A quick Christmas update. Not much has changed. I have just been consistently getting my ass kicked. Down a couple hundred bucks to start off the poker journey. Here's my graph from Pokerstars since I finished the program. I've only lost a few bucks on 888 and Party in addition to this, but Stars is where most of the damage is. And it all started so good haha



I think this is obviously a combination of run-bad and play-bad. Probably more emphasis on play-bad. I think my overall game has been relatively solid, and I've been following the lines taught in the course for the most part. That being said, I have not been pulling my weight when it comes to studying at all. We have a tourney schedule set that I need to get on and start basically as soon as I wake up. I play for 6 or 7 or 8 hours, and by the end I am fried and just take the rest of the night off. This is a terrible way for me to be approaching my game, and I am not going to get better unless I put the time in off of the tables.

The last week and a half I probably spent as much if not more time grinding video games as I did playing poker, which isn't a good recipe for success. The two games I played, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and L.A. Noire, were both pretty damn enjoyable. I've had my fix, and now I need to focus on my game.

As far as living goes, I haven't looked for any rooms in town since my first day back. Might ask the parents if they'd be okay with me staying a while longer at the lakehouse. We're still on the hook for my room in Vancouver. We went through a huge hassle to bring my mattress back halfway across the country, and now no one wants to live in an unfurnished room. Who would've thunk it

Life is good though. Life is so much better. And I am honestly happiest about that. I have a long way to go before I'm a poker success, but I'm glad that other things are going well.

I realized after my last post that I wasn't putting any hand histories in my posts. Gonna have to wait a little longer for the first one. No one wants to see hand histories of Kings into Aces and punting 30bb with AQo. We'll wait until I actually play a meaningful hand haha

Merry Christmas!

glgl! never give up

Boys...

I DID IT!!!! I ****ING BINKED THE **** OUT OF A ****ING TOURNAMENT!!!!

****

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Holy ****ing ****. I am so ****ing tired right now hahahaha For the last like 3 hours I was screaming at my computer so much. There were lots and lots of let's ****ing gos haha. The parents have abandoned me at the lakehouse for this current week, so I can yell as loud as I want

Here's the picture to prove it. And I guess you will now all learn my poker name as well. PocketPear66 ****ing kicking ass and taking names baby



Jesus Christ. $397 USD that erases all the wrongs of a run bad December. I am back in black baby. I still have so much work to do and room to grow as a player, but I am going to savour the **** out of this ))))

Hey. Wanna see some hands?


PokerStars - 12500/25000 Ante 3800 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 57.49 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 8.70, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
Hero (BTN): 44.26 BB
SB: 17.98 BB (VPIP: 20.83, PFR: 17.39, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 24)
BB: 107.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 28.57, Hands: 24)
UTG: 57.2 BB (VPIP: 15.76, PFR: 8.59, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 166)
UTG+1: 37.51 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 15.63, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 66)
MP: 88.91 BB (VPIP: 23.26, PFR: 16.28, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 44)
MP+1: 68.95 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)

8 players post ante of 0.15 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.72 BB) Hero has J 9

fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2.7 BB, Hero calls 2.7 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (8.12 BB, 2 players) T 8 Q
CO bets 8.12 BB, Hero calls 8.12 BB

Turn: (24.35 BB, 2 players) 2
CO bets 46.52 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 33.29 BB and is all-in

River: (90.93 BB, 2 players) 3




So this was like final two or three tables, where the crunch was starting to come in. For the entire tournament I had basically been somewhere between chip average or below the entire time. I honestly had like a VPIP of 5 one hundred hands into the tournament, but this was the tourney that just didn't end.

On this hand, I called the open from CO with J9s in the button, and I flopped the ****ing nuts. This was when things started to turn. It also helped that the dude bet pot as well. I decided to call just in case he was bluffing. He could have two pair that can improve to full houses or a flush draw, but our SPR gets really small and I'm looking to get it in on the turn.

Turn is a third club and villain jams. This is obviously a snap call, but I'm obviously nervous he hit a flush. Turns out he's got top pair with nut flush draw and it bricks out. That gave me a big stack, which I took to the FT.

At the final table, my bounty was at $10.90, which was the second lowest of everyone left. I just did not find spots to knock people out leading up to the final table, even though I had a huge stack for basically the entire end game. Villain in this next hand had a bounty of $44.58, the highest in the tourney. Which might explain why I decided to play 32o against him



PokerStars - 35000/70000 Ante 11000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP+2: 23.46 BB (VPIP: 30.30, PFR: 15.63, 3Bet Preflop: 9.26, Hands: 133)
CO: 32.57 BB (VPIP: 20.53, PFR: 12.00, 3Bet Preflop: 3.17, Hands: 153)
BTN: 32.09 BB (VPIP: 29.79, PFR: 25.53, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 47)
SB: 48.65 BB (VPIP: 24.00, PFR: 18.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 51)
Hero (BB): 123.85 BB
UTG: 16.77 BB (VPIP: 6.25, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
UTG+1: 97.28 BB (VPIP: 17.81, PFR: 12.33, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 73)
MP: 21.87 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
MP+1: 69.12 BB (VPIP: 35.19, PFR: 28.70, 3Bet Preflop: 12.20, Hands: 110)

9 players post ante of 0.16 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.91 BB) Hero has 2 3

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop: (5.92 BB, 2 players) T 6 9
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (5.92 BB, 2 players) T
Hero bets 2.96 BB, BTN calls 2.96 BB

River: (11.83 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 7 BB, BTN calls 7 BB





Yeah. He only min raised pre. I am the overwhelming chip leader in the BB, and he is one of the shorter stacks. Even tho I had complete ****, I wanted to try and flop something for cheap and knock him out (and get that sweet sweet booty).

I totally whiff the flop. I check, and he checks it back. Turn is a second ten, and I decide to fire. Put the pressure on with my big stack. He does make the call, but I know that he doesn't have a ten since he checked back flop. River is a four, so I size up my river barrel. And he snap calls me with ace high. I did not know it, but this guy was a bit of a station. Makes sense why he won so many booties. He was running like a God.

Whatever. Good call by him. We got it all-in preflop 3 hands later. I had AsKs, and he had QQ. I wanted that sweet sweet booty, but I bricked out. I was kinda back with the rest of the pack after that, and the other dude went on to get knocked out by someone else. #rip

I will now skip to heads up play. Know that besides the 32o hand, I ****ing crushed that final table. I legit got KK three or four times in the first half hour, which was amazing. It helped me get one bounty, and I didn't get anymore until heads up play. Used my big chip stack to perfection, really put the pressure on some of my opponents with some 3bets and ****. I opted to play more conservative, as I was a top 3 stack the entire FT. I just laddered my way to heads up. At heads up, my bounty was $24.39. Villain had a bounty of $93.13. He knocked out the last four people, which explains that haha.

And this guy was a bit of a nut. I had a small chip lead going into heads up play. He was pretty aggressive, betting pot often, 3bet jamming a few times on me preflop. He got to be a small leader, but that was okay. I was just waiting for my spot, my ****ing hand. And then the pocket rockets came my way.


PokerStars - 125000/250000 Ante 38000 NL - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 69.94 BB (VPIP: 30.06, PFR: 17.80, 3Bet Preflop: 12.77, Hands: 321)
Hero (BB): 60.44 BB

2 players post ante of 0.15 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.8 BB) Hero has A A

SB raises to 3.3 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, SB raises to 69.79 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 52.29 BB and is all-in

Flop: (120.88 BB, 2 players) 7 J 5

Turn: (120.88 BB, 2 players) 2

River: (120.88 BB, 2 players) 7




I told you he was a bit of a nut, yknow?

Yeah. Super big preflop sizing on his open. I decided to 3bet a little less than 3x. Because I wanted him to blast off. He literally typed in the chat "gl" and then shoved. I snap called, he bricked the **** out, and that was that. Almost. Six hands later I outflopped his A9 by pairing my KJ king. And then that was that.

$397 USD. Holy ****. If I had busted in second place to him, I think I'm leaving that tournament with around $130. That heads up was honestly for me to triple my profit, and I did. So, so, so insane.

I know I mentioned in my first post some deep runs that convinced me I could do this. Those were 300-field tourneys, and my biggest cash was like $160 for third. Dope. Very dope.

But I just beat out 6500 people for $397 ****ing dollars. That's doper.

I honestly don't think I am going to play tomorrow. I am so so so burnt out, and I am so so so hyped at the same time. I guess I'll try and find something to do for New Years.

2017. What a ****ing year. And what a ****ing way to end it.

There are going to be so many starred out swears. I'm sorry you guys. I'm just excited is all.

Hopefully 2018 will bring many wonderful things. For me, and for all of you too

Another year, another nice little score. Third place in the $2.20 hyper-turbo. I really hope I keep running this hot haha. I busted with 99 against A7o. I flopped a set of nines and saw he had 3% equity and started to celly. And then he went runner-runner straight. Feels bad man haha



New Years was a good time. I'm living the sober life right now, not sure if I had explicitly mentioned that or not. I'm still not quite right, and drinking only brought out the worst things in my last year. I was content to DD for my friends. We ended up at one of the local bars in town after midnight, which was weird because even though I'm 22, I had never actually been to a bar in town (legal age in Sask is 19). So I saw A LOT of people I haven't seen for a very very long time.

It was kinda weird, but in the best way possible. It's great to see so many familiar faces I was friendly with in high school, or even just knew my entire life growing up. And I loved getting to tell them I was playing poker right now hahahahaha. Holy **** I loved throwing that curveball, cuz everyone thinks you're ****ing crazy when you say that's what you're doing it. I never have done things the easy way

I wrote a note on my phone at the bar last night. "In Vancouver, I think I was stuck in my own room for so long that I forgot what other people were like. Y'know, I have a life here. I have friends here. Not saying that I didn't have those people in Vancouver. But it's different here, in a really good way". Saskatchewan is a good different.

It was great getting to see anyone, and I didn't get back out to the lake until 4:30 AM. Didn't fall asleep on the highway, so it was a good night.

It's nice to have these poker scores. I know that variance is obviously a huge reason for these two recent successes, but it just validates what I've decided to do. Not that I've ever doubted myself to the point of quitting, but I had never won an MTT, let alone score over $200 in a tournament. And I just crushed two days back to back.

2017 can kiss my ass. Cuz I am going to beat the **** out of 2018 haha

Gl. Do NOT quit your job until you are a proven winning player with a good understanding of the game. It is possible to make a living in poker, very few people can do it. Unless you are a crusher in your games the variance can and will hit you hard and without a wealth of experience one bad downswing could be the end of you. It takes years to learn how to deal with that sort of thing.

Keep your job, play poker 20 hours/wk, study almost as much as you play, see how the year goes once you have 1k+ hours logged. Evaluate.

Good luck no matter what path you take.

Variance is legit my best friend right now. Chopped top prize in a deep stack tourney today for another hella nice score.



I really hope this keeps going hahahaha. Remember when I said that I was getting my ass kicked? My CFP bankroll tracking was literally a straight line down from December 10th to December 28th. I lost 201 Euros in that stretch.

In my last 3 days, I have won 729 Euros. That's about $1100 Canadian by my estimation.

Feels good man

So I have gotten absolutely diddled today. Down a little over $100 CAD for sure. I still have 3 tourneys, but one is a hyper-turbo and I am super short in the other two. Low-key ready for today to be done.

Just super ****ing frustrating how many times I got it in good and got sucked out on today. So many backdoor flushes, bull**** river trips and two pairs. And it's not like I played godly. I made some mistakes. But when you are consistently running KK into AA, losing AA vs JJ, running trips top kicker into straights... pisses you off haha

I just wanted to vent, because god damn. Definitely not the Sunday I wanted. Only cashed one of like 25 tourneys, and you know that it was a min cash.

Gotta find the winning ways again. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day to chill and study. I have been humbled haha

So I'm back to earth. Went for a walk to blow off some steam. Took a ridiculous pano of the lake. Bonus pic from the drive into town for supper.





So yeah. Next thing on the agenda is to get back into shape. Just weighed myself and I clock in at 238.6 lbs. Binge eating was a way that I tried to deal with everything that was happening to me the last couple of years. When I broke up with my ex about twenty-one months ago, I weighed pretty close to 160 lbs. I was the skinniest I had ever been, and I completely let myself go afterwards.

My weight has fluctuated a lot in the past. I have had three periods of prolonged fitness/weightloss, losing about 35 lbs, then 40 lbs, and then 30 lbs. So to get to 160, I guess I need to lose almost 80.

Damn. I really let myself get fat haha

Just gonna take it a day at a time. The lakehouse has a limit on data (as my parents tell me), so I need to try finding distractions other than Youtube anyways. I'm already dressed in my workout gear, have a water bottle filled up, and am ready to hit the treadmill. I'm sure that getting back into shape and treating my body right will only help me achieve everything else that I want to. I wanna be sharp at the tables, I want to live a long time, and I don't want to die alone.

Motivated af, talk to you later guys

Of course I screwed up the lake pic. Attempt #2 right here

Focus on your health, your diet and relationships. These will outlast and are far more important than anything you will ever do at the poker tables.

Set a daily goal for yourself to not play any poker until you have exercised and done the other important things in your life (reading, networking, personal goals etc). Then treat poker like a job, study and grind, but never let it come before your health.

Had supper with mom and dad at my Uncle’s restaurant in town today. Definitely one of the things I missed most, always felt like family eating there (cuz we are ). My uncle is Greek, so it’s a Greek restaurant and family is a big thing. His mom was at the restaurant today. We aren’t related by blood or anything, but we know each other, yknow? And she heard that I was playing poker, and she basically started crying.

She started telling me about her cousin. Her cousin started playing poker, and it got so bad that he started asking everyone for money. He couldn’t afford his mortgage, he couldn’t help his kids go to school, nothing. Apparently he recently got cancer and can’t afford treatment. My uncle’s mom is sitting there, eyes welling up, saying that if her cousin’s wife asked for some money, she would help. But if her cousin asked her for money, she couldn’t give it to him. She can’t trust him with it. And she gave me more hugs than I have ever gotten from her in my entire life.

Is it weird to say that I don’t really relate to that story at all?

I don’t know. I understand how dangerous poker is. I understand how dark it can get, and I have lived in that darkness to some degree. And I honestly ****ing love it. So much of last year was trying to understand why I was playing poker, why I was drawn to it. That dark edge is so amazing. It’s a black hole, a money pit, it can ruin people’s lives, and it makes the game so much fun

I think I’m a sicko haha

Obviously what happened to her cousin is horrible, and it’s what happens to a lot of people. Those people are the fish, those people are the whales. They are what makes the poker economy go round. They are the people we need to play poker, because sharks need to eat fishies, you know?

I can understand her concerns. It’s the same concern any sane person would have. It’s what my mom was concerned about, my dad too I’m sure. I’m obviously wary of it too, but I know how to combat it. I can manage my bankroll. I can recognize I’m on tilt and walk away. I’m not letting the game control my life. It’s honestly the best part of my life right now. I love it to death.

I nodded, I hugged her back, I said that I would be careful. Like, what else am I supposed to say?

Once she left, my uncle said “I’m 48 years old, and my mom comes to work and embarrasses me every day. EVERY DAY!”

Good thing I don’t have a family restaurant to take over

Had my most profitable day of the poker journey, winning a little over $600 CAD after final tabling two 888 tourneys. There was $1100 USD up top in one of the tournaments and I was bummed that I only finished fourth. The table was super soft and the guys were completely ICM illiterate, but I ended up jamming my shorter stack AKo into a donkey's JJ. Still vibing on today though haha

It was really weird. I was just winding down from the day, washing my hands in the sink. I had music playing on my phone, and I was belting it and dancing and all that good happy ****. And then I remembered that I almost killed myself less than two months ago.

It is so so strange. That wasn't that long ago. But my life is completely different than it was, in the best ways possible.

The only negative have been my parents. They have been on my case about money for the last couple of weeks, cuz they're stressed out about their own financial situation. It's definitely not the best environment to play poker in, and thankfully we found a sublet for my Vancouver room for start of Feb. I'll move somewhere in town, and they can stop saying how, "Today you made two dollars an hour," or that kind of ****.

I understand they just want me to be okay financially. But I have a grand plan going on here, and a slow start was not unexpected. I'm not opposed to getting a job, but I still have enough money saved up to take a full-time run at poker right now which I think is much more important. I am well in the positive for the poker journey, and my bankroll is growing. As my game gets better and the tourneys get bigger, so will the payouts.

By the way, today I made about $80 an hour. Hopefully they can appreciate that haha

My grandparents got into town on Friday so I ended up not playing a session during the weekend. Missed Sunday ugh

Still pretty hype time though. Whenever our grandparents come down, we end up playing cards a lot. Not poker. My grandma freaks out whenever we start talking about poker. We play a lot of Canasta, some Golf, a little Cribbage. Back in the day, our fam used to play dominoes and rummy and spoons, maybe a little chinese checkers and crazy eights.

Guys, all I'm trying to say is that I like playing games. Didn't win any rounds of canasta this weekend, but they're here for a few more days. Hopefully I can redeem myself. On a side note, my sister ****-talked her boyfriend and his bad canasta play constantly, and goddamn you could tell he was mad. I mean, he WAS **** at it. He was my partner, so I should know. But goddamn, I don't know how he can take it. My sister has no tact, but I guess he has no spine.

I think I will be a cool old person with all of my card games and board games and ****

Guys, I'm just gonna come out and say it. I really think that I can play poker for a living



My biggest score, my most profitable day. January has been a good ****ing month. The start and the middle at least.

I was a short stack from like final 30 to when we got down to 4 people, so I am super happy to get the W. Had luck go my way once or twice, but I think I made some really good ICM decisions and I also made some nice 3bet bluffs putting pressure on my opponents to get some much needed chips.

I doubled up to become the big chipleader three handed, my 99 holding against a dude's A4s (seriously). My winning hand was like two minutes later. I'm gonna run it through HRC to see what it thinks.

partypoker - 100000/200000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 14.67 BB (VPIP: 41.28, PFR: 32.86, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 229)
SB: 34.43 BB (VPIP: 19.44, PFR: 16.81, 3Bet Preflop: 15.56, Hands: 255)
Hero (BB): 69.4 BB

3 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.88 BB) Hero has Q A

BTN raises to 14.54 BB and is all-in, SB raises to 34.31 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 33.31 BB

Flop: (83.53 BB, 3 players) 7 Q 6

Turn: (83.53 BB, 3 players) 7

River: (83.53 BB, 3 players) 8



Okay. So the spazzy player shoves all in. He just jammed 40bb with A4s, so in addition to being crazy he may be on tilt, so his range is very wide and a snap call for me with my AQo. The hand gets interesting when SB rejams his stack. Now it is 34 bb to call, with two players at risk. 1st pays $705.52, 2nd is $501.65, 3rd pays $336.93. My thinking was that it is possible I have the best hand. SB had been jamming lots on FT, and I think that my AQo is holding up well against his range. He may have noticed the same thing with spazz and could be isolating with worse aces or broadways. What let me make the call was the payout situation, since spazz would have to beat me and SB to stay in the tourney. By calling, there is a much better chance we ladder up to top 2 payouts, which was why I decided to call. Let's run it through an HRC ICM calculation.



I gave our spazz a wide shoving range, 38.5%. This may be a little wide. I adjusted it to include J3s, though in the moment I probably thought his range was marginally tighter. The difference isn't that huge tho.



Here is SB's range. I put in all suited aces and kept AA and KK at 50% since there's a good chance he would have called to trap me instead of rejamming them.



With the two other ranges set, this is what I should be calling. A profitable call would be 5% of whatever +EV/bb AA is. So my calling range should be 66+, AJs+, AQo+. AQo is a slam dunk call being +0.50bb, so I am feeling pretty good about myself. I think I'm gonna throw this hand to my BPC classmates to get their opinions as well.

Feels good to run good

Congrats on the score man! Always feels good to bink something and it seems your hard work is paying off.

Was annoying to read some of the doubters in this thread who keep saying keep your job, play part time bla bla. Don’t listen to anyone who doubts what you can do. Pisses me off when so called experienced players comment on threads discouraging people from pursuing piker Just because they can’t make it themselves. I admit I’m a further bit down the road with mtts than you are and all I can say is you’re doing great man keep it up!!

Of course you will have some rough stretches in poker, that’s all part of learning the game but don’t lose heart listening to these naysayers. One thing that worries me is that your mental health seems quite volatile, I can empathise and have deff went through periods in my early twenties binging on drugs and behaving recklessly leading to downward spirals. I can say that if you couple that with a string of bad months in poker is a recipe for disaster. So my only advice is try to stay in control of that side of yourself, do whatever you can to level yourself because I can confirm that mtt poker is mentally tough sometimes.

Really hope your winning streak continues and anything is possible, will be following best I can! Good luck!

Thanks man! I really appreciate the encouraging words. Drugs and the like are things I haven't really gravitated to, but I definitely see where you're coming from. My mental health is really important, so I'm doing my best to stay on top of it. That takes precedence over poker for sure

gl on the tables man

Nerd:

Are you withdrawing from your bankroll regularly for rent/food/etc?

No! I had some money saved up so I could do this poker thing full time for a while. I have about 12-13k in savings still. Was talking with my mom today about how much living in town will cost me being totally independent, and we figured it would be around 1-1.2k/month. So that’s like 10 more months, not counting if I get a part time job to supplement my income or if I get my bankroll big enough to withdraw regularly.

Right now my BR is about $2.7k CAD, and I’ve only invested $600 into it. I have a 10k Euro contract with BPC so that I get coaching and we split profits 50/50 until I hit 10k Euros. I’ve been running hot, but it might be a while yet before my BR is big enough to pay for living expenses

Hey I just want to say I'm rooting for you. I can definitely relate to the mental health aspect. I used to use drugs to self medicate and help cope with my depression and anxiety and that landed me in jail for a few years which is actually where I first learned how to play poker. I fell in love with it and when I came home I started taking the game seriously and like you said it's probably the only thing in my life I'm passionate about. It's really encouraging to hear about you living the dream. I would love to take a shot at playing pro too but I'm just not rolled to do it at the moment and probably won't be any time soon. I just want to tell you about my experience with the mental health bit for what its worth. Down swings can be brutal if you're predisposed to depression and suicidal thoughts. There's probably a lot of more experienced players than me that can tell you about dealing with tilt and runbad but I know about keeping those thoughts and feelings in check. you're definitely onto something with the excercise thing. I go to the gym regularly and the release of endorphins I get is very important for my well being. Just set realistic goals for yourself and be consistent. Try and start with a half an hour 3 times a week and. go from there. Also what changed for me and finally helped me stop using heroin was becoming open to the idea of taking anti depressants. I was very close minded towards medication and I kept relapsing . Now I take 1 pill a day just a mild anti depressant in the morning and it keeps my mood more level and gives me slightly more energy. Im not saying that you should go see a psych and start taking drugs but if things get bad again for you it's something to consider. Also try meditation and yoga. Meditation is one of the most difficult but rewarding things I've ever experienced, poker probably being another. There's an app called headspace that you can try for free and will get you started with some guided meditation. Anyway I wish you the best on your journey and I'm sending some good vibes from New Jersey. I just wanted to share some of my experience with you. Being mentally fit is so important to being successful in poker and it's just that much more difficult if you're the type of person that struggles with depression. Good luck bro n best wishes. I'll be checking up on your thread to see how you're making out .

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

GL man subbed

The casino in regina is pretty good action tho?, 5/10 runs and i've seen some insane action there and obv the 1/2 plays like a 1/3 there pretty good stuff. Also the tourney series they have is pretty soft even tho i don't know **** about tourneys haha.

You could def make 3-5k a month grinding the live shiet at the casino pretty easily, but tourneys are more your thing no?

I appreciate the advice! Thanks man 👍🏻

Cool! I am definitely an MTT player at the moment, but if MTTs go well I’d be interested in working on my cash game play and maybe playing some more live. I haven’t been out to Casino Regina, but I might have to see what their tourney series is like. I’m living out near Swift Current and our casino just got rid of it’s poker table, so no live for me here haha

GL from Calgary here. Heard good things about live poker in Regina from some players I've meet that have travelled here to Cowboys Casino. Which if you're ever coming let me know.

So just played my last session of January! Super profitable month, and it looks like I'm going to be the most profitable MTT player in our BPC CFP program, which is nice. I know it means next to nothing, but it feels good to lead the pack in only my second month. Here's my graph on CFP, where I track all three of my bankrolls and know how much I've won/lost in one day. It tracks from when I first registered in the program at start of November to when I started playing at the end of November. Basically a straight line down until my $1.10 Bounty bink, and I was lucky enough to get a couple nice scores after (including a $600 4th place yesterday :S)



Just some stray thoughts. I won a TON of money on 888 and Party this month, especially in relation to how many tourneys I was playing on them. I think that has to do with the smaller and softer fields. Feels like I'm getting to final 3 or so tables in one of those tourneys everyday. This month I think I actually lost money on Stars. That's where I play the majority of my tournaments, but a lot of them are smaller buy-ins than the other sites. Probably has to do with the massive fields and the insanely top-heavy payout structures. I wasn't able to get a super-deep run since that hyper-turbo. Hopefully I can run it up on Stars next month

As you can see, I also put in how many tourneys I play and how long I play every day. Nice thing to keep track of, and I'm super happy with my numbers in both of those categories. One of my biggest concerns coming into this poker journey was whether I would have the stamina to play regularly and work on my game. I still think I need to play a lot more, especially my MTT volume, if I want to be a successful long term professional. As you can see, there was a lull in the middle of this month where I was losing losing losing. I'm glad that I stuck it out and got some big scores on the other side. I've also done some studying when I haven't been playing, analyzing some of my deep runs and doing some work with HRC. I'm very happy with the strides I've made since I started, and I'm gonna keep on crushing it

Slow start to Feb so far, only have 40 hours played. I took the three days off before today to just rest and get refreshed which was nice. A deep run in the Big $11 at the end of today saved me from complete disaster, so that's good. If I can fall asleep, hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Some non-poker stuff. I finally have a place lined up in Swift for $650/month, lease signing date for Feb 15th once my parents are back from their trip. I still have like $12k in the bank, so I gotta be really smart about my finances. I'm just happy to be moving into town considering how isolated I am out here. Very good chance I won't make it back to town until early next week, and last time I was in town was seven days ago. The lakehouse is a nice place to focus, but I think I need that social aspect in my life so that I low-key don't go crazy haha. No breakdowns yet, it will just be nice to be around more people I know.

I spent the last couple of days reading, watching movies, and playing games. When I first got interested in creative writing like five or six years ago, I made a conscious decision to absorb as many stories as I could. That ended up with me watching a ****load of movies, which helped since I think of myself primarily as a screenwriter. Last couple of days I was rewatching La La Land. Watched original version and special features yesterday, watched the commentary tonight. Moonlight is **** compared to La La Land, and you would know that if any of you watched Moonlight. Stories were something I always loved, but I fell out of love with it last year when I was really depressed. It's nice to feel like I'm getting an appetite for stories, seeing the value in them again.

I haven't read as much as I should have in the past several years, but I am reading a book right now, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. It's a non-fiction transcript of a Rolling Stone interview between journalist David Lipsky and David Foster Wallace, an author who was just ending his book tour of Infinite Jest at the time. I tried reading Infinite Jest, but only got like 50 pages in. It's ****ing dense. I want to give it another shot, but I am honestly treasuring this book so far. This book is the basis of the movie The End of the Tour starring Jesse Eisenberg and David Segel. Legitimately one of the greatest movies I've ever seen in my life, easy top ten, probable top five for me. Check it out, cuz it is the ****.

Last thing. A friend of mine wrote an article for The Tipping Point, which is group at UBC dedicated towards UBC students' mental health. I've been trying to write about my own experiences the last couple of years to put on their blog as well. I've wanted to write about it for a while, and this seems like an appropriate avenue. I may not end up doing it if I'm not happy with the product. If it's just "I was depressed, here's why, here's what I did," I would not be happy. I want it to be impactful. I want all my writing to be impactful, which is probably why I never write. Most of my writing is sh** haha

That's everything up to date. If I can just fall asleep, hopefully I'll shred tomorrow. We'll see.