26 year old from Baltics. Went for full-time poker after uni. Stopped playing online after bad year of 2015.
Played live a bit in 2016 incl Vegas, found a regular job after that.

Quit corporate grind last year, took programming classes, rejected few job offers and now I'm back to full time poker.


Started to play poker around 10 years ago, mostly 100bb+ stuff, although has some success in MTT as well. Ran up to NL200 pretty quickly after I turned 18 and stayed there ever since with multiple unsuccessful shots at higher stakes.
Grinded FTP, than Microgaming network, moved to PS at the middle of 2014.

Don't have MG database anymore, but re-imported every hand from Stars:


Did OKish at my main limit of Z200, but hated the grind for 2x Supernova that year, doubts started to creep in, didn't work on my game at all and things went south:


Now

Talked with poker friends who now beat midstakes, started to dig into PIO with their help and poker looks fun again.

Since mid February grinding poker and PIO daily, doing OK on stars, not so well (??) on Eurosites.

Beginning was rough ( not so surprising, given last online hands were played in 2015) :


Than it got easier:


Overall:


To be continued

Now I feel much more mature than before.
Finally playing poker again not because "I have to" or "I don't know what else to do", but because I like it much more than corporate job or doing nothing (tried it, no fun at all).

Wish me luck.

My routine

Wake up ~8AM --> meditate--> review notes from yesterday --> grind -- >lunch break -> strategy work-> break --> grind for as long as I can.

Finally have integrated the habit of meditation- not a single day missed since December. I have been on and off for the last couple of years, done a Vipassana retreat as well however I was not able to fully integrate it to my routine.

I do also journal every second day - lately using a Daily Stoic Journal. Helps to focus, put things in perspective and not to get carried away by life "games".

Health
Need to workout more as well, I go to the gym 1-2 times during work week, but I feel that my body needs more attention than now.
Another thing which I am happy about is eliminating sugar from my diet ~80% of the days since I started tracking it in December.


Off table work
A lot of things to catch up with:
1. Rented a VPS to run PIO sims, and now have trees on the most common stuff. Have to go through the aggregated reports on the flops, and check the most unusual ones with more depth.
2. Re-reading M. Janda's Applications of NLH book. Nothing too fancy, but valuable to recheck the theoretical concepts.
3. Started to check daily hands on PIO. Usually making two trees: a) GTO b) locking nodes for field tendencies, searching for exploits. Takes a lot of time, and unsolved hands keep piling up.
4. Some interesting videos.
5. Ordered a new book by M. Janda.

Life
I had some realizations on the topic of life which I am happy about.
Basically when You stop and think, a lot of stuff is narratives created by people that do not exist anywhere but in our minds. And often enough those narratives are leading to misery. I call them "games". Business, sports, politics, "jobs", nations, "we are better than You" stuff, etc. A lot of narratives that people get involved too much and ride the emotional swings of those "games".

I am blessed to find people in my life that share this worldview. I believe the most important thing is genuine human connection without deception and acting.
Most of the "games" are lies, dishonesty and behavior formation for humans. I am aware that many of those narratives led to improved living conditions, more comfort, but more comfort does not seem to bring more happiness. (Borrowed this idea from Yuval Harrari's books).

Few hands from yesterday.
1) I played vs the villain a lot back at Z200, he seemed ok then, now I strongly doubt that this is fine, but will check in PIO for these stack depths



2) Costly misplay by myself, too tired at the end of the session:



3. Nit ITT confirmed.

Poker

Had a swingy week, doing well in zoom, not so well on eurosites. Almost cleared the bonuses there, so will limit the action and focus on zoom.
I try to avoid looking at the short term results as anything can happen during a day/week/month. Will post a graph at the end of each week.

Had been working during a weekend as well, however in a relax mode. Did catch up with my "review hands" backlog, watched couple videos and played for few hours each day.

Actually I like this type of work weekends. There is still time to clear my head and form new ideas, but I do not get out grind (concentration) mode.




Life

Had a pleasant time relaxing: reading, visiting family, meeting with a friend, spending time with my girlfriend, working out.

Been reading Ken Wilber lately. He had done a lot of great work, but somehow never got mainstream. Mark Manson did a short summary on him https://markmanson.net/ken-wilber
There was some personal controversy, but I do not see how it impacts the philosophic ideas and concepts.

Next week
20k hands, focus on Zoom;
At least two hours a day with PIO solver;
Visit the gym at least 3 times + team sports on weekend;

stars SN??

Today
Had a really pleasant day. Things done:
Meditation
Journaling
4k hands
Chapter in Janda's book.
2h+ in PIO. However about half of it was building things, not looking at them, however tomorrow I'll have a lot of things to look at
Gym

Learning
Maybe this link will be valuable to someone. Notes on learning to learn https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivate...lsLmNvbQ%3D%3D

Also on the same topic there is a really great book by Josh Waitzkin on this topic. He is BOTH Junior US chess champion and Push hands world champion. Great examples how cross-learning should be implemented and most of it is applicable to poker as well.

Hands
I feel like big pots did not work out as planned, some questionable plays.







I'd rather not disclose this information publicly at the moment.

A shorter day regarding grind, however did a lot of work off-table. Some hands:

Nice try, but ...



Is this good by either one of us...



Trying to put pressure on nits, and getting tank .... calls

Had a challenging day, standard runbad with lot of coolers, flips going the other way and even good old one outer.
Despite of all that I handled the day pretty well. Even though I did not play my A-game and could have avoided some spots, all the runbad pain did not hold for long.

• Did grind out 4k hands,
• Looked at the hands on PIO,
• Actively watched a video.

Mindset
In some sense there is some strange curiosity looking how your body and mind reacts to a series of bad beats.
Body seems to use the same mechanisms that were developed for entirely different purposes over the thousands of year. Sudden burst of pain, rush of adrenaline...
In the mind a flash of fear strikes, stories of entitlement wants to emerge, also "not again", "why me" kind of thoughts.

But You do not to cling on all that, do not feed the stories, relax the body and continue. Just witnessed the moments as they happens, took a few extra breaks to move away from poker (read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged).

And all we can do is use the wisest response, and grind it out. I did avoid poker on these days earlier, now I am even more interested in looking at the hands and finding more edge.

Last thought:
Even though some tactical mistakes were made, it is good to make and recognize those mistakes now, i.e. at the small stakes, where the monetary price is low. They get much costlier later and I prefer to learn the easy lessons as early as possible.

Short ramble
Long day again, a bit of fear creep in because of continued setups. Maybe playing 4k hands during these types days are a bit too much.
I added even more off-table work, also included some mindset work, but the day gets so much longer because of that. Probably will not look at poker at all during the weekend.

Hands:


Bluffing recs


Missed so much value vs aggro rec.


How do I spew so much that have 3high in 65bb pot...



Owned by rec

Finally looked at the weekly graph, more or less like expected. Z100 only, won some EV $. Will post a detailed review of the week a bit later.



Also pulled out a tripple check-raise.

Almost a perfect week regarding all aspects.
I feel like this week I have learnt a lot both strategy and mindset wise.
When facing a unpleasant swing, I did keep my composure, did not chase the losses, took timely breaks and continued the grind.
Eventually the luck turned and I made a whooping 16BI on Friday. I think calculating in buy-ins that was probably my best day ever.

I feel like now my main task is to build a solid routine and mindset and focus while playing, while fine-tuning the strategy and practicing PIO lines where I am not used to them.
I don't see many good regs at all, so it is a perfect training ground where I am allowed to make mistakes and still be in the green.

Updated monthly graph:


Goals next week
20k hands again;
Finally go to the gym 3 times;
8 hours off-table deep work + non intense reviews and preparations
Keep on meditating, journaling and reading each day

Best of luck for everyone next week

Very cool thread, thanks for posting hands!

I am just getting back into poker as well and haven't worked with solvers at all, just curious as to how helpful-important it is?

can you give an example of how you use it in a simple scenario? and if there is a way to manually do it without buying the solver.


Good luck at the tables!

Thank You for kind words.

I am no expert on solvers, but I believe it is super helpful and can be used in many ways and many more that I am not aware of.

In a simple scenario like checking the river call, you can do calcs without them.
But for creating full decision trees, checking how people should respond vs certain strategies, testing EVs of simplified balanced strategies I do not see any other tool. Well there was CREV before, but the trees were much more difficult to build and very time consuming without clear results.

I personally either go through aggregated reports for common spots, looking for board textures where field plays differently than the solver suggests or check how to play a specific combo Gto-wise and exploitative-wise vs the field.

Sad part
I feel the lack of focus last couple of days and I believe it cost me a lot.
There were spots I could get away from if I'm on my A-game, but the interest to concentrate simply was not there.

I have also not worked on my game as hard as I wish and skipped the gym as well. Also slept a lot more, maybe it was influenced by winter-time change.

There is always a mindset leak behind the technical leak. I'd say this time maybe it is an overconfidence. I can beat these games easily on my A-game, but maybe breaking even auto-piloting.

Happy part
Growth comes at the point of resistance. I like these tough stretches as it helps to concentrate and fix the mental leaks.
Again it is much cheaper at NL100 than the higher stakes.

Points to improve this week
I feel like I do a great warm up in the mornings with meditation and journaling, but the later sessions seem to be affected by lack of warm-up.
Get back on the normal study pattern. I have some hands solved from last week which I did not review yet.
Focus on 3bet pots IP, as I feel quite lost there.

Hands
I feel like this spot might be under-bluffed and there seems to be some FE to find, but not this time



Looks like perfect blockers, but not sure.

sub, glgl

Thanks

Moved my meditation practice to the evening. This way I am more focused before evening grind, and can start grinding earlier in the morning.

Day went smoothly, really happy about PIO grind.
Also played 3tbls instead of 4 to improve concentration
Few fun hands:

Used my "one time" for this one. Those implied odds against nits


Lets fry the fish:

im a **** player but why oh why dont you just 4bet get kings in and why on that flop fold??? really worried about a set two pair or pocket aces? mean its hardly even be a mistake calling with that stack to pot ratio would it (one pot bet?) im just confused as hell like what flop were you looking for???? im so confused.

good luck this year anyway with your goals dude subbed/following

With those positions and stack depth's I feel most of the pool stacks off with AA only.
Flop I don't have much of explanation. Timing, sizing, player type... Seems hard to find many bluff combos.

fair enough cheers for the reply, that seems mad exploitable though only stacking off with aces.

Hey man, nice thread, will follow.

Our stories are pretty similar, I come from the same part of the world (Poland) and I also played poker for a living for few years after uni. I recently started a corporate job and while Im actually kinda enjoying it, I will definitely consider coming back to poker full time in a year or two.

I also like the hands you are posting, you seem to have solid theorethical knowledge and take some creative lines. KK seems super nitty, but I dont mind it with decent reads vs an obvious rec/very bad reg. You also seem to have a very good out-of-tables mental game/work ethic, which is one thing I always lacking in, so I dont see any reason why you wouldnt make it to mid/high stakes.

Well this is NL100, everyone is super exploitable


Hey, thanks for posting, it is inspiring to see people respond.

Why do you consider poker if corporate thing fits you
For me it was too much politics and too much of dealing with lazy people.

Regarding work ethic I have improved, but still long way to go. Need to take exercise more seriously, limit grinding in order to avoid burnout, optimize learning, etc.

Thursday
For example yesterday I have decided to take on a night grind session that lead to unbalanced today. Slept a lot, did not study seriously.

Did a couple disappointing misplays, however it is better to see and fix those instead of assuming everything is ok, everyone are fish and I am unlucky.

Decided not to push grind as well, and prepare for Friday. Will run a PIO script for the night and get ready for a productive day.

Random rambling
I feel like preparation is everything: you need to create positive environment that will nudge You to the right direction.

For example I always had a problem with wasting morning time. Used to check the "news", browse a little, casually review HEM, etc.
Now I have moved my tablet away to avoid random browsing; do not log in on skype, do not open browser on PC and have a solid morning routine to get my brain into productive state.

Of course there are ways to improve: I still would like to get back to exercising, maybe take on running again (ran two marathons few years ago) and also create an evening routine so the mind without screen time before sleep.

Best of luck at the tables and feel free to start a discussion if any of my life/poker stuff seems worth discussing.

Friday
Made a huge mistake of playing late again. Way too tired, even though games were soft, my mind and body was simply not in the right place.
Live and learn.

Again under every mistake is a mindset leak. This time it is a reminder to be more humble and calm down the ego. I am not able to crush everyone while being tired and unfocused.
Keep the rhythm, be humble, prepare and don't overestimate yourself.

Some strange hands:

Do You thing it is too thin against random 1tabler on Friday ?


Guy had Z200 color tag of reg and tried to pull some weird stuff


Again 1tabler puts me in a strange spot


Week:
Gym Failed big time, 0 times. And I felt the impact of no sport on my sessions as well
PIO Happy with the work. Fun stuff
Grind Played 18,5k. Sometimes is better to skip some hands and do other things to gain more life EV. I should have played even less in this state.

Month
No financial progress made since the start of PGC. Last few days were disappointing. However at the price of few buyins probably it was worth to get this lesson now.

Next month's goals are:

• Stick to good parts of current routine - meditation, journaling;
• Don't grind tired - in case of late night exhaustion take proper restl
• Do quality PIO work(8 weekly hours min);
• Don't read news, and all junk for the mind. Read books instead;
• Sacrifice some hands in order to create a workout habit;
• ???
• Profit

Graph for March

Weekly recap: Challenges that could have been avoided

A bit shorter week due to Easter celebration.
Made a mistake of not doing daily posts, it helps to calm down the brain from poker.

Deposited to an american site, but got crushed there at NL200 so a massive $ loss, even though not so much in bb.
Also tried reg tables on PS as well. It seems much harder to play 10tbls than zoom. It's been so long since I've played reg tables that I need extra preparation there. I'd say Zoom is much more suitable for me: easier to concentrate, no closing/opening tbls, seem to be less regs that battle hard. And maybe even more fish.

Mindset
Almost all the days I felt very good in the morning, but got devastated at noon. Even caught some fear of loosing in myself. Did journal, extra brake, extra meditation, added small evening routine and got back very fresh in the next morning. And this patter repeats next day

When you think about it, why sometimes a single hand or few hands knock me off balance so hard ? Why in that case do I see the shift in my focus to big pots only and try to win a hand in any way ??

Few hands mean nothing in the context of 80k of them the during a month. At the point of discomfort I started practice few deep breaths, mental note of my state and get back to that inner calmness.

Life
Happy with the performance:

• Worked out 2 times + one team practice tomorrow.
• Continuing usual practices.
• Improved by cutting short the evening grind when I catch myself being tired.
• Limited "news" and turned them off when I caught myself doing it
• OK on PIO, but need more structured work, less random stuff that happens rarely.

Rambling
By doing "Daily Stoic Journal" today I realized that I have no anxiety lately. From what I see around me: all the worrying and regrets that many people have, I do not face this problem anymore.
It is not because of some mystery: I have simply put a lot of work and thought into it. Also it is not a permanent state: I am aware that I can be knocked off it, if I stop my routines.

In relation with above : So many people search for a "Magic pill" for their problems. They expect some substance, some teaching, some book or some person that will change everything. And a lot of marketing is directed to fuel this and sell more.
I feel people need nothing of that sort: learning comes from your own experiences, timeless (not coaching, self-help) books and personally developed routines. And knowing yourself, noticing what happens in you makes it easier to deal with challenges.

And even after that, there are many ways to reach those states and improve. Imposing the practices and thoughts on others, making claims of finding "the only path" makes me chuckle. Fanaticism about anything is such a strange thing. I really don't know how to deal with people having a very fixed world-view. It usually comes with an attitude of righteousness and a posture of a warrior who needs to win all the battles with different minded ones.


Oh and almost forgot results for the week:

Monday

I like Mondays.
New energy, new ideas, refreshed mind. Had a quite productive day:
PIO group lesson;
4,5k hands;
Nice time walking in spring weather.

Hands:

vs unknown, fml:


vs zoom nit. ("Hero cant have flush"):


Do people ever bluff with double xR :


vs zoom 14/5 nit. "Hero has draws only":