Will do a trip update after I get to Phuket on the 22nd...

But we just got back from Full Moon/Pha-Ngan and it was excellent, now we have 4 jam packed days left in Bangkok before heading to Phuket for tonnes of grinding and island living. So I will do a fuller review with more pics once settled, but for now enjoy this view from our beach in Pha-Ngan:

Looks awesome mate, have fun

OK, big update... much has changed.

First... our trip to Phangan. We met up with two of my Canadian buddies and stayed at Nice Beach Bungalows... as you saw by the pic above, it was beautiful, but a bit secluded. We had a couple solid nights out including the Full Moon Party... which was my first despite having lived in Thailand for 5 years already. I can imagine my 22-25 year old self would have been #litlamb at this type of event, but as I am now an old man, it was a bit more chill, but still a crazy experience. We had lots of fun and drinks and laughs. Overall Phangan was a fun time. We headed back to BKK intending to move to Phuket full time a few days later... so we came back to do the touristy thing as my girlfriend had never been here before, saw Wat Pho and Khao San, take my buddies out for one last night in Bangkok, shop at Chatuchak Market and visit the Queen's Park and hit up a few evening spots like Sky Bar and Seen Space and maybe Wong's if there was time knowing we may not be back for quite a while.

Then we moved to Phuket, our apartment was nice, but out of the way and definitely required a scooter to go anywhere, which makes it difficult as we only like Thai food "nid noi" so we like to shop and make a lot of meals at home. So after a day of reflection, we decided BKK was where we wanted to setup shop, but that we would stay a year so we could sign a full lease and get a proper apartment. We found a really nice pad in Bang Na and changed our flights for March 1. So we had 5 days in Phuket to see the island, so we hit up most of the major beaches (Rawai, NaiHarn, Kata, Karon, Patong) plus caught a movie and dinner at Central Festival/Wine Connection as well as hit the Big Buddha, Rang Hill and Kata Hill Viewpoints plus Monkey Hill (I have photos on my girlfriend's camera, so these will have to come later)...

We arrived back in BKK on March 1, checked into our new digs (love it) and have been shopping at IKEA/Index for odds and ends and a desk/chair for me and doing general unpacking and setup type stuff. We should be done today and our water heater for the shower comes tomorrow. We will likely do dinner and a movie tomorrow night after we're fully unpacked just to get out and do something fun. Then Sunday I will fire a half session just to get back used to playing and test my setup and tinker with it so I am ready for the big grind Monday morning at around 3 AM local time.

This month I intend to get in 20 sessions and approximately 600-650 tourneys. Won't be going out much as we've obviously done a lot of traveling/partying/sightseeing already, so this month is going to be a break.

March 29th, I have to leave the country and we need to get our Visa times synced, so we are taking a 5 day Vacay to Sentosa Island in Singapore to hit up One 15 Marina Resort... that should be a fun, mindless vacay with Universal Studios and water parks and shopping in Singapore with partying at night both in and out of the resort. Then after that it's basically 2.5 months of pure grinding with a short trip just before SCOOP to Hua Hin for a little R&R before that major grind.

OK... that's it... some pics of the (unfinished) pad...

Living Room


Kitchen/Balcony


Workspace (Unfinished)


Bedroom (A bit dark, sorry)


Pool View


So back on the grind Sunday, and will begin posting updates after sessions then.

GL grinders, time for a big March!

GOOD update! Looks good! Keep pics and update come friend!

Absolutely love Thailand, GL with your progress.

Thanks guys! I will definitely be trying to keep this thread alive and interesting for the whole year this time.

I will be trying to get a little tester session in either this evening or tomorrow morning as it's been a while since I last played and don't want the Sunday grind to be my first time back.

----

Found this pic of the four of us from Full Moon Party (that's me and my girl on the right and my two buddies from on the left):

OK, took a little longer setting up than planned, but finally played a medium size session today after firing like 6 events yesterday. Made my first final table of the year, a 4th in a small 6max (my tags got wiped, but I have my database, so those will be fixed as we go and I run into players I had tagged already), but nevertheless it felt good and the hand I busted was pretty standard after the flop,so no big deal. Small loss for the day and skipped the $109 Battle Royale as my limits hadn't been raised from $55 yet, so that will be fixed by tomorrow. Will try to fire a bigger session tomorrow to end the week, then come back early in the morning Monday for the Sunday Grind.

Lobby Softcore...

Short session again today, but another final table in the Big 3.30, ran 88 into 1010 with 17bbs, could have played it differently, but I'd say my line was the 2nd best choice and it's still unlucky. But a profitable day... back Sunday for a huge grind.

Lobby Porn...

03/16/2017

Games: 28
Cashes: 6
Final Tables: 0
Profit/Loss: -$299.20

Lobby Porn

None

Questionable Hands

#1 - Call or Fold?

PokerStars - 1200/2400 Ante 240 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG+1: 19,299 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
Hero (MP): 105,458
MP+1: 102,047
MP+2: 30,464 (VPIP: 2.78, PFR: 2.94, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 37)
CO: 106,731 (VPIP: 26.15, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 66)
BTN: 145,709 (VPIP: 36.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 25)
SB: 329,886 (VPIP: 22.81, PFR: 15.79, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 58)
BB: 94,355 (VPIP: 13.95, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 8.57, Hands: 87)
UTG: 25,362 (VPIP: 12.50, PFR: 11.39, 3Bet Preflop: 9.38, Hands: 80)

9 players post ante of 240, SB posts SB 1,200, BB posts BB 2,400

Pre Flop: (pot: 5,760) Hero has 2 2

fold, fold, Hero raises to 5,136, fold, fold, CO calls 5,136, BTN calls 5,136, SB calls 3,936, BB calls 2,736

Flop: (27,840, 5 players) 8 2 4
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 11,694, CO calls 11,694, fold, fold, fold

Turn: (51,228, 2 players) J
Hero bets 27,664, CO calls 27,664

River: (106,556, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, CO bets 61,997 and is all-in

#2 - Standard river bet here or should I give up most of the time?

PokerStars - 250/500 Ante 50 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 17,060 (VPIP: 12.66, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 79)
Hero (UTG): 10,661
UTG+1: 23,786 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
MP: 32,869 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 23.40, 3Bet Preflop: 15.38, Hands: 49)
MP+1: 12,142 (VPIP: 30.12, PFR: 15.85, 3Bet Preflop: 7.89, Hands: 83)
MP+2: 15,712 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
CO: 45,404 (VPIP: 17.44, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 86)
BTN: 5,292 (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 3.70, Hands: 66)
SB: 12,004 (VPIP: 13.68, PFR: 9.47, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 96)

9 players post ante of 50, SB posts SB 250, BB posts BB 500

Pre Flop: (pot: 1,200) Hero has T J

Hero raises to 1,070, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 570

Flop: (2,840, 2 players) 9 3 K
BB checks, Hero bets 1,194, BB calls 1,194

Turn: (5,228, 2 players) 4
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (5,228, 2 players) 7
BB checks, Hero bets 2,824, BB calls 2,824



#3 - Fold river here?

PokerStars - 150/300 Ante 50 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 285 (VPIP: 75.00, PFR: 62.50, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 8)
BTN: 9,099 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
SB: 6,727 (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
BB: 24,824 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 37.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
UTG: 23,950 (VPIP: 62.50, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
UTG+1: 23,520 (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
Hero (MP): 8,977
MP+1: 3,951 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
MP+2: 9,325 (VPIP: 12.50, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)

9 players post ante of 50, SB posts SB 150, BB posts BB 300

Pre Flop: (pot: 900) Hero has Q A

UTG calls 300, fold, Hero raises to 747, fold, fold, CO calls 235 and is all-in, fold, SB calls 597, BB calls 447, UTG calls 447

Flop: (3,673, 5 players) 5 2 T
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets 1,544, SB calls 1,544, fold, fold

Turn: (6,761, 3 players) J
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (6,761, 3 players) A
SB bets 4,386 and is all-in

03/16/2017

Games: 27
Profit/Loss: -$292.17

Notable Finishes

None

Notes

Nothing exciting today. Played very solid, but never got any stacks together really as I ran horrible. No big deal. Sunday grind tomorrow. I'm going to Singapore on the 29th and have 8 more sessions planned for the next 9 days before I leave. GL grinders!

x flop aq for sure

river pbb fold as played yeah

gl today

Thanks. Agreed on checking flop.

Bricked hard today. Running stupid mostly still, whatever.

Back at it tomorrow.

Had a short day today that turned out well. Played only 9 tourneys as I am thinking of adjusting my schedule tomorrow onward to play more through the day and not have to keep getting up so early in the morning. Grabbed a 1st place chop in the $11 6max that I final tabled a few days ago and my first decent profitable day this year.

Excited to chill the rest of the day and play around with the final schedule tomorrow and be able to sleep in a bit.

GL grinders!

Lobby Porn

Update/New Goals

Things have slowly started to settle down in BKK. GF and I have both started to get comfortable here and finding a decent balance of hanging out and working. She is starting some correspondence courses in April as well as some other projects she's been working on. She's also planning most of our trips abroad while we're here: Singapore, Japan and Cambodia (just Anghor Wat, short trip) as well as the final two in-country stops of Hua Hin and Krabi/Phi Phi. So she's been busy with that plus taking up yoga and now I feel more comfortable to start grinding properly and getting in much more volume.

Taking away the planned vacation days and assuming I can follow the base schedule below (adding about 20 Off Peak/Early Peak events for Sundays) I think these are my goals for this trip:

#1: Get in 2000+ MTTs before July 12th (my flight home)
#2: Turn my $5000 bankroll into $15000 or more, so I have a nice roll for returning home to the peak time grind and it's higher variance
#3: Crush a full SCOOP-L with at least some SCOOP-M mixed in either via satellites or buying in
#4: Use this new schedule to get into the gym/pool before my sessions at least 3 days per week
#5: Eat out only twice per week when at home in BKK

That should be good, of course I also want to enjoy my travels and fully put poker out of my mind when not playing/studying.

So this week will be a test of the new schedule and so forth, but I'm confident it will work and when I return from Singapore, I'll be much more ready for an aggressive Second Quarter of 2017 grinding wise.

I've had basically three months of warm-ups and adjustments and traveling and with the First Quarter winding down at a fairly bad loss for my stake level, I'm finally feeling like it's going to turn around with 5 sessions left for a strong finish.

I will try to post each morning after my sessions with notable hands and lobby porn plus general thoughts on the session and anything else that's going on. And of course travel pics (we leave for Singapore March 29th).

Schedule



Year To Date

The basic goals of the previous message stand, but my grandmother has decided to retire from the family business back home (my grandfather passed away a few weeks back), forcing me to step up and take it over in July. So I have been dealing with the fallout of that and not been able to get sessions in, so I am just accepting the final numbers for this quarter as is and I'll be adjusting my ABI up slightly from that planned session for the next 3 months and then re-evaluate when I go home what's next for poker. But we will be crushing a butt load of volume come April 4th after my return from Singapore.

Will post pics upon my return. GL to everyone in the Anniversary Million this weekend. I'll be at Singapore Interntional Jazz Festival after party so can't make it unfortunately unless I end up firing it from the hotel drunk. We'll see.

See you guys in April for a killer grind month before May and the SCOOP night time grind.

Will post my final schedule when I return.

Peace!

Once again I have completely slacked off this blog... sigh...

OK, so we're back in Canada. I am finally ready to start putting in some hours, my plan is grind a mix of low/mid stakes tourneys online, emphasis on being selective and keeping my table count reasonable and focusing hard (tomorrow, will have about 45 MTTs over 8 hours of buy-ins for example)... and I will be adding 1-3 nights per week of 2/5 NL cash at Rama with the occasional trip to Niagara or Montreal thrown in I imagine throughout the summer. During SCOOP I will probably play nearly every day between live and cash games, but after SCOOP I expect a more reasonable schedule of 2-4 online sessions and 1-2 live sessions weekly.

I am also back working the family business with my GF as my grandmother has stepped down and we've taken it over, so that will be getting attention as well, which will be nice for some stable income to make poker more viable.

Anyway, GL grinders, see you tomorrow at 8 AM!

Put in 40 events... played fairly poorly overall I think, but managed a small win after crushing a bunch of bounties and a nice run in the $33 100K... which was felted by KJ > AA when he turned a straight v. my top set... of course only player at table who had me covered. Shrug. I didn't want to win 7K plus bounties anyway. I prefer $50 profits.

Back at it tomorrow online.

Another 40 games today... played much better overall today. Had a FT in the $11+R where I finished 5th after running 99 into KK... along with another 9 cashes. Turned in a second winning day in a row, gearing up for a good run through SCOOP hopefully.

Put in a short session yesterday after back to back 12 hour days. Definitely not used to the grind yet. Will do another 12+ hour grind today as my final tune up session before SCOOP. Will spend the next 3 days with the GF before back on it Sunday.

Another small one last night, just fine tuned my HUD and labels and some **** like that, lost a flip in the Hot 7.50 deep-ish, otherwise nothing exciting happened. Off until Sunday. Then it's time for SCOOP!

gl during scoop mate

Thanks man, you too!

----

Tough first day, not running good at all. Dropped about $400, but no big deal. Wasn't really up and ready to play as the GF was visiting and had to see her off this morning. Have a nice schedule locked in for tomorrow, with 2 more SCOOPS and 1 Phase shot. So hopefully, which should be around 40 events will be a better day of concentration and run good.

GL!

Fired 15 events so far (including 6 bullets at the Phase 1)... have 2 small cashes so far. Decided for the rest of the Series I am going to mostly focus on SCOOP events and high value, big field stuff around those events and just try to bink something rather than grinding out full schedules every day. I played 8 events today around the $11 PSKO which I cashed... I had a very nice stack going deep-ish in the $16.50 PSKO DEEP until this hand happened: SIGH

Anyway I quite enjoyed firing the smaller session and focusing more. I plan to stick to something similar going forward... I'll load up 7 tourneys for my first SCOOP in a day and then an extra 3 for every additional SCOOP event I fire in a day... so most days will see me playing between 8 and 24 events for the day, but nothing small field or micro stakes. Hopefully we can bink something before SCOOP ends.

I'm off tomorrow for sure, but may fire the $55 PSKO on Saturday morning with 7 other events around that time, not sure yet. May skip it and just wait for Sunday Funday. We'll see. After this series is over, I'm going to take stock of my poker bankroll and life plans and figure out exactly where poker fits and get on some sort of regular schedule even if it means playing only part time.

I'd also like to get back to playing 3-4 times per month live 2/5 as those games are juicy and soft on the weekends.

But for now, just focus on finishing SCOOP strong!

GL heroes.

GL today satty!

Played my first session in a long time today, got about 20 games in at around a $5.50 average. Intending to keep playing more regularly now that my GF and I have settled into our new place back in Ontario and she has begun working again. I'll be running my other business as well, but hopefully through the second half of this year I will begin moving up the limits back to a decent low/mid stakes type grind maybe 4-5 days a week.

I will likely shoot for 30 games tomorrow and Thursday and then I'm off until Sunday.

Made one final table in a $4.50 today and lost a flip to bust in 5th, but felt good to play solidly and feel mostly focused after such a long break.

Will try to post more regularly, still checking in on some of the heroes blogs tho even when I've been away... GL to all you guys on the grind!