Costa Blanca grinder 2025

January 2, 2025

Blog everyday, that is one of the goals, i really like to write so that's not such a big issue.

I made a google sheets file to track my daily goals and made a percentage calculation on it. During the year i also want to reflect on the parts where i struggle and where i do fine.
I'm quit sure that these goals also have effect on my ability to play my A game in every session. I had some live sessions in the past where i made mistakes purely due to fatigue and lack of sleep for example.

I set myself a goal to read at least 30 books in 2025, at the moment i am almost finished with "The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova". A very good read about a writer who researches the game of poker for a new book. She becomes so passionate that she started playing poker herself and was coached by Eric Seidel, due to her relation with Eric she meets a lot of great players and coaches like Phil Galfond and Jared Tendler. After a year she plays her first WSOP main event, to know how that ends you need to read the book yourself, it is really worth it.

No poker today, we fly back to Spain in the afternoon, first tournament is planned for saturday.

Keep you posted, Adios!

January 3, 2025

Flew back to Spain yesterday evening, lovely weather over here, 19C and blue skies, i love it!
Tomorrow we play our first mtt of the year, today is about reading and some pokertraining in GTO Wizard.

I just finished the book i mentioned yesterday, "The biggest bluff by Maria Konnikova" and i really enjoyed it untill the last page. The book discusses topics like change and probability and on one of the last pages there is an amazing piece of text.

Quote
We have won the impossible, improbable lotery of birth. And we don't know what will happen. We never can. There's no skill in birth and death. At the beginning and at the end, luck reigns unchallenged. Here's the truth: most of the world is noise, and we spend most of our lives trying to make sense of it. We are, in the end, nothing more than interpreters of static. We can never see beyond the present moment. We don't know what the next card will be - and we don't know when we see it if it's good or bad.
Unqoute

I read it a few times, and i love it, thank you Maria for this wonderful book!

Next book will be the Chess revolution by Peter Doggers, i'm not a chess player but i like to know more about chess. And this is a book for people who want te learn about the history of chess.

Adios!

GL Repentless, 200 live tournaments is pretty high for the year! How are you planning to balance GTO study vs live exploits study?

Gl on the grind this year

Hi Donny

Thanks for leaving a comment, and yes you are right 200 MTT's is a lot. But there are 4 casino's in my area, so you can play every day. Not that i'm gonna do that. But with tournament series i certainly play 5 to 7 days a week.

To answer your second question it is certainly more weighted to exploitative play.

GTO is defined as being unexploitable but it is also a defensive strategy to minimize leaks and it performs well against all player types. But the goal of any poker strategy is offcourse to maximize your profit.

So, do i play GTO in small stakes MTT, i don't think so, exploitative is the way to go, it is more offensive, imbalancend and i think it is the perfect strategy when you have information about your opponents. Since we play here with a group of around 200 regular players throughout the year you have a lot of information and exploitative play brings you the most.

This said i think you have to have a good understanding about GTO and yes GTO also works against all player types because they are all imbalanced, because no human being can play perfect GTO. But like said in this live environment exploitative play achieves higher EV.

Thank you, also GL for you, i will also follow your progress.
Unfortunately there are less possibilities in Spain to play online, you can't have it all. :p

Very cool to see this blog a little different to others with your plans to incorporate a wider view into other aspects of your life.

Congratulations on reaching your FIRE goals, I'm sure that's something an overwhelming majority of people here aspire to in some capacity.

What's your cost of living like in that region of Spain? I appreciate it's all relative but would be interesting to hear.

Looking forward to following along and seeing some winners photos! GL.

Hello there, thanks for passing by and leaving a message.

Achieving FIRE is a long process that takes a few decades, it is not something you think about every day during your career. But by investing in good companies (compounding machines) for the longrun, I think many people can achieve this dream. I discussed this topic many times with colleagues and friends and i heard comments like: I can't save as much as you, i don't trust the stock market, I don't believe it is possible, I have invested in the past but used the money to buy a car, etc, etc...
But hey, everyone has to do what they think is right! It does take some discipline, but now that I'm sitting here under the Spanish sun I realize that it was all worth it!

As for living expenses it depends a lot on your situation of course, are you alone or with a family? Do you still want to travel or drive a nice car? I can only speak for my own situation but I have traveled enough in the past and I don't like expensive cars 😃.
So for roughly 40k a year I can live a very good life here. Including fixed costs (water, electricity, internet), food, a car, health insurance, restaurant costs, occasional flights to visit family.
This can be a lot cheaper if you take a small apartment for example, but I have a house with a swimming pool which is a bit more expensive to maintain and also in terms of electricity and water of course.

January 4, 2025

I took a walk around the neighborhood to get my 10k steps for the day.
Walked 7km in 1h15 under a clear blue sky with a temperature around 19C, same weather as yesterday.

Tonight we are playing the first live poker of the year, it's a 50€ NLHE re-buy tournament.
It starts at 18h00 and before the break there are levels of 35min and unlimited re-buys, after the break (21h00) the rebuys are closed and the levels are 15 minutes.
The rake in the local casino's is 11% and an aditional 5% of the buy-in goes in a bucket for a monthly leaderboard where six players are paid and another part goes in a bucket for a yearly ranking, where the prizepool is divided under 20 players. Last year there was over 60k in the yearly prizepool. So if you play regularly that's a nice ranking to take a shot at.
I think the rake is fairly low if you compare it with Vegas or the Netherlands where they are asking +20% for small stakes MTT's.
Also the first alcoholic drink is for free, all non alcoholic drinks are free all night long, so i think that is pretty reasonable.

Vamos!

Wishing you the best of luck tonight. Vamos!

Let us know how it goes!

January 5, 2025

Thanks you!

Here's the story

To start with, it was a 60€ buy-in instead of 50€, not that important just for the record.
First few levels went ok, did'nt play a lot of hands.
In the fourth level (400/800 800 ante, we play 50bb) i got KK in MP, i raise 2.5x and i get 3 callers (BTN, SB and BB). Flop is QQK. SB and BB checks, i check behind.
BTN bet 8K, SB folds, BB makes it 16K, the pot is big enough so i shove. BTN calls with Q2o and BB folds. Turn Q 😮 River J

Cooler, 3bb left, from then it's push fold. I manage to quadruple with 55 vs 33 vs AJ vs AQ.
Bust hand (7bb left at 1k/2k, 2k ante) MP limps, i shove A9s vs KQo, Q on the flop.

113/198

Tonight we play a 100€ Turbo in Alicante.

Bankroll: 39940€
Average Buy in: 60€
Final tables: 0
ITM%: 0%
1/200

what in insane cooler. GL tonight

do you think it's possible to earn a living playing $60 donakments?

January 6, 2025

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather is meh today, we even had a bit of rain in the morning by a freezing 15C, but the sun is back tomorrow (i miss it already :P)

Haha, nice on to start the year isn'it ♥

Hi Rick, the answer is no, if you look above in my first post there i mention that i don't need poker income for living expenses. And 60€ is in the lowest buy-in category over here, i will also play slightly higher buy-ins, i guess the average will be around 200€ on a yearly base.

About last night:

We started at 17:00pm, first 4 our 5 levels i barely played a hand, bad hole cards and the action before me made me fold almost 100% of hands.
Already short (around 17bb) and in CO position i shove over a limp from MP with AQo, BB re-shoved with AQs and flopped the nut flush.

Alright, we go for a second bullet, blinds are already 1k/2k so with a starting stack of 50k we re-enter with 25bb.
We drop back to 10bb without playing a hand, and nearly make it to the dinner break.
Shortly after the break i get it in with ATo vs KJo en we double up. A few hands later i have AKs in the bb and BTN rips it in, we snap ofc.
AKs vs A8o flop K82 Turn 8 😮 River 4. We are down to 2bb. I win a couple of mandory all-inns and i rebuild to 10bb.
Always stay focused, also with 2bb, there are so many people who blow up stacks in a range from 5bb to 15bb after losing an all-in.
In these turbo formats, you can easily rebounce from almost nothing to chipleader in a few hands.
From there on it is smooth sailing the cards become better and i manage to steal the blinds a few times.
But after the break the blinds keep going up every 15 minutes, there are 27 left from 145 and 15 itm

We are close to the bubble when i look down at AA, we have around 16bb, BTN limps and i raise to 2.5bb in the BB. He calls, Flop K84 rainbow.
I cover him so i shove he snaps with KQo. 20bb and shortly after that the bubble is broken.
Just before the FT bubble we got AA again and bust the BTN who shoves A4o into us.
With 8 left the blinds are 150k/300k i only have 2bb left in the bb when i have to call with KTo, villain shows AKo, dominated and no help, busto!
8/145 for 480€ and first cash of the year is in the books.

Today we take a day off, mostly i don't play on mondays.
Thursday we play for sure the monthly 300€ in Alicante, that is one of the best tournaments to play over here, 2 starting days (Thursday and friday), saturday day 2 and sunday day 3.
For tomorrow and wednesday i decide later on.

Adios!

Bankroll: 40160€
Average Buy in: 130€
Final tables: 1
ITM%: 50%
2/200

Where in Spain is this?

4 casinos close to you, I cant imagine where.

Only played in Barcelona, Marbella/Malaga, Valencia and a few other places that I`ve forgot.

Marbella/Malaga = 2 casinos at least.

Barcelona maybe more?

GL on the mtt grind.

Orihuela, Alicante, Benidorm and Ondara. There is a new one opening this year in Villajoyosa also (between Alicante and Benidorm). Then there are 5. They are all within a 1 hour drive of my house.
And also in Murcia is a Casino but i don't play there.

Janurary 7, 2025

Not much going on over here, beautiful day today 18 degrees and blue sky. Did a 6km walk for the daily 10k steps goal, failed already a few times do get there. But that is the good thing about daily goals, a daily remember do get things done!

Did some GTO wizard stuff, solved some spots from the sunday tournament and did some training mostly 3b pots in late position. SB and BB vs BTN and CO.
Still a lot of room to improve there.

No poker today, maybe tomorrow and foresure on thursday.

Adios

Janurary 8, 2025

Beautiful blue sky by 18C temperature, did my daily walk and some GTO Wizard training.

Decided to play a 60€ progressive bounty tonight, report will follow tomorrow.

Vamos!

glgl tonight, looking forward for updates

Cool story, congrats on retirement and good luck with your poker journey. I'm not sure if you're interested in discussing hands, but a couple stood out to me

The pot is never big enough. You have the effective nuts (QQ would likely have 3b pre, even in a low limit liveament) in a three way pot with both of your opponents being aggressive. With two more streets of action, there's no reason to shove here unless you are very very very very confident that they are both calling.

This hand doesn't make much sense. You had 16bb to start the hand and 20bb after, so did BU have 3-4bb to start the hand? If he did then your line makes sense, but if he had 10bb or so, there's no real need to bet so big post, you can kind of lead him in, unless it's an explo where you feel he's calling your shove with 100% of his range.

Why is your plan to have the player in the blind make a correct preflop call? Why not make it ~5bb? As played, if you feel that population overcalls this spot, then shoving is great, but the pot is never big enough, so it feels like you are shoving so that you don't have to make any more decisions.

Hi!

"We reach the dinner break with 18bb, the rebuy period is over, 123 buy-ins and 56 left."
How many individual players in this wednesday 60€ prog ko?

GG WP.

Nice to see you are going for 3 day event €300. Is it mostly locals playing at this time of the year, or is it also a lot of expats (people from europe etc, working in Spain?),

GL and keep updating. Nice to follow you while working in regular 9-5 job 😀 Might check out Costa Blanca later

Thanks for your message! And yes i love to learn and discuss hands! So please comment, i am not a pro so i will likely make mistakes.

My thought process was that bet, raise likely means that there is a Q or a K in play, and probably one of two is calling, but you are right, for max value it is better to call.

Not sure about the amount of bb after the hand, it is indeed weird...
Note to myself: make proper notes while playing.

Makes sense, but keep in mind that everybody is quiet short and it is a bounty. So people often call less tighter.

Hello!

I guess around 90 indivudual players, rest = rebuy. But is not announced separately, so not 100% accurate.

Locals and also expats, there are living a lot of foreign people in this area. From a lot of other European countries like Belgium, The Netherlands, Danmark, Norway, Sweden, Estland, Letland, etc... But also a lot of Russians and even some Americans that live here in the region. Mostly there are 3 or 4 nationalities at each table.

Thanks and let me know if you are in the area sometimes in the future!