This one.

And of course you still want to 3b your value.

I never feel the need to be balanced in soft fields. I'm still 3b good-not-great hands (hands I would fold to a 4b in a non-pko) vs people who are too tight but still open somewhat reasonably, but vs weaker players there's no need and vs solid players (who are still bad in a lot of aspects of the game, they just have read a couple of books and have a general understanding of how ranges are supposed to be played) you want to once in a while just to show them that you aren't super linear with your ranges, but overall...be linear with your ranges and they'll still 4b/gii A5s like everytime. If they are making those plays that you can exploit, but you are never, but they don't realize that, that's a big advantage.

I have made vastly different experiences so far, no one is 4-bet bluffing ever in any capacity, not even the strong regs (for those stakes). In fact, people aren't even calling 3bets, fold3bet seems to be like 80+% across the board. Paired with the fact that I'm a fairly strong postflop player makes me think trapping your monsters (and letting others squeeze) is better longterm.

That's wild. Although if you are playing against people who fold to 3b over 80% of the time, your plan to never 3b seems...unwise. I guess you could max explo and 3b everything except for huge hands, which you flat, although that obviously would lead to ranging issues postflop. And if people are literally only playing big hands for 3b pre, I'd assume they are playing super fit-or-fold post too? Seems like a great place to print.

Time for a quick update:

Life got in the way a bit and I haven't really had the time to play full tournament schedules online. However, I have continued transitioning a little bit more into live poker. There is a weekly 50.000 Forint (~$150) BI tournament here in Budapest every Friday and it's a very deep, one-day event with, to put it mildly.. very weak competition.

Ever since I first played it, I really wanted to win it and yesterday, finally, I managed to do so:


There is also a $100 tournament on Saturday, unfortunately the other days are too small for me.

One fun story, I got second in the Saturday one to a kid that just turned 18 a day ago and played in a casino for the first time. His mom was sitting behind him until 4am in the morning, what a trooper!

Online, I returned to SWC for a while playing all kinds of games and made another 52 mBTC in June, so... expenses are covered, which is the goal.

________________________________________

As for travels, I went back to Berlin where I organized a weekend for my friend group who are spread out all over Germany nowadays. While there, I went to a Slipknot concert:


Admittledly, I had bad seats since I booked late, but man did Berlin **** its concert scene. We used to have so many mid-sized venues where regular bands could perform, and then we scrapped them all so now only mega bands who can fill arenas and stadiums can play, it's mega expensive, and the accoustics in those SUCK SO MUCH! Corey was also battling his vocal cords, so in total, it was.. okay.

I also wanted to go Disturbed in Luxembourg - cancelled (went anyways to meet a friend).

Wanted to go to Asking Alexandria tomorrow - cancelled. Ugh.

That's it for now, hope you guys had a nice June.

Really enjoying reading through this blog. Makes me wish I was decent at all the games

Hey, monthly update:

I have been playing a lot of live cashgame recently and enjoying it. I've been playing in Budapest, with a 1-week scouting trip to Georgia, and mostly been testing the waters on what is achievable and how confident I feel playing mostly NLHE, which is still one of my weaker games.



Admittedly, I'm not really happy with the hourly, but I chalk some of it up to inexperience in the environment, lack of discipline and also the 5%/$28 rake cap in these games. It's insane.

However, my longterm goal is to go to the WSOP '24 in Vegas. Every dollar I earn until then I will spend there, so everything I do now I consider gaining experience.

______________________

Batumi, Georgia is beautiful! Wedged right between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia and many other countries where poker is either not prevalent or not allowed (Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan) and directly on the coast of the Black Sea, it is setting itself up to be the "Las Vegas of the Black Sea". I have NEVER seen so much construction going on anywhere, ever. It's insane.


Plus, it's very, very cheap. Cannot recommend enough.

Anyways, that's it for me guys, I might start posting some interesting live hands if I remember them.

My goal for this month is to play atleast 120 hours and, hopefully, break $30/h. If I keep ending up way below that, I think it's not worth playing over online unfortunately.

Hope you have a great day, bye.

Very decent start to the month so far. Honestly facing very little resistance lately, not even any really big pots, just slowly winning pots.

I think I maybe told this before, but poker here is very special. The blinds are 100/200 Forints (which is like 25/50c) but people can button straddle any amount they want and the min. buy-in is 50k. I buy-in with 200k (~$600) and reload when covered.

Some semi-interesting hands.

Hero is MP with 5 4

UTG limps, I raise 1500, BU (nerdy looking "I use solvers the wrong way" kid who is down a bunch) calls, UTG calls.

Flop: 9 6 2

Check, I check, BU bets 2000. UTG calls, I call.

Turn 6

Check, check, he bets 4500, fold, I raise to 16000, he calls.

River 3

I bet 50k which puts him all-in for 46k (~$120), he tank-calls and mucks.

____________________

Yesterday, big Chinese guy who is waiting to play the big game is two to my right and raising a lot. So far, no one has put up much resistance to his aggression. We are about 250k ($650) deep.

First hand:

He raises to 1500 EP, I am MP with K K, make it 7000, everyone but him folds.

Flop:

K 9 4

He checks, I bet 5k and right on cue, he raises to 20k. Now, usually I would always just call here, however since we are like 1200 BBs deep and people just seem to have this innate - and not totally wrong - feeling that I'm ****ing with them, I think a 3bet is better here to potentially make this a 2-street hand and to also punish the flush draws he is x/raising.

I raise to 50k and unfortunately, he tank folds.

___________

About two or three orbits later.

The guy to his right (decent player) raises 2k, he calls the 2k and I am CO with A Q, make it an even 10k. Both call.

Flop is interesting, 9 8 3

Check, Chinese guy donks 15k. Now, if we are heads up here I am likely just raising here but since I have someone behind me and him calling benefits my hand, I just flat. He does call.

Turn: 5

Check, now he quickly bets 50k with about 160k behind.

Of course I have already made up my mind. His donk and the big bet, imo, mean he has a severely capped range and even tho he is sticky, I can get him off 9x.

And so we ship our 250k (~$550 eff.) in.

Fold, he tanks for quite a while, tells me I can have all the overpairs and folds.

I'm a nice guy and show.

___________

Unfortunately he soon moves to the big table ($1/$1 blinds with a mandatory $6 BU straddle, many people sit there with $2k-$5k, it's crazy.) and I get no interesting hands beyond that.

To be honest, I am not even sure how interesting these hands are... they're not to me, NLHE seems rather simple, especially since my style is specifically tailored to simplifying decisions, meaning I work hard on being the one who puts people in tough bluff catching spots instead of getting into them myself.

Let me know if you're even interested in these HHs.

I'm taking today off, swim a few laps, play CS2 with my friends, meet my landlady and eat some good food. Then back into action tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend!

Ya, post more hands, theyre cool

That 3bet on the flop w kk seems criminal to me haha, but i dont have a ton of exp playing 1000+ bb deep.

Also, if people are willing to sit w like 5k, why dont they just play 5/10? Like why is biggest game only 1/1 $$

The government allows a maximum of 500/500 blinds here, so they use the BU straddle to circumvent it. There are a lot of weird things like this here, it's why I love Eastern Europe so much.

As for the KK hand, I agree completely that this should be a pretty low frequency play. However, against a player like this, who is able to semi-bluff ship in flush draws sometimes, plus the extra value of getting smaller sets in right now over potentially turn/river cards killing my action, I think it's a good spot. Given that we do sometimes want to bluff/semibluff 3bet the flop here as well, we need to find some value hands we do this with, and since 99 and AK really want to call, I think it's actually cool to 3bet KK here sometimes.

I actually thought of another actually interesting hand I played two days ago.

To my right is an Egyptian, usually a tournament player and a very good hand reader. To my left is a Floridian, he does "contract work" for the US government in Eastern Europe - so he's selling weapons. He seems well off but got crushed the last two days and considers himself better than what he is (a sticky loose passive).

Egypt limps, I make it 2000 with KT, both of them call.

Flop: A J 9 (Pot:6300)

Egypt checks, I bet 4500, both call.

Turn: 3 or some other brick, I don't remember (Pot: 20000). Check. Now... Obviously this board hits me the best, there are many draws they can peel with + a lot of one pair hands. I can have AJ and all sets. But I do always have a bunch of draws I bet on the flop and I would rather have a AQ9 board than AJ9 since AJ and J9 are more likely in their ranges than Q9 and AQ.

All this said, I don't think betting here and then giving up the river is good. Checking I don't love with our range advantage. Sooo, my plan is to bet turn and then bet many rivers. My bluffs in this spot are specifically KQ and KT with no hearts. I bet 20k. Both call.

Now, the river is Q and I rejoice (Pot 80000).I was just happy coming up with this plan to overbet even if the turn is a T, K, 9 or anything lower than an 8 - and also overbet any Q, K, 9 or anything lower than 8 if I have KQo here.

Check. I bet 125k, Florida folds quickly, Egypt tanks a while and also folds and tells me he would have folded two pairs.

In my opinion a very cool scenario of finding bluff hands where you usually don't have many, in a multiway medium-to-large size pot.

-72k (-$200) yesterday.

Didn't play well, didn't hit anything and got owned on top of it.

Paid off QQ with TPTK 3 times. 3bet AT-AQ a few times and got nothing. Honestly, happy I "only" lost so little.

One interesting hand:

BU straddle 1000 is on, I raise K7 from MP (why? See below...) and only the straddle calls. Decent player, have played with him quite a bit.

Flop: J 8 3. I bet 4000, he calls.

Turn: 5. I bet 12000, he calls.

River: A. I bet 26000, he tanks and calls... 66.

First of all: Obviously misplayed by me, I'm not gonna defend it. I still think his call is probably bad, given I play all the flush draws the same way with same sizings, and I bet/fold sets like this as well. Oh well.. it happens.

_______________

One definite leak I have noticed is that, after a few big wins, when my "run" inevitably slows down and, like yesterday, I get especially card dead, I tend to try to force it. Usually, I just fold K7o. It's a bad hand. Maybe don't 3bet the guy who limps all his trash and raises big his nutty hands. I know all this, I just get impatient.

In reality, what I have to do is sit there and just fold the 5 hours I am there, pay the ~10-20k I'll always be on the hook for, save myself $150 in losses and be fine with it. But it's hard.

So, as an experiment, I will try playing 30 minutes of zoom before going to play live, focussing on playing a balanced and GTO strategy to "warm up". I tend to play more focussed that way.

____________

As I have said before, I'm still in the learning phase of live poker, so I don't beat myself up over sessions like that as long as I take something away from it.

Hope you have a great day.

just read the whole thread, it's very inspiring

can you talk about why being depressed made you grind 10-12k hands of PLO everyday. I also play better and grind harder during my darkest moments. Kind of like hitting the gym but for the bank acct. travelling the world playing poker, what is making you depressed? It doesn't sound like a financial thing.

also do you have sex on your travels?

have you been to berghain?

Hey. Glad you liked it.

I'm no psychologist, so... huge grain of salt here.

R'n'C scratches my brain itch the right way, but I wouldn't advise this for many people. I am comfortable playing the game, it's challenging and keeps you engaged at all times and I don't tend to tilt. If you tend to be in your own head a lot, doing anything repetitive and challenging, whether it's this or exercising, can help imo. There is a good book (I believe it was voted best non-fiction on GoodReads) called "Why has nobody told me this before?" by Dr. Julie Smith, the first chapter is on "low mood" and covers some of these concepts. Highly recommend, I just finished it.

As for what makes me depressed - I think this was during covid times, I hated all of it. Usually, nowadays I'm a fairly happy guy if I remember and can motivate myself to exercise regularly.

Not generally, no. Not into casual sex too much and not looking for a relationship. I have a lady friend back home that I meet whenever I go back, has been going on for many years now. Certain massages can be good. Don't miss it tho.

No. Wouldn't get in anyways and the **** I hear and read about it, I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy it. On the topic tho: My friends and I were talking about the bar and club scene and how most of us grew out of it recently - and how the "pub" as a concept has either died out or become so sleazy in most places that a (somewhat) functioning member of society wouldn't feel comfortable.

I have looked into the concept of speakeasies recently - not the original ones from the prohibition, but more like well-hidden little themed bars/clubs with good quality liquor or cocktails, kinda upscale with soft music playing but where you can still talk in a reasonable volume.

I think those should make a comeback, it's a niche that isn't sufficiently filled anymore for the 30-40 year olds who don't need 1€ beers and EDM music blasting, but still need a place to meet and enjoy each other's company. Think airport lounge vibe, comfy chairs/couches, bartender's recommendations, parties of 4-6.

_________________

Back to even-ish for the month after a disastrous session two days ago. Don't really wanna talk about it, lost against a limp/cold4bet AA (granted I had KK, still embarassing). Took yesterday off, today is Day1 of a $150 BI tournament I'm gonna play one bullet in and otherwise, back to the grind.

i will read the blog later sorry if already asked, how you move money from crypto into cash in order to travel?

Several credit cards allow you to deposit with BTC and then either pay directly or withdraw at ATMs. There are also many casinos that take crypto and give you chips/currency for it, often times at no fees.

I will take a look, thank you

Another 7 hour session, completely breakeven. This one was characterized by me getting high pairs and then running bad with them/tilt calling rivers... On the plus side, I decided to record some hands, so I can share my shitty plays with you guys:

Hand 1 (https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/161403):

UTG raises 1000, UTG+1 calls, I 3bet to 4500 with AA. SB (dude with exceptionally small head/fish) cold calls, so does UTG.

Flop: AK5. Both check, I bet 3000 and to my delight, SB decides to raise to 12k. Fold, I call.

Turn: 6 - he bets 15k and has 10k behind, I put him all-in and he... folds? Didn't think that was an option, but we'll take it.

____________

Hand 2 (https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/161406):

BU straddle 1000 by one of the 500/500 fishes is on. I raise 3500 with KK, CO and BU both call.

Flop: K78r. I check, checked through.

Turn: 5. I bet 10k and BU raises to 25k. I call.

River: 4. Now, in my head the most likely hands to raise me on the turn are sets and hands like K7/K5s, maybe 85/75 who want to check back river. I block bet 20k against these hands. He raises to 55k.

This time I tank and eventually call knowing I am beat, none of the hands I block bet against raise me and this dumbo doesn't bluff here. I just didn't think he had 96 or 64 in his range (and wasn't sure he'd raise a single 6. Dumbo shows me 64o....

________

Hand 3

Next we get AA in MP and raise to 1500 and get 4 callers, HJ, BU and blinds.

Flop: T 8 7. Checked to me, I bet 4000, HJ (Japanese guy I am friendly with, tight as hell tho) makes it 10000 and BU+SB both cold call. Great. I fold.

________

In between hand 4 and this I lose an uninteresting hand JJ vs. KK, 3bet pre and all-in flop on undercards for ~35k.

Hand 4 (https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/161416):

The big pairs clearly aren't working, so we try our luck with 97 overlimping after MP in HJ. CO raises 1500, BU (misrecorded in the replayer), MP and I call.

Flop: 8 6 4. Checked through.

Turn: 3. Checked to the BU, who bets 5k and looks very confident. To my surprise MP calls and I call as well.

River: 5. Bink! Now MP donks 10k into this pot and your hero is very happy. I quickly consider calling, given that BU was so confident on the turn, but dispel of the notion and raise 45k instead. BU is now less confident and eventually folds whereas MP pays me with K7.

__________

And this last hand needs a little introduction: On seat 9, there is a moron. This moron bets big whenever he has something, sometimes when he has nothing, and has run this table over, sitting very deep thanks to this hand:

He straddles 2000. The BB, a young wannabe reg you can see is scared money, calls. MP to my left raises 10000. Our moron calls the 10k. BB now limp-reraises to 42k (~$125). MP calls. Our friend tanks for a bit before.. calling again.

Flop: Q52, two diamonds. BB checks, MP checks and dumdum put them both all-in with a quick 100k bet. BB snap calls, MP folds.

Turn: A

River: J. BB looks deflated and shows his KK, however it is no good because BU has...? You know what, I'll let you guys guess.

___________

Anyways, the last hand 5 (https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/161443) is against out beloved moron and goes like this. UTG2 raises to 1500 and I 3bet AJ to 5000. Our friend is SB and cold calls it, so does UTG2.

Flop: A 5 J and I can hear the angels sing. Checks to me, I bet 9000. Buddy calls, UTG folds.

Turn: 2. Beautiful, with a capital B. I bet 20000 and he snap calls.

River: 5. He checks and I have 150k left, pot is 73k. I consider shoving for a bit, but since he has bet whenever he was strong so far, I don't think I will get called unless he holds specifically AQ or AK. So I bet 50000 (~$140) and he snap calls me and mucks.

_____________

So, as of now, I am up about $2 on the month live. It could be closer to $500 if I just stopped calling high pairs that are clearly not good anymore. I know they are not good, it's not a matter of skill at play here, but an emotional barrier I have to work on. The one pair hands, I often feel - completely unjustifiedly - that I am getting outplayed or exploited. None of these players would be able to outplay their cats... It's stupid, and a leak I need to fix, I am frustrated that it prevents me from winning but somewhat optimistic I can fix it in a short time frame.

Atleast I played an hour of Chinese online and won 7 mBTC (~$180) there, so not all is lost.

Let me know if you enjoyed the hands, see ya.

Today I made the stupid decision to fire another bullet in the $150 ~$25k Gtd. - and what do you know, we bagged 742k chips, which should end up being a top 10 stack, the tournament resumes in 11 hours. Usually Sunday is my day off nowadays, so that kinda bums me out. But at least first price will be around $6k or so and on my Day 1C, from the 11 remaining I think 4-5 are fish of varying degrees.

I'll just tell you about the biggest fish of them all, his name is György.

Hand 1 (100/200 blinds)

Someone raises to 600, super tight lady to his right makes it 2000 (35000 starting stack), he calls. Nerdy looking reg-ish guy makes it 7000. Fold, fold, György calls. Flop 862 and our hero openshoves and flashes a 2. Reg thinks for a while and calls 98s. Our friend has 92o, absolutely BINKS the 2 on the turn, snaps his fingers, shouts "I'm GYÖRGY" and the nerd rebuys.

He also wins K7o vs. QQ all-in and a few others.

Eventually this hand happens:

György is BB, the nerd UTG limps, I limp 33 in HJ, the lady limps her SB and György, apparently, in Hungarian, says "hot sasz yo" ("600 is okay for me"), then shoves his ~50k stack. The dealer says it's a check, however György seems confused and UTG nerd is adamant he can go all-in. The floor man is called and rules it a call. I am happy.

Flop: J 8 3. I am now even more happy! Check, check and the nerd, visually annoyed, bets 1500. I call and so do they.

Turn: 6. Now the nerd checks and I just slam it for 11k into a 8k pot, György must pay. And he does!

River is an inconsequential K and after his check I bomb 80k into the 30k pot. György, presumably drunk, is confused a bit because he wants to call but doesn't have 80k to do so, after a few moments the dealer explains to him he can just call with his remaining chips. He says "You win" and calls



Yup. This is a $150 BI tournament.

_____________

Anyway, gonna grab some zzz's and head straight back. Send some good luck my way, I kinda really wanna win this one now.

Just arrived back, got 4th in the tournament for 610k Forints (~$1700).



On the one hand a little annoying, since first place gets $6500, on the other hand, I am back on track for the month and given just how card dead I was all day, this result is miraculous. So all in all, I am happy but I am also very content with taking tomorrow and possible Tuesday off.

On Thursday, I am considering playing a 550€ Buy-in tournament in Komárno. 100.000€ Gtd, 5 Day 1s. What, I hear you say, you have never heard of this town? Well, it might be because it's an absolutely tiny town on the Slovakian side of the Hungary border, population: 30.000.

These are the tournaments I am really looking out for. You guys can go to Vegas or Barcelona. No reg will EVER find his way to Kormáno. It's all for me, and me alone!

Another cashgame session, another breakeven session. I have decided to convert the Forints to $ in my hand histories, easier to follow.

Table wasn't great, lots of very short stacks and no one seemed to want to put any money into pots. I had position on a big fish, we'll call him Old Stinky, who had an absolute God run and ran his $150 up to $1000 or so. First hand he got it in pre with A8s vs. KK and KQ, 87x8x.

Then one of only two interesting hands for me happens:

To his right, another fish opens to $7, he calls, I make it $36 with AKs. Directly behind me is a NIT with ~$300 stack, cold4betting to $72. First fish now shoves for $95. Old Stinky calls this raise, I ask the dealer if the NIT has option and after doing the math myself, call. The NIT now shoves his stack and Old Stinky calls the "all-in" for his remaining $55.

I protest and say that NIT cannot raise, floor is called. Old Stinky now vehemently says that he raised all-in himself instead of calling and NIT backs him up. I persist, cameras are checked and eventually, it is ruled in my favor. Obviously I should just fold here, NIT has me crushed. But we go 4-handed to a flop of:

Q53r. Old stinky now shoves his remaining $55, I fold and NIT calls.

Turn: T

River: J. For ****s sake.

NIT shows AA, Old Stinky shows... QTs??!

____________

I spent the next 3 1/2 hours grinding myself up to +$120. There is another calling station now who has been reloading 4-5 times for table minimum (or under... they don't care here) and even went to the ATM.

Old Stinky makes it $2, I raise to $9, only the calling station calls.

Flop: J53, he checks, I bet $15, he calls.

Turn Q, bringing a flush draw. He checks, I bet $30, he calls.

River 4, he checks again, I put him all-in for his remaining $60 and he calls with



____________

So, we end up -$20, yet again, after 4 hours. Just feels like a waste of time, sessions like these, I guess I need to learn to select tables better and put myself on the table change list more aggressively. Then again, we were playing shorter than the other tables all the time anyways, so I couldn't have anyways.

I guess not every day can be Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas though, during my free day I played some Chinese against BertBert, who for all intents and purposes, is Santa just giving out gifts, and went +9mBTC (~$235), soo.. I guess that counts.

Looking forward to playing the tournament on Thursday, I really need a change of scenery.

Finally another winning cash game session!

I was losing all hope after quickly going down $240 without winning a single pot, but fortunately, the Floridian weapons dealer sat down to my left along with two French players.

Then this hand happens.

I am the CO and talking to someone, admittedly barely paying attention. A few people limp the $1.50 straddle of Florida and so do I with 66. Florida raises to $9, French NIT calls, another guy and me.

Flop: 8 6 3. Beautiful. Not only that, Florida bets $33 into the $36 pot. The french NIT quickly calls and I feel strength in both of them. I raise to $105. My feeling was right, because Florida tanks for a minute or two before shoving his $350 stack in the middle. Now Frenchie goes into a similar tank and folds. I call and, because I kinda like him and know he has been losing a lot, offer him run it twice but tell him I prefer to run once. He deflatedly says "Oh.. then I am behind" and runs it twice, but loses both run outs.

French boy meanwhile shows the 33 he folded and proudly scolds me for my raise, saying I should have just called. Like.. bro, if Florida folds, I get your chips instead.

________________

3 hands later, I get AA and in MP raise to $5 first in. Florida calls in the small blind and Frenchie in BB makes it $21. Given our history and that Florida is quietly brooding, I just go all-in and get a quick call for ~$220 from BB who has KK, "well, I cannot fold Kings!"

I never understand players like this - why are you looking for hands to fold? I don't think there is a single winning player with an attitude like that.

________________

A higher stake reg comes to our table, very confident in his abilities.

He raises to $6 from UTG after the blinds fold to my BU straddle, everyone folds and I find TT. I call.

Flop: T94, he checks and I check behind.

Turn: 8, he bets $6 and I call.

River: 6, he bets $35 and I just call.

He shows A7o. Obviously badly played by me but the plan was to raise most rivers big.. Too fancy, whatever.

________________

Last big hand of the night I raise $6 with TT, a bad tournament player who just sat down calls on the button and so does the BB.

Flop: K T 6.

I bet $10 and BU quickly raises to $33. I "reluctantly" call.

Turn: Q, he overbets $75 with ~$90 left, I put him all-in and he snap calls.

River: 6, I show my Full House and he slams his cards in the middle and immediately leaves steaming.

So many people are so angry playing poker, I will never understand it.

______________________

Anyways, we went from -$240 to +$373 and our month is looking fairly okay now.



Tomorrow we're going to Slovakia right after my workout. I've never been and I'm excited.


Hope all of you have a great week, cya.

Usually I try to be rather positive here, this post is not gonna be that, I apologize beforehand.


I will start with the positives:
I am losing weight at a rapid pace. I don't own a scale, but I am basically skipping whole clothes sizes. I feel strong. I am looking forward to surprising my family on Christmas with it. Plus I go exercising no matter how much I don't want to, come rain or sun. It's a great morning routine.

Buuuuuut... man, everything is a struggle right now. It's like I want to do so many cool things but my own mind prevents me from doing them. I wanted to go to Kormáno but on the day off, I couldn't get my ass up (to be fair I had a migraine that day), skipped it. Right now, there is the Winamax Open in Bratislava, 2 hours train ride, perfect schedule for me, never been... can't do it. I don't even go to get a massage, genuinely a 2 hour commitment.

Exercise is a struggle. I go almost every day, but the ecstatic feeling afterwards is lacking right now. Sometimes while in the water, I can't get myself to do the usual 1.5km and just do 1. Still good, still went, but it was so much easier a mere 2 weeks ago.

Poker is a struggle. I'm not playing badly, in fact I would say I'm playing on a solid 8.5/10 right now. But the opportunities just.. don't represent themselves.

One hand I remember to exemplify:

EP makes it $5, I call A9 in MP, 2 more callers.

Flop: A 9 8 - two checks, EP checks to me, I bet $15, only he calls.

Turn: K. Check, I bet $18 and he raises to $45. My Spidey senses start tingling and I call.

River: 9. He quickly bets $90 with $250 behind and my Spidey senses are going off now. I don't take much time to just-call and he shows me KK. I also show and the whole table is in shock, especially EP who proceeds to look at me bewilderedly for another 20 minutes.

Played well, saved money, but these are usually the "opportunities" to MAKE money instead of merely saving it. Repeat for 5 sessions, no tilt, no punts, just... struggle.

Still up $1055 on the month live (but down ~600 online, not counting a few Day 2s still left to play). It's not bad. It just feels bad.

___________

To summarize: Life is hard, turns out I'm a whiney b*tch. I am still very grateful for mine.

Hope you have a great mid-week, I'll try to get my **** together now.

Well.. about those opportunities:



Quick hyper before bed, ended up with more bounties than all others combined. Cool.

I like this tournament.

Hey.

I haven't played too much and when I did, it didn't go too well, I'm about breakeven for the month so far.

I did get to Day2 of the $150 tournament here in town, got 6th for ~$1k.

Two days ago, I took a bus to Bratislava to play the 330€ Heads Up Championship. That was cool, how often do you get to play live after all?

Match 1 was relatively easy, I played against a young nerdy looking guy who liked to mincbet flops and generally underbluffed spots, which in HUSNGs just means you apply a lot of pressure and blind them down. Simple.

Match 2 was the bubble already and I played against a Dutch fish who raised 3bb pre and only ever bet for value, which unfortunately I only found out after calling 3 bets with QT on AT587. Lost the first round (BO3) with A5o vs. KJo.

Round 2 went much better, folding even mid pairs against his bets, playing very honest preflop and then just relentlessly value betting when you hit. Simple.

Round 3, I was already 3:1 ahead and made a small mistake, in my opinion, shoving 86o on a J95 board, he tank called me with Q5s and held.

A few hands later, 10k stacks even and 100/300 blinds, he minraises and I make it 2100 with J6s. He calls.

Flop comes 763, I bet 1500. He calls.

Turn 2, I ship 6200 all-in and he goes into the tank. I think he knew that his chances were fairly slim of winning from here being 3:1. He called eventually with 44. River: 5. GG. Unfortunate, next round was 610€ secured with 2.4k€ up top.

Decided not to play the 250€ main because 45min levels just sound like pain to me.

Other than that, only really had this beauty of a hand in Chinese:



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Bratislava is pretty. Surprisingly modern city with great micro movement options (e-scooters, bikes etc.) and public transport.

Before my bus back, I went to the Bratislava castle:



... and I was all alone. I had a moment where I thought I accidentally broke in. Very pretty up there.





On the way back down, I recommend going to "Multium", a mirror and optical illusion exhibit. Very tiny, in and out in 30 minutes, but sure fun. I wish I had had some edibles there, it would catapult you into the next dimension.


(Call of the void intensifies)

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Plans for the future: $150 live event tomorrow, grind up to breakeven after costs for the month afterwards.

November I get visits from a lady friend and my mom here in Budapest, so very little poker, but after that we'll attack again!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Soooo... something exciting just (finally!) happened.

No, not that I mincashed the $150 yesterday after hero calling the turn (Qs9d5dJs) with KhJh and 0% equity. lol

I stumbled upon this schedule:



.... and goooood lord, am I excited for this. As you know, I am mainly a mixed game player and this series is chuck full of them. In fact, this is what I want to play:

550€ Mixed Game
250€ Sviten Special
250€ Heads Up
125€ Win The Button
250€ 8-Game
225€ NLHE Progressive
115€ HORSE
250€ 4/5/6 PLO
250€ Chinese
115€ PLO/PLO8
225€ NLHE Mystery Bounty
115€ 5PLO
1100€ Chinese
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= 3820€ + about 400€ for hotels.

Now, some of these overlap and I guess the 1100€ Chinese is optional - although I genuinely consider myself top 10 in the world in that game, so I really shouldn't skip it. So we'll just say 4k€.

So, as a little mini challenge, I will grind online to try to win 4000€ until the series starts. Obviously I will play it anyways, but it'd feel much nicer to be "freerolling" it.

I'll open sit tables for about 8-10 hours a day and try to update here as often as possible.

Good luck me, and man am I excited for the end of November now.