Making a living with STT SNGs

@boriz23

Congrats on MM success man, great stuff!
About hand you can play it as r/c and open shove. Unexploitably it is profitable to open shove it as with shallow stacks when you get called BVB you will many times have 2nd or 3rd pair and then you need to determine post flop if you are playing bet flop shove turn line or bet flop x turn thin value river or x/c flop x/f turn etc. So you see a lot of possibilities with 88 OOP post flop but NASH will always be open shove there and somewhat an overkill shove but you shouldn't care about it too much because that guy is a fish and he will never fold A4o to open shove which makes your 88 even more +EV play. So that's my 2 cents on that spot , hope it helps.

I did play MM main event by late registering. Doubled up and some more and then lost with AKo vs JJ for 14bb effective (got straight but he got FH on river) and then shortly after 7bb or less I had left and jammed AJo ran into KK GG.

I stand by what I said about MTTs. They are soft but variance is huge and with proper bankroll management and very strong mental game is advisable to play them. I have a lot of friends who bink here and there some tourneys but have very little post flop skills. It just shows you that in MTT one of the main skills will be to get lucky with card distribution and survive flips period.
I hope you make nice $ with them anyways, I don't plan to use them unless I am doing 100 SNGs or running extremely well in CG , even then I would omit them.
CG is just more challenging and interesting to me vs SNGs. I proved to myself that I can comfortably play and make money with SNGs. The problem with them is they have sealing with hourly earning and there is tons of very important things that I want to learn as a poker player but you simply never get to do as SNG player!!! I stand by what I said many times before and will say it again - CG vs SNG, CG always wins in terms of improvement as a player overall + sealing for hourly is much higher and traffic exists pretty much everywhere vs SNGs where you can just play Stars. Just those 3 reasons should be advice enough for any beginner interested to choose format to grind to go with CG vs SNGs, if they enjoy CG that is (I enjoy both!).

When you come to Nis for gig, let me know and we will meet and hang out for sure. I stopped drinking alcohol since Christmas time this year so no beer but we can definitely have some coffee

I am taking it easy today - finished session with w34z3l, responding to Daily Tracking threads, having some coffee. After dentist appointment I will relax home with some tv shows that I follow. April will be very difficult since it will be all about CG so I might take a day or two off in the month to regenerate but focus will definitely be on taking brakes when I feel my focus is down.

Partizan vs Zvezda basketball games will be brutal. I am looking into getting tickets for those games but so far heard that only season ticket holders have the advantage for them + your mafia politician owner has different plans for ticket plans ♦
It is disappointing to hear that you are Zvezda fan but nobody is perfect you know ♦

Keep in touch and thanks for all the in depth responses!

If it means something to you...i went to several games to watch Partizan in euroleague...last one was against CSKA when Kinsey and Bogdan dominated the game! We (Partizan) won! And i was screaming like crazy all the game! So im not a fanatic fan, i love our teams! And im happy when we get far in Europe! I have watched all the Partizan games in Euroleague for years...this year is Red Star... I was hoping next year will be two, but that game in Podgorica...pfff, i was mad when they lost already won game... I was watching, and just couldnt believe that they spew away 7-8 points lead in late stage of the game... But thats sport... I think it would be great that our country has two teams in Euroleage, but now we will have one for sure! I wish that the best team wins...would love to be Red Star, but i wont be too much disapointed if Partizan wins, i will go to Belgrade anyways to watch the games against Europian big teams, and will cheer our team/s... Im just hoping those ugly scenes with Vujosevic and Covic wont happen again..but im afraid that is inevitably..media is already heating up the atmosphere for it...
And i agree, no one is perfect
Thank you for your observation of the hand! Next time ill take in consideration all of this and use it in game...
Ive analysed all the hands that i've played in that tournament...great stuff!
Im glad to hear that you are recharging today!
And looking forward to see your progress in april!

Hey boriz23,

That basketball game with Buducnost was brutal. I had huge headache that day since I watched Partizan vs Cukaricki followed by basketball game and then some El Clasico in the evening. Too much TV which produced massive headache - I am just not used to such massive procrastination

Derby games will be lots of fun. If you find tickets let me know as I am very interested to go also. Last final 4 I was there in like 4th or 5th row behind benches so close to court side seats in Arena. Just brutal stuff and amazing times - reminded me of the time I was in USA and watching NBA games.

April challenge coming up soon after update for today so stay around

March Challenge

Day 31

Session with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Grinded 0.5 hours online CG
Worked on the game 1 hour
Coached 1 hour via private forum
Went for coffee with best friend
Went to dentist
Hanged with my dad a bit
Talked with Darko over Skype 1+ hour
Talked with brutal reg a bit also today
Watched The Following tv show
Went with my brother to our nephews place
Created April Challenge

Total 4 hours of Poker activity.

Intentional day off to regenerate.

Coaching with w34z3l was useful as always. He pointed out things to work on which I look forward improving.
Grinding was too little to comment on anything.
Working on the game was great as I posted 7 hands with in depth thinking process for w34z3l from which 2 hands I analyzed in depth today and rest were from yesterday.
Coaching was on forum where I responded to daily grind threads + live responded to strategy questions to my best friend.
Talk with Darko was about our new deal and I look forward to Darko's path with new deal!

March Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG studying 68.5/45 hours
Coaching 35.75/30 hours
CG coaching sessions 13.5/12 hours
CG grind 91.25/60 hours
SNG grind 40.77/100 hours (816/2000)

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
139.5/300 Study hours
79.25/300 Coaching sessions
342.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
56/1000 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!)

Quick recap of March Challenge

Super satisfied with everything accomplished. Only 1 area failed and that was done intentionally which was SNGs. I made strong decision that CG is something that attracts me much more now and will be much more +EV both as improvement and future hourly. Working on the game was brutal, really improved a tons, fixed leaks that were problematic, improved in a lot of areas and things started to click finally. CG grind was excellent and I really look forward puting hours in future months as well. Thanks to w34z3l, brutal reg and another fellow reg and friend, my game was constantly improving and I am really super grateful to all of them helping me out.

In terms of hours, from total 247 hours set I completed 249.77 hours!!!
I am positively shocked to be honest that I managed to put 8+ hours per day on average with such intense activities (studying 68.5 hours, CG grind 91.25 hours etc) and look forward to such dedication in following months as well.

So March was TOTAL SUCCESS and it makes me very happy to look back on such a strong month. I will do my best to keep months like this happening to keep improving and crushing!

April Challenge

It is time to set a challenge for April. I have been thinking hard about what would be a best way to go about it.
Here are some potential things that came through my mind:
1) Grind heavy CG month, sacrifice studying and keep steady coaching
2) Grind heavy SNG month, continue studying CG and keep steady coaching
3) Grind both formats with emphasis on SNGs, continue studying CG and keep coaching

Considering how I feel and what my gut tells me, I want to prove to myself that I can already make 4bb/100 on NL50 which was my initial goal when switching to CG.
So motivation and will to make it, prove to myself that I can become better and crush harder and in the way increase hourly, all these things affected my final decision.

In the end I broke down all the areas that I consider very important and came up with following challenge:
- Grind 150 hours online CG on NL50 ZOOM
- Study CG 30 hours
- Read Application of No Limit Holdem 30 hours
- Coaching 15 hours
- Coaching with w34z3l 12 hours

Total 237 hours or 7.9 (8) hours per day of Poker activity.

I will lay out plans for each of the individual areas now.

Grind 150 hours online CG on NL50 ZOOM
5 hours per day of NL50 ZOOM 3 tabling. That should roughly get me something over 90k hands in April. This sample will be great to show how close or far I am from 4bb/100.
It will be quite challenging because in CG games any mistake is super costly which affects win rate greatly. Grinding 5 hours per day ZOOM will put huge pressure on my mindset and test my mental game and focus greatly.
I feel that this grind will test my endurance, mental game, bring out both A and D game and bring new things to focus to improve on.
In the end of the grind if I get to minimum 4bb/100 I will continue grinding same volume in following months also!
My expectation is that I will definitely get that 4bb/100 and even better but lets wait 1st of May and see whats up.

Study CG 30 hours
Studying is always +EV and I want to continue improving to fix my leaks and increase my win rate.
I will be focusing in 1 hour each day to work on and switch between following things: 1) HH review (hands marked during the sessions) and to send those to w34z3l with thinking process 2) Database leak finding and fixing 3) Working with fellow regs theory, hh reveiw and live sweats (brutal reg and my friend that I work with from beginning of my CG road) 4) Learning from new videos 5) GTO approach with random hands and scenarios
All these areas are super important to me. I am especially looking forward to studying GTO and preparing myself for NL200+ understanding all possible spots and how ranges work in different scenarios.

*Read Applications of No Limit Holdem 30 hours*
This will be new addition to my studying and one that will improve me as a player for higher limits. I am already intuitively doing many things that are very much part of GTO strategy since I already went through some of Janda's videos and assignments. Also learned this concept with and through w34z3l and brutal reg as well.This of course is nowhere near enough work and I still find board textures that I am not sure on certain run outs how my range and bet sizings would work.
In general GTO is not really necessary to beat NL50 ZOOM nor NL100 really. I believe that there is guys on NL200 that don't even know it well enough. Still, learning GTO will just boost my knowledge and understanding regarding ranges on different board textures. As I mentioned above, I will spend time from my studying to study using FlopZilla and CREV to understand and learn different board textures for ranges and actions required to take.
I will report my findings as I go through this brutal book.

Coaching 15 hours
Most of my coaching will be daily via private forum and the rest will happen with private sessions. Coaching will be good with 15 hours as all guys are getting more independent by each day and will hopefully within couple of months reach a point where they will need very little to no help from me!

Coaching with w34z3l 12 hours
Crucial part of my development as a CG as w34z3l will keep checking my database, do leak fixing and finding with me, occasionally check my live play for thinking process and lines etc
So far this was very useful and I expect it to keep being useful but it is important to note that coaching without working on the game and help from fellow regs would not be enough for me. It is thanks to combination of all those things that got me to the level where I feel along with w34z3l and brutal reg that I am now comfortably beating NL50 ZOOM.

Room for change of plans and adjusting
Certain things might affect my number of hours dedicated in the challenge. Example for this might be going to Belgrade for some football and/or basketball games to watch Partizan Belgrade. Another thing that might happen in April is my very good friend Stanko coming to our town around last week of April. My health getting worse, getting sick, headaches, constant pressure overtaking my will to make it.
All these things can greatly affect number of hours that I have set for April. I will of course give my best to complete everything I have set now but if I have to cut down on some things here is the list of priorities that will have to go out:
- Janda's book (as this is advanced stuff not needed for immediate win rate improval on NL50)
- Grinding (instead of 150 hours do minimum 120 hours)
- The last thing that can suffer is studying and coaching as well as sessions with w34z3l

Mission and Vision for April
Stick with time management used so far which proved very effective.
Keep improving as a player overall. Understand post flop ranges and board textures even better. Improve my hand reading ability and increase my focus during pressure type grind. Keep improving on understanding tendencies and how to play vs all different CG opponent types post flop.
Improve my GTO using Janda's help and help from brutal reg.
Prove to myself that I can already beat NL50 ZOOM with good enough win rate to switch to CG permanently from May.
Mentally prepare for NL100 shot taking and permanent switch in near future.

This is all about April challenge. It will be very difficult to complete all the things outlined but I will give my best as all the things are vital part of becoming great in CG format.

GO GO GO APRIL!

April Challenge

Day 1

CG Study 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Read 50 Pages from Janda's book 1 hour
Coached 1.5 hours
Went for coffee with my best friend
Went to dentist

Total 9 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day.

CG study
Last night after midnight before bed time, I dedicated 0.5 hour watching and learning from Sauce123 video. It was very exciting to watch 25/50$ live play video and predict plays.
I saw some very interesting and new things in terms of tendencies and ranges so that was very fun and beneficial experience.
Remaining 1 hour of studying happened in the afternoon in the coffee place. I finished my 1 hour grind there and then remaining over went through the hands with specific filter and choose one in the end for in depth analysis that I sent to w34z3l.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
5 hours completed in 4 sessions total (1 , 1, 0.5 and 2.5 hours).
Playing shorter sessions helped a lot with retaining strong focus and making strong decisions.
In the whole day there is 1 hand that I was not happy in live play and later in review also with. There were hands in other category where I could have chosen alternative line, I marked those as well and will review them also in depth with w34z3l.
Overall despite making mistake in that 1 hand, rest of the day was very strong focus and control of the game.
Results wise ended with 3.67bb/100 with EV 9.09bb/100. There were 3 or 4 full stack plays where opponent caught up turn to river with flush or gutter. Important to mention that one stack I also lost in 4 bet pot KK vs AA.
So considering how everything went today I am very happy with Day 1 of the challenge and if I maintain this type of approach and focus I feel I will crush NL50 easily.
Here is the graph for today:

Coaching SNGs
Worked with my best friend in the coffee place 1 hour and also responded to Daily Tracking threads + checked all hands posted in private forum remaining 0.5 hour.

Read Application of No Limit Holdem
When I got the book I already read some intro in it but today I got to page 51. So I basically went through whole intro stuff and now starting section on pre flop play.
Intro things are very familiar yet often overlooked by everyone who plays poker. I am happy that I learned those things from w34z3l already and it is no secret that he read the book also and applies tons of things from it in his coaching videos as well.
Book is great so far and it was very easy introduction and read through. I am also taking notes that I think are essential along with questions for w34z3l and brutal reg about it.

3 more things to mention.
1)The reason why I accomplished so many things today before 2am is because I went to bed earlier (had a day off, slept really well and woke up at 10am very energized and ready to crush).
2) Tomorrow I have session with w34z3l and look forward to leak fixing and perhaps some live play
3) This update is NOT April's fools joke

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 1.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 1/30 hours
SNG Coaching 1.5/15 hours
CG Grinding 5/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 0/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
141/300 Study hours
80.75/300 Coaching sessions
347.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
57/1000 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 tomorrow (2nd of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with w34z3l 11-12:30
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind 1 hour + work on the game 1 hour (in depth analysis and leak finding)
Lunch brake
Dentist appointment 5pm
Session with Jernej 6-7pm
Grind 4 more hours of CG with brake for dinner (30 mins) and shorter brakes for water drinking and recharging
Read study and take notes from Janda book 1 hour
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

April Challenge

Day 2

Coaching with w34z3l 1.5 hours
CG Study 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem book 1 hour
Went for coffee with my best friend
Went to dentist

Total 9 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day.

Coaching with w34z3l
Talked a lot in the session, analyzed 1 hand in depth and went through 1 filter briefly.
Not a lot of things accomplished in terms of leak finding but definitely useful discussion in today's session.

CG Study
0.5 hour spent with video my friend and fellow reg sent me. 1 hour was going over marked hands and posting tricky spots for w34z3l (7 hands posted).
Feel I need more working on the game hours after days like today.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
5 hours completed. 2x1 hour sessions in coffee place, 1x1 and 1x2 hour session at home. Results wise I finished with 4 buy ins loss and whole day was just very brutal.
Despite running below EV severly when ahead, I was also getting tons of setups for whole stacks like KK vs AA twice, QQ vs AA once all in pre flop dynamics of course.
I did find hands that I was not happy how I played them and there were 3 of them that I am waiting for response from w34z3l. 1 of them was already cleared to me by brutal reg but want to check with w34z3l also and the other 2 hands I will also send to brutal reg.
Anyways, days like today just remind me how crazy CG can get. Month or two ago I am sure that on day like today I would have lost 9+ buy ins easily, today it was 4 buy ins so I am improving in that area also.
Now for month EV is 3.62bb/100 while running with -4.18bb/100

Here is the graph for today:

Applications of No Limit Holdem book
1 hour completed today also. Worked on a lot of auto profit formula things for 3 and 4 betting. It is helping me memorize things and understand them in any stack setups not just use some lame shortcut. Feel this will be very important on higher limit as opponents will exploit more leaks.
Also feel that this book is so great that I could easily study from it whole day long but unfortunately no time for it due to grinding and other things in challenge. Hopefully I will finish the book within next month or two.

Coaching with Jernej is tomorrow, I will also schedule another coaching session with another student.
Dentist appointment past 2 days was brutal as both time I got injection and 2 tooth taken out. My jaw feels so weird from injections especially today. Tomorrow going again, have couple of more appointments to finish everything, hope there will be no more injections

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 3/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 1.5/15 hours
CG Grinding 10/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 1.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
142.5/300 Study hours
80.75/300 Coaching sessions
352.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
57/1000 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 tomorrow (3rd of April):
Wake up by 10am, visit grocery store for breakfast and water
Meet with my dad by 11am
Schedule session with another student for weekend
Study CG 1 hour minimum with in depth hand history analysis from today
Grind 1st session 1 hour
Short brake followed by another 1 hour of grinding
Lunch brake
Dentist appointment 5pm
Session with Jernej
Grind 3rd session
Dinner brake
Grind 4th session
Read study and complete assignments from Applications of No Limit Holdem 1 hour
Update blog and challenge + mission and vision

I think I will start to copy the format of your posts ♦
It forces you to plan your next day and it allows you to analyze better where you spend the time...

Best of luck and keep going

Originally posted by CardsUpPoet
I think I will start to copy the format of your posts ♦
It forces you to plan your next day and it allows you to analyze better where you spend the time...

Best of luck and keep going

Welcome man!
Go for it, if it will help you become more productive I support your decision.
Thanks for kind words and yeah I will give my best

April Challenge

Day 3

Studied 1.5 hours
Coached SNGs 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Meet with my dad
Went for coffee with best friend
Went to dentist

Total 8 hours of Poker activity.

Productive day again.

CG Study
1.5 hour was spent in chunks before grinding, in between and after. What I did was I analyzed the hands from yesterday + today and sent them to w34z3l.
I discovered that despite variance kicking my ass in April, I had bad plays - especially today. Have to work more on fixing those leaks that are caused by projection bias and anger tilt (when reg makes very light call in spot where I expect him to always fold!!!).
Tomorrow in the morning plan to review my game more calmed with even more in depth notes.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
Completed 5 hours. This time I did 1.25 + 1 + 1 + 2.75 hours sessions.
Setups again happening today, KK vs AA AQ vs AK TT vs AQo etc. That didn't bother me at all actually. Today was 1st time after really long time, I mean like super long time, that I TILTED. I even know how and when it happened and what caused it.
I prefer not to go into to much details about it cause other regs might take advantage of it. What I should have done is stop playing right away but instead I went on to play and lost 2 more stacks due to my own fault (could have folded turns/rivers).
So even when writing this update I am still steaming and upset because I went over my lost hands and found those tilt mistakes which upsets me even more. So tilted now that I just want to hit the bed ASAP and wake up tomorrow with more energy, try to put such a day behind me.
Don't get me wrong, even with these mistakes I made I should have made profit, EV was 2.83bb/100 for today, but that doesn't matter to me - I know I made mistakes I shouldn't have at any point and this is just not acceptable by my standards.
Tomorrow tons of family things + Partizan Belgrade playing, it will be super hard to fit in 5 hours grind, especially cause I might be having time to grind from 6pm on. This can cause pressure and a lot of it which can be very counter productive for my current mental game with CG. So I will most likely do 3 hours of CG tomorrow and study from Janda's book 2 hours to make up for today + spend additional hour writting thinking process for hands from today and tomorrow's grind.

Here is the graph for today (-4.26bb/100 EV +2.83bb/100):

So far April graph 9769 hands (-4.21bb/100 EV +3.36bb/100):

If I play in future days like my last session today I will definitely not get 4bb/100, BE at best. However without tilting, taking brakes more frequently, I am sure that 4bb will be easy game and that I can even get to 7bb+/100.
80k+ hands more to grind, so lets see what happens when I do review at the end of the month but so far I have realized that I can walk over this limit with high enough win rate to make a living from CG. Will work my ass off to prove it to myself with actual results as well!

Coaching SNGs
Session with Jernej 1.5 hours completed. We talked about very important concept + checked 1 filter and found leaks. I asked Jernej if he doesn't mind me sharing his session with other guys in the program and he was all up for it.
I really look forward to what Jernej and other guys will take for that video. I would say that concept shared in today's session is something that can brutaly increase their ROI in future games but like with everything they have to follow up on it and do it daily.
Private forum I have just checked but haven't responded to hands. Plan to do coaching via forum on Sunday!

Applications of No Limit Holdem
Because I am feeling very tilted now and tomorrow have tons of things going on, decided to skip Janda book.
Feel it will be very unproductive to do such intense studying activity when my focus is now all over the place and I need to rest well for tomorrow.

Dentist visit went without injection this time but the fixing wasn't easy. It went better as there were 3 hot girls that work at the office so I was keeping my calm with them around otherwise pain I was getting was brutal ♦

Tomorrow definitely room for more improvised time management. I also contacted w34z3l to do database management for 10k hands I played in April already, if he accepts it I can dedicate to do more grinding, if not I will definitely do leak finding on my own which will take me time from grinding.
Hopefully I can put at least 6 hours of poker activity tomorrow with balance of studying, grinding and Janda studying.

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 4.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 3/15 hours
CG Grinding 15/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 1.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
144/300 Study hours
82.25/300 Coaching sessions
357.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
59/1000 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 tomorrow (4th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Work on the game 1.5 hours, reviewing hands from day before
Family obligations from 11:30-4pm or so
Grind 2 hours CG with brakes in between
Partizan Belgrade vs Radnicki Kragujevac game 6-8pm
Grind CG 2 hours more with brake for dinner
Grind or study Janda 1 hour
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

April Challenge

Day 4

Studied 3 hours
Grinded online CG 3 hours
Family time most of the day
Watched 2nd half of Novi Pazar vs Zvezda game
Watched full Partizan - Radnicki game

Total 6 hours of Poker activities.

Not as productive day as I am used to having it.
Doing things with family was from 1pm all the way to 4pm so 3 hours total.
Before 1pm I did 2 hours of poker activities, studying 1 hour and grinding 1 hour.
After getting back home from 4pm, I watched as I wrote 2 football games, recharged and then started to grind 2 straight hours followed by 2 more hours of studying/hand reviewing and in depth analysis.
Now I am here updating the blog. So considering family time and Partizan game, I can say that day was actually quite productive!

CG Study
1 hour in the morning was doing assignments from one of w34z3ls videos. Took notes and went through some of my database for it. The idea of just going through video and being aware of all those lines in specific spots helps me so it was very productive.
2 more hours spent going over hands from today and yesterday, marking some TILT plays and then on CLOSE SPOTS writing out in depth thinking process. I did 4 hands in depth and sent them to w34z3l. Hopefully I will get response to them soon.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
1st hour was in the morning and it was SUPER BAD. My tilt was activated after only 2 or 3 hands. Again will not mention how or why but I was immediately aware of it. What I did was I took the brake immediately to analyze those hands and TRY to inject logic.
My friend and fellow reg entered then to sweat me and he was laughing also saying that I am tilting super bad - we are great friends by now and both of us realized that it was nowhere near my B game so we could laugh about it. 1st session ended BE and I could have been up at least a buy in (could have saved $ in 2-3 pots!!!).
2nd and 3rd hour was all 1 long session. Went down to 2 buy ins, again tilt coming and going at times but I really said to my self "stop putting any pressure on yourself, just keep playing and results will flow - you are better than them!" and that's what I did. End result was 13.1bb/100 with EV 11.1bb/100.
Doesn't hurt to say that again today I had KK vs AA setup in pre flop all in. Probably 6th or so setup for full stacks in 4 days of grinding.
Overall not satisfied that tilt was overtaking my focus at times. There is of course good news in this. I know what tilts me in CG, I am 100% positive about what those things are. Now I need to work on daily finding the solution for it to keep injection logic for those spots and more consistent win rate will happen I am absolutely sure about it.
Taking brakes can help but that is no permanent solution of course. I need to deal with the fact that on NL50 those tilt triggers will happen and can just imagine if I was playing NL100 and this happened to me - I would probably start laughing and screaming from it ♦
Informed w34z3l about those spots and look forward to our session on Tuesday. Hoping for database analysis in April and to discuss such tilt triggers and spots.
BTW, since I switched to NL50 on 22nd of March, my win rate is over 4bb/100 which was my initial goal in order to switch full time to CG. If this trend continues in April, I am definitely switching full time to ZOOM.

Here is the graph for today 13.1bb/100 EV 11.1bb/100:

Here is the graph from 22nd of March (32k hands) 4.83bb/100 EV 4.11bb/100:

No SNG coaching nor Janda book today.
SNG coaching will happen tomorrow via forum and I will consider what to do with Janda book since I want to fix my immediate leaks on NL50 ZOOM much faster.
Janda is awesome for higher limits and his concepts are certainly applicable to NL50 ZOOM but I feel that with my reg friends and w34z3l's help I will improve win rate to 7bb+/100 on NL50 ZOOM much faster then using Janda's book.
Janda book will be extremely useful for when making full time switch on NL100+ but I think that is not going to happen next month since I will want to do another 90k+ hands to confirm my 4bb+/100 win rate and then consider mixing and eventually switching to NL100.
So with all these things said, I might in April spend additional hours in day doing leak finding and fixing, hh analysis rather then learning from his book.
Haven't made the decision about it, certainly don't plan to give up on the book but will do my best to keep 1 hour per day studying with it.

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 7.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 3/15 hours
CG Grinding 18/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 1.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
147/300 Study hours
82.25/300 Coaching sessions
360.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
63/1000 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 tomorrow (5th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Study 1 hour (check hand history with specific filter, mark hands for discussion)
Grind 1 hour
Coach SNGs via private forum 1 hour minimum (respond to hands and questions about strategy)
Grind 1.5 hour
Lunch brake
Grind 1 hour
Brake
Grind 1.5 hour
Study 1 hour (check hands from that day, mark and write thinking process for some)
Dinner brake
Janda book studying 1 hour minimum
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

Well said Mr Sharma!

April Challenge

Day 5

Studied 3 hours
Grinded online CG 5 hours
Coaching SNGs via private forum 1 hour
Had coffee with best friend

Total 9 hours of Poker activity.

Productive day today.
I am satisfied with number of hours but not as satisfied with mental game and mistakes I made today.
Also I did not do Janda today again but went over 89 hands from which I wrote full in depth review for 4 of them, for the rest I took quick notes and marked for discussion.

CG Study
3 hours total studying. Everything was about reviewing hands from today, doing in depth review for 4 of them and going through very specific filter checking 89 hands and finding leaks in them.
I studied 1 hour 1st then took a short brake and went on to do full 2 hours then. I am happy that I can spot all the leaks and immediately understand and know what I need to do for these things not to happen in future.
Some things are LACK OF KNOWLEDGE, some are just BAD PLAYS. So for bad plays adjustment is to stop making them and the only way to stop making them is to increase even more focus and discipline in such spots.
For lack of knowledge I also know what to do but prefer not to go too much into it for obvious reasons
Grinding NL50 ZOOM
5 hours total, 2 hours in coffee place (2x1 hours), 3 hours at home (1 hour followed by 1.5 and 0.5 hour sessions).
Very swingy day, again things that tilt me happening, was even sending hands to w34z3l via Skype as those happened. He laughed of course
So I went from 4 buy ins profit today to BE day which is just ridiculous. After doing 3 hours of studying I found my bad plays that I was not happy but also just tons of things that shouldn't be happening happened from my opponents.
I guess I am still even 3 months later adjusting to their tendencies on this limit. Projection bias anyone?
Look forward to grinding tomorrow as it will be broken down differently due to 2 coaching sessions and dentist appointment (more brakes between sessions).

Here is the graph for today 1.87bb/100 EV -0.61bb/100:

Coaching SNGs
Responded to all Daily Tracking threads and challenges. Some great things happening with guys that are frequently updating and following the assignments.
Also responded to hands in 1 whole hand evaluation area. In next couple of days I will look into responding to other areas as well.
As it seems, I might be going well over 15 hours of coaching for the month.

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 10.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 4/15 hours
CG Grinding 23/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 1.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
150/300 Study hours
83.25/300 Coaching sessions
365.36/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
67/1000 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 tomorrow (6th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Read study and do assignments from Janda for 0.5 or 1 hour before coaching session
SNG Coaching session 11-12
Grind 1 hour
Short brake
Grind 1 more hour
Lunch brake
Grind 1 hour
Dentist appointment 5:30pm
SNG Coaching Session 6:30-7:30pm
Dinner brake
Grind 2 hours
Study 2 hours with brake in between each hour (review hands from whole day)
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

April Challenge

Day 6

Studied 5 hours
Grinded online CG 5.5 hours
Talked with great friend and fellow reg 1.5 hours
Went for coffee with best friend
Went to Dentist

Total 10.5 hours of Poker activities.

Extremely productive day today.
Very happy with number of hours, endurance for both grinding and studying + doing session again with my great friend and fellow reg.

CG Study
1.5 hours studying range vs range on 1 specific flop with felow reg. It was very useful and it cleared tons of doubts I had about that particular spot. Unfortunately Camtasia didn't save the video (error in the process of saving it) and friend didn't record it so we potentially lost a great session to refer back on!
Remaining 3.5 hours I spent studying on my own going through hands as I grinded sessions. 1st I did 0.5 hour in between 2 sessions in coffee place. Looked through the hands I played in 1st session and posted 1 of them for w34z3l.
Remaining 3 hours of studying happened in the evening between remaining 3 sessions. I managed to look through very specific filter and post 5 additional hands with in depth thinking process.
So today super productive studying, range vs range with reg 1.5 hours and 3.5 hours doing 6 hands in depth thinking process + going through all the hands from specific filter. Brutal stuff.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
5.5 hours of grind, 1.75 hours at coffee shop (1 followed by 0.75) and 3.75 hours at home (1 hour, 1 hour , 1.75 hours).
What was interesting about today is that I decided to 4 table whole day, only play small portion of grind (1st session in coffee place) 3 tabling. Idea with 4 tabling was to check my auto pilot in game review and post game review + figure out spots that are causing me most trouble to think about.
I am very happy to say that this was great as it shoved me areas I need to keep working on. They are related to what I was talking about yesterday and it is basically lack of knowledge which will take long hours to complete in order to get to the level where I can feel super safe about CG poker.
Results wise I finished with 13.1bb/100 and EV was 8.5bb/100 4137 hands (my record I think for both profit and hands played on NL50 ZOOM in 1 day).
Look forward on building on this 4 tabling routine!

Here is the graph for today 4137 hands, 13.1bb/100 and EV 8.5bb/100:

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 15.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 4/15 hours
CG Grinding 28.5/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 1.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
155/300 Study hours
83.25/300 Coaching sessions
370.86/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
73/1000 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 tomorrow (7th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session/talks with w34z3l 11am
SNG coaching session 1-2pm
Lunch brake
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind 2 hours
Dentist appointment 5pm
SNG coaching session 6-7pm
Dinner brake
Grind 1 hour
Study 1 hour
Short brake
Grind 2 hours
Study 1 hour
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

P.S. In future updates I will mention some more important life developments.

April Challenge

Day 7

Coached SNGs 3 hours
Session with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Grinded online CG 2.34 hours
Worked on the game with fellow reg 1.5 hours (included in grinding)
Watched Better Call Saul, The Following and Hot Tub Time Machine 2
Went to Dentist

Total 6.84 hours of Poker activity.

Not a very productive day today.
I decided to relax more today as my energy levels were nowhere near there. I think session with w34z3l + 2 SNG sessions took a lot of my energy so definitely needed to regenerate today.

CG Studying
1.5 Hours live sweat with my friend and fellow reg. These hours are included in the grind part but during live sweat there were 5-6 spots that we discussed somewhat in depth so it was useful and fun as always!

Coaching SNGs
2 sessions total 2.5 hours and 0.5 responding to 6 hands on forum + some Daily Tracking threads. Definitely very productive day for helping my SNG students!

Session with w34z3l
We talked half of the session about some future changes. Our long term deal will finish on 1st of May but we will still continue working just with package style sessions.
w34z3l is definitely +EV coach who can help me crush NL100 and 200 + beyond it. So despite the long term deal finishing, I plan to continue working with him just under different circumstances and terms.
Actual work we did in session was useful as it was directly related to my biggest leak so far. We will continue looking into fixing it in next sessions as well and in May things will work out a bit differently.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
2 hours and 20 minutes grinding only, most of it done in sweat session with fellow reg. In the 1st session made close to 3 buy ins and by the end of the 2nd finished up over 5 buy ins on less than 2k hands.
Obviously upswing type of session with 1 mistake that I can recall which I wasn't going to make and then in the end got confused by what fellow reg said (misinterpreted it) and then made a bad call.
Despite that very solid play and game is coming along great. Did 4 table which I plan to continue doing to increase my auto pilot and awareness of spots that take me most time to figure out + increase hands/hour and hourly long term.
Today 1993 hands running at 26.2bb/100 and EV 11.1bb/100. April has now increased to running at 4.63bb/100 and EV at 5.24bb/100 on 21339 hands and since returning to NL50 on 22nd of March EV is 4.51bb/100 on 41417 hands. So things going the way I expected them + feeling that knowledge is clicking but still tons of very important things to learn to beat higher limits comfortably which is the plan for future study hours.

Here is the graph for today 1993 hands, 26.2bb/100 and EV 11.1bb/100:

Tons of things happening in next days since Easter is coming up (weekend), Partizan is playing some very important games, I still have to go to dentist tomorrow (finishing things there also), keep working hard and not slack on grind anymore like today (hit those 90k hands minimum by the end of the month!) and update some other life things and plans - so stick around for those things!

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 15.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 7/15 hours
CG Grinding 30.84/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 3/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
155/300 Study hours
86.25/300 Coaching sessions
373.20/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
73/1000 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 tomorrow (8th of April):
Wake up by 10:30am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Grind 1 hour
Go for haircut
Meet with best friend for coffee grind 2 hours
Lunch brake
Study 1 hour (review hands from 3 hours grind)
Dentist appointment 5pm
Grind 1 hour
Partizan vs Jagodina game 7-9pm
Dinner brake
Grind 1 hour
Study 1 hour (hands from the day with emphasis on in deepth thinking process)
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

April Challenge

Day 8

Grinded online CG 3.5 hours (1 hour coffee place, 2 hours on my own, 0.5 sweat with friend and fellow reg)
Worked on the game 1.5 hour (with friend and fellow reg 1 hour, 0.5 hour on my own)
Haircut appointment 0.5 hour
Watched Partizan game 2 hours
Dentist visit 0.5 hour
Afternoon nap 0.5 hour
Went with best friend for coffee 2 hours (1 hour grinding)

Total 5 hours of Poker activities.

Not a very productive day for poker.
Will try to talk in this update about some feeling that are going on.

Since I had session with w34z3l yesterday and we agreed on parting ways on 1st of May for long term deal, I feel very strange about it all.
It was me who initiated it, w34z3l was very cool about it all and his sessions were and always are useful to me. We agreed to keep working with package type sessions (15 hours thingy and/or HH evaluation packages) which is good thing of course.
I am however not feeling entirely fulfilled or happy about it all. I really wanted to make us both tons of money by the end of the year and in the process become absolute beast and crusher in CG. Now that long term deal will finish officially on 1st of May, I feel somewhat weird and emptier emotionally.
Suddenly knowing what I know since working with him, I just feel somewhat disappointed that's all. I wish things could have worked out for long term but it seems that my needs are just too much and I really don't see myself finding a new coach after him who will fit with my fanatic approach and needs.
I still want to work with w34z3l since coaching from him is +EV and I am sure he will help me beat NL100 on Stars easily by the end of the year with hh evaluation and package type deals.
In the meanwhile I will have to re-evaluate how I will organize my study time and assignments. Priority will be to increase study time with brutal reg (the best poker player that I know period) and with my great friend and fellow reg with whom I started working since beginning of this year. I owe both these guys a lot as they are the ones that helped me the most besides w34z3l. With w34z3l I did about 16.5 hours of coaching since our deal started in March, and from new years on I think additional 15 hours or so so 30ish hours. With brutal reg I easily did 20+ hours of consulting and hh reviews + strategy advice. With great friend and fellow reg we easily did 60+ hours together. So these two guys like I said besides w34z3l are the reason why I am improving at such fast pace. I am really grateful to have meet and connected with them. It is honor to get help from brutal reg for free (he could easily charge 200+$ per hour for his knowledge) and having great friend always there for me moving up together the limits setting same goals from beginning of the year (beating NL100 by the end of this year and understanding poker way better in the process).

So all this writing, to summarize, I will need to readjust my time management for sessions with brutal reg and great friend and fellow reg from 1st of May. In the meanwhile I need to take full advantage of sessions with w34z3l that are included in the deal to fix my number 1 biggest leak in them. Also need to work out how often will I take coaching from him from 1st of May (depends on profit and expenses of course). When it comes to volume I will stick to 90k hands with 4 tabling, if 4 tabling proves to be too much then I will do 3 tabling and just grind 150 hours per month.
My studying will be focusing way more on GTO in future since NL50 ZOOM seems very beatable to me now. I am recognizing leaks all around me, taking notes and working on exploiting them which makes me quite happy that I managed to switch from SNGs and adapt this quickly to it all.

Very important thing that I will keep working on and expect improvement soon is my mental game. My family situation is number 1 trigger for some sort of tilt and those things are happening daily, highs and lows, things that are very difficult to deal with. Great news is that my brother is on a way of finding now more full time type of work via freelancing websites (higher hourly then poker SNGs 7s etc) so in that sense I can't wait for it to all happen ASAP as it will really remove tons of stress that I have on my mind daily. Once he starts making money for his living expenses, I can finally dedicate to studying more, grinding less (without as much pressure for making money) and naturally with this approach knowledge will increase along with confidence stronger mental game less stress and moving up to NL100 sooner. How soon will all this happen? I hope by the end of this month as he already got 1 job (part time project) and is getting interview calls (2 in this week!) + there is tons of positive things happening around it with our friends helping him out with it. So once that is settled, I can rearrange my time management, focus way more on studying keep grinding 3-4 hours per day and figure out way to get back into CrossFit and healthy lifestyle (much needed - miss this a lot!).
Those are some major things going on in my mind and I realized that once those things resolve, my mental game will be way stronger and I can expect much higher win rate. Until that happens I have to keep fighting daily those things, do my best to focus and not let anything affect my mindset at the tables.

Today was type of grinding where I went from 5 buy ins in profit to BE or so. I also made today some RUSHED plays which I originally wouldn't have yesterday or day before which cost me profit of course. This was another reason why I didn't grind more than 3.5 hours today. My mindset was just weak and I just wanted to reach 3k hands and clock out from it to rest for tomorrow.
I am going to keep grinding those 3k hands daily and by the end of the month hit 90k hands, do the split with w34z3l and then see how I stand financially and hope for the best about brothers freelancing job opportunities.
When it comes to mental leaks in terms of tactical or actual at the tables, it happens very rarely and it is 2 particular leaks from which one is projection bias (that happens way less in April BTW) and the other one I prefer not to go into it
So overall my expectations for April are to get to 90k hands, if card distribution and variance is OK I should definitely get those 4bb/100, keep studying and leak fixing and hope for the best regarding brothers situation.

Here is the graph for today for all graph hunters 1.36bb/100 EV -3.59bb/100:

Month so far 24434 hands 4.48bb/100 EV 4.40bb/100:

Session with w34z3l tomorrow, look forward to leak fixing my biggest leak with him!
No more dentist appointments for 4 weeks but a lot of Partizan games coming up + friend Stanko will come to Nis around 26th of April so tons of things to look forward to!

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 16.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 7/15 hours
CG Grinding 34.34/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 3/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
156/300 Study hours
86.25/300 Coaching sessions
376.70/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
73/1000 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 tomorrow (9th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with w34z3l 11-12:30
Grind 1 hour (at home or coffee place with best friend)
Study 1 hour (review that sessions and specific filter for yesterday)
Lunch brake
Grind 2 hours
Meet with fellow reg for coffee
Short brake
Grind 1 hour
Dinner brake
Study 1 hour (work on fixing number 1 leak)
Watch favorite TV shows to regenerate (The Arrow)
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

April Challenge

Day 9

Grinded online CG 3.75 hours
Session with w34z3l 1.5 hours
Studied 1.5 hour
Coaching SNGs 0.5 hour
Meet with best friend for coffee
Watched some football
Talked with my brother a lot through out the day
Talked with brutal reg
Arranged session with friend and fellow reg

Total 7.25 hours of Poker activity.

Productive day today.
Managed to put over 3k hands in, session with w34z3l and studied via video and HH review from today + SNG coaching (skype consultation + daily tracking threads).

Session with w34z3l
Went over 2 filters and did live play. Useful as always, reviewing things I already studied and know just not implementing them fully or mixing them up with some other concepts or things.
Live play was only 20 minutes or so and there were couple of very interesting spots that we will discuss in depth in future.

Studying CG
1 hour completed 1 video which was very beneficial. I have to watch it 1 or 2 more times, despite taking notes to keep reviewing and implementing things from it. Finally will have to get to homework which is very long that will take months (related to GTO of course). So very useful 1 hour.
0.5 hour I analyzed hands from today with specific filter. I found out that despite loosing 338$ today (close to 7 buy ins) I had only 1 play which could have been avoided. All the rest of the things were brutal setups (KKvsAAx2, AKsvsJJ, QQvs77 - all pre flop losses) and then 4 post flop 2 outer losses (set value betting losing to over set catching up on river lol). Overall very happy with how review went and that my mental game was very strong today despite loosing close to 7 buy ins!

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
So 3.75 hours today, 1 hour at the coffee place and 2.75 hours at home. My mental game was super strong, I didn't tilt even once today and was 4 tabling all the time. There were tons of interesting spots and I felt that with mental and tactical approach I applied today I can easily move to NL100 already full time. Would say that today was B to B- game for most of the time. There were some hands that I will analyze in near future because opponents took some unorthodox lines or were shoving up with totally unexpected hands on showdown (already wrote notes on most of them). Obviously plan to readjust and dominate those guys in future and GL to them readjusting (doubt it of course).
Already mentioned in the study part, results not so great but due to setups pre and post flop. I am however very happy with today's grind mental and tactical approach. I will aim to keep this standard of play and mental game and keep improving it further.

Here is the graph for today 3234 hands -20.91bb/100 EV -17.17bb/100:


Month is now lower but since switching to NL50 (22nd of March) still have 4.53bb (EV 3.05bb/100) on 48426 hands. By the end of this month I plan to have over 100k hands from 22nd of March. Sample will be OK but not super important; what is more important is how I feel about my game and what experts are telling me about my game.
I feel right now that I can easily beat this with 4bb/100 (from this point on super easily 4 tabling) but will continue pushing for 7bb+ and then switch to NL100 ZOOM. Plan to shoot NL100 in near future, sometime in May maybe even but I will write about it when time comes for it and as things develop.
Experts (w34z3l and brutal reg) also say that I am beating NL50 ZOOM. These guys reviewed my game and we talk strategy and hands constantly.
w34z3l doesn't talk about specific win rate (but says I definitely beat the limit) and he focuses on my leaks (showing me areas where to keep improving); while brutal reg said that I have minimum 5bb/100 already (having discussed over 20 hours of strategy and hands with me). Also very important part is the fact that my thinking process is every day connecting tons of things I studied in past 3 months and I keep adding on new things.
I have very clear plan about what areas of my game I want to improve and how to achieve my goals sooner, more on this in future updates for future months.

SNG Coaching
Uploaded 1 more video for my students, responded to Daily Tracking threads as well as Skype questions + scheduled session for Saturday.
Will schedule 1 hour to respond on their hands on Saturday as well.

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 18/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 7.5/15 hours
CG Grinding 38.09/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 4.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
157.5/300 Study hours
86.75/300 Coaching sessions
380.45/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
73/1000 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 tomorrow (10th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Study 1 hour (analyze hands from past 2 days)
Grind 1st session (meet with best friend for coffee)
Study with fellow reg 1 hour
Talk with brutal reg
Lunch brake
Grind 1 hour
Short brake
Grind 1.5 hour
Study 1 hour (review everything from that day)
Study 1 hour (video re-watching from today)
Study 1 hour (Janda's book)
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

P.S. Will aim tomorrow for 3k hands (3.5 hours), studying 5 hours.

April Challenge

Day 10

Grinded online CG 4 hours
Studied with fellow reg 1.5 hours
Studied on my own 2 hours
SNG Coaching 1 hour
Watched 2 TV Shows and 1 movice
Meet with best friend for coffee

Total 8.5 hours of Poker activity.

Very productive day today.
Stars had some server trouble or update going on, so my volume suffer cause of it. Studying was fantastic as well as coaching sngs. Overall very productive day.

Studying CG
1.5 hours studying with fellow reg was brutal. We covered something super important for NL100+ and I am super happy how the session went today (look forward to more of them in the future). 1 hour I went over hands that I played yesterday and today which was great. Keep seeing less mistakes and things clicking for sure. 1 more hour I watched the video again from yesterday and took some more things from it. Plan to complete assignments from it with fellow reg in future.

Coaching SNGs
1 hour of coaching via private forum. Evaluated all the hands form 2 areas + responded to Skype questions. Added another video for my students! Very productive 1 hour.

Grinding NL50 ZOOM
4 hours today but don't really remember how long I did in coffee place cause that is when Stars was lagging.
Whole day I absolutely crushed. Found very few mistakes like I mentioned in the studying part. I know there is more things to fix and keep improving but I have no worries whatsoever that I am beating NL50 ZOOM easily (like I mentioned in some previous updates). There is some very specific areas that I want to fix and keep working on which I am sure will increase my ROI in the future.
Depending on how I finish April, NL100 shot taking might already happen in May. I plan to use 30 buy ins for NL50 + 5 buy ins for NL100 (2000$), and whenever I drop to 1.5k to drop down to NL50 ZOOM and grind up to 2k then take a shot again. I will keep leaving aside 700$ or so for monthly expenses since until May my brother will make a living with freelancing and I can focus on investing money in my BR + saving it for coaching sessions with w34z3l and life roll. So very much look forward to May period as it should be the 1st month with expectations of 3k+ post RB.
Anyways...
Not many all ins today, most winnings were from showdowns.
Here is the graph for today 2784 hands 29.46bb/100 EV 31.1bb/100:

Graph since switching to NL50 ZOOM (22nd of March) 50501 hands 5.7bb/100 EV 4.1bb/100:

Since 22nd of March improved a lot, in particular focused on improving my biggest 2 leaks. Both of them are on going projects and once I am done with them I can expect 10bb/100 on NL50 like my brutal reg friend has and what w34z3l told me when we were starting it was very much possible (7bb good reg, 10bb best ones). Will I stick to NL50 with such high win rate? No, since I plan to switch to NL100 and test my skills in that environment. If I get owned and schooled I can easily drop to NL50 rebuild roll and skills and then try again. Eventually I will reach a point where I will establish myself as winning regular on NL100 ZOOM which will make great hourly and let me focus way more on improving and other life things as well. Very much look forward to all of it. This are happening so fast with my improvement that I would not be as shocked if I get to NL200 by the end of this year!
Lets see what happens in future months, NL100 feels very well within reach now.

April Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
CG Studying 21.5/30 hours
Applications of No Limit Holdem 2/30 hours
SNG Coaching 8.5/15 hours
CG Grinding 42.09/150 hours
Coaching with w34z3l 4.5/12 hours

2015 Challenge
Things completed so far in the challenge:
161/300 Study hours
87.75/300 Coaching sessions
384.45/1500 Grinding hours
29/150 Work out
73/1000 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 tomorrow (11th of April):
Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast and drink tons of water
Session with Kornel 11-12
Meet with best friend for coffee and grind NL50 ZOOM 1 hour + study 0.5 hour
Session with fellow reg or study on my own 1 hour (in depth hand analysis)
Lunch brake
Grind 1.5 hours
Short brake
Grind 1 hour
Study 1 hour (note taking, reviewing hands from whole day)
Short brake
Study 1 hour (GTO)
Update blog and challenge + reflect on mission and vision

P.S. On track for 90k hands for the month, so far at 30267 after 1/3 of the month!

Amazing work ethic man. Keep it up

Originally posted by ZeDawning
Amazing work ethic man. Keep it up

Appreciate it man. Trying hard but still can be even better I am sure.
I am following your blog and see that you are also on NL50 ZOOM owning with some plays. Your style reminds me of BSB school as he likes to make such plays. I haven't studied with him but connected via Skype and know people who do work with him. If you are one of them, I am sure you are getting excellent value from him to learn how to exploit opponents to maximum with such crazy plays