Making a living with STT SNGs

Cool day today both poker wise and life wise!

Taught 2 sessions, grinded 6.5 hours and meet with 2 friends during different times of day + spent time with family and saw one of the girls that I like. All before midnight which is quite cool time management wise!

Poker wise, in past 20ish hours I dropped 100 buy ins in Spins even though I have strong cEV. Like I mentioned before, its very likely variance evening out now due to several multipliers won. I decided to add my own money to the roll for the value of current RB because in case I drop that as well when RB comes in I will just cash it out and play with whatever is remaining.

I am very happy that my friend elpsycho aka Puppy was able to see me play 2 sessions and we had a lot of fun despite nothing going over way, dropping 6,8,10 buy ins per session on average!

Current variance is making me super focused and determined for this years added goals as well as where I am heading in 2018. So there is basically 2 things that I want to focus on:
1) Complete current deal and consider another one to decrease variance even more by end of 2017 (grind 300+ more hours in this year)
2) Keep improving my strategy for the area where my win rate is diminished

Despite variance I am very happy with my focus, determination, in game strategy and overall play. There are now several areas which I can't recall yet 100% from memory while grinding but those areas will be my main focus of study in future sessions. Another area is very specific and it will basically require me to do several more comparisons and game plan diggings for adjusting and readjusting. Post flop is looking very strong and I feel confident enough in that area that it is area that needs least work on! I am also happy with how motivated I am to play every single day and to prove to myself that I can play reg games while making significantly more money compared to what I was making at the beggining of this year for example.
Since the BR requirements to play reg games are different, basically 300 buy ins is minimum and 500 seems like very safe area and where I would like to bet is 400. So to reach this I will likely need to do 2 more shorter deals after I complete current one or simply do one longer deal after current deal. Another option is to alter the next deal with my friend who stakes me where I would also add my own money to BR while he provides major part of it. The reason why I am considering these options is because I feel very in control on current stakes and my cEV is strong/high enough that just BR is the problem to maintain playing such stake full time. So yeah, I will consider different options and in the meanwhile focus on grinding steady, improving my strategy vs regs even further and going for glory by the end of the year (completing current 10k deal in next 3 months!!!).

So that's whats up and what I am going through with poker. Passion is very high and will to improve and crush is stronger then ever. Where others quit, I keep going - that's how I see and experience myself at least. All those rakeback changes and games getting tougher turning people off are leaving so much space for true crushers to prevail and prove themselves that in a giant picture and end of the day you still have tons of edges to learn and apply in this game. So that's what my mental focus is towards poker - keep improving and increasing my EV on all types of plays and of course always understanding why is something better EV or option vs something else and based on stats instantly adapting game plans to crush.

Another cool thing is that in this week I already have over 10 hours of grind. I will do my best in next 3 days to get 10 more hours to get to 20 hours total for the week before Bratislava trip on Friday. Another nice accomplishment is over 65 hours of grind currently in this month, so before leaving to Bratislava it would be sweet to hit 75 hours - that would really make me happy considering 6 days out of country, traveling and having fun, just amazing volume in comparison to previous months and other life things!!!

Enjoy your week on and off the tables!

Another very good day in poker!
Over 6 hours of grind which makes this week already over 16 hours of grind!!!
My goal tomorrow is to grind 4 more hours and get to Bratislava with 20 hours of grind bagged for this week. On a plus side, since I leave Friday afternoon I will have time to grind in the morning as well which is also sweet.

Today I started actively studying and applying new edge to update my game plan and improve cEV even more. I haven't seen readjustments from other players but I just started so in future I will see whats up.

Variance is still going on strong. I am running below EV with ITM as well as bb/100, so I have about 20ish or less buy ins for current limit. If I drop that I will drop down limit, rebuild as long as it takes and get back strong to new limit.

I was considering options to loan money, invest my own or add another staker in the deal. While I think I am very +EV on current stake , I decided not to add another person not to use my own money. Adding another person complicates existing deal with my friend. Using my own money increases my life variance especially because I will go to Thailand for 4 weeks minimum and because I want to have safe life BR for 2018 for at least 6 months to go through variance heavy periods.
Final option is that I will talk with my friend and if he can add additional money to staking deal I will stay on current stake and just push through the variance. But that is least likely option so I am mentally preparing myself for drop down in stakes.

Enjoy your week on and off the tables!

hey,
is there a chance to take a look at a graph of your current downswing?
Looking at those graphs always helps me when I have a rough time myself.

It is like preperation for me and I only start moaning when I am actually running worse than what I saw from others ♦

Originally posted by BadHabit1989
hey,
is there a chance to take a look at a graph of your current downswing?
Looking at those graphs always helps me when I have a rough time myself.

It is like preperation for me and I only start moaning when I am actually running worse than what I saw from others ♦

Hey!

No graph posting for a very long time. I don't want to reveal where I play nor what my nickname is!

Its tough but study hard and grind as hard as you study - it turns all around eventually.

75 hours hit for the month! 20 hours hit for the week with time to spare!

This month I will remember for many things. Among those important things will certainly be going into full time grind and settling at new site while working out tendencies and playing in general more difficult games then on Stars. I think in past month I improved more then in past 3 months prior to that. This switch made me look harder, faster and to really push the buttons for my own leak fixing. So now I feel much more in control and very confident to say the least about my game plan. Still there is things to improve and I work on them daily while grinding as well as prior to grinding but outside of that I am thrilled with everything I am doing with my poker career.

Another news is that today I reached dropping 100 buy ins and I moved down the stake to rebuild. I wrote in previous updates about adding my own roll or adding another stake to continue playing current limit but I decided not to increase any variance and just move down and grind up by the end of the year. I had evbb10/100 while running at 4.something/100 and 50cEV 36.8 ev itm vs 34.8 itm running at - all this at low sample of over 1k games and of course I dropped 100 buy ins post RB. If I count the money that I won with multipliers I am still in profit on that stake despite variance messing up with ITM and bb/100, but in the new deal I am now in make up and will grind things up!

So, following days weeks months idea is to complete current deal by the end of the 2018 (make 10k profit after make up). Its a tough goal but I can do it considering that I have set up very systematic stop loss for higher stake and I only play it from profit while RB I will use for make up and extra money. So just from RB in next 3 months I will easily cover make up and make several K profit while everything from pre RB winnings I plan to use to shot higher stake.
From January on I will aim to make a new stake deal where I will involve 2 people to stake me so that I can just play profitably stake where my hourly is highest vs the one where I am rolled for.

Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I might grind some morning sessions before flight or not. I will likely try to hit 5 more hours before flying to Bratislava to get to 25 hours total for this week which would be amazing with 2.5 days to spare (have time to grind until 2pm tomorrow 5 more hours!).

Enjoy your day on and off the tables!

Back from Bratislava!

Excellent city to be in. We had lots of fun outside of just hitting some strip clubs. There are many coffee places, restaurants, pubs, bars and clubs to visit so to check it all out in 3 days was impossible. I am however very happy with the whole experience there and will definitely visit it again in very near future - in a month time very likely. TOP Recommendation for Bratislava and important thing is that on Sunday city is dead, no bars to go to nor clubs so we went to casino to drink beer - super weird and interesting fact I guess. So if you decide to go, plan your Sunday accordingly

Poker wise, trip was also very successful. I decided to play 2-5 vs 1-2 because I saw 3 whales waiting for table to start. I couldn't miss that opportunity. In 3 days of playing 2-5 with 40bb stack (200 eur) I made 877 eur profit in 8 hours total play. So hourly over 100 eur or 80bb/100 (roughly) which is sweet and that is even with bad beats like splitting KK vs AKs and being on top of the range several times (TP+SDblocker+FDblocker vs flush on T7582 fd flop flush turn hearts T9o T of hearts = type of hand you never fold facing river 1/4 donk; or TPTK+NUTFD AT vs QQ whale slow play pre QQ on T7522 double flush). I decreased variance a lot by running things twice and that not only kept me in the game longer, but it also gave me tons of reads about what my opponents stack off with pre and post vs me. One example when I split the pot by running twice is my iso vs missisipi straddle where 2 guys called, in the pot 120 euro, I go 80 on Jt7 2tone texture with AJo, the guy snap x/jam with AQo, 1st texture I win, 2nd time he hits Q on river - and by the way, his AQ had no FD nor BDFD, so only things that worked for him were 4 outer Kings or 3 outer Queens with runner runners where he either wins (9,8) or we split (K,Q). 1st day I made over 400, 2nd day over 200 and 3rd day I played very little, was up 250 or so but then 2-3 bad beats and I cashed out - simply didn't feel like playing.
The whole purpose of Bratislava trip for me was to relax, have fun, see and feel the city, have drinks with friend and go out and then play poker whenever I feel like it. Day 1 I really wanted to play and I drank like 15 beers and all the guys loved having me at the table - they probably thought let this drunken fish in the game ♦ But when I started to over bet, thin value bet, squeeze, x/shove turn and such plays some of them were probably very unhappy with their 1st impression of me ♦ So it pays of to drink 15 beers and play GTO
Games were soft, the setup was from 8 opponents on every table half are regs (tag with bad post flop skills of course and pre flop leaks in range construction) several nits (older gentlemen who always limp, like to defend big blind and see flop, overfold everything to agression post flop) and then several whales (VPIP high, pre flop very bad, post flop even worse). Studying and learning GTO, working with PIO Solver post flop and on textures since beginning of this year made me 10x better player then where I was. I am 100% sure of that because in this live game I had so many spots that 9 months ago I would have played very differently - something that I would have x/f for example, here was donk bet or x/r, something that was x/c here I would donk or thin vbet etc. So GTO helped me a ton vs regs at the tables whose stacks I also took and then vs remaining players I just adapted based on tendency - how do they play their top pairs, 2nd or 3rd or weak pairs, how do they play draws, whats their donk range, to what bet sizes they do what, what do they rep with what bet sizing etc. All this knowledge helped me win 877 eur in 3 days and I am forever grateful to myself that in the end of last year I made a strong decision to push myself hard, improve my positions in Spins and win rates, invest in my education again by hiring a coach and then doing things on my own in PIO and studying textures, database analysis etc. I am still on a journey and I know I have more space to improve and I will keep pushing myself because one of my goals is to go to Vegas and test my knowledge at the tables in July 2018. Until then, hard to say what limits I will play live or what stakes I will play online, but only thing for sure is that I will push myself with studying and grind as those are the best medicine for improving as poker player.

Remaining of the month plan
5 more days left, including today, I will be happy with 15 more hours in those 5 days but will also try to go for 20. The reason why I am happy with 15 hours is the fact that I was out of online poker for 3 days and I know from experience that whenever I take a break from it I need time to get myself back into it, warm up to play and adjust my eyes to HUD chips layout as well as prepare brain for faster processing time. I am excited to continue grinding and to test my texture and tendency skills as well as continue to study and improve my win rates and increase hourly.

As far as future of poker is concerned, it is very bright in my opinion. Even if everything dies with online poker, live poker will still be super profitable area despite rake that casino take only thing is that you need to play higher stakes then you play online to compensate your hourly or surpass it.

Enjoy remaining of the week and month on and off the tables!

nice to read you enjoyed your trip and also made some money while drinking beer

how do you approach your daily grind?
How many tables do you play at the same time? and do you finish all runnings tables before opening another one (so blinds will be on same lvl) or whenever you bust one you open up the next one?

do you "learn" (and how?) before your grind, afterwards or inbetween?

All that stuff has no impact on my approach for now since I am still only trying to gitgud at the game, I just want to read about how pros approach it

I need to get to bratislava too, those games sound juicy.

Livepoker is alot softer indeed than online. There's this blog 2+2 about a guy that couldn't beat nl100z at first but was crushing nl2K+ live and even higher limits if i recall correctly.
The only problem is you do need the bankroll to play it, downswings are always around the corner and playing with less than 10BI wouldn't feel that safe for me.

Originally posted by BadHabit1989
nice to read you enjoyed your trip and also made some money while drinking beer

how do you approach your daily grind?
How many tables do you play at the same time? and do you finish all runnings tables before opening another one (so blinds will be on same lvl) or whenever you bust one you open up the next one?

do you "learn" (and how?) before your grind, afterwards or inbetween?

All that stuff has no impact on my approach for now since I am still only trying to gitgud at the game, I just want to read about how pros approach it

Yeah, trip was awesome and so was the beer - thanks!

1) Daily grind approach
Depends on many factors such as if I have guitar lesson and or training that day or not. If not I have a lot more space to spread out sessions during the day. Usually I try before 2pm to get in at least 1 grind session and then from 4pm - midnight get 3 more in with all the breaks for everything else.
I usually start my day off with morning coffee and meal as habit in my favorite coffee place. I plan to add work out close to coffee place as well in the near future so that will take out from 9 to say 11:30am 3-4 times per week. I have coaching session usually at 11am on days that I arrange it with my student after which I grind 1 session, take a break to eat and then grind some more until I hit 4 sessions for the day. Like I mentioned, guitar/music lessons dictate when and how long I would grind that day because I found that its very difficult to do 2 guitar/music lessons, coach 1 session and grind 4 sessions. If that is the case, grinding suffers (quality of it - less resting in between intense play vs difficult opponents) so I play on such days 2-3 sessions instead and I am happy with it.

2) Tables and style
I play 3 tables and I think its max EV for me this way because I go through every single spot and am able to recall action, bet sizings, know which hand improved whose range more, have a plan set in place for every spot etc. With 2 tables I am not satisfied cause I feel I need more to keep me occupied more. With 4 spots will be lost especially in HU where its crucial to maximize EV anyways in Spins so 4 tabling as I used to do it works vs weaker opponents well but playing reg games not as recommended.
I run games continuously. If I 3 table, finish 1 table I insta open another to replace that one, so constantly 3 tabling. This is the best way to practice game plan for all areas of the game and to maximize EV in terms of games per hours and hourly.

3) Learning and Studying
Combination of things. I study on my own, do it with study partner and do studying while I play. On my own I use PT4, notes that I have made what I need to look into and improve or check, videos from sources that I feel will boost my game and practice range vs range with PIO Solver. With study partner it goes from sweet sessions, checking some marked hands to discussing stats exploiting and PIO Solver joint work. While I play I actively study recalling things from game plan (constant review) and I have specific goal in a given session/day/week what to focus my brain on most in order to improve that part of my game.
I found that studying after everything is the worst option because energy levels get depleated from the activities in the whole day. So best solution for me to study is in the morning (preferably 1st thing in the morning, right after warm bath and making coffee for example) or before 3-4pm while there is still a lot of energy, motivation and focus to maintain in the sessions. This is the case if you get up at 5am, 6am all the way up to 8am I guess. If you get up at noon, your energy will vary differently hence you can fit studying later in the day naturally.

There is no perfect or right formula. Everyone has individual preference that works best for them. The best approach is to test different time management techniques, track your energy levels and focus and see what you found to help you the most. In the long run it is all about consistency of course but I would argue that studying 1 hour in the late evening vs 1 hour in the early part of the day will have lower expected gains due to less energy and focus towards the end of the day (body and mind tired - need rest and go to autopilot more!).

Hope that helped!

Originally posted by Varune
I need to get to bratislava too, those games sound juicy.

Livepoker is alot softer indeed than online. There's this blog 2+2 about a guy that couldn't beat nl100z at first but was crushing nl2K+ live and even higher limits if i recall correctly.
The only problem is you do need the bankroll to play it, downswings are always around the corner and playing with less than 10BI wouldn't feel that safe for me.

If you do decide to go there, get in touch as I will likely 1 month from now. There is this tournament which will again bring 30+ players who are weak tight, bad regs and whales which will make 2-5 games very juicy. I will consider playing those games again of course if they are juicy.
You are right about bankroll, I would not feel comfortable even with 20 buy ins playing these games because you can easily swing those within days from setups - especially if guys at table don't run it twice pre and post flop to decrease variance (which happens with fish and gamblers anyways!). So probably 30-50 buy ins full stack is optimal regardless of high expected win rate, just to ease the mental game. Also I advise you take shots like I did. I brought 1k ready to spend it on poker and was ready to loose it all - immediate dis-attachment from that money is the best way to go anyways.

If you decide to go, let me know, maybe we can meet there!

I was kind of joking ♦, not going to fly across europe just for 1 casino. Don't think the EV is worth it. Would be a nice experience tho. I'd probably only go if i win some sort of package or play higher games so the EV is better than playing online.
Taking shots is probably the best yea. The downers you get are alot small than online due to higher winrates possible. I don't know the exact numbers, but lets say you win 20bb/100 on average live(which is a low estimate i think). The chances of you running into a 20BI downer are very slim. Maybe 10BI is already a very small chance.

Originally posted by Varune
I was kind of joking ♦, not going to fly across europe just for 1 casino. Don't think the EV is worth it. Would be a nice experience tho. I'd probably only go if i win some sort of package or play higher games so the EV is better than playing online.
Taking shots is probably the best yea. The downers you get are alot small than online due to higher winrates possible. I don't know the exact numbers, but lets say you win 20bb/100 on average live(which is a low estimate i think). The chances of you running into a 20BI downer are very slim. Maybe 10BI is already a very small chance.

♦
My plan is to go and if the games are not soft to just go to Vienna or go directly to Vienna anyways. The games are apparently softer there always so its worth trying it out in Montesino or Concord.
10BI is low man, you can get AK into QQ+ easily pre or KK vs AA and such spots. But shot taking or playing 40bb poker is way better because they make mistakes vs MSS even worse then people make online of course so its super +EV to play shallower.

thank you for your amazing reply and to take a look at a profesional day with some thaughts arround it.
you are an awesome guy

Originally posted by BadHabit1989
thank you for your amazing reply and to take a look at a profesional day with some thaughts arround it.
you are an awesome guy

You welcome man and thank you for your kind words. Glad I could be of help always!

Thailand!

Last night found accommodation and booked it with my friend Elpsycho!!! Phuket 15th of Jan to 12th of Feb 2018, 4 weeks period <3
Remaining things to do are visa and plane ticket which combined will not cost me more then 500 eur. I am super thrilled and excited to go to Phuket and then visit some other places as well with my friend Elpsycho. 4 weeks is excellent period because it is extended vacation where I can pause my guitar and music lessons, not think about grinding at all and just relax and enjoy my time in Thailand. Everything more then 4 weeks requires me to get guitar there to do webcam lessons as well as to grind and I don't want to do this in 2018 because I can save more money being in Serbia grinding and teaching so that I can also visit Vegas for a month in July 2018. That's the goal and plan anyways!

If you are in Thailand, Phuket from 15th of Jan 2018 4 weeks period, get in touch so that we have some beers together and discuss GTO for massage, bar girls and freelancers

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Thailand!

If you are in Thailand, Phuket from 15th of Jan 2018 4 weeks period, get in touch so that we have some beers together and discuss GTO for massage, bar girls and freelancers

There's a video on P*rnhub called something like Thailand tourist that will tell you everything you need to know.

Originally posted by Varune

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Thailand!

If you are in Thailand, Phuket from 15th of Jan 2018 4 weeks period, get in touch so that we have some beers together and discuss GTO for massage, bar girls and freelancers

There's a video on P*rnhub called something like Thailand tourist that will tell you everything you need to know.

Think I saw that one on Youtube ♦ ♦ ♦
New career - GTO lines how to hook up for free with girls that are in it for the $$$

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by Varune

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Thailand!

If you are in Thailand, Phuket from 15th of Jan 2018 4 weeks period, get in touch so that we have some beers together and discuss GTO for massage, bar girls and freelancers

There's a video on P*rnhub called something like Thailand tourist that will tell you everything you need to know.

Think I saw that one on Youtube ♦ ♦ ♦
New career - GTO lines how to hook up for free with girls that are in it for the $$$

are or aren't?

Either way:

Step 1: Be white.
Step 2: profit.

Believe they all think Europeans have a shit ton of money, atleast that's my experience. Which in fact we do if you compare incomes.

PS: I don't know if it works if you're african american, cuz i barely saw those in Asia for some reason, probably if you say you're from Europe or America it's the same deal.

Have you checked what hours in the day you make the most ROI?
I used to play STTs and I realized I had a higher (way higher) ROI during night sessions (Europe) than afternoon or mornings.
Also, naturally more money during the weekend or holidays.

Just a little tip

Originally posted by Varune

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77

Originally posted by Varune

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Thailand!

If you are in Thailand, Phuket from 15th of Jan 2018 4 weeks period, get in touch so that we have some beers together and discuss GTO for massage, bar girls and freelancers

There's a video on P*rnhub called something like Thailand tourist that will tell you everything you need to know.

Think I saw that one on Youtube ♦ ♦ ♦
New career - GTO lines how to hook up for free with girls that are in it for the $$$

are or aren't?

Either way:

Step 1: Be white.
Step 2: profit.

Believe they all think Europeans have a shit ton of money, atleast that's my experience. Which in fact we do if you compare incomes.

PS: I don't know if it works if you're african american, cuz i barely saw those in Asia for some reason, probably if you say you're from Europe or America it's the same deal.

Yeah, most of them dream of moving to Europe or USA, to get taken care of and leave home land. Not really difficult to date a girl there for $$$ but love factor is tricky with any girl - never know whether she is pretending or really loves you