My Last Shot at Poker

Good luck with the grind!

ty man 😀

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+14bi day today 😃 Before I talk my shit I just want to say even paisting would have crushed with this run and that it's easy to get ahead of myself/get expectations. But yeah played laserfocus every spot today and the confidence is growing. In total I'm up 16 stacks in ev which should put me in the top 10. Now I feel like it's still a bit of a lottery who is doing well and who is not and I will just stick to my regular grind but if the rungood continues for a couple more days I might do another attempt at pushing volume.

One bonus hand, this is just 0iq buttonclicking but thought I had a funny read:

Gotta balance timing out and tilting in chat will all parts of the range:

Gl op rooting for u bro

Appreciated mr botslayer 😉 you playing it aswell?

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Championship so far:

got stacked once in hu (which doesn't count) so up like 27 stacks in ev

Currently like 6/435 on the leaderboard (out of the 435 quite some people with 1000< hands tho). So it's going pretty well so far with some solid rungood. I really want to push and fight for a top spot but the volume is the problem. With my problems with focusing, It's costing me so much energy to actually think while playing. And I'm completely exhausted after 1.5k hands a day of super focus. Also ever since I joined the championship I'm in this obsessive state with devoting all my time and energy to poker. Talking hands/strat whole day on discord and literally thinking about hand histories when I'm in the supermarket and shit hahhaa as sad as it's sounds, I fucking love it. But my energy is decreasing and I"m slowly starting to become this tired zombie and this is usually sign it's time for a break and get back on earth again. So yeah probably after tomorrow or Wednesday I will take a break and go back on the grind on Monday/Sunday. I would love to push through and really race for a top spot but I've made this mistake a bit too many times and I have to be honest with myself. Think a good goal and good challenge for the rest of the weeks of this thing would be to keep playing so focused and thoughtful as I did last couple days.

Some hands of today:

Played strong but also went a little over the top in some hands which I regret. Mainly this one, pretty sure turn is mistake and river is weird idk in the moment I thought I was cooking haha:

Appereantly we are:

Might not be solver approved but cool bluff:

"A little donkey donkey" vs the man himself:

Cool stuff, rooting for you.

Any names people might now from GG or ACR? Among big volume guys around the top of the LB

ty mate!!

From the top of the lb (or in general actually) I'm not familiar with too many names. But I think that "Sherrysweet" guy is the fake shirachi from gg, he used to have a different nick. Tuitamo is having same avatar as a strong reg on gg so I guess it's him; gg_gelatino. I asked "Venator" if he was "luckycps" but he told me he wasn't. Other than that most known guys have same nick as they have on other sites or I'm unaware what their nickname is.

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lolol

If one Dutch speaking person can appreciate this video and maybe even find it slightly slightly funny that would make my day, thanks

I took off from playing on wednessday, still decided to play yday but now I'm going on a break again. Hopefully by the time I come back there is not too much of a gap between me and the top 3 and I can keep pushing for the top 1 spot

Great to see that you’re crushing! Wise decision prioritising quality over quantity and not going full stefan during this challenge. Enjoy your break and best of luck on the last stretch.

Ps. Ik moest gniffelen om het rekenwonder

On average, how many hours a day do you play and study?

Our dear OP is not a man of averages

"We are now first... of the subtop. "

It could be a good mentality for poker: you’re number one—just not from the top. : ))

ty mate!!! haha goed om te horen :P

I'm afraid Xtrascratch is right 😃 I'm pretty inconsistent with my routine. Some periods I'm playing 7-8+hours/day with 0 study. Other periods I'm playing 3 hours a day. But the ultimate routine for me is probably 5 hours a day of play and 1 hour study x 5.5 days a week. and that is kinda what I'm trying to do right now. In practice with doing my habits/preparations for sessions/talking hands I'm spending more time on poker during this routine tho.

hahaha the little pause in between makes it so funny. but exactly, if I will end up dusting it off I will just try to spin it in something positive like Aad would do 😃

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saw they posted your player profile video - very enthusiastic commentary on your hands haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJpgUddu...

Routine or no routine, thats quite a lot of hours. Than again, I might be bit too lazy :p

Stefan getting a bit out of line there calling 4bets OOP with K7s in the video... actually second to last in the leaderboard. Maybe Aad de Mos can give him a peptalk.

I just reread the first half of your blog. Totally forgot how you spun it up from 2NL to 2K. One of the sickest blogs in recent years.

I was wondering if you ever sorted out the fatigue issues? I’ve been struggling with brain fog and headaches for about a year now. Finally saw a doctor last week, and I’m getting referred for a brain scan and blood work (he said no red flags for a brain tumor which I hadn’t even thought about lol). Also have glasses for screen use on the way.

Curious if you found anything that helped? I’m keen to try anything at this point that might make a difference. I totally get where you wrote about being grateful for those days when you can think clearly and have energy.

Haha yes, when we have the AA we loving life but if we have a hand like KTs or AQo it's pretty fucking annoying, especially deep 😃

Hope he makes a comeback! Atleast from my pov (which is obv biased by variance) he is playing stronger last couple days

ty for the nice words.

About the fatigue: At some point I sort of accepted that it's part of me and that I'm just quite often tired. Partly it has to do with my depression and partly with having ADHD (always lost in random thoughts and chaos inside my head). Now the thing what made it way worse was just completely burning myself out, which resulted in extreme fatigue. Especially during covid era (with nothing else to do), I was in this completely motivated state to kind of rebuild from scratch. And I was ignoring the obvious that it was just time to take some rest. And I was going fucking mad trying to find a solution with random diets and thinking I had allergies etc. When I finally had sort of the realization that burning out caused feeling so extremely fatigued, I always take like 4 days-1 week completely off when the first symptoms start to arrive and I never felt that tired/burned out ever since. Actually right now, because of this challenge (with the the pressure and motivation) and having already locked in for a month before this where I had big swings, I'm the most tired I've been in like 2 years or so 😃 and so the topic is quite relevant.

I also figured not only burning out, but poker itself has quite a negative impact on my energy levels. I just experience quite some stress while playing and I learned this also made me tired. When I took like couple months break earlier this year, I noticed that my energy levels went up a bunch (despite drinking +/- 3 days a week). And this is partly the reason I'm thinking about quitting/going part time. Right now, that my love of the game has sort of reignited (because of the coin thing) I'm thinking about giving it another proper try after summer break. But I'm really gonna try to re-shape my approach to the game, in order to experience less stress (I'm even thinking about re-starting all over in nl200).

About brain fog: This used to be a real tough one. It was almost like some neurological processes were just not working when I experienced this. Like watching a movie and just feel nothing and be bored and frustrated. It was really weird, it always kind of came out of nowhere and it stayed for like 4 days on avg until it dissapeared. Also with this I was going mad trying to find a solution and trying to understand it.

I read online there is some correlation with brainfog and the headaches you mention, but I didn't really experience them so can't really speak to much on that.

I learned for me it's mainly caused by stress. And at some point I just made the decision to stop making a big deal out of it, and if it occurs so be it. Now what made a pretty big positive impact was taking vitamin B supplements. Honestly I'm the last person to start promoting some sort of wonder-pill, and I advise you to do your own research first and consider the possibility that it might be placebo here (fr 😃). But I feel like this really helped for specifically my brain fog symptoms and dealing slightly better with stress. I still experience brain fog for an afternoon or something or during stressful period, but what I was experiencing what I described above I haven't really experienced for 3 years.

Also for both issues; the boring advise you will find everywhere like: Eating healthy/exercising/having good balance with social life/going for walks/taking breaks/ have decent sleep schedule (preferably wake up in the morning)/reading a book/step out of your comfort zone/not too much alcohol or drugs etc. etc. - is the good advice.

And I think it's good that you visited a doctor and good that you also plan on doing some bloodtest etc. Good to rule out some causes. And just because I sort of stopped searching for an underlying cause, doesnt mean you should ofcourse. But I want to advise you to not fall in the trap of googling too much (kinda what I did).

yeah man I feel you, I hope and I'm sure things will get better for you! I'm Curious if the scan is bringing anything to light, gl

I watched all profile videos they posted, it seems to me that these players are overly aggressive, not talking about OP but other players not only going all in with flush draws but calling allins with flush draws too, it seems to me like they are just unable to fold hands and give up money they invested into the pot, well i'm having same problems too myself but they play in higher stakes thats why i expect them to play more solid, it's called cash game world championship after all, if I'm wrong correct me but at micros seems to get stacks more harder then what i watch here

Cant win if you fold

yoo guys I still wanted to do some sort of "championship wrap-up" or atleast update how it ended. But after I was done playing I took exactly a month off and wasn't really on pc/didn't feel like thinking about poker etc.

So yeah I made my last update during challenge when I was still on a small break for couple days. Like I mentioned above I usually need like 4 days rest after many playing days. And here I was still overly motivated at my house on a Sunday with a hangover and couldn't resist checking leaderboards:

And ofc I stopped everything I was doing at that moment and immediately went back to playing when I saw I was no.1 haha, despite not being rested at all. This turned out to be a decent mistake. Because I turned into this 0thought process buttonclicker again, the state I wrote so many times about in this blog. It wasn't like supertilt or anything but just 0% focus whatsoever and just playing like a regfish too burned out to focus.
That Monday (think it was like 18th of June or something but can't remember) I played an insane 7k hand session with like 14bi restuck but then started losing again (and saw my nemesis laflamablanca losing stacks over and over so kept playing and playing).

(don't mind me trying to be funny lol)

The day after, while being already completely tired, I had another 15bi losing swing but couldn't turn it around unfortunately. Since I was so tired and also playing so poorly I had to quit and go on my summer break. Ofcourse I could have just rested and try to do something in the last week but I could only be motivated if no.1 was still a possibility, which I think it wasn't. What was most important for me was to not completely donk off all my winnings. I knew I was one of the strongest players playing it, and I really didn't want to make excuses again for completely fucking it up and ending up in the red because of my terrible autopilot play. Now I still did alright in the end. I know with the run I was given I could have done better but I'm happy I stopped playing at the right time and still ended with decent result. And finished like 20th out of 800 players or whatever. And just made it in the final leaderboard:

It's really tough to say how much variance will play a part in all of this. Like obviously variance will always be massive in this format and you can run the standard deviation in the variance calculator and see how much of a lottery it is. And outsiders who didn't play will think this was all just a lottery. But I actually think big winrates were archievable. I was not impressed by the level play. I know it's sounds cocky from someone who ran well to say this. But despite people finding bluffs everywhere and shit, the level of play was not very high. That's also why I felt so confident playing it, and finding edges in intuitive spots. Ante is amazing for poker, and it shows over and over how much of a garbage format non ante 6handed (especially with rake and or without fish) is.

I want to say congrats to the "WWSF45" for shipping it. And want to say thanks to CoinPoker for hosting it, everyone involved, Yoan etc. Also respect for everyone who participated. It was the most fun I had playing in a while and it sort of reignited my love for the game.

Now back from a break I'm gonna try to get into it again, and try to update a bit and here and there. gl!

Congrats on making it in the top20

Why do most people have flags in front of their names but you and 2 others have :clown: flags haha
And do you know fellow dutchie TheWhalest who came 11th?

ty man!! Haha for whatever reason I wanted to keep my location hidden when they presented that option (in hindsight it's whatever ofcourse), so now representing Clown Republic in the photo finish 😃

Yes, TheWhalest is TheWakko. Host of the poker mechanics podcast.

Thanks, I had a suspicion since the names were so alike but i wasnt sure if he still played.

And as a fellow Dutchie I think the difference between the Netherlands and the Clown Republic are diminishing anyways :p

Just finished reading this thread 😂 what a journey!

Congrats!

Do you have discord. Just another player from UK

ty bro, can you pm me your discord? I'll add you

(or write it in here if you dont mind it being outed)

It wont let me send a pm my user is samsam8368 I think I found your discord on another thread so I sent a request unless it’s an old account 🤣