Burnt out. That would probably be the most accurate way to describe my state at the moment. Let's just get into the weekly update:
Health:
Workouts Completed this week: (5/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 2 (a few small cheats which weren't too bad)
20 Minute Meditation Session: 1/7 (it was a super long one though
, gonna aim for 7/7 this week and get back into meditation.
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year), probably more this week but forgot to weight myself...assume im down minimum 2-3 lbs. just since i've been in alberta.
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: 0
Weekly Proft: +24 486
Yearly Profit: +36 988
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5 918
Book Review: Way too busy this week to read. Probably won't read something til after SCOOP.
Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Nothing too relevant this week. Been so busy with grinding and gym haven't had too much time for anything else.
Hands:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23876250_F3AC2D0D54
lol_ft. this is a huge blast by me vs a nitty reg. i like everything except river jam, this is the nut worst river card ofc. im really just repping kk/aa. its kinda funny he time banked forever before calling when he has like the nut nut nut bluff catcher. so maybe my bluff aint that bad if he even folds some kx sometimes. or maybe it was just a slow roll i really am not sure
https://www.boomplayer.com/23875817_D7E348DCC8
its tough to have a bluff lead range here on the turn but i sort of find this is necessary in these spots with weak flushes
https://www.boomplayer.com/23854406_A4A1CDCAA9
gotta catch em all
Random Rant of the Week:
I feel like I want to change things up a little bit this week. Instead of ranting about random life stuff I want to write a little bit about backing and my whole experience with it. After all, I assume 100% of the audience reading this is involved with poker and it's something we all have in common. If not, shout out to the stalkers man.
Not sure where to begin or how to go about this. I guess I'll start by talking about my story with backing.
Up until ~2012 I was working at Walmart and attending high school classes. I believe I was around 19 at the time. I was always a break even/losing player and would regularly purchase 50$ prepaid mastercards which I would upload onto Pokerstars to play some 2.20$ 180 man SNGs. Funnily enough, those 50$ cards would be a good portion of my paycheques haha. Sometimes I would spin up a roll and bust it in bigger games/cash it out (I never liked having big $ online), most times I would lose it...rinse and repeat. I didn't really know any better and I didn't really have anyone to teach me any better.
Fast forward to my first year in Uni. After having poor spending habits through high school and enormous costs to attend school, I was broke. I believe I had a net worth of ~100$ (and got a little bit from student loans too). I really didn't want to have to take out more loans/wasn't allowed to take out more, and I didn't want to burden my parents. After talking to some friends, one of them referred me to the idea of staking. My first stake was for 2.50$ 180 man SNGs. Although it was petty, I was given a foundation and network of professionals (well professional enough I guess). I had a mentor/coach who worked with me a lot and showed me a lot of the fundamentals of poker. I slowly moved up stakes and swung in and out of makeup. One time I had 5k makeup and it seemed like a million dollars at the time...man I was worried haha. After some differences I decided to go on my own for a little bit after clearing makeup. I went broke again.
I won't get in depth about every stable I've been in. Long story short I was in a total of ~5 stables of all different skill sets/professional levels/friendly levels/etc. I spent a lot of time in makeup over the last 5 years or so, but I also learned a lot. I'm just going to list some advantages and disadvantages to make it easy.
Advantages:
-You are provided a bankroll to play with in games you are likely under-rolled for yourself
-often gain access to other high level players who seem more willing to help just because you are in the same stable
-coaching is often supplied and encouraged
-memberships to training sites and payment of important software is often provided
-it helps poker seem like a career with bosses etc (this might be good or bad)
-personally, helps me take poker more serious because i dont want to punt someone elses money
-backers often help with loans if need be
-helps you gain references within poker community
-allows you to keep life roll separate from poker roll
-you don't have to risk your own money
-backers arent as biased as the horse. they often have them in money printing schedules which is usually best for both parties. the horse might not have that same discipline without staking.
Disadvantages:
-the idea of makeup is quite arbitrary imo. it's almost like some term created that means "debt" but it is not quite debt if you choose to quit poker. but most of us who have been staked know: it is very tough to walk away on makeup, because you feel like you owe it to your staker (an honest deed). we also know, most backers probably would not let it down easy if you decided to quit poker. in a lot of cases, it would probably be tough to quit without having your name dragged through the mud to some extent. whether or not that is reasonable is up for debate and likely a case by case basis.
-you have to give up some % of your profit. in my case it's meant a few hundred thousand $. although i would never be that much in profit without backing imo. i would prob still suck and be depositing 50$ prepaids/have quit by now.
-makeup always feels like some overhanging cloud and an intense obligation to get it paid back (for me personally)
-being in makeup can suck because it means you have to grind games where you cant profit yourself a lot of the time
-the backer/horse relationship can often get awkward and often i felt i would be treated better or worse as a human depending how much mu i had rather than how hard i was working off the tables. (I might ship a tourney and get tonnes of praise whereas the week before I would be in 30k mu working my ass off and nothing said)
-your freedom in poker can often be very limited if staked.
Anyways guys, I thought I would talk about some of my thoughts of the backing industry after being in there for about 5 years. I havent been staked for about 12 months now and I'm really enjoying the freedom. I definitely would have been far worse off without backing but for my current life situation I'm glad I don't owe anything to anyone anymore.
Here is one of my favourite poker quotes of all time. I like referring myself back to it after having some decent wins to keep in check:
"The inflated ego you get (from winning) can create mental turmoil when you're on a downswing. Try not to ride the highs and lows." -James Obst
Day off tomorrow...let's finish SCOOP strong bros. Make the most of this series whilst it's in motion. Good night and GL.
Mike