Hey guys, first off to those that may know me (not many) will know I used to play under the sn 'Poka_face222' but now I play under the sn '-its problem' long story short the poka_face acc was created when I was underage in my dads name and after several emails back and forth with pokerstars and a phone call, I'm now playing in my own name. If you want to know more details/full story PM me.

I decided I would make this thread to try and keep me motivated and on track of whats really important to me and what I need to do in poker and life i.e grinding, working on my game, keeping up a healthy lifestyle and staying out of trouble! I'm sure there's more which I will probably go over as this thread progresses aswell but first and foremost, this is what I see as the most important things to me as of now, aswell as keeping a good balance with my social life.

The last year and a half has been really up and down for me, on one hand I could say it's been the best time of my life and on the other hand I could say it's been the worst time of my life and there are strong arguments for both. Basically (will try and keep this as short as possible) in feruary of 2013 I went on a night out with friends and got into a fight/brawl, was arrested and was granted bail. This messed me up a little bit at first, the possiblity of me going to jail were I guess 50/50 at the time in my eyes and this scared me.
I was living at uni with friends at the time, I had already dropped out to play poker full time but continued to live there. After this incident I moved back to my parents' house and proceeded to grind like never before and train harder than ever. I am currently in the best shape of my life (down to under 12st from around 15ish) and personally think I'm playing better poker than ever. Had this incident not happened I'm not sure what I'd be like today because I was always lazy with the grind and study and never really worked out too much, just small gym sessions here and there, nothing compared to what I do now. Anyways I was on bail for 9 months, having court cases adjourned a few times and several visits with my solicitor etc then on November 4th 2013 I was senteced to 16 months in prison and at the moment the words "take em down" came out of the judges mouth I became weak, started shaking a little bit and for a few days after it actually felt like my whole world had just ended. I only ended up serving 4 and a half months, I say only but it's still quite a long time away from friends, family and reality. I was released on a tag which will end on the 4th July then I will be on licence for a further 8 months. That's partly another reason I'm making this thread, now that I'm due to have my tag taken off, I worry that I will lose track and grind less/work less and just be going out alot. I obviously will go out some but I need to stay focused on what is really important and try my best to become the best poker player I can be and lead a good lifestyle along with that.

Since I have been released from prison I have just been playing alot and studying alot plus receiving a fair bit of coaching. I started on a downswing/BE stretch and I was questioning whether I can even beat the games anymore but with constant reviews I actually felt I was playing better than ever but results clouded my judgement a bit. I kept at it anyways and the last month or so I have been on the biggest heater of my life chopping the sunday mill 4 way for $98k, shipped the big 162 for ~$20k, 8th in the warm up for ~$7k, chopped hotter 33 3 way for ~$8k, 4th big 22 for ~$4k and quite a few others including smaller field wins in mtts like $331R1A 3x and the $33+R etc again my judgement can be clouded on how I'm actually playing now that I'm heating but I stand by thoughts of when I wasn't winning that I am at the top of my game and playing better than ever and I want to continue to improve further.

I'm not going to make monetary goals because this will just add unnecessary pressure. My immediate goals I guess will be to keep playing at least 4 times a week, review at least 3 times a week, receive more coaching, continue to workout 6+ times per week and stick to a good diet. The latter will be hard at first because I will inevitably be going out to celebrate my full freedom back again but afterwards this is what I aim to do. I guess my long term goals will still be the same as my short term but I hope to become good enough to be regularly playing in mid to high stakes mtt's.

I will try to update this thread as often as I can with my progress and I will post graphs from time to time to and maybe some interesting hands along the way. I hope with the existence of this thread it will keep me focused of what I really want to do.

Sorry for the tl;dr hope you didn't get too bored glgl!

Interesting backstory! How was the actuality of prison compared to your preconceptions?

Also, some graphs would be sexy!

tbh prison wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, don't get me wrong it's a horrible place and a totally different world but it's easier than I thought and I managed. Going in I really didn't know what to expect and I just had to go in with confidence and make sure I shown no weakness. I soon became settled within the first week or so and just got my head round the fact this is what my life was going to be for at least the next 4 months and it just flew by. I guess it also helped a lot that I was with my friend and co-defendant aswell.


Woke up pretty early today not feeling too good but forced myself to do an hour intense work out which made me feel much better as always. Then I went to the gym for an hour so. Just about to fire up a session now starting with 109r/big22 and prob register non turbo til the big 162 and turbos a couple hours after that. I will update again after session and will try and post a graph. I think the first graph I'll just show from this year then will post weekly graphs from then on. I'll also try to pick out any interesting hands that may come up.

GL!

Subbed, GL.

You may not remember me, but i was in your stable for a while before leaving due to work commitments....hope things continue on the up, and congrats on the SM chop

I bought into a few of your MP packages last year, interesting read.

Sick results, subbed.

Subbed.

Will be very interesting to follow. After a 5 year exile, I am re-starting the MTT grind within the next month.

All the best for next season too.

G&B

sick story, glgl keeping your pace and continue heatering it up

u were on some of my tables, subbed gl sir

thx guys!

I actually forgot about this thread until about a week ago or so, ended up doing exactly what I didn't want to do and just went a bit silly when the tag got taken off me. Probably averaged about 4 nights out a week topped off with a dance festival at the end of July which was probably one of the best weekends of my life! Also moved into a new apartment with a friend which didn't help with the drinking!
I guess I expected to go a little crazy since it's been 8 months since the last time I was allowed out after 7pm but I've had my fun now and I'm serious about getting back on the grind and back into a good routine again.
I played a smallish session today, was a little tired and still a bit drained from weekend so cut it short. I should be feeling 100% tomorrow though so will be aiming to put in more hours. I lost around 1k today which is never good but felt I played ok and didn't think I made too many mistakes so not too fussed with the results. It only ever seems to bother me when I play bad rather than run bad so that's good I guess.

Gonna post a graph of my year so far which I said I would do earlier in the thread but didn't get round to it so here it is (sooo much heat! :P )



Not many games but only started playing properly from April and played 0 games until late march as I was still inside then. Obviously had some nice heat. I just want to try and focus on bettering myself all the time now and hopefully the heat continues, can't complain too much if it doesn't though can I! ha

I will try and update more regularly now that I'm ready to get back to a normal routine and post graphs weekly/monthly or something along with some interesting hands.

GL!

Don't forget about the updates! Sick spike!! What's your abi?

G&B

can def relate on some aspects man. good to see you doing things right. gratz on getting your full freedom back aswell as that sexy graph. just keep that grind on the mind along with a possitive environment and you'll be playing high rollers on the ept in no time