hey, good luck with your goals.

I found your post about self-discipline very inspiring. I have exactly the same problems like setting too big goals and when it's serious I fail.

Tough, but you can do it

Thanks for all the posts!

Got amazing news today. Earlier a spread of cancer was found in one of my lymph nodes. I had all lymph nodes removed from my other hip. They all came back free of cancer cells. That does not mean I'm cured for good. The chance of reoccurrance is fairly high and most of the time not all cancer cells are removed during surgery. It's up to my immunity to take care of the rest. Still, I think the cancer took a good hit and I won the first battle for now. I'll have to maintain a lifetime of healthy living, exercising, breathing and living stress free. No price is too high to be alive though.

Anyway, looks like I'll be sticking around for a while. Super motivated to start grinding and learning more poker tomorrow, since I might actually have a future.

Good luck at the tables!

I'm starting a challenge for myself to actually have something to post about.

10k hands starting now and ending on sunday of next week. I know it's not much for some of you grinders out there. I've been playing 3 tables and nowhere near that kind of volume, so it's a personal challenge for me. I also plan on watching some videos during this time.

This should give me a better view of where I stand skillwise with my game.

Dude, **** PLO. You just beat up cancer, you've already won

Damn straight I've already won! Like I said though, it's not over. There's always a chance the cancer comes back. I have won the first battle, but not the war. It's weird how your priorities can change with one piece of news.

Two months ago I was planning my wedding and starting a family, was stressing about work stuff etc. Then after the cancer news all I could think of was I don't want to go this young, there are still things to do and experience. Now that I've go through the surgeries I feel like I'm gaining my life routine back and starting to plan my future again.

There's never enough win though and I still need something to do while being happy to be alive. I'm on pace with my challenge hands wide, but running very bad and have made mistakes.

I've started playing 4 tables and not confortable with it yet. The game has not "slowed down" for me yet. I feel like being rushed to making decisions has caused me to make mistakes.

Anyways, if I make it through the challenge I'll be happy, even if I don't win any money. I'm sure I'll only get better in time when I get used to playing more high volume.

Life is short! Don't miss it!

Meh, this is the 2nd day of the challenge and I'm already sick to my stomach. Losing sessions after losing session. Mostly just standard PLO coolers and running bad. I'm down about 10 bi's and pretty tilted.

I think it'll be more ev to call it quits and focus on studying for the rest of the week. I need to get my game straight.

Heck, I feel like crapping for quitting when I'm well in pace to make it. But at this point I'm tilted and not playing well. I need to swallow some pride and save my bankroll.

Update plz

And congratulations on the cancer part!!

Things have not gone as planned.

My doctor suggested that I start taking a cancer medication called "Interferon alfa" which totally destroyed me. It's used in diseased like mine that have a very high chance of reoccurrance. For the past 4 weeks I've had almost no energy, lots of aches and pains, even depression. I'm scheduled to stay on this medication for a whole year.

Well, now I've finally found an antidote for the medication and I've gotten most of my energy back. I pop painkillers like candy and they seem to do the trick. I'm ready to get back to poker, but we'll see how it goes...

Went to New York last weekend. A truly amazing city and such an inspiration! Alicia Keys wasn't lying in her song "Empire state of mind". Visiting a city like that just makes you want to be more and push harder. It was exactly what I needed.

It would be amazing to make a little bit of extra money every month with poker so I could travel more.

It's time to get back to work. Realisticly speaking I'm no longer in pace to make the challenge, but I will l do my best for the year anyways. I will have to push the time limit later. My hope is that I can muster the energy to play and develop in poker after working full time. This damn medication is still taking a toll on my energy levels.

Poker goals for the rest of the month:
- Play 1h 6-max plo per day
- Study 1h per day (2+2 on weekdays, videos on weekends)

Another new month, another new beginning.

I was well on pace to make my goals last month, then went out for social drinking with co-workers. That completely zapped my energy for almost a week. Even after 2 weeks I can still feel it. I believe my cancer medication took a toll my on liver and it was unable to handle the level of alcohol poisoning brought on by the work place sauna night. No more alcohol for me.

I ran awful at PLO25 (rant) and developed something of a negative association to poker. I've moved back to PLO5 to just build a playing ruitine and enjoy myself.

I made a grand mistake in starting out at PLO25 trying to chase money. I figured, why play lower when I can't win any money there. The problem is PLO is such a high variance game. Even if I play better than my opponents there's a good chance I end up losing money during a session. This tilts you when you're chasing money.

Steve Pavlina has a good blog post on why chasing money leads to failure:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/201...efeat-kolrami/

This month I'm just going to enjoy playing at a level where money is pretty irrelevant. With my 5k roll I'll be playing PLO5. Focus is on building a playing routine, enjoying my time and becoming a better player. No money goals.

Goals of november:
- 45 hours of playing poker
- 15 hours of studying poker

Also ordered PLO books from Slotboom and Jeff Hwang. Planning on reading those.

November in recap:

Played PLO5 throughout the month. My goal for the month was to develop as a player and have fun playing, pretty much ignore money.

I set a goal to play 45 hours and study 15. I quickly realized I just didn't have the time or the energy to play more than 1 hour per day, so I switched my playing goal to 30 hours. I barely missed playing 27h 30 minutes and studying 12 hours.

All in all I'm still satisfied. I played mostly 3 tables, developed a really good feel for how for the microstakes PLO and how different types of players approach things. I feel like I'm ready to move up levels.

Results were also decent. Ended up winning almost 20 buy-ins, allthough I ran above EV, only made 65 $ EV adjusted.





For me to play more I need to find ways to increase my energy. I'm still strugling with this medication zapping my energy. I've started doing yoga and breathing exercises and they are helping, allthough progress is slow.

Pics failed so heres another go. All Pokerstars PLO5.

ur still too loose from the sb/bb. playing oop sucks balls.

goodwinrate so far. i think i had a winrate of 15bb/100 @ 10plo over 15k hands.

You could be right, not sure. I don't think I defend the blinds very wide though. The games are just so passive that I often get to limp in from the blinds.

From looking at my stats I was very surpised at I had 17 % PFR from EP and compared to only 26 % CO/BTN. The difference between the two should definitely be bigger when moving up.

2012 is here and I'm happy to make it through 2011. It's been rough, but at least I'm still breathing. This thread is a nice place for me to clear my head, ramble some stuff and make plans for the future.

I have up and down days thanks to having to inject this poisonous **** called medication into my body 3 days a week, which is still making me feel sick. Energy is crap on most days and I'm unable to exercise and sleep is less than great.

Here's what I posted in the SSPLO goals thread for 2012 goals:

In order of priority:
1. Slug through my cancer medication
2. Improve my health as much as I can
3. Three referee publications, either in a journal or conference
4. Improve in PLO every day

The part 4 will have to be more detailed though. I believe that goals should fullfill SMART-criteria:
- specific
- measurable
- attainable
- relevant
- time bound

I would also add inspirational/motivational. Here's a more detailed plan:

Playing:
- Reach PLO 200 by the end of the year
- 10k dollars in earnings

Learning:
- watch 100 DeucesCracked PLO 6-max videos and take notes. I believe there's like 200 of them.
- start writing a PLO-notebook
- read Jeff Hwang's PLO books
- average 1 post per day at 2+2. So post count needs to be at 1145 by the end of the year.

Whether these goals are attainable is the big question. They are definitely motivational for me and in order to attain them I will have to stretch myself.

Lately I haven't been able to achieve my goals. I could blame my health all I wanted with good reason, but it's not just about my health. I have periods where I am reaching my goals despite going against the wind. It's also a question of mental strength. My mental toughness is not where it needs to be to reach these goals. If I am to make it I will have to get a lot tougher and develop more self discipline.

My medication should end in August of 2012 so I'll basicly be under the influence two thirds of the year so it's gonna be a grind.