I have 6 months before our second kid is born. I'm excited but also know that baby number 1 crushed my game for at least a couple months and I expect this one to do so even more. Not to mention the costs that come with having a baby.

I haven't added everything up from last year but 80k isn't too far from what I made in all of last year so I do have my work cut out for me. I've never been good at putting in a lot of volume. I played 183k hands last year (Have only been playing HU for almost 2 years now).

I guess 80k is a loose goal and since I can't really control the results here are the variables that I will control.

1. 25k hands per month (I didn't do this a single month last year. Max
was 21k hands in November).

2. Make sure they are quality hours. This is always the difficult part. It's
easy to grind away like a zombie for long periods but obviously not
super productive. I still need to work out exactly what needs to go
or change in order for this to happen. Suggestions welcomed!

3. Go running at least 3x per week for no less than 2 miles per run.
Have been doing this for the past few months and it definitely helps
with my focus and my stress.

4. Do yoga for at least 20 minutes 3x per week. This helps me w/ poker
stress a lot as well and also keeps me from being stiff as a board like
the old man that I am.

5. 60 push-ups and 150 crunches 5x per week.

6. Try to not let my ego and pride get the best of me at the tables. That
means a lot of things but mostly it will mean not playing good regs at
my highest stakes (600-1k nl). I do not have the roll for this or the
psychological fortitude for big downswings. Playing anyone at 200-
400 but letting regs know that I'll likely leave if I get a big fish during
our match.

There are other things I want to work on as well but this is getting pretty long and I can fill in later if need be. I'd like to spend more (some) time studying/analyzing but not going to lay strict goals on that now.

Ill try to post graphs weekly or so. Here goes...

Wish me luck

3 and a half days in now. Off to a good start.
I'm running well despite being below EV. I've managed to get in at least 800 hands everyday which is basically the goal. I need to get in more than that to make up for the days that I won't be able to or just really won't want to play. So far I haven't had to play any time when I didn't feel up to it to make the hands quota.

I'm achy as hell and I'm not sure if the poker or exercise is more to blame. Poker is generally pretty tense for me even after playing over 2 million hands. Winning or losing I can't stop from tensing up when I have alot going on. I'd love to be able to stop but maybe I need that to be focused. I'm not sure.

I won't post much on the non poker stuff as it's pretty boring but so far I've kept up with all and I think I'll make some adjustments. 60 pushups 5x a week is tough so far. My chest is definitely sore and my legs are sore from running. I basically pulled all of the numbers out of thin air and I think I need to up the crunches bc 150 isn't terribly difficult like the rest of it is for me so I'm going to up it to 200 and will probably up the rest if I can when they become easier.

Anyway, it's nice to have goals. I haven't made them for myself in a long time and it helps for me to put it out here to feel somewhat accountable whether people are reading or not. I've always allowed myself to be super flexible to my environment and whatever is happening with others around me and I've been able to because of poker but it is surprisingly nice to HAVE to work sometimes. So far anyway.

I know I'm supposed to post pics of hot girls to keep this less boring but this is probably more on topic and will inspire less beatings from my beautiful wife. This was just after our first kid, who is unbelievably awesome




The weekends are a bit more difficult for me to put in volume. Hopefully I can maintain. I'll try to post some interesting hands at some point. Cheers

glgl keep the updates coming

Good luck

Thanks guys! I will

GL, I like how you're grinding with your kid lol

Well, this morning before I started my session I was drooling over how pretty my sessions screen on HEM looked, having all green sessions for the last 15 or so. [] Sustainable
And that was demonstrated to the extreme It started around hand 4000...


I'm keeping up with all requirements so far and am feeling pretty good for how terrible today was for me.

Yeah, was pretty damn cute. I think that was a one time occurrence.

This is the only one that's really giving me trouble right now. Just dropped a couple of buy ins to a decent reg at 5 10 that I shouldn't have been playing (especially on that particular site) because I can't afford the swings financially or psychologically. Not my favorite way to start the day. Regrouping

GL with the grind sir.

Thank you much^

good luck

Week 1 is over and I'm not really sure how to feel about it. Last night was one of the most frustrating sessions of my life. I played a huge whale at 1knl for about 3 hours and just could not win. We ended up losing about 4k to rake between the two of us. Yay <insert name of worst site on the planet>! I have already raked as much in week 1 as I did in all of last month.

Overall, I feel like I've played well and not lost much focus despite the drastic increase in volume for me. I had 1 or 2 sessions where I should have stopped because I was tired and I had a couple of instances where I was playing dubious matches at high (for me) stakes against tough opponents. I'm usually good about the former and maybe have some issues with the latter but I will continue to work on both.

I ended up at 18bb/100 so my bb graph looks ok.

Unfortunately, since I was pummeled in my high stakes games my $ graph looks like this

pretty rough. Still a positive week with rb included but a rough start no doubt.

I've been keeping up with all of the physical aspects of the challenge as well and despite running yesterday, doing my push ups and crunches, and having an absurdly long and stressful match last night I am not sore or achy at all today. And I only slept for 6 hours (thank you baby no.1) so I think getting into shape is really helping with the stress.

On to week two. Big bucks no whammies...

Good luck mate, enjoying the thread so far!

Careful, players on tilt have been known to throw a mouse, a computer screen or anything within reach across the room when on tilt!

Seriously though gl.

Is this all heads up?

Pretty inspirational thread. Timely too, right after new years. Are you doing this in part due to your new year's resolution as opposed solely to baby number 2?

Imho your week one was filled with your body recouping with the physical excision. The endorphins helped you feeling great after working out, but it did take a tole on your body, manifested by the soreness. I think, right about now, your body should be fairing much better, which in turn will enable your mind to focus on the task at hand.

Good luck.

LOL, thanks man. Who is your avatar btw? I remember seeing her before on a life w/ facecards clip.

Yeah, been pretty much just playing HU for a couple years now.

It was probably NY resolution related but also just around the time that I realized and it sunk in that I only have 6 months (I was wrong I have 5.5 ) to grind like a madman.

You're right about the exercise and soreness but I also have always been achy and sore after long poker sessions. When I used to play chess I'd have the same thing happen after long blitz sessions or tournaments. When I have games that are stressful for me because they are high stakes, against very aggro opponents, or if I am just playing alot of tables I get very cold, tense up alot and in extreme cases get serious shivers. It's wierd. Dunno if that happens to others. I think the cold part is just blood being directed to my brain but I think the extreme cases when I get shivers and all is adrenaline.

Thanks for the gl!

gina carano

Cheers!

Haha, I think he had a pretty anti-tilting affect when he was like that. When he's crying for this or that when he's with his mom and I'm trying to play... not so much.

Thanks

subbd gl

best of luck and congratulations!

Thanks

Cheers m8! Been meaning to check in on yours as well.