Hello 2+2ers!

I am 24 years old from Austria, soon moving to Finland. I am currently studying mechanical engineering and have a backround in (semi) professional sports. I have been on and off playing poker recreationally for a few years (2018-2022 about 250k hands as I recently found out after requesting my stars HH out of curiosity).

After a relatively long break from poker I stumbled across some strategy content on yt around July 2022 and since then I am hooked. The first few months I was watching videos and playing Zoom on stars, with rakeback I was able to grind my roll up to 500$. I managed to crush that roll again down to 50$, within 2 months betweem 1.12.22-1.2.23. Around the same time Stars cut our rakeback program here in Austria, so I knew things have to change.

I reached out to fellow grinders, began to study daily and started a BR-challenge 50$-1k with the target of completing that by end of 2023 (status: completed). During the last months I really developed a passion for the game, my brain thinks poker 24/7 and I love it.

I am currently playing a mix of NL25z on stars and NL25 reg tables across different sites. My plan is to shot NL50 soon. I am dedicated towards improving and becoming the best poker player I can (have a looooot to learn still in this complex world).

I am creating this thread to hold myself accountable, share my story and meet new people on my journey towards high stakes. You will here from me monthly (at least)!

Results last 5 months (mainly Zoom NL10-NL25):

Hello and welcome to the 2+2 community!

Wishing you continued success as you move up the stakes and work towards becoming the best poker player you can be.

If you ever have questions, want to discuss hands, or share your experiences, feel free to do so.

May the cards be in your favor, and looking forward to hearing about your monthly updates!

Recap of my first year in Poker + Goals for 2024

After taking my first full week off poker since february and therefore having some to reflect, it’s time to recap the last year. 2023 has been a challenging year to say the least. Trying to dissolve some pretty severe reallife issues, while slowly transitioning from competitive sports towards poker (huge change in my schedule, routines and life in general) and trying to finish my university degree on the side has been rough at times. Nevertheless sitting here on 3.1.2024 in my new flat in Helsinki (just moved here from Austria) writing this text I am proud of myself with regards to how I handled the challenges and what I achieved last year.

Key Factors which worked 2023 and I want to keep doing 2024:

• Consistency is key
• Continue the study schedule which currently works for myself
• Daily meditation

What to improve on 2024:

• Cut the contact to people who are naysayers, not appreciating my time or just don’t approach poker in a “professional” way
• Dedicate more time towards improving the mental part of the game (this also includes social contacts in reallife, which I neglected a bit last year)
• Less result oriented and more focused on the process (something I definitely improved over the year, but still not really happy with)

It also goes without saying that improving the technical part of poker is also a key factor to get better. To tackle this part, I decided, besides continuing the path I am on with my study partners, to take part of my roll and invest it into 1on1 coaching. I will have my first session in 3 hours, let’s see!

I am not a big fan of setting results oriented goals, but just to put it out there, I am working towards playing NL100/200 at the end of 2024.

To conclude I want to thank all of you guys, who take their time reading my post a great start towards 2024, wish you physical and mental health for you and your family and ofc glgl at the tables. Let’s Crush!

Update January 2024:

The last weeks have been very eventful and exciting. Not only in poker, but also in reallife.

Firstly, so far I am very happy with the decision of moving to Helsinki. Felt like home from the first day and still does.

Poker wise the month was really solid. Played decent volume, but more importantly studied even more and to add the cherry on top I took my first successful shot on NL50. Unfortunately the month ended with a little bump, as my current study partner decided to part ways with me due to personal reasons, which wasn't easy at first, but in the end that's life. Some things are out of our control, we have to adapt and make the best out of it. I see this as an opportunity to evolve, study more on my terms and eventually find a new partner to hop on the train towards high stakes. I am more motivated than ever to become the best poker player I can, it is a great feeling!

Hope you guys had a great start to the year as well, glgl at the tables. See you in one month!

glgl, good read so far

why helsinki?

and why just sharing stuff monthly?

Thanks mate, nice to hear that you enjoy the read so far! I have spent a lot of time in Scandinavia as a child and also for training camps/competitions. Always enjoyed it a lot and knew that I wanna live there some day. Why Helsinki? My gf is from Helsinki. Might be more regular in the future, but trying to not spend too much time on disc/2+2 and focus more on studying/the process itself. But that being said, might change that in the future and also talk more about strat/hands here or just share my progress more often in general when I feel like it. Would you wanna see more?

Subbed, GL

Also welcome to Finland, glad you like it here even though it can be cold & depressing sometimes

Update + Graph Time:

Sitting here in front of my PC writing this blog post after my "biggest" losing session ever so far (10 buy ins in 400 hands) with a smile and happiest since a very long time. Sounds weird, but that's the truth! I just love Poker and everything that comes with it, even the pain. I also didn't tilt, which I couldn't really believe, but I am kind of proud of. Let's see what happens, when a big downswing hits. After all one session is just one session. Either way I can definitely see improvements in my mental game and I think the 3 main reasons for developing a better mindset where

1. regular sports and meditating multiple times a day, even if it is just for a few minutes
2. Not playing to win, but playing to get better
3. studying very consistent, which gives me confidence in more and more spots (still infinite leaks obv and a loot to learn)

Pokerwise the grind and study is going quite well. I found some study groups where I am surrounded by likeminded people and also got coaching, which really helped my development a lot. I have been working on my Gameplan in order to get a solid and simple strategy in every major node. Furthermore I worked on MDA with my coach, definitely opened my eyes in many spots. Shoutout to GTOnoob!

The last weeks I also played around with my study routine a bit and I think I found something which works great for me. Currently my week looks something like that:

Mo-Fr: 3-4h study in the morning, 1h Lunch break, 2h grind, longer break with sports and reallife stuff, 30-60min study to warm up and then 2-3h grind again
Sa: Morning off usually a long sports activity, after lunch 1-2h study and then just grinding as much as I can
Su: Off-Day

I am not saying I am following this schedule 100%, especially when there is more to do at uni, but I try to get as close as possible and optimize my life around Poker as much as I can.

I am not a big fan of graph sharing (variance is just so big), especially shortterm graphs, but who likes to read blogs without graphs right? So here are my results for the last 3 months. Not huge volume, but I took quite some time off around christmas and I have to take one week per month off with less poker to get my uni stuff done. It is a mixture of NL25z and NL25/50 reg tables. The last 50k hands only reg tables. Pretty big downswing at the end of last year and quite a bit under EV, but I am not complaining, it is still a relatively small sampe anyways.



Cheers guys, thanks for reading once again and glgl at the tables!

seems like right way to go, glgl

when the last 50k hands of yoour graph are reg tables, you should stick to reg tables ;P