Hi PG&C'ers,

My name is John, Im 33, and I live in Norway, yet also spending some serious time in Sweden as I work there alot. I've been inspired by other threads in this forum, and thus, I thought I might create my own thread when starting a mini challenge. As I recently booked a trip to Vegas during the second half of wsop, I start my challenge today, and end it by the 19th of june, so appr. 21 weeks.

Before I state my specific targets for this mini challenge, I'll provide a short background description so you get the context. I have been playing poker since 2005, focusing on online cash-games between 05 and 09 (during college), and live poker after 2009. I prefer live poker today due to mainly 2 reasons; as I got a very intense and time-consuming job, I don't have as much time to spend on poker, thus I want to focus more on live games as it also inludes socialization whilst online feels more like "work" to me. Secondly, the online games are of course tougher, and I don´t find it very fun to play much lower limits than before, yet facing tougher competition, whilst simultaneously getting bored fast due to vast amount of hours spent online during 05-09.

The poker scene in Norway and Sweden differs a bit, as there for instance are casinos in Sweden. However, most of my time spent playing live poker are spent on underground poker clubs. I still prefer and play mostly cash games, but I also play alot of the tournaments as cash games not always run, or starts late in the night when people bust out of the tournaments.

As this min-challenge will include Health (losing weight and working out) as well, I might as well tell you the short story. Was fit in the early twenties, yet put on some weight during college years and a bit after that, nothing to bad though. However, due to personal thigs that happened about four years ago, I unfortnately got a bit depressed and have let myself go since.

Goals for mini-challenge (23/1 to 19/6)

Poker

• Min. 150 hours of cash game at my main game.
  I'd like to put down a higher number, but due to underground games being unpredictable, and my job being intense, requiring inteligence and time, its difficult to predict the situation looking forward. My main game is $1/1, mostly texas, sometimes PLO. The game tend to play more like a $1/2 game as there are a lot of straddling. Also, it´s either capped at $200, or no cap, thus generally being 250bb+ Deep most of the time. Previously, I've managed to maintain an hourly of at least $15-20. My challenge is based on volume rather than result, but this is what I aim for "long term".
  
  
• Have a 50% RoI at tournaments.
  I will go back to focus more on cash game, thus focus more on the bigger tournaments ($80-250), and skip the weekly $30-60 tournaments as they're not worth my time.

Weight/health & work-out

• My starting weight is a massive 141,5kg, and my goal is to hit 120kg.
  I´m 190cm (6'3"), and have (except for the last 4 years) been working out/lifting weights for years, so at i.e. 100kg I was considered thin/very fit, and at a 110kg Im not considered very big. My goal is to lose 21,5kg in 21 weeks. It would be possible to lose more but it's a more healthy and long-term strategy to go for 1kg/w, regarding it as a marathon rather than a sprint. Also, I have to "turn it around" and see some results, so that is in fact more important than the exact number. However, 120kg will be the formal target weight for this challenge.
  
  
• Work-out: 100 work-outs
  As I have not been working out in any consistent manner for the previous years, I will divide the work-out into 3 phases.
  * Week 1-8: 8 weeks of Power-Walking (increasing from 30min walks to 60min interval-based walks)
  * Week 9-16 (include the gym): More intense/longer power-walks + cardio, and include weight lifting (2-split)
  * Week 17-21: 3rd level cardio (start running) and weight lifting (3-split)

Social life

• Go to (or host) at least 5 parties/drinking occations with friends
• Host at least 3 dinners with family and/or friends
• Visit family members for a "quick coffee and chat" more often
  
  To not keep track of what´s important, I'll throw in a social Life target as well. This might seem odd to the young kid, but as you turn 30+, friends tend to scatter, people have families, houses and very time-consuming good jobs, thus it's easy to "forget" about seeing eachother, especially when having alot to focus on.

Lets go, 21 weeks, then Vegas

GL.
I also have the same views as you regarding online vs live poker, I recently found myself enjoying live much more. Although you cant put in the same volume live as you can online, I think I enjoy the social aspect of the live game and don't see it as work, whereas online I see it always as a grind and not very fun.

Healt/weight-challenge
New weight: 138,7kg (-2,8kg)

I didnt plan to start out very aggressive, and I don't really feel that I have, but I realise that I've been more strict with my diet than I first planned. I went to buy groceries mid-week and bought very LCHF-related foods. Thus, I've been very low on carbs this week eating meat, fruits, salads, nuts, quark, protein drinks etc. I havent been to hungry, and I've also slept better than before, so I plan to keep on doin' it.

As for work-out, I've followed the schedule with 3 powerwalks (1x30min & 2x40min) as well as a 30min chill walk.

Poker
I´ve played three days this week, each day including both a tourney and some cash.

Overall results:
Tournamnets: $256 (8 hours/3 tourneys)
Cash: $279 (10,5 hours ~$28/hour)
Total: $23

Day 1:
I played a $56 tournament ant busted pretty early. As it was a monday, only a small cash game ran. I'ts a $0,1/0,2 game with a $40 cap. It's a dealers choice/mixed game and its really fun to play to kill some time. Also, it's increadible soft. Thus, I might play some in this game when $1/1 is not running.
Result: $79 (3,7 hours)

Day 2:
I played a $100 tournament that I busted after about 5 hours. The field was very soft but I was totally card dead so not much to say. Afterwards I sat down to play some PLO $1/1 no cap. I didnt really feel like playing PLO since I dont like the slow pace of it live, and as Im no PLO-genious either, but I played a couple of hours anyway due to 2-3 good spots in the game. I ended up GII in bad shape against the better players. In retrospect, I shouldn't have played as I was obvious a Little frustrated about being card-dead in the tournament, as well as it being PLO. However, due to the challenge I felt compelled to get the hours in. Shame on me, I need to go back to the mentality "I don't play if Im not really sure I want to" as it often result in me playing my C-game. Over the last year I've been really good at this, but I guess I have to remember the importance of it, regardless of the cash-volume challenge.
Result: $400 (1,5 hours)

Day 3:
This day I also played a $100 tournament. Not anything exciting to report, first lost half my stack in a 75/25-spot to see the rest go in on a flip with AK vs 88 a few hands later.
Afterwards a sat down in a good $1/1 texas game. The game was filled with soft passive fish and a couple of over-aggressive un-balanced regfish. The game was the softest I've played in a while, and I ran weel too, flopping sets, making straights and so on. If I would have played my A-game I would probably have got at least another $150-200 as I made a couple of bad calls/bets. However, due to meta-game reasons, being too tight, not splashing around and offering some good action, will be bad for me as the player pool is very small. However, I still should have made more
Result: $600 (6 hours)


Overall analysis:
The first week ended pretty well. regarding healt and work-out Im very pleased. As for poker, Im happy with my texas cash game, It's solid compared to the competition. As for the PLO-session, Im most disappointed that I didnt realise I should'nt have played. As for the tournaments, both of the ~$100 tourneys were good EV, however, I was extremely card dead, but I did'nt play as well as a have been so I need to shape up if playing these tournaments.


I have a few hands from the PLO and Texas $1/1 games that I might post later on for feed-back.