Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $8,023

Current: $7,705 out of $8,000

Vacation: $803 (+193) out of $3500

Online 1 - 1.5 hours

Game: NL (100 buyin)

Hours Total: 132.50

--

I really need to learn to sleep more than a few hours a night, goals make me excited. I hit some big hands this mor morning and won close to $200. I applied it to the vacation fund.

I plan on getting another 10-12 hour day at MGM.

Pic 1: On cellphone, sorry about pic orientation. Delicious
Italian restaraunt near MGM N.Harbor

Pic 2: Digging myself out of hole

Pic 3: Budget accomdation through AirBNB. Oxin Hill MD is PRICEY, with rooms at MGM ranging about $500 on weekends and budget hotels about $100. After fees, I'm paying a little under $25 a night for this room. Perfect for a poker player.

Wrapping up lunch and headed to the poker room. Life is good.

Half way through the session, already have some good take aways:

- I need to be careful of my sizing. With limpers, sometimes 3x first limper plus 1 for each limper after is touch when players are afraid to put big money into the pot.

- Ive been burned hard on calling down rivers when i think they are representing something they arent even watching.

- I need to scale back my 2-3 barrel bluffs and focus on value.

- I'm doing better with tilting. I think these big swings have showed me I can work through them.

-1100. Lot a monster off a outer on turn smd then he hits quads on river. That's poker. lol

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $8,023

Current: $6,605 out of $8,000

Vacation: $803 (+193) out of $3500

MGM - 7 hours

Game: NL (500 buyin)

Hours Total: 139.50

I have to keep in mind that the real goal is improving. I've become so much better at my game the last 2 months. Variance will even out and I will be onto bigger games.

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $8,023

Current: $6,796 (+191) out of $8,000

Vacation: $803 () out of $3500

Homegame 1 - 3 hours

Game: NL (500 buyin)

Hours Total: 142.50

---

The game plays closer to 2/5 skill, felt good being forced to handread and bluff a little more consistently. I was 1 off the button with 108o, I called with the intention of making a move. Button raised, small blind calls and I reraise and take it down. I showed to avertise.

I'm exhausted. I still have a few hours ahead of me and the back to work at 8. I'm doing welll, just need a day this week to relax. Back to the grind.

Question:

I'd like to get your thoughts on stoplosses in poker. If you are properly bankrolled and have a decent control over tilt, wouldn't you do everything you could to stay in the game if u believe you have a huge edge?

I was discussing this with a poker friend and we seem to have very different points of view.

The thing is that no one is safe from tilt. And there's no guarantee that your perception of edge is correct. Recent example is Donger vs Liberatus day 1-4. Donger was willing to put large money down that he could beat the bot long term. With a stoploss, you get some time to reevaluate and not go bankrupted by these kind of rare cognitive dissociative events.

That being sad, I believe there is a big leeway between what your stoploss point is. I rarely tilt so my daily stoploss is 10 buy ins. While someone else might feel safer with a 3 buy in stoploss.

I have a stoploss of four buy ins. It's definitely one of those life-EV poker-EV trade-offs but I just feel too sad when I lose >5 buy-ins to want to continue playing. If I stop at -4 I can just go home and not really be bothered too much by the loss at all.

It's very rare that I am in a game where I don't have a huge edge. I always find it funny when someone asks why you are leaving when the game is so great. Aren't there likely to be great games tomorrow as well? And the next day, and the day after that?

One other consideration is that a losing image makes it tougher to win and if changing tables is not an option then it may be better to leave.

Is this live poker?

That makes sense. At that time someone is underwater by x amount of buy-ins, it could be easy to not evaluate the situation correctly. With a stoploss, you are setting rules up ahead of time.

I've been keeping a tilt journal, I'm learning more of my tendencies. I seem to do much better losing multiple stacks than losing a big pot as a huge favorite against a weak player (entitlement tilt). I think having a solid bankroll and liferoll helps.

Since my drive home is often hours away when I'm at the casino, thats one of my stoploss challenges. I'm loojking back at the 4% major pot I lost the other night. I left shortly aftetward, I thought cutting my trip early might have been a mistake but I just couldnt think straight.

That's a good point about a losing image. If my bluffs weren't getting through at the beginning of the session, they are definatelt not getting through after I drop a few buy-ins.

You all gave me a lot to think about on stoploss, I appreciate the input. I'm back to battle again at Homegame 1.

I've been reading through the Poker Goals and Challenges section and noticed some people have challenging balancing everything in their life and keeping consistent with poker. I can't be much help in any type of advanced poker strategy, however, when it comes to balancing a full time (~50 hrs) job and other commitments, I've had some experience. Nothing earth shattering, here's how I balance it:



Aside from my work calendar, I keep a Google calendar for all the spare hours of my life. I don't have a lot of free time so I need to find time I can maximize here and there. The different colors allow my gf and I to stay in synch.



I use a great free app called Out of Milk. I keep everything from grocery lists, errands and projects outside of poker and even checklists of things I want to accomplish during the day.



On my Andriod notepad, I keep my study notes available and organized. I try to focus on just a handful of items each study session.




I keep a tilt document that allows me to do a quick mental checkup at every dealer change.


I have other lists such as upcoming movies, vacation locations etc. It might seem a little anal, but I have a real good flow. If I don't do this, my life has too much chaos throughout the week.

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $6,796

Current: $7,006 (+210) out of $8,000

Vacation: $803 () out of $3500

Homegame 1 - 3 hours

Game: NL (200 buyin)

Hours Total: 145.50

---

- It started 5 max, I came out really aggressive.
- Hand reading is starting to improve
- Feel good about my game
- Crawling out of the weekend hole

Starting the shift to PLO

I will still continue to play homegames as well as mix in NL. Here's the adjustments I plan to make:

- Starting in May, making PLO my main casino game. If I get crushed, I can always shift back to NL to build back up.

- I will continue to still listen to Crush Poker Live podcasts in the car when I travel

- I will devote 20-30 minutes a day devoted to NL, however, the remaining time is focused
strictly on getting better at PLO

If my PLO run works out, I might also start taking stabs at making 2/5 nl my main casino game.

Lol out of milk has 1.5 stars on the app store. I'll look into using it tho. I have a very similar gcal approach and previously used the tasks tab for assignments and errands.

Feel free to reach out about plo, that's my main game. Foxwoods has some 1/2 PLO that runs at peak times and 2/5 plo that almost always runs. good luck

Good point on Out of Milk. I've been using it for so long with my girl coordinating lists (upcoming movies, house renovations etc..) I haven't done much research on upgraded apps.

I'll definitely hit you up on PLO, I'm looking forward to shifting it to the main game in the upcoming month. I'm balancing 3 poker tours this summer: SE Asia, mid-west and east coast. I might throw in an early east coast next month, SE Asia in June, Midwest in July and back to the east coast in August. I have a few friends interested in joining me for part of the east coast journey.

Any thoughts on 1/2 PLO vs 1/3 NL? I've been mostly a short handed PLO player online in the past, from my limited experience with 1/2 PLO, seemed like great games each time I jumped in last summer.

1/2 PLO is definitely hit or miss. I haven't played much of it but in the games I have sat in I've found a bunch of really ****ty nit regs that value money. When you're playing live plo you want to be playing with gamblers. Foxwood's 2/5 plo is consistently softer than their 1/2 plo from what i've seen. If you find a good 1/2plo of course play that instead of 1/3NL but the game might not be as good as you think. Although this could just be an east coast thing.

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $7,006

Current: $7,006 () out of $8,000

Vacation: $1118 (+$315) out of $3500

Online 1 - 6 hours

Game: 50-100 PLO

Hours Total: 151.50

---

As I mentioned earlier, I'm still doing a little NL study but focused mainly on Omaha study. Went as low as 550 and high as 400 ish, ended the session at +$315.00.

I'm making progress spoting hand patterns, but still a long way to go. I think I'm strong enough to start hitting the tables at PLO 8 1/2 starting next weekend. Studying is great, learning where my holes are at the table will help accelerate this process. If the PLO games arent great, I will look at 2/5 and 1/3 NL.

I stopped playing home games to focus on my Omaha study. It's not as much fun but I understand what I need to do to hit a new level. Fighting!

PLO studying continues to progress. I've reserved an AirBNB from April 20 - 30th for a 10 day poker trip. Based on how I'm feeling, I'll either come home or head to NJ/NY/PA for a week or two.

I've booked a flight for 3 weeks in Asia starting in mid June. I plan to spend more time in th casinos this trip. In July, I'm traveling for a few weeks hitting casinos from the east coast to Tulsa. I think I'll take a different direction bone to hit different pokerrooms on the wa home.

Exciting poker travels ahead.

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $7,006

Current: $7,006 () out of $8,000

Vacation: $2477 (+$1360) out of $3500

Online 1 - 4.5 hours

Game: 400nl, 1000nl PLO

Hours Total: 156.00

===

I realize PLO is an insane swingy game, I'm just happy with the extra buy-ins to help pad future variance. I won 2 big pots: set over set and fh vs underfill. Nothing terribly exciting, but happy to lock up with win.

Original: $5,000 (earned in 52 days in late 2016)

Previous: $7,006

Current: $7,006 () out of $8,000

Vacation: $2539 (+$62) out of $3500

Homegame 1 - 3 hours

Game: 1/2 NL - 200 buy-in

Hours Total: 159.00

---

My girl decided to go to bed early tonight to get ready for Easter cooking, so I decided to join my friends at Home-Game 1 around 11:30pm. They usually don't play Saturdays, but got enough people together and decided to play a 1/2. Although I wasn't really into playing NL, I thought I could bring the chromebook, do some Omaha/8 study and hang for a bit. Won $62, fun watching the vacation fund continue to crawl up the chart.

I know I've said this before, but there's some tough competition at that game. I would take a 1/3 or even a softer 2/5 at the casino any day of the week. I do appreciate being challenged without having to put a lot of my bankroll at risk. I felt completely in control most of the night, missed a bunch of flush and oesd, ran it 3 times AQ vs JJ and lost twice, won a freeroll and my 92o 3 bet didn't quite work out against a fit or fold player that was isolating a loose player to his right all night.

I leave for my 10 day poker trip on Thursday. It was nice seeing everyone, however, I doubt I'll play any NL before I leave.

The Big Breakdown


It's been about 5 months since I've been on this journey (3 months of writing on TwoPlusTwo) and wanted to take an honest look at how I'm doing for better or worse.


Hours Played and Hour

I've played approx. 220 hours prior to starting this thread and 160 hours since Day 1 here for a total of 380. I averaged about 110 hours a month in November and December. When January hit, I thought I could pick up the pace, however, I'm only averaging about 50 hours of a month. Work has been more demanding over the last few months than expected. While I'd like to focus more on actual poker hours, the high salary and extreme flexibility in my career needs to always be the first concern. As things are starting to settle down again, I'm hoping to get at least 70 hours during my upcoming 10 day poker trip.

380 hours
Games: Mostly 1/2, 1/3 (some PLO (heater) and 2/5 mixed in))
Profit: $9,539
Hourly: $25.10

At this limit, I wasn't really concerned about the money as much as the growth. I feel like a completely different poker player than I did even 3 months ago when this thread first started.


Mental Game

I went from someone that played $100 buy-in at 1/3 because they would tilt too easily losing a $200 stack, to someone that can buy-in at $500 and lose a few stacks and not go on monkey tilt, I've made huge strides in this area. I feel like Jared's Mental Game book was a big part of this success, I can't speak highly enough about his book and audios. I'm at the point where I understand that variance is a gift. Without variance, it would be chess and only the best of the best would make any real money. No thanks, I much rather have weaker players go on incredibly heaters and continue to come back to the table. Just like a casino, I know I have to lose in the short term to win in the long term.

Happiness

I love my profession. I've been able to work in South America, Europe and S.E. Asia whenever I felt like doing a vacation/work month. On slower days, I'm able to bust out work late at night and mix in poker throughout the day because all that matters is the results. I have a great girl, amazing friends spread around the globe and starting to make some cool friends in the local area (only been here since Summer). Poker is like an instrument, it continues to get more interesting the better I get at playing it. I've traveled to so many great places and met so many awesome people because of the game. I'm still trying to find the right balance between work, home and moving up stakes. The journey is incredible.


Casino Enthusiasm

If I'm going to be honest with myself, listening to people moan and complain at the poker table all day (especially at low limits) is frustrating. I'm torn between wanting to make the game social and want to throw on the headphones to avoid listening to another player want to wash the cards or blame the dealer for a bad river.


Diet and Exercise

I'm failing miserably. I haven't made it a routine and I'm making excuses why I either don't have time to eat properly or why I can't make it the gym. I recognize this happening, I look forward to revisiting this at the end of the month.



What's Next

I'm really looking forward to venturing into heavy Omaha Hi, Omaha/8 and Big O. I want to eventually be diverse enough where I can play some the different mix games and my knowledge and bankroll continue to climb. NL is great, I've accelerated my understanding more in the last 3 months than probably the last few years. I just feel like there's more out there for me.

As I travel on these different poker trips this summer, I look forward to meeting a bunch of new people on similar journeys. Reading the different goals threads here on 2+2 really help me stay focused. This might be one of the few groups of people that I know (indirectly) that can relate to my own daily ups and downs.

I want to get my diet and exercise under control so I can have the energy to continue this journey. These crazy late nights were much easier in my 20s.