Back in poker, Christmas is finally over and time to grind NL50

Hi, nice blog.. about this depression, i also had it.. my girlfriend sent me to psychologist, psychiatrist, they give me meds for just a few months.. what i'd do during depression, i'd just sit on the floor in shock emotion, other people like friends moving in the room.. fortunately i got like help? like im no longer in depression but im very sensitive about some stuff.. like the emotions of my partner.. she's really really helpful so these feelings are actually showing the way now i feel.. there was something missing in my life and this huge sadness from childhood, it went like way worse when reflected and combined with the anger of my partner i love her but that one really took me to the ground, especially when our second child was born. a clairvoyant said that i have "post-birth depression" that usually the mother has, but i was so sensitive i got that with our second child. omg

I wish you best of luck! ye im new to NL but i was even FL Holdem professional for few years.. starting out again

I feel honored to have you come visit my blog Taavi, I remember following your FL blog "noob learning FL" if I remember correct? I played FL for a time, but I do enjoy NL more.
Im sorry to hear you have had troubles with depression too, but it was good you got the help you needed. Sounds like you are similar to me in being sensitive to people around you, their feelings and actions?
My head is still pretty messed up, I have my good days where I can think clear and bad days where life doesnt really make sense and the pain comes flooding back. But I see improvement over time and Im sure getting myself in a better life situation will do me a lot of good, and im in a place where im motivated to do that now

If you start a blog for your NL adventure Ill follow for sure, gave me lots of inspiration to follow your last one

wow im so happy to get these connections, im really looking for them. yes yes that is the name of the old blog

it's so much about this topic. like there are people also "coming in" from distance, such as my mother, and she tells me to "simply go away" or something, and that's so much pressure. im sensitive about energies and this "hatred" or something... i was part of clairvoyance TV show in Estonia as crystal healer, its working but there's so much more to it... life's an adventure

I already started a new NL blog now, it's fun how people play it i feel sometimes it is hard for me to even get in to "professional grinding mode" like you do for example, my head is in other things and simply looking for connections or something. but i can concentrate on the game very very well if i want to because of the past experiences...

https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3192344#post3192344

like this feeling of being rejected and your "stuff" not wanted to be around... i feel for example with my mother, she said "poker is bad" and "i will not accept it" and also, do something else or something... but she is very unclear. so i feel like im outside of the world, doing this "poker" and "meditation healing with crystals" that nobody even understands.. so sometimes i cannot even see where i am related to the society.

the funny thing is i even did this "crystal reiki healing" to her many times, and now when she telepathically says "go away" i even get it as a client in crystal healing would say it to the therapist... there's much going on in her i feel and she kind of went on a trip to another dimension or smth after the healings ♦ we cannot "see" her now for a while already ♦

i don't want to "rob your blog" but i feel this "depression thing" is really meant to connect people, i had very close contact, my girlfriend's friend, who told me to start smoking cigarettes to feel better.. so i did that and it even worked she also had depression

will be following your beautiful blog. this "professional grinding" can be troubling i feel.. i have been there a little bit

Had one last session today and ended the year in 2450€. Quite happy with the result so far, not planning to take shots at NL100 until I hit 4k€ BR.
I felt pretty good last few days, been a big relief to be done with christmas and have been thinking about 2021 plans. Im not gonna do my uni stuff this time around, will reevaluate this summer if I want to go for it then, but was not ready for it this year and corona made it even more of a problem.
My plan so far is to work up the fortitude to play for 100h/month, hopefully hit the 4k€ mark some time in march and pray that my nl100 shot doesnt turn out like it did a few years ago. Depending on how moving up goes and assuming players are not much stronger than nl50 I think 10k BR is achievable in the first 6-8months of the year assuming variance doesnt kill me
I appreciate all the comments so far, December was pretty tough so had to just check out and not deal with anything really. Will get back to more regular posts in the new year, its a great way to keep track of my progress.
Happy New Year to everyone reading here

Originally posted by Damlqv
Had one last session today and ended the year in 2450€. Quite happy with the result so far, not planning to take shots at NL100 until I hit 4k€ BR.

Happy New Year to everyone reading here

Thanks for the New Year's wishes, and congrats on the great result...

...wishing you the very best for a peaceful, prosperous 2021,
VS

Thanks Vorpal Planning to update once a week for now with main focus on how much I play and how well I play. Ofc I dont leave results out though, need to keep track of that too
Volume was low so far this week, had big issues with sleep and ended up sleeping mostly during the day and being awake through the night. Its been better last few days but have not been able to sleep more than 6h a night and thats far from enough for me.
My quality of play has suffered a bit in a few spots, but overall pretty happy with my play, just some stupid calls mostly that should have been clear folds.
Run good mode is activated for sure so BR is now sitting at 3190€
Hope next week my sleep is better and I can play more. Feel more motivated atm than I have for a long time, so thats great, improvements have been slow but steady and happy as long as I feel that is the case.

@taavi Im happy to hear you have made so much progress Depression is kinda weird, you have to find something that works for you, if meditation and crystals have done that for you its awesome. And I get the whole feeling disconnected from society, it can be tough. People need the sense of belonging, probably one of the reasons it was so hard for me when I lost my girlfriend since she in some part was my connection to the world.
I have mostly been an outsider with few but close friends, I still have my friends but I cant help feeling very much alone almost all the time. Im sure poker will not help with that, but it can make me feel successful in some way and that is something I have missed a lot over the last 8 years. For now I take it one step at the time, trying to solve all my problems at the same time would be overwhelming.
I have found that talking about depression helps a lot, you will meet people that just cant understand it, but often people will be very supportive and some even tell you that they are struggling with it themselves.
And you are always welcome to post here, the reason I have been so open about my struggles is because I think people ignore this topic way too much.

This week has been good to me. Volume is still quite low, but managed to play reasonable amount for now, planning to increase hours played slowly but consistently. Quality has been good, have felt very comfortable at nl50, and run good continued so much that I now have taken shots at nl100.
From the limited number of hands Ive played at nl100 I feel pretty good about beating it, but still too early to say. I did however feel like my game suffered a bit there, I think the amount of money is getting to me a bit.
For now I plan on playing a mix of nl50/100, should help me get used to the stakes while not being out of my comfort zone all the time I play.
BR is sitting at 4318€, this heater has been very kind to me

Question: How should a poker player handle 10%+ inflation? If we are forced to keep most of our money in cash for BR, I dont see a whole lot of options to not lose a lot of value in a case like that?

Originally posted by Damlqv
Question: How should a poker player handle 10%+ inflation? If we are forced to keep most of our money in cash for BR, I dont see a whole lot of options to not lose a lot of value in a case like that?

Interesting point.
When inflation becomes large, banks begin to offer higher interest on accounts -- not the same as inflation of course, but still decent.
In the early '80s, we were getting 10% interest on deposit account.
It made sense to take the option to reduce income tax source deductions and bank the saved money so you got interest on it all year instead of the government.

If that situation ever came around again (and I so hope it won't) I would keep my bankroll in an interest bearing account, and only keep enough in the poker room to play.
That would mean it would be necessary to carefully examine the trade-off between withdrawal fees and interest.

Cheers,
VS

If you have to take debt, then take debt advice before taking debt. It will be helpful for you.

Originally posted by sarah100
If you have to take debt, then take debt advice before taking debt. It will be helpful for you.

Hi sarah100,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com

this is a very good point.
Although a credit card is very definitely debt, the ones I use incur no fees or interest charges if paid off in full each month.

If a cash advance is made, though, interest begins immediately.
I'm not sure if a payment to a poker room would be considered a cash advance by some banks
I have no way to check, either, since Canadian law won't let me use a credit card for online gambling.
(except at the government's own site of course)

The main reasons people use credit cards for poker room deposits and withdrawals are security and convenience.

Have you checked out the free money offers and bonus offers yet?
(Read the instructions carefully -- they usually apply to rooms where you don't already have an account.)

Why not take a moment to introduce yourself?

If you have any questions, just post them in the Q&A forum.

All the best,
VS

I have put in a decent amount of hours this week, quality of play was not great and results even worse. Played a decent amount on nl100 but played very weak, will have to think about how to improve that for next shot.
BR sitting at 3918€ so not too far from being able to take a shot again, hopefully this will go better than last time ♦
It felt pretty shit to drop 1200€ (highest to lowest br) on the tables, but its a chance to test how well I can come back from it without needing a break and still play well.

Thanks for the reply Vorpal, there are signs of inflation coming back, but for now covid is deflationary except for a few industries that have serious supply line problems. How bad it gets will depends on a lot of things, hopefully we dont hit double digits.

Oh and Im about to hit diamond status for the first time in my life, and still a pretty big winning month, looking at january like that feels pretty good ♦

Hey guys, had a few really bad months lately. Had no energy to do much and felt like playing poker would be a bad idea. Winter has been tough but I feel better now that spring is closing in. Played a bit yesterday and today and was welcomed back with a nice heater.
Quality of play was pretty good, some mistakes here and there where I acted rushed and didnt think it through.
@SvenB, thanks for the pm about rake race earlier this year, Im am from Denmark, so unfortunately no rake race for me any more, but looks like im still on for 25% rakeback, not sure whats going on with that, but if that stay as is, im pretty happy staying at unibet. (Sorry for not responding earlier, just had to check out and not deal with much since late january, been a while since I've felt that bad with depression but knew it was gonna pass at some point so just had to wait it out)

BR 4482€

Goal for now is still 10k€, but given the last few months I think I can say that poker should not be my only source of income, as long as I still feel like this its just not a safe and viable solution. Kinda sucks, I feel like I would be able to beat the higher stakes with some more training, but for now I'll stick with the slow and steady grind at lower stakes to protect my mental health.
Longer term goal is to hit 15k€+ and take some poker trips where I can feel comfortable at nl400 live games and start looking for a new job. Got a good lead on the job front, that would make a huge difference for me, so hoping for the best.

Take some poker trips - let's see what is the last thing that prevents you from going:
- Your Bankroll
- Corona Travel restrictions

:-) Good Luck!

Thanks Sven, yeah hopefully corona restriction will be lifted soon, will see if my BR can keep up with vaccine progress

Didnt have time to play saturday or sunday, but did get a few sessions in friday and run good continued, very happy with the quality of my play as well. Not much more to report this week other than the result, BR is now sitting at 4898€, a new all time high for me and feels great.
Will see if I can play a few extra hours next week, but still gonna be conservative in pushing for volume depending on how I feel. For now the plan is that Im back at work on may 21st, and would be nice if my BR is closing in on my goal of 10k€ at that point or I find a new job (I prefer the 2nd option if I cant have both, so really hoping that it works out getting that job). I estimate around 25€/h +/-5€ is realistic as it is now, will see if that holds when I have a larger sample size.

Time for a weekly update. Volume has been low this week, but I feel very good about my game. Not sure next week will see more volume, but will make sure I get a few hours in at least.
I feel like Im very close to getting myself into a much better situation and poker has helped me achieve that, when I think about that it really helps with the motivation.
Still running hot, also very helpful. BR is sitting at 5346€, expecting a 25€/h profit means im roughly 200h away from my next goal, will take me at least 2-3 months to get that amount of volume in, but thats an acceptable time frame.
Aiming to hit the 10k mark at some point in july seems very possible, but will reevaluate according to what happens over the next month or so.

Didnt put in that much volume overall in april, but this last week I got some decent hours in. April has been my best month in poker ever as far as I remember with BR sitting at 6177€.
Thats a 2377€ profit for the month, So been running hot for sure.
Plan is to pretty much repeat in may and hope for similar results, keep playing well and improving, aiming to get a good amount of hands in before I go back to work.

Let's punish them all!
#TheSiteIsOurs

Wow, that's amazing!
I might have missed it in other posts that you might have written, but what pokerroom are you playing?

I'm not aiming to play your stakes, but it looks like there isn't a lot of traffic at these stakes or I'm I completely wrong here?