Intro

I have decided to start a blog chronicling my poker journey. I moved to Vietnam about a year ago to teach English earning enough to have a decent lifestyle and still have a lot of free time to work on my own goals.

Poker wise not much success in the past. However I didn’t have coaching nor a structure to learning profitable strategy. Therefore I decided to join a coaching for profits program.

My lifestyle for the past 5-6 years has involved working a hard manual labour job for my family 6 months of the year then going traveling and going abroad to fun cheap countries getting wasted and banging as much girls (for free but I don’t judge) as I could. While often referred to as a degenerate lifestyle I still love that way of life.

However I just recently turned 27 and earning a ****ty income isn’t something I want to do for the rest of my life.

I plan on updating this regularly with goals, session reviews, keeping track of and how I manage tilt which has been my main weakness not only with poker but in life. I have a tendency to seek out excitement whenever I experience a negative emotion which can be as trivial as something like boredom. This usually involves then wasting time on porn, videos games or chatting **** with randoms. I have nothing against those things but moderation is key.

I may also post about the lifestyle here, and my other goals which involve getting into great shape and learning some form of combat sport, preferably boxing. I’m in a relationship now which overall should help with productivity but I will just state the dating scene out here is epic. If your a young white guy who isn’t exactly living the most exciting lifestyle and you have a decent grasp of English I highly recommend considering moving you don’t need to be native speaker. Work is pretty easy to come by and the pay in general affords you a decent lifestyle with lots of free time.

Anyway the aim is to post regularly and use the blog as some form of accountability. Good luck at the tables.

Day 1 goals

1-Effective warm up

2-Proficient session review

3-Daily volume goals

4-Daily study goals

1-The title of my blog has the phrase “profitable machine”. I’ve found focusing on monetary goals is not conducive to emotional stability whether you are winning or losing. Therefore in my warm up routine I envision a version of myself in which at the tables I’m logical, emotionally stable(stoic) and robotic in my execution. I then envision myself as the opposite, a version in which I’m impatient, impulsive and emotionally reactive. I then go back to my ideal and then I begin my grind.

2- After the session while still fresh in my mind I review areas where I lacked understanding, I rate how well I regulated my emotions, was I “triggered” by anything, if so what was it and why. I take notes of all.

3-My daily volume goals involve time rather than total hands as I’m still in process of learning solid strategy. Therefore 3-4 tables will suffice. My aim is to spend 3 hours per session with main goal being remaining in a focused and logical state.

Today due to birthday party and work I will attempt to play for 3 hours in one session.

4-My study goals will involve 1 new vid/topic where I will take notes during then make a concise summary afterwards. I will then prepare questions in regards to my post session notes for my study group. I will get into the routine of posting 1 hand for analysis and attempting to answer 1-3 everyday.

Day 1: Results

Play rating: 8/10

Played 3 hours like a robot and made back 4 buy ins I lost yesterday on tilt and studied an hour.

Tilt rating: 10/10

Not many tilting situations to be honest I hope the warm up visualising helps.

Day 2

Played **** all volume as was drunk last night and really just had a waste of a day. Opened a couple of tables while playing a free roll on stars and definitely noticed an increase in fish on the tables. Will make a note to try get volume around those times.

Started a tilt/mood life journal today to help with planning my days and having alternate plans if things go awry.

Play rating: 10

**** all volume but got my kings smashed by AQ all in pre and I felt a little bit of a heat inside but was fully aware these are the types of situations I need to be 100% unreactive too. Continued playing logically, following the strategy and left a couple of buy ins up.



Tilt rating: 10

Was aware of a physiological change (similar feeling to blushing) in a tilting situation. I behaved very well and continued playing but the more aware of that feeling I am the better. It’s when situations that produce that feeling happen in rapid succession that we become susceptible to playing in a tilted state.



Daily productivity rating: 6

Overall **** but left with something of value. I got thinking about all the times I feel the urge to escape reality e.g. using porn, procrastinate lying in bed, pointless internet surfing type **** that you resort to any time you feel boredom/stress/any negative emotion basically.

I came up with a process somewhat inspired by Jordan Peterson’s advice on getting your life together. It’s basic gist is anytime I get thrown off track in life and tend to seek out things that allow you to escape your reality I will recognise what I’m doing. Then..

1. Make sure I’m well fed and hydrated

2. Tidy my room/enviroment

3.Do any chores I know will need done in nearby future

4.Read book 15 mins

5.Watch improvement type vid on YouTube.



Through out I will try to focus fully on task at hand. Then I will reset plan to best suit what time I have left in the day to maximise productivity.

Overall I want to develop ability to recognise when my mood and mindset is heading to a negative place and do things to enhance it to a more ideal state.

Day 3 goals

1. Play 2-3 sessions with aim of 3 hours each

2. Stick to just 3-5 tables table selecting like mad and focusing on playing in a logical emotionally controlled manner

3. Study 1 vid/topic

4. Start learning Vietnamese pimsleur audio

5. Do a recon of my district and find a closer English Center to teach in.