variance is a bitch.

take an extended break, a few days at the least.

i don't think anyone can be successful long term at poker, much less PLO, until they get a grip on the mental impact of variance.

mindfulness was the big unlock for me and dealing with poker variance. it probably took me 5-6 years from my first study/practice of mindfulness until it started having a positive impact on my poker game. this wasn't 5-6 years of constant study and application, but the lazy off and on, almost there with success and failure, before i was able to apply it to poker.

you can practice mindfulness in anything that you do: eating, breathing, walking, sitting, poker, working out etc.

here's some mindfulness advice and links that seems decent

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips...e_mindfulness/

I glanced over this website, it seems good and most importantly light on trying to sell you bullshit https://chopra.com/articles/everyday...ily-activities

lastly, Jason Su has a book "Poker with Presence: Unlocking the Final 15%". He calls calls it presence but imho it's pretty much same thing as mindfulness. His Book is still really good, lots of good information, anecdotes, and exercises that will help you on your journey.

Appreciate it grass elephant! I’ll take a look.

You get work experience though. Lol, but you don’t want to hear that. Gl bud, hope you crush in November.

Planning on updating this blog regularly. As a way to keep myself accountable and focused. Prolly will post biggest 3 pots at the end of each day.

Today went to gym again, first day back. Good! Now to do it again, and again, and again...

Got advice from some people to not play zoom and focus on table selecting reg tables. Going to listen and do that.

Studied for a midterm that I have tmr, feeling OK on the material. My heart wants to play poker and prove myself now that I've been knocked down a couple pegs, but I know school is a valuable investment of my time. Going to head to a Halloween party tmr as well with GF - I don't drink or do other drugs, but should still be a good time.

Graph of bankroll rebuild so far



Todays results



Top 3 pots

Hate playing guys like this! We spend all this time studying GTO to just gii with any piece. I just avoid players like this especially at these steaks since it just becomes a shortstack variancefest with large rake.

Really enjoying these updates, GL!

Yeah, they are very dangerous for sure! And thanks!

Daily Graph



Seems standard



Have been squeezing a little bit light, I think it's good in this pool.



A little light, but whatever



Gonna head out to the halloween thing with GF, just a short session today. Friday - Sun is for the grinders!

Started mixing tables on stars with .25/.50. With the all in cash out option significantly reducing the standard deviation, I feel comfortable playing 2 tables of PL50 and 4 tables of PL25.



3 hands

Tough play by my opponent! Used max time bank on this hand iirc. But I think at the end of the day vs a reg given really good odds to call, with the straight blocker in hand, a call is justified.



This hand was absurd. I don't think I've ever seen two players drawing stone dead on the flop shovel in this much money before.



Somewhat standard. Should probably range bet flop in theory, but villain was spazzy rec.



Somewhat entertaining, I'm running 11 BI below EV at .25 and .50 but these games are so soft it hasn't mattered yet.

Plan for tomorrow is get up, grind, get some cardio done because I’m not going to gym Sunday (mtg tournament), grind, and see Gf later in the day.

Didn't really play today, games seemed to be not good for whatever reason. Whatever. I have errands to run, so figured I might as well get them accomplished. Didn't go to the gym today, woke up too late, and have some headache for whatever reason. No hands worth posting really.

Binked an in-person MTG tournament for 1k today, split 4k with the top 4 finishers. No grinding poker today. However with the extra bankroll boost, I feel comfortable playing more tables of 50s. Pretty exhausted, just wanted to update.

Fwiw, a lot of my confidence that I will be able to attain my goals in poker comes from my previous success in MTG (Magic: the Gathering, a trading card game with a large competitive community). Had top 50 elo in the world for around a year or two years. Still feel like I am competing on a high level, although I don't focus on the game anymore.

Poker and MTG share many similarities regarding hidden information, critical thinking etc... And I am decent enough at chess (peak 2400 on lichess, so probably 1800 IRL without studying for abt 10 years).

I feel like I have evidence to suggest that my goals are attainable. Even if inside of poker my results have been mediocre at best (beat x stake for small amount, punt it off at higher stake). Poker is just much harder than MTG or chess imo, because people actually do it for money.

I think some strategical stuff and mental game stuff need to click, and I'll be cruising! Feeling voracious, ready to tackle the coming week! Also excited to see my grade on my biology midterm.

How much money can you make with Magic? Chess zero euros.
Think your backround is solid.

Yeah chess is air, just play for fun and it’s a good way to stay sharp.

Magic I believe top players can make around 30k USD per year. I’m not a top player, so maybe I could make 20k USD per year. It’s not great. But all your volume happens on the weekends, so the time commitment is actually not that high.

Decent day today, woke up late with gf and had to put in the gym hours a bit later in the day. Lost a bit playing exclusively .25/.50 tables.



Going to focus on pokerstars for now, I like being able to bum hunt and cash out lets me play higher than I "should" be able to, increasing my hourly.

Big 3 hands

This hand is vs mega whale, gonna lose a lot but also gonna get called by worse a lot (saw him call off with a jack in these types of spots) was my justification. However, I think I don't have the best hand often enough to justify jamming. So probably check call. Limp reraise was based on his preflop stats.



Unlucky runout!



Just printing vs whale

Rough day today



Was mixing 25PLO and 50PLO. Took a break to hang out with GF for a couple hours. No tournaments. Down $240.

3 hands

Maybe he can value bet A7 sometimes idk. Would fold vs certain villains. Blockers extremely important here, would expect solver to probably be folding KKxx on river. Maybe was on a bit of tilt, picked up timing tell or sizing tell or something idk.



Not much info on villain, just feel like I have much worse hands that were value on the flop that I can fold on the turn. This is a spot where blockers are extremely important though. So might be a punt.




Check flop, fold to check raise, stack off turn as played. Idk why I played it like this, is pretty trivial spot to be messing up.



Thankfully I'm used to running bad, will just have to put in the hours and grind it back up! Early to bed tonight, wake up tmr and grind, go gym, maybe hang out with GF, and grind some more.

Graph of bankroll rebuild so far

Also, did some checking out my results.... Didn't realize just how expensive the cash out feature is on PS. Going to have to not use it anymore + switch back to iggy I think.

Graph today



Some run good - games haven't felt all that good on ignition at PLO50 unfortunately. Also fired $220 in tournament entries and cashed for 420 roughly.

Going to focus on PLO tournaments until I'm rolled for 1/2 I think. Which means I'm mostly going to battle on GG and Stars. Mostly small field, so hopefully don't get dunked on by variance too hard. Going to supplement with 25PLO games.

Gonna head to the gym tonight, study a bit and get to bed.

3 hands

Thought my opponents line was suspect, didn't expect him to check back T8 on the turn but he's acting like he has T8 on the river. Would prolly make same call again.



Opponent was tilting whale



Weird spot to skip cbet and xr top set, but I guess he got me because I had middle set :/

Hang in there bud.

My own venture into high stakes plo (1K-2K) started with over 30K downswing, which isn't much for those stakes, but a lot for my bankroll.

However it was good for experience, and forced us to become a better player.

It seems we both like to learn the same way - from brutal experience

I bet you can guess from my graph where the high stakes journey began.

As of now we only play the 1K - 2K when the tables are super juicy or I am feeling super juicy.

Every downswing that you go through is like a tour of war.

You will be a seasoned and hardened veteran soon

forge ourselves in the fire

Thanks! Yeah I’m surprised at how much each downswing feels just as unfair as the last… but getting used to it now I hope.

Yep

We are the Sword.

Variance is the Hammer.

just gamble high and you will lose everything like me x) br is most important tool to become a champ.