“Meditation helps train your mind to focus on the present, which can improve your concentration on other tasks in daily life”
-RZA, Wu-Tang Clan


Morning meditation in the garden.

Ricehorn’s last couple comments about my mental process inspired me to make this post. This is something I’ve been working for a long time, so I figured I’d pass on some of what I learned on hopes that it will be beneficial to others.

We need to NOT fear our emotions. Our emotions are going to be there whether we like it or not, so we have to welcome our emotions and learn to live and thrive with them. Learn what it feels like in your body when you’re feeling a certain emotion. What thoughts are popping into your head? Are these thoughts legitimate or can we use logic to dismiss them? No matter what, you can’t fight or attempt to change how you’re feeling. You’ll always fail and sometimes make it even worse. We have to learn to accept our feelings and allow ourselves to feel them. Welcome them, even. And then remind yourself that this feeling is temporary.

The other part is to detach from your thoughts and emotions. You say “I’m feeling anxiety” not “I AM anxious”. You are not your emotions. This simple way of re-framing how you think about your emotions gives them less power over you. They’re something that you feel, not something you’re a prisoner to. You are not your mind you are the observer of your mind. You are not your ego you are the observer of your ego.

This all requires a certain level of presence. Being aware and present in the moment, what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking. To be fully tuned in to right now. I believe it was Jason Su that said “Presence is creating a moment of space in between something happening and whatever it is that you normally do when that happens.” Presence allows you to ACT instead of REACT. There’s really no easy way to achieve this, it can only come with consistent practice, which is why daily meditation is such a high priority for me. Meditation is not trying to feel a certain way. It’s trying to tune into how you already feel, and sit with whatever that may be. It’s not trying to shut off your thoughts, but to allow them, acknowledge them, and then let them pass, moving back into the present. Like the bench press is an exercise for the chest, meditation is an exercise for presence.

”If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
-Lao Tzu

Imo, practicing presence will improve just about every aspect of your life. Once you have the basics of a winning strategy in poker, the ability to be in tune with your feelings and not tilt off money is probably more valuable than becoming next level with strat for like 99% of players. If you deal with anxiety, stress, feeling overwhelmed, have trouble getting good sleep, presence will help. Take it from me, someone who’s struggled with everything I just named up there, some of which I have serious, serious issues with. Practicing meditation and becoming more present has helped me with all of the above.

If this sounds like something that interests you, carve out 15 minutes of your day and set that aside for a meditation practice. That’s all the time you need, and there are plenty of free apps that can guide you if you’re a beginner. And if you want to know more about it, shoot me a DM I’d be happy to talk about it.

Peace

End of the Week Check-In

Weekly Goals:
5 HH reviews [5]
5 meditations [7]

Missed my Saturday session but played a 1/3 session today and finished +$726 in about 5 hours just running hot and playing solid, mistake-free poker. Turned down a 2/5 seat around 2:00 because I had to leave by 4:00 to make it to a birthday party. Pretty good week overall, we crushed the weekly goals and I’m pretty happy with how I played other than my tilt display on Thursday. Like I said before though I’m not going to dwell on it, and we’ll address it moving forward.

July Goals:
40 Hours of Poker[ ]
Winning Month [ ]
Average less than 37.5 hours/wk at work[ ]


As we’re approaching the end of the month we’re tracking towards hitting all those goals. 40 hours of poker should be easy, I haven’t counted my work hours but I took a ton of time away from work this week which should bring my weekly avg down a good bit, and winning month could go either way depending on how next week goes. Don’t have a ton of control over winning in a 40 hour sample but still think it’s a fun goal to put in there.

On another note looking forward, I realized two things today during my morning meditation.
1. I’m focusing a little too much on making sure I have content written down for this thread DURING my sessions. It’s pulling me away from the present a bit and I think is a factor playing in to why I tilted this week. Gotta set aside time to write while I’m not at the table (other than quick HH notes). I think everyone could benefit from being on your phone less at the table. Even if you’re not paying attention to the action, your mind will be sharper when you are in a hand, allowing you to make better decisions.
2. A new goal I want to add is to have enough extra money from poker at the end of the year to take my dad to an Ohio State Bowl Game. Long story short, we didn’t have a lot growing up, but he came from nothing and hustled hard his whole life to make sure I had everything I needed to get where I’m going. I’ve been to 2 bowl games and he’s never been to one (and has always wanted to go)

Updated Long term Goals:
1. Make 10bb/hr over my first 1000 hrs
2. Work less than 30 hr/wk at my day job by the end of 2021.
3.Take Pops to the Ohio State Bowl Game in January
4. Buy a bus and convert it to a RV
5. Fire 3 events at 2022 WSOP
6. Play Live Poker in 10 different cities by end of 2022 [Pittsburgh,
7. Quit my day job by the end of 2022.
8. See an East Coast sunrise and a West Coast sunset all in the same road trip

Look Ahead to Next Week:
It’s going to be a busy week. Tuesday afternoon will likely be my only live session, so hoping that the online home game goes on both Tuesday and Thursday evening so I can get some hours in. That’s sort of out of my hands, so we’ll see. Some goals for next week…

Week of 7/26/2021 Goals:
5 HH Reviews [ ]
7 Meditations [ ]
5 min Breathwork + PFR Chart Review Before Each Session [ ]
No Tilt [ ]

Adding in the breathwork + PFR chart reviews to address tilt. Nowadays the money I lose due to tilt is pretty much exclusively due to being in hands I shouldn’t be in, so PFR Chart review is not because I need to review it but more so to remind me about the most important street. It’s been said a lot, but IMO most postflop mistakes could be avoided by just making the right decision preflop. Breathwork right before a session is to bring me into the present. The no tilt goal is obviously subjective, but I’m pretty self-aware/honest with myself and I’m not here to pretend like I hit my goals when I didn’t.

Another thing I think I’m going to add to this thread is MOTIVATION MONDAY where I post a pic from my travels with a little story, for motivation since a lot of this thread is based around travel goals. So if that’s something you’re interested in, keep an eye out for that.

Will check back in sometime this week, have a good week and GL!

Monday Motivation


Pipiwai Trail, Maui, Hawaii

That’s me under that giant waterfall. If you’ve never been to Hawaii I’d highly recommend it. The beaches, hiking, scuba, and food are all elite there, imo.

Sort of a rough trip if you’re coming from the East Coast due to travel time and that 5 hour time change. When we go back I plan on stopping in Vegas or SoCal for a few days on the way to break that up a bit. Still a must visit.

Happy Motivation Monday, let’s have a week!

Looking good, man! Good motivation for the week. I hope that you get to take your pops to the game!

Subbed. Good luck Opie!

Thanks @PrinceJellyfish !!

And I dig the avi!

I dig both of yer avis and therefore am subbed. GL op - im especially interested in your documentation of your bus buildout. I have had a fascination with that kind o thing for a while

edit - currently heavily into the pigpen era - this is prolly my fave

Hell yes! What a perfect way to start the day. I think Pigpen is prob the GOAT but for some reason Brent has always been my favorite. There was something special about that guy’s energy imo.



^^We actually almost just bought a bus that was already converted. But we just closed on the wife’s new building for expanding her daycare, and we probably have about $30K in renovations to do over the next couple of months before we can open, so the timing didn’t seem right to make a big purchase. I’m kinda happy it didn’t work out though, because I think part of the reward is the process and doing the build ourselves. In that case it will be 100% ours.

^^
A little PLO action while my poker coach watches

Hard to believe Brent died 31 years ago yesterday. I have a huge fondness for that era as nearly all the shows I saw he was keyboardist. Agree he was ossum. His vocals def added significant depth to their sound imo

Damn, I didn’t even realize it was 2 days ago. I turn 32 in October this year so I was too young to ever see the Dead. Had to settle for Phil and Friends, Rat Dog, and Dead and Co, which were all still pretty awesome. I came up on Phish but once I got into the Dead they became my favorite and it’s not even close, imo.

Gonna be jamming to this at work today:


I know a lot of people that were a little older than me that were at the Buckeye Lake shows. I used to live about 30 min from that venue too, it’s pretty awesome if you’ve never been there.

^^
WYNN and BABA are a couple of stocks I’ve been aggressively “buying the dip”. Hoping this is the beginning of an uptick for both. Haven’t really been adding any money to the account since all of our extra money is going towards the wife’s business right now. Just been moving money around trying to buy low, sell high and turn some small profits.


Account is sitting right around $7500 right now, so let’s throw a few investing goals out there.

$10K in Investing Account by End of 2021 [ ]
$30K in Investing Account by End of 2022 [ ]

I'm starting to reg at the Shark Tank, wonder if we've played before. Best of luck man!

I lived in Columbus from ‘09-‘16 although I didn’t play a ton at the Tank. Never been a huge fan of graveyard shift sessions and when I lived there they didn’t open til like 8pm or something. I like that they’re open earlier now, I pretty much always stop in whenever I’m in town. If they were open earlier in the day when I lived there, I would’ve never played at the casino. Can’t beat $20 entry fee, no rake. Not sure how long you’ve been around the poker scene but I used to reg at Gemini before the casino opened in Cbus.

You must have been around in the days of the Platinum Players club. I knew both Paul Horn and Danny Teitelbaum pretty well, from underground games in the DC area and AC casino games.

Did you play in the Platinum games?

No, I’ve actually never been to DC and have only played in AC a handful of times. I know a lot of guys from around the way that are a little bit older than me that played a lot in AC. But I lived most of my life in the Pittsburgh area, and I turned 21 in 2011, and by that time there were 3-4 casinos within an hour drive from me, so I never really had the need to travel to AC to play poker. I’ve still made some trips to grind and hang out at the beach though. I was actually there for my birthday, first week of college football on the first year they opened sports betting. You wouldn’t believe how clueless they were in the Sportsbooks. I had to explain the money line to the person behind the counter LOL

Around what years where those games you’re talking about? Good chance I might know some people who played in them not regularly but on poker trips.

Paul Horn's poker room was in Columbus or nearby. I thought I saw you said you were in that area around 2011.

Paul opened the card room there and Dan T. put some money into it and I guess they fell out over something. Dan was convicted of killing Paul. Here's a link to the story (hopefully works).

https://www.dispatch.com/article/201...NEWS/312279848

Oh, I misunderstood your earlier post, but WOW!

I never played at either of Paul’s clubs, both we’re a little ways outside the city, and I was pretty loyal to the Gemini Club. It was just close to where I lived, the games were good, and I never had any issues there. I definitely didn’t know Paul, but Dan looks incredibly familiar to me. Quite possible that I’ve been at a table with him before. Most of the people that I for sure remember from those days were the super regs at Gemini.

The thing that surprises me the most is that I haven’t heard this story before. As a young buck I would cycle periods of being flush and then busto quite often, so it’s possible that I was out of the game when Paul died and then talks had died down by the time I was back. Not sure how else I wouldn’t have known about it because that seems like something everyone would’ve been talking about.

What It Takes to be a Pro

Unpopular Opinion: Poker as a profession is just another job with terrible benefits.

My good friend, poker pro, and founder of ArchCityPoker.com just started a new podcast called Call a Spade a Spade, and I was listening to his episode about what it takes to be a pro. Ironically, what he was describing was a lot of the exact opposites of the reasons people want to play poker professionally. And as someone who has made that leap and lived it, I really can’t disagree with him. I think a lot of people have the idea that as a poker pro, you can be a free spirit, not adhere to a schedule or have to answer to anyone, travel, party, have lots of money, etc. I was definitely one of these people. And I did pretty much that for 2 years, but it was all taking away from my energy, ability to be sharp at the table, stay ahead of the curve WRT strategy, handle the swings and variance mentally, and overall ability to make a living playing poker.

Nicks 2 big points were that:
1. You have to have structure
2. Every decision you make, is an EV decision in some way

Cliff notes are: To make it as a pro, you have to hold yourself to a schedule or at least commit to playing a certain amount of hours. You have to commit to spending a good amount of time away from the table working on your game. You have to eat healthy, exercise, get good sleep, limit your partying because all those things are going to affect your energy and brain function. And the biggest one is that you’re likely going to have to sacrifice fun and time with your friends/family in order to grind when the games are best.

I got into poker because I didn’t want a job only to find out poker is a job.


I don’t mean to be on here trying to crush dreams or anything like that, and there are obv outliers, but for almost everyone, poker isn’t an escape from a sh*tty job, it IS a sh*tty job.

End of the Month Poast


July Goals:
40 Hours of Poker[45]
Winning Month [+$668]
Average less than 37.5 hours/wk at work[33.3]
- We went 3/3 on the goals in July. Everything kind of worked out in our favor considering I was able to cut back at work which also allowed me extra time to grind. And of course the poker gods allowed us to run good enough to post a W for the month. Looking ahead to August, I’m going to add a few goals….

August Goals:
Take a shot at 5/10 [ ]
40 Hours of Poker[ ]
Winning Month [ ]
Average <37 hours/wk at work[ ]
Write a mindfulness course[ ]
+$500 in Investments [ ]
1 Kayaking Trip [ ]

- There’s been a pretty regular 5/10 game hitting on the weekends and it’s been looking like a pretty juicy game. I don’t really adhere to any bankroll management since every 2 weeks I have enough money coming in for another buy in for 1/3 or 2/5, but I’d like to build up my cash on hand a bit to fire that game so I don’t actually have to dip into that work money if it doesn’t go well.

- I know we crushed the work hours goal last month, but it was slightly due to lower than usual demand, plus I used some paid time off. Right now 36 hours/wk is sort of the sweet spot for my situation until around October when the yearly raises start coming in. THEN, Once my wife’s new business is operational (hopefully before the start of 2022) my work numbers should drop dramatically, since I’m essentially the CFO of that business, and I expect the business to be doing well enough for me to step away from the day job a good bit.

- The mindfulness course thing is still a seed. I’ve done a lot of work on my own with meditation, breathwork, stretching, etc that’s benefitted my life in big ways and I had the idea to pass along some of what I’ve learned in a course or 1on1 coaching or something like that. Not sure the exact direction I’m going, but wanted to put this goal in there to motivate myself to take that first step and get started on it.

- Kayaking is one of my favorite activities and I haven’t been out there since last fall. Went on a white water rafting trip at the beginning of July but I still need my kayaking fix.


I’m looking to get some more 2/5 action in August which is probably going to mean changing up the times I play a bit. I play most of my sessions from like 11am-4pm mainly because I like to do fun shyt in the evenings instead of playing poker, but they’ve been calling down the first 2/5 table when I’m getting towards the end of my session so I’m declining seats. Gonna try to add in some Friday/Saturday evenings. There used be a 2/5 game that would go at the less popular casino on Friday Nights that was time rake plus free food and booze. I used to get a free Filet and share bottles of wine with the table every Friday. No clue why I haven’t checked if that was still a thing, but definitely going to look into that.

Don’t really have any fun travel plans for August, but I have some stuff coming up in September and October that I won’t spoil just yet. For now here’s a pic from our Air BnB in New River Gorge, WV on our whitewater rafting trip:

End of Week Update

5 HH Reviews [5]
7 Meditations [7]
5 min Breathwork + PFR Chart Review Before Each Session [+]
No Tilt [+]

I think I’m going to stop posting weekly goals in here. Although I’m going to continue doing all this stuff it’s just a little too much to keep track of and post about. Just going to do monthly goals and try to check in at least once a week with some updates and whatnot.

Pretty sure I’m gonna fire the Bovada $250K today, so I’ll post some live updates for that. Let’s win some f****** money for a skoolie!

LFGooooooooo

Congrats on July goals!

I wouldn't put that 5/T goal in for August yet from what I've seen tho. You need to be crushing first. But best wishes!

Thanks crsseyed!

I appreciate the feedback, but gonna respectfully disagree about 5/T. I typically know most of the players in the lineup and at times it can be the softest game in the room, imo. Definitely not gonna sit if there’s too many grinders, I have no desire to prove anything to myself or anyone else about my skill level, just wanna be able to fire that game if I believe it’s the best EV table for me to sit at.

Also fwiw I played a significant amount of 5/T and T/25 when I was playing full time, and there’s only a few players in the pool that I don’t feel confident at least holding my own against.

Gettin right before this tourney