Omaha rollercoaster
Hey guys, I decided I'm going to start a new blog.
I'm 34 years old, from Belgium but have been living in Budapest, Hung
I created a spreadsheet to track my poker results.
I created this because I wanted a more steady graph to look at.
The fact is 90%+ of my winnings last year came from rakeback. Playing on GG, that's just sort of the way it is if you're going to play on GG.
I think having a spreadsheet that uses a chart to track my winnings is quite a nice visualization. Because if you look at my graph in a tracker it is basically just a breakeven line and we can't see how much I earn from rakeback.
For example, he
easy solution. make more money, and get off GG while you're at it.
Btw do you mind sharing what you spend your money on?
To me these numbers looks really high unless you live in a decent location in the US.
High rent/mortage or just general spendings?
I mean I agree 😃
I didn't start actually tracking my expenses until last year when I started to learn more about budgeting and personal finance and trying to increase my financial literacy. And when I found out how much I was spending I was kinda astonished tbh. But here's a breakdown.
Rent = €1100/mo
electricity/internet/heating/utilities = €200/mo
Server to run monker on = €500/mo
RIO elite + PLOMM = +-€4k/year = €333/mo
Netflix+YT premium+few other random subscription services = roughly €67/mo
CBD/CBN oil and mindlabpro (don't really take other supplements) + buying coffee for my machine = roughly €250/mo
Groceries = €700/mo (lots of steak for me)
These are what I would call necessities and things I cannot avoid spending money on really.
These cost around €3150/mo
Then considering that Each month I'll want to eat out sometimes or go on activities to some places, it'll add up another €1k/mo typically
Then the occasional holiday or shopping.
Then the occasional gift for my fiance or other people when they visit (parents last christmas).
Then the occasional transaction fees or scams etc.
It all adds up and makes sense why I spent around €5k/mo last year.
Although now that I'm actually budgeting every single item I buy, it may be possible to cut costs in some areas.
Makes sense yes. Ever thought about moving somewhere outside EU?
With that kind of budget there are so many places with good infrastructure where you're money goes a lot further.
Also is the server necessary or are you running a lot sims on a daily basis?
I just look up the occasional hand end of day and normal pc/connection is enough for that.
Gl, enjoy the blog!
Makes sense yes. Ever thought about moving somewhere outside EU?
With that kind of budget there are so many places with good infrastructure where you're money goes a lot further.
Also is the server necessary or are you running a lot sims on a daily basis?
I just look up the occasional hand end of day and normal pc/connection is enough for that.
Gl, enjoy the blog!
server's very neccessary for me.
I've run thousands of sims. Generally I'll work on big picture/aggregate report type of stuff. And if I want to sim an individual spot or hand I can still do that on my server, and yeah it's basically running some sims 24/7.
Hey thanks, I plan to keep posting until I'm playing 2k so at least another year of blogging I'd guess. After I reach that stake I'll take some time to think about my trajectory and see if I see any point in continuing this blog or doing some other things.
Your post brought up some interesting thoughts about discipline in me.
Discipline vs Consistency
I think I used to consider myself disciplined but not consistent. Discipline is more about avoiding impulses, doing hard uncomfortable things that yo
yo ... stumbled onto your blog, and have just been reading reading reading ... :-)
now wanted to give a shoutout, really inspiring stuff, love your consistency and discipline, especially when you see an issue/challenge, you go at it very methodically ... good job.
few comments:
1. read atomic habbits too, liked it very much.
been doing a lot of self-improving/live-coaching myself, if you are interested go check out (on youtube) the stuff from David Bayer and David Ghiyam, opened my eyes in so many levels about habbits, limiting beliefs/competing beliefs, how to improve myself (in life), which then automatically translates to poker too (just had one of my best trips ever, without playing any differently from what i can tell on a technical level,, just with a much better mindset in general)
2. i'm a plo live player, the 1/2-5 and 5/5/10-20 at Aria my main games, switching back and forth, do very stringent table selection ... so can only say good for you if you do that too online, i managed to take my ego really out of it, i'm there to make money, and if i'm on a table where i know everyone and also know that they play as well as me (and some even better), i don't have to be there, there's enough other games available.
3. i'm thinking about doing more online again (used to play a lot online when i was younger, but basically quit it for live play, enjoy it more, also think i fell behind online (bc i'm not really good at using all the tools that are available today), it's just so comfortable being able to play any time and anywhere you want, without hassle and/or additional costs (i have to basically travel every time i wanna play, no games where i live). Looked into monker, but that seems to be a steep climb for me, what other tools could you recommend for a winning live player to get back into the online grind, and get a more solid theoretical foundation? thx for any advice.
4. and, last but not least, the most important part: congrats on the engagement, you 2 look like a very happy couple.
cheers
yo ... stumbled onto your blog, and have just been reading reading reading ... :-)
now wanted to give a shoutout, really inspiring stuff, love your consistency and discipline, especially when you see an issue/challenge, you go at it very methodically ... good job.
few comments:
1. read atomic habbits too, liked it very much.
been doing a lot of self-improving/live-coaching myself, if you are interested go check out (on youtube) the stuff from David Bayer and David Ghiyam, opened my eyes in so many l
1. Thanks for those youtube links, will check them out.
2. Agreed game selection is important. I've found a lot of times when I can have 9+ tables running, it's best to close some of the tables where I have bad seats and just focus on the ones with the good seats.
3. I think that most people just use either Vision or PLOtrainer, which are basically the most popular GTO libraries for PLO and I guess quite good. But I'm not sure, I really don't play live. I'd imagine live poker has tons of multiway situations or like limped pots and that's like not so common in GTOland (unless you play with large ante maybe). Learning some GTO fundamentals can't hurt though. I'd imagine huge parts of winrate in live environments, comes from just playing with max focus, good patience, and playing solid.
4. Thanks so much!
1. Thanks for those youtube links, will check them out.
2. Agreed game selection is important. I've found a lot of times when I can have 9+ tables running, it's best to close some of the tables where I have bad seats and just focus on the ones with the good seats.
3. I think that most people just use either Vision or PLOtrainer, which are basically the most popular GTO libraries for PLO and I guess quite good. But I'm not sure, I really don't play live. I'd imagine live poker has tons of multiway
re. 3.:
From what i'm reading and (hopefully) understanding what you're saying is, a transition from live to online is actually not that easy (bc, yes, tons of limped and/or multiway pots, experience that every day), also 8 or 9handed, online it's all 6max i assume.
my idea was to basically open up a second source of income (online), to not be so dependent on live poker, have more options ... but starting to see that they are probably more different from each other than i previously thought.
re. 1:
Bayer has a pretty good book to, forgot, it's called "A changed mind"
re. 3.:
From what i'm reading and (hopefully) understanding what you're saying is, a transition from live to online is actually not that easy (bc, yes, tons of limped and/or multiway pots, experience that every day), also 8 or 9handed, online it's all 6max i assume.
my idea was to basically open up a second source of income (online), to not be so dependent on live poker, have more options ... but starting to see that they are probably more different from each other than i previously thought.
Hmm, I wasn't thinking of how hard it is to transition from live to online, just thinking what tools to recommend.
I've never done such a transition from live to online myself. From what I know a lot of people transition from online to live but not the other way around. And the guys who focus on live, many of them still play some online from what I know but more as practice and not as their main form of income, since online is supposedly much tougher than live. If you can transition to online and do well in the games then you should be crushing in live I suppose.
January 2025 recap
K, well deciding to call it quits for the month. Struggling with sleep recently and want to fix that over next couple days. After having the best month in my PLO career so far (still over $10k away from poker career best ever) I feel like I can end the month positively and get the year off to a great start.
I won the big BBJ on PLO200 on GGpoker for $9312
Then on Chico I was on a table where a jackpot took place and got a table share for like $2300 or something.
Haven't been able to track hands on chico much until I figured how to get drivehud to work there.
January 2025: GG + Chico PLO200 and PLO500
Hands played: +-22,000
Hours played: 65
Hands per Hour: 337
Net Won: +-$4500
Net won + RB: $18,464
Net Won $/hour: $284
YTD: $18,464
About $11,600 of this comes from jackpots, well can't complain xD
Bit disappointed in the volume overall. After winning the jackpot I kinda slacked a bunch, while continuing to run good and basically catching up fully in EV for the month, which resulted in this great month. Doubt I'll be able to hit the 400k hand goal this year tbh, but I think maybe it's more important to focus on hours played than hands played. I mean the EV for me is higher on PLO500, so if I have 9+ tables open, I should honestly close a bunch of or maybe all of my PLO200 tables and the worst 500 tables and focus on 5-7 tables, I feel like that is the sweet spot for good volume while being able to focus and take my time with each decision.
I think I need a couple days to soak this all in, realize I'm definitely no longer in survivor mode now and tackle February and the rest of the year with vigor.
I'll continuously try to improve and upgrade my habits. I realized maybe grinding every single day, can be a bit difficult and it's hard not to take a day off in a month. I need to give myself a day off once a week I think.
In February I'll try grinding 6 days a week, taking Thursday mornings off (or Wednesday evenings in the US). Grinding 3-4 hours a day between 5AM and 10AM CET. Being less results oriented, and focused on playing A-game and table selecting decently well between GG and Chico. Would like to increase to 80+ hours played each month at least and will go for 80+ hours next month.
Pretty happy to have added chico, games seem relatively soft, and it's nice to be able to add a table or 2. Mostly still focused on GG, but eventually would also like to add ACR or coinpoker sometime later this year.
yo, just a thought (and if you've done this already, forget i said something ;-)
with all the precise data you have it should be possible to determine the exact sweet spot, where what you make more (due to higher rakeback, more tables) gets eaten up by lower EV (from more tables, less focus per decision etc.), so that you don't have to guess but can stay exactly below that point for maximum efficiency. makes sense?
nice jackpot win btw !
yo, just a thought (and if you've done this already, forget i said something ;-)
with all the precise data you have it should be possible to determine the exact sweet spot, where what you make more (due to higher rakeback, more tables) gets eaten up by lower EV (from more tables, less focus per decision etc.), so that you don't have to guess but can stay exactly below that point for maximum efficiency. makes sense?
nice jackpot win btw !
makes sense, though I don't think it's that simple.
Every individual session is a bit different. Maybe I'm a bit more or less focused one day, maybe one day there's a lot more regs playing, or another day games seem softer, all these things change the variables a bit. Ultimately I think it's best I just stay as present as I can in the moment and make the best decisions, not only strategically but also game selection wise.
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GL *and congrats on your success 😀
makes sense, though I don't think it's that simple.
Every individual session is a bit different. Maybe I'm a bit more or less focused one day, maybe one day there's a lot more regs playing, or another day games seem softer, all these things change the variables a bit. Ultimately I think it's best I just stay as present as I can in the moment and make the best decisions, not only strategically but also game selection wise.
yeah, you are right, its not a spot but more like a range (due to too many variables)
but you said the most important part yourself: stay in the moment, focused, make good decisions ...this automatically limits the amount of tables you can/should play.
remember from my own time back in the day (prob. 15 years ago or so) when i was multi-tabling like crazy, you get to the point where it's all mostly automatic, you feel like a robot, which in turn means it's not really fun anymore ... and who wants to spend crazy amounts of time with something that's not fun???
Thank you 😀
but you said the most important part yourself: stay in the moment, focused, make good decisions ...this automatically limits the amount of tables you can/should play.
remember from my own time back in the day (prob. 15 years ago or so) when i was multi-tabling like crazy, you get to the point where it's all mostly automatic, you feel like a robot, which in turn means it's not really fun anymore ... and who wants to spend crazy amounts of time with something that's not fun???
It's a good point. Autopiloting too much in my past format is probably one of the reasons I took a year-long break from poker 😃
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