Timing out costs you a LOT of money, and is completely avoidable. Don't play more tables than you can cope with. If there fish on 20 tables, but you can't really play more than 8, don't play 20 because your game weakens to the point where it is greater than the edge gained by playing with the extra fish. Don't play 15. Don't play 12. Play 8. Max.

You just open folded JJ in the CO because you were playing too many tables and had a tough decision on only 1 other table. This is not good enough. And now you have closed down your session to write this update. This is an avoidable waste of time. If writing this is going to tilt you, then you shouldn't restart a session after writing this post. This is further punishment for playing too many tables. This needs to be a deterrent so that you stop playing too many tables.

I just spent a considerable amount of time writing a rather sizeable update, but it was lost trying to submit it. So yeah, GFY technology, I'm not writing it again. I will provide an update tomorrow, I'm too tired.

Goodnight, y'all.

Get laid. Seriously. Just relax. Maybe play live a little and give online a break. How many tables are you playing at once? Just relax and take a break and come back to it. And yes 24hrs a day with poker on the mind can be very stressful.

cheers

The Easter "Break"

I'm not sure if Easter is celebrated in other countries. It's not really "celebrated" here, but Good Friday and Easter Monday are 'bank holidays' (people get a free day off work). As you can imagine, this results in essentially a long weekend of drinking/partying for the masses. I think this is partly due to the fact that most people are kind of unhappy with their jobs/lives, so when an opportunity comes for some extended escapism, people grab it with both hands. They want to make the most of this 'long weekend', so there tends to be a lot of social events around this time.

Additionally, two of my oldest and closest friends are currently living away; one in Dubai, the other in Japan. As they also got some time off for Easter, they both coincidentally decided to come home for a week or so. This is awesome, however, it just ramps up the number of social obligations I have.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a sociable person. I like to think I'm pretty easy to get along with, but I just don't like to party/drink a lot, particularly not for consecutive days. I like to have a blow-out, but I never really want to go out the following night. However, Easter tends to be a time for family/friends to make an effort to spend time together, and with my two friends home for such a short period of time, a lot of things were organised, of which I felt obliged to attend, and there was a lot of juggling to ensure I got the chance to see my friends before they returned back to their respective countries of residence.

I have a pretty solid rule, where I never play poker the day after I have been drinking. Being hungover is just not good for playing anything near your A-game. Often you are tired, dehydrated, not focussed, etc. I may work on my game if I feel like it, or I may even grind if I don't really feel that I have a hangover. However, Easter this year was kind of like a consistent stream of parties/social occasions that I didn't feel I could miss. Friday was Japan_Friend welcome home party, Saturday was Dubai_Friend welcome home party, Sunday involved getting dinner and drinks with friends which was arranged weeks previous, etc. I tried my best to work on poker as much as I can, and tbf, given the circumstances, I'm quite happy with the work I did during that time.

I'm a little frustrated I didn't work more hours, but as I've alluded to, despite my overall life balance during this time not being great (too much socialising, not enough work), I made a conscious effort to not let that bother me. Ultimately, I should expect that Easter weekend I will socialise too much, I know that's just what tends to happen, and tbf, they all are positive experience, it's good to make time to see my friends for the short time they're in the country. That time is over now, and I was excited to finally get some work done, but unfortunately, fate had other ideas.

We got mice

Long story short, my gf woke up in the middle of the night, and saw a mouse on the floor next to the bed. She grabbed her phone to take a picture of it, but it disappeared. I missed it, I was actually in Japan_Friend's house (couple mins walk from our house) for one of the numerous social obligations I was attending recently. But when I got home, I inspected the room and there did seem to be evidence of some disturbance. I finally got the chance to meet our furry friend a couple of days later, this time outside.

Thankfully, my local government provide a service to inspect your home and set up traps etc to get ride of them. When the dude arrived, he told me that he's virtually certain that they've nested (!) under the floor in our bedroom cupboard (go figure, right). He laid poison packs throughout the house, and after inspecting them over the following days, it appears he was right (the bait in the bedroom cupboard is nearly all eaten, the other bait is relatively untouched).

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. The main way to prevent future intrusion is to fill any hole more than 5mm wide on the exterior of the house. However, I have a family of poisoned mice running around my house. If I block all the entrances, I also block all the exits, meaning the mice are going to be trapped inside, and thus die within my floors/walls. Apparently, rotten mouse corpses don't smell very good.

But I cannot simply leave the openings unblocked, as I am simply inviting their friends, uncles, cousins to come and join the party. I decided to give them 24 hours after eating the poison to leave. That time has elapsed, and I spent the vast majority of today mixing cement and filling any hole on the outside of my house that I could stick a pen in.

The worst part of all of this however, is it has drastically affected my sleep (and my gf's). As mice are generally nocturnal, and are living in our bedroom, it's not hard to hear them in the night. It's really creepy trying to sleep when you can hear the scurrying and squeaks of a bunch of mice all around you. I generally was ok, I would wake up with some anxiety a couple of times through the night, but I always managed to fall back asleep (especially with the help of headphones/music). However, my gf was not. She has been waking up in the middle of the night basically on the verge of a panic attack because she can hear them (it really is discomforting tbf), and it has resulted in us sleeping downstairs on the sofa the past two nights.

Hopefully, in the next 24hours or so, they will all be dead, the smell isn't so bad, and after all the cement filling there shouldn't be any more new housemates to meet. But unfortunately, that wasn't out only issue.

S**t Happens

On top of the (relatively unwanted) congested social calendar recently, and the mice, our drains also got blocked. I noticed there was a stream of water coming from the manhole on my driveway, so I decided to inspect it. It was overflowing with (you guessed it) bathroom waste. As the flood was on my property, it was my responsibility. So, I had to get "rods", which is basically a super long plunger and keep extending it until I got to the blockage, then perform a pumping action to creation a pressure vacuum, which in turn flushes out the blockage. After extending it as far as I could, I didn't find the blockage. This conclusion that it must actually not be within the boundaries of my property, and this become the responsibility of the national water board. They came out in a couple of days and resolved the issue, but a week later (today - when dealing with the mice issue) it has come back. We have no idea how, and are waiting for them to come back out and investigate.

Life is so much simpler as a child.

What Have I Learned From all of This?

I think it's safe to say that (relative to the people who live near me) I am different to most people. Most poker players probably feel like that to some degree though I think. I like to drink and enjoy myself, but not excessively, or often. I find that when the public get a time of extended freedom (like Easter/Christmas etc), a poker player probably has their time of least freedom; you suddenly have all of these things that you need to do or feel you should do, basically because everybody else is living from the same system, but we are not, we are often living from the opposite one.

However, with regard to socialising, I should probably give myself a break a little more. Socialising is good, and when something like Easter rolls around and two of my closest friends are home for a short period of time, I should expect and accept that I am just going to be quite busy during that time, and I won't have much time for poker. I didn't do this, and in turn I felt frustrated that I hadn't worked as much as I'd like in the past week. I started to have those feelings of "I'm wasting my time (at yet another party when I could be working)", when I know that I should be seeing all of this as a very positive time, and thus cannot be classed as time "wasted".

I also learned that no matter how much I try to manage my time well, sometimes things happen completely out of your control, and you should not feel badly about what implications that has on your productivity, etc. I could never have anticipated the blocked drain, then the mice, then the mice coupled with the return of the blocked drain. Dealing with all of that is part of being an independent, responsible adult, and there are problems that occur as a result of that. I should have, however, predicted that the return of Japan_Friend and Dubai_Friend would result in a busy social calendar for the time they were home, and doing so would have not resulted in being frustrated at the amount of work I got done this past week.

Parting Thoughts

This feels like a really long blog. I'm sorry about that. I guess not sorry enough to actually make it shorter though

I haven't provided much of an update on poker. I think I'm going to do that next. I have focussed a lot of me lately, and being happy. I believe that's been really beneficial. I have still been working on poker, and things are looking up.

I'll get into that next time, but right now I need to sleep. Hopefully the mice are dead by now, or quiet at least if they are still alive. Wish me luck I guess!

Sorry guys, been really busy lately haven't had the opportunity to sit down and submit an update. So here goes...

Mice

Seems they've all died. I laid poison traps throughout the house and checked their contents each day. The only trap that was disturbed was the one in the cupboard in my bedroom, so the guy was right in his assumptions that the nest was there. 1/2 of the box of bait was gone after the first day, and a day later the rest had gone. So i decided to replace iut with one of the untouched baits. After that, the new box was untouched, so I think they had all died already. We haven't seen/heard them since, and apparently they disintegrate fairly quickly. The bad news is, they tend to smell pretty bad as they do that. So far no smell, which is nice.

Collapsed Drain

So, after we got the water company out to look into why our bathroom waste is again blocked, they did some further investigation and found that the drain underneath the property had collapsed. This was no fault of mine, or anyone's really, it was just unfortunate.

Normally, if the damage falls within the boundary of your property, it is 100% your responsibility. Fortunately, ours lay just outside that by ~1m. As a result, the responsibility fell on the water company, and they had to deal with it themselves. The main benefit of this is that it was free, but had the damage been 1m to the left, we would have had ourselves a pretty big bill on our hands. We have since taken out some insurance to cover ourselves for situations like that, but at least now that has all been resolved.

Jobs

I have my first job interview on Wednesday. I only found out the night before, so they didn't expect me to have anything prepared. The Directors of the company (who usually do the interviews) were off that day, so the interview was more of an informal chat with a couple of less senior members. I was happy about that, and it allowed me to be fairly comfortable considering it was my first job interview in ~4 years.

As luck would have it, it turned out that a really good friend of mine works for the company. He saw me take a seat in the kitchen area of the office as I waited for my interview and came to speak to me. He did, unfortunately, warn me a little bit about the company. He kind of knows about my situation, and said if I was looking for a career change that this company is not the place for that. He himself is actively looking to leave. I wouldn't be working with him, as my role is with a different department, but he is high up in there enough to put a good word in for me. The question though, is whether I really want him to.

The interview itself went really well. The people interviewing me were very impressed with my CV, but their main reservation was that I would be in fact too qualified for the position. I was told by my recruitment agent (who work on my behalf to try and find me suitable jobs) that the position was for 3 months only with no possible extension (which was fine for me) and so doing something that wouldn't really challenge me would be ok. But it turned out that is likely wrong; the 3 months is just a probationary period and they would be looking to extend permanently after that. This took me back a bit, and made me less open about what my real intentions are.

However, they did say that they were so impressed that they are going to give my CV to the two directors on Monday (today) in the hope that they create a new role for me that is more in line with my strengths. They believe that I would be wasted in the role I applied for and could be a huge asset to the company elsewhere. That sounds great, but likely will result in a more serious/permanent role being offered (if that even happens), which isn't really what I want.

I will hear what they have to say and make a decision, and I have been continuing to apply for jobs in the meantime. I saw my friend who works there on the weekend, and he said that he's pretty confident that the original job is mine if I want it, but they are looking to find something more suitable for me. He again expressed his reservations for working there, but he agreed if its only something I am planning on doing for a couple of months for a bit of easy money its worth a shot. Worst case scenario, I could just leave if I hate it so much.

Poker

I realised lately that my knowledge and understanding of the fundamental mathematical theories behind the most basic of spots is virtually non existent. I either have forgotten, or never really understood, even things like the application of the general EV formula, and what you can take from that.

For the past few days, this is basically all I have been working on. I have practiced and practiced and made numerous mistakes along the way to the point where I now feel confident I that understand the formula, and how it can be manipulated to get various indifference points and frequencies based on which perspective you are looking at it from.

It feels almost like I'm starting all over again, but in all honesty it probably is necessary. I don't know why it happened. I know it happened because I didn't practice enough, ask enough questions about its application, and ultimately I either completely forgot about it, or it was so hazy that trying to apply it now would be completely counter-productive. It's going to be a pretty long and difficult process, but it's what is required if I am going to have even a shred of a chance of being successful at poker.

In terms of 10NL, so far things are going pretty well. My results are decent and I am regaining my confidence. I haven't played much in the past week whilst I made learned the EV formula etc a priority. I am now considering moving back to 25NL, but I have my reservations. An initial one is that I haven't played much at all in the past few days as I just alluded to, but I think the main reason is mental.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I am a little scared to move to 25NL because if I was to get off to a bad start, it will 'undo' my good work/winnings at 10NL, and I am pretty confident that I will feel really ****ty as a result. I am considering waiting until I have won say something like $250 at 10NL (10 BI at 25NL) so that I can't lose most if not all of that in one session at 25NL. The balancing act is that time is somewhat of the essence, and I want to be moving through the limits as quickly as I can. I am going to have to think about why I am a mental game fish in this area, and hopefully I can get some understanding from which I can make a logical decision.

I have also recently learned something rather significant about myself and my approach to sessions that I would like to talk about, however I feel it may be quite long, so I will save it for my next update (which will likely be in the next day or so).

Peace.

Hey, best of luck ; am enjoying your progress, both pokerwise and jobwise.

Pace, Tempo and Rhythm

I have been meaning to write an update on this for a while now; it's something I've realised is extremely important with regard to how well you perform during a session.

I can remember watching a sauce video which spoke about playing poker kind of like an online video game, maximising the number of clicks made per minute. Like I generally do, I took this idea and misapplied it and basically tried to play as many tables as I phsyically could.

I thought this was being a professional, and I even was proud that I made sure there were always fish at the tables (not hard when you're playing low stakes). It even felt good playing so many tables, when I was constantly clicking I felt like I got into a rhythm. It felt like what my idea of 'flow state' would feel like, which provided me with a flawed reward system.

It was only more recently when I've tried to be more observant of my approach to a session that I've realised just how big of a mistake I was making. I just had no time to think. In-game, I felt I didn't need to think, I just played my ranges, I had my population reads, and I thought everyone was so bad that it didn't matter: I assumed I was better than the vast majority of players at my stake and it was just about maximising the number of clicks I made per minute.

In truth, I just wasn't paying attention. At all. I wasn't thinking about ranges (theirs or mine), sizing, timing, recent history, reads. I was just thinking "is he bluffing?" and generally make a call on that. I've learned that being good at poker is all about the details, and they require focus and also some time to identify and process. In hindsight, I now know that I was playing too "intense".

Not only that, but my approach to playing sessions would hugely affect the way I played. I had a very target-driven approach to playing poker. I had a set amount to play (I tried #hands, #hours, etc) and if I made sure that I hit that amount no matter what. Doing so would be lazy, and I wouldn't stand for that. This again was focussing on the wrong thing. Anyway, as my targets were relatively tough to achieve for me, I would set myself a daily quota, and structure my day so that I could fit in playing time whilst accounting for breaks, food, etc. An example would be:

Quota to reach: 6 hours of grinding
Grind:
* 10am-12pm
* 2pm-4pm
* 9pm-11pm

The problem would occur when something would come up, say at 9:45am. Let's say I get a phone call, its relatively important and I get off the call at 9:55am. I know it takes time to set up HEM/Stars and actually get on tables, so I'm doing it as quickly as I can. I start my first session at 10:04 and I am already a little bit frustrated. But on top of this, I've spent the last 5mins rather frantic trying to get on tables for a specific time and I don't reach that target so I'm already in a state of panic or "high intensity" (not to mention frustrated = tilt). As a result, because of how I've approached the session, I either consciously or subconsciously overcompensate by playing my upper limit immediately, and I'm generally playing a very "frantic" session.

In my opinion, this is a huge mistake.

Our aim should be to approach the session as calm as possible and have dealt with any issue (small or large) that is on your mind. I personally feel that avoiding a strict schedule and even a monthly target/quota is better, and just play as and when you want to. This also ensures that you work away from the tables, as often having a strict quota for playing (for me) results in not analysing hands and working on my game enough.

In the past, I've too often played at a pace that was too frantic and a tempo that was too quick, which resulted in me finding a rhythm that was too volatile. It felt more that I was working at my maximum just to keep up rather than feeling in control of my session.

We must aim for:

Pace: Steady
Tempo: Slow
Rhythm: Comfortable

I hope this helps any of you who sometimes experience what I have and make the correct changes to your approach an avoid the mistakes I made.

I got a job

I found out on Friday. I start on Tuesday. The pay isn't great, but it's definitely enough. It will take the pressure off financially and I will likely be able to book a cheap holiday with my gf in the summer, which would be nice.

It's "temp work", which basically is work for a recruitment agency, who place you in temporary roles to cover things like sickness, holidays, maternity leave, etc. So you may be in one location this week, then somewhere else the next two weeks, etc. This position is an ongoing role until they expect to be around September. It's in a hospital which is like 10-15min walk from my house, which is really convenient and helps me maximise the time for poker outside of work (as commuting time is minimal). Obviously, commuting cost is also minimal.

The work is going to be pretty easy, general admin work; scanning documentation, quality checking, etc. I have some other 'irons in the fire', particularly a maths-based role that are interviewing next week, so I may hear something on that soon. I meet all of the criteria for the role, and the salary is much larger, but it's in the city, so I'm unsure if after increased tax deductions for a higher salary, and the cost (and time) to commute in and out every day, it really would be worth the extra money. I'll deal with that if I have to.

The biggest challenge for me for the forseeable future is going to be finding enough hours to work on poker. I think to start, I am just going to play when I feel like it (as usual) and see how I go. I think I will naturally be cognisant of when I should consider grinding, but if I have to make my schedule more structured in order to fit enough hours in, i'll do that.

My working hours are:
* Monday: Off
* Tuesday: 12pm-8pm
* Wednesday: 9am-5pm
* Thursday: 9am-5pm
* Friday: 9am-5pm
* Saturday: 9am-5pm (or 8am-4pm)
* Sunday: Off

I expect to get most of my poker hours in on Sunday and Monday because those are my days off work, but I will be aiming to work near enough every day. 2 hours would be an achievable target for days where I am in work. I am conscious of life balance and burning out, so I would be looking to take days off as and when I feel they are appropriate.

Another issue is that my gf works Mon-Fri and pretty long hours, so the weekend is when we get the most time to spend together, this may make Saturday in particular a tough day to work much. Sunday too to an extent; I'd be able to work a fair bit, but I wouldn't be grinding non stop morning to night. If I was to dedicate a day to grind a ton to compensate for my schedule, it would be Monday.

So, it's an exciting time for me I guess. Working is going to be a bit of a drag, but I'm going to make a conscious effort to try to enjoy it. I am going to enjoy have some steady income for a bit, and maybe even spending a little!

Poker

I haven't played a lot lately. I've mostly been doing some math because it came apparent that I suck at it. It's been really beneficial because I now have a more concrete understanding of what's going on in a poker hand, what and why things are the way they are and why we aim to do things. This has been for at least the past week or so.

Interestingly, it seems since then, when I have played, I haven't done very well. I'm not entirely sure why that is. Part of it is likely variance, but I'm a little hesitant to put it all down to that, particularly as the timing of it seems too coincidental.

My only other really theory as to why this is happening is that I have subconsciously transferred some of the math concepts into my play. For example, I have been working on indifference points, calling frequencies, playing unexploitably/gto etc and I think I may be playing more in this style lately because I've been thinking about it so much, and it's costing me value. I'm playing 10NL, nobody is bluffing enough, nobody is folding enough, nobody is really thinking about my range (or their own), and balance is not really important.

It has disheartened me a little, but before that I was doing pretty good (albeit at 10NL), and I think I'd only lost 2 sessions this month (both of which were effectively breakeven).

I did notice that I've been much happier lately; the job searching was starting to bear fruit, I've been working on my game and making significant progress, and I was winning. It now seems that as I've started losing these past few days that it's kind of dampened the other aspects. I was happy to finally have a job, and proud of myself for being able to make the sacrifice of getting a job when I didn't want one, but now that my recent results have not been great, it's bothered me a little. It's even changed my view on the job more as 'pathetic' or 'embarrassing'.

My only explanation for this much be a self-esteem thing, I'd love to hear from you guys if you can shed some light onto this. Right now, my winrate this month at 10NL is 3.5bb/100 but my sample is small, ~15k hands. I also feel like I really could do with booking a win this month for my confidence, but tbh I don't think quitting for the month and booking a win this small over such an insignificant sample would do anything for my confidence anyway.

It could also be that I've maybe gotten sloppy a little, playing tired or on autopilot too much. I'm not sure on that, I'm just going to concentrate on being more focussed in my next session. I'll probably play less tables to try to ensure that.

Pre-Jobstart Anxiety

I'm a little nervous about starting my job tomorrow. I'm fairly confident this is just the normal anxiety a lot of people get, as there is a fair amount of uncertainty and unknowns that are probably simmering in the back of my mind: What will the people be like? What will the boss be like? Am i going to like it? etc.

These are all pretty childish worries/apprehensions, but after 30mins I should be fine. From what I have been told about the job, my manager is a really nice woman and I expect my co-workers to be pretty young, doing this job because of the convenience or they get a job elsewhere, etc. The work I will be doing will be relatively boring, but as I've alluded to previously, I'm ok with that as it will allow me to come home from work free from stress and ready to put in some hours of poker. My only worry here is that the position is so easy and mundane that the time really drags and I am literally pulling my hair out by the end of the shift.

As I've already said, these aren't really "worries", they're just things that are on my mind ahead of my first day in a "real job" for over 3 years. I am going to try to get rid of these feelings before I go to sleep, because they're pretty unnecessary and really child-like. Its 7pm for me now, and in 25hours my first day will be over, so I'll probably inform you guys how it all went.

Good luck at the new job. I think it will help to take pressure off and focus you mentally. Hopefully that will lead to you playing more optimally.

Have you ever thought about trying to play live once a week? Not sure if you live near a casino and/or if that is possible. Seems like your multi-tabling, timing out and other issues you highlighted might be helped if you just played one table only and focused.

Thanks man. I've actually considered taking some time off now that I'm starting this job. Maybe a week idk. I am doing quite a bit of work on my game at the moment and I feel I am making good progress, so I'm a little hesitant to break the momentum I am in when I don't really "need" to.

I guess I will just take it a day at a time - what do you think?

Man, live poker - now that takes me back! I can remember back in the day I used to go there ~once per week for a little while and grind live £0.5/£1. My parents didn't know I took poker seriously so I used to say I was going to my friend's house to hang out and would go to the casino til 6-7am sometimes. I can remember having £1k hidden under my bed in £50 notes (the highest denomination of currency in the UK) and felt like an absolute baller. I'd often just get it out and look at it. I may have even rolled around in it once or twice

Although I have good memories of those days, I am reluctant to play live now, for a number of reasons really. First of all, I don't have enough money at the moment to play in my local live games, but mainly it's just that the games are so slow that I feel I would be being extremely inefficient with my time (which has now been significantly reduced). I feel I would be much better off just playing 1 or even 2 tables online at home, i'd get much more done and get much more opportunities to practice my focus.

I understand that there may be a benefit to playing in a slower atmosphere, but I don't think I can stomach 10 hands per hour and listening to the countless stories of how 'John' got AA v KK in a tourney and lost. Although, when you see an arrogant live reg in action with his bravado and cockiness it can be extremely entertaining

Did you mention poker in your job interviews / applications? If yes, how do people react to these things?

Yes I did. I thought I would just be honest and maybe change my strategy if I wasn't getting anywhere with it.

It's hard to say how often people reacted well, because I applied for a lot of jobs and didn't hear back from any, but overall I'd say there wasn't much of a problem.

The interviews I had people said it was good, a unique thing that obviously ties in with my degree. I was pleasantly surprised at to how well people seemed to take it. I have played poker exclusively for ~3 years, so when I spoke to recruiters etc about it they said it's perfectly fine, and putting nothing as an alternative would be a huge mistake.

I had to put my coach down as a reference for me, as jobs generally ask for reference(s) that cover the last 3 years. Initially, I had an old line manager who I am still in touch with, but this was more like 4-5 years ago, which I think hindered my chances in the beginning more than the poker.

My job

So far it's pretty cool. My first day was 12-8 which felt really long towards the end. Think it was because most people left around 5-6 so there was not much going on for the last couple of hours or so. I'd also gotten up at 8am to put in a couple of hours of poker work before I had to leave for my job.

Today (Day 2) I did 9-5, and it was decent. I was a little tired again at the end of my shift, but that could have been a knock-on effect from yesterday. I've just eaten some food though and feel better, so as planned I'm going to put in a couple of hours of work now before I get to bed.

I don't feel I have enough energy to play my A-game, which is a slight worry, but I think I am likely using up a lot of energy because everything is so new, and I'm paying attention to learning different parts of the job, and meeting new people etc. I expect to adjust pretty fast, but whilst I'm in this state I'm going to use my time to work on some theory rather than grind. I'm going to have to adjust as I go and be flexible with my approach depending on how I'm adapting to this new lifestyle. I get paid a week on friday, so I'm looking forward to that.

The weather has been pleasant the past 2 days, so I've been walking to work. It's been nice, and takes 20mins max. I may drive if the infamous British weather decides to rear its ugly (and wet) head.

The role itself is varied, but all components are pretty straight forward and I've picked them up quickly. Everybody I work with seems cool, there's a few around my age range and some older dudes. It's relatively laid back and they play the radio in the office which is a huge bonus, and I feel makes the time pass quicker.

So yeah, so far so good.

Little Update

So work has been ok. The weather is still good, so I'm enjoying walking. I am actually surprised as to how much I am enjoying my morning routine. In the past when I had a job, I would stay in bed until as late as possible, then quickly get ready and eat (if I had time left) before heading to work. I always decided that if I were to ever do that again, I'd get up much earlier and actually enjoy my morning time, and so far it really is good. Tbf, May is probably the best time for UK weather, so I may not be so happy in October.

But for now, I like it. I set my alarm at 7am, and I spend the next 15-20mins actually waking up to the point I can get out of bed. I then get a shower, brush my teeth and get ready for the day. I tend to change into something quite casual/comfortable whilst I make breakfast, and I do so in a leisurely manner. I have been making an effort to cook something I will enjoy, like scrambled eggs (mine are maybe the best in the world, it could be close, just fyi) etc, and I will listen to the ready and check emails and see if I have any responses to this blog. I think get changed for work and leave around 8:30am. I'll put some chilled out tunes on and walk to work.

My walk home is also decent. I enjoy having some alone time where I can clear my head, but it's not as fun as the morning because I'm a lot more tired. Tiredness has been a bit of an issue so far. Part of me wonders if the extra hour early I get up in the morning costs me focus/energy for poker in the evening. It's hard to say right now. Last night (Thursday) I decided to not do anything poker-related. I was just too tired. I got an early night and today (Friday) I am fine. I got home from work, made food and just played a couple of hours. I'm back in work again in the morning but that will be ok, it's going to be pretty quiet apparently so should be a laid back vibe. I'll probably listen to some podcasts and music to help me get through the day.

As far as poker goes, I haven't played since my last update (apart from the last 2 hours). I have been doing a lot of work with theory, the math and using CREV etc. I'm still making good progress but (as you can understand) it's getting a little tougher as we go.

After the trouble I was having last time, and the fact I haven't played in a couple days I decided to just play 4 tables. I didn't go in with any real time constraints, or monetary goals etc. I just made an effort to be relaxed and "just play". I even watched some things on the side as I played (build-up to the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight mainly). I did it kind of to multi-task (I wanted to watch some build-up and don't have time to tomorrow) but mainly to make sure that I didn't play too many tables and kind of had a nonchalant attitude to the session.

It was actually really beneficial. It did exactly what I wanted it to. I stopped playing when I kind of stopped enjoying myself, I didn't take it too serious (which mainly gets rid of the paranoia/levelling I sometimes am a victim of). I "just played". As the session went on, I increased the tables, but 8 was my limit and it was never for very long.

So I am going to start playing 25NL soon. Tomorrow is a busy day (and night) for me where I have multiple commitments, and I'm taking Sunday off (mainly because I'll be hungover). So if I play tomorrow it will be similar to today. It's likely that Monday I will play a session or two at 10NL, and if I feel good I'll see how I do at 25NL.

I'll keep you guys updated. Enjoy your weekend.

Bad Timing

So my computer decided to be an a$$hole today. I am still working on it now, and have basically abandoned all plans to grind/work on poker. I'm extremely frustrated because today was the only day this past week (since starting my job) that I could have given a full day to poker. I am making a conscious effort to not let the things I cannot control have an affect on me, but its hard because the timing of it feels a little cruel.

If I don't manage to sort it out though, then I could maybe take my grandad's. He has alzheimer's/dimentia and is now in a care home, but before that he used to enjoy playing solitaire etc on the PC. His old one broke so we bought him a new one. Basically, the reason I'm bringing this up is to let you know that despite it being my grandad's, its actually a pretty decent PC.

Ideally, I don't want to have to do that, because as a lot of you will know, creating a new DB etc is a fun time.

25NL

I played a couple of sessions of 25NL today, and they were a little frustrating. Compared to 10NL it seems to play quite a bit different. For instance, there doesn't seem to be people just giving you their stack. There was a lot of that at 10NL. Also, people just generally seem tighter.

Well, I say tighter, but I basically mean when betting only. For example, I've seen a couple spots were V has checked OOP to the river w flopped TP and still went for the c/c rather than a bet. It's making me consider how thin I should be bwct in these spots. It seems they're also a lot stickier when calling though too. I have felt so far that I need to kind of make hands to make money, and I'm not very confident I have enough fold equity to bluff in spots that I usually am. At the same time, I'm also not happy to adjust by vbetting thinner because of how passively seem to be playing their good hands.

However, there is a fair amount of rando stuff like minraising flops in 3bps etc. I am not sure what that means yet. It's hard to say really, time will tell. I think I'm down like 1.5BI or something over a small sample, fairly insignificant (I also lost AAvsQQ too which will count in such a sample), but the importance is to gain confidence, and I feel a little insecure right now, so I'll be wary in future as to how much to continue here.

Exercise

I feel I have very little spare time now with this job. It's to be expected given this life choice, however I don't know what to do about exercising. When I was just playing poker, I was going to the gym ~4 times per week. I feel now I am struggling as it is to find time to put in hours with poker that adding exercising to the mix will be even tougher.

It could be the case that during this time period I kind of need to put exercising on the back burner, but I'm not sure I should do that because I start to feel sloppy and I'll gain weight which will affect my confidence/self-esteem and will likely bring some depression. An alternative could be to sleep less, but again sleep is important and I do need to be well rested if I'm still going to have energy for poker after an 8 hour shift in work. I guess it's all part of the adjustment process.

Right now my life is:

Monday: Poker all day
Tuesday: wake up 8am, poker work 9-11, job 12-8pm, eat then either poker or bed/relax.
Wednesday: wake up 7am, job 9-5pm, eat then poker (~2hours) then bed)
Thursday: wake up 7am, job 9-5pm, eat then poker (~2hours) then bed)
Friday: wake up 7am, job 9-5pm, eat, buy groceries, couple hours poker if time/energy allows
Saturday: wake up 7am, job 9-5pm, eat, spend time w gf
Sunday: clean house, poker work, spend time w gf, poker work.

My main time to see my gf is probably Sunday because that's the only day we are both off from our jobs. I will make a conscious effort to put in significant poker time because its 1 of only 2 days I have which I don't have to go to my job. I should make those days count. Fridays/Saturdays seem to be tougher for working on poker because last week seemed to have taken its toll and I was significantly more tired Friday/Saturday night than say Wednesday.

So, if I am to reintegrate exercise into my schedule, the obvious days would likely be Sunday and Monday, however they affect the days I will be wanting to put the most hours in poker-wise. Other than that, I really don't know when. 2 times per week doesn't seem enough, and going on say, a Wednesday after work would mean likely not getting home until ~7pm then after I've eaten and showered etc you're talking at least 8pm before I even consider starting some poker work.

Maybe I do need to just sleep less, and maybe that will come with adjustment. Last week I was so tired I went to sleep before 10pm a couple times, and even on weekends I was asleep by midnight.

If any of you guys have advice on training or fitting exercise into a busy schedule I'd love to hear it. Obviously I am looking for balance here, the priority is poker, but I think the exercise element is a significant mental aspect to achieving that, just like the financial stability of the job. I need to be able to work on poker enough, see my gf enough, exercise enough, and sleep enough. I also would like to be able to incorporate socialising with friends somewhere in there too, but let's just take one step at a time

Payday!

So, I got my first pay slip today. #ballin

I get paid weekly, so it's not a huge amount, but its money so I'll happily take it.

My plan with my pay is to take out a predetermined amount of money per week, which will cover:
· Food bills
· House bills (heating, electrics, internet, etc)
· Savings for a holiday
I am excited about this last one, of course. It won’t be much, we will be looking for something pretty cheap, but it will feel like a lot because it has been a few years now since we last went on any kind of holiday. Last year we were in the process of buying our first house and we ripped it down to the brick and renovated it virtually from scratch. We got the keys in July, so all of our time and money went into that. The previous years we were either looking for the right house, or saving up for it.

Whatever is left I can do with as I please. As I say, this really isn’t a lot of money, but it’s much more than I’ve afforded myself for months (consistently at least).

Because of this, I’ve decided to take this weekend completely off (from poker – I still have to work Saturday). I debated whether I ‘should’, but I just thought “**** it”; I want to just enjoy this first bit of expendable cash without worrying about how much poker work I’ve done (or not done). I think I’m going to benefit from this quite considerable, mainly in terms of my morale. I’m going to just live in the moment a little, not feel guilty for not working, and just enjoy myself a little. I will be back on the grind Monday, so it’s nothing major, but an unforced break in poker work will do me good imo.

I’m obv not going to make a habit of this, but I think considering I’ve just received my pay for working my first week in my new job, I should enjoy this moment a little.

Have a good weekend everyone.

A little.... a little .... a little ..... Oh, and i won't do this often, don't worry!
Buddy, relax. Great decision.

Making "Work" work for me

So, I’m pretty much settled into the job. I have a good understanding of the type of job, the staff, my bosses, and what’s expected of me. I’ve concluded that, if I am somewhat discreet, I do have opportunities to do some things in work that will give me more time outside of work to concentrate on the things that need to be done outside of work. The idea is to make my workload more efficient with regard to my schedule, so that outside of work, I can maximise the amount of time spent doing things I want/must do outside of work (grinding, analysing, coaching, as well as life balance factors, such as socialising and spending time with my gf).

I cannot access HEM, crev, 2p2, equilab, etc, so they are all things I still need to do at home. I also cannot download anything (like MS Mathematics for example) but I do have Excel, Word, Notepad etc. So, I can write all of my blogs in work rather than at home. As you may know by how long some of these can get, they have the potential to take a while!

So, I can write up all of my blog updates in work (I currently class this as a significant part of my poker development), and if I do some analysis in crev etc, I can follow that up in work with some brainstorming and working through ideas etc. I will also make an effort to organise as many other issues as possible, which are relatively small, but combined can have a big impact. For example, organising things in my life, like grocery shopping, house cleaning/maintenance, etc.

It seems apparent since starting this job that if I’m to achieve balance, I need structure. I firmly believe that you should never play poker when you are tired/not in the mood (to an extent), but this is an idealistic approach, which, unfortunately, I am no longer in. So, I am going to have to allocate time to poker, more to give myself an idea of how my days are going to have to be structured moving forward.

I also need to be aware that poker is my priority, so I need to be ok with making adjustments that negatively affect my job. For example, on a Tuesday I work 12pm-8pm, so I tend to work on poker in the morning and by the end of the day I’m generally too tired to do anything so I use that as a time to relax (get an early night). But, it could be an opportunity to get up early in that morning (say 6am) so that I can get an extra hour of poker work in. I will be really tired in work towards the end of my shift, but that’s ok.

I am still looking to integrate exercise into my schedule. I am going to use my time in work to figure it out.

Congrats on the success at work. As far as exercise goes I would research "HIIT" which stands for High Intensity Interval Training. For example you could fit in a quick and simple workout in that looks like this:

1 minute of push ups
1 minute of squats
1 minute of mountain climbers
1 minute of sit ups and
1 minute of calf raises, rest for 1 or 2 minutes and then repeat 2x.

You'll break out into a nice sweat and burn enough calories to make you feel better than doing nothing at all and it would only take up 15-20 minutes of your day.

That's just a sample wo. You can try whatever exercises you'd like. With weights, without, both etc...

Thanks for your input. I am more looking to do some weight training, but in terms of fitting everything in with my new schedule, I may have to be flexible, maybe do 2 gym days and 2 home workout days (where I will likely be doing these kind of circuits), so thanks for that.

I have nearly come to a decision with my workout routine, so I will probably update that in the next couple of days.

Possible New Job

So, I get a call from an unknown number today whilst I'm in work. Turns out it’s from a company where I applied for a job about a month ago. Suddenly, we were talking about salary expectations, my skills, why I’m not playing poker anymore, etc. I was caught off guard tbh, and felt I was scrambling for answers the entire time. This is probably a tactic recruitment people must use, because by the end of the call I had agreed to go in for an interview a week on Monday (1st June).

I don’t even know if I want the job. To be fair, I put it as “well, pencil me in for then, and if anything changes I can easily let you know.” So, I at least have time if I want to attend the interview, and can let them know if I decide not to. I also told him to email me details of the job, the location, approx. salary etc; it’s been that long since I applied (and applied for so many afterwards) that I totally forgot about the role. I had a general idea, but nothing specific.

After some thought, it seems sensible to treat it simply as a business decision. There is a trade-off happening (I gain something, but consequently lose something). The salary isn’t specified at present, but I have a pretty good idea as to how much it will be.

Essentially, I will be on ~£100 per week more. However, that will be taxed, and due to location I will now have to drive to work and pay for work. It seems reasonable to assume I probably only see £50 a week extra. So basically, I am gaining £50, but I am losing commuting time (I estimate to be an extra 1hr per day in total), and I expect the workload to be significantly more demanding. It is an junior analyst position, which is more in line with my skills and experience, but the position is definitely more of a “career job”, of which I am not looking for right now.

In conclusion, it seems to be a poor business decision to take this job. My goal is to get back to playing poker professionally. I should be looking to increase my earnings if I can, but I have things pretty good right now (I walk to work it’s that close) so I have to seriously consider what I’d be giving up, and how a change in job effects my overall goal.

Integrating Exercise

So I’ve been thinking about my physical goals and how best to implement training into my congested schedule. I want to ideally train 4 days per week, with a high emphasis on weight training, but I was undecided on what to do in terms of cardio. I am looking at going on holiday in ~12 weeks, so that’s essentially my goal for getting into shape, which is reasonable.

Generally, with weight training (I am somewhat inexperienced) I have always done splits (chest & triceps, back & biceps, shoulders & abs, legs. Something like that). It appears that going to the gym 4 days per week is unrealistic for me, and will significantly affect my poker work (which, right now, is already lower than I am content with). I have a set of resistance bands, that allow me to do some workouts at home, so to start I am going to implement a mixture gym workouts, home workouts and cardio. An example week will be something like:

· Gym Day 1: Upper Body workout (with an emphasis on chest + arms)
· Gym Day 2: Low Body workout
· Home workout: Upper Body workout (bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, etc)
· Cardio: Road running

As I work Tuesday-Saturday, I will be looking to get my “gym days” in on Sunday and Monday (as they will be the most time consuming). On Tuesday, I get up before my job starts and put in a few hours in poker, I then work 12-8pm and am back in at 9am the following morning. So, after work on a Wednesday I have found myself often too mentally exhausted to do any poker work. This thus seems like an ideal time to do my home workout of press-ups, resistance bands etc. The idea is to hit my upper body parts twice a week (hard in the gym, then a little lighter/more volume at home). Then I will either go for a run (~30mins) one day before work or shortly after. I am classing this as training legs, which is technically true but I am not hitting the muscles as much as upper body. That’s ok though, because my legs have always been a strong point of mine (both physically and aesthetically).

Ideally, I’d like to go the gym 4-5 times per week, but right now it’s about compromise. I am going to start this routine next week and adjust where I see fit. With regard to diet, I have a good understanding of nutrition, caloric requirements and what works with me. I am going to integrate it slowly, but I’m thinking of it generally in 3x1month blocks (relaxed/untracked, tracked maintenance, tracked cut) and my training regime will likely change in line with this too. If anyone wants to know more information on anything in this blog, please let me know. Similarly, if anyone has any advice, I’m all ears.

Have a nice weekend y’all.

don't skip the legs, I recommend to do at least leg press.
GL man I wonder if you have enough time to put into poker to make progress, if you can get to 50NL soon, you can easily make a living if you beat the game(which is not that tough), but that needs some commitment.