Hey I´m Simon from Germany
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Some short notes to me:
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I´m playing poker since 2011 where I started with 45men SNGs with quick move to 180men SNGs, which was my maingame for close to 3 years. I had some good results (second best sample at 180s lifetime on PokerStars and top 3 winner in 2014 up to $35) and could afford a living by it,
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So I decided to quit my daytimejob to play fulltime poker as a professional.
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Then came the big rake change at the 180men rebuys and I moved to 6max zoom, because I wanted to play a variant which would*last for a*long time. That change crushed a big part of my bankroll. I lost about $12k in a half year (with rakeback close to even) playing NL50, NL100 and some hands at NL200 (to clear my 200k VPP Bonus).
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In 2016 it went a little bit better so I could profit around $12k at NL50*(860k hands with 0,6bb EV), but that was still too less to make a living of poker in the long run. The last two years drained my complete bankroll, too less income + too high living costs = broke.
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In 2017 I wanted to make that big change, one last chance to prove myself that I´m good enough to make a living by poker. If I should still remain broke, I would quit forever at least at the end of 2017. I bought a notebook, flighttickets to Thailand and rent a flat for the last 2,5 month. But again all that things who could go bad, gone bad and worse. Broked the last part of my remaining bankroll at nl25 in a sick downswing (sickest in 1,9 million zoom*hands). Now I´m trying to rebuild at NL5/NL10 and got back to $500 bankroll in hope for a good shot at NL25 soon, to go on with my journey.

NL5



NL10

Shot on NL25 zoom went well.



Couldn´t play so much today, because one good looking thai girl came to my room in the morning and I needed some hours of extra sleep.

I will post some hands later, because I have to go to bed, so I can grind more hands tomorrow.

As said, here are some Hands, where I´m not sure if it´s +EV (in best cases close to max EV) or not.

Hand 1.

Pre is fine, flop is an easy float against someone who has bluffs in his range, turn he would check behind close to his entire range, maybe bet again some AA/KK/QQ and flushdraws and of course Jx hands. River seems like a good spot to bluff, because I block AA/KK/AQ/KQ/AKs/KTs/K9s and I think he is not likely to have many Jx hands in his range now. As played I would have flushes AJs/KJs/QJs/JTs/55/22/AKs/ATs/KTs/T9s/98s/87s/76s/65s in my range I would Play similar with more or less the same sizing.



Hand 2.

For me it looks like a close but good valueshove on the river. He is not really likely to hit a K, only hand that really crushes me is TT there but I´m ahead against all bluffcatchers, because the turn was massive drawheavy, river comes a great scarecard and he is maybe more declined to make the call with a 9x hand or T8s/87s/86s (fish obv with calling tendencies).



Hand 3.

Is that bet on the turn? 3way relatively dry board, he could hold a better set or the straight and try a kind of slowplay or is just scared Money on the turn. Or is this often enough something like pair+gutshot or twopair? I thought it´s better to check turn behind to induce some crazy riverbluff or get a good valuebet against some flop overplays.



Hand 4.

Think pre, flop and turn are as played fine. River is close but tend to a fold, because they are not capable of making some good bluffs there. He could hold some fulls there or KQ and maybe idk why a nutflush, where he thinks the K hits me good and want max value from it. Fish btw. Think my fold will be good longterm.



Best decision so far in Thailand or in my entire poker career was to read the book "the poker mindset". I finally realized how much money I lost too much or won too less in every session.

Because of boredness, tv/Internet/skype/roommate, tiredness or other distractions in my head. I always saw how bad my opponents are and didn´t understood why I can´t crush them, because in theory I´m way ahead of the pool I was playing in. But the rake is brutal and I crushed them for, I can´t remember the rake on NL50 zoom, about 6bb or 7bb pre rake. That was my edge I had, but after rake it´s still only 0,6bb EV. So by playing not A-game I could beat them by 6bb-7bb but not more.

Since that I´m trying to focus on the right decision all the time in every hand and street. I still have to learn a lot about my mindset to be able to play the best poker at the table and not only in the replay.

That means no distractions, no steady looking at the graph, no "tilting (play worse than I could)" and just focus on the right decision in every situation all the time.

Some cliffs to my flat.

Just living alone there, it´s a two room apartment. I had a roommate for the couple weeks there.

Funny story btw. In Dubai at the airport I figured out that there is another german guy on the way to Bangkok, so I just started a conversation with him. We went through Bangkok to his hotel and walked some hours around Bangkok, then I took a taxi to Pattaya, where I invited him to join my hotelroom there. As said three days later he came to Pattaya and we stayed most of the time together for the last weeks. Was pretty cool to have someone who can speak your own language in a forign country.

The bad side is, I had way more distractions than I would had by staying alone. Eating in restaurants, drinking in bars, partying, joined the GoGoBar scene and left $400 in 3 days there etc.

Back to the flat, it´s in Pattaya Naklua (Northpattaya) only 10 minutes with the taxi to the central festival mall. Buildings are extremely secure, with security guards, keycards to enter the building and elevator. It´s pretty new, only 5 years old and one of the best address in Pattaya if you searching for a flat. Costs are btw. $400/month + $50 for water/electricity.

Here are some pictures (view is from my balcony)

I´m now back to $525 BR, so I have only 4 buyins left for my NL25 shot. Sadly I´m running 4-5 stacks under EV.

Had some really ugle spots, but think I found the right way to play these hands.

Sample sucked btw. yesterday, but I wanted to make a tiltprevention move as Long as I think I play my absolut A-game.

I there only one thing I learned from the pokermindset, that I´m holding myself back with playing not my absolut best A-game and be not 100% concentrated on only making the right decision in ever hand, even the smallest ones.

As I said to two friends in skype, 10bb/100EV is only 100bb/1k hands. Every ****ing simple bigblind counts, and it is so easy to forget a thin valuebet or make a bad call for 5bb on the river from time to time and of course some rarely bigger mistakes.



Here are some hands from yesterday.

Hand 5.

EP was a classy nitreg. 2,4k hands 11% RFI EP high fold to 3bet (maybe multiway he is more likely to call) and 23% wtsd. That means I play against a range of like 55+ and AK. His Aggression factor is low too, that means, even with his strong preflop range, he likes to slowplay and is not likely to make some closer calls. So as played I think contains only 77/99/QQ full, maybe JJ/TT but if so, I don´t see him calling a riverbet with thats. 23% wtsd with low aggrofactor and a 19/13 style overall.



Hand 6.

I think it´s close if I assume he is never bet/folding on the turn. But if he only bet/folds from time to time it should be slightly +EV right?



Hand 7.

Hm I liked the river, which killed his 66er sets and I block the flushes (dont give him KTs), also I block AKs in heart and AQs in clubs, AJs should not be in his range. So I thought it could be a good spot to fold his AK/AQ.



Hand 8.

River made no sense by him (fish obv) the 2 doesn´t hit any hand of his range. It makes no sense to slowplay twopair or better IP on the turn. So I assumed he is trying to win the hand with some crazy bluff. But note to myself again, even if it makes absolutely no sense what they do, if the 3bet on the river IP you are beat and they just missplayed their hand.

some of these hands are pretty awful imo but gl nonetheless!

Following and GL again!

Nice apartment, are the girls included? Why didn't you show me before???

2nd girl looks ****ing ******ed...look at the body on that head

Hey man, would be nice if you can give me some suggestions. Always appreciate comments to my hands.

Haha yes face is not that pretty, but hell what a body.

Sadly the girls are not included, but easy to meet with thaifriendly (dating app).

There are a lot of good looking girls here in Pattaya, especially for western guys.

Finally arrived at home in Germany. Had a really great time in Thailand, will miss it and try to come back soon.

Last few days where a little bit annoying. Managed to win at nl10 but failed with my 3 shots at nl25. 2 stacks down there but $190 under EV.

Anyway today I played the first 2,3k hands in my office and run pretty well. Up around 13 stacks right now.

Making a quick break and join the NL25 action again with hopefully better results than my first 3 attempts.

Tomorrow I will write about my plans for the next month and show you my results/graphs of march. Try to find some interesting hands and upload these.

Ok, here comes the march poker recap.

Changed many things in my game in the last weeks before 09.03.2017 and tried to focus on my game as good as possible. Started with my rebuild at NL5, moved up in between 23k hands to NL10. NL10 is running nice, staying at 9bb/100 41k hands there. I tried to take shots whenever I´m above $500 for 2-3 stacks, but all went bad so far. Was 2 times close to $700 but lost it back due setups and once in a time a bigger “mistake”.

Goals for april are 150k hands, study/reviewing a lot, railing NL200/500 and learn from the best in zoom. Wanna be back at NL50 at some time this month, but first I have to beat NL25.

The only real thing in session is to focus on each decision and try to maximize EV in every possible spot. Since I read the book “the poker mindset”, my thought process changed*a lot. Don´t look often at the graph, quit when I hit my stoploss. Playing more focussed and staying calm when the tables run really bad. Big non showdown drops still affect me, because it feels like I´m doing something wrong, but sometimes there is nothing you can do. Putting in a lot of bb´s with nutted or close to nutted hands and have to fold because of runout/strong playback by the opponents or just never hit your draws and big bluffs are not working at all.

Have to fix this mental leak in april, staying focussed even when my non showdown is getting raped.

Ah btw. played again my 100k hands/month.

Ok, now here are the results of march in graphs.

NL10 zoom



NL25 zoom



Overall march

Hahaha omg seriously.

First 55 hands nl25 in april and stars is joking with me again.

$31 EV || -$37 Net Won

Looks like I have one stack left this shot. Sad Story.

Saturday was a rough day again. NL25 is still running like hell. Nothing works, running into nuts or have to fold my strongest hands because of runout/backplay and a lot of other small things.

I made one missclick at NL25 where I defended SB vs BB J2s to a 3bet. BB checked behind, I have openender + flushdraw on the turn make a potbet and he minraises me. I have to call and river comes the flush. I check he goes allin and I call. Obv flopped full. Run 2 stacks under EV too and got a bit mad for the first time in the last few weeks. Moved down to NL10 and made 2 mistakes for $17, the reasons to make this both plays where fine, but they never work on NL10.

Made a long break and played another 4k hands NL10 in the afternoon and managed to win*12 stacks in this session. So my BR is back at $530 and close to the next $25 reward.

Since I´m back at home I played 3 DOTA games, watched some PORN and was a little bit DISTRACTED overall. So I took my notebook and work now from my living room. I feel way less distracted there and I have a better seat. So no DOTA, no PORN, no more DISTRACTIONS. Whenever I´m not playing or studying I try to stay up, go outside, chill on the couch, read a book, drink an espresso or do something else. Have to limit my computer/internet hours a lot.

Ok enough things said today. Here are the results from yesterday.

NL25 zoom



NL10 zoom

Subbbbedddd. GL GL OP

Any reason why you're skipping 16nl? The jump from 10 to 25 is pretty big bankroll-wise, 16nl is a nice step in between (and it's probably as soft as 10nl).

Thx man, I appreciate that.

Hey pretty much the only reason is, that it feels weird to play with $16 stack and get into the right 3bet/squeeze numbers etc.

And I played idk about 1,5m Hands lifetime at NL50 zoom, so I want to get there as fast as possible.

I try to move up whenever I´m above 20 stacks for NL50 and take 2-4 buy-ins as a shot until it works. I believe it saves me a lot of time to play with an aggressive BRM, as long as I move down consequently.

If numbers and stuff like that is an issue, you might consider getting StarsHelper which converts everything into BBs instead of real cash amount. So whether it's 16NL or 25NL or whatever your starting stack will always show as 100bb. It does a tonne more things too. Costs like 30 bucks IIRC. Only works on Pokerstars though.

Seriously next shot went wrong. Maybe I should wait for NL50 and skip NL25.

Last few hands AA < KK 4bet pot, A4 on AJ4Kx turn allin against QT obv, BU vs BB where he can´t hold AK AJ AA KK JJ 44 only QT and board was with two flushdraws. 3bet pot two overcards + flushdraw vs set and finally set vs runner runner straight.

Doomswinging on this stupid limit.

NL10 zoom



NL25 zoom

Enjoy the games while you can op. If you aren't aware already Amaya is continuing their systematic rape of the ecosystem

You're calling off a lot of marginal spots where you should be clearly folding imo. What's the logic behind donking AA otr?

Looks like I have to fold both hands on the turn without a read that they like to do crazy moves/spew/overplay. Most of the time I manage to bring the folds, but sometimes there is a spot where I think, he is extremely capped to a few better combos and my holding is really strong, maybe the best hand I have there. But under NL100/200 they just never bluff in this spots.