Hey, thanks. I've been following your thread as well. I read you are attempting some online volume to improve, I think that's a great idea. I have a small study group on Discord for PLO if you are interested in joining. I also have an affiliate that can set you up with great 3rd party rake-back deals across almost all sites. If either interest you, shoot me a PM for details.

Crashing and burning hard. Played around 40k hands, losing a bit over -5bb/100. I quit online middle of last week. I put too much pressure on myself with the routine. Going from sloppy routine to rigid routine overnight isn't working for me. Ended up burned out, crashing, and just eating edibles for 3 days in a row. Spent some time with girlfriends family as well. It's time to reset and start with baby steps.

I am going to study everyday until next week. I accept I am new to 5card and unlikely winning in online games. My goal is to build a really solid base of fundamentals, then get back in the game. It will be much more effective for future study to build off this base. I was just kind of jumping around in spots hitting an hour a day with no structure. Not going to get me where I want to go. I already feel much improved after a couple days of study and want to jump back in the games. It's difficult to not jump back in the games asap. I will wait until next week at minimum to jump back in.

Luckily, I did smash live my last sessions. I'm 100% confident I am crushing that field. It's just kind of a pain to get there it is almost 2 hour drive, so not worth it unless I stay the night. It's pretty funny, players constantly complaining about how tight I am, only play aces, etc. It bothered me at first, now I just give them a smirk and keep grinding. I embrace the insults now.

Goals for Feb to March 4th. I have a 10k to run on the 4th so I will use that day as a reset break.

1. Meditate Daily first thing for 20 minutes
2. Complete 5c Study Base building
3. Lose 4 lbs. (no junk food)
4. 15 miles of running per week

Hopefully this small routine will be easier and less chance of burnout. Will update in March.

Good luck to all!

Since last post. Mainly 5-card with 4 mixed in. Mainly $1/$2. Eh, not impressed overall with my results. Haven't been able to play live much. The waitlists always seem so long I'm just not really feeling driving out there and waiting forever. I'll have to force myself out there sometime by end of month for an online break. My hourly has been insane so far live, just need to jump the hurdle and get out there.

I really had some deep thought about poker lately, I've got some outside the box (for me at least) ideas I'm going to test out in the game. I'll approaching the game differently based on my own ideas, not what solver says.

I did run my 10k race in 1hr 11 min. Roughly 11 min pace. Not bad for barely training and being a little overweight. This was was on farmland in the foothills with constant elevation or downhill stretches. There was rarely a stretch of over 50 yards straight and flat. This was drastically different than my hometown flat beach where there are virtually no hills. My goal was just to only stop at 1 aid station and finish in top half of my age group. I only stopped at the mid way aid station for 2 cups of water and was able to finish the rest without stopping. I got 4/15 in my age 30-35 year old and 38/95 overall. I had been slacking on my running training. I love running in the cold, but not with the addition of wind. Everyday here is like cold with 12-15mph winds since I am in the foothills. I can't stand cold wind. Maybe I'll appreciate the wind when it's hot.

As far as last goals set last post, I didn't reach my running goals because of the wind. I have been working out 6 days a week with kettlebell. I have been consistent with meditation at least hitting 6/7 days a week for 10 minutes. I feel like I've lost weight, but my scale batteries are dead and I haven't got any new ones yet. My diet has been see-saw style, do good for a week or two, eat crap for 2 days. I have been strong on my eating windows though and no food 4 hours before bed. I'm trying to stay consistent on the actual diet for 8 weeks from this past Sunday on out, which is around Cinco de Mayo weekend.

1. Up meditation to 15 minutes per day hit 6/7 days per week (prefer 7/7)
2. Kettlebell or weights 4 days a week / run 3 weather permitting
3. Grind 5days x 7 hours a day per week minimum
4. Stay on diet (no cheat meals) until Cinco de Mayo weekend

Will update maybe halfway point to check in.

I'm excited to implement these strategies into my game moving forward. Studying the solver all the time kind of takes the passion and creativity out of the game. I believe in 5card especially, there is room for tons of creativity. Only time and results will tell.

Will be grinding 4card online and 5card live moving forward. I was breakeven in 5card online for 5 weeks running 30BI below EV. Decided to hang it up for 5c online at the beginning of the month. The swings are a little too crazy for me at the moment. I ran some downswing calculations and you can lose breakeven for 250-300k hands winning 4bb/100. Don't need to study 5c at all to beat live. Maybe an occasional equity calculation in PPT. Results for this month so far in 4card. Glad to be back in 4card.

4.6ev/bb

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Been crushing live 5card as well. I don't enjoy live too much. It takes a toll on me mentally. Can be fun some nights, but standard mis-regs everywhere. Happy when winning and angry when losing. It's not really mentally stimulating for me either. Unfortunately, still planning to grind live 1-2x per month for the hourly. My main focus is on the online dream of running it up and battling 10/20+.

Diet has been pretty bad. Not as bad as most Americans, but not up to my standards. My main fitness motivation when I was younger was to pick up chicks. With a girlfriend it's been a lot harder for me to commit to the diet. I have been consistent working out with kettlebell and weights. I'm feeling the strongest I've ever been (185lbs, 5"11). Can still lose fat. Legs are sore right now, I cranked out 10 sets of squats on squat rack last night. I have a 20k trail race end of August to try and whip myself back into shape. I have been meditation almost every day. I stopped keeping track, but it's at least 5 days a week.

Overall life is going well. I love the place I live and small town. It's so peaceful out here. I have great mountain views and lot's of hiking access. Feeling grateful and fortunate to have such a life. I won't take it for granted.

Have a vacation on the beach starting Late July, so goals will be until then.

1. Diet Strict, track all calories no cheat allowed.
2. follow running training plan for half marathon (Hal Higdon)
3. drop 15lbs
4. Grind 5 days a week minimum. Be ready for 2/5 online shot take as soon as I get back from Vacation.

June results 3.15bb/100 about 60k hands. Didn't hit my volume goals. Not running as much as I should. My diet has been on point though I even maintained it on a live trip which I am proud of. Have dropped about 6lbs.

Went to Maryland Live to play live 5c and got crushed for almost 15 BI. Games were not great, lot's of preflop mistakes by opponents but mostly tight play from them post flop. Seemed to be filled with regulars. I just couldn't hit and couldn't hold. I don't see how live players can play live full time. It gets so tilting if you lose and can't even play a hand for hours sometimes. Respect to their patience, I sure don't have it atm. If I play 5c again I will likely just go back to MGM. I like Live! more, but it seems more regs and less action overall. Found a casino (Parx) which is about a 4hr drive compared to 2.5 to Live!, so I will go check them out next trip. They play 4c which I am much more confident in.

This month off to terrible start online down 25BI. I was basically set to take my shot at return of vacation, but now it's questionable. Still 2 weeks to turn it around. Will grind everyday except my Bday until the vacation. Hopefully lose 5 more lbs by then, probably gain it all back in 4 days of vacation though .

Gl to all the grinders out there, times can be tough. Have to keep it in perspective though a hell of a lot better than having a job!

God Bless America!

I'm also into running. I ran a half marathon in August last year and took a long break until this month. Hoping to work my way back up to a half again and in the future a full + ultra. You have a great story, wishing you all the success at life + poker. Subbed!

subbed... lets go

good luck, I lost ~30lbs last summer and am now in good shape, you will definitely achieve it, just need to stay focused. I did 80/20 strategy where 80% of my foods were very healthy, meats, eggs, veggies etc. and 20% could be less healthy.

btw, how do you study PLO? I play nl500 but have been playing a bit of 100pl for fun and want to get good at it.

Awesome, always into chatting with people who enjoy running. I started late in life as well. I was actually tripping mushrooms with a buddy and came across David Goggins. We signed up for a Spartan Beast (13MI 25+ obstacle) I had never ran over a mile in my life at the time and only did so when mandated in middle school and high school so < 10 miles ran lifetime. We trained in like 90 days and both finished. This was 5 or 6 years ago, fun times. Been running off and on ever since.


Ty bro, I have been grinding hard again.

Hey, thanks for the advice. My problem is if I allow the 20% unhealthy, I go off the hinges and am smashing all unhealthy in no time. Nothing has ever really worked for me personally except ketogenic and intermittent fasting. Which is basically meat, eggs, veggies as you mentioned.

I have been in great shape in the past, pre covid I was pretty ripped. Girlfriend and I just really let ourselves go during covid and never got the motivation to fully commit to dieting again. I have maintained exercise and running. I'm still not in terrible shape compared to USA population, I'd say I'm in top 25% of my age. Have decent muscle, just a 20lb or so spare tire to go with it. I've been pretty consistent this past month doing keto. Just did my first 48 hour fast last weekend and down 10lbs since last post. Have a race coming up in 2 weeks so I hope I am down 5 more.

Nice, welcome to the great game. Once you cross over it's hard to go back. As far as study goes, I'm always tweaking my routine. Currently I just review my hands, and if I find trouble spots I drill them in the PLO MasterMind trainer. I have a study group to discuss HH as well, but not sure how many of them are as driven as I am. I have one dedicated friend where we study usually 2 times a week as a duo. I usually try to hit an hour minimum daily study solo, even if it's just drilling preflop.

Results wise, I am doing decent since last update. I will post graph for July + August at end of the month as volume is somewhat low. I have 2 vacations during this time and a race. End of August to Thanksgiving I will be grinding like a maniac to be firing shots at 5/10 by end of year. Found some live 4card PLO action in Pennsylvania which isn't too far so may check them out as well. They also have Pokerstars there which would be dope to checkout.

What a life to be free and play a card game for a living. Blessed.

Subbed. Also working towards a real understanding of PLO. Run good.

How’s it going?

Hey, going well. After a lot of thought, I decided to switch back to No limit for now.

There isn't a lot of higher stakes than 1/2/5 live 5card PLO around me. Even online is limited for 4card. There's just way more no limit action overall.

I can play live 5/10 and online 2/5 with the bankroll I have now. My hourly is just going to be higher with less variance, less bankroll jumps, and less stress overall.

I will consider a return to PLO when I'm rolled for 2/5 or higher games online and live.

Will pause this thread now. May throw in an update in a few months or start a NL thread.

Good luck to all.

Im back to PLO.

NL is awful. Worse than when I played before. I just don't enjoy it at all.

I've been miserable the past month. Played PLO today and felt alive again. There's still so much room for creativity and even regs are making blunders preflop.

Update in 2 weeks.

Gl subbed

Dang, I am stoked to be back grinding PLO. I can't stand NL, it's so boring. I basically broke even the past 1.5 months playing NL. I lost touch with that game and I'm just don't have that passion like I do for PLO. Glad I did take the break as my passion is reignited for PLO. I clearly remember why I left NL.

Went hard grinding PLO the past two weeks. Burned myself out a little bit, taking a couple days off and hitting it hard in November.

End of year goals

• 200k hands. Start now complete by Jan1
• meditate daily
• training and complete a 22 minute 5k.
• 1 day of heavy lifts per week; squats, deadlifts, incline bench
• be grateful for every moment

Think a lot of pros take their life for granted. I see people constantly crying about losing streaks, that won't be me. This is one of the reasons I don't particularly care for live poker, as it's full of mis regs. The DC/Maryland area where I live near is especially negative. We should all be grateful to be able to play a game for a living. Lot's of bad things going on in this world. If you are able to wake up with a functioning body, eat, and breath you should be grateful. If this was taken away from us, I'm sure a lot would have wished they spent their time with more joy.

Will update after the holidays.

I'm so blessed to have this life. God Bless America!

Happy Holidays to all!

Welcome back, glad your passion for PLO has been reignited!

Ending this thread. Didn't turn out to be legendary as I wanted it to be, as I was slacking in the writing department. Just churning out weak updates.

Also, title no longer fits. Since I've made it almost two years playing full time, I'm no longer a rookie. Started this bankroll on my own dime from 10NL online without going busto. The dream is still alive people.

May start a new thread next year if I feel I can actually get some decent writing in.

Peace.