A 2018 recap video w detailed results + takeaways would be awesome!

Good Luck!

Since I am going to be busy in the next week or so (due to Christmas and New Years), I will not be putting in much volume for the rest of the year and have decided this is an appropriate time to do my review.

WARNING - LONGEST POST EVER

Before I get into my year review I will quickly post my December graph and some notes about December.



December was a strange month. Ran awfully at 500nl - losing 20 buyins but ran amazing at 200nlz winning 50 buyins. I netted +30~ buyins but only made like 600$ this month.

Results for 2018:

Start off with graphs and stats

***The results for below are purely for Ignition
***The results start from mid December 2017
*** 200nlz results change from the Summary and the graph? (not sure why)


Results by stake:



Overall Graph:



200z Graph:



200z Graph with SD winnings

Poker Results Review

I am honestly not sure where to start with this. There are some things I am happy with and there are some things I am disappointed with.

Negatives:
- Fell short of the 1m hands I wanted to grind out
- Regular table winrates (across all stakes) have been poor
- 500nl results are awful

Positives:
- Moved up from 50nl to 200nl within 1 month
- 200nlz results are very consistent
- Zone results are good
- Average hours per week seem reasonable (31hrs/week)

When I first sat down and constructed my 2 year poker plan. I set myself a 30k AUD goal target for 2018. So against my plan, I have exceeded this goal by more than 3x (including live poker and other sites/apps). Although I will set non-monetary goals for 2019 as I have learnt that monetary goals are ineffective.

My Experience as a Poker "Pro"

Background context:

For those who are unfamiliar with my thread, I became a poker "pro" in mid December 2017. It all started when I arrived back in Australia from my 6 month trip to Europe and Japan. Whilst I was in Japan (in the last few weeks of my trip) I decided that I wanted to try make a living independently, away from my university degree and a standard 9-5 job. I constructed a very detailed 2 year plan that would essentially allow me to build up enough capital to start real estate investing by 2020. It basically involved three aspects - poker, investing and business. Poker would be the main source of income - the capital made from poker would immediately be invested (primarily stocks and crypto) and the business plan would be developed along the course of the 2 years and executed towards the end of 2019. If my objectives were not met then my plan would be immediately terminated and I would go look for a job. It doesn’t mean I give up but just means I need to be realistic about the situation and attempt a different path to my end objective.

Brief Recap of Year

Dec 2017 - Started playing poker again at 50nl on ignition. Started first "poker study group" with the trash reg/troll Bani.
Jan 2018 - Moved up to 200nl but had my worst downswing of the year (-47buyins). Mentally not prepared and took ~2 weeks off. Spent that two weeks working really hard on off table skills (mental toughness, discipline, ego and humility). Also developed a system with my friend that would improve routine and structure for my poker hours.
Feb 2018 - Came back and grinded myself out of the downswing and had my 3rd best month of the year
March -Apr 2018 - Increasing volume and consistently grinding
May 2018 - First serious population database analysis/study at 200nlz. Wrote up a number of reports for population - particularly on tendencies and exploits.
July 2018 - One of my worst months. First 500nl shot. Structure and routine all over the place due to the World Cup. Sleep schedule flipped around and overall quality of play was very low. A mid year wake up call to get my **** together.
August 2018 - Eliminated all bad habits and had my highest volume month (~96k hands) as well as my highest $ month despite failing a 500nl shot. My 2nd 100k hand challenge. Started a study group with Scottycorbett and Kiebhoy. Since the formation of this study group, my poker skills has increased 5x.
September 2018 - The month I felt the most burnt out. Continuing high volume lead to some performance issues. Study volume at an all time high.
October 2018 - Low volume month. Trip to Melbourne with study group and grinded the live scene for a week.
November -Dec 2018 – Broken and Updog joined study group. Multiple failed 500nl shots but 200nlz WR very high across this period.

Thoughts on poker full time

This year has been an awesome learning experience. I have learnt so much about myself grinding day in and day out. I have also made some friends a long the way which has helped with my ability to stay focused and improve on my game. Being a professional poker player is not as easy as people make it out to be. There is a lot of hard work and stress that is involved.

Finally I want to post a few Dos and Don’ts that I have learnt from this year. I am hoping these points may be helpful for those looking to play this game for a living.
-DO treat poker like a sport. Warm up (something I don’t do enough of). Review each session, train (study) and ensure you are at peak performance levels.
- DON’T set monetary goals/challenges – sets you up for stress and will significantly affect your performance
- DON’T overdo volume. Make sure you choose a sustainable level of volume that can be realistically maintained across the year.
- DON’T be aggressive with your bankroll. You need this capital to sustain your winnings. Always ensure that you are sufficiently rolled for your “main” (the one you are most comfortable/good win rate) stake. This will help with stress and performance.
- DO make friends within the poker community. You never know what kind of positive experience or opportunities may arise.
- DO try and join a study group. Make sure the people who join are motivated and hard working. Also make sure that they are the type of people you would be friends with outside of poker.
- DO make sure you live a healthy lifestyle. If your body is in good shape, so will your mind. Eat well, do physical activity, sleep well and socialise (cliché)
- DO set yourself a routine or at least some sort of weekly or daily structure. You need something core so that your mind builds habits. If you fall out of habits you will notice performance starting to decline.
- DON’T focus your study in a vacuum. Always tailor it to the population you play in.
- DO keep yourself accountable. I have this thread and my close friends outside of poker to do this. I have mentioned this before but my friend and I would email each other every morning with a plan of the day.
-DO construct a backup plan. If poker ends up failing or you lose interest, it is really important there is some sort of foundation that you can fall back on to make a living. Knowing I have a degree and some business/employment opportunities helps with stress.
*- DO ensure you improve/develop/study your mental game. This is by far the most important lesson I have learnt this year. Long term success in poker stems from this. In my opinion, it is way more important than table skill study. At the end of the day, this is your number one tool when playing. If your mind is not in good condition then your performance levels will probably drop. At elite levels of competition and sport, the difference between elite and non elite players is based on their mental (there are numerous academic articles on this).

I am sure there are a few more other tips that I might add later but these are the main ones that come to my mind.
TLDR

- Results at 200nlz were good, rest were average or poor.
- Proud of my work ethic across the year
- Improved my poker skills across the year
- If you are wanting to become a pro – make sure you preserve and improve your mental game no.1 important aspect in my opinion.

Great work. Respect.

Great job this year! I always look forward to you're videos.
Thanks for sharing.

Nice wp

Sick.

Also, wow.... major congrats on the year bro & overall a super inspirational post.
I also have to give a big congrats on the amount of content you have been putting out over the year as well. I think not only the amazing progression in your editing skills deserves a metion but also the content has improved significantly since first discovering your videos. I am looking forward to seeing the progress & amounts of work you will be pumping out in 2019. So best of luck man and here is to crushing it in all aspects of life in 2019.

Many congrats, skuzlad! Your progress is really inspiring to see. Bad luck on the 500nl shots though, but I know you'll get there soon!

Just one question: you said in Jan 2018 you had a 47 buyin downswing?! Is that a typo? Was this downswing at 200nl or did you move down to 50nl?

The master of variance strikes again. lul

I really like the Dos and Don'ts post. Solid stuff. GL getting to 500z, you seem to have the right mindset for it.

Well done bud, my main take away was...

As I'm literally planning how to cram 16 hours of poker per day into the next 3 days :')

but that can be maintained across the rest of the year

Great writeup - thoroughly enjoyed the posts plus the vids so far. Bring on the New Year!

Absolutely sick year man, keen to see us crush in 2019! ggs

150k next year?

Amazing well thought-out post, great results aswell. Gl crushing highstakes next year!

Just found this thread, awesome results 50->200z in a month is pretty awesome.

Your points on mental game and having structure are really important imo, looking forward to following this thread next year

You know you made a solid and respectable post when mirage doesn't feel the need to troll you.

Also +1 to what everyone else said.

can i ask how much was your winrate / h?

Good Job Skuz

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way. Positive comments like this really help with motivation so thank you!

I have been slacking in the youtube department in the last 2 months. I will try up my YT volume in 2019

Yes it was a 47 buyin downswing at 200nl. I did drop back to 50nl and 100nl for a week but after regaining confidence I moved back up to 200nl and have not looked back

hahahaha yeah but you have a prop bet. I would be doing the same if I was in one as well.

You would hope so

Mirage has had my back since day 1. He is also Australian so small bias?

Overall (across all stakes) or did you want specific stake?

My overall was 3.9bb/100
My hourly overall was $33USD/hr

Obviously this changes for stakes

Awesome work this year, Skuz. Lots of respect for you, very insightful year review! Gl for 2019, will be watching closely. See you at AM!

What crypto and stocks have you invested in?

Sick work ethic for sure.

Dont invest in stocks (or anything else really) in 2019. We are entering cash preservation stage of debt cycle. Dont try to beat it.

Cheers, not sure if I will be going to Aussie Millions now... will let you know.

Bitcoin and Litecoin for crypto

Stocks are on the ASX (Australian Exchange) mainly energy companies, an esports company and a few "funds" (they are not actual funds but companies that trade on the American markets) that focus on tech stocks.

Ok interesting. I want to shift my portfolio into a more long term one so perhaps I can wait to enter.