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I don't know your whole story, but that sounds as some great self knowledge and discipline! ... View more

Interesting blog, looking forward to read more. GL on the tables and see you on Twitch of course  ... View more

Fun challenge! Keep going strong  ... View more

@fest_student NIce blog, keep up the good results. I play mainly MTT's myself, but I also play €4 and €10 SNG's so we've probably met at the tables  I have a blog here myself about my results, but also about my attempts to keep the discipline. Anyway, GLGL on the tables! ... View more

@OmahGAWD Thanks! Yeah it's weird and I think it shows I still have a lot to learn when it comes to bounty play. I've read half of Dara O'Kearny's PKO book, I still have to finish it. I think it's about finding the right balance between going for the bounties and valueing your tournament life. Once that I'm in a position of being the low stack at a bounty table I think it's difficult to find the right shoving spot. I don't remember everything, but I know I had a low stack for a long time. So when we got close to the money I probably didn't come in a good spot to get a bounty and then I just try to get ITM and take it from there. But yeah, I think I still have a lot to learn in the PKO area  ... View more

The past few days were amazing! Friday I shipped the €25 Shooting Star Bounty. It wasn't the best bounty tournament I played though, since the only bounty I won was the last one in the heads up  Pretty sure I didn't always make the right decisions when it comes to the bounties playing, but in this case I can live with that. Yesterday also was pretty good: got 2nd in Bestie's PKO game, 6th in the €5 Sputnik but most of all I binked the Gorsky! It was a tough final table with some good regs, so had to be patient and pick the right moments. And get lucky of course  I'm very happy with this win, cause it's one of those tournaments I liked since I started playing it more often and I always thought the structure suited me. The next three days I won't be playing much and that's a good thing, cause I wanna avoid getting too obsessed again. Tonight I might just play some qualifiers, since my ticket roll has disappeared completely. Anyway, happy with my play, my results and my max bankroll. Now let's keep the discipline! Starting BR: €2011,52 ( 27/3 ) Profit:                €189,8 New BR:          €2365,3 ( 3/4 )  Ticket BR:                €0 ... View more

So  nice! Can I have a ticket please? ... View more

Thanks very very much for the fast and nice service!  ... View more

I received bonus points for all of my UK tour satty tickets, but as a Belgian I don't think I can use bonus points. Is it possible to get satty tickets for the new tournament maybe? This is gonna be an issue for every player from Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Germany I guess? ... View more

The last few weeks I haven't been feeling great in general. As a result of that  I did terrible on the mental part of poker, which resulted in a few evenings of chasing losses. The low point was last Saturday. I'm gonna be honest about it. Some time ago I had another of those evil evenings where I started playing SNG's and HU's outside the BR. I don't remember how much I lost with that, I think around €80. But I didn't subtract that number from my BR, instead I made a side note in my excel sheet. So I used my 'life roll' instead of my poker bankroll.  The same happened last Saturday and again I made a side note, so I chose to fool myself again. The good thing is that I decided to not play poker for a few days. I also withdrew some money and treated myself to a tablet and a new headphone.  Today my head feels clear again. I decided to take my 'side losses' into account, which means my BR has dropped to around €2000. Totally no disaster, it's just a shame it happened the way it did. But I feel kinda relieved I'm honest to myself now, that way I can move on. Another thing I did is make a week scheme, not only for poker. I will play four evenings a week instead of almost every evening. In Corona times there isn't much to do in the evenings, so poker and Twitch is an easy way to be entertained. Another consequence of Corona times is that I've been drinking beer way more evenings, as a substitute to pub visits. The problem is that it became a habit: playing poker and having some beers. Often it made me feel bad the day after and it influenced my mood in a bad way. So I decided to take control again, in terms of poker but also alcohol.  Tonight I will be playing again and I'm glad to say I'm gonna do so with a clear head, which hadn't been the case for some time now. Starting BR: €2142,88 ( 20/3 ) Loss:               €131,36 New BR:       €2011,52 ( 27/3 )  Ticket BR:             €38 ... View more

Very nice challenge, very nice overview!  What I recognize is that if you play with strict bankroll management, sometimes it gets kinda boring. Certainly when your BR doesn't go up or down much, it feels like nothing's happening and you feel the need to play higher. I've made that mistake so many times, it's human but most times it's bad for the BR and for the mental state of mind. One thing I can recommend is to learn how to play satellites, cause imo they are the safest way to take shots. In your case it would be nice to have some €5 and €10 tickets in your account. The best way to learn seems reading Poker Satellite Strategy by Dara O'Kearny and Barry Carter. To be honest I've bought it and still haven't read it, but according to many people this book is the best way to learn about qualifiers. GL with the challenge, I'm looking forward to your next posts!   ... View more

My best results the last weeks were a €41,67 profit in a €25 Bestie's homegame I played with a ticket, a €46,54 profit in the €5 Sputnik, a €45,2 profit in the UOS Sirius Banzai Bounty Low and a €58,87 profit for my 2nd place in the €5 Shooting Star Bounty. I've had some bad evenings when it comes to discipline, I must admit. The thing is that I really should plan my poker evenings better. If I don't plan it very well, I start regging stuff I shouldn't play cause I should get to bed earlier. That way I don't get enough sleep, which makes me tired the day after, which makes me play worse poker in the evening, and so on... So yeah, the discipline starts with planning my poker evenings and with sticking to it of course. Next period I will try to focus on that leak. These are the MTT's I should restrict myself to on most evenings (apart from qualifiers) 19:00 €2 Singularity 19:00 €10 Dark Matter 19:45 5€ Falling Star Bounty 20:00 €2 Zenith 20:15 €10 R/A Sputnik Omaha (haven't been playing it much but it only takes 3h15 on average so it fits my schedule) between 20:30 and 21:30 Bestie's homegame (different buy-ins every day) 21:15 €5 Ante Solar 22:30 €2 Sirius Banzai Bounty On Saturday I add 19:30 €5 Stratosphere  20:00 €1 MotherShip Poker Main Event On Sunday I add 19:00 €5 R/A Nebula On some weekend evenings (mostly Fridays) I can add a few games that start/last later: 20:30 €5 R/A Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky 21:00 €5 R/A Sputnik 21:30 €2 R/A Galaxy 21:45 €10 Omaha Falling Star Bounty 22:15 €10 R/A Unidentified Object 22:45 €5 Shooting Star Bounty (unless I have to get up too early) 23:00 €10 Asteroid And then there are some €25 games I can play if I have a ticket 20:00 Abyss 20:45 Dwarf Star Bounty   I have added this schedule to my spreadsheet, so I hope it will help me with my game selection. A better game selection should lead to more discipline when it comes to getting enough sleep. Not sleeping enough is a big poker leak, but even more important it's a very big life leak of mine.   Starting BR: €2064,78 ( 8/3 ) Profit:                 €78,10 New BR:       €2142,88 ( 20/3 )  Ticket BR:            €189 ... View more

Hey @Toums, thanks for reading this thread and for reacting! Very nice to read you found a way to increase your bankroll, you seem to have some nice results. You say you find it difficult to keep on playing the same tournaments and the same stakes over and over again and that's very recognizable. At the moment you have almost €300, so I guess you grind the €1 and €2 MTT's and maybe still some nano events? Do you play satties? Cause that's the healthy way to take shots  With your bankroll I'd play some qualifiers to €5 and €10 MTT's, at least if you feel confident enough about your satty play. And if you don't, I'd suggest reading Dara O'Kearny's book on this subject. Of course there is the less healthy way too: you can take some shots from time to time, but I find it hard to do that in a disciplined way. Grinding with discipline can be tough. Right now I'm in a period where my bankroll hasn't changed much for a few weeks, which feels kinda boring. It makes me wanna take shots, so that's why it's important I have several tickets in my account for tournaments that are out of my bankroll. Recently I made an overview of my biggest scores in this challenge and obviously many of them came from bigger MTT's I played with tickets. I would certainly recommend starting a thread on your own micro stakes adventures. It helped me a lot to keep me motivated. As you might have read that doesn't mean I have kept discipline all the time, but after every misstep I wrote about it. The reactions from people of this community really help me with my mental game. I would certainly follow your thread! Some last advice: try to find the games you're good at. There's a lot of choice nowadays: 9-handed or 6-max, fast or slow blind structure, the size of the field, rebuy/addon games, bounty games,... Which ones do you prefer? Oh and if you wanna take a shot at the next UOS UK Tour: reg the UK flips every day, until you get enough €1 satty tickets and try to qualify. It's a cheap way to try and play a big one  ... View more

I think it's a good thing not to have your whole bankroll on your Unibet account, but maybe it's an idea to decide how much your virtual bankroll is. For instance: you have 9 buy-ins on your Unibet account and when you go 'broke' you can deposit again, but you put a limit to that. This may also be a way to protect yourself. ... View more

Well done on the profit and GL finding your A-game for the remaining part of the UOS  ... View more

Unfortunately I busted the UK Tour Sunday evening in 51st place, 16 spots from the money. The good news is that it was a good experience: I was very focussed, I took notes and I had a good idea of how my opponents were playing. Which gives me mixed feelings: I'm gonna be honest, in general I don't pay enough attention to other players. It's hard to do it when playing four tables, combined with chatting and making music requests on Twitch stream. The 'problem' is that I make money playing the way I do, so there doesn't seem to be a reason to change it  Of course I realize that if I'd focus more, I'd probably have even better results. Also, every time that I focus this way and I make good decisions because of that, it gives me such a great feeling. That's why I came up with this plan: I have one €50 and seven €25 tickets left, so when I play one of those that will be my main table and I will 'extra focus' on that one. I will play two smaller tables on the side, so I will three table instead of four table. It's exactly what I did during the UK Tour. I must admit I didn't play my best poker on the other two tables and did too many yolo moves, so that's why I think it's best to play €2 or €5 games on the side. Starting BR: €2082,46 ( 3/3 ) Loss:                 €17,68 New BR:       €2064,78 ( 8/3 )  Ticket BR:            €234 ... View more

It's an attitude or mental state that I try to have in daily life too. The more you expect, the more you can get disappointed, frustrated, angry,... Not expecting much isn't the same as not hoping, not being ambitious or not dreaming about stuff you want, like I said it's a way of protecting yourself. It may sound easy, but in poker I still have too many moments where the game gets to me cause of expectations. Since this is a big tourney for me, I've been focussing on this state of mind for days now, whereas on normal poker days I'm not always focussing on my mental state of mind that much  ... View more

@SkilfulPoker  Thanks man! I'm hyped, I'm excited, I'm ready  At the same time, in my head I'm already busted. It's a mental exercise that I do to protect myself from being too disappointed of course. Which doesn't mean I won't be disappointed if I bust, but if I get my hopes up too high it gets too painful  Of course it will also depend on the way I bust. I hope it won't be in a way that I get mad at myself for making a stupid mistake, that would be worse than a bad beat. Anyway, it's also just another tournament and I will play my game! ... View more

I know what you mean. Every time I play poker I'm also in the Twitch chat and sometimes I'm so tilted about a bad beat or cooler, so I complain about it in chat. A bit later I feel stupid cause I know they all think: so what, you had a bad beat, that's poker, get over it! But as you mention, I think it's good to do it sometimes. It's way better to moan than to smash something, for instance  Also, you wrote about emotions getting the better of you, which is different to a bad beat story cause it's a way of reflecting on your own game. ... View more

It's tough not to be influenced by our emotions, pretty sure we all know the feeling. It's also normal to kick ourselves for that, but now it's time to move on and try again    GL on the leaderboard! ... View more

I recognize that leak, not playing your best game in lower buy-in events that seem less important. Sometimes I lose patience in those, but of course that's not good  Anyway, GL in the remaining UOS events! ... View more

Thanks @SkilfulPoker! But I overviewed my recent results and suddenly I remember there was one evening where I played some HU's I shouldn't have played, I had forgotten about that. Probably cause it had no impact on my bankroll. That evening I got triggered by a big hand I lost with AA in the Titan. My opponent rivered a straight and busted me, which I thought made me bubble. Apparently two other players busted about the same time, which meant I was in the money anyway. I remember I was relieved, but I started tilting anyway. The reason was that in my opinion my opponent didn't play that hand well and wasn't entitled to bust me and my AA in that hand  I guess it was 'entitlement tilt'. I felt that I should have won the hand, that I shouldn't have busted and that I should have made a deep run in that tourney. Apart from that misstep, one thing that might have been different was that one evening I felt really really tired - whereas on other evenings I feel just tired  - so when I busted my first few tourneys I quit early instead of registering any other stuff. If I had kept on playing I would have probably played bad and I might have even tilted cause of that. I surprised myself by quitting, cause most of the time I don't do that. I remember also one evening when I 'rage quit' Twitch and Unibet after bubbling an important tourney. It was already late so I had to quit anyway but it was a bubble that made me really tilt so I'm glad I closed all of my windows instead of 'tilt regging' some SNG's or HU's. So yeah, I'm not happy about the misstep I described, but I am happy with some other decisions I made. In two days from now I'm playing the €250 UK Tour and to be honest I feel very excited about it but at the same time I know it's a tourney that can make me tilt big time. Of course I know it's just one tourney with the same chance of going out with a bad beat or a cooler as any other one, but it would hurt so much more than in any other tourney. If I bubble this one, I already know I would feel very bad. If you guys have any suggestions on this, feel free to share it here  ... View more

I haven't had any discipline issues the last weeks and the BR went up, so that's all good. I also took down some tickets and right now I still have 5 €25 tickets (3 X UOS, 1 generic and 1 Dwarf Star Bounty), a generic €50 ticket and of course my €250 UK Tour ticket. Yesterday I had my first win since the end of January. It was only the second time I played the €10 Protostar Bounty, so it was great to ship it for €110,36 (including bounties). People who don't like bragging, should stop reading now cause I made an overview of all my wins since the start of this challenge. I collected 16 trophies in almost 8 months. Date MTT buy-in profit net profit 21/07/20 €50 Galaxy Nano 1 19,6 18,6 25/07/20 €150 Space Madness Bounty 1 31,92 30,92 31/07/20 €15 Gargle Blaster Nano 0,15 4,35 4,2 9/08/20 €100 Singularity 2 31,52 29,52 9/09/20 Bestie's Crazy 7 7 45,5 38,5 30/09/20 €100 Singularity 2 29,03 27,03 3/10/20 €300 Galaxy 4 84,34 80,34 8/11/20 €50 Ante Solar 5 31,5 26,5 14/11/20 €200 Leaderboard Low Freezeout 2 48,02 46,02 26/11/20 €200 Asteroid 10 75,99 65,99 13/12/20 €150 Sirius Banzai Bounty 2 47,47 45,47   Bestie's Boxing Day Freezeout 40 200 160   Bestie's Friday Freezeout 35 192,5 157,5   Bestie's Lucky 7 7 56 49 26/01/21 €500 Falling Star Bounty 5 84,56 79,56 3/03/21 €250 Protostar Bounty 10 100,36 90,36   I also made an overview of my 10 biggest cashes so far. Buy-in 0 means I used a ticket. Date MTT buy-in profit net profit 29/11/20 Simpson Stream Special 0 292 292 24/10/20 €1500 Dwarf Star Bounty 0 177,45 177,45   Bestie's Boxing Day Freezeout 40 200 160   Bestie's Friday Freezeout 35 192,5 157,5 15/01/21 Bestie's Friday Freezeout 35 187,56 152,56 15/02/21 Simpson Weekly Homegame 25 152,54 127,54 23/02/21 Private Bestie's Home Game 25 89,74 114,74 3/03/21 €250 Protostar Bounty 10 100,36 90,36 25/01/21 Simpson Weekly Homegame 0 85,39 85,39 3/10/20 €300 Galaxy 4 84,34 80,34   Enough bragging for today. I have to admit putting these numbers here gives me a satisfying feeling and helps the mental state of mind, so basically I just did it for myself    Starting BR: €1891,67 ( 16/2 ) Profit:              €190,79 New BR:       €2082,46 ( 3/3 )  Ticket BR:            €430     ... View more

Looks like I can play it after all!  GL people, I hope you all bink a ticket  ... View more

I won't be able to play that early (it's 18:00 PM for me) but thanks anyway and GL to everyone playing it! ... View more

Now that's a nice surprise! Thanks for the wonderful idea and the invitation, @SkilfulPoker! I'd be happy to play this community game, if I'm allowed in it. I'm from Belgium, which means I can play some freerolls but not all of them. I'm not always that active on the community forum, but I'll visit your blog to see when your community game will be played. In the meantime, GL on your tables  ... View more

@Livertool Elron also hosts a €5 game every Saturday at 19:30 CET, the Stratosphere. ... View more

@Merenitsu  Tournaments I played going from €100 to €200 were Nano: Gargle Blaster Nano, Supernova Nano, Sputnik Omaha Nano, MotherShip Launchpad, Galaxy Nano, Comet Nano, Titan Nano, Black Hole Nano €1 MTT's: Space Madness Bounty, Falling Star Bounty/Leaderboard Low Bounty, MotherShip Poker Main Event Qualifiers to €2 and €5 tickets €2 MTT's with a ticket: Singularity/Leaderboard Low Freezeout, Zenith €5 MTT's with a ticket: Ante Solar €1 SNG's ... View more

Thanks a lot @GR1ZZL3R and @LeVsKaRa: your words mean a lot to me, I'm glad I've been honest about it. And maybe my goal to have 0 'chasing losses days' in 2021 wasn't realistic. To be honest I have the same issue with binge eating: when I try to change that and there is one day I fail, I lose the courage to go on. What I should learn is that if I did chase losses, it's not all lost. It's one day when I lost control, nothing more, nothing less. I can only try to avoid these days as much as I can and in the best case there comes a point where I don't do it anymore. It's true that when you play MTT's it's impossible to leave the tables and quit until you're feeling calm. That's a disadvantage compared to playing cash games. The thing I should learn is that when my BR goes down one evening (or several evenings) or that losing an important pot after a bad beat or cooler isn't a disaster. At a moment like this I know that and I feel that. But in the heat of the moment I still know it, but it truely feels like a disaster, like injustice.  So it's also about coping with bad feelings. Feeling bad should be a part of playing poker, a part which we should accept. Trying to fight it doesn't help. By chasing losses I try to take control of these bad feelings, I wanna change them to good feelings. While in fact sometimes we should accept that we feel bad. Feelings are temporarily, they will pass.  Isn't it funny how when you're calm you realize all this stuff and you even start to spread all this wisdom, while a couple of hours later you start playing poker and after a while your brain is polluted by bad beats and coolers?  ... View more

I'm disappointed in myself, cause the challenge to not chase losses any day in 2021 did not work. I don't feel like going into detail, mainly cause I feel ashamed about it. I know there's no point in being ashamed, but it's the way I feel. All I can do now is try to avoid it in the remaining part of the year, I guess. To be honest at first I was thinking, I'm gonna pretend it didn't happen and not mention it here. But finally I decided to be honest with myself, although I still feel very bad about it  My poker results weren't good the last weeks, I had some unlucky bubbles but I think I also made too many errors. The main leak is that I play when I'm actually too tired. The problem is that doing my job and taking care of my family makes me feel tired most evenings. But some evenings the fatigue influences my game too much, so I'd better not play or play some very low buy in games. I've been playing some shorter sessions with more SNG's than MTT's for example. One mistake I make more often when I'm very tired is that I lose my patience, which in fact is a strong part of my game when I feel good. At one point the BR dropped down to €1741, but luckily the struggle ended last Monday, when I got 3rd in Ian Simpson's homegame. Yesterday I made a small win, but - more important - I binked a €10 and a €25 ticket. It's important cause I had run out of tickets. Since the UOS are around the corner I'm gonna play many satties to €10 and €25 tickets. And... March 7th is the day I will be playing the UOS UK Tour High 2-days  Like I said before in my blog, it's dangerous to look forward to one tourney. But hey, the biggest buy in I've ever played is €100, so you can't blame me for being excited about playing a €250 game  Starting BR: €1872,16 ( 29/1 ) Profit:                €19,51 New BR:       €1891,67 ( 16/2 )  Ticket BR:            €291 ... View more