NIVEKii54, a tale of failure, redemption and coping with (poker)life
12-31-2015
, 04:18 PM
Hello people of 2+2 and welcome to my first PGC thread. Before I start, I want to make clear I did not join the CFP program, winky face. I will primarily use this thread to keep myself accountable for the goals, challenges and dreams you will read about later in this op, and to hopefully entertain you with the road I’ll be traveling in 2016. Maybe, if I’m really lucky this will be of some guidance for people in similar situations.
My name is Kevin, turning 30 in February and born and raised in Belgium. Hello everybody.
I intend to update this with a comprehensive weekly update, but will obviously make some shorter posts and answer questions whenever required.
Please be aware that I started writing this at 7pm on December 31, and in order to have this OP done before the new year, some parts might be a bit incoherent, some parts might not go in detail enough, others might have too much detail.
My life in the first 30 years can be described as ‘what if’. I’ve had good opportunities, but I either didn’t take those, or handled them poorly. The one year where I felt I was going somewhere was 2014, where I lost 35 kg of weight (around 75 pounds), participated in the world lacrosse championships in Denver and made the move to Toronto on a Working Holiday permit. It was a great year! Then 2015 came, I spent pretty much all my savings in Toronto and I took a job in a kitchen in the biggest city in Canada. While it certainly wasn’t the most exciting job in the world, it was the first time I actually felt a sense of accomplishment doing that job. I loved it with all my heart. Nothing glorious, but awesome co-workers, young owners and getting more responsibilities as I gained more seniority made this the job I enjoyed most in my career.
I started with a diet with a personal trainer in September 2013 in the hope it would help me ge an edge over other people trying out for the Belgian national lacrosse team. The Belgian Lacrosse Federation entered the men’s team in their first ever world championships. To make it even better, those world championships were going to be held in Denver, Colorado. Denver is home to one of only eight (nine as of spring 2016) outdoor lacrosse teams. My hard work paid off and from being an overweight, out of shape lacrosse enthusiast I managed to work my way to the best shape of my life. All that hard work was rewarded with a selection for the team. I was going on an adventure and loved every second of it. I’ll probably write in more detail how that trip was, if there’s any interest out there.
Once I came back from the world championships in July 2014, I started preparing for my working holiday in Canada. I left on October 14, 2015 and abandoned all the hard work I put into losing weight and staying in shape. Fast forward to December 31, 2015 and I’m almost back to my pre September 2013 weight. Something needs to change.
Since coming back from Canada in September, I’ve been living with my parents again, to try and save as much money as I can. Thank God I have my parents, I love them with all my heart. I found a job as a bartender, but the place is so packed, so busy and so not made for people with bad legs, that I couldn’t continue a full time regimen, so I had to quit. Luckily the owners were really pleased with how I was performing, so whenever there’s shifts that need to be filled in they give me a call to see which ones I can take care of. Although nowhere near a full time, I am getting at least some money in my bank account with 'regular' work.
I’m the lead singer of a band called Orange Apple. It’s been a release valve for over eight years now and I’m really proud of the music we made together. We really don’t write new material all that often and we’ve all come to a point where it’s just fun to play shows every once and again, but the passion that we all once had, seems to be fading. I’m happy we released a demo and an ep, and released three music clips. We have a show or seven lined up for the first six months of 2016, but we’ll have a sit down to discuss the future of the band during the summer months.
Fresh out of college I finally put into reality a dream I had of having my own business. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication & management and I was ready to tackle the event industry. In the middle of 2008, when the crisis started to be felt in full effect, there I was. A fresh out of college, naive little boy was going to make an impact. Needless to say, about 18 months later the dream was buried. I only did music events I organised myself, so no third party ‘ordering’ their event through me. It was a period in my life where I learned a lot from my own shortcomings.
I then got ‘stuck’ in a desk job with little to none responsibilities. Stuck in a rut, as so many of us grinding a full time job. I lasted around three years and had the feeling I would become dumber every day I stayed there. So I quit. With the world championships coming up and my move/trip to Canada for a year, it seemed the right time to get out of the dead end job.
I grinded together a roll out of fpps while in Canada and played 0.02/0.04 limit hold’em to pass the time. Once back in Belgium I played SH Zoom and FR Zoom with not a lot of success. I was winning marginally, but not crushing. I then decided to focus on the $0.50 9m Turbo’s. I was lucky enough to get a staking and coaching agreement with On The Stoop for the month of December. I was to play 750 games and would receive coaching from Tim64. I was super happy to be able to improve my game with the help of Tim AND play somewhat higher than I was used to. I had the worst start ever, went from 6 tables to 3 and couldn’t complete all the games needed. That and being down pretty much half of your starting stake roll didn’t bode well with me, but since two weeks ago I managed to stop the bleeding. I’m not getting back all the losses at the end of the stake, but I’m pretty sure I won’t make it worse than what it is. Hopefully I’ll have improved enough to warrant an extension of the stake throughout 2016 as I really want to finish my year still working together with Tim.
Lifetime, I'm down around $900 on Sit and Go's and MTT's (source: Sharkscope).
I have a staking roll (one that took a heavy blow in December 2015) and a small roll that is my own. I will continue playing the 9m Turbo's on Pokerstars on the staked roll but will add MTT's with my own roll to try and bink some bigger scores.
[ ] Lose a considerable amount of weight again
[ ] Start training to be able to run a 10k in an hour
[ ] Start selling punk rock apparel line nationally
[ ] Get into the Sharkscope leaderboard ‘most games played’ in the 9-10 man Turbo category
[ ] Get into the Sharkscope leaderboard ‘most profit’ in the $0-$2 9-10 man Turbo category
[ ] Get to a point where I’m earning at least $0.50 per Sit and Go played, regardless of stake or ROI
[ ] Get a second tattoo with elements of cd covers that influenced me growing up
[ ] Become a regular streamer on twitch.tv and create a fun environment for people to chill (not restricted to only poker)
[ ] Start putting content on Youtube, such as vlogs on the progress of my goals
[ ] Organise a visit back to Canada to meet up with friends I made during my time in the country
[ ] Get back in lacrosse playing shape by September 2016, start of the Belgian season
[ ] Get on the training squad for the national team for the 2018 world championships
http://www.twitch.tv/NIVEKii54
http://www.twitter.com/NIVEKii54
The Youtube video clips you see is my band in action, one is live footage from a show we played in the small room of Ancienne Belgique, the other one is a video with footage we recorded during a live studio session earlier this year. I'm ending with my best mtt result to date. Mind you I never really played mtt's and despite the buy-in I was extremely proud ending as high as I did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Ku9uzNoIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_PhUuJCb18
PS: If someone knows how to format the Youtube links so the video is actually in this OP, rather than just the links, please let me know. Thank you!
PPS: Happy New Year you beautiful bastards!
My name is Kevin, turning 30 in February and born and raised in Belgium. Hello everybody.
I intend to update this with a comprehensive weekly update, but will obviously make some shorter posts and answer questions whenever required.
Please be aware that I started writing this at 7pm on December 31, and in order to have this OP done before the new year, some parts might be a bit incoherent, some parts might not go in detail enough, others might have too much detail.
Life
My life in the first 30 years can be described as ‘what if’. I’ve had good opportunities, but I either didn’t take those, or handled them poorly. The one year where I felt I was going somewhere was 2014, where I lost 35 kg of weight (around 75 pounds), participated in the world lacrosse championships in Denver and made the move to Toronto on a Working Holiday permit. It was a great year! Then 2015 came, I spent pretty much all my savings in Toronto and I took a job in a kitchen in the biggest city in Canada. While it certainly wasn’t the most exciting job in the world, it was the first time I actually felt a sense of accomplishment doing that job. I loved it with all my heart. Nothing glorious, but awesome co-workers, young owners and getting more responsibilities as I gained more seniority made this the job I enjoyed most in my career.
I started with a diet with a personal trainer in September 2013 in the hope it would help me ge an edge over other people trying out for the Belgian national lacrosse team. The Belgian Lacrosse Federation entered the men’s team in their first ever world championships. To make it even better, those world championships were going to be held in Denver, Colorado. Denver is home to one of only eight (nine as of spring 2016) outdoor lacrosse teams. My hard work paid off and from being an overweight, out of shape lacrosse enthusiast I managed to work my way to the best shape of my life. All that hard work was rewarded with a selection for the team. I was going on an adventure and loved every second of it. I’ll probably write in more detail how that trip was, if there’s any interest out there.
Once I came back from the world championships in July 2014, I started preparing for my working holiday in Canada. I left on October 14, 2015 and abandoned all the hard work I put into losing weight and staying in shape. Fast forward to December 31, 2015 and I’m almost back to my pre September 2013 weight. Something needs to change.
Since coming back from Canada in September, I’ve been living with my parents again, to try and save as much money as I can. Thank God I have my parents, I love them with all my heart. I found a job as a bartender, but the place is so packed, so busy and so not made for people with bad legs, that I couldn’t continue a full time regimen, so I had to quit. Luckily the owners were really pleased with how I was performing, so whenever there’s shifts that need to be filled in they give me a call to see which ones I can take care of. Although nowhere near a full time, I am getting at least some money in my bank account with 'regular' work.
I’m the lead singer of a band called Orange Apple. It’s been a release valve for over eight years now and I’m really proud of the music we made together. We really don’t write new material all that often and we’ve all come to a point where it’s just fun to play shows every once and again, but the passion that we all once had, seems to be fading. I’m happy we released a demo and an ep, and released three music clips. We have a show or seven lined up for the first six months of 2016, but we’ll have a sit down to discuss the future of the band during the summer months.
Career
Fresh out of college I finally put into reality a dream I had of having my own business. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication & management and I was ready to tackle the event industry. In the middle of 2008, when the crisis started to be felt in full effect, there I was. A fresh out of college, naive little boy was going to make an impact. Needless to say, about 18 months later the dream was buried. I only did music events I organised myself, so no third party ‘ordering’ their event through me. It was a period in my life where I learned a lot from my own shortcomings.
I then got ‘stuck’ in a desk job with little to none responsibilities. Stuck in a rut, as so many of us grinding a full time job. I lasted around three years and had the feeling I would become dumber every day I stayed there. So I quit. With the world championships coming up and my move/trip to Canada for a year, it seemed the right time to get out of the dead end job.
Poker
OnlineI have had no success playing online poker in all the years I’ve been active. I’ve always seen this as a hobby and didn’t mind depositing the odd dollars here and there. I’ve come at a crossroads in my life where I believe that poker could be a valid path to getting together the funds needed, without touching my life roll.
I grinded together a roll out of fpps while in Canada and played 0.02/0.04 limit hold’em to pass the time. Once back in Belgium I played SH Zoom and FR Zoom with not a lot of success. I was winning marginally, but not crushing. I then decided to focus on the $0.50 9m Turbo’s. I was lucky enough to get a staking and coaching agreement with On The Stoop for the month of December. I was to play 750 games and would receive coaching from Tim64. I was super happy to be able to improve my game with the help of Tim AND play somewhat higher than I was used to. I had the worst start ever, went from 6 tables to 3 and couldn’t complete all the games needed. That and being down pretty much half of your starting stake roll didn’t bode well with me, but since two weeks ago I managed to stop the bleeding. I’m not getting back all the losses at the end of the stake, but I’m pretty sure I won’t make it worse than what it is. Hopefully I’ll have improved enough to warrant an extension of the stake throughout 2016 as I really want to finish my year still working together with Tim.
Lifetime, I'm down around $900 on Sit and Go's and MTT's (source: Sharkscope).
LiveZero live experience. The occasional 50bb deep cash games with buddies not included of course. I really would like to play at least one side event of one of the bigger tours (UKIPT, EPT, Unibet Open, WPT…).
I have a staking roll (one that took a heavy blow in December 2015) and a small roll that is my own. I will continue playing the 9m Turbo's on Pokerstars on the staked roll but will add MTT's with my own roll to try and bink some bigger scores.
2016 goals
[ ] Lose a considerable amount of weight again
[ ] Start training to be able to run a 10k in an hour
[ ] Start selling punk rock apparel line nationally
[ ] Get into the Sharkscope leaderboard ‘most games played’ in the 9-10 man Turbo category
[ ] Get into the Sharkscope leaderboard ‘most profit’ in the $0-$2 9-10 man Turbo category
[ ] Get to a point where I’m earning at least $0.50 per Sit and Go played, regardless of stake or ROI
[ ] Get a second tattoo with elements of cd covers that influenced me growing up
[ ] Become a regular streamer on twitch.tv and create a fun environment for people to chill (not restricted to only poker)
[ ] Start putting content on Youtube, such as vlogs on the progress of my goals
[ ] Organise a visit back to Canada to meet up with friends I made during my time in the country
[ ] Get back in lacrosse playing shape by September 2016, start of the Belgian season
[ ] Get on the training squad for the national team for the 2018 world championships
Social media
http://www.twitch.tv/NIVEKii54
http://www.twitter.com/NIVEKii54
Miscellanious
The Youtube video clips you see is my band in action, one is live footage from a show we played in the small room of Ancienne Belgique, the other one is a video with footage we recorded during a live studio session earlier this year. I'm ending with my best mtt result to date. Mind you I never really played mtt's and despite the buy-in I was extremely proud ending as high as I did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Ku9uzNoIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_PhUuJCb18
PS: If someone knows how to format the Youtube links so the video is actually in this OP, rather than just the links, please let me know. Thank you!
PPS: Happy New Year you beautiful bastards!
Last edited by NIVEKii54; 12-31-2015 at 04:34 PM.
12-31-2015
, 04:39 PM
12-31-2015
, 07:55 PM
Thanks!
Ok, so 12am came and went, the backyard fireworks lifetilt me every single year. I managed to play a couple more 9m Turbo's before the new year hit. The rakeback consists of $6 of refunded buy-ins by Pokerstars and $13.2 in 6max Hyper fpp sats. I played 9 for a total of 630 fpp spent, I cashed in 4 of them. That's $0.021 / fpp so not a bad value at all.
I did mention I played a couple of MTT's at the end of the month, with a screenshot of my first top 3 finish ever (in fact, first final table ever). My results there are kind of skewed with some bounties not registering or registering wrong. For MTT's I was up $40 in December. I played 30 of them.
Will not be going out later, really not feeling like pretending to having a good time when in reality, I'm not. But hey, the psychological boundary of 2015 has been crossed, and it's a brand new year, with brand new opportunities, even though the world is still the same as yesterday / last year.
Ok, so 12am came and went, the backyard fireworks lifetilt me every single year. I managed to play a couple more 9m Turbo's before the new year hit. The rakeback consists of $6 of refunded buy-ins by Pokerstars and $13.2 in 6max Hyper fpp sats. I played 9 for a total of 630 fpp spent, I cashed in 4 of them. That's $0.021 / fpp so not a bad value at all.
# games: 516 (of 750)
ROI: -11.0%
EvROI: -7.2%
ITM: 35.1%
1st 10.3% 2nd 11.4% 3rd 13.4%
Winnings: -$85.08
Time played: 86.6 hours
$ / hr: -$0.98
Avg Buy-in: $1.50
Avg Duration: 31.1 min
Rakeback $19.20
Total -$65.88
ROI: -11.0%
EvROI: -7.2%
ITM: 35.1%
1st 10.3% 2nd 11.4% 3rd 13.4%
Winnings: -$85.08
Time played: 86.6 hours
$ / hr: -$0.98
Avg Buy-in: $1.50
Avg Duration: 31.1 min
Rakeback $19.20
Total -$65.88
I did mention I played a couple of MTT's at the end of the month, with a screenshot of my first top 3 finish ever (in fact, first final table ever). My results there are kind of skewed with some bounties not registering or registering wrong. For MTT's I was up $40 in December. I played 30 of them.
Will not be going out later, really not feeling like pretending to having a good time when in reality, I'm not. But hey, the psychological boundary of 2015 has been crossed, and it's a brand new year, with brand new opportunities, even though the world is still the same as yesterday / last year.
01-15-2016
, 08:44 AM
Well, I have shipped the remaining funds back to the staker, and withdrew all of my personal funds to pay for Twitch stream graphics, leaving me with exactly $0 and $70 still in makeup in my Pokerstars account.
The new plan will be to grind up a roll to play 6max cash Zoom tables, for the moment shorter sessions are better for me, with my current situation, grinding STT Turbo's is out of the question.
How I'll start? I have enough StarsCoin for 11 $0.25 Spin & Go tickets. We'll see how much I get from that (if anything). Depending on the funds there and then I could start playing 2nl Zoom immediately with zero brm, or play some Fixed Limit to grind up some VPPs and cash.
The new plan will be to grind up a roll to play 6max cash Zoom tables, for the moment shorter sessions are better for me, with my current situation, grinding STT Turbo's is out of the question.
How I'll start? I have enough StarsCoin for 11 $0.25 Spin & Go tickets. We'll see how much I get from that (if anything). Depending on the funds there and then I could start playing 2nl Zoom immediately with zero brm, or play some Fixed Limit to grind up some VPPs and cash.
01-19-2016
, 07:24 AM
GL! I occassionally troll 2p2 forums and came across your post. I'm sure you know who I am, vib unite! 
I can recommend unibet microstakes. You can't use huds or import hand history but games are very soft and ABC poker will get you a decent winrate to build your roll.
I don't really play much poker that often anymore due to time constraints so for now I'm just grinding 4NL when I have an hour to spare.
I can recommend unibet microstakes. You can't use huds or import hand history but games are very soft and ABC poker will get you a decent winrate to build your roll.
I don't really play much poker that often anymore due to time constraints so for now I'm just grinding 4NL when I have an hour to spare.