Just wristies or did you need to blow him occasionally as well?

of your almost 22k posts, how many involve male genitalia ?

Sick degen story. Happens to the best of us.

That notwithstanding, do you ever have any interest in being a sports betting sharp? More generally, do you have interest in trying to be an AP in any games other than poker?

Im friends with a few legit sharps and am learning the ways. Doing very well this year with sports, specifically UFC, and as long as I stay away from booze betting I should make a nice chunk this year.

I feel like I should post a life update in here. I'll try and keep it brief because I want to someday expand on most of this in some other medium, hopefully a podcast/vlog.

During quarantine/lockdown I sort of followed the idea I had for a while to become a certified nutrition coach. I took a course, got my certification (from Precision Nutrition), and opened my own LLC in July 2021 www.allinfitnesscoaching.com

I started taking on clients and currently have just over a dozen with plans to take on a few more in July. I am specializing in fat loss for poker players but have clients from all walks of life.

As far as poker goes, I really fell out of love with it during lockdown and also while pursuing this new venture. I feel like I found passion and purpose in helping people overcome the same struggles that I had for the last 17 years in terms of getting healthier and losing weight.

I was never a natural at poker. I had to work really hard just to be a winning 2/5 & 5/10 player and the work it was requiring to

1. Stay profitable
2. beat the worst 2/5 in the country imo (las vegas)

just wasn't worth it anymore.

It's not easy to admit to yourself that you're just not good enough to be elite. When I was young and dumb(er) I had those aspirations of being among the "best in the world." I wanted to chase bracelets. I wanted to play on TV. I wanted to be feared and respected. All that sh*t.

I realized a few years ago that I just didn't have the innate abilities to make that stuff happen. I accepted that I was capped at being a winning 5/10 player, and even that was getting harder by the day as the games got tougher and tougher. I always had mental blocks when playing that I could never figure out. I would play a hand poorly and then immediately afterwards know exactly how I actually should have played it properly. I have some sort of crippling performance anxiety that I could never get over where there was a massive gap between my knowledge and my ability to execute on it. It was insanely frustrating to study theory for hours a day then go play and misplay spots over and over again while knowing immediately afterwards how you should have played them.

I could have done the work necessary to keep making a decent living playing poker but I found myself not enjoying putting in the off the table work anymore. I found that when I went and played a session, big win or big loss, I just wasn't happy at all. Even if I had a few monster sessions in a row I just felt really empty. Spending so much of your life inside a casino/poker room is legit soul crushing, at least for me.

So if I wasn't enjoying the process of getting better, and more importantly, I wasn't even enjoying the process of WINNING MONEY, what was I really doing here?

Limon told me when I was 24 that poker is just a fun vehicle to get to something better in life. I laughed at him and thought he was crazy (tbf he probably is) but it turns out the f***er was dead on. I even text him last week to let him know that and he told me he would have thought that advice was crazy when he was 24 too. Poker led me to what I'm doing today which I am absolutely obsessed with. I love the process of building my business and helping people with their struggles and improve their lives. Every day I wake up before my 5am alarm and immediately get out of bed legitimately excited to execute on the tasks at hand I have for that day. It feels like I'm playing a game more so than building a business. It's really fun and I enjoy the challenges.

I feel like I finally found purpose and meaning in my life. I am so excited for what the future holds.

Thanks for following along on my journey. The words I typed in here were always therapeutic to write down and it helped me grow as a person. If you're reading this, I sincerely thank you for being a part of it all.

TJ

Very glad to read this update; thanks very much for sharing and congrats on the big change! The new venture sounds like a great fit.

Congrats man!

IIRC, you had previously thought about perhaps getting into law enforcement? Always thought that career (or any career, tbh) would have been a better path than poker (just one armchair quarterback's opinion from afar without knowing you at all). So really nice to hear that you've been able to find another passion that you're excited about and gives you purpose.

Ggogogo!,imoG

Gl man

Glad you’ve found something that speaks to you. Lord knows a lot of poker players could use fitness and nutrition tips.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great read, good luck with the llc.

nice update RG - I enjoyed it. Selfish side note question - have you used the muscle booster app? do you like? If not, another app you'd suggest?

Congrats on the business and life progress. I thought your free ebook for healthy wsop food options was a great idea. Best of luck with everything

Great work TJ, glad you are having fun. I would listen to a podcast/vlog, Behind the grind was awesome.

Is your new career keeping you in LV or do you just like the city? I would have assumed you’d move back to the east coast, keep growing your new business, and be a Saturday poker pro at mgmnh, live, borgata, boston etc.

Is multi-quoting not a thing anymore on here?

It is, click the middle button of each post you want included and then click quote for the last one and they should all be there.

Gl with the business!

“Middle button” ?

Go to the very top of your screem, click the moon to turn off dark mode and then if you scroll down you'll see a "+" to the right of "quote" on ebery post.

No idea why it doesn't work in darkmode.

Thanks a lot I'm really excited about what the future holds for me in this space.

Yeah I was all set to become a police officer in my hometown and then decided to keep playing poker instead. Honestly glad I did that and found my way to what I'm doing now. Poker is a fun way to find your way to what you are really passionate about in life.

Yeah I'm really enjoying helping people become healthier, especially with how much I've struggled with my weight issues in the past.

Thanks homie.

Have not heard of that. I use FitBod (and have my clients use it as well).

Thank you. Yeah that was a lot of work but I was able to get my name out there a little bit so that was cool.

In LV for now but probably gonna move around a little bit since there's nothing tying me here anymore. My ultimate goal is to end up living in San Diego but that may change when I finally travel outside of North America.

Found it thanks for this. So weird it's not on dark mode.

You should check out Jason Su @jasonbsu on Twitter about the performance anxiety stuff. I think it’s a skill that can be learned.

Not gonna make you love poker obv but might help you in other areas of life.

Congrats on everything man, very impressive, imo.

Yeah I saw that guy on twitter and I kind of nodded my head when I read his product cuz it spoke directly to me.

Been working on this sort of stuff with my therapist. Been doing to therapy a little over a year now and it's been a cheat code.

Great to hear man, best of luck to you. I also follow you on Twitter and can say you post a lot of good nutrition info. I’m sure your clients are getting a great product.

wasn't around for the earlier part of your journey but reading the op vs reading your exit post it's just night and day

op is rife with indecision and grasping for something better, your exit post is that of someone who's discovered what they truly want to do and has found some happiness in it

wish you the best of luck, it's always great seeing people exit on their own terms, especially people who've been playing as long as you have

glgl in your fitness ventures

-adam

Thanks a lot man. I work hard and try my best to create impact and push out as much valuable info for free as I can.


Yeah definitely cringe to see how 23/24 year old me thought but I am so glad I documented this journey.

I was still in the midst of hating myself back then. Everything about myself. I was mired in insecurities and used false bravado to cover that up.

Starting therapy last year was a cheat code. I sat down one night and wrote down all of the things I knew I was doing wrong that I could easily fix. I came up with 9 things and then on separate sheets of paper I expanded on them all. I asked myself why I was doing these things and made strategies to fix them. It's still a work in progress but the ROI on this activity was gigantic.

I also did a self-authoring exercise where I went into all of my self-perceived flaws as a human being. Things that I never confronted and just ignored.

This made me come to grips with all of my insecurities as a person. I can't say that I'm fully at peace with them but I am at a point where I'm comfortable with myself and who I am and the direction that I'm headed. There is no more hatred. I finally feel like "myself" if that makes any sense and I feel that I can just BE myself at all times. Constant self-hatred makes you put on an act to appear like you have it all together and that s**t is exhausting.

I used to get so mad at anyone who said something negative to me online. I realized it was because they were hitting a nerve stemmed in an insecurity I have. Confronting all of that insecurity made me develop really thick skin. There's really nothing you can say to me anymore to make me upset.

I still get people writing me nasty s**t in email, DM, comments and nowadays I just feel sorry for the person writing it. It doesn't affect me at all anymore and I feel 0 need to respond to them whereas in the past I would legit spend all day going back and forth with some anonymous troll on Twitter. These people clearly have some massive issues in their lives that they feel the need to attack ME of all people. Like who am I? I'm a D-list poker player who doesn't even play anymore. If you think I'm a failure as a poker player after supporting a pretty cool lifestyle by playing poker for 8 years and then choosing to willingly walk away to pursue something else that I have much more passion and enthusiasm for (not to mention will help people), then I guess I'm a failure. Damn.

My vision for this business is massive. I want to change as many lives as I can. I see the progress that my current clients are making. I see them losing weight. I see them improving their relationship with food. And ultimately, I see them more than likely adding years to their lives to spend with the people that are important to them. And at the end of the day that's what it's all about for me. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Thanks for all the kind words. I look forward to posting in here in the future and in the meantime you can follow me on Twitter and IG @tj_jurk I try to put out some pretty cool free health and fitness content. I also have a Facebook group dedicated to helping people lose weight/body fat in an easy and sustainable way. You can join that here if you want: Facebook Group

TJ

How are you approaching sports betting now if at all? I just bet casually but curious how dedicating more time to fitness changes things for you and how you think that impacts your edge.

Love the update and the recent poasts, RG. excited to see where you go from here!

Taking baseball season off with the exception of UFC. Other than that just trying to beat closing lines with college hoops and playing wong teasers during NFL.

Thanks a lot man. How have you been?