Gonna keep the introduction nice and short:

Name: Hannes
Age: 25
Country: Belgium
Current games: MTT's abi ~$15
Bankroll: Stars: 13k$ (pbb cashing out ~2k tho) Unibet: 1.15k euros

Link to previous thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...d-imo-1500129/

2015 graph



Overall Stars graph



2016 GOALS

Just like last year, going somewhat ambitious:

[ ] 50k$ profit

Gonna be hard and profit goals are still meh to pursue but it tends to motivate me and 50000 is a nice number. Will be playing MTT's on Stars and cashgames on Unibet. I'll be happy to achieve this post-rakeback (lol rb)

[ ] 7000 MTTs

Last year I said 8k and got 5.7, this year I wanna say 7 and play 7

[ ] Bink my biggest score

The bar is set high after winning 19.5k in March, let's run godlike!

[ ] Regularly study, review hands, read books, do work off the tables

Couldn't cross this off for the past year, hopefully will do better

[ ] Live at least somewhat healthy so I don't wake up feeling 76 most days

Less weed, better food, more sports

[ ] Healthy life balance and have lots of fun

Also, visit at least three places I've never been before

[ ] Deliver a quality thread for the peoples




That's about it, I think. Excited and motivated for my second year as a full time grinder! GL everyone and thanks for reading

Xpost from old thread: 2015 review

So, my first year as a tournament pro is finished. What a ride it has been...

I still don't know if I can call myself a professional yet. If I'm being honest, probably not. I do a lot of things suboptimally to say the least: smoking tons of weed, little sleep, playing without focus, playing on just a laptop, playing hudless at times, sitting out tables to do something, cursing after beats, throwing a mouse, unneccesary chatting and the list goes on...

These are all things I have to consider very important to improve on if I want to go further pursuing my path as an mtt pro. Now that I have more experience and (kind of) know what it means to grind fulltime, there are no excuses and I need to hold myself accountable for all this stuff way more than I did in the past year.

That said, I learned so many things throughout the year it's ridiculous. I look at how I was playing in January and laugh at myself, which is exactly how I wanted it to be Feel great about the progression I've made these past 12 months and I'm excited to see where I can take it. It's very clear to me that I'm still a mediocre poker player at the moment and there are just tons of different ways for me to improve if I can stop being so damn lazy and get to work!

The thought of doing that motivates me but this is what I do especially at the end of a year; I get myself all worked up about stuff and gradually go back to being my lazy, pot-smoking self. There is no indication of anything being different this year and just me writing this down won't help either, so I myself am curious as to how it will work out.

I'm slightly nervous about all this going into 2016, but it's nothing compared to how I felt in January this year. I was so incredibly scared of failing, busting my roll, not coping well enough with variance,... Sometimes it's not even funny how insecure I can get. But after my first 2 months going steadily well, I got a huge gift from the RNG in March by binking the bigger $11 for 19k. This was so fortunate, it's not even funny. The experience of getting HU vs solidthought (I knew who he was at the time, but he didn't know me) was huge for me. Playing a good reg for a ton of money HU, no matter the outcome, would set me up for handling high variance situations for the whole year. Being lucky enough to win it, it's far and away my favourite poker moment to date.

After the 19k score I felt somewhat empty and depressed. How fkn weird is that? I felt like I didn't deserve such a score yet, that I was still just clicking buttons and the score was a bit too unreal. The fact that my biggest score to date and a 15k field win didn't make me superhappy made me even more depressed because "if this doesn't do it for me, what will?"

Come the downswing...

I expected things to turn around after getting such a big break early in the year. What ended up happening, I wasn't ready for. I am however glad it happened.

I could never understand those graphs of winning players who bink big and then immediately go on their biggest downswing. Now I see how that works and it's important to use that experience to avoid such big swings in the future. For me, the downswing worked in different stages:

1. Aha, yeah, this will obv happen
2. Hehe, yup, that's variance for ya
3. Hmmm
4. I'm just gonna pump out volume and play well (read: playing more tables than before)
5. Oh come on
6. I don't deserve thissss
7. *** this 11$ FO, I have to win the low SCOOP!
8. I'd be really fkn happy to win an 11$ FO
9. Total numbness
10. Utter depression/break from poker

Going through these stages has done a lot for my mental game I think. I've learned a ton of stuff that might help me reduce variance in the worst of runs. It's easy to lose sight on what you're doing and end up chasing big scores. It's easy to take marginal lines in your regular games and focus on bigger stuff, putting yourself on tilt when you bust one of your bigger buyins. You're starting to chase scores rather than grind it out. You start blaming variance for everything. You start to not care anymore etc...

It's dangerous to get caught up in a spiral of bad behaviour after experiencing runbad. Reflecting on it afterwards will make it clear that a lot more than just runbad was needed to lose all dat money. I think my downswing might have learned me more than anything else so far in poker.

Fast forward to October, where I climbed out of the hole. I experienced this similar as my fortune in March, except after the downswing it felt much more deserving. I was able to enjoy my winnings a lot more because it felt like I had it coming to me after a very rough stretch. November went pretty smoothly as well and I took it real slow in December, probably partly because I felt like wrapping up my year on a positive note.

I think I'm pretty blessed with how the year has gone in general. The huge upswing-huge downswing-huge upswing line might have been exactly what I needed to realize what it's like to be subjected to tournament variance and I wouldn't want it any other way if I could do it over.

subbed, gl mate

GL!

Yes mate! Hope you have a great 2016!! Lets get HU in something big again!

and nice savers

VAMOOOOOOOOOOOO

oh and good luck!

Subbed

GL

3 hours into the year, got legit slowrolled twice



thanks for the subs guys!

gl
subbed

GL subbed!

Glgl

Very nice recap of 2015 Hannes! Its very good for u that u understand a lot of things about poker and for life imo and its helpfull to us to read it so ty for posting

GL HF 2016

glgl

Please dont stop smoke week... you are crushing these stakes because the power of weeeed

GL <3

get a good vaporizer

Subbed. GL!

in glgl

subbed GL!

Thank you guys for commenting! The first few days haven't gone my way... to say the least Feels like I've been playing quite well and just running real crappy tho. Been thinking of making today half study/half grind to try and cool down and get some confidence but decided to just grind a full MTT schedule again. Games have been really soft too, ironically

Here is the mtd graph, at least volume is looking good early. Probably taking half the day to study tomorrow unless today's results are good and I feel like grinding all day again tomorrow:



GL all of you, thanks for following!

Need to crush higher stakes tho I do still love weed

Is there any reg who started this year well?? :P

Subbed bro, gl, wish you the best

13th in big $16.50 and 11th in big $44 after doubling JJ>QQ for 1/16

legit feel like smashing up stuff

also worst day ever in bb ev which tilts me hard

Subbed again, been reading your 2015 post with a lot of fun and interest. Hope u make all your goals this year! Heel veel succes daarbij!

how do I sub to get noticed when u update this

u just did ^^

Thanks for the subs and gl wishes! Bibonow, yeah you just post to sub and this will show up under "subscribed threads"

So even though I was supertilted yesterday, I did end up playing some cash and ended up ~5bi in what I guess has to be around 2k hands, which gradually reduced the tilt of final table bubbling two bigs in one day. Does anyone know how to get graphs/session stats from Unibet? Would be nice to be able to post session details

I'm putting in some study today, will watch some vids and take notes while pausing the video etc.. I've done that just once now but it feels like quite a good method to soak up information for me personally. Will definitely play tonight, either cash or an mtt/mttsng sesh depending on what I feel like playing.

Have to get a new mouse because I threw the old one across the room yesterday after busting b44 In the past year I've smashed two mice, one laptop and my cellphone. Ridiculous really... I do think my mental game has gotten gradually better but while I don't really tilt playwise, I have urges to just throw stuff around untill I'm calm again which of course is ridiculous. Think I'm gonna commit to, whenever I break something, buying myself and doing the same for a close friend. So if I break a mouse, I owe someone a mouse and if I break a laptop... well, I'm not gonna break any more laptops

I just need to grow up.

GL all!