Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
Hello!
I have never kept a blog and I decided to start now to keep track on my results more often and to gain an understanding about what I do wrong and hopefully something right also! I will try not to cry about how bad I run with bad beats, because I know these things happens all the time and to be honest I dont like to read blogs where people are crying how bad they run! (don't kill me if I slip few crying message tough )
Little about me first: I am 22 years old, ive been playing poker since my friend showed me this game back when I was 15. Played my first games online when I was 16 ( I know I am a criminal ) But I started to play serious only when I reached my 18th birthday as I could play with my name.. I played mostly on Full Tilt Poker and did some serious cash when the games were really soft! I was already thinking about starting to play pro but then I decided to maintain my focus on my "real" goal to become a tennis professional which Ive dreamed already since I was a little kid.. In this moment my ranking is in the ATP in the Top 800.. I will probably post also some tennis things but I will try to keep this blog about my poker and especially trying to keep it in the SNG. But as a poker player I cant say I am an full time poker player more a on/off palyer because I need to travel a lot (even now I am playing tournaments in turkey) and keep my focus on the tennis (sometimes internet is so bad that I cant even play games) But when I am home I am trying to keep my free time on poker and play some good volumes and of course trying to keep my girlfriend happy, but lucky me she understands it (sometimes) that I need to play long sessions.. So that was basically my life shortly!
Back to poker: Back in the days I played high stakes SnG with an roi of around 10% 4 tables at the same time but I had almost an 1.5 years off from poker where I almost used all my bankroll on several things. I took a moneybookers card were I was literally throwing money everywhere because it didn't feel like money.. I regret it but had a lot of fun also!
And now I started to play poker again since 2-3 weeks ago. I have been multitabling 8-10 tables 10$ sng I manage to play almost 250 games with on/off days with poker. I will try to speed that up especially after this last tennis tournament I will play and will have a 2 week off from tennis so I hope that the volume per week will be higher!
And if you have anything to ask or give a tip on how to keep a blog I will be glad to hear! Cheers and see you at the poker tables!
And here is my games from the last weeks, I have had a good run around 100$ over EV but I dont have HM in this laptop maybe I will send the EV graph later on if someone is intersted!
Joined: Aug '09
Location: Chile
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1353
Nice blog hemuli!
I will be following your progress for sure. It seems that your a a pretty good S&G player. Do you use S&G wizard to improve your game???? Where did u learn????
Hope u can also tell us about ur tennis career. I'm also a tenis player (although far from being professional). I enjoy all what is related to tennis. What are your plans for next season?
Are u going to play mostly futures or may be some qualys in the challenger tour???
Joined: May '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2219
A lot of blogs starting up lately and as always they are all very much welcome. As the rest I will be following them. Good luck to your journy.
Ps - I love moaning about beats and stuff in my blog. It helps me get it all out of my system so if you feel like kicking off or moaning then by all means do it.
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
@plexo
Thanks man! I will try to update it often and puts some graphs once a week or so! Actually I haven't learned from anywhere mostly talking with my friends I got one friend who reads a lot and he is trying to improve his game a lot also, so he has helped me a lot! I know I have huge leaks especially when facing the HU ( I dont have the statistics now but I am more 2nd then first) so I will try to watch some videos or maybe hire a coach to look at my game and how to play the HU.. And no I dont use S&G wizard i have not really used anything which is why im sure I have big leaks somewhere!
And for the tennis I am not sure yet... I will play some futures next year for sure and maybe try to qualify to some challenger will see how things goes! never know so you play tennis also? maybe I should come to chile to play some tournaments
------------ @Phisix
Yeah I know there have been a lot of blogs starting thats why I wanted to put my share also! Have been a member since 09 and never really put anything to the community even I got some bankrolls in the past to boost my games!
And for the moaning! I will try to keep this more as an non moaning blog and hopefully FTP wants that too! I had a few downswing in my life and I know how that feels but multitabling 8 tables have helped me a lot to not focus on the bad beat but just play the next table! That way no time to cry!
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
Very good blog Hemlui, and i for one am looking forward to reading about you. I quite like the stories of bad beats on the river and if you want to cry about it, i wont mind reading about it!! Lots of luck on the tables.
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
@doubletop777
Thanks! As long as I multitable hard to focus on bad beats.. I will for sure when I am home post my EV graphs often or will try once in a while! Maybe I will post also few bad beats but I will try not to cry about it I will come back later after my tennis match and hopefully play few sng if my girlfriend and the internet allows to!
Joined: Dec '10
Location: Finland
Age: 31 (M)
Posts: 429
Yeah another favorite blog for me to follow !! And graphs are always nice, especially when they are like yours, pointing in the right direction 8-D
Posted by hemuli: @plexo And no I dont use S&G wizard i have not really used anything which is why im sure I have big leaks somewhere!
You should deifinately check out SNGWizard, HRC, ICMizer and stuff like that, there are so many awkward ICM spots in SNG's ... just tag every interesting push/fold spot while you are playing and then review them after the session... that's a very nice way to learn imo ..
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
@djpremier
Nice to hear! Haha well sometimes its going up sometimes its going down and thats why I love poker! Never know whats gonna happen!
I will try to check few things and speak with my friends maybe he has some ideas where to get a good value for money! I know little bit when to push and fold especially on the bubble or thats what I think but the biggest leak is for sure HU when I check my stats.. But could be a good idea what you suggested! Im so lazy to learn stuff, feels like im back to school even I want to learn
------------ @thefly131
hopefully it will remain interesting And yes I will try to update my blog as much as I can and keep you all who are reading this blog informed! I will start to grind little bit in the evening/night some small session with maybe 3-5 tables depending on the internet! Thanks, i will try to have good results in tennis also!
And good luck to you all guys on the table! And if some of you have some graphs about sng sessions feel free to share them here!
Joined: Feb '12
Location: Sweden
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 27
Well, i wish you luck at first The badbeats will never beat you aslong you stick to your bankroll. Its your weapon against badbeats/downswings.
If you manage to go through a downswing and climb up back, you will see and expirience it very mirakulis, but actully its not. Sory for my bad engllish btw
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
Thanks guys! Well bankroll is not the problem at this moment for me, I can deal big downswings at the moment if I just dont tilt But I feel pretty good at the moment with poker and my life so there is no need for that!
So now I grinded now 2.5h almost 24 sng and 6tabling and took little bit down. I will post my graph until now and keep playing later after we watched series with my girlfriend. I would have been happy to see the EV but no can do with this computer and few bad moves and few set ups so I think my EV was around +-0. There were pretty many regs at the games so no good ev for the games. There was at best 5 regs in the same table or they were multitabling so not sure if there were making profits.. Usually back at home I play with an software that gives me this stats! The good news is that my girlfriend made ~8$ profit when I let her play on pokerstars (I play myself on FTP)
I will keep you posted with the nights games later on!
Joined: Aug '09
Location: Chile
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1353
Sure man. It will be awesome if you can come to play here. We got around 12 $10000 futures at year, 1 challenger on february and one ATP 250 the same month.
Try to improve your play at HUs is you believe that is your weak point, as long as you have to maximize your winnings when you get in the money.
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
Well maybe challenger and atp is little bit too big at this moment. And going to chile for an challenger is little bit hardcore! I was planning on going around 2-3 month ago to chile to play for 1 month futures but we cancelled the trip maybe next year!
Yeah I know! My friend gave me few videos of HU hyper but didn't got the feeling yet to watch them.. It should be pretty similar as an SnG HU..
------------ I will play few more rounds sng's and then I will post my graph.. Now I am around 5 dollars down after a total of almost 6h playing. Maybe last rounds will go better!
------------ Well the end went little bit better! I took at the end 5 10$ and 2 20$ sit'n go's and manage to make 3 cash where I won 1 of the 20$ and came second in the other 20$ and last one 3th place in the 10$..
Well in total I played 65 sng in one day with 2 sessions in a total of 7hours of playing (I think I have the best girlfriend ever) So today was a small grinding session because tomorrow I have a day off from tennis so no need to wake up early
In the start I didn't run so good.. Here is one unlucky AA (cus everybody loves the "bad beats" so here is one) what I remember was the first tournament were I was out in the first levels with preflop all in with AA vs a reg who had kings and hit the king. But thats poker and that happens! And after that nothing much to mention flips where going here and there and some lucky hands I won also, would be interesting to see the EV I think i runned little bit under the EV but cant say for sure..
And here is also for the guys who loves graphs (includes me) from this days grinding
Joined: Nov '12
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 4675
G'day mate
What to wish you well. I do hope you continue to do well. Consider this, as long as you are not going backwards then you are +EV. Remember you must pay rake on every game that you play so you are always behind until you make the money, also think about the fact that you get Vpp's/Fpp's every time you do play a Sng. Thos points do add up fast when you ar playing a high value. Remember to redeem your points for cash in the VIP Store. These extra cash enfusions can make your EV a positive one. Wishing you all the best. be cool
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Hey man, i will definitely be following. I played SNGs some time ago but I do not have the bankroll to play the $1.50 buyin etc. Anyway good luck for your challenge, volume is the key here and a healthy bankroll to be able to whistand swings, also if you muti tables better looks at the average buying for the multitable to check the risks against the rewards.
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
@Roninharper Thanks to remind me ronin! I will keep the points and later maybe buy to a big MTT And I get also little bit rakeback from FTP which is nice also hopefully I could make the diamond... Few years ago I had the black card but I think that with this bankroll and the games that is almost impossible...
Even I am winning but my EV is going down does not mean that it will be a profitable session in the long term, and long term is everything in poker
@Heskor
That's nice to hear man! If u got even a little bit bankroll playing the 1.50$ your bankroll can grow fast! Im not sure I understood the last words, if I multitable i better look at the avg buy in to do what exactly? Sorry for the misunderstanding!
At this moment I played 27 sng and made a small 9$ profit.. I was actually little lucky I played only 2 games with the buy in 20d and won the other one and the rest 10d where I am down 23d... But I will play maybe few mores and see how that end up and I will put the days graph in the end! (maybe I should start to play the 20d feels like im winning more money there then in the 10d?)
Since you mentioned being a pro ATP player, I have a tennis related question for you, I've been wondering about for some time.
I play table tennis at work, and a few years ago I had a small injury in my right shoulder, so I started playing lefthanded. To my surprise I was quickly (within a few weeks) able to play at almost the same level as I do righthanded. Now I play lefthanded almost exclusively, as a handicap against less experienced players (more fun with close fought matches).
For table tennis playing lefthanded has no benefit over playing righthanded, but in tennis, a lefthanded serve is a good weapon. My question is, why there are no pro players that train a lefthanded serve, and use both in matches?
I know Nadal switched at a young age, and I even know Arnoud Clement played some challengers lefthanded successfully, when injured. But why is no one developing it as a weapon?
It seems to me, that apart from the serve (you can serve out wide in both courts), you have a greater reach, can play much more forehands, train for longer (if one arm gets tired, switch to the other one), less likely to get injuries, or lose matches because of injury, have a longer career etc...
Joined: Feb '09
Location: Finland
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 224
@Marqis
I had actually also a injury when I was 16 and played some time with my lefthand to keep the feeling on tennis and for me it was really and I mean really hard! So I think that you have a brain that can play with both hands if you can say like that.. And I know few players that does play with both hands but they dont that have that high edge because usually the serve is not that big a of a weapon for them because they need to learn 2 rotation when already 1 rotation takes almost a lifetime to learn perfectly And I have also seen players that can play forehand from both sides but always there is one side of there that does not look "naturally" So if you can play with both hands in tennis just play with your left hand all the time! but that is just my opinion!
)
) But I started to play serious only when I reached my 18th birthday as I could play with my name.. I played mostly on Full Tilt 
so you play tennis also? maybe I should come to chile to play some tournaments 
I will come back later after my tennis match and hopefully play few sng if my girlfriend and the internet allows to! 
maybe next year!
I think i runned little bit under the EV but cant say for sure..
