Ty for response, I think my biggest leak is I need to find someone reliable to shop and prep for me as I can't cook well at all, definitely can be a glaring leak as eating well and also eating 'efficiently' when trying to put in a lot of hours is hugely important.

Gl the rest of the week!

You know, Roy, not long ago I was fascinated by an unrealistic thought of becoming (one of) the first SNE(s) of 5-card PLO, where I thought I'd have a real chance of breaking even (with no sample to back it, lol) putting in 100K hands a month... then I just dove into playable ranges (in ProPokerTools' crude opinion) and saw how unexciting the game actually is, no better than the good old 4-card version. Neither do I have anyone, in essence, to brag to, even myself.

I mean, it's OK not to be a superman, and it's perfectly normal to change plans halfway, especially in favour of the health. You've already done a much better job than the vast majority of people!

From the blog, it seems that you're prone to overly long grinding days. But is it what, say, your fiancee (pretty hot, btw ) wants from you (having her own job, to begin with)? What will you be doing when you earn all the money in the world twice faster?

Feel good, gl with your endeavours regardless of how brave they'll be!

P.S. I can't really assess what you cook and eat as I'm too boring and restrictive in my tastes (a vegetarian and even less imaginative), but as far as drinks, how do you manage to have coffee sugarfree?

P.P.S. Offering a Sunday Million entry (assuming that it's non-exchangeable and not simply T$215) is a disservice to PLO - give a weekly $215 PLO ticket next time!

I've always been of the mind that trying to get SNE via playing break-even poker (let alone _hoping_ that you can play break-even poker) is a recipe for disaster. Technically speaking if all goes to plan it will net you a very healthy and significant amount of money - but - imagine the variance. It's bad enough at NLHE, let alone PLO, let alone 5-card PLO. It's bad enough when you're a winning player. The swings a breakeven player would have would be absurd, but that's not close to the worst part. Every time a downswing hit they would constantly doubt their abilities. Are you actually a break-even player or are you really a losing player just running well for a while? What if you go on a big downswing and your BR takes a hit that you can't yet compensate for because SNE is so top/end-of-year heavy? It's just madness. Finding the game unexciting just tops it all off. I would have been very concerned about you or anyone trying to go for SNE in such a manner.

Absolutely agreed. That's why I am taking such a soft-lined approach to this challenge. It would be great to finish it - and I still intend to, but you always have to ask "at what cost?" and have a realistic and sensible idea for what is too costly. For me health is a big one - so i'm keeping a keen eye on that.

I used to be very prone to the overly long grinding days, but I have been changing that over time and working towards being more balanced. For many reasons -- one of which is the difficulty in sustaining a healthy relationship, another being the burnout that I appear to be very susceptible to.

She quite obviously wouldn't/doesn't want me to be playing poker all the time while not spending time with her. The fact that she has her own full time job works in our favour though - I can play a tonne of poker while she's at work and even if I didn't play a single hand when she got home/on weekends I would still put in significant volume.

I would never ever want to sustain this kind of schedule long-term. It's just madness. But, if I can achieve 100 hours in a week while being relatively sane and healthy and still playing well - surely 40 hours a week should be pretty easy? And that gives me an extra 60 hours a week to play with. That's a tonne of time. I'm really trying to be more productive with my time lately and not take it for granted - trying not to waste it watching TV show reruns in excess or by eating massive junky meals that leave me in a food coma for hours incapable of getting much out of life. I already cut alcohol out earlier this year b/c the hangovers were such a time sink, let alone ridiculously unhealthy. And with my addictive personality i'm not sure I could manage to drink "in moderation" without the occasional night that gets out of hand (at least at this point in life), so that had to go.

The reason I chose this week in particular to do this challenge is b/c Puneet is overseas and I had nothing else in my calendar so I wouldn't be "giving up" anything or disrupting my life in a manner that I wasn't happy with. I planned it, I chose this week, and I can stop if and when I want to. I completely own it.

I know this reply is dragging on but your last question is one that I have been thinking a lot about lately too. Money is clearly not everything, nor is it the key to happiness. I actually don't think there is a "key" to happiness, nor is happiness something that can be sustained long-term. I believe happiness comes in moments - moments derived from eliminating stress, amongst other things (doing the things you love doing, surrounding yourself with the right people, spending your time wisely, etc). So that's what I am working to do now - eliminate stress. And financial security is one element in doing so.

I have my goals that I want out of life and I want to be successful. What does that mean? Success to everyone is different - to me it means a lot of things but one of those is to be professionally successful. I want my poker career to grow and to continue to get more out of my job. I want to expand it -- I have started to write a series of books, I endeavour to promote my personal brand better via FB/Youtube/Twitter/etc so that I continue to be a desirable team online member for Stars as well as a desirable figure in the PLO/Poker community in a larger sense. I want to promote the game that I love - PLO - and bring it to a wider audience. I want to be very successful and I am going to work very hard to get there. This week is just a little self-exercise that I will use as inspiration, motivation and/or as a learning experience to be able to be more productive in the future.

Now that's all well and good for my professional goals. But what about personally? After all no TV and no beer make homer something something. Well I want to be fit and strong, so I work out and stretch (soon to be doing yoga). I want to be a good, honest, generous person with integrity and a set of ethics and morals that I believe in and can stick by. I want my relationships to be healthy and fulfilling - both for me and the other people in them. I want to keep my mind clear and sharp through meditation, reading, and other practices. I want to have hobbies that I find enjoyable and be able to do them as often as I want (without becoming obsessive resulting in an out of kilter life balance).

I want a lot. I don't want to be a superman, but I do want to be the best version of me that I can be. And I am still so far away from that person. But i'm getting there. And I understand that it is an ever-moving target. I'm not hoping to finally "get there" and have my life be complete and me be content and at peace. I am very much already content, complete and at peace. I just have goals that will take my life to even greater places, and I am passionate about them. I am excited about working toward, and excited about achieving them.

Thank you!

Eugh, I can't even imagine sugar WITH coffee any more! When I was a lot younger (16-20) I would douse my coffee with sugar. I guess I phased it out eventually and my palate changed. I still like sugar in some other drinks though - not much beats a really good hot chocolate on a cold winter day.

God damn you are absolutely 100% correct. I missed the ball on that one - I guess the only thing to do now is find some other competition to run and give away a PLO ticket! I will also offer the winner the opportunity to use the ticket in the $215 PLO tournament as well. Thanks for the great suggestion

Not trying to be a dick but I think your biggest leak isn't that you haven't found someone reliable, but it's that you don't know how to cook! Ever thought about learning? It's ridiculously, ridiculously easy, and doesn't take much of a time commitment at all to get started.

Saves money, helps you to eat better, and gives you a life skill that will stay with you forever.

ok posting this now for everyone else who couldn't get the scene out of their head



i miss the old simpsons

Heh don't really know where to start learning nor have I put in the effort to find out. Any quick tips/links that you used? Sware it's my last question!

Questions are good atm - i'm 2-tabling in bed haha.

Pretty much just google. It all started for me with cooking eggs, and in particular this instructional vid:



Dead easy and you feel like a king eating some boss scrambled eggs w/ mushroom and tomato that you whipped up in like 10 minutes.

Heh I actually watched that exact video when I started attacking how to make bfast earlier this yr. Besides some easy bfast stuff, I can do simple **** like prepare different meat and throw em in a slow cooker or on a grill, but would like to add to my arsenal.

Will have to do some more youtubing and googling while on my mini vacation from poker and try to add some dishes...tyty once again!

I'd also recommend Jamie Oliver's stuff. His recipes are foolproof and delicious.

So just as my session started to hit a bit of a slump, this magical hand occurs:

I love cooking

Keep it up!

Thanks!

Another good day, no doubt. My volume is slipping as I find myself unable to sustain a high multi-table ratio – either due to a lack of games running or due to my not feeling up to playing 8+ tables. I also once again come in low in terms of hours – putting myself even farther behind pace. At this point I don’t think i’ll be able to successfully finish the 100 hours without sacrificing more than I want to. I didn’t get a great night sleep last night and am not happy about that. I also had to visit the doctor because my asthma played up, then get some allergy blood tests done this morning. That cut into the hours I could play as well as finalising my decision not to push myself to complete the challenge at all costs. I’m still going to try to play as much as I can but I envision finishing up somewhere around the 90hr mark.

I played and ran well for the majority of the day. The games were really amazing over the last 24 hours with a scattering of both splashy recreational players and regs I consider to have significant/exploitable leaks. Good times.



Hours played today: 12.75
Hands played: 5,713
Money won/lost: +4,688.10
EV Adjusted: +$2,708.94
bb/100: 17.7
EVbb/100: 10.1
VPPs: 5,912
VPPs/hand: 1.03
How I rate my level of play: 8.5/10
How I rate my focus: 8/10
How well I thought I ran: 7.25/10

I'd add Alton Brown too... you get easy, solid recipes and learn more about the "theory" (I guess) behind cooking.. plus you learn some cool history behind the foods.

Subbed!

Good luck!

how could I have missed that. Sorry for being late in this thread
GL roy!

Thanks!

Big +1 to Alton Brown and Good Eats too - pretty sure most of his eps can be found on YouTube also which is nice.

Nice, do you stack your tables , use table ninja etc?

I tile, and i use table ninja and hem2.

As expected today was a much lower volume day than any of the others. What I didn’t expect was that the lowest volume day would coincide with my largest losing day so far – but that’s variance for you. I actually don’t mind the loss too much since it was all just running bad at higher stakes and I am v. happy with how I played. To put some perspective on it, I played 3,685 hands in total for the day and lost $3,476.62. Of that, $3,419.30 (or 98.35%) of the losses came from just 375 (9.7% of total) hands of 5/10 and 10/20. That’s actually been the story of my week so far – but what can you do.

As I mentioned above I am happy with how I played and am also happy with the decision I made yesterday to not push myself to complete the 100 hours. With just one day left I am sitting at a total of 79.25 hours – so even if/when I don’t hit my initial target, I can be content with the amount that I have played (especially considering that I have managed to play well for the most part).



Hours played today: 8.31
Hands played: 3,865
Money won/lost: -3,467.62
EV Adjusted: +149.20
bb/100: -5.23
EVbb/100: 2.76
VPPs: 4,211
VPPs/hand: 1.09
How I rate my level of play: 7.25/10
How I rate my focus: 7/10
How well I thought I ran: 2.75/10

Recommendations for over ware , frying pan, pots , knifes etc that can be bought off Amazon.co.uk I know you love cooking so will probably ave some good opinions

Tile 18 tables or just like 6 ?

Tile however many i'm playing, anywhere up to 18-21 max usually.

-----------------------------

And that’s a wrap! Day 7 was another great day in terms of focus and level of play — my results weren’t all too good but i’m still feeling great about the day. Even though I had been feeling good for the last couple of days I must have still been accumulating a bunch of exhaustion because last night I went to bed at 6pm and didn’t wake up til 6am. oops. I still manged to get in a decent amount of hours and hands all things considered, better yet, I think I played the best poker I have so far this week. I chalk it up to being well rested and in a good state of mind but also to the fact that I have been playing so much this week and thinking about poker so much that my game has become sharp and reached new heights. This goes back to one of my original reasons for why I was doing the challenge: To improve my game. Over the years i’ve noticed that I play my best poker when i’m playing the most poker.

I’m really happy that the challenge is over, and also very happy with how it went overall. I’ll make a new post today or tomorrow with my overview for the whole challenge / week long graph + stats etc. For now i’ll say that I got almost everything out of the week that I wanted to and despite not reaching my initial target/goal of 100k hands, I still consider the week a great success.



Hours played today: 9.50
Hands played: 4,099
Money won/lost: -$675.66
EV Adjusted: +2,345.54
bb/100: -6.47
EVbb/100: 12.0
VPPs: 4,337
VPPs/hand: 1.06
How I rate my level of play: 9/10
How I rate my focus: 7.5/10
How well I thought I ran: 3.5/10

Depends a bit on what your needs are (ie single guy in a small apartment just starting out vs someone looking to get a "full set up"). Also on how much you want to spend.

For your knives don't get a big set/block. All you really needs is a Chefs knife and a Pairing knife. You don't need to spend much on them - don't totally skimp out but anything mid-range should be more than adequate. Quick search found this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wusthof-Silv...ds=chefs+knife - You can always upgrade if you end up cooking a lot and wanting better quality knives. If you eat/slice bread then you'll also want to get a bread knife.

For your pans again don't get a set. Get a cast iron pan (non-griddle) which should cost about $20 (lodge is a good brand but anything should be fine here, look for pre-seasoned), a non-stick pan (i like swiss-diamond which would be $60 or so), and a stainless steel pan (say $60 again). Get a large pot for your things like chilli/bolognese sauce, risotto, curries, soups etc.

Honestly that's more than enough to get started. If you think you'll be using the oven get a standard size oven dish and that will serve most purposes. If you want to make stir fries then pick up a wok.

The general idea though is to build your own collection from what you'll use and need, and buy good quality items on their own. Whenever you buy a set you're usually getting a whole bunch of clutter you don't really need. I speak from experience.

On the outset it might look like this is a failed challenge. I set out for 100 hours in 7 days and only made it 85% of the way there. I really don’t see it that way though. I went back and had a look at my reasons for doing the challenge, and for what I wanted out of the week, and analysed how I did. Here is how my week looks upon reflection:

Why was I doing this?

To improve my game
I definitely consider my game to have improved over the week. As I said at the beginning – I play my best poker when I play the most poker. That is exactly what happened. I immersed myself in poker and was able to take my game to new heights – my A game improved, my B game improved and my C game improved.

To motivate my future self
My future self will have no excuse for laziness. I put in 85 hours of poker and had a great week. Let’s take half of those hours and spend them elsewhere - that’s a tonne of disposable time – and still get a tonne of work done.

For money, VPPs, fame and glory
I am satisfied with the money won and VPPs earned. The fame and glory well.. that I can’t speak of. Have I made any new fans?

For fun
Say what you want about poker but the game is damn fun when you’re playing well and running even okay. I had a blast.

Thing I wanted to do throughout the week

Get a minimum of 6 hours sleep a night, but no more than 8 hours.
This was a bit of a failure. I got 12 hours sleep last night and there were a couple where I only got about 5 hours. This was one of the reasons I didn’t complete the challenge though and i’m fine with that.

Carry out my normal morning ritual every day.
Yup, I managed to do this. Again I could have given it up and tried to squeeze out an extra 20-30 minutes a day but that wouldn’t be worth it to me.

Refrain from overeating.
Aside from that steak I had early on I think I did a pretty good job on this one. I ate relatively healthily for the whole week.

Keep my back healthy.
Another success. My back is no worse off than when it was at the start of the week and I consider that a definite success given how much I played.

Stay active.
Along with my stretching every morning I got out of the house at least twice a day for a walk/jog and fit in a solid work out too.

Blog once at the end of each day about how things went.
Check.

Strive to play my A-game as often as possible.
Check. There was one particularly awful session where I played terribly but aside from that I am very happy with how I played. Towards the end I think I hit my A-game every session.

Do a quick warm-up and cool-down each day before/after I play.
I missed warming up a couple of times when I was eager to jump into some juicy games and get some hands in. I was diligent with my cool-downs though and that was able to help me keep poker out of my mind for the time that I was away from the tables.

Play at least 50,000 hands.
Ahhh rats, I fell just short here, coming in at a total of 44,598 hands. That makes sense though when you consider the 15 hours I missed. Seems as though everyone was an optimist when they guessed how many hands i’d play in the competition – the guy who guessed the least will win the seat! Serves you all right for believing in me.

Maintain a winrate of at least 5bb/100. If that’s impossible due to variance, i’d like an evbb/100 winrate of 5.
Check on both accounts. My bb/100 winrate was 5.65 and my EVbb/100 winrate was 6.19.

So by almost all accounts the week has to be considered a success. Thanks to everyone who followed along and for the support! In a few days i’ll be heading overseas for a vacation and the poker-related posts will take a step back while I post some TRs of my time away. Places on the visit list are: Paris, South of France, Amsterdam, London, Maui. I’m going to take a different type of challenge and endeavor to post one update per day. I always say that I want to blog more while i’m travelling so I have something to look back upon but it never happens – this time it’ll happen. Again they may not be long posts, but they’ll be something. For anyone interested you can find the link to my blog in my profile.

I’ll round off the challenge with the obligatory graph and stats of the whole week. Thanks again for reading.

Since everyone loved my food porn, and cause i'm a compliment whore, i'll end the day/thread with tonight's dinner! I cooked a spinach & ricotta stuffed chicken breast with a side of balsamic roasted broccoli and a light mushroom sauce. Felt like relaxing and enjoying a nice dinner after this past week.

Very great and inspirational blog.
Congrats on completing your challenge!

Can you tell me what is your stand:sit ration during 1h session?
Do you fell better / healthier / having less back pain since moving to standing disk?
Some link with the most important stuff regarding that?

Tnx