Haha thats awesome

I do think the AA is a fold, but obviously close.

K9 is a pretty gross spot. Flop and turn seem fine. He's not repping much on the river, but this is just a bluff so infrequently that i'd probably fold unless you think he might play a 9 this way. With just 1 9 left in the deck, with some of them being boats, and with the fact that he might not bet them all on the turn (at least the 9's you beat) i think its a fold.

How many started and how many are left in the daily run competition?

Thanks Mike. I've noticed that I think I call too often in these spots sometimes, and it's mostly just because I'll just be annoyed and second guessing myself if I fold. I think I've been doing a better job of trusting my instincts recently and just folding when I feel I'm beat. These were 2 pretty annoying spots but I felt it unlikely I was good in either so I went with the folds.

When it comes to the running competition, good question lol. The guy running it did a weekly update for the first 3 weeks and then got really sick with the flu and hasn't updated anything since then (we're starting week 6 now). We started with 32 (I think, he said 31 in the first week but listed 32 in the 2nd week update). We lost 4 in week one, 1 in week two, and 1 in week three, so that's 6 out. And just looking at the group page, we lost the guy running the competition since he caught the flu, then lost 2 guys to injury who both self reported it, and I believe we also lost the girl who was my main competition for fastest pace each week lol. So if those numbers are correct, 10 of the original 32 are out leaving 22 remaining through 37 days. Since losing 4 the first week, we've been averaging just over 1 runner gone each week. This thing is gonna take forever.

I'm completely focusing on myself since that was the plan from the get go, but also because there are some things about the competition that sort of piss me off. The number one thing is there is a kid in the competition who beat me in the college race where I ran my fastest 8K ever. I went 27:28 for that race, which is 4.97 miles, meaning I averaged 5:31 per mile for 5 miles. He ran 26:18 in this race, 70 seconds faster than me, 5:17 per mile, which is pretty beastly. I finished 39th of 90 runners in the race, he finished 15th (and his teammate, my little brother, finished 2nd in 25:22 ). But anyway, this kid is in the competition and ran TWELVE MILES last week. That's 1.7 miles per day, meaning if he ran the exact minimum of 20 minutes each day, he's averaging just under 12:00/mile. Get the **** outta here. I think he legitimately signed up for this competition, not to get in shape, but to try to do that bare minimum in order to take everyone's money. Seems really really douchey to me. That's the main thing that pisses me off. We put a minimum of 16:00/mile, meaning 1.25 miles for 20 minutes, in there to ensure you had to run and not just walk when you were tired on a given day. That minimum is put in there because there are people in this competition who are smokers or addicted to something else or whatever and are trying to better themselves and running 20 minutes everyday is a huge challenge. This kid was an exception college runner and is just abusing it in my opinion.

The other things that annoys me about the challenge is that treadmill runs are allowed. I refuse to run on a treadmill; part of this challenge for me is that no matter the weather, I'm gonna get my ass out there and actually run. I've gone through snow, sleet, rain, 30mph winds, freezing temperatures, and when the summer comes I'll be out there on those days it gets close to 100 degrees. Meanwhile there are people jogging 20 minutes in their basements. That might not bother me on it's own, but the fact that you could literally turn the treadmill on for 20 minutes, walk away, and then come back and take a picture of it and say "here's proof that I ran" is ridiculous. If you're allowed to do that then what's the point of requiring people to log their runs on GPS watches? Why not just have them take a picture of being outside and saying "I did it."

But again, this challenge for me is to get in shape, not to win the money. The $600 would be nice but if I won the competition I'd get way more gratification from the fact that I was the winner than the fact that I got paid. I don't mind the treadmill thing that much since I feel like people aren't going to cheat--they're going to admit if they didn't run and bow out graciously. But there's no way to know for sure. But the kid whose 8K PR is over a minute faster than mine who ran less miles last week than I did in the last 2 days is completely killing the spirit of the competition in my opinion.

Sorry for the absurdly long rant about it all but once I get going I can't stop lol

Poker

Pretty annoying last couple of days. Still very happy with how I'm reacting to it all. I somehow found a way on Tuesday to be the first one out of the $250 Super Tuesday, re-enter, spin 25K up to 100K+ and the chip lead, and then bust that bullet before re-entry was over. I made two suspect calls to chip down in that one, first calling with KT on xKAAK in a spot I probably could've found a fold, and calling with JJ on 2TQxQ in a pot where villain flatted pre, checked back flop, called turn, and raised river. I went bet bet on turn and river so confident I was about to get paid by a 10 and then he raised. Clubs missed as did straights, but with 2 jacks I block a lot of those combos, so it felt pretty close. I called and he had AQ. I lost a flip for the rest. I managed to make those 2 bullets up though and finished the day up $4 on 4 figures of buy ins; however, that includes a $500 WSOP ticket I won, so essentially I turned $496 into a must play $500 ticket, which is out of BRM so that's pretty dumb. I elected to book the day as a $496 loss in my records so that I'll have a nice little mental freeroll in the future.

Today I had over 35K in all 3 10Ks around 500BB in each one. I had the most, 45K, in the WSOP 10K, where I opened button with A3s and BB defended. Flop came AJ3 and he donked; I decided to exploit and clicked back, which would set up a turn shove. He flatted and donked the 5 turn, I'm all in, he calls with AK, 90K in the middle and river is a king to bust. This is the dream world I live in right now though; guys flat AK in BB then lead AJ3. The level of play is so so poor and the last couple of weeks I think I've done a good job of really focusing on how specifically to exploit all the bizarre things people do in NJ, rather than getting frustrated by it. After all, if it's bad, it can be exploited, so it's insane to get annoyed by it. Just figure it out. In fairness I was starting to do this before I took the little break in early January but I think I'm doing it better now. Minraising flop seems so bad but I'm obviously not doing that vs a reg; I'm also never seeing that line from a reg. So I don't care how face up it looks to the regs, I need to just be exploiting the other player in the pot!

I played a very strange limped pot in the BB with K9o in the Stars 10K. EP limped like 14bbs or something and 2 others limped, flop comes K65 and it checks through. Turn is a 7 and I lead and get called by just the 14bb guy. River is an ace and he has about pot back. I elect to check with the plan of calling. I think a flush missed as well as the straight missing because I remember thinking I was not going to get value from hands I beat, I might lose less than the max if he has an ace because people don't play well, and if he has missed a draw I at least get a chance at his stack by checking whereas betting gives me no shot of that. I check and he shoves with KQ. Owned? I end up jamming JT for 13BBs or so about 4 from the money and get called by QQ to bust.

I pretty uneventfully busted the Party 10K, also 4 or 5 from the money. I can't even remember bust hand to be honest lol. I think that's also a good sign--I've been having a tough time remembering all of my specific hands. It means I'm focusing on the things that matter rather than results.

I ended up in for a shade under $900 today. I got 6th for $300ish in the $100 second chance on Stars after losing a flip for 2nd place stack, which was pretty frustrating with a $1500 difference between 6th and 1st. I'm still down $1300 on the year ($800 if you include the ticket) and I keep getting close to busting out of that but it will have to wait at least another day. I won a $20 MTT for about $500, and finished a very frustrating 5th in the $50 turbo on Stars where I got sucked out on numerous times down the stretch. A9<A5 on a pretty sick 952T5 runout with 14 left, KQ<QJ for an important pot with 12 left, JJ<A6 with 5 left for heaps and a ladder and most of my stack, and finally busted my last 3bbs with the worst of it. So I made $104 on the day. I'm doing a pretty good job with not worrying about results but I really would like to get the roll back to over $25K (to be up money on the year) so I can withdraw some money without my roll dipping below $25K before the month is over. I'm happy with how I'm playing, I feel relaxed, and I feel like I'm using the right amount of theory and exploitation when I play. I think I was getting stressed out by the game in the past because I was trying too hard to apply theory in a market where it just isn't necessary. There are parts of it I do use; if a reg 3b's me a ton I just make sure I'm defending enough/4 betting enough/folding the right hands/etc, but for the most part even the regs can be exploited in this market. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Running

I ran to the local high school track yesterday to try to do a workout but when I got there I found the track still covered in snow. I ran 2 laps on it to see if I'd try to do the workout anyway but it was just way more effort than was worth it so I ran an unplanned run through my town. I almost always plan my route beforehand so it was sort of fun to just run around and explore.

Today I drove past a different track to see if maybe it was more exposed to the sun or something but the snow hadn't melted there either so I drove to the running paths instead. But when I got there I elected to run through Ridgewood and see what was on the other side of that town that I'm not able to get to from my house since Ridgewood is already 3 miles away. Two miles into my run I found a pretty big hill, but it wasn't as absurdly steep as the one I'd found in Hawthorne a few weeks earlier, so while it was a challenge it was an enjoyable one; I had to drop down to maybe 7:45 pace but I didn't feel like I was going to die like I did on the other hill lol. I ended up running 7 miles at 7:06 pace despite some serious elevation. From the 1 mile mark to the 2 mile mark there was 60 feet of elevation, but I was expecting that since I'd ran through that part of Ridgewood before. From the 2 mile mark to the 3 mile mark there was 140ft of elevation, and from 3 to 3.6 there was another 100ft of elevation. So all told I ran up about 300ft on my way out. I took a different way back which lead to me descending 240ft from 3.6 to 4.6 lol; I wish that was sort of spread out more but overall it was a good run.

My mom's uncle passed away a few days ago and his funeral is tomorrow morning. He was a great guy who was always fun to talk to and I will miss him. It's about a 90 minute drive from my house and starts at 10:30AM so I don't think I'll have it in me to get the run in before I leave. My family might be having a little get together afterwards so I'll have to make sure I get my run in some time between the end of that and the start of my session. With tomorrow being the $250 Thursday Thrill, a progressive bounty, I'll want to start it as close to on time as possible. I'm also going to have to drive most of the 90 minutes back to my house on the Parkway which, as anyone who lives in New Jersey knows, is bat**** insane all of the time, but especially so from about 4-6PM. So while I was considering running before I drove back home, I'm probably gonna make the drive first and then get it done. I'll have to see how I react to running closer to when I start my session but I think I should be fine. While it's always sad to lose a family member, I always remember feeling happy that I at least get to see a lot of my extended family whenever I had to attend a funeral when I was younger, so at least that will be an upside about tomorrow. Love you Uncle Al and I'll miss you!

Poker

A pair of hard fought and really frustrating 4ths tonight. Frustrating for different reasons though; the first was the Stars $100 10K where I had a really big chip lead with 8 left, it evened out with 4 left, and eventually I got KQ in vs AK and got the sorta trolly QTxJx runout. $1300 for that result.

In the WSOP $215 50K I was happy with how I played throughout. I felt like in the stages right after the field hits the money where I often freeze up, I played aggressively and really went for it. I r/c'ed T8dd then c/shoved on a KK4dd flop where I thought villain would rarely have a king. He snapped with JJ and I got another trolly Jd on the river to drop to like 9BBs with 18 left. However I ran good, won some flips, and got back into it.

I was near the bottom for most of the final table until I was able to win a big flip with AK>QQ to get back into it. 4 handed play lasted a long time, and not laddering was really aggravating with a $1000+ jump from 4th to 3rd, and then a $3000+ jump from 3rd to 2nd. At one point a player was all in with Q8 vs KQ and the board ran K5467; the players then switched stacks and got it in against each other again later with AK vs TT where the board ran xxxAT to double up the TT. One of these guys had also already won JJ>AA and AQ>QQ, all in vs the overwhelming chip leader boath time, to survive, so missing the jump was pretty aggravating. Eventually I got KQ in vs AK and it ran QT4A6. Obviously runouts are unimportant but when each hand was worth over $1000 to me it's frustrating for it not to go my way. But of course a ton of things went my way before those hands so I should be happy. With over $10K difference between 4th and 1st, which represents 20% of my entire salary from last year, it's hard not to feel disappointed. But I'll live

Despite the frustrations of always wanting more when it comes to tournament poker, I did manage to make about $3K on the day, getting me back in the green on the year and giving me some breathing room with real life money. I'm up a little over $1600 on the year now so I think I'll withdraw that, tuck a third of it away into savings for taxes, and use the rest to pay rent and bills for February. One stupid payjump would've left me with some spending money to maybe buy a better running watch but that will have to wait! I like that I feel I have begun to be more disciplined with how I'm spending money. I've been careful not to order out too much or to make random purchases while my bank account is getting low, and I'm confident I won't do anything too extravagant when I do bink something big. I'm treating this like a real job and looking to save money whenever possible. Had I won the additional 10K tonight, along with a third of it going to taxes, I think I would have put most of it into savings to put into my IRA whenever I go to get 2016's taxes done. I want to really save up as much money as possible since I don't have some of the same benefits that people working standard jobs have.

As far as poker goes, my head really feels like it's on straight. I acknowledged that luck had a huge part in allowing me to go as deep as I did in the tournament, and I also acknowledge that luck often has to do with it when I don't go deep. There's a ton of luck in short term poker and I think my mind is finally starting to ACTUALLY grasp that concept. Knowing that that fact is true and actually really understanding and being comfortable with it are two different things. I've always acknowledged that luck has a huge role in how a day goes, but I'd still find myself getting frustrated with losing or really excited about winning, as if I did good or bad based on my results for a given day. And now, I really don't feel much different at this exact moment than I do when I have a big losing day. I'm feeling more confident as a player and a professional to the point that results are not making me feel like I am defined by them.

Running

Ran 6.5 on Thursday and 6 on Friday before heading to NYC Friday afternoon. Ended up having a really awesome weekend. I won a free open bar Friday night (savin dat money) so I was just tipping $1 per drink at Tavern on Third...not paying for drinks in a bar in Manhattan is a surreal experience . From there we hit up a couple other bars before crashing at my buddy's place. Saturday I woke up, drank some water, and went outside to run. My buddy lives on 20th and 1st so we were only a couple blocks away from a running path next to the FDR that runs along the East River. I ended up putting in 6.5 miles and crossed under the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges before turning around and heading back. It was 60 degrees outside and it just felt amazing, especially with beautiful views of the river. I got back to my friend's place, took a shower, got some food, and then we all got ready to pregame for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at Madison Square Garden! We had some beers and listened to some music before taking a cab to the concert. We all got a tall boy in Penn Station and stood around with our paper bags covering the beers as one of my friends remained in awe that we were allowed to do that in a public place.

Eventually we headed into MSG and got our seats. The concert was awesome and it's amazing to me how these guys, despite starting to get up there in age, can just put on all these shows and bring all the intensity they do every time they play. I feel like I sort of relate to the crazy follow your dreams kind of jobs so when I see musicians who made it I feel some sort of bond. I wouldn't say I've "made it" in the poker world by any means but I have been paying my bills with it for a while now and recently have really been treating it like an actual job. It feels good to be doing it the right way, and knowing that there are always people out there who said screw it to conventional adulthood and took some big risks to do what they wanted to do makes me feel really happy about what I'm doing.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to the running paths near my house and run the entire path. It's 6 miles so that would be a 12 mile out and back. I felt exhausted running just 3 miles today but I think that's because of the weekend I had, so I'm not too worried about it. Four weeks ago, on January 23, I ran the longest run I'd done in many months. That run was 6 miles. So less than a month later trying to double it might be a little crazy but I think I'm gonna try it. Time to get some sleep for the run and for the job; tomorrow's a brand new day to try to keep spitting out that profit!

Poker

Quick update before I start my session tonight. Just got off the phone with my dad. It feels like as I grow up and see adults as peers more and more rather than as superiors, I realize just how spectacular my parents are and what an amazing job they did raising me. When you are young you often only have your parents and how they act as perspective of what is "normal." This often leads to kids growing up and realizing how messed up their home lives were and wanting to change things for their kids or falling into the same patterns as their parents. For me it just feels like the opposite. I always assumed the love they showed me combined with the discipline they'd enforce (that I often labeled as "unfair") was just sort of a normal thing that parents do. As I grow older I see more and more everyday just how easy it is to get married and have a kid and you really don't need any sort of training or special permission. You can just do it, and that leads to some pretty awful people just popping kids into this world and screwing them up for life.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is my parents have never been anything but amazing to me. I mean, they were really against poker when I first started out in my late teenage years. We'd have lots of discussions about it all and it often led to the very standard thought process of "you're going to get addicted, lose all your money, and end up homeless if you don't cut this out soon." But this is the beautiful part about my parents. Not only do they care enough about me to want to protect me from the evils of the world, they trust me enough to change their opinions on topics if they feel I really have a grasp on what I'm doing. I'm sure they still aren't completely comfortable with what I'm doing but they never express that to me; instead, right before I get off the phone with my dad today, he says to me, "Good luck and knock em dead!" This came after I told him about my recent struggles and successes and he gave me whatever advice he could think of to encourage me. I won't rant on forever about them but I'm just really blessed to have, as Randy Pausch would say, won the parent lottery.

Running

I ran 12 miles yesterday and then slept for like 4 hours. It was exhausting but a huge accomplishment. I even managed to maintain 7:01 pace. I woke up pretty late and played an abbreviated session, cashing for about $250 on $650 of buy ins. The big spot came when I got AK in vs 55 for about 40% of the chips in play with 6 left in a $100 MTT with 4 figures up top; it didn't go my way and I laddered a spot before busting 5th. Had a chance to save the day with a win in the $20 tourney I was cruising along in but then ran quite bad after hitting the money and didn't even final table. But after running pure in a $215 MTT the day before I'm definitely not mad about it.

Drove back to my old college (Ramapo) today and ran a 6.5 mile loop I used to do there. I handled the hills way better than I used to in school and after going 7:18--7:15--7:23--6:59--7:11 for the first 5 miles, which were all uphill, I ran 6:22 for the 6th mile which pretty much was as downhill as the first 5 were uphill combined. So overall pace ended up at 7:02/mile. I think tomorrow I will try to finally run a workout. It's gonna be 60 degrees, there shouldn't be snow, and hopefully the track is just open to me and it works out.

Poker

Got annoyed enough last night to hit my desk hard enough to break the little slidey portion of it that goes directly above your knees . Pretty stupid.

I've been looking at things from a different perspective in the last month or so that has allowed me to have a much better mindset about everything, from poker to running to life in general. In the past, when I performed a really stupid act out of frustration like hitting my desk hard enough to break part of it, I'd look at it as a setback, as a sign that I'm not maturing or advancing like I thought I was and that I'm just not at the stage that I was hoping to be by now. I'd do this with everything and I think that's why my confidence would often be very low. But recently I've been thinking of events like this in a different light. Hitting the desk was stupid, and I want to have control over myself, but I DO have control over myself. I haven't done something dumb like that in a long time, and for every one lapse of judgment from a frustrating event like that, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of times where I've felt frustrated but resisted the urge to yell or hit something or release my anger in a ridiculous and immature way.

This sort of thought process is important for every aspect of poker, and life in general. In the past, when I'd bluff off a stack in a tournament, I'd lose confidence, I'd try to prevent that from ever happening again, and I'd make the mistake of playing too tight. I don't get down on myself as much anymore. If I think the spot was good then I shrug and don't think anything of it. If I think the spot was not good I'll be a little bit hard on myself and I'll tell myself to try not to make that mistake again. But I'll also make myself repeat the idea in my head that mistakes have to happen when you're actually going for the win and that the next time a spot to bluff all in shows up, I can't shy away from it just due to the fear of being wrong again. I need to really think it through and once again decide if this is the best play. And when you're going through tough stretches of variance, you're going to run into the top of people's ranges over and over again and you'll feel like you're a terrible player. But the key is to continue to make the plays you think are good, and that's why studying and confidence are so key; so that you know which plays are correct and that you're confident enough to continue to make them even when they don't work multiple times in a row.

In running there are always going to be days where, for one reason or another, your body just doesn't feel right and you struggle to keep up a pace that is slower than you're normal pace to begin with. Old me would see a day like that and wonder if maybe I'm just not as good at that sport as I thought I was. New me is doing a good job of taking a day like that for what it is: an off day. It doesn't diminish any past accomplishments or mean that the next day won't be better. For some reason my subconscious would always convince me of these things and I've had to work hard at training myself not to react like this anymore.

This sort of philosophy can really apply to anything. A hard day at work or even being fired from a job; a setback in a hobby you enjoy; even something as simple as a pet not listening to commands and being irritable all day. None of these things means past accomplishments should be diminished or that things won't continue as they were in the future. But it's easy, for me it is at least, to lose faith that the downfalls aren't the new norm. I'm hoping I'll be able to continue to train myself to see shortcomings for what they are: single lapses in judgment or errors, rather than signs of what is to come.

So anyway, on to actual poker. What made me hit the desk? A pretty standard flip actually lol. I was in the Super Tuesday for 3 bullets yesterday ($750 total), along with the regular 10Ks. I also used the $500 ticket I won last week. All in all I was in for $1300, not including the ticket, and by the end of the session I was left with the Super Tuesday (where I was something like 3/25 with 12 paying ($500+ mincash) and $5000+ up top) and the Party $55 turbo (10/12 with 8 paying and $1000+ up top). A win in the Party tourney would get me close to even on the day, a win in the Super Tuesday would have me way over that $25K threshold and allow me to withdraw funds again and be more or less set through March. I managed to run good in the Party tourney, winning QT>AJ to get back in it with 12 left, and finished 4th for $400.

So I was now left with the Super Tuesday, where I'd sort of stalled out and was not chipping up. Despite continually looking for spots to continue chipping up, I found myself 10/20, then 13/15, and finally 13/13 as we went hand for hand. The structure isn't too bad though so I still had 68K at 2K/4K. I was now looking at a mincash getting me to a respectable -$400 on the day, 7th getting me to breakeven, and a win leaving me at +$4700 on the day. In reality, maybe all of this is just a sign that I should still be paying zero attention to daily winnings and losses. I still don't record them which is a stress reliever for sure but I do like to simply add how much I'm in for on the day while I'm playing so that I don't get to the end of a session and see a much bigger losing number than I was expecting.

Anyway, an incredibly active player who had actually taken a ton of my reshove spots away by doing the reshoving of his own leading up to this hand, opens to 8K in the lojack. I find 77 in the HJ and shove my 17BBs. The SB, who I have marked as a fish, INSTANTLY shoves like 250K or something and I already feel frustrated. I've had to fold forever after having a big stack and the first time I get the money in, a random hand in the blinds just has it.

It folds back to the opener who tanks for a while then folds and the reshover has AK! There is hope! An ace high flop ends the tourney for me and I stone bubble. I swing my fist upwards at my desk, hit the sliding part of it and it falls off, revealing that the wood has ripped off one of the rollers and is probably going to be more trouble than it's worth to fix. For some reason this seems to be the type of hand that tilts me the most. I 3b shove and one of the player's yet to act on his hand reshoves; I get really frustrated because I feel it's incredibly likely I'm dominated; it is then revealed that I actually have decent equity; I lose anyway. That combination of things happening always sets me through the roof and in reality it's really ridiculous. Standard shove from me, result doesn't matter, move on. I just still have a tough time with it. That being said, I've certainly encountered that sort of hand between now and the last time I got mad enough to hit something, so I do think I've come a long way. The combination of being down money on the day with having a big stack with that stack shrinking to last place, all added up and mixed with that bust hand, led to me being an idiot. The key now is to just move on and try harder not to let it happen again!

Running

I finally got a workout in today! I ran 1.5 miles to the local track and then did 6 x (800m at 3:00 each, 400m jog). Basically just running a half mile at 6:00/mile pace, jogging a lap, and doing that set 6 times. I ended up splitting 2:56.1, 2:59.4, 3:00.1, 2:58.2, 2:57.9, 2:57.1, which I am very happy about. I got done 3 and considered cutting it to 4, but as I was running the 4th I told myself I'd just make sure I did a 5th, and as I was running the 5th I said I'd just make sure I did a 6th. And as I ran the 6th I realized I probably could have done a 7th and an 8th but no need to go crazy with the first workout in forever. I jogged the 1.5 miles home and felt pretty good.

My weekly mileage is now at 26.5, which means I've ran more in the last 3 days than I did the entire first week of the challenge. I feel fit and I think eventually I'm going to start racing seriously again. I've also signed up for my first ever half marathon. That'll happen on Sunday March 12 in Lincroft. I've ran over 13 miles before just never in an official race. Should be fun, and I'll get to see how my body/brain react while I try to put the Sunday session in after the race

Dan,

A bit of constructive criticism you may not even need...

Are you mid session calculating what you will need for a breakeven session? How much you are in for? How much you will profit if you win tournament A or tournament B?

This is a pretty big leak IMO and is not the optimal way to go about thinking about MTTs ESPECIALLY IN GAME. Maybe this is happening because there just isn't very much volume out there in NJ.

I think it is very good that you keep detailed records and results but IMO you shouldn't be considering or thinking about these things until your session is over.

Hey Josh thanks for the input. At the beginning of this year I stopped tracking every individual tournament and it did wonders for my mindset, not having to note every time I re-enter or bust a tourney or whatever. But I noticed I was getting a little anxious just re-entering everything and not knowing how much I was in for on the day so I recently just started adding it up as I went to make sure I didn't have a massive number at the end of the day I wasn't expecting. I'm not sure if looking at what I'll need to break even on the day is good or bad for my mindset, but I do know that it isn't influencing my play. Meaning that while I consciously know I'll need 7th in my last tournament to get even on the day, it's not going to lead to me playing differently with 13 left and 12 paying or something. I'll still be playing to max out profit, even if that means I have 8BBs and a shorty has 1BB and I have to pass on an otherwise obvious shove spot due to ICM. I won't be shoving there because I feel the need to play to get 7th or better. If any of that makes sense at all lol

It sick when you jam qq on the button at a 9 player final table with 4 tiny short stacks and the bb big stack wakes up with a7sooteed and stacks us.

Not sure what you're talking about

Poker

We needed it!



Running

Gonna run 13 miles tomorrow after completing my 50 mile week this week! It will also be my 50th day of running in a row! Must sleep now.

Good job on that 10k, maybe buy a new pair of shoes!

Nice one!

Big Last 24 Hours

After getting back on the grind and staying disciplined throughout the entirety of February, the last Sunday of the month managed to provide the breakthrough. There are a few reasons the 2nd place in the Stars major last night felt great for me:

1) Persistence pays off. My work ethic had not been very good since my breakup with Kelsey. I had won a considerable amount of money the first 5 months of 2016, and that fact combined with the empty feeling I had from the breakup led to me justifying in many ways why it was okay to take days off. This led to me getting rusty due to a lack of volume and coming up with very few big results from June onward. In fact, I think if I were to exclude my portion of the win from the live $1K I got 4th in, I broke even through that 7 month stretch. I used January to get myself back into physical shape, and while I played poker a little bit, it was very minimal. I felt it was worth it though to get my mind and body in the right place to perform the way I wanted to in the game. And then February, after skipping the Sunday session on the Superbowl and being hard on myself for that (as I should be), I put the time in to play the sessions I needed to.

If I'm being honest, I'm sure I wouldn't have this sort of vindicated feeling had I not taken 2nd yesterday. And there's so many spots I could have came up short. I won at least one flip with 14 left (and I'm sure there were more fortunate spots I'm not thinking of) which, had I lost, I would have lost money on the day. But there were also lots of other close calls throughout the month where a little more run good would have made me a lot more money. At the end of the day, I'm finally seeing it for what it is. Put in the time and effort. When you lose, hold your head up and forget about it. And when you win, it's okay to get excited about it! But be grateful that it happened and realize that luck plays a big role in the short term and the grind must continue.

2) I've got some money in the bank now. After losing about $700 since last Sunday's pair of 4th places (in the WSOP 50K and the Stars 12K), I won about $5700 yesterday (a pair of 2nds this time; the Stars 50K for $7500 and the Party $55 3K for an additional $540, on about $2300 in buy ins). I actually lost AJ to KQ with 32 left and 30 paying in the WSOP major (with a biggish $450 mincash) and did a good job with maintaining focus on the other tournaments. But I withdrew 5K after last night, will send $1700 of that away to savings for taxes, and now have 3.3K in addition to the small amount of money I had left after paying rent and utilities and all that. That will last well over a month so I now just have a $25K roll for a month or so that I don't need to worry about withdrawing from for life expenses, which feels great and takes a lot of stress off me. I might even go ahead and buy that new running watch before the half marathon on March 12.

3) The final table felt different than it would have last year. If you've followed this thread from the beginning I've had this huge chip on my shoulder about not being able to go deep once I reach a Sunday Major final table, and about how I don't have a 5 figure score online, etc. I felt none of that pressure yesterday. I didn't really care about any of that at all in fact. And I certainly took spots I wouldn't have taken in the past. That desire to win a major would often lead to me playing too tight. And I don't mean too tight as in passing up on obvious spots. I mean too tight as in not taking the non-obvious spots that need to be taken to chip up.

A few days ago I realized I don't 3b light often enough from the big blind. I'm too content to just call with the great price you get and see 3. So I literally wrote down a basic game plan, with 50BBs facing an open from the CO, of which hands I should flat, which I should 3b for value, which I should 3b bluff, and which I should fold, so as to be more balanced and not always only have strong value when 3 betting out of the big blind. I'm not going to go in depth as to which hands I put in each category, but with 4 left yesterday the button opened off of about 25BBs. Our stacks were all close but I had the chip lead with a little over 30BBs and I found 87s in the BB. Maybe we were deeper because I actually prefer a flat at these stack depths lol but in any case, I'd almost always flat here, but because of the little bit of work I did a few days earlier, I wanted this to be a 3b so I did. The button, a very strong player, folded and eventually busted 4th after not getting anything going. Had I called pre and c/f'ed flop who knows how the rest of the tournament would have gone. But what I'm getting at is I was playing to win yesterday, not to not lose. I didn't choke up just because it was a Sunday Major, and it felt good.

4) The excitement afterwards was there, but subdued. I got to heads up down maybe 3:2 after taking a pretty good lead 4 handed but having my opponent knock out the other 2 players. He chipped me down quite a bit until he had a slight better than 3:1 lead with about 2.1M to my 650K or so. With the blinds at 15K/30K I found AK in the BB and he just open ripped, which is obviously a dream spot for me. Unfortunately he had 66 and I lost the flip. I stood out of my chair and didn't feel any sort of negativity about losing. I focused on how big it was to come up with this score at this point in time, but I also reflected on how important it is to run good to get to that point. The adrenaline was running but I didn't go brag on social media or on poker sites (well I guess I did on this thread ) and I just acknowledged that this is what it means to be a professional. Through almost 2 months I was up a whopping $1K on the year; after one good Sunday session, that really had no big victories aside from one tournament, I'm up $7K on the year and am almost back on pace to be making the sort of money I want to. It's an insane way to make a living the more I understand variance, but I love it and look forward to the grind again tonight.

Running

I say an insane 24 hours in the title because I woke up today knowing the plan was to run 13 miles. So that's what I did! The first 6 miles included a ton of uphill. My house begins at an elevation of 60ft; at 6.2 miles I found myself at an elevation of 363ft!! I felt good throughout the hills surprisingly. My first 6 miles split 7:11, 7:10, 6:52, 7:25, 7:10, 7:14 (some downhill on the 3rd mile was followed by the majority of the uphill on the 4th mile, 146ft of elevation mile 4 to be exact). I felt good through the 7:17 7th mile and the 7:09 8th mile but then I began to feel pretty tired. I cramped for the first time in my streak which is sort of incredible, and my ankle was giving me a slight nagging pain, but I handled all of it pretty well. Mile 9 split at 7:17, followed by an insanely steep downhill on mile 10 (-152ft elevation) that I really put the brakes on to split 7:06. Miles 11 and 12 were also downhill but I was exhausted and didn't focus on pace at all, instead forcing myself to really lift my knees and drive my arms despite the fatigue. 7:11 for mile 11 and 7:26 for mile 12, followed by a 7:23 13th mile and a final 2 tenths to make sure I got credit for a half marathon on Strava. All told I ran 13.2 miles in 1:35:17 for an average mile of 7:13. I'm exhausted but really glad to see that not only can I do that distance, but I can do it through hills without it effecting me too much.

I'm happy for you. You sound like mentally & physically you are in a good place now.

Keep up the good work both on and off the tables!

Thanks Doug!

Poker

Really bad poker day yesterday. Lost less than $500 but felt exhausted the whole session, lost my patience several times, flung a chip across the room, etc. I think the combination of running 13 miles and then not eating properly afterwards led to me being in the absolute worst state of mind. I had something like 100K of the 120K in play with 3 left in a small $25 tourney and ended up getting 2nd; heads up the guy's only 3b strategy was all in for 30bbs and the combination of never having a hand when he ripped over my open and losing any time we got it in got me so irritated and mad...had I not been as tired and hungry as I was I'm sure I would've handled it much better, especially given the difference between 1st and 2nd was only $140. That left me with just the Stars 10K which I proceeded to bubble.

Rather than looking at this as some sort of a setback or proof that I'm not where I want to be, I'm going to just take it for what it is: a bad day. I'm going to learn from it as well; any day where I'm putting in my long run (which is usually going to be Monday) and playing poker, I need to make sure I have a lot of food, and good food at that, ready for after the run. Going to McDonald's (which I had for the first time in forever and I don't really know why) and then heating up some Elio's pizza is just not going to cut it!

Running

I felt really exhausted throughout today's 5.3 mile run. I originally planned to do 6 but got back to my car and decided not to do any extra due to how tired I was. The plan was to go to the grocery store right after but with some nagging pains near my ankle I just went home to ice. I decided to order a chicken parm entree with spaghetti from a restaurant I really like for delivery and have some now and some for dinner, and then go to the store tomorrow. I ordered a ton of soup and some macaroni and cheese off amazon and that got here today so I'll be able to have soup and a sandwich for lunch after my runs again and then something more filling for dinner. So small blips in poker last night and running this morning but I'm confident I'm going to feel and play better tonight, eat properly, and then run well tomorrow!

The Heater is Real

Was in for about $1200 on the day and after busting a bunch of the smaller stuff I was left with the 3 10Ks and the $250 Super Tuesday. The Super Tuesday was the first to go, followed shortly by the Party 10K, leaving me with just the Stars 10K and the WSOP 10K. I made the money of both, and unfortunately ran ATs into JJ for 15BBs each with 11 left on WSOP, crippling me to less than a big blind. The Stars 10K however went much better and coming back from the 1AM break I had 600K to 2nd's 500K (2nd is a very solid reg imo)...3rd had 150K and we were playing 5K/10K, so I got ready for a long grind. The tournament lasted 2 more hands!! I was on the direct left of the solid reg for most of the final table and had 3b him quite a few times, which led to us each getting 50BBs in when I found TT and he found AK first hand back from break. I won the flip and then jammed 13BBs with Q3s the first hand of heads up (level went to 6K/12K) and he woke up with AQs. Flop came A62r and I backdoored a flush. Easy game.



Now when I say the heater is real, I mean really really real. After losing AT<JJ with 11 left on WSOP I was in the BB, which I could not cover with my 8K at 5K/10K. I was dealt QQ and tripled back to 28K or so. An hour or two and many many fortunate events later I was heads up to try to win my 2nd 10K of the night. I wasn't able to come back heads up, but moving from an almost guaranteed 11th to 2nd for an additional $1460 turns a very good day into a great day, results-wise.



I was much more relaxed today than I was yesterday and when I wound up with 2 tables left I was pretty laxed about potentially having a 4 figure losing day. Having money in the bank definitely helps, but I ate properly today and got good sleep last night.

February Wrap Up

--After losing $1400 in January and focusing mainly on running to get myself physically and mentally where I wanted to be, I committed to putting the time and effort into playing. After skipping playing on Sunday February 5th, I got very frustrated with myself and resolved to play every Sunday, 5 days every single week, and to take my job seriously again.

--After 14 days in February I was up a total of $17.25 . However, I was running every day and I was taking poker seriously again.

--On Sunday the 19th I took 4th in both the WSOP $215 $50K and the Stars $100 $12K, winning $2900 on the day.

--I proceeded to lose $750 the next 6 days before having another very profitable Sunday, this time for $5800 after taking 2nd in the Stars $200 $50K on the 26th.

--Following a very frustrating Monday where I acknowledged that I made mistakes in preparing for my session, I righted the ship the next day, Tuesday the 28th, to win the Stars $100 $10K and take 2nd in the WSOP $30r $10K, profiting over $3000 on the day.

--After being down $1200 on the year through February 18th, I made 5 figures the last 10 days of the month, finishing February up $10,900.

While some well-timed run good clearly helped with this big month, I'm gonna go ahead and take some credit for it all this time. I kept my head up throughout this month and played 5 days each week for the last 3 weeks. I took a different mindset into every session, trying hard to chip up in the late stages of tournaments instead of passively seeking to ladder. I felt optimistic and positive about every spot, even if I'd been running bad throughout the day. I assumed good things were going to happen to me, and this led to me taking aggressive lines since I wasn't afraid to gamble because, "hey, even if I get caught I'm gonna suck out so who cares." This attitude has led to me playing what I think is some of my best poker, and while the results did not reflect that the first couple weeks, they sure did at the tail end of February.

I'll conclude this entry with the end of my post from January 30. Set goals, think positively, and do the work.

Good job! Must feel nice to get that second place from nothing but scratch. Chipping up in the mid to late stages when everyone is just auto folding waiting for a big hand to jam is definitely inportant. Also people are making way to many passive weak mistakes in correlation to calling off thin but when pot odds dictate a correct call.

It helps when there's dead money, and people sometimes are oblivious to it focusing only on immediate hand strength.

Btw do you find any value in Bovadas tournaments? Also how do you play on stars being in the usa? Vpn?

Nice finish on the month!!

Keep the mo going sir, ride the wave.


Stars is up and running in NJ, for people located in the state. It's not connected to the ROW stars.

Yep as raradevils said I play exclusively on the regulated sites in New Jersey. I wrote a lot about myself and what I'm doing in the first post of this thread so check it out!

congrats man, nice heater. poker much more fun when you catch some of the breaks in your big $ spots!

gg, keep it up!