Hey,

i am going to try another one of these things as they certainly can be fun. I stopped updating the last one as my IRL-Situation changed drastically in the middle of the last Year , so some of the Goals that were important then became completely pointless and I also realized that some other Goals were just phrased idiotically. So at some Point i stopped giving much of a f#%& about that one due to the high discrepancy between initial plans and actual outcomes.

Just for the lols the Poker-Goals of the last one though :



Life-Goals before/afters even worse



cliffs 2017:

- lost at the tables in 2017
- finished longish Relationship with shared Household



After all of this i did what every Pokerplayer who just had a losing Year would do. Right, i quit my Job, left Europe to SEA (Bangkok, Chiang Mai and diff Parts of Cambodia so far) and started going fulltime playing MTTs.

Seriously: This might sound like a silly Plan to some People. But using Results as a Measurement for Skill and Expectation in MTTs is just not possible. I have had a very positive Development regarding my evbb/100 during that year and also noticed that this continuing lack of binks with the consequence of me being in Makeup had absolutely no negative Impact on my level of Happiness. All of this helped me finally deciding that I am ready for this.
Although the most important Reason is, that i have a very deep-rooted desire for being steadily on the Move. I can easily pass-on most of those Luxuries a settled Home in a 1st World Country offers for the Thrill and Excitement of living abroad and getting to see and learn about new Cultures.
Also getting motivated and supported by my Backer and Coach Aaron "abarone68" Barone helped a lot. Thanks Man!



Travels So Far:

- moved to Bangkok early December 2017. Went to Chiang Mai for January 2018 to meet up with Abarone68. Back to Bangkok since 1st February -

- spent 1 week in Cambodia with a longtime friend from Home, which was great fun.

Thats me in front of some Waterfall in a Nationalpark. Wasnt a lot of hiking , as we were mostly riding with Scooters through that Park:




Plans:
- next Step will be the Move to Latinamerica, at some Point in the next 2 Months. First Destination will be Venezuela. People familar with global Politics will wonder why the Hell Venezuela. There is a growing Colombian Grinder Community on Isla Margarita though and as Colombians are confirmed awesome People and carribean Islands cant be too bad i chose to move there as well. Also kind of exciting due to the Situation tbh.


My Goal is keeping a high evbb. Anything under 7 makes me worry and everything over 12 is amazing. ABI ~30$ that is.

As i want to start with a nice Graph in this , this is Feb so far :



FWIW, overall i am down ~9k this Year.




evbb/100 since going fulltime:


I don´t really want to phrase yearly Goals that are results-related but i will def come up with some short-term stuff.


Of Course, i hope some People are actually interested in this. I happily take trolls and friendly banter but will obv also appreciate travel recommendations, strat-advise and sweat posts.

Ok, so the first Version of this was just a misclick , was far from ready but suddenly the Thread was there, so i ninja-edited it like 4 times and i am still not satisfied with it. At least expectations are super low at this point.



I am changing my BKK condo today. Another Dude from the Stable, that i am friendly with will arrive to the City tomorrow, so i have been looking for Short-Term Apartments in this Area ( On Nut ), where he can get a Place in the same Building. Makes it easier to grind or grab food together once in a while. Stable Boss is in a slightly more upscale area, close to the fancy Malls where cheapish dining options are somewhat more limited, so getting the dude over here seemed a good idea.

Good luck man, work hard at it. Take it seriously like it's your own business and it can't fail. I'm rooting for ya.

you took my identity. expect a lawsuit

Hi homeless guy!

Per usual, I'm going to respond mostly to the things about me.




So, what are some short-term goals you have in mind? I imagine you're hesitant to post them because of last year, but I don't think that the fact that your goals changed over the course of the year is necessarily a bad thing. Probably shows growth, if anything. Recently had another conversation with another poker player about goals and I suggested two:

1) Volume: Play x number of hours, games, hands, or whatever. Don't set a number that kills you, but one that's sustainable because you're trying to do this for a living, not for a few weeks and then burnout.
2) Improvement: Work hard off the tables as much as you do on. Embrace the study aspect of the game; perhaps each week, give yourself one spot/area to focus on. Game is constantly evolving, the average player pool only gets better, so if you're not keeping up with them, your edge is going to get smaller and smaller and smaller as time goes on. Wont matter if you put in a billion games if the edge is negative.

Thanks, man . Actually i cannot do anything else than treating it as my own Business as thats just what it is

lol sorry wasn´t aware of your thread title. nice thread though . but seriously what has this world come too? even bums filing lawsuits vs each other ? brave new world

Volume (600 games/mth) and working on the Game are in there , but also fixing mental leaks and getting fitter overall. There is still some moments where i lack focus, because i decided to open Tinder during 5min Breaks and not use that time to get a Rest, munch some Vitamins or maybe do breathing Techniques or a quick stretching. Also in a perfect World i´d wish the use of Skype/Messengers to happen in a more limited Fashion during Sessions , only really legit Reasons are imo a very quick checkup of a mind-boggling Hand or the casual "send stars pls :P". Maybe i am to social as a Person to be able to limit my conversations to the most necessary stuff.

As i don´t want to limit this here to Poker, there could certainly be other recreational Goals. But the list of Places/Things/People that i want to do/see/experience/learn/meet is just too long, so before i randomly post a list of stuff I want to break it down to the most important things or just frame stuff by short-term urges.


will do a breakdown of my pokerz before/after sunday . basically because those lobbyscreens are just not XXX enough so far

Belated Update:

Plan of updating this earlier didnt work out so well. Partly because updating when running bad isnt as fun. But also the bad grind shifts in Thailand started to more and more cannibalize my mental wellbeing. That led to a lack of Motivation and finally brought me to the decision of having to book a flight into a different Timezone asap. In my final Weeks there, I at least got to enjoy the perks of Bangkok by exploring the probably most vital Tinder-Ecosystem on earth and indigesting a massive amount of delicious Food. That was fun!



So, exactly 14 Days ago i left Bangkok super stoked about being somewhere else soon. For me, there is nothing more exciting in Life than leaving something behind and getting to know something new. Actually, Friends from home often criticise this Mentality. In Gemany a non-binding Nature is somehow perceived as bad. For me, being bound to a Location and a certain circle of People definately has some suffocating Effects.

Between Thailand and South-America i managed to spend exactly 24hrs in my Hometown , which was barely enough to see my beloved ones .
Been there , done that. [x]

Flying into Venezuela isnt as easy anymore as many carriers dont offer flights to Caracas anymore, for security Reasons. So, i had a 2 day layover in Bogota , which i used for 2 Days of moderate Drinking with a non-poker Friend from Germany who lives in Bogotà since 5 Years. Guy loves drinking in Tiendas ( small shops that sell sweets , cigs and beer). So i spent a lot of time with him and colombians of all ages drinking Beer sitting on tiny stools while trying to practise my admittedly improvable Spanish.

Had a very warm welcome at the beautiful Isla Margarita. Relocated Colombian grinder mate from Stable was here already and he basically set up everything before i arrived. Also, to those not familar with the economical Situation here: Venezuela suffers hyperinflation. That makes Life tough for Locals. For People like us, that earn in USD/EUR it is incredibly cheap. We live in a 3 BR/2 Bath + Pool Townhouse, style bit rustic but clean and convenient, in some kind of gated Community, have a Maid who is here 3-4 Days a week and a personal Driver who provides us with Food daily. Fixed Price for all of that is less than 150USD/Person/Month. The climate is amazing. Its an carribean Island. It´s rarely colder than 24 C° and if its too hot theres always a little Breeze. Beach within reach.
Time-Zone stone cold nuts for MTTers. I feel like having found Paradise although i am aware that the Situation is super-bad for locals. I still don´t feel like taking advantage of the Situation, as i actually feel economy-wise it can´t get any worse and hopefully i´ll be part of something growing here. The human and geographical Potential of the Country is huge and it is still the Country with the biggest Petrol Resources on Earth. #thinkpositive #crossfingers

One the first Day-Off, we went to some Beach. While i didn´t manage to make Photos, we got to heat-up the local economy a bit by ordering Mojitos, succulent Seafood, Massages and a caricaturist who captured me and my grinding Mates in a better way than every Photo could have:



Teh pokerz also finally went well. I lost a lot of (my backers) Money in Thailand and start to feel the time-zone could be a Reason. On the other Hand , the sudden Appearance of Results in MTTs is never an Indicator for Anything at all :P . While my overall evbb was in order i often felt so exhausted at the ends of the Session. Try having semi-deep Runs at peak-Events when being in Asia and starting a session at 7pm.

My fellow Housemates are super-enthusiastic about studying, and as one is a CG-Grinder and the other plays MTTs theres a well-balanced mix of opinions during our study-Sessions . Got to know PIO for the first Time actually. It´s fun and super-interesting to use but def need to spend more time on figuring out what its good for practically in MTTs.

Also being surrounded by positive, ambitious Guys helps a lot. I have always been a bit sad about the fact, that i never managed to make many friends in the german-speaking community as theres so many people who theoretically could provide super-valuable Input.
On the other Hand, i never really wanted to, as the general attitude of most mid-european Grinders comes off as quite cynical and negative to me. Also i feel the Background of most european Grinders is very often "spoiled Kid having the Luck of being in a Situation where they could spend their early 20s studying Poker because of parental Support and not having to work to survive". I envy those but also cant really relate to them.#shotsfiredeurope

The Guys in my Latino Circle are mostly People who have had normal Jobs before and got into to Poker after. One of the Crusher Guys i study with went literally from Trucker to Pokerpro. Many interesting Biographys overall.
Anyway, these Latinos def spread a lot of positve Enthusiasm for the Game and i really enjoy that. I am an emotional Person and get negatively influenced by non-positivity quite easily.

Also, results-wise poker went slightly better finally since being here:

In for sure, definitely interested in reading about your travels as I also moved out of my country but stayed within boring old Europe but always keeping in the back of my mind the plan of travelling to Asia/South America at some point in the not too distant future.

Good luck on the tables and if you want to talk some poker at some point pm me ur skype, we`ll probably battle some this year though a bunch of my volume moved away from PS.com so maybe not there so much

Also we are gonna need some Latina pics itt

Thanks for the in

Regarding Travelz: If You have the Chance, do it man! It´s mind-expanding, healthy, enjoyable and will be one of the most valuable Coaching Lessons that you can participate in during this Game called Life. Also learning Languages is fun and keeps your brain alive. Especially when doing dull things fulltime, as we do .

Latina-Wise , this is the closest i got to a female since being here. Was def worth though:




Pokerz:

Monday is generally a great Day for Grinding: Years ago, one of my first Coaches in this Game told me Monday is the Day, where all Recs that binked something on Sunday will try to get rid of their Moneys again , while most Regs take a Day off after their Sunday Grinds . And this is still true. Games usually very soft. Unfortunately, I could not get Lobby Screens sexier than these:










That last one hurt the most, as I went from 5th to 1st to 3rd to 1st to bust 6th at that FT. At least made more than 5th due to Bountys.


Spent close to 6 hours reviewing HandHistories today. Brain is feeling more sour than after a typical 11hr Grind. Will most likely proceed using Tuesdays for extensive Theory Sessions. Stable Boss runs Group-Coachings usually on Tuesdays and it is a not so appealing Day for clicking Tourneys anyway.

Nice runs man, fkn mtts.. Run better next time plz

6 hour review is good stuff though and Tuesday is def a nice one to replace grind with study

I haven't been to Venezuela since I'm not as courageous as you but I highly recommend spending some time in Colombia if you get the chance. Bogota is the least friendly place in the country by far (imo anyways), so if you liked the time you spent there you'll love the other cities. Copetran has nice cheap buses for traveling around the country, I really could not recommend it more.

Also share your feelings on grinding mtts in Asia, cool place but sleeping all day long sucks the life out of you.

pleeeeezee

Yeah , huge +1 to this , I have been to Colombia multiple Times. Can't name a country that i like more. People are so so so so nice. And the Landscapes, man. Name a country thats like twice the size of France (?) that has Pacific Coast and Carribean Beaches, all Types of Climates you can imagine, amazon Jungle, dead dry deserts, high altitude andes Mountains and so on. If it wasnt for their ****ty online poker legislation, i would likely be there.

Grinding MTTs in Asia is not a good decision, unless you really manage to stick to a pure off-peak Schedule. Even on Sundays. While there are actually really good Reasons to do so(soft games, little variance) , the truth is that there is probably a little degenerate looking for a chance to score big in nearly every MTTer ( at least once a week ).

Glad to see things are turning around and that you weren't brutally murdered during your layover in the Simón Bolívar International Airport.

I am just as happy , i could only just dodge getting lynched there.





Views about life here:

As i already indicated, in one of the last Posts, i start to more and more ponder about the Situation here. During my first few Days on the Island, i was indeed very euphoric about the subjective low level of prices. As there is a group of locals working for/with us, i soon got a chance to very closely monitor the Negatives of this Situation.
Something just has to be wrong, if theres actually People who fundamentally rely on earning amounts of Money off you, that are so small that you don´t even notice.
Note: In my european Environment i am very far from being wealthy. Actually, i could easily be the Person with the smallest net-worth in my german circle of friends. Here though, i could easily afford hiring an army of employees, and it wouldnt set me back much.
Yesterday, i casually mentioned in a Skype Poker Travel Chat that i am in Venezuela right now. To my Surprise, this Chat just exploded afterwards. People are super-curious about it, mostly because of the cheapness and while i feel the People here deserve an increase of touristic interest, i kind of want to raise awareness for a couple of Things:
Whoever comes here for long, should be aware of the colossal monetary Power he/she has here, in a responsible Sense. This is no poorish asian/central american backpacker/traveller Paradise, where there is 46728334 people like us, that leave some money here and there. In general, People don´t travel here anymore. Some other Latinos actually do. But also not in big numbers. Anyway, you can actually directly save/protect human lifes from illness and hunger, by working with locals. With those rates of exchange, you can feed and cure a bunch of people without really noticing you´re spending Money.
During previous Travels, i have gotten pretty cold towards beggars, as "you can´t help everyone". Here, the leverage effect of tiny amounts of money (from our POV) is that big, that imo every Foreigner who comes here, and automatically takes advantage of the situation also has a responsibilty to contribute somehow. If anyone has ideas, thoughts, questions about this: Keep em coming!

sry for the tl/dr


Poker:

Yesterdays Grind was the worst i have had so far , since being here. It was the first Session out of like 11 where i encountered serious lags, despite having 2 backups. Still managed to make 2 FTs. 9th in the .com 27 Deep for barely 3 figures. And a 5th in some Winamax 20€ Bowl for another small 3 figs. Long Story Short , got rekt af. Winning Month secured and gonna grind Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
For that Reason, i take a day-off today. Will review 1 or 2 HHs, run some Spots with ICMIZER and such and try to find me a nice Beach afterwards. It is Semana Santa (Easter Holidays) here, so i hope it´s not going to be too crowded.

GLs/CYA

Quick Update:

- applied for spanish lessons. 2$/hr. Gonna do intense course, 2 Days/Week, 5 hrs each. Should probably get me on track pretty soon as i already do practise a lot with my colombian poker parceros Nicolas and Andres. Shoutouts to those amazing Guys btw

- have a weird feeling of sickness. could be zika. had that 2 years ago in the amazon already and this feels similar. if its that i´ll be fine. its actually good for grinding longer, as it makes getting up from the chair bit tougher. we´ll see. have gotten my fair share of mosquito bites so far so it´s an option.


Poker:

- session wasnt too amazing, but booked some profits and played decent volume. busted the b33 4th AA<QQ but i am not going to start complaining here about running bad









will grind hard saturday/sunday/monday . gl´s to everyone on the felts

got rekt all day, could save the day in proper fashion though :





will write monthly wrap-up with some sexy graphs monday. need rest now, tomorrow will be sick grind. winamax series starting , schedules super sexy all over the place. looking to gameselect as smart as i can . cyall tomorrow!

interesting thread, gl!

just saw this, nice thread indeed

those thing said about venezuela made me wonder tho. how is security there ? i mean do you ever felt threatened / your -well being- endangered ?

subbd. gl

thank you

Thanks for the sub.

re: security
I feel safe. Honestly, i have been grinding a lot and havent spent a whole lot of time walking around yet. But have been out at night twice, was fine both times. In general, the security situation @ Isla Margarita should match the latin american average. When on my own, i wouldnt want to flash valuables in public and also maybe wouldnt like to walk around alone drunken at night. But: I think the risk of encountering physical harm is super low. The Chance of getting involved with violent people is way higher when drinking in any european pub street imo. My biggest enemies here are Mosquitos .
Sure, Caracas is the Homicide-Capital of this Planet. These Numbers are usually skewed though, as its usually either gang-on-gang or protest related Violence. Nonetheless, the Situation in Caracas is told to be significantly worse, so i´ll probably stay away, for now.

Hola!

Just finished 6 Hours of some pretty intense Spanish learning. I am the only person attending that class, teacher was nice and really liked the way she approaches her lessons. I def learn way better doing conversations than just cramming theory. Also, She gave interesting insights on everyday life in Venezuela. Interesting stuff, and i am very positive i´ll make quick progress.
In one of the Breaks, i got to know another Student from Germany, who was attending a different class and he actually told me great Stuff about Caracas. So while in my last Post i indicated, i will avoid Caracas, that definately changed my mind quite a bit. One of the Colombians i am living with does Jiu-Jitsu frequently, has some Tournament over there soon, and i am seriously considering joining him.
We have had 2 Power Breakdowns in the last 3 Weeks here, each one for about 1hr, also the overall Quality of the Internet here i would rate at 6.5/10, and i imagine this to be way better on the Mainland. We have 2 Backups , so that saved us some Equity but in general the connectivity on this Island is not entirely optimal. So, while i like the Idea of staying in this Country longterm, i can imagine a Change of the Location at some Point during the next 6 Months.

Sunday played good Volume. Lost a bit, but managed to get some cashes in , so could have been way worse. Wanted to mash volume on Monday again, but had to un-reg all after electricity started leaking.


March:
Poker-Wise i had a pretty good Month. First Winning Month this Year and i am hungry for more. I am super satisfied with the Volume , played 500 Games in the 2nd half of March, so i assume my Goal of playing 750 Games in April to be a lock.

March Graph pretty sweeeeet therefore :





April-goals Poker:
- 750 Games
- studying 7 Hours poker/week
- bumping the evbb back to 10+ . March was 7.4 at 37$ ABI.

Non-Poker:
- Speak as much Spanish as possible in the House. One of the Guys wants to learn english, so hes forcing english Conversations me. I´ll try to re-exploit the s**t out of him and molest him persisently with my Spanish.
- Not smoking a single Cigarette ffs. While I havent smoked at all in Bangkok, one of my Roomies here, has a pack laying around here sometimes and I couldnt hesitate of grabbing a Cig from there once in a while. Feels like a huge loss, because it is one of the worst and maybe the most useless Habit i can imagine.
- Doing 1 hour of light work-out each Day. I dont like Gyms , neither am i looking to build a picturesque Physique. Simply wanna feel fitter and some swimming/stretching/push-ups will do the Job for me.
- Eat healthier. Might be the toughest one. Latin-American Diet consists of Meat and Carbs mainly. There is a big diversity of Fruits and Fish available. Gotta claim more of that for sure.
- Still find Time for Fun-stuff/Recreation. At least 2 full beach-days I want to do in April.

GLs

Great thread, loving the honesty. Congrats on your results.

Definitely a theme with wanting to get fitter going around. Convenience food is the only option when you've only 5 mins an hour!

Thanks for the kind Words

The getting fitter theme is probably connected with the fact, that many Grinders reached or about to reach their 30s and therefore Health gets a more important factor , plus the younger Generation seems to be more conscious about these Things anyway.


Pokerz:
Grind today wasn´t a complete catastrophe , could have been way worse as i still managed to cash some things, still sucks to not be able to get that final bink but i am super motivated to click like a loco all weekend.

most exciting lobbys of this day :/ :





also busted F2T at .es big100 and 33 6-max at ACR

Life beyond:
Sketchily checked real-estate Prices on the Island and without wanting to get too concrete i could imagine buying something here at some point. I found out that bureaucratic Obstacles are actually smaller than one would imagine and its really cheap.

Just finished my worst session quality-wise in a really long time. During the Session i heard that there was an assault with persons dying and many injured in the city right next to my hometown and it really took away my focus and concentration. Another Person who thought driving a Truck into a group of People would solve any of his Problems .
Btw, turned out it was a mentally disturbed Person and not islamic Terror as everyone thought in the first Place. Not that it would make this any better/worse .


Probably should not consider it a mental leak, that this had some impact on me and my quality of play. While i certainly want to get a better pokerplayer , i dont want it to make me a worse Person as i value my ability to feel empathy quite high. Anyway, this made me feel very uncomfortable and i couldnt really manage to think rationally about hands anymore. I unregged everything when i noticed my play getting worse. Somehow still managed to make FT in .ES big100, but busted 6th.

Great read mate, very honest, motivating and inspiring, life just isn't about money!

i am also thinking of learning jiu jitsu, i have a boxing background which is great for fitness but want to learn the ground game being a huge MMA fan.

you dont need to go to the gym to get a physique, calisthenics, like pushups, upside down pushups, pull ups, dips, squats, etc, then start adding weight. i got to the stage i was doing 10 reps 3 sets of chin ups/dips with 20kg hanging off me and guys thought i was on steroids from my progress, rest and food is key, i only trained 3 times a week.

hope to meet you guys one day, and hope the rest of the year goes well bro.

Yo thanks for dropping by here mate




Month so far:

Doesnt look good for most of my monthly Goals :P.

In Terms of Poker, i have had a very rough start into the month and i am going to blame at least some of it on myself: I have been moved-up quite a bit lately, and i def should have reacted by reducing the table count to 9-10 tables max. I did not do that, instead of that i decided to fire basically every MTT that i fired before and just add all those 109+ Things. Obv this approach will get punished hard, when a growing part of the population you compete with is quite good at Poker. So while i intended to get my evbb up to 10ish , i saw it decrease to 5ish this month. At least i was lucky enough to turn things around yesterday by shipping 109 bounty thing @ starscom . FT was quite fun to play and obv it felt amazing to turn things around after starting so bad this month. Monthly Graph will certainly look fun, but i save that for after Sunday . Instead fri + sat lobbys :






GL to everyone also battling the last Sunday before SCOOP. I am planning to do an extensive life/poker write-up after Sunday.