Holidays...

December has not been kind with me in terms of sngs, it was not the most profitable month for me since i started with pocarr, but i guess i cannot complain at all since i've made some profit. It certainly rose some doubts about my game, which i think its natural to someone when you suddendly start to lose. Im also disappointed at the volume i've put that wasn't good as november, which i'm behind 700 games comparing both monts, still got 5 days to go but i don't think i'll have much time to play since i have all my family here with me. Spending time away from the tables feels like im not making any progress and im wasting time. It almost feels like i dont deserve this vacation, which is understandable since i only started grinding on october. Anyway, its good to have this energy inside of me, i'm aiming to get supernova next year, and i'm still working on goals for next year.

180s ...

The 180s almost had my head on tilt for life. I know its a bit harsh to say that, but it really got into me. The downswing was huge for me as i was playing 2$ 180s, before i was dealing with mostly 200$ swings, so the first days when i moved up were really hard on me, losing about 1.1k. Nothing  had seemed to hold, and whenever i was ahead I lost, and whenever i was behind it held. For most grinders this is a regular day or week, and im learning to deal with it. Anyway, i got myself out of the tables for a couple of days, studied the game pretty hard, and tried again and again until things started to feel normal.

Anyway, life is good, doing exactly what i wanted to do with it. Today was my brother's birthday, he turned 24 he is also graduating in business school this end of the year. Also my girlfriend is getting her med diploma. So a lot of parties coming along. Pretty excited about it.

Going back home!

I'm going to Italy on thursday, work on the passport process, and in two days hope to be back in Brazil. I can't wait to be back home, my apartment has been refurnished, it has new area constructed with a barbecue area and they've fixed some leaking issues as well. Also, my best friend is moving next door, his apartment is almost finished and he should be moving as soon as I get home. It will be so nice to have him next door, he plays poker too and owns a stock market company. He always tried to convince me to let him teach me about  stock market, at least now having him next door, we will have time to discuss a lot of things.

I didn't put as much volume as I wanted this month, played around 2.200 games so far, I know i can do much more than that, hopefully i will set some goals for next year, cause I will have a lot of stuff going on December. Getting pretty confident, results are showing up and I'm starting to deal with variance a lot better. Definitely one of the things i have to master is tilt control. I used to tilt a lot more before, and my game was gone with it, not that I don't tilt anymore, it just the way I deal with it nowadays. I just take deep breaths, and remember the times I run good, and think that day will eventually come again.

Internet Issues...

I'm having a lot of issues with the internet here in my condo in London, they've announced that the internet will be changed by friday. Yestersday i tried to start a session, but internet went down right after i've registered for 30 games. I got pretty tilted, one thing that stress me much than losing a 80/20 is losing to internet connection. Your money is already there and there's nothing you can do about it.

Enough with the complaining, i've been pretty consistent with the sngs lately, this month i have an average profit of $1 per game, which is pretty nice for these limits. Also i feel that im not rushed through decisions anymore, and everything feels more smooth, even with 30 tables opened.

Next week, im off to Italy again, gonna work on the italian passport process, gonna be a quick trip, mostly 2 days, then I'll go back to Brazil. Kinda miss my home, my girlfriend and my dog. I've been out of home for more than a month, it will be good to be back.

The Path

I believe in talents, but mostly i believe in dedication and hard work. My father always said to me, to become a good surgeon, one must do 10.000 surgeries, there is no such thing as a master surgeon within his  first 100 surgeries, no one can accomplish that. "Hard work is what makes a man noble" he always said this quote to me. So i've tried to raise my volume, 30 tables instead of the 24, it was a disaster at first, lost a lot in the first 2 hours of the session, but as I was becoming more aware of the things going on, I decided not to give up and try for a bit longer, so yesterday i did a 8 hours stretch session playing 262 games, and it did payoff at the end. I really needed to do that, for my self, my consciousness, i felt it was the right time, after studying a lot lately i decided to give myself that chance. I missed some things with my family and girlfriend, but your state of mind and spirit after a long day of work compensates it a bit. I miss my Musashi book. It is a book i read when i was going through one of the toughest times i've ever had in life. It's a beautiful story about a man building his character and becoming the best samurai of all times. Its a very long book, but it is very well written and it is pleasant to read, def recommend it to anyone. So, im happy with my progress, happy with my dedication and hard work. I still recognize i have a lot to learn, but it is good to know that you are on the right track and success will come along.

I'll leave you some quotes from the book.

"Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men."

"In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit."

Breaking Even...

So pretty much played 1k games and did breakeven at the end, didnt have much help from the internet here in London, its the second time it goes down for quite a while, making me lose total of 48 buy-ins, notting much I can do about it. Getting much more confident, and i think i'll have a better month than last one, definetely will try to put more volume!

Life has been going pretty well, Im much more fit now, lost like 4 kilos in these 3 weeks. My girlfriend is still here in London, and we are having a great time toghether.

Variances strikes!

I've been playing 24 tables simultaneously and i'm felling much more confident on the decisions i've been making so far. Still, i know i've been making some mistakes and a lot of the times i know i did right after i've clicked the button which is sign that i'm improving. Had a pretty bad session yesterday, its funny how this affects me, since i've started grinding, im much more into the game, and for me at least whenever i have a bad day i start to question my game. I think it is crucial to success reviewing my sessions and pointing out mistakes. I know sngs have lots of variance, it is very hard to deal with it when you are in a learning process. But it is like the old saying, what doesnt kill you, makes you stronger, and day by day im getting used to it.

My schedule has been pretty healthy, getting up early, breakfast and straight to gym, lunch and poker the whole day, that means playing, studying and watching videos.
It has been a while since i've stopped working out, and it was really tough to comeback, but im already on the second week and im feeling much better now, i used to be pretty active and feels good to be back again.
So tomorrow my girlfriend gets into the plane to London, we will have a great week toghether!

Still London!

So although i'm still not crushing the mtt's, i feel things are going much better since i started. I do understand a lot more of the process now, but still gotta a lot to work on. Im trying to raise the volume as I'm getting more confident.

Anyway, I've decided to stay here in London till 25th nov. I'll have to travel to Italy again, so no point on going back to Brazil if i can do almost everything from here, except the fact that my girlfriend is still at home, but she is coming to see me, which will be pretty nice! When we started dating, i had to move to london, and she came visit me, it was an awesome time, so we are doing it again.

London!

Lot of stuff happened the past couple of days, I've lost my passport right at the entrance of Milan's airport, so I had to come back to the hotel, and get a new passport the next day at the brazillian embassy. That was really messed up, really stressful. But anyway, i got it done, and here i am at London. The weather here is awesome, sunny days, not really cold, not really hot. 

So now im settled, I have time to study poker lot more, lately ive been studying a lot, working on improving my game, which i think it is really poor, im finding the lower stakes harder than medium stakes, but i think its really important to get through these levels and build good fundamentals. As i had to change my game a lot, i got myself stuck sometimes when playing 18-25 tables at once, now i need more time to think about the new plays i have to make, so im problably lowering the tables to 12-15 until i have every decision made at first glance again. Although im far from crushing sngs, im feeling good. I will just work hard everyday, review each of the sessions, and put more volume from now on!! The future belong to ourselves, you need to have dreams and work really hard to make it happen!

My first post!

So Ive decided to write down this blog to keep track of this new effort to becoming a better poker player. First of all I will introduce myself. My name is Jose Guilherme Thome, im 27 yrs old, currently living in Curitiba - Brazil. I've graduated in Dentistry, and worked as a surgeon for 2 years, then i decided i had to help my parents run their business, so i quit the clinic and started helping them, they have a dental Implant Manufacturing company in Brazil, very sucessful business i have to say. But things really didnt feel as a part of my life, i never really felt alive working there. I've never thought about becoming a professional poker player, until i cashed big for the 2nd time in full tilt, i've never felt like that before, you just feel like you can do anything, you feel alive! I've never took poker seriously, always took shots on games that i couldnt afford, and of course i went broke. So i decided i had to change, i decided to quit my job, and dedicate my time and effort to poker. I signed a deal with pocarr. Msusyr24 is such a good player, i feel that i will learn a lot and hopefully become more consistent at it. I have a strong personality, I cant stand the possibility to do something and be ok at it, i just have to be the best. Anyway, i'll keep track of my sessions, and also about how things are going.

Right now, Im at Milan - Italy, had to come here to issue my italian passport, which hopefully gets done till beg of next year. Tomorrow im off to London, gonna spend some time with my mom there, she has been living there for most of her time. I will have time to work and also visit the city and workout. Probably returning to Brazil in two weeks.

I've just finished a small session today, played 2 sessions and felt like i runned pretty bad at the first one, so i took a walk to visit Milan, got back to grind and it was much better. Currently i've been playing 1$ 45 mans and 2$ 180 mans. Im so excited to dedicate my time at what i like most. Feels like everything will settle down, i like the challenge ive put myself into. I will work hard to achieve it.