Ahh mate... you just described the last 6 years of my life

I know exactly what that daily hell is like, and my heart goes out to you because it's impossible to describe how difficult even basic interactions like even talking and listening can be - let alone what it does to your mental health being so isolated when no-one understands or has any useful advice.

All I can say is: there is hope.

I've gone from being unable to listen to music/read/function to almost normality.

Best advice I ever had (from r/migraines on reddit) was to keep trying different things, tick them off one by one (here's their checklist if you haven't seen it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...7S0/edit#gid=2), and eventually you will find the right combination that pulls you free. Apart from the Pizotifen I also found the Drs and neurologists worse than useless so I recommend checking out that sub if and when you can because I got all my best tips from there.


In case it's of any help here's what eventually worked for me:


Diet:

Obviously everyone's triggers are different, but I got this book called 'the migraine miracle'. Happy to send it to you actually. Basically it just recommends going on a paleo diet and cutting out all/most sugar and carbs. Coffee and alcohol are bad for me too.

I would class diet and the Pizotifen as the crucial combination that really turned the tide for me. I've never been a healthy eater and of course feeling ****ing dreadful all the time made me make even worse dietary choices.

But eventually I was able to turn it around in small steps. My diet now is basically chicken and veg soup, chicken fajitas (these are the best, because you can smuggle in all kinds of healthy stuff in a tasty wrap), eggs, cheese and other meat/veg combos like mince and sausages etc. You probably don't have to go that strict - depending on how good your normal diet is - and certainly not all at once, but it was only when I started to cut out the carbs and junk that the intensity really started going down for me.

I used to keep a tally of the strength of my attacks and I dropped from 8/10s to 2/10s since adopting dietary changes.


Meds:

Yeah big shame the Pizotifen isn't working out for you. But what dose are you on mind?

I started on some tiny dose that was totally ineffective and had to beg to go higher (think you can go up to 4.5mg/day, can't remember how far I went but it was high). I'm down to 1.5mg now. I was on topiramate for a few months and it was worse than the migraines tbh - horrible horrible drug.

I know you said you take other things and you have to be careful but I can't recommend cannabis enough - if it's at all possible. Clearly if you have any predisposition to schizophrenia of course this a bad idea. But, if not, marijuana is by far my favourite acute medicine and has easily done far more for me than any pharmaceutical ever did. And I include opioids in that comparison.

I haven't tried them but I've also read very good things about Aimovig injections too.


Electronics:


- Cefaly device

Seen these?

Electronic neurostimulator thing you stick on your forehead, kind of like a TENS machine for migraines. Bit pricey but so so worth it. They do a 60 day trial period so if it doesn't work you can get a full refund.

First time I put this on I thought someone was firing a drill through my skull but after you get used to it it's pretty amazing. It practically cured me for about two weeks although gradually the pain returned. But still very useful after that though, as a preventative and an acute to bung on when an attack is imminent. Can't recommend it enough.

(Note: replacement patches are annoyingly costly but there's a neat trick where you can buy a tube of 'Tac gel' from Amazon and just use that to spread a very thin layer of goo over old patches and it works just as good and you save $$$)


- BenQ eye-care monitor.

Seemed to be one of the better monitors for migraine users; has a really nice low brightness level.

I also use the (free) Pangolin screen brightness software (here: https://www.pangobright.com/download.htm) that lets you lower the glare even more. This was one of the first things I got and it allowed me to finally start using the web to seek out my cure.


- Tinted glasses

Do you wear glasses?

I got dark tinted and anti-glare coated glasses that weren't too much more expensive than my usual prescription but also excellent and I wear them all the time.

********

That's all I can think of right now but please do feel free to PM me with any questions or even if you just need to chat or vent.

I know how absolutely ****ing horrible it is to have permanent migraines and I'll gladly do what I can to help you get out of this. What's important I think is that you know there is a solution out there somewhere for you and it just needs to be found.

And it kinda goes without saying but don't be too hard on yourself either. This condition is extremely mentally and physically taxing and hard to deal with so remember to give yourself a break as much as possible.



Take it easy man. Ping me whenever if you want to chat

Hey man GL with your challenge! I started mine at 2NL today, hope to be at your stakes soon

^^ thanks mate. ditto

___

Quick update from mr flagging behind...

Truth: Had a bad month health and personal life-wise so haven't played much. My gran died and I relapsed drug/health wise, so it's been a bit of a rough one.

----

... I won't be playing much in May as I sort my elf and get back on track. Back to the safety of the classroom which aint bad cos I need it.

I have been polishing off some study and by the end of the month I'm hoping to have my entire strat mapped out in a framework I can recite easily. Once I have that baseline I think I'll finally start to know where I am in the pecking order, i.e. whether it's worth continuing to spend this much energy on something so consuming. Or, alternatively - and health permitting - I can finally let rip and see how far my A game can go.

I'm humbled by some of you guys and the volume you put in. Mucho respecto. See you out there soon(ish).

Man so sad to read! Take the time for yourself. We are just kids playing cards. Im sure you'll do your best. Smart guys always fall back on there feet. Take care man!

Thanks SK. There is no poker without life is the correct way round f'sure.

Take is easy man! You'll get back there stronger than ever

Sounds like a tough stretch man, hope may brings you a life-upswing! GL!

**HALF WAY REVIEW**

Omg it's half way and I've done comparatively fack all. Sorry world. I do this.

Still battling the health-bar blah blah killing my volume blah excuses. [All this time I wanted to learn poker to a minimum wage standard as a fully operational back-up (for whenever I'm sick) but at the same time I've completely failed to take into account how much you need to actually, literally be in good physical shape to play good or decent poker well and consistently. It's a proper sport in that sense.]

Moving in the right direction thanks to re-educating myself about the basics of cleaner living (thankyou internet). I'm eating better than I ever have with a whole food diet, got a modest exercise routine building. Only good, non corrosive drugs and only in modest amounts for pain/good behaviour.

But yes, boy do I know it takes time to rebuild a system that has gone this far down the path of self-destruction. And at the same time, I'm as tired as anyone of this endless victim narcissist crap that keeps popping up on here to justify my non-performance - it's irrelevant really. I'm gonna try and nuke the private form here on out and focus on the pee oh kay ee are.

Speaking of. Here's where I'm @



1.18bb/100. Hmmm, well. I'll take breakeven 10nlz reg for now; it's higher than I was when I started I think. I feel like half of my mistakes would've been made at any stake. Some experimental moves that were deployed in pursuit of a more aggressive style. I think it's a fair reflection. I can play much better.

Overall a paltry number of hands for the year so far (56k) - yikes (!). I have been playing a fair bit of cash on a softer site for real life money. Regardless, I really think my main leak right now, and all year really, is volume. Which shall thus be the main focus and effectively the second part of this challenge.

Roadmap for the rest of this year/challenge:

1. Grind up to 5k hands a day

(incrementing very gradually up from 100/day to 2.5k/day for July, then 2.5 - 5k/day by the end of August)

2. Grind up to 50nlz

3. Evaluate next steps from there (i.e. chase profit)


EASSSSY

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

GL, ta for reading this nothing burger of a post. We are all on different ladders but same destination.

5k/day is wild! Mad respect if you can do that consistently!

Pretty ambitious given my track record...

See how far I get.

First bit's the easy bit:



Up to 250/day already! Look out!!

move to party man games are better quality least at the level your playing, if can tolerate the deposit withdrawal fees, not that ive played snap there but sure the snap games are way better on 888 than pokerstars too and smaller pool too so you can probably really get to know opponents quicker in a session get some gameflow going and do alright there.

Ta but I haven't really got any issues with Stars atm. The software matches my setup and I can just plug in and play easily enough with tracked hands to go over afterwards.

Not saying Party's any different but the point of this challenge ultimately is to get good and find out where I'm at. As I said I play a bit of cash elsewhere for similar/higher stakes but against mucho bigger fishes. I would guess I could beat 25nl cash on Stars with my current game for a decent rate if I needed to accelerate my BR quicker.

But I'm fine with losing/breaking even until I'm decent basically. I kind of think it's the quickest way out of the micros.

As would say uncle Ben to spider-man: ''With big volume comes big responsibility.'' Make sure your focus when you play.
You can do it!!!

First week on schedule:



Up to 400 now, should be up to about 800 by next weekend so er...not exactly challenging. But going to keep adding 50-100 hands a day until I hit my target weight or can go no further.

This is definitely the easiest form of poker I've played yet. I'm calling it the atomic technique of incremental volumatic progress. Or AToIVP, for short

The truth is I haven't developed my endurance for poker very much since ever. My slow coach stoner approach is good for mental game; I've fooled myself into believing one day I could just turn on the taps and reproduce my AAA game across the board. Time to fix.

Still on target, up to 700 today.

Just battling through my third 14BI+ downswing of this challenge. These rapid swings at zoom are incredible. 10+ completely unavoidable all-in preflop spots in two hours. Boom. Boom. Boom. Nothing you can do. Incredible.

I'd say I'm above average tilt-wise as long as I played it correctly. But when it's this quick you'd have to be the Dalai Lama in a coma not to feel the burning injustice. Need a valium strategy.

Know this feeling dude... don't be afraid to take a break or even a few days off when the pressure becomes unreal.

Yeah, if I gets too crazy I have to.

There seem to be a few different varieties of downswing at Zoom. I don't mind these, 95% impossible to avoid, preflop type downswings as much as the punishing close-call after close-call postflop variety, for they can truly destroy a soul.

It's usually a mix, but when it's just KK v AA, QQ v AK etc etc there's kind of a unique opportunity to practice acceptance and improve my edge, knowing old Linus (or any reasonable player) faces the same issues every other week.

I shouldn't be surprised either, expect this to happen more and more as I move up and edges decrease. Still, always helps to have a moan

I have found due to the high rake and nittiness of the pool, that a lot of unavoidable/standard spots, can actually be avoided.

Of course, if you're just talking about running KK into AA or losing AKs to QQ, then yeah nothing much you can do there.

I think you're right, it is definintely one of my leaks. Not adjusting. Looking back through the last 5k today, 14/17 of the >50bb losses were pure unavoidable coolers tho imo. Eg. I'm never folding AKs pre, even to a 4bet shove.

I should have more respect for 10nlzers 3bet/4bet calling ranges though, because 90% of the hands I raise/shove seem to just get called and played passive by this pop. And I (wrongly) discount them from too many postflop ranges.

Hey mate gl with your challenge, I remember you posting on some of my threads in the past so feel obligated to post here after reading your last few posts.

From my exp of 10z this is the advice I would give. In general the games are very nitty at 10z but the poole is easy to exploit.

People are 3betting and especially 4betting very narrow in general. We can exploit this by overfolding to 3bets. Counter this by 3betting a tonne ourselves. It makes sense right? If people are 3betting much tighter than charts suggest we should be defending might tighter too or we're going to get crushed. If people are overfolding to 3bets we should be 3betting more than the charts suggest. ( BTN vs BB and BTN vs CO is where I used to go ham, take your K5o in BB and 3bet it, try to semi selective in which garbage hands we 3bet containing some type of blocker ). We still need to adjust for our opponents, we're not going to 3bet J8s on btn vs some 12/10 CO opener but vs 24/22 guy with 80% fold to 3bet we should be, it'll be printing.

Another leak of the general player in that poole is people overfolding in the blinds and on the BTN. Literally treat the CO like it's the btn and open all sorts of garbage on btn and sb vs the opponents you know are overfolding. We're in the SB with 72o and have stats on the BB he folds 80% to steals? We're printing opening any two in that spot. Vice versa we're in the SB and the BB overcalls we want to be far more selective in which hands we open. Same the BTN vs CO J8s example, we want to adjust out strategy and decisions on player type. At 10z I'd open any suited hand on BTN and every Kx and lots of other thrash because very few, if any players in that poole adjust.

In the BB like I said already 3bet a tonne of junk vs btn opens, but do it too vs loose SB opens. Have a polar 3betting strange and start 3betting crap off suit Kings etc vs the known looser players, obv we don't want to do that vs nits. This will make you much harder to play against.

As for solvers etc a buddy of mine suggested focusing solely on 3bet pot scenarios that come up all the time, like BTN/CO vs SB defend or and this has helped me tremendously.

Sorry for the long spiel but I guess the point I'm trying to make overall is that ranges in play especially in 3bet pots at 10z are far far tighter than charts suggest. To counter this we need to fold more ( imo 70% f23b is fine at 10z ) and 3bet more ourselves. Blinds are overfolded and very little 3betting on BTN so we need to relentlessly attack CO onwards. We can still have standard tight UTG/MP opens.

GL with everything man

Noice one nuxxx. I'm definitely underexploiting by the looks. I'll take these strats out for a spin and see how it goes. Haven't really used a HUD yet (was told it's too distracting / was trying to ego-flex my way up by never using one idk) - totally see the logic preflop tho and I'll try adding some basic stats. Looks like I might be missing some easy EV.

Solver wise 100% agree with focusing on those common, narrower, easier to solve 3bet spots first as a benchmark. I did have that as a plan but got side-tracked trying to do everything. So many things to learn.

Muchas gracias for the tips 👍

A very basic hud is fine but add these

Fold to steal
Attempt to steal

Then start basing your entire micro zoom game around these. If someone is folding too much steal their blind. If someone is stealing very wide 3bet them/defend wide IP and make their life hell.

Same goes for 3bet pots, there's plenty of guys in that pool with 2% 3bet stats preflop. vs these nits who are only 3betting AA/KK we exploit them by not giving them action but run them over in all the small pots.

You're at a big disadvantage not using a hud. Whoever told you not to use one I'd stop taking their advice. Micro zoom is all about exploitation because nobody plays anywhere near close to a balanced strategy.

GL

I totaly agree with nuxx. Knowing 3bet % is sooo important. In zoom knowing pool and player profiles. (Knowing the preflop deviation based on V preflop stats) is vital. Because a lot of the money will come from them folding too much to steal and 3bet. And from adjusting calling range to 3bet from BUT and CO.

If you haven't used a HUD, I would suggest one tabling a reg table for an hour or two at first.

Just to get used to the different stats/pop ups. I think it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

Hi OP

Recently picked up voice commands in my set up, I feel what you mean about saying “fold” a ludicrous amount of times a day lol. For all the articles on volume they need to include a few with longevity for sure.

GL