XPOSTING from my bitB internal blog in case anyone is interested
Okay so this month has been a bit of a blur, had the huge Biden sweat and didn't play for the first week basically because of this Then BTC was popping, Vienna back in lockdown, maybe picked up some unhealthy habits in terms of eating and sleeping.
The 15 exercise challenge this month was really quite +EV, not sure I'd have forced myself to the park as much without it. Overall just quite done with the lockdowns at this point, and looking forward to things slowly returning to normal with the vaccine. Have optimistically booked some skiing in January and hoping to take some time off then.
I think this year has been a bit of a COVID bubble and definitely gonna assess end of year results with that boost at front of mind. Overall must have run insanely hot this year I think with buying action, BTC, biden, Doug (?), but gotta take the run good when it comes.
That said, I think this month I really realised how much I have improved too over the last two years. I'd assess my poker career something like this:
Origins:
3 years of thinking I was a theory god because I knew mathematics and studied Economics, pre PIOsolver, just probably bluffing 5x too much in some spots, 5x too little in others, any time I repped nothing bluffing because noone else bluffed there. Complete rocket science all over the place based on flawed fundamentals, thought i was studying but in reality just clicking btns. Was completely woeful and barely won any money.
Awakening:
Had a call with one of the guys that made the first seating scripts. He told me he sat with Ike and ForHayley and would just still print at the the table because he always had the jesus seat on fish. I started to look at other regs who were crushing and realised I genuinely couldn't explain why, so did the next best thing and just copied them.
Basically gave up studying for 2 years, focussed on game selection, copied people who crushed, and started to really win myself at high w/rs. I guess I became a practitioner basically, someone who does stuff that WORKS, doesn't understand why really but that doesn't matter anyway.
Enlightenment:
This started to brew when I came back to bitB from my real job. But really I think moving in with Markus the first time was the pivotal point. Markus basically learnt everything from first principles under Internet, who was basically doing what I was originally trying to do Actually think he was one of the sickest guys, it's hard to overstate how hard it was to come up with good strategies using conventional mathematics pre PIO, and copying was wayyyyy easier. Think finally all the stuff from origins started to blend with awakening, I started to understand WHY stuff worked, why guys playing miles away from equillbrium were winning anyway.
This kind of gave me the freedom to be a bit more creative myself now that I had the mental tools to really assess what I was doing, and also the positive side effect of reducing ego when you realise there is normally a reason why 'badregs' have 6bb/100 graphs!
Now days more and more spots are really clicking in my head. I finally understand why low SPRs play like they do well enough to explain it to a math proffesor, 7 years after I started trying
What does this mean? Not much really, just increases confidence in playing higher games, increases how happy I am to assess my own edge and other peoples, decreases stress around decisions. Fortunately poker is complex enough that there is still and always will be tons of improvement to be had, just thought I'd share this with you guys because it's funny how I've gone full circle. Maybe you've seen this in coaching sessions too if you've been here long enough (maybe only @guerre and @Deividas).
First sessions were maybe on the backend of nonsense theory shmoogly, then mid portion was 'why do we do this? Because PIO/ unamed curhser does' just appealing to authority Whereas now days I try to always start with the fundamentals and theory of spots.
Anyway I'm still playing 500nl a lot and probably will continue to do so, still enjoy playing and the memory of real world salaries is clear enough in my mind that I think it'll be a long time till I can turn my nose up at 500 +rb.
Just gonna try and keep taking good shots with higher pieces at 5k+ and see what happens.
Not sure when I last posted a graph here, but last couple of months, maybe decreased average stake a bit but made some good new friends at 500nl on a new site and learnt a bit of HU at same time:
I've also played about 10-20k hands of 5k-20k on untracked sites which has gone reasonably well, maybe +30k after rb? will add up at end of the year. Selling a lot of action above 2k but feeling okay in those games. Strange to sometimes lose 50k though when the bulk of my volume is still 500nl
Outside of playing and studying, I've been doing work with bitB as normal, some students completely popping off which is so good to see when you're working closely with these guys every day, had a couple of record months this month again and this year I think a lot of students will make more than I made myself last year.
All the coaches playing the same style and teaching it to the students I think helps me a lot in run bad stretches too, just means there is always a huge sample of the process being applied every month to assess, and even if makeboifin/foursixfour are doing it better it's all the same ideas.
Also doing a once monthly pay to attend seminar for the new C and C coaching, always focussing on tournament theory really and mostly lower stack spots. Really enjoyed the first session and there's already a great community there, so would recommend checking it out.