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

Quick update, yesterday i did take a day off, it was first in last 10 days or so, felt a bit burnt out, that's never a good sign, but glad that i did notice it in Tuesday evening. Pushing much longer would result in some problems as it usually does. Didn't do too much yesterday, casually chilled at home and at the end did go for a run. Interesting thing that i realized about my running technique was that i was actually breathing the wrong way, that caused my mouth to be as dry as desert after few km and probably caused losing way more energy as i should. It was hard to implement and fix this leak as i had to be conscious about each breathe i took. it probably will take few runs to get it right as this is hard habit to change, but i have changed even harder ones before.

Today my day started off quite slow, i was not as mentally prepared as i should and for that reason i was playing my B game for most of the day as there were few other things too that disrupted my grind. It was a real struggle, my first one in 30s. I like it, it just shows that there is place for improvement, as i know that there are many things that im not conscious about, that will need to be fixed in future, but for now i need to focus on things that im aware off.

Week#12

Hey, im back with another update. Week 12, exactly 3 months ago i started my journey in SmartSpin at 7s and now i'm getting comfortable at 30s. Just 3 months, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I love my progress and i think i am ahead of my first impressions and goals by a mile. I remember that i wanted to learn to beat 15s and probably stay and grind there and had no real expectations about my chances to move higher for a while, i just had no clue what to expect and how far i can get with my passion and work ethic. Being surrounded 24/7 by like minded people really helps to get better and improve on daily basis. If we look at future than my goal would be to try my first games at 60s by mid July or beginning of August, will see how it goes.

As for this week, it was valuable experience, took my first day off since moved to 30s, because i almost got burnt out, it means that i need to keep an eye out for signs so not make this mistake again, because its very unproductive. I must take breaks to put things in perspective to maintain solid progress. After that i needed 2 days to get back into rhythm and understand which were the pieces that contributed to the good results in the beginning of 30s. Im using this approach that stuck with me while i reread a part from book called The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, there is a part where he said that you have to learn to do things slow, before doing them fast. I think it applys to poker aswell, you have to learn how to beat players while playing 2 tables before you can 4 table, you have to deal with boredom and distraction now to not suffer later. Everything consists of little pieces and we have to work on every single one, so that they work well together when it matters.

I noticed that i was not reviewing my games effectively. I used very fast pace to go over my games to spot mistakes, but at the end i was not analyzing the mistakes i found enough and that lead to poor results for few days. Energy management is an interesting topic that i try to keep in mind, because there is big gap between my A game and B game, i cant play long sessions and i start making mistakes when my focus drops. Hate the days when in last session i ruin the results for the rest of the day in just one session.

On non poker related things, slowly getting used to new breathing technique. Im enjoying my 10 min meditation sessions in the morning as im using focus pack currently and today decided to by 1 year membership on headspace. Seems like a good deal and saving 40% by doing it, i cant imagine myself without using it so it makes sense to save some $$ on it.

For past few days me and few of my friends were working together to make good quality beach volleyball tournament. Yesterday was the first competition. We ended with 16 teams, quite nice weather at the end and well spent time. First time for me to organize and manage almost everything. Really liked it, nice experience, giving back to the community. There will be 6 stages over all summer, will see how it goes, we will try our best to make it as qualitative as possible at our end. Next one is this Sunday, i will probably participate myself.

Week#13

Quite uneventful week, results wise exactly the same as week 12. Thats a bit of a shame, wanted to improve my volume a bit, probably making it a goal would have helped, i think i did my best, ended with 2 day offs that def lowered the volume, but i had to take them, i could have played in both days few games but i didnt want to play my b/c game so i decided against it. The gap between my A game and B/C game is still quite big, so it isn't too profitable to just mindlessly grind, if i know that i probably wont be able to play my A game.

For a while i have tried to improve my game overall and haven't focused too much on specific positions and that probably caused my progress to slow down a bit, so for this week i think that should be my main goal. I think that starting with HU is the best idea, going back to my notes and re watching some videos will help me a bit to get back on track.

Good luck at tables.

Sweet EV on 30s!
Are you 2 tabling them with such volume?

Yes, in the beginning i was even playing 2 tables in sets, that probably did bring my hourly to really low point, but i know that i had to decrease it for a bit to adjust to 30s and use really systematic approach of playing, that way i can move up stakes even faster and in that way increasing my hourly.
However, today was really rough day, faced bad run plus few bigger mistakes as it always is with bad runs, in 60 games minus 5k chips, but i did went over the games and most of the mistakes were small ones (folding few trashy hands that i still should have played) and faced a lot of pre flop set ups where i played well, so overall still feel okey with my play today. Mentally im ready for tomorrow, i know that i need to work hard and play my best, if i want to stay there. maybe this set back will kick my butt, to work even harder.

Yeah, makes sense, I was expecting it.
I wish you to play 2k+ games sample and have very strong EV on 30s and of course bring table count up to maximize hourly!

Past few days i have been struggling and was not able to figure out what was exactly wrong. Yesterday took a closer look at things and i saw that the great start at 30s have changed my approach. I was still putting in hours at tables, but the quality just wasnt there, i was able to focus for only 1-2 sessions in day. It felt very boring and unproductive to review my games. I was able to find some mistakes but i was not able to turn them around and learn from them.

After i put all those thoughts and facts on the paper yesterday i saw, that i was just stuck. One of the reasons was because im currently at the phase in 30s, when i have watched and read all the new materials, improved my game reviews, but i had not set the game plan for future and how and what i should do to progress further.

When i started out in 30s its was easy to find a way to improve, there were so many good videos available that i had to watch, even more coaching sessions to attend etc. In my mind that was phase one, not starts the next phase mastering the new skills i have learnt. If in the beginning i was working on my overall game fixing all the mistakes that showed up, than now its time to go deeper in specific positions and review all the materials again and bring the quality of this position to higher level.

Today started working on that, decide that i will be more beneficial to not play but just study today, so i did spend ~4h studying and today my subject was HU BB, looking at the database i can clearly see that its the place where the biggest improvement could be achieved. So far in 30s im break even there. Few days ago newest crushfest series came out, that was focused on HU BB, so i think its perfect time to be working on this position also most of the coachings will be focused on it.

I will try this approach for now, tomorrow will review few more hands to warm up and than go for a grind, i will do a bigger review session after the 2nd session. I think that its a good idea to limit my sessions to 40 mins and do proper 5-10 min break, in past week i think i have neglected it. Same as having discipline and playing more solid poker in general.

Week#14

As you can see in the previous post I faced several problems this week.
I don't have too much to add to the poker stuff, but there were a lot of things I did throughout the week. The main thing was Midsummer celebration called
Jani and Ligo There are a bunch of traditions usually that you do over the night, but most people just get together drink beer, eat a lot of different beverages and just enjoy their time together. First time in years I was sober in these days, still spent a great time with friends. Maybe it did influence me a bit but I tried my best to still put in the volume even on those days.

Today I found an amazing Ted Talk. I think it clearly showed one of my problems that I faced in last week. I did feel that I was not able to play my A game for a long time period, most of the time I was focused for 2 or 3 sessions but wasn't able to maintain it for the whole day. Check it out, I would recommend it to every poker player.

After watching that video and reviewing some games I was able to get and stay in the zone for the whole day. It clearly showed up in results as I made more cev than in last 6 days.

Good luck to you all, I will try to update this blog a bit more frequently next week so I can be more accountable for putting in the work and working the subjects I set for myself.

nice progress man!i like your discipline and the way you look at this journey(of poker).it seems like you like what you are doing and that is a very important thing when you try to improve.

i saw you posted 2-3 Ted talks.i love that site too.there are lot of interesting things there and people.i watch 1-2 videos every day.

gl with 30's!

Thanks, Alex. I try my best, in life passion is the factor that will determine your success for things you do. Basically the more passionate you are about things the more likely you are to succeed in those areas. There was a Ted talk I watched a while back that said that grit is the most common factor that shows up in studies about success in the education system. I think that both are quite closely connected usually, without one there isn't other.

For me, watching Ted talks helps to keep going if I feel stuck for a bit as it expands my perception of things and I learn new stuff, that always is great.

As for today, it was an interesting day. There were a lot of ups and downs. My mind was not as clear and steady as it was yesterday, but I think I still played quite okay for most of the day despite bad results. Changes small things in my grinding setup, will see if it will help me play better and increase my focus. I could have worked on my game in the middle of the day a bit more, but I had scheduled private coaching with another ss member. Coaching went well, saw several mistakes few of them were quite big ones. Biggest was being too passive from HU BB and my adjustments were not correct in some spots definitely, I have room for improvements and there is a lot of work to be done if I want to get to 60s. I need to remember that only was to move forward is one step at a time.

For tomorrow, I will review my notes about today's coaching and reread notes about HU BB video, I noticed few leaks in my HU SB play too so i will need to keep an eye out for that stuff too.

Quite a difficult week so far. After the good run on Sunday, it seemed like maybe things would go back to the previous state. However, that is not the case. I am still struggling, Tuesday I realized that I had not taken a proper day off in a while and for that reason, I have accumulate different emotions that are affecting my game negatively. I took yesterday off and it just felt so nice, to let it all go and just enjoy the day.

Today I came back with a fresh mind. Watched one of the newest strategy videos about how to adjust my pre-flop game plan against different opponents. Later I realized that my approach to this subject has changed in last 2 weeks and I am probably not adjusting correctly in many situations. After I finished playing, I started putting in work with PT4 DB and create different gameplans vs opponents I do face the most. So far I managed to create these profiles only for ~10 players, but I intend to work on this a lot more once I get more hands on regs. Doing this allows me to see more general gameplans of my opponents so it should shorten my time for adjusting correctly in future.

Today SmartSpin management changed the requirements for getting a promotion to higher stakes. It doesn't sound too good in short term as I will definitely need more time to achieve these requirements , but in long term, it should pay off as they are set in a way that if you are able to get promotion then you have better chance to stay at higher stake, lowering the chance of you moving back down. So the goal now is to achieve these requirements not later than at the end of September, but its hard to predict how well I will be doing, just need to put in the work that is required.

A very productive day I did start it early, did my usual routine plus meditation as I felt a bit too sleepy. It was not long till I faced few of those opponents that I had made gameplans for. It paid off, I think I played very well against them plus it helped me to create gameplans on the fly and my adjustments were better than usually and it showed in the results too. Volume wise it was slightly bigger too, but not enough, wanted to put in some 10-20 games more, but run out of time, had to go for a run and make dinner.

A Goal for this month will be 2.5k games, it will be very challenging as in June I played only 1.2k games. I will need to step up my game and start crossing that volume line of 100 games per day if I want to achieve it.

Today I noticed that my focused dropped after 3rd session, will try to do 3 sessions in the first part of the day and then put in the study session in the middle. Tomorrow I will work more on creating more gameplans, problem is that I still don't have big enough sample to have solid reads, but a general idea is still better than guessing.

A quick summary. Today I played 3 excellent sessions, but the most valuable sessions were the last 3, it was super hot in house and it was hard to get into zone, I was sure that I will not be able to play my A game, but the goal was to find my B game mistakes and learn as much as possible. At the end of the 4th session I was playing my C or D game for a bit, I tried to bluff fishes too much and some river set ups got to me. Afterwards, I almost quit for the day but I did manage to look at my problems and fix them. I finished the day with 100 games played at 30s, for the first time I managed to put in such volume.

In Sort term this decision probably wasn't the best as I knew that I will not be playing my A game, so decreasing overall EV a bit but I really want to put in the volume this month so I have to finally start working on my B game. Biggest problems were playing vs some of the regs. I was not able to adjust fast and correct enough. Overall I created ~10 game plans for different opponents today.

For tomorrow my plan is very similar as for today, although I will try to increase my efficiency and waste less time, plus make a weekly update.

Week#15

Shortly about today. Grind was exactly opposite of yesterday, started the day with 2 sessions where I was struggling quite hard vs some super aggressive regs and it derailed me a bit for a while. Later took a break, analyzed my play and created few adjustments that I would use vs them in future and later when I faced them again it was way better. The first half of the day was brutal variance-wise, I faced only regs for 30 games. After 4h of grind, I decided to go for a run and get dinner. After that, I went back to the tables for sessions nr 5,6 and 7. Overall played for 7h with breaks in the middle it is close to 9h of work today. Really happy about my discipline, work ethic and the work I put in today. More days like this.

I really like that I did update my blog frequently this week, it definitely helps to move forward, today heard great quote from this motivational video

Direction determines destination, destination is not determined by hope or wish, destination is determined by direction

It resonated with me so well. Without this blog, I certainly wouldn't be where I am now. 2 months ago I was still playing 7$ spins and now I am fighting for my place under the sun at 30$ spins. Not sure if there is proper saying in English, but in Latvian, it translates to something like "Appetite grows while eating" (Latvians love their food so it is not a surprise that we have such saying ) and I am starving now and I want to get to 100$ spins till the end of the year. It will be a very hard task but I will do my best. I need to keep in mind that progress comes only when you take one step at the time.

Today in the morning, I tried out an app called StayFocused, put all the social websites I visit on a daily basis into the blacklist and set it for 6h, I realized that it forced me to take proper breaks and not waste time on FB or twitter in the middle of the day while I work. Will try to use it every time I plan on doing multiple sessions in a row.

Take care guys, tomorrow will be my day off. Cheers.

Nice day overall. Volume wise 107 games with 77 cev. Feeling quite tired, I did spend 6.33h playing, a 1.5h study session with another ss member and I watched the latest mindset talk with Ytrer. I feel way more comfortable grinding these long hours now, seems like my B game has improved and I can even get my A game back at the last session. At the same time, most of the grind is in some kind of a blur.

For tomorrow, I plan on creating few more game plans as a warm up. If I want to achieve this volume every day, then I need the discipline to go to bed in time and wake up early. Today the problem is that I finished grinding only 2 hours before I need to go to sleep, hopefully, I can cool down until then.

Yesterday I got together with friends and played some beach volleyball, it felt so nice to be able to play my best game I have ever played, keeping in mind that I did play and train in volleyball for 5 years 3-4x per week. It shows me how much regular exercises over past year have given me.

Two solid days behind. Both of them were very similar reached the goal and had good results, it is quite a nice feeling when you know what you have to do in order to succeed. It takes a lot of discipline to get there and stay focused all the time for 7h a day.

Today I noticed that my play from SB in 3 way can be improved and it seems like weakest area at the moment. The plan is to rewatch one of the videos about it, I even know which one should be the most beneficial. Tomorrow I will keep creating gameplans for new players, even if I don't necessarily use these gameplans every time I face them and for some, I have a very limited sample, it really helps to adjust while I play.

Yesterday I did order a DXRacer chair from Formula series, will need to wait around a week for it to come to Latvia but I am really happy with this purchase, my old chair is way too shitty and uncomfortable, this should help to improve my endurance and focus while I play especially in those days when I play more than 6 hours. I have few other upgrades in mind but I need to keep printing money in order to afford them in the first place but at the moment everything looks great.

https://gyazo.com/ddc2c085aab7b4f1960de42083b3d112

Es arī nesen pievienojos smartspin. Veiksmi pie galdiem!

Nice chair:f_cool:,how much is it?

@Martinstids Veiksmi, redzēju tavu niku forumā, strādā kārtīgi un ātri varēsi kāpt pa stakes uz augšu.
@justmrwn This one im shipping from UK, got it for 290eur.

Yesterday was a bit frustrating day. I had to change my meditation warm up because I finished Focus pack and I chose the one where silence is 95% but I need that guidance. Only later when I was not able to get in the zone and felt a bit of fatigue creeping on I realized what was the problem but chose to just shorten the grind after 60 games. A lot of setups and a bit of bad play resulted in break even day.

Today I did proper warm up, even if in the beginning, I felt quite tired and sleepy, after the meditation I was ready to grind. The start was not great but slowly I got into the rhythm and end the day with 70cev and 110 games. In one of the breaks, I realized that I have not spent enough time on studying this week and I could have scheduled my week a bit better. Grinding 5 days in a row 7+ hours each is not an easy task to do.

Tomorrow will be my day off, I am organizing and participating in next stage of that beach volleyball tournament I wrote a few weeks back. After that probably chilling with friends for the rest of the night so next update will be on Monday.

Have a great weekend guy!