In eighthundred Days around the World

My goals for december were:
- Set up all software to be able to grind higher volumes
- Start playing higher volumes to practice against my opponents, get a feeling for their ranges and my strategy
- Implement new drilling method

Grind
Even though I did not win in EV in December, I still consider the month a win.
I managed to grind almost double the amount of hands compared to November. I am currently not winning in 25NL but after rakeback I am at least breakeven, which is good. From January on I will grind as much volume as I can because I have some rakeback deals in place and I can clear a first deposit bonus on Pokerking. So it was important for me to set up the software before January.

To be honest I kind of expected to win when I fully focus on my game but I had to learn that it is not that easy. I focused on my game really hard but still struggled. But I also see players in my pool who can win, and I will analyse their game to find some things I can do better.

Drills
I set up a database in Notion with various drills for specific situations. I now have a ton of Anki flashcards for preflop, lots of GTOwizard drills for postflop, and a Notion system in place. Now what this will do is organizing my drills. I will not have to think too much on what to practice everyday, because my Notion is telling me what drills should be done next.
I am building a system that automatically reminds me to study spots which I have not studied for some time. I am giving each situation a priority ranging from 1 to 5, which determines how important that situation is and how often I have to review it.
If I don't have to think too much about what to drill each day, I can just sit down each day and start drilling without worrying about forgetting any spots. Efficiency is neat!

Costs
While not winning any money in Poker this month, I still spent a lot on it:
- Hand2Note 1 year $360
- GTOwizard monthly $89
- StackAndTile monthly $11
- Rocketsolver License (lifetime) $300

Having costs of ~$140 - $160 each month while playing 25NL is pretty tough, so I got to get good and move up fast 😀

Mental Game
In the end of December I listened to lots of podcasts of successfull people like CEOs and athletes. I learned a lot from them and believe that I can do a lot more with the time I have each day. What everyone of these successfull people have in common, is that they worked really really hard. I plan on doing the same.

Other income
I made a huge mistake with matched betting by clicking a wrong button and lost about $200, which was about the same I generated from matched betting in december. So no real gains here this month :/
Other income sources were also sparse, I made some dollars with various sites but not too much, I estimate I gained about $100 this month at maximum.

I did lose track of the money I made with various online sites because I need a better system to write things up. This month is difficult to summarize in numbers because of this. I will overhaul my sheets and write things up in more detail, so I can provide more accurate numbers for the blog in the future.

Anyways, planing on working really really really hard on my game and play thousands of hands in January. Let's see.

___
Bankroll: ??? (Next month, sorry)
Days left: 632

Just try to get really strong fundamentals, the rest is just fine tuning.

I would say game selection is as important as raw skill, always look for better places to play. Don't stagnate like many of the guys grinding rb at stars zoom and then complaining games are bad.

Your dream is for sure doable, gl!

I have never worked harder for my poker skill than last month, January 24.

Around New Years Eve I started listening to the stories of successful people, like professional athletes or CEOs.
Especially Kobe Bryants work ethics has amazed me and I recommend listening to his stories.
All the people I listened to were very different and some of them have weird views.
But what they all had in common is that they worked really really hard for what they wanted.
I am not a winning poker player. But I do see other players who are good, and that it is a matter of skill.
If it is a matter of skill, then it is a matter of work.

This month I played 27k hands. I try to play a lot: Practicing in real world environments means progress.
I see lots of showdowns and get a feeling on how people play. I also accumulate data on the pool and myself.
In the beginning of January, you can see me losing quite a bit. I decided to take a break and look at how the winning players in my pool play.
And oh wonder, they play tight. They rarely bluff and often just have value.
I immediately saw why I was losing, because I did quite the opposite: I tried to bluff a lot, but that doesn’t work if people are not folding.
What is working if people don’t fold is… well, it is valuebetting and not bluffing a lot!

With more hands I made more mistakes. I bluffed calling stations, and I called my bluffcatchers against nits.
Doing this and failing miserably does hurt.
I want to be a pro one day, but I am losing against those fishes!
But I am learning. I get a feeling on who is never bluffing rivers. I do get a feeling on what stats the guys have that are calling down light with Q-high.

I will continue to grind lots of hands. I continue extending my library of drills and extending my knowledge about poker in general.
I watch courses and other content; I exchange hands and opinions with my peers.
February shall be the month I worked harder than ever in my poker career.

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Bankroll: $4.514,67
Days left: 608
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PS: I lost access to my main playing pool this month (WPN) because they banned all germans. It was difficult because I just started winning in that pool and kind of figured it out. But I still managed to find a new pool and grinded thousands of hands. If you are a fellow german too and/or are looking for rakeback deals / sites to play on, let me know. I can probably help you find something.

February '24 was turbulent, I'd say.

I am studying poker for quite some time now, and I am starting to like the idea to sustain myself trough poker. Going pro, doing what I love whenever and wherever I want it.
Sounds nice but damn, it is tough.

Pain and Anger

So at the beginning of February I was studying exploitative strategies. This is somehow a topic I did not study too much since I began taking poker seriously again about 3 years ago.
So I began to dive into explanations for weak players behaviours and where regulars get it wrong.
Studying leaks of the population opened my eyes a bit on where the money is made. It also showed me that I am also a weak reg and suffer from lots of things the general poker population gets wrong.
After diving into exploitative theory for the first week, I began grinding - and it went well. Too well. I was extremely aggressive in a lot of spots that I expected people to overfold. It worked.
I was hyped. Poker was never this fun in my life, pushing people out of the pot because I know they are weak, or folding very strong holdings when I know they are strong (in the past I always stacked off with 2nd nuts, but now I am considering some other factors and sometimes end up folding very strong hands. Was kind of a station in spots where I really should overfold).

With my EV-graph and my confidence rising to the sky, I fell in love with the idea of finally being decent and getting closer to my goal of being a pro. I said to myself that if I can prove to make decent money the next few month I might take a break from my study for university, trying out to fully dive into poker as a pro. Well...

Now with the mind of "I have to prove it" there was also the mind of "if I lose now I can't pursue my dream". Somehow playing poker got really emotional. I considered myself a person who does not tilt, because I have a good attention for my emotions and know how to regulate them. But poker is also way easier if there is less pressure.

I had a lot of pressure and every small and big pot I lost meant now that I have to "win it back" and "get the graph to over 0 EV" to prove myself I am good enough. But I made mistakes and it made me so angry. Angry because sometimes I knew what to do but made mistakes, because of playing too many tables or being distracted. I was angry because there were so many situations I did not know so I made mistakes. I have never felt this much anger while playing poker.

My body started sweating, I got the urge to smash something, I wanted to scream. Wow, that are strong emotions and I learnt that I am not as cool headed as I thought. I learned that pressure can amplify emotions, especially the negative ones. But I also learned that anger can be controlled too.

When feeling lots of anger and pain, I did push-ups. It felt like a better alternative to smash something expensive, and in February I did a lot of push-ups, which is good for physical health.
I learned that when I feel a lot of anger, that I just have to wait it out a little. 2-5 Minutes of strong anger, but then it vanishes, mostly. Then I am somehow able to smile and maybe even laugh a bit about these exteme emotions that I just felt.

I tried to use the emotions as a guide. When I felt very angry, I tried to see what the cause was. Often it meant that I did not have enough knowledge of a spot, made mistakes, lost confidence in myself. But objectively I just had to learn the spot in GTO then learn how population deviates.

While grinding, winning and losing, I created a ton of drills. I know have drills ready for the most important and frequent configurations. Bunch of SRP and 3BP drills. I drilled a lot. I drill at least an hour each day, sometimes significantly more. It helps so much, because playing against the solution is 1) cheaper to make mistakes compared to real poker and 2) gives me the opportunity to stop a hand and look at the solves in real time. With more drilling I somehow got a feeling on how different SPRs play out and what to do with my range against different betsizes. I also learned where it is good to stack off and where not to.

I would say in February I learned more for my poker carreer than ever. I learned about emotions but also I practiced so much, I feel like my intuition about hands start to guide me more and more to the right decisions.

Extra Money

So while I lost huge EV in February in poker, I ran pretty good over EV.
I also made decent $$ from other income sources this month.
Furthermore, a decent chunk of my bankroll is currently in form of crypto. The prices for crypto got really high this month so luckily I got some profit there. But I consider this variance, because the prices could also fall instead or fall again.

Next steps

- Analyse, discuss, learn, drill, etc.
- Get a sample in 10nl 20nl, prove that I am winning, move up as fast as possible. My bankroll is big enough but I am not confident enough to move up. Once I see I can do it, I will move up fast and go to the casino again, to play live.

___
Bankroll: $5.738
Days left: 567
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Edit:
Some points I learned that I want to share:
- Some people are notoriously overfolding so pressuring them in (certain!) spots is key
- Other people are notoriously overcalling so pressuring them can be very expensive. I have to see what type of fish a player is before making huge deviations. I learned that people overfold so I started blasting off, but then I learned that some people don't fold their weak holdings anyways. So first analysing what player it is, then exploiting is the correct order

March and April ‘24.

Again, I worked like a madman. Paid a friend to teach me how to exploit fishes. Talked with friends about hands, summarized videos. Practiced against the drills. It is very exhausting and sometimes boring. It is especially exhausting when I start to doubt if I will ever be a winning player. It is a fight against myself everyday, but I am happy with it.
Even in the most difficult times, after experiencing intense negative emotions, I still want to follow through with my plan. I dream of sustaining myself through poker. I dream of being free.
And I see light at the end of the tunnel.

March
Graph of March ‘24:

(additionally to $75 winnings I earned about $100 from rakeback and promos x) )

In March I started to try out a lot of new things. Often, these things did not work, but often I learned a thing or two because of it. It was really really difficult to see the graph drop like this. Thing was, I was not only trying out exploitative strategies against fishes, I was also losing really hard against the regs. I played 25nl at the time and seeing the graph crash stressed me a lot. I was angry and it hurt.

I moved down in stakes but I lost more. Moved down more, lost more. This was actually surprising. I moved down to 2nl and still couldn’t win, which was very alarming. ****, I studied poker intensely for a few years but still can’t beat 2nl?

Reset
I formulated a plan: Play only 1 table. Observe every player closely. Find out how they play, formulate counter strategies.
Only invest in situations that are profitable. Get away from all marginal situations. Don't deviate too much if I don't know what player I am up against. Play tight until I have some information.

Now this is where things turned around - actually paying attention to each player, their showdowns and timings, was a lot more informative than only looking at their stats in a hud. And my exploits were more on point than usual. Since there are no regs on 2nl it started to work out pretty good.

April
Graph of April ‘24:

Now that’s what I call a comeback. At the beginning of April I started to move up again and played about 4k hands of 10nl. Things worked out fine and I was so hyped.
In my mind it was smart to move up as fast as possible because “now I know how to do it”.
I moved up to 25nl, lost a few buy-ins because regs still own me and I got money scared, and just lost all the winnings of my upswing from before. ****.
Moved down to 10nl, started to crush. Moved up to 25nl, started to lose. Moved down to 10nl, thought I can increase amount of tables since I “crushed” this limit before - no, playing more than 3 tables is apparently too much for my brain. I lost hard at 10nl. Down to break-even for the month.

The negative emotions came back. I was angry at myself. I tried my best, then got cocky and paid the price.
I took a break for a few days because I didn’t want the negative emotions to take over. I want to be a pro but not at all costs.

Okay, suck it up, now I at least know that I can’t play too many tables. Let’s play a few tables and focus.

Started the grind, lost a pot, and was tilted again immediately. The break did not solve my tilting problem. I took a short break from grinding, took a walk, thought about everything, and started to meditate. Told myself again and again that there is nothing wrong in losing short-term. I can lose pots, no problem. What I have to do is very clear: play well, analyze hands afterwards to make sure that I played well, and if not, learn from it. Then I began to grind again and just focus on the moment.

That my graph is positive for April is great. Additionally to my poker winnings that are not too big, I got a lot of rakeback this month which makes this the first winning month! I slowly get more confident in my abilities, especially when focusing on specific players.

___
Next:
Taking shots at 2/4 in a casino. My roll is now big enough to handle some swings. Furthermore, I now have a new job to boost my bankroll, which means I can take more risks!
Wish me luck.
___

March ‘24:
Bankroll: $6.166,01
Days Left: 549

April ‘24:
Bankroll: $6.223,26
Days Left: 519
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In case you wonder, my bankroll did not increase a lot. I do spend a lot of time each day with activities that bring me money. I have lots of small income streams by now, which is great. But a significant amount (about $1.8k) of my bankroll is stored in crypto currencies which swing a lot, which is the reason for my bankroll swinging more than it should. With all my income streams it is a sure thing that the roll will grow, though.

I'm rooting for you to see some great results from all your hard work soon.

Stay disciplined, stay focused, and keep grinding!

Keep your head in the game OP. Good Luck

Nice! I think I am a winning player!

Unfortunately I lost my database at end of May. Luckily I made a screenshot before I lost it. Here is my graph in big blinds since 1st June 2023 to 1st June 2024. It is exactly one year since I started this blog.

Good trend lately!

June 24:

While online is going well, I had lots of difficulties to play live.
I tried to play live every evening for about two weeks, but was only able to play three times in that period.
Often no games were running (dealer shortage) or breaking early (player shortage).

But the difficulties are no long-term problem. 2/4 is the smallest game around here, but the highest I can comfortably play.
When my roll is big enough to play 2/4/8 and 5/5/10, then I can play every day. The casino has a few tables of these stakes every day. No problem getting in, no huge waiting lists.

For now, I struggle to catch low stakes 2/4 games that are suitable for my roll. But once I build up my roll, there are plenty of games!
When I was able to play a game, I was pretty strong. I do have a lot to work on, but I can definitely win.

what next?
Now I have lots of time each day to play and study poker! I am insanely motivated. I just don't know what the next step is.
Right now I want to build a strict study and grind routine. I need to keep everything in mind. Build strategies, drill, grind, review, and do all this while being maximally efficient.

Right now I am in an extremely fortunate position. I can devote almost all my time into studying. But I am scared to not be efficient enough.

This is why I started contacting players who are already professionals. I really need advice in this critical time of my life. I really want to go pro. I have time and am motivated, and I don't want to let go of this chance.

If you are a motivated player and interested in forming a study group, please contact me.
If you are a successfull player and are interested in mentorship/coaching, please contact me.
If you have anything else to say please leave a comment 😀

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May '24:
Banklroll: $6788,35
Days Left: 518

June '24:
Bankroll: $8743,75 (damn)
Days Left: 487