Yo guys, didn't actually think I'd do this one day but it just felt like something too positive to not do so i've been talked into joining the PGC sharks

About me

Sup, I'm from Belgium and i have a pretty standard story, deposited 10$ on FTP when i was aged a cool 16 years old and ran it up to now, been donking around mainly in MTT's since then but also played other forms like sngs and a bit of cash.

Now i'm 21 and last year i joined a top stable Pocarr and have been playing zoom since then, started at 50NL and now just got moved up to 200NL and i'm finding it very challenging, starting to play a lot more regularly which i stopped doing since a while ago mainly because i'm going to university but i was also a bit bored with MTT's and zoom is giving me a nice challenge, games aren't that easy to beat gotta put efforts and work into it, which i'm willing to do because i've always been commited and loved the game even tho i won't admit it. (I do maintain MTTs suck balls)
Need to say that poker is and ever will be a hobby that i'm just very commited to, 2nd one would be sports but i'm liking my student life and do not plan on playing professional at any point

Why the hell would i do a PGC

First of all i think it's a great way to keep track and motivate myself.
I've had a meh month of July, since it's summer and no school, I've been playing a lot more but I wasn't doing enough, I think the main reason is that i've never had any goals when playing poker or even in general life.
July was profitable but I could do a lot better with my work ethic and I plan on having a strong august regardless of the results, i'm pretty excited to see what i'm capable of.
Also life balance wise, I've been very unhappy with how careless I've become with my actions, I wanna get back into shape (used to play sport on competitive level) and start by eliminating some of the crap habbits I have

This thread is gonna be about August 2013 but if i'm enjoying it i'll keep going till the end of the year and then who knows

My goals for August

[ ] Play 60k hands of zoom
[ ] Hit Supernova
[ ] 5bb/100 AIEV adjusted profit
[ ] Totally cut off sodas & delivery crap
[ ] Do some sort of exercise 5x a week (running/basketball/whatever)
[ ] Post hands in strategy section, review sessions & watch RIO videos on regular basis
[ ] Get a new computer set up

You can find me playing zoom on Stars under the name of 'Cinarocket'

2013 Graph so far




Guess I have to go with a threadsaver even tho i'm not sure why this is a tradition



I also like turtles so here is a picture of a turtle trying to bite a strawberry



Finally, the legend that caused my thread title :



Who knows what random things i'll be saying in here but thanks for reading.

Cina.

first

<3 pop

turnovers.

gl sir.

Hmm, started to play 200NL for the 1st time today. Game seems bigger (orly) and tougher i'd guess altho that could be a flawed observation, i've only played 2k hands, still seems to be some weaker players out there so i don't think i should be too worried about being outskilled.

Anyway, it did not go well at all, not much happened really not quite sure how i lost 6 buyins, a flip here and there, an overpair vs a set and one failed bluff but i ended down 6 buyins.



I don't think i played bad altho cudda played better, I think i'm gonna take the rest of the day off possibly till the end of the month. I'm still grinding on my laptop and running PT4 while playing is too painful which forces me to play HUDless, i've oredered a bunch of pieces for a new computer, should arrive in a couple days and hopefully my friend is here to assemble it for me soon and then i'll start seriously my august challenge with one of the goals already achieved.

Till then i might play some tournaments, go outside do some sport or whatever, i'll see.

Peace.

Hmm... I wish this thread started better.

Long story short, i'm down 15 buyins at 200NL in only 5k hands.
I guess that kind of variance happens but i'm pretty embarassed and wondering what the hell is going wrong. 200NL seems tougher but i'm not feeling quite outplayer or anything, actually th scary thing is that i'm running around EV which is pretty disheartening cause i wish i cud just blame variance. Timing seems to be really bad and I rarely seem to play my hands for value. When i do have value i usually get it allin on the turn drawing dead like 1) I 4bet Aces today, guy flats OOP, flop Q24r i bet he calls turn Q i shove he calls KQ. 2) i cold4bet AK in the BB, SB flats : flop TJQssx i bet he calls turn 2s i shove he has 45ss, so all those hands don't really show up on my EV line and it's easy to wonder if i'm doing wrong playing bad or whatever. I don't actually feel like i'm playing bad and i'm so willing to do everything to get better an make sure i win at 200NL before i see all my yearly profit go away. Actually i'm motivated to the point where i don't really worry cause it shud go fine at some point, i just hope i dont stay in this hole for too long, financially i'm not affected but i'm feeling really bad towards my backers. They've been good to me and were kind enough to move me up to 200NL after >200k hands at 50/10 NL with >5bb/100 and it just sucks to have to tell them i've lost 3-4k of their money in like no time as soon as they move me up. I know they understand and everything but its just hard to not imagine them thinking i suck or that i'm not good enough for this limit and eventually i was glad to make them solid money with little variance and am butthurt to see i've lost > 1/4 of that money in 5k hands...

I don't even wanna ask for a top-up right now, technically my challenge starts in August so my goals are still all achievable and i'm busy tommorow doing stuff, am playing a potentially 3-day live tournament on Thursday, so once i get back from that (hopefully Sunday) i will go back to work, study, watch videos and just try to grind it out i'm ready to do my best. Recorded a video of my session today hopefully can get a good review out of it.

**** July, hello August

Dont worry man, maybe step down and rebuild confidence and take a shot again...
so i take it that you only have a part of that nice graph in OP?

gl!

Thanks & correct (altho it's not quite nice anymore) Moving down has to be a consideration i suppose

This + 5bb/100 over 270k hand sample leads me to believe you'll be more than fine. ib4 huge upswong.

Hey is this rowan?

It's Patrick if so can probably help! Ping me on Skype!

Nah rowan is a friend of mine, i'm cina. Sup?

Hmm, played first live tournament for a while, was going fine the whole day but 5b/jammed KT into AA, gay feeling because preflop i've been more laxxed about my preflop mtt game recently but this spot was way too good with dynamics and stacks i reckon 2/3rd of his 4bets were 4b/f.

Beside from that i was all day on virtually no sleep but had fun i guess had some beers was with some friends, currently waiting for my friend whos gonna drive me back and i can start putting in some hands tmw to try to recover the downswing. Gonna pick up my new computer pieces tmw and get a friend to assemble it on sunday.

Health is kinda lol i went to mcdonalds without drinking sodas and had beers, technically not a breach of the challenge tho (sun)

Waiting outside so i guess i will update.

No signs of an upswing at 200nl, at least im not losing as much but im not winning :-/ it's all about adjusting, the agression is upped massively regarding my opponents i need to figure out how i wanna adjust vs regs and keep exploiting weaker players, its kinda challenging and it'd be exciting if i wasnt losing money in the process.

I've watched a couple videos last couple days and reviewing/studying shud be easier once i get my new computer which wont happen today cause my friend cancelled on me, sigh i hate busy people.

Probably fire some MTTs (facepalm) once i get back

in 4 nasty

GL dude

Blah, still waiting for the friend to build my computer, I hate busy people that cancel 2 out of 3 meetings.

So Stars are running their Happy Hours 3x a day, unfortunately it looks like i may be sleeping for 2/3 of those but i managed to sneak in for the 16.00-17.00 after waking up at 15.50. U just win 1.5x VPPs/FPPs, games are meant to be softer cause more ppl but it seems like all the regs are there so i wudnnt say its softer. Winning 1.5x VPPs/FPPs isnt a big deal helps a bit for Supernova but it gives me an excuse to play for SIXTY minutes in a row which isnt sth i do very frequently, i'm a believer of short sessions.

I was breaking even/up 100$ with 5minutes to go until :

PokerStars - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $123.37 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 13)
SB: $212.72 (VPIP: 28.40, PFR: 23.46, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 83)
BB: $654.71 (VPIP: 24.05, PFR: 20.51, 3Bet Preflop: 10.34, Hands: 79)
UTG: $216.06 (VPIP: 26.83, PFR: 24.39, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
MP: $248.70 (VPIP: 23.25, PFR: 19.35, 3Bet Preflop: 6.20, Hands: 1,386)
Hero (CO): $446.18

SB posts SB $1.00, BB posts BB $2.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $3.00) Hero has K K

fold, fold, Hero raises to $5.00, fold, fold, BB raises to $20.00, Hero raises to $48.00, BB raises to $92.00, Hero raises to $446.18 and is all-in, BB calls $354.18

Flop: ($893.36, 2 players) Q 4 K

Turn: ($893.36, 2 players) 2

River: ($893.36, 2 players) 3

BB shows A A (One Pair, Aces) (Pre 83%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows K K (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 17%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)
Hero wins $890.56




I was actually gonna flat pre cause this is a spot i like to use to balance my flatting range and i can save ****loads when he has AA which is gonna happen a lot if we get 220bb in but as i reached timebank i thought i'd tanked for a bit too long which may lose a bit of the deception value if i tank-flat and may make me look more FOS so decided to 4b/go with it instead... Worked out pretty well. Think this is the biggest online cash pot i've ever won but not sure.

Anyway booked a 2-3 buyins win not sure, still a lot to go to clear makeup and become profitable at 200NL and even more to go to reach my monthly goals.

Peace

Got some better news...

After my biggest $$ cash downswing right after moving up to 200NL i'm finally on an upswing and back to winning some However not enough yet to recover it fully and get out of makeup but i'm only ~5 buyins away which feels pretty good since i was ~21 at some point, feels a lot more achievable.

Happy hours been running since 5th of August and i try to play the afternoon and night one fully then maybe one session here and there, volume isn't great but i try to go outside a bit, having lunchs/dinners, doing a bit of walking/basketball whatever... Speaking of health i'm a bit cheating on my challenge in the sense that i often don't do "exercise" and like to consider walking 20-30min as exercise or practicing basketball shots which doesn't sound like exercise but at least i do something every day. I havent drunk a soda yet this month and it's hard to get good food given my life standard atm and being a horrible cooker but meh...

Back to poker so yea i play those happy hours and have been enjoying more success, definitely feeling the vibe of 200NL better i'm starting to adjust in a way that im feeling comfortable not scared of being run over anymore or trying to outagress others, game strategy feels pretty solid, still haven't got a HUD but starting to know regs a bit more.
Oh yea i forgot to say : i've been running very well and right now i'm just glad to be winning some money back.

Graph since moving up to 200NL:



I wish i had some fun hand histories to post but i seriously can't remember any funny hands i played recently.

Not sure how i should feel about this one but i've decided to feel happy i haven't lose a lot more :

PokerStars - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): $457.42
SB: $377.32 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 25.93, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 28)
BB: $244.35 (VPIP: 23.73, PFR: 15.25, 3Bet Preflop: 3.77, Hands: 119)
UTG: $190.64 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
MP: $265.10 (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 20.71, 3Bet Preflop: 8.16, Hands: 144)
CO: $212.75 (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 8.21, Hands: 332)

SB posts SB $1.00, BB posts BB $2.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $3.00) Hero has K J

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $4.00, SB calls $3.00, fold

Flop: ($10.00, 2 players) T A Q
SB checks, Hero bets $6.00, SB calls $6.00

Turn: ($22.00, 2 players) 3
SB checks, Hero bets $14.00, SB raises to $30.00, Hero calls $16.00

River: ($82.00, 2 players) T
SB bets $48.00, Hero calls $48.00

SB shows A A (Full House, Aces full of Tens) (Pre 87%, Flop 35%, Turn 23%)
Hero mucks K J (Straight, Ace High) (Pre 13%, Flop 65%, Turn 77%)
SB wins $175.20


Meh i'm very bad at describing stuff whenever i write in england so i'll try with boxes :

So far for August:

[x] 13,336 hands
[x] Profit
[ ] Recovered from the downswing
[ ] 5bb/100 AIEV adjusted
[x] Close to Supernova
[x] Health goals are going kinda meh cud be better, could be worse
[ ] Got my new computer set up (My friend managed to order pieces that werent compatible with each other...)
[x] I still like turtles

Bleh... Scratch the smile. Bad last minute session, will teach me to play when i'm ready to go to bed. Games are incredible at this time of the night though

So i lost 1k today, dont even know if i care atm.

Im currently in the taxi and the cost of that + all drinks we've had making sure the downswing is ever bigger

To tell the truth, im fairly drunk and dont care about poker right now we'll see what the future bring.

I went out with a girl that i have a love-hate relationship with and while the night started with love it ended with hate, screaming, tears everywhere and things ended really badly.

We'll see how im feeling tommorow

Today's graph




Been busy with some IRL stuff + some other problems are occuring, if i had to guess i'm not gonna play much more poker this month, things just aren't pretty enough atm to work out.

Pokerwise feeling ok, tough losses atm must be something like 10 buyins down at 200NL but im honnestly comfortable but still wish i would work harder on my game. I started thinking 200NL was full of aggro wizards but i'm starting to think otherwise.

Vs Supernova Elite

PokerStars - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $200.00 (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 21.58, 3Bet Preflop: 10.24, Hands: 298)
SB: $240.57 (VPIP: 23.57, PFR: 18.47, 3Bet Preflop: 7.58, Hands: 684)
Hero (BB): $322.89
UTG: $517.98 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 10.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 76)
MP: $500.44 (VPIP: 30.58, PFR: 23.74, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 284)
CO: $343.87 (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)

SB posts SB $1.00, Hero posts BB $2.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $3.00) Hero has J J

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $4.20, fold, Hero raises to $17.00, BTN raises to $35.00, Hero raises to $322.89 and is all-in, BTN calls $165.00 and is all-in

Flop: ($401.00, 2 players) K A 8

Turn: ($401.00, 2 players) 5

River: ($401.00, 2 players) 9

Hero shows J J (One Pair, Jacks) (Pre 72%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows 9 A (Two Pair, Aces and Nines) (Pre 28%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins $398.20



At least i'm on pace to complete the no sodas challenge! Altho i did have a vodka coke not sure if that counts tbf.

I'll post next time something significant happens

[ ] Challenge went well

**** happens i guess, it's all good just poker

giraffe?

I barely played but yea i'll get the month graphs later

Month graph


Which leads to this yearly BB graph in BB



Downswing doesnt seem so bad in BB's so that's a positive i suppose, just sucks i got crushed over a super small sample right after joining 200NL

Had some compications which meant i had to move down to 100 if i wanted to play. That + lack of motivation/eny + the downswing i had accumulated prior August made me just wanna do other things than playing poker.

I don't have really have a poker plan for the future just kinda see what happens, I can do without it atm. I don't see myself updating this again unless i find some sort of motivation to do well at poker again. i'm all good tho

Felt like updating this because I can...

Life

It's ok nobody cares wish i had great news to give but i don't, the good thing is i don't have terrible news to give either

Poker



I haven't been grinding for the last 3 months... I've played some, very little actually but most of what i played was myself YOLOing in some mtts here and there, or play a couple sngs/cash while in class or at night when nothing to do but very quickly getting bored

I am officially no longer backed and i wish i could feel better about it. I'm not gonna get into details but the situation was such that all of a sudden i found myself in a spot where i just wasn't excited about poker anymore. Stupid things happen and it'd be very easy for most of us to just move on over it but frankly i'm disapointed about the way this ended.
I'm trying to summarize the situation but details don't need to be out there so i'll just talk about my mindset instead : There are a lot of reasons to why i just wasn't feeling it anymore but the end of holiday approaching in august and knowing i'm coming back to school soon gave me a good excuse to not have to care much about poker. On top of that i just simply didn't enjoy it as much, it's very hard to keep a balance between doing great things at poker and yet not consider yourself as a grinder, i somehow have always considered myself an amateur and i think it's cost me quite a bit but not to the point i regret it or anything, poker has its downsides and if it means that im gonna put more energy into getting graduated and have a good control of my life that's good. Thing is I think the strategic concept of poker will always have me interested in it and i feel wasted when i reach situations where i just yolo around a couple nights per weeks just to have fun.
To come back to my backing deal, i was in makeup, not a ton buyins wise but it got a lot bigger for some reasons that isn't me losing more at poker. My contract was such that i don't have to play min # hands or anything so i could pretty much take the year off and come back later. I wanted to clear all makeup before leaving but instead of putting poker on the side for a few months i became obsessed with trying to clear makeup and do the right things because i felt dirty, it felt like i was owing them money yet i didn't think i deserved to feel this way, i should have just been thinking 'alright take your time and come back way later when you feel like playing'. I wasn't winning which made things worse and i started feeling really bad that i couldn't seem to advance in my goal to clear all the makeup before leaving the stable. I think all those negative feelings i had are due to the fact that i valued the owners of the stable as a person and i felt like i was betraying a friend. With time advancing, incentives and envy to play going way down, i just had to make a decision : either i'd keep trying and trying even tho i was very far away to clear makeup : it could have lasted literally months since i got school 5/7 days or i'd take the selfish road and just think about my personal welfare which would translate into me taking a good step back possibly coming back at a later time to try again but definitely not in the short turn. I feel guilty i chose the later and it leaves me annoyed even though i haven't done anything wrong technically, didn't break any rule or scam nor anything else very negative but i just feel like i let those people down. I feel like even though i tried to make things right and clear makeup, I didn't give my very very best but can i really be blamed for not doing something that my mindset simply wasn't right for? I don't think so. All in all i don't know what to think, it sucks for both of us but i'd just say that **** happens and in this particular occasion it happened in a way where there was no easy solution for both of us other than sunrunning when i played which didn't happen unfortunately.

So i haven't played anything seriously for like 3 months, and it's actually a bit sad to see that i have no project or anything. I don't feel like looking for another staking deal but i've been into online poker since i was 16 years old and i feel like i didn't make the best out of it. It's actually sad tonight, i watched football had to study for an exam and when i was done, and late at night guess what : i fired one table of 200zoom because playing 4 on my own money would be way too risky and bad, then made a spew call down and lost then i decided i'd play one HU hyperturbo sng instead which i lost too, didn't lose much money but it's just lol to see me playing randomly just out of boredom like this, i feel like that amateur fish that is the reason why weekends are great days to grind...
But anyway i don't think those conditions are good to make money and it just feels like me gambling/throwing money away and i reached the point where i don't even think i'm particularly good and looking at poker makes me sad.

But i don't wanna dramatize at all, life is good enough without poker, i got school to focus about, i'm starting to play sport more often and i'm headed to see a great friend in denmark in a week which i'm really excited about. But that's going part to the life part that we don't care about

It seems like i'm gonna be more of a spectator than an actor in this poker thing so gl to all u guys

Oh yeah i got myself a 39" monitor and a new computer



i decided i'd wait till i stop poker to get myself this material... solid logic is solid