i'm in but i don't get it, what actually are your goals here

...managing your state.

one day I realized… and it wasn’t even that long ago, to be perfectly honest… that other people feel differently while doing mundane things… than I do.

you may wonder, what is he talking about? Or you may remember that guy who’s always relaxed and happy while he plays poker, and you can easily imagine him playing 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, 12 months a year. Don’t have a guy like that in your life? Then you’re surrounded by people who are taking it way too seriously. Got anybody like that in your family? Would be good, cause there’s a theory that you’re the combination of the five people who you spend the most time with. And if all of them are very serious, then that means….

So how do you manage your state?

The most mundane way, and the one that works for everybody, is working out. After you’ve worked out, you just feel differently. You’re in a different state, and for almost everyone, it’s a good state.

What’s it like to be in that good state?

It’s a bit like having had a great conversation that leaves you pumped and inspired, at least for me. And that leads me to a really interesting question:

What’s it like to change your state in a conversation?

Sometimes, that’ll mean that you go from happy to angry, or from fresh to exhausted. That’s when there are dangerous triggers in those conversations, you know, magical words and phrases that make you feel bad, especially when somebody says them in just that tone of voice that you hate.

Alright, take a deep breath (At least I will, cause even writing about that makes me tense).

Which clarifies the question:

What’s it like to change your state for the better in a conversation?

...because there were little things in there… clues that you picked up on… words that made you feel good… concepts that you find useful, and you’re excited to apply them, to make use of them, to be able to look back at this and say: “This conversation triggered something good, and that’s what I call progress.” Or to never look back, as they say.

So what’s it like to change your state?

Many people meditate, and all kinds of meditation can work well, while the one that’s right for you is going to work even better.
Others write, and there are many methods to the madness: Write three pages each morning, or use a diary that you write in every day, or start blogging, to name three. I have one conversation with a good friend that we use each morning to get fired up, to get ready for the day, and it just takes 15 minutes. I call this a ritual, which is a routine that has meaning.

Managing your state is all important, and it’s the first step towards helping other people manage their states, which is what a mental game coach does.

Or to put it differently: Welcome to my world!

My goals are (in order):

...to get to $1/$2 plo.

...to go back to making videos about poker strategy or the mental game.

...to start a successful business as a mental game coach.

Not sure I mentioned them all, so well spotted and welcome, sir!

Alright folks, how ya doin? I am juuuuuuuust checkin in on ya!
This week we got the following:

5*15 min firing up conversations
20.5 hours of poker
5.5 hours of writing
3 meditations of 15 minutes
5.5 hrs of conversing / coaching / getting coached

which I am pretty happy with.

For next week, I'll introduce another 15 min interval per day of working on my game, so that my typical day is gonna look like this:

8am - write
8:45am - work on my game
9am - fire up
9:30ish - play first session
11:30ish - write
1pm - noon break
2pm - 2nd session
4pm - write
5pm - done

and on monday or tuesday I'll typically switch out my pre-noon routine for 3-4 hours of toy game coaching.

Looking forward to that, another update on Tuesday!

... jesus christ am I on a rollercoaster ride. Pretty good start of the week in terms of volume, pretty bad start in terms of results.
That's quite large in my awareness right now, cause I just had a brutal session.

I mean, you'll get my weekly recap on friday, I don't know what to say right now, besides that I just played a super intense session, and I think it's time to cool off.

So, have a nice week y'all!

Just found this blog, your writings are gold! When I hear or read about Dante´s Hell I always remember that scene from the movie Seven, where detective Somerset goes to library. How´s this for culture?

Epic blog. Voted 5 stars midway through the OP (which is probably the best ever on 2 + 2, or tied for first...). And glad to have you back bro

You’re probably not in a good state for most of your sessions. During those times, you’re distracted, and your phone might be nearby. You’re angry, frustrated or impatient, and it shows in your play. You’re bored. You’re restless. You’re pressured. You’re one of many things, and you don’t think that any of them are good, if you’re being totally honest. So, that’s the setup. If that doesn’t fit, then don’t bother going on reading.


You could start introducing a morning routine. You could start warming up properly. You could start playing fewer tables. You could start playing shorter sessions. You could start taking more breaks. You could work on your game. You could work on your mindset. You could work on your state. You could cool down properly. You could start working on your sleep quality.

There are two types of people. Both types get new information on a regular basis. Both types learn something from it. One type learns something useful, something that makes them grow, and the other type learns something useless, something that makes them shrink. You know anybody like this?



If you’re type 1 you learn from this that you need to run better in order to feel better.
If you’re type 2 you learn from this that you need to toughen up in order to feel better.



If you’re type 1 you learn from this that you’d need to be more lucky in order to spend a nice evening after a long session.
If you’re type 2 you learn from this that planning sessions with set time frames maximizes the chance of you spending a nice evening those times that you really want to do that.



If you’re type 1 you learn from this that you’re probably bad and that if even you can’t win easily anymore then poker is dying.
If you’re type 2 you learn from this that you need to work harder in order to feel better, or that you may need to quit if working harder isn’t an option.

If you’re type 2, then we probably don’t hear much from you. You don’t complain about bad variance, you don’t write posts about the “fact” that poker is dying. You’ve long looked for quality input in order to improve your game and your mental game, and because of that you’ve got access to a great group of people. You work out regularly, you meditate and you work many hours a week, every week. You’ve got ways to work on your game that work for you, and you know how you can get into a good state for your poker sessions.

If you look up, or scroll up, you'll see who I was describing in the first paragraph. If that fits you, then you're type 1. If it fits you sometimes, then you're type 1 - sometimes. There's always room to improve. If you know that, then you've had a moment in your life when you learned it, which means that you DIDN'T learn that you're hopeless, or stupid, which means that in that moment, you were type 2. Well done

You can start practicing becoming type 2, which is what I call mental game coaching, whether you do it by yourself or pay somebody for it. Because as somebody wise once said:

Welcome man, and thank you so much, reading your post made me smile!

And god, do I love that movie, and that scene.

Thank you. Reading that you loved the OP really makes me strive to keep it up and to spend quality time once or twice a week writing some really good posts for myself and for you guys. I really hope I can manage that. Glad to have you on board good sir!

So, was a pretty good week I'd say. I managed to...

- Get fired up 4 times
- meditate once for 15 minutes
- play 25 hours of poker
- do more than 4 hours of writing
- do more than 3 hours of mental game work
- get 2 hours of coaching
- work on my game 5 times, 15 minutes each

Goals for next week are...

- to get fired up at least 4 times
- to work on my game 5 times for 25 minutes each
- to achieve the same in terms of writing and poker
- to put in a huge toy game session of 3-4 hours with my mate
- to take 3 breaks from my sessions
- to get an hour of coaching
- to put in half an hour to write one good blog post
- to meditate two times, 15 minutes each

Good luck me, and talk to y'all on tuesday!

....rant about managing your state.

Imagine it was the perfect session. And then, looking back at it, ask yourself how you know that it was perfect. Maybe take a moment to dwell on the fact that it was perfect for you, which means that somebody else would have perceived it a different way. This session felt really great because those things that you look for without even knowing it, they happened. Those things that you play for, they happened, too. Those things that intrigue you and that you find fascinating, they occurred, and that felt great. It was the kind of session that heals you, that energizes you, that charges your batteries.

And then, zoom in. What was so good about it? Did you need to win a lot? Really? Look closer to make absolutely sure, because for most people, winning a lot isn't what they're looking for. Playing in the right way, according to your own standards, and then having a great attitude towards what variance brings - how ****ing amazing does that sound? So what state were you in in that great session? What was it like to handread in that state? What was it like to fold? What was it like to bluff? What was great about losing a pot? And what was great about winning a pot?

Have you ever played a session like that?

Which leads us to the interesting question: Can you make a small step to make it just a bit more likely that your next session is going to be that great?

Make it!

.....update on my week. Was a pretty good one:

[x] 115 min of working on my game
(goal for next week: 150 minutes)

[x] 18.5 hrs of poker
(goal for next week: 22 hours)

[x] 3 hrs of looking at toy games
(goal for next week: 3 hours)

[x] 2 hrs of coaching
(goal for next week: 2 hours)

[x] practised wim hof breathing 7 times
(goal for next week: 5 times)

[x] 7.5 hrs of writing
(goal for next week: 5 hours)

...and some meditation
(goal for next week: 2 intervals of meditation)

...and two updates that I posted here
(goal for next week: 2 updates, one of them a big one about something juicy)

Have a good weekend y'all!

...story!

So, I set myself a writing project a day, and I generally spend 1 to 2 hours working on that. The result that I generally get can be described as a speech. It's something that motivates me. It helps me focus on a topic and really think it through. It's been amazing.

And here's where you can enter the stage:

I would like to write about a topic of your choice and then post it here.
A topic like procrastination, efficiency, focus, the zone, tilt, etc.

If nobody picks one then I shall pick one myself and publish it next week, so you can look forward to that either way.

Good week to y'all!

Subbed, very nice thread mate. I am really curious to see how former crushers are doing in today's poker ecosystem and if they can replicate their previous results.

Btw one suggestion for your project could be the topic of (not) beeing results orientated in poker. Gl!

... and thank you for subbing and for those two juicy thoughts. I'll certainly address both of those in due time. I haven't spent any time considering sharing my progress compared to and in light of what kinds of results I had a couple of years ago, that's an excellent idea.

And about not being results oriented: Oh yes, that's a good one!

There’s a concept that says that anytime you care too much about results you violate something or someone. So let’s look at that!

Working on the phone, calling people, trying to make an appointment to sell them something fair and square - That’s a fine job. But some people invent a grandmother when they talk to somebody who’s old! They use double binds like “now the only thing I need to know is whether you’d prefer paying per bank transfer or credit card”. Some of them even use intimidation tactics because all they care about is the result. So when you go down that road for a long time you wake up one day and realize that you’re the fake grandson of an old lady who isn’t even that rich. Good enough for a paycheck, one might say…

Being crooked and deceitful is part of all of us. And sometimes it’s just a matter of incentive because when it’s the results that matter most then there’s probably a good reason for that. Maybe you feel pressure from the outside or from the inside, from the future or from the past. So what’s it like to feel like you’re constantly in a crisis? Better not dwell on it… because if that was issue that I had to look at then I would turn around and look at something that shows me what it was like for somebody to flourish, so that I can wonder: “What does abundance look like?”… “and what does it feel like?”… because once you know that you’ve felt it before you can access it, you can remember it well and even if it’s a distant memory you can make it large and bright. You can, to say it with the words of Paul McKenna, see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt and thus orient yourself towards it.

Ayn Rand once wrote that all you need to do in order to find out whether you are proud of the money that you’ve earned is to take a good look at how proud you are of what you’re selling or producing and whether you think that your customers are smart and tough for buying it, or weak and foolish for buying it. So when you bully them, when you use scare tactics, when you even threaten them, what do you think of your product and what do you think of the person who buys it?

So what’s it like to orient yourself using something other than results? What might that something be? Some people work on their game like you’d work on a painting, like you’d work on a sculpture and the terms that you’d use in order to describe the result, or your vision of the result, are beauty, elegance and depth. The result is tight in the sense that everything has its place, it has depth because its forms and shapes are symbiotic and intertwined, like a golden braid of your favorite color. And just like sheets of metal are folded over and over again to make a katana, you work on layers of your game and underneath each layer there’s another one until, after many layers, you arrive at the fundamentals….

Some people work on their state while they play poker like it’s a work of art. So what’s it like to be in that perfect state that some people call the zone, that others call flow? Is it really like the highest form of meditation? Does it contain the wisdom of things being not so serious and the bliss of being part of something bigger? What’s it like when you’re oriented towards that? How does it calibrate you when you get that good gut feeling so that things are going well when you feel good?

When somebody plays poker with you they help you build your game and because you need to beat them in order to move up you always hone your game against the perfect competition, no matter what you think. And you hone your attitude against the perfect obstacles, too. Because as long as you focus on variance you’re results oriented. So what’s it like to focus on something else? Which leaves you with a conundrum. With that final trick that the joker plays on you, to invoke a bit on a Alan Watts metaphor, because it’s always a result that you focus on. The question is whether it’s a result that has meaning, that has purpose, that you’re proud of and whether it’s the means to an end or simply…

the End.

Let go… and play poker in the way that it is meant to be played. Because you can compete joyfully! You can enjoy the experience! You can celebrate good plays in small ways!

Let’s put this into perspective: You play millions of poker hands. You’re not going to throw a party anytime you make a good play!

So what’s it like to work on something, maybe for a couple of hours,...

In recent times, say a couple of decades ago, this was a common experience. You can carve something out of wood and be done after a couple of hours, so what you see is what you’ve achieved (And it was good!). It’s easy when results are thus externalized. People are always on the lookout for a result! When you achieve something you want a medal. When you climb a mountain you want to look back and see what you’ve achieved. That view will edge itself into your mind because it’s a ****ing result… So those kinds of results require hard work and hard work isn’t meant to evaporate.

First you find the first thing that looks like a result, which is how much money you’ve made. Then you get more sophisticated and start looking at your EV, until that’s not good enough anymore. So you ask yourself: “What exactly is it that I am building when I play a session?”

Leonardo da Vinci often just painted for a couple of seconds when the light was perfect and then he’d be done for the day. So what was it that enabled him to patiently wait for progress that would only show after weeks? He had seen that if he kept going the painting would be finished one day. Which is common when people work on something and you trust each step of the way that you are very patient and there’s a sense of calm. You can tell others who are wondering: “What’s the result? Where’s your progress?” “You’ll see! come back in 4 weeks and look at my game again. Then you can marvel at the consistency. You can listen to the depth of my thought that isn’t there yet because I am working on it. Just come back in 4 weeks. You’re impatient. So you need to wait 4 weeks until the results are clear enough that even you can see them, until progress has been made that even you can appreciate. Take a good look now so that you know what it looks like right now and then come back in 4 weeks. Goodbye.”

This week I managed to play...

...20 hours and 30 minutes of poker, to do...
...6 hours and 30 minutes of writing,

I...
...worked on my game 5 times for 30 minutes each
... practised Wim Hof breathing >7 times (holding my breath for two and a half minutes towards the end of the week!)
...got fired up 4 times
...got coached for 2 hours

and I want to spend a similar week next week!

Good weekend to y'all!

Well, what can I say. It's good to be back!

I wish I could share what I've been experiencing in terms of progress, specifically in terms of getting a great mental game. I do a lot of writing, as I've mentioned, but I can't mention it often enough, cause it's so powerful. I gave you two recent examples of that, specifically about being results orientated, and those two little bits have done a lot for me. Thinking a topic through in a certain way, let's say while being relaxed, is MAGICAL!

That said, I wanna podcast, been doing some prep with a good friend for months now, and just not finding the time, but it's going to happen for sure, and there'll be some great stuff in there. Just teasing it here, cause can't tease it enough, can you?

"I've played some really good sessions today, a bit less than 5 hours of poker, and I couldn't be happier", said the frog.

"What are you talking about", said the stork, and ate him.

Well, that's life!

Enjoyed the parable of the frog and the stork, haha.

Nice! There'll be many more if I keep my wits about me!

19 hrs of poker
4 hrs of writing
5 times 30 minutes + 15 minutes of theory
3 hours of mental game coaching
2 and a quarter hours of getting coaching
>5 times of Wim Hof breathing
+ 3 hours of prep/pause/cooldown
________________________________________
34 hours overall

So for next week what I am mindful of is that I don't have as much time as I'd like to have. I want to play more each day, and I want to write more.
If I get up earlier on 2 days, I gain 3 hours overall. So with that in mind I want to get in 21 hours of poker next week and 5 hours of writing. All the other stuff can stay the same, I am very happy with that.

As a side note on those 3 hours of preps and breaks and cooldowns:
I use audio files that I've created for myself in order to get the max out of that, and it's been really good for my game and my life/work balance. That's something that's completely new, I've never done that in the old days. The driving question is: What state do I want to be in while playing poker?
and then: What state do I want to be in for the rest of the day?

Talk to y'all next week, and be in a great state for the weekend! One step at a time, folks, make sure to remember that!

...said the avocado and was happy, cause "you're good fat".

There once was a man who decided to learn what you need to know.
In order to do what, he was asked.

In order to succeed!

Succeed at what, somebody wanted to know.

At my work, because who works gets paid and who gets paid can buy food and who buys food lives!

So what do you need to know in order to live, his kind mother wanted to know, because she knew him well.

He wasn't happy with that, because clearly there was something missing there. Also, you can simply take a job at McDonald's in order to live.

So he decided to make a plan how to succeed, and to find out what success meant to him. Thank god I found Jordan Peterson, he thought to himself, because it was Jordan Peterson's Future Authoring Program that he used for this.

The Future Authoring Program is a funny little tool, because it turns out that by simply answering the questions, students drop out rate from university dropped by more than 50%, which is curious.

So this man, let's call him Frank, now had a map of what he wanted to succeed at, and what success meant to him.

The next day, he started to play poker, and he found a coach who helped him work on his game. That was good, because his game sucked, and the coach had years of experience.

"Coaching makes the most sense especially when you're just starting out", Frank thought to himself, because the coach taught him so much so quickly.

On a beautiful day, 6 weeks later,...

"It's 5 pm and 5 minutes", the clock said to Simon, which meant that he'd have to continue Frank's story another time. "Have a wonderful week, everybody!", said the pink rabbit that was perched on top of the computer screen. "You'd think that those only existed in dreams or in fantasies. Funny world, this." said I, got up and enjoyed my evening.

Alright, how do you manage to see progress so that you begin to feel it? It's not an easy question, and I've written about it here. What if I keep focusing on what I've achieved each friday?
This week, I managed to...

play 19.75 hours of poker
do 2.75 hours of writing
work on my game for 2.5 hours
get 1.75 hours of coaching
look at toy games for 2.45 hours

for 29.5 hours plus warm ups, breaks and cool downs.

Next week? Get up earlier on two days, like I did today, and get in at least 5 more hours.

So how do I notice that I've made progress by working on the same things week after week after week, for at least 30 hours each week and in a very focused, non-distracted fashion? Tell me how you geniuses notice that! Or do you want me to tell you how I do? Who does and who doesn't makes all the difference if you don't wanna be stuck for a while.

Where am I at?

I am slowly but surely working my way through all the things that I had to deal with. You see, I used to teach people not how to play poker, but how to think about poker. I better put my money where my mouth is and show in a timely manner that I can re-learn how to think about poker in 2019 and in 2020. I've also got the most amazing (small) group of people who are helping me out, and who are helping me improve. It's a blessing, I tell you.

Having access to Phil Galfond commenting on his play? $100 a month. Having direct access to brilliant, hard working and benevolent minds? Priceless!

In the grand scheme of things, working slowly and patiently for a couple of months is fine if you're building skills that will sustain you for years to come, is what I believe. You get terrible feedback through your play. So you gotta make sure to get good feedback a different way, because otherwise you're not going to improve. So you better find it, and improve quickly, cause the world is turning, and hundreds of thousands of minds are working on poker each hour of the day.

With that, I'll leave you for a good and relaxing weekend. Think about it.