yo boys, feels like it's been a while since my last update. I feel completely exhausted right now and don't feel like updating but gonna try to put a decent effort in before bed. Everything was cool until Friday...was eating well...working out under my normal regime...and putting in solid hours to everything that is important to me. Unfortunately, I fell of the rails pretty hard this weekend when I went to Turning Stone to play that series. I guess I didn't work out any of the days and ate like COMPLETE garbage. So difficult every time I go to that fkn country they just have good food everywhere and not many healthy selections. Not to mention I was on a casino resort and grinding every waking hour. Overall, had a really solid weekend and my friend I went with shipped it (I had a lil piece ). Ended up printing HEAPS in EV and running like **** the whole time....still ended up +1k from cash/a satelite chop. I really like Turning Stone and it's cool to go down there and get my own room for a weekend where I can grind all day and when tilted can just go back to peace in my room. People ask me why I don't like sharing rooms at live tourneys but damn is it ever nice going back to a nice king size in a cold dark room and chilling out I'll talk about hands etc in hand updates.


Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (3/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 7
20 Minute Meditation Session: 4/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -23 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 2/1
Hours in the lab: 1/2
Sessions played: 6/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation:4
Weekly Proft: -1 249
Yearly Profit: +31 069
Live Poker Profit This Year: +10 668

Book Review: My bad...been so fkn busy.

Hands:

Hand 1: Late into day 1 of the tourney I have 250k @ BB 3k. Dennis Phillips opens to 6k UTG. I'm on the BTN w/ A3o and did not see his minraise...so I put in 6k which was interpreted as a call ofc. BB peels. Flop A36ddd...Dennis checks, I bet 12k, BB folds. Dennis calls. TURN: 8x...Dennis checks, I fire 38k, Dennis tanks and then jams all in with about 70k more for me to call. I sigh call it off. He says "I think you're on a flush draw" and flips over AJss...river J...WP sir you did it.

Hand 2: On a 1/2 table of absolute glory. Kid is playing almost every hand and I have aggro af image on the table. Often squeezing over limpers and he seems less and less willing to fold each time. Orbit before he showed down A2o (limping and calling my 15$ squeeze). I have about 200bbs to start the hand he has around 120. A few limpers in LP and I bump it up to 17$, he calls others fold (I have K7dd). Flop is 753r. I c bet 20$ he calls. Turn is 5. This was a very weird spot on the turn and I put him all in for roughly 80$ more. He snaps me off with 78o and I hold.

Tourney Bust hand:
This one was kinda frustrating. Was 3rd hand of the day and I'm in the SB with Kd10x. UTG limps off around 30bb stack, I complete SB and BB checks. FLOP: Qd10d3x. Blinds are 5k and he leads 10k. UTG folds, I call. TURN: 8d. He bets 40k I call. RIVER: As. I jam all in for about 110k. He time banks forever and eventually concludes that he can't fold J7dd. Just felt so gross as he was older guy who I really felt will mke some massive folds here and would never have flushes. Clearly I'm wrong but at least he showed me that he had a tough time calling with basically the strongest hand he could have had. Means that all the hands I figured he could have such as 2 pair would snap fold basically. Meh prob bad and I somewhat regret it.

I apologize how messy those hhs are to read lol I'm so fkn tired.


Random Rant of the Week

To be completely honest guys my mind feels so foggy and hazy right now. All week I've just been having a tough time caring about much and I felt very unemotional. I definitely think this is from being burnt out from everything. Played roughly 60 hours of poker (mostly live) in the last 7 days or so which has entailed lots of travel and getting out of my normal routine. I think it's important to listen to my body at this time and just get back to the basics tomorrow, which starts with making a weekly meal plan (which I will post in here). Will do 4 workouts this week (I'll show you my program in here too) and go for a couple walks along with a nice massage. My body and mind need a break so it seems like a logical time before WCOOP and some live stuff in montreal. If I grind this week it will probably just be 1 or 2 tabling majors and trying to focus more and enjoy/relax. So yeah, I need to cleanse myself after that relapse of a weekend. Although things fell through with the one personal trainer I won't forget the one piece of advice he told me: it's a long road and you will fall off the horse sometimes. it's important in these times that you get back on the horse and don't give up. Tomorrow I get back on the horse.

As per the usual routine I need to post some type of rant in here. Seeing as I'm so OI and tired I'll try to post something coherent. Let's see what we can manage:

What I can think of right now that's quick and easy is "A Few Ways to Instantly Boost Your Live Poker ROI". I'm no live poker guru or anything and have a small amount of experience, here's just the stuff I've thought of off the top of my head:

The 10 Commandments of Live Poker

1. Thou shall not play pit games or games where thou fails to have an edge.

2. Thou shall tip minimally. A few $ in tips/hour comes right off our bottom line. If we make 35$/hour EV but tip 5$ we now make 30$. 5$xevery hour you play can be like 10k/year.

3. Thou shall table select accordingly and actively. Always be scanning for the softest games with the most EV. Don't get attached to one table.

4. Thou shall respect the dealers and opponents. Try to help make recreational players enjoy their time when they choose to spend their disposable income on poker.

5. Thou must play max. exploitative in soft lineups. It doesn't matter if they bet 15$ into a pot of 100$ on the river...if they're never bluffing we shall not donate.

6. Thou shall keep expenses off the tables to a minimum. Gas/food/rooms etc...

7. Thou shall set a stop loss and take a break if mindset is not on point.

8. WUG?

9. WUG?

10. WUG?


Sorry if that is sacreligious or something lol. Tried to think of a quick way to jot down some points/ideas


Time for a nice beauty sleep and then gonna beast this week. Will be back tomorrow with my workout and nutrition plan for the week. Thanks for reading.



"Sometimes I wish that I could go into a time machine right now and just look at my self and say, 'Calm down. Things are gonna be fine. Things are gonna be all great. Just relax."

-Tristan Wilds

8. thou shal not drink/party till all the work is done

9. thou shal never ever berate, laugh at or belittle anything a fish ever says or does EVER he is always right in his thought process and analysis

10. read rule 9 again and again

always try talk my self into live games in the UK but grinding 5/6 days then going to sit and listen to guys who wouldt beat $1 husngs online tell me how bad i played a hand or 'id of flopped a boat if i called J4o oop to a cold 5bet' shut up mate

but yeah so much money to be made, i just always end up out with friends and family rather than at live days these last 5-6 months, will make the return for punta cana i think tho best trip ive had last year

and good to see a few punts in they boom QQ hand ❤️

as always gl mate keep it coming insane how focus'd and on track you are for a 25 year old im 31 and dunno how to work a ****ing iron 🤷🏻*♂️

thanks squire i agree with those points idk how i didnt think of them myself haha

yeah when they give me advice in hands etc it tilts me too lol but i guess if you kind of just find it funny and laugh to yourself it's a bit of a win. for example i ran a bluff vs some young kid who im pretty certain was on very scared money and it like sent him into a panic when i jammed river and ended up tank calling prob his strongest hand he could have there lol. then i have to listen to some dolt on the table telling him how im like ALWAYS bluffing there and how he played his hand PERFECT. Ofc in this spot he doesn't beat any of my value range and im seldom bluffing/his line was pretty terrible. WHATEVER, just smile to myself and earn their $ in the longrun i guess...and post my whines in this blog

I think the time has passed where my hourly in online MTTs is so variable and likely lower than live games (if I played big enough/soft enough stakes). I sort of have this plan to move somewhere that has really good live games and just grind my ass off...build up the BR/travel a bit and then gtfo of this game.

Appreciate the kind words and like I've said I have big issues with discipline (especially with diet) and that's solely the biggest reason as to why I haven't met my fitness goals yet this year. About to do a skype call with my personal trainer friend and discuss my meal plan for the next month. I'll post both plans in here upon completion.

PS: Went golfing today with a poker friend + 2 of his friends that I didn't know. Ended up talking a bunch with the 1 guy regarding a new cash cow hustle that I'm looking into. More on that another time

Unfortunately my friend had something important come up and will have to postpone until tomorrow. On the bright side of things I had a nice conversation with a guy I consider to be ~top 10 in MTTs which really gave me some bright perspective about things and gave me quite a bit of inspiration to get my ass back in the lab and putting in more volume.

Heard this little quote today that I think is genius:

"The underlying cause of most unfulfilled lives is that we are too close to ourselves to see clearly enough to get out of our own way."

I wanted to leave you guys with this pod where I heard it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7WlRnLNE4

Two really cool things taken away from this:
-Where there's reactivity, there's a wound.
-When you feel better or less than other people there's a wound.

When I listened to this stuff it definitely hit home with me in regards to more than a few different things. For example with the former I know I react to certain stimuli that really makes me react in non-normal ways and the more I think about it...it really could be because of certain stuff that happened in my childhood or w/e.

For example I think this could apply to poker:was reading some stuff on mental game a long time ago that was saying guys who have a lot of issues in 3 bet pots often had issues of being bullied when they were younger. I'm not sure the degree of truth here but it definitely seems logical. Not that I was bullied when I was a kid or anything but more just showing how mental game leaks could seep into our performance without us knowing due to issues we didn't know we had.

Anyways, have a listen if you guys want. Putting in a big grind tomorrow. GN and GL.

Just got back from Montreal. I'm way too tired to do my full weekly update atm but I want to do the hands of the week portion while they are still fresh in my mind. Long story short the tourney was a 220$ buy in with several starting flights that had super quick structure and then day 2/3 got better levels etc, was a 1m gtd. I was in for 6 bullets total and lost a 60bb pot 3rd hand of day 2... 3 bet AA from sb vs ep open, guy jams i snap...he has AK we lose. Super disappointing to lose but I really feel I made heaps of EV again this weekend and eventually my ROI shall gravitate towards the mean right

Hand 1: BB 5k. (From what I assume is competent reg) opens to 12k from MP off 180k stack. I defend in BB off 250k stack w/ K5hh. FLOP: 2h4x6x. He c bets 16k I call. Turn is 7h. I lead out 45k he calls. River is Jc I jam he snaps with KJo. Claims he was probably calling all brick rivers with K high. Seems so ambitious/stubborn I would have lots of strong hands there and KJ doesnt even beat some of my bluffs on the turn. Lucky river for him but meh I like my line and I think that will get heaps of big folds from population.


Hand 2: Nearing the end of day 1 there is a very loose/passive/weak player who is limping lots. He limps in hj off 400k stack @ BB 10k. I complete in the SB off 140k stack w/ K4o. BB checks. FLOP: KQ7...blinds check, he c bets 30k...i decide to jam and he calls Q7dd...pretty dumb but meh

Hand 3: BB 1k UTG limps off 60bb stack. I iso AJhh from the c/o to 4k, he limp/raises to 14k...i call. Flop KhJx10x...check check...TURN: J...he checks, i bet 20k he calls. River J...he open jams and i snap quads... he has AK



That's it for now boys I'm exhausted. Big week ahead and I want to put in a solid update tomorrow night

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (3/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 4
20 Minute Meditation Session: 3/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -23 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 1/1
Hours in the lab: 2/2
Sessions played: 6/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation:1
Weekly Proft: -699
Yearly Profit: +31 069
Live Poker Profit This Year: +29 677

Book Review: I can't even make excuses anymore.



Random Rant of the Week

I want to avoid being repetitive in these posts but it's tough to think of content every week

The idea for this rant actually came to me when I was driving to Montreal with my friend and he said something like "the biggest blockage of success in men is their ego." I wouldn't necessarily say it's THE biggest but imo it is certainly one of them. Here's why:

What is the ego? "The ego is an identity of our own construction, an identity which is false. If we take all of the beliefs of what we are-beliefs about our personality, talents, and abilities- we have the structure of our ego." When we develop such thoughts about ourselves we start looking for supporting evidence to support and reinforce that ego. These ideas about ourselves start to get developed/reinforced/strengthened when we are very young. Problems often arise with our ego when it is overly negative or overly positive. For example a kid who was bullied and ridiculed when he was young might bring those feelings of inadequacy into adulthood causing him to respond to social scenarios in a way that "avoids pain", even though those self-thoughts are completely skewed. Intense emotional turmoil may also arise when factors that may alter our ego arise.

The thing I want to talk about this week is the protection of our ego in regards to rejection. The fear of rejection is an extremely common fear among men. Perhaps we might fear that people won't accept us for our true selves, our beliefs, our appearance, or whatever else. I'll say first hand that this fear can be debilitating to an absurd extent. If not dealt with, this fear will have a tremendous influence on our relationships, our physical health, our mental health, our career, our interactions, and our overall happiness and well-being.

Here are some scenarios that I'm sure almost all of us have dealt with at one point or another:
-There is a very attractive girl that we see and we give ourselves every reason under the sun not to go talk to her: "I'm not good enough for her" "she probably has a boyfriend anyways" "she looks busy, I wouldn't want to bug her".

-We're talking to a hot girl or a guy of high status and we have trouble being ourselves because we put on some front that we believe they won't reject us for. Maybe we're overly nice or even lie about our beliefs because we believe our true beliefs won't be accepted.

-We overlook a dance floor and give ourselves every reason not to go have fun and dance (even though deep down we have a sneaking suspicion that we would have heaps of fun). We sit there with our beer across our chest thinking thoughts like "wow, that guy look stupid" "As long as I sit here and look cool there won't be any rejection or wayward thoughts against me".

-We're getting into working out and healthy living and we worry that people might judge us. We will give ourselves every reason under the sun not to go to the gym: "It's too much work" "people will think I look stupid" "I'm out of shape and the gym is for in shape people" and all this other bull ****.


Get the point? By protecting our ego from day to day we actually inhibit our ability to grow as a person. We fear rejection so deeply that we will go out of our way to do whatever it takes to put ourselves in a position to not get rejected. We sacrifice our happiness, our growth, and our well-being to avoid emotional pain.

Some theories about why we fear rejection:

-Humans are social beings that have evolved over thousands of years. For 99% of those times we traveled in small tribes where we relied on approval of our tribe for survival. If our tribe rejected us we would be left alone to die.

-We fear that women will place us into some category below what we believe of ourselves. If you think about how ludacris it is to fear rejection from a girl we've met for 30 seconds...we fear she will judge us in 30 seconds about who we are as a person...we've been on the planet for several years and been through so much and we're gonna let someone judge us on 30 seconds?

Long story short, the fear of rejection can and will manifest itself into our everyday actions (subconsciously and consciously). It will cause us to conform to the beliefs of others, craft some fake persona which will cause excessive angst, cause us to be sheepish followers in life, and stop us from being our best selves.

I know it's hard to tell ourselves this but other people CRAVE authenticity. We want others to be close and real with us. Instead of putting on this bull**** persona to please other people get out there and do the things you want to do and be the person you want to be. In the long run our relationships will be of much higher quality and will be much more pure (including with ourselves).

Phew, that was a long rant. This is a topic that is very dear to me and I've been working hard the past few years to solidify my confidence and relationships. I know first hand how tough things can be for some guys

A Small Update:

I've really been grinding hard live and trying to put myself into some high EV spots. So far I've printed heaps of EV and will continue working to do so. There was a time during the live tourney where I actually may have gotten "out of line in the chat" with another reg. After the break I went and apologized to him and I wanted to talk more about the hand and try to understand his thoughts and he said no offence was taken and that I should feel good that he took this line vs. me because he could tell I was thinking on a high level (I still think his line sucks tho hehe)

There was another instance where I sucked a guy out twice who was to my left and I was friendly with him the whole time. I definitely did own him in a few spots though and you could tell he was getting quite frustrated. Upon busting him he started berating me saying "I thought you were good" "That was a terrible call" etc etc. I flattered myself by just saying "hey sir it was nice playing with you, perhaps my call was bad, gg ".

Lastly, it was quite painful losing AA to AK aipf for 60bb pot on hand 4 of day 2 ITM but it felt good knowing I got it in super good and there was nothing else I could have done (feels way better than punting it off). I just smiled and said nice hand sir, GL the rest of the way everyone. I wish I could hold myself to this standard far more often in live poker

I'm gonna eat healthy/workout hard/grind hard this week and then possibly head back to MTL next weekend for some more heavy grinding. Also have a couple dates lined up as well


Thanks for reading my hombres and shoutout to anyone who's still here reading @ the end of August. This year is flying by and I know I haven't made that much poker $ or worked that hard in poker, but I'm really starting to feel a lot better about almost all aspects of life. Cheers.

"The right thing is always the hardest thing to do." -Jason Isbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hP17Rp5JZ0

I love the way you structure your blog posts! Nice balance of poker and life stuff, keep up the good work. I'll follow your journey!

Nice update bud! Keep ravaging. I see you talking about MTL, where is your home base?

thanks d00d!

thanks man. My home base is in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario. There's a really good live series going on in Montreal right now so it's occasionally worth the 6 hour drive to go hunt some EV

Well guys I just had another final 15 run in the mini ST, wasn't lucky enough to get top 3 this time. Unfortunately, I had a pretty rough ending as I was super card dead/bricking flops when I had stations sitting to my left and just running into tops of ranges. I really felt like the whole tournament I played elite poker until the last hour or so. Ended up being 6 handed or something and opened A5s UTG off 24bbs and Austrian guy 3 bets me...decided to 4b rip because suited wheel aces are prob best bluff candidates in these spots if we have FE...whether or not I do or not is up for discussion. He had JJ and we lose.

On another note I did get 3rd in the 44 prog. t which it's nice to start getting some deep runs and what not. Really feel like I'm getting some anxiety when I'm deep in tourneys that is leading me astray from my A+ game. Really gonna do some lab work and mental game work next few days and iron out these kinks.

https://www.boomplayer.com/24986600_4953A6E792
I really liked this bluff.

https://www.boomplayer.com/24986226_6CC81DB298
vs same villain as hand below

https://www.boomplayer.com/24986051_DC096AE852
this may be spewy but he showed an ace and folded which was my objective of the sizing. he said "wp if this is a bluff" lol.

https://www.boomplayer.com/24982879_2725502DAC
maybe i should just jam this one pre flop idk, i like flop clal tho

For what it's worth, embracing being the weirdest guy in the room and having no sense of dignity has worked really, really well for me.

I read once that one of the biggest reasons people not enjoying there job or having anxiety at work is due to fear of losing there job.

It was quite eye opening to me as I was feeling anxiety in a 9--5 after moving from poker and once I stopped worrying about losing my job I gained confidence, it's something that you need to keep reinforcing though and build up on through other aspects of work life confidence.

In terms of how that can relate to poker, best Ng underrolled or having bad Brm will always give you that fear of losing your job and you won't be able to perform at your peak. I also think being (this is obv) doing your best to surround yourself with better players etc.

One thing I will say is though If you feel you really can't make it and are always scared of what doing poker for a job will bring you in the future start doing something on the side or look into other things.

I put tonnes of hours into poker and it was very difficult to hang up the boots so to say and I probably should have done it earlier (or put more work into my game and discipline)

I hope this post helps atleast someone, keep crushing Walmart!

It was nice f*cking you up bvb for 2-3 hours. totally owned you in the 1 pot we played that when limp check/checkcheck/checkcheck/checkcheck.

#badreg

lol

hey bud thanks for the post. i guess there's a bit of a conundrum in poker (for me personally) that when I have a big BR I don't always play optimally because I lose the hunger which in turn leads to some "donation calls" or "spews". When I've been broke I've experienced lots of anxiety as well for example being deep in a tourney and realizing that winning is the difference between clearing makeup and paying rent or vice versa. I definitely respect the decision to retire from poker and I think it's probably a GTO longrun decision for a high % of regs. Good to hear you have found some confidence and things are looking up!

haha ur a funny guy that was a good time. GL rest of the series if ur still out there!

Hey guys ive been away for 5 days grinding live poker like a fiend. Really havent been doing much other than waking up and grinding. Tourney today then im coming home after. Cant wait for a couple days off and to get back in the gym (and ofc make the weekly update )

Bleh, it's Wednesday and I finally have some alone time at home. Seeing as the week is already half way over I don't see much point in updating for the missed one last week. We're gonna have to chalk this up as the first missed weekly update of 2017, and the last. I'll put up a good one this Sunday to make up for it. I'll also do a quarter ass one now about last week:

A Little About What I've Been Up To:

For about 3-4 days every week I've been travelling to different venues to play tourneys/cash games. The hours I've been putting in at these stops is absolutely absurd lol. Between traveling and grinding I really haven't had a whole lot of energy to put towards anything else. I've been mixing in gym sessions every night that I've been home but definitely need to start finding ways to eat better/exercise more when I'm on the road. Have started getting some comments about losing weight/looking better which is nice and also motivating to hear.

A Little Bit About Short Term Plans:

So as any grinder who doesn't live under a rock knows...WCOOP makes it's return this weekend. I really haven't been putting in many hours online at all and need to do some prep for this series. I don't think I'm gonna play zombie volume or anything this year but I definitely want to keep table counts low and print some EV$ and get some deep runs in good value events. There is also a couple live events I want to play, and this weekend is labor day in Canada. I do have some plans for a little bit of a vacation this weekend but it sucks that it conflicts with WCOOP day 1...guess I'll have to make some type of compromise.

Gonna try to do a tonne of lab work this week and also get in some rest and relaxation (been a while since I had some). Got some more heavy grinding to do. Stuff that needs to get done this week:
-4 workouts and healthy clean diet
-Finish RYE course
-Review 5 different HHs with 5 different people...any volunteers?
-Spend some time in nature
-Spend some time with friends and family (fishing with bro later this week)
-Mentally prepare myself for battle

Some Hands:

Oh yeah, I got 3rd place in a small live bowl I played with 7k ut. Long story short my AA lost to KK aipf for basically the win. I played awesome though and here's some hands from the live stop cash games and the tourney:

1. We're playing 2/5/15$ blind UTG straddle late at night 6 handed. Asian man who is stuck a bunch and seems to be reasonably flustered with me is the blind 15$ this hand. UTG and UTG1 both limp in for 15...I hold KsKc in the co and make it 75$....blind guy makes it 175$, other guys fold, i call. FLOP: 10d8d6c...he bets 300$....I have about 1k behind and decided to jam here....he snaps with JJ....we hold the baby

2. This was a massive spew by me @ 2/5. EP is loose awful fish who makes it 20$...i have K9ss in co and make it 60$...BTN is also a bad loose monkey who calls the 60, fish folds (we are both about 1k deep). FLOP: Jh10h10s....i checked the flop which i think is sort of bad OOP....BTN checked...TURN: 7s....I bet 80$, he raises to 200$....I puke and call 120. RIVER: 7h. I check and he bets 100. I get tilted by his stupid bet sizing and jam in around 700$ like an idiot and geet snapped by JJ. FML #embarassing...I actually can't remember the board texture very well but I remember that was the flop and the river was like super wet when the flush got there and also a bunch of straight draws...i sensed weakness in his bet and fell right into his stupid trap haha.

3. 4 handed in the tourney I have the CL BB 12k I have 350k, 2 10bb stacks and BB has around 270k. I limp K9o in the SB he checks. Flop Jd10d3c....I c bet 14k he calls. Turn: 6c...I bet 40k he calls. River: Ad...I jam all in for a little more than pot and he time banks forever and then folds. WE GOT ONE THROUGH RAIL

A Little Rant of the Week:

Gonna change things up a little bit this week because I'm short on time and my rants could use a little change of pace/style/content:

Just gonna list some random thoughts that I had over the weekend, maybe you will find some interesting :

-Why am I drinking this coke when I know it's horrendous for me?
-What % of players in this poker room believe they are winning players? Maybe 95%?
-What % of players in this poker room are actually wining players? Maybe 25%?
-What % of players in this poker room would be making a better wage working @ a fast food restaurant? Maybe 90%?
-Asians are known for being smart/mathematical people...why do they infest slot machines?
-I have a lot of respect for live regs who do this everyday. I can see why they are so miserable.
-I really enjoy cruising in the summer with the music up and the windows down on a sunny day.
-The 2 girls on my table are sexy af.
-It's nice to have a table where everyone is friendly and having a good time.
-It's funny when 2/5 regs talk down on 1/2 regs
-Wtf am I doing with my life? Is this the life I chose?
-Why is this guy flatting my EP open in the SB and x/r me on 665r?
-It boggles my mind how much $ casinos print off of human degeneracy
-It's one of my best friends' bday and I wish I could be home to spend time with him
-I love poker.
-I hate poker.
-I need a vacation
-Life is very interesting and amazing at times
-I need to think of something random for my random rant of the week which is days overdue now.

Well, hope you guys enjoyed the change of pace. I'm happy I got to hit up Massey Hall last night in Toronto for a Jason Isbell show (check him on youtube if you haven't)...been quite a while since I've spent quality time with some of my friends. Time for a bunch of lab work this week and prep for WCOOP. Excited to be home with some free time now...it's been a while ....cheers guys...I appreciate you!


"How do you get the professional poker player off your doorstep? -Pay him for the pizza." -Old funny man at my table telling jokes this weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzF1cLpCmuk

great video by the way^ I meant to include it in the above post but it won't let me edit for w/e reason.

The good news: I've had a super productive week and got a lot of stuff done.
The bad news: The "week" really only counts as 2 days seeing as I didn't get home until Wednesday really and I head back on the road tomorrow until Monday.

Didn't eat great this week because I've barely been home and also didn't want to get fresh groceries until Monday when I'm home. Had a concert with friends and a friends Bday dinner mixed in. Not atrocious but not GTO that's for sure. On the bright side I've been busting my ass in the gym and being productive with my days (cleaned the fk out of my place, reached out to the people I wanted to including my mentor, found some guys to swap hh's with, gave it 100% in the gym...feels good to be trending in a positive direction...feels really fkn good.

Here's a couple hands from the sporadic online games I played this week:

https://www.boomplayer.com/25075175_C9FD256A15
guy had a ~112$ bounty on his head and was huge japanese blaster. really not sure i have enough equity to be calling this off on the turn...depends what his range looks like i suppose.

https://www.boomplayer.com/25075165_3BC5A0EB0B
vs a competent reg. tbh im like always checking turn in this spot but ive started betting sometimes. almost feel like calling turn raise is mandatory and calling when river bricks. i guess i'll have so many better bluff catchers here that I don't need to call this thin. idk what you guys think other than checking turn? -also a side note i think not 3 betting pre flop here is a big mistake. i didn't see the 6bb stack there with decent bounty therefore he will be opening so much wider.

https://www.boomplayer.com/25075079_4541FDD651
guy had minimum bounty. not sure if this is an iso or not. doubt he jams super wide UTG but it is a prog so idk, god i fkn hate progs.

https://www.boomplayer.com/25074868_755C795EDA
made this 3 bet exploitatively to isolate a big fish (hence my small sizing as well to keep in his kx and jx which i dominate)...post flop im clueless haha...feel like checking flop is prob good.

Seeing as WCOOP is coming up and I want to make sure I produce some good EV during the series I'm going to compile a small list of series grinding "tips" that I've found over time:

1. Just because a tournament has the label "COOP" on it does not mean that it is an instant $ print and "must play". It's important to inspect the strength of the field and make sure that you are +EV in the field.

2. Be responsible with shot taking: Just because it is a series does not mean we need to take extensive shots at big scores. It is a decent time to shot take some of the bigger games as they are softer/better structure than other times of the year/with bigger prize pools. Sell action if you are uncomfortable with the swings associated with big field tourneys.

3. Do not feel obliged to grind every single tourney every single day. Taking days off is very important to reset and refocus ourselves. Sessions tend to be very long during series and mental strength is of extreme importance. These tournaments are marathons not sprints. The guys who can be disciplined and make solid decisions under big pressure and exhausting hours have a huge edge.

4. Get everything done that is irl important before grinding that day. You don't want to have burdens hanging over your head to take the dog for a walk or hit the gym. Get it all done before hand.

5. Meditate when possible before sessions or even on 5 minute breaks. Use breaks wisely and have meals pre-prepared before your sessions. This will allow more time for breaks to refocus.

6. You will win big pots, lose big pots, make good plays, make bad plays...regardless of what happens stay strong and stay on your game...worry about the future and making your EV as high as possible.

7. Have fun and enjoy the game. We never know when this whole poker thing might get lifted from beneath our feet....appreciate/embrace it....and win some fkn $$$!!!!

8. WUG


-The above is a note to cement into my head for myself during the series to keep on track of the end goal...figured I would put it in here in case it can help one or two of the readers
-It's labour day weekend here in Canada which means summer has basically come to an end. I'm going to enjoy the holiday and will have to skip Sunday and possibly Monday...you can bet your ass that I'll be fresh and ready to kick some ass when I return.

Til' next time...GL my brothers

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (3/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 3
20 Minute Meditation Session: 6/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -26 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 3/1
Hours in the lab: 4/2
Sessions played: 2/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation:3
Weekly Proft: sharkscope down for me atm but didnt grind/lose much
Yearly Profit: +31 069
Live Poker Profit This Year: 10 688

Book Review: Alright fk if I don't read a book this week and post cliffs will give first responder/last responder 100 USD. Have been very busy and productive but need to be reading more.

Random Rant of the Week

Hey guys, need to keep the update relatively quick this week as I'm trying to budget my time a little bit better than I have been. Long story short I've been doing most of what I want to be doing and trending upwards but just don't know where the fk my time goes. I'm documenting daily WCOOP updates on snapchat with day to day profits/losses and my total series/total personal series profits. I plan to sell a big chunk of action to all bigger events and have a big % of myself in smaller events. I'm doing a little thing where if I profit on the series will donate some % of my personal profits to charity...will add some motivation/hopefully give back to the community a little bit.

As per the weekly routine I suppose I gotta rant about something now...totally forgot to think of something all week so this is gonna be on the fly...

It was early September 1997 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. My mother walked me to my first day of school. The bell rang and I was brought to my class room. My teacher addressed the class and started explaining the various rules of the class room: if you would like to talk put your hand up, you will have recess at xyz times, you will complete the work assigned to you (the same work that is assigned to the whole class), and you will be quiet when the teacher is speaking. Welcome to day 1 of "the institution."

Little did I know that I would be in for another ~20 years of formal education...14 years forced and another 5-6 by choice. That's a lot of fkn man hours if you do the math. There is no denying that educating our youth is necessary for the positive function of our society. I'm not writing to question the WHY of educating our youth, this much is obvious. I want to question the "WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN AND HOW" we educate our youth.

If you compare the education system to our parents/grandparents generations...what's changed? Maybe the teachers would give them the strap when they misbehaved or they would get bullied profusely on the playground with no intervention? Aside from that, the school system is basically the exact same. You go sit in class @ 9 am, have a teacher spit out some lesson, go on recess, repeat, eat lunch, repeat etc until 3 pm when you got to go home. Basically just grooming you for "real life jobs".

So here we are in 2017 and schools are teaching in a very similar style to how they were in 1917. The world has changed so rapidly in the last 100 years that I don't even think we comprehend the magnitude of the change...let alone in the last 10 years. For starters, the demand/need for certain jobs in certain sectors has shifted/will shift drastically yet schools are basically spitting out homogeonized drone students.

Without getting too carried away here I just want to summarize a few of my biggest concerns with the modern day schooling system:

1. The material taught today is often redundant and useless in the modern world. This leads to a completely inefficient use of time and resources. I can remember several instances where teachers would make us memorize formulas or maps or w/e. In modern times I think we need to teach students to be more "resourceful". Instead of spending hours memorizing formulas that will be forgotten in days...teach them how to derive the formulas or how to find their solutions online. Nowadays, we have the internet which can be used incredibly efficiently to find information.

2. The system encourages regurgitation onto a page rather than a thorough understanding of the topic in many cases. So many times I can recount all nighters with red bull where I would just be memorizing things. I'd wake up the following morning and regurgitate it all onto a page for an exam...then pass out....then forget it all.

3. Lacking of important skills in the modern world: why not teach kids how to do taxes? how to manage relationships? how to manage their health in a world that basically fosters obesity?

4. The homogeonization: All kids take the exact same subjects and have the exact same lessons taught. Since when did everyone learn the exact same way? It's obvious that this way is the most cost effective and easiest from an administrative point of view. Why are kids who are geniuses at writing forced to do learn complex math they will never use in their field? It's probably far better to let the writers gain expertise in writing and the mathematicians become experts in math...rather than mediocre writers and mathematicians combined.

5. It shapes us to conform to society. Of course this is necessary for the function of society but it is also counterproductive to growth and advancement. I'm afraid that schools don't encourage creativity or outside of the box thinking enough.


Anyways, that's just some thoughts that I had on the matter. It's quite late and I'm quite exhausted so not sure how coherent all of that is. Ideally I'd like to put in more thought/effort into these going forward as I've been slacking lately. Best of luck in WCOOP everyone...I'll be grinding hard...feels good.


"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." -Bill Bradley

In for freerolls, glgl this WCOOP.

Will respond to rest of the update tomorrow morning.

I sort of agree with your pov. However, that's what college is for already. Could argue there should be much more diversity already in high school, although you are often not sure at that age which direction you want to head in your life. I guess I agree that a lot of study methods (such as blatantly having to memorize formulas eg) most likely aren't efficient anymore, however it's still a good preparation for later stages such like college. Overall agree though we should focus mch more on practise rather than mainly theory.

Gl during wcoop bud

GL this month, man!

Thank u again 4 the nice updates.

Education is such a huge topic..I mostly agree with what u write and especially with points made about internet/information and practical knowledge (taxes etc).

I couldnt leave without comment ur thoughts when u were at the live tables.

Especially the ones about what u doing in life, how miserable "live pros" appear and how u love/hate poker.

I remember myself thinking "i hope i wont be here at my 60s playing this game to support myself" the 1st and last time i tried to play live poker 4 a living. That lasted very little but couple of years later this exact same thought came to mind with my current job. Kinda make me see some things differently. Still not sure if its something i could do or not (play live cash games - assuming that i can win ofc).

Anyways, take care buddy and glgl @ the series

Cheers!

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thanks! cuz of u i need to spend the lion's share of friday and saturday grinding it out in the reading lab hopefully i can find some content in the book i read to be of >100$ value in the long run

i really wish i wasn't half in the bag when I wrote that update haha. i definitely didn't convey the points as clearly as I would have liked. im not sure how the schooling system is over in Europe compared to North America but here our high schools are basically focused primarily on putting you through a funnel into college/trades/university and preparing you for that path. i feel this is fairly necessary for a functioning society in a way but it's very inefficient and archaic at the same time. managing relationships is one of the most important things for our financial success and happiness in life yet the only lessons I learned about that were just through first hand experience. to make a long story short i just want to say that schools should teach more on/encourage things like: managing mental/physical health, managing money, managing relationships, and soft skills for life.

thanks ma dude best of luck to you too! will be catching up on your PGC in some free time this week.

thanks for the kind words sir. will be catching up on your pgc as well this week. it's weird because through all my years of grinding I've always said "I'm gonna leave this game soon" and yet here I am grinding away still I definitely hope that trend does not continue until I'm 60 as well lol. I always want to play poker recreationally to some extent but I have a tough time with moderation...a very tough time best of luck in wcoop if you are playing!

Hi guys,

As you may know I've spent a lot of time and energy in the past year on trying to understand my feelings, who I am, who I want to become, and why I think/behave the way I do.

Throughout recent years I've experienced significant decreases in my ability to feel emotions. Throughout my childhood and adolescence I would consider myself to be quite emotional. The range and spectrum of emotions that I could feel from sadness, happiness, love, hate, excitement, and many more was quite intense. I attribute my numbed emotions in previous times to things such as: mild depression, weight gain, hormone changes, coping mechanisms, and possibly just standard aging (I guess this is somewhat natural with age?)

In times where I can be completely honest with myself I believe my emotions were numbed drastically because of mass multi tabling online poker. I mean, if you really think about the focus and attention required to play 20 tournaments at once it is nothing like the human brain is used to in history. Since when did our ancestors have this type of load on their brain ever? Not to mention the fact of all the added stress and pressure when swinging $ amounts that I was never even used to. I went from making 10$/hour working at Walmart stocking shelves to swinging 5 figures month to month.

I remember when I was 19 years old playing Blackjack at the casino and having 10$ on the hand...whether win or loss I would feel intense emotion. I could have 100x that amount on a hand of Blackjack today and I don't think I could replicate that emotion.

So what is my theory? (Keep in mind this is complete speculation with 0 research and it is just my personal theory). Seeing as I have a very minor level high school science background I won't use any jargon or technical terms. My theory is that whatever controls our emotions (dopamine maybe?) is something like a patch of grass. When you walk over the patch of grass it keeps moving itself back to normal position. However, when you repeatedly walk over the grass, it becomes damaged and eventually dies. I have a weird feeling that this is similar with whatever controls emotions in our brains.

I remember in the early days of poker experiencing tonnes of emotions and tilt etc. The more experienced I've become with poker and variance the less I seem to care and the stronger my focus has become with adversity. I used to tilt very easily and lose control. In 2017 my tilt is probably just playing a little sub-optimal but not really bad. My suspicion is that our brains learn to cope and adapt to the grind life. Part of making it more tolerable is learning to supress and numb our emotions.

Here is a very interesting article that may make you think about things a little more:
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...brain-on-poker


Anyways guys, like I said before it's very tough for me to be honest with myself in regards to poker. Working out/eating healthy/socializing more has definitely had positive effects on my happiness and level of emotions but I really feel like I just need to tone back on online poker a little bit. Aside from diminishing EV day to day it seems I really just think I need to do this for my mental and physical health. Not saying I'm retiring from poker but after WCOOP I will be playing much less online and much more live. You best believe I'll still be in the streets an ok amount though, just not obsessive.

Thanks for reading d00ds, I don't want to make things all negative Nancy here but just wanted to shed the light on an aspect of poker that has been in the dark for quite some time. I'll leave y'all with a few hands from today:

https://www.boomplayer.com/25160375_0A46FBBA6E
not sure wtf villain was thinking here.

https://www.boomplayer.com/25158930_45C1421247
reg on button here. probably very ambitious. i think vs population here if he called AK etc it would be massively losing...it's quite tough for me to have a bluff here I think. good thing he used all time bank and folded

https://www.boomplayer.com/25158857_A46951FC24
ep players were 2 loose whales. really hated iso ing here after getting limp raised. should just over limp i guess? or am i just being results oriented

https://www.boomplayer.com/25157161_CEE7F671B0
fml

https://www.boomplayer.com/25155476_1E0430F992
is over betting river ok here? maybe a smaller sizing is better?