Sp(r)in(ts) & Go(als) - SmartSpinning

Thanks Schrader.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, i did study a bit in the morning and than off to meet relatives and enjoy good time. My cousin made me a present, she crafts really cool bracelets, belts, watch bands, guitar straps, basically everything in that area and you can chose your own design and patterns, she made me one poker related with all the suits.

https://www.instagram.com/beadandleatherstudio/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarmasZvirgzdi?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Really cool stuff. Check it out if you dont mind.

Today i started off with reviewing BTN play and checking if im still making mistakes, didn't saw too many mistakes, but from time to time saw that im still messing up sizings. Started my day only 2 tabling, just to warm up and i think that was really good decision as i was totally aware of every decision. Later i did switch to 3 tables. Im really happy about my decision making today i was in the zone for a long time. Than went for a run, really pushed the pace but at the same time it still felt comfortable. After the dinner i decided to do one more session and it payed off, was playing good and running good and had the best session in 15s cev wise so far - 117 games and 68cev.
Tomorrow i will review my notes and take a deeper look at reg games and HU.

Wednesday

Very cool stuff from your cousin Rufus. This guitar strap looks really nice man!

Congrats on your strong cEV day. Enjoy your study and grind tomorrow

Hey, Rufus

Very nice blog, subbed and liked! I'm looking forward to reading about your progress.

Good luck and see you at the tables as I'm spinning 15s myself.

Thanks Burek, glad you like it, say hi if you land at my table.

Tough day, so many other things came up in the morning that i had to deal with, planning next few days and the stuff i have to do and it distracted me or i did let it to distract me. Faced some bad luck, but bad play was the one that finished me off today, i was not able to let go of my mistakes as i knew i was not totally present and focused, but i still wanted to put in some volume. After yesterdays best day, today i got the worst one. I did take a look at my play and i realized that most of the big pots were just set ups but because i wasnt disciplined i made far too many mistakes.

Well these things happen and i cant do much about them now, just have to analyze them and make sure to do my best to avoid the same thing in future.

Today got talking about stuff with few ss members and i realized that there were a time when i was totally lost in life and one day on pokerstrategy i did find a video about Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm. I had no expectation when i started watching his videos, i had no clue whats Buddhism and whats it about. I just saw an old dude talking about life in very compassionate and humble way and i was quite mesmerized by his words and the way he viewed the world. Looking back at it, It was quite eye opening thing for me.
To be honest i still dont know too much about it, im deff not a Buddhist, but i know that it is a part of me now. I still get caught up in my old ways where my bad emotions dictates my responses and life in general, but thats happening less and less nowadays. Im using my own approach - i hear stuff and if i like it and it makes sense, i try to implement it in my life without any judgment and see what comes from it.

Today i found one of his videos about expectation, a lot of good thoughts. I realized quite clearly that my expectations is clouding my mind and stopping me from moving forward. Even if we are talking about happiness and when and how often you encounter it. I noticed that its happening when i have almost no expectations at all i am totally present and enjoying my time.

Here is the video if i got you interested

GL guys

Week#7

Huh. I did end up taking day off yesterday, i planned on helping a friend put together beach volleyball court next to my home. In the beginning it was planed to last 2-3h, we ended 6h later. Worst decision was not to put my shirt on after first 2 hours. I wanted to get some tan, but ended up getting sun burnt. It will be rough few days as sleeping is very uncomfortable and disrupted atm because of the burnt skin.
Overall still great day as those things had to be done and afterwards we ended a night at friends place cooking BBQ, drinking beer and watching hockey match Latvia vs Czechs 3:4 lose in shootouts. Really great start to the WC this year we took points from Hokey powerhouses SWE and CZE in first 2 matches. This will be crazy WC as so many teams are in very similar level.

Today i started my day really slow as i was still a bit off after horrible Friday, wasnt sure how to get back into the zone. Decided to play only 2 tables all day and this decision payed off. From time to time i got a bit bored but i still kept playing and trying to do my best. Had to take few hours off in middle as i had to visit my relatives for few hours. Results wise im hitting a downswing almost the same size swing i got once i moved up to 15s.

Overall i think this week was very productive, i was a bit more distracted with real life stuff that i had to do compared to other weeks, but i planned it okey so everything got done. Next week looks a bit more poker oriented as i need to put in the volume and i dont have to do/ attend to other things.

Difficult day behind, im okey with my play and quality of it through out the most of the day and i think it is just mostly variance, as i cant see too many obvious big mistakes from today. One thing i realized while started taking notes on one of the articles from ss site, that my sizings were off most of the time as i had not so solid plan in that area before it and i think that can increase my cev quite a lot over bigger sample. There are probably other small things that makes up a big difference but its hard to find them. Just have to study a lot and ask as many questions as possible.

Slept a bit better as my skin is not as sore as it was yesterday, but still had to skip workout as it would be just too painful. For tomorrow i plan on finishing up taking notes about that article and attending one of the coachings. I should take closer look at 3 way hands in near future.

Last few days have been a real challenge to stay focused despite of the bad run, i do find mistakes every day so that means that its not just bad run obv, but not much you can do, just keep your head up, grind and study. Now i see the progress that i made last week while working on BTN play, results are showing in last few days. I also like HU SB progress, but i know that there is still a lot of work to be done. Today noticed that probably while i worked on those topics my HU BB and 3w BB play has fallen behind and that i should review and fix biggest leaks in upcoming days.

My skin is healing nicely, so i think i will try to go for a run tomorrow, finding the right shirt will be a challenge as its not healed for all 100% yet and if there is some friction between skin and shirt than i will be in for quite painful run. Today did usual meditation session, i think that i should add another session in a day while im struggling grinding wise.

Interesting day, played only ~40 games, but did study ~4h over whole day and did one session with ss member that plays 60s, he pointed out a lot of obvious mistakes and wrong adjustments in my game that explains my bad results overall quite nicely. Also did go for a run, went okey but didn't want to push my self to the limit as i knew that i have 3h of studying a head of me and i have skipped few runs after i burnt my back. Positive note is that i did post 2 hands for judges to hear their opinions. The key is to ask as many questions as possible to check if your thought process is correct.

Tomorrow i will start with reviewing todays notes and making a plan about which videos i need to re watch, i plan on putting in a bit bigger volume than today, but will see how it goes.

Time for a update.
Thursday was a bit frustrating but productive day and i think i made big breakthrough in my approach of grinding, it probably caused me playing badly this month. For a long time i knew that i was being focused while i play and that i have managed to get rid of most distractions while i play, but than i noticed that its actually is not the case and watching and using spinlyzer while playing to keep track of regs were distracting me the most and analyzing this information instead of paying attention to hud and gameflow causes a lot of mistakes and decreases my level of play significantly.

Yesterday was my day off, had to help relatives with stuff. In the evening i joined some friends to play beach volleyball, it has been almost a year since i stepped in the sands, i was not sure what to expect as i am in way better shape than i have ever had, but at the same time i have not played any volley in past year. It was a lot of fun, we played for ~2h, i saw that i was not as bad as i thought and probably with some work i could actually do something there and in summer could participate in some tournaments if time will allow as i still have the passion for it.
After that we ended at my place watching hockey match Latvia - Denmark were we lost in shootouts, though lose as it made our lives way harder if we want to get in quarterfinals, but we had a blast a lot of laughing and joking all around, great day off overall.

Today i woke up and felt like truck have hit me, every single muscle in my body is sore after yesterday because of that it was super hard to get out of bed. Took a shower and ate breakfast and than realized i was too tired to start my grind so ended up sleeping for another 2 hours. Started my day with attending a group coaching, than worked a bit on my game and started my session. Right off the bat after 20 games i had 160cev. Run good was on. I think i played good overall but not good enough as i was getting too tired at the end. Will take a look at that last session in the morning.

Song of the week, good summer vibes, cheers guys.

Week#8

Quite difficult week, but i think i have made a lot of progress in this week. This week has challenged me mentally and physically as there were only 2 days that everything was fine physically, at the beginning it was sun burn from last week and than muscle pain for last 2 days. Those are quite small things but they matter as it did affect my sleep and probably overall quality of my day. Next week will try to get back into routine and go for 4 runs.

I really like my study process and the fact that last week i probably spent ~15h studying, taking notes, reviewing hands, posting hands on forum, watching videos, attending live coachings and so far i have 20 pages of notes in my notebook that im reviewing regularly. I will try to pick 1 or 2 big topics for next week where i could see the biggest improvement and then will dedicate few study sessions to review other parts of my game a bit so they dont fall behind as they did in the beginning of the month. Im trying to learn from my mistakes.

Last 2 days have been really solid, 53cev over 190 games. I know that i can do better than this, but its a good start. I think reg games is the place where i want to see the biggest improvement but i know that it will be the hardest one to do probably as finding the right adjustments isnt easy for me, but i know that once i will get my hands dirty i will figure it out.

3 Days behind me. I will start with Monday, grinding wise it was frustrating as i made quite a lot of mistakes, but did manage to end the day with okey cev as my play improved for last sessions. I returned to running after all the things that happened last week, didnt push myself that hard for that reason, but it was okey. Also i noticed that i was not able to focus while i was playing as my new approach demands a lot of focus and energy and i was running on low batteries so i decided that Tuesday will be my day off even if it wasnt the most productive decision, but i just needed a brake.

So Tuesday tried to think as little as possible about poker. Started my day lazily doing stuff, than decided to start reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, solid introduction so far, not sure how often i will have time to read it as im spending a lot of hours studying and playing, but it will be good thing to do if i need a break. Than i watched amazing Ted talk will post the video at the end. Casually played Hearthstone and in the evening joined my study group for review session that lasted 2h. So it wasnt totally off poker but it seems that nowadays i just cant do it.

Today woke up even earlier than usual, did my morning routine and than started studying for ~1h and started my grind. Found really good way to improve my focus and my game quality overall, just after i end my session and if i think i have played badly or was not sure about my last few games i go over them in fast pace and see if i made mistakes or not, than little break and back to the next session. Overall great day at the tables and off as i did go for a run, usual distance but with faster pace, so afterwards i felt a bit more tired than usual, but after dinner i did spend watching and taking notes for ~2h. Lately i have been enjoying studying like crazy, its just so much fun.

Week#9

Good and productive week behind of me. A lot of studying and for that reason not so much grinding, but i will take this week over last one all the time. I like my routine and i know that it is one of the most productive ways how to achieve my goals. I have to keep in mind that there is always room for improvement even my routines can be more optimized.

Only bad thing this week that comes to mind is overworking and in that way putting a side blogging and even studying at times. I was so focused on HU SB that i forgot about other things i do enjoy. I think i faced similar problem few weeks back when i lost perspective of things that i have done and it started affecting my mindset in negative way as i cant break the circle my mind is in. As you can see this is only 2nd update this week and this is direct result of all of this, luckily i faced similar problem before so i did recognize it faster this time and it didnt cause so much damage as before.

Im happy about the fact that i did go for 4 runs this week, i like the pace at what im running atm and how good and comfortable it feels comparing it to few weeks back. Im still keeping the distance around 7km, soon i plan to add ~1.5km more, i feel like it will be quite a struggle if i plan on doing some grinding or studying after the run as it will be harder to recover afterwards in such short time.

Pokerwise a lot of things happened, but main thing stayed the same i made constant progress in different areas of my game. Mainly i think i improved my HU play, will see the results in next few weeks. As i said in previous post i needed a lot of work to fix my reg game play. Now i can def see some improvements as i got my reg game results in green for this month. Cant say that i changed a lot there but some things here and there and i feel way confident now.

5k views

Sweeet day it was. Funny thing is that i wanted to take Sunday off, but than decide against it as it should have been the softest day of the year because of the scoop and the day went really great, so i though about taking Monday off as it should be one of the worst days a part from the fact that a lot of regs could take today off too probably. At the end i decide to still grind Monday and take tomorrow off and that was an amazing decision, if we look at results and they are amazing

I really liked how focused and calm i was, i felt like nothing can disturb my thought process, maybe i can give some credit to proper sleep management as i tried to sleep for exact 7.5h and i did change a bit my warm up routine. At times i thought about stopping the good run and "collect" the cev but i decide against it as i felt really calm and these good results didnt affect my mindset in bad way as it have happened in the past.

Gl! Gl guys!

Dropping an update. Tuesday was my day off, started it really slow, playing games watching some random stuff and then i decided to pick up and read a bit and watch some ted talks, so i turned that day around quite fast and it was quite productive at the end.
Wednesday started off really well poker wise, but than i started making a bit more mistakes than i liked and ended my day being break even.
Today it was really hard to get things started, my mind just didnt want to play, maybe the good run have influenced it a bit as it could be possible that this is just a good run and playing my A game requires a lot of energy, so i kind of get tired when i even start thinking about it.

Last few days have been experimenting with my sleep time a bit after i read that article here on ps. 7.5h seems fine and i do wake up just before my alarm goes off and its somewhere in middle of 7-7.5h, will keep it this way for a while to see how my body adjusts, problem seems to be that im waking up 30-60mins earlier than im used to, but i like it if i can make it work and my energy levels in the morning is high enough for me to be productive.

Week #10

Quite tired atm, so updated wont be too long. Results wise one of the best weeks so far at 15s, i feel real improvement overall in my game, im still working ~2h everyday on my game. Nowhere near to be a true crusher, but im on the right track together with right people. Cant remember a week when i had more ahaa moments than this week, i did put in the work on my mindset too, watching ted talks and talking about mindset with other ss members and putting at the test the things that i know.
Today while talking on skype i realized how big of an impact book called The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin have made over last 2 years since i read it, without being conscious about it at all. It did change a way how i approach things, how i think about everything, how i break all my problems in smaller bits and try to find solutions for them.
Im too tired to get into details as much as i would like so i will just leave it for some other time. If anyone is interested remind me about it later, if i have not posted about it in next few days.

Interesting day, First of all i spotted 2 big leaks in my warm up and grind. I was not properly warming up and i didnt use my break between the sessions as effective as i should to refocus and go back to grind when im doing short breaks. That lead me to play poorly in sessions afterwards, but once i noticed these problems i fixed them and kept going.

One thing that i have noticed is that i am a bit lazy on days when i dont go for my run, as i know that i have more time to grind so i take longer breaks i do some random things and overall im not as productive as on the days i know that i dont have time for that stuff.

Jared Tendler tonight gave a mindset talk for SmartSpin members, really valuable lesson, it opened my eyes in some spots. I did notice that his approach has greatly influenced me over last few years. Will review the video later on to fully take on his advice about a lot of different things as i was not able take notes as fast as he was speaking.

Great day today. I did proper warm up and i felt like being in the zone right from the start, faced a lot of regs today, but i managed to crush most of them, check graph below. 65 games only 32% 0reg games, 150cev and more than 240$ in ev. Sweet day and to finish off it nicely, it meant that i got requirements to move on to 30s. After some discussions we agreed that i will officially move to 30s on Saturday, but for now i have the access to 30$ videos and all the strategies and 2 days to get ready for the games.

Quite excited about it, my expectation are that it will be hard and a lot of work ahead of me, seeing how many ss members have to move down to 15s after their start at 30s makes it even bigger challenge, so im prepared to work hard and mix 15s and 30s for a while.

So plan for tomorrow is to watch 2-3 videos in the first part of the day, Than probably will try to play one session and than back to studying, also because it was just too hot today i moved my workout to tomorrow.

Hey guys, great news Im officially promoted to 30s ♠_drink: ♠_drink:

It was an interesting journey in 15s, Learnt a lot of new things in these past 5 weeks. I did meet my expectation as i said in beginning of May that i will probably crush 15s at the end of May. There still a lot of room for improvement, mainly volume wise and how to concentrate while multitabling, but because my goal is to move up to higher stakes as fast as possible, it doesn't make too much sense to stay and grind 15s being in SmartSpin team.

So i have made the next step, and it has been a big one at least it seems that way atm. Main strategy is way different compared to 15s as we face way more regs. I will need time to master all this, but i have learnt a lot from my last month mistakes and i know how i want to approach all this.

First impressions about 30s are similar to the ones i expected. Definitely harder than 15s, regs actually know what they are doing. Atm can see only few changes in postflop play, but there are a lot of different things about preflop. Best comparison would be like amateur athlete moves to the prof for the first time. But i know that im here for a reason and i wont give away my cookies without a fight.

For first few days i will still mix 15s and 30s to get used to everything. Currently my motivation and confidence is quite high so i will work super hard day in and day out 6 days a week, but i know that im so unconscious about my current leaks and mistakes that it will require a lot of work to be able to stay on 30s.

Week #11

Big week, got another promotion, im in 30s now and i plan on staying there. It gives me so much motivation when i know that hard work pays off. For that reason im spending 2-4h a day on just studying in last 2 weeks. I think its especially the case if you have all the materials in the world you would need to be able to crush your current stakes, so seems illogical to not put in the effort to actually study, its not always fun but its satisfying as hell. As we as poker players are making most money away from tables.

So far the attention have been on quality more than quantity, so my sessions are shorter and im mixing my sessions usually 15s at the beginning of the day. Results are great, but probably not sustainable in long run, but will see about it in next few weeks.

I have started focus pack on headspace, really nice change of pace compared to previous packs, also i switched time to 10min. Want to try out if it is as effective as 15 mins and so far it seems that it gives similar results just in shorter time and i can do this in the morning as it helps to settle my mind and achieve better presence at table. As for running it has been difficult week, in the beginning it was unbearably hot so had to move it 8-9pm few days and it disrupted the routine. Seems like the weather is gone back to its normal state and i can operate normally.

Take care guys, good luck at tables.

Last 2 days have been interesting, with each day i get more and more familiar with everything a 30s and especially with how i should play. i really enjoy my time playing and studying as its a real challenge, you know that there is no place for errors so you have to do your absolute best every single time. At first i was not sure how to play vs regs, now i see how many mistakes they are still making, so i try to exploit them as best as i can. Now poker is no longer about random button clicking and hoping for a good run, now its actual battle behind every bet and check there is a reason why im doing it. It takes a lot of energy at the moment as im not used to thinking at that level yet, but slowly my volume is increasing.

Today was first day playing only 30s. I did spend around 3h grinding and close to 4 hours of studying i think.