you're on a huge DS & mega tilted, maybe a breather would help...

Taking tmr off as per scheduled, gonna get a haircut go to the gym drill preflop and hang out with gf

If you want to lower variance, I think you should stick to online. I mean, I rarely play online, but I would say that 100BB poker, where you are seeing hundreds of hands per hour, has much less variance than deep-stacked, splashy and aggro live PLO games. Considering how few hands you get per hour, as soon as you sit deep it basically just takes one bad hand to wipe out a night's work and put you in the red. Of course, the opposite is true as well - get a few good hands to hold or a few wraps to hit, and you are looking it massive profits.

Anyway, wish you luck getting out of this downswing!

Could be true, but I’m up 11k there over 150 hours. Yes it can be swingy at times, but the winrate is also quite high.

Yeah, that I believe - deep live PLO games with bad players usually lead to huge wins (or losses when it goes south). And according to me, a lot more fun than playing online as well. My comment was more with regards to variance, which should be sky high in a good game like this

Been drilling pf - main thing I noticed is I'm missing a lot of 3bets BB vs SB. Basically I train in monker beta, and write down hands that I get wrong. Then I compare what I'm getting wrong to my ideas about the game, and how if I change my thinking I can understand why a solver does x instead.

I am happy with my RFI, cold call, and BB vs CO/BTN. Surprised at how high my accuracy is. However, I know I mess up on this stuff in game. The disconnect between knowledge and execution is something to work on.

Played an evening session after relaxing all day.

Lost about 1.2k (volume roughly 50% .5/1, 15% 1/2, 35% .25/.5), roll is getting dangerously low. Will play just .25/.5 tomorrow.

Still playing well, have been getting comically unlucky in all-ins. Stuff like freerolling people for 400bb, getting runner runner bdfd etc...

I wish I could just take a break for a couple weeks, but this is my job. I can't just put my head in the sand every time I lose 50bi. I wish I could just start winning, but that's not in my control. The only thing in my control is sitting back down tomorrow, playing my best, and taking whatever swings come my way.

Definitely the most violent downswing I've ever been on. If I can take anything from this twisted mess, it's that in a downswing moving down 1 stake isn't necessarily enough. There isn't some magic fairy that stops you from losing money even if you move down a stake. So if I don't want to get totally screwed hourly wise, I should focus on playing well within roll.

Losing the money isn't as frustrating as having my hourly slashed, that's the primary source of my frustration rn. But was talking to a hs pro, who said that current hourly isn't important, as you could be making double by the end of the month. Which is comforting to some extent.

Profits

-1000 / 100000

I still have to move out in September, life won't wait for me. I'm still going to make 100k in profits by this time, whatever I need to do to improve as a poker player will be done.

The plan is to grow as a professional, sit my ass down, and grind.

GL me!

Brutal man! Definitely stick to the the lower stakes for a while until you've hit a better patch..

Had a much needed +10bi session - the plan is play PLO50 until 4k profit, then add 100 tables again.

Need to find a way to not tilt so hard, it isn't good for my mental health and means that having poker as a career would be incredibly stressful at times.

How do you get beta working?

Have to install Java, once ur in it works pretty decently but the buttons randomly don’t show images (like load and start/stop buttons all look the same)

it's good that you realize this.

there's nothing more important than conquering this part of the game if you want to thrive, or even "make it", as a pro.

Grinding back on global has been good so far - $900 away from moving back up to .5/1.

Was playing up to 8 tables for the most part, but I think 6 makes the most sense for me.

so you made 3.1k in 6 days playing 50? impressive..

Been running hot + game quality is good + playing 8 tables

Withdrew some money for living expenses, and had a rough session. Abt 1.5k from moving to 100PL.

Happy with game quality rn, and happy with the grind I'm putting in. I always do my best work when I'm broke...

Been hitting the gym with intensity again, have it for free as I’m a student. Gonna set up some more well-informed exercise plans, atm I’m just doing whatever gets me tired and roughly hits my body (chest, shoulders, core, cardio, arms).

Looked in the mirror and noticed my hair is thinning at the top, hoping it’s because of the stress I’ve dealt with in the last couple years. All coming from poker/magic.

Working on mental game rn, would love to be mostly stress free, and get my hair growing again.

I think my mentality has shifted in terms of bankroll management, so I expect I won’t experience any more stress coming from losing 20% of roll in 1 hand.

Also going to learn a bit about nutrition, so I can cook myself reasonable dinners.

Would like to eat with a reasonable schedule, often I wake up and head to the gym and don’t eat at any point until around 5-6pm. Which leaves me irritable and not thinking clearly.

Had a nice +10bi session, would really like to move up ASAP but cashing out for expenses at PLO50 is really rough. Now I see why they call it a rake trap.

The biggest positive is that I've avoided shot taking 100s, or short stacking 100s, which was previously the way I snuck into higher stakes when I was exhibiting poor mental game and degen tendencies. I find it hardest to practice good BRM at micros, and when there is no tables of my main stake running. I know I tend to have poor judgment in spots where I am in a negative emotional state, so I think that setting hard rules for myself protects me the most from myself. Instead of just "deciding" to shot take a juicy game.

Still get tilted, which is a work in progress. But I haven't self sabotaged (yet).

About 1k from moving up still.

Had an unfortunate spot today where a whale told me to "stop following" him and to let him play some shitty nit reg HU. I don't really care what the whale wants in this spot because I play every non HU 50PLO table that runs. I'm not bum hunting, it just looks like it to the whale because I'm always on the table with him. After stacking him, he quit and refused to sit with me anymore. I think in some situations I'd let them play HU, but a microstakes table when the whale is berating me in chat is not that situation.

trying the same but i am recreational not going to go pro. I guess you cant beat stars and gg poker because the field is to tuff at mid to high stakes but plo 50 is beatable.
i cant beat plo 20 at a austrian poker room where only austrians can play. I guess their are likes of jnandez at plo2k here but soft on the lower stakes. Rake is 3%.
After 100 k hands i am just break even without rake so can not beat it. I read books like the one from tom chambers and have a basic understanding of the game.

It is curious to watch your blog because of it. Your journey is to become a pro, which is like 0.0001% of the people can achieve because of the house edge (rake) and because most of the guys are not complete idiiots or fish. Can not imagine you are reaching 100k but best of whiches. we will see i guess. so many failed just look at other blogs here. Will be interessting to see if you can. i failed ....

The euro segregated sites aren’t great as far as I know. Could try starting at PLO2 on unibet, and running that up stakes… it’s low rake for micros and the pool is soft. Stars is not horrible but there aren’t many good tables that run. But when good tables run the games are great. GG I don’t have much experience with. But I think their cash game model is not great.

Did some research on creating a more structured gym plan. Ended up settling on a 5 day split, as follows.

Monday Wednesday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps.

Bench press: 4 sets
Incline press: 3 sets
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 3 sets
Dumbbell lateral raise: 4 sets
Tricep lying extension: 3 sets
Tricep pushdowns: 4 sets

Tuesday Thursday: Back, Biceps, Core

Friday: Legs / Cardio

I haven't come up with a plan for back, biceps and core yet. Will do tomorrow.

I normally play basketball on Friday, so that's the plan there. My legs are proportionately much stronger than the rest of my body, and much larger. I want to take it a bit easy on strength training legs until the rest of my body catches up.

Also I did some research on diet - I don't plan on following any sort of structured healthy eating plan (I love starbucks and burgers), but I wanted to know how to structure my at home meals from a nutritional point of view. The big take away for me is take a quarter of my plate and set it aside for starchy carbs, cut the rest of my plate in half and have a 50/50 split of fibrous carbs and protein. Was watching Athlean X for this idea. It's very simple and easy to execute.

Main thing I need to remember is that my performance at work is night and day when exercising and getting adequate nutrition. Don't have any specific fitness related goals, but I want to look "good". Not fat or anything rn, but have a bit of a stomach.

I would seriously recommend stronglifts program for gym (https://stronglifts.com/5x5/). You can always add some supportive sets if you feel so, but overall the program is really great and actually takes much less time than doing million different things. Personally I have added chin ups for some pulling motion.

Even if you do not follow this exact program those big lifts are generally much more effective than splitting everything up into isolation excerises. I was once discussing this with a very good personal trainer who was making sure I have good form and I remember telling him something along the lines of: "Maybe I should do more dif. excerises on machines etc." and he was like "No way, why do you think almost everybody are doing that instead of those big lifts - because it is easy. The real benefit is in those lifts"

Of course in the end most important thing is to just get yourself moving - so if you enjoy doing other routines go for it. From personal experience I always end up coming back to those lifts even if I switch things up for couple of months. Just makes you feel so ****ing good and actually makes you strong.


Regarding dieting take a look at intermittent fasting. I have been trying it past few weeks and really starting to see benefits of it. Leaves me really clear headed and full of energy most of the time. Also you naturally start paying more attention to what you eat. Maybe a bit hard to start at first, but worth a try.

Thanks for the advice, I’ll give it a shot and see how I like it.

Regarding diet, I don’t eat until around 4pm and go to sleep at midnight. So technically intermittent fasting, but I don’t do it on purpose. It works for me for now, but I’m not locked in on it or anything.

Just learned that I'm losing $30 on every withdrawal from Global Poker... $20 from fees on their side (I'm guessing), and a $10 wire fee from my bank. Have paid I guess $60. Will be careful to withdraw larger amounts ($500+) from now on.

Also, my back, biceps, core routine as of yesterday.

One-Arm Dumbbell row x4
Dumbbell upright row x3

Standing DB curl x3
Hammer curl x3

Elbow to knee plank x3
Reclining elbow to knee x3
Seated ab circle x3

Looking to replace the hammer curl with something, feels like I'm doing 6 sets of bicep curls. idk if that's an issue or not. Also, want to replace the upright row with something that hits my lower back muscles, might look to use the machine idk. Still happy with chest shoulders triceps routine.

I dont know how long you are working out but seems to me like you dont hit back much, especially lats. Maybe you hit them on 2nd day in the week?

i would throw in some of: pull ups, lat pulldowns(overgrip, undergrip, close grip) , barbell row or row on some kind of machine you have in your gym. And something to target your rear delts