14-15 months to the halving is where you should be heavily DCA'ing or already fully in.

there will still be variance, however the trend is higher lows and higher highs all the way past the halving into the following year.

I'd also second this. I could go into my own experience with my mental health or pull from what I saw working with young men in the DCF system (department children and families) but be careful there. I'm not a doctor but there is plently of good literature coming out that sheds lots of light on that subject. Brain Energy by Chris Palmer MD I'd highly recommend. I say this with an open and empathetic heart. you are taking the steps you need to find peace, just know those solution all lie within your beautiful self.

Thank you very much for this. I have been back on Zoloft for a couple days, feeling wild amounts of anxiety. I think my brain is trying to get used to the pills again. Only a 3 night workweek so hopefully I can come out of this feeling alright. Cheers

Final stretch of February Update

-744 tonight, but fortunately enough there was not much I could do.

Cooler vs Loose Rec

2/3 NL, ~450 eff

Random opens to 12 in HJ, Hero 3bets QsQh to 35, Main Villain cold calls SB, HJ calls

(~105) Flop: Qc 7h 8c

SB checks, HJ checks, Hero bets 35, SB raises to 90, Hero jams, SB calls and shows JcTc

Turn comes Ks, River Ad. RIP

Wild Whale Gets One

~250 eff, Hero opens Ks9s to 15, villain calls in SB, goes heads up

(~35) Flop: 9d 5s 2c

SB checks, Hero bets 15, SB calls

(~65) Turn: 9d 5s 2c 4s

SB checks, Hero bets 40, SB raises to 115, Hero calls

SB shoves before the river is dealt

(~295) River: 9d 5s 2c 4s 9c

Hero calls and SB shows A3o. RIPx2

Two more days left in my weekend so plenty of hours left to get in and time to make it back. Not really even mad at tonight's session, about 5 hrs, just because it was mostly unavoidable. Maybe I can check the turn in hand #2, but result is the same in this case.

February Hours Played: 79
Profit/Loss: +$1,276

2022 Hours Played: 175
Profit/Loss: +$2,518

Bitcoin Update

No large buys since Feb 12th. Waiting and seeing how things shake out after this volatility settles a bit, whenever that might be lol. Buying $1 per hour on Strike 24/7 as always.

Bitcoin Total HODLings: 2.16412815 BTC

Cheers!

Volatility? 'Market' volatility?
BTC's been a rock this year

17k ---->25k in a month is more volatility than we have seen in quite some time. I know OG Bitcoiners are used to 40% weekly moves. My bad?

February Results



We broke the curse! First profitable February since I started tracking my results. One of the regs at my home room told me that I am a terror to play with, which I was thoroughly flattered by. That's all I can ask for!

Hours Played: 88
Profit/Loss: +$2,219

2023 Results So far

Hours Played: 184
Profit/Loss: +$3,461

Non-poker related, but I just submitted my promotion document to be inclined for the next level up in my company. Hoping it does not take too long to find me a role, but with the way the economy is looking you can never be too pessimistic lol. Fingers crossed I can get it (and the nice pay raise as well)

Bitcoin Update

Still chugging along buying $1 per hour 24/7 on Strike and withdrawing to my private wallet daily. Haven't made any large purchases yet still, going to build the USD roll a little bit more and then splash another $500 or so. Hopefully not too much longer!

Strike Balance: 0.00135889 BTC
Private Wallet: 2.16695265 BTC

Total Bitcoin HODLings: 2.16831154 BTC

Next poker session will likely be Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Cheers!

Another Heater??

Poker update

Starting March off to a scorching start! Last week I had 3 sessions, two of which were +$867 and my biggest win at 2/3 600 cap ever, +$1,868. Coolered everybody and their mom, holding 99 vs 76s on 77496, AA vs KK, hit 5 sets in a row, stuff like that. What dreams are made of. One guy gestures to me while I'm raking in yet another huge pot and he says "Is that enough for you?" LOL

Tonight (Tuesday night) I am going to play in my home room's freeroll tournament. I have played this thing 4 or 5 times so far and have not made day 2 even one time. It's not like this is a Triton Poker super high roller field either. Bunch of limit hold em and Omaha 8 players mostly. I just need to run good one time! First place is $40,000. I'd love to buy a whole Bitcoin all at once!

March Hours Played: 24
Profit/Loss: +$2,698

2023 Hours Played: 208
Profit/Loss: +$6,159

Bitcoin Update

Splurged heavy after such a successful weekend, putting a bunch of the profits to use and acquiring another 0.10076009 BTC along with my $1/hour 24/7 buys from Strike.

Strike Wallet: 0.00075427 BTC
Private Wallet: 2.27556347 BTC

Total HODLings: 2.27631774 Bitcoin

Wish me luck in the freeroll. Cheers!

Go crush'em!!!!!! GLGLGL

FreeRoll Failure #

We actually had the best run yet in the freeroll but sadly busted 2 players away from day 2. A pro opens for 2bb (he has like 13bb), I jam 5bb with AJo and lose to his 77. GG. Sucks to have not cashed in this tourney for a 6th time now. Variance be like that sometimes

Bitcoin Update

I got a Bitfi wallet, which utilizes a salt + phrase system and the assets are not actually stored in the device but are retrieved from using my salt + phrase together. I have memorized my phrase and wont need to write it down which adds protection. Unless someone wants to tie me to a chair and torture the phrase out of me they will be out of luck. I transferred about $41 to it as a test transaction and everything appears to be smooth! I will transfer the rest in small amounts so as to not lose my coins in some botched transaction. But I like how Bitfi does their work!


I got work tonight in about 17 hours and so I will play cash again on Thursday. Cheers!

All well and good until it's 5 years down the line and you've forgotten it

Agree with szander, you should probably add to your security EV the fact that the probability of you forgetting the phrase will increase as time passes (even if you have a great memory, you´re not getting younger etc etc).

very good point - or even when I'm elderly! I'll figure out a way to securely store my phrase. Cheers

March Update

Plenty of volatility in this month, but still doing really well. I bought a ton of bitcoin lately, have been running super hot, hard to complain too much! Lots of ups and downs though. With the march madness crowd in vegas, I'm seeing a lot more unknown players. Some are OK, most are bad. But it's being unfamiliar with players that is raising some of the volatility. I've had multiple profits and losses of $900 or more so far this month.

Volume is about the same as last month, though it's pretty hard to hit 100 hours nowadays with my job being so demanding. About 90 hours a month isn't too far off from my 100 hours a month goal though. I'm sure with some extra effort I could hit 100 easily.

This work week starting tonight I'm only working two full days, and then there's one day where we are just cleaning up the building and then on Wednesday I will be out really early, so I should be able to squeeze in some more hours before the end of the month. When it comes to my job, right now I'm kind of just biding my time before a position opens up for the next level up in my company; right now there aren't many openings at all. Economy is def slowing down and with job cuts happening, you're starting to feel it for sure.

It was also my birthday on March 17th, so my parents came to visit and we went to Ferraro's Ristorante. It was OK, the quality def dropped off a bit from the last couple times I went there though, so next time I'll have to find a new place to eat out all fancy and bougie like.

March Hours Played: 79
Profit/Loss: +$3,358

2023 Hours Played: 263
Profit/Loss: +$6,819

Bitcoin Update

As stated above, been on a very aggressive buying spree with the month having gone so successfully thus far. I have officially transferred all of my Bitcoin to my new address and use the Bitfi wallet for private storage off any exchange.

Feeling pretty bullish tbh. Instability in the traditional banking system and the subsequent money printing to bail them out is exactly why Bitcoin was created. There will absolutely be big dips on the way up though, so I'm watching to see good BTFD opportunities. We'll see what happens.

Total BTC HODLings: 2.35943739 BTC

Cheers!

March Results and April Update

March graph



Hours Played: 93
Profit/Loss: +$3,397

Almost had my first 5K month haha, heater couldn't last though. All good!

April Update

More or less break even in April so far, losing a little bit here and there. Have been running kinda poorly this week with a lot of bad setups with hands opponents shouldn't have but do in this one instance, repeatedly lol. That's why live poker is so beatable though. If I only played sickos I would have a lot less fun. Still loads of time left to play and get back in the green, so I will have a good opportunity to continue my winning month streak which I have not had a losing month playing poker since Feb 2022. Let's go!

Hours played: 23
Profit/Loss: -$389

Work Update

I completed the first week being the lead operations manager of my shift from Sun-Wed this week, starting week 2 Sunday evening. I was really anxious and on edge having the new responsibilities, but I only have 3 days this week so it wont be so grueling this time around. I am hoping I can get promoted in the next few months - I'm pretty much just waiting for the positions to start opening up - with the economy slowing down however I may have to wait a bit longer. Silver lining is I did get a 3% raise as well as 55 more shares for my company that I will be able to touch in 2024.

Bitcoin Update

My last significant purchase was about $560 worth at $27,700 - have only been buying $1/hour 24/7 on my Strike account in the meantime. Not winning a ton at poker this month also makes for less BTC buys. But it's all good, just part of the swings! I do have some stock from my company vesting in may so I do plan to liquidate some of my shares and play 3/5 during WSOP time in June. That's when I'll be taking a month off from work and playing all day every day - I can't wait!

Total BTC HODLings: 2.36450247 Bitcoin

Cheers!

Very nice - great results! Been following along on the journey and hope to see bitcoin do well in coming year.

Can you break down your hour's spent in 2/5 vs 1/2? I would be interested to see hourly rate in the different limits. I've been spending a lot of hours on the live streets this year and find there are so many different nuances to the games that you just don't get online.

Are you studying at all and if so what tool's / material do you find best for live arena?

Also - I would suggest a ledger or Trezor to secure your BTC. Make sure your moving your funds off Strike account with some reasonable regularity just in case!

Good Luck!

Hey thank you for chiming in the thread, I appreciate it!

So I am playing 2/3 with a 600 cap and 3/5 with a 1500 cap, though when I have played I buy in for 1K

At 2/3 (bit of 1/3 mixed in but mostly same stakes) I am winning at ~7.63bb/hour over 2,095 hours. My 3/5 results are much smaller at ~3.83bb/hour of 387 hours. For a long while now I've been only playing 2/3 as I can win pretty decently while buying Bitcoin, whereas the swings at 3/5 would be much more detrimental in terms of my ability to buy BTC. When BTC goes where I feel like it will go this will not be a thing unless I'm waiting for the bigger game for sure

I do study with GTO+ and am part of a great study group from which I've gotten a lot of great training material to help me make sense of the sims. This may seem counter-intuitive for playing low stakes live, but I just look at what the optimal lines are and make adjustments according to the deviations I believe the population will make. I enjoy taking people down lines that they are not familiar with and studying the baseline helps me in that regard as well.

Appreciate the advice on cold storage wallets - I actually use Bitfi but yes, 99.9% of my BTC is always off exchanges. I trust Strike but there's really no reason to centralize your coins at any significant length of time or position size.

April Update - Riding the Rodeo Swings

The Rodeo fans are back in town and there's a whole lot of unknowns from the southern states. Crazy wild action!! I'm swinging up and down like crazy but this weekend it's been all profits, firmly placing me in the black for the month. Have been running super hot last few days, winning $205, $855, and $574 respectively to swiftly turn things around.

Not playing tonight as I am flying to California for a day, but I have taken off work on Sunday to be able to get that volume back. Priorities, haha. Before I ended the session though, the sickest hand probably ever this year happened...

~400 effective, Hero opens AcTd to 15 in UTG+2 or so, BTN calls, BB calls.

(~50) Flop: Qd Js 4d

Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets 20, BB folds, Hero raises to 75, BTN calls.

(~200) Turn: 7c

Hero Bets 95, BTN calls.

(~385) River 7s.

Hero checks, BTN checks. Hero shows ATo and villain mucks! I couldn't believe it. The guy tilted off his last 200 the next hand he was so steamed LOL. Just goes to show how much population underbluffs rivers in big pots even when they can't win any other way!

April Results so far

Hours Played: 42
Profit / Loss: +$1,245

2023 Results so far

Hours Played: 319
Profit / Loss: +$8,103

Bitcoin Update

Still no new large purchases, though if we see a good dip I will be buying it aggressively. Maybe 1k or so. Melt up idea still my primary outlook for the short term. Buying $1/hour 24/7 on Strike in the meantime.

Total Bitcoin HODLings: 2.36928631 BTC

Cheers!

So ur playing at SP...

Just skimmed the whole thing. Making me miss live poker. Have you said what room you're playing in? Might have missed it. Anyways fun thread, good luck!

Literally the only place I go to LOL I don't even care about concealing it anymore. Love the place. Good people there. Do you play there by chance?

I actually never stated until Mschu sniffed it out lol but I play at the South Point. Thanks for reading through!

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I will post my April update later today before I head out to get back on the grind - just got home from work and need to get some sleep - Cheers!

April Update

We have managed to swiftly turn things back around! Have had a 5 or 6 session win streak and have all but erased my little dip earlier in the month there. I played a late night session tonight with all the other 2/3 regs which was super fun and always gets my competitive drive going. One of them even offered to buy some of my action for the WSOP lol I will have to take him up on that offer actually.

Unfortunately, I did get owned in one spot where in retrospect I probably played it about as bad as possible:

2/3 ~700 effective - 9 handed

BTN straddles (yuck), UTG opens to 20, CO calls, Hero 3bets AsKd to 75, SB cold calls, UTG calls

(~225) Flop: Ad Jd Jh

Checks to Hero who checks back (Mistake in my opinion, not sure what I'm accomplishing by checking back here

(~225) Turn: Ad Jd Jh 6d

Checks to Hero who checks (Again, not sure what EV is generated that would be better than just betting small

(~225) River: Ad Jd Jh 6d 3c

SB bets 200, folds to Hero, Hero calls. SB shows T8dd. Lol

However, poker gods decided they were just yanking my chain and gave me a rebate against a rich rec about 15 minutes after that butchering of a hand:

2/3 ~450 effective effective, BTN straddles. Several limps and Hero is in SB with AhKc and raises to 50, only BTN calls

(~120) Flop: Td 7c 3s

Hero checks, BTN checks.

(~120) Turn: Td 7c 3s Kh

Hero bets 100, BTN calls.

(~320) River: Td 7c 3s Kh 8c

Hero jams, BTN tanks and tanks and shows KQo and eventually tosses in the call and hero is good.

A quick couple of beats and I was quickly down 400 or so but that one hand turned it all around and we ended up squeaking out an $81 win.

Plan from here is to play 15 or so more hours before the next work week begins. I'm 5 weeks away from my one month vacation for the WSOP and cash grinding, I'm counting down the days now - I'll try not to think about it too much

April Hours played: 54
Profit / Loss: +$1,507

2023 Hours played: 331
Profit / Loss: +$8,365

Bitcoin Update

So a few days before the current dip began I thought to myself (BTC was $29,800 at the time) that it would be pretty sweet to get a bear trap dip to $28,000 and lo and behold we are currently trading a little bit below that. I had a strong feeling that we would see the prior highs retested as BTC hitting $30K was the first time it traded that high in 14 months. Usually these new highs tend to result in corrections as traders take profits.

So naturally I ended up buying 0.02970749 BTC around $30K lolol I KNEW I was knife catching and I did it anyway. Greed.

I am not sure exactly how far this dip is gonna go, but it's pretty great to see general sentiment in the gutter again despite BTC nearly doubling so far this year. I realize now that bull runs are full of these traps that trick people into thinking it's over this time all the while grinding upwards and then once everyone has already bought in and up only becomes the consensus position, the major crash comes after.

But these are just my rambling 4:22am thoughts while stupid high out my mind so...grain of salt and all that good stuff. In any case, we stay humble and stack sats.

Total BTC HODLings: 2.4038845 Bitcoin

Cheers!