You know about 10% of all mlb players are diagnosed and prescribed similar meds, yet only about 5% of the population has the disorder. So you have about 100 mlb players on the drug, you don't really hear any horror stories from the athletes who take it. It does make sense in that being a pro athlete requires you to be on another level, just like poker, so people who are maybe borderline ADHD will be seeking treatment when someone who is a janitor with ADHD may just deal with it.

Don't get yourself all freaked out about developing mental illness, but its definitely good to hear the horror stories so you can make informed decisions. Most people who start on the drug probably don't get the same warnings you are getting now.

Either hyperactive kids grow to become great baseball players or they're clearly using it as a PED.

Well that is obvious (many probably dont need it), but if the mental illness thing is not something you hear too much of from athletes. In the last few years actually a few big name sports stars have spoken about their struggles which is good progress. If 5 percent of adults have it, then thats over 5 million people in the USA who take an ADHD drug, if all these people are developing major issues we would be hearing about an epidemic at some point. I am just saying personally I believe it is not worth it (or any drug where you can still function without taking it) and think its dangerous for sure, but its definitely not as risky as taking any type of opiate having been addicted myself.

Lots of good input overall guys, thanks

Week 2 January 6th-January 12th: Pre-Wedding Heater

1.) 25 hours of Poker Yearly Goal:45/1800

2.) 1 hour of Mental Health Yearly Goal: 1.8/75

3.) 5.08 hours of Fitness (5 sessions) Yearly Goal: 8.66/200 (9 sessions)


Had a very strong week with all my goals. Squeezed out 25 hours of poker in a week that was just jam packed with errands for me to do. I played all 7 days as a result, sometimes not getting to play til midnight. As a result, I haven't done any studying this year which is not great, especially when I don't feel like I'm playing too great right now.

Regardless, still ran extremely well this week and had a nice financial week to help the low liquidity. As far as outside poker, I've managed to do meditations on 9/12 days and a work out 9/12 days so fairly consistent there despite having no real routine atm with wedding szn upon me.

Next week I get married (well at least in front of all friends+ fam) and it's a really exciting time, this week will be even more busy so I expect this to be one of the lightest weeks of the year poker wise outside of vacations.

And for a small blessing, we rebooked our honeymoon (had to cancel first one due to Vic's surgery) and were able to upgrade to one of the bungalows on the water



Hands

1.) Overall, not too sure about this line

PartyGaming - $10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $1,050.50
Hero (SB): $1,000.00
BB: $1,005.00
CO: $1,022.50

Hero posts SB $5.00, BB posts BB $10.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $15.00) Hero has J J

CO raises to $20.00, fold, Hero raises to $100.00, fold, CO calls $80.00

Flop: ($210.00, 2 players) 9 6 9
Hero bets $68.64, CO calls $68.64

Turn: ($347.28, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets $120.00, Hero raises to $831.36 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $1,296.64


2.) 1 bluff

PokerStars - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $827.79
Hero (BB): $615.62
BTN: $520.00

SB posts SB $2.50, Hero posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has K T

BTN raises to $12.50, fold, Hero calls $7.50

Flop: ($27.50, 2 players) J J T
Hero checks, BTN bets $8.62, Hero calls $8.62

Turn: ($44.74, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, BTN bets $32.06, Hero calls $32.06

River: ($108.86, 2 players) K
Hero checks, BTN bets $85.00, Hero raises to $562.44 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $276.86


3.) vs over aggro bad reg

PartyGaming - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): $266.62
SB: $240.34

SB posts SB $1.00, Hero posts BB $2.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $3.00) Hero has 7 K

SB raises to $6.00, Hero raises to $22.00, SB calls $16.00

Flop: ($44.00, 2 players) J 3 6
Hero bets $14.35, SB calls $14.35

Turn: ($72.70, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, SB bets $54.15, Hero raises to $230.27 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $356.62

Judging by H1 and H2 you've started taking the adderall yes?

Congrats on the good year. Curious about your thoughts on 3b/fold strategy IP preflop? I have been using ranges from the preflop bible from the website you are associated with (BTS) for my last 180k hands online but I really feel like I'm missing out by not having a flatting range. No worries if you dont want to go into specifics but I figured it was worth an ask. We've had legal poker back in PA for 2ish months now and I'm one of the only regs in the pool without a flatting range

Sent you a PM with more detail.

But can flat with fishies behind or as a strategy adjustment vs players not squeezing enough

H1: interesting cause it’s 4 handed. Weird spot cause overpair but block a lot of draws.
H2: even with blockers wouldn’t most of value range you’re repping 3b pre?
H3: nhnh

Week 3: January 13th-January 19th: Wedding

1.) 15 hours of Poker Yearly Goal: 60/1800

2.) 0 hours of Mental Health Yearly Goal: 1.8/75

3.) 2.16 hours of Fitness Yearly Goal: 10.82/200


As stated previously, slow week with the wedding approaching, any kind of work was kind of seen as a bonus. Looking forward to getting back into the thick of things this week.

Wedding

What a whirlwind weekend. Everything went about as well as we could have hoped for. I had an absolute blast celebrating with all my friends and family. Getting married is definitely a surreal feeling as far as the celebration, and even though I was already technically married I definitely had some nerves before the ceremony.

In fact, when the officiant (who was a friend of me and Vic's) asked me if I take her to be wife, I just said "Yessss" very confidently. Everyone was laughing and I was so utterly confused, until I realized I was supposed to say 'I do'.

It's kinda funny you spend months planning for it and then in a blink it's over; but it was definitely one of the most memorable days of my life. I have a few pics to share ofc but the main photos won't be released for a few more weeks.

And since it garnered quite a bit of discussion, we ended up pretty much breaking even $$$ wise after receiving the gifts!



*Me and the In-laws



*Reading the Vows



*Selfie after ceremony



*First Dance






Roll Replenished

Fairly Self Explanatory


Let the Tourneys Begin

Started tonight and had a solid grind, fairly BE but was enjoyable and lots of things I can improve on immediately but I did at least scrape a cash!





Things are beginning to go back to a normal routine after the wedding. Victoria will start going back to work on February 3rd. I'll enjoy these next two weeks with her, while also putting in quite a bit of work and then really hitting the grindstone come February.

Congrats

Thanks!

Had first study session of the year today and it felt veryyy good to put some work off the table, have a lot of **** I need to improve on w cash and then on top a bunch of **** to learn with tournies!

congrats indeed

congrats, cool pics!

glgl on ze tables

booooom congrats!

Ty boys, the good luck was received.

Week 4: January 20th-January 26th: Post Wedding Heat

1.) 33.5 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 93.5/1800

2.) .8 hours of Mental Health Yearly Goal: 2.6/75

3.) 3.25 hours of Fitness Yearly Goal: 14.07/200


As the title suggests, had a very strong week financially. I wish I could say I played great, but I truly just ran extremely well at 1k/2k. I had my first five figure day in almost 2 years and had my 2nd best week of all time.

So yes, all things considered this month has gone very well. If I was a betting man, I would of considered January to likely be my lowest earning/ lowest volume month. However, now it's already a top 3 month which has led me to a nice boost to start 2020.

Did an ok job with exercise and meditation, although I didn't eat well (that wedding cake is too good to resist.

----------------------------------------------------------

Overall, there's a lot to be thankful for. Today was a big tournament day and it unfortunately didn't go well. The variance in these HSMTT's may be brutal, I've only played about 15 games the first week and am already down a quick 4k!

I was extremely fired up today to play, but after hearing about Kobe's passing, I strongly considered just saying f it and taking the day off. I've always been a huge basketball fan and the passing of him and his daughter (and the 7 other passengers) really put me in sad mood today despite everything that's going well.

Life's too short, man.


Don't have too many interesting hands to show this week either, all the pew pew pewing is on the untracked stuff!

Victoria's last week home so might spend a bit more time with her, taking the SB off and then finally back to the regular routine!

GL at the table all

Vamos!!

Awesome thread! I have been roaming the 2+2 streets for years without login onto my old account, but had to do it for this occasion. Its amazing to see you spread your love of family and wife to the whole poker community. Ive always felt that a successful person is someone who has the perfect balance from both worlds, and clearly you have succeeded in this regards. Keep up the good work and crush poker

Wow, thank you so much for the sincere compliment; I definitely don't think I have a perfect mix of it but it's something that I've definitely worked on as far as family/poker. Usually my time trends more towards family. Anyway thanks for the kinds words and the best to you.


-----------------------------------------------------------------

Week 5: January 27th-February 2nd: Back into the Swing of Things

1.) 24.45 hours of Poker Yearly Goal: 117.95/1800

2.) .8 hours of Mental Health Yearly Goal: 3.4/75

3.) 2 hours of Fitness Yearly Goal: 16.07/200


January was extremely good to me on the tables. I had my 3rd largest month ever. I ran about $14k above EV and 24 buyins above EV on my tracked sites.

I feel very grateful for this run good, especially at the beginning of the year. And I've seen other people feel guilty when they run very good, but I have none of that which is good (more of a about time feeling )



*Casual running 10BI over for almost 20BI day

That being said, variance is a beast and the longer I've played poker the more I've been deattached to results, and I'm not very happy with my game. It's been awhile since I really grinded off the table and more of my focus has been playin on the table to keep income coming in.

With my wife starting work tomorrow, I'll have a lot more time to dedicate to the game, both on and off the table. In my lifetime I've probably dedicated 250-300 hours of solver work and I think that is way below most midstakes players. I've benefited greatly from CFP coaching where that probably saved me 100's of hours of solver work, but the point remains I am behind in quite a few parts of my game.

I have a rather intense goal of playing 160 hours and studying 40 hours to go along with coaching. It's an extremely lofty goal and I won't kill myself if I don't but if I do...I'm going to treat myself to Lasik.


Tournaments

This was the only struggle of the month, I only cashed twice for about $2.3k with about $7500 in buyins and since it was late in the month only about 25 games.

It's very clear I will be at variance's mercy with this sample but I intend to stick it out. All my tournament days have been strong cash grind days, this will also be an emphasis of work.


GL to everyone in Feb!

Beast

crushed it

Dafuq is Lasik

very minor eye surgery that allows you to have 20/20 vision without glasses

I did it almost 9 years ago, best decision ever

Jay Pee!!!!! Sick January dude. Keep it up.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

This makes me happy

Thanks my dude


Yday I studied a good 4 hours in the morning including a review with a friend, worked out, spent some quality wife time, worked for 5 hours and then capped it off w a 1 hr study.

Can't remember the last time I put 10 hours into poker in a day but felt good. I was so fired up to play and unfortunately got slaughtered. Was down close to 9k at worst but managed an actual satisfying 4.1k loss.

Have hit the study hours hard this month though which makes me hopeful I'll start playing.

Anyway, first MTT spot in the thread so any insight would be great.

Relevant notes:

2 regs IP on me who are 3bing a decent amount and then reg in BB so not a spot I'm opening too wide regardless.

We are ITM, payouts are as follows:

1st: $7130
2nd: $5060
3rd: $3,680
4th: $2,645
5th: $1,897
6th:$1,437.50

I was 3rd in chips but top 4 are fairly grouped together and then short stack at 15bb's.

Anyway just want to know if this is a standard spot, I tanked a good 40 secs here.

I expected original shover to have 77+, maybe 66, AJs+, KQs. and of course heavily discount AA/KK since we block it and I don't expect him to rip those hands and play a more polar 3b range etc.

Button CC is good reg and probably has TT+ and 99 at worst. So obviously equity vs those 2 ranges I assumed about 30%

I was also down like 8k at this point and figured calling off w AKo could never be too bad and if I won I'd have 70% of chips in play for a high probability 1st or 2nd.

Edit: I had 28bbs, Orginal shover had 25bb's


Let me know if I'm a nitfish below, but it's all kind of new to me so I'm learning


PartyGaming - 10000/20000 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 336,229
Hero (MP): 560,372
CO: 505,488
BTN: 1,022,655
SB: 417,318
BB: 607,938

6 players post ante of 2,500, SB posts SB 10,000, BB posts BB 20,000

Pre Flop: (pot: 45,000) Hero has A K

fold, Hero raises to 40,000, CO raises to 502,988 and is all-in, BTN calls 502,988, fold, fold, Hero raises to 557,872 and is all-in, BTN calls 54,884

Flop: (1,663,732, 3 players) 5 9 5

Turn: (1,663,732, 3 players) 9

River: (1,663,732, 3 players) 8

Hero shows A K (Two Pair, Nines and Fives)

Main Pot [1,553,964]: (Pre 36%, Flop 24%, Turn 14%)
Side Pot#1 [109,768]: (Pre 44%, Flop 25%, Turn 14%)

CO shows 3 3 (Two Pair, Nines and Fives)

Main Pot [1,553,964]: (Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows J J (Two Pair, Jacks and Nines)

Main Pot [1,553,964]: (Pre 47%, Flop 68%, Turn 81%)
Side Pot#1 [109,768]: (Pre 56%, Flop 75%, Turn 86%)

BTN wins 109,768
BTN wins 1,553,964

Think the rule of thumb can be "If it's slightly +chip ev, than fold on FT". I think calling range here is smth like KK+, QQ is prob around breakeven. But I am just guessing