good job and good luck

7/22/2014

POKER:



Obviously I wasn't going to make this thread and then run at or above equity. Those are all my hands since I started the thread.

I am happy with about 95% of the hands that I've played over the sample. I think if I play another 5k hands without a profit I'll take a couple day break just to get back to center. Even though I'm only 2k below EV, I just find its better to take a break earlier rather than try to grind through it. I should post some hands but at the moment am fairly tilted and will come back to it.

*I started out today by watching 2 RIO videos. I try to watch like 5 a week. I also watched the Joe Rogan podcast with Ike Haxton, obv not for my game but was interesting/inspiring. Ike's an interesting guy, I actually am going to buy his Dad's book to read at some point.

WELLNESS:

Today was a day off at the gym. I break up my week into Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, and Arms days, so I usually take 2 days off. I went to the beach for an hour with my girl, jumped in the ocean, and then went for a 1.5 hour bike ride in the evening.

I bought a soccer ball because I want to start learning how to play, gonna go to the park tomorrow and see how the knee feels.

All in all, I'm pretty tilted. As I was getting off the tables at the end of that 3k hand session, after I had battled back some, I got AK in vs AJ against a fish I had been trying to get in pots with for 230bb's and lost and threw an empty coffee cup (cardboard) across the room, and just instaquit my tables without waiting for the blinds. This is the kind of tilt that I want to avoid, and I want to include it here to hold myself accountable. For now I am going to not play until later, and get a good workout at the gym. The weekend is approaching and I notice a big difference in the games on US sites from the weeks to the weekends, so I am keeping that in mind.

I always overreact when I'm running bad, then have a good session and its all good. At the end of the day I'm not down that much and I am just going to take advantage of some time off today and see how tonight goes.

I'm still only 2.5 months out of surgery, and any type of weighted squat gives me trouble. I do bosu squats and squats against a ball on a wall.

I used to deadlift every week, and you reminded me I need to start again. Thanks for the input

Interesting thread. GL sir! Will you be posting any interesting hands itt?

Thanks! Yes, I will start doing that tonight. Just have been getting into the swing of things so far and have been a little busy.

Wow, you've come a long way. I'll follow this for sure because I need some inspiration to work harder. Good luck with your goals!

Struggle against addiction is fighting the good fight.

Keep it right up.

7/23/2014

POKER



3 sessions today. First two went poorly, third one went well. I feel that I played well in every session. I am mainly concentrating on controlling tilt. I had another session today where I was 1k below ev and I kept getting pissed off. My girl came up with a great idea that I have heard referenced before in the forums (maybe it was King Niche lol). Since I can't seem to keep from doing SOMEthing physical after I lose a couple big pots in a row - whether it be throwing something or punching something - she said, "Why don't you just do 30 pushups?"

I feel so juvenile and ******ed having to even discuss this as an adult, but hey here we are, so I am implementing that tomorrow. I actually can see it working very well. Its not like when I tilt I go storming around the house. Usually I am playing so many tables I need to get back on, so I just do one thing - throw something, etc (Its never been anything valuable - I do seem to have SOME self control). Then I am back to feeling ok (obv not completely even keeled, but I feel better). This will hopefully help me, and if I time out of a few tables, so be it.

I ended up on more tables tonight than I planned to be on tonight due to quality of games and didn't end up marking as many hands as I would have liked, but I want to start posting hands. Feedback, as always, is appreciated.

Hand #1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?6685367

I have always played fairly loose for the number of tables I play (up until recently 33/26/9% 3bet), but after some coaching/leak identification, have been playing at a steady 26/22/4agg/9%3bet. I know that one of my weaknesses is that I call down too often. This hand is an example. Villian is 74/6/2.6/5.4 over 150 hands, I did see him 3bet AJ once and had a note that he checked behind bottom pair on the turn after calling a flop, and bet 1/2 pot on river with 3 overcards on the board. I'm not going to go over my thought process because I feel that its pretty self explanatory. I guess I wonder how bad it is. I'm obviously not beating much, I just think I justify calls like this too often. I feel like its much better if the BD flush doesn't get there because the flush makes him less likely to bet his bluffs.

Hand #2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?6685370

Villain's a good reg and doesn't get out of line much against me. I am struggling as of late with blind vs blind play versus regs, and I justify trying to win pots when I shouldn't. I think he actually has a lot of aces here and a 3barrel is bad.

Hand #3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?6685373

Its always tough for me, when I'm having a rough stretch, to go over hands and see it from a neutral perspective. Right now I'm looking at that hand and thinking, "Typical example of another bad call", but maybe its not terrible. Villain is 44/13/1.1agg over 600. I don't think those types are ever betting worse here.

*I'm a little tired from playing a lot of hands today, so those hands are not too involved, but I do like going over hands/thought process and will try to make them more interesting in the future. I just wanted to get some up.

WELLNESS

WORKOUT: SHOULDERS
3x10 Arnold Press
4x12 Dumbbell Raise (side)
3x10 Dumbbell Raise (front)
3x12 Shrug
3x10 Rear Delt Machine
3xfail Rear Delt Raise

I went for a long walk and meditated for 10 minutes today as well.

Awesome stuff man. Good to see you're on track. Just a couple thoughts..

The coffee thing. I've done a lot of thinking/experimenting about this, and I've come to the conclusion that if you workout/train a lot with serious goals/intentions, and you play poker professionally for a living, the pros to having a coffee or two a day (plus any caffeine from a pre-workout supplement) outweigh the potential cons of "addiction" to caffeine. Provided you keep your intake < ~400mg or so a day, I really don't see a problem. It helps me smooth out my energy levels throughout the day and optimizes my workouts/sessions/general routine. I really just see it as a useful tool that's only harmful if you're having issues like headaches, stomache issues, shakes, anxiety, insomnia etc.. But I wouldn't bother trying to kick the "habit" just for the sake of feeling more natural/clean. Just make sure you drink plenty of water.

Secondly, if you want to lower your BF, it's going to be pretty necessary to do some cardio and get your body into some fat-burning stages. I know I know, it's boring. But if you challenge yourself with it and do it optimally, you'll really feel the benefits and you'll be amazed at how much it can improve your physique, your general energy levels, your appetite, your general moods, etcetc.. I would recommend trying HIIT ~3x per week, for 20-25min each. Just do a google search on HIIT to get an idea for how to do it. Focus on jumping your heartrate up quickly and then letting it fall back to medium, and continuing this trend. And the less food you have in your system, the more your body will be forced to tap into fat stores for energy. (Ie. always do cardio AFTER you lift).

Of course, there's pros and cons to working out out fasted (performance drops for lifting and gaining muscle, but cardio is more effective for fat burning) and IMO it's a very situational thing. Personally, I train fasted when I'm leaning out, and I train on meals (including carbs) when I'm more focused on blowing up and gaining muscle. As a medium ground (a lot of people are roughly equally interested in gaining muscle as they are losing fat), you can try only eating protein/fats for your 1 or 2 meals pre-workout and save your carb intake for post-workout. (This is called carb back-loading). You'll generally be a little weaker and flat (just like when you train fasted), but it won't be quite as drastic and your body still won't have the carbs to target as an energy source so it should incite some fat-burning during cardio as well.

There's absolutely no point in HIIT after lifting since HIIT raises your met for a long ass time. You'd just be giving away gains

It's relative to what you're trying to do and where your priorities are, as I stated earlier. If you're just trying to "make gains", and you don't care about losing/gaining fat.. then yeah of course you don't want to do HIIT. If you want to try to do both, you're going to need to do cardio.

Thanks a lot for the response. I should probably mention that in my daily life I am fairly active. I don't need a car and instead awhile back made the decision to bike everywhere. So, I bike a moderate amount every day, and then every 3 days or so go for a longer, more intense, ride. I also usually do a good amount of walking during the day.

I bought a soccer ball the other day because I want to get into it and had a good "practice" with my girl. Before my knee injury, I was training jiu jitsu, playing basketball, and surfing. Now I just plan on slowly implementing jogging/running through soccer into my plan.

I know that's different from true fat-burning cardio, but I also have a long response to that that I will save for PM.

I appreciate you telling me your take on coffee and after thinking about it, I agree. As someone with an addictive personality, I monitor myself and probably OVER-monitor myself when I am looking at things that are addictive. I guess at the end of the day being somewhat dependent on coffee isn't harmful.

The thoughts about meal timing and working out are much appreciated as well. I have done lots of thinking on this also. I played football, basketball, and track in high school, so I've been on a weekly lifting regimen since I was 15. In the beginning, it was always eat before. I went through a fairly serious bodybuilding phase with my friends where we followed a strict diet that is similar to the mass gaining one you describe in your blog.

Now, although I would like to build SOME muscle, I am fairly happy with my 6'2" 180lb frame. My goal is to get to my bodyfat goal, then slowly put on muscle while maintaining low BF.

The problem I have for working out fasted is that I don't get the same quality of workout. I defiitely work out for mental reasons also and I get a lot mentally out of pushing out reps at the end of sets, and I absolutely find that I fail faster if I haven't eaten well before my workout. Plus, I'm 31 now, and I want my bodybuilding goals to fit into a normal lifestyle rather than the other way around. For me that means a healthy breakfast and occasional cheating because I want to live life and eat good food. I know it's not the fastest way to get to my goal. Same goes with not doing HIIT cardio (also, for someone who loves sports, I cannot stand running or machine cardio). Just watching the minutes slowly go by feels like torture to me.

I have a good amount to say about diet/nutrition, but I will send it via PM as to not write a novel here.

7/27/2014

POKER



Had a couple slightly winning days and a decent day yesterday. I wasn't in the present mentally on Thursday and Friday and I don't completely know what that was about, but I think I just have not adjusted properly to having breakeven/losing stretches where I am running bad. I try to "play through it" and I know it makes me play less than optimal, but I have a hard time justifying staying away from the tables, so kind of a vicious cycle. Anyways yesterday was good and on top of it I went to see a show in the city, I watched The Antlers play at Webster Hall, then we went to eat at Duck's Eatery afterwards. It was a good night in the city, and I was thinking how important it is for me to get out and do stuff to stay in the right frame of mind. Sure I have a healthy lifestyle but humans are social animals and the fact that my social interactions are confined to 1) my girl, 2) skype/phone convos with friends and family, and 3) my coffee shop guy, is probably -ev for someone whose work means working solo in his apartment. Just being out and around people helps with the isolation. Like every good alcoholic I have a tendency to isolate and I need to remember that.

WELLNESS

I have been re-inspired on this front after talking with Lefort. My workouts have been better than usual and I have been incorporating more cardio. Besides some marrow at Duck's Eatery last night I've been solid with my diet.

WORKOUT: ARMS (Friday)

Superset: 3x10 Dumbell Curl/3x10 Tricep Pressdown
3x10 Concentration Curl/3x10 Skull Crushers
3x10 Hammer Preacher Curl/3x10 Closegrip Bench Press
3x12 Dumbell Pullover

WORKOUT: LEGS (Today)

3x10 Quad Extensions
3x10 Hamstring Extensions
3x12 Deadlift (thanks ...I...)
3x15 Lower Back Hyperextensions
3x10 Glute Machine

I've been good about taking Fish Oil and Glucosamine/Chondroitin everyday.

I haven't played yet today but worked out and will post some hands with my post tonight.

While I don't like commenting on people workout programs, cause everyone has different goals the deadlift is not an exersize you get anything from a 3x12 template from. Its easy to hurt with poor form and its very cns heavy and stresses recovery. You need to google deadlifting norms since for most people this is an exersize that is 2-5 work sets per week with about 25-30 reps max (essentially in general strength programs its irreplaceble but very little volume is usually done)

interesting thread so far, gl

Looking much better.

Not talking about stats.

ugh i know. every time i see it now, it tilts me

7/27/2014

POKER



So there's my week; I started this thread a week ago and those are all my hands since. I'm happy with how I handled the variance this week. Well, I'm happy for the MOST part. I got pissed 2 days and I'm going to take a break for a day or so and go over my hands in depth tomorrow. I feel like I played pretty well for the most part, but I still have a good amount of mistakes in there. As always, my mental game is what needs the most focus, and I'm going to finish the Mental Game of Poker this week.

All in all, I'm happy to show a profit at the end of the week. I'm in a good frame of mind. I know I said I was going to post hands but I'm going to take that back because I've just had my fill of poker for tonight. I am going to start fresh tomorrow. It's 1 am here and I'm going to go for a night time walk now to re-center and look back at the week and appreciate my hard work and how lucky I am to be able to work for myself.

WELLNESS

Today was a great day in this regard. I had a strong workout and I decided to do my meditation session in the park and I felt real centered. My favorite part of the day was that I had a -1k session to start the day in like 700 hands, and I normally would try to grind it out. But I had read in skraper's thread about how he took a break the other day rather than continue playing, and even though I wasn't THAT tilted, I could tell I was off my A game, so I went to the park with my soccer ball rather than play through it. I came back and had a good night session, and I am proud of myself for that.

Lastly, I am loving the **** out of this new Riff Raff album

Without a doubt reading and implementing this book was worth more money to me than any other single thing I've done in poker.

The key is to make sure you don't use this as an excuse. Its very easy, at least for me, to slip into a mode where you put off playing bc you don't feel at your A game. We shouldn't play at our C game, but our B game is still going to make money.

seriously instead of quad extensions just do high rep speed smith machine squats on a bench.

This is pretty much the nut safe exercise for anyone with any kind of body issue while the quad extension thing is a complete waste of time for strength, mobility and size.

Just look at crossfit girls. Amazing legs and they dont even do heavy squats. Just good reps and good form.

I've never understood where this comes from? Yes, quad extensions are going to be useless for functional strength and performance. Yes, if you only focus on quad extensions, you're most likely not going to get any quad growth. But there's literally not a single top tier bodybuilder that I can't snap-find a youtube video of right now doing quad extensions. They're a fantastic exercise for getting controlled full range lengthening/shortening of the quad at high intensity with isolation to create full tension. For me personally, once I started doing them properly, my outer sweep (which I've always lacked) started developing very nicely.

I'm just very curious where this mentality comes from, as I seem to come across it everywhere online yet any big man I know uses quad exts as a useful tool. My guess is that online broscience grew a distaste for the exercise once people realized you need to be doing some heavy full body CNS exercises (squads, deads, etc..) to stimulate growth, and thus they deemed isolation exercises like quad exts as "useless". But that's pretty silly. Every exercise/motion can be a useful tool. The key is to coordinate and use the tools that are optimal for your needs. For me, quad exts are great.

I appreciate the feedback but some of this is false.

I had surgery April 28th, so my knee still bothers me when I make a squatting motion, even with no weight. Smith machines are widely known to be PARTICULARLY hard on the ACL and patellar ligament because it holds your trunk in place, therefore increasing stress on the knees. Furthermore, because you lean back, you minimize the use of your hamstrings, which isn't desirable because your hamstrings are so important in knee stabilization.

The stability of the bar being on a set track means you don't use your body's stabilizer muscle functions as much, which is also a negative.

Saying that quad extensions are useless is simply wrong. I had severe hypertrophy after not using my quad for over a month, and they were effective in helping build that muscle back. In fact, for every patient recovering from a knee surgery (I tore my other ACL 10 years ago and definitely am knowledgeable with the recovery process), quad extensions and quad raises are always two of the exercises you perform during physical therapy, as they are isolation exercises which help that muscle to learn how to fire again.

Like Lefort says, every bodybuilder uses quad extensions. I lift in the same gym as a former world natural bodybuilding champion and another guy who competes in the WNBF (and I used to train with one of them), and they incorporate quad extensions into their leg routine every week. There aren't any exercises that I can think of that are "wastes".

I'm already muscular, and have a solid routine based on a lot of what I've picked up from talking to people who know a lot about this stuff, and from my own reading. I am not looking to build a ton of muscle (at least now now), I am looking to get fit and while the basis of my program will always be compound movements, I find that isolation exercises are useful and necessary if I want to achieve my goals. The knee has thrown a wrench in my plans but I am working around it best I can. Still though, I do appreciate feedback as I'm obv no expert

Quad extensions are just a lazy exercise. Yes you might grow a bit on the side but it will not bring you any athletic abilities and help you recover from injuries or teach you how to stretch out your body more than you can right now. There's simply no point in it. Also i would not base knowledge on what most bb'rs do as they get injured non-stop and most of them have horrible flexibility. They might be fine as a last exercise just to "burn out" but as a main its quite terrible.

I would much rather do some sumo squats than sitting pretty on a machine and lifting my legs in a non-natural way that puts immense stress on your bones in a very very non natural way. You don't need heavy weights on those while the quad machine requires a lot of weight to feel any kind of muscle activity. Even a scrawny kid can do 70% of the plates on it on his first day.

I'm guessing you're a cross-fitter.

I don't want to derail the thread any further so I won't continue discussing quad extensions, but I would suggest you open up your mind a bit and not think in terms of absolutes like "quad exts are lazy and useless" or "bodybuilders have horrible flexibility and get injured so don't copy what they do". Also.. just because someone who's not particularly strong can stack a machine has no bearing on whether it can be an effective movement for helping someone else and serve as one of various tools for reaching their goals.

As long as o'hearn agrees that most bodybuilders keep getting injured, there's no way it isnt a fact.