Quee passsooo
Well, here, for the first time this year, I'm writing more than 1 week late. I will try not to make this a habit, I really like to write down my thoughts, successes/failures on Mondays (or the same day every week), because it really helps me
that I am completely "on track" with the things that are happening in my fast, dynamic and full schedule.
Every day I also write a diary (
https://urbestself.co/), so that I make sure that I am "on top of things", that I don't live too much in the past or the future, but as much as possible in this moment.
I don't have much to say about 2 weeks ago. The week went like most of the others before it, I played almost every day, I learned a lot, mostly I worked on my mistakes from the database I got
from their mentors.
In addition to poker and studying, I enjoyed the dynamic weather
At one point, Anja and I played tennis outside for the first time this year, on a day when it was 25 degrees. It was a really awesome day, and we played great tennis.
After that, the cold and snow came, in those days I enjoyed being behind the screen basically the whole day
After the session and study, I did stretching at home, I even skipped two days of training (the weather was an excuse this time,
because I didnt wanna go outside at all), but after the session and food, I went back to the computer to do things for poker, and after that I played warzone until it was time to go to bed
On Thursday 18.4. (i.e. 1 week ago), Anja and I left for the Czech Republic by car in the afternoon around 2 p.m., and before that I was working on things on the computer since morning. From studying, to managing finances, plans for the future, etc... Most
time it was studying, that I came to Rozvadov fresh, with a warmed up brain and ready for 4 days of poker from morning to evening.
The road to the Czech Republic was ok, but it wasn't exactly smooth because I was in charge for navigation and few times I got too fired up about music, so we went a bit wrong way, so the path was around 30 minutes longer cuz of me
When we got to the hotel, Gregor from the PokerPro team was waiting for us at the reception, he gave us information on how to get to the room with the best wifi and showed me the whole area. Thank you Gregor, for all the help in the Czech Republic and also
on home soil! Maybe some people think it's weird that I thank for "every little thing", but personally, such things help a lot, I've never been scammed for any of these "travel tricks", I always get important information, and since I have a fast and busy schedule, and since I am easily forgetful myself, such information saves me a lot of time --- money, which I really appreciate.
After that, Anja and I basically just ate and went to sleepsky.
On Friday, I started the day with breakfast, and then I started Day 1 of the main event as early as 11:00. Played until about 7:30pm when I busted , then quickly registered another Day1 turbo flight and played that until about midnight, untill i busted unfortunately and that was it from poker on Friday. I wandered around casino a bit talked to poker friends, went for a dinner I don't remember exactly when, because I was in the casino from morning to night and I'm totally losing track of time. Then it was time to sleep, at around 02:30.
On Saturday, I started playing a little later, missed 1 level of the tourney and registered Day1 normal flight at 11:45 ish. That day I played this flight until the end, which I think was around 02:00, made day2 with 35 blinds ( Started with 50k chips, made 345k stack of chips which was avg for day2 ). After that flight, I took a shower, had something to eat, and then joined the cash game table and played there until 5:15. This was definitely my favorite day of poker ever, a full day of tournament and then finishing the day with a few hours of cg. In addition, I met a Slovenian cg player at the cashgame table, who was truly a legend, he says he plays cg fairly regularly, and he's a maestro at it! Besides Blaž and Luka at the table, I opened a couple of interesting topics with him, and besides playing we had a good time and talking about interesting things. This day/evening was one of my favorites! A REALLY AWESOME EXPERIENCE, and I still can't believe that this is part of my job and how much I enjoy it!
However I always experience these moments really well and remember them, I'm a little sorry that I didn't capture these "friendly" moments in the lens of my phone, so that I could then publish them here.
I'll try, and I PROMISE MYSELF, that in the future I will take more pictures of such moments so that I can post them, and after reading/watching them back, I relive a little these moments that spike my dopamine to high levels
After a long sleep from Saturday to Sunday, I started Sunday around 15:00, with breakfast and a short (7 minute lol
) walk, went to breakfast/lunch, and started day2 at 17:00 (alpa 18:00, not sure if). I was eliminated after about 70 minutes of play by making a mistake. I learned a lot from this situation, and next time I will be more prepared and not make these mistakes. The main reason for the error was that that I simply did not take enough time for my decision and consequently made the wrong move.
After I got out of the main event, I went out for a few minutes to get some fresh air, and then I registered for a side event with a registration of €550. I played great in this tournament, even better than before in the main event. At the table I also met one Macedonian player who was really a legend, I had fun with him, played a couple of interesting spots with him and about 3 hours later, I was eliminated. Nothing special, with a good hand I stumbled into an even better one, and it was time for nina nana
Or rather, before nina nana, I went with Anja for a beer (she for 3 tequilas...), and then went to bed.
On Monday I also woke up very late, rolled around in bed, then went to breakfast/lunch. After lunch, I went back to bed to rest, and then at 17:00 I started the last side event
€150 turbo. I put two bullets into this tournament, and ended up with no success. Busted just after late registration and that was it from poker for me. I was still interested a bit in the cashgame that day, but since it was Monday, and most of the players went home, I skipped cg and enjoyed some free time with Anja, we walked around the casino, had two or three drinks with the other Slovenian companions, talked for a bit and that was it.
We went to bed a little earlier that day, so the next day I woke up quite rested at around 10.45.
Gregor and I went to breakfast together on Tuesday and after breakfast we did an interview for the PokerPro website. This interview will be up once this week, and I will share a link below where you can read it.
https://en.pokerpro.cc/
The main takeaways from this trip for me are:
1. I really enjoy live poker, so I will try to go to live events every 3 months (of course, as long as the bankroll allows).
2. It's really important to me that when I change my environment, I don't change my habits, but just adapt them. (I need to get used to the change in schedule and environment a little more, to still do sports and keep up other habits)
3. I am endlessly grateful for all the help I get from friends/colleagues in the poker world.
4. Don't listen to the good music when you're navigating, because you're not capable of handling two things at once in the car (ROFL)
As I already thanked Gergor and the PokerPro team above, I would also like to thank the SPT team and the organizators. To each one separately, first of all, for everything that you have done for the whole even, I think that every Slovenian who was there was
very oriented because of you, everyone got all the information and it really showed how good things are going when "SLOVENIANS STEP TOGETHER". It's really awesome to see how the Slovenian poker community is growing
like all of you individuals from the SPT team, you are one of the main parts of making things go the way they do. I believe most people don't see it, but I know it myself
and I understand how much time and effort you put into it and THANK YOU FOR THAT! I'm grateful to be a part of it!
This lady painted this beautiful picture during the series and then gifted it to the winner. Just amazing <3
Also, thanks to Anja for coming with me. In Ljubljana, we are both busy most of the time, and we don't have enough time to be together, so I said "hey, you can go to the Czech Republic with me, I'll be playing cards most of the time, but we'll maybe find some time for us as well". she said "Let's do it, I'll work in the room, but if you'll find some time we'll have some fun for sure". Well, in addition to working the whole day, she found time to bring tangerines to my table and even ****ing peeled them and cut into pieces so that i would eat easily and like a god, delivered coffee and water, that I was hydrated and drugged the whole time
Thank you for that, my performance is even better because of your help, and for that I am INFINITELY GRATEFUL!
I would like to tell myself that next time I will take better care of my daily routines, and go outside for fresh air more often during breaks, exercise a little more, and definitely go out of the casino every day, at least for a walk, to see daylight, because these 17 hours of playing cards indoor, without knowing whether it's daylight or not (Saturday to Sunday), it's ok if it happens once or twice, but when I'll be going to live events for several weeks/months, I definitely don't wanna repeat this patern and it will be even more important that I do some mandatory things for the body and "soul" every day
Overall experience 8.9/10.
Why isn't it 10/10? My routine mentioned above could easily be better, plus stuff in the hotel, and the hotel itself was not the best experience. The first thing that confused me the most was that the stuff in the hotel was not the friendliest in the world. considering that you are sleeping and gambling there, would be good to have a bit cheaper or some free meals.
It's not bad, it costs 10€ each entrance to the restaurant, so 30e per day (breakfast/lunch/dinner), again it's not bad, of course. Also it's self-service, let's say there's quite a lot of choice(ish, could be better imo), but especially from what I have heard from people in other locations around Europe, given that Rozvadov is really one of the most popular poker rooms in the EU, I would expect that they would offer a bit better service tho.
I think that if this wasn't my first trip to the live series and I wouldnt be hyped as hell, I would rate them worse than I did
Plans ahead, nothing special. Grind online as much as possibru, In May, the scoop is goin on, so I will probably change my schedule to night for at least a week or two, maybe for a whole month. Otherwise, nothing special, play at least 5 times a week, every week 3x mandatory training, the rest optional, as much as possible. As much tennis as possible, especially now that its getting warm outside, the goal is twice a week, and I really have several candidates to play with, I don't see why it wouldn't be doable.
I will prioritize sleep a little more, 30 minutes more every day, so that I sleep at least 7 hours 30 minutes every day, that's kind of optimal for me i think.
I want to have a bit better freetime, and I want to be more chill, to really TURN OFF, it seems to me that sometimes I overthink things going back and forth, so I wanna focus a bit more on present moment when I'm away from tables. I just want to have fun, relax, rest and be with people I love, and in my head I put as much peace as possible and not too many demanding thoughts.
That's it, next time I'll be in touch on Monday, despite the fact that today is already Thursday
I'm glad to be back and in my routine and cant waiting to play online tomorrow against the morning bastards!
Next week's goals:
Poker/Learning:
- 3x playing
- 1x study day
- Every day spot or two (focus on database analysis), 30-45 minutes a day.
Other goals:
- 2x fitness
- Sauna
Optional if I find time:
- Visit friends that you didn't see for some time.
Tim