Setzy's 2008: Supernova Elite Bound

Been reviewing a lot, got a little coaching earlier in the month. Working on my ever-present leaks, and also working on playing better against opponents of specific types. In general I'm quite pleased with my results so far. Was behind pace for SNE (for the current month, not overall) up until today when I put in a large session. I might actually still be just barely behind. No biggie.

I'm finding it quasi-difficult to put in a lot of hands when I'm playing well. I've been discussing with some friends that perhaps the next part of my game I need to work on is playing absolute 100% for longer sessions. One of these days I'll be a monster...

I'm also going to Vegas for the WSOP June 11-18th, which I mentioned in a previous post. If anybody wants to meet up that will be around, hit me up. I'll buy you a beer, I don't know how baller or unballer you are...gonna be there for fun, not to grind!

To 'Nat: The only comment I can really make is I'll be glad when the super-uber-grind is over and done with. I still am going to go through with it, and I'm going to put in a whole lot of hours the first 6 months after I get SNE, but after that I'm going to live some life the way it's meant to be lived: spending time with family, seeing this beautiful world we live in, and doing the things that I'm priveleged enough to be able to do. The money is nice and I still love to play, but there are definitely days when I would rather do something else instead of put in some hours. Still beats a 9-5, though!

Also TY to euph for the med-stack idea. I was going to actually do this a little while back, but I'm happy sticking with the full-stack camp. Right now I think I do better with the deeper stack.

Nothing major to update other than I'm psyched up for my Vegas trip!! This time next week I'll be there.

May was great, and I'll leave it at that. June has started on a more sour note (kind of like May did), but I have confidence that it will turn around. Lot of coolers, very very little questionable or bad play. I review my sessions a lot and make sure I'm doing it right. Quite happy with myself, other than not winning here recently. Everybody goes through bad stretches though, it's basically unavoidable if you play with any sort of regularity.

The WSOP will be fun, I believe. I'm going for fun, not for any sort of srs bizness...although I guess if I play an event or two I am going to take it seriously. But whatever happens happens, and that's pretty much that. I've been playing a few more MTT's lately, trying to get my head around those better. I'm not a good player by any means, but I did finish like 170th in the Sunday Million last week for my second best MTT cash ever. (like $1200) It's so different than cash. Anyway that's all I've got for now, I guess my next update will PROBABLY be after Vegas!

Vegas was a great time. Poker-wise was definitely nothing good to speak of for me, but it didn't matter because I was there to have fun, relax and enjoy myself for a whole week and get away from the grind.

What I didn't account for was the period of "getting back into the groove", something I haven't had to do in a very long time. Grinding (and online play in general) sometimes just doesn't seem very fun, especially after all you've done for a week is be a tourist, watch and play silly soft live tournaments and cash games, sports bet, prop bet and play credit card roulette. I've started winning again after a few breakeven days initially upon my return, but I'm having trouble putting in much volume. A new Bonus will probably help get my head back on straight.

I can't complain though. To be honest after some honest self-evaluation and some more breakdown of these 200NL players, I know for a fact that I can and should crush these games on a regular basis. It's kind of funny because 200NL seems to be quite a cesspool of regulars, and I've noticed plenty of 2/4+ players dropping down and just mega-tabling 200NL for whatever reasons. It pays to know who's who, that's for sure. That's one regard where I think I have a much larger edge than most people, having the correct labels on the correct regulars and knowing who I'm playing against.

Stars' new promotion is quite the double-edged sword.

On one hand, getting 2 VPP for every 1 is amazing.

On the other, the tables are INFESTED with regulars.

Stars is so sneaky. For one, they pull out the double VPP week during the Main Event. In addition, it's the 4th of July! It's one of those times when people will just either not be able to play or have to give it up because they're playing major tournaments or spending time with their family. Sooooo sneaky.

I'm doing okay. Still working on my game, and trying to build some history between a few more regulars for future hands. PT3 has been my friend, and I'm really starting to get into the HUD. Sometimes I still think I made a bad call or two here or there. Thing is, especially if it's an unknown...they could be terrible, and you have to get their money at the earliest possible opportunity, because it's going to go to SOMEBODY.

Long time, no post. *Blows the dust off*

Still grinding. Still doing well. I've made an executive decision to stay at 200NL until further notice. For one, my hourly is the best at 200NL over any game, because I can table select, play more/fewer when I want, and overall it's just a better situation. I'm +EV in higher games, albeit slightly, but my hourly is not as +EV as playing good 1/2 games...which a lot of the time, there are lots of good 1/2 games.

I have goals. I have motivation still to play. Last month (when I didn't update for a full month), I actually went into a dry spell, one of the first of my poker career, where I just didn't want to play like I used to, and do now. I hit the grinding wall. Every time I sat down I would start and look for a reason to quit. I would play well when I was playing, but a SNE grinder has to play at times for the sake of playing, to maintain pace, and that can be difficult.

But, I broke through the wall. I find myself wanting to play. I've had good success this year, and I want to continue to grow and get better. I do have a goal, and it's pretty high in my own eyes, although to some it's like being the smartest kid in the "special" class. Beware, the next paragraph has a lot of "I's"...

I want to be the best regular. I want to make the most money. I want people to hate playing me. I want people to move down because they're getting crushed so badly. I want everyone's winrate to tighten and mine to blossom. I have a killer instinct in these games, and I want to use it to my advantage. I want to use all my superior skills and flat out own.

I have been, and I will continue to. Watch out world.

plz do not crush my winrate or sit on my left khtnxbai

also good luck when I'm not there Smile

Of course I've broken even for 4 days since posting my "kick ass, take names" rant. Posting curses, cashout curses, deposit boomswitch. It's all real, I swear Smile

Two and a half years and still going, I've kept updating this blog with any sort of regularity longer than anything else I ever have on the internet. Today's my 26th birthday. Picked up some steaks and The Office season four, which just came out on DVD today. Going to have some friends over tonight and relax.

Life is good. Some people in this world get the short end of the stick. I'm in good health, in moderate wealth, and doing what I want to do, what I like to do. You can't really beat that.

Have a good one dude!

how does it feel to be a quarter of a century +1 old?

FWIW, I'm +2 myself Sad

Setzy. You are ma'fuggin' pimp!

Update dis yo!!!

Enjoying the read Setzy, keep up the good work.

Right now I'm reaching a point where I need to make a decision, and I don't know what to do. I'm going to make SNE. The problem is, I don't know what I'm going to do once I actually get it. Am I going to grind my ass off for the first 6 months, then kick back and enjoy the good life like I've so planned? That's sort of been my life plan since the beginning. 2009 is going to be the year of travel, the year of fun. 2008 is the year of work, and the year of the grind. (Sounds like a Chinese Calendar)

But in 2009 if I just grind till my SNE status is gone, then I'm left sitting somewhere in the middle. I would have all these points, and be just close enough to SNE to perhaps give it another go. That's the trap that Stars lays out, the rake vortex they're trying to suck me (all of us, really) into.

So should I go for it again? There's been times this year when I just feel like my time could be better spent elsewhere, but I needed to play to keep up. The money is nice. At the same time, time itself is invaluable. I don't know.

that was quite the existential post. i think you need to ask yourself a few questions. when you say you often feel your time would be spent better elsewhere, what would those other things you would be doing consist of? do you fear maybe being stuck in a situation where you regret how you spent large portions of your life? i cant possibly think its the grind getting to you, considering you might be the most consistant player ive ever seen. i think you need to spend some time figuring out what you want out of your life u

This post isn't for me, it's for this forum.

I see a lot of Operations out there. For a guy who's had their blog since dinosaurs ruled the world (Who remembers blogs in Poker Etc? I DO!) I think it might be important for some of the newer folks to understand what they can do to make themselves successful using their blog.

For starters, make goals within your means. If you're a recreational player don't expect to shoot up from 2NL to 5kNL in a month, or even a year. Make reasonable goals, like "I will play an average of 300 hands a day, 4-tabling on X site". "I will move up to the next level when I have x buyins", and the like.

Personally, I've found that quality over quantity makes for a better blog. More recently, I post when I have something constructive to say, or there's been a major occurrence in my personal or poker life.
When I first started out, I posted hand histories upon hand histories within my blog. You can probably see some of them still on page 1 of this thread. While I was indeed still learning nuances of the game, I think in retrospect the effort can be better put in the actual forum of the hands. If you're a HU player, go to the HU forum! In addition, review things yourself, try to figure out the how's and why's of a particular hand or a particular villain. If you're still stuck, then ask for help.

I try not to post too many things that are negative. Anyone that has played a large amount of poker will tell you, bad spells happen to every single player out there. You will get in with the best hand and lose. You will get in with the worst hand and lose. You will get in 50/50 and lose, 60/40 favorite and lose, 98/2 favorite and lose. You have to be ready to weather the storm. Mental toughness is one of the most important parts of being a successful poker player. While blogs seem to be great places to vent, (and I'm not denying that sometimes you have to let off a little steam) at the end of the day I think you need to look forward, not back.

This is a great site and community. I hope everyone that wants to be successful and have a good blog is. In a game that has very little camaraderie, it's great to see FTR keeping it real after all these years.

Good post Setzy, I love reading your blog! I think I have definitely vented too much in my blog and made too many lc posts. I will try and do better, sir.

Word of advice, if you could also post what you feel like your biggest leaks are and how you can be exploited that would be a great help.

Thanks,

Your Friend,

badgers

Close? I'm cheering hard for ya man!!

Life throws you curveballs. The past three weeks of my life I've had to work hard to balance everything in my life properly.

As is old news by now, I'm working on SNE and properly on pace to achieve it. But just three weeks ago, I met an awesome girl and we've since been dating. For those of you who play regularly and have girlfriends/wives, you know there is a fine line of balancing you have to do between when you can play, making time to take your girl out, spending quality time with her, and taking care of yourself too. Coming from somebody who just kind of did whatever he wanted whenever, it's a gigantic change. But it's a good change, and I am happier for it. It has just taken some balancing to get it all right.

I've put in a lot of volume this past week. Stars 200NL games have been quite infested with regulars, and I've been working hard to try and stay ahead of the curve, as usual. I was discussing today with a friend about what I consider to be one of my bigger leaks at the moment, which is knowing when to pull the trigger without a hand.

Typically, you have to know your opponents and their tendencies. Most any regular will c-bet a large amount of their range, especially heads-up. However, things drastically change from player to player when dealing with flop raises, dealing with 3-bets preflop, and dealing with isolation position raises and c-bets. Some players make moves. Some players play all but face up. In the scheme of things (from a grinder perspective), being a winner means making more good decisions in the long term than other people. Multi-tabling means you have to make many decisions per minute, and keeping sharp can be very difficult. Poker HUDs and trackers are helpful, but in the heat of playing I still rely on my instincts quite often to take the most +EV lines, in my opinion. I feel like my instincts are razor sharp anymore. When they're on and I'm playing well, I feel like very little can stop me. I'm ready for the world, and ready to continue conquering!

Go SETZY!.. Thanks for the update. And I'm glad your still on pace, and your nearing the goal you have worked incredibly hard for. Keep up the good work and keep sitting at my tables and you'll eventually get a few stacks for me Sad

.

good luck on the profit building. If you are going to play lower limits to build your roll while bouncing, i reccomend a start at a bigger room because the more table selection you have the better your odds when playing winning poker. Gl on the felt

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Setzy's 2008: Supernova Elite Bound