8 years of playing poker, with many lofty dreams, and I'm only a small winning player at small stakes tournaments online, my biggest cash being $2625. My most notable win was winning the daily dollar rebuy $10k on Full Tilt, which paid $2030, and there were over 2700 players. I also once finished 2nd at the 10K daily dollar fixed buy-in out of almost 10,000 players.

Probably my biggest fault has been my reluctance to learn poker traditionally, ei, hard work, constant consultation with others, HUD's, paying for coaches or cardrunners, etc. I wanted to win NOW, and my specialty was thinking outside of the box for quick fixes.

Here are some of my best quick fixes.

1) Super slow walking. One day I decided to try going for a walk, but very slowly, thinking it might help me slow down my thinking so that things are much clearer, as well as being calming. I went for one in a hilly area, came back, played, and finished OOTM. Later on I went for another one, this time in a flat area without very many people around, came back, entered a $27.50 tourney, and won, beating out around 400 players and taking in $1700.

Later on, Paul Chek, a health guru online, corroborated my theory when he introduced the extremely healthy practice of "working in." (Opposite of working out). If you exercise very slowly or very lightly, so lightly that blood doesn't flow to your muscles, the blood instead stays inside of your organs and does good things healthwise.

2) Barefoot walking outdoors. I read about this via Dr. Mercola newsletter, another online heath guru. Apparently there is an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth and wearing shoes blocks us from absorbing electrons, or something like that. Anyway, it's supposed to be a very powerful anti-oxidant. So on my 11th 2012, I decided to test it on poker so I went for a walk barefoot through the park, came home, and played. I played two small stakes tourneys and made both final tables. Over the next three days, I made a FT in 3 plays each of the next two days, and again went two for two on the 4th day. I increased my bankroll from $150 to $1575.

I then began playing in bigger tourneys and have been steadily losing most of the profits back. Perhaps it was just me believing that this would work, but things seemed much clearer to me than usual. The winning way was clear. My patience was great. So was my judgement.

3) Codeine. I was once given a bottle of Tylenol 2's, which contain an opiate called codeine. I took small pieces throughout the tourney and the winning way felt very clear. I won the daily dollar rebuy. Codeine has often brought me clarity. I've tried pot and pot makes me dopey and take very bad risks. I have had addiction problems with codeine and I don't recommend it, though it is a popular recreational drug because the withdrawal symptoms are mild. I have quit it several times only to start at it again.

4) Diet Coke. Diet Coke would elevate my mood and make me aggressive in my play. It worked best in fast blind tourneys because I could be recklessly aggressive while "on it." I've tried coffee and regular coke and neither does me any good, in fact, coffee sucks for me while playing.

5) Playing very patiently. I found that when I folded all marginal hands at the beginning of the tourney, I tended to get good cards. It seems the more desperate you are for cards, the less likely the really good cards come.

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/thepoke...er-profile.asp

http://www.sharkscope.com/ >>>search "surgicalkill" on 888 poker.

So anyway, don't try the codeine or Diet Coke, but do try the others if you want. Me, I've realized that relying mainly on quick fixes hasn't gotten me the results that I've wanted, so I've committed to learning the ins and outs of poker.

I forgot to include the most important point;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJgxm9Bo8IQ

That NLP exercise is supposed to allow you to recall feelings on demand, or hopefully "states of mind", such as states when I was "on" and everything seemed clear, easy and apparent, and it literally felt like I was marching straight to the FT.

Wouldn't it be great if you could instantly recall and feel all over again when you were at your best? That is what I am chasing because most of the time I don't feel "on", ei, confident, clarity, relaxed, patient, etc. If we were all consistently our best, then we'd all make good money.

Try mindfulness meditation I think its very good also very simple.

Google mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

There is also an audio book on iTunes called Full Catastrophe Living.

Mr. Muck, thanks for the suggestions, I think I will get the book Full Catastrophe Living. I believe it could help me.

It's a really bad idea to start taking Codeine/Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) combinations "recreationally" (as you've mentioned I see ). It doesn't take much above the effective dose of Paracetamol to seriously **** your liver, especially if you drink or consume lots of caffeine - see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol#Dangers

!

Juk

juk,

thanks. I have started to experience a mild discomfort in my right side just at the bottom of my ribcage. This has gone on now for over a year. At times the discomfort could only be felt if Iw as pushing against the area, at other times it has affected my sleep, because it is uncomfortable to lay on my right side. And other times I felt discomfort just from tossing over.

I was seeing a gambling counsellor a few months back and I told her everything. I told her I was worried I'd faacked up my liver and we agreed I should have it checked out. I told my shrink, a former md, and he did tests on the liver. Everything came back ok. I went to a clinic and was honest about my drug abuse. They did x-rays, another test, perhaps an ultrasound, (idk) and did some urine and blood tests. They said it all came back fine and thought that perhaps i had bumped my ribcage very hard. My shrink told my it's possible to bruise cartilage for a long time.

I did some research on possible reasons for this mild discomfort and my most logical finding was that I have a fatty liver, which has become an extremely common occurence.

For the last few months, the discomfort has been less severe than in the past, and I have been drinking much more heavily (heavily is a relative term, heavily "for me" is more accurate) and at the same time combining codeine to attain the desired effect. So logicaly, if it was the acetominephen and alcohol that was causing the discomfort, then logically the pain should be worse, but it isn't.

As for what I have been doing with the drug use and all, trying to obtain a state of clarity while playing, etc, I have been constantly examining what I have been doing to myself and what delusions I hold about some day actually cashing in on poker to make the risks worth it.

I was told to eat acetaminophen like candy when I was working on my teeth (serious serious tooth ache). I was on 4 grams a day and sometimes had additional ibuprofen so that I could think. "Following a normal dose of 1 gram of paracetamol four times a day for two weeks, patients can expect an increase in alanine transaminase in their liver to typically about three times the normal value.[5] It is unlikely that this dose would lead to liver failure.[6]". Wtf, unlikely to lead to liver damage

Interesting. I have the same thing and have for some time now. I haven't taken recreational drugs in many years but likely drink too much, although not as much as I used to.