I've always thought that these "lottery-SNG"s are moneymaking machine for pokersites. Most of the games are for smaller prize pool and then eventually someone else luckboxes the main prize you're "investing in" . Seems like a though environment to make profit if there's not much fish at these stakes anymore, only those regs?
That 36bin bonus is quite lucrative, 1800 games seems like a lot though. Gl, hopefully you can bink some of those big ones.
Thanks for encouraging words 
It helped this week 
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 41
Weekly profit 2881 €
Previous profit 11 002€
Current profit 13 883€
Goal profit 50 000€
However, I can't say that I played much better than in the previous week. The only difference is that I managed to win one 25x and one 10x game. Other stats looked very similar 
The aforementioned bonus is almost complete, need another 220 games in 7 days time.
And yeah, in general PokerStars earn lots of money of spin&go rake. If I play 1800 games a month, that means I pay 9000$ in rake alone. But if I get 80-90% of rakeback, than I can't complain too much 
Cheers all and have a good week!
Originally posted by Mantelo
And yeah, in general PokerStars earn lots of money of spin&go rake. If I play 1800 games a month, that means I pay 9000$ in rake alone. But if I get 80-90% of rakeback, than I can't complain too much
Cheers all and have a good week!
Hi Mantelo!
Congrats for the week! I was read only visitor of your blog for ages (until now ).
So on $100 Spin&GOs your goal is not to win at the tables, but to not lose more than $9k, right?
I saw as few regs ony Twitch palying $100 Spin&golds on 12 tables and they were very pride with their slightly losing graph, at first sight I couldn't understand the reason behind it.
Originally posted by LahtiPelican
So on $100 Spin&GOs your goal is not to win at the tables, but to not lose more than $9k, right?
Hi Lathi, thanks for stepping by 
Well, I would for sure prefer to have positive winrate before rakeback but you point it right. 9k a month is a huge number, imagine if you can make some profits also from pure games 
I've recently watched a video where Jonathan Little expressed his opinion of trying to have positive results before rakeback, as sometimes poker rooms stop their rakeback systems (Like PokerStars did to Supernova Elites). Also psychologically you feel much better when you can call yourself a winning player
So my last month's graph looks like this:
The most important number of course is the pure winnings, or in this case losses, which stands at -4k. Should have been around breakeven, although with ChipEV of 22 on average you should expect to be down like 2k. And yes, I've completed my challenge and overall I've got around 8k from rakeback and leaderboards. Conclusion - despite being a losing player I've managed to double it into winnings
The plan for November - Complete the same 3600$ Rakeback challenge and try to improve ChipEV to 30. Playing with best Regs is not the best thing in the world, but it gives me an opportunity to make myself better, and not only in Spins. I am now much more comfortable playing tournaments, especially in blind battles. Yesterday I was close to a major Final Table at GG.
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 42
Weekly profit 1378 €
Previous profit 13 883€
Current profit 15 261€
Goal profit 50 000€
Hello once again, it's November time and that means only 2 months left this year to complete my goals. And let's start from the beginning.
1. 5 Big Live events
Long time since my last trip outside Lithuania, so I'm very excited with a festival in Prague. It starts in early December and it would be my only travel this year. Hopefully Covid won't ruin these series and it will be a good example for next year's festivals.
2. Play 10k games of Spins at 100$ level and reach 45 ChipEV
For sure I've been optimistic about 45 ChipEV. Only reaching half of this number means I'm down around 12k this year, but luckily rakeback profits greatly. The plan is to play this month till I reach 10k games overall and at least I will complete one part of this goal.
3. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million
Optimistic again Interestingly, last Sunday with around 500 players left, I was sitting in 5th place. Cooler hand gave me lots of chips and couple of bounties, but another cooler hand took it back.
4. Update Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event
I hope I won't need 10 years to add something to my trophy cabinet But yes, this year no inclusions and not so many opportunities. With November dedicated mostly to Spins, hopefully December will be a savior.
5. Study poker 360 hours
January - 24 hours
February - 25 hours
March - 29 hours
April - 24 hours
May - 21 hours
June - 9 hours
July - 44 hours
August - 41 hours
September - 31 hours
October - 24 hours
After 43 weeks, the total number is 272 hours. That means I need to spend 1,5 hours a day to make this happen. Seems possible so I will try my best to do exactly that
6. Buy land, equip solar system and build sauna
Still empty landed. The goal that gives me the most headache 
7. Reach 20k XPoints on French Duolingo and climb to B1 level from A2
Consistent throughout the year, so this should be taken in couple of days. Merci beaucoup
8. Get promoted with Top Kickers into League III
We were so close.. We had to win our last game and we would have jumped into 3rd place, guaranteeing automatic promotion. However, we drew the game 1:1, with so many opportunities to score a winning goal. However, I'm still happy with the season overall, starting badly but recovering greatly. 11 wins in 22 games is a good result, but next year will be aiming for couple extra more
9. Read 12 books
"Many Sons Have Fallen Dead" by Adolfas Ramanauskas Vanagas
"The secret life of Salvador Dali", by himself
"The Football Manager Guide to Football Management" by Iain Macintosh
"The unmumsy mum" by Sarah Turner
"The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War" by Jaroslav Hašek
"Poker satellite strategy" by Dara O'Kearney with Barry Carter
Stuck here. I leave Barry's book to finish in December when I switch to tournaments again. Švejk book left couple of pages, ideally before trip to his home country - Chech Republic
10. Live a happy and meaningful life
No fear for planes and hopefully no fear for flights as the plan is to visit Prague with wife and daughter 
So no goals completed yet, but that should change in next update. Cheers and good luck all at the tables
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 43
Weekly profit 1961 €
Previous profit 15 261€
Current profit 17 222€
Goal profit 50 000€
It shows a big weekly profit, but it's all because of the monthly rakeback chest which I opened (Actually I always let my wife to do that :f_ugly:) In fact, it was a losing week, the one that Barry Carter describes as the easiest week of the year
What can be seen from the graph? 404 games a week is on the border of completing 1800 games a month for an extra 40% rakeback (In theory I need even less games as I also rake some from Sunday tournaments). Got only one 10x game which I lost, actual total prizepool 112k, on average I should expect around 115k. However, real problem was that I was playing poorly in 3x games and extremely poorly in 2x games. Only 5x games were nice in ChipEV, so hopefully this week statistics get better
Originally posted by ImJoeB
really nice graph, keep crushing glgl
Thanks Joe, your wish might come truth Usually Monday is my day off, but I still have some stuff to do.. Reason - Day 2 of the Sunday Million. Also I have a big stack, currently 12th out of 73 remaining Who knows, maybe my yearly goal of reaching this Final Table could be completed surprisingly 
I've already locked 1200$ here, which definitely helps for my challenge
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 44
Weekly profit 1255 €
Previous profit 17 222€
Current profit 18 477€
Goal profit 50 000€
I went to the PokerStars app to rail you but you had already left.
Congrats on the decent cash all the same...
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I went to the PokerStars app to rail you but you had already left.
Congrats on the decent cash all the same...
:-(
Good luck nex... well, guess it is not thaaat bad luck to come that far. But... Better luck next time!
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 45
Weekly loses -4488 €
Previous profit 18 477€
Current profit 13 989€
Goal profit 50 000€
When it rains, it rains As the comments above suggest, no luck in Sunday Million Day2, finished in 30th place. I will show my last Allins of this tournament here.
1st hand AK<AQ. UTG minraise, standard shove from opponent with 14 BBs holdings AQs. I wake up on the SB with AKo which I 4bet forcing UTG raiser to quit. Q on the flop sends some stack to my opponent 
2nd hand AJ<55. An orbit later an interesting hand occurred. It was one place before a 300$ payjump so the table was a little tight. BU player opened 2,5x which probably because the BB player was a shortstack. Usually that signs a medium strong hand that doesn't mind to call shortie's Allin, but don't want to dance too much with bigger stacks. So I 3bet jam my AJ on the SB hoping to have extra fold equity before moneyjump, but after a tank my opponent called his 23BB stack with 55 which held by the River.
3rd hand 77>AJ. Easy open jam on the CO with 77 and easy call for my opponent with AJ holding a 6BB stack. I managed to hold and although it seems like a small pot, it allowed me to escape the danger zone
4th hand A9s>A8s. A hand which skyrocketed my into Top stacks. I open limped my SB with A9s and got immediate jam from BB of 22Bigs effectively. Most often I will witness some small pairs, weak Aces and broadway hands, so after some consideration I make a call. Luckily my opponent has a dominated hand and although Turn brings a flushdraw, my hand holds.
5th hand AQs<JTo. Soon after I collect a beautiful looking AQs and face a commited raise from one of the opponents. I put a big raise covering him and get a call from JTo, which appears to be a winning hand by rivering a Jack.
6th and last hand K3s<QJo. Finally the blinds have eaten up me and I commited my last chips from SB with K3s. Even I was slightly ahead, but another flip not in my favour. To conclude - a nice deep run, and with some more luck it could have been my tournament of the year
So.. With a nice payday in the early week, how did it manage to be so negative in $$$? The simple answer - even less luck in Spin&Goes
The graph shows I should have been down as little as couple of hundreds (Chip EV suggests I should have been even up), but when you can't win any flips, you are down almost 7000$ If you try to convert into real money, it might hurt. So I'd rather leave this as the numbers in my PokerStars account And of course expect a better week in the coming days
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 46
Weekly loses -1801 €
Previous profit 13 989€
Current profit 12 188€
Goal profit 50 000€
So it was another frustrating week of Spins
Despite playing a handful volume of games, not much of big multipliers hit. Couple of 10x with good ChipEV, but no wins. And negative ChipEV in both 3x and 2x games meant a total loss of 6k. Expected curve once again way below the actual one, so I guess I need to visit a church Completed challenges and rakebacks limited losses to nearly 2k, but it is still not the way I expected to be. Clearly it doesn't make sense to grind only for the bonuses to be fulfilled so I will have to reconsider my plans for next year. And for next week (and all December) I intend to play a very little volume, mostly tournaments. Definitely need a break from Spins
Good day grinders Last month of the year, so let's look how my yearly goals are progressing
1. 5 Big Live events
Well, it was 50/50 from the announcement of this festival, but EPT Prague is officially cancelled. Or postponed as they say. I guess PokerStars will try to comeback sometime in Spring, possibly after EPT Sochi which happens in late March. And this cancelation means that I'm still on zero trips this year, unfortunately
2. Play 10k games of Spins at 100$ level and reach 45 ChipEV
I was very optimistic in January Good news is that I reached 10k games this year. Bad news - nowhere near that 45 ChipEV. I will leave more analysis for the next month update, but will look through last 2 months results.
Down almost 18k in that period and that means my plan to comeback to Spins didn't work out. I've got back around 15k from rakeback and challenges so it's not that terrible as it might look from the first view. And if my actual results would match expected results (minus 7k), then I would have ended in profits for around 8k. But variance hit me very bad, especially in the latest games. No matter how I played, I just couldn't win any flips. It is very possible that it was not just bad luck but bad play of me as well - ChipEV only at 16. Majority of the times I was playing with tough regs who also were hunting challenges so it was very hard to end sessions in profits. For sure if I want to dive into Spins next year, more studying is essential from my part
3. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million
Not a Final Table, but 33rd place is not that bad. I still have 4 Sundays to try to beat that result
4. Update Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event
The only awards I am getting this year are participating awards
5. Study poker 360 hours
January - 24 hours
February - 25 hours
March - 29 hours
April - 24 hours
May - 21 hours
June - 9 hours
July - 44 hours
August - 41 hours
September - 31 hours
October - 24 hours
November - 19 hours
After 47 weeks, the number stands at 291 hours. The problem of Grinding PokerStars Challenge is that it demands lots of hours to play. And not much time left for studying. And that makes no sense for me to continue playing while I'm not improving anymore. In December I will try to test some routines on playing/studying and hopefully next year I'll be in much better condition.
6. Buy land, equip solar system and build sauna
I hope that this photography will bring a miracle on Christmas Eve
7. Reach 20k XPoints on French Duolingo and climb to B1 level from A2
Finally a completed goal I'm also on a 35 day streak at the moment which I intend to carry on for the next year
8. Get promoted with Top Kickers into League III
Position 5th and only 1 win away from promotion zone. But no time to be sad as this Sunday starts Winter outdoor competition. No concrete goals set here, but it's a good way to prepare for next season.
9. Read 12 books
"Many Sons Have Fallen Dead" by Adolfas Ramanauskas Vanagas
"The secret life of Salvador Dali", by himself
"The Football Manager Guide to Football Management" by Iain Macintosh
"The unmumsy mum" by Sarah Turner
"The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War" by Jaroslav Hašek
"Poker satellite strategy" by Dara O'Kearney with Barry Carter
The Seventy Great Battles in History by Jeremy Black
Time to put some aggression on opponents I've only started this book but it already looks exciting. The 1st war described is a Marathon battle where a small army of Athens defended themselves from Persians. Once again a proof that a well executed strategy is Nuts 
10. Live a happy and meaningful life
Did I mention that I love castles? A fresh photo from the top of famous Gediminas tower in Vilnius, Lithuania.
See you soon in the next episode! Good luck all
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 47
Weekly profit 45 €
Previous profit 12 188€
Current profit 12 233€
Goal profit 50 000€
It was a week off for me and the only change in my bankroll was due to currency fluctuation. This week I intend to play tournaments, especially waiting for Sunday when EPT online starts. Btw, PokerStars announced new dates for EPT Prague, which is planned on March 5-16. Hopefully this time no Corona issues involved 
Good luck all and see you at the tables
Thanks for the comprehensive updates - always a pleasure to read from you.
I guess whoever sets goals can hold himself accountable - a big plus in not randomly walking through this crazy world.
Let's hope for your christmas miracle!
Originally posted by SvenBe
Let's hope for your christmas miracle!
Not the biggest miracle, but another Zodiac acquired on the 1st day back to tournaments
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 48
Weekly profit 4275 €
Previous profit 12 233€
Current profit 16 508€
Goal profit 50 000€
I think that was my best week of the year Not only I completed my Bankroll Challenge on GG (From 0 to 10k), but also had some nice victories at the tables directly. Here are some:
I got a deep run in Big Millions (equivalent of Sunday Million on Stars), but got eliminated once 100 players were left, would have been a nice way to end the year
But there are still 2-3 weeks to finish this month strongly, so hopefully next update is painted in green again
Best of luck to all grinders
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 49
Weekly loses -54 €
Previous profit 16 508€
Current profit 16 454€
Goal profit 50 000€
Good day grinders
A breakeven week, despite my biggest win on GG. Actually, 5th place but still
I even tried a Collosus event, got into money but didn't reach deeper stages.
So as you can see, as my Buy-in stakes increased, even such scores can't guarantee that my week will be a profitable one. Nonetheless, playing higher is much more enjoyable and you progress faster as you face tougher opponents. Also, huge prizepool is another factor for excitement And there is no better time for a big win as the Christmas Period That's what I'm wishing you, so hit the tables
See you next week!
2022 Challenge
Weekly review, part 50
Weekly loses -3353 €
Previous profit 16 454€
Current profit 13 101€
Goal profit 50 000€
Not the best way to end the year I've tried to play more expensive tournaments last week (mostly 50-250$ buyins), but bricked most of them. Probably the variance is the very similar on 100$ Spins and 100$ MTTs, if you can't win a flip, you screwed
For the remaining days of the year, I mostly plan to mentally prepare for 2022. January is set for Spins as I intend to hunt PokerStars Monthly Challenge (1800 games at 100$ Spins level). I need to be fresh as averaging 60 games per day is not an easy task, and I might not be in the best condition on the 1st of January Also tomorrow I'm going to update my monthly review and officially close the year of 2021, which didn't go as good as expected. Nonetheless, more about it tomorrow, so see you soon
2021 is coming to the end, couple of days left but it won't have any significant influence in my total year. From the very 1st month all world hoped that Covid will be a thing of a past (myself included) and we all could go back to our normal lives. Little did we know
And here are my 10 goals of this year and some analysis how did I manage to fulfill (or not) them.
1. 5 Big Live events
It was not one trip that was already planned but things changed in the last hours. I was used to travel outside my country roughly once in two months, but this year I haven't travelled abroad at all. We were thinking to have some non-poker related voyages, but in the end we decided it might be too difficult to travel with a little kid. To sum up - too many obstacles for going out so 0 points in this goal
2. Play 10k games of Spins at 100$ level and reach 45 ChipEV
Well, the first part was completed, but the second was miles away. Although my graphic shows that I run pretty unlucky, especially in the finish, I was not supposed to come as a winner anyway. Luckily, the bonuses and rakeback system was generous at PokerStars, so I made some profit from Spins in general. Conclusion - 0.5 points
3. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million
In the 2nd part of the year, I was spending more time on tournaments, both studying and grinding. Best score in Sunday Million was my 33rd place, not a bad run from 6240 participants. As it was a deep run and not far away from original goal, I think that 0.5 points is a fair result.
4. Update Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event
The most I can brag about is 3 sweet animals from Chinese Zodiacs at GG And I'm not sure that counts as trophy board or a major tournament. However, I think that acquiring all of the 12 Zodiacs would be a nice achievement, so I can give myself a 0.25 point for getting a quarter of them
5. Study poker 360 hours
January - 24 hours
February - 25 hours
March - 29 hours
April - 24 hours
May - 21 hours
June - 9 hours
July - 44 hours
August - 41 hours
September - 31 hours
October - 24 hours
November - 19 hours
December - 26 hours
The total amount of the year stands at 317 hours. Not that bad but a little short to completion. A standard 0.75 pointer.
6. Buy land, equip solar system and build sauna
A goal that didn't move from its start. Although some efforts were made like graduating for "Farming and Landshafting", I am still empty landed. A 0 pointer here
7. Reach 20k XPoints on French Duolingo and climb to B1 level from A2
With 8531 XP earned in 2021, my total XP is at 22420 XP. And that is the only goal this year that was completely fulfilled, 1 point.
8. Get promoted with Top Kickers into League III
Very very close to get promoted. We only needed one goal in our last match and we would have finished in 3rd place. But unfortunately we drew 1:1 and that meant we finished 5th. I think overall it was a good season for a team, but with no medals for top3 finish, I can't give it a whole point. So 0,75 comes here.
9. Read 12 books
"Many Sons Have Fallen Dead" by Adolfas Ramanauskas Vanagas
"The secret life of Salvador Dali", by himself
"The Football Manager Guide to Football Management" by Iain Macintosh
"The unmumsy mum" by Sarah Turner
"The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War" by Jaroslav Hašek
"Poker satellite strategy" by Dara O'Kearney with Barry Carter
The Seventy Great Battles in History by Jeremy Black
Geography for school
The last book was better than I expected It is a textbook for students about all continents and all world in general. As I couldn't physically travel to other countries, at least I could "touch" some parts of the world by reading In total 8 books from 12, but as some had plenty of pages, I lean towards 0,75 points.
10. Live a happy and meaningful life
Here we come to the most important goal - enjoyment of the life. And I have mixed feelings here, to be honest. Although my results were modest this year and I haven't completed most of the goals, this little child gives me more satisfaction than anything else, so that's a 1 pointer. As she is growing and getting more independent at the same time, I think next year I could dedicate more hours to poker again. But only the time will tell
So this adds up to 5,5 points from 10 available. Pretty average which is not what I expected and would be satisfied with. In the coming days I will post my goals for 2022, preferably before New Years fireworks as I plan to grind hard from the first days of January. I think it will be very similar to this years goals, but I will need to create a better structure to fulfill it.
Until that time
