Nice month, nice year! Keep up the good work

cool to see people still successfully going full time. great year and all the best for 2020!

Damn dude, awesome year and gl in 2020.

Also puke at being raked as much as you won. I thought that only happened at the micros How much of that did you get back (points/tickets/etc)?

Great results mate! Gl in 2020

Congrats on a solid 2019! Glad to hear you’re gonna continue updating, and GL in 2020

Nice job and gl man! Not something I could do, so much respect.

Stay balanced my friends

Appreciate that. Ain't easy to not play the victim in this game

Thanks dude, same to you. Hope your year ended well

Thanks. We'll see if my career has a short shelf life like most who get eaten up. If it happens I'll at least be going down swinging

Thanks dk. Since starting on the site I raked ~110k. Looks like I have $471 in some type of bonus money lol. I'm not even gonna touch it anyway bc tos says "Bonus programs are intended for recreational players only". No rakeback

Thanks man, couldn't have done it w/o your help. Hope you had a good year

Thanks bob!

Appreciate that. Yeah you need to be a little sick in the head to choose to do this for a living

Awesome year brother. Good luck in 2020

jfc at the rake paid. Disgusting

Thanks bro. Best of luck to you i'm still following

Yeah. We're climbing an uphill battle. Nothing you can do but try to outwork the next guy

Very nice man. Gl in 2020

Thanks!

Interesting overbet OTT. Just arranged to gii OTR, cuz you have a strong, underrepped hand given the action, or something else going on?

+1
Very well put. GL in 2020. Great PGC

Awesome 2019 man, thanks for sharing. Also appreciate your feedback on some of my HH threads.

When does class start? Where do I sign?

Yeah basically. Going for max value

Really appreciate that


Thanks cornbread. Send me a PM if you're interested

First of all I just want to say congrats on your big year! Keep it up.

I think your fear is misplaced. I have no doubt you'll have an edge in the game for a long time.

Rather, your fear should be maintaining your current drive and motivation 2-3+ years from now. The amount of people who turn pro and eventually quit is staggering. This doesn't happen because they lose their edge, it happens because their drive and motivation decreases over time and volume, focus, and study suffer as a consequence.

You are at the peak of your motivation. I promise you this will decrease over time. Take advantage now and work your ass off and either 1) Move up in stakes high enough to where you don't have to get in as much volume in the future to meet your needs, or 2) Use poker as a short term way to transition into a different investment area. Either way, you need to have a plan now before passion and motivation starts to diminish.

no idea how i only just saw this thread...! i had a skim but couldn't find it - where do you play?

Sick 2019 too man! glgl <3

Hey man, thanks for the post. A lot of stuff to think about. It's definitely a real trend. I don't necessarily think losing motivation to play and doubting your perceived edge are mutually exclusive. Ie pros who struggle with volume probably have some sub-conscious aversion to the pain of a losing session and therefore avoid playing. I feel like my motivation to play when I know I have a decent edge will always be greater than my motivation to grind a cubicle for 40+ hours a week. I can never be certain though until I experience it. But like you said, keeping my mind open to other opportunities like investment, passive income, etc. is important when gambling for a living.


Yo! Thanks Ben. I need to work on a more clickbait title. I play on ignition for now (the hh converter turns it stars format)

IMO,

The struggle with motivation comes from doubt. When it's smooth sailing, you're having winnings days, confidence is high etc, your motivation will always be in tact. But when you've been bashed in the face by variance for a month, had to move down stakes, and then continue getting slaughtered by **** regs only this time at a more rapid pace than at your normal stakes, it's very easy to question the existence of your edge.

Ask Ben what he felt about his edge when he lost 21 sessions in a row last year (sorry to keep bringing it up Ben lol but it's a cool case study). I believe live players call the live equivalent of this the 'abyss'.

When it's impossible to win a single pot for days and weeks on end, believing you still have an edge when everything is telling you you don't, is basically having to lie to yourself to get through it. Which really is psychotic degen gambler behaviour.

Grinding the cubicle you probably won't ever experience such doubt.

PS, the only way to remedy this doubt, when it inevitably sets in, and it applies to every pro regardless of how good you are (200z shitreg or Linus), is to obviously practice bankroll management so you don't go busto, but the main ingredient is to work harder off table than the average reg.

If your BRM strat prevents you from going busto, and you're improving at a rate that is higher than the average reg, then it should be pretty close to impossible really for poker as a profession to get the better of you.

If you can honestly say you're improving faster than most, and practicing good BRM, then motivation to put the volume in, void of any cripping doubt that ends so many poker careers, should be relatively easy.

I wonder what would offer more value to you at this point in your career, a smooth sailing 2020 wherein you win all the money barely having to lift a finger? Or getting beaten to a pulp by the hands of variance day in day out for the next 12 months? It it's the latter, you'll likely be twice the poker player you would be in 12 months if it's the former.

Gl
(Or bl???)

Srry drank too much coffee

No need to apologize. I appreciate your perspective

I'll take somewhere in the middle

January





Study Hours- 16
Live Hours- 27

Not gonna lie, going on this heater is an awesome feeling. That said this isn't the time to pat myself on the back. Getting too high means feeling low is inevitable when things turn, which I'm definitely guilty of. It's very easy to start getting over confident or even lazy. You see this trap happen to poker players all the time. Stating the obvious here, but what I should pat myself on the back for is executing the plan that's within my control. Did you play 5-6 quality hours today with your best effort? Did you study for an hour+? Did you go to the gym and get good sleep? Did you do this consistently for the whole month? Great job. Oh you won 25k? Oh you lost 10k? Cool, no one gives a ****. You don't get rewarded or punished for how you run. Oh you made a mistake and punted in this spot? Ok mistakes are inevitable, no ones plays perfect. Learn from it and move on. This is me talking to myself, trying to reinforce what we all know but our human brains always seem to resist.

Next month I'm going on a live poker trip for a week so it should be a nice change of pace. I'll probably just play plo but we'll see what's available

A few 3 bet pots:

1) Do you care about having an important blocker or do you think they don't bluff enough?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $2.50/$5.00 - 4 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (UTG): $522.50 (105 bb)
Dealer (BU): $582.25 (116 bb)
Small Blind (SB): $576.36 (115 bb)
Hero (BB): $584.42 (117 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($7.50) Hero (Hero) is BB with Q♣ Q♦
1 fold, Dealer (BU) raises to $12.50, 1 fold, Hero (BB) 3-bets to $55, Dealer (BU) calls $42

Flop: ($118.76) K♣ T♦ 6♥ (2 players)
Hero (BB) bets $42.58, Dealer (BU) calls $42.58

Turn: ($203.92) 3♦ (2 players)
Hero (BB) checks, Dealer (BU) bets $70.46, Hero (BB) calls $70.46

River: ($344.84) A♦ (2 players)
Hero (BB) checks, Dealer (BU) bets $256.38


2) Same line, same question

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $5/$10 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (UTG): $433.22 (43 bb)
UTGplus1 (MP): $1,350.50 (135 bb)
UTGplus2 (CO): $1,213.20 (121 bb)
Dealer (BU): $998.00 (100 bb)
Hero (SB): $1,859.22 (186 bb)
Big Blind (BB): $2,093.82 (209 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($15) Hero (Hero) is SB with K♥ K♠
1 fold, UTGplus1 (MP) raises to $25, 2 players fold, Hero (SB) 3-bets to $110, 1 fold, UTGplus1 (MP) calls $85

Flop: ($242.50) 5♥ A♣ 5♣ (2 players)
Hero (SB) bets $79.49, UTGplus1 (MP) calls $79.49

Turn: ($401.48) 9♠ (2 players)
Hero (SB) checks, UTGplus1 (MP) bets $263, Hero (SB) calls $263

River: ($927.48) 6♥ (2 players)
Hero (SB) checks, UTGplus1 (MP) bets $891.76 (all-in)

3) Big heart or suicidal? Or both

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $1/$2 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (UTG): $201.00 (101 bb)
UTGplus1 (MP): $193.00 (97 bb)
UTGplus2 (CO): $420.99 (210 bb)
Dealer (BU): $743.38 (372 bb)
Small Blind (SB): $196.00 (98 bb)
Hero (BB): $780.72 (390 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($3) Hero (Hero) is BB with J♠ A♠
2 players fold, UTGplus2 (CO) raises to $6, 2 players fold, Hero (BB) 3-bets to $25, UTGplus2 (CO) calls $19

Flop: ($56.80) T♦ A♦ J♦ (2 players)
Hero (BB) bets $12, UTGplus2 (CO) raises to $36.98, Hero (BB) calls $24.98

Turn: ($130.76) 5♦ (2 players)
Hero (BB) checks, UTGplus2 (CO) checks

River: ($130.76) Q♥ (2 players)
Hero (BB) bets $715.84 (all-in)

Sick month.

Not sure H3 is a spot where I would go 3x pot tbh, dont mind a large sizing at all but it's not really a spot I expect many opponent to have enough bluffs to warrant such a massive sizing (I could be very, very wrong though)

Turning 2p into bluffs makes sense though, interesting hand all around

Sweet start to the year! Mindset is on point as well. There will be ups, there will be downs, but as long as the focus on the process is sound the big picture will work itself out. glgl feb!