As planned i woke up, had breakfast with Mariana and we went for some exercise on the park nearby. Good weather and good mood, so nothing better than going out to move your body a little bit and start the day perfectly!
For lunch i cooked one of my favorite dishes, "Pasta fumé". It is a pasta ( i used penne) with a sauce of tomatoes, pancetta, onions and cream. For those who do not know i love italian food, and although i do not consider myself an expert i am decent enough to make some good dishes for me, my girlfriend and sometimes family or friends.
After that awesome start of the day it was time for the grind. I started around 14:30 and finished around 02:00, so basically 12h grind. I have to say, i never felt tired and it was a really good session overall, in terms of fatigue and results. I made a lot of cashes, with 3 particularly good ones. In one of the first tournaments of the day, "The Big 5euros" i finished in 3/473 and cashed for 177euros. After that on the "SCOOP-99 The Bigger 10euros" i finished 43/3797 and cashed for 66euros. And in the last tournament of the day, the "SCOOP-103 5+Reuros" i finished 8/1330 and was the final table bubble, cashing for 180euros. So the day finished with around 365euros profit which is really really good. Of course it is always a bit frustrating to be so close to a big score and coming up short, but in poker i really need to learn to look at the bigger picture and see the long-term results instead of what it could have been. This means i am around 300euros up since the beggining of SCOOP which basically means 43 euros per day so i would say it is awesome!
I still have 12 days to grind it out and i could not be more excited. Somehow for the majority of people, when they come up short of some goal they tend to give up. For me it works exactly the other way around, the closer i get the more i want it. Got to say i feel really good for today, the big sunday grind, and hopefully i can play my best and get lucky!
domingo, 31 de março de 2019
sábado, 30 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 6
So the idea behind this morning was to play some league games. I woke up around 9am and played league of legends in the morning, while also talked to some of my good friends on skype before the session. I almost always feel really well when i go to skype to talk to them, it is a good source of laughter and good environment overall and it relieves some of my stress or anxiety that might come before the start of a poker grind.
So around 14h30 i started my session. Despite the session being negative i actually enjoyed it a lot. Played really good hands and pots, and made some good deep runs that finished in a brutal fashion but still felt good. I kinda feel it is only a matter of time until something big binks. Im constantly making deep runs on big tournaments, either the SCOOPS or the regular big tournaments, so eventually the luck will be on my side.
I did not meditate or exercise in the past 2 days so i will try to make both today and tomorrow. I dont feel i need to do them everyday. Of course the more the better but the important here is to meditate and exercise on a regular basis and not everyday. Because if i set my goal to everyday, eventually i will skip someday and ill get demotivated, and the important thing is to make it a habit.
I had an invitation to a pic-nic party today afternoon. It is the celebration of the birthday of a really close friend but unfortunately i can not attend. Part of me gets sad for skipping so much parties/gatherings over this years, but i dont think it is possible to be successful and to achieve your dreams without making sacrifices. For a gamer the weekend is the most important time to grind. All the big tournaments in every game are on weekends and that colludes with all the stuff friends and family want to do, because most people do not work on weekends. I guess it is a small price to pay for my happiness, but sometimes i have to admit it is hard on me. Fortunately for me my girlfriend has a job that allows her to have free time when she pleases so we can always do plans midweek, which is awesome.
So around 14h30 i started my session. Despite the session being negative i actually enjoyed it a lot. Played really good hands and pots, and made some good deep runs that finished in a brutal fashion but still felt good. I kinda feel it is only a matter of time until something big binks. Im constantly making deep runs on big tournaments, either the SCOOPS or the regular big tournaments, so eventually the luck will be on my side.
I did not meditate or exercise in the past 2 days so i will try to make both today and tomorrow. I dont feel i need to do them everyday. Of course the more the better but the important here is to meditate and exercise on a regular basis and not everyday. Because if i set my goal to everyday, eventually i will skip someday and ill get demotivated, and the important thing is to make it a habit.
I had an invitation to a pic-nic party today afternoon. It is the celebration of the birthday of a really close friend but unfortunately i can not attend. Part of me gets sad for skipping so much parties/gatherings over this years, but i dont think it is possible to be successful and to achieve your dreams without making sacrifices. For a gamer the weekend is the most important time to grind. All the big tournaments in every game are on weekends and that colludes with all the stuff friends and family want to do, because most people do not work on weekends. I guess it is a small price to pay for my happiness, but sometimes i have to admit it is hard on me. Fortunately for me my girlfriend has a job that allows her to have free time when she pleases so we can always do plans midweek, which is awesome.
sexta-feira, 29 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 5
I woke up around 10am, had roughly 7h of sleep since i went to bed around 3am last night, but it is about quality and not quantity so it was fine. The morning was quite slow, me and Mariana would go to my grandmothers house to have a family lunch so all i did in this morning besides sleeping and getting ready for the lunch was writing a little bit and watching few "how i met your mother" episodes. It was actually important to have a chill lazy morning since all my last mornings were a little bit rushy because of the cooking, the exercising and the stuff i had to take care off, so this felt quite good.
We went to my grandmas place around 12:30 and it was a really awesome lunch, we ate really well and we had a lot of fun together. Around 15:00 was time to come back home and to get ready for another grind.
About the grind itself, the tournaments went pretty bad. When i say pretty bad it is the actual truth. In something around 20 tournaments i managed to cash in literally 0. I dont think i was unfocused or anything, actually i think i played good poker the entire session, but the final hand of the session was the cherry on top of the cake and the resume of my entire day ( AA vs AK preflop in the last SCOOP and i lost). This is just the proof that poker is a real roller coaster, yesterday i won a 2k+ people tournament and today i manage to make money in exacly 0 of them. I think 1 of my greatest strengths is my mind, i have a really strong mind when it comes down to bankroll management, downswings and controlling my emotions. Of course when i get huge badbeats i can say a "fuuuuck" or a "motherfucker" but 5 seconds after its all gone and i already forgot it.
But anyways yesterday was no big deal and wont change the plan, so today around 15h/16h we will go back to the grind.
We went to my grandmas place around 12:30 and it was a really awesome lunch, we ate really well and we had a lot of fun together. Around 15:00 was time to come back home and to get ready for another grind.
About the grind itself, the tournaments went pretty bad. When i say pretty bad it is the actual truth. In something around 20 tournaments i managed to cash in literally 0. I dont think i was unfocused or anything, actually i think i played good poker the entire session, but the final hand of the session was the cherry on top of the cake and the resume of my entire day ( AA vs AK preflop in the last SCOOP and i lost). This is just the proof that poker is a real roller coaster, yesterday i won a 2k+ people tournament and today i manage to make money in exacly 0 of them. I think 1 of my greatest strengths is my mind, i have a really strong mind when it comes down to bankroll management, downswings and controlling my emotions. Of course when i get huge badbeats i can say a "fuuuuck" or a "motherfucker" but 5 seconds after its all gone and i already forgot it.
But anyways yesterday was no big deal and wont change the plan, so today around 15h/16h we will go back to the grind.
quinta-feira, 28 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 4
I slept really well and woke up around 9:30. My sister came to my place to have breakfast with me and Mariana, and after that we went to the park to do some exercise, some walking and some abs. I have a really nice park near home and when the sun is shining it is really a true pleasure to go there and to exercise in any way.
After that we came home and we started preparing lunch. Mariana ate the remaining noodles, i made some Pesto spaghetti for myself and my sister made a pizza in the oven. I think it is the first time i see 3 people having lunch together and everyone ate a different thing. I am also happy they ate pizza and ice cream and i was able to resist and to not eat any of that. I am aware i can not go 20ish days without eating some "garbage food" but the less the better.
After a lot of talk and catch up with the girls i was ready to start my session. I was feeling really confident since i had some deep runs the day before, and for some reason things seem to go better when you feel confident about your game.
In the first tournament i joined i made a deep run, The Big 5 euros, finishing up in 11/518 and cashing for 22 euros. It is always disappointing to fall so close to the trophy but won more than 4 buy-ins so that is really good.
After that had few more small cashes and made a deep run in SCOOP-53, it was a 10 euros SCOOP. I finished in position 71/4627 guys which is already really close to the top from my perspective, and cashed for 58 euros. Again can not complain as i won almost 6 buy-ins but when the payouts are around 6k for 1st place it is somehow bitter to get so close. Also had my big friend Tiago cheering for me and watching my table, i can wait for the day to come when he will be cheering and i can actually bring home a big big score. Just like i did when he won Micromillions 4-max for around 5k some years ago.
You remember me going really deep in the Daily Micro the day before? Yeah, i went really deep on that one again but this time i managed to win the trophy! I made a heads-up deal with another portuguese guy and i won the heads-up battle for the title. Cashed for 220 euros and finished 1/2313. After making some deep runs in the SCOOP with huge prizepools 220 euro might not seem much, but i am really happy with the result. That puts me up since the start of SCOOP and the confidence and motivation that winning a 2313 people tournament gives has no price. Also the day was +210 euros, a really amazing day!
In the end, i grinded for 12h so i was really tired. I guess i might consider skipping the Daily Micro sometimes because it is usually the last regular speed tournament i join. So i think he will make the session super long a considerable amount of times, which would not be very good in the days i feel more tired.
The grind continues today at 16h, and the dream to win a SCOOP remains alive! Still 15 days to go, and at least for now i do not feel the need to take a rest day. Im feeling motivated, confident and with a lot of energy.
After that we came home and we started preparing lunch. Mariana ate the remaining noodles, i made some Pesto spaghetti for myself and my sister made a pizza in the oven. I think it is the first time i see 3 people having lunch together and everyone ate a different thing. I am also happy they ate pizza and ice cream and i was able to resist and to not eat any of that. I am aware i can not go 20ish days without eating some "garbage food" but the less the better.
After a lot of talk and catch up with the girls i was ready to start my session. I was feeling really confident since i had some deep runs the day before, and for some reason things seem to go better when you feel confident about your game.
In the first tournament i joined i made a deep run, The Big 5 euros, finishing up in 11/518 and cashing for 22 euros. It is always disappointing to fall so close to the trophy but won more than 4 buy-ins so that is really good.
After that had few more small cashes and made a deep run in SCOOP-53, it was a 10 euros SCOOP. I finished in position 71/4627 guys which is already really close to the top from my perspective, and cashed for 58 euros. Again can not complain as i won almost 6 buy-ins but when the payouts are around 6k for 1st place it is somehow bitter to get so close. Also had my big friend Tiago cheering for me and watching my table, i can wait for the day to come when he will be cheering and i can actually bring home a big big score. Just like i did when he won Micromillions 4-max for around 5k some years ago.
You remember me going really deep in the Daily Micro the day before? Yeah, i went really deep on that one again but this time i managed to win the trophy! I made a heads-up deal with another portuguese guy and i won the heads-up battle for the title. Cashed for 220 euros and finished 1/2313. After making some deep runs in the SCOOP with huge prizepools 220 euro might not seem much, but i am really happy with the result. That puts me up since the start of SCOOP and the confidence and motivation that winning a 2313 people tournament gives has no price. Also the day was +210 euros, a really amazing day!
In the end, i grinded for 12h so i was really tired. I guess i might consider skipping the Daily Micro sometimes because it is usually the last regular speed tournament i join. So i think he will make the session super long a considerable amount of times, which would not be very good in the days i feel more tired.
The grind continues today at 16h, and the dream to win a SCOOP remains alive! Still 15 days to go, and at least for now i do not feel the need to take a rest day. Im feeling motivated, confident and with a lot of energy.
quarta-feira, 27 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 3
Finally i managed to wake up at a decent hour and woke up around 10 am. Since a couple of tournaments can go up until 2-3am it is good for me to wake up at 10 since that means ill be fresh by the end of the session.
Did not do that much this morning, since we needed to buy some groceries for the house and also needed to prepare lunch, so besides that and doing some stuff around the house, like laundry and some cleaning we did not do anything else.
For lunch we prepared some noodles with chicken breast, mushrooms, onions and broccoli. We have made that dish only once and we loved it, so we decided to do it again and i gotta say it was incredible this time aswell! Long live Asian food!
After the disastrous SCOOP day 2, i was ready to try my best at the tables. I started the session around 15:30 with max focus as usual. The session started quite bad, with early busts in a lot of tournaments, i managed to cash the mini hot bigstack turbo with 1 bigblind left, we made 62/1591 at SCOOP-41 where we lost TTvsQQ BBvsBTN with around 20 blinds left for a 56€ cash, and we still had a big deep run on the daily micro 12/2237. Overall it was a fine day, finished break even and regained some confidence and motivation, i felt that with a little bit more luck in any of those tournaments on the final stage and we could take home a big score or even the trophy.
Since i did not exercise much in the past few days, today i will try to do some good exercise in the park and i can not wait to play another session after that!
Did not do that much this morning, since we needed to buy some groceries for the house and also needed to prepare lunch, so besides that and doing some stuff around the house, like laundry and some cleaning we did not do anything else.
For lunch we prepared some noodles with chicken breast, mushrooms, onions and broccoli. We have made that dish only once and we loved it, so we decided to do it again and i gotta say it was incredible this time aswell! Long live Asian food!
After the disastrous SCOOP day 2, i was ready to try my best at the tables. I started the session around 15:30 with max focus as usual. The session started quite bad, with early busts in a lot of tournaments, i managed to cash the mini hot bigstack turbo with 1 bigblind left, we made 62/1591 at SCOOP-41 where we lost TTvsQQ BBvsBTN with around 20 blinds left for a 56€ cash, and we still had a big deep run on the daily micro 12/2237. Overall it was a fine day, finished break even and regained some confidence and motivation, i felt that with a little bit more luck in any of those tournaments on the final stage and we could take home a big score or even the trophy.
Since i did not exercise much in the past few days, today i will try to do some good exercise in the park and i can not wait to play another session after that!
terça-feira, 26 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 2
Yesterday i managed to wake up a little bit later than the previous day, around 9 am. After getting breakfast with Mariana we went for a walk and to take care of some stuff on the street, like going to the bank, to the shop and to the pharmacy. It feels really well to go out with a weather like this last few days, and despite walking not being the best exercise, it is still something and definitely better than no exercise at all.
After that we came home and cooked some mashed potatoes to eat with the remaining peas with eggs, and gotta say it was a really good combination, cause the peas have a lot of sauce and that is exactly what the mashed potatoes need to rock.
Before the session, i still had time to watch 1 episode of modern family with Mariana and to take a 1-hour nap, which i found out it is crucial on my routine so i am able to play until late without being so tired.
It was session time, and i was ready for another huge grind. The online series bring many recreational players to the pool because of the big money guarantees the tournaments offer, but in consequence of that it also brings every single grinder out there, so you face really bad players but also really good players in every tournament, and that makes it an awesome experience! I made 93 euros in buy-ins and i only cashed 1 or 2 tournaments and even those were low cashes, so that turned probably into the worst session i ever had, or for sure 1 of the worst.
I can not wait to have time to review some of this tournaments, but it is not now. SCOOP time is the time to grind, not to study, since i have to play 8-12h per day it is not good for my brain to spend even more time thinking about poker, so i am gonna focus on studying this sessions when SCOOP is over. For now it is time to battle, and despite the really bad day i am ready to fight another day on SCOOP day 3.
About my bankroll, i was not playing much 10 euros tournaments because i was using the 200 buy-ins rule, and i did not have yet 2k euros bankroll, so i was only playing really few 10 euros tournaments per week. For the SCOOP though, i have decided that i will play all the 10 euros tournaments i can, so i am mentally prepared to deal with downswings and to have bigger swings overall on my bankroll.
As for today, the plan is the same, ill play tournaments between 1 and 10 euros and i will try my very best at the tables!
After that we came home and cooked some mashed potatoes to eat with the remaining peas with eggs, and gotta say it was a really good combination, cause the peas have a lot of sauce and that is exactly what the mashed potatoes need to rock.
Before the session, i still had time to watch 1 episode of modern family with Mariana and to take a 1-hour nap, which i found out it is crucial on my routine so i am able to play until late without being so tired.
It was session time, and i was ready for another huge grind. The online series bring many recreational players to the pool because of the big money guarantees the tournaments offer, but in consequence of that it also brings every single grinder out there, so you face really bad players but also really good players in every tournament, and that makes it an awesome experience! I made 93 euros in buy-ins and i only cashed 1 or 2 tournaments and even those were low cashes, so that turned probably into the worst session i ever had, or for sure 1 of the worst.
I can not wait to have time to review some of this tournaments, but it is not now. SCOOP time is the time to grind, not to study, since i have to play 8-12h per day it is not good for my brain to spend even more time thinking about poker, so i am gonna focus on studying this sessions when SCOOP is over. For now it is time to battle, and despite the really bad day i am ready to fight another day on SCOOP day 3.
About my bankroll, i was not playing much 10 euros tournaments because i was using the 200 buy-ins rule, and i did not have yet 2k euros bankroll, so i was only playing really few 10 euros tournaments per week. For the SCOOP though, i have decided that i will play all the 10 euros tournaments i can, so i am mentally prepared to deal with downswings and to have bigger swings overall on my bankroll.
As for today, the plan is the same, ill play tournaments between 1 and 10 euros and i will try my very best at the tables!
segunda-feira, 25 de março de 2019
SCOOP - Day 1
My plan was to wake up late, maybe around 11am, so i could have more energy later in the night to keep maximum focus for the grind, but unfortunately i woke up at 8:30 and could not get back to sleep.
I started the day perfectly, messaged my dad that just lives on the building right next to mine and we went for a walk and for a basketball game in a park near home. Gotta say i beat him, and that it feels really good to play a sport. I always rather play some sport than to just go for solo exercise like running or gym as i find that super boring.
After that i came home, and before the bath i went for a 10 minute medidation session (which always feels really good) and started cooking my lunch/dinner which was a portuguese dish called "ervilhas com ovos escalfados" that basically translates to peas with eggs. On the meantime my dad invited me to have lunch with him, my mom and my grandparents, which i gladly agreed, so the peas had to be eaten at other time.
So i was really happy with my morning, i exercised, i meditated, prepared good food and spent some quality time with my family. Can not really get any better before a big grind!
About the poker itself, i gotta say i felt really focused during the entire session, and i am really happy with the way i played and thought about the plays. I started to get fatigued by the end of the session (started at 15h and finished around 23:30h) so i skipped the last 2-3 tournaments i had on my schedule. Poker is a great mind game, but kinda pointless to play if you feel like you can not think properly. I actually went to bed right after the session with a little bit of a headache so i did the right call not playing those last few tournaments. The session went average, and between some luck and some bad beats i finished on the -25 euros mark. This might seem really bad for people who are not familiar with tournament poker(in the sense that i just played 8h+ to lose money), but for the regular player it is totally normal to finish down 2-3 buy ins, actually in a professional poker player career he will have more negative than positive days, so i just learned i have to deal with that as well if i want to become one someday. Also when i am playing fields with 5k or even 10k players the variance gets huge, and even after you have 10 negative days, 1 big score can give you a big profit and make your year ( for example yesterday i cashed on a tournament that gave 20k euros for first place).
Overall i am really happy with my day and what i love most about life when things do not go exactly the way you want is that you always have a tomorrow!
I started the day perfectly, messaged my dad that just lives on the building right next to mine and we went for a walk and for a basketball game in a park near home. Gotta say i beat him, and that it feels really good to play a sport. I always rather play some sport than to just go for solo exercise like running or gym as i find that super boring.
After that i came home, and before the bath i went for a 10 minute medidation session (which always feels really good) and started cooking my lunch/dinner which was a portuguese dish called "ervilhas com ovos escalfados" that basically translates to peas with eggs. On the meantime my dad invited me to have lunch with him, my mom and my grandparents, which i gladly agreed, so the peas had to be eaten at other time.
So i was really happy with my morning, i exercised, i meditated, prepared good food and spent some quality time with my family. Can not really get any better before a big grind!
About the poker itself, i gotta say i felt really focused during the entire session, and i am really happy with the way i played and thought about the plays. I started to get fatigued by the end of the session (started at 15h and finished around 23:30h) so i skipped the last 2-3 tournaments i had on my schedule. Poker is a great mind game, but kinda pointless to play if you feel like you can not think properly. I actually went to bed right after the session with a little bit of a headache so i did the right call not playing those last few tournaments. The session went average, and between some luck and some bad beats i finished on the -25 euros mark. This might seem really bad for people who are not familiar with tournament poker(in the sense that i just played 8h+ to lose money), but for the regular player it is totally normal to finish down 2-3 buy ins, actually in a professional poker player career he will have more negative than positive days, so i just learned i have to deal with that as well if i want to become one someday. Also when i am playing fields with 5k or even 10k players the variance gets huge, and even after you have 10 negative days, 1 big score can give you a big profit and make your year ( for example yesterday i cashed on a tournament that gave 20k euros for first place).
Overall i am really happy with my day and what i love most about life when things do not go exactly the way you want is that you always have a tomorrow!
sábado, 23 de março de 2019
The beggining
For a long time i thought about starting to write my own blog. I always enjoyed reading blogs a lot, because i think its a really good way to check experiences of people that have a lifestyle similar to the one you want to achieve, and because it is a really good way for the writer to store information and to understand the "whys" of some of his daily decisions ( this last one being the main reason why i am writing this). Pretty much everything i do is mental based, so i have to make a huge amount of decisions per day, and when that is the case i will start to do a lot of those decisions mechanically and the reason gets lost.
To the people that do not know me, i see myself as a "true grinder". I play games since i was a kid and i play games now that i am an adult. Nothing thrills me more than competition, being that a soccer game for fun, or battling on the online poker tables against thousands of worldwide players or battling in the league of legends ladder against millions to reach the highest ranking possible.
I am a believer that people have to do what they enjoy in life, chase their dreams. There is no point in studying/working in something you do not want for 2 reasons: 1-You will not be happy, and that should be everyone's main goal in life, everything else is pointless if you can not achieve happiness; 2- You have a really low % of being successful if you do not enjoy what you are doing. On the other hand, i learned that even if at first sight it seems impossible to make a living out of something you love, most likely there is someone in the world that found a way of doing it! God bless the internet!
I walked on the wrong road for a long time, following paths that i did not want just to make my parents/family happy, but fortunately for me the biggest change of my life happened when i started dating my current girlfriend, Mariana in 2010. I think i can safely say that if it was not by her advice and her support i would never be able to achieve happiness and to follow my passions. I lived in fear, fear of being rejected by my family that just wanted me to graduate and to follow the regular safe footsteps. In 2013 i started to get more into streaming, and i decided to quit university and raise money to buy a computer setup good enough to stream league of legends. I streamed for 2 and a half years and i have to admit, it was a wonderful experience, 2 years dedicated to something you really have pleasure doing was awesome, despite the really low money income that the stream provided, for a long time it was enough to keep me motivated to work hard and long hours on improving my game and the stream quality. A little before i moved in together with my girlfriend, i found out that there were several websites offering league of legends "eloboost", and that it was actually quite a big market, so i tried to apply to be a worker to 1 of those websites. Eventually i managed to get in, and i started to realize there were quite a few people making a a living out of it, so i paused streaming and started boosting full time. It was not easy, since the payment was not bad overall but i had to work really long hours, but again i rather work very long hours in something i enjoy than few hours in something i really dont have pleasure in doing. So i work as an elobooster since the end of 2015 up until this day, and it is still my main source of income, over the years i gathered a lot of connections in the area, and i have several regular customers and i work now for more than 1 website. What i enjoy the most besides loving to play is the flexibility this kind of jobs give, the freedom. I do not have as much free time as some of my friends, but i never had problems in taking X days off in anytime of the year, i can work at nights if i want, i can work pretty much when and how i want. In the end of 2016 online poker got back in Portugal, and since i always was a big lover of the game, of course i started to play it again, not as a job but as a "hobby" that could give me a little bit of extra income. I do not see myself as a good player, but i am good enough to be profitable in micro stakes ( tournaments up to 10€). Over the last year my passion for this game has been growing, and so i decided i will eventually make the transition and stop being a league of legends elobooster to start being a professional poker player. So i am playing league less and less and playing poker more and more over the last few months. I do not make enough in poker to make a living out of it yet, so i still need the consistent income of money league eloboost gives me so i am able to eat, pay bills and have some fun.
I decided to start writing this blog now because for those who do not know, SCOOP( Spring Championship of Online Poker) is here. And i will exclusively dedicate the dates of 24thMarch to 11thApril just for poker. I want to dedicate this 19 days to poker and to live the poker lifestyle to see if i am able to fully enjoy it, and to see if i have what it takes to do it. That means, long grind hours every day ( from 3pm up to 3am), exercise every day so i can keep my energy levels up, healthy diet and good hours of sleep so my mind can be at 100%. It seems easy, but it is not, it requires a lot of discipline, focus and perseverance. I will try to post everyday a short resume of what happened in the day before pokerwise, but also if i was able to do all the other parts of the work, being that the exercise, the rest and the healthy food( as this is as important as the long grind hours).
As for today, i will take the rest of the day to chill a little bit before the big marathon, and also to sneak in some league games to make some extra money, so i dont need to be worried about that in the middle of SCOOP and i can fully focus on the game.
To the people that do not know me, i see myself as a "true grinder". I play games since i was a kid and i play games now that i am an adult. Nothing thrills me more than competition, being that a soccer game for fun, or battling on the online poker tables against thousands of worldwide players or battling in the league of legends ladder against millions to reach the highest ranking possible.
I am a believer that people have to do what they enjoy in life, chase their dreams. There is no point in studying/working in something you do not want for 2 reasons: 1-You will not be happy, and that should be everyone's main goal in life, everything else is pointless if you can not achieve happiness; 2- You have a really low % of being successful if you do not enjoy what you are doing. On the other hand, i learned that even if at first sight it seems impossible to make a living out of something you love, most likely there is someone in the world that found a way of doing it! God bless the internet!
I walked on the wrong road for a long time, following paths that i did not want just to make my parents/family happy, but fortunately for me the biggest change of my life happened when i started dating my current girlfriend, Mariana in 2010. I think i can safely say that if it was not by her advice and her support i would never be able to achieve happiness and to follow my passions. I lived in fear, fear of being rejected by my family that just wanted me to graduate and to follow the regular safe footsteps. In 2013 i started to get more into streaming, and i decided to quit university and raise money to buy a computer setup good enough to stream league of legends. I streamed for 2 and a half years and i have to admit, it was a wonderful experience, 2 years dedicated to something you really have pleasure doing was awesome, despite the really low money income that the stream provided, for a long time it was enough to keep me motivated to work hard and long hours on improving my game and the stream quality. A little before i moved in together with my girlfriend, i found out that there were several websites offering league of legends "eloboost", and that it was actually quite a big market, so i tried to apply to be a worker to 1 of those websites. Eventually i managed to get in, and i started to realize there were quite a few people making a a living out of it, so i paused streaming and started boosting full time. It was not easy, since the payment was not bad overall but i had to work really long hours, but again i rather work very long hours in something i enjoy than few hours in something i really dont have pleasure in doing. So i work as an elobooster since the end of 2015 up until this day, and it is still my main source of income, over the years i gathered a lot of connections in the area, and i have several regular customers and i work now for more than 1 website. What i enjoy the most besides loving to play is the flexibility this kind of jobs give, the freedom. I do not have as much free time as some of my friends, but i never had problems in taking X days off in anytime of the year, i can work at nights if i want, i can work pretty much when and how i want. In the end of 2016 online poker got back in Portugal, and since i always was a big lover of the game, of course i started to play it again, not as a job but as a "hobby" that could give me a little bit of extra income. I do not see myself as a good player, but i am good enough to be profitable in micro stakes ( tournaments up to 10€). Over the last year my passion for this game has been growing, and so i decided i will eventually make the transition and stop being a league of legends elobooster to start being a professional poker player. So i am playing league less and less and playing poker more and more over the last few months. I do not make enough in poker to make a living out of it yet, so i still need the consistent income of money league eloboost gives me so i am able to eat, pay bills and have some fun.
I decided to start writing this blog now because for those who do not know, SCOOP( Spring Championship of Online Poker) is here. And i will exclusively dedicate the dates of 24thMarch to 11thApril just for poker. I want to dedicate this 19 days to poker and to live the poker lifestyle to see if i am able to fully enjoy it, and to see if i have what it takes to do it. That means, long grind hours every day ( from 3pm up to 3am), exercise every day so i can keep my energy levels up, healthy diet and good hours of sleep so my mind can be at 100%. It seems easy, but it is not, it requires a lot of discipline, focus and perseverance. I will try to post everyday a short resume of what happened in the day before pokerwise, but also if i was able to do all the other parts of the work, being that the exercise, the rest and the healthy food( as this is as important as the long grind hours).
As for today, i will take the rest of the day to chill a little bit before the big marathon, and also to sneak in some league games to make some extra money, so i dont need to be worried about that in the middle of SCOOP and i can fully focus on the game.
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