Poker Love

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates. I was in the States for a few days and was too busy to make a post. Anyways a lot has happened since my last post.

The day after I decided to stop chasing sne I started playing sick poker, possibly my best poker ever. I lost a little the next day but then had a sick sick day where I made 7.5k which felt really good. The next day me and my roommate decided to swap 30% in the 215$ hyper on stars and after being down to 1 ante at one point, I managed to finish second for 16k which was really awesome. So everything seemed good.

The next day I played a long session, I ran 9k below allin ev and lost 7.5k. That was one week ago, and since then I haven't had one winning session! During the week I decided to start playing on ftp as well. I don't have rakeback but the deepstack sngs and superturbos seem to be pretty profitable even without rakeback so I figured I'd try the 200$ supers and 500$ deepstacks. Anyways a mix of getting coolered and losing allins brings this graph for the past week on ftp:


















Pokerstars has been very cruel as well. A mix of coolers and bad beats brings me this weekly graph for both sites combined:
















I'm down overall in allin ev, but coolers played a big part in this, as well as bad play as it is very difficult for anyone that isn't extremely strong mentally to play well in this situation, and unfortunately I am not strong in this aspect of the game so I have definitively not played my best.

I am unsure of what my next step should be. I am loving life outside of poker, but am realizing Malta isn't the best place to come to be a sick grinder. It's just too awesome. Hopefully I can start running good soon so I can keep enjoying this life.

Anyways, I hope you guys run better then me. This may be my biggest downswing ever and the fact that it has happened over one week where I haven't even played much is extremely frustrating but I trust things will get better soon.

Gl at the tables!

TYF

Change of Plans

So far this year I feel I have played pretty badly. I spent most of last year playing way below my A or B game but this year it felt different. For one, I developped a habit of openshoving any hand at 500s with even mild tilt which is something I didn't do at all last year until the end of December. The only times I feel I have actually played well were vs a few regs that I warred, a few shots at higher stakes and maybe some random games every other week. I am still on pace for all my goals (except binking an mtt which I am starting to believe will never happen) because I had fortunately run really well in sngs after January. Recently, my luck changed and I started not winning anymore and even losing slightly. Because I was running well before, I obviously didn't even think about changing my plans even though I knew it would affect me badly later.

A few days ago I lost a lot of money though. I played bad the whole day, then lost a lot openshoving at 570s and another 2k in flips at 230s. Btw I recommend no one flip with fisfarfar, he just runs way too good :p
















Yes, he did indeed win 13 flips in a row at one point, mbn to be him ^^. Luckily he did not want to flip for 345 or 570 so he saved me some money. Anyways, now that I am no longer running good and need to start playing well to win again I have to ask myself: Why am I playing bad?

The answer is simple, I have too much pressure on me and a bad mindset. After talking with some friends that were having similar problems earlier this year and now resolved them, I have found that my main problem is I have become obsessed with Supernova Elite.

Last year I saw many good players move to stars for sne or already established regs try to go for sne playing midstakes husngs. Many were very capable players and yet a ton of them crumbled under the pressure that sne brought to them. The weird thing is, this shouldn't have happened. Most were very good players, used to playing high volumes of high quality poker. The thing about having sne as a goal playing stakes where it is a grind (so low/midstakes) that affects some(of course not all players, but defintively me) is that you constantly try to play even when you shouldn't, you take unnecessary risks for the sake of vpps, add more tables then you can play, are more likely to flip with other players, and just constantly think about the vpps.

A lot of the players I know that made sne last year with a nice profit on the side were guys that didn't care about sne, it just happened. That is why I am removing sne from my goals (which I actually forgot to put on the list in my previous post even though it was a big one ^^) and do what is best for me financially. This probably means play on other sites then Stars, play some HU cash and just go where the money is. If November comes and I am at 650-700k vpps(which is very likely) then I will definitively grind hard to make sne because at that point it will be my best decision financially, so it is still more liekly then not that I will make sne, but if I don't I don't care. People have to realize that sne is overrated and unlike in stts or full ring games, midstakes Heads up sngs are hard to beat if you don't focus on the game and adjust and instead just focus on the volume, unless you're a real sicko like heybude which most people aren't. There is still plenty of non-rakeback money to be made in heads up poker and that is where you will find me, far from any sort of volume goals.

Malta

As I stated in one of my previous posts, this year I am going to be travelling a lot. I already spent a month in ENgland at the beginning of the year and now I am in Malta and plan to live here until the end of August. When deciding where I wanted to spend most of my time in 2011 I had a lot of factors to consider but the 2 most important ones were how many poker players lived there and how is the nightlife and cost of living there. I narrowed my choices down to Thailand and Malta. Both countries have plenty of poker players and both are great places to party. I decided to go to Malta because even though the summer here is absolutely insane, before that it is relatively calm which makes it easy for me to grind and get ahead of sne pace so I can enjoy the summer. Also, I would rather be here in the summer and then go to Thailand when it's winter in the north so that I never have to face cold weather. So the plan is to stay here until September, then probably go to Brazil to grind a lot and visit my family, then move to Thailand.

After talking to a few other players from 2p2 that were considering moving to Malta, I came down here to search for a nice place. At first we were sure we would get a sick villa but once we got here we quickly realized a sick penthouse is the way to go. We found an amazing place with 4 bedrooms, 3 balconies, ocean view (and basically right in front of the water), 5 bathrooms, an outdoor jacuzzi facing the ocean and very well equipped rooms, in a great location. I never imagined I would live in a place this sick at my age so I am very happy with it. Here is a pic of the view I get to enjoy every morning when I wake up:










One of the great things about Malta is that I met some really good people. I never met any other poker pros in real life before and it really is awesome to meet people that do the same thing you do. Last weekend me and some german pros took a ferry to go to Gozo, an island next to Malta, where we rented a villa for the weekend to enjoy the carnival there. It was an awesome weekend, We drank a lot and partied hard both friday and saturday but still managed to find some energy to go sightseeing in the afternoon. Here is a drunk carnival pic and a nice sightseeing pic for you to enjoy:

































I didn't get a chance to play much poker last week. I'm up over 10k$ this month in husngs but down almost as much in mtts so that kind of sucks. I plan to play a lot this week though so hopefully I can turn this month into a good one. This weekend I went out on Friday for another crazy night in Paceville (main area for clubs/bars in Malta) but stayed in on Saturday to play( and bust round 2) in the 1k$ HU mini FTOPS. On Sunday me and some friends went to rail my roommate Adria aka Chojjasd who final tabled the Unibet Open Malta with a dominant chiplead. He was definitively the best player left but when lady luck isn't on your side there is nothing you can do. After losing every all in he finished 6th for 19k which sucks considering how good his chances were of making first for 117k but still a good pay day and I had 10% so can't complain.

This week I plan to put in some serious husng volume so will keep you guys updated on how that goes. I am trying to have my first 100k vpp month and am on pace to do that so we'll see if I can keep this going.

Gl to everyone playing!

TYF

Poker for 2011

As I said in my introductory post, last year was very swingy for me. I started the year with less then 30 buyins for 100s thinking I would spend all year playing 50s and making a cool 50k on the year and ended up playing 100s from the second week of January and then moving up and down between 100s and 1ks for the rest of the year, warring any reg that I could, tilting, flipping and playing drunk a lot, and not putting in enough actual grinding hours, as well as spewing money in cash games and mtts.

This year, I have a lot more pressure on me. I have been enjoying my life as a poker player a lot and so I am doing my best to keep the money coming in with as little variance as possible. I am also trying to make supernova elite, and am ahead of pace now but I am trying to get way ahead of pace before the summer because from what I have been told about Malta in the summer I will be lucky to get in 120k vpps between June and August. So my goals until end of May are to grind like I have never grinded before and just go out on weekends, so I can comfortably enjoy the summer and then cruise to sne afterwards.

Anyways here is the list of what I consider very doable goals but still tough for 2011 in poker:

- $250,000 (including supernova elite money)
Seems extremely doable, and since my main goal this year is to enjoy myself I don't want my monetary goal to cost me too much stress or pressure and this is already a huge improvement from last year.

-Bink an MTT
I had originally decided I would not play mtts in 2011 since they cost me a ton in 2010, but after seeing my roommates (chojjasd (stars) and mrklout(stars)) bink mtts like it's nothing every other day I had to get back into them and hopefully this year I'll finally get a nice score.

-Make Sharkscope All games Pokerstars Leaderboard
I think this is a good goal to have as it will hopefully stop me from playing a ton of hours just for the vpps and actually try to play well and profit without rakeback.

I'll be making another post soon with my goals regarding travel and life as soon as my roommate buys a camera so i can take some pics of my place here in Malta so I can share them here.

Good Luck at the Tables!

And Another One

Yes, it's another Heads up sng blog... I've been meaning to do this for a long time now, but like everything in my life I took as long as I could to do it. Anyways I feel my life as a professional poker player is getting way too good for me to not start sharing to all those that are curious about what I do or for those aspiring to become professional poker players to see what it is like.

So... to those that do not know me, I am a 20 year old Brazilian/American no limit hold'em heads up sng pro that plays on pokerstars. Until the end of last year I was in school and was about to transfer to the University of Maryland in the US to finish my education but there were some problems with my application and next thing I know I had 6 months with nothing to do. I then decided to travel and enjoy the freedom us poker players have that most people dream of. It only took me a few weeks to realize I won't actually be going back to school in September because the life I live now is just way too good and I'd be stupid not to take advantage of it while online poker is around.

Now, let's talk poker. Last year was a very swingy year for me, mostly due to bad bankroll management, tilt, drunk play and constant regwars with every reg I could have warred. I still managed to make money and considering I started the year at 50s I can't feel too bad with my results. This year I am being much more responsible and trying to not let poker be as important in my life as it was last year and enjoy everything the money it gives me offers instead. I play mostly 315s to 570s with some 100s/200s if action is bad or 1ks if it's good.

I set myself some very doable goals but still a little challenging for the year that I will describe later. I also want to talk a little about what my plans for the year are regarding travel. I spent a month in England at the beginning of the year which was really amazing, although I spent waaaaay more then my budget for the trip. I loved the country and will definitively be going back soon. After my trip to England I came to Malta, which is where I am at the moment and where I plan to stay until the end of the summer.I have a lot to say both about my poker goals and travel so I'll be making 2 new posts very soon with more details on those topics and some pics of Malta.

I'll try to keep my blog interesting with both details of the ups and downs of my poker career as well as details (and pics ldo) of the great life I am getting a chance to experience thanks to poker. Hope you enjoy the read.

Best of luck at the tables!

TYF