Time for a 2017 thread.
I think the title is great for the current poker atmosphere. There's a lot of uncertainty in the industry. Either the show goes on or then it's time to move on to other prospects in life.
I'm 24, Finn, soon finishing my bachelors of engineering in data networks.
I started poker at 2nl and moved all the way up to shotting nl 1k. It was a great lesson in life to see what is achievable with hard work and confidence!
This year I'll be taking a recreational approach to the game and I'm also looking for an exit plan.
Reasons for this: Playing full-time 5-7 days a week is very challenging physically and mentally, it's hard to maintain good focus. Limiting this time frame to 3-4 days a week solves the problem. We also don't have to be starting tables with regs at 1pm just for the sake of volume, we can be more selective when and what tables we play.
Nowadays I play euro sites 100-400nl. Also looking to do some zoom challenge! Will be blogging some hands and progress here. After a swingy 2016 I'm hoping to get back on the right (profitable) track!
Goals for 2017:
[ ] 20-30k profit depending on volume and stakes
[ ] Get ripped (started from scratch)
[ ] Gain great poker results
[ ] Get started with IT career.
[ ] Positive thinking and make progress in life!
First session done.
Not the best focus.
I've been thinking about re-gaining my confidence to bluffing. For what ever reason I tend to think that people don't fold by default, especially in spots where hero is FOS.
Glad to be breakeven since I played quite spewy on some spots! In those spots I did have a plan though and followed through, luckily everyone was folding
Need to focus on some other stuff now so prob no results update in a couple of days.
#54WWSF but #NoRedLine
h1: super high variance vs fish / "new player". Wanted to quit but then thought "**** it, std cooler", nothing to be upset about.
He is from China but not sure if he is that big of a fish, he bought in full etc. There's a chance we end up value owning ourselves, for that reason we could consider a check.
Winning 80% of the time vs 8h8x, if we're beat then we have a chance to let it go.
MP shows Q A (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 26%, Flop 46%, Turn 98%) Hero mucks A K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 74%, Flop 54%, Turn 2%) MP wins €404.00
h2: maybe I could have floated this turn, feels like I can have significantly (RELATIVE) range advantage here. There's some rivers that we can stab and expect folds, so this is something I need to think about.
This is decent bluff combo and can make the nuts, 9s9x you can't be sure that your flush is good, but obv we don't call for RIO, rather for immediate eQ vs villains range.
h4: the type of spot where I didn't expect villain to fold and first reaction was to check, but he folded quite quickly. Sure he can have all the 2x but we have so big range advantage otherwise, those things need to balance out
Do you feel like all the time and effort spent on poker was worth it? Given that now you have to find an exit plan after just a few years of playing.
Why should OP think about that? Some people do stuff others prefer watching tv. Isnt everything unneccessary in the end if you like seeing it that way.
Do you feel like all the time and effort spent on poker was worth it? Given that now you have to find an exit plan after just a few years of playing.
Yes it was worth it.
Poker gave me a lot of self-confidence and it also greatly improved my problem-solving skills.
Earning so much money at a young age is very unique experience as well
The social environment and self-development front are great as well. It lets you see how smart & successful people think!
Poker is a set of problem solving skills that will never fade away. Live poker will always be there, and I hope there are few more good years with online poker as well.
I think we're still privileged as **** as poker players. If something bad happens, RB gets cut or HUD's get banned, we just have to accept less!
I think I'm smart enough to keep up with the current meta-game. Not afraid of falling behind in that sense either. To see where I stand at, I'd have to look at 200z and see what the best players are doing.
If I was stuck at the micro stakes for years, I'd reconsider your question.
Tbh my list of accomplishments was very narrow prior to poker. What I did in poker is a very big accomplishment.
With this confidence, I could grind LoL platinum, SC2 high rank or something like that. Just proving that you are capable of great things once you put your time into it, that's the best thing I got.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiljusieppo
Why should OP think about that? Some people do stuff others prefer watching tv. Isnt everything unneccessary in the end if you like seeing it that way.
Gl!
Exactly this. There are other things that are massive non-productive time sinks that get you no-where in life (hint: video games )
I'm talking about something like Steam games, competitive games are obv fine if you make it far in those!
Hey. Sorry for no updates.
I've been really busy with school projects. Now I finally have time to devote for poker!
I applied for few jobs in Helsinki area. I got invited to one interview which went well. So far I haven't heard from the other jobs, been few weeks now.
Overall that job interview gave me a lot of confidence. It's nice to have skills that employers are willing to pay for!
Always nice to have Plan B as well.
I'm not gonna quit poker obviously, rather looking to progress onto other things in life, while playing the good games part-time.
I was half-way done with my degree and couldn't delay it any more. I spent a lot of time and energy for that degree. So that's why I couldn't take another year off.
If this job thing doesn't work out, I might do few months traveling.
Gym is going great as well. Finally got past the starting weights. I spent the first 5-6 weeks just building strength. I didn't have the strength to even try lifting higher weights. That has paid off now, I've done good progress in the past couple of weeks.
Been training at gym for 2 months now.Current weights: 45/40 bench, 35 SQ/DL. They're fish weights I know. 1 month goal is to be able to do 60 bench, 50SQ/DL. That would mean that in 3 months I would have tripled my starting weights.
Looking to add 4th day to my schedule. It would look like this:
A: Chest/shoulders B: Squat/DL C: Back/Chin-Ups D: Biceps/Triceps
Eventually I'll probably split up Squat/DL. I would also like to do chest & biceps twice a week, so will have to reconsider this schedule after some time.
I also like to do planking exercises. Planking helps you develop "resistance".
Even the "Slavic squat" is one form of planking if you have problems doing it (I do)
I also do 10-12 minutes meditation daily, I recommend that people try it out. Not sure what the actual benefits are, but science says that it builds brain matter n stuff, so can't be that bad
This was Feb, didn't play much but made some money!
Past few days have been good as well. Not looking at monthly results, but so far it's been a positive month.
Playing a lot of poker this month, so stay tuned for some updates!
Few random hands.
h1: reg tank folds so that's good, but did not work out!
Hero raises to €6.00, CO raises to €20.00, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls €14.00
Flop:(€43.00, 2 players) Q A 2 Hero checks, CO bets €43.00, Hero calls €43.00
Turn:(€129.00, 2 players) 7 Hero checks, CO bets €129.00, Hero raises to €456.03, CO calls €224.42
River:(€835.84, 2 players) Q
Spoiler:
Hero shows K A (Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
(Pre 50%, Flop 50%, Turn 50%) CO shows K A (Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
(Pre 50%, Flop 50%, Turn 50%) Hero wins €518.53 CO wins €415.92
h5: The ULTIMATE dream. This and the above hands happened in the same session, was about the easiest money ever. And it was played randomly at 5am in the morning when I woke up early
it will ensure you never get a deadlift/squat injury once you gain strength.
Most people that start really weak get a ego boost after gaining a bit of muscle and they end up leaving mobility out of their training until a disastrous injury.
it will ensure you never get a deadlift/squat injury once you gain strength.
Most people that start really weak get a ego boost after gaining a bit of muscle and they end up leaving mobility out of their training until a disastrous injury.
How much you lift & squat? Seems like you like to give advice about lot of stuff without telling much about yourself.
it will ensure you never get a deadlift/squat injury once you gain strength.
Most people that start really weak get a ego boost after gaining a bit of muscle and they end up leaving mobility out of their training until a disastrous injury.
Thanks for the tip!
And yeah I've been skinny all my life
If I don't work out my muscles diminish over time. I quit gym after military ~4 years ago. Now I will build a foundation that I will maintain later on in life.
Good thing about being skinny is that I've never had to worry about diet or counting calories.
The ego thing is true as well. Injury would be the worst there is. I set my goals high, but no reason to risk an injury....
One more thing about gym. If you want great abs, don't do sit-ups. My abs are sore from planking session yesterday. This never happens if I do sit-ups.
Stressful session today. Played too many tables. The thing is, if everything is working "normal", I can even play 10-12 tables. The moment someone sits out or leaves, I have to hasten up the pace significantly.
I autopiloted some spots, other than that there was no issue with a lot of tables imo.
Sometimes it's even good that you autopilot and don't second guess yourself. The spots where I autopilot are mainly (river) bluffing spots. Just have to go with a general gut feeling.
Another spot where I autopilot are multiway pots, both vs regs and vs reg & rec. Those spots require an in-depth analysis. If you have any good SDV you can check it down imo. Also harder to get 2 ppl to fold.
Red line was high today because people were folding rivers, mostly when I had it. But yeah, main thought for today is that if anyone thinks poker is easy, it's not, at least putting in the hours with good volume
One hand for the lols
I tarp, he tarps back and now my tarp is more successful. Both tarpy, hero wins
Hi. I think there's few tiers amongst the regs.
Sometimes I feel like I'm "one of the regs".
Sometimes people do crazy stuff I don't know what to do against.
I think it's a combination of playing solid & knowing the crazy stuff. I would put high emphasis on just playing solid and not being paranoid about anything.
There is plenty of fish at times. So I think the zoom is okay, just depends on what your mindset is. Do you want easy money or do you want to take the high route?
Zoom is very relaxing after those 10-tabling reg sessions
I'm currently trying to figure out which games do I want to play. Easy money is always nice, but I also want to improve as a player. That can be done via playing against tougher opponents and seeing what they are doing.
Anyways, semi-tilt session this morning. I dunno if you can really call it tilt, sometimes **** just happens. jumped into 500z afterwards
My self-confidence has gone up quite a lot. I deal better with losing days now, altho it's never fun to experience the downswing-induced tilt. Bad thoughts just keep popping into your head and it's not fun!
h1: vs weird reg and huge BTN whale. so huge whale can't fold KQo, and this weird reg might even jam JJ OTF. **** happens
Hero mucks Q K (Two Pair, Kings and Queens)
(Pre 8%, Flop 13%, Turn 5%) BB shows K K (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 92%, Flop 87%, Turn 95%) BB wins €969.40
h2: same guy. wasn't sure about turn sizing and what I want to accomplish. Jamming may look fishy as I'm folding out all the Ahi FD's. Do I really wanna jam nut flush?
I think either way on this board I should have jammed the turn. And river obviously gotta try it as played. this hand should be jammed OTT vs 65s so I kinda dislike my play.
I'm not sure either what the dynamic is for him calling the flop raise. He could be uncapped, which makes bluffing draws less attractive. this guy jams flop quite often w/ anything valuable
maybe with a more clear mindset I sometimes X this spot, so it's not like hero just overbluffs the river. he did tank call tho
h4: chinese player who's up a lot... sets typically jam before the river, I can have all the KsQx and stuff, so I can see him calldown AJ/KJ, sometimes even slowplayed KK-QQ
Played some poker today.
4 hours 550 hands/hr = 2250 hands
I desperately need more volume, just to get my thoughts back on track. My volume is just so poor as rec these days.
I think I played decent today, apart from some autopiloting stuff. I thought that why haven't I shot any higher lately. That's because I usually shot higher only on upswings. Need that upswing, need that volume! Shotting higher would mean less tables and less stressful game.
I've been reconsidering and working on my bluffing game. That has led to some uncomfortable spots. Spots where I bluff the river, typically on my highest stakes, and if that bluff fails I feel ready to quit the session :|
Lot of work to do. Sometimes I feel too passive and that I don't bluff enough on certain spots. On the contrary, good regs are happy to snap some spots if their spider senses are tingling xD
Overall, WYCD as rec wrt. to volume. Less volume = higher swings on small-mid stakes.
Some hands.
h1: vs fish w reads. I rarely get to laugh this much on my games.