Skip to forum
Balancing poker, li...
 
Notifications
Clear all

Balancing poker, life, programming and investing

216 Posts
22 Users
9 Reactions
42.2 K Views
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

again insane day, this time NL5 went well :)

actually came back from work. It was hard day. I was feeling bad, but after eating and 5 minute meditation, I felt better and decided I feel ok enough to play 1 hour session.

And after like 10-15 minutes, I had insane hand, which spiked my feeling up, kind of like watching a comedy to see such play:

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 202.2 BB
SB: 138.2 BB
BB: 98.2 BB
UTG: 135 BB
MP: 273.4 BB
CO: 126.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A♣ 8♣

fold, fold, CO calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 4 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 3 BB

Flop: (9.4 BB, 2 players) A♦ 2♠ 8♠
CO bets 1 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, CO raises to 23 BB, Hero raises to 78 BB, CO calls 55 BB

Turn: (165.4 BB, 2 players) Q♦
CO bets 44.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 44.6 BB

River: (254.6 BB, 2 players) 4♠

CO shows 3♠ K♥ (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 34%, Flop 6%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows A♣ 8♣ (Two Pair, Aces and Eights)
(Pre 66%, Flop 94%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 244 BB

took note, that he bluffs that way, and knowing that, next time its just a call on flop I guess, because we might bet more value from his bluffs. Next time he can fold this trash to reraise.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Month has ended, here are the results:

Too bad this weekent really did not play much, just 350 hands. On friday was spending time with girl, on saturday with girl and friends and in the morning also were in baltic aviation acameny open door. Was interesting to see presentation and also had oportunity to be inside (air-bus I guess) flight simulator. Did not fly with it. But there were 3 winners who could fly.

Interesting thing was that in the screens for example when I move lets say to the right- the view changes of what I see. Did not expect this. I mean if you look at normal monitor, move to the right, you see still same view. Probaly this is techonology like 3d glasses. But the view was bit blurred in those screens, so there is still room to improve to feel even more realistic. And also it looked that the road is so far away.

And its insane price if you want to be commercial airlines pilot, if I heard well, its over 50 k euros. Fuel included for learning. So even if you are smart at math and physics, but not have money, or not willing to risk for that money, you are fucked if thats your dream :) BUt its good that its not my dream at all :) I am just interesting in this technology. I like the panels full of buttons and gadgets :)

and today I had headache, probably from drinking yesterday 1.5 litter of beer. BUt managed to get out of it by evening and not using medication.

What I did - drink water. Had 20 mins meditation. Had contrast shower. After that - was listening to relax music. Was not doing anything what required lot of thinking, but was reading forum, facebook, wasting time :)

would have posted a picture of that simulator, but when I connect damn phone and try to copy picture, the copying freezes. This happens from time to time, no idea why. Android and windows7 pc.

Just putting youtube link, maybe its same model which I saw:

Would be cool of course to be inside during training session.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Hi, had fun hands today:

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 71.6 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 103.2 BB
BTN: 100.7 BB
SB: 100.5 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♦ A♣

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, SB raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 18.5 BB, fold, SB calls 9.5 BB

Flop: (39.5 BB, 2 players) 5♠ 2♥ 3♦
SB checks, Hero bets 12 BB, SB raises to 28.5 BB, Hero calls 16.5 BB

Turn: (96.5 BB, 2 players) J♥
SB bets 53.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 53 BB and is all-in

River: (202.5 BB, 2 players) J♠

SB shows 5♥ 6♥ (Two Pair, Jacks and Fives)
(Pre 23%, Flop 36%, Turn 39%)
Hero shows A♦ A♣ (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 77%, Flop 64%, Turn 61%)
Hero wins 193.4 BB

regular :)

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 103 BB
SB: 104 BB
BB: 106 BB
UTG: 127.5 BB
MP: 84.2 BB
Hero (CO): 212.3 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♠ A♦

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 8 BB, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls 5 BB

Flop: (17.5 BB, 2 players) 9♣ 4♣ J♦
UTG checks, Hero bets 8.5 BB, UTG raises to 20 BB, Hero calls 11.5 BB

Turn: (57.5 BB, 2 players) 3♣
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (57.5 BB, 2 players) 9♥
UTG bets 30 BB, Hero calls 30 BB

UTG shows A♥ Q♣ (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 8%, Flop 8%, Turn 20%)
Hero shows A♠ A♦ (Two Pair, Aces and Nines)
(Pre 92%, Flop 92%, Turn 80%)
Hero wins 112.2 BB

I like that I did not bet the turn, because when he c/r flop - he has me beat or air or now on turn has beat with flush.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 100 BB
MP: 106.5 BB
CO: 109.5 BB
BTN: 121 BB
SB: 96.3 BB
Hero (BB): 204.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4♥ T♥

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero checks

Flop: (2 BB, 2 players) 2♠ 6♥ K♦
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (2 BB, 2 players) 7♥
SB checks, Hero bets 1.9 BB, SB raises to 3.8 BB, Hero calls 1.9 BB

River: (9.6 BB, 2 players) 8♥
SB bets 9 BB, Hero calls 9 BB

SB shows K♠ K♥ (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 84%, Flop 96%, Turn 84%)
Hero shows 4♥ T♥ (Flush, Ten High)
(Pre 16%, Flop 4%, Turn 16%)
Hero wins 26.4 BB

T4s vs KK


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

another nice 1 hour session:

and fun hand:

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 253.8 BB
Hero (BB): 130 BB
UTG: 165.2 BB
MP: 93.6 BB
CO: 194.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A♦ Q♥

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 4.4 BB, SB calls 4 BB, Hero raises to 17.2 BB, BTN calls 12.8 BB, SB calls 12.8 BB

Flop: (51.6 BB, 3 players) Q♣ 3♥ 4♦
SB checks, Hero bets 16.8 BB, BTN calls 16.8 BB, fold

Turn: (85.2 BB, 2 players) Q♠
Hero bets 27.2 BB, BTN raises to 66 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 38.8 BB

River: (217.2 BB, 2 players) 6♠

Hero shows A♦ Q♥ (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 63%, Flop 94%, Turn 100%)
BTN shows T♠ J♦ (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 37%, Flop 6%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 208.2 BB

Learned from Lemon to cbet 1/3 in 3bet pots, this time it really worked well :)


Reply
Quote
Coach
LemOn36
Joined: 07.02.2009

Woo Bulldozer!
And yeah this is exactly the board where you can cbet 1/3 against literally anyone at any stake as you don't need to protect against much and the pot's massive so you can GII easily by turn+river.
At NL5/10 I'd still bet bigger on drawy boards with strong hands or when someone's range is pocket pair heavy and the pot is small (i.e. on low boards where people call your cbet regardless of size), but in spots like this one there's no need and yeah, a lot of people become wise guys like this one when you do it


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

At NL5/10 I'd still bet bigger on drawy boards with strong hands or when someone's range is pocket pair heavy and the pot is small (i.e. on low boards where people call your cbet regardless of size),

You mean NL5 NL10 I guess. Why not on higher stakes? Lets say flop is 236r, and I bet 80% of pot, I do not believe that people will fold hand like 77 on flop at NL25, NL50.


Reply
Quote
caltabiano
Joined: 09.03.2007

Heeey dude! Nice results, please teach me how to get paid with AA :f_biggrin: I think I'm in the negative with AA for the past 4kish hands, hahaha

I like this smallish bet thing as well on super dry boards, it's ze nuts!

BTW, out of curiosity, what BRM are you using to move up?


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Originally posted by caltabiano
Heeey dude! Nice results, please teach me how to get paid with AA :f_biggrin: I think I'm in the negative with AA for the past 4kish hands, hahaha

I like this smallish bet thing as well on super dry boards, it's ze nuts!

BTW, out of curiosity, what BRM are you using to move up?

hey :)I cannot teach how to get paid with AA, because most of the time I do not get paid :) they just fold like they see my cards. Probably bluffs are the key to win.

I will need to think about BRM only if I will be at stage to move to NL50. But its far away. It will depend on how confident I will be at NL25. If lets say I have 5 bb/100 per 100k hands at NL25, I would be confident to move to NL50 with 30 BI I guess.

Now I have roll more than enough for NL25 - its about 1700 $, but I am strugling at NL5 to get decent winrate, so I still play it as my main game.

Its shame actually, cause I play poker so many years and really poker haters now can have argument that I am just wasting my time because I do not make serious money with such big experience.

If I would beat NL25, I already could make decent money comparing to lithuanian wages and would be able to show to poker haters. Of course until I do not make per hours as much as they make, they will not consider this is good.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Hi,

this week was low on volume. There I can find reasons - was going out a lot. On money did not went out but if I remember well - was on lemon coaching and played 394 hands before that.

Tuesday - went to friend, talked about job stuff.
Wednesday - meet with girl.
Thursday - laser tag. It was a game where you have a laser gun. Its similar to counter strike but you play not in front of computer, but you have to move yourself. Healthy thing :) it was first time I played this.
Friday - met with friends, played sabateur.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9220/saboteur

This has similarities to poker, because its strategy card game. Have no idea how to get an edge against friends, but I am not motivated to study it at all. Just playing because they like it.

Saturday - finally I am having whole day, could user it for poker. Yea. Waht I did - almost all day browsing the internet. One thing which I was doing I am not sure is it waste of time or not - searching for the information about the new law of gambling in lithuania.

This thinking that I will not be able to legally play demotivates. And I am first looking if I really be able to use my money somehow without getting to jail which I win from poker. I understand that jail should be some extreme case when making loads of money. But that is a dream - to make load of money. You can play one sunday milion and get lucky.

Or maybe I am worrying too much. I am not sure. Poker looks like illegal in latvia, but I see latvians playing, not many of them. But in russia also illegal, but there are tons of russians.

So studied a bit, and played 1 hour. Run well. Won 16.5 $.

here is an interesting hand, which I was not sure to call on turn or not, cause draws compeltea and his range is very polarized.

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 56 BB
SB: 251.6 BB
Hero (BB): 121.4 BB
UTG: 127 BB
MP: 172.4 BB
CO: 105.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J♠ J♣

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.4 BB, 2 players) J♦ 6♠ 8♦
Hero checks, UTG bets 4 BB, Hero raises to 18.2 BB, UTG calls 14.2 BB

Turn: (42.8 BB, 2 players) 7♥
Hero checks, UTG bets 105.8 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 100.2 BB and is all-in

River: (243.2 BB, 2 players) 6♥

Hero shows J♠ J♣ (Full House, Jacks full of Sixes)
(Pre 81%, Flop 92%, Turn 98%)
UTG shows 7♦ 7♣ (Full House, Sevens full of Sixes)
(Pre 19%, Flop 8%, Turn 2%)
Hero wins 233.2 BB

But from the result it turned out it was not polarized :) but some stupid :) probably fish was here.

Actually after he calls such big raise on flop - it cannot be GS. But if he is fish, then it can be that he calls even with GS. Do fish see difference between GS and OESD ? :)

Yea, so for those reason that even fish can fold GS to this raise, for this situation it might be good reason to call his big bet with top set. And this time set rank had the impact which was surprising when I thought its polarized range. With 66 set I still would have lost.

Oh and this evening also was action outside of pc - went to a bar with friends, drunk couple of tasty beers :)

So week really what my friends like - that I would not play this game and do smth without computer :)


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Last week results, as I said low volume. But kept running good:

plus run good in freerol and won 30 $ :)

https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=2283327#post2283327


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Hi,

I see I am becoming demotivated so much :( Since feb 15 I played only 209 hands and even won 4.5 $. Plus played few freerols but did not win anything after the one in the last post.

And today decided to rewatch one motivation video:

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/29271/

I guess its ok. I will comment here what I think.

First thing he said - you need to have a vision. To know what you want. He gave questions:

1. Why do you play poker?
Answer:
- fun to be better than others, especially agro players and take their money.
- money earning in general and having freedom ( not sure actually about this from how I see many other players playing for living).
- show to other people how good I am, how disciplined I can be, how not lazy I can be to make money from the thing where so little people are able to make money. It means I am much less lazy than they who work by just sitting at the jobs and trying to spend time and take money for hours spent. While there is no any point to spent a single minute without doing it, because then you will not get paid. So that shows how much better you are than regular workers.

2. Which non monetary aspects of poker do you enjoy?
Answered in 1st question.

3. What do you want to achieve in poker long term?
I guess to beat the NL200 at least. At confident winrate, like 3bb/100 at least. Of course beating higher limit would be good, but I am not sure if I want to be one of the best in the world, because I am not sure if that is possible while still having some other interests in life. If I see that I am doing good and its easy for me in NL200, then of course why not learn to beat NL400, and so on.
But NL200 looks sickly far away. So this does not feel realistic at all when I see how long I play NL5 since my comeback.

Later he asked some more questions:
How much money do you need to make per month?
That is a question I am really not sure. Now its enough to make even 650 eur per month. But on the other hand - that does not look good, I want to earn at least the amount I earn in the job. But since its poker - high risk stuff, it feels that the reward should be even bigger thant what the potential is to earn at the job.
And to earn 2000 eur in the job looks realistic. Hard but realistic. I mean our country goes closer and closer to west european countries so year after year it look more realistic, if currently its very hard. Plus with job you have much more safety.
So with poker real motivating goal would be the 4000 eur per month after paying taxes, saving for holiday month. That looks sick amount of money, but if you beat NL200, its probably real. So its 2000 bb at NL200. I done calculation - need to win 2bb/100, make 100k hands on zoom and you have 4000 eur, before tax (in LIthuania 15%) and saving for month holiday.
But I did not include rakeback, no idea how much I could get it, but this should make up for tax and saving holidays.
Of course we need to save for our pension. But by earning 4k eur you can easily save, if you are not spending too much on stuff like expensive cars. oF course saving alone is not good - need to invest somewhere, which is the difficult part.

There were few other questions, but I do not want to tell publicly all the answers :)

Mission

What do you need to do in order to get to your vision?
I answered - studty (the right material), not waste time, keep relaxed and enjoy improving.

List specific activities what you can start doing today to get close to your vision.
Watch videos actively studying them, taking notes, watch same video few times. Not just like a movie.
Study 1 topic at a time till I get good at it (since I am not sure when I am good, then till I feel I am ok).
Browse news, facebook when it is left half hour till the sleep. So it means - its the least productive time of day, so doing unproductive stuff it makes sence to do when you are least productive.
I am not sure if its ok to read news while eating. I feel like - I am eating, so not studying at the same time as eating, so maybe its ok to read news. On the other hand - I sometimes get so interested in the article, that I end up reading even after finishing eating, or I eat much slower. Slow eating is good, but probably not the way I do when read article. SLowliness comes from this - I eat smth quickly, then read, then again eat quickly, then read. So while eating quickly, I probably do not chew the food enough. And the point of slow eating should be to chew the food enough.

And also he said thing which makes sense: need to spend as much time as possible each day for doing those activities to improve!
And this do not understand many of my surroundings - friends, family. They treat it like a bad thing when I try to improve or grind whenever I have time. And from they telling, I start do what they say - think that I do not need to do that often, and if I do, I am addicted patient. And thats how I do not reach my goals :( I should maybe start to tell or even show this video and say that is what they coach said. And I believe they will reply then - oh they are brainwashing you to do this stupid thing even more. Arrgh.

Another interesting thing - he reccomends to frequently review the vision and mission. In mornings, in evenings. In the evenings - to review the progress. Also when feeling the motivated.

Make motivational journal. Write what you did good and liked. Aslo write what you did not like, problems. Can check and think how improve the day.

And if you solved some problem and after 2 months it appears again, then you can view and see how you solved. I am not sure about this part. The problem is the motivation problem? And will see how I solved? Not sure how I will solve, besides watching motivational video.

4. Losing motivation
If loosing motivation 1 day per month, its not a problem, if you browse facebook all day once per month.
But if thats 5 days out of 7 you spend all time at facebook, then need to think how to solve this.

Also what he recoomends - to finish started projects. Otherwise people start many projects but do not finish. But I am not sure what the project here is - go from NL5 to NL200? For me it might take forever. Or maybe it might be to beat NL10 with good winrate at zoom. This is possible in near time. Still I am playing 5 months at NL5 with few bb/100 and I am over EV. So with that speed of improving, even to crush NL10 zoom it looks like 2 more years

Another techique which I like if you loose motivation: take small steps. For example if you lost grinding motivation, set a goal to play 15 mins per day. Its not hard to achieve. If you will feel like playing more that day, you can do that.

And this is interesting. Once I discussed with one guy about sports motivation. He said he bought a lot of protein powder. But before he said he had protein, but he stopped doing sports and the protein expired.
I said to him - why you buy so much protein if you are not even sure if you will do sports? You can buy little amount, check if you have motivation, then if you have, you buy more protein. He says - wtf, when you want to reach goal, you do not think that you will not reach. So since you think you will reach, you buy lot of protein, and also long term ticket to gym. And with the gym its same - people buy ticket, but still fail to go enough, and so waste the money.
I am not sure if loosing money is the best way to motivate you. You will be motivated negatively - you loose money if you do not reach the goal. I like small steps more and I think they work for me. Like I set my goal to do sports at least half an hour per week, and I reach it, and I am happy with it. Now I could increase the time if I want easily I think. But currently I am happy even with that short amount. I try to use oportunities in real life to move, like going at stairs instead of using lift, going to cafeteria without car, etc. So I move still more than half hour per week. I see some people go to gym, but then go by car 500 meters instead of walking.

Also he mentioned - its ok to give up a project sometimes. Like you study for 1 year in university, and see its complete bullshit, then its ok.

Environment also helps. Poker office. Or even be surrounded by non poker players, but by people who study or do business, reach goals.

That was long post. Interested, if at least 1 read all. But thats ok, its for myself also, so I could read some time later what I was thinking :)


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Today no poker evening again. Was having a reason - need to search for beautiful wheels for my car, because spring is coming and will need to put on summer tires. So before that need to buy rims.

Checking on other same car - peugeot 406 coupe pictures how the wheels look, my car is grey, like this:

not the best color, I like this one much more:

But those used cars were hard to find not used by Lithuanians, but taken from other countries like germany or france. I bought it at 2015 june I think. So was not too picky about color. Btw I did not want to buy used by lithuanians, because very often when lithuanians sell a car, they sell because it has some big problems which will be expensive to repair and do not tell what they are :) while germans might also sell the car with big problems, but they also sell just because its 10 years old and they simply want to change the car, but it is often still decent car, especially after making some repairs.

The wheels look very nice on this blue car. I was thinking even about repainting car, but after looking at forums for prices, those are super high, and better to just buy another car :)


Reply
Quote
vonki
Joined: 18.03.2008

Don't know how I missed this blog, but count me in! :f_love: Nice car! :f_thumbsup:


Reply
Quote
caltabiano
Joined: 09.03.2007

Hey speed!! Whats up dude? Ive been away for a couple of weeks, but am back now =)

Didnt read all of the post, but mainly the losing motivation part. Ive really been struggling with motivation as well, because its been swingy as fuck this comeback to poker... and to tell you the truth, if it wasnt for the deposit boinus and rakeback, Id have gone broke already :f_biggrin: Thank god for those.

I think these 2 different ways to approach goals (either getting ready to REALLY achieve it and buy whatever you have to, or taking small steps) both have advantages, and then it really depends on the personality of each individual. We can go either way, I dont think it matters that much, whatever we feel more confortable doing.

Giving up projects is definitely ok I guess. Ive given up so much stuff at my life... didnt get my school diploma, didnt get my english course diploma, passed the test to get into the army academy and then just didnt go, gave up being a rock star, gave up poker, hahaha But it was all really great. Sometimes what we need is simply to start something, learn what we need to learn and then move on the something else. I guess we can put this finishing projects in a more relative perspective and realise that theres no finishing anything, because we[re the ones who decide where the finishing line is.

So, if we take school for example, for some people they`re doen when they graduate form university, others continue into a masters, others only feel like theyve finished the project when they`ve gotten thei PhD, and others just quit after high school and are happy with that. So its all relative to the individual in the end.

And for poker, since its variance heavy, I think our project has to be simply to play as best as we can for as long as we want to. 100k hands, 200k hands is really nothing. I dont know if youve seen in one of double2`s videos, he shows a graphic of a variance simulator of what the winnings of a 4bb/100 winner could be after 100k hands. And it was just amazing how negative we can be after 100k hands even being a winner overall. So I think we have to find motivation in the process of learning and of improving and not on winning. I guess we all know that, but sometimes its important to remind ourselves of it. I myself have to constantly remind myself of it. Weve already talked about how we expected to make a quicker come back and climb the limits up, but its really not 100% up to us. I think its 50% up to us and 50% up to time/variance.

So maybe we should set our "poker project" not as reaching a limit or achieving a $$/hour, but rather as perfecting midset, playing A-game, amount of study accomplished, amount of hands played and stuff like that. $$ is simply the consequence...

alright mate, cheers! Lets strike up a sweat again one of these days?


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Wow, hi, was surprised to see 2 posts in my blog :)

So how is it going for me - havent been playing cash games since febrary 15 lost motivation because not crushing NL5 and if I play, I believe nothing much will change. I think I need to study more. And choose some topic and to learn it well as many say. I have started watching some videos long time ago and not only watching but trying to copy hand examples to my documents, so watching long little by little, but videos are of live play, and not focusing on one area. I think I still need to finish.

But I was hooked to MTTs after I won 30 $ from freeroll in final table. It was really fun. I played 7 MTTs after at feb 14 I won 30 $. But only in one of those 7 I made little money - 1.54 $ in 0.55 bi MTT.
Today was really nice tournament 20k garanteed 3.3 $ bi, 15 min blind levels. But luck was not in my side - when had 12 bb left, I pushed with AQs and guy called with K2s and hit and I was out. Touranment was really fishy and final table prizes were looking awesome. For first place 3900 $. Prize pool 26k $. And one very important thing - it started 15:00 at my time saturday, which is the time when I do not need to go next day to work. Like many good tournamens start sunday evening at my time and I do not play them because simply I need to sleep and another reason - at night I am tired also to play long tournaments.

Also reason - why I do not play or do anything with poker - I simply feel very tired after work days. But I started doing sports more. The motivator for sports - to feel better. Like one friday I came back from work feeling shitty, and I though - now I want 2 - 3 bottles of beer so much to feel better. Tried to find friends who want to drink together, but nobody wanted that evening. And I try to not drink alone, because I am afraid to start drink too much. So I decided ok, I go to do sports. And after doing sport - felt better and did not think about beer so much :)

Also at work we will soon be working with new technologies, and I somehow motivated myself to use saturday for practicing one technology. Usually it feels like - shit this is my weekend where I should do what I want most, be lazy or whatever. But the need for respect at work made me invest my saturday to study.

Actually still studying at home I was feeling good enough. Its not like after work day at all. I studied 6 hours today. FIrst 1.5 hours I was angry and even hit keyboard few times, which I rarely do. Because some programs did not work and it was wasted 1.5 hours to fix them so I could actually start learning. I could brink laptop from work where everything was working if I had planned to study when leaving work on friday.

Back to poker: on febraury I was runing not that bad:

Its 4.66 bb 100. Still was not enough to motivate me play :)

I dont know if youve seen in one of double2`s videos, he shows a graphic of a variance simulator of what the winnings of a 4bb/100 winner could be after 100k hands. And it was just amazing how negative we can be after 100k hands even being a winner overall.

I have seen some other coach videos of simulating variance. Yea, it was huge. But I would like to understand how the simulation works, because otherwise I believe there might be wrong simulation :)

So I think we have to find motivation in the process of learning and of improving and not on winning.

Its the same - if we study good, we are automatically winning in the long run. And for NL5 I guess its not that likely that variance is the problem over 100k hand, but more likely bad play.

Lets strike up a sweat again one of these days?

we can do it some days when I come back to cash I guess. And also when I feel confident enought with that new programming technology. I think if I put hours, not waste them, I can learn it quickly. I guess its easier than with poker, because you quickly see results how much you know. So maybe in a week, maybe in 2 if I do not waste much time, I should be confident with it.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Hi

Been a while since I wrote. I did not write, cause I was not playing poker I guess. And some people think that I am addicted. Today after almost 2 months l played 0.55 $ mtt, but lost.

Why I did not play - because at work there was huge amount new technologies and I wanted to impress them by learning them faster. I counted hours of study and its over 110 hours since mid February. Its practically overtime. And I learned bit of them, but to learn them well, it needs more time. But its sick, I want to have my own life and do my own hobby. So now reduced the time of learning to maybe 1 hour per day after work so I would have for lot of time for requiring hobby.
Plus I have a girlfriend. Maybe not so long anymore, cause relationship is not going that well, but we will see. If we break up, then still will need to invest time into searching for new one.

Biggest part of my motivation to study that many hours and give up poker for a while was thinking that I will ask them for unpaid holidays to get my time back.
But we did not agree on that exactly, I just said in the job interview that I will want, not sure if they heard, cause they interrupted me by saying no problem instantly (maybe they thought about paid holidays which is default anyway). I hope they will not have a problem for that, but I am not in a mood to put more hardcore studying hours, because its a risk of wasting time. I am sure they can raise the salary easily if I learn a lot after work, because money for them is not a problem I believe. But I want free time instead of extra money.

Actually after not playing so long, and having good salary, and seeing people quiting poker because its dying demotivates me.

Also I am following this very interesting blog:
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=2359755#post2359755

and I see how the guy struggles so much. Damn - in my country the prices go up and going closer to the western europe prices, but poker winnings stay the same in all world.

Do I want to struggle for relatively little price? In programming with so much effort you could be a god and companies would head hunt you and all you have to do is to find best company, best team in the city.

But I also remember - after I start playing and stupid fish pays me off with stupid hand - its a lot of pleasure, and you almost laugh at the monitor and share hand to your poker friends. That is nice part.

So I guess I need to go to review my charts, cbets strategy and play a bit of NL2 to see how it goes.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Had half hour session yesterday at NL2, crushed them

was feeling that want to eat a lot and after eating was tires, so to not waste time, went to sleep 40 mins earlier than normal. But did not wake up 40 mins earlier. Maybe 15 mins earlier woke up.


Reply
Quote
Super Moderator
VorpalF2F
Joined: 02.09.2010

Hi, SPeedFANat1c,
Nice session!

It sounds like you needed the sleep.

Best of luck,
VS


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Tried again to get motivation back:

But so far no motivation.

Played today also 2 MTTs 0.27 and 0.55$ - in the last one was in the money and won 0.86 $ and next hand after being in money was KK, I was happy, allin with 2 players who had A9 and AT, and so less chance for ace to hit, but the ace still hit and I was out. But its nice to win even small money to cover buy in.

Maybe I should study MTTs, past time its fun to play them. And field is very soft. Only problem is that they take time. But the solution might be turbos. I liked earlier deep stack, slow blind growing MTTs because I had more chance to play post flop. But now I see its not so fun to play long time and realize that I have to be out before being in the money. But turbos and hyper turbos are fun - quick gamble, and you can do what you want.
Of course once you have skill postflop in MTTs and higher buyins, I guess its valuable to play postflop so use slow MTTs to get max edge. And with high buy in the time played is more valuable.

On the other hand - to get better at something - its better to focus on one area. And in cash games I have some knowledge. In MTTs it is very little.

And btw I decided to not give up completely the video 3d games. Earlier I had gave up them because I thouth I am already playing a game - poker. But its not the same. And I was thinking - some day else once I become good at poker, and have more time, I will be able to do what I want. But that day might never come. So have to do fun things now.
Tried to play need for speed hot pursuit 2, but somehting was wrong, error, tried to reinstall, but did not work. Was nice game from childhood. Another game which I had also spent countless of hours was Live for speed.

https://www.lfs.net/

I was surprised that this game is still alive with servers. Its graphics looks old by todays standards. But I love it because there are people like me who do not want to buy new expensive computer to play 1 hour a week. And this game is fun not because of grapshics, but because of physics.

And I even remeber pokerstrategy member playing at same servers with me - https://www.pokerstrategy.com/user/Bigniux/profile/

Was so fun. I was feeling like I need to sleep at 9:30 PM. But after I installed and started this game, the desire to sleep was gone. I had to stop playing not because I felt tired, but because to not overwaste my time and keep sleep cycle normal :) thats how motivations should be. I don't get why it is not the case with cash games now.


Reply
Quote
SPeedFANat1c
Joined: 04.01.2009

Ok, another attempt to get motivation back - hard to be motivated to play for these cents when I see money nicely growing from my main job, so that I was already thinking about buying a car. But I know its not smart investment, because not even year has passed since last car buy. And I invested lot of money that for me my car now costs like 3k eur or so ,but nobody would buy it for that amount of money because in market its at best 2k eur or so. But I know its fixed well so it will likely work well for me.

Better I should move my money into flat so that I get rid of loan sooner. Who knows maybe the crisis will come and maybe will be hard to pay.

Of course probably we still need to enjoy life now and not after we buy everything we need and save money for retirement.

So need a balance between buying some fun stuff and investing money for better future.

I guess it gets bit more interesting when I reviewed my summarized theory on cbets and then I apply the concepts.

And also nice to see coaches still giving advice like double2 https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=342977&page=9

that is motivating that you are not alone and can get help. Of course for money you can always get help. But not even sure if I want to invest money when I do not know if tomorrow I will want to play this game.

Lot of people keep demotivating me who I talk with by saying do not play games, you earn from poker so little per hour.

I cannot get rid of those people because they are significant ones. So trying to reduce the talk about this topic.

At least I see that they are not crushing me at NL2 and I guess I soon need to move up to NL5. Now since 2 month brake I have 1400 hands with 6.57 bb/100.

If you have some motivating blogs, please let me know. I check this https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=2366879#post2366879
blog, it is interesting , but also not super motivating since he is strugling so hard at NL200 while he looks like being not lazy, he does everything he can to improve in poker and in life. He should crush life and poker. NL200 is still far from highers limits. Or maybe it needs time and he will make it. Hopefully. Once you beat NL200, I guess you can confidently live from poker even in high expence country I guess.

On the other hand, my poker friend is beating NL20 plus getting 45 % rb and living from it. But he lives with mom, so that does not show that it is enough, but he is planning on moving out, probably needs to improve more.
So if with NL20 he lives in Austria, then by beating NL50 it should be good money.

And I think I should not target the cheap living in Lithuania. Because prices are going higher and higher, because salaries in jobs are going higher and higher. So its going closer and closer to western europe.

But I do not need to make this primary income, but keep it for fun. Fun with decent winnings. NL2 crush is not fun. Its boring because of insane low money :) Or maybe for NL2 I should 4 table zoom and so the hourly winnings would be bigger. Then maybe it would be more fun. Now I am 2 table zooming.

Its really interesting, like 3 years or more ago there was no such motivation problems as now is.


Reply
Quote