So I delayed my update a little. I'm a fairweather updater it seems. Heres my last 10 sessions:


(it goes date/buyins/tourneys/cashes/profits/avgbuyin)

We've been bricking pretty hard. I've discovered rage again. I quit registering when I throw my nail clippers, which is usually pretty quick. I just don't run good when it matters. I'll normally get 1 potential deep run, and they always fizzle out. Everything else snapbricks. A lot of the time the difference between a bink and a brick has been 1-2 flips. I think I'm playing fine. out of all the tourneys played, I've probably punted like 5% tops.

As is life. Gonna brick MTT sessions. Not too big a deal, just ain't got anything to show for this past week and a half.

Freeroll update:
The food one I almost caved like 4 times. I really want these cookies for some reason. I watched my coworkers eat fried chicken, and had to explain 5-6 times why I can't (diet) then why I really can't (the bet). One coworker offered to peel the skin off the chicken for me. I lol'd and insisted I couldn't let her do that for me. The gesture was awesome though. Anyways we're going strong (for now). a little more 2 weeks to go. I've found out I sorta depress it. After my latest bricked mtt sessions I've almost tilt ordered McDonald's. The bet is literally the only reason I haven't caved.

The basketball ones been at a standstill. I'm at 11/25 hours. I haven't balled since Sunday. I felt like I got shin splints so I quit early on Sunday. Also it's thunderstormed mon/tues/wed. So Hopefully I hop back on the horse this weekend. Get some quality time it. It's ****ing hot at the moment. Humid as hell too. It's a good sweat. I'm always drenched by the time I'm done. Big boy life.

My weight's been droppin steady lately too. I'm aiming for a sub 220 by the time I leave. Atm I'm at 238. Given my height and yadayada, I think at 220 I'd be relatively thin. I've had mental debates if I could actually drop under 200 healthily. I think at some point muscle will have to develop, which'll foil that.

Anyways, here's to hoping I get out of my slump this weekend. I'll be putting in the grind.

I've also been trying to get back into streaming. I'm pretty sure I'm giving professional poker the ol' college try after Korea. With that said, a stream will be an excellent subsidy towards my life expenses. I know my stream will be popular, as I have way more personality then any of the doorknobs that stream currently. A lot of them are stick in the mud nice guy boring time.

Twitch needs a rager. It needs a troll. Someone who isn't gonna kiss ass and be all "OMG WELCOME FIREND OF THE STREAM. GUISE CHECK OUT HIS STREAM SUCH GOOD GUY. THXS 4 TOONIN IN BRUH."

I dunno, I'm just sick of what twitch poker has become. It's too formal. Everyone's too set to please everyone. It's probably why Tonka's stream is so popular. I really only enjoyed Jason Lavalee's and Ruperte's streams.

Until next time. Hopefully I have a brag post next time around.

Edit:


5 minutes after my post, one of my students gives me this. God damnit. str8 testin me. Student's always give me candy and ****. This bet sucks ass.

$110 R/A $10k gtd in Daegu this weekend if you are interested. ****ty structure, ****ty tourney but there it is. I'm going to play.

Update time:

I'll start with the freerolls. I bought out of the food one. I paid my friend $10 bucks. The other guy didn't respond so I guess I'm on the hook for the full $25. Oh well. Whenever he messages me back, I'll square that with him.

Basketball im at 13/25 hours played. I'll definitely complete it next week as I have no choice and I have vacation essentially.

As for poker, brick squad life. I've approached the "Not had a winning session in 3 weeks" mark. Kinda lame, but w/e.


Ugh it's tempting. But there's no way it gets 40 players like it says as the minimum. **** I want to play. I'm just afraid I show up, get fisted by it being canceled due to not enough players, then I'm stuck with the decision of wasting a bus ticket there and back or having to play cash to justify my trip. I'd fire probably up to $500-600, and I can easily do that in a MTT session at home and be much more comfortable with it.

I think I'll pass. I've learned my lessons with live poker in Korea and Daegu poker in general.


And on to more fun news:

I'll be re-organizing and designing my stream. I'm going to take the whole twitch personality thing seriously. Basically I think if I'm going to give the whole professional poker player (lol) a thing, I should be streaming it. It'll be a subsidy income for me, I build a 'brand', and make poker a little more exciting for me. The obvious trade-off I'll be battling is lost equity from focus and lost equity from giving away my play style/opinions of players. Honestly, I think at my current state I think it's ok. Even if I'm playing spins, I don't plan on going in depth on why I do x or why I did y. People will just get to see me click buttons and make jokes.

Hoping to get off the floor with it this weekend and get a few big sessions in. my vacation sort of starts tonight. I teach once next week, Tuesday. Monday is Korea's Independence day and Wed/Thurs/Fri is just Vacation for the Hagwon. I plan on getting an obscene amount of hours in poker. Hopefully I don't whine and ragequit early for sessions.


I will return with good news. I hope.

Overdue Update:

Welp final total of bball was 19.5/25. Failed the challenge. I took the last few days lightly, then made some +lifeev and -betev decisions. Jacob/Twistedd wonnered $25. I'll square with luckbox ez, but twistedd I don't remember if I know you or not (The 2p2 username isn't familiar).

here's some poker updates:


The slaying continues. I've begun to re-evaluate my schedule choices. I've dropped my ABI and started playing low prizepool mixed game tournaments. Also, I realized I should probably be dropping my NLHE Turbos from 22-27. Shoutout to Chris for making me realize I'm an idiot (as usual) and to consider playing the lower buyins. Probably aren't going to help my variance. I'll be keeping any mixed game turbos, as they are insanely profitable anyways. The punts I see in O8 Hypers are unrivaled, and fun players/whales have 2-3 re-entries everytime.


I'm on the tail end of my life in Korea. I'm starting to do more exciting things and actually get out of the apartment. I've taken to learning Korean as well. Pretty sure it's going well too. What I've learned is sticking, and I've been adamant on practicing.

I've been thinking about what I want to do after Korea. I'm still pretty stuck with the idea of the LOLPOKERPRO avenue. SomethingSomething poker is dead. SomethingSomething no money in poker. Honestly, I just want to try it. Lord knows how many times I've probably made this sentiment in my updates.

Being as that I'm on the tail end of my time in basedKorea, I've had to come to a bit of a realization. I good X% of my friends would be HEAVILY disappointed in me if I didn't have 1 Korean fling my entire stay here. It's been a topic when I'm catchin up with people. All hope is not lost, but I really don't like to disappoint. Confidence has always been an issue here. I usually mentally come up with 1-2 reasons that'll box me in. I really can't let this one fail though.

I'll talk about my stream persona. So I haven't been streaming lately, and there's been a reason. My internet has been pooping out lately. My wifi hasn't been holding, and I haven't been able to get my ethernet port to work. I've had a few ideas on how to fix them, but I don't like them. One is to re-install windows. Maybe that'll fix some magical issue. The Other would be a full system restore. ****kk that. A third option could be buy a new ethernet card or w/e the name of it is. Network card? I'm pretty sure it's my computer and not the router.

And finally, I think I'll be playing more spins again. I'm back to my 2-10 schedule and MTTs aren't the easiest to put volume in during this time. Given my benefit of being in a spin stable and having great spin friends, I should probably exercise this right a little more. I've got about a month or so until poker just isn't grindable. October will be focused pretty much on getting ready to bounce out of Korea. Setting up, cleanin up, and preparing for that big move back to Canada. I'll set a goal of proving I can move up to $30's by end of September. I think proving I can move up is good enough. Whether or not I choose to or just open up more tables I'll decide later.

Until next time....

Welp, I'm sitting in my office at work and I got nothing to do, so I mine as well update this bad boy. Here we go.

So I've been playing spins lately. I've sort of made a good regiment this past week for grinding. I stopped playing when I get home after work. It's when all the euro's are grinding and peak hour for them. Just makes it unnecessarily tough. I've been waking up 9-10am, showering, and jumping into the games. I've only been 2 tabling to get back into a rhythm. TBH, I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm sure there's some sun run in my sample, but here it is:






So obv tiny sample size, but it's nice to have a pretty ****ing destructive comeback to spins. I've been crushing bvb spots and essentially just never folding post flop. Anyways, nice to win money. I won both 10x's I've played the past month or so. Must be nice.

So September will be my 2nd last full month of grinding. October and November I'll be dealing with my move/vacation, so I won't have a full month to dedicate to the grind. So here's my goals:

1) 2000 spins played
2) 70cEV

Simple. Both are tough, but I want them to be. I've never played 2k games in a month before. I think I should. I want to prove I can move up to 30s, so I'll make September the month I do.

I'll probably start 3 tabling within the week. I'm not sure if I'll push it to 4 this month. I won't be 4 tabling 30s, so I don't think it'll be necessary. I'll focus on quality over quantity.

Hopefully next weeks update has more good news

September to date update!

Overall things have gone great, but I'm just bitter at the moment because I got rammed over the weekend. Here's some graphs before I delve deeper.

Chip Giraffe


Stats


Money won giraffe


3 handed stats


Hu stats


So we played a lot more then I normally ever do this month. We've won a reasonable amount so far. As I said I'm coming off a bitter ending session, so I'm a little salty. I started to fatigue, then proceeded to punt cEV. Really drives me insane when my play is to blame.

I'm just never satisfied unless things go perfectly. I'm never happy with a win. It always can be better. It was the same way with tournaments. I'd win a tournament, then be raging due to a bust out 1-2 minutes later.

Lots to talk about. My redline is positive atm. No basedrayden levels, but I like it at the moment. We hit the inevitable rough patch. I sunran the past week, so this was going to happen. I am noticing that my length of sessions is correlating with money won. My long sessions have been losers, 1-2 hour ones are winners. My long sessions are all weekend grinds, and my 1-3 hour ones are when I wake up and before work on weekdays. I'll keep an eye on this.

I'm super happy with my 3 handed play so far. It definitely feels like I'm slaying 3handed. I've done different things bvb, vs fish and regs, and it's going well.

However, it seems like my bb HU game sucks. Going to be working on my HU game this week. I think I'm getting too isojam happy lately. I gotta just stay patient.

I did win a 25x this week


It was a 2 reg game, and I sort of just crushed. Was nice to winnered a multiplier. I also went 2/4 in 10x's. Both losses I got all the cEV and none of the $$$.

As for my goals. I think 592 games is a little behind pace for 2k in a month. I'm 2 tabling, so this is still going to be hard. At least a little behind pace is better than being wayyy behind pace. looks like I gotta average ~79 games a day from here. I think that just means I gotta play more on weekends.

As for cEV, I'm at like 75ish. That's ok. it's above the goal, and includes a couple sessions I got fisted.

To end, I'd just like to say Overeem is P4P most frustrating fighter to root for. He always destroys your emotions with almost wins, then gets finished. Come on man, you had that. ReemPLZ. Oh well.

Chuseok Holiday Update!


So this past weekend was Korean Thanksgiving, which mean I had Wednesday/Thursday/Friday off. Holidays are rare in BestKorea, so getting a 5 day weekend is a luxury.

I'll start off with some spin updates







Made some money in spins again. Neat-o I guess. Decent hourly/decent cEV. Had a really bad session where I was streaming and playing bad, but just kept playing lol. Oh well. Volumes low for the week because I didn't play Wednesday-Saturday. I'm definitely behind pace for a 2k game month, but I'll figure it out.

So for Chuseok I took a trip to Seoul. Met up with one of my good friends. Wednesday night I decided to play the 2/5 at 7luck. Here are the two hands I deemed noteworthy

Hand 1:
Hero has 22 UTG+1 ~450 stack.
UTG Opens to 10. I call. UTG+2 and UTG+3 call. MP raises to 25. Folds to UTG who calls. I sigh call, UTG+2/3 call as well.
Flop comes Qh6h2c. UTG leads for 35. I call, Utg+3 calls. MP raises to 135. UTG calls, I think 25 seconds, then jam. MP calls, UTG folds. MP tables QJ. I of course antisweat cheer for queen turn, but board bricks out and I'm the champion

Hand 2:
This ones my favorite hand because it's stupid.
So Hero's a clown, so chatting up the table is std. Anyways I'm UTG+1. UTG is new to the table and posts BB. BB is also new to the table. Dealer deals first round of cards, and as he goes to give me my second card, BB blocks the card and a 6 of spades is tabled. I joke with dealer saying "oh no big deal I didn't want it anyways. I want aces." Standard dad/old man joke. BB pipes up "oh if it's aces you owe me 5 dollars.

So it wasn't aces. I look down at QQ. BB asks, "aces?". "Nah sorry." I open to 25. MP calls, BB and UTG+1 call.

Flop comes 743hhx. checks to me, I cbet 40. Only MP calls. Turn is a 3. I check because lol live poker, MP checks.

Rivers an 8. I lead 65, MP calls and mucks. BB throws his hands up in the air, as to imply I owe him 5 dollars, so I toss him a $5 chip because he looks scary, and has an ICP face tattoo where half the face is on each arm, and when you put them together it makes a full spooky clown face. I then rack up my chips and bounce because I'm up like 1100 in 3 hours and I feel like the heater will end eventually.

so +1105 from poker
-150 from blackjack

Decent trip anyways. Saw some stuff, did some things. Seoul's neat. Went to Walkerhill, but waitlist was brutal on Friday. Friend punted in blackjack quickly, and I didn't want to make him wait while I was just waiting for cash too. Was also sad 7luck closed their poker room from Thursday-Sunday. Like come on lol.

I also made some skrilla staking a friend. he got 5th in a big 27, so I made like 300 CAD or something. That was neat too.

Overall good week. Can't complain too totally much even though I do anyways.

It's almost October!!!!

ohhh boy. Countdowns begun until vacation and my return to the land of the maple. Here's how spins went for the week:

Overall


cEV graph


$ won graph


Well, we got the long dick this week lmao. Bound to happen in theory I guess. I place a reasonable amount of it on myself. I think the start of the week I was too focused on winning every pot and just firing triple barrels is spots it isn't bound to work. I also punted into regs/tilted when I kept running into monsters when I made standard jams.

I did run pretty awful when it came to 30/60+ blind stuff. Just couldn't get anything going. I also ran like piss in all multipliers. my 6x's and 10x's I got murdered. I almost took the weekend off, but decided against it because I'm a degen. I'm glad I did, because it saved me cEV wise. My successes came from the Saturday/Sunday grinds. I played 150 games, and had over 110 cEV during that sample.

I have no doubt in my mind I move to the 30s after this month. My monthly cEV is ~75 and my lifetime is ~57 since joining my stable. TBH I sort of just sculpted my game on my own. I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I watch virtually none of the content my stable pushes out lol. It's a major leak. I think that now that I'm moving to 30s, I need to put a lot of time into my reg HU strategy. my 3handed works well imo. I'm really happy with my 3handed game. HU is where I'm leaking, and it's where I gotta put in the hours still. I'm definitely curious how my BvB 3handed ranges will do vs regs.

I had a good stream on Sunday as well. Boyer88 (unknown to me at the time) hosted me, which propelled me to a consistent 50-70 viewership for ~5 hours. Haven't had a stream like that in a while. I was playing great on stream too. I still continue to lose all the money when streaming, but it was nice to have a good cEV session.

I had a pretty good weekend outside of poker too. I played pretty hungover on Sunday due to a long night of drinking. I tried to work on finding a chessmate, but I think I have too much of a tight passive approach. I tried using some GTO tactics I learned from ChicagoJoey's review of AdrianFenix's CGG. They were effective, but no chess was played. I'll probably need to discuss some theory and get a larger sample in. God this is something I'm so uncomfortable leaving and not just backspacing. But I do it for you, the readers.

My next update will have a full September/YTD since joining stable giraffes.

Holy **** it's October. A Chapter is closing

Well well well. It's hard to believe it has come to this. Less than a month until I'm back on Canadian soil. I kind of don't want it to end, you know? But we'll get to that in a moment. Here's my September recap:

MTD Stats


MTD Profit


MTD 15s


YTD since joining stable


YTD since joining stables 15s cEV


Well I set out to prove I'm ready, and I think I did. I *sort of* crushed the 15s. 71cEV is decent, but it's not soul crushing or anything. It's definitely above the threshold of what I needed to move up. My lifetime cEV is 56. Near the end of the month, I contacted my stable and asked to be moved up. I hit my goal for monthly cEV of +70. That's cool. I didn't hit the volume goal for 2k, but I think it's better I didn't. I knew I wasn't going to hit it once I was halfway through the month. Instead of making mistakes and overloading myself, I just focused on playing my A game. High volume just reduces my focus and makes me play worse.


And so it shall be. I am now a 30s reg. 갚시다! I made my first splash in the 30s at the end of September/first weekend of October. Small sample, but I've ran like **** lol. Had countless get gotted theres by some funplayers. But I've felt confident in my play and don't feel out classed yet. Not really sweating the early results, as it's so minuscule. There are certainly a lot more regs. That will take some getting used to. I just gotta maintain composure and keep playing my A game.

I sort of just jumped back into Spins randomly after playing tournaments for 2.5 months straight. I developed my own strategies, built my own basis for my play style, and I'm proud of what I was able to do. But I don't think that will cut it as I move up. I need to be putting more time in the lab. Gotta put in more studying. I've got a few weeks to play around before I gotta focus on life/go on vacation essentially.

Back to life for a moment. I'll talk about the future first. So Today is officially October 5th. My last day as a teacher is October 21st. My last day in Korea is October 26th. Given the goodbye partying, cleaning up my pigsty of an apartment, and getting my **** together to move back to Canada, I don't have much time to grind this month. I sort of realized I'm working so hard to prove I should be in the 30s, but I'll have to take some time off. I'm worried it could affect my game when I come back. I want to keep climbing and getting better. I want to keep proving I belong, and can be one of the best.

Anywayssss. back to life lol. tangents baby wooo. I know I'm going to miss this job when it's all said and done. It truly was such a great experience. I had no problems with the people I worked with, and no problems with the students (for the most part). Even the ****heads had their silver linings. The hours seemed "intensive" for a teaching gig, but it was pretty laid back. I function here with no worries or quarrels. I don't have to think about bills or debt. The job pays reasonable, and I'm always comfortable. I'm not spending or wasting money. The country as a whole is awesome. I've really had no bad experiences with locals.

But I am getting so excited for the future. I know I'm picking the hardest path right now. Who the hell wants to try professional poker in this climate? The general consensus is it's not do-able or not worth it. It's not sustainable.

The thing is, I don't care. I spent my entire teenage to early adult life chasing my pipe dream of professional Halo. My nickname in high school was "General." I thought about that in the cab this weekend. I was the "halo guy" at school. I put so much ****ing time into that game. So many hours. So many nights. And I was close. Soooo close to breaking into the upper echelons of the Halo world. Halo 4 drops. popularity tanked. The competitive community tanked. And I didn't stick with it. Maybe I didn't have what it took. But it pained me to give it up.

Then poker came along. I was always a recreational. Chasing the dream. grinding the $1.50 DoN's and 9mans. grinding the bankroll. Making that $50 deposit and saying "ok this is the one. I'm going to be super serious about my bankroll. No messing around." March 11th, 2014. I make the 25th $50 deposit. I bink a $0.50 MTT for $73. And it built from there. I started picking up steam. bouncing from variant of poker to variant of poker. Then in 2015 I get my first, second, and third 4 figure scores. I've graduated from University. I've FT'd a SCOOP. I'm feeling high and mighty. 1 month before I move to Korea, I hit my biggest score ever, chopping the big16.50 for 2.1k. The wealth of knowledge thickens. The friendships build.

Next thing you know, I'm in Korea. Poker takes a bit of a backseat. But it's always on my mind. I can't grind like I used to. Work life doesn't work well with an MTT schedule. I look for a way to continue. While watching Pulse's SNG stream, I find Tim "onthestoop" 64. I get spin coaching. I move to the 15s. I sign with SpinDegens. I slowly evolve.

It's kind of weird to reflect like this. The sum of my actions have led to this point. From day 1 I've always did what I loved, did my best to not let anything get in the way. And right now, I love poker. I look back at Halo, and think "what if". I stagnated, and sort of let other peoples opinions of what my life should be pull me out of the game. I don't want that to happen with poker. Whether I try for a year, or two, or five. I want to be able to said I tried it. I gave it my best. I gave it 100%. I want to move on from poker, and know I did everything in my power to make it work. When I move on, I don't want to doubt myself, and think "what if".

So when I return to Canada. I'm going to strive to move higher. I want to be in the 60s by February. By then, I'll have an idea where I'll live, and give professional poker a shot. I've got the capital. I've got the time. I've got the freedom. Life is just lining up so perfectly. I want to do what I love while I can still do what I love.


But please. Pretty please. NOONE LET ME BECOME A LIVE PRO. Don't let me do it. That felt good to type. I don't think I've ever laid it out like this. I've hinted at it. Said pieces of it to other people. But this is essentially where my mind is. I'll give myself a time frame, give myself a $ earned goal, and do it. If I fail, who cares. The odds were against me anyways. I got the backup plan. Life's peachy when I move on from poker. Some 9-6 job in an accounting firm is waiting for me.

As for the present. Oh god wouldn't this be hilarious if it was my last post. I've got this to look forward to atm:



As we can see from my expert paint job, I'm on the route of Typhoon Chaba. We'll see how this goes. It's a Category 2? Maybe a 3. We'll see. I'm essentially at the shoreline of my city. However we're not really at the edge of Korea. There's a good chunk of land in the way. fingers crossed it goes well though.

Until next time, some 뚱이

Freeroll post

Alright so here's the freeroll. Guess how many coins are in this bag:



I've thrown every coin I've gotten into this bag. I usually use cash, and then never use the coins. This is my accumulated amount of coins over my year in Korea. The size of the coins are here:



So there's 10s, 50s, 100s, and 500s.

Here's an image of how much the bag weighs to give a better idea of how many coins there are:




1 post per user. 2 guesses per post. Needs to be an exact guess. Closest guess will get 10% of whatever was in here. GLHF I'll announce the winner next weeks update. this week tl;dr no poker, just worked/got ready to bounce.

Ok, so my 2 guesses are:

1) 942 coins

2) 664 coins

the guy above me used the same strat that I had IMO.

First guess 943 coins
2nd guess 941 coins

My 2 guesses are:

1)2016

2)1111

Ugh I can't fix it. **** it I'll leave it. guess # of coins

Wanted guess how much $$$$ but i goofed. So it stands guess how many coins

Guess #1 950
Guess #2 876

Is there a WPT at Walker Hill this weekend?

Looked online, it's the paradise in Jeju

Guess 1: 1337
Guess 2: 3137

Guess 1: 875
Guess 2: 951

Haha nice.

1: 960
2: 640

1: 463
2: 524

And our winner is Edgelooker1



10 coins - 48
50 coins - 33
100 coins - 563
500 coins - 167

There were 811 coins + 1 american penny. Our 875 guess was closest. Total value was 143400Won. So, Edge you win 14.34, so lemme know how you want me to send. PM me.

Interested in relocating for a 3 month period.

I'm a 23 year old college student who wants to grind $2-5 ABI.

Interested in potential of rooming with you? Would love to reach out and get in contact if you're interested at all.

As a sit in this beautiful living room in West Vancouver, I have to come to terms that my journey is indeed over. We have come to our conclusion as a "Foreigner in South Korea."

First off, I'd like to say how grateful I am to have had this opportunity. Teaching in Korea isn't for everyone. It especially isn't an option for everyone. Having the ability to just pick up and go to a completely foreign country is something I'm thankful to have. This was to date, the experience of my life. Fortunately I'm still young, so I have intentions to match or top this.

I guess I'll get the boring poker stuff out of the way first. Here's YTD's in MTTs, Spins, and Spins since joining the stable:

So YTD Tournaments:


YTD Spins:




YTD Since joining stable Tournaments


YTD Since joining stable Spins


MTTS January 1st-April 12th where I had 100% of my action:


YTD 15s cEV


Live tournaments I think went something like
+550
-50
-275
-330
-100
-100
0 (broken even after KO's)

So $-255 Live tournaments Live cash I can't say, but I'm up like ~2-2.5k for sure.

Overall, pretty dec given the situation. Playing part-time while working a full time job I can't complain. Obviously that MTT downswing sucks, but it happens. Can't stress it. I think the big thing is I'm setting myself up for bigger gains. Now that I'm in the 30s, we begin to make a big boy hourly. Couple that with playing full time, results should be incoming. I'm proud of how my poker game has improved. Obviously, the bulk of time with spins was spent in 15s. Partly because I stopped playing them, halting my development. I'm going to be setting my benchmarks pretty high to finish the year. I want 50cEV over my 30s sample by Dec 31st. I can probably do ~2k a month easy for Nov/Dec too.

I will be taking my talents to the felt and going full time. November-January will be my true feeling out process. I'll get a taste of full time poker for the full time. It's always fun when it's a hobby. It might be different once I try to make it the job. I need to maintain focus. 30s isn't the end-game. It's not the top of the mountain. It's just another step. I must maintain focus and drive. I must not get content with results.

I'm also branching into staking/coaching. Which is funny, because you know, I'm being staked/coached. I have two students currently who are micro spin players. I know I can get them out of the micro's quickly. Both have seen incredible success early. Both are great and hard workers. I look forward to building that aspect of my career as well. After a year of teaching, I think it's really helped qualify me as a coach. I know I take a lot of ***** from friends for being a "feel player" and just mashing buttons. But I'm like semi-competent, you know? RIGHT? RIGHT GUYS?

I think it's important I stay in my stable for now because it will improve my development. I think riding solo has it's benefits, but I need to make sure I maintain growth. Perhaps once I'm in the 60s or 100s I can look to self-diming. I could maybe handle some 30s variance, but 60s or 100s variance would bust-o me quickly. I've acquired a reasonable sum of wealth over my 2016. I'm definitely going to be comfortable in 2017.

I'm still pretty set on making the jump to Europe in 2017. I think it'd be an incredible experience. Not only to I get to see another part of the world, but I can save money and focus myself. I'm also in the preliminary stages of considering a 2017 WSOP run. I'd be focused more-so on mixed games than anything. If it becomes more likely, I'd probably start focusing on my mixed games again.

__________________________________________________ ______________

Now, to the fun stuff. Life in Korea was an absolute f_cking blast. I really got more into it my last 5-6 months. I was an apartment dweller for the first batch of my stay. Started to open up more, get active, and had a better time. Thankful to have met a ton of awesome people.

I'll start with teaching. It was a top tier experience. I had a great work environment, excellent co-workers, and a great boss. Never had any issues with pay, work schedule, or hours. I had a lot of great times teaching my students. A lot of them had great personality, and were a pleasure to teach. It became especially hard to say goodbye to some of the younger ones. They weren't particularly happy when I told them "ok this is my last week at JC." Honestly, I see myself teaching again. Maybe after this poker dreams wrapped up, I could come out for one last hoorah before settling down in Canada. Maybe I just stay. Who knows, that's the beauty of life options.

Life in Korea came with its challenges. My arrogance of not learning Korean made things difficult. There were certainly some times where I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do (in particular, order take-out lolol). I STRONGLY suggest learning the language if you come to Korea. Don't be a piece of ***** like I was. Aside from language barriers, it was special. I feel like Masan is my second home now. I'm proud to say I lived in Masan, and I'm proud to have called it my home. It was such a beautiful city. I made some great friends too. People who are just all about living good and fulfilling lives. A lot of positive people who are just a delight to be around. It's always good to surround yourself with good people. I'm glad I could do that.

I've came back to Canada a much more mature and humble person. I feel like I left a kid, and came back an adult. When I first left for Korea, I was fresh out of university. I wasn't doing anything special, just poker here and there. I learned to live on my own, and how to manage responsibilities in life and in the workplace. I'm proud of the person I am now. I think that's important.

I wish I could say I leave Korea with zero regret. Basically, your boy bricked on two Korean girls. I originally had both stories typed out. But I just don't think I can post them. They are stories I have no problem telling, but not for public record. If you ever want to hear them, ones like a 5/10 story. ones a 9/10 story. Whether it's over a beer or over skype, I can share and relieve some of my pain. I learned two things from these experiences:

1) stop being such a p_ssy. Like seriously. I need to just get over my fear of girls and just act. I think I overthink things and just think too negatively in these spots. I always think I'm being annoying or too pushy.
2) Never let an opportunity like this slip again. This'll haunt me for a while. I'm actually so motivated right now because of it. I'm turning this negative into a positive. This is the rock bottom. This is where things go up.

Aside from be being an absolute dweeb when it comes to woman, no regrets with my decisions in Korea. Life for me will be fun the following two weeks. I'm spending a week in Vancouver Area, then a week in Regina. I'm going to be catching up with family and friends in both areas. Life is definitely on a high end right now. I have so many things going for me right now, and I couldn't be more excited for the future. Here's an assortment of pictures of my life and time in Korea. I think this is where I conclude the post. I'm unsure if this thread will continue much longer. Maybe I'll give it to the end of the year. I can make it a 2016 type deal. I think this went well. I hope you've enjoyed the thread guys. I'm glad I got to see it through and not let it die like a lot of other threads do.








And this was my favorite exchange. Excellent set of 5 pictures. Keep an eye on the boys in the front

The set up:


The pull:


The reaction:


The swing:


The hit:

Nice end post, looked like their was plenty of optimism and positivity coming from it. Pretty crazy you up'd and went somewhere as diverse as Korea, would have expected Europe to be the "normal" route before throwing yourself into somewhere as culturally different as Asia. Having said that it's impressive you enjoyed it so much and took so many lessons, seen a fair few people take such strong life changing choices without fully throwing themselves into it and end up being miserable with the option they chose.

As for the whole poker route, lot of what you said resonates with how I felt when deciding "OK this is it, full time poker pro we go". The whole give it 100%, want no regrets come the end of it etc. etc. Finding people who have moved from "the real world" into full time poker is pretty important imo, it's easy to crash and burn quick as there's a lot of trial and error early doors in regard to life balance, volume and study time.

Wish you the best with it and hope it works, 7/10 though as your korean threadsavers are below par

Well, it has almost been a full year since this thread started. Can't believe I actually made it through and didn't give up on this. It really has been one hell of a year. A lot of ups, with a few downs here and there. I've spent the last 1.5-2 weeks to reflect. Haven't played too much poker since the 23rd. I think 2017 could be the most important year in my life. My success directly correlates with my effort I put in.

So we'll start with a Nov-Dec update. I had a blast in Vancouver. I stayed at my Aunt and Uncles beautiful house in North Vancouver. They had a superb view of the downtown core across the pond. I enjoyed catching up with family, and meeting old and new friends. On a tangent, I always enjoy meeting people you've been friends with online for a long time. I mean you've hung out with these people, chatting and what not for such long periods. You feel like you really do know them, yet you've never met in person. When do you meet, it doesn't feel like it's the first time you've ever met. It feels so natural. I had that happen a lot while I played competitive Halo, and I enjoyed that feeling again. Anyways, I had some incredible food. Thanks to the lovely suggestion from Mr. A Barone, I had sushi at Nabu. Holy god I can't go back to pleb food again. Vancouver reminded me how much I love major cities.

Regina was interesting. So I was born and essentially raised there. From 0-13, I lived there. I then moved to London Ontario, and lived here until I moved to Korea at 23. Returning home after 11 years was such a unique feeling. Everything felt so foreign, but so familiar. I spent much of my first few days just driving around. I would drive around and have flashbacks of memories I've forgotten for over a decade. It was great to see my older brothers again. One thing I can say is I'm glad I left when I did. Holy **** the city is so restraining. There really is no opportunity for growth there. It's definitely a city that lives in a bubble unaware of how inadequate and irrelevant it is. It really just has nothing going on for it. I seriously have no idea why the housing market there is booming and people are moving there. On a positive note, I'm glad I caught up with my old elementary school friends. It was intriguing to talk to people you were so close to and essentially lost contact. You sort of get the idea of what could have been if you stayed. It was an expense trip back, but I'm glad I went.

I got back to London Nov 9th and proceeded to meet as many friends and family as I could. We started "full-timing" around Nov 21st. The first few weeks went great. However, from Nov 29th to Dec 23rd, I went on a 3.4k downswing. I'll save the graphs, the whines, and explanations. No need. From Dec 23rd to Today, I've taken off from poker. My brothers came to visit for Christmas, and I couldn't really dedicate myself to a full fledged grind. I didn't want to half-ass a 1.5 hour session here and there. I think the break was good for me. I was mentally in a bad place. I needed a break to step back and re-evaluate things again. I'm as positive as ever again.


I made an investment in a brand new computer. I spent roughly $1300CAD on the whole set-up. TBH it's pretty sweet. I began streaming on it Dec 9th. So far it's gone well. I'm enjoying being an online personality, and I know I'm a perfect fit for it. I know I'll be a success if I put the hours in. Starting January, I'll have a schedule and adhere to it. It was too hard to devote a stream schedule with holidays and such. Also, I needed to figure out when it would be best for me to play. I think I know what I want to do. If you haven't been to it already, feel free to tune in at www.twitch.tv/iregption .

Now, for the future. I plan on moving out of the 'rents house in February or March. I'll be figuring out the details in January. Whether I move to Montreal, Brantford, Toronto, or stay in London, I'll find out soon. Regardless of what I do, I need isolation. I need to have undivided and dedicated attention to this. Poker and Streaming are very demanding jobs.

I also have goals I need to set. So I was unsure what benchmarks I should set for my first year of poker. I'd love input if people would like to add.

#1 - Profit 35,000CAD. I Think this is a reasonable benchmark. It's not too high, but not too low. If I can't hit this in my first year, then it might not be for me. Years 2 and 3 if they happen will have much higher benchmarks. There's such a high opportunity cost with this profession. I give up all life-securities like pension, health care, etc. that a normal job has. I think this salary as a base is alright.
#2 - Reach the pinnacle of whatever I'm playing. Now I'm not looking to switch to cash or something. But I'm unsure about Spins atm. I crush 15s, but not doing well at 30s. TBH I might just be sweating variance too much. So whether I'm sticking with spins, or MTTs, I want to be one of the best. I want to be feared. I want people to sigh when they see me regged in their games. Maybe not NLHE tournaments, but O8 tournaments I think I can easily excel in. The regs all suck and I feel so much better than everyone else. It's laughable some of the people who make money in it.
#3 - A top5 biggest stream on twitch. I'm bleed personality. I genuinely feel like it's only a matter of time until I succeed at the streaming game. I know I'll as big as the stapler, the truck guy, and Doggie.
#4 - Reach my goal weight. I think I could be relatively health at 200 pounds. Atm i sit at 235. I mean people seem shocked when I tell them. I'm 6'3, so I don't really see myself being like 180 or something lol.

I've been borderline whether to end the thread here and start a new one, or continue my updates here. I think I'll continue here. I feel it'll be cooler to see a full progress after another year. I'm excited. Happy New Year.












First off, I'm honored. I'm surprised you responded to me at all on the table, let alone actually read my thread ^_^. Appreciate the kind words. Hopefully I can follow in your footsteps a bit

as a welcome gift, I give you some top notch Korean Thread Saver: