I'm setting a new PGC up after I got lazy with my last one - this is to hold myself to high standards. I will update this on a weekly basis, please hurl abuse at me and call me a lazy slob if I don't.

Short background on me:
Mid-High stakes MTT Grinder
In the main stable at BitB, previously been a coach for their developmental stable
28, played fulltime roughly 5 years having graduated from University

Previous PGC: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...uiser-1497365/

The purpose behind setting this up - the lengthy edition.
2018 to date:


Financially it's been very positive despite accumulating a fair amount of makeup more recently. However I've not really been overly happy. Throughout the year I've been desperately looking for a new place to rent, had a setup in my parents place that was obv far from ideal (lived there with my partner for 12 months since last rental property) and feel like i've slowly fallen behind the game through lack of study on the whole, struggling to get a routine in place and just felt lazy. Became somewhat disillusioned with poker on the whole tbh.

Now I'm in a new place I feel a new level of inspiration to spin this round. I've gotten unhealthier which I think lead to me being lazier on the whole, or at least played a reasonable part in that. Now however I'm looking to play regularly for a football team, got a gym within walking distance which I will sign up to and use on the reg and with my standing desk actually have a setup which I look forward to using daily when I wake up.

Mistakes made:
When I stopped coaching at Bitb the vision was to utilise this time more effectively and focussing this time on my own game, which simply didn't happen. I was running at close to full capacity at the time and getting the time off was more of a big "phew" moment. However instead of just taking a break from study for a little while, I took it for a long period. Sure I tune into group sessions when I can but alone study has been minimal, I've been turning to a games console too quickly which needs to change (my xbox was plugged into my poker monitor and could be switched on at the flick of a button at the end of a session - this certainly didn't help me). Eating crap very frequently also a big mistake. Healthy body = healthy mind, and whilst I'm not in terrible shape I def wouldn't describe my body as healthy.

5 biggest weaknesses:
1). as mentioned, my health. I think this will turn round as I have alot of desire to play football regularly and became an integral part of a team. I need to improve fitness levels for this to ever happen.
2). My current study habits. Spoke to pads that I'd like a 1on1 to focus on best ways for me to utilise my time. I see graffy in coaching vids talking about us maybe renting servers to be able to run so many sims and that kinda intimidates me, I've never been great with technology and would like to get to grips with using various software to it's full potential rather than running somewhat basic sims with the occasional nodelocked tree.
3). Avoid the autopilot Pio play. I had someone review one of my hand histories which highlighted the fact that my gameplay was some way off from being GTO. Now I seem to continue to struggle to figure where I need to deviate from GTO and where I shouldn't, best exploits to make at the right times based on various opponents.
4). My focus. Pretty much every session I have a brief drop in concentration given the 10-12 hour shifts I put in, usually around hour 5-6. I'm hoping a standing desk and an improvement in health will help aid this however.
5). Length of sleep. I go to sleep at a fine time each night but I take a "I wake up when I wake up" approach currently. Realistically I operate well on 7 hour sleep. Any more and I seem to feel more sleepy and sluggish. I'm starting to ensure I time my sleep, set an alarm and try not to hit the snooze button.

Overall goal for the next 12 months:
I've had a good career in poker, but I've always had the potential to have a great one. In a year I don't want to be saying the same thing, thinking to myself if I really wanted I could be great, but I'm fine with being good. I need to push on and put myself in the best situation possible to be able to tell myself I'm having a great career. In no way am I correlating this to monetary earnings but ability and work ethic.

I feel I'm very much at a sink or swim spot in my career. Continue with the half arsed lazy approach I've accepted over the past 6 months and I'm going to lose touch with the game. It's definitely early enough to catch myself and ensure things don't go this way. Hopefully this blog plays a small part in ensuring I don't slide into lazy habits, if I'm having to report on it I feel it will force me somewhat into ensuring I grind hard and study hard.

TL;DR
I've been lazy the past 12 months or so, need to sort it out.

Any questions lmk, lets go lets go!

1st? Gl

Sounds good mate, just keep at it! Happy to hear you finally found a new place. gl

In sub gl etc

Subbed gl

Subbed, gl Man!

Subbed, gl

gl OP

how many hours have you played this year?

IN

Thanks all!
@Bagpuss hard to be accurate but would take a stab at averaging 35 games a day, and an average session is probably 10.5 hours. Based on 2801 games so far this equates to roughly 840 hours, could be more could be less however.

Since Sunday I've tried to exercise daily (had the football game Sunday morning). A jog on Monday went fairly well, was a little achy yesterday so did a 15 minute HIIT session.

Woke up this morning, muscles felt all good, did plenty of stretching, decided to go for another jog, about 1km in my calves were in unreal agony, having to limp a little with the occasional jog for a further 1.5km. Given I wasn't super tired when I was back due to a lack of jogging, decided to do some situps.

The aim of this is to improve my cardio so I'm able to play more minutes at football games. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Eating much cleaner for now, trying to make sure I don't eat junk although finding it diffuclt to resist the odd chocolate bar. Thankfully I've always drank plenty of water so not had to adapt much in this department.

I enjoyed reading your last diary, so I'll be keeping and eye on this one.

Are you interested in playing live at all? Or do you like playing live much better?

Does your stable encourage players to play live mtts or is it all about the online grind?

GL at the tables.

Cheers Bergeroo, profile pic is gold btw

I enjoy the thought of playing live more than actually playing it, if that makes sense. I have images in my mindof building stacks making funky chip arrangements, when the reality is sitting on 12bb for about 4 hours counting your stack after every ante goes in and you fold.

If players really wish to play live mtts on the whole and the tournament seems reasonable then we are encouraged to do so. At the same time if I'm in some makeup, not put much volume in and see a live tournament come around that I wouldn't mind playing I'd feel super cheeky asking to do so - online is a heavy priority, live is seen as an experience/outside opportunity given variance/hands per hour.

Had today off, and given it's seems to be some of the last of the summer sunshine before weather deteriorating next week here in the UK decide to head to a beach on the Welsh coast. Ended up doing zero jogging or a workout, but did a reasonable amount of walking around at least, was v relaxing on the whole.

Pads has set up a group within BitB where each member who chooses to join completes a detailed study on one hand through the use of PIO with a number of questions asked. Requirements to stay in the group/maintain access of all users work is to do one every 3 days, no excuses, no 2nd chances (coaches included in this). Feels like a great way to start building up to WCOOP (just completed my first, took about 1.5-2hours worth of time), using this while discussing many other hands feels like a well rounded approach to study/grinding.

Will probably look to go on a light jog tomorrow before resting Saturday, ready for the game Sunday morning.

can we have example????

gl,sub

For example the case study I chose was 997 flush draw, EP vs BB 35bb deep
Key questions I asked were:
Do we choose multiple sizings?
Should we bet range?
What do we bluff on a Kc turn?
Does our betting freq change drastically on a 2c turn vs Kc?
Does BB have a donk range in either of these scenarious?
How aggresively do we play on a 4 to a flush run out?

With screenshots of every stage, explaining what they show

Can you explain how you transitioned from mid-high stakes in terms of your study process? What was the biggest jump for you in your skill (more software usage, solvers etc.) or just coaching/getting coached from your stable and steady progress from that?

I think it was a gradual progression rather than one thing that changed everything drastically. Just constant study, picking things up from coaching as well as finally getting a new PC that could run PIO, I believe that being back in January 2017.

Had a bunch of near misses this past week or so, just not really winning my flips f2ts/early ft. Looking to grind through to Tuesday when I will take a day off to chill with some friends. The grind is the easy part, committing to the study after a 10 hour session is the tough part (although prefer this over studying pre grind). Just need to get on with it and give myself a small amount of study to do, find that once I start that inspires me, rather than being inspired to start the study (if that makes any sense at all)

in

sims are without node locking etc right?

Yeah, looking from EP perspective in this situation.

Sims are without node locking but think it's important to note when a strategy differs considerably to how we perceive population to act, in most of these cases it's not too difficult to decide what exploit we should make without node locking.

Had a runout on Sunday, was smashing it down with rain for the first half then the weather seemed to ease off, got about 35 minutes of game time in a 2-2 draw. Pretty dead day on the felt, main sweat was final table bubbling the 109 50k bounty builder on party which was obviously a shame, lost a little on the day.

Signed up to a gym yesterday for the first time in roughly 3 years, which is great - with the aim of firstly working on my cardio, then potentially moving onto weights.

At the game on Sunday had a picture snapped of me in which I look pretty atrocious, debating posting it here itt so can see an allbeit somewhat small transformation, although may keep it for a little further down the line where I start to see some sort of change - my haircut definitely doesn't help rocking a big ol' fringe

I had been having a number of small annoying issues with PT4, the fact it likes to crash on the reg along with not being able to read PartyPoker hand histories.

Figured enough was enough and have decided to make a transition over to Hand2Note instead.

Huge jump in price (can't remember exactly amount but roughly $300 per annum) but it's certainly way slicker than PT or HEM. Feels super modern, has more features and is simply presented neater on the whole. Next month in build up to WCOOP will be me spending lots of time trying to get to a point where the software feels "normal".

The current task I've accepted is grouping all the player aliases, scrolling through pocketfives rankings one by one (hoping to do top 1,000) which is super tedious and going to take me a looong time, but once it's setup that will be that.

In, GL buddy!

Not sure how much there is to choose here for you but i’d think having your only match on the morning of your biggest day on the felt wouldn’t be optimal, but maybe try it out for some weeks and see if it affects your grind at all

Subbed, gl man!

Yeah I was considering this also - 3 games in it actually has me feeling more relaxed during sessions (even if my legs feel super stiff). Sometimes I get a touch lethargic, but the benefit of a stand up desk is that standing can give you better attention/focus so switch to this tactic when required.

I have now signed for the football team, realistically looks like I'm probs looking at roughly 30-45mins per game when selected for the bench but that's up to me to improve and try to force my way into the first 11 - fitness certainly isn't where it needs to be as of now, although improving, it will only get better week by week.

On the felt it's been very uneventful, and playing a little less than perhaps desired due to these constant disconnections across stars and party given they are the only sites I really put volume in on these days. Whether I grind today is questionable, see how the Stars connection issues play out over the next hour and a half I guess.

No real scores, hitting loads of f2t's feels likes every midweek I get deep in B55 just to lose flips late on or get bent over in some ridiculous pot. Playing better than I perhaps have done all year which is definitely positive, the tide will change, just gotta keep the faith.