Happy New Year!

Last year
Last year was my most successful poker year ever. I done my Profit/Loss calculations on the 20th and i had made $10277.36 playing 10-20euro sng's, 25NL and some 25NL blaze/zoom.

This year
I started my 2014 grind early (on the 20th of December) and began on a new site with a roll of 650$ playing 20euro NL blaze and 10euro SNG's. So far i've made $1184.
I am also staking a friend on 5euro SNG's with a 650$ bankroll and he is showing excellent improvement in his game each session. He already has the knowledge and ability to beat the games i'm just sorting some of his more glaring leaks so he can truly crush them. So far he has made about $60 profit. I have every faith in him to get to the 20 and 30euro sng's in the next few months.

+LifeEv goals 2014

• Make £10,000 ($15000)
• Clear my current bonus by the 18th of February and make at least £2500 ($4000)
• Get through this year of university with an in depth knowledge of the body and how it works.
• Get voluntary work swimming coaching
• Get back to amateur competition level swimming
• Read a wide range of psychology and self-improvement books
• Improve the way i communicate with people
• Improve my coaching abilities
• Practice being grateful for the things i have and the people in my life
• Create routines that are carried out every morning and every
  night
• Create and stick to a diet that is 300 calories above my maintenance
• Increase weight from 175lbs to 200lbs
• move out of my parents and move in to rented accommodation in the city
• Go on two holidays and/or a 6 week Europe trip in the summer

I started some of these goals over the last few months and i am doing well keeping to them. I'm learning so much more each day and i feel brilliant.

Planning and prep for tomorrow is already sorted in my head, however tomorrow i will write out a more in depth plan of HOW i will achieve all of this.

First Goal Plan:

Diet
I will stick to the 3-3-3 plan where i concentrate on just getting through the first 3 days first, at the end of those 3 days i evaluate my progress and work out what was easy and what was difficult. After 3 days i repeat the process for 3 weeks and then for 3 months. This should have then create a habit where i no longer have to think as much about what times, and how much to eat. For the first 3 days i will be aiming for 3000cals a day. The next 3 weeks will start the same but will be adjusted so i can steadily put on about 1 pound a week this means by the time i start i should have an idea of how much to eat. Using this time frame my goal should take exactly 3months and 24days to complete.

Obstacles and how to combat them:

• money - financially i am fine just now but i will put £400 in a savings account that is there specifically for food if i am struggling one month.
• I'm seeing a woman just now and i don't eat nearly enough when i am at hers, i will take 3 protein shakes and a quick reheat-able carb packed so i can have fast and convenient meals there.
• Poker can affect what and how much i eat so i will make sure to schedule 30 minute breaks every 2-3 hours to ensure i still eat.
• Drinking will affect how easily i stick to this diet, i will start this goal on sunday after i have been out for the week so the weekend does not get in the way of the first 3days.

3 goals one stone:

Creating routine + Read a wide range + Practice being grateful

In the morning i will go for a 1hour walk, where i will listen to an audiobook, visualize what has to be done on the day and be grateful for anything that i feel genuinely grateful for.
At night before bed i will keep a short diary of what i achieved during the day and i will then relax by reading a book for at least 30minutes.

GL

Creating routine + Reading a wide range + Practicing being grateful

So what is going well?
This is going great, everyday i've walked for an hour at some point listening to an audiobook and reading for atleast 30minz before bed.

What do i have to improve on?
I've not been visualizing much of what needs to be done for the day and i have not been actively trying to be grateful these two areas both need work.

What is making this goal harder to achieve?
Poker and time wasting online does get in the way of me being more focused in my thoughts as well as giving me high ups and downs in my emotions.

how am i going to make this easier to deal with?
over the next few weeks in the morning before playing and before my walk i will be preforming "anabolic energizer" movements a concept which concentrates on deep breathing and slow movements - adapted from ideas from yoga and tai chi. this should allow me to be more focused and less stressed before going for a walk so i have a clearer mind.

Diet

what is going well?
I've increased my eating as of late and i have been cooking a few new and healthy meals.

what do i have to improve on?
Eating more regularly and actually spending a few days concentrating on my diet, i have some what neglected to start the plan for this part of my goals so far.

What is making this goal harder to achieve?
3 things spring to mind. The first and most detrimental is poker. I find myself concentrating far more on playing poker than on my diet, i need to remember to take breaks ever 2-3 hours because this gives my brain time to rest, recover, de-stress and think more clearly in my next session. The second is when i'm with the woman i'm seeing. We don't normally have time to eat and although we have great food when i'm over there, it isn't enough. Bad sleeping patterns get in the way a lot and i don't eat as much during the night as i do during the day.

how am i going to make this easier to deal with?
both the 1st and 2nd i already have steps to deal with when i first posted as i knew they would be hurdles, i just have to make sure i implement them more often over the next weeks. The sleeping pattern will hopefully be fixed this week before university by getting to bed before 1am and up before 10am.

make at least £2500 ($4000) by the 18th of February

I have currently made £1217($2006) profit over 24days. So i am ahead of target to make this milestone.

Things i need to improve on:
My mental game is off the last week. I find myself getting annoyed by my bad plays and even had a night where i sat up until 4am spewing off nearly 200$ at 20NL HU omaha whilst berating the player to depart some of my frustration with the game. I was shocked at this because not only am i an omaha fish but this behavior its not something i'm usually guilty for. I did look back on it and realized that fueling my ego in the chat box was my reason for being too proud to get off the tables and playing more and more rediculously aggro. So i will keep away from berating chat in the future, not only because of etiquette but because of its influence on my play. Sleep, nutrition and exercise are also not optimal for a fully functioning mind and these are all getting worked on as we speak.

staking a friend

My stake made £100 profit in his first week but hit a bit of a downswing the last few hundred games and is now in a little make up. He has, however, played over twice the amount of volume we agreed on and is showing great improvement in his game. Hes been studying the material i have been advising and has been finding his own material to work from too. Even through the downswing hes still trying to stick to his short term goals and keep up the volume as well as study. So i am really please the way its going so far.
During the next few weeks we will hopefully both be working with sng wizard and talking through tough or common spots we can potentially improve on.

subbed, well written, keep it up

Get back to amatuer competition level swimming + Get voluntary work swimming coaching
I have just spent an hour paying all the fees and filling out the forms for my club. In the forms it mentioned voluntary help so i put down the fact that i was keen to coach, hopefully this gives me an opportunity to prove myself. I also have training at 8:30 tonight and i plan to train a minimum of 3 days a week for now on. I will be asking for more information about a competition i was invited to last month that takes place mid February too.

make at least £2500 ($4000) by the 18th of February

Had a severe boost to this target yesterday and was extremely happy with my play, my focus and my motivation level. I set out to play 8 hours of 6-10 tables depending how much was running at the time so i could cash well in the rakerace. I scheduled play between 2-5, 5:30-8:30 and 9:30-12 sticking to my plans to take breaks ever 2-3 hours. I played up until 10 when i realized i had achieved 2 place above the placing i had set out to and then lowered the tables to a relaxing 4-6.

What did i do well?
I played with focus and determination for much longer than i am normally capable of. I also stuck to my schedule and took breaks when i was meant to, which kept me fresh and helped me to not burn out so fast.

What could i have improved?
I was still concentrating a little too much on short term results, slight feelings of annoyance when i got sucked out on on the bubble and a habit of checking the balance too much were both things that i am hoping to eventually limit from my game, that were still showing up in that session.

How can i improve these?
I have already taken steps so that my balance does not show up in the main lobby, for the next few weeks whenever i find myself deliberately checking my balance i will mark it down on a piece of paper, and quickly jot down the situation or feelings that made me do it (bad beat, multiple lost or won games, request from friend, boredum or a distracted period of play) i will then analyse why i get these feelings and how to best deal with them.

Current profit - 3374$ over 27days

make at least £2500 ($4000) by the 18th of February

This is only half of my 2 part goal that i have to reach before the 18th of February but as i have already explained this part is going well. I am 50% through the goal and 83% to my target, which is excellent!

Clear my current bonus by the 18th of February

this part of the goal is going well but i am a little behind as i am 50% through the challenge i am only 39.29% to clearing the bonus.

Now, i have to ask myself WHY completing this goal is behind of schedule:

Was the goal unrealistic to begin with?
No, the goal was achievable through my plan, i worked out how many hours i would have to play and when it was calculated it seemed reasonable.

What has been going well?
I am only 10% behind my goal, continuing at this rate i will have managed to complete 80% of what i set out to achieve, that's a great achievement in itself. The times i do play, i play more tables than i originally planned for, which shows progress in that area and will rake me more points per hour.

What do you think the reason is for falling behind in this goal?
1. a) When i set the goal i expected to play 6hours of solid play 4 days a week. At the time this seemed attainable, however, now i am over at my womans house (from now on in this thread i'll just call her Vika) a lot it takes up a good amount of playing time. b) I also found i did not have the endurance to frequently grind 6 hours in one day yet.
2. During the festive period i had people to see, drinking to do and sleepless nights to contend with. Whilst my habits were like this i found a dramatic decrease in over all energy and focus, further limiting the amount of time i could grind.

How are you going to sort these?
1. a) I enjoy my time with Vika so i will not schedule or limit this, i am prepared to take some of the energy away from achieving this goal to spend time with her. b) Over the weeks since i started this goal i have been gradual, and at times exponentially increasing both my tables and my hours of focus on the table. (I like increasing my tables exponentially ever now and then because it forces me to adapt fast and increase my ability faster, and i am prepared to take the slight loss in ev it might entail for this long term advantage). Exercise and early morning routines really help in this goal too, they give me more energy to concentrate on the tables when i am on and the end of session routines allow me to put down poker when i am finished, something that i struggled with immensely before.
2. The festive period is over, but i now also face the challenge of university/social/poker balance and i will have to organize my time more efficiently. I am already having great success in this.

move out of my parents and move in to rented accommodation in the city

I just took a massive step forward in completing this goal! Tonight, at 6pm, i picked up the keys for my flat in the city! Its in a great location for my needs and i'm sharing with 3 others. I'll have moved in for the middle of this week and should be settled by the end of the week.



What does this mean for my grind?
I realize that this move will have a short term affect on my goals, moving can be stressful and i am aware of that. This week the grinding goals will be reduced by 50% to give myself time to get accustomed with the flat, my new flat mates and my surroundings, if it needs to be reduced by more than that i am prepared to do this. Once i am settled i will spend the next week grinding 150% of my normal weeks goal to make up for this lost time.

What needs done next?
My things need to be moved in and a place for everything has to be found, i will need to buy food and get accustomed to where everything is in the flat. In addition i need to buy a monthly bus pass and compare gyms + swimming pools around the area.

Get back to amateur competition level swimming
I have just had a conversation with my coach and i will be attending my first competition on the 15th of February. This competition will be a warm up for one of the bigger events in April. So i'm really looking forward to this!

Congrats on moving into the flat! Are you going to be posting any graphs? GL

congrats on the flat and best of luck with the swimming

Thanks! i've just moved a lot of my stuff in today. The carpet in my room is a state so i may need to go round taking pictures of room defects tonight to make sure i don't lose my deposit and hopefully get her to replace the damaged items.

As for your second question, i'm not posting graphs at the moment, although some HH will be posted on my "grind" updates. I have two reasons for this: 1. i am gradually trying to move away from results orientated thinking in the short term, so posting graphs every couple of days would have no positive purpose to that goal and 2. Blaze is incompatible with HEM atm so the graph only shows winning hands. I might post SNG graphs from sharkscope once a month or so, i'm not decided yet.

Thanks a lot straykat, i'm really looking forward to my first competitive swim since i was 11, i've looked at the races i can enter so i will be doing 50m: freestyle, backstoke, butterfly 100m: IM(all strokes) 100m: freestyle 200m: freestyle in that event.

That is me moved the majority of my things in! I can now tick move out off my list because i'll be staying here tonight or tomorrow, been around and about the area and quite like it, so close to everywhere i want to be





[x] move out of my parents and move in to rented accommodation in the city

In the next two days i will be asking myself and answering two serious questions:
What exactly are my expenses and how much must i now make to live comfortably here?
Is my lack of motivation in playing a matter of too much else going on, or is it due to being risk averse after a good run earlier this week?

make at least £2500 ($4000) by the 18th of February
I have not played at all since the 15th of February (a full week) and don't plan to play again until Saturday (prior commitments) now i have a few hours i want to find out the reasons why.

What are the things that have been limiting your playing time?
Moving in to a new flat and taking my things back and forth whilst still attending uni and working on some mental parts of my game had an affect on the time i had free to concentrate on grinding. I was also spending the spare hours with Vika and left no time to play and used tonight to visit my family for a meal.

Were these constructive things to be doing instead of playing?
Yes, moving in to my new flat was a goal of mine that shows independence and i feel its a necessary part of my development. Spending time with family and friends is also high on my list of priorities, i see this time as time well spent away from my goals as long as it does not become excessive to the point of not allowing me to achieve most the things i would like to. If i spend time with others i accept the hindrance it will have on my goals which allows me to enjoy myself and not feel guilty about taking time out for myself and others.

Was the motivation to play still there even though the lack of time was an issue?
No, after achieving my mini goal on the 15th of beating a player on the rake race and having a pretty big winning day. I had a sense that it couldn't last and i would have a bad losing day on my next session.

Why in my head, is this logical?
Because run good can not last forever and there will be losing days, i don't want to lose money that i worked so hard to make?

Why is this thinking flawed?
I feel i am +ev in the games and have a relatively large history in the games that shows this to be the case, variance has a large influence in the short term but i am not playing for the short term. I am playing for the long term, and in the long term i am losing money by not showing up at the tables. When i show up with a good mind frame, and playing well on the tables i have won that day. I may have won or lost money in the short term but this is not my true goal. My goal is to play as well as i am capable of every time i sit down and shorten the gap between my A game and C game.

More swimming updates please!

yeah definitely keep playing. Don't worry about trying to avoid variance, it's just going to come no matter what. Even if you feel a bad session incoming, that variance is still going to be waiting the next time you decide to play. Best thing to do is just keep playing when you can and making the right decisions each time.

Big props on getting back into the swimming. My best mate swims at a really competitive level here in Australia and I imagine it's quite a grind doing poker/swimming/moving out etc. Keep it up glgl

Get back to amateur competition level swimming
I have just entered in to 6 events for the 15th of February and gave them a rough guess of my times:
50m freestyle: 31secs
100m freestyle: 1m17secs
50m backstroke: 34secs
100m backstoke: 1m24secs
50m butterfly: 36secs
100m IM: 1m29secs

these are just rough guesses because i have not had a timed meet since i was a kid. Can't wait, going to have to start training hard!

Thanks for your insight straykat, dealing with variance has been the most challenging part of the game for me. I have, however, been working very hard on it over the last few months and i would say with confidence i have made a large amount of improvement in embracing it as part of the game. I think the next step for me is to look objectively at variance and more easily spot when variance played a role in a hand/session/week/month or year.

That's awesome about your friend, hope hes carries on enjoying the sport and doing well in it! You are right it has been difficult balancing everything the last week and the moving out part has taken up a lot of my time, but i have also spent a lot of time over the few days socializing drinking and partying.

Playing Live


So i have a big update to make on a game i loved playing in.

on Friday a friend and I met up to go play poker at the local casino, we had planned it for after i got my new place ready for a bit of fun so there was a lot of drinking involved and after the tournament we both got knocked out of i joined a 25/50p game, it ended up being the most interesting 6 hours of cash poker i have played.

sitting down i started off buying in 100 deep. And could only describe the action as insane, in the first round of betting every hand has ended up raised atleast 6bb's, has went 5-6 ways to the flop and 7 out of 9 of the pots had ended up with 2 players all in there has been regular straddles, double straddles and one triple straddle. After a round of 9 handed play i had tagged most of the players on the tables in my head.

seat 1: sitting 200 deep, loose playing every hand that round with pots pre flop reaching 20bb's at times, which to me was surprising as i had spoke to this guy earlier and he seemed to be a regular with some knowledge of poker concepts. In our conversation he had seemed to have had a bad few weeks on the tables and so i assumed he was slightly tilted and chasing losses. I had also noticed he seems to be battling with the tables most aggressive player, seat 8.
seat 2: Loose passive he had played about half his hands but had not been doing any of the betting
seat 3: Tight aggressive, this guy was plain and simple, he was waiting for a hand and shoveling chips in when he had one, he had only played one hand that round.
seat 4: anywhere between 50 and 300 deep his stack is up and down every hand, drunk gambler with no real clue what hes doing, he raises every hand donk leads, bets and gets it in with any pair. As he looses pots he begins showing physical signs of being in a bad place mentally, hes muttering under his breath and kicking his feat whilst getting annoyed at the dealer for taking rake.
seat 5: me
seat 6: very tight old man patiently waiting to get it in with the goods.
seat 7: loose and very timid, quiet persona, does seem to have a regish feel to him but has done some very strange things since i got on the table so everything i have picked up on so far goes against my feeling of him being a reg.
seat 8: the table aggressor, hes kicking up a storm on the table, sitting 300 deep this guy is raising every hand
seat 8: loose, 200-300 deep this man is raising every hand atleast 6bb's and will not fold much pre flop to most action, a pair pre flop to him is the nuts and hes happy to get it in by calling or raising. If the river is checked to him hes betting.
seat 9: people are talking about this guy being of a similar player to seat 8, but i don't agree with their perception of him, hes probably the best player sitting down, plays their regularly and has taken position(intentionally or otherwise) on the most aggressive reg fish on the table.

i'm finding it hard to tag most players as aggressive or passive because of the table dynamics, with most hands going mental pre and post its harder to tag this because everything is going in anyway.
I have now re-bought added to my stack and i am sitting with 210bb's to maximise value from the aggro, stack off with anything fish.

Now you have a good idea of the players we will jump in to some of the biggest hands i played.

Hand 1
Preflop:
Raise UTG from seat 7 to £2.50
Call UTG+1 from seat 8
folds to HJ seat 2 calls
btn seat 4 calls
Hero is sb (220bb's) AQ and 3 bets £19
fold from utg and flat call from UTG+1 and btn

(62)
K67
Hero checks
utg+1 bets £27
folds UTG+1 takes the pot

I'm always betting that flop except in this position here i felt like i had very little flop fold equity vs either of these players, utg+1 stays in with almost anything and i don't feel i can find a profitable way of playing this hand on the flop turn or river without hitting an ace or a queen. looking back at it maybe this is an automatic cbet vs any player type though.

Hand 2
Preflop:
Raise from seat 8 utg+2: £3
3 calls from MP, HJ and BTN
Hero in BB(235bb's eff with utg) with 99 raises £21
UTG+2 flats rest fold

(51)
9107
hero bets £39
UTG+2 flats

(129)
2
hero shoves all in
utg+2 calls
river 8

utg+2 shows 24
utg+2 wins £225

hand 3:
Preflop:
Raise from seat 8 utg+1: £2.50
4c alls from UTG+2, MP, HJ seat 1 and BTN
Hero in sb(240bb's eff with utg and HJ) with AA raises £19
UTG+2 flats HJ flats rest fold

(65)
446

I bet 29 utg+2 flats, HJ raises 52 i jam 90ish

utg+2 calls hj calls

(390)
3
2

utg+2 shows 48
HJ shows: 46

HJ wins £390

hand 4
Preflop
utg+1 seat 8 raises £4
calls utg+2 hijack co btn calls
Hero in bb (100 effective with seat 8 and seat 4) with kq 3 bets to £19
utg+1 seat 8 shoves, btn seat 4 calls all in, i call

Hero shows KQ utg+2 shows Q says "i'm dominated"

(£150)
8j7j9

UTG+1 mucks
seat 4 flips over 710 and wins £150

hand 5 for this hand the tables have calmed down a lot, the 2 massive gamblers have left and seat 1 has been playing like a bad reg since winning the massive 46 hand hours ago, he seems relaxed and is sitting with over 500 or 600 bigs in front of him. we are now 6 handed.

pre flop

folded 2 seat 4 in the utg straddles
co flats
hero in btn(250bb's eff) £5 bet k8 , utg folds
co flats

(11.50)
qq7
co checks
hero £6
co calls

(23.50)
A
co checks
hero bets £17
co calls

(57.5)
10
co checks
Hero bets £43
co calls

co shows JQo and wins £143.50
my friend and i discussed this hand on the way back home and he thought it was a terrible river bet by me. I expected to here from this player if he had any Qx or better with a reraise at some point before the river and thought the board got super scary for anything that wasn't an Ax float which there isn't many of in his range when he flats the straddle pre.
That said i get his point of view and would like some more thoughts on this hand taking in the dynamics

The night was so enjoyable and it was a new learning experience for me playing in such an aggressive game so deep, Ended up losing £400 and walking away feeling reasonably happy with most of my play. I do however think i made some mistakes i couldn't even recognize because in a game like this i did not have many automatic decision and was thinking about a lot of variables.

[x]make at least £2500 ($4000) by the 18th of February

18th Feb profit: £3011.70($5019) Stakes profit: £70

what did i do well?
I put in quite a bit of volume at times. I also worked hard at improving my game
what do i need to improve?
My mental game needs a lot of work, during this challenge it was way off, i had 3 sessions of pure monkey tilt, one of which ended up being a massive 13hour session of spew on cash, which lost me a lot of money in this challenge
what to work on next?
Continue working on my mental game and integrate a stop loss, + session sizes in to my game.

I've taken out a few thousand dollars so my bankroll is now 3k$ and for the next few months i'll be lowering the volume playing mainly only SNG's

New goal(s):
1. Make 3000$ by the 18th of April
2. Play atleast 1200 SNGs by the 18th of April

[ ] complete the deposit bonus by the 18th of February
I didn't manage to complete it due to concentrating on some other goals but i still managed a respectable 72% completion.

[x]Get back to amateur competition level swimming
Got back from the competition and my were way better than what i guessed:

Aimed for:
50m freestyle: 31secs
100m freestyle: 1m17secs
50m backstroke: 34secs
100m backstroke: 1m24secs
50m butterfly: 36secs
100m IM: 1m29secs

Achieved:
50m freestyle: 28.19secs
100m freestyle: 1m01s72ms
50m backstroke: 32.05secs
100m backstoke: 1m12secs28ms
50m butterfly: 33.5secs
100m IM: 1m11secs80ms

new goal:
Take part in the national meet on April the 18th-20th and achieve the following times:

50m freestyle: 27.99secs
100m freestyle: 59.99secs
50m backstroke: 31.68secs
100m backstoke: 1m11secs00ms
50m butterfly: 33.0secs
100m IM: 1m11secs00ms

[x]Get voluntary work swimming coaching

I got in contact with a few clubs and i am now coaching 8-17 year olds twice a week. The coaches and kids are really friendly and ive found a few great contacts!

New goal(s):
1. Get my level 1 in aquatics teaching
2. Get another 2 hours of coaching per week
3. Get 2 hours a week of paid coaching

Updated goals:

+LifeEv goals 2014

• Make £10,000 ($15000)
• Make at least £1800 ($3000) by 18th of April
• Play atleast 1200 SNGs by the 18th of April
• Get through this year of university with an in depth knowledge of the body and how it works.
• Get my level 1 in aquatics teaching
• Take part in the national meet on April the 18th-20th and achieve the times set
• Get another 2 hours of coaching per week
• Get 2 hours a week of paid coaching
• Read a wide range of psychology and self-improvement books
• Improve the way i communicate with people
• Improve my coaching abilities
• Practice being grateful for the things i have and the people in my life
• Create routines that are carried out every morning and every
  night
• Create and stick to a diet that is 300 calories above my maintenance
• Increase weight from 175lbs to 200lbs
• Save up £1000 by 18th April to be used for summer to pay for rent and bills
• Go on two holidays and/or a 6 week Europe trip in the summer

Ok so i came 2nd in a tournamnet for £1670 that i played instead of a night at the casino last weekend. I've also moved sites after getting offered an AMAZING rakeback deal. Although i still have a roll on the other site, and will keep playing to keep my sng game fresh until i've finished this bonus. So i will be playing speed tables 50NL, don't expect much in the way of pre rb winnings, my cash game is no where near as good as my sng game, but after playing zoom for 300k hands on stars and beating it for about 2bb/100 i think i should be + EV on this site pre rb.

I'll post a graph now and then of progress.