I can't compare to American games but the London games are the best in the UK by a long shot. Afaik you can have IPads at the table but I can't imagine sitting there playing MTT's on the side being g great for your image. I'm not sure on Amsterdam but Barcelona live games have lots of angle shooters and if you don't speak the language you're at the mercy of some pretty stupid rules. To play on Stars.es you need a permanent address there and what's called a foreign ID number to make an account and play for real money. Unsure on anything else as I don't smoke but hope that helped!

Glgl Meale, I agree with the above poster that your PGC's get better and better so looking forward to following your progress!

Thanks brother! Glad to have you in here.

What I ment is to implement liquefied food into your diet, not to replace other meals with it

My diet already consists a lot of liquid. A substantial amount of my daily caloric intake is coming from mass gainer shakes. Which are pretty much the same thing you're suggesting. I've been riding that convenience train for a while now!

In as usual!

+1 on Thinking fast and slow found it bit on the dry side. This apps apparently great as well https://www.blinkist.com/ although got enough on my reading list tbh to keep me occupid for a while!

Again wp on the decision!

Cheers Pete! First time I've seen this Blinkist, looks really cool. Might be a go-to for the Melbourne public transport trips!

Ty Ty!

Definitely in for this one. GLGL!

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in, glgl, don't think i have it in me to ever be full time live pro, too soul sucking.

Good luck man! Hells to the yes! Hope to hear some cool adventures from down under dude!

Thanks for taking your time <3

if u want meals to keep you full just up the fat, none a that non fat greek yoghurt get the full fat in there, and cheese on everything LCHF ftw i eat 2 meals a day and im stuffed have a snack after if im peckish GLGL

Hey just sub to the thread, goodluck with the goals, I will be following! Also I was just wondering I am just starting out with live poker, I live in Perth, would these rake fees be considered as terrible? $2/$3 capped at $15 no flop no drop, what is the rake at star casino? Cheers

10%*** these games run at the pub for around 3 hours 3 times a week with the line up being filled with older crowd 40 year olds+ including a handful of aboriginal women that I can't see them putting much time into game, only thing is it run at some shady pubs but I feel like it the ideal place to start my live debut


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<3

My goal is to transform this preexisting paradigm that live poker is incredibly soul sucking into something a little more optimistic! Hopefully it can actually be done. :')

Thanks mate! Hope you enjoy the ride.

Yeah, that's a good point actually. I want to keep my fat intake at somewhere below 20% to keep protein and carb intake high enough to make gains gym-wise.

I've actually thought about intermittent fasting during sessions... Would solve all my issues re bringing food to the casino, but think I'd end up eating during the wrong times and I think I'd need two eating windows which wouldn't work.

But yeah, cheers for the tip. Might have to buy some nuts to snack on during sessions since there's decent fat content in them!

Hey mate,

Good to see you ITT! 10% @ $15 cap in a $2/$3 game is pretty extortionate imo. At least at $2/$5 it's only a 3bb cap but in $2/$3 it's a 5bb cap. If it's a 100bb buyin cap, I'd simply not play in that 2/3. Obv the no flop no drop is good, but still not worth the stupid cap.

If it's actually in a pub environment, I imagine the games would be incredibly terrible and you could definitely still make money in them despite the rake. So why not give it a crack!

Although I have the freedom to "set my own hours" now that I'm self employed, it's important not to use that as an excuse for complacency and only working when I feel like it. I've said multiple times now that I'll be looking to play 40+ hours a week and no more than 55 hours a week. This will be up until the point where I move to Melbourne.

Timetable



So this is a verrrrrry basic spreadsheet that indicates roughly how my week will be comprised. Now, obviously, I'm not going to be playing 70 hours of poker a week as indicated above. This is just a general time frame - what hours I actually play each day will be dictated by:

1. How good the games are at the time - If the game is juicy, I'll look to stick around for a long session, if they're ****, I'll look to play a shorter session and head home earlier.
2. Whether I'm able to drive or have to take the train - I currently have a late night driving restriction on my licence and can't drive after 11pm and before 5am. I'm going to apply for an exemption but it may end up that I need to train in on Fri/Sat/Sun. Unfortunately the last train/bus home is like 2am so can't play as long as I'd like if I'm unable to get an exemption.
3. The time of the year - This doesn't apply so much to Brisbane, because action I imagine will remain pretty static throughout the year. But in Melbourne at least, I think it's fairly seasonal. I.e. During AM/APPT/ANZPT, I expect better and more cash games to be running, so during these times I think I'll want to be playing a higher volume.
4. How I'm feeling - If I am particularly tired and don't feel like starting at a particular time or putting in a long session is a great idea, I'll look to go home and get some sleep so I can make this time up later in the week when I'm feeling better.
5. Other circumstances - Obv this timetable makes zero allowance for a social life. In general, I'm going to try avoid socialising late on Fri/Sat as that's the most important time for me to be grinding. But if I need to take the night off maybe once a month to meet friends, etc, etc, I'm happy to do it, so long as I'm still hitting 40 hours a week.

I'm going to compile a list of weekly expenses to help control weekly spending. If I know what I'm spending each week and stick to a budget, it'll make me feel much more at ease during a downswing. This budget number will play a role in my forthcoming "manifesto" which is an idea I'll explain more later.

Current Weekly Expenses

Food:groceries/coffee/supplements/1xmeal out: $170
Petrol: $55
Gym membership: $13
Rent: $120
Phone: $2
Other: $60
{Other includes: car rego, repairs, emergency fund, gifts, money to socialise with, etc.}
Total: $420 (blaze it?)

Some of these are rough numbers, by the way. I'm not actually sure how much I'll spend on food and supps per week atm since my diet is changing as a function of the casino environment. For those wondering, I pay $8 a month for my phone plan at the moment - freerolling the rest of the cost, cheers dad. So I have about $420 p/w. If I have about $20k currently, 10k of which is for the BR, that means I'll have just shy of 6 months worth of living expenses assuming I break even for the next 5/6 months.

Objectivity Manifesto

This is a random idea that occurred to me yesterday while I was walking to the gym. I was thinking, if I'm going through a shocking downswing, what can I do to ease my nerves and flush out any lingering doubt that may have crept in - i.e. how can I maintain the highest quality of poker during even the worst of times?

While, in this moment, I am aware I have what it takes to be successful in poker, after the 6th straight losing session, it may have lost its clarity. The purpose of this manifesto is to replenish my objectivity when results aren't going my way.

It's about reassurance and finding equilibrium if we find ourselves veering off course. I need to be able to reassure myself that things will work out. Below is a list of things I think it's important that I remind myself to focus on when things head south.

1. I must maintain my best possible game at all times.
2. I must play 40 hours or more each week.
3. I must review hands, ranges, and mental game strategy off the table each week.

If I do these things consistently, week in, week out, I will be successful in the long run. Below is a manifesto of sorts that I can remind myself of when the going gets tough - sort of like an affirmation...

Already my absolute favorite thread. <3

The below is a canned speech I'll be using for daily updates. At the bottom is a link to a OneDrive link which I'll be updating daily (or every other day) that contains full results and a profit graph. I'll be posting weekly graphs in the weekly report, monthly graphs in the monthly one, and will obv do a yearly update too.

I'll be using Poker Agent to track my results during sessions and then transposing them onto this OneDrive spreadsheet so they're public and you can check them out if you'd like. Also, since I recently purchased a new phone, I'm not going to bother pulling my current 2017 results from my old app in my old phone (partly because I already threw it out) but also to keep separate my results from before I begin playing full time. Those results are currently available in the spreadsheet but I imagine I'll get rid of them in a week or so - but I've left them there for now so you can see how the graph will function etc.

Up until the present date, I've played about 188 hours of live poker this year for something like $3k profit. Pretty irrelevant sample size and I'm happy to just chuck out those results and start fresh from day 1 (being probably Sunday this week - i.e. 4 days from now will be my first session).

Yeah so below is basically a dummy post that shows the structure of my daily updates. If you have any suggestions for things to include, please let me know! I'll be doing a slightly more comprehensive weekly update as well.

================================================

Daily Update - Wed 26 Jul 2017

Hours Played: 11
Profit: $1,413
Variance: 7

Notes: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut hendrerit ipsum vestibulum pharetra suscipit. Nullam pharetra vehicula faucibus. Integer sed efficitur lacus. Suspendisse potenti. Nam tempus dolor vitae mauris luctus aliquet. Maecenas vitae tortor orci. Mauris aliquam sem porta, vestibulum mi ac, pretium nisi. Vivamus non felis in lacus volutpat porta vel quis lorem. Nulla vel eleifend erat, aliquet tempus nunc. Praesent tempor tellus eget lectus scelerisque facilisis. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nullam maximus sodales maximus. Nam euismod arcu felis, a laoreet arcu molestie rutrum.

Hands

Hand 1

8 Handed, CO = Older MAWG, BTN = Aggressive mid-twenties Asian sort
Hero ($590) Raises $25 UTG w/ AA
CO ($500) calls, BTN ($800) calls, BB ($1,000) calls
Flop ($102): KJ9
BB checks, hero bets $75, CO calls, BTN calls, BB folds
Turn($327): KJ9 8
Hero bets $250, CO goes all-in for $350 total, BTN calls, hero shoves all-in for $240 more, BTN calls $90.

Analysis:

Preflop: Given the table dynamic, slightly larger raises seemed to be best pre here. Hero is in early position too so bigger in general is better. $25 seemed like the optimal number.

Flop: With two other players in the hand, I'm not stoked about the flop, but we're going to have the best hand most of the time here. We must bet for value as well as to protect our equity. Fairly large seems good here because of the expected low fold equity and TBH we could possibly have even gone closer to full pot. Two calls doesn't necessarily mean we're behind. There is a large number of draws: pair+gutshot, flush draws, basically a lot of PPD stuff we're still way ahead of. I'd expect BTN to raise flop with very strong hands fairly often whereas I'd expect CO to call flop with most of their range to encourage BTN to continue but they could also raise flop with their value and draws to apply pressure.

Turn: This is effectively a brick as it really only improves 89 that could peel flop. CO has about 1 PSB behind, I have about 1.5x PSB. I actually like shoving the turn better than betting 3/4 pot. If we bet flop and CO shoves, obv we're never folding. And TBH if we bet flop, CO shoves, and then BTN shoves, we're probably still never folding given the flop action. By betting 3/4 pot however, BTN will get a very good price to call with any draw even if CO shoves since the action won't have reopened. The last thing I want is for the T to peel off on the river and have to check/fold with $190 behind.

Results:



Full Results: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AkK4doh8PHLEgk6pBpFJrgcokPKM

Oh stop it!

Subbed GL mate!

Thanks for subbing!

Cool thread!
In your excel sheet, what exactly is the "variance /10" column?
Maybe you could include a column in which you track your mental performance.

Thanks bro!

The variance criterion is my best guess at how I ran for the session, with 1 being unimaginably shockingly bad, and 10 being the sickest of sun runs. This isn't just AI EV but also situational stuff i.e. card distribution as well.

I'm not sure how valuable having it is, but it's something I did from the beginning of the year.

One Day Out

Sat around today doing not a whole lot. I see no really compelling reason to wait longer and will begin my first session tomorrow! My plan currently is to play tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and then break on Monday, before resuming on Tuesday.

Currently food is an issue again. I attempted that special fried rice but it turned out awful. Rice was very gluggy and I don't imagine it'll be much good cold at the casino. On Monday, I'll go for a food shop and buy some items to put together sandwiches each day. Like a hearty ham+turkey or something - this will actually taste decent and I'll be happy eating them each day. I'll also have to find some sort of nut mix I can bring to snack on throughout the sessions.

Tomorrow, I'll eat a large meal before heading to the casino and I'll bring a mass gainer shake with me. Hoping I'll probably only need to buy one meal at the cas tomorrow and then Saturday I should have a chance to get these sandwiches happening.

So tomorrow, up at 8am, quick meal, gym, meal again, and head to casino. Hopefully get on a start table at midday. I'll want to be home by 11pm so I can get some sleep to do it again Saturday.

My excitement is building and I hope to be able to bring you guys a good recap of the first official session of my career tomorrow.

Meditation

This is something I want to get into the habit of doing. I've "tried" meditating several times throughout my life but never managed to find any benefit or have it stick, probably just a function of my getting bored/not giving it a fair whack.

I think though that if I can get into the habit of meditating once each night before bed, it'll be beneficial. It certainly can't be a bad thing for the mental game. If I can spend 20-30 minutes per night stretching, meditating, maybe mucking around with some affirmations, I think it'll help me sleep better at night too.