k games as long as I don't get to making even or a bit higher hourly on CG and then make the switch.
I need about 1.5k to make monthly just to cover family expenses so based on those needs I want to play minimum possible SNGs to maintain those. On the other hand I care a lot about working on CG, grinding, improving in that area and switching permanently to it. If that happens in next 2-3-4 months , say that I get to NL50 and on sample of 100k hands I have over 4bb/100 3 tabling, then I will make a permanent switch to CG which will still get me same money with profit splitting with my coach (1.5k+ for each of us) but on the other hand I will be able to focus then all my energy and time on improving my win rate and moving to NL100 ZOOM by the end of the year for positive win rate.
All this should eventually lead to me making 5k+ per month on NL100 ZOOM post RB and then considering following options: 1) Continuing to play NL100, go for NL200 ZOOM and setting some SNE target (10k post rb with BE win rate) or 2) Moving my roll on softer networks and sites, playing in the evening them when there is traffic for NL100+ and during day playing NL100 ZOOM on Stars to maintain great hourly and high quality of play.
Plan is very solid and I strongly believe I will get there - doing my best to get there anyways and that is all that matters in the end!
Worse case scenario, this year if I don't get to NL100 3bb/100 ZOOM , then I will have tons of time dedicated to studying improving and actually becoming way better player + can always revert back to SNGs expecting to maintain 1$ per game post RB type of win rate minimum.

Originally posted by georgelboss
what was your biggest downswing in CGs? I also moved from STTs to CGs and I am facing a 40bi down at 10NL in 15k hands or so. Start to think was a mistake switching games.

Good question georgelboss. It is hard to give answer to that question becomes I am quite new in CGs and feel that saying stuff like 20bi would be wrong here. I think more important questions you need to ask yourself are: 1) How much am I studying and reviewing game ? 2) Is my thinking process correct post flop ? 3) Do I understand tendencies of opponents I am playing against? 4) Am I absolutely sure about my game plan pre and pot flop and how to adjust it? 5) What am I doing to improve more as a player daily and stay ahead of the competition?
If your answer to these question is positive, you have nothing to worry about. Roll yourself with 50BI and it should be enough to overcome swings especially on micros.
If it counts for something, I had in 20k hands something like 40BI swing on NL50 or so (I forget now to be honest exact amount). The most important thing about this period is that I realized that my game plan has flaws, that SNGs are way different from CG (already knew this but not for river spots for example and action which is crucial adjustment) and my river calling off betting strategy was and still is somewhat flawed.
So what am I doing to change this? Get coaching and help from w34z3l,watch training videos take notes try to understand concepts and apply them in games + work with 3 regs who play from NL25 to NL200 ZOOM going through hand histories discussing theory and ranges together. Daily I also study hands on my own that went to river in different scenarios and I do in depth hand analysis. Many of the flop textures are now much more clear to me in terms of range vs range or specific hand vs opponent range (think GTO and exploitable lines - practicing and learning both!). Again I am still a BIG FISH and a BEGINNER but I am HAPPY with where I am right now - considering how much studying analyzing and understanding + adjusting is required from SNGs to CG this is phenomenal in terms of my improvement past couple of months.

If I had to make a prediction, I would say that in next 2 months I will reach positive 4bb+/100 on NL50 ZOOM on around 100k hands or so sample which leaves remaining of the year in depth studying of all flop textures for range vs range in single multiway 3 bet and 4 bet pots IP and OOP getting to that GTO level of play to prepare and comfortably beat NL100 by the end of the year.

Tons of work ahead of me and I am sure ahead all of us who are really looking to learn this CG appropriately not just skim through things and act like we know it all when in reality there is so much you can learn - possibilities are endless really!

If you need some help or advice how to beat lower limits I would be happy to help. Shoot me a message and I will send you some video suggestions from PS. Also check my response to boriz23 from couple of days ago as I already recommended tons of videos in that response.

All the best and wish you to crush those micros and move up soon!

March Challenge

Day 20

Worked on the game total 4 hours
Grinded online CG 4.5 hours but completed target of 40k hands for the month!
Meet with best friend for coffee and we went to 2 separate places
Went with best friend for lunch at my favorite restaurant
Connected with another regular on NL100 ZOOM + talked 1 hour outside of working on the game
Created CG study plan for remaining 10 days of the month

Total 8.5 hours of Poker activity.

Another very productive day
Working on the game consisted of 3 areas. Working on my own, working with reg that I work with the most and working with new reg that I connected today with.
On my own I spent 1 hour watching 2 videos and taking notes to recap my game plan in areas I felt needed polishing.
Working with my friend reg lasted 1.5 hours and we went over 4 hands which we analyzed in depth. We analyzed more hands then that but wrote in depth only 4 of them!
Connected with another reg who plays NL100 ZOOM. We worked on the game 1.5 hours and talked another 1 hour on top of that. Very nice times and happy to connect with another fellow CG player, exchange experiences and life stories with. Feel that we will all benefit in the long run with such connecting and helping each other out.

Grinding went very well. I think I made about 7 buy ins or so pre RB on 3k hands on NL25. Profit really again doesn't concern me at all right now, I am just aware that despite it I made some bad plays. Excellent news is that today at most times I was playing between my B and B+ game which resulted in tons of profit. The times where I was losing I was either 1) thinking that I was making a correct play but had tendency wrong in that spot 2) getting some urge to bluff catch in those specific spots.
I am much happier with today's mental game and improvement in tactical approach. I feel that I have made tons of great adjustments on NL25 today which resulted in profit.

Grinding for March is finished since I hit 40k hands that I arranged with w34z3l. Remaining 10 days of the month I will focus on grinding 100 SNGs each day and during the day I will spend minimum 2 hours on working on my CG game. This will include going over 40k hands in this months database, looking for leaks in specific area, writing down correct ways to adjust and then applying it in future games. I am sure I will find tons of them so I really look forward to next 20 hours of studying, it should bring some eye opener and aha type moments/discoveries.
I might in next 10 days add some CG grinding hour here or there since the target was 60 hours and I have now 59.25 (40 minutes left to complete it) ♦

Tomorrow working on the game scheduled with brutal reg that I wrote about earlier. Really look forward to it as I feel it will be very beneficial session.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 49/45 hours
Coaching 24.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 9/12 hours
CG grind 59.25/60 hours
SNG grind 27.28/100 hours (516/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
122/300 Study hours
67.75/300 Coaching sessions
296.88/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
25/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (21st of March):
Wake up by 11am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Work on the game with fellow reg 1 hour (start with specific leak finder)
Meet with best friend for a coffee and instead of grinding do 1 to 2 in depth hand analysis using same leak finder from morning
Lunch brake
Respond to Daily Tracking threads and hands posted on private forum
Work on the game with brutal reg 1 hour
Diner brake
50 SNGs 1st session
Brake and drinking tons of water
50 SNGs 2nd session
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mision and vision

March Challenge

Day 21

Worked on the game 2 hours
Grinded 100 SNGs 4.93 hours
Responded to Daily Tracking threads 0.5 hour
Went for coffee with best friend
Watched Newcastle vs Arsenal game
Watched with my brother Red Star game

Total 7.43 hours of Poker activity.

Productive day - happy with things accomplished today!
Went to bed at 6am, woke up around 12. Took me 30-45 minutes to get going so I went for coffee with best friend around 1:30pm or so. While there I worked on the game 45 minutes with fellow reg. It was very useful and I look forward continuing to do it tomorrow also.
Prefer not to go into great detail what I was covering in studying but I discovered 3 things from it just doing 45 minutes with reg and 1 hour 15 minutes on my own. Covered 68 hands in 2 hours, took notes for all the ones where I could have done things differently, marked them also to cover with w34z3l in some future sessions as well.
Main part of the day, afternoon, spent with my brother and best friend where we watched football games. Because of it I had to postpone working on the game with brutal reg today for tomorrow. I am really excited about it and look forward to what he will say. After watching 1st half of the Red Star game, I went on to work on the game 1 hour and 15 minutes (even more). I basically went over all the rest of the hands from the filter I assigned. As I mentioned, 3 things discovered that I very much look forward applying in future games.

Responded to Daily Tracking threads of students. Also decided to do videos with 5 questions regarding game plan soon (by the end of the month most likely) and then I plan to do some post flop videos to help them out to crush in that area also. Look forward to it obviously!

Grinding SNGs was faster than usual. Took a bit less than 5 hours since it is weekend and games are loading faster for 15 tabling. Results wise made about 20ish buy ins with HU crushing in the process. I am however not entirely satisfied with my game tonight. In the 2nd session I felt tired (about an hour ago or so) and I am sure I could have saved 2-3 stacks from 100 games but I put some weak autopilot on due to tiredness. I am aware that this might happen occasionally now since I will be doing 100 games per day + maintaining all the CG studying and life activities (keeping strong time management going).
So overall very productive day with aha and wow moments in studying happening.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 51/45 hours
Coaching 24.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 9/12 hours
CG grind 59.25/60 hours
SNG grind 32.22/100 hours (616/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
122/300 Study hours
68.25/300 Coaching sessions
301.81/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
25/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (21st of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with crusher reg at 12
Meet with best friend for coffee + to do 1 hour of filter I did 68 for today (38 more left)
If working with fellow reg goes over 1 hour then postpone coffee for late afternoon instead stay home study 1 more hour and eat lunch + prepare for Partizan game
Lunch brake (short)
Watch Partizan Belgrade vs Cukaricki game 2:30pm-4:30pm
Meet with fellow reg for coffee and exchange some experiences
Grind 50 SNGs 1st session (from 7pm or so depending on meeting with reg)
Diner brake
Grind 50 SNGs 2nd session
Respond to Daily Tracking threads
Update blog and challenge + mision and vision

March Challenge

Day 22

Worked on the game 3 hours
Coached 2.5 hours (responded to all Daily Tracking threads + evaluated about 10 hands)
Grinded online CG 2 hours (NL50 ZOOM)
Watched Partizan Belgrade vs Cukaricki game 2 hours
Watched Partizan Belgrade vs Buducnost game 2 hours
Watched 1st half of El Classico

Total 7.5 hours of Poker activities.

Productive day again - could have been better of course.
Due to all Partizan games, I didn't grind SNGs tonight. I also felt tired and had a headache (Partizan lost in basketball and draw in football) so that had to do with it for sure
Positive things today:
Connected with brutal reg and we actually worked 3 hours. It was very intense and I really enjoyed it. He know a lot of things and I just love it when I meet somebody that loves poker that much that he doesn't find it a obligation or hard to do all this brutal things that require tons of time dedicated in studying.
We looked into my stats but also discussed specific hands and theory. I learned a new line today from him which I will try out in future games but also double check with w34z3l in the meanwhile for limit adjustment
I would say that we covered in depth about 4-5 hands today but really was brutal in terms of how are thinking processes were clicking in communication.
I look forward doing this again with him in near future, perhaps before next weekend even. We already selected area that we will tackle next time which I feel I am lacking and leaking in right now (not for current limits but for NL100+ for sure!).

Coaching students was all in our private forum. I responded to all of their Daily Tracking threads about their assignments questions and observations. I also responded to hands they posted for all the areas in SNGs. Some really great hands that all of them should learn from.
It is very interesting to observe and enjoy development and improvement of certain guys and it is always those that are willing to do the work I assign them. The rest that are in hide out mostly play victim and blame variance for lack of results in their poker career. There is also those that don't blame variance but blame themselves quitely but lack self confidence and grit + fanatic approach to wake up and approach poker as a life career choice not as a game!
Right now uploading post flop video for them. Really look forward to what they will take from this video and then in future games apply. Also look forward into what they will all turn into by the end of this year.
Games have gotten harder, especially due to ante introduction (variance is now bigger) and of course spin and goes. I can predict that with introduction of sports betting soon the games will take another cut.
For their level 3.5$ and 7$ that they currently play, this will not take a great effect. However, if they do plan to do this as a career I can just imagine how crushed they will feel when some of them complain about 7s being more difficult?
All it takes is working harder and smarter than others - following up on those assignments. If I can do it so can anyone. What people don't see when they look at success of some person is the sacriface behind it, willing to do whatever it takes to make it never giving up. I strongly believe this is the point where most people say to themselves "OK,this is just too damn hard, I can't deal with it anymore this is not for me so I QUIT!".
I hope that my students will all become pros and I provide them best value out there always - this is my mision and vision with coaching SNGs.
Like I said earlier in the blog, this year I am not accepting any more students and most likely the way things stand in 2016 I might not be accepting them either.

CG grinding was OK. There are spots that I will check tomorrow that went on today. Ended the session in 1 buy in minus but lost pre flop AKs vs AA (setup) and post flop vs fish who cold called from BB vs BTN 3 bet vs HJ on flop we got it in (pot size bet left) AK on A58 he had A5 yeah baby wohooo ♦
Not worried about it at all, much more control and focus but again still tons of things to keep learning and improving. Every day I wake up and tell myself that I am FISH and that to become GOOD I need to KEEP STUDYING AND IMPROVING CONSISTENTLY. This forumula is very simple and effective, it worked for SNGs don't see the reason why it shouldn't work for CG?

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 54/45 hours
Coaching 27.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 9/12 hours
CG grind 61.25/60 hours
SNG grind 32.22/100 hours (616/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
125/300 Study hours
70.75/300 Coaching sessions
303.81/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
29/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (23rd of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with w34z3l 11-12:30
Work on the game with fellow reg 1 hour
Meet with best friend for coffee and work on the game 1 more hour (specific filter set that I covered yeseterday to finish all the hands!)
Lunch brake
Meet with fellow reg for coffee and some money exchange
Check Daily Tracking threads and hand evaluations
Diner brake
Grind 1st session 50 SNGs
Short brake
Grind 2nd session 50 SNGs
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mision and vision

March Challenge

Day 23

Worked on the game 2.5 hours
Grinded online CG 1.25 hours
Grinded 100 SNGs 4.08 hours
About to coach my brother live sweat 2+ hours UPDATE: Coached my brother 1.5 hour just finished now at 3:41am
Went for coffee with best friend
Meet in the evening with fellow regs

Total 8.88 hours of Poker activity (not including coaching which I will add tomorrow)

Very productive day.
Working on the game
Went through 49 remaining hands using the filter I set 2 days ago or so. Wrote down things in each hand that could be played differently. Learned a lot from it again!
That lasted 1.5 hour. Remaining hour watched 2 videos from which 2nd video I just scratched the surface and I will continue doing it in following days.

Grinding online CG
700 or so hands 3 tabling NL50. Won 1 buy in but had bad plays also. At the time that I made them I was going with my gut feeling which proved me wrong. Basically misplayed the hand in my head 2-3 times,could have saved $ in those spots also.
I am taking notes in every hand that I find interesting which is why I am also timing out a lot 3 tabling. I might need to switch off hot keys feature or just stick to 2 tabling to keep that going. I feel much more confident now with whole game plan and now my post flop is really starting to click.
In April I will try to grind 40k hands in NL50. If variance and bad plays bring me down so be it, I will return to NL25. I feel that my level of play is now much better than it was 2-3 months ago, even 1 month ago. Feel I have gotten grasp of tendencies on the limit + plugged in the leak fixing strong. There is still lots of things to learn and work on but I definitely feel I am on the right path.

Grinding 100 SNGs
I did 100 SNGs in 1 full session. I haven't done that in a really long time and the reason why I did it is because I put on 2 MTTs while grinding them in the background (busted in both of course :).
As you can guess, my endurance during those 4 hours wasn't perfect. I am sure I made mistakes that could have saved me 3-4 stacks at least so I am definitely not thrilled with tonight's level of play.
On the other side, session was very variance heavy and in that sense it doesn't worry me. My ITM droped for a month now close to my regular expectation of 36.7% (36.59%) and I have 4.15% ROI with it now due to bad play from today and 2-3 sessions ago when I was playing tired last 1 hour of the session.
Not worried about it,just making mental note to equipt myself with water chocolate milk and take longer brake if necessary. Also to consider moving grind from 6pm or so not 8pm and finishing it at some decent time so with blog update I can get to bed before 3am (like tonight).

Did 1.5 hours live sweat session with my brother before bed time.

Session with w34z3l rescheduled for tomorrow morning - look forward to it!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 56.5/45 hours
Coaching 28.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 9/12 hours
CG grind 62.5/60 hours
SNG grind 36.30/100 hours (716/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
127.5/300 Study hours
72.25/300 Coaching sessions
309.14/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
29/1000 Hands analyzed in depth
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (24th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with w34z3l 11-12:30
Study 1 hour with fellow reg (start with 2nd filter)
Meet with best friend for coffee and study 1 more hour hands from 2nd filter or grind NL50 ZOOM
Lunch brake
Dentist appointment 5pm
Brake and regenerate with lots of water
Grind 50 SNGs
Diner brake
Grind 50 more SNGs
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision