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Very nicely put. Hope you're doing well mate.

Thanks mate. I've done a few of these before but had to stop doing it at some point when I had too much else eating up my time. Almost every single one I helped have stopped playing I think, so it's not like I'm super motivated by that. I still believe in helping others, and I'm grateful for all the help I've gotten myself from others kind enough to free up valuable time for me.

I hope you stayed motivated to do them, I know it helped me a lot. (Although I sent you some terribly dull session footage).

I moved to GG poker for a bit, but now back on stars playing 50z.

Still following your PGC, long after I gave up my own, shows how good content it is!

GL, keep it up!

I'm good, thanks.

This means a lot. Thanks for dropping a comment man. Shoot me a message on discord if you want to discuss anything.

Gl to you aswell and see you in the 50z pool :-)

I'm not gonna put in anymore volume this month. My last post will be a year review and the one after that will be in a new PG&C for 2021 with new goals :-)

**************************** 2020 - Year review ****************************



I will give an early 2020 review and take a small break before 2021.

Poker:
We made it to 50nl and took shots at 100nl. Overall this poker year was a success. I'm incredibly happy where I am right now wrt this hobby we all love, considering where I started in January. Poker was introduced to me several years ago and the grind was nothing new to me starting the year. The earlier periods where I played poker GTO was a distant concept to me and I didn't apply it to my game at all. GTO was just a thing I thought I was close to without having to study it properly. Oh boy was I wrong. I looked at some old HH's I posted years ago and some good 2+2 posters had commented some really good theory stuff I didn't understand when reading it back then. I probably just shrugged and thought this is some unnecessary wizardry I don't need to think about to play well. So basically I started out in December 2019 by opening Matthew Janda's book and really tried to vacuum the content of the book. Things started to snowball from there and I jumped on the GTO-wagon by looking at PokerSnowie, Postflop+ phone app, and PIO. This is the point where I started being active on 2+2 again and started this thread. I always like to document my progress in anything I do and build a good network around me. Once again it was a very good decision and I've gotten tons of help almost daily and I've been able to talk with likeminded people whenever I've needed to. In the first pages of the thread I bought GTO+ and it quickly occurred to me that there is so much more to learn than I originally though. Poker theory is very interesting in the way every concept has it's own place in the GTO-space, and stuff really starts to fall in place after a while. "This goes in here, oh well then this has to go here and this aligns perfectly with that thing". Really fascinating stuff. You get new realizations all the time and have to scrap your earlier ideas, and so on.. If this stuff was easy there would be no charm to it.

The variance part of the game is very difficult and it throws you off at least once a month. I've been happy with my mental game this year, and have been able to not fall into the deep hole of longer periods of C game or huge spew sessions. I had a 100k hand breakeven stretch this year and a couple ~20BI downswings, which is not that bad. But variance is really hurting my motivation to grind, which is the biggest leak I have. This is a leak I have to fix going into 2021, otherwise this is not going to work out. I'm looking to beat 200nl next year, and if I can't get volume in I won't get there. I'm good at studying, and seem to do stuff right off the table. If I can't turn my knowledge into hands played it's all for nothing.

I really love helping others and seeing people reach their goals. It's not charity though because I do it to feel better about myself and I want to accomplish something, so in a sense it's also selfish. I learn new things in the process of teaching others. But I feel it's a great way to be selfish because it's a win-win for both parties. Will probably continue doing the coaching free-rolls because it's rewarding in a completely different way than success at the tables.

I've also been lucky to get approached by very intelligent people in the field, who has helped me out of pure kindness. Not sure if they want to get mentioned here but you know who you are. Big thanks


Life:
A couple of big things happened in my life this year including a break-up and getting my master's degree. Probably not a surprise at this point that I handled the break-up well and have been moving on in life. I'm dating someone right now and things look really good. We are still getting to know each-other and seeing how far this goes, even if both are hyped about it all. She's a gem and has all the things I'm looking for in a partner and more. At least it seems like it so far.

Getting my degree was a big relief, and has given me a much more calm approach to life. Only thing I'm stressed about is looking for new work opportunities, which I've been postponing for a while now. This will change in the start of 2021. I'm not happy with my employer or work right now.

I still have a lot of work to do with my daily routines, which when fixed will make it easier for me to put in more volume, as well as make quality of life much better. Overall I feel like I'm in a good place life-wise.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to my study group, all my lurkers and active posters! Also thanks to all of you Zoom adrenaline junkies who managed to take a pause in getting your fix of fast folding to say something supportive in the chat! I find it amazing how positive and supportive every single one of you have been here. I really really appreciate it.

See you in the next thread. I will start it in January 2021 :-)

Great post - I wish you total success in 2021 in everything you do

I do not know you, but reading lots of this thread I can induce you are a really decent guy

Great results and progress mate. All the best for 2021.

Enjoy your well deserved holidays 😀

great ship! Contratz!

awesome post man. congratulations on the solid year, completing your MA and finding what sounds like a perfect partner!

gl in 2021, will be following

nice

Strong year mate, well done. You've definitely shown some serious potential to do well in this game!

Great results! Keep it up man!

Congrats on everything man! Great post and well deserved break.

Well done man, congratulations on a great year!

gg and congrats.

Happy to see as always man.

In regards to poker variance: If you pay attention you’ll notice every successful player goes thru some sort of mental struggle in regards to the game. You will just have these things along the way, and you’ll have to decide if it’s worth it or not, and either way it will of course be fine!

That being said, keep in mind the average player in these forums, even the average PGC’er. And DEFINITELY take their advice with caution.

Thanks to solvers and an endless supply of instructional content, succeeding at poker is WAY easier than it ever has been, even though the games are slightly harder. Almost everyone is copying and pasting what they learn somewhere else.

The poker player is a funny study because the type that is attracted to this game and this lifestyle are often weak-minded when it comes to life and work. They are almost always unaccustomed to any type of toughness. So what happens? Because they are naturally lazy, they copy and paste what is easy, and coast. Look around, how many of these guys have played for 10 years and are still at midstakes, or starting to take shots by taking small percentages of themselves.

It’s a pathetic bunch for the most part, remember that. With hard work and a (small) amount of intelligence you can easily surpass all but the players at the very top.

If you end up not going with póker, that’s cool, but also keep in mind this:

Every job has a ton of negatives. In my opinion, being a professional poker player is the absolute nuts unless you’ve found something that truly fulfills you. Where else do you find a job that allows you to:

- Work for yourself, and all the obvious perks of that (being able to live anywhere, no schedule, unlimited vacation, blah blah)
- Have a direct correlation between trying to bring your best every single day (the single most challenging and most rewarding part of poker imo) and how much money you make
- the ability to make v decent money within a couple years

I usually refrain from words of encouragement like this in the forums because it’s not worth it for me. But as we’ve become friends I’m happy to dispense it to you and to your friends who read the thread.

If you keep the above in mind, maybe it will provide the necessary motivation to work hard, play more volume, and move up. Or maybe it won’t and you’ll find that it doesn’t fulfill you, there’s nothing wrong with that!

But definitely don’t listen to all these fools that tell you lies about how hard it is to rise to the top. It’s all based upon their own experience, which is almost always laughable. These CFP’s should be evidence enough of that!

With all the resources available it’s relatively easy to carve out a great living at this game, and it always will be. I would completely ignore anyone who has been playing this game for 5+ years continuously and isn’t winning at 2k+, as their advice will be way off because of their own lack of effort during their career.

Lastly, in regards to daily routine - making & sticking to a Google calendar schedule was the best decision I’ve ever made professionally.


GL bud

wp and good luck in 2021!

Thanks, means alot!! :-) I try to be.

Thanks buddy! I hope you have an awesome 2021 aswell, but I know you will :-)

Thanks Piolover! I appreciate you being active and managing the group.

Hey Ben! Thank you :-) I hope you're doing well too. You seem to be "choo-choo" :ing right now, enjoy it!

Thanks!

Thanks meale! :-) I appreciate that a lot. This year I focused almost solely on learning the theory and getting comfortable in strategy overall. I did achieve that comfortability but studying will still be important going into 2021 too, but volume is what I need to improve now and really make it a habit to actually try realize my EV.

Ty!!! :-)

Thanks! I hope you all the best for 2021! Waiting for your year review :-) Obv not going to see your $$ results but it's not that important now. GL!

Thank you thank you! :-)

Thanks Nachoman! :-)

Jesus.. This is a great way to end the 2020 thread. Your no-bullshit approach to helping people out on 2+2 is admirable. I've never seen an "empty" post by you. They're always packed with information or facts you normally wont get elsewhere.

I think at this point I've learned to filter out most good advice from the bad. I question advice from people objectively better than me too, so it's not really a big problem. Never with the intention to prove someone wrong, but to get an explanation that would make sense. If it doesn't make sense to me I consult the solver (if the advice is about strategy) or someone else that can put it into words I can understand.

Your point about poker players in general is something I've been thinking about too. In general I think people that have gone through a university education or similar tend to have a more realistic view of what it takes to master something (tbh I can't say I master accounting even if I got my degree in it), and it makes sense that people who are hard working are taking another path than poker. People who grow up with good and supportive parents usually won't get nudged towards gambling for a living, or even get introduced to it.

I don't think it's always the case, but if you're used to studying you know good patterns/habits to improve at something. Personally I'm not very interested in my field, so I was **** at studying and am surprised I got my degree with the effort I put in. I guess what drives me the most is that I know you can succeed in almost anything as long as you put in the hours and effort it requires. People often get very intimidated by new things that seem difficult, which I think is the case with a lot of old-school "feel" players when GTO and solvers became the norm. I also think that for a lot of small/mid stakes players they feel that study hours will start to have diminishing returns in EV, and they just stay there with focus on volume and just dusting off earlier knowledge every now and then. So we are mostly left with fun players and players that are not approaching the game with the same effort as any other demanding field requires, with some exceptions that fly through the stakes like they deserve or people that for some reason don't want to move up but want to crush this one stake for a maximal amount of bb/100 until they die.

Good point about any field having negative sides to them. Makes sense and poker variance can even affect you less on an intensity scale than things that are normal in other fields. It always feels weird to think about going pro in poker. And I'm not sure I want to. But I definitely want to see where the grind takes me. It's also a way to protect myself from getting disappointed to not think about it as black and white as going pro or not going pro. Hard to explain but it's some sort of defense mechanism. I hate getting that pressure of "I have to make it now".

Really, really motivating post and these are things I will keep in mind when continuing the grind.

Thanks for everything mate. I don't deserve any of it, so I can't thank you enough.

Hope you've seen an improvement in evbb and blood pressure with the new monitor.

Man wise words!

Link to the 2021 thread: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1.../#post56802323

You obviously have your head screwed on the right way, so I have no doubt you will be a success whichever way you choose to go.
Dont burn yourself out trying to do too much, stick to what your best at.
Your goals will also change as you age, so try to think what will give you satisfaction in 10, 20 years time.
Good luck.

Sorry I missed your post. Thanks a lot!

Hey thanks man! Good advice. I tend to take on too much sometimes, and it can end very badly if it goes on for a long time. Usually low self-esteem makes me want to get good at a lot of stuff, to make up for it. I know it doesn't fix anything but it keeps my mind busy and I feel I can accomplish something. It's a double edge sword and hard to find good balance.