Day 29

Been opening up my range a bbbbbiiiiiiittttttt too much, especially OOP where calling vs some targeted villains is a poor justification for RIO hands I am also not extracting the maximum EV that I can and am indulging in some silly/fun bets (2$ into 60$ ), and other stuff, which might end up costing from 2-5$ hourly, but hey, it is part of my new, fun attitude +1K in 7h live, +300$ in 4h online

Am pretty pooped, so that is it for today folks





Challenge : +15, 133.16$

Day 30

Primo, a few observations. Winner's tilt. I understand that I simply logged in today and easily scooped in 1.2k in 2h online like its nobody's business, riding what is now just shy of a 20k upswing in 3 weeks, but why oh why do I feel sooooo sheepish about racking in a fast 200$ first thing at the casino... I mean, this is more a life thing than a necessary game adjustment, but there is no shame in being successful buddy... Accept it. Be happy. Sure your rocky past has programmed you to expect an incident at every turn of events, but go with the flow friend, ease up, smile. "Don't worry, be happy "

Secondo, stop that spewage. Sure, it was at the dead end of the night, when nothing could go right, but there was no need to squeeze light and dump a BI in the process But it sure as hell felt good though to become that rec player that lets his impatience/emotions govern him, didn't it +1.5k online in 3h, -600$ live in 6h





Challenge : +16, 004.76$

Week 4 in Review

The day was comprised mainly of a dinner with friends while being also punctuated with a healthy amount of small grinding sessions here and there, yet somehow I feel completely drained, as if this week has gotten the best of me... +300$ online in 3h, +200$ live in 2h


Online Pokerz : Solid week, good focus that was adequately balanced out with frequent breaks. Managed a decent volume with excellent results, so what is to hate, really : A game and 4.5k in 26h

Live Pokerz : Perhaps it is the fact that I am doing so well online, but I feel that they were some lapses in my general attention... Or some plain out disinterest... Part of it, is that I can go on auto-pilot and still easily scoop in pot, after pot, after... B+ game and 1.2k in 22h

Studying : Darn, faltered in this area again Studying has always been my achilles heel, and it has not changed with time... It is as simple as this : if I do not push myself to go into the lab and put in the time, improvement will never happen I have been reading quite a bit of poker related stuff, but not watching videos or opening PIO (at all) Things... must... change

Exercise : Managed to get in 1 tennis session and ran a couple of times, which is decent. Some of my usual tennis partners in crime are not as available this summer, so I will have to compensate with more running/hiking. Goals for this week : 1 tennis match, 2 runnings + 1 hike





Challenge : +16, 525.25$

Appearances (Day 32)

Overwhelmed with fatigue - I guess -, I inadvertently left my ipod at the bank while cashing out this weekend. Not a huge deal, mind you, as the worst that could come out of it was having to replace it (400$), but which would of left me for about 10 days without my little ipod buddy to go through the length of the daily shows...

- "I always see you walking around with it" says the nice lady at the bank, after she hands it back to me. Little does she know about my severe case of tinnitus and the constant ear drum buzzing that comes with it... to her - and perhaps most people -, I appear to be this disinterested dude, plugged in, focussed on scooping the monies while not giving a **** of the outside world. Of course, none of this is true. Everyone at the poker table knows I only put on the tunes exclusively during the shows (they are LOUD AS FRAAAACCCCCKKKKKK, I tell you folks ), I also made sure to purchase earphones (and not your d.bag headphones) and gone are the days of wanting to appear like a grinder Nonetheless, if one is not aware of my physically damaged hearing capacities, I can understand how I can appear to be that arrogant little d.bag...

I remember copying the deliberate/slow motions of Tom Dwan and seem to want welcome the fact that the whole world would stop just to contemplate how much I was going to bet next... I remember thinking it was cool to have a hoodie at the table, an ipod plugged in and raising every pot you could think of... Nowadays, everytime I see one of these wannabees (thankfully there are barely any in the far north ), I realize that it is the insecurity of not knowing if they will still be around in a year or 2 (as a pro) that makes them act like professional douche bags... That eternal doubt in ones skill... But in fact, when you have been pro long enough, fatigue becomes the overwhelmingly underlined aspect of the game... Fatigue and the knowledge that the gambling world is a dirty, dirty little microcosm... +300$ in 5h online





Challenge : +16, 795.52$

Table Stoism (Day 33)

When I find myself in the comfort of my pyjas, shirtless and anonymous in front of my screen, I couldn't care less what villains think of my table demeanour, verbals slurs or blunt behaviour If I take a nasty bad beat, I can scream at my (speechless) mac, toss some objects around the room, or even practice extensively my good-ole-bad French , all of which would be unconceivable at the casino, at least coming from yours truly... Of course, in the opinion of a lot other live players, I deserve every bad beat coming my way if it could somewhat balance out, in their eyes, my overall winnings... That said, I have nonetheless dropped somewhat my table stoism, letting myself be, you know, more human and stuff... Less of a robotic and rationale button clicker... Part of it is just to lighten up, to not treat the game as exclusively an EV affair... Sure, I am losing some value in the process by gambling a bit more in certain spots or being more of a rec player (it kinda of helps that I am making much more online than live as well), but part of me is striving to become that fun player again, to humanize myself... You see, in the past I would be very serious while playing hands, and then extremely friendly and human in between hands. But now that I am closing in on my financial goals and thus seeing the light at the end of this brief career, I feel more distanced, detached... It helps that I have nothing left to prove to myself or others as far as this game goes... -300$ online in 6h





Challenge : +16, 463.94$

Success (Day 34)

When I started playing professionally up here, I can attest with certainty that most people wanted me to fail... They were hoping that my upswing would be short-lived and that a nasty downswing would soon ensue to, you know, reestablish the proper order of things in the universe (a little like it happened in Florida, this was the second year that NLHE was introduced in cash games, and only the first summer that players were able to buy-in 100bbs deep) In fact, not only did everyone desire to witness the fall of that agressive-young-and-slightly-arrogant-French-Dude (but a very nice and humble fellow), but I only had 1 friend who believed I would succeed (even outside of my poker friends)

Why is it that we take joy in other people's failures? I also am guilty of this petty sentiment, when I see someone that I dislike - someone that I do not share their values/ideologies, for instance - hit a wall. Thankfully though, I have become a more accomplished and better person over the years, thus taking less pleasure in others misery, yet I must admit that that wishing-ill-thinking does at times naturally pop up when I witness ignorant racist-homophobic-rednecks, for instance, get what they deserve Still, I try to detach myself from this sentiment and usually take more joy in others success than in their misfortunes. +500$ online in 6h





Challenge : +16, 937.90$

Arms Wide Open (Day 35)

In Canada, we pride ourselves as being an accepting, multicultural and peaceful nation, all of which are great attributes and morally rightful ; I mean, what better values to fallback open, use as the essence of our political constitution and collective identity, right For example, our Prime Minister literally accepts immigrants with open arms (at the airport), we welcome political refugees fleeing the US of A (remember those slavery days ) and order has always been instilled within us, since the British. In fact, during the original Yukon gold rush of 1898, no murders and few were the robberies committed in the then populated Dawson City (folks safely left a huge amount of gold unattended in their cabins, for Pete's sake, while across the border, murders were committed on the main street of Fair Banks Alaska... in broad daylight ). This said - and this is a BIG this said and one that remains understated -, racism, sexism and inequality is still at the core of our everyday activities Why do Muslims still have to suffer 6 times more hate crimes than other etnies... Why do Native folks live by third world standards (in certain areas of the country)... Why do immigrants have to act Canadian, behave Canadian and adopt an all so Canadian attitude to be accepted... Sure, a Donald Trump would be impossible/unthinkable here, yet that is not a reason to remain complacent, to smile and close our eyes.

#AProudCanadian

As far as the pokerz goes, that was a fun ride : made just over 1k in the beginning, swung WAY down 2.1k, only to pivot right back up 2.4k ; let the good times roll +400$ live in 6h, +600$ online in 5h





Challenge : +17, 922.66$

Day 36

Well, that was an interesting game, even by Dawson's standards : we had a couple of players from Inuvik (located in northern Canada, just by the Arctic Ocean) who made the game a 1-2-25$ affair pre, or oftentimes, a 1-2-400$ game Unfortunately yours truly ran bad and, after a few misfired bullets, called it a night, came back here to blog, grind a couple of hours online and then relax, yo -800$ live in 5h, +2.8k in 5h online





Challenge : +19, 915.99$

Day 37

Been cutting out on the live hours in order to be fresher for online ; that being said, games have been good enough, at least as far as Thursdays and Fridays goes... (pretty dead the rest of the week) : +700$ live in 5h, -800$ online in 4h


The "Know thy Enemy, Out Goes GTO" Hand of the Day


After numerous limpers, I squeeze KQ to 20$ OTB and get 5 callers.

Flop (121$)
Q910

Decent flop, but not one where I will commit my future kids' College funds, hockey equipment monies or even ice cream pennies on a hot Canadian summer day ; after everyone checks to me, I do the same.

Turn (121$)
Q910 2

EP leads out for 25$, gets 1 caller as I decide to raise to 115$ ; EP shoves for 138$ and MP tank-calls (about 225$ behind) ; I complete.

River (535$)
Q910 2 5

MP checks, I bet 41$, MP reluctantly calls





Challenge : +19, 839.67$

Week 5 in Review (Day 38)

For some reason, this week took a toll on my system... Not sure if it was the swings - pretty abrupt and demanding, despite not feeling the direct impact in the short run... -, trying to put in more volume online - which completely mashed up my brain - or the lack of inspiring activities in my life - ehhhhh, definitely need to get out more, go hiking or perhaps find a girl... -, but am feeling this intrusive fatigue...


Live Pokerz : Am on autopilot, for the most part, just clicking buttons, not really paying (that) much attention to the tendencies/patterns of newcomers, and, quite frankly, unless we get some BIG games going any time soon, I have absolutely no plans on changing this laid back attitude of mine We are WAY ahead of pace for this challenge, am making WAY more online then live (110$/h online-35$/h live) and am thus happy that I reduced my volume in favour of the online one : B+ game, +600$ in 20h

Online Pokerz : It took all my energy to put in some decent volume this week - meaning grind for 1-2h, take a break, meditate, relax, go for a run, rinse-repeat. Am really happy with my game, my volume, my balance of mind and hope to repeat the feat next week : A+ game, +2.7k in 29h

Studying : Finally managed 1h of studying with a decent amount of time of reading poker related stuff (nothing that will improve my game, granted, but still satisfactory) Now let's do the same this week, shall we


#StudyingSucksBalls


Exercise : Eating healthy(ish), ran 3 times, but did not play any basketball or tennis. This week : run 3 times and 1 of either Bball or tennis


Much of the same for the upcoming 7 days, as I will aim for 50h, while nonetheless remaining flexible/attentive to my fatigue levels and mental balance. Would also be nice to cross the 25k halfway mark by the end of June, thus putting us WAY ahead on this challenge and giving us a good reason to **** off and go to Kluane Park camping for 3-5 days or something...




Kluane Park


Challenge : +19, 856.11$

Day 39

Was not impressed today when my antivirus located a trojan tucked into one of my files on mac I mean, I use my PC for all the dirty stuff that you can imagine, so outside of a few google pictures that I post ITT or in my other blogs, I rarely navigate outside of safe zones... But the mama-freaking-greedy-hacking-frackers have also contaminated google pics, especially stuff like cartoon pics (that I posted a ton in my previous Old Lady thread) to make sure kids will innocently upload malware on their parents computers Anyhow, makes you want to break a few teeth of those mama-fracking dirtbags, doesn't it In other news, my upswing knows no end : +200$ live in 2h, +1.5k online in 6h

#ToTheMoon





Challenge : +21, 512.60$

Day 40

We finally got a decent 16 turn up for the Tuesday's evening tournament at the casino, I manage to establish a limping strategy when I found myself with 6bbs 3 handed (which remain the standard even HU, 20bbs deep, when I manage to exploit a desired limping or raising range quite effectively , took down the tournament, and even had an out-of-towner-bush-worker-hippyish-dude scream "in your face" when his QQ held up vs my 99 AIP 6bbs effective Funny, my ego would of retaliated in the past, but I simply shrugged it off this time around and replied, "wow, that was terrible" (I probably would of snapped back/been more assertive if I was somewhere else in the world, not on home turf...) : +800$ live in 3h, +1.5k online in 5h





Challenge : +23, 805.22$

Dying Game (Day 41)

During my last passage in Vancouver, the live poker scene was not the most encouraging - to say the least -, with the EdgeWater no longer offering 2-5, reducing their tables to a mere 6 (all 1-2, with a PLO game) and Riverrock sharing its poker room with a sports betting section (down to 10 tables, albeit with 2 deep games of 2-5 running ) ; in Vegas, much of the same, as... what, 2 poker rooms were shut down last year...? Not much better in Asia, where Macau keeps on decreasing its poker venues as does Manila ; live poker has become (almost) inexistent in Vietnam and Cambodia has had some sort of resurgence, I guess... (with the presence of the RiverKing) ; signs were much more encouraging in Montreal, where all but 1 of the 17 tables at Le Casino de Montreal poker tables were occupied ... Which brings us up north... Not many new faces have been joining the familiar ones, tbh, and it is kind of disheartening to see the new group of 19+ish kids not take any interest in the game... If they did, their friends would follow suit and perhaps inspire the future generations, you know, in this healthy (for the ecosystem) trickle down effect But alas!, no, such is not the case, unfortunately... Only the same ole faces line up at the door, just short of 7pm... Those known smiles, grins and grumpy facial expressions splash the pots, year after year... And most of the time, I find myself to be the youngest in the game, at the ripe age of 40, ffs And let's not even speak of online poker, shall we So the question remains : how do we get new players into the game...

Was speaking with the casino manager yesterday, and brought up the subject of high hand promotion. If anything still attracts your sparse-home-game-pushing-20$-of-chips-with-your-drunken-buddies kind of fellow, is the backbeat-jackpot. Carrying a purse of money for an extended amount of time, is not really what an Arctic-small-town-casino should do, but some 50-100$ high hand promotions would be a good way to attract new action, me thinks... +100$ online in 5h




Happy Solstice all


Challenge : +23,929.00$

Swingy Thursdays (Day 42)

I guess the new standard for Thursdays is to swinnnnnnnnggggggg up, only to come tumblinnnnnnnnnggggg down Things were looking bright and golden when I took off for 1.4k in the first hour, then drop 2.1k, then picking myself up again... Funny thing is, it seems as if I handled my downswing better than my upswing... Once again I found myself quite sheepish while riding the peak of this latest wave, letting a guilty sentiment take over, as well as this fatalistic certainty - and quite nihilist, to be frank - that I will come crashing down pretty soon...

#ItIsGoingTooWellThatIFeelBad




-400$ live in 5h, +1600$ online in 5h


Challenge : +25, 064.48$

Day 43

Well, only a week left to clear my RB milestones, so will be spending most of my grinding hours online, might have to trim down on the length of these-here-blog-posts (apologies for all mistakes that are overlooked/slipped along the way folks ) : +800$ live in 5h, -900$ online in 5h

2 areas that I was seeking to improve upon (in my live table demeanour), was playing faster (quite the success ), and being less detached from my emotions ; so less professional/more natural, spontaneous, human, if you will... Both of which have been easily attained, as I am making solid decisions very rapidly (should be easy for online players, right ) and found a balance in between treating the results/outcome of hands objectively, and showing a little emotions (to make villains feel better with winning) I still have 2-3 hours to grind tonight before relaxing and sleep time, so that is it for today folks, peace out yo





Challenge : +24, 959.21$

Day 44

You remove a couple of nice-good-vibes-regs from the game, replace them with 1 or 2 basket cases... et voila!, total chaos ensues It was definitely strange vibes tonight, and not an atmosphere in which I wanted to spend an extended amount of time... Perhaps the rain had something to do with it, which also put a damper on my plans to go see an outdoors French musical band for St-Jean Baptiste... Or perhaps it is the presence of that fellow at the table, a nice-well-intented-old-man, that simply lost a few screws along the way and is left with only the bottle to console him +900$ live in 4h, -700$ online in 6h

#TimesTheyAreStrange





Challenge : +25, 175.81$

Week 6 in Review (Day 45)

Solid week at the tables. I came out storming out of the gate, only to hit a 3k downswing in the past 3 days online, which still got somewhat neutralized by the live results.


Live Pokerz : Better week results wise, even if I reduced considerably my volume (would often show up late at the casino, and leave a couple of hours before the 2am closing time). I feel as if my enhanced game (compared to last year) compensates for my lack of steadfast focus, thus keeping my winrate at similar levels. Which is fine. B+ game, 2.2k in 22h

Online Pokerz : We have put in the most volume online in a single week dating back to well over a year ago And some nice results, on top of that, despite fatigue being an issue later on... A+ game (for volume alone and maintaining a sound enough game), 2.3k in 35h

Exercise : Only ran once, and no tennis or bball, but given the abundance of rain this week and the volume invested online, it is fine. Probably lost 0.5kg since I have been in Dawson, and plan on losing an extra 2kgs this summer

Studying : Managed 1h and lots of reading, so all is good. Marked down some hands to run in Pio as well - but opening that software cringes the living shyt out of me


Might take some time off once July kicks in, given that I feel exhausted, slightly irritated (for no reason, outside of fatigue) and we are quite positively in advance in our pace towards the 50k





Challenge : +24, 382.08$

Day 46

Well, the recent abundant rain and (mainly) thunder, have not only sparked up some forest fires, put a damper on basketball/tennis plans, but have also fried my router, for the love of God (technology) Good thing we have 2 distinct wifi connections (that 6 of us share), as it would of been impossible to reach my RB milestones if I had to grind on a restaurant connection or something

Just putting this out there, but am planning on going to WSOPE in October (where I hope to play 2-3 events, and most notably the ME) and will do a 1 month meditation retreat while on the Old Continent as well ; if any of yous have any suggestions as places/cities/countries to visit in Eastern or Western Europe and stuff to do, please fire away Thus far, want to check out Serbia, Bosnia, Iceland (will stop for 1 week when I fly in from Montreal) and obviously Czech Republic.




+700$ online in 5h


Challenge : +25, 092.08$

Very cool pics!

Day 47

The live SnGs tournaments at the casino are deadlast for me as far as winrate goes (about 35-40$/h), yet remain the funnest The crowd is enjoyable, I take pleasure in playing 90% of my hands in the 40 minute rebuy period and the seasonal point system has created this friendly rivalry/banter in between myself and this other fellow So anyways, I really wanted to bink today, much less for the monetary factor, than to accumulate points and surpass villain... But then I had to of course lose 2 flips on the bubble, the last one to the fracking out-of-towner OMC


It all originated at the beginning of times, but LAGs and Nits will never get along... They live in diametrical opposite spheres, no effort is made at any form of reconciliation and terrible images of nihilistic-warfare spark their eyes when their gazes happen to cross paths...

#DeathToAllNits


Thx bro Most of these pics come from a buddy of mine that lives down in WhiteHorse, was born and raised in Vancouver, but made the move up north when he got hired by the Yukon government ; he is an Engineer that monitors all new mining projects and thus gets to travel all over the Yukon for work




-200$ live in 3h, -1.7k in 5h online


Challenge : +23, 085.89$

Day 48

Beautiful day in Dawson, where I got to grind for a couple of hours, book a solid 1.5k win , play some tennis, went for a small ride outside of town just to visit some houses and soak in the good vibes, yo I only got about 4h left online before releasing my final RB bonus, and then we got a 10-20 Limit Omaha 08 game tomorrow - my favourite - and 15 Alaskans coming in for the Canada Day Festivities (and USA long weekend), so will focus on live this weekend.





Challenge : +23, 971.66$

Day 49

Darn, it is hard to lose in the 10-20 08 game, and I definitely had to run cold as a Yukon January evening to do so... Which happened to be the case tonight, where I got continuously smacked in the face -800$ live in 6h, +1.8k online in 4h

So Photobucket hijacked all my pics on 2 + 2 and wants 400$/year to post on third party sites

#AreYou****ingKiddingMe

Unfortunately, this means that all my photos vanished on my travel blog as well... sigh Anyone know of another good option for posting pics?


Challenge : +24, 968.32$

Imgur.com and flickr.com look like the best free options. I was using photobucket for all my 1k+ pics.

Very inconsiderate of them to change to a paid model without prior notice.

Day 50

Jeez, for Canada weekend and upcoming American Independence Day, the action absolutely, utterly sucked gigantic balls I guess boredom/a lack of action will occur when you replace a few of the action regs with some nits... Called it a night after 4h (+200$), +200$ online in 2h


Thx man, will look into it (pics coming after the weekend guys...) Yeah, I don't know how you felt when you realized that all the pics in your blog had disappeared (your PGC is next on my reading list, by the way ), but I had this sentiment of being stripped naked/feeling somewhat hustled (am more concerned for my travel thread, where I put more time and effort in my posts ). This whole activity actually feels like a ransomware where a hacker encrypts your pics/hard drive and demands an exuberant amount to return the stolen data

It took me a few minutes to find their contact info (****ers did not put it up on photobucket.com), but wrote this agro-tilting-raging message to them :

"Greetings. I obviously know that you have every right in the world to suddenly, without warning, decide to (outrageously) price out hosting pictures for third parties, but know that my blog is full of your uploaded pictures (because I trusted your site), and now all my pics have disappeared. To charge 400$ yearly is absolutely ludicrous and until you offer something much - MUCH - more reasonable, you can go to hell.

Thx for doing this to all of us, that was so great and considerate of you

signed : an outrage customer"


Challenge : +25, 429.76$

Day 51

Bubble... bubble... bubble Considering that the payouts are in tune of 50%/30%/20% (when top 3 are paid), all incentive has me ripping it on the bubble, applying total-absolute pressure, going for the kill, yo , so it should come as no surprise that I have 4 pure bubbles this year - fair enough -, but alas only 2 first place finishes (and 1 third) And most of these bubbles came after losing 2 flips in a row, not 1 Bah, tournaments remain my favourite, they just happen to be where I (presently) run the worst. -200$ in 4h live, +100 online in 2h

Looking to buy a secondhand canoe, which would be a sweet little toy to have if I go to Kluane National Park for 4-5 days in the middle of July (Kluane is the south-western part of the Yukon, just by the Alaskan border). I pondered with the thought of studying 4h weekly this month, but have since opted to spend more time away from the table in favour of, you know, areas where the word "poker" has never set foot before :





Challenge : +25, 352.09$