Right, well I made a deepish run in the $500 $1M guarantee. 66/~3500ish

I'm very happy with my play. A couple mistakes were made, but nothing atrocious. Overall my play was very good considering my rust level and that NLH is not my main game.

Playing with an increased sense of body awareness is interesting. The most useful observation was that in some pots I enter my breathing will alter. My breathing gets shallow and or I'll automatically start breathing in my chest. I didn't notice this before, but it's a big deal. If I spend a minute or two breathing inefficiently(short breaths or chest breathing), this impacts my system. There are different scenarios which influence my game.

In the event of chest breathing.. I've got lots of oxygen but my nervous system is in fight-or-flight mode. Thinking/sensing functions work well, but feeling/intuition is stifled. In these spots it is far more +EV to be working with my mind/logic and sensing out information from the table stimulus.

In the event of shallow breathing(short breaths)... the entire system is handicapped and all functions will be working sub-optimally. In these situations, the most important thing to do is start taking large belly breaths before considering taking further action.

In the event of normal diaphragmatic breathing and a relaxed body.. The system is in an optimal state. I should be working with my all functions. I should be using my intuition function in conjunction with thinking. Intuition is one of my strengths, tapping into it requires a degree of confidence and composure.

The applications of these "lessons" are vast, both on the table and off. If you are involved in a pot with someone close to you at the table you can observe their breathing for information. A "Feeling" type player's comfort/confidence will have a large influence on play quality. "Thinking" type players will have less play quality variance. If you can get a player to take short breaths in a big pot by dragging out the streets and inducing fear, you can strongly impair their bodily functions by the river. This will often result in them resorting to default action(fish=call,nit=fold,aggrospew=raise).

In other news.. poker in this series is alright. I've got some good table draws and been around some reasonable people. The tables are spacious and elbow rubbing is minimal. My poker endurance is far lower. I made it 8hours into day2 of an MTT and was quite tired. I will be timing breaks/days off more carefully. I think a day off before the main is optimal.

My session yesterday was pretty poor. Mostly poor off-table decisions, but some translated to in-game mistakes. The bad decisions started the day before. I gorged on quest bars. 1 in the afternoon and 2 on a full stomach before sleeping. The result was digestion issues which woke me up around 2am and kept me up until ~4.

The next day I showed up at the casino around 1pm and was greeted by one of the worst 5-5 PLO games I've ever witnessed. I was planning on playing the MTT, but didn't want to play 10 hours of mediocre sleep. I should have played anyways.. I think up to 10 hours on mediocre sleep for day1 $1k mtt would have shown more profit overall than 4-8hours at a terrible 5/5 PLO. Most of the ROI is printed in day2 anyways-- so my hourly is likely still in the $50-60 range for the MTT, while I can't say it was that high given the grinder prospect/lineup in the 5/5 PLO.

In-game I played decently. I made a few hero-calls and a couple hero-folds which, given results, were all correct. I made mistakes for sure-- a couple bets in spots where checking is higher EV in 3 or 4-way pots.

I made a poor decision to stay more than 5 hours. The game got progressively better and I got progressively more stuck. I ran horrible and stayed playing despite knowing that my hourly was <$50. Towards the end of the session, the game got much better and I attempted to order food. There is essentially no vegetarian options, so I ordered a salad. I was still hungry after the salad and had to choose between yogurt and granola or a pizza.. I chose the pizza, which again, was a bad decision. I would have been far better off sitting with the hunger for an hour and picking up food on the way home or cooking back at the house.

Anyways, feels good to write all this out. This is pretty atypical behaviour...

For a reminder of what I'm normally like; for the last week I engage in a morning practice, which is starting to become automatic. Wake up, grab yoga mat, go outside do light stretches, 10 sun salutations, and warrior series. Sit down and do pranayama exercises. Take rape(tobacco blown up nose), and meditate 5-10minutes (until rape collects in throat). Cold shower. Get my phone and write out tasks for the day while making/drinking tea. Get breakfast, do tasks. The "Tasks" vary.. it can be from intending to meet with people to transferring money.

I'm in a bitter mood. In the grand scheme of things these poker results are so meaningless, but its still getting to me. My mindset towards variance is different than in the past. I know that I won't play enough in the future to realize my equity, so I seem to be attached to results in an unusual way. That said, my results on this trip are, of course, losing.

I registered the $3500 main event yesterday. I only sold off a bit of my action, which is unusual for me. Normally, I like to play these big mains with 50-70% of myself and sell the rest at 1.2-1.25. That said, I had been playing good and the market for me selling action has got worse, so I went for it. I drew a great table at the main. Only 1-3 pros at the table the entire day. I had a huge spot to my immediate right. Perfect.

The day couldn't have gone worse. I played fairly well, but admittedly lost some confidence towards the end of the day and nitted it up(and was card-dead). I only spent a few orbits above starting stack the entire day. I only won a 12-20 pots over 9 hours and half of them preflop(and most of those when I had (TT+/AK). I won't go on, but it was basically one of those days where nothing seems to go right. Any poker player knows what I mean.

I busted on the last level. I had a close spot jamming 10bb with QTs which I passed on it. I ran some calcs and its -EV on most assumptions. A couple hands later I ran into another spot with a8o vs an open with 10bb. I jammed and ran into AA. I ran some calcs and its +EV given nearly all range assumptions, although maybe I could have waited and got better spots with my 10bb.

A few days ago I played the $1650 knockout. I got a horrible table draw. 5 good pros, probably all better mtt players than me. I played nitty/snug and rarely took spots. I made it deep but only had 1 bounty. I seemed to lose every pot where I was Allin to win a KO. Near the bubble I had 40bb and got in AA v a 20bb shove from KTo and lost. I was short on the bubble and playing nitty due to maniacs willing to bust. I picked up KK and 4b 12bb into a maniacs 3b. He called off 95dd and won on a 8d8s4c 6d 7s run-out. I stone bubbled the MTT. Not only that.. I played the MTT all day, and missed out on hours of what looked like a good PLO game(where my hourly was $100+).

I'll probably play 1 or 2 more sessions of PLO and call poker ~quits. I may play another series at some point. I can't see myself ever playing more than 2 weeks at a time in any 3 month period. The grind doesn't feel good. It's not just the last couple days, even the first few when I was winning it felt like a grind.

It's sort of frustrating to run bad life-time. I only played 7 years fulltime, many of which were high-variance-- so I didn't have enough hours to fully realize equity. However, I'm way under expected EV. I'm down mid 5-figures on MTTs lifetime(game selecting good MTTS ofc), mid 5-figures below AIEV online(mostly bovada), low five-figures below BBJ-EV(4years of fulltime paying to BBJ, one <$1000 win), losing on $25/$50+ shots(Only a ~dozen of the best games), and I've lost the three biggest live cash pots I've ever played. Running near EV is ~$200k net worth swing. Lame.

/rant

Heh you prob already know the mindset I try my best to have here.

Let's say a guy goes to WSOP and plays an equal mix NLHE, PLO, limit, and tournaments. He runs way below EV in 1 but godly in the other 3. His roommates started believing he was the reincarnation of The Sunrunner, and they bowed down and prayed to him in hopes that they may reflect a fraction of his radiance.

Poker is prob at the absolute most 25% of your life. It's cool dude maybe you went 0 for 6 in AIPF flips with aces in 5-10 PLO, one of them for 650bb vs. 9664ss, but you also won 2 bracelets. You're smart, healthy, good-natured, good looking, people love you, and you've led a very interesting life.

Of course ranting/venting emotions is very +EV too . And I definitely have felt "ahhh why is this happening to me!?" when I'm going through a downswing despite the fact I think I've run above EV in my poker career

Mtts and plo are high variance by nature. I don't think the long run actually exists (besides in theory) in live mtts and plo. Statistically speaking you either run way below or way above EV. I think that's why both are so popular amongst gamblers.

Combining the two is disastrous imo and I hate to say it but I'm pretty sure I told you itt, especially about short stack hs live plo. This is speculation but I think most pros know that but they feel cornered into playing extremely high variance formats because nobody plays no limit.

I've said this in pretty much every thread I've posted, but the only way you can create an atmosphere that gamblers love AND it still being relatively low variance (in comparison to plo and mtts) are mixed games.

I must be running very good lifetime, I should be grateful to be such a luckbox according to everything you ramble about on every threads upswinging

late sub

Is it a coincidence that basically every poster with an old join date more or less agrees with me... and guys who have brand new join dates and or who are just starting their journey as an lol poker pro aka degen are calling me a hater?

Think about it

Do you really feel it is an accurate statement that most posters with an old join date have agreed with you?

Thanks for the kind words. You're 100% correct. I let the emotional stuff get to me via a bad/final run at poker.

I've run so far above EV in this human experience we call life. Missing out on some cash in my poker career dwarfs in comparison to the life rungood.


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In regards to the mtt/plo thing I think mixing is fine given certain factors. The main factor is interest. If an individual is bored sick of PLO and finds its easier to focus/learn/enjoy while playing an MTT than there is huge value in that.

On a more quantifiable level, it also depends on game selection. If a super soft $500 MTT starts at 11am and the PLO cash game as been super reg-heavy its close from a strictly EV perspective. Add in that all the dealers in the room are needed for the MTT and the PLO won't start until 2-4pm, If I arrive at the casino around 11:30 its more +EV to play the MTT.

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I've managed to stumble upon an amazing community down in Mexico. It's a yoga school that is focused on heart-based development. There is lots of focus on that meditative aspect, which is what I believe is most important. The asana practice(postures) is very slow/methodical and I think its a great tool. There are also lectures and a bunch of amazing people around. The only downside is that its ~33C(~91F) everyday.

I begun water-fasting ~40hours ago. I intended to fast my standard ~80-85 hours but will be breaking the fast after ~46 hours. I've been doing breath-work and energy-work while fasted and it seems much stronger. The body is super light/responsive. Connecting with the heart is easier. I can feel energy moving up/down my spine. The body is more responsive to oxgen while in a fasted state.

I'm breaking my fast early because there is a temazcal tomorrow. Its a traditional sweat-lodge ceremony. I sweat a bunch and there is no water during the ceremony, so I expect it to be particularly challenging for me.

The day after the sweat-lodge I will be attending a 10-day silent meditation retreat at the yoga school.

After that, I'll be doing module 1 of the yoga program. It's an intensive 21-da program that the school offers.

I dont have plans after that, but am playing around with the idea of attending mushroom ceremonies with the indegionous in the nearby mountains.

I don't understand either. I see a lot of armchair experts on the subject on these forums.

By the way, can you (or anyone else) give me the details on what happened to the OP? I can't be bothered to read through almost 3000 posts.

I think most people trading are probably not pushing edges relative to buy/hold zero effort. That said, I'm sure there are small groups of traders which are printing via trading from manipulating the market with capital and information sources. These are like the super crushers in poker. I'd guess there are also a much larger group people making money by being able to identify these trends and being "second movers" on the trends. These are like the meh-pros and such. After this, there is probably an even larger group of people which are making small amounts of money by copying trading strategies from the second group. These are essentially the around break-even grinders.

The way I see it is to succeed in the second group you need to be experienced and talented in trading and also dedicate vast amounts of energy, and the people that are doing like 10-30hours/wk of "work" are in the last group but delude themselves into thinking they are printing via trading crypto. I'm sure people can relate to this group as there are lots of people like this in the poker world..

For me and most readers of this post that a simple buy/hold strategy re-balancing every few months is the most +EV strategy. It would be similar to buy/holding the index in the equity market.

On a side note, I'm actually net short on the equity market as of a couple weeks ago...

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As far as what OP is up to these days I'll fire off some updates on this in the near-term.

Alright, so I attended a 10-day silent retreat at a heart-based yoga/meditation center.

I wont go deep into journal entries but will share a few experiences.

An ayahuasca vision I had 2+ years ago that I didn't fully understand became crystal clear. This alone was worth the retreat. I unknowingly had an extremely valuable relative-peak experience.

Day 3 was a tough day for me during the retreat. I sat up on my yoga mat and had a green spider on my torso. Hadn't seen one since or after.

Day4 afternoon had "a dream" experience of being engulfed in vibrations in a black-space. Lasted only a few seconds until I was like "Wait where am I? What is this?" to which I found myself in my body lying in bed with my eyes closed.

The last day I felt overwhelming gratitude and joy. Cried tears of joy/happiness.

My spiritual journey continues, I'm doing a course at the same heart-based yoga center. My views towards love and romantic relationships are going through a transition.

My meditation practice is the strongest its ever been outside of an intensive retreat. Actively holding attention on a single object for 30-60 minutes is becoming easy. Attention strays multiple times, but for <1minute. I'd say I'm around "stage3-4" in the Dalai Lama's 10 stages of meditation.

I'm actively training my mind to sublimate the energy of thoughts regarding planning/strategizing into high-vibrational energy such as love/gratitude. I sense this process is near endless.

drop some revelations on them transisting love feels.

Vibrational black space englufment sounds awesome, I think even those experienced with those states find it difficult to hold onto that space, our mind realizes its being shut off and fights to snap back to 'you' again instead of letting that feeling completely take over. You'd be much more well-versed than I, but I think if you can stay there and let it deepen, that's similar to kundalini peaking?

I think it was a "relative peak experience" which is to say it was an experience of the divine(which everything is in some sense) but not "the ultimate" manifestation. It had a sense of "space/locality". The absolute peak experience is void of space/locality... I'm not sure if that state is sustained what happens. I think that any/every state is eventually transformed into the ultimate manifestation.. but not sure if its a super short-time line once you get to relatively close experiences.

My understanding is that there are several different states of consciousness similar to the one I experienced.. They are referred to by the yogic tradition as samadhi. The greats have been known to hold these states for days at a time. I believe a kundalini rising experience can bring about this state of consciousness. Death of the human body into this state of consciousness is believed to break the birth/death cycle.

Yeah, these states are difficult to attain and hold onto.. I have had less refined types of experiences like this over the last couple years. Normally, they quickly dissolve into waking consciousness as my mind disturbs the state with the slightest waves of "conscious" thoughts. It's like the emotional turmoil experienced when you experience lucidity in dreams for the first few times.

To add:
-I think you can attain these states through the use of substances and intention in the right setting..
-It makes sense that the advanced yogi's have so much compassion for "normal humans" as our general understanding/existence is in this lol-horrible state of consciousness relative to the types of places they can drop into
-I think there will be WAY more people dropping into these of consciousness over the next decades. My sense is that humanity is making a gradual transition into "light bodies". Eventually mainstream human beings will be able to explore/sustain these states of consciousness using technology for indefinite time periods. We already do have this tech and bodies capable of this, its called human body + yoga.. its just going to get way easier.

Life update:

Yoga adventures have been amazing. I completed a ~30day yoga program in southern Mexico. I experienced strong spiritual and emotional growth while in Mexico. The yoga school is in a beach town, and it's a tough climate. 30C-35C(100F?), and super humid every day. Immediately following the program a friend and I took a 4 hour bus up into the mountains.

Getting up into the crisp/cool mountains was great. We met up with some other people and ended up spending a couple weeks in the mountains with an awesome group of people. We shared a mushroom trip of epic proportions. The experience was pretty wild on a physical level for me.. It was an unusual type of experience for me-- liberating/awesome.

Following my mountain adventure, I flew to Ottawa, Canada. I visited with my family whom seem to be a constant gauge/reminder of how drastically I'm changing every year. I spent most of my time at the family cottage. Its on a river pretty far off in a valley area. It's a super tranquil environment. I opened a plant diet with red cedar and combined it with a 5-day fast at the cabin. My energy levels were much higher than previous fasts, but I had far less interaction with the plant spirit relative to my guided diets in the amazon jungle.

I like the idea of combining fasting and plant diets. The typical calorie-restricted plant diets seem very sub-optimal relative to water fasting.

I fly to Vancouver tomorrow. I'll be staying with some friends in north van for a week. That is to say, I'm blowing cash. Flying to and staying in Vancouver is a pricey ordeal. I'll be playing some PLO in Vancouver and exploring around. After that, heading to Whistler to spend a couple weeks hiking/kayaking/exploring. I'd like to try some fly-fishing sometime soon.

Also, I've been essentially closed off from intimacy(romantic) and sex over the last year. I've gone through some shifts lately and I'm much more open now. Will be putting a bit more energy into these realms in the near future. Aside from that, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing for the rest of the summer. I could spend a month grinding PLO in a city enviroment. Maybe volunteer in nothern BC or Vancouver Island.

Hey everyone,

I got instagram a few days ago. First impressions are that it feels like an upgraded, more friendly facebook. Also, its pretty exciting to find a bunch of people I haven't been in contact with for months/years. I'm mckendrytyler on instagram for people interested in following.

Poker went pretty horribly in Vancouver. The games were smallish, okay quality, and raked super high. I didn't connect too much with the people around, they were a bit more standoffish than usual, particularly considering I recognized a bunch of them. It felt like it took at least a few sessions to shake off the rust. On the last couple sessions, I was playing at ~70-80% of my max skill-level of last year in Sydney.

I've been in the "physical world" way more lately, with my inner-world quieting down. I'd like to write mostly about the physical body and eating as these are topics I've been contemplating/discussing the last couple weeks.

I've been doing way more physical activity over the last couple weeks. I've come to observe a few things from my experience and suspect they are generally true with others. First, I'd like to touch on diet and eating in general. Second, I'd like to provide some insights based on my experiences of being "weak" and getting "strong" several times over the last few years.

Newsflash: There are 5-10 large corporations that control ~90% of the worlds food supply. In the US 5 corporations control ~90%. They want profits, and will happily poison the public if it means more profits outweigh negative publicity. The food in most supermarkets is from these corporations. It is not good food. Most of the non-organic foods are horrible, most of the organic stuff is questionable.

As a general rule, organic > non-organic as a value proposition. What isn't realized is that the quality of organic foods varies immensely. There are several (100+) organic certifiers in the USA, and ~95 of them are owned by the big 5 corporations. These guys create organic labels that suit their agendas, and start stamping things organic.

There are some foods that aren't really worth buying organic. For instance, a study of samples of conventional avocados showed traces of pesticides in <1% and they are ~half the price of organic. Google "clean fifteen foods "for more info.

The best bet is to buy local organic produce. The food quality is better, and you take control away from the large corporations. As an added bonus, going to a farmers market is far more enjoyable than a standard supermarket. Farmers markets are everywhere. Typically, they open once/twice a week in small cities/towns and daily in larger cities. There is a second way to get organic produce from locals. There are options all over the internet to have organic foods delivered to drop-off points from organic, non-corporate farmers.

Its a relatively easy life hack. Right now, its only ~3% of grocery sales going through local farmers. I'd bet most of these people are athletes and/or high performing, conscious people. Why not make the switch? Better quality food for roughly the same price, while supporting local farmers. Easy game.

For the past couple of weeks I have been with friends in whistler, doing similar sorts of physical activity, and eating a similar amount. I seem to always be full. I really noticed this effect on a recent camping/hiking trip recently where I ate less and stayed full longer than my friends. Despite eating similar amounts and exercising similar amounts, I've put on ~7-8 pounds in 2 weeks. It's ~50/50 muscle/fat. Others have not seen similar gains.

I must be using less energy or using energy more efficiently. It's probably a combination of both. I think that there are a couple others factors at play too. I suspect my cellular function(for digestion and food->energy) are top-notch given several recent water-fasts, yoga, and eating habits. For eating habits, I tend to eat my food slower and chew more than others. I also use more spices and digestive aids. I tend to take cinnamon with any high sugar meal, turmeric/pepper/cumin and occasionally cayenne pepper with high fibre meals. I tend to have hot drinks(coffee/teas/cacao) following meals. I often add ginger or cinnamon to the hot drinks.

I'm not an expert on food. I'm an advanced intermediate. That said, I have several changes to implement. My over-eating habits are a huge spew. It leads to fat gain which doesn't serve much of a purpose unless I'm planning to hibernate. I should be bloated ~0% of the time, instead of after half my meals. Staying in the 5%-50% full range is optimal, while 10-100% seems practical. Also, I think light exercise 10-30 minutes after a meal would be +EV.

General thoughts on starting to get strong/fit; Start small, create habits, make it fun. Training super hard after a long break is a recipe for disaster. The muscles will need 3-4 days to recover, and they will be very sore. I don't understand why it's such a popular method. Are people afraid of being judged? Do they need to have a baseline? I've done both and recommend starting slow. When I say starting slow, it means going to ~70-80% of max capacity. The gains are comparable, and the recovery is way better.

I think my posts will become even less frequent here, i recommend checking out my instagram and/or new blog at www.tylermckendry.com

Interesting thoughts on the food industry and 100% correct.

Although it sounds like conspiracy theorism the way most of the world thinks is the 'healthy way' to eat has been created by the big corporations. For example that we should eat three times a day, breakfast is the most important meal and the food pyramid that recommends we eat mostly cereal and bread which contain nothing of value is all bull**** of the highest order.

On your thoughts on training it's been shown and is now even becoming prominent in the body building scene that sub-maximal training(Going to about 70-80% of your max in a session) will show better results as you can train more frequently and far less chance of burning yourself out.

Ugh, turns out that I have low 5 figures on my PS account that needs to be cleared via poker tables or some form of gambling. I haven't thought about it too much at this point. I'll probably end up grinding PLO25/PLO50 and playing Saturday/Sunday PLO MTTs for a couple weeks, perhaps a couple grand on MMA picks from friends.

It seems like a pretty massive time suck. Anyone know ~how much total $bet 4-tabling zoom PLO25 and/or PLO50 per hour?

Considering my rust, ~0% Rakeback, and assuming games have got tougher hourly is ~$5-$15/hr. Lammmee.

If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

why does it need to be cleared?

player transfer from a long time back

Re: Stars money. Can you player transfer any of it?

Re: Diet
For me I've found the best success with calorie restriction combined with high food quality and variety.

Re: Exercise
Kind of depends what your goals are. Just for general health?
I agree that you should best ease into it.
Also do things you enjoy and likely keep doing. Consistency is the key.

For straight strength gains though I'm a big advocate of weight training. But if that is not enjoyable to you there are plenty of other methods.

same constant problem for me and others who don't even play much but send money around for stables. 3 tabling 50NL zoom clears about $1k/hour of xfer limits fwiw. Games are not even soft, puke. Cash clears it much much faster than mtt's ever would unless you're playing 500s+. SNGs probably best for clearing but its a very different skillset and I wouldn't recommend it to dabble in.

you may have some better ideas...let's say the world is your oyster, where would you live for a season of snowboarding on a budget of ~2k/mo with easy accessibility? Would prefer not having to buy a car and riding 3-4 days/week

^^ meant 4 tabling

ok. plo zoom would clear it quickest.

by the way, can you provide a brief summary of what happened with your poker career since the beginning of the thread? i notice you started this PGC over 6 years ago. did you achieve your goals and why/why not?