That's a great question. Personally, I think there could be a few reasons for this. The main one being that I think as humans we have a certain drive to feel fulfilled or feel like we are being productive towards a purpose. Naturally I'm a fairly lazy guy and I think poker is the easiest way for me to fulfill that need by doing something I love. Perhaps filling this need with other methods would require a lot of discomfort and uncertainty. Although, I'm really working towards leaving poker and finding something new that might be a bit more helpful to society and others. Also external factors that I find more enjoyable such as hanging out with friends or spending time in nature etc are just better in the Spring and Summer in Canada, my volume is way lower then. When I was a kid I had an obsession with hockey and that was what I would think about non-stop. When I was a young teen it was the video game series "Halo". Those activities consumed a lot of my thoughts and time. Maybe some predisposed factors or upbringing makes me more prone to obsession/addiction. Thanks for your post it really got me thinking...it's good if we can understand our behaviours that way we can hack them

Thanks broski I agree. Sitting is the new smoking.

Cool thanks for the recommendation. Will definitely be checking this out during my session tomorrow.

Bonjour,

I guess first off, I'd like to thank everyone for all the support and following over the first few months of the year...I appreciate it.

So I just got back from an hour walk and that didn't seem to alleviate my frustrations with poker right now, so my next option: this thread. Currently can't seem to do anything right in the games. People seem to be playing back like 100x more than usual and every time I look them up they're just nutted as my original assumptions would suggest. In general, the distribution of hands just seems like I'm getting coolered and running into tops of ranges non stop/getting sucked out. To look on the bright side it's good to go through these stretches once in a while because it forces us to look more in depth into our game and improve on leaks.

On a more positive note, my diet has only slipped once or twice in the last ~2 weeks. The best part about it: I haven't really had temptations to slip back to bad habits. I can feel my mindset shifting slowly but surely. Two of the main contributors to this recent success imo would be:
1) Grinding w/ fitness guru who has logged over 900 days straight on "My Fitness Pal". (Which I talked about in recent post)
2) About 2 weeks ago I texted a few of my main friends basically saying: don't ask me to go for any unhealthy food or bring it around me.

I remember from an Elliot Roe webinar ~1.5 years ago he said something about goal assassins (I think that's the term). Basically this is things in your vicinity that will distract you from achieving your goals. For example if you are trying to lose weight it's a good idea to eliminate foods in your house that are deterrents to your goal (obviously). For me, buying healthy groceries hasn't really been too much of a chore. The most trouble I've had is when I'm out with friends or out on the road/ordering take away food like pizza or w/e. Moreover, I think telling my friends/ this posting in this thread has made some psychologically binding contract with myself that I can't break.

So the other day I was tilted after my session (as usual lately haha) and wanted to relieve some stress so I texted a friend "hey wanna go for wings tonight?". To my surprise, one of the main partners in crime in eating garbage food said "bro, NO. you just texted me last week saying not to eat that ****! you can't let your temporary temptations stop you from your long term goals!" (Or something along those lines.) I snap got out of that mindset and went for a walk to relieve that stress. Not to mention I haven't had the added temptation of friends texting me to eat ****ty food.

Not to beat a dead horse but, imagine he said "yeah sure let's go." I would have went and: punted off some good progress and ate a ~2000 calorie meal of grease, weakened my will power and not feel as bad to cheat again, made it acceptable with myself to cheat and relieve my stressors with crappy food, and instantly regretted it afterwards.

Alright next topic on my mind: My exit from poker I'm thinking might be sooner than I planned. Starting to work on planning what to do after this game. Imo if I quit it needs to be a clean break from the game. I could never do it half ass. Here's some ideas I've brainstormed:

1) Work a normal job in my field for a while and build job/career experience/make consistent money and have a more normal/balanced lifestyle.
2) Working holiday in another country or province within Canada. This would be cool to make some money and also meet new people/experience new cultures or w/e.
3) DFS. Have been doing this pretty heavily for a few weeks now. Still question the long term ROI or feasibility of it. Definitely not a long term career I don't think but it's very similar poker, just easier to balance the lifestyle (a lot less hours, and way more flexible)
4) Social Media Management: Here in my garage, got this idea from Tai Lopez. Basically become an expert on social media and get contracts from various companies to manage their social media portfolios. If possible, 10 clients @ 1k/month = 10k/month. Could be pretty GTO for living a great lifestyle.
5) Eventually Real Estate portfolio and investment portfolio is the end goal.
6) I'd love to hear/chat more about any ideas you guys have please share!

Alright, that got a lot off my chest. Good night world.

If you are going to quit poker and want to be engaged you definitely need a clean break. I work a full-time job and have forfeited potential career growth in a lucrative industry because my mind is always trying to go back to poker.
On a more personal note to you. It seems like you are simply under stimulated by the game right now. Something everyone goes through, and I imagine this is one of the places the crushers separate themselves. They take it to the next level. Being under stimulated, bored, etc. is simply a leak. With the ideas you’ve presented as potential exits, your mind is going to feel under stimulated in all fields. Poker is unique in that you can’t just read a quick blurb on something that interests you in the middle of the work day, but every job has its faults. Grass is always greener etc.
I think your mindset towards the game could be attributed towards a little bit of burnout. You’re a motivated dude, and when you are really focused on something that has been a struggle for you, sitting and playing poker all day is backwards.
I’d suggest exercise first thing in the morning before every session. Conquer whatever errands you COULD run, and then grind. Keep the sessions a little shorter and use priming to really go ham in those sessions. When you are getting disengaged keep the table count low and go up a gear on every table.

Tys

Great post/advice tyvm. Actually a few summers ago I worked at an office job and I was able to build up a good reference there/work pretty hard. However, I found whenever I got home from work everyday I would want to fire sessions and every weekend as well. You're absolutely right about the clean break. Everyone always tells me "why don't you just play recreationally and do something else?" -It might be a good strategy and seem reasonable for them but I'm an "all or nothing" type of guy. I know when I quit the game it needs to be for good because if not, I'll always gravitate back towards it.

Really important to get all errands out of the way before session as you say. In the past I've definitely been guilty of rolling out of bed and registering tournaments whilst the coffee is brewing. It's tough to feel good about things when doing this because in the back of your mind you will be thinking of everything that you didn't accomplish and feel guilty about grinding. Whereas, having known you had a productive day before grinding and accomplished a lot is great for morale and guilt free.

Been thinking I just need a few days break from the game so took the last few days off+the next few. Thanks for your post and GL this weekend

Well well well,

Hope y'all had a good week. It's that time of week where I nestle into bed and spew a big ole' update and some of the stuff that's crossed my mind in the past week.

Today was a weird day. The clocks went forward to adjust for daylight savings. I didn't go back to bed even though I woke up feeling drained. I had a medium coffee instead of a large...and I booked a winning Sunday (2nd in 109 Kickoff for ~12.5k)

The weirdest thing about today was within 15-20 minutes of grinding and building a bunch of stacks I knew it was only a matter of hours before my rough stretch would be over. Could just tell the RNG had shifted back in my favour (somewhat kidding )

Anyways, here's the weekly progress update:

Progress Report:

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (3/6)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 3
20 Minute Meditation Session: 3/7
Books Read: 1/1
Body Weight +/-: -10 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 0/1
Hours in the lab: 0/2
Sessions played: 2/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 1
Weekly Proft: +9406
Yearly Profit: +3859
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5318

Book Review: Finished Billions and Billions. Interesting read w/ interesting perspectives etc...a little boring and overly theoretical at times.

Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: I wish I had something cool to say but I don't really Even though I am pretty open with stuff on here, there are some things I can't share on a public forum haha.

Random Rant of the Week:

Ok, so we got the year into the black online. Nearing the end of the first quarter of 2017 and some good progress has been made. I like to think the growth will be exponential this year. I'll now feel a little less guilty about taking more time off and allocating it to other areas of my life.

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So I've been getting back into playing some recreational sports in the past few weeks. Have been attending a pickup hockey game semi-regularly and working on signing up for some intramural floor hockey/frisbee or soccer. I really can't say enough about the power of sports. Sports are not only a fun method of exercise. Sports help us satiate our human need for competition, team work, etc...I really wish I didn't give them up while I was in Uni. Anyways, that's not really what I wanted to talk about.

I grew up living and breathing sports. I was a goalie at the highest level until I was about 16 in hockey. I went to the OHL Under 17 Camp and was sort of on the brink of playing Junior Hockey in Ontario. Played very competitive baseball/lacrosse during the summers, when I wasn't at hockey camp. So long story short, I identified as an athlete, and so much of my self-worth was derived through my success in sports. Even though in the grand scheme of life all sports aren't overly relevant imo. I mean like it's great for players to advance to higher levels and become heroes or w/e but it just provides entertainment. An opportunity for fans to engage in a "we vs. they" mentality.

I was extremely triggered yesterday when I saw a dad yelling at his kid after hockey. This brought back a lot of not so fond memories that I had playing sports. To name a few incidents: parents screaming and cursing at other parents/referees/players, various parents yelling at me or treating me different based on my performance, parent/coach fist fights and police being called at the games. Moreover, being a goalie during all of this I sometimes felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders and hockey was the be all and end all. I remember getting extremely tense and nervous/anxious days before big games. Often when our team lost I would blame myself and be so hard on myself for days after. When people are treating you different based on how you played in your last game it's very tough for a young kid to take. No wonder I started to derive a sense of self worth based on how I was playing. It seems silly but as young kids we view things from a totally different perspective.

I'd be lying if I said some of the **** and traumatic experiences I had growing up in sports didn't follow me into adulthood. So many parents are obsessed with reliving their dreams through their children. They will do whatever it takes to get their kids to the NHL, and put enormous amounts of pressure on them. Some kids in my league ended up in the NHL but very few, but who cares? If it was meant to be it's meant to be. Besides, if you aren't at least 6 ft. tall odds are completely stacked against you. Youth sports are meant for kids to: exercise, make friends, engage in team building, learn life lessons, and HAVE FUN. If the kid has a dream of playing in the NHL it can be their decision to put forth the drive and effort. I don't think there's a need right now to talk about a lot of the politics/bullying that happens to the weaker players etc that's another rant for another day.

On a side note I couldn't be more thankful of my own parents/other parents/coaches that put in heaps of effort to make sure we could make it to games/had fun etc etc.

Here is two things I want to share with you guys:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/pa...van-nhl-abuse/
^Great article from an ex-NHL player.

http://getintouchforhutch.com/
^A player that played in the same city as me but was a little younger. I think he played on my team in the district all-star game but not positive. I'd love it if you guys could make any donation (even a small one).

Ok, looking forward to this week. The plan:
-Take Monday and Friday completely away from poker. Maybe go on some nice nature hikes or find some life loving activity to take part in.
-Workout intensity and frequency needs to improve. Aiming for 5 quality workouts this week.
-Very proud of my diet last 2 weeks or so. Barely slipping up and not feeling very much temptation to slip up. This needs to keep going strong.

Thanks for all the love my homeys, happy to get out of the blue and into the black in the online pokerz this year. Best of luck grinding this week, crush it!

"The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted." -Mother Teresa

GG in the $109 Kickoff! Must feel like a weight of your shoulders to get a score like that after a nosedive, keep up the good work!

Congrats man! Sometimes I swear that Stars RNG can detect user psyche

Thank you my hombres. I also agree with the above ^

Let's flashback to a few months ago...

It was a cold January morning. An ex-girlfriend who I missed quite a bit was asking me to go hang out with her and spend the weekend in Quebec. Theoretically, people say it's better to just have a clean break with ex's but I think that's not always true. Although something just felt not quite right about going out there, I drove the lengthy 8 hour trip.

As per usual I ran through a couple music albums, stopped at Tim Horton's 2 times, filled up my gas tank twice, and ate some ****ty greasy burger. As I headed further East, the weather became increasingly worse and the music was getting repetitive (aside from most radio stations in French). Perhaps one of the few wise decisions I made that day was turning the radio off to do some thinking and focus on the increasingly hazardous roads.

I'd just had an appointment with my doctor that morning and he was telling me my blood tests revealed that I had a super low testosterone levels. If you aren't familiar with testosterone: it is essentially the holy grail of male hormones. It is responsible for: libido, muscle mass, hair growth, sex ability, etc etc... So yeah, it was vital that I increase these levels through healthy eating/sleeping/exercise/supplements.

Anyways, back to the roads. In Quebec I've always found that the roads are a little bit less "maintained". I'm not sure if this is correct but I don't think they salt or sand the roads, which makes them a lot more slippery. It also appeared that a snow plow hadn't been out for a few hours, and there was a buildup of snow in the middle of the road. (The cars make tracks, so basically a buildup of snow happens in the middle and you need to straddle it with your wheels.)

My mind began to drift again. I love being in the car alone with my thoughts. I was thinking about everything from: relationships, the Mike Dentale vs. Cate Hall match, my downswing at the time, the future, and just the general existence of the human race to name a few.

As I'd already been driving 7 hours and very tilted I exercised a lack of discipline and probably drove a little faster than the conditions permitted. I had an itch in my leg and went to scratch it as my car drifted slightly into the middle patch of snow and begun to swerve left and right a few times. I remember my mind started racing and a bunch of **** flashed through my mind. Should I drift my car into the guard rail or the ditch? Hopefully I don't get hurt too badly. I don't want my perfect driving record to be tainted. As I veered away from the guard rail and steep embankment my car went into a spin and eventually slowed to a halt. I have no idea how I got out of this one unscathed and my car had 0 damage. This could easily have been fatal if other cars were near. It really ****ing hit me: life is so fragile and can end right before our eyes. We're so lucky to have this chance. We need to make the most of it my brothers.

I kinda felt like writing a bit and giving the writing style of the thread a little bit more variety Took me a while to talk about this story as it disturbed me a lot for whatever reason.

Hello grinders/regs/recs/connoisseurs/trolls/ and ofc the heaps of beautiful women who follow this thread,

I hope y'all had a good week. To be fair, I had a decent one in terms of progress on my journey (although not spectacular). Some very positive steps I took this week: signed up for intramural soccer and ultimate frisbee (each once per week), signed up for a consultation for personal training starting tomorrow, and had some much needed talks with some people whom much needed talks had to be done with. As for the personal training the only way I will bail on it is if the price is unreasonable. Otherwise, I'm happy with any type of exercise that I can be held accountable for atm.

As for the health progress this week I ate really ****ty a couple times and my workouts were non-existent. It was also St. Patrick's day on Friday so I got "next-level" with a few friends. Mid-week I was completely honest with myself in saying that I haven't been leaving my comfort zone enough in terms of fitness and it's time to change my method of action, because the old one hasn't been working. My lack of effort and crappy habits were really starting to eat away at me during this week. Hence, the new method of personal training.

Anyways, let's get to the official, and somewhat abysmal update.

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (0/6)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 4
20 Minute Meditation Session: 3/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -9 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 0/1
Hours in the lab: 0/2
Sessions played: 4/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: -1288
Yearly Profit: +2441
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5118

Book Review: None this week. I was recommended the book: "The Drunkard's Walk". I'll be reading that this week definitely. Reading is something I need to keep pushing myself to do more of.

Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Copout alert. Joined intramural teams and signed up for personal training. Not really a big deal but I think that will end up being one of the more positive steps I've taken in 2017. Intramurals will be cool because it's just a friend and I getting put onto a random team so will be nice to meet some people from my new city or w/e.

Random Rant of the Week: To be honest, I don't really feel like writing much tonight but I've been consistent this year in this PGC so don't feel like killing the head of steam that is going. So here we go...

After my session today I went for my usual post session "de-congestion" walk. The time of day where I get to get in a little light cardio, take some nice deep breaths, take some time alone with my thoughts in the quiet streets to brainstorm something to rant about in here. I'll start with an excerpt from a Kendrick song (although I don't think he wrote this). I've definitely posted it in my previous PGC threads at least a couple times but I find I relate with my interpretation of it quite deeply:

“The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak
And figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city
The caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts
He’s trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas start to take roots
Such as going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered, ending the eternal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different
They are one and the same."

How do I interpret this? Well, I guess in life you have caterpillars and butterflies. They are both the same insect at heart. However, people perceive butterflies as being a thing of beauty whilst the caterpillar is only seen as a random bug. It takes the caterpillar a lot of hard work to get out of the cocoon and make a transformation into a butterfly. Eventually, wings begin to emerge and an amazing transformation takes place. So Kendrick is much of a story such as this. He was a prisoner for many years in the streets of Compton where he grew up. Between: drugs, racism, police brutality, violence, and many more terrible things...he found a way out of his cocoon and was realized by many for his brilliance, finally free.

So how does this relate to us? I think we all are born with certain hardships and are trapped in some type of labyrinth that we need to break out of. I think deep inside most of us are beautiful people that aren't realized by the world/ourselves as such. When being prisoners in a harsh environment that we may have grown up with we develop coping mechanisms to survive. Truly, I think the struggle is where we grow, and that is amazing in a weird type of way.

Main goals for this week in order of importance: set up schedule/attend with my personal trainer, if he is not good, find a new one. Get a hair cut. Re-stock my place with healthy meals and snacks. Reach out to 5 people/friends that I haven't talked to in a while. Sling adequate volume online. Go out at least 1 night this week. Sabres vs. Leafs game Saturday night in Buffalo.

Big week ahead of us guys LFG!

"Guys have a level of insecurity and vulnerability that's exponentially bigger than you think. With the primal urge to be alpha comes extreme heartbreak. The harder we fight, the harder we fall." -John Krasinski

Literally cashed like 80% of the tourneys I played today. Got 4th in the 33 Bubble Rush and 2nd in the 162 Bounty Builder. Booked about 8k profit on the day + had some % of a guy in NHL DFS which had a nice little ship as well.

The reason I'm making this post is because I'm infuriated by the HU in the 162 BB. The opponent was absolutely horrendous and just smashing every single flop while I bricked. I hero called a few times because I got sick of him just betting every single river, and just every time he just had the goods. Started out by ravaging him and getting him down to 10bbs, then couldn't bust him with all ins. Got pretty frustrated as 15 hours into session and a bit fatigued and ultimately that got the best of me. This is absolutely unacceptable when playing for a difference of ~6k or so.

The second reason I'm writing this post is to calm myself down before bed. Something about randomly ranting to myself and maybe a few random readers is, in a rather weird way, soothing.

The third reason I'm writing this post is: if I woke up this morning and knew I was gonna ship 10k or w/e I would be super happy about it. Now it just feels like a lunchbag let down because I let myself down heads up. Anyways, enough whining about that.

Quick update on the health stuff. This is my priority going forward for at least the next 3-6 months. So I went and met with the trainer and had a conversation with him. He is sort of a private guy and the gym is in like an old warehouse (kind of looks like the "Average Joe's" gym from the movie Dodgeball. His programs are essentially like minimum 6 month to 1 year contracts where you give him post dated cheques for each month of the year. There are obviously quite a few things that could go wrong with this and it is not very cheap either. 3 sessions per week would cost roughly 600$/month or something. So I've definitely got some consideration and option exploration to do there.

Diet: Does anybody know anything about ketogenic diets? A lot of people have told me about this diet and the reviews about it are raving. I'd be interested to talk with someone about what foods to eat/how to measure what I need etc.

In the mean time I've been doing 1 walk before and after my sessions+ mandatory workout before sessions+eating clean.

Pretty happy with the scores today and my recent runs last week or so. Have been running soooo pure Good night everyone and please let me know if you can offer any advice about ketogenic diets!

Gratz on the scores. I def recognize the feeling. Losing hu's you feel you 'were entitled to win' are grueling.

tyty, the fact that it's a prog makes that exponentially more tilting lol. difference between first and second was pretty close to 6k and i had a 10:1 CL at one point

BUT I'm oi after a good nights rest and had a very productive day, we bounce back!

@ the guy who recommended the Jordan Peterson/Rogan podcast I finally got around to listening to the start of that while I was one tabling last night. Just by listening to that guy speak I'm pretty sure he is minimum 50-60 IQ points higher than me and that episode will take my full undivided attention to comprehend his vocabulary. so far very interesting and will complete today or tomorrow

Welp, it's shortly after 1 A.M. and my nightly walk didn't seem to tire me enough to sleep. Options: troll around on skype, Netflix, read, or make a post in here. Presumably, the former 2 options are a waste of time. My attention span is too shot right now to read. So I'll rant in here a bit and see what comes to mind. Here's a few things I've been thinking about:

1) Get some type of micro stakes MTT or SNG horse. Not necessarily to make a huge profit or get into backing or anything (that ship has sailed imo) but would be cool to help a guy out in moving up/ would help me to critically look at my game more because I don't want to give the guy poor advice that will burn our $. I don't know if it's possible anymore to find a guy who will grind low/put in volume/isn't broke/doesn't want to move up to high stakes mtts after one bink. Anyone have any prospects?

2) Coaching: Basically stopped doing this. I wasn't doing a whole lot of it. The main reason being that it would be a tonne of work if I was going to put forth the type of coaching that I wanted. For example, I want to bring people great value but it just doesn't work out that well with an hourly model. I forget the word but it's the opposite of exponential...so their first session they will get lots of help because it's easy to spot quick leaks or w/e and then it gets tougher. Imo to coach more professionally I would need to get way better with the softwares/create powerpoints/and just have more practice coaching in general.

3) SCOOP house in June, house in Vegas for June: I'm happy and comfortable grinding at my own place but would be cool for SCOOP to rent like a really nice airbnb or something maybe in another country or a different city. Would also be cool to rent a place in Vegas with a few friends for a couple weeks during the world series. There's lots of issues with taxes for Canadians and our dwindling dollar etc, but still this might be my last chance to do it. (It's always been something that I've wanted to do, and this might be my last year in poker.) Any suggestions?

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The Long Walk to Freedom

It's clear that no big change happens overnight. Success is something that happens after a long history of good decisions. Those decisions become habits, which become a lifestyle. I'll fully admit that I struggle with my decision making all the time. There is so many temptations in this world that helps us feel good and comfortable NOW. These can be: good tasting food, gambling, drugs, alcohol, etc. However, these things are nothing but a crutch. When not used within moderation they manifest and can cause destruction in our lives. It sucks that the human brain is designed to feel good now, and not in the future. It's proven that humans will go through greater efforts to avoid pain, than to seek pleasure. Eventually, the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of what it takes to change.

What percentage of people fail to achieve their new year's resolutions? 90% or so? How many people start going to the gym in January, or any month, and end up quitting within a month? We know it, they know it...they'd be exponentially happier if they completed their goals of a healthier lifestyle. Temporary comfort stops them from being their most fulfilled selves.

This is a long road to success boys. Great pain lies ahead. I refuse to let myself down in 2017. One day I want to look back on this thread and be proud of it. This pain must be embraced...

Thanks for reading. I find writing in here helps me hold myself accountable as well as being quite therapeutic at times. Feels weird being so open in a public forum but it's not like my long road to success is completely unique is it?

"I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom - how great is that?" -Soledad O'Brien

It was 6 A.M. this morning when I woke up with a pounding headache and a bad case of the self-inflicted flu. I went down to 'Murica to watch my NHL team (Toronto Maple Leafs) play in Buffalo, NY. The tickets are quite cheaper there than in Toronto and much more accessible. To get a gauge our 4 tickets were ~500 CAD whereas in Toronto those same tickets would probably run us ~1200 CAD. It was a fun night and we had a blast. However, yet again, some poor decisions ruined a week of good progress. Why can't I just have 5 or 6 drinks and enjoy the night on the town? Anyways, yeah, it was a weekend of debauchery and indulgence...there's no use crying over spilled milk. Looking forward/optimistic about cleansing my system this week. One thing about being in my mid-twenties I've come to realize that hangovers last 2 days now instead of just 1 morning. If you do the math on how much productivity is lost if hungover a few days per month it would bring some scary results. That being said, my head is pounding and I'm exhausted but I need to stick to updating this thread on Sundays...lezzgo.

Some Notes About the Week:
-Feeling more motivation towards workouts and have been doing them without too much struggle this week.
-I've felt like 6 workouts per week is too much for me atm, and I'm going to shrink my number down to 4. ATM I think 6 was setting the bar too high and when I fail to accomplish that goal I feel a little bit sad. 4 is much more reasonable.
-New rule: if I don't complete 4 workouts or cheat on my diet more than twice in 1 week I'll give 100$ USD to the most recent poster in the thread.
-Similar to unreasonable number of workouts, I think 1 book/week is too much for me atm. Adjusting that goal to 1 book bi-weekly.



Progress Report:

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (4/6)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 5
20 Minute Meditation Session: 3/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -9 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 1/1
Hours in the lab: 3/2
Sessions played: 4/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 1
Weekly Proft: +9317
Yearly Profit: +11713
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5318

Book Review: Couldn't find enough time to read. Will have to postpone reading "The Drunkard's Walk" to this week.

Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Something new that I've been trying is just being clear in my intent and taking the lead in decision making. I've actually found this to be quite liberating.

Random Rant of the Week:

During my nightly walk tonight I was thinking about stuff I could write about in here. Some stuff that crossed my mind: the influence of our social circle, some wonderings about existentialism, or various other random ****. I guess something that has been crossing my mind a lot recently is relationships and marriage etc.. Seeing as I'm 25 now and coming up on the age where a lot of people in my vicinity will be getting married/having kids/etc, it's probably something to think about.

So while I was in University, I had a girlfriend for roughly ~3 years there. Like most relationships, there were ups, downs, lulls, good times, bad times, and everything in between. Eventually, we both sort of realized that things weren't going to work out and it was tough for us to both be happy and progress in the way we wanted to. We saw each other on and off a few times since breaking up and I still care for her a lot and want the absolute best for her. That being said, one of the lessons this taught me is that sometimes we need to be on our own and work on ourselves. It might seem selfish and it might suck letting go of a relationship, but really it is the best for everyone. Without doing the work that I need to do on myself I can never be fully present in a relationship and be the best version of myself. Thus, it wouldn't be fair to the girl and it would lead to a poor relationship.

So this brings me to my main "concern": divorce rates have sky rocketed in recent years. So many people that I talk with act like it is a chore to spend time with their spouse. Their marriage brings an onset of fighting, stress, and various negative factors. Couples might stay together for their kids, their shared lives, or maybe just avoiding the discomfort and ambiguity that leaving would bring.

Why has this become such a thing? I mean, I really haven't done much research on this but I have a strong suspicion a lot of it has to do with conformity to societal conditioning. When we grow up we're taught a successful life is one of dedication to one partner and having a family with them. We should get married to that person and live happily ever after. The main problem: people rush into this and a lot of change can happen in a matter of years. If both people haven't found themselves and deeply considered marriage it is a disaster waiting to happen.

Another reason: Well, I should probably steer clear of this topic because I don't want to write it the wrong way and make it seem sexist or something but societal conditioning has ruined sexual polarity to an extent. If men and women are conforming to these norm expectations they might be going against everything that they need to be happy. If a girl feels like she will be a "slut" for dating a few different guys she won't have a lot of experience and it will be difficult to tell what she wants/doesn't want in a relationship. I'm too tired and this rant is getting too long but men also don't get taught how to be an attractive male. In the movies and media we always see like some nerdy guy who keeps pursuing a girl/buying her things/delivering flowers/blowing up her phone, gets the girl. This obviously could not be more further from the truth (but so many guys act this way being "the nice guy") Shouldn't this be something they teach us in school? We should obviously treat women and other men very well and with respect at all times but it's important to realize that we have a lot of value as well and deserve to be treated well in return!

That was too long of a rant/ I would have liked to make a more coherent and detailed post but it's difficult to think with this migraine atm. Here is a few cliffs:
-Don't make decisions just to conform to societal norms
-Don't fear judgement from others
-Don't feel guilty about ending a relationship in order to pursue your nut life or become the best version of yourself!

RANT OVER

Finally got around to getting a new light for my aquarium and doing a lot of maintenance on it. The plant life is starting to grow nicely and the fish seem to be happy

https://gyazo.com/b364640ceb0c2b6c7f8273becf30bb2f

Major Priorities for the Week:
-4 workouts
-max. 2 cheat meals
-4 solid sessions
-go out and socialize/strike up conversation way more

1/4 year marker guys, a lot of good progress and learnings so far, but so far to go!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBas3UVarBw
^Good track by a Canadian band. Really good/catchy song. I never realized that it's written about crippling depression until this week


"I'm not comfortable being around too many people. I don't like being out in public too much. I don't like going to bars. I don't like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don't always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends." -Adam Sandler

Hope you had a good time in Buffalo!

I definitely agree that setting somewhat unreasonable goals can be a bad thing, as your motivation/drive can crash when you don't achieve them. Personally I did not set a yearly profit goal for 2017 after setting the bar too high in 2016 and lost a lot of motivation towards the end of the year when it was obvious I wasn't going to hit it. 2017 has been much better better/less stressful thus far.

And oh ****, I can't believe it's 1/4th through the year already lol, time flies glgl on the grind.

thanks dude. it was a great time out w/ some friends etc although probably a little bit over-indulgent

100% agree its very important to set reasonable goals that are easily attainable with the correct process but difficult w/o sticking closely to the process (if that makes sense). if your goals are unrealistic and not attainable you will definitely lose motivation and it wil become counter productive. for example if i do 4 workouts/week that is great for me and will help me on my path, but thats only 2/3 of my original goal. and missing my goals by ~33% is a pretty big let down technically, but 4 workouts per week is awesome to start.

profit goals aren't great in poker, ESPECIALLY not in MTTs. you can be putting in your best work making yourself your most +EV and still be losing heaps because variance is a sick sick creature. it's far more important to look at the big picture with the tangible things which you can measure

1) time/effort/concentration in study
2) volume
3) game selection

etc etc... that stuff will yield your highest return in the long run and thats the most important thing is putting yourself in highest EV spots!

ty for the post LFG rest of year

Damn...

There's this cemetery that I walk by nightly during my walks. Something that I've been using for motivation is taking some time to think as I pass by: how many things these people wanted to tell others went unsaid?, how many brilliant ideas fizzled into nothing?, how many dreams died with their beholders? how many inspirations were left to bed?

It's crazy man. What would these people say if they could have another chance? All of a sudden, doing a small workout, eating clean, talking to someone that I want to talk to, or taking a chance...don't all seem too bad. You know what would suck though? Taking regrets to the grave and not living a fulfilled life.

Every night I pass by that cemetery, I'm one night closer to being in there. Let's take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime, in the lifetime of the opportunity!

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I know I said I wouldn't do this anymore but I feel like posting a few hands to get myself thinking (been slacking with lab work). Thoughts from any1 who reads are welcomed

https://www.boomplayer.com/23288220_D0BC8954FB
^so first of all, opener is very loose to begin with. something like 24/19. not to mention, BB is short stack with a decent sized bounty and it is FT bubble. it should be safe to assume his opening range is like ridiculously wide here. so i told myself if i 3 bet I'm doing it w/ intent to jam over a 4 bet (or peel if small enough sizing). from his perspective he should probably be realizing that I'll 3 bet him light occasionally here and he can put a tonne of pressure on me with a 4 bet. anyways yeah I think a suited ace is a little bit better candidate (w/ blocker to a lot of nut hands, usually at least some equity when called), but given that he's like only 4 betting a tiny portion of his range for value here this is probably ok. (might be ICM suicide though).

https://www.boomplayer.com/23287855_F54575EEB3
they're like never bluffing here i find, tried to find the fold but realistically just gotta pay the man i think.

https://www.boomplayer.com/23283161_C265EAE03E
interesting hand vs a good reg here. was really trying to think why he was taking this line. let's begin with he has a money printing jam pre, or a money printing trap (if he has correct reads on me) i guess he was limping to induce a jam from me (which seems good). maybe he thinks when i use this sizing pre i have only nut hands? tbh he might be correct because most hands I'm just checking here or jamming, for the exception of maybe JJ QQ (might check KK and AA) flop i guess is w/e, seems ambitious from him.

https://www.boomplayer.com/23222938_2B6E2FFF29
puke, almost just called river but talked myself into it that he can have a lot of value hands that aren't Q10 here.


Thanks for reading guys. 90% sure I'm heading out to Alberta for SCOOP. Gonna help out a friend with some poker stuff/he's gonna help me with healthy living stuff. Best of luck the rest of this week, will be back for usual Sunday update!

Some eye-opening food for thought in the first part of your post. Life is truly too short.

J8s - 3B pre is fine, 5bet shove is pretty ambitious. However, I find that when people use this larger sizing with a 4B at this stack depth it's weighted a lot towards bluffs. Like you said, he'll be flat calling a lot of his value hands here to a 3B since he knows he's opening wide, therefore you are gonna 3B light here a lot. In game I can't say I'm shoving though, we can fold and still have over 40bb while covering everyone at the table except one person. One of those "don't try this at home" plays.

87 - Never folding here, though I struggle to find what bluffs he has and having an 8 in your hand blocks his missed draws that decide to take this fine. I agree we just have to pay him off.

JJ - Really really odd spot but I think raising is fine. Would probably go 875 with all my **** hands and hands that I wanna r/c and just check the middle.

J7 - I'm guessing this was against a fish, in which case you are x/shoving this river 100% of the time because he's never gonna b/f 2 pair here.

j8- yeah completely agree lol. to be honest this is like a completely needless play and in game i sort of had the read that this guy was trying to run over the table and i planned to just jam if he 4 bet. i've found lately a lot of people aren't 4 betting thin for value in these spots and they're taking less variance routes (but they're 4 betting heaps)

i agree with all ty for your thoughts i appreciate dat

Sunday Bloody Sunday...jk it wasn't that bloody. Basically broke even for the day. Got dirtied by veeeea pretty bad deep ish in the SWU and got 4th in 33 12k to save the day. My focus has been on point last couple weeks fairly effortlessly and I'm loving it. Here's the weekly updizzle:

Progress Report:

Health:

Workouts Completed this week: (4/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 4
20 Minute Meditation Session: 2/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year)

Wealth:

Training Videos Watched: 0/1
Hours in the lab: 0/2
Sessions played: 3/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: -1481
Yearly Profit: +10232
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5318

Book Review: Couldn't find enough time to read. Will have to postpone reading "The Drunkard's Walk" to this week.

Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Something that I've always really disliked is dancing. I remember in grade school we would have dance classes and it felt super uncomfortable (even though I was young.) I'm not sure why but I just never really understood it too much about why people did it etc...Maybe it was the subtle social conditioning of "boys shouldn't dance." Which is obviously ridiculous because dancing can be a very spiritual enlightening activity. To this day I'm still very uncomfortable with it but I've at least been trying it out a little bit here and there when I'm out with friends. Might actually sign up for some dance lessons this week, could be a GTO activity. Aside from feeling very awkward I think a lot of people (me anyways) don't like dancing because we fear looking "stupid" in the eye of the public. I've definitely seen guys "shaming" others for looking "stupid" dancing. When you think about it...the guys who are "shaming" because they are jealous of another guy getting out of his comfort zone and being himself are the ones who are stupid. I have a newfound level of respect for guys that can put themselves out there in the spot light and have a good time.

Hands:

https://www.boomplayer.com/23352513_6CE476B42A
Thoughts? This is on FT and the opener is tightish but SB was sitting out.

https://www.boomplayer.com/23346971_5C8ECFDAF2
i am like rarely folding here but 3 bettor was like 14/10/5 or something. Surely he's never pulling one over me here is he?

https://www.boomplayer.com/23341301_D47D847303
putting the cape on vs. sousinha. idk if good or not

Any thoughts/advice are welcomed

Random Rant of the Week:

Actually gonna do this in reverse order this week. Here's a video that Bill Perkins recommended on the podcast. In return, I'm recommending it to you guys (if anyone reads this anymore ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Also in reverse this week, I'm gonna give a couple examples of people who put themselves out there:

1. I remember about 1.5 years ago when Kevin Martin started streaming I tuned in and thought "this guy thinks he is a sicko but he clearly sucks." Partially because of the negative energy that I resonated with at the time of course. I tuned into his stream a couple months ago and it turns out he is actually one of my favourite streams now. (I don't really watch streams much). I really have a lot of respect for how he's worked hard on his game and it appears he has improved a tonne, and how he just embraces the fact that he's working on it. He allows himself to be vulnerable to heaps of viewers and trolls and just admits "hey, I might not be a sicko yet, but I'm trying my best to improve every day." He also brings a great positive energy to the stream.

-Also to note other streamers in general: those guys take so much hate and trolls but I really respect how they put themselves out in the arena which is far more than most guys/trolls would ever do.

2. It was my friend's birthday this weekend and we took him out to a video game lounge/bar or w/e (it's a new concept bar in our city). Was actually pretty surprising to see a guy who we went to high school with owns it now. (He was a nerdy guy who probably took some heat for that). Very cool to see a guy putting himself out there and taking risk to turn his passion into a profession. A few people were saying things like "omg no way this place stays in business", "what a dumb concept" etc...again, he's putting himself out there in the battlefield and that deserves respect.

Anywho, about that video I posted above^...that is some cool stuff she talks about. How essentially, people who allow themselves to be vulnerable have the most success. Who would have ever thought? (que the guys dancing above, or Tomas Edison making the light bulb with 10k tries, or Elon Musk revolutionizing technology. It actually makes a lot of sense to me now, if you embrace your weaknesses and become ok with them others will appreciate that, and we'll feel better about ourselves as well. Something I've struggled with in the last few years is connecting with people on a deep level and being present to the moment. So much of this is because of not allowing myself to be vulnerable and being caught up in my own fkn head so much. Really going to try to work on this...

New Challenge:

I'm going to try the "no-fap" challenge this week. Not sure if it's all BS about the benefits of it etc but it's worth a try. I'm really hoping this will help me feel a little bit more present to the moment and pure.

Oh yeah, my doctor recommended me taking "maca powder". So far, I've actually noticed a little bit of difference in just the first 4 days of taking it. (possible placebo effect?) Check out the benefits for yourself: http://www.vegkitchen.com/nutrition/...efits-of-maca/

Phew, that was a long post. As you can tell from my post above that I'm really trying to push my comfort zone (although so difficult at times). Not sure how many people read this anymore but I find opening up in here and verbalizing/constructing my thoughts in this thread has helped me a lot this year. My first PGC a few years ago I would never write anything personal in there. Fack, when I went on a downswing I went AWOL for months of updating lol. In here, I write my successes as well as my failures. This is about embracing my weaknesses and making them become strengths. Besides...who doesn't like a good "comeback kid" story?

For anyone that didn't fall asleep during that rant: thank you very much for reading. I appreciate it. Good night world.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

My 2c on the hands:
AJ - Pre seems really close, rejam will also not be bad, but call could be ok vs tight ish player. As played I think raise flop seems better than call.
TT - I think too strong especially with a bounty on your head as well.
65 - Kinda meh to squeeze I think since you will not get many folds against strong ranges. Guess to balance if you are into that stuff you can pick this. Mostly I would just cbet this vulnerable hand. Nice catch

Solid update as always!

thanks Erik, i actually 100% agree with your 2c lol, perhaps with the exception of TT vs a super nitty 3 bettor that has like AK+JJ+ (i had min. bounty fwiw) i think we can really find some nit folds and punish people for being too nitty (althogh they own us if we are folding hands this high in our range ofc)

thanks for ur post

Interview Question: "Tell me something that is true...that almost nobody agrees with you on."?

^More on this at the end, but keep it in mind.

Was a bit inspired to make a post earlier today when I was talking to a poker friend that grinds with me here and there. To sum it up, I asked for his advice on what I should be doing in the next few months. His answer was simple: hit the gym, eat well, be smart with poker, and focus on your happiness...the rest of the puzzle pieces will come together.

I know it sounds obvious but I love good concise advice like that. As far as happiness goes, I've read/watched a lot of material on it lately. It's something that we're all chasing. Why? It is our default. We are meant to be happy. Somewhere along the beaten path we convince ourselves we aren't happy. We think we NEED something to be happy: money, women, height, drugs, cars, etc. As soon as you get into this mindset you are ****ED! Same goes for confidence by the way. Happiness and confidence are two things that I'm really trying to work on in life. I could talk all night about why these two things are vital and why I've struggled with both in the past but meh...they're improving every day and I'm quite pleased with that.

Back to the interview question. In the book I'm reading currently "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel he says the one question he loves asking people is "Tell me something that is true, that almost nobody agrees with you on.?" This is a genious question because not only does it screen for unique thinking, it tests for your courage in saying something that is possibly contrary to the belief of the interviewer. AKA this tests your courage to speak out against the norm which can be extremely valuable.

So here's a little test for anyone reading: Whoever can give the most interesting/best/thought provoking answer I will give you a 10% freeroll in the next Sunday Million that I play. (Likely this Sunday).

I'll start: This is a copout answer and why I'm giving a freeroll (because it really is a tough question). I've talked about this before and it's copied from the 4 Hour Work Week. The masses believe that working hard is the answer. However, I believe working smart is the answer. For example a guy can spend 100 hours in the lab and achieve very little because he is focused on irrelevant details. Whereas, another poker player can spend 10 hours in the lab and get 10x the work than the former player. His study can be more focused, better applied, more efficient, etc.

Same goes with society. There are people working 3 jobs hustling their asses off who can barely keep the lights on for their families. Whereas, there are people living like absolute ballers off of only a few hours of work per week. I don't really believe that it is the path you take, more how you take it. Dropping out of high school and self-educating and putting all of those disposable hours,$,resources could actually be a very viable strategy to absolutely crush it in life. It just so happens that most high school dropouts likely do so out of other reasons than to pursue a GTO life path. Imagine if some really smart kids weren't brainwashed into thinking Uni/College were necessary and they just worked on self-educating themselves and blazing their own path. I mean, all of the stuff that school lectures could teach you can easily be found with a couple google searches. For example, so much of the stuff I learned in school was through google/youtube and would be much clearer/quicker than professors could ever teach. The world is changing...why isn't the way we educate our youth?

New Challenge: So I've cashed out all my roll and left myself with 500 USD. My goal is to just update in here every day that I play with where the roll is. The goal is to get a 10k roll for SCOOP (will upload more if I need to come SCOOP or if this goes bust).

-Keep in mind that this will be done through selling a lot of action to most of my games. So I could profit 10k in the games but my BR might only increase by 4k (and that's what will count). I could also lose 2k in the games and still be profiting 1k for example.

-I think this will keep me motivated to put in a lot of volume and be disciplined with BRM (because I want to bring home a good run it up story for y'all )


Damn, that was a long rant. Deadline for challenge is 6 hours before the start of the SM. Good night and GL

Best of luck with everything man. Inspiring thread. Cool to see someone from Kitchener on here!

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