Making it Count; 500nl+ and Life in the 2020s.
11-30-2021
, 10:12 PM
12-01-2021
, 04:21 AM
12-29-2021
, 05:38 PM
Okay wrapping up 2021 - had a bit of unfortunate Corona news which meant I had to cancel a trip back to UK, but luckily managed to sneak onto a ski trip with gf in Austria instead for Christmas which was nice.
2021 was a strange year, had huge winning month in January, then b/e for 200k hands, got trapped in the UK couldn't return to Vienna and was feeling a bit meh about poker in general - hanging around in my small hometown with friends all working the 9-5 was great to catch up, but for poker performance it definitely just hurts to not be constantly bouncing ideas around and getting checked on your awful plays �� On the positive side this period of losing in games where I had 10% of the action juiced up my PVI for almost the whole of the rest of the year on GG!
Then as soon as I got back to Vienna just kind of exploded, obviously there is a reasonable chance I live in the number 1 poker house in the world now so not too surprising things go better when I'm here. Think I won 8bb/100 for 200k hands since I got back, and improved so so much, confident i'd crush my 2020 self which is all you can really ask for.
Obviously results are beyond anything I could really have dreamed off when I left my 50k per year consulting job 3 years ago, and just still feels surreal to have this opportunity and be out there playing with all these guys I used to think were untouchable. Sometimes have to pinch myself when I win amounts in a day that I'd have been over the moon to win in a month before, and gotta keep perspective because this opportunity won't be here forever I guess.
Strategically wise, feel like I opened my mind to a lot of things this year and became a lot better as a result of it, trying to understand why other people win rather than just dismiss their play because it's not what I would do. I think this resulted in me improving a lot in general and stopped me trying (and mostly failing) to aimlessly copy PIO as much. I still make tons and tons of errors, but mostly think my errors are less costly than my opponents for the most part��
Still have a lot of respect for everyone out here doing it every day even if it can sometimes seem like I'm demeaning to them, it's really sick mentally to grind these games and cope with the swings even if the overall EV is so high.
Also really happy to have improved so much at HU this year too, was one of my aims at the start of the year and I'm happy enough to play most guys outside the Vienna crew now, shout out to Markus for all his help here with the endless hhs I bombard him with this year and Linus too for coping with the breakfast 1knl HU hh spam
So yeah - think I improved a lot, won a lot, and mostly had a reasonable time doing it ��
I think I have a couple of years left of grinding reasonable volume but probably will start to play less and focus on quality a bit more, not convinced playing 40k hands a month and running bitB is too good for mental health sometimes ��
So results:
5k and below (all my action), +$539k
10k-100k (was actually somehow average less than 5k for me and kept all the rb, -130k but only -10k after rb on my side)
Overall
By Stakes
Missing some hands where I won I guess another 10 or 20k, also choosing to believe HEM3 numbers over PT4 because they are slightly better but probably +$530-550k on my side 
Still playing a lot of 1k to fill time and as always way too nitty with my action at higher stakes, even if it worked out well this year, good to run hot but will go for a higher EV approach going forward.
Best of luck to everyone finishing off their years and hyped to see what 2022 brings, the dream is definitely still alive.
2021 was a strange year, had huge winning month in January, then b/e for 200k hands, got trapped in the UK couldn't return to Vienna and was feeling a bit meh about poker in general - hanging around in my small hometown with friends all working the 9-5 was great to catch up, but for poker performance it definitely just hurts to not be constantly bouncing ideas around and getting checked on your awful plays �� On the positive side this period of losing in games where I had 10% of the action juiced up my PVI for almost the whole of the rest of the year on GG!
Then as soon as I got back to Vienna just kind of exploded, obviously there is a reasonable chance I live in the number 1 poker house in the world now so not too surprising things go better when I'm here. Think I won 8bb/100 for 200k hands since I got back, and improved so so much, confident i'd crush my 2020 self which is all you can really ask for.
Obviously results are beyond anything I could really have dreamed off when I left my 50k per year consulting job 3 years ago, and just still feels surreal to have this opportunity and be out there playing with all these guys I used to think were untouchable. Sometimes have to pinch myself when I win amounts in a day that I'd have been over the moon to win in a month before, and gotta keep perspective because this opportunity won't be here forever I guess.
Strategically wise, feel like I opened my mind to a lot of things this year and became a lot better as a result of it, trying to understand why other people win rather than just dismiss their play because it's not what I would do. I think this resulted in me improving a lot in general and stopped me trying (and mostly failing) to aimlessly copy PIO as much. I still make tons and tons of errors, but mostly think my errors are less costly than my opponents for the most part��
Still have a lot of respect for everyone out here doing it every day even if it can sometimes seem like I'm demeaning to them, it's really sick mentally to grind these games and cope with the swings even if the overall EV is so high.
Also really happy to have improved so much at HU this year too, was one of my aims at the start of the year and I'm happy enough to play most guys outside the Vienna crew now, shout out to Markus for all his help here with the endless hhs I bombard him with this year and Linus too for coping with the breakfast 1knl HU hh spam
So yeah - think I improved a lot, won a lot, and mostly had a reasonable time doing it ��
I think I have a couple of years left of grinding reasonable volume but probably will start to play less and focus on quality a bit more, not convinced playing 40k hands a month and running bitB is too good for mental health sometimes ��
So results:
5k and below (all my action), +$539k
10k-100k (was actually somehow average less than 5k for me and kept all the rb, -130k but only -10k after rb on my side)
Overall
By Stakes
Missing some hands where I won I guess another 10 or 20k, also choosing to believe HEM3 numbers over PT4 because they are slightly better
but probably +$530-550k on my side Still playing a lot of 1k to fill time and as always way too nitty with my action at higher stakes, even if it worked out well this year, good to run hot but will go for a higher EV approach going forward.
Best of luck to everyone finishing off their years and hyped to see what 2022 brings, the dream is definitely still alive.
Last edited by PlasticElephant; 12-29-2021 at 05:51 PM.
12-29-2021
, 06:25 PM
Great work, George. Really impressive stuff. It takes a lot of guts to play in those 10knl+ games too, selling action or not. There's a lot of guys that are happy to play 500z and not withstand the stress and variance of the higher stakes, so good on you for taking that leap. Hopefully you can strike a healthy balance between coaching and grinding for next year.
Best of luck in 2022. I'm sure it'll be a great one.
Best of luck in 2022. I'm sure it'll be a great one.
12-29-2021
, 06:35 PM
Some hands:
biggest losing, vs limitless
John Mclean giving me the special
Bomb pot again and John with a weak holding again
Madness hand vs tournament reg
Into the abyss
Rep nothing have nothing
Rep something have confusion
Decent misclick outcome
biggest losing, vs limitless
John Mclean giving me the special
Bomb pot again and John with a weak holding again
Madness hand vs tournament reg
Into the abyss
Rep nothing have nothing
Rep something have confusion
Decent misclick outcome
Last edited by PlasticElephant; 12-29-2021 at 06:49 PM.
12-29-2021
, 07:00 PM
man what insane results. you're an absolute beast. the dream is very much still alive (if you live with top #2 poker players in the world that is )
gg mate, hopefully see you in 2022!
)gg mate, hopefully see you in 2022!
12-30-2021
, 01:54 AM
12-31-2021
, 07:06 AM
12-31-2021
, 09:00 AM
01-01-2022
, 08:36 AM
01-01-2022
, 06:04 PM
Quote:
Great work, George. Really impressive stuff. It takes a lot of guts to play in those 10knl+ games too, selling action or not. There's a lot of guys that are happy to play 500z and not withstand the stress and variance of the higher stakes, so good on you for taking that leap. Hopefully you can strike a healthy balance between coaching and grinding for next year.
Best of luck in 2022. I'm sure it'll be a great one.
Best of luck in 2022. I'm sure it'll be a great one.
I actually remember doing a podcast with the jericho that was kind of a turning point for me, when we were asking him about his extremely aggro shots and he said something along the lines of 'poker is my life, it's what i'm doing in my 20s, and if I don't try to be the best I possibly can be what's the point?'
Since I started just playing whichever games I thought I could win in poker has been way more fun, there's way more motivation to improve and obviously I'm leveraging my skillset much better too, and once you've moved up a few stakes and been beaten down it's so much easier the next time compared to if you just stop and get comfortable somewhere.
Bit of a ramble and some survivors bias but maybe useful for someone else reading that is 'stuck'.
Disclaimer that I do think BR management and not following kelly criterion is important for mental health and longevity (not in the sense of going broke, in the sense of not burning out/ having a heart attack) even with the above call to arms pretty sure I didn't play a game I had less than 250bis for in the last 8 years
I live with Makeboifin and another HS reg who posts on here under Mayo, Linus is just a honorary friend of the house.
