10,000th Post: SNE 2012, Jdawg91 Style (+ more!)
10-25-2011
, 11:54 AM
Hey everyone,
My last PG&C thread linked here was well outdated as it was supposed to just chronicle my August as I was attempting to win the SNG Leaderboard on Merge; that was a success but I never bothered to make a new thread so we'll do that now!
Before getting into anything like my move to Mexico next week, or the plan in regards to SNE, I'm going to attempt to write something that might help out some people...I don't feel qualified to give life advice as I'm younger than most people who post on this forum and I don't feel qualified to give advice strat/hands just because as someone said in my PG&C thread yesterday, I'm just a RB grinder. But, I have struggled the last 1.5 years since I started playing for a living, and I've learned quite a bit, so here comes some pretty simple reminders, and maybe someone will find something useful in this post.
1. The results you get from poker in the long run tie directly into how much effort you put in: It sounds like it's pretty straightforward, but guess what...most players, especially guys who play for a living don't spend enough time improving or studying. They get up, do whatever, log onto PS, grind, sign off and go do whatever the rest of the night. I myself was certainly guilty of this pre BF; I was horrible in terms of studying and making myself improve.
Since BF happened, my game has improved so much, I honestly can't believe how bad I was pre BF. It may be a pain in the ass to study, but if you put in 5-10 hours a week in sng wiz/watching training vids/talking to people who grind the same games/whatever it may be, you should ("should" because obviously if you're not studying properly you won't iprove) in turn get better results.
2. Find a game and learn to crush it: For those of you who have followed me since my first PG&C thread which was well over a year ago, you'll know that I switched games up a ton. I played everything from ftp 45-90s to FTP super turbos to PS stt's/18s to 45s/180s to cash to just mtt's. All this lead to was me not actually improving in terms of making $'s, I was too busy trying to just learn the basics of each game to actually make any good money from it.
I've finally since getting back on Merge found a game (super turbos) that I've stuck to, and look what happened...I end up being one of only 10 guys on the entire network to beat $5-52 super turbos pre RB over the last 4-5 months with a decent sized sample. Some people give me crap for being "just a rakeback grinder" but guess what, I'll gladly take that $50+ hourly as that's what it truly comes down to, hourly. So seriously, for those of you who switch back and forth all the time like I did, it's very hard to find real success until you pick a game, and you learn to beat it.
3. Grinding for a living isn't as "glamorous" as people think it is: I know I've said it in my past PG&C threads, and I've said it to other people my age that are thinking of dropping out of school to play poker for a living: DON'T DO IT! I'm still 20 years old, have lived in Vegas for a while until BF happened and have tried and failed relocating to Toronto, Canada (stupid mounties
) and will be moving to Rosarito Beach, Mexico next Tuesday with Starting Gun, but I definitely regret dropping out of school my freshman year in college/uni.
Poker is not a long-term "job" for 90% of people so having that backup plan is certainly very +EV imo. I myself haven't gone back to school mainly because I know I'd be wasting money; I wouldn't actually give it my all, so why waste the money? Now that certainly doesn't mean I won't eventually go back to school, it's just not for me at this time.
4. Networking is key: I learned from my 4 years in DECA (for those who don't know: a high school club for kids interested in business careers; here's DECA's national website) in high school, including being the president of my school's DECA program for 2 of those years, I learned that networking is very crucial in the business world. It's not always about what you know, it's about who you know. The same thing applies, to a certain extent, for us poker players. Don't be afraid to find people who grind the same games as you and start talking to them. With all these skype groups out there today, there's no reasons you can't find people who play the same games as you and in turn improve because of it.
Networking can also help in terms of getting staked or for selling action to higher games to lower variance. The more people that know you, the more opportunities that will become possible for you; if there's 2 guys who have identical staking applications in terms of poker results etc, and one guy is a very well known guy and the other is a random who doesn't post or talk to anyone, I'm pretty sure most backers, if not all, are going to take the more well known one. I've had some amazing oportunites, like helping out with the Fluxstables MTT/SNG side and running their short term staking operation that are tied directly into networking.
5. Save money: This applies to more than just guys playing for a living obviously, but it's something a lot of people don't do well enough. I'm directing it more at guys who do play for a living though. Just because you have $x in your bank account doesn't mean you have that same $x to put as a poker bankroll. Have your poker bankroll and life bankroll seperated and try to always have 6+ months of living expenses in the bank at all times.
6. Invest in good grinding gear: This one is pretty simple; people either play semi professionaly or even for a living, and yet they don't invest in good grind gear. That can range from computer to your keyboard and mouse to even the table/desk you grind on. If you feel good with what you're playing on, you should play better. I just invested in a new keyboard and mouse, along with a mouse and wrist cushion and a smart glove, and I feel a ton better while grinding. You can get good grinding gear without spending a small fortune. People definitely underestimate the longterm profit you can make just by having a good setup
http://store.razerzone.com/store/raz...ctID.169416100
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming...WT.srch=1&ci=0
http://www.imakproducts.com/
When BF came around, it was during my roughest stretch online, I hadn't made a penny playing since January and was in quite a bit of MU and even though I considered myself broke as hell, I still had enough to fly myself home from Vegas and even had enough + more to pay all my own bills that month plus for another few months (which obv the bills weren't much, I moved home, the point still stands though).
That's all I can really think of right now off the top of my head, I didn't actually think about this post really til a few days ago, and obviously didn't actually start planning anything either since I'm lazy.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Okay so now that the nonsense is out of the way
, let's get onto what this thread is going to be about for the next 14 months. Obviously as the title states, I'm going to be going for SNE in 2012. I'm moving to Rosarito Beach, Mexico next Tuesday, and I'm pretty stoked! I'll start off this thread with some pictures of the place that Starting Gun and I have leased; 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, nearly 2k square feet. Here is a link to the actual resort that we'll be at.
Fairly nice place, definitely is a great deal for the price we got it for, especially considering all the amenities + the fact that it is a gated community.
Now, on to the plan for SNE. I'll be playing 95%+ 6max hyper turbos on PS, just like I did on Merge. Unfortunately PS only offers up to $30s right now, but I'd certainly mix $30s and $60s together if they did happen to add $60s. I'll also be mixing in other games during my non primetime sessions; most likely 18 man's tbh and also will be adding in turbo and sometimes non turbo mtt's with every session.
Just in terms of numbers, here's how many games are required to hit SNE playing just $30 hypers...obviously as you just read, I won't be playing just $30 hypers, but it's kinda hard to calculate when mixing games/stakes/etc, so just basing it off the game that will be 95%+ of my volume.
-Regular SNE
155,556 games, 493 per day @ 316 day's played (49 off days)
SNE is worth...
FPPs: $55,999.55 (3499972 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $43200
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $105,599.55
-1.25mil VPP
194,445 games, 615 per day @ 316 day's played
FPPs: $75,999.54 (4749971 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $52400
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $134,799.54
-1.5 mil VPP
233,333 games, 739 per day @ 316 day's played
FPPs: $95,999.52 (5999970 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $61600
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $163,999.52
My own personal goal is to just hit SNE and at least break even on the tables, obviously I'm going to shoot to make $'s pre RB, but I'm just saying that anything above $0 profit pre RB will be icing on the cake. There are quite a few guys that are losing a lot of $'s pre RB, and I don't want to be in that category.
In terms of my plan for my sessions, I'm going to be playing 6-7 days a week, probably taking 1-2 half days per week, and the days I do a full grind I'll play a 4hr/3hr/2hr grind schedule. I think it'll be very +ev if I stick to something similar to that; aka get the longest session out of the way while I'm the freshest and the shortest to end the day; my half days will consist of just taking that last session of the day off.
It'll probably be tough to stick to that schedule, but I think if I start the year off well and get into a good routine, it'll certainly be doable. Also, just in terms of thinking about how many games/hr I get on Merge where volume is lower than PS (~125 games/hr), just to hit regular SNE will only take about 4 hrs of grinding per day on the avg if I can keep that 125 games/hr average which I certainly think I will.
Speaking of Merge, here come's some a graph and numbers for my Merge 6m super turbo games, July 27th-October 25th.
Pre RB profit: ~$1500
RB/bonuses/etc: ~$20,500
Total profit: ~$22,000
Hours played: 356.40
Hourly: $61.72
Doing this time-frame also made about $2000 off staking/investing/props.
Okay everyone, sorry for the tl;dr but I wanted to put up a decent OP to this thread as it'll be what I'm using for the next 14 months. If you have any questions you'd like to ask, by all means ask them and I'll try to answer them or point you in the right direction.
I probably won't be grinding that much before I move, possible that I'll put in some decent volume 1 or 2 of the days but I doubt it. Once I do get moved, I'll be finishing up SN in the last 2 months, iirc I'm sitting on ~30k VPP since I barely played on PS in march/april but I should be able to fairly easily get SN done.
I'll try my best to update this thread every day or 2 day's with graphs/stories/whatever it may be. Also follow me on blogspot if you'd like cleaner updates without tons of posts in between. And even if you don't want to read on there, follow me on there anyway
http://joshuahoesel.blogspot.com/
Thanks and gl to everyone
Josh
My last PG&C thread linked here was well outdated as it was supposed to just chronicle my August as I was attempting to win the SNG Leaderboard on Merge; that was a success but I never bothered to make a new thread so we'll do that now!
Before getting into anything like my move to Mexico next week, or the plan in regards to SNE, I'm going to attempt to write something that might help out some people...I don't feel qualified to give life advice as I'm younger than most people who post on this forum and I don't feel qualified to give advice strat/hands just because as someone said in my PG&C thread yesterday, I'm just a RB grinder. But, I have struggled the last 1.5 years since I started playing for a living, and I've learned quite a bit, so here comes some pretty simple reminders, and maybe someone will find something useful in this post.
1. The results you get from poker in the long run tie directly into how much effort you put in: It sounds like it's pretty straightforward, but guess what...most players, especially guys who play for a living don't spend enough time improving or studying. They get up, do whatever, log onto PS, grind, sign off and go do whatever the rest of the night. I myself was certainly guilty of this pre BF; I was horrible in terms of studying and making myself improve.
Since BF happened, my game has improved so much, I honestly can't believe how bad I was pre BF. It may be a pain in the ass to study, but if you put in 5-10 hours a week in sng wiz/watching training vids/talking to people who grind the same games/whatever it may be, you should ("should" because obviously if you're not studying properly you won't iprove) in turn get better results.
2. Find a game and learn to crush it: For those of you who have followed me since my first PG&C thread which was well over a year ago, you'll know that I switched games up a ton. I played everything from ftp 45-90s to FTP super turbos to PS stt's/18s to 45s/180s to cash to just mtt's. All this lead to was me not actually improving in terms of making $'s, I was too busy trying to just learn the basics of each game to actually make any good money from it.
I've finally since getting back on Merge found a game (super turbos) that I've stuck to, and look what happened...I end up being one of only 10 guys on the entire network to beat $5-52 super turbos pre RB over the last 4-5 months with a decent sized sample. Some people give me crap for being "just a rakeback grinder" but guess what, I'll gladly take that $50+ hourly as that's what it truly comes down to, hourly. So seriously, for those of you who switch back and forth all the time like I did, it's very hard to find real success until you pick a game, and you learn to beat it.
3. Grinding for a living isn't as "glamorous" as people think it is: I know I've said it in my past PG&C threads, and I've said it to other people my age that are thinking of dropping out of school to play poker for a living: DON'T DO IT! I'm still 20 years old, have lived in Vegas for a while until BF happened and have tried and failed relocating to Toronto, Canada (stupid mounties
) and will be moving to Rosarito Beach, Mexico next Tuesday with Starting Gun, but I definitely regret dropping out of school my freshman year in college/uni.Poker is not a long-term "job" for 90% of people so having that backup plan is certainly very +EV imo. I myself haven't gone back to school mainly because I know I'd be wasting money; I wouldn't actually give it my all, so why waste the money? Now that certainly doesn't mean I won't eventually go back to school, it's just not for me at this time.
4. Networking is key: I learned from my 4 years in DECA (for those who don't know: a high school club for kids interested in business careers; here's DECA's national website) in high school, including being the president of my school's DECA program for 2 of those years, I learned that networking is very crucial in the business world. It's not always about what you know, it's about who you know. The same thing applies, to a certain extent, for us poker players. Don't be afraid to find people who grind the same games as you and start talking to them. With all these skype groups out there today, there's no reasons you can't find people who play the same games as you and in turn improve because of it.
Networking can also help in terms of getting staked or for selling action to higher games to lower variance. The more people that know you, the more opportunities that will become possible for you; if there's 2 guys who have identical staking applications in terms of poker results etc, and one guy is a very well known guy and the other is a random who doesn't post or talk to anyone, I'm pretty sure most backers, if not all, are going to take the more well known one. I've had some amazing oportunites, like helping out with the Fluxstables MTT/SNG side and running their short term staking operation that are tied directly into networking.
5. Save money: This applies to more than just guys playing for a living obviously, but it's something a lot of people don't do well enough. I'm directing it more at guys who do play for a living though. Just because you have $x in your bank account doesn't mean you have that same $x to put as a poker bankroll. Have your poker bankroll and life bankroll seperated and try to always have 6+ months of living expenses in the bank at all times.
6. Invest in good grinding gear: This one is pretty simple; people either play semi professionaly or even for a living, and yet they don't invest in good grind gear. That can range from computer to your keyboard and mouse to even the table/desk you grind on. If you feel good with what you're playing on, you should play better. I just invested in a new keyboard and mouse, along with a mouse and wrist cushion and a smart glove, and I feel a ton better while grinding. You can get good grinding gear without spending a small fortune. People definitely underestimate the longterm profit you can make just by having a good setup
http://store.razerzone.com/store/raz...ctID.169416100
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming...WT.srch=1&ci=0
http://www.imakproducts.com/
When BF came around, it was during my roughest stretch online, I hadn't made a penny playing since January and was in quite a bit of MU and even though I considered myself broke as hell, I still had enough to fly myself home from Vegas and even had enough + more to pay all my own bills that month plus for another few months (which obv the bills weren't much, I moved home, the point still stands though).
That's all I can really think of right now off the top of my head, I didn't actually think about this post really til a few days ago, and obviously didn't actually start planning anything either since I'm lazy
. __________________________________________________ ___________
Okay so now that the nonsense is out of the way
, let's get onto what this thread is going to be about for the next 14 months. Obviously as the title states, I'm going to be going for SNE in 2012. I'm moving to Rosarito Beach, Mexico next Tuesday, and I'm pretty stoked! I'll start off this thread with some pictures of the place that Starting Gun and I have leased; 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, nearly 2k square feet. Here is a link to the actual resort that we'll be at. Fairly nice place, definitely is a great deal for the price we got it for, especially considering all the amenities + the fact that it is a gated community.
Now, on to the plan for SNE. I'll be playing 95%+ 6max hyper turbos on PS, just like I did on Merge. Unfortunately PS only offers up to $30s right now, but I'd certainly mix $30s and $60s together if they did happen to add $60s. I'll also be mixing in other games during my non primetime sessions; most likely 18 man's tbh and also will be adding in turbo and sometimes non turbo mtt's with every session.
Just in terms of numbers, here's how many games are required to hit SNE playing just $30 hypers...obviously as you just read, I won't be playing just $30 hypers, but it's kinda hard to calculate when mixing games/stakes/etc, so just basing it off the game that will be 95%+ of my volume.
-Regular SNE
155,556 games, 493 per day @ 316 day's played (49 off days)
SNE is worth...
FPPs: $55,999.55 (3499972 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $43200
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $105,599.55
-1.25mil VPP
194,445 games, 615 per day @ 316 day's played
FPPs: $75,999.54 (4749971 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $52400
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $134,799.54
-1.5 mil VPP
233,333 games, 739 per day @ 316 day's played
FPPs: $95,999.52 (5999970 FPPs @ $.016 per FPP)
VIP Stellar Rewards: $1200
Milestone Cash Credits: $61600
WCOOP Main Event: $5200
Total: $163,999.52
My own personal goal is to just hit SNE and at least break even on the tables, obviously I'm going to shoot to make $'s pre RB, but I'm just saying that anything above $0 profit pre RB will be icing on the cake. There are quite a few guys that are losing a lot of $'s pre RB, and I don't want to be in that category.
In terms of my plan for my sessions, I'm going to be playing 6-7 days a week, probably taking 1-2 half days per week, and the days I do a full grind I'll play a 4hr/3hr/2hr grind schedule. I think it'll be very +ev if I stick to something similar to that; aka get the longest session out of the way while I'm the freshest and the shortest to end the day; my half days will consist of just taking that last session of the day off.
It'll probably be tough to stick to that schedule, but I think if I start the year off well and get into a good routine, it'll certainly be doable. Also, just in terms of thinking about how many games/hr I get on Merge where volume is lower than PS (~125 games/hr), just to hit regular SNE will only take about 4 hrs of grinding per day on the avg if I can keep that 125 games/hr average which I certainly think I will.
Speaking of Merge, here come's some a graph and numbers for my Merge 6m super turbo games, July 27th-October 25th.
Pre RB profit: ~$1500
RB/bonuses/etc: ~$20,500
Total profit: ~$22,000
Hours played: 356.40
Hourly: $61.72
Doing this time-frame also made about $2000 off staking/investing/props.
Okay everyone, sorry for the tl;dr but I wanted to put up a decent OP to this thread as it'll be what I'm using for the next 14 months. If you have any questions you'd like to ask, by all means ask them and I'll try to answer them or point you in the right direction.
I probably won't be grinding that much before I move, possible that I'll put in some decent volume 1 or 2 of the days but I doubt it. Once I do get moved, I'll be finishing up SN in the last 2 months, iirc I'm sitting on ~30k VPP since I barely played on PS in march/april but I should be able to fairly easily get SN done.
I'll try my best to update this thread every day or 2 day's with graphs/stories/whatever it may be. Also follow me on blogspot if you'd like cleaner updates without tons of posts in between. And even if you don't want to read on there, follow me on there anyway
http://joshuahoesel.blogspot.com/
Thanks and gl to everyone
Josh
Last edited by slayerv1fan; 10-25-2011 at 12:06 PM.
10-25-2011
, 12:11 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:20 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:24 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:24 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:32 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:35 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:40 PM
Thanks to everyone wishing me the gl's, 
. And in response to juicestain, if anyone is ever traveling near where I'm at, definitely hit me up and I'd love to meet up. Living in Vegas was a great chance for me to meet a ton of people I talked to on a near daily basis, was awesome to be able to put a face with a name.
Oh sick, didn't know you were in DECA either 
. Also didn't know you're moving to Toronto, BoL with the move broski! Cya on the tables 
Yea I've mixed other games with my super turbos on Merge and I will do the same on PS. I'm going to most likely add in 6max turbos, 18 man turbos or fifty50's, not sure which. But I mostly grind hypers just because that is the game that I beat for the highest hourly, and grinding those other games at similar stakes makes SNE even harder (aka grinding turbo 6mans-18 mans is a ton more hours per day than hyper turbos, and it'd affect my hourly negatively by quite a bit).
Here's a good post made by ILS007 (another SNE grinder) about mixing games that he just made yesterday in response to my question to him.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...2&postcount=11
Nah, simply put, I don't tilt anymore, especially when it comes to sngs. Was a super gross downswing at the $2s-10s mostly, actually 260 bi's to my ABI for $2s-10s and ev adjusted my redline was near $0 and Cev wise in HEM, i was ev adjusted 1.88 bb/100. That stretch of games is possibly the worst I've ever ran over a longish period of time, just goes to show how absurdly good/bad you can run in the short term and how it takes a humongous sample to know your true ROI in any sng, but even more so when it is super/hyper turbos.
. And in response to juicestain, if anyone is ever traveling near where I'm at, definitely hit me up and I'd love to meet up. Living in Vegas was a great chance for me to meet a ton of people I talked to on a near daily basis, was awesome to be able to put a face with a name.. Also didn't know you're moving to Toronto, BoL with the move broski! Cya on the tables Here's a good post made by ILS007 (another SNE grinder) about mixing games that he just made yesterday in response to my question to him.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...2&postcount=11
Nah, simply put, I don't tilt anymore, especially when it comes to sngs. Was a super gross downswing at the $2s-10s mostly, actually 260 bi's to my ABI for $2s-10s and ev adjusted my redline was near $0 and Cev wise in HEM, i was ev adjusted 1.88 bb/100. That stretch of games is possibly the worst I've ever ran over a longish period of time, just goes to show how absurdly good/bad you can run in the short term and how it takes a humongous sample to know your true ROI in any sng, but even more so when it is super/hyper turbos.
10-25-2011
, 12:47 PM
10-25-2011
, 12:49 PM
10-25-2011
, 01:12 PM
10-25-2011
, 01:27 PM
10-25-2011
, 01:45 PM
10-25-2011
, 01:46 PM
10-25-2011
, 01:49 PM
Thanks again for all the <3 everyone, appreciate the support .
Oh boy, FU Ice. Trolling me in my own PG&C thread, can't even keep those random ****in periods that tilt the **** out of me to skype
.
__________________________________________
Damn wtf tho guys, I guess it's just chilin_dude and myself that like this girl? Lol, she was a big hit in the 180 thread, that's actually where I got her name from and I was instantly hooked.
Was thinking of loading games on Merge, but saw that there was only like 8 $5s-20s running atm so F that. Gonna go play some Socom4 and then come back in an hour or so and see if there's volume attainable.
.Oh boy, FU Ice. Trolling me in my own PG&C thread, can't even keep those random ****in periods that tilt the **** out of me to skype
.__________________________________________
Damn wtf tho guys, I guess it's just chilin_dude and myself that like this girl? Lol, she was a big hit in the 180 thread, that's actually where I got her name from and I was instantly hooked.
Was thinking of loading games on Merge, but saw that there was only like 8 $5s-20s running atm so F that. Gonna go play some Socom4 and then come back in an hour or so and see if there's volume attainable.
10-25-2011
, 01:52 PM
10-25-2011
, 02:04 PM
10-25-2011
, 02:13 PM
