White Ram, Day 3

It does not matter that I got hit by a cold deck, deep in the tournament, and had to shove 45 UTG as my 4bbs stack was exhausting the last of its life support... Nor that I am stuck 1k for the weekend when my net expectation was sky high... At the end of the day, all that remains, is the acceptance of loss.

Had 2 enlightening conversations today with a couple of friends, one that pointed out the recent maturity in my game - tilt control, emotional balance, TAGish opening ranges, general approach to the game -, the other reminding me that as we stand, I have succeeded in this challenge (a 4k downswing not withstanding), despite part of me wanting to be above the 30k mark (yet, if I was sitting on the 32k mark right now, I would be aiming for 35k ). Considering that my allure to the poker world is more based on its existential component of self vs self then beating the top boss, I am quite thankful for those insightful discussions/lessons learned.

As far as this challenge/thread goes, there are only 2 days left : a full day of 10-20 Omaha 08 tomorrow and a last shot in the 525$ FO on Monday. -600$ today in ME today (had the original BI of 250$ covered by the casino) ; tonight, I will rest and leave all those flops, turns, rivers and tilting moments behind me...


Challenge : +28, 746.24$

Peace

End of Challenge, Part 1

To inaugurate a new turn of events, I wanted to bump this thread early today, despite having religiously posting at the end of the evening as a standard throughout the course of this challenge (or having not seeing a single flop today). Let me specify : this has essentially been a PG & C with the focus being on the numbers, the end results, in spite of us, winning players, forever reminding ourselves not to be results orientated This said, lets take a step back from the monetarily goals of this thread.

Last year during the White Ram, I went on ape-monkey-tilt I was haunted with this sense of entitlement. I mean, in all honesty, how can a winning player of my caliber not feel that the monies should fall his way during the biggest weekend of the summer, right So it became pretty hard to navigate through the weekend with such a high level of expectations when variance wanted nothing to do with my ego So, in the end, what does it all mean? Lets try to break it down.

T-I-L-T : Tilt. This small 4 letter word that opens a breach into a ton of complex and, at times, clustered emotions ; you see, those 4 letters are a time bomb. A sudden and inexplicable emotional explosion : something is wrong. Or many things.

We, as humans, desperately try to keep outside events within the grasp of our control, within the vast confines - so we think - of our comprehension, but more often than we would like, stuff - life, unpredictable runouts in poker - falls outside of our reach. And all that is left to do, is to let go. To accept. (Or at least, so says the wise man ).

Entitlement : This sense of possession seems to belong more to the western world than its eastern counterparts, yet it remains an intrinsic human sentiment (too human ). But where does it come from, one might ask?

Perhaps variance should fall our way, because we think ourselves as good humans, working within a logical system (a good Christian, an all around good guy, a karmic fellow etc.) that should justify our acts, right... Wrong. Sure they are laws of physics that transcend us and we are subjected to other superior forces - many that escape our simple understanding -, yet randomness has more of a say in the sway of things then whatever system we try to establish, me thinks...

Bah, I am tired folks : I will meditate, get a couple of extra hours of sleep, go grind and simply try to let it go, to accept... Back tonight to update some numbers

Congrats on reaching your goal Dubnjoy.

White Ram, Day 4

Bah, once again, am exhausted until the end of times... Played Omaha hi/lo and amidst yawns, weariness and random conversations, managed to book a small win despite my C+ game : +200$ in 11h.

Thx man One last day to go in this challenge, and we will see if I can perhaps cross the 30k mark again... Tomorrow is a 525$ FO, so I would need a min cash in order to achieve such task.

I will be back in a couple of days for a longer post and closure to this thread.


Challenge : +28, 966.24$

White Ram, Day 5

Just got back from the final table : busted out in 8th, when my AK < A10o when I shoved 12bbs from MP only to get button ook me up (there was 3 shorter stacks, while caller had me covered by 0.2bbs ) : +1100$ in 8h live (it paid top 10).

Am bummed out on missing out on a possible 15 000$ first place, yet played some of my best poker ever I will be back tomorrow or the next day for the closing post to this thread and will most likely post in my travel thread about this deep run...

Challenge : +30, 071.24$

End of Challenge, Part 2 : CRUSHING THE OLD LADY

A little bit of bombaclat-getting-away-with-murder-action That's right, old lady, who is the bitch now





Me thinks that you couldn't handle dat gangsta crushing style, ole lady





Victory is mine

Well folks, in retrospect, it has been quite smooth sailing hasn't it I mean, take a look for yourself :



Even have that divine light intervention right at the 25k mark in the graph yo For the record, I would just register my online 888 and Party sessions weekly as 1 unique session respectively, making this graph less swingy then it actually was, but still...


A few notes (benefitting from an obvious hindsight perspective) :

- I have been emotional balanced throughout this challenge, especially on the felt. Sure there was a few bumps along the way, with my low point probably being this weekend, but nothing outstanding...

- This thread has kept me immensely accountable. It acted as an inspiring and grounding source (God did I not enjoy posting ITT after a losing session or when tilted... ).

- I really enjoyed the self-imposed daily posts (albeit different to my bi-monthly more-heavily-edited-posts...). I will most likely do a similar Challenge thread in the future...

We all know the truth about finishing on an uplifting albeit insignificant upswing versus a downer disguised downswing, right?

Player A is playing HU vs Player B, crushing him in the vicinity of 2k after 3h of play. 2 hours later, player B makes a 1500$ comeback before calling it a day. GG, gg player A, right, as he is still 500$ victorious while player B goes home 500$ in the hole... yet the latter still feels somewhat elated, while the former is bummed out? Today, I am player A, slightly disillusioned after my deep run, despite crushing this challenge... Ohhhhhh poker

That's it folks, thx for sharing this journey with me, it has been a blast So what's next for me, you might ask :

- 2 weeks left here in Dawson where I will study 1-2h/day, focus on online, except Friday and Saturday where I will be grinding at the casino (only open on the weekends in the winter).

- A 10 day meditation retreat in Merritt, B.C., early in October.

- 10 days grinding the WCPC (West Coast Poker Championship) in Vancouver in late October.

- Philippines for 2 weeks. Vietnam for 2 months, followed by six months in India, all of which will be blogged in my travel thread :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...eyond-1357166/




We got her folks


Peace

Congrats... Was great to follow your thread... Would be following your travel adventures

Good job man! Really enjoyed the thread. Gl with your travels

impressive results for sure, was fun to follow (lol polltakerz)

Congratulations on achieving your goal for this thread. I came to it late, but am particularly impressed by how accountable (and honest) you were, regardless of the results. Love the fact also that you've included so much of your external environment, literally, with your photographs, but also implicitly through a kind of localised, cultural awareness. It seems pretty clear to me that your experience with meditation and travel has helped kept you on track and contributed greatly to the steady and upward curve of your graph.

Im from inuvik!

end of the dempster

Thx man Happy to hear you will be following the travel thread.

Cheers. I booked a few flights already (flying to Asia on Oct 20th) and am really looking forward to my meditation retreat coming up on Oct 7.

Cheers man, hope you are still enjoying your time in Asia Hey, will you be at the APT in Ho Tram Casino Resort Vietnam on November 16? The WCPC is not happening this year in Vancouver, so am 85-15 on going to this APT (ME 1100 US$, 2-5 cash games running always).

Thx man. Yeah, meditation and my mental state in general has been pretty solid lately and I owe it all to vipassana... don't know where I would be without it, really (probably still searching for it...).

Love your thread and am always happy to read a new post, as your writing and self-awareness are pretty exceptional.

Cool man, always great to see some northerners following (sent you a pm).

Since the end of this challenge, I have taken a step back from poker (barely averaging 4h/day while still booking a solid 5.3k ), albeit studying more. I really do miss updating/blogging on a daily basis (and feel as my travel thread should be more literary/edited posts on a bimonthly basis), so have decided to create a new beat up the old lady thread once I finish my mediation retreat. So expect it to hit this forum mid-October (will link it here). Hope all of yous will be following

Run good all

Thank you for an absolutely amazing read and journey!

yupyup not planning on leaving anytime soon
the timeslot happens to be the nutworst for me as i will possibly be in thailand then and ill be leaving vietnam for cambo end of oct for the APT in sihanoukville. would love to play it though. All yours bud^^

Just finished reading this thread

Congrats Man,I know somehow that you can pas the 30k mark (as I filled the poll after reading the page 1 of this)

looking forward to read another Thread of yours

cheers and Run Good always !

Thanks for an absolutely fantastic read. Also finished your travling thread, inspirational stuff.

Thx for following I do miss the old lady (especially beating up on her ) and the daily updates that this thread demanded ; I originally wanted to make a new old lady thread (and had done an introduction post a couple months ago), yet don't know how interesting random thoughts, states of mind, and off the wall humor would be interesting for you guys without a monetary challenge to give a direction to the thread...

Thx man! Great to see that some people still reading this dated thread

One thing that has come obvious to me over my extended travels and time spent down here in this world, is YOU CANNOT KEEP A GOOD OLE LADY DOWN She has risen once again, resurrected for a new 2016 challenge, 100K this time around :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...016-a-1579002/

Lets show her what we are made of folks ; bombaclat action, yo

I will pursue the Adventures of The Ole Lady, if the interest warrants it :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...inues-1604291/