.

23/1/22


I took the weekend off. Whilst I haven't hit my targets for productivity these past 3 weeks, I've given it a really good effort, and done far more work than I have done in years. It comes with pros and cons, but the long-term goal is worthwhile.

I need to take the foot off the gas a bit. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a schedule running non-stop 10am to midnight will kill me. Sure, I have breaks in between, but it's still a huge amount regardless. I make sure to take every Saturday off as a cheat day, but I extended it to Sunday because of how dead I was. It's a really difficult line to draw, having reasonable breaks, and allowing myself to become lazy and stop working. With my schedule changing on the 31st January as school starts, I'm hoping to draw up a plan with more breathing room, whilst still ensuring I get everything done.

Gym is going well. I finally feel like I'm getting my money's worth, after months of going three times each billing period. I've put my leg out from too much running, I think it's been about two weeks since I last did a run - I really miss it. I'm surprised that I miss running, when I started this journey I hated wanting to do it. It's that kind of positive change that highlights the progress I'm making.

Streaming is also something I'm putting a lot of effort into this year. I've levelled up my game on After Effects and OBS, allowing myself to increase the production quality of the stream. I remember I wrote some absolute bollocks about improvisational humor a while ago in this forum - honestly I don't know what I was on about, but I've cringed at it ever since I wrote those words. I'm finding other ways to make more entertaining content, whilst maintaining the education factor to it. The study group in my Discord serves as an extension of the culture I'm trying to create around my stream, a community of microstakes players working with each other to improve their game and make more money. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Poker, the thing I imagine you're actually reading this for, is going... alright. I feel like I've moved out of the Unconscious Incompetence stage, and into the Conscious Incompetence stage. It was an uncomfortable transition, it isn't nice having the rug pulled under you when you think you're doing well, but I feel like I'm improving quicker now. I've gone from blindly making mistakes in post-flop spots, to acknowledging I don't know what's going on here, and trying to make the right play based off of intuition.

I'll post results with tonight's session's post. I'm going to go take a nap because I feel incredibly tired.

26/1/22

I've kind of let everything slip a bit recently, some things I do each day are obviously becoming habits as I'm still being productive, and tracking data. Other things, like being fully focused during studying, and working on my poker game, have waned significantly. I'm concerned this could be burnout, but I don't really know yet.

I've been playing cards every day as usual, but have had a pretty rough run of days. It comes with the territory, but this has been pretty awful. I've attached both a currency chart including rewards and rakeback, and a PT4 graph.


Praying this is variance...

It's been pretty disheartening, but I trust in the process now more than ever. Through review sessions with my coach, and when using a solver, a lot of my hands turn out to be well-played. It is hard to make a pair, after all. I've noticeably had an awful run of flops, turns and rivers. This might sound like a fish whining about variance, but it has been pretty terrible. I was hoping that fortune would change for me after the 4NL run, but it's not the case just yet. My coach said at 30k we'll have a much clearer picture of what's going on. I just hope I last that long.

Can't hit a set to save my life.

We're 8000 hands in right now, and things could be going better. I have a pretty large pool to dip into, so we won't be going broke at any point, but I do want (and in a sense, need) this to start turning around. With exams over, I now can devote a lot more time to improve, and I need to be disciplined enough to sit down and do it. We're about to approach 10BI loss, which in theory isn't even that big a downswing, but **** me if it doesn't suck.

We never even got started

In terms of hands, we've had some absolute belters this week. It seems 10NL is getting softer - very glad for that, but it does mean more multiway pots, more donks, and a tricky space to navigate if you aren't used to it. I'm getting more adept at exploiting these players' weaknesses, with varying degrees of success. Below are some highlights from recent times.

I think you need to get some rest and take your mind off the game if hands like JJ make you feel that way.

Get distracted, try to dispel the accumulated tilt. Work on your emotional state and then come back.

There is nothing worse than doing something that does not bring you pleasure.

30/1/22

Ironically, despite me feeling fine mentally, I have had to take a break. Over the weekend I was pretty sick (recovered now), but it meant I couldn't play any session over the weekend. Thankfully, I barely managed to scrape my rakeback goal mid-week, so there was no pressure.

Taking time off wasn't bad, honestly, but being sick did ruin my entire structure. Not doing things was, boring. I haven't really experienced that before, a distinct frustration derived from not playing sessions, not doing Uni work, not going to the gym. I'm gassed to get back to it.

My society starts back up tonight, so I will no longer be playing sessions on Monday. This means that the rest of my sessions need to be a little bit longer - by a manageable 15-20 minutes. I need to draw up a healthier structure for my sessions, to enable me to make them longer and not burn out. I'll probably talk to my coach about that at some point. I can churn out about 250-300 hands/hr, but I need to get the "hours played" up per month to reach my goal of 10k hands each month. Managing this, in amongst everything else I have to do, is pretty difficult.

I'll be back to it on Tuesday evening, most likely, to kick off February. Streaming as always.

I played a bit at the same NL10 pool as you. I played only 8k hands there but I found out that the pool was veery nitty. I think you should have atleast breakeven redline there and since you do not, I suggest you do some research in that pool and see where you can exploit them more. I dont want to give any free tips here but imo you should pump up your aggression a bit. You dont necessarily need to make any big 3barrel stack off bluffs but just fight more on small pots when villain shows weakness.


But im sure it will turn around. Those ”downswings” are very common

6/2/22


Generally, players significantly underestimate the amount of stress and pressure they are under when playing poker. Burnout is a unique motivational issue because it’s actually caused by intense
motivation. Even though players who regularly suffer from burnout often think they are lazy, the opposite is true. They are so motivated after playing and working themselves into the ground that when their mind is extremely fatigued and needs rest, they criticize themselves for not wanting to play, being easily distracted, being bored, or feeling tired.
- The Mental Game of Poker, Jared Tendler

It's been a week since I last posted here. I've spent most of the week sick, to the point of horrible illness. Experiencing symptoms I'd never seen before - breathlessness, pins and needles all over the body, feverish temperature changes. Things got to the point where I was ringing the non-emergency helpline, fearing something drastic was occurring. I ruled out Covid-19 instantly with testing, which left me wondering what the hell is going on? Turns out, and I had never really considered this, that the answer was stress.

I've never really considered stress to be a thing. Back in school, my study was always performed in haphazard intense periods of motivation, followed by long periods of doing nothing. I didn't feel stressed at all during this process, but would wake up with no motivation some days. Nothing had ever gotten to the point I was at this week, with feelings of anxiety or discomfort. As with all these potential mental game issues, I consulted The Mental Game of Poker. This has been an effective bible for things like this - but I didn't expect there to be much help on this particular subject.

I consider myself to be highly motivated. I have a clear goal of what I want to achieve, and how I expect each target/goal to be met. I spent an absurd amount of January working - going to the gym, grinding for exams, putting hours into playing cards. That's a lot of stuff to put into one day, and it left me working 6-7 days a week, with barely any rest in the day, as my mind was always focused on work. It feels better, getting things done, as opposed to getting nothing done, but this is a fault with my approach to the concept. You don't get to burn the candle at both ends without running out of wax.

So, I've basically spent this weekend doing nothing. Well, next to nothing. I find it near impossible to fully switch off, but I've restricted myself from doing work, playing cards, going to the gym, or even planning my new schedule. It's actually been difficult, I feel stale lounging around my room doing barely anything, playing games, and eating like crap. I don't have a toxic hatred for days like this - I just never know what to replace working with.

So, to a new philosophy. I know that I can't work as hard as I have been day-to-day, as it ruins the quality of my work. slyless' comment on taking a bigger break is something that I have considered, but I think if I can strike the right work/rest balance, that will suffice. I'm going to start by copying Tendler's suggestions into this post, and then try and work out what I want to do, in this text box.

• During times when you’re intensely motivated, ease off the throttle just a bit.
• Over-motivation can lead to sub-optimal performance everywhere.
• Recognize early stages of burnout
• Take one day off per week
• Spend time off electronics each day

Now, to work with these suggestions. I'm not in a high-stress 9-5 job, I can easily take time off. I need to establish a clear divide between work mode (poker, school, gym) and rest mode. This will allow me to force rest into my schedule, and actually take it. I could honestly take the weekend off, but they're really good times for poker. This is an annoying thing about cards, the tables are juiciest at some of the less-helpful hours, late nights and Fri-Sun. This is because a lot of people play in their rest time, whereas I'm trying to play in my work time.

The plan is now to work less and rest more. I get more done by working consistently, as opposed to having a good week, and a terrible one. Probably better for my mental health, too, not burning out every 7 days. I'll draw up a plan on my own next week, doing nothing again today. My coach gets back from holiday tomorrow, so we'll get into the nitty-gritty of hands again soon. I want another 10,000 hands this month, and I'm going to get 10,000 good ones.

I hope this comes off as helpful, and not just someone performing their own therapy on a message board. I'm showing my work, as an example of how this planning can be done, and maybe get people thinking about their own work/rest balance and motivation.

Here's what we're starting with when we get back to things. I've transitioned more to the mindset that we're just training at 10NL - results don't matter, and that I shouldn't put any weight on it. I want to get back into my cycle of play-review-train and get my EV up. I'm feeling pretty good about my ability, so much better than a month ago, but now it's time to keep the cogs turning and starting getting it done.


Stronger than ever, we shall return.

16/2/22

I've kind of let this blog go stale over recent weeks. Some things have been sacrificed in the name of balance, and this blog has received less and less attention recently. Here's a general update of the last week and a half of poker, with some interesting hands mixed in as well. My volume has been somewhat lacking, and I'm about 1k hands behind where I should be to achieve 28% rakeback. I had a week of just drinking and being social, so didn't get much free time in the evenings to play cards. This has also contributed to less frequent posting here.

"Aggression, in general, leads to a higher winrate"
This is my new quote to live by. With a population that under-defends, over-cbet. With a population that overfolds to 3bets, 3bet more. @Rared made a comment a while ago about aggression being one of the tickets to victory in our pool, and it's finally started to click in my head.

I've made a slight loss since my last post. The redline is still very sad, but it's difficult to carve this out just yet. Blue line variance has been nicer to me, but it's plateaued in my most recent session.


My coach opened my eyes today, showing me his graphs from his first year as a player, in 25NL and 50NL. Our graphs are eerily similar, trending slightly downwards. Seeing this has helped cement in my mind just how early in the learning process I actually am. I'm excited to see how things are going in 6 months, but for now I just have to put in the work.

Here are two hands I played tonight. One, I realise that no one is ever bluffing in my pool. Another, I don't. Enjoy both.

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3/3/22
Volume has been small, so far. I've spent most of this week on the couch hungover, so no point starting the month with sub-optimal play. I played a few hundred hands but none of it was that interesting. I wanted to post here about the coaching session I had today, and mention a few things I've learnt today.

1. You have to be comfortable putting your stack in, in 4bet pots
4-Bet pots are complicated, uncomfortable and difficult to navigate. If I don't have TPTK+, I'm on my arse not knowing what to do. I learnt today that you are putting your stack in a lot in 4BPs, due to such a low SPR by the time the flop comes. My balls shrink a lot in these spots.

2. I Need To Be Betting Bigger, and More Often
This is pretty self-explanatory.

Not much else to report from only 400 hands, I will keep you lot updated as I play more!

Good luck mate, looking forward to more of you.

And then he was never seen again.

1/4/22
Let's talk a bit about where I've been. My exams kick off on in mid-May, and I need to post some good scores this year. This month was supposed to be a huge month of work, but whilst I've done more than ever before, I've definitely not achieved anywhere near the amount I would have liked to. I'm still getting better at sitting down and studying, but we're not perfect just yet. This blog and Twitch have had to be put to the sidelines whilst I focus elsewhere.

March was a good month. I did very well on rakeback, which enabled me to push a bit further. My coach and I agreed that I should move up to 20nl, so I've been playing that as of 24th March or something similar. I don't think I've "beaten" 10NL, but I trust his judgement and think the only way to keep improving is to play harder games. I've learnt a lot in these last three months - and it's shown in taking me from 4NL loser to 20NL contender. I could be playing 50NL this summer, and 100NL this time next year, it honestly feels possible.

Most of March was a glorious period. Rakeback did some heavy lifting but we experienced breaking even and profit for the first time. Weird feeling after so long in the mud.

Ignore the yellow line, focus on the whole grind.

Where do I go from here? With exams on the way, volume is going to drastically reduce. I need to put more time into work, and the temptation of poker has definitely gotten the better of me a few times this month. Better discipline will help, but I don't know how to train that. I can't guarantee when the next post will be but I at minimum will try to do end-of-month reviews.

I need to get some LifeEV right now, so talk soon.

Probably going to start posting here a bit more, now that I'm sat at my desk lots. I've been doing the "moving up" part of the blog recently. I now have a job for a well-known poker company, so having to balance my hours is a little bit chaotic, seeing as I work 9-5, and then try play card 8-2 or 9-2 most nights. My girlfriend busts her ass to not get pissed off at me for all the time I spend working, but I think she can she the vision I've got going on here.

How was April/May/June?

I had my exams in late May, and they were a struggle. I developed Pronator Teres Syndrome (PTS) as a result of using my mouse for too long, and that make writing significantly more difficult. Couple that with my lack of desire to do my maths degree anymore, and I'm not sure if I scraped by, failed my modules, or what. Thankfully, owing to my PTS, I have the opportunity to retake all modules. I just need to find out which ones I've failed.

I started my job at well-known poker company (WKPC) two weeks ago, and it's been fun. Everyone else knows what they're doing, and has been in the industry for quite some time. This serves as a really good foot in the door into the industry, so hopefully later down the line I get to work on some cool ass ****.

For the most part, my grind has been entirely live. I've played 200 hours in 40 days, primarily at 1/1, but I'm now mixing in 1/2 as well when I believe it is soft. The rake is absurd at 1/1, but I'm winning enough to be beating it, although the real money is small. It's also super swingy, as I've found out.


The plan is to just continue as I am. I'm playing well, and improving. I need to put more hours into the trainer on GTOWizard, and find somewhere new to get online volume in. Doing this, I'll be fine.

What Now?

I've been playing in the APAT this week, meaning I've been to the poker Mecca Dusk till Dawn. Played both the Short-Deck and Round of Each events in search of a WCOAP bracelet, and my god they're soft. Haven't been able to make a deep run in either, but I have a good feeling for the PLO championship and the main event this weekend.

APAT has generated some good cash games. It's definitely a lot more like what I've experienced online, but that's my real home, so I'm comfortable. Sitting with 300-500 puts me on edge, but I will get more comfortable as time goes on. Worst case, I'll just grind some 1/1 tonight instead. Hoping I don't have to.

Didn't play a lot this week, was travelling about for nights out as some friends as moving country for graduate jobs. Did manage to get a few hours in this weekend, and the grind continues. All-time graph is looking pretty sweet now



I've only won 53% of my live sessions lifetime, but I've churned out this profit on such a small margin. The key is to lose small, and win bigger. According to my app, I'm also grinding out 18bb/100 but I'm not sure how sustainable it is.

I'm preparing for Grand Prix UK next week, and Goliath. I really want to get a big tournament cash under my belt, and start getting a nice Hendon Mob going.

We'll see.

Hi! Welcome back

What is the name of this phone app?

Poker Analytics (Version 5 or 6, they updated recently and I forget). You can do 30 sessions for free, but unlimited and a few other features is £30/year. Absolutely worth it though.

I have a lot of friends in poker. I hear stories from lots of stakes, from regs and recs, and I am very lucky to gain from the experience of others. Poker is a hard game, and you have to bust your ass.

A lot of people I'm close with are struggling at the minute. Games are big and games are swingy. A lot of examples are being set for me at the minute, as I'm not at this stage in my journey yet. It's got me thinking about a lot of things - my physical/mental health, my attitude to discipline and my attitude to things outside the world of poker. There are a few things I feel I need to talk about.

Health

Goal: I want to be going to the gym regularly. I want to be eating a strict diet, cooking my own meals, with lots of variety. I want to overcome muscle aches and pains. I want to have a regimented sleep schedule.

This year, I've had on and off spates with the gym, healthy eating, and alcohol. Discipline is the main factor, and I need to acquire it to achieve the vision above. I was losing weight for the first few months of the year, but now I've somewhat stagnated.

Alcohol is the most pressing factor for me. I enjoy a drink, and I enjoy drinking. I don't enjoy hangovers, but I like hanging out and getting bevvy. The problem is, that alcohol is probably the biggest issue for my health. It doesn't help for my weight loss, sleep or motivation. I don't know if I can imagine a life where I never drink, it's so ingrained into my social life, but maybe it is possible. I may not have been addicted to smoking, but I managed to completely kick that, despite my close circle all being pretty heavy smokers. I think my relationship with alcohol is going to end up being less frequent drinking, but still have a few heavy sessions on occasions with friends. After all, why not?

Diet is something I've been putting off forever. I'm not going to follow a strict regiment or pre-made plan, but I want to be cooking 3 balanced meals every day. I want to work with more fruit and more vegetables. When I have literally nothing on, I may start making a recipe book or something. I've got a few go-to meals that I've nicked from Hello Fresh that I can pull off the bat.

I'm sleeping like ****. I've been in too much of a grindset this month. Sleeping 6-11, 2-8, 4-10 all over the place, and it's one of the biggest factors.

Most scary to me is my muscular aches and pains. Spending hours using a mouse and keyboard, and spending hours shuffling chips has not been good for my forearms. I've developed Pronator Teres Syndrome (PTS) in my arms as a result, and whilst it is improving, I'm still getting aches/pin and needles in my digits. I'm doing the exercises but I am so young. I've got decades left and I can't degenerate my limbs so early.


I need to leave now, so don't have time to put the rest up. I haven't written essays in years, so all this typing is extremely taxing aha. At some point, I'd like to go into a few more things

• Mindset
• University
• Job

I watched Jason Koon's From The Heart today, and this is what has gotten me thinking about my approach to the game off-the-felt. Some of the key things I want to change and go into at one point is:

• Spend less time playing poker, and consolidate to 4/5 days/week and less grindy hours
• Get more sleep, and focus on living healthier. Get back in gym and eat better food.
• Get through university this summer and then start back on the grind hype

We'll go through some more stuff at another point, my brain is tired now.

I didn't get much done today, but am getting back into the swing of blogging. I'm still pretty tired in general and working on that side of things. I've got a huge weekend grind planned, and I need to stick to the schedule I've planned. I'm going through a Jason Koon video at some point today and putting the notes in here - to help me solidify what I've learnt from it. It is all about the off-felt advice.

I went golfing again today. It's a good way to combine exercise and nature therapy, getting outside-time that I don't get the chance at, spending a lot of time at a desk and a poker table. I'm finally starting to be able to drive 150+ yard carries, and iron over 100 yards. I'm going to get it.

Jason Koon on Gameplay and Pressure

• You need to be in the right state of mind before you go and play.
• - Move your body, get the blood flowing before you roll in
• - Rather show up to a tournament 10 minutes late if you don't stress out
• - Visualise yourself playing your best before you start
• --- You need to have an idea of what you want to do, before you do it
• --- This makes terrifying goals seem more tangible
• - You need to calibrate your brain
• You need to be resilient, game ****ing hard
• - We all have these inferiority complexes but it's nonsense
• - The game we play is not rewarded in the short-term
• - It rewards whoever sticks around the longest without catastrophic mistakes
• Let's say you **** up an FT
• - This is called experience
• - You are gaining a collection of memories you can access the next time you are in the same situation
• - You have to get licked in order to not get licked again
• David Benifield - "You just keep doing it until it doesn't hurt anymore"
• - Every stake increase becomes comfortable

Jason Koon on Travel

• Everyone turns up one day before a tournament in a new time zone
• - Get there early, and acclimate to the time zone
• - Even if moving into a hotel room in the same country, take a day to acclimate
• Calculate Travel Cost - ROI
• - Figure out what the trip is worth before you fly out
• - Time learning often better than time playing

Jason Koon on Finance

• List your transactions
• - Send texts to people you lend money to or give money to, when and why
• - Have a whatsapp chat for any transactions you pay out, or need to pay out
• - "Pay Steve 500$ for losing a last longer in WSOP 7/25"
• - Make sure you have tax situation booked on swaps, and decide if swapping rebuys
• - The work "booked" is completely important

Jason Koon on Balance

• There will be phases in your career where you should be going mental and grinding insanely hard
• - Not all the time, but sometimes get it when it's good
• Make sure you schedule breaks
• - Erik Seidel has been crushing 40 years
• - He finds time to see his daughter, hang out with his wife, etc
• Sometimes your body screams at you
• - Listen to it, and do something else
• 350 days in a cardroom is completely unsustainable
• Move around a lot, stand a lot (standing desk!!)
• - Commit to do something active because otherwise you get obese and have zero muscle mass
• --- Have to take care of yourself
• - Might not be fitness regime, just go for a walk at least and commit to it

Jason Koon on Respect

• We are all busting our ass out here trying to make money gambling
• - The government hates us, the law hates us, the casinos hate us, the recs hate us
• - Even if you don't like someone, have respect that they are also trying hard
• Never Sell Out
• - People grim other people and it's awful
• If you're know for honesty, hard work, you will stay in business
• - This will breed success
• - Solver makes game hard but you can find ways to win
• It's ok to move on without being a failure

Brian Rast on Overconfidence

• Visualise a spectrum CONFIDENCE <-------------------------> CRITICAL
• - Confidence allows you to execute what you think is right
• - Criticality allows self-analysis, honesty to find leaks, and improving
• - Too much confidence leads to a few issues
• --- You won't quit early enough when games get bad (I have this issue)
• - Too critical brings its own issues
• --- You won't take as many +EV risks
• --- You'll be unhappy in your poker career

This was a lot to take in on my second time of viewing, but I'm glad that I've written it down here, hopefully I can take it in more.

Took another shot at 1/2 yesterday. I'm trying to sit whenever I think the game is softer than usual, and that's usually when a 2/5 or 5/10 is running, distracting regs. The more hours I get at 1/2, the more comfortable I'm going to be playing it. It went pretty well today, was pretty pleased with this pot against a player who was making big bluffs.


I have also been focusing on making better quits, after watching that Jason Koon video. I know that I waste too much time, sitting around in bad games, short-handed games, or at 3am when I'm too tired. I moved down to 1/1 when I decided that the 1/2 game was no longer good, and after having had to make a few big folds when people telegraphed they had big hands. They were kind enough to show me I made a good fold, so at least I was playing well.

All in all, about +180 last night. Going again on a similar schedule tonight.

I'm looking for a new site to get in volume online, having had to move off of my current site. Currently considering Pokerstars or Partypoker, but there's more options also.

Got my ass completely kicked at 1/2 today. The table was super good, but a mix of overconfidence, Vegas and the ****ing Mirage, and running bad, took me out. Result was -650 today, but we have to get used to the swings.

I felt super ass for the first hour after I finished the session, but am looking at it with a more mature perspective. This is literally what I've been reading up on this week, handling variance and dealing with swings. Every time I play, I will either win or lose, and it will be by a small or a large magnitude. I have to be able to be mature about losses, in the same way I'm not fussed about wins.

This has been a bit of a wake-up call for my confidence. I've definitely swayed too far on the confident side of the spectrum this month, having been on such a good heater. It's time to start focusing on studying now as well as playing and finding a more balanced schedule of play/study. If this means not playing one day, studying in the evening and getting good sleep, then that might be a good thing.

I'll be back on the grind tomorrow. In order to acclimatise to 1/2, I'm going to have to take this. I weathered it at 1/1, I can weather it at 1/2. Game is hard, but that's what I signed up for.

We go again.

Action on 1/2 was difficult to find yesterday, so I opted to go back to a 1/1 table for the evening. Sure, the stakes are lower, and the win/loss smaller, but the key thing is having my bum in the seat. I was comfortably winning in that game, and had spun 150 into 350 before running QQ into KK (128bb eff, what can I do?). I ended that day +15.25, a small win, but a win nonetheless.

The key theme at the minute is discipline. Whilst I may be disciplined at the poker table, a lack of discipline off-the-felt may be holding my progress back. I'm busy this week, moving my girlfriend out of my house, and Wed-Mon, I will be working as Director of Welfare at a music festival. When I come back, I hope to already have a plan designed, that I can just follow. A friend of mine, also on this journey, told me yesterday that "[I'm] always planning. I disagree.

So, here's the plan.

Diet

I read a tweet from Nick Howard yesterday:

Sure, a lot of the motivation for people to post these kinds of things on their Twitter is to advertise their coaching or their stable, but the advice is sound. Poker is a decision-making game, and your results are determined solely by the accuracy of your decision-making process. Anything that can passively increase this, is worth doing.

One thing I struggle with is how quickly fresh food (chicken, scallions, etc) goes off. I like buying in bulk to reduce cost, but I don't eat this food quickly enough and generate food waste. So I'm going to buy/cook food in 3-day periods. The idea will be to have minimal costs and to use ingredients across multiple meals. I haven't come up with it yet, but I will be prioritising a few things:

• Getting the 5-a-day
• Reaching Protein Goal
• Increase intake of healthy/non-saturated fats
• Operate 200-300kcal beneath TDEE

Once the diet plans are designed, I may upload them here for others to copy. I want this blog to offer some kind of value for those behind me on the journey, and make life easier.

Sleep

Sleep is an impossible task at the minute. Playing live poker often, I am forced to live on quite a degen schedule, meaning I can't get tons of sleep. I haven't figured out where I'm going with this yet, but it needs to be regimented. I think I operate best on about 8 hours of sleep a night. Even though I'm missing 1/3 of the day, it makes the other 2/3 more efficient. I'm going to keep aiming for 2:30-10:30am schedule, and adjust as necessary.

I'm going to be grinding Sun, Mon, Tue. Then I'll be on "holiday" not thinking about poker for a good week, and come back fresh. I'm going to be a crusher when I come back.

Lost the motivation to blog, but gained the motivation to play cards. Since we last spoke,

• I'm up about $12K live
• I'm still down online
• I'm over micro-managing my life

Coming back to ensure accountability during a downswing. Down about 4k live, and all the games in my area have dried up - so I guess it's back to online. Can't get the money I want online, so ****ing about at 25nl and trying to carve out a strategy that works.

I'm off to Vegas for 4 weeks in the summer, so I want to get in poker shape for that. Will post the odd short update when I remember, I've got no time for essays anymore

Glad to see you again on the forum

Been very busy playing internationally and lots of live volume - lost the will to keep up with the forum. Lots of awesome stuff went on that would've made for great content. I gave up on trying to be somebody in the poker scene, not great for business and also takes so much time from getting better.

Played 1K hands yesterday, marked about 50 for review, and no doubt there'd be another 50 on my second passthrough. Was going to study for a bit then play another 1K hands but I'm absolutely shattered. +137.76BB yesterday. Doubt I'll play any today, likely just pass out and get up early. Been meaning to go for a run.