Alright January Update


Poker

Can't complain one bit about the start of the year in January. Majority of my grind was mixing 4 200nl ignition tables with 2 pppoker plo tables and sometimes a bit of mix games on another site. Played a bit of 500nl and 200zoom as well but not much.



Graph of ignition above. Unfortunately no graphs of plo since there's no hand downloads, doing really well there though. Solid 5fig month to start the year. Happy with the volume at about 30 hours a week avg. Also did some studying as well as spending some time on other stuff as well. The grind will be changing a bit for the forseeable future. Not majorly so but with my asian sites pretty dead now the focus is gonna be mostly on 500nl and plo on pppoker. Also gonna be studying pretty hard as well. The plan is to study a couple hours most days during the afternoons when I get back from the gym when games are pretty dead. And then get in 5-6 hours most nights of grind time. Gonna be learning to work with PIO and just doing way more focused study than I ever have before. Despite my winrate being strong I think gaining more theoretical knowledge is never a bad thing. Going to put in some hh from time to time with some stuff about things I'm working on I think.

Life

Life is pretty good. Wife's father is doing well all things considered. Been going to the gym regularly and eating a lot more veggies. Still really need to cut out a bit of the snacking though, that's def the main thing holding me back at this point. Saw a new doctor today for some pain issues I've been dealing with forever. Was really impressed with him and hope he can figure out the issue. Suuuuuper pumped for yet another super bowl for the pats. Hope they can pull out number 6. I'm so spoiled being a boston sports fan with how good all the teams are right now.

Weird hand..default def to raise turn vs super small sizing.....guy had seemed to be a bit of a spazz so decided to just call and hope he barreled river. worked out but raising turn still may have been better vs him not sure.

IPoker, $2.50/$5 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $473.75 (94.8 bb)
Hero (BB): $573.50 (114.7 bb)
MP: $775.13 (155 bb)
CO: $402.50 (80.5 bb)
BTN: $547.25 (109.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Kc Qd
2 folds, BTN raises to $15, SB folds, Hero calls $10

Flop: ($32.50) 8d Ts Kh (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $20, Hero calls $20

Turn: ($72.50) 3c (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $19, Hero calls $19

River: ($110.50) 4s (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $205.50, Hero calls $205.50

Results: $521.50 pot ($3 rake)
Final Board: 8d Ts Kh 3c 4s
Hero mucked Kc Qd and won $518.50 ($259 net)
BTN showed 2h 2s and lost (-$259.50 net)

In.

Just saw this, nice thread. Would highly recommend the Herman Miller Embody chair btw

thanks guys, and thanks for the chair rec. I imagine that will def be one of the ones I try out when I go visit a relax the back store soon.

Yesterday was a sucky day. Ran pretty awful but also didn't play my best. Was in a LOT of achy pain all day and was having trouble concentrating. Was still a +ev grind I'm sure but I hate when I catch myself making dumb mistakes. No real interesting hands but I'll post a few of them below anyways.

Vs reg



Really dumb hand vs what I assume was a bad nit and a fish getting coy with his KK. Wish the KK sucked out instead of the QQ lol



run gooooood



woulda been such a yuck spot if he bet bigger on river.




Still fine start to Feb (5.1bb/100, 12.3 evbb/100), and didn't even lose much yesterday. Think most of the annoyance was from being so achy and playing kinda meh as a result. Then throw in the JJ hand and it was just one of those unavoidable meh feeling days. Did do some study with flopzilla yesterday though and about to do some more right now before playing again.

This hand to me is a great example of how weird anonymous zoom can be. Not saying it's a tough spot because it's not. He's jamming all of his hands that would be beating us on the turn basically all the time. But if I have a diff hand here I am now potentially in a weird spot where this punter accidentally clicks the right series of buttons. And since we have no way to know he's a button clicker before hand it creates weird dynamics.

Patriots win the super bowl AND I ran decent in super soft games afterwards to win a nice chunk. Fun night

Another really strong day, games have been really good. Def running pretty well. Getting paid off with a lot of my good hands and not really running into too many coolers. Will throw a few hands.

Guy had very nitty stats. Could still 3b, I like flat though with a nitty fish over 60-70 hands.




Suuuuper awkward spot. Fish on my right was mega whale playing like 70/50/20 over a lotta hands. Flatter behind me was a fish too. I should prob be cbetting bigger on the flop. Don't think I'm ever getting away from this hand as mediocre of a situation as it is. I expect to be good a fair bit still.




Boneheaded river call by me vs a bad nit. Talked myself into including J9 in his range but this guy wasn't gonna jam J9. Vs many would be totally fine with this river call obv but it was just such a clear fold vs this guy and a spot where you can pick up so much ev by just hand reading properly.










Graph of last week or so. Also won a bunch at plo on ppp on top of this as well.




Gonna be doing some PIO work/some more flopzilla work going forward. If anyone at a decent skill level wants to work on some stuff together hmu. Hope everyone is running well so far in 2019, glgl

2nd week of Feb is turning into an ass whooping so far lol. Bout sums it up



Barely even a downer yet, think it's only 10-12 buyins or so. Def one of those times though where you can feel the momentum is just against you and just every hand seems to run out in the way that max bends you over. Year still really great overall so far.

Haven't been feeling very well the last few days which has been infinitely more annoying than any short term poker variance. Hopefully a couple more nights of good rest will have me back to normal. Been hard to get in as much good study/play while feeling really off.

Damn our results seem to just be mirroring each other this year so far lol. Keep your head up and keep plugging man! You'll get out of it in no time if you stay focused and keep doing what you need to be.

Lol just read your update and noticed that as well. Appreciate the good vibes, gl to you rest of feb as well. Seems like you are doing a good job of forcing yourself to grind more!

Alright feb week 2 wrapup. The downer continues. On ~17 buyin, ~18ev buyin downer. I am stuck piles and piles with AK/QQ+ lol. The run bad was taken to a new level today though as I have AA on two tables and my internet decides to have a 15 second spazz out and I sit there helpless having to watch my AA get folded on both tables. I suppose I can be thankful that there was no money in the pots yet but still not fun. I hate comcast so much!

Life wise the last week or so was pretty sucky as well. Doctor had me trying a medication temporarily to see if it helped with some unexplained body pain I deal with. It actually made my body feel worse because I felt super weird AND it made my mouth taste metallic. Everything I stuck in my mouth tasted absolutely terrible and my mouth just tasted weird/gross in general. Was miserable lol. Stopped taking it early though and now a few days removed I feel back to normal pretty much. Other than all that nonsense life is good.

Overall despite the downer still can't complain about the start to the year I've had. Just gonna keep pounding out the volume and eventually the cards will fall a bit more favorably.

Unfortunately had an opportunity to come blasting out of the downer with a deep run in the 100k on ignition. Alas it was not meant to be as we went super card dead at the end before falling with A8<910 aipf to go out 28th for dust. Unfortunately continues the long streak of bad luck deep in tourneys with a good chunk of money up top. Running poorly at the end of deep tourney runs is def one of the few things in poker that temporarily still deflates my mood a bit. Def a disappointing feeling. But oh well, on to the next. Had a good day at cash on top of the small tourney score. Still running absolutely horrid on ignition but still only around 20 buyin ish downer. Hopefully we can start scratching our way back the other way. Been doing well at plo at least on my ppp club so month still okayish overall and year still very nice overall.

Why do you play these? What’s your ballpark estimation of your hourly EV?


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Tourneys have a lot of fish and I only play the super high value ones. Always grinding cash as well so it just adds a bit of ev to the grind. I would estimate it adds low 5 fig of ev per year. And although it's frustrating a small % of the time it's also a really nice feeling a small % of the time when you win or even top 3. The variance isn't my favorite but ultimately being a professional is about putting yourself in the best situations to win money. I def couldn't play solely mtt though.

Alright Feb week 3 is in the books. Can't say it's been a fun last couple weeks but it also hasn't been that bad.



So as you can see, pretty much still taking an absolute pummeling on ignition. Def making plenty of mistakes but for the most part playing well. Hard to win when you are barely ever winning at showdown with QQ+ and sets. Funniest part is that I'm running super good in terms of how many times I'm getting dealt big hands, they just aren't holding up. I would say there's some mild frustration but overall I haven't cared too much about the negative variance. Def think it's easier when you are just getting pummeled with mostly obvious suckouts/coolers vs having a bunch of annoying close spots. Still around a 20ish buyin downer on ignition and just gonna keep getting in the volume and eventually get some holds.

On the bright side of things we've made 20ish buyins in my plo ppp games and overall month and year still looking really good. Think I'm around what I think my expectation is on the year so far so big picture wise happy with the year so far for sure. I'm also getting more and more comfortable with plo over time. I think one of my biggest strengths is being able to learn/adapt intuitively pretty quickly, which has definitely helped when I am playing game types I'm not as familiar with.

Life wise things are going pretty good. Now that I'm back to feeling mostly normal again have been back in the gym which feels good. Helped the wife's parents move today so wasn't able to get as much work done as I'd like but got a few hours in and some study as well. I still think I can improve on increasing the amount of structure in my day. Getting up and immediately going to the gym has been good but I still waste too much time just dicking around on fornite/rocket league or reading random stuff online. Some of the stuff I'm reading online is beneficial like personal finance/churning/etc related stuff, but def plenty of what is mostly wasted time other than enjoyment spent on reading 2p2 or games etc.

Not gonna bother posting hands because they're mostly standard and imo would be pretty boring. Honestly at this point in my poker career I personally find the discussions about the psychology of poker/variance/life way more interesting than I do the actual technical strategy discussions. I'd really like to find something to do that would go well hand in hand with poker. Overall I love the freedom and I do still enjoy aspects of poker. I can't see ever not playing poker in some capacity. But I also kind of want to be working on other things as well.

Swapped out the getting coolered every hand tonight for running massively below ev. Fun patch of variance last couple weeks

Sorry to hear that man, just keep your head up and keep plugging. Idk if you meditate at all but I've been using Primed Mind for a while now. It's always been nice but I recently listened to the Downswing meditation in the poker section and holy **** it was so much better than I imagined it would be. I listened to it Thursday and had a losing session but didn't feel as bad, took Friday off, then won Saturday and Sunday after weeks of losing. Obviously a bit of variance mixed in but I do think I was just more relaxed while playing thinking about that meditation. I won't spoil the whole thing in case you get around to it but one of the ideas is that this downswing isn't for nothing. Poker is a business and every business has a marketing budget. You've been paying your dues to that department, a lot of the money that has been lost has gone to weaker players who are now encouraged to continue playing poorly because they sucked out on you or whatever. Anyway give it a look if you're into that kinda thing!

Appreciate it dude. Not really a big deal in the scheme of things. 30 buyin downers aren't fun but just part of the game. The funny part when going through downers like this is thinking back to a decade ago when people just had no clue about variance, myself included obv. I miss the ignorance of those days in a lot of ways. It was fun when people read too much into short term results and people didn't realize what an actual decent sample of hands is. But yeah as mentioned before still up a ton on the year so in the grand scheme of things I have nothing to be complaining about.

Appreciate the recommendation. I downloaded primed mind awhile ago but never used it. I'll have to try out listening to that one it sounds interesting. I'd say it's generally not "my thing" but that I'm open to it being beneficial. I just think it's one of those types of things that I suck about actually trying to consistently do.

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Boring Update since I'm in here:


Tiny losing day today, less than a buyin. So still around 27-28ish buyin downer. 18ish ev downer although so much nonsense not reflected in that lol. Definitely have made some mistakes but I've always made mistakes and always will. I don't think I've made any significant mistakes due to the run bad or anything. Mostly playing pretty well and just getting consistently pounded when I am dealt the top end of hands. Can't remember the last time KK held in a meaningful pot.

Idk how much I'm gonna bother with posting hand histories going forward in here. Tbh I find it mostly boring and tedious, and honestly I enjoy much more the discussions on 2p2 about life as a poker player/personal finance/life in general etc. So yeah if anyone has any questions about stuff like that happy to discuss. Otherwise will prob mostly stick to some general result/life updates outside of that.

Damn man, you are so even keeled. I get the sense from your posting that you just naturally have a demeanor that is made for professional poker.

It's really impressive that you haven't made any large mistakes in that 28 buyin stretch. For most people I'd instantly either not believe them or think to myself they just aren't aware of a few big mistakes they made. But you def seem aware enough, honest, and are a true vet so I don't think that at all with you. Good job man, keep it up!

I downloaded prime mind last night fwiw. I'd heard about it and have used Elliot before but never looked at the app. I'm really impressed with the app design and amount of content overall. I used a couple of the sleep ones last night, and a habits one when I first woke up this morning.

Subscribed, good luck! Pretty sure we played together a while ago in the imawhale stable before WPN dried up. I tried the part time cash online and live and no poker seems to be best for me. Extra $$ wasn't worth the stress/hassle/eating into weekend social life for me. I'm still curious what can be done online these days. And curious to see how it goes being as a poker pro. Wife selection even >> game selection I'm sure.

Sprinkling in high value MTTs makes sense to me.

Being even keeled is for sure one of my biggest strengths. No clue what goes into that but I assume it's just my nature and not a learned thing (for the most part). Def think it is super helpful in sustained success in poker as well since even early on I was never the type to knowingly do something stupid to chase losses, like move up stakes or start playing speculative hands. I do think people can give them better chances to succeed and not succumb to negative emotion though by making smart choices, like proper bankroll management. Just made a post in DGAF thread talking about this.

Just want to be clear that I for sure have made mistakes. They just aren't mistakes that are due to the negative variance. They are mistakes from my own lack of understanding about optimal play in different scenarios. Even the best players in the world obv make mistakes and seeing as I am far from the best player in the world I make plenty of them as well hah. Thanks though, not making a bunch of extra mistakes due to frustration and making downswings even worse is def a good habit to have/work on.

Appreciate the review. I'll definitely check it out again. I think those types of things can be very helpful for sure. Just need to actually cultivate the habit of actually being disciplined about using those tools. Unfortunately obv we can often know something will be good with us but yet still make the suboptimal choice. I am weirdly super good/disciplined about some things and super terrible with discipline in certain other ways. Although I'm sure the same can be said for most people of course.

Thanks man! Yeah I played for them from like 2011ish to 2015ish so for sure probably did. And I recognize your name from around 2p2, although don't think I've seen you posting in awhile.

Totally makes sense, especially since if I remember correctly you were mostly a mtt/sng pro and sng are now pretty dead so you'd prob play mtt if you did play? Although online is def drying up in a lot of ways there's still a lot of money to be made as well. I'd say if you are smart about your choices than being an online poker pro can still be a really great choice, but most people for sure are better off doing something else and playing a little on the side when they feel like it. Personally for me, I def don't have the same passion for poker that I used to, but the hourly and flexibility are still really great. I have my degree and a good work ethic so I know I could find something else to do if I need to/want to, and honestly in certain ways I would love to find something else to work on. But to give up what I'm doing now I'd have to find something I'm excited about and I just haven't really found that yet unfortunately. Life is great though and after well over a decade of playing poker it's natural to not have anywhere near the same passion/enjoyment for it. Saving up lots of money is the key imo, especially with the shakey future of online poker.

Wife selection is for sure important as well lol. What line of work did you end up going into after leaving poker?

I'm an actuary/data analyst. After a few busto years finishing the degree and a few years making more like decent EL money I'm finally around that $100k mark as well. Definitely took longer to get there than it could with poker and I wasn't patient in my early 20s. But I think the floor is very high now that I'm there and the ceiling for me is definitely higher compared to poker also. It also seems much easier mentally. Just have to be willing to put up with some standard dumb Dilbert-ish situations.

I don't think the flexibility is so much worse than poker now. I have to be fairly available between most of the hours of 9-5 and get my work. But I have the option to work from home or in the office. I have to live in one of two cities now, but could probably ask to move after a year or so id I really needed to. Moving up into management I'd probably lose some of that flexibility, but I think the same would be true of bigger games. You'd become a slave of whenever they run if you want to make the bigger salary. The ability to work part time or take longer breaks to travel is nice, if you can save enough to afford to as a poker pro. Wish I would have read a book like "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi and figured out a way to do a zero based budget with some kind of savings plan 10 years earlier.

Definitely wouldn't do MTTs full time like I tried. What even is the annual expectation of an MTT pro? Just about everyone just fires everything they/their backer can afford and hopes for the heater, lol(or at least they did in my day). Cash game grind with a mix of online and live for diversification/sanity seems like the way to go. Maybe like 10 high value live MTTs per year and 10 online MTTs per month to scratch that itch and have the chance to bink.

As a 9-5er I'd probably do the occasional live MTT or soft cash game if I lived near a casino but I'm a few hours away from any casino and don't know of any home games.