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Making a living with STT SNGs

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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Update time

Foot injury and training
Since I injured my left foot, I had only 1 training. In the meanwhile some heavy family stuff going on so I decided to stop/pause training sessions with my Sensei in Crossfit temple but rather to motivate myself to work out at home. I have always wanted to reach a point of training without any weights and just doing body weight exercises. With proper nutrition aka calorie deficit and right ratio of macro nutrients, I will reach physique that will be phenomenal.
So heavy training with Sensei is off, training at home will be on. Expecting to get from Sensei 20ish in home trainings from which I will then create extra variation + include pull up program 3 times per week.
Another reason for deciding to do this is to stay at home more and grind. When I am out to train and then coffee place, on average every week I leak about 22 hours to those activities. Staying home and working out 3x week will take me 3 hours tops and then omitting coffee place all together will save me even more time. So that is 19 extra hours per week that I can use at home to prepare meals and regenerate between grinding. I have a lovely balcony which I use a lot, has amazing view and I love to sit there regenerate, drink coffee chill. So I will use it every day with new time management.

Stopping with 5 a.m club
I did over 100 days with 5 a.m club and it was amazing for my mourning routine, nutrition, energy levels through out the day. I however decided to stop it because I cashed out BR from Poker Stars and now need to adjust to new schedule for grinding.
I still wake up by habit at 5 a.m every day but I add 2 more hours of sleep to it to have extra 2 hours by the end of the day for grinding. That is the idea anyways.

Poker
As I said, BR is moved from Poker Stars and testing phase is still going on. Right now my results are looking very good, way better then on Stars actually - but sample is too small to be sure, it could be positive variance. I will have more on this by the end of September when sample will be more complete.
I can say that right now, this feels like a PERFECT move and timing because I feel my 1) hourly is higher vs playing on Stars (which is most important factor when it comes to making money!) 2) Stars despite killing RB from 28% to 5% or less, introduced that ridiculous format which will take even more recreational players from Spins. So the only downside is that I have to grind different times and basically find my new grind schedule. It is something that I am struggling the most and in ideal world I would like to do 2 sessions early morning (7-9:30 for example) and 3 in the afternoon (after 2pm until 9pm to fit). Reality is that traffic is better everywhere after 4-5pm when people come home from work, so that may dictate my grind to 5 sessions from 5pm on which with brakes means I will hit the bed at midnight or so (assuming I grind without longer brake).
So yeah, this feels excellent, I won't get into number but like I mentioned I expect my hourly to be higher then on 30$ Stars 3 tabling with 28% RB or 4 tabling 15$ on Stars. I may post a graph after some games but I would rather focus on posting how many hours I grind each week because for me this is the biggest struggle right now.

Nutrition
I decided to eat at home, in line with grinding more and working out at home. So my plan is to get food scale which is very practical to weight certain meat and ingredients for portion sizes. I will get it tomorrow after that private clinic visit.
Foods that I will eat will be protein rich/heavy like eggs, chicken, fish/tuna along with salads made of tomato mostly with added fruits and vegetables but limited portions due to sugar inside those fruits. Expect with this nutrition and cutting out ice cream which is my major -EV move for weight/body fat loss, I will reach my goal within weeks.

That is all for this update. I will update next time when I know results for my foot and course of treatment, in the meanwhile work work work or grind grind grind - going for 30 hours of grind per week to set as steady habit (6 days x 5 sessions).

Enjoy your August on and off the tables!


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Primrose6789
Joined: 01.07.2016

Hey Pedja, thanks a lot, I´m getting really a little bit desperate, working on my leaks, getting better and beeing frustrated that at the moment it doesn´t pay out. But I´m sure it will: it´s a question of time! Patience, patience!

I hope your foot will heal soon, sounds ugly, ouch! Just try to take a rest and when your doctor says it´s okay, try swimming! It´s great and does good. It´s very relaxing and good for the body! I have still some competitions (at least I crush at tennis!) but soon the season will be over and I will have more time for poker. Won´t race in autumn (running, triathlon) because of my foot.

I hope "lucifer" will soon be over in East Europe!

As for poker: I think it´s a great idea to move away from Stars because it´s really reg-infested, I play at iPoker and PartyPoker.


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bonehunter86
Joined: 10.05.2009

Hi,

May i can ask on whoch plattform you are playing now?


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Hey Pedja, thanks a lot, I´m getting really a little bit desperate, working on my leaks, getting better and beeing frustrated that at the moment it doesn´t pay out. But I´m sure it will: it´s a question of time! Patience, patience!

I hope your foot will heal soon, sounds ugly, ouch! Just try to take a rest and when your doctor says it´s okay, try swimming! It´s great and does good. It´s very relaxing and good for the body! I have still some competitions (at least I crush at tennis!) but soon the season will be over and I will have more time for poker. Won´t race in autumn (running, triathlon) because of my foot.

I hope "lucifer" will soon be over in East Europe!

As for poker: I think it´s a great idea to move away from Stars because it´s really reg-infested, I play at iPoker and PartyPoker.

Hey Prim!

Try looking into each positions win rates and tackle the ones with lowest win rate and with highest open or defend frequency. That will mostly be BTN vs blinds or SB vs BB as well as BB vs BTN and BB vs SB. When you fix those positions, your win rate will skyrocket. If that doesn't help, look into biggest lost hands post flop not just pre flop "flips". Usually you will find hands overplayed there (light bluff catching, turning hands into bluff). Hope that helps!

Foot is in bad shape. I will do quick update about it now - not looking good at all!


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by bonehunter86
Hi,

May i can ask on whoch plattform you are playing now?

Hi,

You may ask of course but I choose not to say. If you are looking for network to play, I already mentioned in previous update(s) what should be your main motivator: 1) Pre and Post RB hourly 2) Traffic 3) Overall security of the site 4) Limits offered
Lower pre RB ROI = higher variance. Higher RB, better to lower variance. Higher the traffic, better for grinding, lower the traffic you have to hunt to play your games and sessions. If security sucks on the site, your money can disappear or software can bug etc - Stars is no doubt best for this but again its not worth to play there anymore with less then 5% RB for someone who multi-tables Spins. Limits offered so that you can move up and down comfortably to increase or rebuild your bankroll.

Final advice, do the research and testing yourself. Even if I told you where I play now it would not help you much because things that I look for may not be things you look for necessarily. For me for example the point is to achieve highest hourly, example to earn 30+ $ post RB. I don't care if traffic is constant or not - I will adjust my habits and day to grind whenever there is traffic - because profit is for me guide now, everything else is far 2nd place.

Hope that helps!


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Health/Foot Update

Today I went to private clinic and did special magnet resonance + filming of the foot. The results are unfortunately not good.
Pictures showed that on my left foot, bones 2 and 3 are dislocated/moved due to heavy and fast pressure I had when I twisted my foot during training. It also shows that I have water in the foot and that it is very swalen "Tetiva" as well as soft tissues. Doctor who looked at pictures said minimum 3 weeks of Physical Therapy!
I then went on to another private clinic where my family knows the doctor who is specialist for Physical Therapy. She took my foot, started massaging and checking whats up with it. Straight off, she told me "No sports for you for longer period of time!". That really made me sad, because 13 days already without training and I am nervous because of it (I really like my progress and how my life is working with working out). I asked her and told about what doctor said (3 weeks minimum), she twisted her eyes and said "We will see - very likely a lot more!". That kicked me down even more. So over a month of no activity + going to Physical Therapy every single day as well as applying medical ointment + doing exercises at home...

Yeah, its not looking good but the positive side is that I will get stuck home and that will stick me to the chair to grind with some TV Shows in the background :)
So if you have some suggestions for TV show - I am open to hear them :)

Enjoy your August on and off the tables!

P.S. Tomorrow Partizan Belgrade plays Play Off for Europe League vs Videoton from Hungary. Very much look forward to this match as their coach used to be our coach less then 3 months ago!


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Kamen992
Joined: 09.05.2011

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Health/Foot Update

Today I went to private clinic and did special magnet resonance + filming of the foot. The results are unfortunately not good.
Pictures showed that on my left foot, bones 2 and 3 are dislocated/moved due to heavy and fast pressure I had when I twisted my foot during training. It also shows that I have water in the foot and that it is very swalen "Tetiva" as well as soft tissues. Doctor who looked at pictures said minimum 3 weeks of Physical Therapy!
I then went on to another private clinic where my family knows the doctor who is specialist for Physical Therapy. She took my foot, started massaging and checking whats up with it. Straight off, she told me "No sports for you for longer period of time!". That really made me sad, because 13 days already without training and I am nervous because of it (I really like my progress and how my life is working with working out). I asked her and told about what doctor said (3 weeks minimum), she twisted her eyes and said "We will see - very likely a lot more!". That kicked me down even more. So over a month of no activity + going to Physical Therapy every single day as well as applying medical ointment + doing exercises at home...

Yeah, its not looking good but the positive side is that I will get stuck home and that will stick me to the chair to grind with some TV Shows in the background :)
So if you have some suggestions for TV show - I am open to hear them :)

Enjoy your August on and off the tables!

P.S. Tomorrow Partizan Belgrade plays Play Off for Europe League vs Videoton from Hungary. Very much look forward to this match as their coach used to be our coach less then 3 months ago!

Super Bad news about ur ankle , I have seen people doing impossible thing and recover faster than pediatrician opinion just try not to push it too hard and get in worst condition .
About TV show try Netflix - Narcos , now 1st September season 3 is being released .


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by Kamen992

Super Bad news about ur ankle , I have seen people doing impossible thing and recover faster than pediatrician opinion just try not to push it too hard and get in worst condition .
About TV show try Netflix - Narcos , now 1st September season 3 is being released .

Yeah bro, sucks hard. It will be every day therapy of some shock waves + other exercises with specialist lasting minimum 45 minutes. Outside of it I need to stretch my foot as many times as day as possible as well as massage it 3 times per day applying some special ointment. I don't mind at all doing those things, I just miss working out hard. So I bought handles for push ups for home as well as that yoga mat as most work outs in next 2 months or so will be in the apartment. Bye Crossfit, hello push ups, pull ups, dips and sit ups!

For TV Shows, I watched all the Narcos so far, great show ofc. From classics I watched Friends, Two and a half man, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones... I can't recall what I watched because its hundreds and even 4-5k hours of grinding with TV shows in the background.
I didn't mention but I prefer in the background to have some funny sitcom like show because it makes me laugh when I grind and always keeping that positive mindset while grinding. I found that helps me the most and puts me to play strong game and most importantly play lots of sessions because with tv show in the background time flies :)


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zyvy
Joined: 20.02.2009

hilarious tv show : That '70s Show

to anyone who got some time, enjoy D&D and like to laugh i can recommend this: critical role playlist ,
those guys are just amazing,
here is good example(so the party going to holy city to seal a dangerous artifact they previously retrieved and....... watch 5min of the video :) ) if you don't like it after 5min of this than its probably not for you, i love it, for me personally it is so much better than movies or tv

another lol moment 'friendly ' trade


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Primrose6789
Joined: 01.07.2016

Thank you very much for the advice, Pedja, I will especially look at SB and BB, I think I make a lot of nonsens there. :f_ugly: Further, I sometimes bluff too much and too light, bet when I shouldn´t bet or sometimes apply "raw violence" when I shouldn´t! I cut this out! Learning to play postflop properly. The rest ....is just "getting nothing" (no playable hand, totally missed flops, totally missed draws); pretty standard stuff like loosing most flips, 60:40-all-ins, loosing against 2- and 3-outers (the pushes and call were correct) but I sometimes call too tight, should open up my calling range a bit.

That´s what I found so far.


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Ramble
Joined: 17.11.2008

Originally posted by zyvy
to anyone who got some time, enjoy D&D and like to laugh i can recommend this: critical role playlist ,
those guys are just amazing,

I never knew much about D&D, stumbled upon this show on Twitch back on episode 18 and quickly got hooked. I even started DM'ing a game for a group of friends who had never played before either and we're loving it.


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by zyvy
hilarious tv show : That '70s Show

to anyone who got some time, enjoy D&D and like to laugh i can recommend this: critical role playlist ,
those guys are just amazing,
here is good example(so the party going to holy city to seal a dangerous artifact they previously retrieved and....... watch 5min of the video :) ) if you don't like it after 5min of this than its probably not for you, i love it, for me personally it is so much better than movies or tv

another lol moment 'friendly ' trade

Yeah, That 70's Show is great. I am rewatching it again while grinding - thanks for remind :)
I haven't played yet those d&d games but from clips you sent me, I need to be tuned it to follow it which is not really good for grinding. I prefer to have jokes cracking in the back while I ran strategy every hand :)


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Thank you very much for the advice, Pedja, I will especially look at SB and BB, I think I make a lot of nonsens there. :f_ugly: Further, I sometimes bluff too much and too light, bet when I shouldn´t bet or sometimes apply "raw violence" when I shouldn´t! I cut this out! Learning to play postflop properly. The rest ....is just "getting nothing" (no playable hand, totally missed flops, totally missed draws); pretty standard stuff like loosing most flips, 60:40-all-ins, loosing against 2- and 3-outers (the pushes and call were correct) but I sometimes call too tight, should open up my calling range a bit.

That´s what I found so far.

You welcome Prim.
As long as you are finding things and fixing, its good. Once that "stops" is where the real problems start. So keep reviewing and fine tuning your pre and post flop game plan. It will be the main difference of moving up stakes faster along with playing number of tables that activates your both strong game and challenges you to recall from memory faster your game plan and decision making.


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Foot injury update

Past 2 days went to therapy and things are getting a tiny bit better. Doctor said I have 10 more days minimum before we do check up how foot is but until then I am getting shock waves, electricity, magnet and another thing happening in actual therapy. Outside of this I do exercises at home stretching my foot front and back, pushing slightly and holding through pain barrier. Hope for soon recovery!

Poker
Still searching for best times to grind. Having 2 fish vs 1 fish 1 reg vs 2 regs in Spins produces different cEV and results. Ideal scenario is always 2 fish but that is somewhat impossible because of no table selection. 2 regs are of course worse option but even with this happening lately and my results dropping, I still have higher hourly vs Stars.
So I will continue to grind and on larger sample compare whats up.

Enjoy remaining of the August on and off the tables!


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Update theme - More days like today!

Today was excellent day considering what my priorities are right now and what I managed to accomplish. I will list all the activities managed.

- Exercise, 20 mins EMOM push ups and pull ups (since foot is injured can't do squats or cardio of any sort)
- Grind close to 4.5 hours (initially planed 3.33 hours)
- Meet with friend for coffee
- Cooked 2 meals for myself
- Afternoon 40 minute nap
- Massage around 1 hour by specialist
- Exercises for the foot

I finish the day now, just before the midnight but I am very happy with all the things I did today, with major focus on in home work out after 17 days without work out and then "HEAVY" grind of close to 4.5 hours. I am rebuilding my grind habit and idea is to play 25 hours minimum per week to get to 100+ grind hours in September. Accomplishing this will allow me to keep pushing in extra hours and then do 120, 150 and such grind months before the end of the year. In following 4 months period, grinding is absolute priority while still maintaining working out, eating proper macronutrients and teaching both music and poker. Those are must do's , everything else is secondary as it is time to make enough money to have January ready for Thailand or simply have very strong financial situation at that point.

Enjoy remaining of the month on and off the tables!


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

New workout routine

Due to foot injury, I am not able to do conditioning type exercises that involve my left foot. I have therefore decided to switch all my training to body weight workouts.
I have done research and decided to go with Bar Brothers type program. This one that I will share with you, I found from Bar Brothers Groningen. Idea is to do 3 work outs per week, Mon - Wed - Fri and it all leads to some excellent results in 6 months or so (relative term "excellent" - but for what I consider my needs are it is excellent).

Exercises that are covered in work outs are ones that work all major muscle groups:
- Squats
- Push ups
- Pull ups
- Ab exercises
- Dips

Idea is that I will 1st month do beginner work out program. I think that right now I can do that with somewhat ease as the number of reps and sets are not that demanding. However, 2nd and 3rd month programs are much more difficult as you will need to do about 12 pull ups with very little rest in between. So as months get to month 6 it gets super intense and crazy but I love it.

Today is the 1st day that I will go for it and I will share my experience of it all here.

Here is the link of the 1st work out: Workoutfor1stMonth

Final note: Since my left foot is injured, for squats I will just do pistol squats sitting on the couch on my right foot vs alternating legs. Remaining of exercises are not problem to perform with left foot injury which is one of the main benefits why I choose to go with this in home workout program.


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

End of year goals or things that I am going for

A bit more then 4 months left to this year. My priorities have switched to grinding 80% of the time and remaining 20% coaching and working on the game. In this time frame I will aim to do following:
- Keep my cEV around 50 or higher 3 tabling (its higher but I would be content with 50ish with heavier grind)
- Play 400+ hours by the end of the year
- Make 10k$

These goals are totally in line with my current EV hourly and not only that but I can with EV hourly make 10k in less than 400 hours. However, since Spins are very variance heavy format, to have 25$ post RB in 400 hours of grinding would be more then acceptable result for me while having higher EV hourly (minimum 30$ and then over which I set at the beginning of this year!).

Where is all this leading to?
With 10k profit, I will have money aside to do following things in 2018:
- Play on my own with comfortable BR (200+ buy ins)
- Have enough money to go to Thailand for 2 months
- Have life BR put aside for minimum 6 months of expenses
- Have special savings fund for emergencies

Outside of this all, I have money invested in my best friend for his grinding BR which by the end of 2017 I expect to increase and make even more money. So that extra money I will use for further investing or if I need it for some emergency to use it for that.

Great news on top of this all is that right now I am in process of cashing out money that will cover all my living expenses easily by 1st of January. Idea behind this is that I don't want to do any more cash outs after this one and I can just focus to grind in following 4 months and then do profit splits as profit comes. This will take pressure of my back and I can focus on making super strong decisions and just to work for the 2018 and things I mentioned.

Very excited about end of this year as first eight months have been excellent for me both improvement and financially wise. With even 60% win rate vs my EV Win rate, I will manage to accomplish all the goals I set. If I ran with my current EV, I should have easily additional couple K on top of it all. And then last but not the least, I will aim to some of the 4 months go for 120 and 150 hours of grind and outside of it all, the money that I make from teaching will be used for savings purely which will give me funds for 5-6 months or living expenses in 2018.

Time to crush end of the year and make this one of the best years in terms of poker improvement and accomplishing all the goals set and MORE!


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Work out completed!

I did 3 sets of all the exercises with rest 1 minute in between each exercise. It felt like I pushed myself about 60ish% of my total available strength and endurance - which is OK but not optimal of course. I added 4th set just doing 1 set max for chin ups and dips and did 7 chin ups 19 dips which was cool (super set way).

I look forward to 1st month training with this exclusively, focusing on proper form on all exercises and then in 2nd month doing 12 pull ups per set + variations of push ups - it will be great preparation for whats to follow up.

I recommend this to total beginners as well as those who have some experience with body weight exercises. For myself, this is somewhat in my comfort zone but it still gets me to burn calories and maintain muscle while practicing proper movements.


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Varune
Joined: 24.04.2009

You should keep an eye on flighttickets, they can vary a couple of 100euro depending on which month you'll go. And ofcourse they mostly get more expensive the shorter you book ahead of time.


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IvicaIliev77
Joined: 31.05.2012

Originally posted by Varune
You should keep an eye on flighttickets, they can vary a couple of 100euro depending on which month you'll go. And ofcourse they mostly get more expensive the shorter you book ahead of time.

Any site recommendation for tickets?

I bought last year in September 1st for 21st of January and it costed me 385 eur return ticket. Bought it through agency - now they ask around 50-70 eur more for same dates.


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