Chip Up & Ship It (GGPoker, Spins recreational regular diary)

40K Profit Challange Week 3 Update

Profit Start of the Week 3: $2179
Profit End of the Week 3: $2222
Profit for the week: $43

Number of games: 232
Hours played: 8.25

Couldn't play much as work consumed a lot of mental resources and time. Plan to write June overview next, as this month was very intense from a poker perspective.

Love your commitment to the challenges and the tracking of your progress. Hottest blog on PS forum
Good luck on GG!

Originally posted by H0witzer
Love your commitment to the challenges and the tracking of your progress. Hottest blog on PS forum
Good luck on GG!

Thanks, @H0witzer. I was keeping those calculations to myself in the past, but since I started the blog I've started to share more and appreciate that it is very well received.

For the last blog post, I was inspired by Barry's article, that you need to find a promotion that doesn't wear you out. This is my shot to find a 888 alternative. I'm sorry that Belgians are not offered any promotions - I firmly think this is a very interesting aspect of the game - to crack the promotion and get the maximum out of it.

I'm a bit sad that a lot of such poker knowledge is concentrated in the "Pools" or "Schools" that keep it for themselves to gain an edge over the field. I want to share as much as possible with the community and anyone who is interested.

Just came back from the local poker club. I've decided to play offline MTT today as they recently started doing them in Berlin - 120$ Bounty Tournament with 1 re-entry. 87 entries were made today. I played aggressively and poker gods were kind to me today so at the Final table I started with 2nd stack and 5 bounties in my pocket.

I made it to 3-max with the smallest stack between 3, we took a break and guys asked if I want to split base on ICM. I said "hell no" this is the exact spot that I'm playing for (and in my head I was like "I'm a 3max super-pro fellas, no way I will split it based on chips").

2 big stacks went allin right after resuming and one fella got busted. So there I am - Heads Up in offline MTT, my stack is 250K, opponent 1,5 mil, blinds 12K / 24K, and 24K big blind ante. I doubled up, then once again, then he sucked-out a bit and we end-up with even stacks ~850K. Final hand 15K/30K/30K- he open-push 30bb, I tanked with A8o for awhile and eventually make a call. He showed 55 and won the coin. He was very fishy in HU and I'm now thinking if 30bb call with A8o was ok, given that I could easily realize my advantage, just over-VPIPing him as one should play in HU 30bb deep )):thinking:

Well, it was a lot of fun, didn't know that I'd be feeling so overconfident in a 3-handed phase. Now I know what Barry was asking about in the interview ))) Can't express this feeling - I'm sitting there with my 10bb, but know exactly what to do in each spot, where to open, where to fold, where to 3bet, those ranges are well engraved in my memory now. Looking at my opponents, though - they and like lost little kittens: confused, thinking about every move, and making a lot of mistakes along the way, constantly doubting. Ah, what a wonderful night it was. :truestory:+1K EUR from offline MTT - I won't count it towards my challenge, though.

The only downside, is I've missed HappyHour on GGPoker and now don't think I'd be able to get that 100$ but it totally worth it...

Congratulation!

I would have folded A8o vs the 30 bb AI just for maximizing ev. And I think recs push here tighter than gto. And with 30 bb you could see plenty of better spots. But Hindsight is easier than foresight.

Keep going! Keep me updated with 888 and GG-Poker, please. I am also not sure if the spins on this sites are profitable for german players.

At the moment procrastinating on playing poker as I already know that I won't be able to get top place in the leaderboard and have lots of work to do. So planning to capture GGPoker Leaderboard standings tomorrow in the evening or better on Wednesday 11 a.m. to calculate potential rake back for each place. Then will probably make a shot for next week's Mid leaderboard(starting from Wednesday). This is the downside of weekly leaderboards - if you missed few days and opponents went ahead, little motivation to catch them up playing outside of Happy Hours.

Today I celebrated my 37th birthday with my parents and wife. It was an amazing day.

I've captured leaderboards standings in the morning, as I wanted to estimate possible rakeback, it was around 10 a.m. so it is close to the final standings.

Calculations logics
To calculate possible rakeback I did a few assumptions:
- All games would be played during Happy Hour (2x leaderboard points). There are only 14 Happy Hours in a week and a limited amount of Happy Hours games one can play and this would be a good question to answer next - what is the maximum number of happy hours games one can play during the week
- I took 2nd placement leaderboard points as "average" points in one game. This wouldn't be the case for any regular on the limit, but for calculations simplicity - this is my assumption
- All games are played on the minimum qualifying level for the leaderboard (Mid - 5$, High - 50$). As leaderboard points are independent on the buy-in amount, minimum games would yield the most rakeback.

Mid Leaderboard (10%-95% RB)

High Leaderboard (30% - 85% RB)

Top-level placement is a very attractive place, but also Top4 in each leaderboard are giving a very competitive RB level. This is excluded Fish Buffet and Gold Challenge.

Good luck on the tables!

40K Profit Challange Week 4 Update

Profit Start of the Week 4: $2222
Profit End of the Week 4: $2265
Profit for the week: $43

Number of games: 287
Hours played: 4

Poker doesn't seem to go the way I planned. As it is not my primary activity it usually falls out of my priority when work and personal life get in the way. I had 2 birthday parties this week and could play only 2 days 2 hours each. I'll need to do a bit of catch-up now if I want to have a shot for any leaderboards money this week.

I noticed the first signs of exhaustion this week. My therapist highlighted that this is not the best idea to engage in high-intensity intellectual activities in nigh time before going to sleep. GGPoker HappyHours don't make it easy )) I'd need to consider it going forwards as I don't want to cause a burn-out or hypo-mania state because of poker.

Be careful with your health - "hypo-mania state" with ensuing burn-out can be a sign of a bipolar-disorder illness.

Originally posted by PokerSpass
Be careful with your health - "hypo-mania state" with ensuing burn-out can be a sign of a bipolar-disorder illness.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 1st type a year ago. This is why I'm very careful with my mental state and any early signs of hypo-mania...

Bipolar-disorder is a very unsmiling illness - you must be very careful.
I hope you have good treatment with psychotherapy and good medical practitioner.
Psychoeducation is also very helpful.

With poker you must also be careful, it can affect the brain-metabolism a lot.

In german-language there is a good bipolar forum for intercommunion with relevant people.
Bipolar-forum.de

I'm surprised you know so much about it. Thanks for the support and sharing the link.

I've learned about this 1,5 ago and diagnose was based on 2 episodes with 7 years difference. When I was offered a supportive pharmaceutical treatment that meant to stabilise the state and prevent future occurrences I've refused as eating pills with "just in case, so that something won't happen" attitude was not according to my plans. We agreed that I'd keep antipsychotics around me and would use them to block development of mania on a early stages if that would appear. Since then, I'm integrating the knowledge of this disorder into my life. I've read a few books and working with therapist on a regular basis.

That all being said, the hardest part is to set limits for myself as this is deeply ingrained into my personality. I love challenges and constantly looking for them, I love being energetic and proactive at work and initiatives that I'm involved. To settle for something stable, predictable and "safe" is unacceptable to my self-perception. This leads to a certain risks and I'm still not sure how to properly mitigate them. I'm feeling like I'm walking on a thin ice with poker and my job.

Be careful - can "triggered"

I hope I didn't "Triggered" you - this "damned" disorder can fire so mutch.

Didn't trigger, not at all. I appreciate you sharing this fact with me, I don't have anyone in my circle that has this disorder, and would very much like to connect and share how you manage it. I still don't know how open I'd like to be about this fact with my coworkers and as I'm in a managing position - with the team, that I'm leading.

I had a performance review period on my job. This is the busiest time of the year which triggered my last episode almost 2 years ago. So I stayed away from poker and the forum. I know this feeling when you share something important and don't get a reaction - sorry for that, it is a big thing for me, to find someone that understands my struggle and concerns.

Originally posted by PokerSpass
Each illness-phase destroyed so mutch (brain-substance, maybe: money, friendships, partnership, job, etc. ...)

You don't say, the first time I had an episode - I lost my job and my first marriage, the second time I was very lucky to have much better support and could get medical help. My significant other took a real hit on herself and helped me tremendously to find proper help and distance myself from sources of stress, she is my guardian angel.

Very glad you are fine. I have send you a pm here on pokerstrategy.