Interesting thread, good and interesting writing from OP, cool pictures: everything a thread needs.

GL with following your dream with playing poker fulltime for a year OP. I know how you feel,the excitement of getting to be fully dialed in on poker with 100 percent attention for the first time, ive been there and i wish you the best of luck.

I think you will never regret this, actually the oposite- probably be very happy when you settle down later on in your life that you have memories from this year to look back on. Inspiring stuff.

That's true, and that fact definitely made me play more snug when the table became shorthanded. I was staying afloat by getting a low-risk steal through every orbit or two. In that spot, I figure that if I can win what's likely a flip or better, I'll be able to go into the final table with a solid stack covering most and can really put some pressure on the day 2 bubble. I'd rather have the stack leverage at the FT than to potentially dribble into it relatively short on chips hoping to survive.

Glad I'm not the only one to think so. I've played in quite a few casinos around the country and never saw anything close to the chip colors they use in LA. I'm so used to redbirds and black hundies that it took some adjusting.

Thanks for the compliments and well wishes! I've read plenty about the abyss and the black hole of variance which may beat me down into a shell of my former self as time passes. I've lurked a ton on 2+2, specifically in the PG&C area, and I've noticed a general sense of bitterness from anyone who has played the game for any appreciable amount of time. I'm doing everything I can, both on and off the felt, to ensure that I don't let my mindset degrade to the point where short term variance predicates my levels of content and happiness. Being results-oriented is destructive in more ways than one. Sure, it sucks when you have a losing session, especially when it's because of a bad mistake instead of losing a 70/30, but focusing on aspects of the game in your control is just better on all levels:

• recognizing in-game mistakes allows you to examine those spots in more detail off the felt to ensure you build intuition, significantly reducing the chance of you making the mistake again
• you don't build a sense of dread which can lead to MUBS and playing sub-optimally due to fear
• being positive makes you a generally more likable person

For the time being, I'm still pumped every day to get some hands in. Losing sessions are an opportunity to reflect and solve spots of the puzzle that gave me trouble, not something to pity myself over. I'm getting better with taking notes about my sessions and examining trouble areas. It's refreshing knowing that I don't need to wait til I get home from work and finish household chores before I can get some studying done to address leaks I spot. I'm even more incentivized to be 100% present at the table, resulting in me actively learning while playing at a degree that I haven't achieved before.

I'm inspired to make this work and prove to myself that I can conquer a pursuit that solicits plenty of doom and gloom from the community as a whole. I want to do it right.


Reflections
-------------------
I've been thinking a lot about self-sabotage lately. I've seen it plenty throughout my life in various venues but it always sounds the same. The power of intention is real and largely misunderstood. Telling yourself you can't do something is just as powerful as saying you can. It sounds like some New Age mysticism at first glance but there's a reason champions in any realm of life all embody supreme confidence in themselves. They aren't confident or proud because they're winners, they became winners because of their unrelenting self-belief. They realize that failure is part of the process, a chance to learn, not a sign that they should quit. It's this perspective that allows them to thrive in areas where weaker individuals give up.

The law of attraction is real and largely misunderstood. When you embody what it is to be a champion, a life boss, a confident individual with purpose, you give off an energy that repels the weak and attracts the strong. Again, it sounds like New Age nonsense but think about it: do you ever see successful people surrounding themselves with losers? Not a loser wrt socio-economic class or whatever, but a specific type of loser. A self-fulfilling loser who repeats to themselves reasons why they can't do something, why it's not worth the time to try, why the world just won't let it happen for them. Negativity breeds negativity.


Weekly Progress
-------------------
I've fallen behind a bit on my workout regiment, mostly due to being ridiculously sore after attempting a half (lol) Murph workout. It's a popular crossfit workout that consists of a 1-mile run followed by 300 bodyweight squats, 200 push-ups, 100 pull-ups, and another 1-mile run. My wife and I tried to go for half of that and even that ended up being too brutal to finish. All in all it became a quarter Murph that burned me out for the next few days. Diet has been pretty clean with the exception of one night we had a couple drinks and sampled some apps at a few local spots in Culver City.

I did acquire a solid amount of live volume at 34 hours in addition to 6 hours of online play and another 3 hours of study. I'll need to bump up the study hours a bit this week to fall in line with closer to a 4:1 ratio. I'm utilizing the Core program on Red Chip as an outline of sorts to determine various study spots that I can more deeply delve into. The Core material itself is very rudimentary and thus has limited use to me in the grand scheme of things outside of outlining a bunch of potential study areas. The majority of my study time moving forward will be analyzing the EV of various lines on different board textures derived from trouble spots that I notice during my live sessions. Another key component of my study is range construction for various common situations - 3b pots OOP/from blinds, squeeze spots, barreling opportunities, etc...

Absolute fail on starting a new book. I've listened to a few podcasts during my commute but I really need to get in the habit of getting audiobooks on deck or actual reading. Reddit and 2+2 are always so alluring to scroll through

Thanks for reading, until next time!

When does your wife start her job? My wife is also an RN, we just moved to Orange County from Minnesota... it's taking an absolutely ridiculous amount of time to get her CA Nursing License.

She just acquired a position at CHLA and starts in two weeks. She applied for her license transfer in March and she just got the permanent one 2 weeks ago. It was $50 extra to get a temporary license which came in June. Apparently the process can even take as long as 6-9 months

CA should be embarrassed, especially considering there is a huge need for RNs -- almost every other state can get the same thing done in 2ish weeks.

It was a pleasure to meet you the other day. Good luck at the poker tables and with everything else!

Thank you, it was cool to meet the infamous Rich Checkmaker in person. Cool jacket too

I'll eventually roll more 5/5 at the Commerce into the rotation but as of late I've been playing primarily at the Bike. We'll likely see more of each other once that happens since you're putting in them hours. Just sit on my right please thanks


On the Grind
-------------------
It's been too long since my last update. I've honestly been struggling a bit trying to maintain balance, specifically between poker and spending time with the wifey. The week and change after my last update was primarily spent playing and taking small trips before my wife started her new job this week. It took a bit of adjustment to get used to getting in line with her schedule again but it's also easier to do when she's at work all of the time I'm home before heading to the casino. Having alone time to myself is key in getting my routine solid.

Here are some action shots from our escapades.


Joshua Tree








San Diego (Sunset Cliffs and Grass Skirt Tiki Bar)






I've recently started up a more high volume training split so that I hit smaller muscles more often after doing research about the recovery cycles of muscle groups. Apparently I had it twisted: smaller muscles (biceps, calves, etc...) actually go through their entire recovery cycle within 1-2 days whereas larger ones can take 3-5 days. With that in mind, it makes sense to train larger groups less often and hit those auxiliary groups more often. I've modified the split to hit those lacking spots at a higher frequency so hopefully that'll translate to some gains. I've also added a powerlifiting/crossfit day into the mix once a week to work on Olympic lifts, athleticism, conditioning, and explosiveness.

Diet has been pretty clean as of late partly due to fasting more often. I'm eating roughly the same amount of calories just condensed into a smaller time frame. I've lost close to 10 pounds since we've arrived and it feels fantastic. I'm about 10 pounds away from my ideal weight given my wee height so it's a great start. Once I get on the jarred salad grind eating one per day again that excess poundage is going right in the trash.

Another epic fail on getting started reading. I have a fairly long commute to the casino via train/bus and I just haven't capitalized on that time to read. Part of it is that I really enjoy listening to podcasts while I'm on the go, part of it is my propensity to get dizzy reading in moving vehicles for any reasonable amount of time. Definitely considering going the audiobook route to counter this.

Also big fail on taking session notes. My focus level overall from session to session is pretty consistent at around 8/10 and I find myself dialed in to the point where some earlier hands in the day tend to fade from memory as it gets later. I've jotted down a few hands via voice memos which helps so I'll continue doing that so I don't forget crucial hand details during weekly reviews. The ultimate goal is to get in the following cycle:

• take notes of hands close to when they happen in session
• write up some general notes post session (how I played, villain tendencies I noticed, any deviations in mindset or focus, weird spots to study later where I wasn't sure of the appropriate action)
• review individual session notes and compile them into weekly reviews

Once I get this cycle consistent, I'll be able to invoke a trend of continuous leak plugging + strategy adjustment based on population or specific villain tendencies. I've been doing a decent amount of this informally but I think systematically organizing it all will really help integrate the thoughts into a holistic strategy. The weekly reviews will also give me some material to post about in this thread and keep up consistent updates.


On to the Poker
-------------------
Since my last update, I've logged 91 hours of play comprised of...

• 60% live cash
• 20% online MTTs (pretty much any $1K+ GTD tourney on Global)
• 15% live MTTs (3 failed bullets at a $1mil GTD)
• 5% online cash

I've consciously upped my tournament play to prep for the $1 mil GTD LOP tournament at the Bike. Nothing particularly exciting in any of the three bullets. Run up a stack early, blinds get huge, get in flip 4 hours in with 12BB, gg. One thing I've taken away from those bullets is that I have quite a bit of work to do on my sub 20BB tournament game. Right now I default to looking for a 3b gii spot and mostly open shoving at around 15BB or less. I feel like I can add a ton more nuance to my game at that crucial stack size with smaller bets, limps, and blind defending.

I fired a bullet at the 5/5 game after running it up from a relatively s***ty 2/3 game (lots of walkers, nits, minimal action). The game offered plenty of action and I guess I had a target on my back. Not sure if the regs were taking shots at me cuz they hadn't seen me in the game before or if I just caught them blasting away but it was pretty silly. Two of the biggest pots I played went like this:


Hand 1
-----------
Reg raises MP to 20 I raise to 75 from SB with AA, heads up. Flop is Q78ssc, I bet 100 he calls. Turn is 4c, I bet 300, he raises all in to 700 I snap call and he shows TT

He leaves the table after that hand and the good reg next to him even said "I play with him a bunch and would never expect him to run that bluff there"


Hand 2
-----------
Not sure of exact board cards but I had KK (with spade), bet 2 spade undercard flop and spewy reg calls. Turn brings flush, I check call his pot sized bet. River is a brick, I check and he just ships it. I tank call and he has nothing. He rage quits that hand and moves to what I presume to be 5/10.


Maybe not #chipporn quality but I do love the $25 chips and they don't play at the 2/3




This Week
-------------------
Now that the milly is out of the way I'll be heavily on that live cash grind. The games have been pretty solid as of late with the LOP series at the Bike. With my session review strat I'm looking to bring some interesting hands to this thread to give an idea of how the games are and a bit of insight into adjustments I'm making. Until next time!

Nice pics. I like the update, keep 'em coming.

His all in to $700 with TT after that previous action is horrifically bad.

Yeah I imagine it's not a bluff and he thinks his hand is good and it's all-in or fold for that turn bet. Probably he put OP squarely on AK for whatever reason would be my guess as to villain's thought process.

I agree with Mike that it’s pretty bad, his hand selection is atrocious blocking plenty of draws he could blow me off of with the turn raise. Makes me wonder what prompted his move given that I’d been playing fairly straightforward playing very few hands up until this point while feeling out the table.

Here’s a similar spot with a different outcome against different player profile. I feel like this was a level up for me since I nearly always make this call as a standard without thinking of spots to expoitatively fold.

~350 eff, villain covers

Hero has KK, raise one limper (OMC) to 20, he calls.
Flop (45) Q85r
Checks to hero, bet 20, OMC calls.
Turn (85) 2 bdfd
Checks to hero, bet 45, OMC raises to 100, hero calls.
River (285) 7o
OMC insta jams for ~200.
I fold

You’re kidding yourself if you’re convinced that a typical OMC isn’t only showing up with AA+ here. It’s easy to level yourself into ambitiously imagining a scenario where he shows up with AQ. Not sure if i could get away on the turn though.

Id say the answer is Yes.

Since my last update, I've logged 58 hours of poker spread out as follows:

• live cash - 38 hours (mostly 2/3 NL, couple 5/5 NL sessions and 1 2/3 PLO)
• live STT/MTT - 8 hours
• online MTTs - 10 hours
• online cash - 2 hours

The time I've been putting in to improving my tournament game has been quite fruitful this week in particular. The Bike has been running daily $220 SNGs with one seat to the 1mil GTD day 2 up top. I decided to play one as it was shorthanded when I arrived and the cash games weren't great. I ended up taking it down without a chop (as well as a 4-way $50 last longer bet on the side) and pocketing the cash instead. I also final tabled a few Global tourneys including my biggest online cash to date in the 10K GTD with a 6th place finish. This has built my roll to the point where I can start rolling in 50NL sessions and transition to making it my main game online. I've also been rolling in some 10PLO and dear god, the play is something else. Super swingy as is standard with any PLO, but the level of play is on another level of atrocious. I'll definitely be playing more of that to practice and keep my chops up for when a good 2/3 game opens up at the casino.

Cash has been quite swingy but we're in the black. Having a stop loss + sitting as long as possible in good games has helped keep the profits coming. I heard something from Tommy Angelo recently that really resonated with me: "there's no such thing as a good game". What he means is that no game conditions can make up for playing with a degraded or otherwise ineffective mindset. What determines whether you should continue playing is how well you're making decisions, not necessarily that a whale is sitting. This has been a guiding principle for my BRM plan.

So I took a single buyin shot at 2/3 PLO after a double up in a crappy NL game and it was ridiculous. The game plays massive and there's generally a significant amount of action. Most of the players I came across had little to no concept of preflop range construction. I nearly tripled my stack basically nut peddling before making a dumb mistake and chasing the 3rd nut flush in a bloated pot. All gone. GG. Lesson learned. In that same session, I decided to jump back into 2/3 NL and proceeded to book an 8BI win which helped alleviate the sting from the PLO loss.

Outside of poker, I've been solid with the workout routine and decent with the diet. I am down to 12% bodyfat and 10 pounds away from my goal weight. One thing I've had to work on wrt balance is disassociating entirely from poker on my days off. I've found it difficult not to dwell on specific hands, goals, sessions, or other random poker related thoughts when I should be focusing on the moment. I trucked through a couple sessions since the last update where my mindset was shot because I wasn't taking my days off seriously, and these lackluster sessions have opened my eyes to how important it'll be moving forward to recharge.

The Commerce Poker Series is here and I've got the bandoleer loaded. I'm looking to fire at the 50K this weekend, one of the double stack events, and a 20K at Hollywood Park for Labor Day. Outside of those it'll be the cash grind per usual.

Woh, just realized I let this thread sit for a month. Whoops.

I've been on an absolute tear lately, breaking my own PR for biggest winning session twice in the same week that I booked my biggest losing session. I built up a nice little streak of 3+ BI sessions and have been putting in a ton of volume.

I'm hungry.

Getting a taste of the types of numbers I want to be putting up just makes me want to go harder. Seeing my off hours littered with videogames and jerking off has begun to wear on me. It's so easy to be complacent when you have a good session or two. Part of me wonders if the reason I decided to go pro was so that I could be high all the time and play as much Rocket League/PUBG as I want when I'm not at the casino while not having to wake up early in the morning. It's time to squash that idea. Like cutting away necrotic tissue so that the underlying form can grow and flourish.

I remember daydreaming about being a poker pro back when I was on the corporate grind thinking to myself, "Once I don't have to be at this desk I'll be able to dedicate myself fully to the game" - now I have all the time in the world (my wife working 12-hour shifts helps in this regard) and I still find a way to piss my day away. Old habits die hard.

My passion for the game is at an all-time high, now I need to restructure and redesign my life outside the poker table to ensure that potentiality is realized. My mind is brought back to ECE211, learning about voltage and the mechanics of how electric current works. How dependent the charge and movement of atoms are on their positions relative to one another and to potential fields. Provides a good corollary to how one goes from their current self to the self they truly want to be. The difference in 'charge' between the two (the temporal and physical distance, the obstacles to overcome) creates a field through which a powerful electric current can be channeled, but only through, fittingly enough, work. In physics, work is the transfer of energy from one place to another.

That's exactly what we do to become better. Transfer energy from one place to another. The hard part is building the habits without letting your mind trick you into falling back into ones you've been doing for years. I'll be doing quite a bit of reflection over the next few days and building a strategy around transmuting my intentions into actions. I'll post the results soon! Until next time, here's some chip porn from those two big sessions and the hands that led to them.


Bicycle 5/5
-------------
Straddle, reg raises MP to 35
Hero (covers) call BTN with 88
SB (800) attempts to raise to 135 by first putting the 35 out in yellows and dropping a 100 on top after but the player in big blind asks for a floor ruling and it's ruled a string bet, forcing him to call
BB (650) calls

Flop (145) AKx flush draw. Checks around.
Turn (145) 8o, SB leads 130, BB calls, MP folds, I raise to 420, SB instantly ships it for 900, BB ships for ~500, I call and hold against AK and what was likely a flush draw




Commerce 5/5
-------------
Spewy funplayer (covers) opens 20 from BTN
Hero (1K) 3b KQo from SB to 75, heads up.
Flop (155) KQJr
I bet 100, villain calls
Turn (355) J
I check, villain jams for ~800, I call and hold against Q9

If the "string bet" is how I picture it in my mind from what you are describing, then pretty LOL ruling. Was it really like I'm picturing that he put out 35 and also had 100 in his hand that he dropped right after and never went back to his stack?

I agree that the ruling was poor in this case since it looked like he had the white chip in his hand as he was putting out the 35. He didn't have to reach back for his stack for it, but he also clumsily used two hands to make the bet and there was a short pause between putting out the yellows and dropping the hundo on top.

Ill be in L.A. for a couple days next month exclusively to play poker. I think Ill be able to get in 20+ hours in over a 2 1/2 day period but mostly from 10A-10P. I probably wont play past 10PM or so. Im up for 5/5 and 5/10.

Which rooms and /or which games would you suggest?

Also, will I survive 2 nights in a hotel near Commerce/Bike or is that area too bad to stay in?

Commerce will be your best bet for action. And if you are starting sessions at non peak hours the wait time will be significantly less there too.

And the area around Commerce is fine I'd say. I've stayed at the Travelodge down the street. I think that's where my poker account got hacked.

Sounds great! Maybe Ill get hacked and they will throw in a raping for a bonus!

Last time I stayed at that Travelodge two guys knocked on my door in the middle of the night pretending to be cops.

I tried out the Gardens last week and that’s a nice casino. It has a Vegas casino vibe and draws in quite the crowd. I’ve been checking active tables on the app periodically and noticed there’s usually a table or two of 5/10 running during the day. I’d recommend that as a second resort to Commerce as 5/10+ rarely runs at the Bike. That being said, you’ve got PokerAtlas for the Bike while both Commerce and Gardens have their own apps with active tables and wait lists so you’ll be ready.

Really? Did they say "Sherriffs Dept" or "LAPD"?

Mike what is the % chance that you will stay at the Travelodge? Free breakfast, a gym, and a pool. It's great! Get robbed online, or in the middle of the night, maybe both!

Some real bonus opportunities. What happened btw Sensimuse? Guessing you didn't answer?

Zero

Don't let me dissuade you, I was just trolling about the hotel. I haven't gone to one since I moved out here

I wouldnt stay in a Travlelodge anywhere. I may stay at Best Western near Commerce though. Apparently its been remodeled recently.