its interesting how almost all human processors work relatively the same but favor different inputs. mine is very big on efficiency and live poker certainly falls short there. online, otoh, really satisfies this for me. strategy efficiency, max table efficiency, hand per hour efficiency, layout, etc. etc. the list really just goes on and on in that arena. I can grind 2-3k hands per day and enjoy the experience and not feel drained, but to play 5 hours of live poker where my brain is non-stop trying to make it something that it's not, so draining lol

Well, when I played that month of RnC PLO, I used to play 10-12k hands a day. The issue is, it kinda feels like working in a production line in a factory, there's no challenge in it for me. You just go into auto pilot and at the end of the day, collect $700 (on average). The best analogy I have is imagining you'd get to flip a coin 12000 times with 52% odds or whatever, but you have to be present and paying attention to all of the flips. Profitable, but not exciting.

Live poker, especially in a foreign country in a new club, is more challenging to me and therefore more rewarding. You get to analyze players on the table, socialize and trashtalk etc. If you played at the same spot over and over though and became a "reg", that'd eventually become stale aswell.

Plus, at the end of the day, you can pick the most friendly of them and go to the ruin pubs to party!


Great night with like-minded people, beautiful women dancing half naked on the bar, what else can you really ask for?

Well, one thing might be that the places don't shut down at 3am. I guess it was a Tuesday night, but that was still a little disappointing. In any case, it was fun and I believe for two of them it was the first time in this kind of establishment. Hope we get to do it again and I'll check out better spots to party today.

Oh, poker was pretty uneventful. Got in AK vs. KK and spiked the A on the turn and hit a T745 board with 86 for another small all in. Ended up +70500 (+$231) live and +$334 online mainly due to this:



for a total of +$565.


I'm gonna go look for a hangover breakfast in the neighborhood and then head out for a massage. Hope you guys have a great week!

Hello.

For book keeping purposes, went +38k (+$125) and +70k (+$230) in the club the last two days, but I spewed in a lot of spots so not exactly happy with it. And I also put in a tiny session online for another +$123.

Total: +$478

Tonight, I'm going for dinner with Harris, the Brit from the picture, to teach him the basics of poker. He has been playing for 8 weeks only and he's super passionate about the game, but (naturally) has been losing quite a bit so I feel I should give him some pointers. It may sound stupid to pee into the lake you're fishing from, but I dunno.. I had a lot of people help me when I started, just paying it forward.

There is also a very nice lady at the club, Agnes, who was been teaching me some Hungarian and also promised me to bring Strudel today! In general, everyone there is just super nice and welcoming and I'm trying to be a fun opponent (showing every hand, not taking it too seriously). All in all, after Cambodia this is the best venue I have played at so far. Especially since you can get great massages at the table for like $12 for 30 minutes.

I don't really wanna leave to be honest, only 6 more days...

To get poker out of the way:

Made +129k two days ago playing absolutely amazing and then lose -113k yesterday just spewing it away. For a total of +16k (+$52).

But yesterday, I had the best day travelling in a while, and it's mostly thanks to Agnes. She sacrificed a whole day to first have lunch with Harris and me:


then showing us around on the Buda site of town. First we went up a small hike to the statue of liberty, getting a great view:


and then we went to the Citadel and she treated us to a self-baked cake , we talked about all things life and finally got to see one of the most amazing views I have experienced in all my travels:


Meeting her really has been a blessing on this trip. Where else will you find a local that agrees to spend a whole day just showing around two random tourists like this? She is obviously very proud of this city and a great ambassador for Budapest! ... only 4 more days.

Harris has left for back home today, but he is adamant that we'll meet again and he's coming back here aswell. We'll see, it's certainly possible.

I promise there will be more poker related content soon, if you're looking for something specific, let me know.

Have a great Sunday everybody!

Nice update. Tempted to pay a visit to Budapest later this month, is there anywhere you'd recommend to stay close to Duna?

Hey. Definitely visit Budapest, it's a great city. Last time, I lived at the opposite part of the city and just took a metro/bus. I will get back there on the 23th or so and take the same appartment until I find something closer to Duna, then I'll report back.

After leaving Budapest, I went to Luxembourg for a wedding. When I was invited, they said it'd be "casual, everyone can wear what they want." - when I arrived, it was a black tie, 5-course-event. That was cool, too, and in foresight, I had my ex girlfriend bring my suit from Berlin.


Since it was a two-day event, we got a tour through Luxembourg city aswell, including to-go Caipirinha


From there, I went to Brussels and, within less a day, I think I did most of the things to do there. I saw Manneken Pis and his girlfriend, Jaenneke, ate Belgium chocolate, fries and waffles, I went to the Atomium and went to Delirium, the beer cellar with the largest selection of beers in the world (over 3400 at this point). I met a Scottish guy who said his life goal is to try every single one. He is at 500 something, but his problem is that they get 3 new ones each day, so it's hard to keep up


From there, it was only a small way back to my mom's, where I spend 11 days doing **** all. Literally nothing. That was great, but now I'm back on the road.

I'm writing this from the train to Rozvadov, where I'll be meeting Agnes from Budapest to play 4 days of non-stop poker.



I'll be playing 1E of the 200€ and the 440€ 6max. If I bust the first one, I'll include the 550€ too. Gonna be fun!

From there, Agnes offered to take me back to Budapest via car, which I gladly accepted. Maybe we'll make stops in Prague and Bratislava aswell.

And at the end of the month, I have to choose between either going to Montenegro for the Sea Dance festival - or back to Rozvadov to play these:



The value for those should be insane since all you clowns can't play anything but NLHE well. We'll see.

I enjoyed the break, but I'm back now!

Thank you for posting this. I might just degen my whole "roll" on the PLO8 one hehe

Cool. If you go, let me know/say hi if you see me. The PLO8 one might be the biggest value in the list honestly, people are just extraordinarily bad at that game.

So, I started my journey at 8am yesterday, full of hope that the trains would bring me to Rozvadov on time. I was expecting nothing and I was still disappointed. Seriously, f*ck Die Deutsche Bahn, these god damn morons should just be shot, all of them. They were striking two days ago because they want better pay, but they don't deserve it. It's not like you can feel a difference between when they strike and when they don't.

Aaanyways, I arrived late but Agnes waited for me. We checked into our room, which is a lot more far away from the casino as advertised (**** you King's) and I missed the 200€ 1E. Fine.

Went to the casino, and compared to ten years ago, honestly it sucks now. Entrance is 10€, which gives you one-time access to the buffet. When I went there, buffet was free and you could go as often as you'd like.

The smaller cashgame tables are "self service" now, there are no waiting lists - which means, if a seat opens up you have to rush to be the first to take it. In general, the service in King's is abysmal now.

BUT, we're not here for the service, we're here to gamble, and since PLO is running 24/7 here, and we like PLO, I sat down at 2€/2€ with 400€. Games are amazing, but I'm card dead and people notice, so I decide to randomly coldcall a 8€ raise with QQ32r. 4 people to the flop that is QJ6r. I bet pot, a tight Italian (there are BUNCH of Italians in Rozvadov right now for some reason) "goes all in" - as in puts all the chips in and pots, fold fold, I ship it in.
Turn 6 seals the deal and we win the first 820€ pot.

Next hand, we get AA54 on the button, UTG raises to 8, UTG+1 makes it 28, I pot it to whatever pot is here (90?) and both call with less than 200 behind. Pot is A77, dayum! Both check and I decide if I check or bet small here, I actually look stronger than if I hollywood-shove, but both fold.

Eventually we switch to the other running PLO table, and this one is insane. There are a few hands that go 2-2-5-10-20-40 and we're all 400+bb deep.

One hand I remember is 3 people getting it all-in for 750€ each, AAxx, a random hand from a guy coming from 5€/5€ 5PLO, and a drunk German guy shipping it in with 9875 - and spiking a 773 flop.

We only have one hand here where we're in the BB, straddle to 5 is on, SB calls, I call and we get a free flop with TQ27.

Board comes K 7 2r. I bet 10€ and the straddler immediately pots to 45€. I call.

Turn is another 7, I check and tell him: "Don't hurt me!" - I am telling you, that sentence always works if you want them to bet into you, it's like a trigger. So, he bets 60€, I call.

River is a 4, he bets another 80€, I snapcall and he shows A high, no draws at all. Thank you!

Ended the session up exactly +777€

I think the plan now is to play another session like this today, then play the 440€ 6max tomorrow and if I bust, use the rest of the winnings (+ whatever is needed) to play the 5€/5€ 5-card PLO game after that.

Hopefully I can snap some pictures today, the new tournament corner is very impressive, there are 150 tables total in King's Rozvadov now! This would have the potential to seriously dwarve any other offering in Europe, but they'd have to increase room capacity massively and also the service provided.

See you later!

Here's a little end-of-year update:

2021 sucked. All around. Mental isn't great, gained a bunch of weight and poker was meh. I did make money, but not enough to warrant playing.

So, I have made a decision about a month ago that immediately made me happy:

2022 will be the last year of poker for me

After ~16 years, I am just done with it at this point. It doesn't pose a challenge to me anymore, I am not as happy winning money anymore as I once was. I am sure I will be playing once in a while beyond, but it will strictly be for entertainment.

So Why play another year?

Well, as some of you may have noticed, the pandemic is still going strong and travelling is still difficult to the point where it's not (as) fun. Plus, with me gaining weight again, it's more exhausting than it should be. Therefore, might aswell play another year while bitcoin is "cheap" (yay!), focus on losing the weight back and then hope that travel will be back to normal in 2023. If it is not, I will just succumb to depression completely, so be it.

What to do after poker?

Travel! Luckily, BTC has given me some freedom to do whatever I want, and what I want, what I have always wanted, is to see more of this beautiful Earth. I am kind of hoping I pick up another passion on the way that earns some money, but if not.. that's okay, too.

I will always be greatful for the opportunities poker has provided to me, and most of the journey was pretty fun. But right now, I am looking at the next year as I imagine a worker who is close to retirement does.

__________________________________________________

As for travel, I went to Egypt over christmas. It was great, went to see the pyramids in Gizeh, Sakkara and Dahshur (if you ever go, don't miss out on the latter, they are way cooler than he famous ones imo), to Luxor to see the Valley of Kings and much more, and went quad biking in the desert to see a beduin outpost.




It was great fun, but there is a big difference between travelling and vacationing.. and man, do I miss travelling.

I hope you all had a great 2021 and crush it next year.

Read this whole thread on a train ride few days ago. Truly one of the gems. Sad to see a mixed game player quit but after 16 yrs I guess I get it. Hope you keep on updating at least through out your last year. Good luck with your future endeavors!

Hello friends and frenemies.

Now that I am finally back in Asia and travelling, I think it's a good time for a end-of-year update.

Last year I said that this would be my last year playing poker. Unfortunately since then, bitcoin price has dropped by ~65% and fortunately, I have regained a tiny bit of passion for poker (and am generally much happier now), so chances are I will continue playing for a while longer.

I am, however, playing much shorter sessions than I used to, which did wonders for motivation and work/life balance.

A usual week nowadays looks like this for me



which is more than enough to sustain my lifestyle here.

As for travel:

On Nov 10, I flew back to Thailand for a month, to the same hotel to re-acclimate myself with Asia and because I wanted to see what has changed since pre-covid times. Well, for one, weed is legal in Thailand now which is fun!


But moreover, people here seem less happy now. I'm not judging, I'm sure many of them had a really hard time economically and many stores are still (or permanently) closed. But it's pretty noteworthy. Additionally, prices in Thailand have actually fallen by ~20% since, despite inflation being high. The reason for this, as I have learned, is that Chinese people still can't travel, Europeans still largely won't, so tourists nowadays are mostly from Russia - you see a lot of able bodied young men, wonder why - and from India and these people are not willing to spend in the same way the former groups were. Hopefully, this will make the Thai government rethink their position on European travellers eventually.

From there, Vietnam, a first for me.

I went to Ho Chi Minh City, visited the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi tunnels (crawling through these is worse than going down the f*cking pyramids) and partied pretty hard in Bui Vien with a guy who looks like Chris Hemsworth:


From here, took a sleeper bus to Mui Ne - a once popular destination for the Vietnamese that now seems to be dying, but I found an absolute gem of a hotel to chill a few days:


Then to Da Lat, a sleepy town in the mountains where Vietnamese go for their honeymoon and which currently holds a flower festival:


aaaand now I'm chilling in Da Nang, a bustling city in Central Vietnam along the Han river, which I have a great view of from my hotel room:


Oh and:

Almost 3 years late, but I eventually did it, got to see the show:



So to summarize: Poker is fine, life is finally good again! Yay.

I'm gonna travel further north to Hanoi, then back to Thailand because my parents are once again visiting me here, then from there back to Cambodia to play some more live poker.

See you around.

I found this randomly last night while I was looking for something interesting to read while finishing up a Sunday session and it delivered. It was super cool to see someone who is pretty similar to me in terms of poker (started around the same time, played a lot of similar games, went through similar peaks and valleys, settled on a comfortable/profitable grind, have a similar outlook on poker/life balance and keeping the games healthy) but pretty much my polar opposite in terms of life (I hate traveling, hate "new things", and really thrived over the pandemic lockdowns). It was a really fun read, and I'm sorry this thread didn't get the engagement it deserved because I'd love to have read more about your adventures both on and off the felt. I tried out the discord link but no surprise the 3-year old link isn't active anymore, but hit me up if you're interested in BS'ing about poker/life and whatnot.

Hey. Glad you enjoyed it, once in a while I still come back here to reminisce.

I'm currently chilling in Phuket, Thailand and I haven't played poker in roughly 2 months. Unfortunately, my MuchBetter card stopped working so now it's much harder to access my money. Therefore I have decided to go back in 2 weeks, also to get a scooter license (125cc), so I can drive over here when I come back.

When I am in Europe, I will probably play some live poker. I don't think I'm ever gonna go back to online poker, I don't miss it at all.

If I do go play somewhere (either Budapest or Rozvadov), I might write down a few hands and post them here. Who knows.

Enjoy your week everybody.

What's your GUT saying on Bitcoin?

At different times this year I've had my largest 'quantity' of Bitcoins in my life BUT also in a mental struggle of keeping hefty portions of cash because I can get > 4% JUST buy sitting $ in US brokerage accounts waiting for DIPS to buy ... and who knows maybe they really are taking rates back towards the old days!?

My GUT says I'm being trapped into being a pussy and still maintaining large cash position AND I should've DCA'd way harder and way faster under 20k and/or put the rest of the cash into beaten up tech and China stocks.

I still hold almost all my money in BTC (policy since like end of 2016 or so) and will continue doing so forever. Whatever I win, I convert.

Bitcoin currently has a inflation rate of 1.79% and it's fixed and decreasing, USD has ~6.5%, EUR probably more, arbitrary and increasing.

Really all I need to know. I don't trade, traders tend to end up with fewer BTC than if they had just held. I'm not greedy, I'm patient, and BTC rewards it by being the best performing asset long term.

Additionally, BTC was created after the last banking crisis for the next banking crisis, which we are currently seeing an appetizer for, and halving is coming up next year IIRC.

In 10 years, I'm gonna buy Spain. I always wanted to own Spain. Hehe.

I think it's time for an update again.

Last you heard from me, I was in Thailand, my parents visited me, weed was legalized and I had not played any poker.

Well, I continued not playing poker for almost four months - the first time I took a break even close to this long in 16 years. And I have to say: I loved it. I played a lot of chess, showed my parents Phuket and Cambodia, ate a lot of edibles and just.. chilled.

But, as I mentioned, MuchBetter is dead now and I couldn't get any money, so I decided to go back to Europe a bit earlier than I thought. Stayed in Berlin a bit, chilled for a while, and a friend of mine offered me a flat in Budapest for the month of May. Not one to pass up on opportunities, I said yes and here I am. This apartment is the stone cold nuts:


This is my grinding station right now, and it is probably the best I have ever had. The room is light, minimalistic and clean, the internet is amazing


I am getting an AC built in, there is a gym, world class bakery and restaurant right down the street and a poker club 30 minutes by metro from here.

Sooooo - I am back, b*tches.

Most of my money is in cold storage, but I found about $3k I left on random poker sites, and this will be my bankroll going forward.

The goal: Stay here until November (when I will fly to Middle and South America), grind a F*CKTON of tournaments and make between $50-$100k. I have hardcore FOMO since I am expecting a bullrun in BTC next year or the year after, so I would be really happy if I could add 3-4 BTC to the collection until then.

During the week, I am mostly playing the Asian / morning schedule, on Fridays there is a 50000 HUF (about $140) tournament in the poker club and on the weekends of course the evening schedule.

$10 - $50 BIs for now, but I am hoping I can bink something quick to move up.

Successes so far, as usually in the smallest tournaments of the schedule:








_________________

THIS IS OFFICIALLY A MTT THREAD NOW, WATCH ME CRUSH THESE.

(As soon as I get my rent agreement, I can finally play on Euro sites like Stars, Party, 888 etc. again. I have not played those in YEARS, the nostalgia will hit me hard.)

Welcome back and Good Luck!

Thanks! Only a little session saver today. It's interesting that Saturday schedules are so bare nowadays compared to a few years ago. It feels like the poker sites are really, really trying to funnel everyone into the Sunday tournaments to outbid each other in Guarantees. Not great for me as I traditionally don't really like playing the Sundays and it massively increases variance. But I guess it makes sense.

You are crushing it!

GL in the mtt grind manggg

I'm near my heaviest amount of BTC spot currently only trailing the amount I held late 2020 .

I hate Sundays.


About a month ago, I was in Rozvadov to exchange some BTC for cash. I ended up accidentally sattying into a 550€ where I noticed a very LAG player. Some time later, he sat to my left and we got to talking.

It turned out, he quit his job about a year ago to try to do this professionally and was travelling the Europe circuit. He was everything that I used to be - a (bad) LAGtard, very enthusiastic about the game, with atrocious bankroll management but the spirit to somewhat make up for it.

Even while I was talking to him, I felt how ancient, desillusioned and somewhat bitter I must have come across to him - it didn't help that he guessed me 10 years older than I am. He wanted to talk about Garrett (which I didn't follow), talked about solvers (which I don't and won't do) and the benefits of late regging (which I just get around to). Meanwhile, I was bemoaning poker etiquette when at showdown, two players were both refusing for 30 seconds to flip over their cards. This didn't used to be a thing.

Aaaaanyways, to bring this back to tournament poker:

The last time I played, we used to have 3, 4, 5-betting wars with random trash preflop. Everyone is flatting everything now, committing 10 or 20% of your stack anywhere in the hand but the river almost feels like a cardinal sin nowadays.

I remember when we didn't have re-entries, we had rebuys - and we used to think that always capping off, shoving light and building a stack early was the best strategy. I remember winning the iconic $3.50+R 50k Gtd. on Stars after rebuying 20+ times!

We did not used to have antes. Like, at all! Some tournaments started them later on, but some just did not have them. SNGs never had them, even the 180-mans.

I remember not having late registration. Everyone showed up when the tournament started, it was mutually agreed upon and guarantees were still big and met. Now, you can literally turn up to live events on Day 2 and play online events 4-5 hours in with 10BB and close to the bubble. Something about this doesn't sit right with me, but specifically in FOs it's just the optimal thing to do at this point...

Now, there are some changes I do like: Progressive PKOs are a genius invention, mystery bounties are fun aswell. They counter-act some of these issues (getting stacks in is more desired, late regging less so). They disincentivize NITs. My philosophy in poker for 15+ years has been: Play the games where aggressive plays are GTO/correct, then play a tiny bit more aggro than the average reg = $$$$. PKOs, turbos and hypers fit me, so do antes.

Day1s, Phases - I'm sorry, I don't like it. Tournaments didn't use to be this long. Yes, the Sunday Milly could run for 14 hours, but by that time it only affected a handful of players and it was worth it for them. I don't want my tournaments to be a multi-day commitment. Who ever thought this was a good idea?

GG Poker specifically has innovated well in the space, in my opinion - rebalancing blinds on the Final Table and letting people choose their seats is brilliant, Bubble protection for those who registered from the start, the EV you can gain on a bubble with few tables where you are the only one "not on the bubble" anymore is insane. Genius!

The staking feature, while I don't use it, fully automated with no risk to either party? Applause all around.

____________________

All of this to say: Not having played tournaments for many years, or NLHE really for that matter, the landscape has changed to a degree where it feels like I am learning an entirely new game. I used to be good at that, but I concede that many people have a head start this time around and I am fully prepared to bust my bankroll.

But, and I pledge this here ceremoniously, to all the Gods: I will eventually win a big Sunday tournament, and if it is the last thing I do in life. It has to be done.


Thank you for coming to my TED talk, you can now laugh about my grey hair and take away my walking cane. BUT GET OFF MY LAWN!

Oh, and I forgot the weirdest one yet:

Way back when, tournaments started with 1500 chips, majors with 3000 chips and 10/20 as first blind level. Anyone remember that? Now some tournaments start with 100.000 chips or, in case of ACR, even more than that. WHY? What in the actual world is the point of that? I saw a Final Table yesterday that had over a billion chips.

Most pointless change I've ever seen, and I hate it. And also, back then you couldn't switch to having your stack shown in big blinds (unless you bought software for it), now everyone and their cat does that anyways, so having a trillion chips is even more pointless! This one really irks me. Ugh.

A+ plus for your rant, and let's not forget that it's 100.000 chips PLUS 4 hours worth of late reg or something to that effect lol

Today's session saver, along with a few other cashes, bankroll slooowly growing.

Still adjusting to the population tendencies, I'm starting to think a strict no-3bet strategy might just be best in today's games (or bluff 3bet exploitatively and unbalanced). I'm learning and improving, which really is all I can ask for for now.