Congratulations!

congrats bro pretty huge!

I will definitely keep this in mind haha. We had lunch right before and I had one chicken nugget (I thought this was a dead giveaway, but she didnt notice!)

Thanks! I've slacked since my vacation, but I notice a tangible difference in how I feel and ultimately when I play when doing these things. I just need to be better implementing it as a daily habit.



Thanks man, hope you're vacation in Aruba is going well! I was very happy I did the proposal fairly early instead of at dinner strictly due to nerves.

Hey man thanks and so true it's a lot easier with a partner. I actually met Victoria when I was flat out broke and just getting by so she's seen me just absolutely demoralized by this game, she was an absolute trooper in keeping my spirits high during tough times even if she knew nothing really about the game!

Thanks my dude, hope you're on the up and up!

Yes, trying to enjoy the life upswing while I can
Appreciate the kind word boss

Thanks! And thank you for all the help and advice you've given me, I don't mind nearly as much when you stack me anymore

Almost as exciting as your HS shots eh! Thanks my dude, hope to see you crushing soon

Thanks man, I really enjoy your blog!

Brooo thanks so much! Hope to see you in Vegas





The support and congratulations I've gotten has been amazing, people I haven't really talked to in years have congratulated me and the positive support has been really uplifting.

The only tilting thing about today is I can't get my HUD to work or import any hands, so if anyone has a magic solution, help your boy out as an engagement gift

No weekly overview this week, will do a Week 11/Week 12 Overview post next Monday. Have a lot to write about and would rather do it on my next off day (next Monday).

Just got back from AC with a bunch of long time highschool friends for March Madness which was a lot of fun and didn't lose any money gambling which is always nice.

Also 16/16 on sweet 16 picks for my greatest accomplishment this year.

GL at the tables everyone, hoping to finish March strong

Ended up playing tonight and now taking off tomorrow, will due write up tomorrow.

Me and Victoria headed to the doctors early tomorrow to start the final phase of the IVF process and kick off what will be an absolute hectic month

Quick Life Update

The last 2 weeks have been an absolute whirlwind, which is the main reason for the short hiatus from the blog. It's been 100% wedding planning and IVF, I will 100% update Sunday night/ Monday Morning.

Vic has been an absolute trooper with this IVF. I've had to inject her with hormones every morning and every night + drive 2 hours every morning to see the doctor through this process + a blood clotting scare that had us in the ER all of Saturday Morning.

She is going through Surgery tomorrow morning (6AM) to get the eggs retrieved and then we'll know in 2 weeks whether we have an embryo good to go for surrogacy. All thoughts and prayers are appreciated

Poker has not been much of a priority with how things are going but I'm excited to get back in the swing of things as well.

Best of luck to her and both of you guys
you are in my thoughts and will say a prayer for you both

Best of luck!

Thank you guys

Surgery went well and we got a lot of eggs out of the retrieval (will go into this more next post)

GL to all grinding the weekend

happy easter

Well played

It has been a whirlwind past few weeks so let's recap this as succinctly as I can.

Week 12 Overview: 3/18-3/24

1.) 15 mins of meditation Yearly Goal: 5.5/50

2.) 0 mins of Yoga Yearly Goal: 1.57/60

3.) 15.63 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 323.38/2200


-Was an extremely short week poker wise, I had a death in the family that led me to go home for 2 days and then had an AC trip to watch March Madness with a bunch of my old highschool friends. I ended up only playing 2 days

- AC was actually a lot of fun. Looks like the legal sportsbetting gave the graveyard that is AC some life. I got almost every sports bet wrong BUT ran hot in BJ for a nice breakeven weekend. I also ended up getting 5/503 in my main pool which was a nice boost.

-I asked all the guys who came down to be my groomsman with a nice bottle of their favorite top shelf liquor. Much easier than everything that Victoria did.




Week 13 Overview: 3/25-3-31

1.) 30 mins of meditation Yearly Goal: 6/50

2.) 30 mins of Yoga Yearly Goal: 2.07/60

3.) 28.47 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 351.85/2200


Was actually pretty pleased with my hours since I spent an enormous amount of time helping out with wedding planning. Saw a ton of venues, went through a bunch of bands/ photographers etc etc.

We ended up settling on a 65k budget although it would be tough since I have such a large family.

We ended up getting a great venue by deciding to get married January 19th,2020. It's a Sunday, but most of the population is off on Monday because of MLK day, so yeah cant really beat $85 a plate.





Week 14: 4/1-4/7

1.) 30 mins of mediation Yearly Goal: 6.5/50

2.) 10 mins of Yoga Yearly Goal: 1.74/60

3.) 29.52 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 381.37/2200


Wedding and IVF. Wedding and IVF. Wedding and IVF.

Had to play all 7 days that week to get those 29.52 hours, fairly happy with work ethic this week.


Week 15: 4/8-4/14

1.) 10 mins of meditation Yearly Goal: 6.67/50

2.) 0 mins of Yoga Yearly Goal: 1.74/60

3.) 15.75 dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 397.12/2200


Was a very overwhelming week. 100% could of worked harder this week. My GF was home the entire weekend due to her treatment and had surgery Friday, so I mostly lounged around and spent time with her and or played video games.

I was very anxious this week and had been playing poorly put me in a mind state where I didn't want to grind. Was on a nice streak w work ethic so was a bit disappointed in this.



IVF

After my sperm freezing in late February, my role was strictly be as supportive of a partner as possible. On top of IVF, Victoria's Marfans disease and Factor 5 (blood clotting disorder) created a lot of other issues with this process.

Before we could start hormones April 2nd she had to be put on a blood thinner and stay on it for 2 months straight. It's worth noting that it isn't a pill they send but a box of 60 syringes.

After her blood doctor gave the ok for the blood thinner, we started the hormonal process. Now I was expecting a few medications but it really was just boxes and boxes of syringes and medications, it was veryyyy overwhelming for her, an already anxious person



So pretty much every night I, or my mother or sister-in-law (nurses), would inject her with multiple medications. The purpose of these hormones is to basically trick the body into thinking its pregnant allowing it to grow the eggs to a suitable size for retrieval (surgery).

The hormones kept her bloated and irritable and throughout this the last thing in the world on my mind was poker. On Saturday the 6th, she woke up with swelling behind her knee and symptoms consistent with a blood clot. Anything like that is always scary, we spend about 4 hours in the ER but tests come back negative.

The good news is that her Eggs are growing at a nice pace. The bad news is her estrogen level shot up to a level that may cause hyperstimulation. The doctors lower the hormone dose and we begin having appointments every day at 6-7AM.

Finally, we get the news that she is ready for surgery and egg retrieval on Friday the 12th. I'm a nervous wreck but she comes through completely fine and we are given great news.

We have 27 eggs.

Out of those 27, 23 turned out mature.

Out of those 23, 20 became fertilized.

Those are great numbers and things are looking good, there's a few more steps the egg have to pass til it becomes an embryo but the doctor said 'we are in great shape'.

It's been a super tough process but we are just about at the end of it and I'm eternally thankful that nothing truly horrible happened.





Money

To be very blunt, I made a lot of money the first quarter of this year. This is not to brag or anything but just illustrate the point that I have a long way to go to get where I want and provide for the family.

In the past month, We've spent

- $5,500 on down payment on wedding Venue ($25k left to pay)
- $7,500 on a band
- $5,000 wedding videographer/photographer
- $7,000 on flowers (I really love Victoria... Jesus)
-$1,400 in rent

-Another chunk in taxes


Essentially, I'm blessed Poker has allowed me to make these purchases, but I'm also not naive enough to know that the $$$ i made is not sustainable if I don't crank the volume. I averaged about 47k hands first 3 months and my winnings at 1k are not sustainable so I'm really going to crank the volume up.

I've made a lot of progress in areas like fitness and my mental game but the volume is my #1 priority right now and it's something I didn't improve on the first 3 months of the year.

With a lot of real stuff behind me, It's time to get back to kicking some ass in poker

Holy ****. Awesome stuff man! Congrats on everything. You are a strong partner and I wish you both all the best in both the IVF and wedding

On another note.... $7000 on flowers?????!!!! What the.... dude I don't care how much you love her lol, that's insane

your wedding is far too expensive. I spent 20k on mine and was really nice, just 70 people. YOu can hunt around for cheaper venues etc that are just as good. In Australia here wineries are popular, but at 10k a pop i was like f that! Found another amazing garden setting in historic house for 1000.

Spending 65k on a wedding is nuts imo, downpayment for an investment property etc.

gl

wtf spending that much

Flower rake too hi

Hey man, just to keep things relative. I'm going to have 250 people at my wedding and the venues in NJ are going to be much more expensive than anything in Australia. We specifically planned a Sunday instead of a Saturday to save use about 25k.

I think the average wedding in NJ is about 55k.

Cliffs: NJ very expensive

You'd be surprised how much we cut out!

100%. I caved on this one bad, spending that much money on flowers for one day feels completely absurd...but it makes the woman happy...so ya know

I did fight for a cigar bar and got that though!

I also did not renew my Jets season tix to keep expenses a little lower

Thanks dude! Yeah the girl hustled me hard on this one lol

Such amazing news about the IVF so far for you both. That wedding venue looks insane. Lots of celebratory drinks in a couple of months it looks like!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

average spend in australia is 60-80k. Australia cost of living is same if not higher fyi. I just chose to buy property instead, mainly because i funded it all myself.

250 peeps will be siiiicck though so have a great time and grats again bro

My apologies, I shouldn't make assumptions! Yeah for sure there were other options to keep the price much lower than 65k.

The house is definitely the more important topic for me, def browsing around as much as I can while trying to educate myself, tbh looking at some foreclosures rn.

Anyway thanks a lot man, I am excited and it's really not too far away either.

I spent less than $1k on my wedding and just plan on doing a very nice vacation for our 10 year anniversary (10 yr as in total time being together, not 10 yr from our wedding).

Meh it's def a lot of money and for practical purposes prob not the best use of the money obv, but ultimately it's you and hers money to spend on whatever you want. Weddings are very important to some and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you can afford it. Just make sure to save some money for a fun honeymoon too!

Nice update man, happy to hear you have crushed the year so far. Keep up the good work with everything!

I spent 25k on wedding on 25k on honeymoon and I thought I had spent way too much money, you're a sicko lol

Surely if you have the money there isn't really a max you can spend? Spending whatever puts the biggest smile on your new wife's face for the longest seems best imo.

Congrats on the poker success but more importantly good to hear the IVF is working out!