How did you get through 50 and 100 since they don't run zone consistently? Do you just do 4 tables of regular tables? Is your general strategy to move up at 30 buy ins?

50nl zone runs frequently. I had a ridiculous winrate at 50nl (i.e. i ran so good) so I just played 50nl zone and 2 100nl reg tables for the most part. I took a shot at 30buyins for 200nl and I think I was successful first go ? (I cannot remember)

Climbing out of DS Update

So variance decided to come back and be a nuisance in the recovery phase of my DS. All the week's progress was undone on Friday and Saturday where I struggled to post positive sessions.

Overall I think I played quite well. All the hands that were played were pretty standard spots. I have been doing quite a bit of study whilst I play and this is proving to be very beneficial. Studying in between sessions has allowed me to apply the fixes in the following session and is helping with confidence.

However my mental is starting to show cracks as my frustration and patience tolerance is slowly declining. This needs to be addressed immediately so that stacks are not punted off. At the moment the best solution is to continue putting in volume. I objectively think that my overall play has improved since last week so there is no need to take days off.

Here was my volume for week 7:



I did not play that much this week as I had quite a few business things I needed to attend to at the beginning of the week (Tuesday and Wednesday). My weekend was also busy socially as the last 2 games of the World cup took place. I now have no excuses with regards to abnormal sleep patterns or tiredness as the world cup is over.

I am also looking into a more energetic diet. I seem get really fatigued around 2pm and I am thinking it is because of my high carb/protein diet (for putting on mass at gym). If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know

About to put in my first session of the week so hopefully I can turn it around.

Try taking a 20min powernap if you are sleepy, its easiest to wake up if you can kinda nod off without fully falling asleep

Hey Skuz! Nice thread will be following, would you mind posting your 200nl graph with the showdown and non showdown lines? I'm just curious on what it looks like. Keep crushing!

Ah yes, I have heard about this. I will try it this week and see if its effective.

Thanks mate. I usually post my graph at the end of the month so you will have to wait till then. I will say my SD>NSD

Shocker!

Good videos and posts. Watch all the stuffs. i am granding at 1/2 zoom. Hoping to get to 2/5 ASAP. My biggest downswing is around 25-30 buying. And I stopped for several month to return.
Do you think 2/5 zoom pool is much harder than 1-2? And do you think ignition 1-2 is softer than other site such as poker star?

Thanks! I have not played enough 500nl zone to comment. During my shot take, I mainly played regular tables (the 500nl zone tables were not running at all).

Ignition is anonymous and therefore naturally employing a strategy would be "easier". I also think the type of poker you play on ignition is very different to that you would play on a screen name site. That being said pokerstars 200nl pool is the softest it has been in years. Pokerstars 500nl is still by far the toughest field in the world. During peak times there are a lot of fish/punt offs but in off peak only the top regs will sit the pool. Since a lot of the regs drop down to 200nl during off peak, the 200nl pool becomes very very tough. Based on this logic it would make sense that Pokerstars is tougher than Ignition.

Also forgot to post,

New video out for the 9th-13th July.

Hey Skuz,

I use a keto diet and I find that works really well for me. It will take a bit to get used to but one of the greatest aspects is the ability to fast and regularly fast for a long time. I fast till about 5.30-6pm everyday and don't have any energy swings and have good mental clarity for long sessions.

In regards to it impacting putting on mass at the gym I cannot comment because I do it for weight loss but there is a subreddit dedicated to keto and muscle gain called ketogains or something like that.

Oh really, this is interesting. I have heard some fasting diets are pretty good. Yeah I need one for for putting on mass. I will check out that subreddit. Thanks for the recommendation.

The fatigue/crash you get around 2pm is pretty standard as a result of the insulin spike if you're on a high carb diet. It's possible bulk while fasting. If you're eating ~3k cals currently over 3+ meals a day, you just have to cram the same 3k cals into your eating window - will generally give you a bit better approach over metabolism and you'll probably feel less ****ty. What time do you go to the gym usually?

Yeah im trying for 3.5k calories over 4 "proper" meals and 1 snack meal. I usually go gym at 9pm - not sure if gto or not. I usually go with my friends after they finish work, so we go late at night.

Yeah back when I was eating absurd amounts of carbs I'd get home from work at like 2pm and just absolutely crash so hard. Like literally falling asleep while driving home in the arvo. Pretty hard to get a good workout in in that state. 9PM is prob fine but might be a little harder to manage than if you did it first thing. ATM I'm getting up, carbs, then gym then more carbs after and not having any fatigue issues. Getting up fasted and then training on an empty stomach is actually surprisingly pleasant/doable too.

Nice last update skuz, always appreciate the videos.

From the HH Ive seen, ignition seems softer, but rake is 3bb/100 higher than on stars, so its not easy to say which pool is more beatable. If you are very good at exploiting pretty hard, ignition seems to be the way to go. Now if youre good on playing a more theory-based strat, 200z on stars seems more beatable. Rake cant be underestimated, also by having a sn gto poker becomes more relevant because you wont be able to get away with as many exploits vs some regs.

How do you study Skuz? Any routine? Or just hand histories?


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I would say mostly my hand history. However when I set aside a decent amount of time I will use Piosolver and run sims as well as looking into my database and filtering for population trends

Climbing out of Downswing - 19/7

Alright so I decided to make an update on my downswing progress. Currently day 19 into my downswing and I'm still in the hole for around 6k (~21 buyins). Its now the 3rd week in a row where I have done really well on Monday and Tuesday but lose all that progress in the back half of the week. I.e. essentially breaking even every week back to the start of the downswing.

My mental endurance has definitely started to fade. Normally I identify my tilt when I start to become passive, fold a lot and not value bet rivers because I am scared. However, yesterday was the first time in a while I felt the "punt off tilt". I was 3betting higher frequency and tripling off in marginal spots. I noticed I was also getting very angry and complained a lot out loud which is also something I have not done in a while. Despite obvious signs of mental failure I decided to play today.

I started poorly today, down 6 buyins. I then started to complain a lot to my friend, messaging him about how poorly I run in flips etc etc. My friend told me to quit because he saw how tilted I was but I obviously ignored that and went on a ~ 7hour grind session (I also knew that I couldn't put volume in tomorrow - Friday- because of business stuff/meetings). Since I really wanted to hit my 35 hour goal per week target I knew I had to stabilize myself emotionally and push through all the "feeling sorry for my self emotions". I removed all distractions and played really well. I went on a bit of a journey going up +10buyins and then losing 6 in the last 20 minutes (4 huge suckouts to the same fish on a reg table which lead me to punting off 2 stacks). After punting off 99 vs AA pre I decided it was time to end. I ended the day down 2 buyins but for some reason I have never ever felt so tilted/mad.

So after nearly breaking my keyboard I decided to reflect on this week to work out why I am suffering from this punt off rage tilt (since this form of tilt is way more dangerous than scared tilt). My volume has been amazing (27.5 hours in the last 4 days) and my results are OK (+7BI). So why am I experiencing this punt off tilt instead of my normal passive fold tilt. After thinking about it I have realised:

- I am suffering from Entitlement Tilt

For those who have read Jared Tendler's mental strategy book will know that this is when you think you deserve to win more because you have worked harder or playing against less competent players. Recently I have been getting so frustrated on the regular tables because the fish keep stacking me and leaving the table (essentially hit & run). I am also extremely frustrated that this month has been the softest month of the year yet its my largest losing month (1/2). I think I am also subconsciously tilted that 500zone starts running immediately after my shot take.

So how am I going to resolve this? Honestly, I am not sure. I hate "taking days off" because it feels like I am giving myself an excuse to not play. I currently want to play - I havent been this motivated to play since the beginning of my 100k hand challenge, but I can literally feel the stress induced by the entitlement tilt (anyone got any advice on reconciling this conflicting issue of wanting to play vs mentally tilted?). Maybe a mandatory stop loss system?

However there are a few things outside of poker than I can rectify:

-No alcohol/partying till I return back to 500nl.
-Return to having cold showers in the morning (this is something I have been doing for the last 2.5 years but every winter I coward out for 3 months).
-Try a new diet that still maintains the bulking element but does not mid-day fatigue me like my current heavy carb diet.

TLDR:

-In a BE/DS phase
-Reflection on this week
-Suffering from Entitlement tilt
-Anyone know anyways to reduce entitlement tilt?
-Not sure if I should try put in volume despite being tilted
-Rectify some lifestyle habits to build back my discipline

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...1Ihe34eKN6XhCi

Don't know any quick fixes to combat entitlement tilt, the chapter on entitlement in Jared Tendler's mental game book may help, maybe putting your thoughts on paper and going deep into the matter, but I recently started watching this course, I'm at the middle of it right now, definitely made me more mentally and emotionally tougher and resilient, even more responsible and humble, which is a counter to entitlement, this also reflects in poker. Also keep the cold showers, they're highly +EV

You should consider nitting up when in a downswing. That's what I do, I avoid high variance spots, no big bluffs, I don't care if its not optimal, my main focus in positive momentum. Run bad is obviously a 'thing', so trying to ignore it and playing your normal game isn't very smart imo.

Hmm interesting. Any particular episodes I should watch or do I need the entirety of it to make sense?

And yeah, cold showers are the most + EV thing anyone can do. Literally so many benefits, it honestly doesn't make sense not to. I need to fight through my mental weakness and return to them despite it being winter.

Yeah I actually subconciously did in my second session today. I stopped taking the high variance line and actually did quite well. However small sample, I will try it again in the next couple of sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC1pvjyKYr4&t=1s -> You can check out this interview with him or other short fragments such as this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc0dVtyPRlw&t=4s , to get an ideea about him, see if you resonate or not. Watch whatever you like, I didn't have any episode/course of his in particular in mind and you don't need to watch the whole course to make sense of it. Start with any sample, if it's meaningful for you you'll keep exploring naturally

oh **** I didnt realise this was Jordan Peterson's lectures haha. Yeah this guy is the nuts. I have watched so many videos of him via Joe Rogan's podcasts.