ALLRIGHT
Time to revive this thread again! The main reason I've put off updating for so long is because I was looking for freerolls in other threads.
First things first:
Graphs and stats
2017 Scope
2017 EV
Don't have the graph unfortunately but EVbb for this period was around 7
2018 Scope
2018 EV
This is missing quite some hands, mailed stars for them but they only sent me this and cbf mailing again. Last 80kish hands I have everything and EVbb is a smidge under 10 so going in the right direction (though lolsample).
Stars graph purposely filtered to create a nice picture for the thread
Thoughts and ramblings
So 2017 results wise was pretty underwhelming, as is 2018 so far. It's tough for me to put together a coherent piece about poker in the past year right now, guess that's what happens when you abandon your thread
But let's give it a shot.
To start off, I'll say that a lot of times in the past year I've had thoughts in terms of 'I run so bad', 'never ever win a flip late in a big one' and 'all these ****ing runregs don't even realize how blessed they are'. And to some extent I think this is justified and I'll use this paragraph to get a small whine in because well, it's a little soothing (feel free to skip this part). I've made a bunch of runs in big tourneys in this period and fell short pretty much every time. Got a 12th in the warmup, 11th in the kickoff, F2T party main three times, went from 1/6 to 6th in a series event on ACR with 43k up top, got 12th in a series event on ES with 30k UT and a bucket full of other near misses in significant donkaments that I would have loved to win.
This being said, while it is somewhat tempting to look up every deep run I've made in big ones and wallow in self-pity, it's not exactly the most productive way to go about it and neither is it really justified for me to think this way.
Let's take an objective look at how I approached poker in the past year:
- I put in a ton of hours playing, mostly smoking weed non-stop
- I put in very few hours of solid study, most of what I did do was reviewing with someone else (i.e. me only putting in half the work or less)
- I loved to play for the glory in stuff like SCOOP and put in way to many hours chasing it during series (tbf I don't think I will ever lose the love for chasing a title and still love battling regs in nice structures, but there is definitely a better way to go about it)
- I played a ridiculously high avg. field size, mainly on stars.com
- My EVbb for this period was always around 7 (good, not great)
- I did little to no exercise/sports
- I got whiny way more often than I'd like to admit (tbf I won't ever blame any mtt reg for getting a whine in when times are tough, playing mtts fulltime can be difficult at times, but there are limits and I definitely hated myself at times for booming hands that serve no purpose but to whine, spamming my beloved skype group with rants etc.. even though I don't even think they really mind
)
- Sleep rhythm was all over the place
- I put in significantly less volume than I intended to in 2017
So when reading all this, objectively did I really deserve any better than what I achieved? Probably not. Sure I really did run bad, but if all these points above would have been addressed in a professional way I'm sure results would have been better. And if not, could always get a good whine in where I actually feel good about the effort I put in
Fact is poker is getting harder all over the place and I have no illusions of where my place is on the reg ladder. It's pretty much right in the middle of the pack, nothing exceptional to be found in the way I approach this game I've put in a ridiculously high % of my time. Seems unideal to say the least. Now I've always been pretty good at admitting these kind of things to myself, what I've always been way worse at is actively addressing these problems and putting in honest hard work off the tables.
What has changed recently:
- Putting in a bit more volume (have been trying to up the table count with mixed results, recently decided to cut back again and focus on game quality)
- Pretty much cut out weed entirely since January 1st, only smoked less than a handful of times when I was very okay with the moment chosen to get a little high
- Upped the work ethic a lot wrt off the table work, making full word documents with notes on good theory videos. Got in a bunch of reviews and generally talked a bunch of poker with my poker buddies. Started grinding HRC quite a bit (though not enough which will be addressed below) and am relentlessly tagging problem spots in game to review later.
- Moved down the ABI a bit and started playing on a bunch of sites that are not stars.com (nearly avoided having to get staked, am still in somewhat of a danger zone bankroll wise which can be stressful at times)
- Created a weekly schedule in excel, although I've been slacking in filling out the blank version of it to compare what I did vs what I planned
- Started going to the gym a lot now (though only recently got a good schedule and really got into a rhythm of going 3+ times a week) and am pretty confident that this will continue. Also playing quite some basketball.
So these are all pretty good trends, it´s nice to get some exercise in and the work I've put in off the tables is definitely paying off. That being said, this is only a small step in the direction I need to take if I want to get anywhere near my long term goals in this game. Typing out what is going better nowadays feels nice but in no way can I commend myself for stuff that good regs have been doing way better for a way longer period of time. So, with that, here is how I think these trends should be evolving in upcoming weeks/months.
What needs to happen:
- Buy PIOsolver and start grinding it really hard
- Keep comparing my actual schedule vs intended schedule and adjust stuff where needed
- Improve work ethic to the point where I can be very confident that the way I go about things will get me where I want to be at some point (good highstakes MTT reg)
- Stay healthy and keep going to the gym very regularly, never grind stoned again ever
- Stop procrastinating and put in as much time as I can into improving my game whilst still making time for myself to relax/travel/go out whenever I feel like it's appropriate
- Talk more poker with more people
- Put in more volume and learn to 12-table a game that crushes low-midstakes in the short term and grinds out a very good winrate at mid-highstakes in the long term
- Quit smoking cigarettes completely before the end of the year
- Keep tagging a bunch of spots in game and get through them before they pile up to an impossible amount
- Focus during sessions and improve mental game, enjoy the process of putting in the work and take focus off results as much as humanly possible
This list will do for now. I feel like this is getting super rambly and somewhat boring but this is stuff I feel is useful to write down here now that I finally got to updating again
Shoutouts
Ac3play
CO-grinder and roommate, great guy who is gonna join me on the journey out of the low-stakes shire and into the land of many dollar, many travels and much fun
TFTG
Short for team **** this guy, bunch of great Dutch speaking dudes who run like aids and will gather more tenth places than any other group in the world. A+ banter and occasionally even some good strat talk
Also generally just a group of warriors with heart and commitment to the game. Special mention to LG for the lifetime aidsrun award and that_anon for the eternal bigfield struggle/bowl champ award, kingbustyou for somehow grinding 25 hours every day, powernap for the strongest rants on regs and nelis for the liveament glory chase. Also shoutout to jepser for actually making money.
Blakkman08
Also known as blakkbabe69, T8ofdiamonds and a whole list of other screennames that no one else could've come up with. Made me a lot better at poker, unfortunately is also a huge jynx and the main reason of all runbad
Will need to coach him on how to go out for a beer once in a while
Vloey
Belgian friend who often asks me for updates on the grind, poker enthusiast and general nice guy
Standard backing stable
If it wasn't for these guys punting stacks left and right, I´m not sure I would've made any money from poker at all in the past year
I expect to get slowrolled now by some of you so bring it on
Pads
Though I never really talked to him, he inspires me to not get tilted by mtts. Weird. I will consider my life complete when he calls me one of the best midstakes regs out there.
All my thread regulars
You know who you are, thanks for following
Gifs and savers
Allright enough with rambling and nuthugging, let's try to make this post slightly more entertaining. Some of these gifs I posted on twitter already, was trying to do something lifewithfacecards like (twitter One_Time184, shameless plug).
When you finish 36th out of 9697 players for 4x your buy in
When you want to order some food after the Sunday session
When you valuejam one pair on the river and get a tank from someone who likely has you slowroll listed
When you late register the big 22 thirty minutes in but it pops up 'you have already played in this tournament'
When you 3bet light CO vs MP and the BTN snap coldcalls
When someone goes in the tank after your turnbet but you have to get the pizza out of the oven
When you can't help yourself responding to the fish in chat and he stacks you 2 minutes later
When you try to bluff a station
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Thanks for reading
Last edited by LOLCh1pPorn; 03-29-2018 at 07:01 AM.