Friend Of Poker

hey

not really on here much anymore, missed this

i'm into the same music. there must be like 3 of us in poker. used to be all-in on everything but currently pretending i'm edge (!)

i like your band (reminds me of discharge)

can relate to this a lot, hope you update

don't start playing back room russian roulette out there

Discharge rules! Inspired by your message Ramon I thought that now it would be good time to make some plans for 2024. I am still in Vietnam, but returning to Finland mid February and that is when real poker starts.

Here few notes/goals for the next season:

Short sessions high focus:
-concentrate quality of the game rather than volume. Never play more than 3h straight unless games are super juicy. Make notes constantly and concentrate all the time to the fish.

No result peeking
-only check results once a month

Study
-mark hands where you don`t understand how the spot work, shove them in the solver and try to figure out what the hell is going on here

Live Poker only when sober
-what comes to live poker I must say I am terrible at I keep losing in the softest games year after year. I know I have been running horrible at all the big pots I have been playing since 2017 and one point I kind of accepted my fate and now when I go playing I already expect to lose and surely I usually do. I don`t play it too often though but when I play I am usually highly toxicated with arrogant attitude and volatile style. This costs me every year few thousand euros which is not much but it still sucks. Those mornings are the most horrible ones when I have been drinking and punting money all night so for the next season I will make this simple rule. If I want to play bigger than nl100 live I can do it but this means that I have to be sober. Maybe live poker will come my sober hobby or I will find it so boring that I will quit completely.

Learn heads up
-this is not too important but I am interested to hire coach who would teach me some basics about how the approach heads up poker. I can do CFP style contract or pay hourly. If here is somebody who is interested to coach me just throw me pm. Coach obviously must beat high stakes heads up games. There is also another Finnish guy who could possibly want to learn hup also so we could form some sort of study group. I am good student and reliable horse.

Update blog once a month
-just like last year

These are my goals and first update will come in the end of February.

Lets go!

February 2024 update

Had little bit problems to start my engine after I returned from the Vietnam, but finally got it running. Faced some bad variance right away and one week I was pretty much in doomswitch-mode what comes to showdowns. Felt like I am loosing every big pot and had to struggle a bit to keep my aggression levels up. These periods are good way to identify leaks and learn something. I noticed that when I start to lose in games I stop game selecting and keep playing with regs just to get my buy ins back which is most definitely a mental leak. Now I know to keep that in mind when next time comes and force myself to quit the bad tables. Got over it eventually and started to crush again and I am pretty happy what comes to that careless attitude I had most of the time. Few times when I started my session I told myself that today I am going to lose and I wont give **** about that. Most important thing anyway is to have fun while playing and remember to focus to the notes I have gathered.

Made also a sort of cfp-deal with one of my friend and I promised to coach him next 500k hands. This is pretty awesome in many ways because it also means that I have to regularly study spots I want to show him. I have been pretty lazy what comes to a solver work so this will most definitely be +ev deal in many ways. I probably will post also his results if he allows me when he get some hands in.

I am not very good what comes to investing my profits and usually I have been losing almost every time I have tried to buy stocks or crypto, but last summer I bought a 10k$ worth of BTC just because I knew the halving is coming this year. Even if I don`t have a clue what that means I know that every time after that event prizes have come up. This time I have even a exit plan and I will start selling my coins after 100 days after halving no matter what. I have now doubled my investment and halving havent even come yet so that will be interesting. Also the amount I am in is not too significant so that wont effect my mental game too much if the **** hits the fan.

Jan/Feb ( +12407$ rb included)

Ez. V nice

Going to wrap up March early because tomorrow I am leaving for small tour with one of my bands.

I want to write something about my live poker "career" and if you don`t want to read frustrated whining I recommend to not continue reading 😃 I have played live poker now and then almost 20 years now and then and I still remember how fun it was in those early days. Played in a lot of pub-games and small private low stakes rings in my home town and I just loved it. I have never played it too "serious" or for the money and it has been always more entertainment and social thing for me. Sometimes I had good streaks and sometimes I lost but every year I was able to stay out of too big holes and some years made some small profits too. I wanted to have fun and play loose because I think that is most fun way to approach those games, not just sitting in silent and count combos even if that costs me some ev.
In December 2016 everything suddenly changed. It was sudden and brutal and it felt like pokergods just decided that "for now on this guy will run like **** for rest of his life". After that date I have been losing in every live cash game I have taken part of and have not cashed a single tournament I have bough myself in. I lost in Prague and Barcelona. I lost in Tallinn and in Mexico-city. I lost in Chinese casino in Vietnam. I am down in every single private card-hall in my hometown and lost also in casino in my hometown. I have lost in most of the pub games and almost every home game I have been taking part of. It is common joke around here that I will lose every flip and run in to nuts in every big pot so some of my friends just take -ev flips against me just for fun. Sometimes I am able to take few buy ins home with me but for sure a next session I will lose them all and more. It does not matter if stakes are high or low, or if the game is Omaha or Sökö or Crazy Pineapple, or if we are playing tournaments or cash. Some years I play 10 sessions and some years I play 30 sessions so volume is not too high but this has been going on almost 7 years now and there is no light in the end of the tunnel.
I know I am splashy and drinking most of the time I play, but even if I would just blindly shoving stacks in like some guys in those games I play I would probably some times have a session when I could book a decent win but no this seems to be impossible to me. I have lost all my self confidence what comes to playing live but I still go every now and then with a thought that "maybe this time it will turn around" but it never does. It is just funny because those games are pretty soft and I am making money online year after year in much more "difficult" games so why cant I get a break or just little bit oxygen what comes to live poker.
But that`s it. I know that I am pretty lucky guy after all. Not every one can afford to lose 5-10k per year in gambling and just be a little annoyed buy that. Just had to do some venting and this is my blog so I can do here what ever I want 😃

What comes to online poker this month was pretty normal, except that one week there was some bug in Party-Poker software so I tried to play little bit nl200 zoom in Pokerstars and tilted pretty hard and punted few stacks but that is ok. I just get so ****ing mad when villains nit-roll me hand after hand when I have jammed the river. I don`t know what is the reason behind that but if you want to make me to punt some stacks just waste your timebank in 4bet pot w AK in Kxx board when I go bet bet shove.

March (+11 168$)

Year (+23 575$)

insane results & fascinating experience, looking foward you next update

April

Had pretty rough month. Run was pretty horrible and also there were many sessions when I played like donk. Played 9 gigs, got ear-infection which prevented me for swimming which also effected my performance. Brain-fog, 3 day long hangovers, lack of motivation and excercise. When there were no action found myself playing hup against some competent regs just because I was bored so shitty month was well deserved. Still waiting for the first losing month though after I started this blog 😃

Played also some other sites which are not included in the graph. Graph is just from Party.

Stars: -1400
Finnish Government site: +4000

Party: +578 (rb Included)

Total +3178$

Year: (+26 753$)

Nice thread GL

Thank you sir and happy 1st of May!

Cool blog! What is your approach to learning and improving these days?

Care to share your thoughts or thought process in this hand? What sort of adjustments were you making and why?

First of, I know I'm late to the party but obv rest in peace. 2nd this had me laughing out loud.

Gl man cool blog.

I think I had note that this villain is probing river a bit too thin in these spots. He is also a a bit stationy and likes to attack against capped ranges so I decided to make a thin value raise. He tanked a while and shoved over the top so now we have a decision should we call or fold. When we arrive on the river here he probably splits his range in to the block bet, big bet, and check raise. This is not a spot where you dont get raised very often, so it is very tempting and human to put your nutted combos in big bet or check raise bucket, which leaves probe bucket unprotected so I just pushed call button.

What comes to learning I just mark spots which I dont understand and try to understand what the hell is going on here.

Thank you!

May update.

This month I broke every single rule/goal I made myself in January. Played without focus, punted stacks, lost money in live-games totally intoxicated, looked my results and did not study anything. If I am totally honest I don`t even know how to study effectively. I have my simple strategy which I have developed myself mostly through trial and error method + paid coaching and cfp - programs. It is full of holes and I don`t even use rng. I like to go leveling wars and randomize mixed decisions based on my reads, notes and data. My biggest strength is playing against fish and weak regs and my worst area is theory. That is why I have to keep it super simple against regs and give them some ev just to not make too many mistakes against them.
Games have also been pretty bad and when there is no action boredom-tilt will creep in my game and I most definitely start to forcing action. There is no bigger games running currently. It is mostly nl200 where I am most definitely over-rolled so sometimes it is just hard to force myself to focus. I know that I have some psychological issues because my thoughts are racing constantly and I found it very hard to do almost anything except playing online poker. I get bored very easily like a little child and now when I have my bank-roll I can just go to the bar and drink it away. I made some calculations about my finance and last year I spent over 50k€. Rent and bills were probably around 16-18k€ and then some food money and rest of it went to the fighting against boredom. I thought that I will invest some money to get some psychiatric-help because at the moment my life is like I either party or I grind. This leads to very toxic spirals where I cannot have breaks from poker-routine because those times I will be wasted and then when I try to start again I cannot concentrate and then I will have to go to the holidays again. When I finally notice that my bankroll is almost finished I get new motivation to grind it back up. This has happened to me numerous times before and I have never done anything about it. When I was kid there was no ADHD or ADD -testing or anything like that. They just said that "he is a bit of wild" and gave 2 hours of detention.
Otherwise life is pretty good. I have new girl in my life and I moved in new flat where I have awesome view over the lake. I have bunch of gigs to play in summer and weather has been awesome. I decided that I wont let poker-stress to ruin my summer so I don`t give a **** about my goals or anything poker-related. I will grind small volume when I feel like it and I will hire a psychiatric and ask him why I am like this.

Results:

Party +4365$ (rb and promos included)
Finnish site + 1000$
888 -2000$

total +3365$

Year: +30 118$

thanks for sharing your journey.

I have been in this grind/party schedule for years and lost focus in this time. What always helped me to get back on track was establishing a gym routine. Working out has many benefits and I am convinced it is somehow the best therapy. Also connecting with nature on a regular basis and being in good relationships with people around you and obv with yourself. Since I try to treat myself like my best friend, things are going up.

Thanks for your advice. I am currently swimming 1km / 5 times per week and would lose my **** totally without that routine. That is almost like going to the gym. Tried some weight lifting during covid when swimming-halls were closed but returned back to swimming as soon as they opened again.

June update

Not much to say about June, just came to drop results. Some sort of cold run continues and I have also played pretty bad. There havent been much action on sites I play so it is hard to get in to the zone when most of the session there is only few tables running. Made still some holiday-money so everything is fine.

Stars -400$
Finnish Site +1750$
Party +3040$

Total: +4390$

Graph again only from Party because too lazy to find out how to get hands from the Finnish site and in Stars I played probably half hour.

Year: +34 508$

Quick July Update

Still in some sort of summer - vacation. Low volume, low stress, casual button clicking. Have been pretty busy with music-stuff and that will continue through August. Games have been little bit better than last months and if I calculated it correct I have now won a bit over 200k since I started this blog. I only have my Party hands in this new computer because 90% of my volume has been in there. From Stars, 888, Finnish site I dont have any data, but I have won something. After August I will start to concentrate more to the poker and hopefully make more interesting updates.

Here some graphs and results (graphs only from Party)

Month:

Party +9780 including rb
Finnish site +5108

Total: +14 888$

Year:

+49 396$

Party Graph since I started blogging

Same in BB:s

August update

It is Saturday morning and I am wasted. Playing poker, playing guitar. I am starting to sound like broken record when I write here but this is all I do and I like it. Turning 40 next week and when I look my past I have never really done anything else than poker and guitar and tele - sales. Have to be grateful, life has treated me good. After couple of hours I will hop in to the car and we will go to Helsinki to play some ****. There is no business like show business, but who is the Pertti Ström?
What comes to poker, I have been just showing up in to the games as many times that is possible. Played also a little bit nl 2k and punted my stack off right away. You dont want to be scared money when you try higher stakes dont you? Did not win anything this month but had some fun sessions and tried some new things. Problem with new strategies are that I dont know how to play those. Maybe I will try to use random generator? Hah just kidding 😃

Party : +1066$
Finnish site -221$

Total: +845$

Month

Year (+50 241$)

Where abouts are you shotting 2knl at? Party is capped at 1knl right?

Nice to see someone living life on their own terms and without regret. Kudos! 😃

Thanks! In Finnish - site we have nl2k tables but they are running very rarely.

Yep there is definitely some bots operating in fin site like every other Ipoker room as well. I just keep it my side-hustle site because if you select carefully you are able to get in pretty nice line-ups and rake is very low.

And yeah! GG-poker is a shithole and I don`t understand why so many streamers and big names wants to promote that greediness. The site is just bad for online poker in long run, because If nobody are able to win in the games how that will encourage new people to chase the dream of being professional. If they would drop the rake in normal levels they would still make shitloads of money and same time show that they care about the future of online cash-games. Also their rakeback is a joke. "you get 60% of rb", and after month they give you 10%.

Stars is just battle of seating scripts and if you don`t have one all you concentration goes to the scrolling the lobby.

Party is not perfect but at least they do actively try to detect bots, rake is beatable and the promotions are what they are promising. It is shame that action has dropped last years and they removed bigger tables though. Still going to stay loyal to them as long as it is possible.

You really reckon stars have seating scripters? I thought they would have the best security. You have to check the party lobby constantly as well no?

GG gets better only on 5k+, but even 5k requires good game selection since rake is still 4-4.5bb

Answered some guys post, but appereantly he was banned and the original post disappeared. What I write here are just my opinions based on past experiences, but yes I reckon that there are seating scripters in Stars.
GG has all the biggest action and if you get in that level it is propably your place to be, but it is sad that they have removed this possibility to someone to grind himself through the stakes.
Happy to see that Coin Poker is challenging GG and part of the high stakes action has now moved there. Also smart way of marketing is to get all the streamers and youtubers to play there.