Making a living with STT SNGs

March Challenge

Day 24

CG coaching with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 5.25 hours
Coached SNGs 1.5 hours
Went to dentist
Watched Following and Better Call Saul
Had a 1.5 hours nap
Exchanged thinking process with brutal reg over skype for around 1-1.5 hours
Read more of Robin Sharma's "The Leader Who Had No Title" (up to page 100 now)

Total 8.25 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day.

CG coaching with w34z3l
We did NL50 ZOOM live sweat. In 1 hour I made about 2 or 3 mistakes. Felt very much in control of the game, was 3 tabling and saying thinking process for every single hand with plan on future streets.
When we finished, w34z3l said that I have improved in last month and that he feels I will be wining this limit now - just to stop tilting or rushing. Remaining 0.5 hour we analyzed hands from live play that were very interesting spots.

Online CG Grind
Decided to play whole day NL50 ZOOM 3 tabling (final session did 4 tabling also). I think my focus was not always perfect but I would say between B and C game. I had trouble in some hands where I made mistakes which I will review tomorrow but the positive side is that I made some excellent plays as well.
End of the day was -2 buy ins or close to it on sample close to 3.5k hands. I am however happy with certain aspects of game plan that I was definitely not in control of a month ago or so. Now confidence is growing, I am more and more sure in every single spot and play that I am making which was really the whole point when I decided to switch to CG (improve as a player and understand at any given moment ranges lines and EV play instead of clicking buttons like a monkey
Will continue grinding NL50 with 12 buy ins stop loss with my current roll. Will continue also grinding SNGs, tomorrow might go for another 100 games. But definitely planing to stick with CG and hopefully in near future make full switch to them.

Coaching SNGs
Commented on Daily Tracking threads on our private forum + evaluated 10 hands or so that students posted.
Some very interesting hands and I am sure a lot of students will benefit from the analysis if they approach studying and implementing the right way.

Via Skype talked strategy and hand evaluation with brutal reg for about 1-1.5 hours. Even tough this was not via audio but typing, I will not include it in studying/working on the game part altough it was super useful and beneficial - look forward to our session in near future again.

If you haven't already, definitely read "The Leader Who Had No Tittle". I am about half way through it and I am loving the book. So powerful, can relate to so many good things mentioned in there. Think every poker player should read this and hopefully it will inspire him to rise to his best.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 56.5/45 hours
Coaching 30.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 10.5/12 hours
CG grind 67.75/60 hours
SNG grind 36.30/100 hours (716/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
127.5/300 Study hours
73.75/300 Coaching sessions
314.39/1500 Grinding hours
26/150 Work out
29/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (25th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching session with Kornel 11-12
Work on the game 1 hour with fellow reg (check out hands from today's grind with specific filter)
Meet with best friend for coffee and to study 1 more hour (use 2nd filter and check all hands in March with it)
Lunch brake
Grind 1st session 50 SNGs
Brake
Check Daily Tracking hands on private forums and hand evaluations section
Dinner brake
Grind 2nd session 50 SNGs
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

HI, I dont understend what CG means, are u playing hyper turbo?

Originally posted by MDAlex003
HI, I dont understend what CG means, are u playing hyper turbo?

Hi, CG = cash game
Was on NL50 then dropped to NL25 to fix my leaks, now back on NL50 ZOOM. Will grind it fully April if win rate is minimum 4bb/100 will do permanent switch to it. Game plan and post flop lines + tendencies are now falling into place way better so expect that permanent switch to happen within next 2 months tops.

Finished all the things for today, will make full update before bed.
If you want to rail, I am playing MicroMillions Event 61 8.80$ 50k GTD
Decided to reward myself before bed after winning at NL50 2 buy ins and crushing SNGs with close to 20 buy ins profit.

Just busted from MicroMillions
Lost with TT r/c vs 2 short stacks KQ and AQ , next hand all in KTo the guy who had AQ and shopped got 88 and busted me.
GG
Also played 4.4$ 8 max capped to 1k players, finished 30th (26 going ITM) with 22 vs AQ run out 99775 or something like it
Played 2 more tourneys, 5.5$ Hot busted with A6 vs K9 CO VS SB lol and progressive 14.5$ or so buy in lost 3 way all in with AJdd we all had around 10bb or less (not including ante!).
Overall happy how I played since I was also grinding 2 tables NL50 ZOOM when I was left with 2 tourneys.
Grinded everything on my laptop of course so that's why I didn't do more tables (4 is ideal with HUD I am using)

About to do update for the day

PokerStars Tournament #1164585075, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $8.00/$0.80 USD
8823 players
Total Prize Pool: $70584.00 USD
Tournament started 2015/03/25 23:30:00 CET [2015/03/25 18:30:00 ET]

Dear IvicaIliev77,

You finished the tournament in 614th place. A USD 20.46 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

March Challenge

Day 25

WORKED OUT
Worked on the game 1.5 hours
Coached SNGs 1 hour
Grinded online CG 3.5 hours
Grinded 100 SNGs 4.47 hours
Grinded MTTs 3 hours
Meet with best friend for coffee
Read more of Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle"

Total 13.47 hours of Poker activity!

Super productive day!

Worked out!!!
After coaching session, decided to work out and then head to coffee place. The work out went great and I think it gave me additional energy to own this very productive day.
Coaching SNGs
Coached Kornel 0.5 hour only, it was Q&A focusing on very specific part of game plan that most guys have trouble with in SNGs. I am happy to know that session helped Kornel a lot in todays grind and look forward to feedback from other guys about that lesson (shared the video with all of them).
Remaining 0.5 hour I responded in Daily Tracking threads + evaluated 1 hand in our private forum.

Working on the game
Spent 1 hour analyzing in depth 5 hands via Skype with brutal reg. This happened while I was in the coffee place before even starting to grind. I wanted to make sure that my lines were in tact before grinding any more so basically checked 5 hands that seemed great to analyze in depth and figure out if it was standard or I miss played.
So working with fellow reg went great. I then grinded 2 hours in coffee place and got back home. After eating lunch I analyzed in depth and posted 2 hands (total 7 hands analyzed today in depth!) for w34z3l to evaluate that happened today while I was grinding in the coffee place.
I look forward to his response (we have a session in 6.5 hours or so

Grinding online CG
Grinded 2 hours in coffee place 2 tabling and now 1.5 hour while cooling down 2 MTTs was 2 tabling NL50 ZOOM.
Very satisfied with how I played today. Was probably close to my A game, focus was fully there, in every hand I knew exactly what was going on, had no doubt about line I should take except 2 hands that I analyzed and sent w34z3l mentioned above.
Results wise crushed, won 6 buy ins but I am not leting it take me high to the sky, I still have a lot of work to do!

Here is the graph from today's CG grind:

Grinding 100 SNGs
I did them all in 1 single session. Again the reason why I went for such thing is cause I put in the background some low buy in MTTs + on the 2nd monitor put 3 movies.
Focus was all over the place in the beginning because fairly quickly it got to 20 tables (15 SNGs and 4-5 MTTs!) so brain was overwhelmed. As soon as I finished with MTTs it was way easier and within challenge but yet comfort to play average B game.
Did well with high ITM of 40%, more 1st vs 2nd with close to 20 buy ins profit or so (updating from laptop, grind SNGs on desktop).
Will go for 100 games each day by the end of the month due to financial situation obviously otherwise I would just dedicate to CG.

MTTs
Described already how MTTs went. Saw tons of really wide ranges and bad plays. Despite of it all, still wouldn't grind MTTs for living, just too much of a variance. This Micro Millions is typical example. Get down to 500-600 players from 8k, then loose a hand that would get me to close to 100k chips total which is about top 100 stack. From that point on everything is possible - but not tonight
I am considering adding 2-3 MTTs per day with SNGs to make myself grind 1 session of full 100 games SNGs. It works for hourly even better and I even get additional hour in a day to do more studying or simply rest.

Sharma's book "The Leader Who Had No Tittle" is just brutal. Really loving the material presented through it, some very powerful and useful things that I already apply myself daily. Will definitely recommend all my students to read this book and follow up on assignments from it as well!

About to go to bed now, session with w34z3l tomorrow - need to put 2 alarms on

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 58/45 hours
Coaching 31.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 10.5/12 hours
CG grind 71.25/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
129/300 Study hours
74.75/300 Coaching sessions
322.36/1500 Grinding hours
27/150 Work out
36/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (26th of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, visit store for breakfast and water
Coaching with w34z3l 11-12:30
Work out and take a shower
Coffee with best friend and grind ZOOM NL50 1 hour minimum
Lunch brake
Work on the game 1 hour (go through hands using specific filter set)
Respond to hands in our private forum + schedule sessions for weekend
Grind 100 SNGs in 2 or in 1 full session (decide tomorrow depending on day flow and energy levels)
Dinner brake
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Hi,

I am a begginer and I am wondering if you can explaint to me how can I get better rakeback and affiliate program which you talk about in the begining of your posting in 2012? Is that changed now in poker and it is not available anymore? Or did I just understand this wrongly?

So glad you are doing MTT`s event if its for fun I love them and if i ever switch at some point from SNG`s to some other format that would be MTT`s.

With your level of post flop game skills i think you can easily hit some final table of that mid stakes tournaments that have nice GTD prizes. You just need to avoid bad variance and you are collecting money ♦

Hey Ivice! Its nice to see how you are progressing and how excited you are when hard work pays out! Really happy for you! I wish you as little as possible bad days and tilting while playing...thats the biggest enemy of every player, tilt. Only saying this cause you have mentioned, and i find my self in that, cause i too get sometimes tilted, and my game play and plan falls to C, or D play, and i do much more harm to my BR than that stupid variance or the fish that called me with Q3o 5x 3bet(just an example) and im catching the justice, and do stupid things... Well, that was i doing before, now i have some restrictions in my game... While my game plan is working, its ok, if i get a bit frustrated, and i feel that my concentration is low, i stand up and go to chill and im not getting back to play unless im calm and ready to start playing again. Thats the huge advantage with CG, cause you can stand up when ever you want, while in SNGs that i played, cant.
Im currently going through videos from you coach, 10 videos, walkthrough series. Great material! Some new ranges already in my game plan and new stuffs, already i can see the results! Would recommend to everyone! I cant imagine how is great working with him live, when those videos blowed my mind! Im going through them two a day. First day i watched only one, and took notes, the other day i watched first one again and then second one and took notes...and then looked second one once more the day after and 3rd one and took notes and so on...reason im doing it twice, its just so much useful informations and advice's, that i dont want to skip anything..and its not hard to do, cause, im repeating myself, materials are great!
Im planing to watch his other materials in future, but ill have to go back to some rooms that are tracked on PS, so i can get higher status that i am now, cause before i was grinding stngs on Stars and it was easely get gold or diamond in a month..but the rooms im in now are not connected to PS.
And about mtt's, its great that you are turning them while grinding, you never know when you can go deep in some...as long as they dont get you focus while grinding the game that you want CG/SNGs. I was doing that before when i had to catch monthly number of games...and ended up with several 180 3.5 and 180 2.5 final tables. So im encouraging you to turn them on, and hopefully in future you will post 1k, 2k or more in winnings ♦
And next time you have the coaching session with weasel, say hello to him and tell him that he is doing a great job! Videos are great!
One more thing, thank you for you answer the other day, it took me almost 20 mins to read it on my job when no one is looking, so i can only imagine how much time it took you to write it down...
Going back to work, wish you all the best, and looking forward to new updates and interesting things in your blog.
Cheers

Originally posted by faceppok
Hi,

I am a begginer and I am wondering if you can explaint to me how can I get better rakeback and affiliate program which you talk about in the begining of your posting in 2012? Is that changed now in poker and it is not available anymore? Or did I just understand this wrongly?

Hi faceppok,

Some important things before giving you answer.
If you play SNGs especially 6 or 9 max, you should definitely choose Poker Stars as your default room. Reason is simple, once you reach 7$+ buy in, it is only place online that has any traffic compared to all other networks/rooms.

If you play CG (cash game) you can go many different ways. Poker Stars has most traffic and ability to play at any point of the day (super important) but VIP system (rake back) is lower. If I was you and a beginner at this stage, I would look into playing CG on some other room that has weaker player pool and better RB (rake back).
I suggest you use Poker Strategy and sign up through them with some room. The reason is quite simple. You will still get 50%+ RB most of the time but in return you will get your status to increase which enables you access to videos. Those videos are vital part of your improvement just like posting hands and commenting on them is. This is one of the key reasons I would sign up through Poker Strategy for some room.

If you play MTTs, they are pretty much everywhere. Again I would sign up via Poker Strategy for some room to build up your VIP status on the site + gain access to training material (videos and articles).

When I started playing in 2012, things were quite different with SNG traffic and it was good to play on non Stars rooms/networks.
If you ask what I would do in your spot - sign up via Poker Strategy, play on rooms with weaker player pool, make money pre and post RB, in the meanwhile increase your VIP status on Poker Strategy and study using videos + articles and hand posting.
If you want 6-9 max SNGs you are limited to Poker Stars but for some micro limits you can play other sites and networks.

Hope that makes sense !

Originally posted by DarkoK3
So glad you are doing MTT`s event if its for fun I love them and if i ever switch at some point from SNG`s to some other format that would be MTT`s.

With your level of post flop game skills i think you can easily hit some final table of that mid stakes tournaments that have nice GTD prizes. You just need to avoid bad variance and you are collecting money ♦

Yeah its fun all right, kept me awake until 4am+ went to bed at 5am woke up at 10:45am ♦
You need very large bankroll, tons of patience and very strong mental game to play MTTs. You can go for very long periods of time not winning some MTT or getting in top 3 (where money is mostly at). Even FT (final table) is not such a great score because you will have hard time winning money in the long run with odds you get to outlast 1k+ opponents.

I agree with you that my post flop knowledge is probably good enough to get to those final tables and win it but variance is really brutal. I prefer playing post flop with 50bb+ not with 20bbs or 40bbs or less. Also many times you have 8-9 more opponents at the table where you have couple of short stacks who don't enable you to open wide and play your whole range profitably.

MTTs are OK if you have money patience skill and very strong mental game. Most people don't have strong mental game and even when they reach a deep run they make some silly mistakes and decrease their chance of binking big.

I will just use them to train my mental game + endurance and grind 100 games in 1 session by loading 3-4-5 MTTs in the background as I usually last 2+ hours on average in MTT which is how long 50 SNGs take to do. Not all MTTs start at the same time so by starting 4-5 of them, they each might start within 30-45 minutes of each other which keeps me at the SNGs to grind like 4.5 hours or 4 hours 100 games. I will test this again today, hopefully my focus will be strong enough even tough I am feeling a bit tired already today due to lack of sleep - despite session with w34z3l, working out, eating right, coffee and 2 hours CG grind.

Final thing on MTTs, I mentioned earlier but I would prefer to play slower structure with deeper stack with more post flop ownage and edges. Also play MTTs that have smaller field cause your chance of winning it is better vs super large fields.
Of course I will play 1000 players capped MTTs as well as HOT BIGGER and those types that cost up to 11$ or so but provide very large GTD prize pools and one bink can really boost the bankroll significantly. Micro Millions is very interesting concept so will most likely grind MM Main Event also on Sunday

@boriz23

Hey man!
I am happy to read your response always

Glad you found w34z3l's videos useful. He is brutal player, great coach and very cool guy to work with(fellow musician and guitar player!). I feel extremely happy that I managed to work out a deal with him cause as far as I know he doesn't do any deals but just coaching for hourly. I used to look up to MBML and Pleno a year or so ago. When I watched w34z3l's videos it became clear to me that he is the man for today's games. His approach is very methodical, his knowledge of exploitable vs GTO is just insane, he understands all the things that are necessary adjustment needed to make for any player to reach NL100 and beyond. This is why I choose him and not other coaches for long term deal. I honestly feel that he will get me to NL100 3bb/100 on ZOOM before end of this year. Sure, I work very hard, study with 3 other guys daily, we have 2 sessions per week and I grind but without knowing what to work on and how to focus your study hours you will just waste time and not improve as much. This is why any top performer in any field knows very well importance of having a mentor or a coach. You can do so many things on your own but asking for help from somebody who knows more than you is always +EV.
Glad that his videos are improving your game - keep me informed how it is all coming along and going.

About concentration (or lack of) and tilt. Concentration can be affected by lack of energy, distractions and tilt as well. Today I didn't sleep 6 hours but rather 5 and my head is already pulsating at 6:35pm and I still got ahead of me 5 hours of SNG grind for example. When I grinded CG in coffee place for 2 hours, there were distractions (some louder music) but my thinking process was good for the most part of it (12bb/100 win rate for those 2 hours). I find that the more that you study, learn and improve, the more CONFIDENT and IN CONTROL you feel about your game therefore TILT DECREASES. For past 3 months I was taking bunch of information and not putting it all together. In past week I feel that a lot of it has come together and that my thinking process has evolved significantly + in the meanwhile understood adjustments necessary to beat NL25 NL50, how people would play certain things on NL100 etc. So the CONFIDENCE will ELIMINATE TILT SIGNIFICANTLY. When you are confident you know that you are making right plays and even when you loose a hand , all that matters is that you taught that move you made was +EV in that certain spot. To gain this confidence you need to improve as a player, put time into studying, understanding every single aspect of the game in CG. So this is what I have been doing this year all along just now my thinking process is super solid (I can spell it out way faster than when I started), I don't feel lost as I did before (in fact I feel very confident in any spot) and I am continuing to work daily to improve my knowledge more eventually preparing myself for NL50 and NL100 full time switch.
The way things look right now if in April I get 4bb+/100 I will definitely switch full time to CG and step it up with studying + grind even more by the end of the year. So far things are going great and I can say that things are getting just EASIER from this point on because I passed that beginning awkwardness phase where I had no clue how things work with ranges, post flop, tendencies, expectations, average opponents , fish, regs etc. Now that's already behind me and things are just going better every day.
Today's 2 hours grind was very useful. I will look into hands before bed time tonight as I am sure there are some mistakes I made due to timing out (I am taking lots of time to consider every single street and line + I time out due to note taking on some other table). Look forward to w34z3l's and fellow regs responses to those hands.
For yesterdays 2 hands I wanted to check, 1 was done excellent (so no objection) while the other 1 w34z3l had a different suggestion so I learned from it a lot and now in future I will apply that cause it makes more sense!
I will tell w34z3l you said Hi - I feel now my blog will get him a lot of new clients, he should probably raise his rates and give me a cut or something for all this words of praise he is getting here

MTTs are good when you are winning. I like the idea of building my endurance to grind 4-4.5 hours 100 SNGs in one go. This of course will affect results a bit but hopefully not killing win rate from 5% ROI to 2% cause then its not worth it. But if I can save 1 hour per day this way and make like 3.5-4% ROI instead of 5% then this is still much better cause I get potentially 30 hours free now to dedicate it to some other activity. Potential problem is say that I play 4 MTTs per day while I grind those 100 games and that I do this for 30 days straight and I invest daily 20$. That's 600$ invested in MTTs and since its 120 MTTs in a month, I can simply not make a single $ from it and just end up loosing % of my SNG winnings or roll that way. So I would definitely include them when running solid with SNGs (yesterday 20 buy ins 300$ so can spare there 20$ for MTTs). But with BE or loosing SNG period (which is inevitable due to variance of course) I don't like the idea of increasing variance with 20$ or so per day on MTTs.
Of course best scenario would be to start playing them 3-4-5 per day and immediately hit some big score like 1k+. That would allow me to comfortably play the same buy ins and have like 50 days + (if 20$ is spent daily on MTTs and I would win 1k+) of MTT grinding.
Reality however is that anything is possible with MTTs. I have meet and seen people who have very little clue about poker win insane amounts of money. In general I think MTT field is very soft even to today's date and people are overvaluing hands in them (stacking of very light) so the edge in them can be huge when playing deeper.

Glad you enjoyed the response, hope you will enjoy this one as well.

About to watch The Americans (watched my favorite tv show The Arrow during lunch brake) in the meanwhile here is the graph from today's 2 hour NL50 ZOOM grind :

March Challenge

Day 26

WORKED OUT
Session with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Worked on the game 3 hours
Grinded online CG 3 hours
Talked with brutal reg over Skype close to 2 hours (worked on the game 1 hour with him via hands)
Had coffee with best friend
Updated blog with responses during the day
Watched The Arrow (favorite show) and The Americans
Slept from 7-10pm in the evening (was super tired with headache)
About to hit the bed earlier to wake up early as well

Total 7.5 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day considering how tired I was from not sleeping enough the night before.

WORKED OUT AGAIN. I am starting to rebuild this habit again. Idea is to within next 2-3 months (by June) with full time CG switch happening to go to Herceg Novi and then do tons of CrossFit there in nature.
Really look forward to this period by the way, it depends on 3 main things: 1) my ability and win rate at CG 2) my brother's win rate in SNGs and money making skills 3) Overall financial situation (bankroll and such)

CG Session with w34z3l
Session with w34z3l was great. Updated HUD some more and talked about new things that are nowehere to be found. I am very happy with how session went as I could click with everything he was telling me instantly which just shows that thinking process has evolved to a much higher level compared to when I started. This of course is reflecting on tables as well so some great things to follow in future for sure.
Next session is on Tuesday, by then I will prepare hands for w34z3l + continue to do leak fixing alone and with felow regs.

Working on the game
Total 3 hours of working on the game today. 1 hour I spent discussing strategy over Skype with brutal reg where we covered some hands together and exchanged thinking process for GTO and adjustment/readjustments. Always fun and enjoyable + useful sessions with brutal reg. This weekend we will do another live session, maybe some live sweat me playing NL50. Tonight I got a great compliment from brutal reg, out of nowhere he just told me that I will surely become and be playing NL400. It is really honor to hear him say such a thing and those words are just wind to keep working hard and smart, results will of course follow (they already are).
Another 1.5 hour I spent reviewing hands from today's coffee place grind (38 hands reviewed with thinking process, some very in depth some just with conclusions!). 0.5 hour spent watching latest UriPeleg's video on beating NL50. Was a bit disappointing that it was not a ZOOM but rather REG speed video. Didn't watch the whole thing but in following days will finish it and post my toughts on it.
In depth analyzed 7 hands minimum (3-4 with fellow brutal reg and same on my own). Also marked hands that I will do additional in depth analysis for and check them with w34z3l.
Overall very happy with working on the game habit, it is super solid and I can't imagine a day going by without some studying going on - great things are coming out of it for sure.

Grinding online CG
2 hours in coffee place, 1 hour home after finishing 1 hour Skype chat with brutal reg.
I had 1 particular hand in 1863 hands today that I am sure I could have played better, which I am not entirely happy with. Regardless of that I think whole day was very good with focus, knowing and saying out thinking process, understanding what lines are necessary and understanding opponents very well.
Results wise whole session was strong, feel I could have made some more money especially in the hand I mentioned + tons of bad river run outs (bluff catching 2 streets and then opponent gets there on river for example :).
So for the day 10.05bb/100 is win rate with EV being 10.2bb/100!
Definitely knowledge and hard work is starting to pay off. This means that in April if I continue with 4bb/100 average I will definitely do full time switch, dedicate to CG grinding more than 60 hours (100-150).
Very much look forward to that period as it will prepare me for NL100 ZOOM mix and eventually switching to it as well. Ideal scenario would be to crush NL50 ZOOM before June this year so that I can go to Herceg Novi 3 months and just enjoy it there rest my mind and have a great time while owning NL50 ZOOM Day dreaming is nice but its even better when the dream becomes reality and I am working hard to achieve it. Lets see if I can do it!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 61/45 hours
Coaching 31.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 12/12 hours
CG grind 74.25/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
132/300 Study hours
74.75/300 Coaching sessions
325.36/1500 Grinding hours
28/150 Work out
43/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (27th of March):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Work on the game with fellow reg from 11 or so 1 hour minimum
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind NL50 ZOOM 1 or 2 hours
Arrange coaching sessions for the weekend
Lunch brake
Meet with fellow guitar player and arrange duo and trio gigs 5pm
Get back home and grind 100 SNGs 1x100 or 2x50 with dinner brake in between
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge
Day 27
2 hours studying, 0.5 hour coaching and 4.5 hours grinding. Will edit this post tomorrow for full update!

March Challenge

Days 27 & 28

Worked out yesterday
Worked on the game 3 hours
Grinded online CG 9.5 hours
Coached 1 hour
Meet with best friend for coffee
Meet with another friend for coffee
Meet with fellow guitar player to organize gigs
Talked with brutal reg yesterday 6 hours over Skype (2 working on the game, 2 live sweat and 2 just talking)
Connected with another well known ZOOM player (yesterday)
Watched some TV shows yeseterday

Total 13.5 hours of Poker activity.

Productive 2 days.
Will keep the update short as it is fairly late again and plan to wake up early tomorrow.

Tonight from review found 6 hands that I could have been played differently in 1 hour of review.
Good news - my game has certainly improved significantly, I feel in control way more and feel that I can make now money on NL50 ZOOM comfortably.
Bad news - I still find mistakes that shouldn't be there. Regardless of great results since I switched back to NL50 ZOOM from past Sunday, I still find hands that shouldn't happen.
I am not worried at all anymore about NL50 but these types of plays will not be good for Nl100 and this is what gives me hope and I push forward to prepare for it perhaps sooner than expected and anticipated.

So focus in future days/weeks is to keep doing HH reviews, do in deepth hand analysis, figure out things that seem shaky in my mind and prepare hands + questions for w34z3l.

SNGs as you see I haven't grinded. I was thinking hard about it and decided to go ALL IN with CG in April. So be patient couple more days and I will post my plans for April and challenge for that month soon.

I now absolutely have no doubt that when I play my B game 3-4 tabling NL50 ZOOM that I can make minimum 4bb+/100 which was initial goal to switch to CG full time.
So what I need to work on is maintaining that strong focus and thinking process going at all times,not letting any mistake (mistake tilt) or unexpected range/play from opponent get to me. I feel this will be crucial as I will be putting long hours in CG and mistakes have to be minimized in order to print money in that format as well.

For the end of the update I leave you with graph from past 2 days on NL50 ZOOM 9.5 hours of grind 6182 hands - 14.1bb/100 with EV 11.2bb/100.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 64/45 hours
Coaching 32.25/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 12/12 hours
CG grind 83.75/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
135/300 Study hours
75.75/300 Coaching sessions
334.86/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
47/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (29th of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Coaching with Darko 11-12
Work on the game 1 hour minimum (hands from past 2 days)
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind NL50ZOOM 1-2 hours
Lunch brake
Work on the game with brutal reg via Skype in the afternoon/evening
Grind 5 hours CG total for the day with brakes in between, focusing on strong decision making and mental calmness
Respond to Daily Tracking threads on private forum
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 29

Coached 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 3.5 hours
Worked on the game 1 hour
Watched Serbia game
Had coffee with best friend
Talked with brutal reg over Skype 2 hours

Total 6 hours of Poker activity.

Not a very productive day.

Woke up late, did session with Darko 1.5 hour, went for coffee with best friend, grinded online CG 2 hours, lunch time, talked with brutal reg strategy 1 hour before Serbia game, Serbia game, 1+ more hour talking with brutal reg and then grinding 1.5 hours more online CG. Now updating the blog

Day was very swingy, ended in profit in the end but also today had plays that I have to check with w34z3l and brutal reg for input.
Even with those hands, game plan and lines are profitable to make $ on NL50 ZOOM for sure but I want to fix everything I can to improve my win rate significantly and move up faster.

Not pleased that I didn't work more today on the game (only discussed 6 hands from which 2 really in depth with brutal reg in 1 hour so I am looking forward tomorrow to study 1st thing in the morning, difficult spots from past 2-3 days.
Tomorrow also should arrange meeting with guitar player friend to jam and prepare repertoire for some duo Jazz guitar performances. Time management will be very flexible because of it obviously.

Energy levels are all over the place past 3 days (which reflects my productivity!) so I will put way more emphasis on recharging in next 2 days because from 1st of April new challenge awaits me with another strong time management!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 65/45 hours
Coaching 33.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 12/12 hours
CG grind 87.25/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
136/300 Study hours
77.25/300 Coaching sessions
338.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
49/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (30th of March):
Get good rest, wake up without any alarm
Eat breakfast, drink tons of water and complete a workout
Work on the game minimum 1 hour by reviewing very specific filter
Talk with friend fellow guitar player to arrange some jaming for the later during the day
Lunch brake
Evening time grind 2 hours online CG
Look into some advanced things for studying
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

March Challenge

Day 30

Worked on the game 2.5 hours
Coached 1 hour
Grinded online CG 3.5 hours
Went for coffee with best friend
Spent afternoon with my brother and best friend

Total 7 hours of Poker activities.

Productive day.
Today I felt like re-energizing but it simply didn't work. I wanted to keep working and pushing myself to improve further in CG. Tomorrow I will try to relax way more to prepare for April challenge as it will be a tough one also.

Analyzed 5 hands in depth while working on the game 1 hour. Another 1 hour I spent watching a video and reviewing very important concepts that I covered with brutal reg. Remaining 0.5 hour was sweat session with fellow reg and friend where we encountered very interesting spot which I marked and will check with w34z3l and brutal reg soon.

Coaching was in form of responding to Daily Tracking threads. Some great things happening with guys, a lot of them are leaning towards going all in with poker and giving their best at it. Future months will show learning and improvement curve for all of them.

Grinding was OK in terms of hours but again I made some very costly mistakes. Ended up in profit (9.51bb/100) but that doesn't really matter because there were mistakes that I could and should have avoided.
My focus in coffee place was terrible due to couple of things - didn't eat at all, didn't sleep enough, at that point had 2 coffee's in me (everybody that drinks coffee knows how this can back fire and just hype you out) so I basically was down 2 stacks from 1 hour of grinding or so. Then at home I managed to go from -2 to +4 buy ins including some plays I was not happy with. In the end final session brought it down from 4 buy ins to 2 buy ins.
So as I said the day was very swingy, focus was very bad at coffee place and at home made some mistakes that were costly.
Today should teach me for future and April especially that I should focus on taking breaks whenever I feel focus is off (that's the beauty of zoom poker after all!) and to keep working hard and fix my leaks - no time to relax and take a brake,keep an eye on the prize!

Tomorrow/today I have session with w34z3l. There is so many hands I marked in past days, I think that even 10 hours will not be enough to discuss them all in great depth which is super important for NL100+ preparation.
My win rate since switching to NL50 ZOOM again on 22nd of March is now 8.79bb/100 or EV 4bb/100. During sample of 19876 hands (20k hands) I made mistakes and continue to make them which just tells me that I can and will keep getting better in the future! Regardless of it the most important things are: 1) My B game or worse is still profitable to make money on NL50 ZOOM 2) I know what my leaks are INSTANTLY and know WHAT TO DO TO FIX THEM (most questions for sessions are about alternative lines and profitability comparison of each line) 3) Need to take more brakes when I feel focus is going off to prevent any sort of C game and rushing.
Before posting graph for this period just to mention that I am not thinking at all in terms of EV. The most important things to me is fixing all my leaks and exploiting leaks from my opponents - great results should continue to follow.

Graph since switching back to NL50 ZOOM:

Overall I very much look forward to session with w34z3l but also continuing to work with brutal reg. In over 10 hours of us working together (brutal reg) he taught me some great things and I am super grateful to him for it! He does not wish to be named here but I just want to give the praise where its due and he deserves every single word of it. w34z3l also deserves praise but I am looking forward to future sessions since April will show how capable am I to really make steady income via CG and NL50 ZOOM. From that point on I feel w34z3l will really show his true quality and that is to guide me into fixing all parts of my game that are not strong enough for NL100 and some more. Once that happens I will give full praise to w34z3l, until then I don't want him to go soft and retire just yet
If things work out in April, I feel that by June I will be playing NL100 ZOOM successfully only considering that I continue to work on the game 1-2 hours per day on my game and keep leak fixing and implementing new things learned (not as "tricks" or "lines" but rather understanding mathematically why certain things work where vs who and how and when to implement them!).
Finally I can say that my post flop knowledge is way stronger than it was in January or February this year. I have really improved a lot but still I make mistakes that I shouldn't be making. Great news is there is tons of things to work on and improve and I can just visualize myself with all this new knowledge by the end of the year - NL200 should be within reach if not reality.

Expect update tomorrow with lay out of new challenge that will deal with vision and mission for April.

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 67.5/45 hours
Coaching 34.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 12/12 hours
CG grind 90.75/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
138.5/300 Study hours
78.25/300 Coaching sessions
341.86/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
54/1000 Hands analyzed in depth (tons of additional hands analyzed on private forum and via skype discussions)
98.5 hours Live Poker (tons of additional hours lost in waiting for games to start!)

Here is the plan for today (30th of March):
Wake up by 10:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with w34z3l 11-12:30
Work on the game 1 more hour (assignments from session - leak fixing)
Meet with best for coffee and grind 1 hour
Lunch brake
Dentist appointment 5pm
Grind some more online CG (1-2 hours or more)
Create challenge for April and post it in blog in the evening
Check Daily Tracking threads on private forum
If there is some tv show that I like watching, relax and regenerate with it
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Hello Ivice! How are you?
Im looking forward to see what you are planing to do in april. I hope you will succeed to catch all you want! And improve even more in that process!
I see that you have the problem with energy these last few days, i recommend you to hit the break maybe today, so you can recharge and hit hard tomorrow! Its important! Or to make room in that busy april run to have time to recover and relax, cause you know that you need to be 100% in control of your energy, or your game will suffer... And am glad to see that you are planing to get breaks when ever you see that you are tired! I think thats the biggest +EV that you can get, rather to play exhausted, and miss play some spots and blow away all the hard work in 2-3 miss placed reads because low energy and concentration! If that mean that you have a day off in april, completely without poker activity, so be it...its better to get your bateries up, rather to lose 4-5-6 BI or even more... In SNGs you lose your BI, but in CG, you lose a lot more... But you know what im talking about, so i know you will know what to do in those situations!
(I think if you manage to get that day of, get to work out, and rest the rest of the day, that recharge me all the time...)

Ive made some contacts about gigs in Nis, i hope in near future there will be oportunity to come down there and to have some great time, and if it comes to that, i hope you will find some time to meet...drink bear and stuff...
We had a great gig last weekend, i even broke my tambourine in a crazy moment of singing...LoL The song that was deadly for my tambourine was from EKV "Ti si sav moj bol", but the gig it self led to something like that happen. So much energy, and so much great feelings and connection with the people around...just amazing!

I was hoping to see the results about 22$ 1M gtd, that you were planing to add in your grinding time, but i see that you didnt even play in that time... I was hoping to see your results and thinking about all that lottery and variance stuff in such a big tournament.
I was planing to play that tournament and i did... I have played several of them before, but never got ITM. Crazy set ups... One time i was out AAvsKK pre flop all in with board K2J, flop A, river K!?! Just before the money... But those things happen, so i wasnt down with that bad beat, and i was waiting for next time... I have missed last 2-3 chances to play cause i wasnt able to be online on those sundays, every time i was on a trip. But this time i planed to be free and rested to take a shot at it once again. And i did got ITM this time. Was playing 7h, to bust out 11xx, dont remember quite well the exact position, but i was good for 107$. Not some huge amount...it good be far more...but it will be next time! Far more of that, i was very satisfied with my play overall during those 7h of playing. Not so much in the first hour and a half, but when i survived with 44vsKK, (4 on the flop), i was fully in it that this time it can get me far... And i was playng my A game after that hand, and was so thrilled how my thinking process was so long on high that blowed my mind! So happy and excited i was, even now when im writing this down! And i can say that nothing gets me so much excited than playing MTTs! SNGs are to bored, CG is great, OMAHA even more fun, but that feeling of MTTs, pfff, to good! Like you are on some great drug or something... I cant imagine how would i feel if i hit some good money, i think i would broke my ceiling! ♦ And part from excitement, the other thing that made so proud, that i was calm all the way..wining or loosing pots when im a head... I kept my cool, and i think that was the main reason i got that far...wasnt spewing my chips away... I read the other day, that only you need a chair and a chip to become a winner, so thats what i did... I didnt rush things... Played my game, and waited a good spots to go hunting!
I know this kind of tournaments are a lottery, but they have their own advantage...there are so many bad players!!! So if you wait for your spot, it can get you far away...
I have a hand ready to post here, so you can tell me your opinion if you and when you have the time to see it...
I am thinking about that hand for two days now...and i have analyzed it with several friends...and i got to conclusion that i could have played it in three ways, two correct ones, and one correct/bad one...

Here is the hand:

PokerStars - $20+$2|12500/25000 Ante 3125 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 20.61 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
Hero (MP+2): 17.42 BB
CO: 15.02 BB (VPIP: 18.92, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 37)
BTN: 17.03 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
SB: 10.03 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 5.88, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
BB: 19.98 BB (VPIP: 27.78, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 18)
UTG: 17.63 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
UTG+1: 18.17 BB (VPIP: 27.78, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 18)
MP: 13.22 BB (VPIP: 5.56, PFR: 5.88, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 18)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 8h 8c
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to 19.86 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 15.3 BB and is all-in

Flop : (36.22 BB, 2 players) 3h Jc 4c

Turn : (36.22 BB, 2 players) Ac

River : (36.22 BB, 2 players) 3d

BB shows Js Kd (Two Pair, Jacks and Threes)
(Pre 46%, Flop 87%, Turn 75%)

Hero shows 8h 8c (Two Pair, Eights and Threes)
(Pre 54%, Flop 13%, Turn 25%)

BB wins 36.22 BB

The guy that put me all in, several hands before this one played from the CO terrible hand in my opinion. He had UTG+1 short stack 9bb all in, just called with QTs with his 18bb stack, with three guys behind him... Those three folded, and he got away vs A9s on QA2 flop, and magical river T! ♦

That's why i did min raise with those 88s, to get him in play. To much times i've got out with these kind of hands, so i didnt want to go all in, to get called with bigger pocket pair, rather than that i wanted him to get into action. And that is what i got ♦ And once again in my opinion he played terrible! I put him on exact hand that he had! Was thinking on ace with low kicker. But he got away with that jack, and got me out of the tournament...
The more i was thinking about it, and analyzed the hand, i've got to conclusion that my call there was right, it was an ICM call, and when i expand his range to KJo, it was an easy call... But now im thinking it was the best in that situation to open shove with 88s, but in that moment i wanted him to catch, not to someone else catches me with my 88s... If i did shove i think he'd folded that hand...but i didnt and he got away with that bad play. I would have 3x time more bigger stack from average(would be among 50 stacks), and anything could have happen...but i say NEXT TIME!
I do think that i could have folded that hand too, but i was like if i get this, i can get really far...if i folded, blinds can eat me...so i think i got that decision right against that bad player...but ultimetly i should have open shove...but who knows, maybe he'd called it...

I would love to hear your opinion on that hand...

I hope i didnt bored you about my sunday play too much...

Im looking forward to your answer and daily activities... GL on and off the tables!

Pfff, it shoved me an error, that session is timed out, and i was like all that writing is gone....pfff, but luckily the text was there... pfff, it would be worst than a bad beat! ♦

Cheers, im looking forward to your next post...

Oh, and i forget all the time to write this down while im writing to you...
You are a big Partizan fan!
Im a fan of Red Star.. ♦ (i hope you wont blame me for that ♦ )
But not that crazy fan like i wont support Partizan or any other our club when they play in Europe against other clubs... I just dont get the people that are supporting, i dont know Galatasaray against Red Star, or the other way, supporting Olympiakos against Partizan... Those are our clubs, and i cheer for them when they play against the others...but when they meet against each other, i cheer for my club, and thats it...and for the good game ofcourse...
I am a big fan of basketball, i've trained more than 12 years, so im crazy about basketball, so i cant wait for play off duels between Red Star and Partizan! That will be the festival of basketball! I just hope that everything on the stands will be OK too!
so, there will be a lot to talk about that in April! And yes, you will have to find that time to watch those games, so prepare yourself for even less time, expecialy if it goes to 5 games! ♦

That would be all from me for today!