Well done! Great results in 2023 Koss!

Bump

Re-Bump!

I haven't posted at all this year. The first two years (21-22) of this online poker thing were a time of great discovery. Getting back into the online game. Fish on a heater skyrocketing through the stakes. The massive downswing. The struggles. Getting coaching. Recovering. Becoming a winner. It was quite a journey. I had a lot to say here.

2023 felt like a grind. Not in a bad way. The results and profit were great. I just didn't feel like there was much left to say about the game and my journey. My study definitely fell off a bit. When the summer ended, my wife went back to work full time for the first time in 12 years. That means I've had to pick up some of the slack around here with her and the kids. That's definitely cut into my play & study time. But I was still eeking out some small wins.

2024 has been a pretty big downswing so far. Somewhere in the 30 buyin range. I'm not sure the exact amount of buyins due to WSOP not supporting PT4 tracking and me mixing stakes. But it hasn't been great. I was sort of getting to the point where my roll was getting thin for 200NL. When you're winning it's easy to shrug off BRM. I like spending money, but that can make weathering a downswing hard. I do fall into this cycle when I hit a downswing I tend to refocus on BRM, then when I'm winning I just yolo it. I was about to implement some tougher BRM rules and then I hit a 5 buyin bink last night so for now I'm going to stay the course and focus on 200NL, but 500NL shots are on hold for the time being.

I'm debating on how to refocus on study. It's hard. I just don't have the time to dedicate to this that I did in previous years.

It also hasn't helped that I'm on a big downswing regarding my other gambling ventures. I'm very confident I am still making +EV bets. My results from previous years have been exceptional, so I have faith in my system. But variance can still kick you in the nuts. In 3 years I have had one overall losing quarter. Barring a miraculous comeback, this is likely to be my second. It's not the end of the world, it's just cut into my bankroll a bit harder than I would've liked. Back to the grind!

How was the Uri Peleg Upswing Course? I noticed you mentioned it a couple years ago.
Did it help you with your online/live game? Improve your understanding of GTO and how to deviate?

+1 for Uri here

The course was good. There's a little bit of solver work in there but it is really exploit heavy. It's a lot about how to take notes, identify player types, and what types of exploits work against their mistakes. It's not so much a direct poker lesson, but more of a framework for developing exploit.

His other course on upswing, the red line rocketship, is much more quick and to the point and details how to play certain lines and some good bet sizing tips.

I'm probably overdue for a rewatch of those courses.

Epic comeback complete. Finished almost +4K on the quarter! Since that post poker has been mostly non-stop wins. Some big, some small, but mostly wins. I think overall I'm still down on the year at poker but probably somewhere in the 10BI range, much better than the 30+ I was a few weeks ago. The gambling promo stuff also turned around in a massive way. I had some nice slot hits, and a few really big blackjack days. It feels good. On to the next quarter.

I'm writing this post on a random Monday morning for a weird reason. I got laid off at work. I was part of the recent round of Stellantis layoffs you may have heard about. It's annoying, but my 12 years there got me a decent severance package that should keep us afloat for a while. I've already got a few potential jobs in the works, but if any of my Michigan peeps reading this knows of any companies in SE to mid-Michigan area looking for an internal combustion engine guy, or just an electrical engineer in general, I'd appreciate a DM.

On the plus side of this, I get my first meaningful time off work/school in over 20 years. I am hoping to get my poker volume, both study and play, up quite a bit. I have been somewhat joking that I am a poker pro now. Gambling is now my sole source of income, but I'm not really planning on putting in anything resembling pro hours yet. I'm focusing mostly on sprucing up the house, hitting the gym a bit more regularly, and focusing on the job search. My timeline on the job search is April - May: Look for the right fit for a job. Something that's either a good long term landing spot, or at least a short term lucrative position that could help me in the next search. If we get it to June, it's now time to start casting a wider net and accept mostly anything. If I'm still unemployed in August, it's panic time and relocation becomes a serious possibility. I have a fairly high degree of confidence it won't come to that. I do want to focus on getting somewhere before the end of June though. I am competing with 400 other recently laid off colleagues. I have a feeling (well, more than just a feeling) there will be another batch of 400 this summer.

Anyways, that's my life for now. I will definitely be able to get back to more poker study, and hopefully up the play volume as I get my usual chores done during the day now. But possibly only for a few weeks if one of these jobs pans out. Maybe I'll update this blog a bit more frequently now too.

Lol this didn't happen at all. I've been enjoying my time off too much. I think this event was the catalyst to make me realize I'm just going to play and study poker when I feel like and not worry too much about getting in certain volumes of play and study. It is what it is at this point. I am definitely still a rec player like I was over a decade ago when I started this thread, I'm just much more studied and capable. If it takes me 10 more years to learn and retain all the NLHE knowledge I want, then so be it. I've been playing this game nearly 20 years now and don't see why it can't be 20 more.

Also the job search has been stressful which is killing my mood to play, but in sort of a good way. Finding work is definitely not hard. I've got 2 offers in my hand right now and a few more interviews lined up, and I'd say I've put probably 25% of the effort into my job search as I should have. I'm probably overanalyzing and stressing out about how important it is I make the "right" decision when I choose my next job, but I've got options. But I'm realizing now that trying to being a poker player while also having other turmoil in your life is quite hard. Then again my days are mostly spent watching TV (fallout was ****ing awesome, Shogun was meh, not my thing), hitting the weight room, working a bit around the house, or just generally ****ing off. It's been nice.

I have played a few MTTs. I really like the hyper-turbo structures. I've been single tabling some tournaments while watching TV on the side, just as a general time waster. I've played close to 10 MTTs and have yet to cash (unless you count some PKO bounties picked up). My modern tournament knowledge is next to none though. I still probably have an edge on these fields in the sub $50 buyin range though. I think I might go play one now.