Poker Goals & ChallengesPost your threads logging your travels up the poker ladder as you achieve your poker goals and dreams. "Challenges" does NOT mean prop bets, wagers, etc.
Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
Hey 2p2, I‘m 23 y/o Lithuanian guy currently studying my master degrees. I selected studies that would give me as much time as possible to pursue my hobby (for now) poker and try to push myself as far as my abilities will let me. I’m living in a country with really low average income (~500euro in my city, ~600euro overall in country) so basically last year I was able to make a living grinding nl10-nl50 for 5-6 days a week with 8-10 hours a day.
Now about where I’m standing right now. After playing for 4months at GG network nl25-nl50 games I decided to make a switch to nl25zoom. Reason for that is mainly because I realized how less I’m improving playing on that network without any hand history and ability to work on my game. I stagnated as a player just following simple game plan which was enough to comfortably beat nl50. So now, I’m setting myself different goals than before : I do not want to make as much money as I can right now, I just want to improve my game and push myself towards more balanced approach to poker and life in general. Also putting myself in better position to give myself best shoot to actually play this game as a profession after studies. It is my 3rd attempt to make PGC thread, previous two failed because I did not knew exact reason why I’m doing it, now it is different – I know exactly where I’m going. Let this thread be first but not the only thing that keeps me on track in this journey.
I will post my general thoughts, some graphs, hands and goals I set to my self.
1. Play at least 40 hours a week.
2. Mark hands during play, review them and make notes. Read them before starting another session.
3. Make studying process more strict, less just random messing around.
Lifestyle goals:
1. Spent more time with girlfriend and friends.
2. Do not miss classes, prepare for them properly.
3. Prepare meals for my self, do not fall into "order to save time" trap.
4. Improve english.
5. Do not sleep more than 7 hours a day.
I know goals a really amateurish, but I think I got to start somewhere and improve from there.
So thats it for now, will try to update this thread every my "working" day.
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
Alright, so I guess I figure it out how to post images at least.. What a noob I'm
Yesterday's graph:
Played 4 tables at the start and realised that I'm clicking way too much and missing bunch of spots. Switched to 3 tables, started making more notes and managed to book small profit which is nice.
Also, can someone explain me since when flating QQ OTB vs SB 3bet became a thing from regs? Saw it like 3 times already and it blows my mind. Super hard to make transition from slam dunk jamming vs 4bet QQ co vs mp at nl50 at GG network to closing my eyes before jamming to 4bet KK bu vs co lol. Is it some sort of "balancing my call vs 3bets range by flating QQ 5.17% of the time" or what? Anyway seems awful...
Gonna review some hands now, probably play few hours and post some hh here.
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
Time to do bigger update I guess. Did not played any poker friday and saturday since been busy with studies but managed to put some nice volume on last two days. Pretty swingy as always, but overall pretty decent results.
Graph since last update :
Now speaking about my goals, I'm really not happy about how I treated them. Did not put any time off the tables instead of that slept ~10 hours every day which is awful. I really cant help myself to go out of a bed early specially when now its winter time and its really cold outside. I think biggest reason why I fail to wake up earlier is that basically I try to force myself to make a big quick change. For example, I woke up around 12pm on sunday and today I tried to wake up at 7, so probably my organism is not ready for that quick change. From now I will try to take it day by day and try to wake up at least a bit earlier than day before.
Talking about studying, its really hard to get into a habit to review hands, since I always seem to find logical reason behind every move I made while playing. I remember myself reviewing others regulars play in my database and quite enjoying that, so will try to do a bit of that.
Lastly some hands. If you are reading this thread and you are playing micro stakes at stars I would highly suggest taking a look at them and think twice before going and bitching about how nobody is bluffing at micros Also, there are some solid spews in there, so should be enjoyble I think.
Preflop: Hero is SB with T 9
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BB calls $0.50
Flop: ($1.50) Q J K (2 players)
Hero bets $1.09, BB raises to $2.18, Hero raises to $5.13, BB raises to $43.75 and is all-in, Hero calls $29.25 and is all-in
Turn: ($70.26) J (2 players, 2 are all-in) River: ($70.26) 2 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Spoiler:
Results: $70.26 pot ($2.00 rake)
Final Board: Q J K J 2
Hero showed T 9 and lost (-$35.13 net)
BB showed A T and won $68.26 ($33.13 net)
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
sup guys, been really busy grinding and I'm pretty happy with amount of work I put at the tables. Yesterday played like my C+ game, autopilot a lot, biggest factor for that was that I decided to put on some music on the backround (usually play without) since my favourite artist released his album. Really good stuff and enjoyed way too much, what caused some spewing haha Today came back fresh and really happy how I played.
Graph since last update:
Also some hands, little bit of everything I guess out there
dont like this one. In theory guess this combo is best bluff candidate, but at nl25z people 3bet really narrow range vs EP and with flop raise I pretty much isolated myself vs AQ, QQ, KK and AA. none of them is folding.
got em good. might seem pretty bad but I think its very profitable jam. Would have lost a lot of value with calling OTT. V shouldnt have many 5 (if any) and sets
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
Decided to take a shot at nl50, well to be short didnt go too well, felt pretty lost in a lot of spots. I think the biggest reason for that is because I was too used to just play exploitable at nl25z and most of the stuff seem to not work at nl50z since people actually are way better. went to sleep, woke up 8am, bought one of the training site membership and watched videos while taking notes for few hours. Gonna focus more on "good" poker now at nl25z pool, study some ranges and hopefully will come back at nl50z in January. Gonna go to uni now, no poker today and tommorow.
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
Been working on my game more than I used to last few days, but it doesnt seem like that so far when you look at the results :
Graph since last update :
Did some changes in my game, too small sample to draw any conclusions, but looking at the redline looks like I'm leaking money for sure. Also noticed that I'm starting to play bad after couple of hours at zoom tables, so decided to mix it up my grind with some others soft site regular tables. Probably will continue doing that, so from now gonna aim to play 2.5k hands a day at zoom, review analyse database and gonna just print on other site :P
Re: Student with too much free time trying to make it happen before graduating
GL man, i love reading ur posts
Your killing it at 25nlz, so you play for a living pretty much in lithuania i'm guessing like even after school? That is weird to me that majority of population there only make 500-600 a month!? like even doctors etc.?