Making a living with STT SNGs

Originally posted by zyvy
weight lose - I wasn't planing on losing weight when I change diet and eating habits , my goal was to fight off candida overgrowth (yeast) and to do it I had to cut all sources of sugar to starve that yeast and put it at normal level it should be, and that I lost weight was a surprise bonus for me
Don't get me wrong IvicaIliev77 but I just want to present different way to losing weight that don't involve track every single day calorie intake. I never tacked calories and in my opinion it doesn't matter at all how few or how much calories you get every day , because if you will eat every day your ~2000calories only as cookies/icecreams cocacola or other high in sugar foods/drinks you still wont lose weight (probably will gain weight) , thats why counting calories is pointless to me (this is just my opinion, don't want to offend you or anyone else). Maybe someday will start my own blog and explain in more detail my story including diet. Quickly summarize I just follow 3 simple rules:
1.Don't mix food with drink
2.Combining group food (don't mix protein with carbs, and don't mix fruits with any other group)
3.Whatever I eat I chew it a lot (small bites chew 50times each)
and by chewing a lot 2 thinks happening :
a.food that eat gets digested by me and my organism take out vitamins and other micro elements from the food ,
opposed to food that not chowed or chewed little , and swallowed as big chunks that just passing by you organism and you just poops it out without actually taking much of a micro elements/vitamins out of it
b.by chewing a lot you brain thinks you must of eat a lot and in this way by eating less you eating more. By eating less things on a plate you providing more substances(micro elements/vitamins) into your body, that will probably leads to eating less calories but I never care about counting them

I never want to offend anyone just want to present my point of view that might be different from others

poker wise - good like sir hope you get out of this slump soon
I'm not a fun of spins (again only my opinion , for me its going to lotto side than poker side but that just me ) ,but there are people that likes it and make money out of it, so good luck

Thanks once again for in depth response!
I suggest you to open blog and share your knowledge with people. I am sure a lot of people are interested in this topic.
I prefer minimal type of approach, simplifying things, so I think of calorie number vs anything else.

Thanks for your good luck vibe! Variance will turn around I am not worried about that at all. I am more concerned about playing tired and without focus in some session during the day as well as needing to improve my strategy (textures). In next 100 days with 100+ hours of study and over 500 grind hours, I expect that win rate will be significantly higher while 5 tabling (at that point maybe even 6 tabling 15s).

Masterclass by Doug Polk
Thousands of $ worth of coaching in this video:

Study report part 1:

Took 1 of the 4 textures and wrote down IP c bet range with all the frequencies as well as frequencies for X/C and Donk OOP.
Now this texture makes a lot more sense, especially OOP. I was in dark when it comes to balancing the ranges OOP vs expected c-bet strategy from IP players and frequencies how to defend vs it. Thanks to today's study I have now way more understanding of it. One of the things that pops out is suited vs off suit hands and why certain ones would sometimes go in donk and sometimes in x/c range and precisely which ones are used where and why? Those are the key questions I will ask myself every day until I nail the texture. Also, hands that most people would never call are +EV calls in regards to expected c-bet strategy from IP player so I am going to start including those in my defend frequency and on later streets have easy way of playing them.

Overall very productive study session. I look forward doing another texture which is similar to this one but has very different c-bet, x/c and donk frequencies due to way it is connected.
Also will review for today's texture defend frequency facing raise IP and facing Donk calling and raising ranges. Already have a very strong defend frequencies set here with expected donk strategy but it never hurts to review.

Yesterday this texture came up and I took several stacks due to opponents not having enough balance in those spots. Basically opponents are too wide in this spot and my donk line confused them and they stacked off light.
So it is things like that which I expect to increase my overall understanding of board textures and range vs range + understand in depth where opponent(s) have leaks (like I mentioned - very wide in this specific spot, even on nl500 zoom people are wide in that spot!!!) so that I can appropriately adjust my strategy to be on top.

Will go for 1st grind session now, teaching guitar/music lesson at 10:30am after grind.

Man, you are such a hard worker! Really impressive and a real inspiration!

Originally posted by Alleen86
Man, you are such a hard worker! Really impressive and a real inspiration!

Thanks man but I am really not!
Since I came back to Serbia from USA, spent time working on my game in mid March until April or so. To figure out overall winning strategy for Spins! After that just kept 3-4 tabling and making money.
If I was doing this what I am doing past week or so, prioritizing studying 1st thing in the morning and setting up system to grind 6 sessions per day while taking brake to eat and do pull ups/push ups/sit ups, by now I would have likely moved up to 60s easily.
Just in the past week from studying I covered 4 textures, 2 of similar nature but different and again 2 of similar nature but different. Wrote out all ranges IP and OOP, quizzed and quizzing myself on it daily. Checked and reviewed overall HU game plan. Did HH reviews in HU, found common spots where I make mistakes. Took new strategy spot, analyzed it in CREV and since yesterday started applying it at the tables. Improved my HUD by adding 2 more lines worth of stats...

All this happened in the past week man!!!
Can you imagine progress and results if I studied whole year like this?

Like I said in some of the previous updates - I made my mind and there is no more going back or staying in the same place. I have huge drive to learn improve and crush. I want to know by this time next year minimum 20 textures with range vs range using different blind depths for both optimal and vs expected strategy. I expect win rate to skyrocket in the process as well as hourly but most importantly I will feel more and more in absolute control of my game - always being sure how my and opponents perceived ranges stand on textures and what sizings I should use or what opponent sizing does to my game plan.

Today 2 sessions in, 1 guitar/music lesson in and 45 minutes of studying in and 3 sets of 6 pull ups in ♦
Nice upswing (finally) with solid card distribution but also some awesome bluff catches and HU battles!

Graph so far today:

P.S. I will consider running a challenge thread for 2017 with my goals for whole year (50k profit from music and poker; 20 textures range vs range; from 25 to 35$ hourly post RB; 1500 hours of grind).

Ahhhhhhhh just played 25x and lost vs aggro tilting reg !
Was supposed to be chip leader lost vs KQ with Ax for all in, came back in 3/3 with couple of all ins from 2bb, went to HU, equal stacks.
Had K9s texture was Jxx with 2 hearts, I bet he calls, turn heart I bet 2nd pair 2nd kicker (no flush blocker) and he jams! At that moment I snapped called because I don't put him on Jx unless its 2 pairs and he likely x/jams weak pair with FD or just a FD (rarely has a flush cause he would jam most suited hands vs limp pre!).
So he turned weak Jx and I didn't catch K or 9 and he got 375$!
He shocked me that he had merged x/shove range in that spot but I guess he made that play because he was on tilt not because he had idea what I was v-betting in that spot 2 streets. By the way, K9 and Q9 (and not even all combos - suited ones mostly, Q9 with mixed frequency!) are bottom of my Vbet range there. I have sets, over pairs, 2 pairs, flushes in this spot for value and this opponent obviously has no clue about that so he just x/shoved Jx.

Will find the hand and post it here. Pity, those 375$ would come in handy. Also played 10x and lost it with AI pre facing min raise with A5o for 12bb eff, opponent had AK.

No complaints, playing strong and with good focus. 1 more session left, cleared 50$ RB bonus and results are quite cool today.

Hand from 25x that I was talking about:

Poker Stars $14.10+$0.90 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30/t60 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 3005307
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: t800 13.33 BBs
Hero (BTN/SB): t700 11.67 BBs

Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is BTN/SB with K♦ 9♦
Hero calls t30, BB checks

Flop: (t120) 5♥ 4♠ J♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t60, BB calls t60

Turn: (t240) 9♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t110, BB raises to t650, Hero calls t470 all in

River: (t1400) 6♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

He showed Jd3d - so wide and bad its ridiculous!

VS him wider TP in the future as adjustment and less 2nd pairs for value since he x/jams on wet turns with any TP! (super wide)

Today 6.33 hours of grind

Graph:

Played solid for most of the day with exception again with final session where I could have chosen better lines in certain spots ( I got tilted with light l/t from fishes who got there). Also, 1 of the sessions (would say 3rd) was not ideal play. So I would grade my play overall B- or C+ all together.
It is OK but not where I want it to be. Need to keep working on my game plan, textures and exploits vs opponents that I have frequent battles with - it will all eventually lead to win rate boost.

I am now 100% positive that on 15s 35$ is reachable with 5 tabling. While 5 tabling since 10th of December, I have seen a lot of areas where I have edge + areas where I will improve more to increase my edge even more!

I will in the next post explain how 35$ post RB hourly is reachable on 15$ Spins.

Today completed:

- Studying (close to 2 hours: Doug Polk video for Holtz range overview; Wrote down range vs range for 1 of the flop textures; Reviewed that same texture just for IP!)
- Grind 6 sessions (not happy with last session and 3rd session focus was going off at times)
- Work out (5 x 6 pull ups - went well and seemed very doable. Will try to do 7 next time!)
- Taught 1 music/guitar lesson (went awesome!)

Since its early for bed, I will do hourly break down for 5 tabling 15s with SN RB in the next post.

New Year Goal - Win rate analysis and how to get there

Notice:
For win rate and hourly, I used SwongSim software (made by SmartSpins). It basically does all the work for you. You put in your expected cEV, number of games you will grind, limit you play and expected RB. Then you get the total winning which you divide by number of hours to get actual post RB hourly.

OK, so now lets talk about what it takes to get to 35$ post RB hourly. I have SN RB which in 2017 will be decreased from 30 to 28%. I 5 table which is approximately 39 games per hour (likely will be more games then 39 but this is realistic number). And the months that I will play, I will grind either 5 or 6 hours per day (150 to 180 hours per month)

So the math part for the games is 150 hours x 39 games = 5890 games approximately per month grind.
Let's run calculations with following cEV(s) to get Hourly post RB! In spoiler you can see screen shots of win rates.

40cEV = 2806$ post RB = 18.71$ post RB hourly

45cEV = 3634$ post RB = 24.23$ post RB hourly

50cEV = 4462$ post RB = 29.75$ post RB hourly

55cEV = 5290$ post RB = 35.27$ post RB hourly

60cEV = 6117$ post RB = 40.78$ post RB hourly

65cEV = 6945$ post RB = 46.3$ post RB hourly

70cEV = 7773$ post RB = 51.82$ post RB hourly

Conclusion:

In regards to goals I have set for next year, my primary target is to hit 35$ post RB hourly. As you see from analysis in this post, to achieve that I need to 5 table with 39 games per hour on average and have 55 cEV! Once I reach this hourly, my next jump will be to 40$ post RB hourly which is 60cEV.

I strongly believe that 15s limit allows this type of hourly and even greater. I am sure awesome player who never tilts can 5 table and have 70cEV on 15s.
In next 12 months, with 1500 hours of grind, time will show true win rate over a very decent sample (58900 Spins!).

Finally, my financial goal with poker + music/guitar lessons is to get to 50k profit. Assuming that I will make 5k from music (will make more but took the number for easier calculation for poker), I will then need to make 45k from poker alone. 10 months of grind, 150 hours per month average, 1500 hours to make 45k I need 30$ hourly average. So end goal for 2017 is 5 tabling with cEV 55 over 1500 hours.

Things to notice:
- As year goes on, once I reach this hourly and cEV I will aim to improve it either by:
a) Increasing number of tables to 6 or more but not sacrificing hourly much
b) Adding 30s and mixing them with 15s
c) Switching to 30s at some point when I feel that my strategy and adjusting is up to level where I can make same or better hourly vs 15s
- The way I plan to reach this hourly is:
a) 5 hours per day grind on days that I am grinding
b) 1 hour studying per day minimum on days that I am grinding
c) On off days do more reviews (more time to study and dedicate to strategy)
d) Sessions with my HU Hypers coach (for post flop analysis)
e) Working with my friends and fellow poker players - CG crusher; DB analysis experts; fellow regs who beat 30s+
f) 20 post flop textures with range vs range analysis
g) DB analysis for game plan adjusting

This is everything I have to say for now in regards to 2017 poker goals. I will save this post and I suggest all of you that follow me and want to see what happens by the end of 2017 to save this post and refer back to it!

Final note:
- If I reach 50k before 1500 hours grind I will likely take grinding easier (not hunt for that goal) but rather invest time more in studying and increasing my win rate further!
- Even with 30$ hourly which is cEV 50, I will with 1500 hours get 45k and with music/guitar lessons make 50k! So financial goal should be less of a problem - I will focus regardless of it on cEV55 to get to 35$ hourly!!! (10$ hourly increase which is 40% hourly increase from 25$!!!)

Ajmo bre po Tajlandjanke ♦
Gl!

Originally posted by Elpatron00
Ajmo bre po Tajlandjanke ♦
Gl!

Doug Polk on priorities!

This resonates with me a lot. I want to make money and continue to mass multi table Spins. I am aware that if I play 2 to 3 tables my win rate will be much higher (cEV 70 or more) but I choose to play 5 so that I can force myself to make decisions faster. By making decisions faster I spot sooner where all my leaks are by default and then I can spend time in the lab doing the work. I am very impressed with people mass multi tabling 100s Spins vs guys who play 1-2 tables and have higer cEV but less hourly. With less tables, more decision time which translates into better decisions (less pressure to make them). End of the day, I want 2 things to happen - 1) have higher hourly 2) study, work, improve my game and hourly along the way
Last night spent another hour on studying. Worked on pre flop adjustments and saw some new ways how to adjust my range in CREV.
My studying tools right now and in the 2017:
- CREV
- DB analysis PT4
- HH reviews (marked, lost, specific filters)
- Doug Polk related material (range vs range)
- Poker Strategy (when some awesome zoom content comes out with range vs range)
- Study partners (with elpsycho and CG crusher)
- Coaching (with HU Hypers coach)
- Word or pen and paper (range vs range quizzing on different textures)

There is a lot of work to be done and I look forward to it all. I can literally write out 20 areas right now here that I will invest time in to improve and increase win rate along the way. Some of them I am working on, others will need to wait when I get to them. Only thing for sure is there is no going back. 2017 will be the year of improvement for me.

Study report part 1:

Finished my 1 hour study session.
Yesterday in 2 chunks started analyzing pre flop tendencies using DB analysis and CREV. Today I finished it for read less strategy.

Discovered some interesting things:
- How much people 3bet shove read less
- How much they 3 bet nai read less
- What I should 4 bet shove vs expected strategy
- What I should call vs 3bnai read less
- What I should fold if I opened my range
- What I should fold if I open wider
- What I should fold if I open tighter
- Expected EV from both BTN and blinds in such spots pre flop
- How to adjust if opponent is more passive then average expecation
- How to adjust if opponent is more aggressive

This took close to 3 hours to do - started yesterday, finished today.
Just this pre flop spot with DB analysis. I had to run over half million hands in my DB for 15s, find the hands that opponents use for 3bnai and 3bet all in, figure out frequency with which they use what (certain hands are used more for something of course) and then input all those % and ranges in CREV and run simulations with different expectations.
One thing that CREV shows is quite cool for me and I will start adjusting and applying this strategy in real games.

Needless to say, I was making some -EV plays in this spot and I am glad I took 3 hours in my life and invested it in this because now I can play pre flop with even greater certainty in regards to such spots. Keep in mind this is only 1 spot and 1 edge. I look forward to tackling 1 edge at the time like this.

I wrote down notes for this spot in word pad and I will review it daily and between sessions until this becomes part of my game fully.

Plan is to grind now and test this adapted and improved knowledge. Starting today I will wait for next couple thousand games and then run DB analysis again, see my win rate for this spot and if my adjustment is overly adjusted, burning chips or making chips!
Hopefully it will show that I adjusted correctly and that I am making more chips in this spot then so far!

Let the grind begin

P.S. Feeling muscle sourness today from work out yesterday, did 6x6 pull ups. I will try now to do 6 of them, if I don't feel strong pain I will go for it through out the day. If the pain happens I will rest from it and likely do push ups or sit ups instead!

In regards to previous study post!

There is about 18-20 more hours required to invest in studying this scenario.
My plan is to do complete game plan adjustment and analysis for:
- All effective blinds strategy
- Each position vs each position

Yesterday and today, those 3 hours got me to do read less and adjusted strategy for BTN facing 3bn and 3b shove from BB in regards to DB analysis. Luckily, BB and SB in Spins have similar 3bs ranges so in that sense it is easier to learn it.

My plan is to do in next days 17-25bb (done past 3 hours), 12-17bb, 8-12bb for same spot and then move on to BVB analysis for all blind depths.
Each one of these will take close to 3 hours so 6 things to do 3 hours each approximately 18 hours or over 20 hours just for pre flop strategy study.
Of course, it will take way more then 20 hours to internalize all this information, practice it and apply it correctly at the tables.

I feel very strong about it however because I did this kind of work in SNGs and have very strong knowledge how ranges adjust once the effective blinds drop.. The most difficult part was figuring out general tendency read less for biggest effective blinds (17+). After this, it is just matter of range % from which I can adjust and adapt my ranges from BTN and SB.
So time wise, I will likely do this even before next 18 hours because I will run through the ranges, take screen shots and make quick notes.

The main study part is over for pre flop. Look forward to what it will bring me in future!

Gl my friend!

Originally posted by qwerto11
Gl my friend!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Hand from 25x that I was talking about:

Poker Stars $14.10+$0.90 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30/t60 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 3005307
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: t800 13.33 BBs
Hero (BTN/SB): t700 11.67 BBs

Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is BTN/SB with K♦ 9♦
Hero calls t30, BB checks

Flop: (t120) 5♥ 4♠ J♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t60, BB calls t60

Turn: (t240) 9♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t110, BB raises to t650, Hero calls t470 all in

River: (t1400) 6♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

He showed Jd3d - so wide and bad its ridiculous!

VS him wider TP in the future as adjustment and less 2nd pairs for value since he x/jams on wet turns with any TP! (super wide)

Hey man Happy Christmas
about the hand i prefer to x/back and make delay stab for few reasons .
-players x/raise(jam) this specific type of flops that have one high card and two connected and have flush draw >
-player flat super wide that flop
-we have showdown value
-we dont have good stack to pot ratio to make good 3 barrel bluff .

Keep walking !

Originally posted by Kamen992

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Hand from 25x that I was talking about:

Poker Stars $14.10+$0.90 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30/t60 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 3005307
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: t800 13.33 BBs
Hero (BTN/SB): t700 11.67 BBs

Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is BTN/SB with K♦ 9♦
Hero calls t30, BB checks

Flop: (t120) 5♥ 4♠ J♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t60, BB calls t60

Turn: (t240) 9♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t110, BB raises to t650, Hero calls t470 all in

River: (t1400) 6♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

He showed Jd3d - so wide and bad its ridiculous!

VS him wider TP in the future as adjustment and less 2nd pairs for value since he x/jams on wet turns with any TP! (super wide)

Hey man Happy Christmas
about the hand i prefer to x/back and make delay stab for few reasons .
-players x/raise(jam) this specific type of flops that have one high card and two connected and have flush draw >
-player flat super wide that flop
-we have showdown value
-we dont have good stack to pot ratio to make good 3 barrel bluff .

Keep walking !

Appreciate the response man, in regards to your points counter points:
about the hand i prefer to x/back and make delay stab for few reasons .
-players x/raise(jam) this specific type of flops that have one high card and two connected and have flush draw >
Where do they do this? I did db analysis for 15s and people don't x/r in limp pots nowhere near aggressively regardless of the texture type.
Maybe on 30s regs understand textures better and adjust by x/r this more but then again I would not bet same range on 30s vs player pool on 15s.

-player flat super wide that flop
Again, on 15s players play fit or fold in limp pots. I have seen in past 2 weeks of 6+ hours grinding daily (so 4k+ games) maybe 4 or 5 players that float OOP in limp pots. That is 4-5 out of thousands of HU games I played in this sample. Again, on 30s regs probably play differently here or higher. They float then stab turn or jam river when turn goes x/x. 15s - not the case.
By the way, even if opponent flats super wide post flop, K9 is then thin value bet here because : 1) Opponent shoves over limp most if not Kx hands pre which means that 2) He rarely has stronger showdown value then we do here so he ends on turn with weaker range therefore thin value bet option works

-we have showdown value
Agree but only somewhat. We also have value bet to induce x/s from FDs and from weaker hands (pairs weaker then 9x or even 9x with weaker kicker!) with or without draws. Also, this opponent is aggro spewy reg so vs him this hand absolutely made sense to bet/call in this spot. I did not however expect him to x/jam all his Jx here so now I will adjust next time I play him on turn to river ranges.

-we dont have good stack to pot ratio to make good 3 barrel bluff .
This one is debatable because it is vary run out dependent. If I expect opponent to x/s pair + FDs on turn, then on river he is just calling with weak flushes likely after calling 2 barrel (and maybe some Jx combos). On river facing 3rd barrel jam, his Jx hands are pure bluff catchers and my expectation is that he will fold all of them. He is left with weak flushes that got there. Now he needs to decide is T high flush good enough to call and am I ever bluffing there on river or showing thinner?
I basically think that we crush his whole range once another flush card completes.
Anything else comes that doesn't work for us, of course we are either 1) x behind since we have solid sdv hand 2) super thin value betting vs 3rd pair or weaker type of hands.

Love that you came in and joined with some valid points. I will ship you some hands on Skype to discuss further strategy.
Christmas in Serbia happens in January by Orthodox calendar. Thank You regardless - I wish you and all that celebrate Marry Christmas!

Today 6.13 hours of grind

Graph:

Very happy with my game today. There were times with A game. There was no tilt, not that I noticed it anyways. All the plays where I made in the HU were intentional 100% and mistakes that I made were either 1) Wrong assumption for specific opponent (expecting different range all together in such spot) 2) Wrong expectation for specific spot (calling lighter expecting wide when in reality could be opposite! - gto vs db analysis!!!)
I ran many times with nut type of hands into top of the range (KK vs quad JJ in 3bn pot and such). There were also times where my A game happened and those are times where I made fantastic bluff catches, hand reading texture , tendency and opponent like a boss. I will not post these hands, no need to brag about good calls. I am aware where I did very well and what needs more work - that is all that matters!
Overall very variance heavy day again, this time play level was very good, I am sure above 55cEV without setups easily. With play like today, I will reach 35$ hourly sooner then I expected.

Today also studied and it went great. It helped me a lot at tables and actually took couple of stacks thanks to my adjustments both pre and post flop.
Went to see Miss Sloan movie with a female friend. Excellent movie, highly suggest it. She would make an amazing poker player!
Worked out did 5 sets of 6 pull ups. I am pretty sure that tomorrow my muscles will be sore since when I finished 4th and 5th set my hands were really tensed from pull ups. Will likely take a day off from them tomorrow, focus on push ups.

Plan for tomorrow:
- Grind 6 hours
- Study 1 hour

Enjoy start of the new week!

I want to share very useful video for practicing range vs range:

Whole cards are covered which is awesome. That makes it more interesting and now your job is to:
- Understand what kind of range opponent bets with those sizings
- What kind of range do you have each street facing those sizings
- What is your calling range on the river facing that sizing vs expected opponents range and what is optimal calling range there

Just the trips hand on that run out can teach you a lot about range construction.
I will share more videos like this in the future.
Used this video for me to practice my range vs range. Awesome warm up!