A Show of Force - Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil
11-10-2017
, 09:08 PM
Aight, let's do this. Hello hello, this is Daniel, aka Show of Force. I play midstakes+ on stars, vblog, coach for bluffthespot and used to stream on twitch regularly ~2years ago. Some ppl may also know me from my pokerstrategy blog back in the day.
Also, for some reason quite a few ppl have shown interest in following my progress so I am doing this to complement my youtube channel and give you a deeper and more unfiltered look into my journey.
Why I'm Here
I am here to share my journey as realistic as possible for those who are on a similar path, those who want to stay positive, focused and achieve huge goals. I will be talking a lot about my approach to poker, but also musings on life, fitness and social dynamics.
On my vlog I am followed by quite a few ppl I know IRL, but here on 2p2 almost no one knows me and those who do... Well, I don't really care what they think so feel I can talk freely here.
Only pressure is from being a coach and feeling like I have to perform at this very high standard, ppl sh*t talking if I am on a downswing etc. But I'm fine with that.
Intro - About me
Think it makes sense to give u a rough outline of what I'm about. I am from Romania, almost 29yrs old (F*CK), I started dabbling with poker ~7 years ago (*** that's long) because I liked computer games and I thought I can make easy money (lol me) and disliked the idea of working for someone else. I started taking poker more seriously and actually making a living from it 4 years ago.
I started off being extremely lazy and unproductive, poker has given me an excellent medium to improve my discipline and self mastery over the years.
Things did not come easily for me, I struggled a lot and faced a lot of frustration, but poker being my only realistic option at the time, I had to keep at it, cry it out and go back to work the next day. I vividly remember points of extreme frustration after a downswing when I would realize my BR was at the same point it had been 2 years before, having several points where I did not know if I could pay rent next month, etc.
Fast forward to now, I am living in Malta, playing 400NL up to 5k sometimes if the game is good, coaching with the guys I used to study under, teaching and forming relationships (nohomo) with students from all over the world, having more freedom to decide what I want to do with my time (recently took 2 months off the grind), stressing less about money and being overall happier with myself.
I am extremely busy right now, choosing to balance playing poker, improving my game, coaching, vblogging, some streaming aaaaaand starting my own social media business on the side. Tbh all this is driving me a bit mental right now, but I am moving in the right direction so improvise, adapt and overcome.
Goals
I am def grateful for where I am right now, but there is muuuch more I want to accomplish.
Short term I want to
Long term I see myself transitioning into business and building myself an empire. My approach to life is I am gonna die anyway so go for an epic life or die trying. More poetically, Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil (either Emperor, or nothing).
As you can see, I actually Love writing and it's very easy to lose myself in it - been writing this for 1h30m so far.
And last but not least, the best part of this blog (as in my others) will be the superior quality threadsavers.
I love having beautiful girls in my life and it is a big motivation that drives me forward.
On that note, sub the thread if u wanna follow along, comment and troll in the thread as long as it's good vibes and
Also, for some reason quite a few ppl have shown interest in following my progress so I am doing this to complement my youtube channel and give you a deeper and more unfiltered look into my journey.
Why I'm Here
I am here to share my journey as realistic as possible for those who are on a similar path, those who want to stay positive, focused and achieve huge goals. I will be talking a lot about my approach to poker, but also musings on life, fitness and social dynamics.
On my vlog I am followed by quite a few ppl I know IRL, but here on 2p2 almost no one knows me and those who do... Well, I don't really care what they think so feel I can talk freely here.
Only pressure is from being a coach and feeling like I have to perform at this very high standard, ppl sh*t talking if I am on a downswing etc. But I'm fine with that.
Intro - About me
Think it makes sense to give u a rough outline of what I'm about. I am from Romania, almost 29yrs old (F*CK), I started dabbling with poker ~7 years ago (*** that's long) because I liked computer games and I thought I can make easy money (lol me) and disliked the idea of working for someone else. I started taking poker more seriously and actually making a living from it 4 years ago.
I started off being extremely lazy and unproductive, poker has given me an excellent medium to improve my discipline and self mastery over the years.
Things did not come easily for me, I struggled a lot and faced a lot of frustration, but poker being my only realistic option at the time, I had to keep at it, cry it out and go back to work the next day. I vividly remember points of extreme frustration after a downswing when I would realize my BR was at the same point it had been 2 years before, having several points where I did not know if I could pay rent next month, etc.
Fast forward to now, I am living in Malta, playing 400NL up to 5k sometimes if the game is good, coaching with the guys I used to study under, teaching and forming relationships (nohomo) with students from all over the world, having more freedom to decide what I want to do with my time (recently took 2 months off the grind), stressing less about money and being overall happier with myself.
Spoiler:
I am extremely busy right now, choosing to balance playing poker, improving my game, coaching, vblogging, some streaming aaaaaand starting my own social media business on the side. Tbh all this is driving me a bit mental right now, but I am moving in the right direction so improvise, adapt and overcome.
Goals
I am def grateful for where I am right now, but there is muuuch more I want to accomplish.
Short term I want to
- Play high stakes regularly on my own, since now I am selling action there.
- Build the BTS and my own brand bigger.
- Start my social media business and get 5 clients.
Long term I see myself transitioning into business and building myself an empire. My approach to life is I am gonna die anyway so go for an epic life or die trying. More poetically, Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil (either Emperor, or nothing).
As you can see, I actually Love writing and it's very easy to lose myself in it - been writing this for 1h30m so far.
And last but not least, the best part of this blog (as in my others) will be the superior quality threadsavers.
I love having beautiful girls in my life and it is a big motivation that drives me forward.
On that note, sub the thread if u wanna follow along, comment and troll in the thread as long as it's good vibes and
Daniel SoF
11-11-2017
, 01:00 AM
11-11-2017
, 11:02 PM
Thanks bb, gl crushing!
Tell ur friend he has good taste, dunno who she is tho
Haha thx, I remember ur SN too, played a bit; also saw u had a thread sometime last year, this is a bit weird but I remember seeing a store named CRAI and taking a picture of it only to post it in ur thread b/c i thought it'd be a good troll but forgot to, pic should be somewhere in my pc lol
glgl
gl to u sir
Thankss
Let's go Braznik, up up and away, hope u run good vs everyone except me.
I don't spend a lot of time here but I will assume means year to date? Wild guess lol. My PT4 database became really buggy ~2 months ago and had to start a new one so lost that one, but I still got back my hands from Stars, so gonna post the graph here, I know everyone likes graphs.
Stars this year so far
Small sample since I had 2 months off, I got this new account somewhere in March (some controversy there lol) and generally my volume always sucked.
My results were always really swingy so I never had a nice long upwards graph.
===============================================
To continue I want to address a q that an anonymous friend (adam) asked me in skype
It's something that I want to address here because I think others can also benefit from it - the main issue is how a lot of ppl at lower / midstakes tend to put a glass wall between them and the highstakes players. They think these guys are a rare breed that are doing everything they are supposed to be doing and are playing at a completely different level.
I know because I used to think exactly like that as well, that these highstakes guys are flawless GTO machines and overall wizzards.
Until I got lucky enough to live w/ mmasherdog and get an inside look into this highstakes world, seeing he doesn't do insane randomizing, doesn't put in 10h/day in PIO and is not grinding 24/7. Most of all, it was seeing how he berated and showing so many mistakes regs were making (he is very good at that). Eventually the illusion dispelled and I realized there is not much difference between me and some of those guys. Of course you still have the elite guys who are indeed a level above - OTB, LLinus, Katya
I don't mind ppl thinking I'm at this amazing level now because I sometimes I play highstakes. Prob still a lot of them think I suck, which may also be true. What for sure changed is my view of the game from being around ppl playing highstakes regularly (ur brain sees oh wait this is actually doable), also doing work on my own and continuously upping my context - if 1 year ago I was all about being balanced and unexploitable, now I'm like if u play 200NL and lower, exploit exploit exploit, ppl aren't gonna do ****. One day I just realized Poker is not about playing GTO, it's about making money. I think even sauce doesn't understand this sometimes.
===============================================
Moving on to more life related stuff, today I decided to take on running to have an activity that complements the gym and gives me some time to relax and tone down my thinking mind a bit.
Cool thing is we have a nice sports shop downstairs so I just went down to buy some running shoes. It took me a while to decide, the polish girl there was pretty receptive to my random chatter, she was cute but she basically works in the same building I live in and I kinda have a gf that visits me all the time so decided not hot enough for me to risk it.
Eventually I decided on these ones
Went for a 30min run soon after, I like that they are pretty light and comfy.
Secondly, I have a dilemma I am curious about some of your guys' views. I've been struggling a lot with finding the best sleeping schedule that includes playing poker when the games are good, maybe evenings/nights but also having time to do RL stuff like going out with friends etc. So I'm curious what's your schedule right now and how do you approach your day, maybe I can get some GTO insights from u guys.
The best answer gets to bang this girl
Oh and PS. tomorrow (sunday 10pm Malta time) we have hi-stakes baller and chocolate cake lover mmasherdog doing a stream on twitch https://go.twitch.tv/bluffthespot ; think he will be reviewing viewer suggested hands so feel free to participate. Fu.ck this threadsaver girl is hot
Cya soon, Daniel SoF
glgl
gl to u sirThankss
Let's go Braznik, up up and away, hope u run good vs everyone except me.
I don't spend a lot of time here but I will assume means year to date? Wild guess lol. My PT4 database became really buggy ~2 months ago and had to start a new one so lost that one, but I still got back my hands from Stars, so gonna post the graph here, I know everyone likes graphs.
Stars this year so far
Small sample since I had 2 months off, I got this new account somewhere in March (some controversy there lol) and generally my volume always sucked.
My results were always really swingy so I never had a nice long upwards graph.
===============================================
To continue I want to address a q that an anonymous friend (adam) asked me in skype
It's something that I want to address here because I think others can also benefit from it - the main issue is how a lot of ppl at lower / midstakes tend to put a glass wall between them and the highstakes players. They think these guys are a rare breed that are doing everything they are supposed to be doing and are playing at a completely different level.
I know because I used to think exactly like that as well, that these highstakes guys are flawless GTO machines and overall wizzards.
Spoiler:
Until I got lucky enough to live w/ mmasherdog and get an inside look into this highstakes world, seeing he doesn't do insane randomizing, doesn't put in 10h/day in PIO and is not grinding 24/7. Most of all, it was seeing how he berated and showing so many mistakes regs were making (he is very good at that). Eventually the illusion dispelled and I realized there is not much difference between me and some of those guys. Of course you still have the elite guys who are indeed a level above - OTB, LLinus, Katya
Spoiler:
T
AI don't mind ppl thinking I'm at this amazing level now because I sometimes I play highstakes. Prob still a lot of them think I suck, which may also be true. What for sure changed is my view of the game from being around ppl playing highstakes regularly (ur brain sees oh wait this is actually doable), also doing work on my own and continuously upping my context - if 1 year ago I was all about being balanced and unexploitable, now I'm like if u play 200NL and lower, exploit exploit exploit, ppl aren't gonna do ****. One day I just realized Poker is not about playing GTO, it's about making money. I think even sauce doesn't understand this sometimes.
===============================================
Moving on to more life related stuff, today I decided to take on running to have an activity that complements the gym and gives me some time to relax and tone down my thinking mind a bit.
Cool thing is we have a nice sports shop downstairs so I just went down to buy some running shoes. It took me a while to decide, the polish girl there was pretty receptive to my random chatter, she was cute but she basically works in the same building I live in and I kinda have a gf that visits me all the time so decided not hot enough for me to risk it.
Eventually I decided on these ones
Went for a 30min run soon after, I like that they are pretty light and comfy.
Spoiler:
Secondly, I have a dilemma I am curious about some of your guys' views. I've been struggling a lot with finding the best sleeping schedule that includes playing poker when the games are good, maybe evenings/nights but also having time to do RL stuff like going out with friends etc. So I'm curious what's your schedule right now and how do you approach your day, maybe I can get some GTO insights from u guys.
The best answer gets to bang this girl
Oh and PS. tomorrow (sunday 10pm Malta time) we have hi-stakes baller and chocolate cake lover mmasherdog doing a stream on twitch https://go.twitch.tv/bluffthespot ; think he will be reviewing viewer suggested hands so feel free to participate. Fu.ck this threadsaver girl is hot
Cya soon, Daniel SoF
Last edited by ShowOfForce; 11-11-2017 at 11:11 PM.
11-12-2017
, 11:56 AM
11-13-2017
, 03:53 AM
We've played some together at 500z
Glgl
Glgl
11-16-2017
, 08:42 PM
hey good to see you here, remember chatting a bit, gl to you too!
============================
I was trying out this schedule where I play evenings/nights for a while but def don't like it and -EV overall, even if yeah games are better. I notice I need to have a structure to my day to be productive instead of just play whenever I feel like it.
I put up my latest vblog lately and it's prob the most fun one I've made to date, I went gokart racing with the bluffthespot coaches and some friends - quite a few highstakes regs there now that i think about it. Should give you a bit of a taste of the poker life in Malta (the 10% of the time we go out), enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6dg0WwLYA (can someone pls tell me how I embed youtube video on this wonderful forum from 1980?)
On another note, I will do a stream this Saturday at 8pm Malta time. I saw this post in PP thread so I decided fk it, this will be the topic for my stream, jump into the pool and see 'if it's beatable'. http://twitch.tv/bluffthespot if u wanna follow along / hang out.
Let's keep the tattoos going for now, making these girls ur new god
Daniel SoF
11-19-2017
, 02:08 AM
So plan of having an early rising schedule is not working amazing, since it's 7AM and I'm still not sleeping. On the bright side, I found this reaaally sick video on the 4 Types of Motivation and it really got me asking myself about what drives me, would def recommend it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1MRZmIeao
still dunno how to embed youtube. Also another good news is that mmasherdog will be streaming tonight at 11PM Malta time on our https://www.twitch.tv/bluffthespot. Pretty latenite if u ask me.
Let me know if u enjoyed the youtube vid, i think my order is
Momentum > Mastery > Mating > Material.
It's close between 2nd and 3rd, not really sure tbh.
cats are cool as well
and nice color on her shoes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1MRZmIeao
still dunno how to embed youtube. Also another good news is that mmasherdog will be streaming tonight at 11PM Malta time on our https://www.twitch.tv/bluffthespot. Pretty latenite if u ask me.
Let me know if u enjoyed the youtube vid, i think my order is
Momentum > Mastery > Mating > Material.
It's close between 2nd and 3rd, not really sure tbh.
cats are cool as well
and nice color on her shoes
11-19-2017
, 11:29 AM
Quote:
You just hit the Youtube button and then in your YT link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1MRZmIeao just delete everything until your left with oU1MRZmIeao then place that between YOUTUBE /YOUTUBE and you get this:
This will be the first
11-20-2017
, 10:27 PM
Good hangout, stream was pretty good fun. I also recorded it so I may be making a highlights video for youtube from it.
Here are my main goals for this week
Spend 36h on Poker (24h play+study, 12h Bluffthespot Coach+Others)
Spend 5h on Social Media Business
Put up vBlog
Stream
Have wake up time at 9AM by the end of the week (sunday I went to bed at 7AM
Finish everything before Sunday so I can take it off (friends visiting)
I already shot, edited and posted a vBlog today, will maybe try to get one more in. I am in a period where I'm mostly focused on working so figured I'd make a vlog about lockdowns. If u're not satisfied where u are with poker, u prob need something like this.
Will be streaming again this Saturday at 8pm Malta time again, I am still open to suggestions.
SO HOT:
Here are my main goals for this week
Spend 36h on Poker (24h play+study, 12h Bluffthespot Coach+Others) Spend 5h on Social Media Business Put up vBlog Stream Have wake up time at 9AM by the end of the week (sunday I went to bed at 7AM Finish everything before Sunday so I can take it off (friends visiting)I already shot, edited and posted a vBlog today, will maybe try to get one more in. I am in a period where I'm mostly focused on working so figured I'd make a vlog about lockdowns. If u're not satisfied where u are with poker, u prob need something like this.
Will be streaming again this Saturday at 8pm Malta time again, I am still open to suggestions.
SO HOT:
Daniel SoF
11-21-2017
, 02:10 AM
Cool vid, like the part abt making sacrifices in order to improve and get better.
Btw, what's the song at the end?
Btw, what's the song at the end?