I honestly can't speak for any of the other stables as far as a comparison but I think the 2 things that stand out


1.) Very deep and good coaching roster: Obviously MMA is the headliner but a lot of the guys I've worked with are pretty damn good at poker w quite a few of us moving up to HS, I think we have over 18 coaches and I would vouch for every one.

2.) Easier entry point. This can be looked at as a pro and con, but the CFP is probably the biggest (don't quote me) as we have over 100 students. If you are just starting out in micros it's much easier to gain entry and start a path + beginning networking.

I know bit b cash is more selective, which is ofc not a bad thing, just different organizational structure.

Week 47: November 16-November 22nd

1. 31.92 hours of Poker Yearly Goal: 1552.50/1800

2.) 1 hour of Mental Health Yearly Goal: 39.71/75

3.) 5.08 hours of Fitness Yearly Goal: 105.48/200


Not much to say about this week, except I set records. Unfortunately, they were not the records we love to see.

-Biggest losing day
-Biggest losing pot
-Biggest losing week
-Biggest DS of career

Def a gutpunch this week, a lot of unavoidable stuff. But a lot to clean up on. The dowswning has broken a decent amount past 6 figures so hopefully we can recuperate a bit and keep improving.


Hands where I won this week!

1.) nice river, shoulda went bigger

PokerStars - $10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 323.5 BB
BTN: 468.35 BB
SB: 110.13 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T 8

BTN raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 3 9 J
Hero checks, BTN bets 3.53 BB, Hero calls 3.53 BB

Turn: (12.57 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (12.57 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 4.08 BB, BTN raises to 25 BB, Hero raises to 110 BB, BTN calls 85 BB

Hero shows T 8 (Straight, Jack High)
(Pre 43%, Flop 44%, Turn 100%)
BTN mucks K 9 (Two Pair, Kings and Nines)
(Pre 57%, Flop 56%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 232.37 BB


2.) Still getting used to the HU game, thought this river would mix sometimes but was wrong! Live + Learn.

PokerStars - $50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 107.03 BB
SB: 267.68 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K A

SB raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, SB calls 7.5 BB

Flop: (20 BB, 2 players) T 4 3
Hero bets 9.98 BB, SB calls 9.98 BB

Turn: (39.96 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, SB bets 16 BB, Hero calls 16 BB

River: (71.96 BB, 2 players) J
Hero checks, SB bets 231.7 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 71.06 BB and is all-in

SB shows K J (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 29%, Flop 17%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows K A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 71%, Flop 83%, Turn 93%)
SB wins 214.02 BB


3. You say punt I say spicy

PartyGaming - $10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 119.8 BB
BTN: 100 BB
SB: 169.87 BB
Hero (BB): 288.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K 2

CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) A 5 3
Hero checks, CO bets 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, CO calls 7.5 BB

Turn: (25.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 26 BB, CO calls 26 BB

River: (77.5 BB, 2 players) T
Hero bets 115.95 BB, CO calls 81.3 BB and is all-in

Hero shows K 2 (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 26%, Flop 20%, Turn 7%)
CO shows A K (Two Pair, Aces and Threes)
(Pre 74%, Flop 80%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins 34.65 BB
CO wins 239.9 BB

Respect the consistency, keep it up!

6 figs so brutal. you got thisssssss glglgl

T. Villains in hands

that’s... not ideal .

do you feel tempted to put in more volume to grind your way out of the ds or has it gotten easier to accept the fact that the money is no longer yours overtime?

gl!

happens to the best of us

No it's not, it's been a frustrating stretch. Kinda works out that I hired a mental coach right before this though! Has been frustrating stretch though, I study a bit more, would say my volume stays the same though.

Sucks dude, I guess you can be pleased though that it's come on the back of a top 3% career year and not on the back of a bottom 3% career year!

For sure! I ended up wrapping up November with the worst month of my career and believe it or not I ran a little under 100k below EV. After sunning most of the year, I knew a bad stretch as HS was an inevitably.

I wouldn't feel too bad for me though, I'm still having a monster year, after being off the last few days I'm very amped to get back into the swing of things. Will do a fairly big end of the year writeup going over everything this year including my work with Elliot Roe, surrogacy, poker going forward, this blog going forward and life in general.

First thing to do is finally get this DS on its back

How can you know this on wsop?

It's pretty straightforward to track this with excel and equilab. Idk if he's doing this or not but I've done it before on untracked sites

Curious if there’s tracking software you can use that’s not against TOS.

Is this fine if you’re not using HUD during play?

http://www.holdemindicator.com

I meant to say ran more than 100k EV below EV. Half my volume is tracked, I ran close to 20k below there and then if I had to guess 100k ish below on WSOP, I don't have a true number so guesstimating

Yes, I do track through excel.

I don't mind not using a HUD, I'm horrible at taking notes but yeah not looking to do anything thats against the rules

How many buy ins is the DS?

Gl getting out of it... I'm downswinging real bad atm too

It's hard to say because I'm mostly just losing at the big stakes, I don't think buy ins wise it's much, its mostly just the $$$ amount.

Put in 12 hours of work yday, probably my longest day in quite a few years. Played fine but lost another 8k, which was a bit discouraging. Feel like I've improved so much the last 2 months, but haven't gotten the tangible results yet. It will come, I'm just hoping it speeds up

Hope you get out of this thing too!

I'm having a lot of fun playing together and I've clearly noticed how much better you've gotten. I have a friend playing HS MTTs on a bit of a ds who's just not seeing the greatest results -even though he studies a ton and is exceptionally sound MTTer (ICM is tuff). However he's mimicking that same feeling of confidence + improvement you're having; one that I'm struggling a bit with.

Anyways, only a matter of time and look forward to battling more at the tables glgl

Thanks man, I appreciate that. Ya we always have some fun hands I get that, poker is ridiculously complex sometimes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still getting absolutely wrecked lately. Down about 15k to start the month, definitely putting in a good effort so far though. Hopefully better news come next update

Pics of setup?

Play on the setup to the left, do offtable stuff on the right. Nothing too crazy.


Week 48-52: November 23rd-December 27th



1.) 138.77 hours of Poker Yearly Goal:1691.27/1880

2.) 4.5 hours of Mental Health Yearly Goal:44.21/75

3.) 4 hours of Fitness Yearly Goal: 109.48/200


Quick update: Downswing continues to balloon



As seen above, I am unfortunately just getting crushed at my higher stake games and as a result am in slightly over 150k DS. I have kept pluggin away and have had lots of reviews from other very strong players and the sentiment is I'm playing pretty well. It's just not too fun to lose during the downswings.

And while the downswing is fun, please don't feel too bad for me. I still had a massive year! If you told me at the beginning of the year that I'd have this monetary DS I might think I'm busto

28 and a 5 year anniversary


I turn 28 today, and right alongside it, 5 years playing professionally. It has been a really crazy ride, but I don't think a paragraph will do it justice.

Will have one more post before I wrap up this year... will talk about breaking through into highstakes, working with Elliot Roe, taking the plunge to learn HU, the surrogacy experience, and what my future holds.

Happy Birthday!

Happy bday, dude! Rough downswing, hope it turns around soon.

Appreciate that guys! Im off tomorrow, so my year is officially done. Write up coming tomorrow.

Looking forward to the year end recap.

Before I get into the 2020 recap, I thought I'd recap my career for the casual reader; I was also feeling nostalgic as I just had my 5 year anniversary of pursuing poker full time.

So let's go back to....


2015

It was May of 2015, I had just graduated from Salisbury University and was looking forward to moving on with my life. The one issue was...I really had no idea what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I went to school and majored in media productions but my passion for that really eroded around halfway through college.

Coming out of college I didn't have a job set up. I was nervous/anxious regarding this so I scooped up one of the first offers I got. I was tasked to work as a sales recruiter for a small company. Day to day tasks mostly led to tiresome cold calls and a lot of faux excitement.

I hated it. Getting up, going to work, coming back home miserable. It was just not a positive environment for me. So, where does poker come into this?

My last semester of college I picked it up (I had a very light schedule). And very soon, I got completely obsessed w the game. I remember fondly bringing my laptop to my geography lecture and 4 tabling 10NL while I half-heartedly took notes. Besides that, I would watch countless youtube clips, PAD, WSOP main event episodes...the list goes on.

Through all burgeoning love for the game, I really didn't consider poker as a profession at first. Poker Professional seems like such an exotic job I really didn't consider it until those 8 hour days working a job I hated really began to drag me down.

My days turned from working 8 hours a day; to immediately playing 4 hours of poker until bed.

That's when the idea of going professional really dawned on me. I was 23. What the hell do I have to lose? I told my parents of my choice. I got complete support from them and my closest friends, although I ofc got some skeptics.

I quit my job late December of 2015 with a $8,000 bankroll ready to make my dream a reality.


2016: Year 1

Transitioning from a 9-5 job to a do it yourself poker pro was a big adjustment. I went from being told what to do to having complete say and ownership to what I could do.

Naturally, I handled it horribly.

Growing up, procrastination and laziness were things I drastically struggled with and it continued my inaugural year of poker.

Instead of studying, I watched Youtube. Instead of grinding an extra hour of poker, I socialized too much. I did not have the discipline (yet) to have success with the game.

At the end of 2016, I had profited a little over 10k for the year (not really liveable in my state) and had gone into some credit card debt (18k) as my roll now diminished to about $6,800.

Despite being fairly broke, (I mean I legitimately had a negative net worth!) I was ready to leave my parents and start my own life.

I moved out, moved in with one of my best friends to Hoboken,NJ. A fun, social hub for a single guy like me; however, also a fairly expensive city as now I had a $1,250 rent per month with a roll of $6,800.

There are very few decisions in my life that really stick with me. But the one I made at the end of 2016 was the biggest of my poker career. With a pressure cooker of financial trouble staring me down, I had to ask myself, "Am I good enough to make poker work?"


2017: Year 2

I wasn't. And it's probably the best answer I gave myself. One of the beautiful things about this game is you can't lie to poker, the results told the story.

Throughout it all, I knew I had the capability to be a great player I just needed guidance. So, in 2017, I applied and was accepted as a student for BTS. The deal was for a year and 50% of my income for the entire year.

I think a lot of people would of balked at the 50% in my shoes; especially with my precarious financial position. But as always, I bet on myself; I knew if I had guidance into improvement I had the natural skill to be a dominant player.

As a result of the 50% cut, I humbled myself and began dog walking to pick up some extra $. Through it all, I wasn't really worried about going broke; I was worried about not being able to play poker as my profession.

Thankfully, the coaching worked out great. I worked with MMA for the majority of the year (and got great advice from Svansva as well) that my technical game improved a lot.

Socially, I was a young guy really focused on poker not really looking forward to anything serious. So naturally I ended up meeting my wife, Victoria, 2 weeks into moving to Hoboken.

By the end of 2017, I had gotten a loving girlfriend and had my first tangible success as a professional.



*2017 graph



2018: Year 3

I came into 2018 brimming with confidence. I had ended my contract with BTS and even got offered to start coaching with them, I developed a really strong friendship w MMA and began networking well within the poker world.

Unfortunately, I became my own worst enemy. I could sum that all up again, but I think these 3 posts do the trick.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=690

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=701

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=722

So yeah 2018 wasn't a great year. My worst qualities as a person (laziness/procrastination) took over and led to a very disappointing year. I did improve my game, but poor game selection/ game quality hurt me.



*2018 graph


2019: Year 4

2019 felt like a complete redemption tour. I really focused heavily on improving my overall process when it came to poker and reprogram my bad habits. There was plenty of failures; but I kept at it and kept plugging away.

I got engaged and felt on top of the world; especially as my poker results jumped to another level. I continued to improve and lessen my shortcomings; it was a tedious process but I really began to make slow baby steps of progress.

I made meditation a process; I really improved my studying efficiency and I played decent volume.

I ended up having my first six figure year in 2019 and even bought a house. Life was (and still is!) really coming together for me.

But with anything, adversity will hit. My fiancee had to go through open heart surgery and we found out she wasn't able to carry her children on her own. We decided on surrogacy, but with the average $ of that process being 100-150k I was again facing a bit of a financial crunch.

Which, finally brings us to 2020.




*2019 tracked results


2020: Year 5

Poker

Despite a successful 2019, after putting 20% on my house down I only had $32,000 in my poker accounts. Not bad at all especially with money outside of it, but with last minute wedding costs and surrogacy in the future there was some pressure.

The pressure didn't last long. I ran well to begin the year, but I came in thinking my skill set was well above my roll. I won, and won, and kept on winning. In early January, I was still mixing in 200NL. By April, I was shot taking a rare 10k game.

By mid spring, I had fully broken through into highstakes. Most importantly, my game has completely exploded. I've always been fairly self aware that I have issues with my game (as does everyone tbh). But this year was the first time, I could be honest with myself and say, "Hey, there's still a lot to improve on, but if you're locked in you're one of the best players in the country."

Around late June, I suffered my worst day of my career losing 60k in a HU battle vs a reg. In honesty, it was probably naive to play a format I hadn't put in work in despite being proficient in 6 max.

I then decided I wanted to hold the lobbies going forward, and I had to get better. So I messaged a former PGC'er that can help me.

HU

After the 60k loss, I stewed for around 20 minutes and realized I don't know really anyone who's great at HU. I thought a bit longer and wrote to Clanty that I was looking to learn HU. We quickly came to an agreement and began working together.

This was another one of my great poker decisions. The attention to detail and thoroughness Clanty gave me during our sessions was unprecedented. He was really a great teacher and he really helped not only my HU game, but also my 6m game. I think it was really a beneficial arrangement for both of us; but really have a lot of respect for his approach to the game. I also definitely stole some of his teaching methods for my own coachings

So yes, had to give friend one shoutout here!

Elliot Roe

With the excess of winnings, I knew I had made significant progress in my technical/theoretical knowledge of the game; but the biggest edge to be gained for me going forward was performance.

I've had people ask me quite a bit how his sessions have been, and it was deep consideration for me as well. I ended up paying $20,000 for a 10 session package. I've had 4 sessions and I have absolutely 0 regret; his sessions have been so beneficial to me. I wish I could go into more detail, but for my privacy sake I'll keep it to myself. However, he has been great in making me cognizant of some really big blind spots in my life.

I'm very much looking forward to working with him going into 2021.

As far as results, I play about half my volume untracked but since my results will be on BTS page I may as post them here. I was one of the bigger winners in the country and my NLH game is quickly progressing to a top level. I'm very much looking forward to pushing myself further in 2021.



*2020 tracked



Surrogacy

Through all the success of poker, the other big storyline of this year for me (besides getting married!) has been surrogacy. In June, me and my wife got one of the biggest shocks of our lives when my cousin offered to be our surrogate. By far, one of the most emotional moments of my life.

Unfortunately, we've had to have quite a few delays and a few medical issues that have delayed the process to February now. I have been able to deal w it ok; but it's been tough on my wife. For those curious, the bill is around $37,000 so far with no result so far so it's an expensive process but it's a huge relief to know I'm financially covered with this going forward.

I'm hoping that in the future I can do something for prospective parents going through this; maybe a grant? I could not imagine going through this on a regular 9-5 income.

Going forward

The development of my game the last 8 months has been huge; but I know I can still improve a lot more. I still feel really passionate about the game and best of all I've put me and my family in a solid financial position going forward.

I want to continue improving my work ethic and continue to put in more solver work. As far as this blog, I am going to continue writing in it. I enjoy it and it's something I've done since I started this journey over 5 years ago. I couldn't imagine just never writing in it.

However, I am far too boring to write in this thing every week. So I'll be making this a monthly blog post, this will allow a little bit more fleshed out writing going forward.

I hope everyone has a great 2021. I had a great 2020, but I know it's been tough on a ton of people so sending thoughts out to everyone.

As always, good luck on the felt.