It's been a time since my last losing month so one could say this was overdue. In teh past wasn't really blogging about when running shit but since i basically committed to update once a month here we go:
Let's start by looking thing from a bigblind won perspective:
 |
| BB one in march |
29 stacks in 120k hands. Even if that cannot really be considered as crushing it's still decent and should result in some $, no?
Unfortunately not. Basically all my career i was blessed in running fairly decent in teh highest games i played and i always knew there will come a point where i will start running terrible at all my highest stakes at teh same time. This was definitely overdue.
So here's teh real deal for march:
 |
| garph march (for teh nonpokerplayers this is teh garph which counts) |
As u can see something happend which rarely happens: I'm actually under EV and i'm under EV ay decent chunk. If calculate in rakeback i'm not down too much, maybe a grand i would guess. Still sucks to work teh entire month for no or better said a negative salary but that's poker and that's part of teh game. Almost was surprised that i had a positive EV because after a good first week of march i was running shit teh entire time. It's not necessarily teh EV thing atm, it's more that i barely hit any hands and if i do i get massive coolers or alot of snapfolds. I would say almost to a degree i have rarely if ever seen before in 5 years of playing.
Anyhu, to put all that into perspective: If i only would've played NL200 and NL400 i would've ended up with this pretty boy:
 |
| garph 200+400 only |
While that doesn't help me to buy any stuff bc i'm still down 5k it helps confidence bc it shows i'm still crushing. It also brings us to another topic i want to write a bit about which is playing a wide mix of stakes.
I started playing teh month NL200 up to 2k. So you can read out of teh garph that i lost 16kish at 600+ in not even 20k hands which resulted in a negative month. So basically 15% of my volume is responsible for 100% of my results... After losing like 3.5k in a matter of 5minutes at 2k i put it out of teh filter immidiately bc i realized i cannot or better don't want to handle that kind of swings on a daily basis.
Playing a wide range of stakes has advantages and disadvantages but for me personally disadvantages are too big to continue like that so i decided to go back to 200-600 and grind it up there. A couple of guys playing like 200-5k and i have no clue how they do it, they either have an insanely good mindset or are huge degenerates, moast likely a mix of both. If i play 200 and 2k at teh same time for example i for once make my entire month dependant on how i run at 2k. I'm almost certainly massive +ÉV in teh games i choose to play there but still you can lose 5k in a matter of minutes without doing anything wrong. And grinding back 5k at 200 and 400 takes time and patience. Furthermoar as soon as 1k or 2k runs your NL200 tahles basically become play money from one moment to teh other. What do you care about a stack at 200 if you put teh same money on teh line with a preflop 4bet at 1k or a 3bet at 2k. Also if i run bad at those stakes i basically can feel how my entire game changes quickly from A or B to C or D because in your mind you start thinking "shit, now i have to grind it back, why do i play those stakes in teh first place etc." So for now i really want to stick to mixing only 200 to 600 which gives me alot moar peace of mind. Even if you lose a stack at 600 it's not a long way to grind that stack back at 200 and 400. Now you can argue that this is somewhat a weak mindset to have as a pro which might be right but after 5years in teh game i know how my brain ticks and it's not easy to change that. Just to give you an example, i would much rather take two 12.5k winning months instead of a 45k and a mins 15k even though i would've made moar money in teh second example. Alot of guys might think different about this though, but i rather "sacrifice" 5k and feel good about myself than being euphoric for one month and borderline depressive during teh next one... So if you currently mixing different stakes keep in mind that if you have a wide mix there will come a month where EVERYTHING will go wrong at your highest stakes and it will be impossible to win money that month even if you cannot imagine this yet - take care.
Since it was quite hard to get a decent session going at fullring only i decided to play some 6max again and tableselect a bit harder there which works out quite well so far. I also want to play moar peak times in future even though that means having quite awkward sleep cycles but it should be worth it. Still haven't find teh nutschedule yet and teh only real downside here is that teh timezone is just teh absolute nutlow for a grinder. In Australia you can at least wake up super early like at 6am and get all games, in Europe you can wake up in teh afternoon and get all games, South America in teh morning and start playing at peak but here whatever you do there is always a downside. Just to give you an impression how bad it is: Teh sunday mirrion starts 3.30am i think. So what you do here? You go to bed at 8 pm? You don't go to sleep and play tired? You nap from midnight til 3? Thank god i'm not playing MTTs and thankfully that timezone keeps alot of teh MTT donks away haha :)
On teh brightside this was my first month where i actually hit my goal of 50k VPPs so that i'm moar or less on track for 600k milestone and definitely for teh 500k one. Teh badrun was prolly one of teh reasons i could play a decent volume at least.
Goal for april now is to make some money for a change but given how teh month started already i'm definitely far from being out of that downswing which last around 100k hands now. Goes to a point where i can call turn and river cards and be right teh vast majority of teh time. For example if i get in JJ vs AK pre and flop comes down 278 i know despite teh odds that i'm not a favorite to win this hand. But yeah, sooner or later luck will turn around - no worries mate. I'm also rolled alot better compared to teh major downer which hit me last april where i lost like 50% of my online roll and was quite close to having to cash in money again for teh first time since being pro. While that would be no problem financially it still would be a weird feeling transfering a 5figure amount from my bank to teh pokersite but as being mentioned luckily i'm alot better rolled this time so that it's unlikely i'm coming that close to being online busto again. Never say never though.
Volumewise i don't know yet how much i manage in april. On teh 7th i have my flight to Bangkok and sorted a Junior Suite in a nice condotel for teh first couple of nights:
 |
| shortterm condo |
 |
| shortterm condo |
It's insane how cheap this really is lol. I'm paying 35euro a night for a 2bedroom which is quite modern and has a decent location, you could almost think about staying there for good for that price haha. Has over 70m² as well...
There's also teh big water festival in Bangkok which starts one weekend after my arrival which is supposed to be sick so that it's questionable how much poker i will be able to play. Goal for teh first week is definitely to find a nice 2 or 3 bedroom condo for myself but i cannot really tell how hard it is to find decent stuff over there and how long it takes to be finally sorted out completely. My goal is to have my own place and everything set up until 20th of april but i don't know how realistic it is in teh end... Definitely excited to finally get my ass off Bali for a change.
Up until mid march i was grinding alot and we still were 3 guys in teh villa. My mate ValueH left to Tokyo two weeks ago though which left me with teh last man standing, a HU SNG guy. I would've loved to join for Tokyo but my parents were about to visit around teh same time that Tokyo was of teh table (for now).
Since my parents arrived volume decreased a bit and i also had my former malta roomie visiting for a couple of days. Did some tours around teh island which resulted in some pictures:
 |
| Jimbaran |
 |
| Ayana Resort Rooftop bar sunsettaments |
 |
| Uluwatu |
 |
| Uluwatu temple |
 |
| Monkey wit teh baby |
 |
| Tehm parents and teh australian, Kickers Offenback represent yo |
 |
| Balangan Beach |
 |
| Jimbaran again |
 |
| Monkey forest |
 |
| Junkey monkey |
 |
| Ubud center |
 |
| Rice terrace near Ubud |
Problem with those tours here is that you always on teh road for 1.5 hours forth and back even though it's only a couple of kilometers which is highly annoying but what you not do for your parents.
They were here 2 weeks and i have final dinner with them later on btw.
Yesterday was Hindu New Year here which means Nyepi aka day of silence. Everybody goes out teh night before and makes alot of noise to attract all teh bad spirits. Then teh next day everybody stays at home so when teh ghosts come and find an empty island they all piss off again. It's quite a unique day - everything is closed: Teh airport, every shop, every restaurant, no cars, no bikes, no lights and nobody leaves home for an entire day. I almost missed getting enough takeaway food teh day before bc all restaurants where already close but luckily i found a hotel where i got some stuff which brought me through teh day. Today everything is back to normal thankfully.
Another funny thing is that teh watch i bought last month is already not working anymoar. So much about "having a timepiece for life".
Gonna have a stopover in Singapore before Bangkok though where i need to sort my new laptop as well which second HD is faulty so that i will try to sort teh watch at teh same time. Running quite bad overall not only in poker as you can see...
After over 6 months Bali it's time to put a recap: Don't get me wrong, i had a good time here but in retrospect i stay way too long. If i was about to do it again i would stay absolute max 3 months, moar like max 8 weeks and definitely not during off peak season. Half of teh time here it was only raining (end november until end february) and teh island was basically empty. Alot of people warned me before
that Bali is moar like a holiday destination or something you settle if you are really into surfing but as usual i didn't listen too much to other people and had to find out myself. Especially if you are into nightlife you will be bored after a month because it's just so bad.
It caters to either australian bogans or gays and if you don't belong to one of teh two groups you are fucked. There are some good girls around here for sure but they are not easy to find. I'm still convinced i saw moar hotties on one night in one club in Bangkok than i saw here in sick months. Granted 20-30% of them had a dick but they still nice to look at. On teh flipside because of all that i was able to put in decent work and live moar healthy than every before teh last years - i mean i went drinking out 3 times this year so far, not
because i don't want to drink but because it's pointless to go out because i know i will be bored teh entire night. Anyways, had a pretty good group in teh villa here and alot of fun even though we didn't went out much overall after a while. I assume that will change a bit in Bangkok though. So if you want to visit Bali and you are no surfer i can only give you teh advice: Go for holiday: short holiday, long holiday, whatever you like but don't book anything for longer than 8 weeks (you can always reevaluate after that time) and don't stay here during november and march.
I also had bday couple of days before and celebrated it by going to bed at 10pm - i'm officially an old fart now :( Thank god Thailand is catering towards old guys like me... :P
Also got my phone stolen ones again which always seems to happen around this time of teh year. So i'm back on teh good ol galaxy cam which has android and can do everything besides calling and receiving calls. Since i never talk it's not a big deal and thankfully teh S5 comes out in a couple of days.
For now i'm just looking forward to take that flight next monday and start a new chapter of my life. Maybe i gonna have a belated bday party over there to my standards when i think about it :)
Gl to me and peaze out
TimStone for PokerCanChangeYourLife
PS: Originally wanted to poast teh bigger pots i played but too lazy to put them all online. In short i lost 3.6k at 2k in 5 minutes, all with Anna Kournikova which looks good but doesn't win too often. Think that they all were moar or less standard and not much i can do about it. Another 2 highlights i remeber was AA vs QQ on AQQxx at 1k pot limit and KK vs. 22 at 400 on K22xx. There were at least another 5 where i got owned with quads but at least not for big pots...
 |
| Teh 3 screen setup |
 |
| sex offender pics for that thailand visa |
 |
| possible new avatar if current one keeps running like a one legged hooker |
