Brief Intro Update

So my second half of last year was spent mostly working my part time job and meeting my GF, spending time with her and planning our Thailand trip for the first half of this year. I played some, but far less than was worth posting and so it tapered off a lot.

This year, for the first half of the year, I will be supporting myself in Thailand with the pokers, so the grind shall be regular. I fly out on the 28th to meet up with my GF on the 30th and we spend the first month in BKK (I lived there already for 5 years in my twenties) and then likely we'll settle in Phuket somewhere from March until July and then we fly to Vancouver middle of July. There will of course be plenty of island excursions (starting with a Full Moon Party in February on Ko Pha-Ngan with some Canadian buddies of mine who are traveling through for the month as well).

I waited to post a new one of these to be sure I actually got some grind happening, so there'd be some poker to post about too. I've finally started playing a bit and my volume is increasing to decent levels, sadly the results haven't been great, but my cash rate is quite high, so just need a little run good in the late stages as I can't win a flip to save my life once in the money so far. But luckily my live sessions went well and I'm only down a couple bills for the year in total. I'll be grinding almost every day from home until the 27th (with days off to hit up the games at Rama once a week) and then I'm off to BKK. I should be grinding the morning session there, but it will be a bit scattered throughout February as we'll be settling in and traveling and visiting friends and such. But March through July should be a real solid grind of poker and island living.

OK... thanks for reading. Here's my Graph for 2017 to date, will be playing this afternoon again and will try to post regularly including pics of my travels.

-satellite84

Previous Thread

2016

2017 To Date Graph


Some Goals

- 600+ MTTs per month
- Move up to a $25 avg. by end of the year
- Play the full SCOOP-L schedule and much of the SCOOP-M and hopefully have a nice score
- Enjoy every minute of island life for the first half of the year
- Return to Canada and begin planning for the longer term future, house and GF wise

Subbed gl, followed your last thread.

Vamooo, gl man!

pretty awesome that you're grinding in Thailand for the first half of 2017! Hope to see some pics

TYTY

GL to you as well, sire!

Many pics to follow in this thread, for sure...

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No session today, my new laptop for Thailand arrived today and so I spent the afternoon getting it setup and whatnot. I actually like the Monday sessions, but oh well... back at it tomorrow and Wednesday and then live pokers on Thursday.

Gl! Liked your last thread!

Thank you, hopefully this one will last the whole year and be better too!

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Pretty meh day yesterday, was only a small session as I couldn't start until 2 PM... running pretty horrid ITM still... lost AK v AK v A10 (to the 10 of course) for a big pot in the $22 5K... lost multiple flips from both sides after getting into or near the money in a bunch of stuff, so it goes... today should be a much bigger session. Then I am playing live tomorrow and Friday before a BIG weekend grind.

Daily Graph


GL peeps!

Very short session yesterday, sat down, first four tables up and running, lose my complete time bank in all four within a minute and it got better enough that I ended up firing 10 total before giving up as the lag was so bad for me yesterday. Maybe because of the beginning of TCOOP, I dunno. I gave up. Solid 10+ hour live session today, day off tomorrow. Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Wednesday sessions for around 155 tourneys total and then my January is likely finished unless I can squeeze a session in on the 31st in BKK. We'll see.

Decent day Thursday at Rama, up $100, pretty tight table and was kind of spot/card dead, but I played solid and found some decent spots to pick up chips and leave with a profit.

Back online today and unsure about tomorrow as I kind of wanted to watch the football games, but we'll see. Take it day by day pretty much until the end of February.

GL

Blah day, lost a nice stack late in the Hot $5.50 and just busted the Deep Stack in 14th... ran A10o into AA... BB v BTN... he flatted and I flopped the 1 outer. Shrug.

Back tomorrow morning at 8 AM for a good Sunday grind.

Did not get a huge grind in today, but I did get in around 20 events and played some higher buy-in stuff as it's my last time playing in this time zone until end of July and not sure how much I will play overnight Sundays instead of just grinding out the lower variance off peak stuff Monday thru Friday in Thailand. I'm really not running well and it's been a long time of just losing constantly... usually with a high cash rate... I know it's to be expected and my lack of volume doesn't help me overcome it quickly to be sure, but still frustrating.

I will try to put in good volume Monday to Thursday afternoon this week and then pack Friday and likely call it a month.

Next month, I hope to get in around 8-10 sessions and then March until July 5 days a week of grinding in Phuket.

Another 25 tourneys today and another horrible day of getting brutally molested by Stars... I'd love to post something interesting, but there is nothing interesting about losing every tournament in the middle stages more or less by either getting 2 or 3 outed or running big hands into the nuts pre-flop. So I'll just keep grinding the rest of the week and hope I can have just one winning day this month to make me not feel like total ass and have something to build on when I get on the plane to Thailand...

So this session has started about as good as the rest... FUN!

I might just can this one after these tourneys finish up and call it a month early and go to Thailand and hope a new situation and new session time will help stop the run bad.

If you don't see any more posts, next session will be next Tuesday in BKK!

Well I did power through the rest of my session last night, watched more sad panda beats for the most part, made a deep run in the $3.30 Turbo PSKO, but fizzled in the F3Ts unfortunately. I'm taking today off, I have to pack my storage unit today and do some other errands that will take most of the day to complete. And clearly I could use a day off, but I will try to crush a big session tomorrow. Ideally 45 tourneys to get to 300 for the month total and hopefully, fingers crossed, my first final table of the month as that has still alluded me.

I will also do some studying tonight of some spots I starred for myself and watch a video or two probably before bed, but I do feel like I'm not playing terribly, but I guess time will tell.

Anyway after tomorrow's session, I'm off to BKK and my first session there will be on the morning of the 2nd. And pics of the travels will follow, of course...

Monthly Review

I didn't play much at all in the first half of the month as I was hanging with my GF before she left for Vietnam/Thailand and then after she left, I was finishing up my work at my other job. The second half of the month I got a decent grind in, not amazing, but 260 tourneys, which wasn't bad considering the final week of this month would be spent packing, visiting friends and family and traveling to BKK. Next month with be spent in BKK with my GF and reconnecting with old friends from my last stint there and then Phangan for Full Moon Party and some beach time with friends from back home and then Phuket for the final week to find an apartment with a nice grind space and settle into island living for 4 months.

As for results, it went horribly... I ran like ****, I think I played pretty well mostly, though I am sure I was rusty in some spots, I plan to use the flight to review hands in PT4, but overall I know I was just getting boned routinely in swing pots that kept me from making deep runs and I know that the volume level is not that high, so I'm not going to put too much stock in the results this month... or next as I intend to only grind about 8 sessions in February. In March, I expect a full month of 20-22 sessions and more tourneys per session, so hopefully by then the results start to come.

Graph



February Goals

[ ] Play 8 Sessions

[ ] Play 300 MTTs

[ ] Rock Full Moon Party Hard

[ ] Find an apartment in Phuket (or BKK if we change our mind last minute)

[ ] Post some pics in this thread of the travels

That's it for now... I fly out in a few hours... next session will be February 2nd... looking forward to the off peak, smaller field grind.

GL Heros
Peace

Keep updating!! Good read, it will turn. I read all time. GOOGGO VAMO

Thanks bud! I'm sure it will turn too... glad some people are reading and hopefully it'll be better with my travels included...

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Speaking of which, currently sitting in the Shanghai Airport awaiting my connecting flight to BKK watching the fifth set of an epic Aussie Open Final (Go Fed!)... will get in late tonight, about 2 AM local time. Probably just chill tomorrow and get my local cell setup and maybe a bank account... probably tho mostly sleep in late, chill at night, watch a movie with the girl and catch up about her 3 week trip and then try and get a full night's sleep. 31st will be shopping for summer clothes and **** like that... and then the 1st we move into our apartment for the month... and settle in... and the 2nd about 6 AM, I will be up grinding with the Big 5.50 and Big 33 and Hot 7.50 and all those events around then... my schedule looks like it's about 40 events most days plus whatever daily majors are going.

Pretty much I will play regular speed from 3.30-33.00, turbo (including bubble rush) from 3.30-22.00 including all knockout events of course too... for now I won't add hypers, but we'll see how it goes this month with the handful of sessions I play and decide in March if I wanna add them or not.

Peace!

edit: this wouldn't post from Shanghai Airport, so I am in Thailand now... staying at Centre Point Asoke until the 1st... here's a pic from our balcony...

Squeezed in 10 tourneys yesterday, couple of cashes, nothing special. I've got a nice new Samsung 27" monitor but the grind space doesn't really allow me to use my laptop open at the same time, so I am going with 9 tables max while I'm in BKK... tho in the off peak hours, that shouldn't be bad.

Anyway, I'm out tonight for my welcome back party at RCA and tomorrow will be a grocery shopping/recovery day then I plan to grind Sunday to Wednesday... aiming for ~140 tourneys during that stretch and then I am off Thursday and Friday, one more session Saturday and then off to Koh Phangan for a week.

Will update during next week's grind.

GL all!

โชคดี

ขอขอบคุณ

Horrible day, yesterday was a small loss as my closest finish was an 11th in a 6max... still waiting on my first FT of the year... amazing. Don't feel like writing much, went for beers at SeenSpace yesterday with the girl after my sesh... pic below.

But before I go... enjoy my EV graph for today... fun!



Hoegaarden is delicious...

Glad you enjoy Belgian beers - check out Wishbeer bar for a huge choice of beers

Cool! I have a friend who lives about 50m from there apparently, never been, we will definitely check it out before we leave for Phuket. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Good grind yesterday, 34 tourneys, small loss, but lots of deep runs and lost a handful of flips to see them all fizzle before FT... the worst of which was AK < 1010 for CL or close to it in the $27, 2K with 13 to go... but overall feel like I played much better than I have lately.

I have marked some hands, and will post them during my weekly review this Saturday... I also nailed down a schedule for the rest of my trip (minus the two weeks of SCOOP), so I'll talk about that too.

OK, back to the grind.

GL

Another grind today, like 7 cashes in 25 events or something, all fizzled out due to lost flips and 60/40s and such... small loss again. Shrug... I like the session and off peak field sizes and I feel like over the 4.5 months I have left here, it will be profitable. So whatever... will post more on my weekly review before I leave for Phangan.

Out for the night for the GF and I's 6 month anniversary... GL grinders! See yah on the felt tomorrow.

Update

So far this month, I have played 130 events with 25 cashes, so a very nice rate. Unfortunately, still getting routinely into the Middle to Late stages of events and then losing an unavoidable flip or getting my big pairs cracked or missing some big draw for a huge pot. Way it goes. I feel good about my game and where it is headed now that I have been playing more consistently. I feel good about the tail end of peak/off peak session hybrid I am playing and the schedule I plan to keep (below). I feel good about the volume I am getting in so far this year while traveling and expect once in Phuket, that volume will go up significantly and I'm looking forward to it. So overall, things are going well, just not seeing the money yet. But it's OK. My ABI is around $13-$14 and I expect it to stay there for a while. My dedicated BR covers about 300 more buy-ins at that level after the 120 I'm down since the beginning of the year, but I would drop down if I felt it necessary.

Schedule

As each morning is really the previous afternoon for me now... I'm basically doing this as my buy-in period each day, optimized to capitalize on the afternoon and evening major on days when both are offered...

Sunday - OFF
Monday - 4 AM - 9:15 AM (35 MTTs)
Tuesday - 4 AM - 9:15 AM (35 MTTs)
Wednesday - 6 AM - 9:15 AM (25 MTTs)
Thursday - 4 AM - 9:15 AM (35 MTTs)
Friday - 6 AM - 9:15 AM (25 MTTs)
Saturday - OFF

Friday is a flex day if we are traveling and I need to take it off. Of course over SCOOP I will adjust this for those two weeks. But for the basic grind, I like it. I like mornings and I don't mind sleeping a bit earlier on weeknights and I get my entire weekends off.

In total, I expect to get about 2700 + SCOOP in by the time we leave Phuket end of June. That will be more volume in half a year than I've done in a full year, so should be interesting. Hopefully we see some sun run and some lobby porn in this blog.

As for the rest of this month... My GF's mom is visiting today and tomorrow before heading back to Canada, so we are showing her around BKK. Sunday morning we leave for Koh Phangan to meet my buddies and spend 4 days there doing the Full Moon Party, hiking, swimming, chilling, etc... then we are back to BKK until the 21st where we will have a going away party for my buddies on the 17th and then squeeze a couple sessions in and chill before our final night in BKK where we will hit the Sky Bar and do dinner somewhere nice. Then it's off to Phuket, settle in, explore the beaches and town for a few days and buy whatever we need and then start full time grinding on the 27th.

I think that's it... will post some pics from Phangan when I get back. Have one last session tomorrow and will post if anything interesting happens.

Peace

Squeezed in a final 29 tourneys for 160 total for the first half of the month. Another 6 cashes with multiple deep runs foiled by lost flips and AA < KK in the $27 2K with 18 to go... shrug. Played great. Stayed focus. Going on vacation, peace out!